The Bridge on the Drina - PDFDrive.com Page 46

OsmanagaSabanovićandSuljagaMezildjić.Theywerepaleandworried,with

  thatheavy,fixedexpressionwhichcanalwaysbeseenonthefacesofthosewho

  have something to lose when faced with unexpected events and important

  changes.Theauthoritieshadcalledonthemtoplacethemselvesattheheadof

  the schutzkorps. Now they had, as if by chance, met here to discuss without being overheard, what they ought to do. Some were for accepting, others for

  holding back. Alihodja, red in the face, excited, with the old light in his eyes, resolutely opposed any idea of participation in the schutzkorps. He addressed himselfespeciallytoNailbegwhowasfortakinguparmssincethey,asleading

  citizens, should place themselves at the head of the Moslem volunteer detachmentsinsteadofabunchofgipsies.

  'IwillnevermixmyselfupintheiraffairsaslongasIamalive.Andyou,ifyou

  hadanysense,wouldnotdosoeither.Can'tyouseethattheseVlachsareonly

  makinguseofusandthat,intheend,itwillallcomebackonourownheads?'

  With the same eloquence as he had once used in opposing Osman Effendi

  Karamanli on the kapia he showed them that there was nothing good 'for the Turkishear'oneithersideandthateveryinterventionontheirpartcouldonlybe

  harmful.

  'Foralongtimeastnoonehasaskedusaboutanythingorpaidtheleastheedto

  ouropinions.TheSchwabesenteredBosniaandneitherSultannorKaiserasked:

  "By your leave, begs and gentlemen". Then Serbia and Montenegro, until

  yesterday our serfs, rose in revolt and took away half the Turkish Empire and

  stillnooneeverthoughtaboutus.NowtheKaiserattacksSerbiaandonceagain

  no one asks us anything, but only gives us rifles and trousers to make us

  Schwabe decoy ducks and tells us to hunt the Serbs lest they should tear their

  owntrousersclimbingSargan.Can'tyougetthatintoyourheads?Sincenoone

  has ever asked us about so many important things over so many years, this

  suddenfavourisenoughtomakeoneburstone'sribslaughing.Itellyou;there

  arebigthingsatstakeanditisbestforhimwhodoesnotgethimselfmixedup

  inthemmorethanhemust.Hereonthefrontiertheyhavealreadycometogrips

  and who knows how far it will spread? There must be someone behind this

  Serbia. It could not be otherwise. But you, up at Nezuke, have a mountain in

  frontofyourwindowsandcanseenofartherthanitsstones.Bettergiveupwhat

  you have begun; don't go into the schutzkorps and don't persuade others to go.

  Bettergoonmilkingthedozenserfsyouhaveleftwhiletheystillbringyouin

  something.'

  All were silent, serious and motionless. Nailbeg too was silent. He was

  obviously offended, though he concealed it. Pale as a corpse, he was turning

  oversomedecisioninhismind.SaveforNailbeg,Alihodjahadundecidedthem

  and cooled their ardour. They smoked and silently watched the endless

  procession of military wagons and laden packhorses crossing the bridge. Then,

  one by one, they rose and made their farewells. Nailbeg was the last. To his

  sullen greeting, Alihodja once more looked him in the eyes and said almost

  sadly:

  'Iseethatyouhavemadeupyourmindtogo.Youtoowanttodie,andareafraid

  lestthegipsiesgetinfirst.Butrememberthatlongagooldmensaid:"Thetime hasnotcometodiebuttoletitbeseenofwhatstuffamanismade".Theseare

  suchtimes.'

  The square between the hodja's shop and the bridge was crammed with carts, horses, soldiers of all kinds and reservists coming to report. From time to time

  the gendarmes would lead a group of bound men across it; Serbs. The air was

  filledwithdust.Everyoneyelledatthetopofhisvoiceandmovedaboutmore

  quickly than the occasion demanded. Faces were flushed and running with

  sweat;cursescouldbeheardinalllanguages.Eyeswereshiningwithdrinkand

  from sleepless nights and that troubled anxiety which always reigns in the

  presenceofdangerandbloodyevents.

