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diff --git a/old/8mly210h.htm b/old/8mly210h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e5ca9d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8mly210h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,29829 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>CHARLES O'MALLEY, Vol. 2</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +body {margin:10%; text-align:justify} +blockquote {font-size:14pt} +P {font-size:14pt} +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> + +<h2>CHARLES O'MALLEY, Vol. 2, by Charles Lever</h2> + +<p>The Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles O'Malley, Vol. 2, by +Charles Lever<br> +#3 in our series by Charles Lever</p> + +<p>Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to +check the<br> +copyright laws for your country before downloading or +redistributing<br> +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.</p> + +<p>This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this +Project<br> +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit +the<br> +header without written permission.</p> + +<p>Please read the "legal small print," and other information +about the<br> +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included +is<br> +important information about your specific rights and restrictions +in<br> +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to +make a<br> +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.</p> + +<p>**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic +Texts**</p> + +<p>**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since +1971**</p> + +<p>*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of +Volunteers!*****</p> + +<p>Title: Charles O'Malley, Vol. 2</p> + +<p>Author: Charles Lever</p> + +<p>Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8674]<br> +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]<br> +[This file was first posted on July 31, 2003]</p> + +<p>Edition: 10</p> + +<p>Language: English</p> + +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> + +<p>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES O'MALLEY, +VOL. 2 ***</p> + +<p>Produced by David Widger, Jonathan Ingram, Charles Franks<br> +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</p> +<br><br><br><br> + + +<h1>CHARLES O'MALLEY</h1> +<br><br> +<h3>The Irish Dragoon</h3> +<br><br><br> +<h2>BY CHARLES LEVER.</h2> +<br><br> +<h3>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY PHIZ.</h3> +<br><br><br> +<h3>IN TWO VOLUMES.</h3> + +<h1>VOL. II.</h1> + +<a name="0001"></a> +<img alt="0001.jpg (163K)" src="0001.jpg" height="1059" width="706"> + + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<p>CHAPTER</p> + +<pre> +I. THE DOCTOR'S TALE +II. THE SKIRMISH +III. THE LINES OF CIUDAD RODRIGO +IV. THE DOCTOR +V. THE COA +VI. THE NIGHT MARCH +VII. THE JOURNEY +VIII. THE GHOST +IX. LISBON +X. A PLEASANT PREDICAMENT +XI. THE DINNER +XII. THE LETTER +XIII. THE VILLA +XIV. THE VISIT +XV. THE CONFESSION +XVI. MY CHARGER +XVII. MAURICE +XVIII. THE MASQUERADE +XIX. THE LINES +XX. THE RETREAT OF THE FRENCH +XXI. PATRICK'S DAY IN THE PENINSULA +XXII. FUENTES D'ONORO +XXIII. THE BATTLE OF FUENTES D'ONORO +XXIV. A RENCONTRE +XXV. ALMEIDA +XXVI. A NIGHT ON THE AZAVA +XXVII. MIKE'S MISTAKE +XXVIII. MONSOON IN TROUBLE +XXIX. THE CONFIDENCE +XXX. THE CANTONMENT +XXXI. MICKEY FREE'S ADVENTURE +XXXII. THE SAN PETRO +XXXIII. THE COUNT'S LETTER +XXXIV. THE TRENCHES +XXXV. THE STORMING OF CIUDAD RODRIGO +XXXVI. THE RAMPART +XXXVII. THE DESPATCH +XXXVIII. THE LEAVE +XXXIX. LONDON +XL. THE BELL AT BRISTOL +XLI. IRELAND +XLII. THE RETURN +XLIII. HOME +XLIV. AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE +XLV. A SURPRISE +XLVI. NEW VIEWS +XLVII. A RECOGNITION +XLVIII. A MISTAKE +XLIX. BRUSSELS +L. AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE +LI. THE DUCHESS OF RICHMOND'S BALL +LII. QUATRE BRAS +LIII. WATERLOO +LIV. BRUSSELS +LV. CONCLUSION + L'ENVOI + +</pre> + +<br><br><br><br> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS BY PHIZ IN VOL. II</h2> + +<p>Etchings *<br><br> +<a href="#0001">*EXORCISING A SPIRIT</a><br> +<a href="#0034">A FLYING SHOT</a><br> +<a href="#0083">O'MALLEY FOLLOWING THE CUSTOM OF HIS COUNTRY</a><br> +<a href="#0102">MR. FREE TURNED SPANIARD</a><br> +<a href="#0124">CHARLEY TRYING A CHARGER</a><br> +<a href="#0158">GOING OUT TO DINNER</a><br> +<a href="#0163">DISADVANTAGE OF BREAKFASTING OVER A DUELLING-PARTY</a><br> +<a href="#0217">*THE TABLES TURNED</a><br> +<a href="#0225">MR. FREE PIPES WHILE HIS FRIENDS PIPE-CLAY</a><br> +<a href="#0247">A HUNTING TURN-OUT IN THE PENINSULA</a><br> +<a href="#0255">MIKE CAPTURING THE TRUMPETER</a><br> +<a href="#0317">CAPTAIN MICKEY FREE RELATING HIS HEROIC DEEDS</a><br> +<a href="#0362">BABY BLAKE</a><br> +<a href="#0410">MICKEY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES</a><br> +<a href="#0412">*THE GENTLEMEN WHO NEVER SLEEP</a><br> +<a href="#0471">DEATH OF HAMMERSLEY</a><br> +<a href="#0481">*THE WELCOME HOME</a></p> + +<br><br><br><br> +<h1>CHARLES O'MALLEY.</h1> +<br> +<h2>THE IRISH DRAGOON.</h2> + + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER I.</p> + +<p>THE DOCTOR'S TALE.[1]</p> + +<p>"It is now some fifteen years since—if it wasn't for +O'Shaughnessy's<br> +wrinkles, I could not believe it five—we were quartered in +Loughrea. There<br> +were, besides our regiment, the Fiftieth and the Seventy-third, +and a troop<br> +or two of horse artillery, and the whole town was literally a +barrack, and<br> +as you may suppose, the pleasantest place imaginable. All the +young ladies,<br> +and indeed all those that had got their brevet some years before, +came<br> +flocking into the town, not knowing but the Devil might persuade +a raw<br> +ensign or so to marry some of them.</p> + +<p>"Such dinner parties, such routs and balls, never were heard +of west of<br> +Athlone. The gayeties were incessant; and if good feeding, plenty +of<br> +claret, short whist, country dances, and kissing could have done +the thing,<br> +there wouldn't have been a bachelor with a red coat for six miles +around.</p> + +<p>[Footnote 1: I cannot permit the reader to fall into the same +blunder,<br> +with regard to the worthy "Maurice," as my friend Charles +O'Malley has<br> +done. It is only fair to state that the doctor in the following +tale was<br> +hoaxing the "dragoon." A braver and a better fellow than Quill +never<br> +existed, equally beloved by his brother officers, as delighted in +for his<br> +convivial talents. His favorite amusement was to invent some +story or<br> +adventure in which, mixing up his own name with that of some +friend or<br> +companion, the veracity of the whole was never questioned. Of +this nature<br> +was the pedigree he devised in the last chapter of Vol. I. to +impose upon<br> +O'Malley, who believed implicitly all he told him.]</p> + +<p>"You know the west, O'Mealey, so I needn't tell you what the +Galway girls<br> +are like: fine, hearty, free-and-easy, talking, laughing devils, +but as<br> +deep and 'cute as a Master in Chancery; ready for any fun or +merriment, but<br> +always keeping a sly look-out for a proposal or a tender +acknowledgment,<br> +which—what between the heat of a ball-room, whiskey negus, white +satin<br> +shoes, and a quarrel with your guardian—it's ten to one you fall +into<br> +before you're a week in the same town with them.</p> + +<p>"As for the men, I don't admire them so much: pleasant and +cheerful enough<br> +when they're handicapping the coat off your back, and your new +tilbury for<br> +a spavined pony and a cotton umbrella, but regular devils if you +come to<br> +cross them the least in life; nothing but ten paces, three shots +apiece, to<br> +begin and end with something like Roger de Coverley, when every +one has a<br> +pull at his neighbor. I'm not saying they're not agreeable, +well-informed,<br> +and mild in their habits; but they lean overmuch to corduroys and +coroners'<br> +inquests for one's taste farther south. However, they're a fine +people,<br> +take them all in all; and if they were not interfered with, and +their<br> +national customs invaded with road-making, petty-sessions, +grand-jury laws,<br> +and a stray commission now and then, they are capable of great +things, and<br> +would astonish the world.</p> + +<p>"But as I was saying, we were ordered to Loughrea after being +fifteen<br> +months in detachments about Birr, Tullamore, Kilbeggan, and all +that<br> +country; the change was indeed a delightful one, and we soon +found<br> +ourselves the centre of the most marked and determined +civilities. I told<br> +you they were wise people in the west; this was their +calculation: the<br> +line—ours was the Roscommon militia—are here to-day, there +to-morrow;<br> +they may be flirting in Tralee this week, and fighting on the +Tagus the<br> +next; not that there was any fighting there in those times, but +then there<br> +was always Nova Scotia and St. John's, and a hundred other places +that a<br> +Galway young lady knew nothing about, except that people never +came back<br> +from them. Now, what good, what use was there in falling in love +with them?<br> +Mere transitory and passing pleasure that was. But as for us: +there we<br> +were; if not in Kilkenny we were in Cork. Safe out and come +again; no<br> +getting away under pretence of foreign service; no excuse for not +marrying<br> +by any cruel pictures of the colonies, where they make +spatch-cocks of the<br> +officers' wives and scrape their infant families to death with a +small<br> +tooth-comb. In a word, my dear O'Mealey, we were at a high +premium; and<br> +even O'Shaughnessy, with his red head and the legs you see, had +his<br> +admirers. There now, don't be angry, Dan; the men, at least, were +mighty<br> +partial to you.</p> + +<p>"Loughrea, if it was a pleasant, was a very expensive place. +White gloves<br> +and car hire,—there wasn't a chaise in the town,—short whist, +too (God<br> +forgive me if I wrong them, but I wonder were they honest), cost +money; and<br> +as our popularity rose, our purses fell; till at length, when the +one was<br> +at the flood, the other was something very like low water.</p> + +<p>"Now, the Roscommon was a beautiful corps; no petty +jealousies, no little<br> +squabbling among the officers, no small spleen between the +major's wife<br> +and the paymaster's sister,—all was amiable, kind, brotherly, +and<br> +affectionate. To proceed, I need only mention one fine trait of +them,—no<br> +man ever refused to indorse a brother officer's bill. To think of +asking<br> +the amount or even the date would be taken personally; and thus +we went on<br> +mutually aiding and assisting each other,—the colonel drawing on +me, I<br> +on the major, the senior captain on the surgeon, and so on, a +regular<br> +cross-fire of 'promises to pay,' all stamped and regular.</p> + +<p>"Not but the system had its inconveniences; for sometimes an +obstinate<br> +tailor or bootmaker would make a row for his money, and then we'd +be<br> +obliged to get up a little quarrel between the drawer and the +acceptor of<br> +the bill; they couldn't speak for some days, and a mutual friend +to both<br> +would tell the creditor that the slightest imprudence on his part +would<br> +lead to bloodshed; 'and the Lord help him! if there was a duel, +he'd be<br> +proved the whole cause of it.' This and twenty other plans were +employed;<br> +and finally, the matter would be left to arbitration among our +brother<br> +officers, and I need not say, they behaved like trumps. But +notwithstanding<br> +all this, we were frequently hard pressed for cash; as the +colonel said,<br> +'It's a mighty expensive corps.' Our dress was costly; not that +it had much<br> +lace and gold on it, but that, what between falling on the road +at night,<br> +shindies at mess, and other devilment, a coat lasted no time. +Wine, too,<br> +was heavy on us; for though we often changed our wine merchant, +and rarely<br> +paid him, there was an awful consumption at the mess!</p> + +<p>"Now, what I have mentioned may prepare you for the fact that +before<br> +we were eight weeks in garrison, Shaugh and myself, upon an +accurate<br> +calculation of our conjoint finances, discovered that except some +vague<br> +promises of discounting here and there through the town, and +seven and<br> +fourpence in specie, we were innocent of any pecuniary treasures. +This was<br> +embarrassing; we had both embarked in several small schemes of +pleasurable<br> +amusement, had a couple of hunters each, a tandem, and a running +account—I<br> +think it <i>galloped</i>—at every shop in the town.</p> + +<p>"Let me pause for a moment here, O'Mealey, while I moralize a +little in a<br> +strain I hope may benefit you. Have you ever considered—of +course you have<br> +not, you're too young and unreflecting—how beautifully every +climate<br> +and every soil possesses some one antidote or another to its own +noxious<br> +influences? The tropics have their succulent and juicy fruits, +cooling and<br> +refreshing; the northern latitudes have their beasts with fur and +warm skin<br> +to keep out the frost-bites; and so it is in Ireland. Nowhere on +the face<br> +of the habitable globe does a man contract such habits of small +debt, and<br> +nowhere, I'll be sworn, can he so easily get out of any scrape +concerning<br> +them. They have their tigers in the east, their antelopes in the +south,<br> +their white bears in Norway, their buffaloes in America; but we +have an<br> +animal in Ireland that beats them all hollow,—a country +attorney!</p> + +<p>"Now, let me introduce you to Mr. Matthew Donevan. Mat, as he +was<br> +familiarly called by his numerous acquaintances, was a short, +florid, rosy<br> +little gentleman of some four or five-and-forty, with a +well-curled wig of<br> +the fairest imaginable auburn, the gentle wave of the front +locks, which<br> +played in infantine loveliness upon his little bullet forehead, +contrasting<br> +strongly enough with a cunning leer of his eye, and a certain +<i>nisi prius</i><br> +laugh that however it might please a client, rarely brought +pleasurable<br> +feelings to his opponent in a cause.</p> + +<p>"Mat was a character in his way; deep, double, and tricky in +everything<br> +that concerned his profession, he affected the gay fellow,—liked +a jolly<br> +dinner at Brown's Hotel, would go twenty miles to see a +steeple-chase and<br> +a coursing match, bet with any one when the odds were strong in +his favor,<br> +with an easy indifference about money that made him seem, when +winning,<br> +rather the victim of good luck than anything else. As he kept a +rather<br> +pleasant bachelor's house, and liked the military much, we soon +became<br> +acquainted. Upon him, therefore, for reasons I can't explain, +both our<br> +hopes reposed; and Shaugh and myself at once agreed that if Mat +could not<br> +assist us in our distresses, the case was a bad one.</p> + +<p>"A pretty little epistle was accordingly concocted, inviting +the worthy<br> +attorney to a small dinner at five o'clock the next day, +intimating that we<br> +were to be perfectly alone, and had a little business to discuss. +True to<br> +the hour, Mat was there; and as if instantly guessing that ours +was no<br> +regular party of pleasure, his look, dress, and manner were all +in keeping<br> +with the occasion,—quiet, subdued, and searching.</p> + +<p>"When the claret had been superseded by the whiskey, and the +confidential<br> +hours were approaching, by an adroit allusion to some heavy wager +then<br> +pending, we brought our finances upon the <i>tapis</i>. The thing was +done<br> +beautifully,—an easy <i>adagio</i> movement, no violent transition; +but hang me<br> +if old Mat didn't catch the matter at once.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, it's there ye are, Captain!' said he, with his peculiar +grin.<br> +'Two-and-sixpence in the pound, and no assets.'</p> + +<p>"'The last is nearer the mark, my old boy,' said Shaugh, +blurting out the<br> +whole truth at once. The wily attorney finished his tumbler +slowly, as<br> +if giving himself time for reflection, and then, smacking his +lips in a<br> +preparatory manner, took a quick survey of the room with his +piercing green<br> +eye.