第七十九章 九 意外
九 意外
他们有三千五百人。他们的阵线有一法里宽。他们是些跨在巨马上的巨人。他们分成二十六队，配有勒费比尔-德努埃特师①、一百零六名精锐宪兵、近卫军轻骑兵、一千一百九十七名，以及近卫军枪骑兵八百八十名。他们头戴无缨铁盔，身穿铁甲，跨下有马枪，口袋里插着手枪，腰间挂一柄长剑。那天早上，全军的人都以赞美的心情看着他们：九点钟，军号响了，军乐队奏出了“我们卫护着帝国安全”的歌曲，他们列着一行密集队形出动，侧翼有一队炮队，中间也有一队炮队，分两行散开在通往热纳普和弗里谢蒙的两条路上，到了那形势险要的第二道防线，便威武地排列好了，这是拿破仑精心部署的，左翼是克勒曼的铁甲军，右翼是米约的铁甲军，可以说是铁甲军的两翼。
副官贝尔纳②奉皇帝的命令去向他们传达任务。内伊拔出了他的剑，一马当先。大队人马开始行动。
①勒费比尔-德努埃特是拿破仑部下的将军，他曾进入莫斯科，1812年战死。
②贝尔纳皇帝侍从，1812年随拿破仑进入俄国。
于是一幅雄伟的场面出现了。
这整队骑兵，马刀高举，旌旗和喇叭声迎风飘荡，每个师成纵队，动作一致，有如一人，准确得象那种无坚不摧的铜羊头③，从“佳盟”坡上直往下冲，深入那杀气腾腾的谷底，正如《旧约》里说的那样：这整队骑兵就象一条硕大无朋的巨蟒，直向那可怕的深渊冲去。那股力量真是笔扫千军。
③铜羊头是一种破城巨锤。
那惊人的冲杀队形，由三组组成，用军事家的话来说，象是一个军团纵队，他们从高地冲下来时，中间一组略慢一些，左右两组稍快一些，再加上那分队里又分小队，就象三个巨大的活动炮台炮口齐发，直向那惨烈战场猛扑过去。真是雄军巨炮，气吞山河。
这队兵马从“佳盟”坡上冲下来时，皇帝心中是乐滋滋的，但还掺杂一些担心。
那确是最动魄惊心的一刻。那场厮杀惊天动地，可惜除了几道烟尘以外，几乎一无所见，可是那确是值得一看的壮观。只见那队铁甲骑兵象晴天的霹雳，山崩海倒，声震大地；铁甲、马刀、头盔、马枪、马鬃、人腿、马腿全出现在烟火中，一片耀眼。到了那两军相接的地方，又是万马奔腾，一片混乱。这时，触目惊心，人人心神为之震动。
①铜羊头是一种破城巨锤。
①相传亚历山大骑的蒲佛罗勒号是一匹暴烈的马，无人能驯服。亚历山大制服了它，骑着它远征各地，建立战功。
这景象使人联想起亚历山大①的业绩，简直是古代神话。
那奇特的数字巧合，二十六队步兵和二十六队骑兵相对抗。在那高地的顶巅后面，英军的十三方阵，每阵两个营，分前后两线，前七后六，枪托抵肩，瞄准将要来到的东西，沉着，寂静，不动声色。他们看不见铁甲军，铁甲军也看不见他们。他们听着那一大群人涌来的声音，听着三千匹马的声音，那大踏步越来越近、一忽儿快、一忽儿慢的整齐的蹄声，铁甲的摩擦声，马刀的撞击声和一片粗野的呼吸声。在那种惊心动魄的沉寂之后，忽然出现了一长串举着马刀的臂膀，出现在那山头，出现了铁盔、喇叭和旌旗，还出现了三千颗蓄着灰色髭须的脑袋，齐声狂呼：“皇帝万岁！”全部骑兵已涌上高地，并且出现了有如天崩地裂的惨祸。
忽然，惨不可言。在英军的左端，我军的右方，铁甲骑兵的前锋直冲上去，势头猛烈，来势汹汹，不料那队伍的前锋一到了那高地的绝顶，便象脱了缰似的，杀气腾腾，一片疯狂，正冲向那方阵和炮群，但忽见英国步兵中有一条沟，一条壕沟，那是不可能到达的壕沟。那正是奥安的那条凹路。
那真是动魄惊心的一刻。那条路是出乎意料的，它张着大口，直陡陡地，齐斩斩地出现在马蹄下面，两壁之间深达两托④。那第二排骑兵直把第一排往里挤，那第三排又直把第二排往里推；那些马都竖起前蹄，向后退，臀部坐地，倒窜着往天上蹿，铁甲骑士一个个都从他马脖子上往下倒，没有一个人能后退，整个纵队成了一种向前猛冲的炮弹，那种冲力受到阻挡后便粉身碎骨，绝不后退。那无情深沟只得由活人填塞。人马全滚了下去，碾压着，跌做一团，成了肉酱，等到那可怕的大坑被填满了以后，后面的才踏着他们走过去。几乎有三分之一的全军都摔在那深渊里。
这便开始失败了。
当地的传说不免夸大其词，说在奥安凹路口葬送了二千匹马和一千五百人。如果加上那战斗后的第二天在其他各处扔下去的尸体，总数大概是符合那个数字的。
我们顺便附带说明一下，那受到惨重损失的、杜布瓦旅，也就是一个钟头以前侧击、夺取了吕纳堡营军旗的那个旅。
拿破仑在命令米约的铁甲军进行冲击以前，虽曾亲自察看了地形，却没有看见那条坑道，而那条坑道在高地的表面上是连一条皱纹也不露的。可是那座指着岔路口的小教堂却引起了他的警觉，他也许对那道路的险阻提出了疑问。他那向导拉科斯特原是个农民，曾向他说没有，现在想来，我们不妨这样说，那农民的头一摇，已经成了他这场悲剧的起因，但还另有许多其他的原因。
①托，长度单位，一托约合1.949米。
拿破仑能打胜这一仗吗？我们认为不能。为什么？因为威灵顿吗？因为布吕歇尔吗？不，全是因为上帝。
因为拿破仑在滑铁卢得胜，那就不在十九世纪的范围之内了，那就会为十九世纪准备一个完全不同的面貌，那些发生的事儿，也就另是一番面貌了。那样一来，后来那个巨人便会分崩离析。那一大堆人都溃散无余了。那便是欧洲的垮台，而不是法国的光大了。
多承上帝问询，这位伟大的皇帝便自动退位。那场战争是不仅为了拿破仑，也为了十九世纪。那以后，拿破仑的如意算盘完全被打破了，他几乎被迫签订了和约。
拿破仑从来就是惯于出奇制胜的人，可是那一次就不行了。
当然，在滑铁卢战胜拿破仑，那不属于十九世纪的常规。那完全是另一回事，其中自有上天的安排。有权力的人，那是可悲的。而且这人的权力，比常人的更是大得惊人，足以使他成为历史上一代的风云人物。命运注定他非败不可。
上帝震怒的时刻已经来到了。
这人已成了人类命运的累赘。他一个人所代表的负担，比整个宇宙的负担还要重。这种个人独霸世界的势力，集中在一人头上，文明就要死亡。上帝已感到不耐烦了。这就是所谓“天之亡我”。
滑铁卢不是一场战斗，而是宇宙的改观。
There were three thousand five hundred of them. They formed a front a
quarter of a league in extent. They were giant men, on colossal horses.
There were six and twenty squadrons of them; and they had behind them
to support them Lefebvre-Desnouettes’s division,—the one hundred and
six picked gendarmes, the light cavalry of the Guard, eleven hundred
and ninety-seven men, and the lancers of the guard of eight hundred and
