The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Rudolf Raspe
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Название: The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Автор: Rudolf Raspe
Издательство: Издательские решения
Жанр: Мифы. Легенды. Эпос
isbn: 9785005020772
isbn:
large crocodile, with his mouth extended almost ready to receive me. On
my right hand was the piece of water before mentioned, and on my left a
deep precipice, said to have, as I have since learned, a receptacle at
the bottom for venomous creatures; in short I gave myself up as lost,
for the lion was now upon his hind-legs, just in the act of seizing
me; I fell involuntarily to the ground with fear, and, as it afterwards
appeared, he sprang over me. I lay some time in a situation which no
language can describe, expecting to feel his teeth or talons in some
part of me every moment: after waiting in this prostrate situation a few
seconds I heard a violent but unusual noise, different from any sound
that had ever before assailed my ears; nor is it at all to be wondered
at, when I inform you from whence it proceeded: after listening for
some time, I ventured to raise my head and look round, when, to my
unspeakable joy, I perceived the lion had, by the eagerness with which
he sprung at me, jumped forward, as I fell, into the crocodile’s mouth!
which, as before observed, was wide open; the head of the one stuck
in the throat of the other! and they were struggling to extricate
themselves! I fortunately recollected my _couteau de chasse_, which was
by my side; with this instrument I severed the lion’s head at one
blow, and the body fell at my feet! I then, with the butt-end of my
fowling-piece, rammed the head farther into the throat of the crocodile,
and destroyed him by suffocation, for he could neither gorge nor eject
it.
Soon after I had thus gained a complete victory over my two powerful
adversaries, my companion arrived in search of me; for finding I did not
follow him into the wood, he returned, apprehending I had lost my way,
or met with some accident.
After mutual congratulations, we measured the crocodile, which was just
forty feet in length.
As soon as we had related this extraordinary adventure to the governor,
he sent a waggon and servants, who brought home the two carcases. The
lion’s skin was properly preserved, with its hair on, after which it
was made into tobacco-pouches, and presented by me, upon our return to
Holland, to the burgomasters, who, in return, requested my acceptance of
a thousand ducats.
The skin of the crocodile was stuffed in the usual manner, and makes a
capital article in their public museum at Amsterdam, where the exhibitor
relates the whole story to each spectator, with such additions as he
thinks proper. Some of his variations are rather extravagant; one of
them is, that the lion jumped quite through the crocodile, and was
making his escape at the back door, when, as soon as his head appeared,
Monsieur the Great Baron (as he is pleased to call me) cut it off,
and three feet of the crocodile’s tail along with it; nay, so little
attention has this fellow to the truth, that he sometimes adds, as soon
as the crocodile missed his tail, he turned about, snatched the _couteau
de chasse_ out of Monsieur’s hand, and swallowed it with such eagerness
that it pierced his heart and killed him immediately!
The little regard which this impudent knave has to veracity makes me
sometimes apprehensive that my _real facts_ may fall under suspicion, by
being found in company with his confounded inventions.
CHAPTER II
_In which the Baron proves himself a good shot – He loses his horse,
and finds a wolf – Makes him draw his sledge – Promises to entertain
his company with a relation of such facts as are well deserving their
notice._
I set off from Rome on a journey to Russia, in the midst of winter, from
a just notion that frost and snow must of course mend the roads, which
every traveller had described as uncommonly bad through the northern
parts of Germany, Poland, Courland, and Livonia. I went on horseback, as
the most convenient manner of travelling; I was but lightly clothed, and
of this I felt the inconvenience the more I advanced north-east.
What must not a poor old man have suffered in that severe weather and
climate, whom I saw on a bleak common in Poland, lying on the road,
helpless, shivering, and hardly having wherewithal to cover his
nakedness? I pitied the poor soul: though I felt the severity of the air
myself, I threw my mantle over him, and immediately I heard a voice from
the heavens, blessing me for that piece of charity, saying —
«You will be rewarded, my son, for this in time.»
I went on: night and darkness overtook me. No village was to be seen.
The country was covered with snow, and I was unacquainted with the road.
Tired, I alighted, and fastened my horse to something like a pointed
stump of a tree, which appeared above the snow; for the sake of safety I
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