</p> + +<p>"'A very sweet mare of yours that little mouse-colored one is, +with the dip<br> +in the back; and she has a trifling curb—may be it's a spavin, +indeed—in<br> +the near hind-leg. You gave five-and-twenty for her, now, I'll be +bound?'</p> + +<p>"'Sixty guineas, as sure as my name's Dan,' said Shaugh, not +at all pleased<br> +at the value put upon his hackney; 'and as to spavin and curb, +I'll wager<br> +double the sum she has neither the slightest trace of one nor the +other.'</p> + +<p>"'I'll not take the bet,' said Mat, dryly. 'Money's scarce in +these parts.'</p> + +<p>"This hit silenced us both; and our friend continued,—</p> + +<p>"'Then there's the bay horse,—a great strapping, leggy beast +he is for a<br> +tilbury; and the hunters, worth nothing here; they don't know +this country.<br> +Them's neat pistols; and the tilbury is not bad—'</p> + +<p>"'Confound you!' said I, losing all patience; 'we didn't ask +you here to<br> +appraise our movables. We want to raise the wind without +that.'</p> + +<p>"'I see, I perceive,' said Mat, taking a pinch of snuff very +leisurely as<br> +he spoke,—'I see. Well, that is difficult, very difficult just +now. I've<br> +mortgaged every acre of ground in the two counties near us, and a +sixpence<br> +more is not to be had that way. Are you lucky at the races?'</p> + +<p>"'Never win a sixpence.'</p> + +<p>"'What can you do at whist?'</p> + +<p>"'Revoke, and get cursed by my partner; devil a more!'</p> + +<p>"'That's mighty bad, for otherwise, we might arrange something +for you.<br> +Well, I only see one thing for it; you must marry. A wife with +some money<br> +will get you out of your present difficulties; and we'll manage +that easily<br> +enough.'</p> + +<p>"'Come, Dan,' said I, for Shaugh was dropping asleep; 'cheer +up, old<br> +fellow. Donevan has found the way to pull us through our +misfortunes. A<br> +girl with forty thousand pounds, the best cock shooting in +Ireland, an old<br> +family, a capital cellar, all await ye,—rouse up, there!'</p> + +<p>"'I'm convanient,' said Shaugh, with a look intended to be +knowing, but<br> +really very tipsy.</p> + +<p>"'I didn't say much for her personal attractions, Captain,' +said Mat; 'nor,<br> +indeed, did I specify the exact sum; but Mrs. Rogers Dooley, of +Clonakilty,<br> +might be a princess—'</p> + +<p>"'And so she shall be, Mat; the O'Shaughnessys were Kings of +Ennis in the<br> +time of Nero and I'm only waiting for a trifle of money to revive +the<br> +title. What's her name?'</p> + +<p>"'Mrs. Rogers Dooley.'</p> + +<p>"'Here's her health, and long life to her,—</p> + +<p> 'And may the Devil cut the toes<br> + Of all her foes,<br> + That we may know them by their limping.'</p> + +<p>"This benevolent wish uttered, Dan fell flat upon the +hearth-rug, and was<br> +soon sound asleep. I must hasten on; so need only say that, +before we<br> +parted that night, Mat and myself had finished the half-gallon +bottle of<br> +Loughrea whiskey, and concluded a treaty for the hand and fortune +of Mrs.<br> +Rogers Dooley. He being guaranteed a very handsome percentage on +the<br> +property, and the lady being reserved for choice between Dan and +myself,<br> +which, however, I was determined should fall upon my more +fortunate friend.</p> + +<p>"The first object which presented itself to my aching senses +the following<br> +morning was a very spacious card of invitation from Mr. Jonas +Malone,<br> +requesting me to favor him with the seductions of my society the +next<br> +evening to a ball; at the bottom of which, in Mr. Donevan's hand, +I read,—</p> + +<p>"'Don't fail; you know who is to be there. I've not been idle +since I saw<br> +you. Would the captain take twenty-five for the mare?'</p> + +<p>"'So far so good,' thought I, as entering O'Shaughnessy's +quarters, I<br> +discovered him endeavoring to spell out his card, which, however, +had no<br> +postscript. We soon agreed that Mat should have his price; so +sending a<br> +polite answer to the invitation, we despatched a still more civil +note to<br> +the attorney, and begged of him, as a weak mark of esteem, to +accept the<br> +mouse-colored mare as a present."</p> + +<p>Here O'Shaughnessy sighed deeply, and even seemed affected by +the souvenir.</p> + +<p>"Come, Dan, we did it all for the best. Oh, O'Mealey, he was a +cunning<br> +fellow; but no matter. We went to the ball, and to be sure, it +was a great<br> +sight. Two hundred and fifty souls, where there was not good room +for the<br> +odd fifty; such laughing, such squeezing, such pressing of hands +and waists<br> +in the staircase, and then such a row and riot at the top,—four +fiddles, a<br> +key bugle, and a bagpipe, playing 'Haste to the wedding,' amidst +the crash<br> +of refreshment-trays, the tramp of feet, and the sounds of +merriment on all<br> +sides!</p> + +<p>"It's only in Ireland, after all, people have fun. Old and +young, merry and<br> +morose, the gay and cross-grained, are crammed into a lively +country-dance;<br> +and ill-matched, ill-suited, go jigging away together to the +blast of a bad<br> +band, till their heads, half turned by the noise, the heat, the +novelty,<br> +and the hubbub, they all get as tipsy as if they were really deep +in<br> +liquor.</p> + +<p>"Then there is that particularly free-and-easy tone in every +one about.<br> +Here go a couple capering daintily out of the ball-room to take a +little<br> +fresh air on the stairs, where every step has its own separate +flirtation<br> +party; there, a riotous old gentleman, with a boarding-school +girl for<br> +his partner, has plunged smack into a party at loo, upsetting +cards and<br> +counters, and drawing down curses innumerable. Here are a merry +knot round<br> +the refreshments, and well they may be; for the negus is strong +punch,<br> +and the biscuit is tipsy cake,—and all this with a running fire +of good<br> +stories, jokes, and witticisms on all sides, in the laughter for +which even<br> +the droll-looking servants join as heartily as the rest.</p> + +<p>"We were not long in finding out Mrs. Rogers, who sat in the +middle of a<br> +very high sofa, with her feet just touching the floor. She was +short,<br> +fat, wore her hair in a crop, had a species of shining yellow +skin, and a<br> +turned-up nose, all of which were by no means prepossessing. +Shaugh and<br> +myself were too hard-up to be particular, and so we invited her +to dance<br> +alternately for two consecutive hours, plying her assiduously +with negus<br> +during the lulls in the music.</p> + +<p>"Supper was at last announced, and enabled us to recruit for +new efforts;<br> +and so after an awful consumption of fowl, pigeon-pie, ham, and +brandy<br> +cherries, Mrs. Rogers brightened up considerably, and professed +her<br> +willingness to join the dancers. As for us, partly from +exhaustion, partly<br> +to stimulate our energies, and in some degree to drown +reflection, we drank<br> +deep, and when we reached the drawing-room, not only the +agreeable guests<br> +themselves, but even the furniture, the venerable chairs, and the +stiff old<br> +sofa seemed performing 'Sir Roger de Coverley.' How we conducted +ourselves<br> +till five in the morning, let our cramps confess; for we were +both<br> +bed-ridden for ten days after. However, at last Mrs. Rogers gave +in, and<br> +reclining gracefully upon a window-seat, pronounced it a most +elegant<br> +party, and asked me to look for her shawl. While I perambulated +the<br> +staircase with her bonnet on my head, and more wearing apparel +than would<br> +stock a magazine, Shaugh was roaring himself hoarse in the +street, calling<br> +Mrs. Rogers' coach.</p> + +<p>"'Sure, Captain,' said the lady, with a tender leer, 'it's +only a chair.'</p> + +<p>"'And here it is,' said I, surveying a very portly-looking old +sedan, newly<br> +painted and varnished, that blocked up half the hall.</p> + +<p>"'You'll catch cold, my angel,' said Shaugh, in a whisper, for +he was<br> +coming it very strong by this; 'get into the chair. Maurice, +can't you find<br> +those fellows?' said he to me, for the chairmen had gone +down-stairs, and<br> +were making very merry among the servants.</p> + +<p>"'She's fast now,' said I, shutting the door to. 'Let us do +the gallant<br> +thing, and carry her home ourselves.' Shaugh thought this a great +notion;<br> +and in a minute we mounted the poles and sallied forth, amidst a +great<br> +chorus of laughing from all the footmen, maids, and teaboys that +filled the<br> +passage.</p> + +<p>"'The big house, with the bow-window and the pillars, +Captain,' said a<br> +fellow, as we issued upon our journey. "'I know it,' said I. +'Turn to the<br> +left after you pass the square.'</p> + +<p>"'Isn't she heavy?' said Shaugh, as he meandered across the +narrow streets<br> +with a sidelong motion that must have suggested to our fair +inside<br> +passenger some notions of a sea voyage. In truth, I must confess +our<br> +progress was rather a devious one,—now zig-zagging from side to +side, now<br> +getting into a sharp trot, and then suddenly pulling up at a dead +stop, or<br> +running the machine chuck against a wall, to enable us to stand +still and<br> +gain breath.</p> + +<p>"'Which way now?' cried he, as we swung round the angle of a +street and<br> +entered the large market-place; 'I'm getting terribly tired.'</p> + +<p>"'Never give in, Dan. Think of Clonakilty and the old lady +herself.' Here<br> +I gave the chair a hoist that evidently astonished our fair +friend, for a<br> +very imploring cry issued forth immediately after.</p> + +<p>"'To the right, quick-step, forward, charge!' cried I; and we +set off at a<br> +brisk trot down a steep narrow lane.</p> + +<p>"'Here it is now,—the light in the window. Cheer up.'</p> + +<p>"As I said this we came short up to a fine, portly-looking +doorway, with<br> +great stone pillars and cornice.</p> + +<p>"'Make yourself at home, Maurice,' said he; 'bring her in.' So +saying,<br> +we pushed forward—for the door was open—and passed boldly into +a great<br> +flagged hall, silent and cold, and dark as the night itself.</p> + +<p>"'Are you sure we're right?' said he.</p> + +<p>"'All right,' said I; 'go ahead.'</p> + +<p>"And so we did, till we came in sight of a small candle that +burned dimly<br> +at a distance from us.</p> + +<p>"'Make for the light,' said I; but just as I said so Shaugh +slipped and<br> +fell flat on the flagway. The noise of his fall sent up a hundred +echoes<br> +in the silent building, and terrified us both dreadfully. After a +minute's<br> +pause, by one consent we turned and made for the door, falling +almost at<br> +every step, and frightened out of our senses, we came tumbling +together<br> +into the porch, and out in the street, and never drew breath till +we<br> +reached the barracks. Meanwhile let me return to Mrs. Rogers. The +dear<br> +old lady, who had passed an awful time since she left the ball, +had just<br> +rallied out of a fainting fit when we took to our heels; so after +screaming<br> +and crying her best, she at last managed to open the top of the +chair, and<br> +by dint of great exertions succeeded in forcing the door, and at +length<br> +freed herself from bondage. She was leisurely groping her way +round it<br> +in the dark, when her lamentations, being heard without, woke up +the old<br> +sexton of the chapel,—for it was there we placed her,—who, +entering<br> +cautiously with a light, no sooner caught a glimpse of the great +black<br> +sedan and the figure beside it than he also took to his heels, +and ran like<br> +a madman to the priest's house.</p> + +<p>"'Come, your reverence, come, for the love of marcy! Sure +didn't I see him<br> +myself! Oh, wirra, wirra!'</p> + +<p>"'What is it, ye ould fool?' said M'Kenny.</p> + +<p>"'It's Father Con Doran, your reverence, that was buried last +week, and<br> +there he is up now, coffin and all, saying a midnight Mass as +lively as<br> +ever.'</p> + +<p>"Poor Mrs. Rogers, God help her! It was a trying sight for her +when the<br> +priest and the two coadjutors and three little boys and the +sexton all came<br> +in to lay her spirit; and the shock she received that night, they +say, she<br> +never got over.</p> + +<p>"Need I say, my dear O'Mealey, that our acquaintance with Mrs. +Rogers was<br> +closed? The dear woman had a hard struggle for it afterwards. Her +character<br> +was assailed by all the elderly ladies in Loughrea for going off +in our<br> +company, and her blue satin, piped with scarlet, utterly ruined +by a deluge<br> +of holy water bestowed on her by the pious sexton. It was in vain +that she<br> +originated twenty different reports to mystify the world; and +even ten<br> +pounds spent in Masses for the eternal repose of Father Con Doran +only<br> +increased the laughter this unfortunate affair gave rise to. As +for us, we<br> +exchanged into the line, and foreign service took us out of the +road of<br> +duns, debts, and devilment, and we soon reformed, and eschewed +such low<br> +company."</p> + +<p>The day was breaking ere we separated; and amidst the rich and +fragrant<br> +vapors that exhaled from the earth, the faint traces of sunlight +dimly<br> +stealing told of the morning. My two friends set out for +Torrijos, and I<br> +pushed boldly forward in the direction of the Alberche.</p> + +<p>It was a strange thing that although but two days before the +roads we were<br> +then travelling had been the line of retreat of the whole French +army, not<br> +a vestige of their equipment nor a trace of their +<i>matériel</i> had been left<br> +behind. In vain we searched each thicket by the wayside for some +straggling<br> +soldier, some wounded or wearied man; nothing of the kind was to +be seen.<br> +Except the deeply-rutted road, torn by the heavy wheels of the +artillery,<br> +and the white ashes of a wood fire, nothing marked their +progress.</p> + +<p>Our journey was a lonely one. Not a man was to be met with. +The houses<br> +stood untenanted; the doors lay open; no smoke wreathed from +their deserted<br> +hearths. The peasantry had taken to the mountains; and although +the plains<br> +were yellow with the ripe harvest, and the peaches hung +temptingly upon the<br> +trees, all was deserted and forsaken. I had often seen the +blackened walls<br> +and broken rafters, the traces of the wild revenge and reckless +pillage of<br> +a retiring army. The ruined castle and the desecrated altar are +sad things<br> +to look upon; but, somehow, a far heavier depression sunk into my +heart<br> +as my eye ranged over the wide valleys and broad hills, all +redolent of<br> +comfort, of beauty, and of happiness, and yet not one man to say, +"This is<br> +my home; these are my household gods." The birds carolled gayly +in each<br> +leafy thicket; the bright stream sung merrily as it rippled +through the<br> +rocks; the tall corn, gently stirred by the breeze, seemed to +swell the<br> +concert of sweet sounds; but no human voice awoke the echoes +there. It<br> +was as if the earth was speaking in thankfulness to its Maker, +while<br> +man,—ungrateful and unworthy man,—pursuing his ruthless path +of<br> +devastation and destruction, had left no being to say, "I thank +Thee for<br> +all these."</p> + +<p>The day was closing as we drew near the Alberche, and came in +sight of the<br> +watch-fires of the enemy. Far as the eye could reach their column +extended,<br> +but in the dim twilight nothing could be seen with accuracy; yet +from the<br> +position their artillery occupied, and the unceasing din of +baggage wagons<br> +and heavy carriages towards the rear, I came to the conclusion +that a still<br> +farther retreat was meditated. A picket of light cavalry was +posted upon<br> +the river's bank, and seemed to watch with vigilance the +approaches to the<br> +stream.</p> + +<p>Our bivouac was a dense copse of pine-trees, exactly opposite +to the French<br> +advanced posts, and there we passed the night,—fortunately a +calm and<br> +starlight one; for we dared not light fires, fearful of +attracting<br> +attention.</p> + +<p>During the long hours I lay patiently watching the movements +of the enemy<br> +till the dark shadows hid all from sight; and even then, as my +ears caught<br> +the challenge of a sentry or the footsteps of some officer in his +round,<br> +my thoughts were riveted upon them, and a hundred vague fancies +as to the<br> +future were based upon no stronger foundation than the clink of a +firelock<br> +or the low-muttered song of a patrol.