Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

34 A DOV1
CHAPTEK XIL
CASTEfcFIDABDO.
It was the 18th of September, 1860. The heroes of Cnstel-
fiJardo -were at last about to hail the dawn of the holy day, the
day of martyrdom. The General-in-Chief of the Pontifical
troops, after serious consideration, had determined, if they
could, to open n way through the enemy's forces in order to
reach Ancona by the coast.
Alas ! only that chance of safety remained, and that, too, ac-
companied by many obstacles.
First, their valiant little army had to cross the Musone, a
little river that rises in the mountains to the north of Loreto,
and extends towards the south in the direction of the sea into
which, swollen with the waters of another river, the Aspio, it
flows. Both these rivers have very steep banks.
Deep, narrow valleys, intersected by drains and covered with
timber, stretch along both banks of the Musone, while,
quite near the junction of the two rivers, opens out n plain
about three miles in extent. At this very spot, the mountain
that crowus the village of Castelfulardo divides, separating the
valleys through which both rivers flow, the Musone watering
one side, the Aspio the other. On the western slops of this
mountain, and nearly opposite the church and town of Loreto,
are the two large farms of Caseino and Crocetto, around which
all the fury of the fight was to concentrate itself.
All the environs of Loreto, the mountains and valleys,
swarmed with. Piedmontese troops. On the Gamcrans side
those troops occupied the summits, and, consequently, commanded
the valley. Moreover, they had seized upon the
bridge that unites both banks of the Musone, and established
several batteries there to hinder access to it.
About half-past eight on the morning of the 18th, the first
division of the Pontifical troops formed in columns, rind began
its march under the orders of General Pimodau. The second
division was to follow at nine.
The right bank of the Musone was not occupied. The general
and his brave men sooa had crossed that little river; and
scarcely had this valiant column planted the last piece of artil-
lery at the other side, when the general ordered his troops to
take possion of the two farms occupied by the Piedmoutese on
the heights of Castelfidardo. Fiery, irresistible, and rapid a.i
the lightning, the Zouaves rush to the attack, supported and
accompanied by about a hundred of the Irish light infantry
and the advanced guard of the Eoman infantry. They charge
up the mountain under an incessant shower of shells and bul-
overthrow and
lets, fall upon the Piedmoatese bersaglieri,
repalsa them, and make a hundred of them prisoners, including
one officer. Thin they hasten to place two pieces of can-
non on the height to provide against u fresh attack, and plant
two howitzers under the guard of Lieutenant Daudier before
the house itself.
Four cannons and two howitzers of Richter's battery had
been placed on the top of the Oastelfldardo hill. From that
elevated post, Colonel Blumenstile directed a murderous firo
on the enemy's army, while the valiant Daudier, by his courage
as much as by hig strategic.il knowledge, made up for any
insufficiency in the Pontifical artillery. Colonel Eichter, who
had been struck by a Piedmontese bullet, had nevertheless
refused to abandon his post on the field of honor.
But the moment had come to attack the second farm. Piinodau
gave the word of command iu a loud firm voice, and his
alas ! it did not fore-
valiant little troop began to march. Bat,
see the nui nl> T and gravity of the obstacles it was to surmount.
In the wood those brave fellows were to traverse, an entire
army blocked the way. At their approach a hailstorm of bul-
ulls, and grapeshot :
showers
down on
them from tlio enemy's ranks placed out of reach in the depths
oftln limates and crushes them so powerful!}
iiud HO
furiously that they are almost immediately
to retreat,
constrained
The enemy, seeing them recoil, emerges from the wood and
advances. But suddenly the heroic battalion faces about,
steadily awaits the Piedmontese, directs against them a murderous
and well-sustained fire, and with revived ardor rushes
upon and attacks them with the bayonet. Cialdini's soldiers,
astonished at this heroic resistance of an enemy very inferior
iu uumb'Ts, falter, hesitate, recoil, and at last leave i'iino-
dan's soldiers sole masters of the ground so valiantly recon-
quered.
But their gallant general is wounded ; his face is pale and
gaunt ; the blood is flowing from his forehead. Still he keeps
at the head of the column.
"Forward, my lads?" he cries. "Forward brave sol-
"
diers !
"Long live Pimodan !" they all unanimously respond with a
burst of enthusiusm.
"
Don't shout," he replies,
"
but still advance !"
At that moment a bullet shatters his right arm ;
seizes his sword in his left hand.
he at once
"Forward, my lads! God is with us! "he continually re-
peats.
Near him, Colonel Becdelievre, on foot, in the midst of his
men, quietly folding his arms, gives his orders with admirable
coolness and perfect tranquility.
For the third time the Zouaves attack the farm, and for the
third the heroic Pimodan receives a bullet that lays half open
his leg.
"
Young men, God is with us ! Courage, still onward !" he
repeats, as, stiff and motionless in his them.
saddle, ho precedes
But the Piedmontese, in still more compact and numerous
ranks, thronged round these brave men. The Zouaves fought
desperately, like heroes, facing the enemy like lions entrapped;
but the cavalry and the Swiss, cssayiug a murderous fire, had
retreated in disorder, and re-descended int^ the plain.
The brave Daudier alone remained at the entrance of the
first farm; all his soldiers (writes his noble companion,
Tresvaux de Fraval) were dead or dispersed. A cannon w::a
abandoned at about fifty paces fro:n the enemy.
" Help, Tresvaux ! Let us save the cannon I" cried the heroic
officer. Tres=vaux rushed forward, followed by Le C
Saint-Brieuc, and another of their gallant compatriots.
under a shower of bullets they detach the cannon, drag it to
the edge of the rocks, hurl it down the declivity to the 1
of the valley, and then, intrepid and resolute, rejoin thcii
pauious.
The fight becomes furious, confused, and the battle rages. !
On one side, two hundred brave fellows who will no:
are ready to die; on the other, hordes of Piedmontese, who ]
seem to rise out of the ground at every instant, still more nu-
merous, still more savage.
And yet those two hundred heroes :
still tight with the same valor, the game ardor. But, alas !
there are gaps in their ranks at every fresh attack.
Still Pimodan, whom nothing discourages, orders a frc.
sault. But at that instant, a fourth bullet, striking him on the
right side, traverses the body and comes out on the left. This
time the wound was mortal.
" Beuueville," said he to his aid-de-camp then, for th
time, tottering iu his saddle " I'm dying ; go on iny pa:
get together our infantry."
Among the heroic soldiers of Castlefidardo was the ;
Ernest Maestraeten, a young medical student of the University
of Louvaiu. "During the entire fight," he wrote si
qucutly to his parents from the prison of Alessandria, "I had
two duties to discharge that of surgeon and that of ser
Our ambulance was stationed at about five hundred
the line of battle. I was incessantly going from m\
to my hospital, according to circumstances, trawounded
comrado, firing my gun, chargin.
or dressing wounds ; iu a word, doing whatever came, to my