Polish addition (double-barrelled) to Thin Red Line

Zupełnie nieoczekiwanie zawędruję do wieku XIX, dokładnie rzecz biorąc do czasu Wojny Krymskiej. Szukając pewnego detalu na temat słynnej ‘Cienkiej Czerwonej Linii’ w bitwie pod Bałakławą, natrafiłem w historii 93rd Highlanders Regiment na niezwykle ciekawy akcent polski. Żeby więc ciekawostka mi nie przepadła, pozwólcie na ten wyjątkowy wypad na Krym, do tego jeszcze w języku oryginału, co zapewne ucieszy anglojęzycznych Czytelników niniejszego bloga:

Attached to Captain Barker's battery of the Royal  Artillery (who were with the 93^rd Highlander) was a Pole, their interpreter ; this Pole, who was a man of education and good family, but had been mined by Russian oppression, had attracted notice by constructing, very ingeniously, a little hut for himself principally out of the body of an old Russian close carriage with the addition of clay and turf. When the Russian cavalry appeared in front of the 93rd, the Pole, armed with an old double-barrelled gun loaded with ball, took his place, almost unobserved, in the rear rank, advanced with the line, and with them commenced firing as the Russians galloped down upon the regiment. When galled by the musketry fire, they turned in confusion to their left, and passed out of range, the Pole rushed to where a dead trooper lay, put his finger into the bullet wound in his head, and, with a fiendish joy, declared that as the wound was smaller than that made by a Minie ball the victim must be his ; and his revenge was partially satisfied.

Ot, drobnostka, ale tak mi się spodobała, że musiałem ją tu zamieścić. Od następnego wpisu wrócę jednak do bliższego mi okresu…