They were still at their post, however,
when our oars went in, and the bow of our boat ran up--well up upon
the beach.
The General was lame by an honourable wound received at Borodino,
and could not without some assistance get out of the boat; I,
therefore, landed the first. My instructions to the captain were
attended to with the most perfect accuracy, for scarcely had my
foot indented the sand when the four six-pounders of the brigantine
quite gravely rolled out their brute thunder. Precisely as I had
expected, the guards and all the people who had gathered about them
gave way under the shock produced by the mere sound of guns, and we
were all allowed to disembark with the least molestation.
We immediately formed a little column, or rather, as I should have
called it, a procession, for we had no fighting aptitude in us, and
were only trying, as it were, how far we could go in frightening
full-grown children. First marched the sailor with the Russian
flag of war bravely flying in the breeze, then came the general and
I, then our servants, and lastly, if I rightly recollect, two more
of the brigantine's crew. Our flag-bearer so exulted in his
honourable office, and bore the colours aloft with so much of pomp
and dignity, that I found it exceedingly hard to keep a grave
countenance.
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