Page 1048 - les-miserables

he was in the cemetery where, for the space of two hours,
the heroic Captain Louis Hugo, the uncle of the author of
this book, sustained alone with his company of eighty-three
men every effort of the hostile army. Pontmercy was one of
the three who emerged alive from that cemetery. He was
at Friedland. Then he saw Moscow. Then La Beresina, then
Lutzen, Bautzen, Dresden, Wachau, Leipzig, and the defiles
of Gelenhausen; then Montmirail, Chateau-Thierry, Craon,
the banks of the Marne, the banks of the Aisne, and the re-
doubtable position of Laon. At Arnay-Le-Duc, being then a
captain, he put ten Cossacks to the sword, and saved, not his
general, but his corporal. He was well slashed up on this oc-
casion, and twenty-seven splinters were extracted from his
left arm alone. Eight days before the capitulation of Paris he
had just exchanged with a comrade and entered the cavalry.
He had what was called under the old regime, the double
hand, that is to say, an equal aptitude for handling the sabre
or the musket as a soldier, or a squadron or a battalion as an
officer. It is from this aptitude, perfected by a military edu-
cation, which certain special branches of the service arise,
the dragoons, for example, who are both cavalry-men and
infantry at one and the same time. He accompanied Na-
poleon to the Island of Elba. At Waterloo, he was chief of a
squadron of cuirassiers, in Dubois’ brigade. It was he who
captured the standard of the Lunenburg battalion. He came
and cast the flag at the Emperor’s feet. He was covered with
blood. While tearing down the banner he had received a
sword-cut across his face. The Emperor, greatly pleased,
shouted to him: ‘You are a colonel, you are a baron, you are

1048 Les Miserables