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
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
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