</p> + +<p>Towards morning I slept; and when day broke my first glance +was towards the<br> +river-side. But the French were gone, noiselessly, rapidly. Like +one man<br> +that vast army had departed, and a dense column of dust towards +the<br> +horizon alone marked the long line of march where the martial +legions were<br> +retreating.</p> + +<p>My mission was thus ended; and hastily partaking of the humble +breakfast my<br> +friend Mike provided for me, I once more set out and took the +road towards<br> +headquarters.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER II.</p> + +<p>THE SKIRMISH.</p> + +<p>For several months after the battle of Talavera my life +presented nothing<br> +which I feel worth recording. Our good fortune seemed to have +deserted us<br> +when our hopes were highest; for from the day of that splendid +victory we<br> +began our retrograde movement upon Portugal. Pressed hard by +overwhelming<br> +masses of the enemy, we saw the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and +Almeida<br> +fall successively into their hands. The Spaniards were defeated +wherever<br> +they ventured upon a battle; and our own troops, thinned by +sickness and<br> +desertion, presented but a shadow of that brilliant army which +only a few<br> +months previous had followed the retiring French beyond the +frontiers of<br> +Portugal.</p> + +<p>However willing I now am—and who is not—to recognize the +genius and<br> +foresight of that great man who then held the destinies of the +Peninsula<br> +within his hands, I confess at the time I speak of I could ill +comprehend<br> +and still less feel contented with the successive retreats our +forces made;<br> +and while the words Torres Vedras brought nothing to my mind but +the last<br> +resting-place before embarkation, the sad fortunes of Corunna +were now<br> +before me, and it was with a gloomy and desponding spirit I +followed the<br> +routine of my daily duty.</p> + +<p>During these weary months, if my life was devoid of stirring +interest or<br> +adventure, it was not profitless. Constantly employed at the +outposts,<br> +I became thoroughly inured to all the roughing of a soldier's +life, and<br> +learned in the best of schools that tacit obedience which alone +can form<br> +the subordinate or ultimately fit its possessor for command +himself.</p> + +<p>Humble and unobtrusive as such a career must ever be, it was +not without<br> +its occasional rewards. From General Crawfurd I more than once +obtained<br> +most kind mention in his despatches, and felt that I was not +unknown or<br> +unnoticed by Sir Arthur Wellesley himself. At that time these +testimonies,<br> +slight and passing as they were, contributed to the pride and +glory of my<br> +existence; and even now—shall I confess it?—when some gray +hairs are<br> +mingling with the brown, and when my old dragoon swagger is +taming down<br> +into a kind of half-pay shamble, I feel my heart warm at the +recollection<br> +of them.</p> + +<p>Be it so; I care not who smiles at the avowal. I know of +little better<br> +worth remembering as we grow old than what pleased us while we +were young.<br> +With the memory of the kind words once spoken come back the still +kinder<br> +looks of those who spoke them, and better than all, that early +feeling of<br> +budding manhood, when there was neither fear nor distrust. Alas! +these are<br> +the things, and not weak eyes and tottering limbs, which form the +burden of<br> +old age. Oh, if we could only go on believing, go on trusting, go +on hoping<br> +to the last, who would shed tears for the bygone feats of his +youthful<br> +days, when the spirit that evoked them lived young and vivid as +before?</p> + +<p>But to my story. While Ciudad Rodrigo still held out against +the besieging<br> +French,—its battered walls and breached ramparts sadly +foretelling the<br> +fate inevitably impending,—we were ordered, together with the +16th Light<br> +Dragoons, to proceed to Gallegos, to reinforce Crawfurd's +division, then<br> +forming a corps of observation upon Massena's movements.</p> + +<p>The position he occupied was a most commanding one,—the crown +of a long<br> +mountain ridge, studded with pine-copse and cork-trees, +presenting every<br> +facility for light-infantry movements; and here and there gently +sloping<br> +towards the plain, offering a field for cavalry manoeuvres. +Beneath, in<br> +the vast plain, were encamped the dark legions of France, their +heavy<br> +siege-artillery planted against the doomed fortress, while clouds +of their<br> +cavalry caracoled proudly before us, as if in taunting sarcasm at +our<br> +inactivity.</p> + +<p>Every artifice which his natural cunning could suggest, every +taunt a<br> +Frenchman's vocabulary contains, had been used by Massena to +induce Sir<br> +Arthur Wellesley to come to the assistance of the beleagured +fortress:<br> +but in vain. In vain he relaxed the energy of the siege, and +affected<br> +carelessness. In vain he asserted that the English were either +afraid or<br> +else traitors to their allies. The mind of him he thus assailed +was neither<br> +accessible to menace nor to sarcasm. Patiently abiding his time, +he watched<br> +the progress of events, and provided for that future which was to +crown his<br> +country's arms with success and himself with undying glory.</p> + +<p>Of a far different mettle was the general formed under whose +orders we were<br> +now placed. Hot, passionate, and impetuous, relying upon bold and +headlong<br> +heroism rather than upon cool judgment and well-matured plans, +Crawfurd<br> +felt in war all the asperity and bitterness of a personal +conflict. Ill<br> +brooking the insulting tone of the wily Frenchman, he thirsted +for any<br> +occasion of a battle, and his proud spirit chafed against the +colder<br> +counsels of his superior.</p> + +<p>On the very morning we joined, the pickets brought in the +intelligence that<br> +the French patrols were nightly in the habit of visiting the +villages at<br> +the outposts and committing every species of cruel indignity upon +the<br> +wretched inhabitants. Fired at this daring insult, our general +resolved to<br> +cut them off, and formed two ambuscades for the purpose.</p> + +<p>Six squadrons of the 14th were despatched to Villa del Puerco, +three of<br> +the 16th to Baguetto, while some companies of the 95th, and the +caçadores,<br> +supported by artillery, were ordered to hold themselves in +reserve, for the<br> +enemy were in force at no great distance from us.</p> + +<p>The morning was just breaking as an aide-de-camp galloped up +with the<br> +intelligence that the French had been seen near the Villa del +Puerco, a<br> +body of infantry and some cavalry having crossed the plain, and +disappeared<br> +in that direction. While our colonel was forming us, with the +intention of<br> +getting between them and their main body, the tramp of horses was +heard in<br> +the wood behind, and in a few moments two officers rode up. The +foremost,<br> +who was a short, stoutly-built man of about forty, with a bronzed +face and<br> +eye of piercing black, shouted out as we wheeled into +column:—</p> + +<p>"Halt, there! Why, where the devil are you going? That's your +ground!" So<br> +saying, and pointing straight towards the village with his hand, +he would<br> +not listen to our colonel's explanation that several stone fences +and<br> +enclosures would interfere with cavalry movements, but added, +"Forward, I<br> +say! Proceed!"</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, the nature of the ground separated our +squadron, as the<br> +colonel anticipated; and although we came on at a topping pace, +the French<br> +had time to form in square upon a hill to await us, and when we +charged,<br> +they stood firmly, and firing with a low and steady aim, several +of our<br> +troopers fell. As we wheeled round, we found ourselves exactly in +front<br> +of their cavalry coming out of Baguilles; so dashing straight at +them,<br> +we revenged ourselves for our first repulse by capturing +twenty-nine<br> +prisoners, and wounding several others.</p> + +<p>The French infantry were, however, still unbroken; and Colonel +Talbot rode<br> +boldly up with five squadrons of the 14th; but the charge, +pressed home<br> +with all its gallantry, failed also, and the colonel fell +mortally wounded,<br> +and fourteen of his troopers around him. Twice we rode round the +square,<br> +seeking for a weak point, but in vain; the gallant Frenchman who +commanded,<br> +Captain Guache, stood fearlessly amidst his brave followers, and +we could<br> +hear him, as he called out from time to time,—</p> + +<p>"<i>C'est ça mes enfans! Trés bien fait, mes +braves!</i>"</p> + +<p>And at length they made good their retreat, while we returned +to the camp,<br> +leaving thirty-two troopers and our brave colonel dead upon the +field in<br> +this disastrous affair.</p> + +<p>The repulse we had met with, so contrary to all our hopes and +expectations,<br> +made that a most gloomy day to all of us. The brave fellows we +had left<br> +behind us, the taunting cheer of the French infantry, the +unbroken ranks<br> +against which we rode time after time in vain, never left our +minds; and a<br> +sense of shame of what might be thought of us at headquarters +rendered the<br> +reflection still more painful.</p> + +<p>Our bivouac, notwithstanding all our efforts, was a sad one, +and when the<br> +moon rose, some drops of heavy rain falling at intervals in the +still,<br> +unruffled air threatened a night of storm; gradually the sky grew +darker<br> +and darker, the clouds hung nearer to the earth, and a dense, +thick mass<br> +of dark mist shrouded every object. The heavy cannonade of the +siege was<br> +stilled; nothing betrayed that a vast army was encamped near us; +their<br> +bivouac fires were even imperceptible; and the only sound we +heard was the<br> +great bell of Ciudad Rodrigo as it struck the hour, and seemed, +in the<br> +mournful cadence of its chime, like the knell of the doomed +citadel.</p> + +<p>The patrol which I commanded had to visit on its rounds the +most advanced<br> +post of our position. This was a small farm-house, which, +standing upon a<br> +little rising ledge of ground, was separated from the French +lines by a<br> +little stream tributary to the Aguda. A party of the 14th were +picketed<br> +here, and beneath them in the valley, scarce five hundred yards +distant,<br> +was the detachment of cuirassiers which formed the French +outpost. As we<br> +neared our picket the deep voice of the sentry challenged us; and +while<br> +all else was silent as the grave, we could hear from the opposite +side<br> +the merry chorus of a French <i>chanson à boire</i>, with its +clattering<br> +accompaniment of glasses, as some gay companions were making +merry<br> +together.</p> + +<p>Within the little hut which contained <i>our</i> fellows, the scene +was a<br> +different one. The three officers who commanded sat moodily over +a wretched<br> +fire of wet wood; a solitary candle dimly lighted the dismantled +room,<br> +where a table but ill-supplied with cheer stood unminded and +uncared for.</p> + +<p>"Well, O'Malley," cried Baker, as I came in, "what is the +night about? And<br> +what's Crawfurd for next?"</p> + +<p>"We hear," cried another, "that he means to give battle +to-morrow; but<br> +surely Sir Arthur's orders are positive enough. Gordon himself +told me<br> +that he was forbidden to fight beyond the Coa, but to retreat at +the first<br> +advance of the enemy."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid," replied I, "that retreating is his last thought +just now.<br> +Ammunition has just been served out, and I know the horse +artillery have<br> +orders to be in readiness by daybreak."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Hampden, with a half-bitter tone. "Nothing +like going<br> +through with it. If he is to be brought to court-martial for +disobedience,<br> +he'll take good care we sha'n't be there to see it."</p> + +<p>"Why, the French are fifty thousand strong!" said Baker. "Look +there, what<br> +does that mean, now? That's a signal from the town."</p> + +<p>As he spoke a rocket of great brilliancy shot up into the sky, +and bursting<br> +at length fell in millions of red lustrous sparks on every side, +showing<br> +forth the tall fortress, and the encamped army around it, with +all the<br> +clearness of noonday. It was a most splendid sight; and though +the next<br> +moment all was dark as before, we gazed still fixedly into the +gloomy<br> +distance, straining our eyes to observe what was hid from our +view forever.</p> + +<p>"That must be a signal," repeated Baker.</p> + +<p>"Begad! if Crawfurd sees it he'll interpret it as a reason for +fighting. I<br> +trust he's asleep by this time," said Hampden. "By-the-bye, +O'Malley, did<br> +you see the fellows at work in the trenches? How beautifully +clear it was<br> +towards the southward!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I remarked that! and what surprised me was the openness +of their<br> +position in that direction. Towards the San Benito mole I could +not see a<br> +man."</p> + +<p>"Ah, they'll not attack on that side; but if we really +are—"</p> + +<p>"Stay, Hampden!" said I, interrupting him, "a thought has just +struck me.<br> +At sunset, I saw, through my telescope, the French engineers +marking with<br> +their white tape the line of a new entrenchment in that quarter. +Would it<br> +not be a glorious thing to move the tape, and bring the fellows +under the<br> +fire of San Benito?"</p> + +<p>"By Jove, O'Malley, that is a thought worth a troop to +you!"</p> + +<p>"Far more likely to forward his promotion in the next world +than in this,"<br> +said Baker, smiling.</p> + +<p>"By no means," added I. "I marked the ground this evening, and +have it<br> +perfectly in my mind. If we were to follow the bend of the river, +I'll be<br> +bound to come right upon the spot; by nearing the fortress we'll +escape the<br> +sentries; and all this portion is open to us."</p> + +<p>The project thus loosely thrown out was now discussed in all +its bearings.<br> +Whatever difficulties it presented were combated so much to our +own<br> +satisfaction, that at last its very facility damped our ardor. +Meanwhile<br> +the night wore on, and the storm of rain so long impending began +to descend<br> +in very torrents; hissing along the parched ground, it rose in a +mist,<br> +while overhead the heavy thunder rolled in long unbroken peals; +the crazy<br> +door threatened to give way at each moment, and the whole +building trembled<br> +to its foundation.</p> + +<p>"Pass the brandy down here, Hampden, and thank your stars +you're where you<br> +are. Eh, O'Malley? You'll defer your trip to San Benito for finer +weather."</p> + +<p>"Well, to come to the point," said Hampden, "I'd rather begin +my<br> +engineering at a more favorable season; but if O'Malley's for +it—"</p> + +<p>"And O'Malley <i>is</i> for it," said I, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Then faith, I'm not the man to balk his fancy; and as +Crawfurd is so bent<br> +upon fighting to-morrow, it don't make much difference. Is it a +bargain?"</p> + +<p>"It is; here's my hand on it."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, boys, I'll have none of this; we've been prettily +cut up this<br> +morning already. You shall not go upon this foolish +excursion."</p> + +<p>"Confound it, old fellow! it's all very well for you to talk, +with the<br> +majority before you, next step; but here we are, if peace came +to-morrow,<br> +scarcely better than we left England. No, no; if O'Malley's +ready—and I<br> +see he is so before me—What have you got there? Oh, I see; +that's our tape<br> +line; capital fun, by George! The worst of it is, they'll make us +colonels<br> +of engineers. Now then, what's your plan—on foot or +mounted?"</p> + +<p>"Mounted, and for this reason, the country is all open; if we +are to have a<br> +run for it, our thoroughbreds ought to distance them; and as we +must expect<br> +to pass some of their sentries, our only chance is on +horseback."