Chapter-14
All these days, I spent most of my time with Captain. It didn’t take us long to be familiar with each other. Captain had been trained as an army horse and he had much to share with me.
He told me about his experience when he used to change his pose with the whistle or trumpet.
With all the glamorous moment, he also went through some hard times. He told me, “Once we had to go to Crimea by ship. When I heard about the journey, I anticipated it to be exciting enough. But it was worst. Due to British-Russian wars, we were tied and boarded on the ship through cables, moving to and fro over the water all the way.”
“It was so disgusting to swing with the support of a leather strap and then getting locked in small congested stalls.”
“We collided with each other as the ship rocked due to the strong gust of wind striking it. It was even difficult to relax.”
“It must have been awful!” I exclaimed.
“Of course. When we had reached Crimea again after being swung from the deck to the port, we finally stood on the stationary ground; we were so rejoiced at it,” Captain replied.
“Did you go to the war field?” I was too curious to know this.
Captain said, “A number of times. Every time we were there, we waited for the command and as we received one, we sprang in the field where bombshells, bayonets and cannons kept obstructing our path. But our firm riders gave us courage to stand there. They were quite experienced and held the reins tightly and had firm feet on the saddles. Still, the crashing sound of the bombs frightened me.”
“I have witnessed a number of brave men falling to the bullets. Many horses were cut down to the earth. Even I was not sure whether I would be alive the next moment. But my master cheered me up saying, ‘Buck up! Your master will shield you.’ With double confidence I followed his orders. He used to make me canter carefully through the carcass so that I mightn’t slip over the gory floor,” Captain continued.
“But one day, I would say, was the most dreadful.” Then there was a pause. But I was too curious to know about that ‘dreadful day’ and so I interrupted, “Captain?”
Then he began, “It was the last day of the war and the army was ready for fresh assaults. We stood in a line and waited for the signal. Then my master spoke in my ear, ‘Today we shall make for it with full courage, whatever may be the interruption. We can’t act like a coward. It’s all on you.’ I decided not to break down before my master did.”
“Finally, we were commanded to move forward. Off I went with my master on my back. There were innumerable attacks but my master held my rein and I managed to save myself from the attacks.”
“Our ears were accustomed to the sound and flash of bombshells and bayonets. We had to go in one direction only, that was, forward. There was no way of retreat.”
“Many men and horses were the victims of the severe conditions that prevailed there. Suddenly, a cannon-ball hit my master while he was busy cheering the troops.”
“I felt him tumbling down from my back. The next moment, he fell at my feet. I didn’t want to leave him alone in the stampede, so I didn’t move from the place where my master lay dead. Just then, another man whose horse was dead, sat on me and urged me to move.”
“Soon the war was over and we were to go back to the camp.”
“A large number of dead soldiers were taken for cremation and the badly wounded horses were shot dead. Only those horses which were not too bad were taken to the doctor for cure.”
“Less than half were left alive. But I was the one who was not even wounded. But I really regretted the loss of my master. Since then, I haven’t got a master so kind, brave and gentle as he had been.”
I asked him the cause of the war, for which there was only one answer. “The enemies were surely wicked or they wouldn’t have gone so far to fight against them.”