eighty lances. They wore casques without horse-tails, and cuirasses of
beaten iron, with horse-pistols in their holsters, and long
sabre-swords. That morning the whole army had admired them, when, at
nine o’clock, with braying of trumpets and all the music playing “Let
us watch o’er the Safety of the Empire,” they had come in a solid
column, with one of their batteries on their flank, another in their
centre, and deployed in two ranks between the roads to Genappe and
Frischemont, and taken up their position for battle in that powerful
second line, so cleverly arranged by Napoleon, which, having on its
extreme left Kellermann’s cuirassiers and on its extreme right
Milhaud’s cuirassiers, had, so to speak, two wings of iron.
Aide-de-camp Bernard carried them the Emperor’s orders. Ney drew his
sword and placed himself at their head. The enormous squadrons were set
in motion.
Then a formidable spectacle was seen.
All their cavalry, with upraised swords, standards and trumpets flung
to the breeze, formed in columns by divisions, descended, by a
simultaneous movement and like one man, with the precision of a brazen
battering-ram which is effecting a breach, the hill of La Belle
Alliance, plunged into the terrible depths in which so many men had
already fallen, disappeared there in the smoke, then emerging from that
shadow, reappeared on the other side of the valley, still compact and
in close ranks, mounting at a full trot, through a storm of grape-shot
which burst upon them, the terrible muddy slope of the table-land of
Mont-Saint-Jean. They ascended, grave, threatening, imperturbable; in
the intervals between the musketry and the artillery, their colossal
trampling was audible. Being two divisions, there were two columns of
them; Wathier’s division held the right, Delort’s division was on the
left. It seemed as though two immense adders of steel were to be seen
crawling towards the crest of the table-land. It traversed the battle
like a prodigy.
Nothing like it had been seen since the taking of the great redoubt of
the Muskowa by the heavy cavalry; Murat was lacking here, but Ney was
again present. It seemed as though that mass had become a monster and
had but one soul. Each column undulated and swelled like the ring of a
polyp. They could be seen through a vast cloud of smoke which was rent
here and there. A confusion of helmets, of cries, of sabres, a stormy
heaving of the cruppers of horses amid the cannons and the flourish of
trumpets, a terrible and disciplined tumult; over all, the cuirasses
like the scales on the hydra.
These narrations seemed to belong to another age. Something parallel to
this vision appeared, no doubt, in the ancient Orphic epics, which told
of the centaurs, the old hippanthropes, those Titans with human heads
and equestrian chests who scaled Olympus at a gallop, horrible,
invulnerable, sublime—gods and beasts.