</p> + +<p>"My mind is relieved of a great load," said Hampden; "I was +trembling in my<br> +skin lest you should make it a walking party. I'll do anything +you like in<br> +the saddle, from robbing the mail to cutting out a frigate; but I +never was<br> +much of a foot-pad."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mike," said I, as I returned to the room with my trusty +follower,<br> +"are the cattle to be depended on?"</p> + +<p>"If we had a snaffle in Malachi Daly's mouth [my brown horse], +I'd be<br> +afeared of nothing, sir; but if it comes to fencing, with that +cruel<br> +bit,—but sure, you've a light hand, and let him have his head, +if it's<br> +wall."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, he thinks it a fox-chase!" said Hampden.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it the same, sir?" said Mike, with a seriousness that +made the whole<br> +party smile.</p> + +<p>"Well, I hope we shall not be earthed, any way," said I. "Now, +the next<br> +thing is, who has a lantern? Ah! the very thing; nothing better. +Look to<br> +your pistols, Hampden; and Mike, here's a glass of grog for you; +we'll want<br> +you. And now, one bumper for good luck. Eh, Baker, won't you +pledge us?"</p> + +<p>"And spare a little for me," said Hampden. "How it does rain! +If one didn't<br> +expect to be water-proofed before morning, one really wouldn't go +out in<br> +such weather."</p> + +<p>While I busied myself in arranging my few preparations, +Hampden proceeded<br> +gravely to inform Mike that we were going to the assistance of +the besieged<br> +fortress, which could not possibly go on without us.</p> + +<p>"Tare and ages!" said Mike, "that's mighty quare; and the blue +rocket was a<br> +letter of invitation, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Exactly," said Hampden; "and you see there's no ceremony +between us. We'll<br> +just drop in, in the evening, in a friendly way."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, upon my conscience, I'd wait, if I was you, till +the family<br> +wasn't in confusion. They have enough on their hands just +now."</p> + +<p>"So you'll not be persuaded?" said Baker. "Well, I frankly +tell you, that<br> +come what will of it, as your senior officer I'll report you +to-morrow.<br> +I'll not risk myself for any such hair-brained expeditions."</p> + +<p>"A mighty pleasant look-out for me," said Mike; "if I'm not +shot to-night,<br> +I may be flogged in the morning."</p> + +<p>This speech once more threw us into a hearty fit of laughter, +amidst which<br> +we took leave of our friends, and set forth upon our way.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER III.</p> + +<p>THE LINES OF CIUDAD RODRIGO.</p> + +<p>The small, twinkling lights which shone from the ramparts of +Ciudad Rodrigo<br> +were our only guide, as we issued forth upon our perilous +expedition. The<br> +storm raged, if possible, even more violently than before, and +gusts of<br> +wind swept along the ground with the force of a hurricane; so +that at<br> +first, our horses could scarcely face the tempest. Our path lay +along the<br> +little stream for a considerable way; after which, fording the +rivulet, we<br> +entered upon the open plain, taking care to avoid the French +outpost on the<br> +extreme left, which was marked by a bivouac fire, burning under +the heavy<br> +downpour of rain, and looking larger through the dim atmosphere +around it.</p> + +<p>I rode foremost, followed closely by Hampden and Mike; not a +word was<br> +spoken after we crossed the stream. Our plan was, if challenged +by a<br> +patrol, to reply in French and press on; so small a party could +never<br> +suggest the idea of attack, and we hoped in this manner to +escape.</p> + +<p>The violence of the storm was such that many of our +precautions as to<br> +silence were quite unnecessary; and we had advanced to a +considerable<br> +extent into the plain before any appearance of the encampment +struck us.<br> +At length, on mounting a little rising ground, we perceived +several fires<br> +stretching far away to the northward; while still to our left, +there blazed<br> +one larger and brighter than the others. We now found that we had +not<br> +outflanked their position as we intended, and learning from the +situation<br> +of the fires, that we were still only at the outposts, we pressed +sharply<br> +forward, directing our course by the twin stars that shone from +the<br> +fortress.</p> + +<p>"How heavy the ground is here!" whispered Hampden, as our +horses sunk above<br> +the fetlocks. "We had better stretch away to the right; the rise +of the<br> +hill will favor us."</p> + +<p>"Hark!" said I; "did you not hear something? Pull up,—silence +now. Yes,<br> +there they come. It's a patrol; I hear their tramp." As I spoke, +the<br> +measured tread of infantry was heard above the storm, and soon +after a<br> +lantern was seen coming along the causeway near us. The column +passed<br> +within a few yards of where we stood. I could even recognize the +black<br> +covering of the shakos as the light fell on them. "Let us follow +them,"<br> +whispered I; and the next moment we fell in upon their track, +holding our<br> +cattle well in hand, and ready to start at a moment.</p> + +<p>"<i>Qui va là?</i>" a sentry demanded.</p> + +<p>"<i>La deuxième division</i>," cried a hoarse voice.</p> + +<p>"<i>Halte là! la consigne?</i>"</p> + +<p>"<i>Wagram!</i>" repeated the same voice as before, while his party +resumed<br> +their march; and the next moment the patrol was again upon his +post, silent<br> +and motionless as before.</p> + +<p>"<i>En avant, Messieurs!</i>" said I, aloud, as soon as the +infantry had<br> +proceeded some distance,—"<i>en avant!</i>"</p> + +<p>"<i>Qui va là?</i>" demanded the sentry, as we came along at +a sharp trot.</p> + +<p>"<i>L'état-major, Wagram!</i>" responded I, pressing on +without drawing rein;<br> +and in a moment we had regained our former position behind the +infantry. We<br> +had scarcely time to congratulate ourselves upon the success of +our scheme,<br> +when a tremendous clattering noise in front, mingled with the +galloping of<br> +horses and the cracking of whips, announced the approach of the +artillery<br> +as they came along by a narrow road which bisected our path; and +as they<br> +passed between us and the column, we could hear the muttered +sentences of<br> +the drivers, cursing the unseasonable time for an attack, and +swearing at<br> +their cattle in no measured tones.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear that?" whispered Hampden; "the battery is about +to be<br> +directed against the San Benito, which must be far away to the +left.<br> +I heard one of the troop saying that they were to open their fire +at<br> +daybreak."</p> + +<p>"All right, now," said I; "look there!"</p> + +<p>From the hill we now stood upon a range of lanterns was +distinctly visible,<br> +stretching away for nearly half a mile.</p> + +<p>"There are the trenches; they must be at work, too. See how +the lights are<br> +moving from place to place! Straight now. Forward!"</p> + +<p>So saying, I pressed my horse boldly on.</p> + +<p>We had not proceeded many minutes when the sounds of galloping +were heard<br> +coming along behind us.</p> + +<p>"To the right, in the hollow," cried I. "Be still."</p> + +<p>Scarcely had we moved off when several horsemen galloped up, +and drawing<br> +their reins to breathe their horses up the hill, we could hear +their voices<br> +as they conversed together.</p> + +<p>In the few broken words we could catch, we guessed that the +attack upon San<br> +Benito was only a feint to induce Crawfurd to hold his position, +while<br> +the French, marching upon his flank and front, were to attack him +with<br> +overwhelming masses and crush him.</p> + +<p>"You hear what's in store for us, O'Malley?" whispered +Hampden. "I think we<br> +could not possibly do better than hasten back with the +intelligence."</p> + +<p>"We must not forget what we came for, first," said I; and the +next moment<br> +we were following the horsemen, who from their helmets seemed to +be<br> +horse-artillery officers.</p> + +<p>The pace our guides rode at showed us that they knew their +ground. We<br> +passed several sentries, muttering something at each time, and +seeming as<br> +if only anxious to keep up with our party.</p> + +<p>"They've halted," said I. "Now to the left there; gently here, +for we must<br> +be in the midst of their lines. Ha! I knew we were right. See +there!"</p> + +<p>Before us, now, at a few hundred yards, we could perceive a +number of men<br> +engaged upon the field. Lights were moving from place to place +rapidly,<br> +while immediately in front a strong picket of cavalry were +halted.</p> + +<p>"By Jove! there's sharp work of it to-night," whispered +Hampden. "They do<br> +intend to surprise us to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Gently now, to the left," said I, as cautiously skirting the +little hill,<br> +I kept my eye firmly fixed upon the watch-fire.</p> + +<p>The storm, which for some time had abated considerably, was +now nearly<br> +quelled, and the moon again peeped forth amidst masses of black +and watery<br> +clouds.</p> + +<p>"What good fortune for us!" thought I, at this moment, as I +surveyed the<br> +plain before me.</p> + +<p>"I say, O'Malley, what are those fellows at yonder, where the +blue light is<br> +burning?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! the very people we want; these are the sappers. Now for +it; that's our<br> +ground. We'll soon come upon their track now."</p> + +<p>We pressed rapidly forward, passing an infantry party as we +went. The blue<br> +light was scarcely a hundred yards off; we could even hear the +shouting of<br> +the officers to their men in the trenches, when suddenly my horse +came down<br> +upon his head, and rolling over, crushed me to the earth.</p> + +<p>"Not hurt, my boy," cried I, in a subdued tone, as Hampden +jumped down<br> +beside me.</p> + +<p>It was the angle of a trench I had fallen into; and though +both my horse<br> +and myself felt stunned for the moment, we rallied the next +minute.</p> + +<p>"Here is the very spot," said I. "Now, Mike, catch the bridles +and follow<br> +us closely."</p> + +<p>Guiding ourselves along the edge of the trench, we crept +stealthily<br> +forward; the only watch-fire near was where the engineer party +was halted,<br> +and our object was to get outside of this.</p> + +<p>"My turn this time," said Hampden, as he tripped suddenly, and +fell head<br> +foremost upon the grass.</p> + +<p>As I assisted him to rise, something caught my ankle, and on +stooping I<br> +found it was a cord pegged fast into the ground, and lying only a +few<br> +inches above it.</p> + +<p>"Now, steady! See here; this is their working line. Pass your +hand along it<br> +there, and let us follow it out."</p> + +<p>While Hampden accordingly crept along on one side, I tracked +the cord upon<br> +the other. Here I found it terminating upon a small mound, where +probably<br> +some battery was to be erected. I accordingly gathered it +carefully up, and<br> +was returning towards my friend, when what was my horror to hear +Mike's<br> +voice, conversing, as it seemed to me, with some one in +French.</p> + +<p>I stood fixed to the spot, my very heart beating almost in my +mouth as I<br> +listened.</p> + +<p>"<i>Qui êtes-vous done, mon ami?</i>" inquired a hoarse, deep +voice, a few yards<br> +off.</p> + +<p>"<i>Bon cheval, non</i> beast, <i>sacré nom de Dieu!</i>" A +hearty burst of laughter<br> +prevented my hearing the conclusion of Mike's French.</p> + +<p>I now crept forward upon my hands and knees, till I could +catch the dark<br> +outline of the horses, one hand fixed upon my pistol trigger, and +my sword<br> +drawn in the other. Meanwhile the dialogue continued.</p> + +<p>"<i>Vous êtes d'Alsace, n'est-ce-pas?</i>" asked the +Frenchman, kindly supposing<br> +that Mike's French savored of Strasburg.</p> + +<p>"Oh, blessed Virgin! av I might shoot him," was the muttered +reply.</p> + +<p>Before I had time to see the effect of the last speech, I +pressed forward<br> +with a bold spring, and felled the Frenchman to the earth. My +hand had<br> +scarcely pressed upon his mouth, when Hampden was beside me. +Snatching up<br> +the pistol I let fall, he held it to the man's chest and +commanded him to<br> +be silent. To unfasten his girdle and bind the Frenchman's hands +behind<br> +him, was the work of a moment; and as the sharp click of the +pistol-cock<br> +seemed to calm his efforts to escape, we soon succeeded in +fastening a<br> +handkerchief tight across his mouth, and the next minute he was +placed<br> +behind Mike's saddle, firmly attached to this worthy individual +by his<br> +sword-belt.</p> + +<p>"Now, a clear run home for it, and a fair start," said +Hampden, as he<br> +sprang into the saddle.</p> + +<p>"Now, then, for it," I replied, as turning my horse's head +towards our<br> +lines, I dashed madly forward.</p> + +<p>The moon was again obscured, but still the dark outline of the +hill which<br> +formed our encampment was discernible on the horizon. Riding side +by side,<br> +on we hurried,—now splashing through the deep wet marshes, now +plunging<br> +through small streams. Our horses were high in mettle, and we +spared them<br> +not. By taking a wide <i>détour</i> we had outflanked the +French pickets, and<br> +were almost out of all risk, when suddenly on coming to the verge +of rather<br> +a steep hill, we perceived beneath us a strong cavalry picket +standing<br> +around a watch-fire; their horses were ready saddled, the men +accoutred,<br> +and quite prepared for the field. While we conversed together in +whispers<br> +as to the course to follow, our deliberations were very rapidly +cut short.<br> +The French prisoner, who hitherto had given neither trouble nor +resistance,<br> +had managed to free his mouth from the encumbrance of the +handkerchief; and<br> +as we stood quietly discussing our plans, with one tremendous +effort he<br> +endeavored to hurl himself and Mike from the saddle, shouting out +as he did<br> +so,—</p> + +<p>"<i>A moi camarades! à moi!</i>"</p> + +<p>Hampden's pistol leaped from the holster as he spoke, and +levelling it with<br> +a deadly aim, he pulled the trigger; but I threw up his arm, and +the ball<br> +passed high above his head. To have killed the Frenchman would +have been to<br> +lose my faithful follower, who struggled manfully with his +adversary, and<br> +at length by throwing himself flatly forward upon the mane of his +horse,<br> +completely disabled him. Meanwhile the picket had sprung to their +saddles,<br> +and looked wildly about on every side.</p> + +<p>Not a moment was to be lost; so turning our horses' heads +towards the<br> +plain, away we went. One loud cheer announced to us that we had +been seen,<br> +and the next instant the clash of the pursuing cavalry was heard +behind us.<br> +It was now entirely a question of speed, and little need we have +feared<br> +had Mike's horse not been doubly weighted. However, as we still +had<br> +considerably the start, and the gray dawn of day enabled us to +see the<br> +ground, the odds were in our favor. "Never let your horse's head +go," was<br> +my often repeated direction to Mike, as he spurred with all the +desperation<br> +of madness. Already the low meadow-land was in sight which +flanked the<br> +stream we had crossed in the morning, but unfortunately the heavy +rains had<br> +swollen it now to a considerable depth, and the muddy current, +choked with<br> +branches of trees and great stones, was hurrying down like a +torrent. "Take<br> +the river! never flinch it!" was my cry to my companions, as I +turned my<br> +head and saw a French dragoon, followed by two others, gaining +rapidly upon<br> +us. As I spoke, Mike dashed in, followed by Hampden, and the same +moment<br> +the sharp ring of a carbine whizzed past me. To take off the +pursuit from<br> +the others, I now wheeled my horse suddenly round, as if I feared +to take<br> +the stream, and dashed along by the river's bank.