The Project Gutenberg EBook of My First Battle by Adam Mickiewicz

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Title: My First Battle

Author: Adam Mickiewicz

Release Date: March 7, 2009 [Ebook #28277]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY FIRST BATTLE***

Adam Mickiewicz

MY FIRST BATTLE

A SERGEANT'S STORY

They envy Attila, who fought a thousand battles, and in the thousandth
still felt that, which he called _gaudia certaminum_, that is, the delight
in the slaughter. Oh, that old general was a lecher of blood. As far as I
am concerned, holding the rank of light artillery sergeant, I confess,
that I was truly in love with war, but only during the first week of my
military career, and that only one single time I tasted Attila's delight.
For this reason my honeymoon and first battle will never leave my memory.

The first battle has the most particular similarity to first love. How
many hopes! how many illusions! before this ceremonial action, which
resolves the fate of nations, any recruit feels obliged to play at least
a role{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} as a hero of history or a romance.

It finally comes to the trial and you stand before it with impatience and
a certain anxiety, experiencing once mortal terror, then again a crazed
joy; now fear pierces you, now the pride of the triumphant picks you up..
In one hour you pass through crowds of emotions, and you collect keepsakes
for your whole life! but in order to feel it in full force, you must have
the heart of a virgin, the heart of a recruit.

Someone said that every man can compose a good romance, telling only the
simple story of his first love. This insight encouraged me to describe the
first battle, in which I was. You need to know that this battle is only an
episode of a famous war, that in it we achieved a great victory, and that
in its time it won us the admiration of the European people. Admittedly,
these are times long past, because people have well forgotten both about
our defeats and about our triumphs. In spite of this, the Polish soldier
will never forget