A Horseman in the Sky | Ambrose Bierce Civil War Story - video Dailymotion

Gates of Imagination

Experience the profound moral dilemma of war with this full-length audiobook of "A Horseman in the Sky" by Ambrose Bierce. This gripping short story, set during the American Civil War, tells the tale of a young Union soldier, Carter Druse, who is faced with an impossible choice: his duty to his country or his loyalty to his family. Written by a Civil War veteran, this story is a powerful and realistic exploration of the devastating personal cost of conflict, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in classic American literature and military history.  Ambrose Bierce is a master of psychological and ironic storytelling. In "A Horseman in the Sky," he uses vivid imagery and suspense to create an atmospheric and tense narrative that builds to a shocking climax. As Carter Druse stands watch on a mountain ridge, he spots an enemy scout whose discovery of his comrades' position would lead to their annihilation. The decision he faces, and its tragic outcome, reveals the brutal and dehumanizing nature of war that tears families apart and forces individuals to confront the deepest questions of morality and honor.  This audiobook is perfect for students, history buffs, and fans of classic literature who appreciate a story that is as thought-provoking as it is compelling. Bierce's cynical but honest portrayal of the battlefield offers a stark contrast to the romanticized versions of war often found in literature, providing a valuable perspective on the true human cost of conflict.  #AmbroseBierce #CivilWar #HorrorTok #ClassicLiterature #Storytime

Transcript

00:00Gates of Imagination presents A Horseman in the Sky by Ambrose Bierce, read by Billy Dixon.

00:10Chapter 1

00:11One sunny afternoon in the autumn of the year 1861, a soldier lay in a clump of laurel by

00:18the side of a road in western Virginia. He lay at full length upon his stomach, his feet resting

00:24upon the toes, his head upon the left forearm. His extended right hand loosely grasped his

00:31rifle. But for the somewhat methodical disposition of his limbs and a slight rhythmic movement

00:37of the cartridge box at the back of his belt, he might have been thought to be dead. He

00:43was asleep at his post of duty. But if detected, he would be dead shortly afterward, death being

00:50the just and legal penalty of his crime.

00:54The clump of laurel in which the criminal lay was in the angle of a road which, after ascending

00:59southward, a steep acclivity to that point turned sharply to the west, running along the summit

01:05for perhaps one hundred yards. There it turned southward again and went zigzagging downward

01:11through the forest. At the salient of that second angle was a large flat rock, jutting

01:17out northward, overlooking the deep valley from which the road ascended. The rock capped

01:23a high cliff. A stone dropped from its outer edge would have fallen sheer downward one thousand

01:29feet to the tops of the pines. The angle where the soldier lay was on another spur of the same

01:36cliff. Had he been awake he would have commanded a view, not only of the short arm of the road

01:43and the jutting rock, but of the entire profile of the cliff below it. It might well have made

01:49him giddy to look. The country was wooded everywhere except at the bottom of the valley to the

01:55northward, where there was a small natural meadow through which flowed a stream scarcely visible

02:01from the valley's rim. This open ground looked hardly larger than an ordinary dooryard, but

02:07was really several acres in extent. Its green was more vivid than that of the enclosing forest.

02:14Away beyond it rose a line of giant cliffs, similar to those upon which we are supposed to stand in our

02:21survey of the savage scene, and through which the road had somehow made its climb to the summit.

02:28The configuration of the valley, indeed, was such that from this point of observation it seemed entirely

02:35shut in, and one could but have wondered how the road which found a way out of it had found a way

02:41into it, and whence came and whither went the waters of the stream that parted the meadow more than a

02:47thousand feet below. No country is so wild and difficult, but men will make it a theatre of war,

02:56concealed in the forest at the bottom of that military rat-trap, in which half a hundred men in

03:02possession of the exits might have starved an army to submission, lay five regiments of federal infantry.

03:09They had marched all the previous day and night and were resting. At nightfall they would take to

03:16the road again, climb to the place where their unfaithful sentinel now slept, and descending the

03:22other slope of the ridge, fall upon a camp of the enemy at about midnight. Their hope was to surprise it,

03:29for the road led to the rear of it. In case of failure their position would be perilous in the extreme,

03:35and fail they surely would should accident or vigilance apprise the enemy of the movement.

03:43Chapter 2

03:46The sleeping sentinel in the clump of Laurel was a young Virginian named Carter Drewes.

03:52He was the son of wealthy parents, an only child, and had known such ease and cultivation and high

03:58living as wealth and taste were able to command in the mountain country of western Virginia.

04:04His home was but a few miles from where he now lay. One morning he had risen from the breakfast table

04:11and said quietly but gravely,

04:14Father, a Union regiment has arrived at Grafton. I am going to join it.