</p> + +<a name="0034"></a> +<img alt="0034.jpg (173K)" src="0034.jpg" height="601" width="820"> + +[A FLYING SHOT] +<br><br> + +<p>Beneath me in the foaming current the two horsemen +labored,—now stemming<br> +the rush of water, now reeling almost beneath. A sharp cry burst +from Mike<br> +as I looked, and I saw the poor fellow bend nearly to his saddle. +I could<br> +see no more, for the chase was now hot upon myself. Behind me +rode a French<br> +dragoon, his carbine pressed tightly to his side, ready to fire +as he<br> +pressed on in pursuit. I had but one chance; so drawing my pistol +I wheeled<br> +suddenly in my saddle, and fired straight at him. The Frenchman +fell, while<br> +a regular volley from his party rung around me, one ball striking +my horse,<br> +and another lodging in the pommel of my saddle. The noble animal +reeled<br> +nearly to the earth, but as if rallying for a last effort, sprang +forward<br> +with renewed energy, and plunged boldly into the river. For a +moment,<br> +so sudden was my leap, my pursuers lost sight of me; but the bank +being<br> +somewhat steep, the efforts of my horse to climb again discovered +me, and<br> +before I reached the field two pistol-balls took effect upon +me,—one<br> +slightly grazed my side, but my bridle-arm was broken by the +other, and<br> +my hand fell motionless to my side. A cheer of defiance was, +however, my<br> +reply, as I turned round in my saddle, and the next moment I was +far beyond<br> +the range of their fire.</p> + +<p>Not a man durst follow, and the last sight I had of them was +the dismounted<br> +group who stood around their dead comrade. Before me rode Hampden +and Mike,<br> +still at top speed, and never turning their heads backwards. I +hastened<br> +after them; but my poor, wounded horse, nearly hamstrung by the +shot,<br> +became dead lame, and it was past daybreak ere I reached the +first outposts<br> +of our lines.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER IV.</p> + +<p>THE DOCTOR.</p> + +<p>"And his wound? Is it a serious one?" said a round, full +voice, as the<br> +doctor left my room at the conclusion of his visit.</p> + +<p>"No, sir; a fractured bone is the worst of it,—the bullet +grazed, but did<br> +not cut the artery, and as—"</p> + +<p>"Well, how soon will he be about again?"</p> + +<p>"In a few weeks, if no fever sets in."</p> + +<p>"There's no objection to my seeing him?—a few minutes +only,—I'll be<br> +cautious." So saying, and as it seemed to me, without waiting for +a reply,<br> +the door was opened by an aide-de-camp, who, announcing General +Crawfurd,<br> +closed it again, and withdrew.</p> + +<p>The first glance I threw upon the general enabled me to +recognize the<br> +officer who, on the previous morning, had ridden up to the picket +and given<br> +us the orders to charge. I essayed to rise a little as he came +forward; but<br> +he motioned me with his hand to lie still, while, placing a chair +close<br> +beside my bed, he sat down.</p> + +<p>"Very sorry for your mishap, sir, but glad it is no worse. +Moreton says<br> +that nothing of consequence is injured; there, you mustn't speak +except I<br> +ask you. Hampden has told me everything necessary; at least as +far as he<br> +knew. Is it your opinion, also, that any movement is in +contemplation; and<br> +from what circumstance?"</p> + +<p>I immediately explained, and as briefly as I was able, the +reasons for<br> +suspecting such, with which he seemed quite satisfied. I detailed +the<br> +various changes in the positions of the troops that were taking +place<br> +during the night, the march of the artillery, and the strong +bodies of<br> +cavalry that were posted in reserve along the river.</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir; they'll not move; your prisoner, +quartermaster of an<br> +infantry battalion, says not, also. Yours was a bold stroke, but +could not<br> +possibly have been of service, and the best thing I can do for +you is not<br> +to mention it,—a court-martial's but a poor recompense for a +gun-shot<br> +wound. Meanwhile, when this blows over, I'll appoint you on my +personal<br> +staff. There, not a word, I beg; and now, good-by."</p> + +<p>So saying, and waving me an adieu with his hand, the gallant +veteran<br> +withdrew before I could express my gratitude for his +kindness.</p> + +<p>I had little time for reflecting over my past adventure, such +numbers of my<br> +brother officers poured in upon me. All the doctor's cautions +respecting<br> +quietness and rest were disregarded, and a perfect levee sat the +entire<br> +morning in my bed-room. I was delighted to learn that Mike's +wound, though<br> +painful at the moment, was of no consequence; and indeed Hampden, +who<br> +escaped both steel and shot, was the worst off among us,—his +plunge in the<br> +river having brought on an ague he had labored under years +before.</p> + +<p>"The illustrious Maurice has been twice here this morning, but +they<br> +wouldn't admit him. Your Scotch physician is afraid of his +Irish<br> +<i>confrère</i>, and they had a rare set-to about Galen and +Hippocrates<br> +outside," said Baker.</p> + +<p>"By-the-bye," said another, "did you see how Sparks looked +when Quill<br> +joined us? Egad, I never saw a fellow in such a fright; he +reddened up,<br> +then grew pale, turned his back, and slunk away at the very first +moment."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I remember it. We must find out the reason; for Maurice, +depend upon<br> +it, has been hoaxing the poor fellow."</p> + +<p>"Well, O'Malley," growled out the senior major, "you certainly +did give<br> +Hampden a benefit. He'll not trust himself in such company again; +and<br> +begad, he says, the man is as bad as the master. That fellow of +yours never<br> +let go his prisoner till he reached the quartermaster-general, +and they<br> +were both bathed in blood by that time."</p> + +<p>"Poor Mike! we must do something for him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's as happy as a king! Maurice has been in to see him, +and they've<br> +had a long chat about Ireland, and all the national pastimes of +whiskey<br> +drinking and smashing skulls. My very temples ache at the +recollection."</p> + +<p>"Is Mister O'Mealey at home?" said a very rich Cork accent, as +the<br> +well-known and most droll features of Dr. Maurice Quill appeared +at the<br> +door.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Maurice," said the major; "and for Heaven's sake, +behave<br> +properly. The poor fellow must not have a row about his +bedside."</p> + +<p>"A row, a row! Upon my conscience, it is little you know about +a row, and<br> +there's worse things going than a row. Which leg is it?"</p> + +<p>"It's an arm, Doctor, I'm happy to say."</p> + +<p>"Not your punch hand, I hope. No; all's right. A neat fellow +you have for<br> +a servant, that Mickey Free. I was asking him about a townsman of +his<br> +own—one Tim Delany,—the very cut of himself, the best servant I +ever had.<br> +I never could make out what became of him. Old Hobson of the +95th, gave<br> +him to me, saying, 'There he is for you, Maurice, and a bigger +thief and a<br> +greater blackguard there's not in the 60th.'</p> + +<p>"'Strong words,' said I.</p> + +<p>"'And true' said he; 'he'd steal your molar tooth while you +were laughing<br> +at him.'</p> + +<p>"'Let me have him, and try my hand on him, anyway. I've got no +one just<br> +now. Anything is better than nothing.'</p> + +<p>"Well I took Tim, and sending for him to my room I locked the +door, and<br> +sitting down gravely before him explained in a few words that I +was quite<br> +aware of his little propensities.</p> + +<p>"'Now,' said I, 'if you like to behave well, I'll think you as +honest as<br> +the chief-justice; but if I catch you stealing, if it be only the +value of<br> +a brass snuff-box, I'll have you flogged before the regiment as +sure as my<br> +name's Maurice.'</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish you heard the volley of protestations that fell +from him fast<br> +as hail. He was a calumniated man the world conspired to wrong +him; he was<br> +never a thief nor a rogue in his life. He had a weakness, he +confessed, for<br> +the ladies; but except that, he hoped he might die so thin that +he could<br> +shave himself with his shin-bone if he ever so much as took a +pinch of salt<br> +that wasn't his own.</p> + +<p>"However this might be, nothing could be better than the way +Tim and I got<br> +on together. Everything was in its place, nothing missing; and in +fact, for<br> +upwards of a year, I went on wondering when he was to show out in +his true<br> +colors, for hitherto he had been a phoenix.</p> + +<p>"At last,—we were quartered in Limerick at the time,—every +morning used<br> +to bring accounts of all manner of petty thefts in the +barrack,—one fellow<br> +had lost his belt, another his shoes, a third had +three-and-sixpence in<br> +his pocket when he went to bed and woke without a farthing, and +so on.<br> +Everybody save myself was mulet of something. At length some +rumors of<br> +Tim's former propensities got abroad; suspicion was excited; my +friend<br> +Delany was rigidly watched, and some very dubious circumstances +attached to<br> +the way he spent his evenings.</p> + +<p>"My brother officers called upon me about the matter, and +although nothing<br> +had transpired like proof, I sent for Tim, and opened my mind on +the<br> +subject.</p> + +<p>"You may talk of the look of conscious innocence, but I defy +you to<br> +conceive anything finer than the stare of offended honor Tim gave +me as I<br> +began.</p> + +<p>"'They say it's me, Doctor,' said he, 'do they? And you,—you +believe them.<br> +You allow them to revile me that way? Well, well, the world is +come to a<br> +pretty pass, anyhow! Now, let me ask your honor a few questions? +How many<br> +shirts had yourself when I entered your service? Two, and one was +more like<br> +a fishing net! And how many have ye now? Eighteen; ay, eighteen +bran new<br> +cambrie ones,—devil a hole in one of them! How many pair of +stockings had<br> +you? Three and an odd one. You have two dozen this minute. How +many pocket<br> +handkerchiefs? One,—devil a more! You could only blow your nose +two days<br> +in the week, and now you may every hour of the twenty-four! And +as to<br> +the trilling articles of small value, snuff-boxes, gloves, +bootjacks,<br> +nightcaps, and—'</p> + +<p>"'Stop, Tim, that's enough—'</p> + +<p>"'No, sir, it is not,' said Tim, drawing himself up to his +full height;<br> +'you have wounded my feelings in a way I can't forget. It is +impossible<br> +we can have that mutual respect our position demands. Farewell, +farewell,<br> +Doctor, and forever!'</p> + +<p>"Before I could say another word, the fellow had left the +room, and closed<br> +the door after him; and from that hour to this I never set eyes +on him."</p> + +<p>In this vein did the worthy doctor run on till some more +discreet friend<br> +suggested that however well-intentioned the visit, I did not seem +to be<br> +fully equal to it,—my flushed cheek and anxious eye betraying +that the<br> +fever of my wound had commenced. They left me, therefore, once +more alone,<br> +and to my solitary musings over the vicissitudes of my +fortune.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER V.</p> + +<p>THE COA.</p> + +<p>Within a week from the occurrence of the events just +mentioned, Ciudad<br> +Rodrigo surrendered, and Crawfurd assumed another position +beneath the<br> +walls of Almeida. The Spanish contingent having left us, we were +reinforced<br> +by the arrival of two battalions, renewed orders being sent not +to risk a<br> +battle, but if the French should advance, to retire beyond the +Coa.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the 21st of July a strong body of French +cavalry advanced<br> +into the plain, supported by some heavy guns; upon which Crawfurd +retired<br> +upon the Coa, intending, as we supposed, to place that river +between<br> +himself and the enemy. Three days, however, passed over without +any<br> +movement upon either side, and we still continued, with a force +of scarcely<br> +four thousand infantry and a thousand dragoons, to stand opposite +to an<br> +army of nearly fifty thousand men. Such was our position as the +night of<br> +the 24th set in. I was sitting alone in my quarters. Mike, whose +wound had<br> +been severer than at first was supposed, had been sent to +Almeida, and I<br> +was musing in solitude upon the events of the campaign, when the +noise and<br> +bustle without excited my attention,—the roll of artillery +wagons, the<br> +clash of musketry, and the distant sounds of marching, all proved +that the<br> +troops were effecting some new movement, and I burned with +anxiety to<br> +learn what it was. My brother officers, however, came not as +usual to my<br> +quarters; and although I waited with impatience while the hours +rolled by,<br> +no one appeared.</p> + +<p>Long, low moaning gusts of wind swept along the earth, +carrying the leaves<br> +as they tore them from the trees, and mingling their sad sounds +with the<br> +noises of the retiring troops; for I could perceive that +gradually the<br> +sounds grew more and more remote, and only now and then could I +trace their<br> +position as the roll of a distant drum swelled upon the breeze, +or the<br> +more shrill cry of a pibroch broke upon my ear. A heavy downpour +of rain<br> +followed soon after, and in its unceasing plash drowned all other +sounds.</p> + +<p>As the little building shook beneath the peals of loud +thunder, the<br> +lightning flashed in broad sheets upon the rapid river, which, +swollen and<br> +foaming, dashed impetuously beside my window. By the uncertain +but vivid<br> +glare of the flashes, I endeavored to ascertain where our force +was posted,<br> +but in vain. Never did I witness such a night of storm,—the deep +booming<br> +of the thunder seeming never for a moment to cease, while the +rush of the<br> +torrent grew gradually louder, till at length it swelled into one +deep and<br> +sullen roar like that of distant artillery.</p> + +<p>Weak and nervous as I felt from the effects of my wound, +feverish and<br> +exhausted by days of suffering and sleepless nights, I paced my +little room<br> +with tottering but impatient steps. The sense of my sad and +imprisoned<br> +state impressed me deeply; and while from time to time I +replenished my<br> +fire, and hoped to hear some friendly step upon the stair, my +heart grew<br> +gradually heavier, and every gloomy and depressing thought +suggested itself<br> +to my imagination. My most constant impression was that the +troops were<br> +retiring beyond the Coa, and that, forgotten in the haste and +confusion of<br> +a night march, I had been left behind to fall a prisoner to the +enemy.</p> + +<p>The sounds of the troops retiring gradually farther and +farther favored the<br> +idea, in which I was still more strengthened on finding that the +peasants<br> +who inhabited the little hut had departed, leaving me utterly +alone. From<br> +the moment I ascertained this fact, my impatience knew no bounds; +and in<br> +proportion as I began to feel some exertion necessary on my part, +so much<br> +more did my nervousness increase my debility, and at last I sank +exhausted<br> +upon my bed, while a cold perspiration broke out upon my +temples.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned that the Coa was immediately beneath the +house; I must<br> +also add that the little building occupied the angle of a steep +but narrow<br> +gorge which descended from the plain to the bridge across the +stream. This,<br> +as far as I knew, was the only means we possessed of passing the +river; so<br> +that, when the last retiring sounds of the troops were heard by +me, I began<br> +to suspect that Crawfurd, in compliance with his orders, was +making a<br> +backward movement, leaving the bridge open to the French, to draw +them<br> +on to his line of march, while he should cross over at some more +distant<br> +point.</p> + +<p>As the night grew later, the storm seemed to increase; the +waves of the<br> +foaming river dashed against the frail walls of the hut, while +its roof,<br> +rent by the blast, fell in fragments upon the stream, and all +threatened a<br> +speedy and perfect ruin.