The Adventures of Gerard Chapter 4 - How the Brigadier Captured Saragossa, Part 1

**Arthur Conan Doyle** (0:01)
Of The Adventures of Gerard. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
How the Brigadier Captured Saragossa.
Have I ever told you, my friends, the circumstances connected with my joining the Hussars of Conflan at the time of the siege of Saragossa, and the very remarkable exploit which I performed in connection with the taking of that city? No? Then you have indeed something still to learn. I will tell it to you exactly as it occurred. Save for two or three men and a score or two of women, you are the first who have ever heard the story.
You must know, then, that it was in the second Hussars, called the Hussars of Chambourin, that I had served as a lieutenant and as a junior captain.
At the time I speak of, I was only twenty-five years of age, as reckless and desperate a man as any in that great army. It chanced that the war had come to a halt in Germany while it was still raging in Spain, so the emperor, wishing to reinforce the Spanish army, transferred me, a senior captain, to the Hussars of Confland, which were at that time in the Fifth Army Corps, under Marshal Lannes. It was a long journey from Berlin to the Pyrenees. My new regiment formed part of the force which, under Marshal Lannes, was then besieging the Spanish town of Saragossa. I turned my horse's head in that direction, therefore, and behold me a week or so later at the French headquarters, whence I was directed to the camp of the Hussars of Confland.
You have read, no doubt, of this famous siege of the Saragossa, and I will only say that no general could have had a harder task than that with which Marshal Lannes was confronted. The immense city was crowded with a horde of Spaniards, soldiers, peasants, priests, all filled with the most furious hatred of the French and the most savage determination to perish before they would surrender. There were eighty thousand men in the town, and only thirty thousand to besiege them, yet we had a powerful artillery, and our engineers were of the best. There was never such a siege, for it is usual that when the fortifications are taken, the city falls, but here it was not until the fortifications were taken that the real fighting began. Every house was a fort, and every street a battlefield, so that slowly, day by day, we had to work our way inwards, blowing up the houses with their garrisons, until more than half the city had disappeared. Yet the other half was as determined as ever, and in a better position for defence, since it consisted of enormous convents and monasteries with walls like the Bastille, which could not be so easily brushed out of our way. This was the state of things at the time that I joined the army.
I will confess to you that cavalry are not of much use in the siege, although there was a time when I would not have permitted anyone to have made such an observation. The hussars of Confland were encamped to the south of the town, and it was their duty to throw out patrols and to make sure that no Spanish force was advancing from that quarter. The colonel of the regiment was not a good soldier, and the regiment was at that time very far from being in the high condition which it afterwards attained. Even in that one evening, I saw several things which shocked me, for I had a high standard, and it went to my heart to see an ill-arranged camp, an ill-groomed horse, or a slovenly trooper. That night I supped with twenty-six of my new brother officers, and I fear that in my zeal I showed them only too plainly that I found things very different to what I was accustomed in the army of Germany. There was silence in the mess after my remarks, and I felt that I had been indiscreet when I saw the glances that were cast at me. The Colonel especially was furious, and a great major named Olivier, who was the fire-eater of the regiment, sat opposite to me curling his huge black moustaches, and staring at me as if he would eat me. However, I did not resent his attitude, for I felt that I had indeed been indiscreet, and that it would give a bad impression if upon this my first evening I quarrelled with my superior officer.
So far I admit that I was wrong, but now I come to the sequel. Supper over, the Colonel and some other officers left the room, for it was in a farm-house that the mess was held. There remained a dozen or so, and a goatskin of Spanish wine having been brought in, we all made merry. Presently, this Major Olivier asked me some questions concerning the Army of Germany, and as to the part which I had myself played in the campaign. Flushed with the wine, I was drawn on from story to story. It was not unnatural, my friends. You will sympathize with me. Up there I had been the model for every officer of my years in the Army. I was the first swordsman, the most dashing rider, the hero of a hundred adventures. Here I found myself not only unknown, but even disliked. Was it not natural that I should wish to tell these brave comrades what sort of man it was that had come among them? Was it not natural that I should wish to say, Rejoice, my friends, rejoice! It is no ordinary man who has joined you tonight, but it is I, the Gerard, the hero of Ratisbonne, the victor of Jenner, the man who broke the square at Austerlitz. I could not say all this, but I could at least tell them some incidents which would enable them to say it for themselves. I did so.