04:20The father lifted his Leonine head, looked at the son a moment in silence, and replied,

04:27Well, go, sir, and whatever may occur, do what you conceive to be your duty.

04:34Virginia, to which you are a traitor, must get on without you.

04:39Should we both live to the end of the war, we will speak further of the matter.

04:44Your mother, as the physician has informed you, is in a most critical condition. At the best,

04:52she cannot be with us longer than a few weeks, but that time is precious. It would be better not to

04:58disturb her. So Carter Drewes, bowing reverently to his father, who returned the salute with a stately

05:06courtesy that masked a breaking heart, left the home of his childhood to go soldiering.

05:12By conscience and courage, by deeds of devotion and daring, he soon commended himself to his fellows

05:20and his officers. And it was to these qualities and to some knowledge of the country that he owed

05:26his selection for his present perilous duty at the extreme outpost. Nevertheless, fatigue had been

05:33stronger than resolution, and he had fallen asleep. What good or bad angel came in a dream to rouse him

05:41from his state of crime? Who shall say? Without a movement, without a sound, in the profound silence

05:49and the languor of the late afternoon, some invisible messenger of fate touched with unsealing finger the

05:57eyes of his consciousness, whispered into the ear of his spirit the mysterious awakening word which no human

06:05lips ever have spoken, no human memory ever has recalled. He quietly raised his forehead from his arm and

06:13looked between the masking stems of the laurels, instinctively closing his right hand about the stock

06:19of his rifle. His first feeling was a keen artistic delight. On a colossal pedestal, the cliff, motionless

06:29at the extreme edge of the capping rock and sharply outlined against the sky, was an equestrian statue of

06:36impressive dignity. The figure of the man sat the figure of the horse, straight and soldierly, but with the repose

06:44of a grecian god carved in the marble which limits the suggestion of activity. The gray costume harmonized

06:52with its aerial background. The metal of accoutrement and comparison was softened and subdued by the shadow.

07:00The animal's skin had no points of highlight. A carbine strikingly foreshortened lay across the pommel of the

07:08saddle, kept in place by the right hand, grasping it at the grip. The left hand, holding the bridle rein,

07:15was invisible. In silhouette against the sky, the profile of the horse was cut with the sharpness of

07:21a cameo. It looked across the heights of air to the confronting cliffs beyond. The face of the rider,

07:28turned slightly away, showed only an outline of temple and beard. He was looking downward to the bottom of

07:36the valley. Magnified by its lift against the sky and by the soldier's testifying sense of the

07:42formidableness of a near enemy, the group appeared of heroic, almost colossal size.

07:50For an instant, Druze had a strange, half-defined feeling that he had slept to the end of the war,

07:57and was looking upon a noble work of art, reared upon that eminence to commemorate the deeds of an

08:03heroic past, of which he had been an inglorious part. The feeling was dispelled by a slight movement of

08:11the group. The horse, without moving its feet, had drawn its body slightly backward from the verge.

08:18The man remained immobile as before. Broad awake and keenly alive to the significance of the situation,

08:26Druze now brought the butt of his rifle against his cheek by cautiously pushing the barrel forward

08:31through the bushes, cocked the piece, and glancing through the sights covered a vital spot of the

08:37horseman's breast. A touch upon the trigger, and all would have been well with Carter Druze.

08:44At that instant, the horseman turned his head and looked in the direction of his concealed foeman,

08:50seemed to look into his very face, into his eyes, into his brave, compassionate heart.

08:56Is it then so terrible to kill an enemy in war? An enemy who has surprised a secret vital to the

09:03safety of oneself and comrades? An enemy more formidable for his knowledge than all his army

09:10for its numbers? Carter Druze grew pale. He shook in every limb, turned faint, and saw the statuesque group

09:19before him as black figures, rising, falling, moving unsteadily in arcs of circles in a fiery sky.

09:27His hand fell away from his weapon. His head slowly dropped, until his face rested on the leaves in which

09:34he lay. This courageous gentleman and hardy soldier was near swooning from intensity of emotion.

09:40It was not for long. In another moment, his face was raised from earth. His hands resumed their places

09:50on the rifle. His forefinger sought the trigger. Mind, heart, and eyes were clear, conscience and reason

09:58sound. He could not hope to capture that enemy. To alarm him would but send him dashing to his camp with

10:05his fatal news. The duty of the soldier was plain. The man must be shot dead from ambush, without warning,

10:14without a moment's spiritual preparation, with never so much as an unspoken prayer, he must be sent to his

10:21account. But no, there is a hope. He may have discovered nothing. Perhaps he is but admiring the

10:29sublimity of the landscape. If permitted, he may turn and ride carelessly away in the direction whence

10:35he came. Surely it will be possible to judge, at the instant of his withdrawing, whether he knows.