</p> + +<p>How I longed for morning! The doubt and uncertainty I suffered +nearly drove<br> +me distracted. Of all the casualties my career as a soldier +opened, none<br> +had such terrors for me as imprisonment; the very thought of the +long years<br> +of inaction and inglorious idleness was worse than any death. My +wounds,<br> +and the state of fever I was in, increased the morbid dread upon +me, and<br> +had the French captured me at the time, I know not that madness +of which<br> +I was not capable. Day broke at last, but slowly and sullenly; +the gray<br> +clouds hurried past upon the storm, pouring down the rain in +torrents as<br> +they went, and the desolation and dreariness on all sides was +scarcely<br> +preferable to the darkness and gloom of night. My eyes were +turned ever<br> +towards the plain, across which the winter wind bore the plashing +rain in<br> +vast sheets of water; the thunder crashed louder and louder; but +except the<br> +sounds of the storm none others met my ear. Not a man, not a +human figure<br> +could I see, as I strained my sight towards the distant +horizon.</p> + +<p>The morning crept over, but the storm abated not, and the same +unchanged<br> +aspect of dreary desolation prevailed without. At times I thought +I could<br> +hear, amidst the noises of the tempest, something like the roll +of distant<br> +artillery; but the thunder swelled in sullen roar above all, and +left me<br> +uncertain as before.</p> + +<p>At last, in a momentary pause of the storm, a tremendous peal +of heavy<br> +guns caught my ear, followed by the long rattling of small-arms. +My heart<br> +bounded with ecstasy. The thoughts of the battle-field, with all +its<br> +changing fortunes, was better, a thousand times better, than the +despairing<br> +sense of desertion I labored under. I listened now with +eagerness, but<br> +the rain bore down again in torrents, and the crumbling walls and +falling<br> +timbers left no other sounds to be heard. Far as my eye could +reach,<br> +nothing could still be seen save the dreary monotony of the vast +plain,<br> +undulating slightly here and there, but unmarked by a sign of +man.</p> + +<p>Far away towards the horizon I had remarked for some time past +that the<br> +clouds resting upon the earth grew blacker and blacker, spreading +out to<br> +either side in vast masses, and not broken or wafted along like +the rest.<br> +As I watched the phenomenon with an anxious eye, I perceived the +dense mass<br> +suddenly appear, as it were, rent asunder, while a volume of +liquid flame<br> +rushed wildly out, throwing a lurid glare on every side. One +terrific clap,<br> +louder than any thunder, shook the air at this moment, while the +very earth<br> +trembled beneath the shock.</p> + +<p>As I hesitated what it might be, the heavy din of great guns +again was<br> +heard, and from the midst of the black smoke rode forth a dark +mass,<br> +which I soon recognized as the horse-artillery at full gallop. +They were<br> +directing their course towards the bridge.</p> + +<p>As they mounted the little rising ground, they wheeled and +unlimbered with<br> +the speed of lightning, just as a strong column of cavalry showed +above the<br> +ridge. One tremendous discharge again shook the field, and ere +the smoke<br> +cleared away they were again far in retreat.</p> + +<p>So much was my attention occupied with this movement that I +had not<br> +perceived the long line of infantry that came from the extreme +left, and<br> +were now advancing also towards the bridge at a brisk quick-step; +scattered<br> +bodies of cavalry came up from different parts, while from the +little<br> +valley, every now and then, a rifleman would mount the rising +ground,<br> +turning to fire as he retreated. All this boded a rapid and +disorderly<br> +retreat; and although as yet I could see nothing of the pursuing +enemy, I<br> +knew too well the relative forces of each to have a doubt for the +result.</p> + +<p>At last the head of a French column appeared above the mist, +and I could<br> +plainly distinguish the gestures of the officers as they hurried +their men<br> +onwards. Meanwhile a loud hurra attracted my attention, and I +turned my eye<br> +towards the road which led to the river. Here a small body of the +95th had<br> +hurriedly assembled, and formed again, were standing to cover the +retreat<br> +of the broken infantry as they passed on eagerly to the bridge; +in a second<br> +after the French cuirassiers appeared. Little anticipating +resistance from<br> +a flying and disordered mass, they rode headlong forward, and +although the<br> +firm attitude and steady bearing of the Highlanders might have +appalled<br> +them, they rode heedlessly down upon the square, sabring the very +men in<br> +the front rank. Till now not a trigger had been pulled, when +suddenly the<br> +word "Fire!" was given, and a withering volley of balls sent the +cavalry<br> +column in shivers. One hearty cheer broke from the infantry in +the rear,<br> +and I could hear "Gallant Ninety-fifth!" shouted on every side +along the<br> +plain.</p> + +<p>The whole vast space before me was now one animated +battle-ground. Our own<br> +troops, retiring in haste before the overwhelming forces of the +French,<br> +occupied every little vantage ground with their guns and light +infantry,<br> +charges of cavalry coursing hither and thither; while, as the +French<br> +pressed forward, the retreating columns again formed into squares +to<br> +permit stragglers to come up. The rattle of small-arms, the heavy +peal of<br> +artillery, the earth-quake crash of cavalry, rose on every side, +while the<br> +cheers which alternately told of the vacillating fortune of the +fight rose<br> +amidst the wild pibroch of the Highlanders.</p> + +<p>A tremendous noise now took place on the floor beneath me; and +looking<br> +down, I perceived that a sergeant and party of sappers had taken +possession<br> +of the little hut, and were busily engaged in piercing the walls +for<br> +musketry; and before many minutes had elapsed, a company of the +Rifles were<br> +thrown into the building, which, from its commanding position +above the<br> +road, enfiladed the whole line of march. The officer in command +briefly<br> +informed me that we had been attacked that morning by the French +in force,<br> +and "devilishly well thrashed;" that we were now in retreat +beyond the Coa,<br> +where we ought to have been three days previously, and desired me +to cross<br> +the bridge and get myself out of the way as soon as I possibly +could.</p> + +<p>A twenty-four pounder from the French lines struck the angle +of the house<br> +as he spoke, scattering the mortar and broken bricks about us on +all sides.<br> +This was warning sufficient for me, wounded and disabled as I +was; so<br> +taking the few things I could save in my haste, I hurried from +the hut, and<br> +descending the path, now slippery by the heavy rain, I took my +way across<br> +the bridge, and established myself on a little rising knoll of +ground<br> +beyond, from which a clear view could be obtained of the whole +field.</p> + +<p>I had not been many minutes in my present position ere the +pass which led<br> +down to the bridge became thronged with troops, wagons, +ammunition carts,<br> +and hospital stores, pressing thickly forward amidst shouting and +uproar;<br> +the hills on either side of the way were crowded with troops, who +formed<br> +as they came up, the artillery taking up their position on every +rising<br> +ground. The firing had already begun, and the heavy booming of +the large<br> +guns was heard at intervals amidst the rattling crash of +musketry. Except<br> +the narrow road before me, and the high bank of the stream, I +could see<br> +nothing; but the tumult and din, which grew momentarily louder, +told that<br> +the tide of battle raged nearer and nearer. Still the retreat +continued;<br> +and at length the heavy artillery came thundering across the +narrow bridge<br> +followed by stragglers of all arms, and wounded, hurrying to the +rear. The<br> +sharpshooters and the Highlanders held the heights above the +stream, thus<br> +covering the retiring columns; but I could plainly perceive that +their fire<br> +was gradually slackening, and that the guns which flanked their +position<br> +were withdrawn, and everything bespoke a speedy retreat. A +tremendous<br> +discharge of musketry at this moment, accompanied by a deafening +cheer,<br> +announced the advance of the French, and soon the head of the +Highland<br> +brigade was seen descending towards the bridge, followed by the +Rifles and<br> +the 95th; the cavalry, consisting of the 11th and 14th Light +Dragoons, were<br> +now formed in column of attack, and the infantry deployed into +line; and in<br> +an instant after, high above the din and crash of battle, I heard +the word<br> +"Charge!" The rising crest of the hill hid them from my sight, +but my heart<br> +bounded with ecstasy as I listened to the clanging sound of the +cavalry<br> +advance. Meanwhile the infantry pressed on, and forming upon the +bank,<br> +took up a strong position in front of the bridge; the heavy guns +were<br> +also unlimbered, riflemen scattered through the low copse-wood, +and every<br> +precaution taken to defend the pass to the last. For a moment all +my<br> +attention was riveted to the movements upon our own side of the +stream,<br> +when suddenly the cavalry bugle sounded the recall, and the same +moment<br> +the staff came galloping across the bridge. One officer I could +perceive,<br> +covered with orders and trappings, his head was bare, and his +horse,<br> +splashed with blood and foam, moved lamely and with difficulty; +he turned<br> +in the middle of the bridge, as if irresolute whether to retreat +farther.<br> +One glance at him showed me the bronzed, manly features of our +leader.<br> +Whatever his resolve, the matter was soon decided for him, for +the cavalry<br> +came galloping swiftly down the slope, and in an instant the +bridge was<br> +blocked up by the retreating forces, while the French as suddenly +appearing<br> +above the height, opened a plunging fire upon their defenceless +enemies;<br> +their cheer of triumph was answered by our fellows from the +opposite bank,<br> +and a heavy cannonade thundered along the rocky valley, sending +up a<br> +hundred echoes as it went.</p> + +<p>The scene now became one of overwhelming interest; the French, +posting<br> +their guns upon the height, replied to our fire, while their +line, breaking<br> +into skirmishers, descended the banks to the river's edge, and +poured<br> +in one sheet of galling musketry. The road to the bridge, swept +by our<br> +artillery, presented not a single file; and although a movement +among<br> +the French announced the threat of an attack, the deadly service +of the<br> +artillery seemed to pronounce it hopeless.</p> + +<p>A strong cavalry force stood inactively spectators of the +combat, on the<br> +French side, among whom I now remarked some bustle and +preparation, and as<br> +I looked an officer rode boldly to the river's edge, and spurring +his horse<br> +forward, plunged into the stream. The swollen and angry torrent, +increased<br> +by the late rains, boiled like barm, and foamed around him as he +advanced;<br> +when suddenly his horse appeared to have lost its footing, and +the rapid<br> +current, circling around him, bore him along with it. He labored +madly, but<br> +in vain, to retrace his steps; the rolling torrent rose above his +saddle,<br> +and all that his gallant steed could do was barely sufficient to +keep<br> +afloat; both man and horse were carried down between the +contending<br> +armies. I could see him wave his hand to his comrades, as if in +adieu. One<br> +deafening cheer of admiration rose from the French lines, and the +next<br> +moment he was seen to fall from his seat, and his body, shattered +with<br> +balls, floated mournfully upon the stream.</p> + +<p>This little incident, to which both armies were witnesses, +seemed to have<br> +called forth all the fiercer passions of the contending forces; a +loud yell<br> +of taunting triumph rose from the Highlanders, responded to by a +cry of<br> +vengeance from the French, and the same moment the head of a +column was<br> +seen descending the narrow causeway to the bridge, while an +officer with a<br> +whole blaze of decorations and crosses sprang from his horse and +took the<br> +lead. The little drummer, a child of scarcely ten years old, +tripped gayly<br> +on, beating his little <i>pas des charge</i>, seeming rather like the +play of<br> +infancy than the summons to death and carnage, as the heavy guns +of the<br> +French opened a volume of fire and flame to cover the attacking +column. For<br> +a moment all was hid from our eyes; the moment after the +grape-shot swept<br> +along the narrow causeway; and the bridge, which but a second +before was<br> +crowded with the life and courage of a noble column, was now one +heap of<br> +dead and dying. The gallant fellow who led them on fell among the +first<br> +rank, and the little child, as if kneeling, was struck dead +beside the<br> +parapet; his fair hair floated across his cold features, and +seemed in its<br> +motion to lend a look of life where the heart's throb had ceased +forever.<br> +The artillery again re-opened upon us; and when the smoke had +cleared away,<br> +we discovered that the French had advanced to the middle of the +bridge and<br> +carried off the body of their general. Twice they essayed to +cross, and<br> +twice the death-dealing fire of our guns covered the narrow +bridge with<br> +slain, while by the wild pibroch of the 42d, swelling madly into +notes of<br> +exultation and triumph, the Highlanders could scarcely be +prevented from<br> +advancing hand to hand with the foe. Gradually the French +slackened their<br> +fire, their great guns were one by one withdrawn from the +heights, and a<br> +dropping, irregular musketry at intervals sustained the fight, +which, ere<br> +sunset, ceased altogether; and thus ended "The Battle of the +Coa!"</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER VI.</p> + +<p>THE NIGHT MARCH.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had the night fallen when our retreat commenced. +Tired and weary<br> +as our brave fellows felt, but little repose was allowed them; +their<br> +bivouac fires were blazing brightly, and they had just thrown +themselves<br> +in groups around them, when the word to fall in was passed from +troop to<br> +troop, and from battalion to battalion,—no trumpet, no bugle +called them<br> +to their ranks. It was necessary that all should be done +noiselessly and<br> +speedily; while, therefore, the wounded were marched to the +front, and<br> +the heavy artillery with them, a brigade of light four pounders +and two<br> +squadrons of cavalry held the heights above the bridge, and the +infantry,<br> +forming into three columns, began their march.</p> + +<p>My wound, forgotten in the heat and excitement of the +conflict, was now<br> +becoming excessively painful, and I gladly availed myself of a +place in a<br> +wagon, where, stretched upon some fresh straw, with no other +covering save<br> +the starry sky, I soon fell sound asleep, and neither the heavy +jolting of<br> +the rough conveyance, nor the deep and rutty road, were able to +disturb my<br> +slumbers. Still through my sleep I heard the sounds around me, +the heavy<br> +tramp of infantry, the clash of the moving squadrons, and the +dull roll of<br> +artillery; and ever and anon the half-stifled cry of pain, +mingling with<br> +the reckless carol of some drinking-song, all flitted through my +dreams,<br> +lending to my thoughts of home and friends a memory of glorious +war.</p> + +<p>All the vicissitudes of a soldier's life passed then in review +before me,<br> +elicited in some measure by the things about. The pomp and +grandeur, the<br> +misery and meanness, the triumph, the defeat, the moment of +victory, and<br> +the hour of death were there, and in that vivid dream I lived a +life long.</p> + +<p>I awoke at length, the cold and chilling air which follows +midnight blew<br> +around me, and my wounded arm felt as though it were frozen. I +tried to<br> +cover myself beneath the straw, but in vain; and as my limbs +trembled and<br> +my teeth chattered, I thought again of home, where, at that +moment, the<br> +poorest menial of my uncle's house was better lodged than I; and +strange to<br> +say, something of pride mingled with the thought, and in my +lonely heart a<br> +feeling of elation cheered me.