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In the mean time the officers of the Government were watching with the utmost vigilance every movement in the south of France, and punishing with terrible severity, by shooting, bayoneting, and hanging, and often without trial, those who were suspected of being implicated in the anticipated Bourbon uprising.
The only result of my bayoneting episode was that the sentry was congratulated, and I was warned for a court-martial! When a staff captain arrived from Hanover to collect the evidence for the approaching trials, quite a cheery little crowd of accused officers were awaiting him.
The interior of this old structure, with its lofts full of hay and straw, and its stables covered with thatch, looked like a bloody nest which had been attacked by a sparrow-hawk. On a great dung-heap in the middle of the court, our men were bayoneting the Germans who were yelling and swearing savagely. I was running hap-hazard through this butchery, when I heard some one call, "Joseph, Joseph!"
Bombing, bayoneting, and grappling hand to hand continued for some time, the Germans despite their bravery being slowly forced back.
With the exception of bayoneting some 500 poor wretches who could not defend themselves, taking a few hundred prisoners who are rather an embarrassment to them, and capturing a few cannon which they don't themselves want and which the Insurgents can easily replace, the Government has done nothing this week. In the words of the old peasant woman, C'est toujours la même répétition. MAY 7th.
On, over the piled-up mounds of dead and dying, of wounded and slain, to the mouth of the battery; seizing the guns; bayoneting the gunners at their posts; planting their flag and struggling around it; their leader on the walls, sword in hand, his blue eyes blazing, his fair face aflame, his clear voice calling out, "Forward, my brave boys!" then plunging into the hell of battle before him.
The police officers were now, with their gendarmes, bayoneting them into illuminations for Bonaparte's successes, as they dragooned them last year into rejoicings for his coronation.
I had not encountered that marine sentry alone since the terrible scene in the place where the prisoners were confined; and now, as soon as I saw him, the whole affair came back with all its shuddering horrors, and I felt quite a morbid desire to talk to him about it. "What, bayoneting him, sir?" said the man quietly. "Well, no, sir, it's very odd, but I never have much.
God and Christianity raised perplexities in the minds of simple lads desiring life and not death. They could not reconcile the Christian precepts of the chaplain with the bayoneting of Germans and the shambles of the battlefields.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of April 11th, could be seen the pickets coming into town with a vengeance. Soon could be heard the long roll beating in the camps near General Peck's headquarters, and almost instantly the excited General himself came riding into camp at break-neck speed, the guard coming very near bayoneting his horse, ordering the regiment under arms immediately.
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