  In the centre of the square, directly facing the bridge, Hungarian reservists in

  brand-new uniforms were hewing some beams. Hammers sounded and saws

  werebusycutting.Aroundthemagroupofchildrenhadgathered.Fromhisshop

  window Alihodja watched two beams being set upright. Then a mustachioed

  Hungarianreservistscrambledupthemandplacedathirdhorizontallyacrossthe

  top.Thecrowdpressedaroundthemasif halva werebeinggivenaway,forming

  a living circle around the gallows. Most of them were soldiers, but there were

  also some Turkish village wastrels and gipsies from the town. When all was

  readyawaywasmadethroughthecrowdandatablewasbroughtandtwochairs

  fortheofficerandhisclerk.Thenthe schutzkorps broughtfirsttwopeasantsand

  then a townsman. The peasants were village serfs from the frontier villages of

  PozderčićandKamenicaandthetownsmanacertainVajo,amanfromtheLika,

  whohadlongagocometothetownasacontractorandhadmarriedthere.All

  threewerebound,haggardandcoveredwithdust.Adrummerwasstandingby,

  waiting to give a roll on his drums. In the general flurry and commotion the

  noise of the drum sounded li distant thunder. Silence fell on that circle around

  thegallows.Theofficer,aHungarianreservelieutenant,readinaharshvoicethe

  sentencesofdeathinGerman;theywerethentranslatedbyasergeant.Allthree

  hadbeensentencedtodeathbyasummarycourt,forwitnesseshaddeclaredon

  oath that they had seen them giving light-signals by night towards the Serbian

  frontier. The hanging was to be carried out publicly on the square facing the

  bridge.Thepeasantsweresilent,blinkingasifinperplexity.Vajo,themanfrom

  Lika, wiped the sweat from his face and in a soft sad voice swore that he was

  innocent and with frenzied eyes looked around him for someone to whom he

  couldstillsayit.

  Just at that moment when the sentence was about to be carried out there burst

  through the crowd of onlookers a soldier, small and reddish, with legs bowed likeanX.ItwasGustav,theonetime zahlkelner inLotte'shotelandnowacafé-

  owner in the lower marketplace. He was in a new uniform with a corporal's

  stripes. His face was flushed and his eyes more bloodshot than usual.

  Explanations began. The sergeant began to hustle him away but the bellicose

  café-ownerheldhisground.

  'Ihavebeenanintelligenceagenthereforfifteenyears,intheconfidenceofthe

  highestmilitarycircles/heshoutedinGermaninadrunkenvoice.'Onlytheyear

  beforelastinViennaIwaspromisedthatIcouldhangtwoSerbswithmyown

  handswhenthetimecame.Youdon'tknowwithwhomyouhavetodeal.Ihave

  earnedmyrightto...andnowyou...'

  Thereweremurmursandwhispersinthecrowd.Thesergeantstoodinperplexity

 
not knowing what to do. Gustav became even more aggressive and demanded

  that two of the condemned men be handed over to him so that he could hang

  them personally. Then the lieutenant, a thin dark man with the manner of a

  gentleman, as despairing as if he were himself one of the condemned men,

  without a drop of blood in his face, rose. Gustav, even though drunk, stood to

  attention but his thin red moustaches quivered and his eyes rolled to left and

  right.Theofficercameclosetohimandthrusthisheadintothatflushedfaceas

  ifhewouldspitonit.

  'Ifyoudon'tgetoutofhereatonce,Iwillgiveordersforyoutobeboundand

  taken to prison. Tomorrow you will report to the officer of the day. Do you

  understand?Nowgetout!March!'

  ThelieutenanthadspokeninGermanwithaHungarianaccent,quitesoftly,but

  sosharplyandexasperatedlythatthedrunkencafé-owneratoncethoughtbetter

  of it and was lost in the crowd, incessantly repeating his military greeting and

  mutteringvaguewordsofexcuse.