</p> + +<p>These reflections were interrupted by the sound of a voice +near me, which I<br> +at once knew to be O'Shaughnessy's; he was on foot, and speaking +evidently<br> +in some excitement.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, Maurice, some confounded blunder there must be; +sure, he was<br> +left in the cottage near the bridge, and no one ever saw him +after."</p> + +<p>"The French took it from the Rifles before we crossed the +river. By Jove!<br> +I'll wager my chance of promotion against a pint of sherry, he'll +turn up<br> +somewhere in the morning; those Galway chaps have as many lives +as a cat."</p> + +<p>"See, now, Maurice, I wouldn't for a full colonelcy anything +would happen<br> +to him; I like the boy."</p> + +<p>"So do I myself; but I tell you there's no danger of him. Did +you ask<br> +Sparks anything?"</p> + +<p>"Ask Sparks! God help you! Sparks would go off in a fit at the +sight of me.<br> +No, no, poor creature! it's little use it would be my speaking to +him."</p> + +<p>"Why so, Doctor!" cried I, from my straw couch.</p> + +<p>"May I never, if it's not him! Charley, my son, I'm glad +you're safe.<br> +'Faith, I thought you were on your way to Verdun by this +time."</p> + +<p>"Sure, I told you he'd find his way here—But, O'Mealey, dear, +you're<br> +mighty could,—a rigor, as old M'Lauchlan would call it."</p> + +<p>"E'en sae, Maister Quill," said a broad Scotch accent behind +him; "and I<br> +canna see ony objection to giein' things their right names."</p> + +<p>"The top of the morning to you," said Quill, familiarly +patting him on the<br> +back; "how goes it, old Brimstone?"</p> + +<p>The conversation might not have taken a very amicable turn had +M'Lauchlan<br> +heard the latter part of this speech; but, as happily he was +engaged<br> +unpacking a small canteen which he had placed in the wagon, it +passed<br> +unnoticed.</p> + +<p>"You'll nae dislike a toothfu' of something warm, Major," said +he,<br> +presenting a glass to O'Shaughnessy; "and if ye'll permit me, Mr. +O'Mealey,<br> +to help you—"</p> + +<p>"A thousand thanks, Doctor; but I fear a broken arm—"</p> + +<p>"There's naething in the whiskey to prevent the proper +formation of<br> +callus."</p> + +<p>"By the rock of Cashel, it never made any one callous," said +O'Shaughnessy,<br> +mistaking the import of the phrase.</p> + +<p>"Ye are nae drinking frae the flask?" said the doctor, turning +in some<br> +agitation towards Quill.</p> + +<p>"Devil a bit, my darling. I've a little horn convaniency here, +that holds<br> +half-a-pint, nice measure."</p> + +<p>I don't imagine that our worthy friend participated in Quill's +admiration<br> +of the "convaniency," for he added, in a dry tone:—</p> + +<p>"Ye may as weel tak your liquor frae a glass, like a +Christian, as stick<br> +your nose in a coo's horn."</p> + +<p>"By my conscience, you're no small judge of spirits, wherever +you learned<br> +it," said the major; "it's like Islay malt!"</p> + +<p>"I was aye reckoned a gude ane," said the doctor, "and my +mither's brither<br> +Caimbogie had na his like in the north country. Ye may be heerd +tell what<br> +he aince said to the Duchess of Argyle, when she sent for him to +taste her<br> +claret."</p> + +<p>"Never heard of it," quoth Quill; "let's have it by all means. +I'd like to<br> +hear what the duchess said to him."</p> + +<p>"It was na what the duchess said to him, but what he said to +the duchess,<br> +ye ken. The way of it was this: My uncle Caimbogie was aye up at +the<br> +castle, for besides his knowledge of liquor, there was nae his +match for<br> +deer-stalking, or spearing a salmon, in those parts. He was a +great, rough<br> +carle, it's true; but ane ye'd rather crack wi' than fight +wi'.</p> + +<p>"Weel, ae day they had a grand dinner at the duke's, and there +were plenty<br> +o' great southern lords and braw leddies in velvets and satin; +and vara<br> +muckle surprised they were at my uncle, when he came in wi' his +tartan<br> +kilt, in full Highland dress, as the head of a clan ought to do. +Caimbogie,<br> +however, pe'd nae attention to them; but he eat his dinner, and +drank his<br> +wine, and talked away about fallow and red deer, and at last the +duchess,<br> +for she was aye fond o' him, addressed him frae the head o' the +table:—</p> + +<p>"'Cambogie,' quoth she, 'I'd like to hae your opinion about +that wine. It's<br> +some the duke has just received, and we should like to hear what +you think<br> +of it.'</p> + +<p>"'It's nae sae bad, my leddy,' said my uncle; for ye see he +was a man of<br> +few words, and never flattered onybody.</p> + +<p>"'Then you don't approve much of it?' said the duchess.</p> + +<p>"'I've drank better, and I've drank waur,' quo' he.</p> + +<p>"'I'm sorry you don't like it, Caimbogie,' said the duchess, +'for it can<br> +never be popular now,—we have such a dependence upon your +taste.'</p> + +<p>"'I cauna say ower muckle for my <i>taste</i>, my leddy, but ae +thing I <i>will</i><br> +say,—I've a most damnable <i>smell!</i>'</p> + +<p>"I hear that never since the auld walls stood was there ever +the like o'<br> +the laughing that followed; the puir duke himsel' was carried +away, and<br> +nearly had a fit, and a' the grand lords and leddies a'most died +of it. But<br> +see here, the earle has nae left a drap o' whiskey in the +flask."</p> + +<p>"The last glass I drained to your respectable uncle's health," +said Quill,<br> +with a most professional gravity. "Now, Charlie, make a little +room for me<br> +in the straw."</p> + +<p>The doctor soon mounted beside me, and giving me a share of +his ample<br> +cloak, considerably ameliorated my situation.</p> + +<p>"So you knew Sparks, Doctor?" said I, with a strong curiosity +to hear<br> +something of his early acquaintance.</p> + +<p>"That I did: I knew him when he was an ensign in the 10th +Foot; and, to say<br> +the truth, he is not much changed since that time,—the same +lively look of<br> +a sick cod-fish about his gray eyes; the same disorderly wave of +his yellow<br> +hair; the same whining voice, and that confounded apothecary's +laugh."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Doctor, Sparks is a good fellow at heart; I won't +have him<br> +abused. I never knew he had been in the infantry; I should think +it must<br> +have been another of the same name."</p> + +<p>"Not at all; there's only one like him in the service, and +that's himself.<br> +Confound it, man, I'd know his skin upon a bush; he was only +three weeks<br> +in the Tenth, and, indeed, your humble servant has the whole +merit of his<br> +leaving it so soon."</p> + +<p>"Do let us hear how that happened."</p> + +<p>"Simply thus: The jolly Tenth were some four years ago the +pleasantest<br> +corps in the army; from the lieutenant-colonel down to the last +joined<br> +sub., all were out-and-outers,—real gay fellows. The mess was, +in fact,<br> +like a pleasant club, and if you did not suit it, the best thing +you could<br> +do was to sell out or exchange into a slower regiment; and, +indeed, this<br> +very wholesome truth was not very long in reaching your ears some +way or<br> +other, and a man that could remain after being given this hint, +was likely<br> +to go afterwards without one."</p> + +<p>Just as Dr. Quill reached this part of his story, an orderly +dragoon<br> +galloped furiously past, and the next moment an aide-de-camp rode +by,<br> +calling as he passed us,—</p> + +<p>"Close up, there! Close up! Get forward, my lads! get +forward!"</p> + +<p>It was evident, from the stir and bustle about, that some +movement was<br> +being made; and soon after, a dropping, irregular fire from the +rear showed<br> +that our cavalry were engaged with the enemy. The affair was +scarcely of<br> +five minutes' duration, and our march resumed all its former +regularity<br> +immediately after.</p> + +<p>I now turned to the doctor to resume his story, but he was +gone; at what<br> +moment he left I could not say, but O'Shaughnessy was also +absent, nor did<br> +I again meet with them for a considerable time after.</p> + +<p>Towards daybreak we halted at Bonares, when, my wound +demanding rest and<br> +attention, I was billeted in the village, and consigned to all +the miseries<br> +of a sick bed.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER VII.</p> + +<p>THE JOURNEY.</p> + +<p>With that disastrous day my campaigning was destined, for some +time<br> +at least, to conclude. My wound, which grew from hour to hour +more<br> +threatening, at length began to menace the loss of the arm, and +by the<br> +recommendation of the regimental surgeons, I was ordered back to +Lisbon.</p> + +<p>Mike, by this time perfectly restored, prepared everything for +my<br> +departure, and on the third day after the battle of the Coa, I +began my<br> +journey with downcast spirits and depressed heart. The poor +fellow was,<br> +however, a kind and affectionate nurse, and unlike many others, +his cares<br> +were not limited to the mere bodily wants of his patient,—he +sustained,<br> +as well as he was able, my drooping resolution, rallied my +spirits, and<br> +cheered my courage. With the very little Portuguese he possessed, +he<br> +contrived to make every imaginable species of bargain; always +managed a<br> +good billet; kept every one in good humor, and rarely left his +quarters in<br> +the morning without a most affective leave-taking, and reiterated +promises<br> +to renew his visit.</p> + +<p>Our journeys were usually short ones, and already two days had +elapsed,<br> +when, towards nightfall, we entered the little hamlet of Jaffra. +During the<br> +entire of that day, the pain of my wounded limb had been +excruciating; the<br> +fatigue of the road and the heat had brought back violent +inflammation, and<br> +when at last the little village came in sight, my reason was fast +yielding<br> +to the torturing agonies of my wound. But the transports with +which I<br> +greeted my resting-place were soon destined to a change; for as +we drew<br> +near, not a light was to be seen, not a sound to be heard, not +even a dog<br> +barked as the heavy mule-cart rattled over the uneven road. No +trace of<br> +any living thing was there. The little hamlet lay sleeping in the +pale<br> +moonlight, its streets deserted, and its homes tenantless; our +own<br> +footsteps alone echoed along the dreary causeway. Here and there, +as we<br> +advanced farther, we found some relics of broken furniture and +house-gear;<br> +most of the doors lay open, but nothing remained within save bare +walls;<br> +the embers still smoked in many places upon the hearth, and +showed us that<br> +the flight of the inhabitants had been recent. Yet everything +convinced<br> +us that the French had not been there; there was no trace of the +reckless<br> +violence and wanton cruelty which marked their footsteps +everywhere.</p> + +<p>All proved that the desertion had been voluntary; perhaps in +compliance<br> +with an order of our commander-in-chief, who frequently desired +any<br> +intended line of march of the enemy to be left thus a desert. As +we<br> +sauntered slowly on from street to street, half hoping that some +one human<br> +being yet remained behind, and casting our eyes from side to side +in search<br> +of quarters for the night, Mike suddenly came running up, +saying,—</p> + +<p>"I have it, sir; I've found it out. There's people living down +that small<br> +street there; I saw a light this minute as I passed."</p> + +<p>I turned immediately, and accompanied by the mule-driver, +followed Mike<br> +across a little open square into a small and narrow street, at +the end<br> +of which a light was seen faintly twinkling. We hurried on and in +a few<br> +minutes reached a high wall of solid masonry, from a niche of +which we now<br> +discovered, to our utter disappointment, the light proceeded. It +was a<br> +small lamp placed before a little waxen image of the Virgin, and +was<br> +probably the last act of piety of some poor villager ere he left +his home<br> +and hearth forever. There it burned, brightly and tranquilly, +throwing its<br> +mellow ray upon the cold, deserted stones.</p> + +<p>Whatever impatience I might have given way to in a moment of +chagrin was<br> +soon repressed, as I saw my two followers, uncovering their heads +in silent<br> +reverence, kneel down before the little shrine. There was +something at once<br> +touching and solemn in this simultaneous feeling of homage from +the hearts<br> +of those removed in country, language, and in blood. They bent +meekly down,<br> +their heads bowed upon their bosoms, while with muttering voices +each<br> +offered up his prayer. All sense of their disappointment, all +memory of<br> +their forlorn state, seemed to have yielded to more powerful and +absorbing<br> +thoughts, as they opened their hearts in prayer.</p> + +<p>My eyes were still fixed upon them when suddenly Mike, whose +devotion<br> +seemed of the briefest, sprang to his legs, and with a spirit of +levity<br> +but little in accordance with his late proceedings, commenced a +series of<br> +kicking, rapping, and knocking at a small oak postern sufficient +to have<br> +aroused a whole convent from their cells. "House there! Good +people<br> +within!"—bang, bang, bang; but the echoes alone responded to his +call,<br> +and the sounds died away at length in the distant streets, +leaving all as<br> +silent and dreary as before.</p> + +<p>Our Portuguese friend, who by this time had finished his +orisons, now began<br> +a vigorous attack upon the small door, and with the assistance of +Mike,<br> +armed with a fragment of granite about the size of a man's head, +at length<br> +separated the frame from the hinges, and sent the whole mass +prostrate<br> +before us.</p> + +<p>The moon was just rising as we entered the little park, where +gravelled<br> +walks, neatly kept and well-trimmed, bespoke recent care and +attention;<br> +following a handsome alley of lime-trees, we reached a little +<i>jet d'eau</i>,<br> +whose sparkling fountain shone diamond-like in the moonbeams, and +escaping<br> +from the edge of a vast shell, ran murmuring amidst mossy stones +and<br> +water-lilies that, however naturally they seemed thrown around, +bespoke<br> +also the hand of taste in their position. On turning from the +spot, we came<br> +directly in front of an old but handsome château, before +which stretched<br> +a terrace of considerable extent. Its balustraded parapet lined +with<br> +orange-trees, now in full blossom, scented the still air with +delicious<br> +odor; marble statues peeped here and there amidst the foliage, +while a rich<br> +acacia, loaded with flowers, covered the walls of the building, +and hung in<br> +vast masses of variegated blossom across the tall windows.</p> + +<p>As leaning on Mike's arm I slowly ascended the steps of the +terrace, I was<br> +more than ever struck with the silence and death-like stillness +around;<br> +except the gentle plash of the fountain, all was at rest; the +very plants<br> +seemed to sleep in the yellow moonlight, and not a trace of any +living<br> +thing was there.</p> + +<p>The massive door lay open as we entered the spacious hall +flagged with<br> +marble and surrounded with armorial bearings. We advanced farther +and came<br> +to a broad and handsome stair, which led us to a long gallery, +from which<br> +a suit of rooms opened, looking towards the front part of the +building.<br> +Wherever we went, the furniture appeared perfectly untouched; +nothing was<br> +removed; the very chairs were grouped around the windows and the +tables;<br> +books, as if suddenly dropped from their readers' hands, were +scattered<br> +upon the sofas and the ottomans; and in one small apartment, +whose blue<br> +satin walls and damask drapery bespoke a boudoir, a rich mantilla +of<br> +black velvet and a silk glove were thrown upon a chair. It was +clear the<br> +desertion had been most recent, and everything indicated that no +time had<br> +been given to the fugitives to prepare for flight. What a sad +picture of<br> +war was there! To think of those whose home was endeared to them +by all<br> +the refinements of cultivated life and all the associations of +years of<br> +happiness sent out upon the wide world wanderers and houseless, +while<br> +their hearth, sacred by every tie that binds us to our kindred, +was to<br> +be desecrated by the ruthless and savage hands of a ruffian +soldiery. I<br> +thought of them,—perhaps at that very hour their thoughts were +clinging<br> +round the old walls, remembering each well-beloved spot, while +they took<br> +their lonely path through mountain and through valley,—and felt +ashamed<br> +and abashed at my own intrusion there. While thus my revery ran +on, I<br> +had not perceived that Mike, whose views were very practical upon +all<br> +occasions, had lighted a most cheerful fire upon the hearth, and +disposing<br> +a large sofa before it, had carefully closed the curtains; and +was, in<br> +fact, making himself and his master as much at home as though he +had spent<br> +his life there.