The animals were stupefied. This was a wickedness far outdoing Snowball's destruction of the windmill. 🔊 But it was some minutes before they could fully take it in. They all remembered, or thought they remembered, how they had seen Snowball charging ahead of them at the Battle of the Cowshed, how he had rallied and encouraged them at every turn, and how he had not paused for an instant even when the pellets from Jones's gun had wounded his back. 🔊 At first it was a little difficult to see how this fitted in with his being on Jones's side. 🔊 Even Boxer, who seldom asked questions, was puzzled. He lay down, tucked his fore hoofs beneath him, shut his eyes, and with a hard effort managed to formulate his thoughts. 🔊

"I do not believe that," he said. "Snowball fought bravely at the Battle of the Cowshed. 🔊 I saw him myself. Did we not give him 'Animal Hero, first Class,' immediately afterwards?" 🔊

"That was our mistake, comrade. For we know now−it is all written down in the secret documents that we have found−that in reality he was trying to lure us to our doom." 🔊

"But he was wounded," said Boxer. "We all saw him running with blood."

"That was part of the arrangement!" 🔊 cried Squealer. "Jones's shot only grazed him. I could show you this in his own writing, if you were able to read it. 🔊 The plot was for Snowball, at the critical moment, to give the signal for flight and leave the field to the enemy. 🔊 And he very nearly succeeded−I will even say, comrades, he would have succeeded if it had not been for our heroic Leader, Comrade Napoleon. 🔊 Do you not remember how, just at the moment when Jones and his men had got inside the yard, Snowball suddenly turned and fled, and many animals followed him? 🔊 And do you not remember, too, that it was just at that moment, when panic was spreading and all seemed lost, that Comrade Napoleon sprang forward with a cry of 'Death to Humanity!' 🔊 and sank his teeth in Jones's leg? Surely you remember that, comrades?" exclaimed Squealer, frisking from side to side. 🔊

Now when Squealer described the scene so graphically, it seemed to the animals that they did remember it. 🔊 At any rate, they remembered that at the critical moment of the battle Snowball had turned to flee. 🔊 But Boxer was still a little uneasy.

🔊