  Onlythendidtheattentionofthecrowdreturntothecondemnedmen.Thetwo

  peasants, fathers of families, behaved exactly alike. They blinked and frowned

  fromthesunandtheheatofthecrowdaroundthemasifthatwereallthatwas

  troublingthem.ButVajoinaweakandtearfulvoiceassertedhisinnocence,that

  his competitor was responsible for the charge, that he had never done any

  military service and never in his life known that one could make signals with

  lights.HeknewalittleGermananddesperatedlylinkedwordwithword,trying

  tofindsomeconvincingexpressiontohaltthismadtorrentwhichhadswepthim

  away the day before and which now threatened to sweep him off this earth,

  innocentthoughhewas.

  'Herr Oberleutnant, Herr Oberleutnant, um Gottes willen.... Ich, unschuldiger

  Mensch...vieleKinder....Unschuldig!Luge!AllésLue!...'(Lieutenant,in

  God'sname....Iaminnocent...manychildren...innocent!Lies!...Alllies!).

  Vajochosehiswordsasifsearchingforthosewhichwererightandcouldbring

  salvation.

  The soldiers had already approached the first peasant. He quickly took off his

  cap, turned towards Mejdan where the church was and rapidly crossed himself

  twice.Withaglance,theofficerorderedthemtofinishwithVajofirst.Thenthe

  desperatemanfromLika,seeingitwasnowhisturn,raisedhishandstoheaven

  imploringlyandshoutedatthetopofhisvoice:

  'Nein!Nein!Nicht,umGotteswillen!HerrOberleutnant,Siewis-sen...allés

  ist Luge.... Gott!... Ailes Luge!' But the soldiers had already seized him by his

  legsandwaistandliftedhimontothetrestlesundertherope.

  Breathlessly the crowd followed all that happened as if it were some sort of

  gamebetweentheunluckycontractorandthelieutenant,burningwithcuriosity

  toknowwhowouldwinandwholose.

  Alihodja,whohaduptillthenonlyheardmeaninglessvoicesandhadnoideaof

  what was happening in the centre of that circle of densely packed onlookers,

  suddenlysawthepanic-strickenfaceofVajoabovetheirheadsandatonceleapt

  uptoshuthisshopthoughtherewasaspecificorderofthemilitaryauthorities

  thatallplacesofbusinessmustremainopen.

  Fresh troops kept arriving in the town and after them munitions, food and

  equipment,notonlybytheovercrowdedrailwaylinefromSarajevobutalsoby

  theoldcarriageroadthroughRogatica.Horsesandcarriagescrossedthebridge

  dayandnightandthefirstthingtomeettheireyeswasthethreehangedmenon

  the square. As the head of the column usually became wedged in the

  overcrowdedstreets,thismeantthatthebulkofthecolumnhadtohaltthereon

  thebridgeorinthesquarebesidethegallowsuntilthoseinfronthadextricated

  themselves.Coveredwithdust,red-facedandhoarsefromfuriousshouting,the

  sergeantspassedonhorsebackbetweenthecartsandladenpackhorses,making

  desperate signals with their hands and swearing in all the languages of the

  Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and by all the sacred things of all recognized

  confessions.

  On the fourth or fifth day, early in the morning, when the bridge was again

  crammed with supply vehicles which crawled slowly towards the crowded marketplace,asharpandunusualwhistlingwasheardoverthetownandinthe

  centre of the bridge, not far from the kapia itself, a shell burst on the stone parapet.Fragmentsofstoneandironstruckhorsesandmen.Therewasarushof

  men, a rearing of horses and a general flight. Some fled forward into the

  marketplace, others back along the road whence they had come. Immediately

  afterwards three more shells fell, two in the water and one more on the bridge

  among the press of men and horses. In a twinkling of an eye the bridge was

  deserted;intheemptinesssocreatedcouldbeseen,likeblackspots,deadhorses

  and men. The Austrian field artillery from the Butkovo Rocks tried to get the

  rangeofthatSerbianmountainbatterywhichwassprayingthescatteredsupply

  columnsonbothsidesofthebridgewithshrapnel.