10:43It may well be that his fixity of attention, Druce turned his head and looked through the deeps of air

10:49downward, as from the surface to the bottom of a translucent sea. He saw creeping across the green

10:56meadow a sinuous line of figures of men and horses. Some foolish commander was permitting the soldiers

11:03of his escort to water their beasts in the open, in plain view from a dozen summits. Druce withdrew his

11:11eyes from the valley and fixed them again upon the group of man and horse in the sky. And again it was

11:18through the sights of his rifle. But this time his aim was at the horse.

11:23In his memory, as if they were a divine mandate, rang the words of his father at their parting.

11:31Whatever may occur, do what you conceive to be your duty. He was calm now. His teeth were firmly but

11:40not rigidly closed. His nerves were as tranquil as a sleeping babe's. Not a tremor affected any muscle of

11:47his body. His breathing, until suspended in the act of taking aim, was regular and slow. Duty had conquered.

11:54The spirit had said to the body, Peace be still. He fired.

12:02CHAPTER THREE

12:04An officer of the Federal Force, who, in a spirit of adventure or in quest of knowledge, had left the

12:10hidden bivouac in the valley, and with aimless feet, had made his way to the lower edge of a small

12:16open space near the foot of the cliff, was considering what he had to gain by pushing his

12:22exploration further. At a distance of a quarter-mile before him, but apparently at a stone's throw,

12:29rose from its fringe of pines the gigantic face of rock, towering to so great a height above him that

12:36it made him giddy to look up to where its edge cut a sharp, rugged line against the sky.

12:43It presented a clean, vertical profile against a background of blue sky to a point half the way down,

12:49and of distant hills, hardly less blue, thence to the tops of the trees at its base.

12:56Lifting his eyes to the dizzy altitude of its summit, the officer saw an astonishing sight. A man on

13:03horseback, riding down into the valley through the air. Straight upright sat the rider, in military

13:11fashion, with a firm seat in the saddle, a strong clutch upon the rein to hold his charger from too

13:17impetuous a plunge. From his bare head his long hair streamed upward, waving like a plume. His hands

13:25were concealed in the cloud of the horse's lifted mane. The animal's body was as level as if every hoof

13:31stroke encountered the resistant earth. Its motions were those of a wild gallop. But even as the officer

13:38looked, they ceased, with all the legs thrown sharply forward, as in the act of alighting from a leap.

13:46But this was a flight, filled with amazement and terror by this apparition of a horseman in the sky,

13:53half believing himself the chosen scribe of some new apocalypse. The officer was overcome by the

14:00intensity of his emotions. His legs failed him, and he fell. Almost at the same instant,

14:07he heard a crashing sound in the trees, a sound that died without an echo, and all was still.

14:16The officer rose to his feet, trembling. The familiar sensation of an abraded shin recalled his dazed

14:23faculties. Pulling himself together, he ran rapidly obliquely away from the cliff, to a point distant

14:31from its foot. Thereabout, he expected to find his man. And thereabout, he naturally failed.

14:39In the fleeting instant of his vision, his imagination had been so wrought upon by the apparent grace and

14:46ease and intention of the marvellous performance that it did not occur to him that the line of march

14:52of aerial cavalry is directly downward, and that he could find the objects of his search at the very

14:58foot of the cliff. A half hour later, he returned to camp. This officer was a wise man. He knew better

15:06than to tell an incredible truth. He said nothing of what he had seen. But when the commander asked him if

15:14in his scout he had learned anything of advantage to the expedition, he answered,

15:19Yes, sir. There is no road leading down into this valley from the southward. The commander, knowing

15:25better, smiled.

15:29Chapter 4

15:31After firing his shot, Private Carter Drews reloaded his rifle and resumed his watch.

15:37Ten minutes had hardly passed when a federal sergeant crept cautiously to him on hands and knees.

15:44Druce neither turned his head nor looked at him, but lay without motion or sign of recognition.

15:50Did you fire? The sergeant whispered.

15:53Yes.

15:54At what?

15:56A horse.

15:57It was standing on yonder rock, pretty far out. You see it is no longer there. It went over the cliff.

16:05The man's face was white, but he showed no other sign of emotion.

16:09Having answered, he turned away his eyes and said no more. The sergeant did not understand.

16:18See here, Drews, he said after a moment's silence. It's no use making a mystery.

16:24I order you to report. Was there anybody on the horse?

16:28Yes.

16:29Yes. Well? My father?

16:33The sergeant rose to his feet and walked away.

16:37Good God, he said.

16:39Thank you for listening to this audiobook.

16:46If you enjoyed this story, don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel so you don't miss our next uploads.

16:53See you in the next audiobook.

16:56See you in the next audiobook.

A Horseman in the Sky | Ambrose Bierce Civil War Story

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