  From that day on, the mountain battery from Panos continually pounded the

  bridgeandthenearbybarracks.Afewdayslater,againearlyinthemorning,a

  newsoundwasheardfromtheeast,fromsomewhereonGoleš.Thissoundwas

  moredistantbutdeeper,andincendiaryshellsfellevenmorefrequentlyoverthe

  town.Thesewerehowitzers,twoinall.ThefirstshotsfellintheDrina,thenon

  theopenspacebeforethebridgewheretheydamagedthehousesaround,Lotte's

  hotel and the officers' mess, and then regular salvos began to centre on the

  bridgeandthebarracks.Withinanhourthebarrackswasonfire.Themountain

  batteryfromPanossprinkledwithshrapnelthesoldierstryingtoputoutthefire.

  Finally, they left the barracks to its fate. In the heat of the day it burned as if made of wood, and shells fell from time to time into the burning mass and

  destroyedtheinteriorofthebuilding.SoforthesecondtimetheStoneHanwas

  destroyedandbecameonceagainapileofstones.

  AfterthatthetwohowitzersfromGolešcontinuallyandregularlyaimedatthe

  bridgeandespeciallythecentralpier.Theshellsfellsometimesintheriver,right

  and left of the bridge, sometimes smashed to pieces against the massive stone

  piersandsometimeshitthebridgeitself,butnoneofthemhittheironmanhole

  over the opening which led into the interior of the central pier which held the

  explosivechargeforminingthebridge.

  Inallthatten-days-longbombardmentnomajordamagewasdonetothebridge.

  The shells struck against the smooth piers and rounded arches, ricocheted and

  exploded in the air without leaving other marks on the stone than light, white,

  scarcely perceptible scratches. The fr
agments of shrapnel bounced off the

  smoothfirmstonelikehail.Onlythoseshellswhichactuallyhittheroadwayleft

  littleholesinthegravelbutthesecouldhardlybeseensavewhenonewasonthe

  bridge itself. Thus in all this fresh storm which had burst over the town, overturning and tearing up by the roots its ancient customs, sweeping away

  living men and inanimate things, the bridge remained white, solid and

  invulnerableasithadalwaysbeen.

  XXIII

  Because of the continual bombardment all movement across the bridge ceased

  byday;civilianscrossedfreelyandevenindividualsoldiersscurriedacross,but

  assoonasaslightlylargergroupbegantomovetheyweresprayedbyshrapnel

  from Panos. After a few days a certain regularity was established. The people

  took note of when the fire was strongest, when less and when it ceased

  altogether, and finished their more urgent tasks accordingly, so far as the

  Austrianpatrolswouldletthem.

  The mountain battery from Panos fired only by day, but the howitzers from

  behind Goleš fired at night also and tried to hinder troop movements and the

  passageofsuppliesonbothsidesofthebridge.

  Thosecitizenswhosehouseswereinthecentreofthetown,nearthebridgeand

  the road, moved with their families to Mejdan or other sheltered and distant

  quarters,tostaywithrelativesorfriendsandtakerefugefromthebombardment.

  Their flight, with their children and their most necessary household goods,

  recalled those terrible nights when the 'great flood' came upon the town. Only

  this time men of different faiths were not mingled together or bound by the

  feelingofsolidarityandcommonmisfortune,anddidnotsittogethertofindhelp

  andconsolationintalkasatthosetimes.TheTurkswenttotheTurkishhouses

  andtheSerbs,asifplague-stricken,onlytoSerbianhomes.Buteventhoughthus

  divided and separated, they lived more or less similarly. Crushed into other

  people'shouses,notknowingwhattodo,withtimehangingontheirhandsand

  filledwithanxiousanduneasythoughts,idleandempty-headedlikerefugees,in