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it a beautiful place, Misther Charles? And this little +room, doesn't<br> +it remind you of the blue bed-room in O'Malley Castle, barrin' +the elegant<br> +view out upon the Shannon, and the mountain of Scariff?"</p> + +<p>Nothing short of Mike's patriotism could forgive such a +comparison; but,<br> +however, I did not contradict him as he ran on:—</p> + +<p>"Faith, I knew well there was luck in store for us this +evening; and ye see<br> +the handful of prayers I threw away outside wasn't lost. +José's making<br> +the beasts comfortable in the stable, and I'm thinking we'll none +of us<br> +complain of our quarters. But you're not eating your supper; and +the<br> +beautiful hare-pie that I stole this morning, won't you taste it? +Well, a<br> +glass of Malaga? Not a glass of Malaga? Oh, mother of Moses! +what's this<br> +for?"</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, the fever produced by the long and toilsome +journey had<br> +gained considerably on me, and except copious libations of cold +water, I<br> +could touch nothing; my arm, too, was much more painful than +before. Mike<br> +soon perceived that rest and quietness were most important to me +at the<br> +moment, and having with difficulty been prevailed upon to swallow +a few<br> +hurried mouthfuls, the poor fellow disposed cushions around me in +every<br> +imaginable form for comfort; and then, placing my wounded limb in +its<br> +easiest position, he extinguished the lamp, and sat silently down +beside<br> +the hearth, without speaking another word.</p> + +<p>Fatigue and exhaustion, more powerful than pain, soon produced +their<br> +effects upon me, and I fell asleep; but it was no refreshing +slumber which<br> +visited my heavy eyelids; the, slow fever of suffering had been +hour by<br> +hour increasing, and my dreams presented nothing but scenes of +agony and<br> +torture. Now I thought that, unhorsed and wounded, I was trampled +beneath<br> +the clanging hoofs of charging cavalry; now I felt the sharp +steel piercing<br> +my flesh, and heard the loud cry of a victorious enemy; then, +methought, I<br> +was stretched upon a litter, covered by gore and mangled by a +grape-shot.<br> +I thought I saw my brother officers approach and look sadly upon +me, while<br> +one, whose face I could not remember, muttered: "I should not +have known<br> +him." The dreadful hospital of Talavera, and all its scenes of +agony, came<br> +up before me, and I thought that I lay waiting my turn for +amputation. This<br> +last impression, more horrible to me than all the rest, made me +spring from<br> +my couch, and I awoke. The cold drops of perspiration stood upon +my brow,<br> +my mouth was parched and open, and my temples throbbed so that I +could<br> +count their beatings; for some seconds I could not throw off the +frightful<br> +illusion I labored under, and it was only by degrees I +recovered<br> +consciousness and remembered where I was. Before me, and on one +side of the<br> +bright wood-fire, sat Mike, who, apparently deep in thought, +gazed fixedly<br> +at the blaze. The start I gave on awaking had not attracted his +attention,<br> +and I could see, as the flickering glare fell upon his features, +that he<br> +was pale and ghastly, while his eyes were riveted upon the fire; +his lips<br> +moved rapidly, as if in prayer, and his locked hands were +pressed<br> +firmly upon his bosom; his voice, at first inaudible, I could +gradually<br> +distinguish, and at length heard the following muttered +sentences:—</p> + +<p>"Oh, mother of mercy! So far from his home and his people, and +so young to<br> +die in a strange land—There it is again." Here he appeared +listening<br> +to some sounds from without. "Oh, wirra, wirra, I know it +well!—the<br> +winding-sheet, the winding-sheet! There it is; my own eyes saw +it!"<br> +The tears coursed fast upon his pale cheeks, and his voice grew +almost<br> +inaudible, as rocking to and fro, for some time he seemed in a +very stupor<br> +of grief; when at last, in a faint, subdued tone, he broke into +one of<br> +those sad and plaintive airs of his country, which only need the +moment of<br> +depression to make them wring the very heart in agony.</p> + +<p>His song was that to which Moore has appended the beautiful +lines, "Come<br> +rest on this bosom." The following imperfect translation may +serve to<br> +convey some impression of the words, which in Mike's version were +Irish:—</p> + +<p> "The day was declining,<br> + The dark night drew near,<br> + And the old lord grew sadder<br> + And paler with fear:<br> + 'Come listen, my daughter,<br> + Come nearer, oh, near!<br> + Is't the wind or the water<br> + That sighs in my ear?'</p> + +<p> "Not the wind nor the water<br> + Now stirred the night air,<br> + But a warning far sadder,—.<br> + The Banshee was there!<br> + Now rising, now swelling,<br> + On the night wind it bore<br> + One cadence, still telling,<br> + 'I want thee, Rossmore!'</p> + +<p> "And then fast came his breath,<br> + And more fixed grew his eye;<br> + And the shadow of death<br> + Told his hour was nigh.<br> + Ere the dawn of that morning<br> + The struggle was o'er,<br> + For when thrice came the warning<br> + A corpse was Rossmore!"</p> + +<p>The plaintive air to which these words were sung fell heavily +upon my<br> +heart, and it needed but the low and nervous condition I was in +to make me<br> +feel their application to myself. But so it is; the very +superstition your<br> +reason rejects and your sense spurns, has, from old association, +from<br> +habit, and from mere nationality too, a hold upon your hopes and +fears that<br> +demands more firmness and courage than a sick-bed possesses to +combat with<br> +success; and I now listened with an eager ear to mark if the +Banshee<br> +cried, rather than sought to fortify myself by any recurrence to +my own<br> +convictions. Meanwhile Mike's attitude became one of listening +attention.<br> +Not a finger moved; he scarce seemed even to breathe; the state +of suspense<br> +I suffered from was maddening; and at last, unable to bear it +longer, I<br> +was about to speak, when suddenly, from the floor beneath us, +one<br> +long-sustained note swelled upon the air and died away again, +and<br> +immediately after, to the cheerful sounds of a guitar, we heard +the husky<br> +voice of our Portuguese guide indulging himself in a +love-ditty.</p> + +<p>Ashamed of myself for my fears, I kept silent; but Mike, who +felt only one<br> +sensation,—that of unmixed satisfaction at his mistake,—rubbed +his hands<br> +pleasantly, filled up his glass, drank it, and refilled; while +with an<br> +accent of reassured courage, he briefly remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. José, if that be singing, upon my conscience +I wonder what<br> +crying is like!"</p> + +<p>I could not forbear a laugh at the criticism; and in a moment, +the poor<br> +fellow, who up to that moment believed me sleeping, was beside +me. I saw<br> +from his manner that he dreaded lest I had been listening to his +melancholy<br> +song, and had overheard any of his gloomy forebodings; and as he +cheered<br> +my spirits and spoke encouragingly, I could remark that he made +more than<br> +usual endeavors to appear light-hearted and at ease. Determined, +however,<br> +not to let him escape so easily, I questioned him about his +belief in<br> +ghosts and spirits, at which he endeavored, as he ever did when +the subject<br> +was an unpleasing one, to avoid the discussion; but rather +perceiving that<br> +I indulged in no irreverent disrespect of these matters, he grew +gradually<br> +more open, treating the affair with that strange mixture of +credulity and<br> +mockery which formed his estimate of most things,—now seeming to +suppose<br> +that any palpable rejection of them might entail sad consequences +in<br> +future, now half ashamed to go the whole length in his +credulity.</p> + +<p>"And so, Mike, you never saw a ghost yourself?—that you +acknowledge?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, I never saw a real ghost; but sure there's many a +thing I never<br> +saw; but Mrs. Moore, the housekeeper, seen two. And your +grandfather that's<br> +gone—the Lord be good to him!—used to walk once a year in Lurra +Abbey;<br> +and sure you know the story about Tim Clinchy that was seen every +Saturday<br> +night coming out of the cellar with a candle and a mug of wine +and a pipe<br> +in his mouth, till Mr. Barry laid him. It cost his honor your +uncle ten<br> +pounds in Masses to make him easy; not to speak of a new lock and +two bolts<br> +on the cellar door."</p> + +<p>"I have heard all about that; but as you never yourself saw +any of these<br> +things—"</p> + +<p>"But sure my father did, and that's the same any day. My +father seen the<br> +greatest ghost that ever was seen in the county Cork, and spent +the evening<br> +with him, that's more."</p> + +<p>"Spent the evening with him!—what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Just that, devil a more nor less. If your honor wasn't so +weak, and the<br> +story wasn't a trying one, I'd like to tell it to you."</p> + +<p>"Out with it by all means, Mike; I am not disposed to sleep; +and now that<br> +we are upon these matters, my curiosity is strongly excited by +your worthy<br> +father's experience."</p> + +<p>Thus encouraged, having trimmed the fire and reseated himself +beside the<br> +blaze, Mike began; but as a ghost is no every-day personage in +our history,<br> +I must give him a chapter to himself.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER VIII.</p> + +<p>THE GHOST.</p> + +<p>"Well, I believe your honor heard me tell long ago how my +father left the<br> +army, and the way that he took to another line of life that was +more to his<br> +liking. And so it was, he was happy as the day was long; he drove +a hearse<br> +for Mr. Callaghan of Cork for many years, and a pleasant place it +was; for<br> +ye see, my father was a 'cute man, and knew something of the +world; and<br> +though he was a droll devil, and could sing a funny song when he +was among<br> +the boys, no sooner had he the big black cloak on him and the +weepers, and<br> +he seated on the high box with the six long-tailed blacks before +him, you'd<br> +really think it was his own mother was inside, he looked so +melancholy and<br> +miserable. The sexton and gravedigger was nothing to my father; +and he had<br> +a look about his eye—to be sure there was a reason for it—that +you'd<br> +think he was up all night crying; though it's little indulgence +he took<br> +that way.</p> + +<p>"Well, of all Mr. Callaghan's men, there was none so great a +favorite as my<br> +father. The neighbors were all fond of him.</p> + +<p>"'A kind crayture, every inch of him!' the women would say. +'Did ye see his<br> +face at Mrs. Delany's funeral?'</p> + +<p>"'True for you,' another would remark; 'he mistook the road +with grief, and<br> +stopped at a shebeen house instead of Kilmurry church.'</p> + +<p>"I need say no more, only one thing,—that it was principally +among the<br> +farmers and the country people my father was liked so much. The +great<br> +people and the quality—ax your pardon; but sure isn't it true, +Mister<br> +Charles?—they don't fret so much after their fathers and +brothers, and<br> +they care little who's driving them, whether it was a decent, +respectable<br> +man like my father, or a chap with a grin on him like a rat-trap. +And so<br> +it happened that my father used to travel half the county; going +here and<br> +there wherever there was trade stirring; and faix, a man didn't +think<br> +himself rightly buried if my father wasn't there; for ye see, he +knew all<br> +about it: he could tell to a quart of spirits what would be +wanting for a<br> +wake; he knew all the good criers for miles round; and I've heard +it was a<br> +beautiful sight to see him standing on a hill, arranging the +procession as<br> +they walked into the churchyard, and giving the word like a +captain,—</p> + +<p>"'Come on, the stiff; now the friends of the stiff; now the +pop'lace.'</p> + +<p>"That's what he used to say, and troth he was always repeating +it, when he<br> +was a little gone in drink,—for that's the time his spirits +would rise,<br> +and he'd think he was burying half Munster.</p> + +<p>"And sure it was a real pleasure and a pride to be buried in +them times;<br> +for av it was only a small farmer with a potato garden, my father +would<br> +come down with the black cloak on him, and three yards of crape +behind his<br> +hat, and set all the children crying and yelling for half a mile +round;<br> +and then the way he'd walk before them with a spade on his +shoulder, and<br> +sticking it down in the ground, clap his hat on the top of it, to +make it<br> +look like a chief mourner. It was a beautiful sight!"</p> + +<p>"But Mike, if you indulge much longer in this flattering +recollection of<br> +your father, I'm afraid we shall lose sight of the ghost +entirely."</p> + +<p>"No fear in life, your honor; I'm coming to him now. Well, it +was this<br> +way it happened: In the winter of the great frost, about +forty-two or<br> +forty-three years ago, the ould priest of Tullonghmurray took ill +and died.<br> +He was sixty years priest of the parish, and mightily beloved by +all<br> +the people, and good reason for it; a pleasanter man, and a +more<br> +social crayture never lived,—'twas himself was the life of the +whole<br> +country-side. A wedding nor a christening wasn't lucky av he +wasn't there,<br> +sitting at the top of the table, with may be his arm round the +bride<br> +herself, or the baby on his lap, a smoking jug of punch before +him, and as<br> +much kindness in his eye as would make the fortunes of twenty +hypocrites if<br> +they had it among them. And then he was so good to the poor; the +Priory was<br> +always so full of ould men and ould women sitting around the big +fire in<br> +the kitchen that the cook could hardly get near it. There they +were, eating<br> +their meals and burning their shins till they were speckled like +a trout's<br> +back, and grumbling all the time; but Father Dwyer liked them, +and he would<br> +have them.</p> + +<p>"'Where have they to go,' he'd say, 'av it wasn't to me? Give +Molly<br> +Kinshela a lock of that bacon. Tim, it's a could morning; will ye +have a<br> +taste of the "dew?"'</p> + +<p>"Ah, that's the way he'd spake to them; but sure goodness is +no warrant<br> +for living, any more than devilment, and so he got could in his +feet at a<br> +station, and he rode home in the heavy snow without his big +coat,—for he<br> +gave it away to a blind man on the road; in three days he was +dead.</p> + +<p>"I see you're getting impatient, so I'll not stop to say what +grief was<br> +in the parish when it was known; but troth, there never was seen +the like<br> +before,—not a crayture would lift a spade for two days, and +there was more<br> +whiskey sold in that time than at the whole spring fair. Well, on +the third<br> +day the funeral set out, and never was the equal of it in them +parts:<br> +first, there was my father,—he came special from Cork with the +six horses<br> +all in new black, and plumes like little poplar-trees,—then came +Father<br> +Dwyer, followed by the two coadjutors in beautiful surplices, +walking<br> +bare-headed, with the little boys of the Priory school, +two-and-two."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mike, I'm sure it was very fine; but for Heaven's sake, +spare me all<br> +these descriptions, and get on to the ghost!"</p> + +<p>"'Faith, yer honor's in a great hurry for the ghost,—may be +ye won't like<br> +him when ye have him; but I'll go faster, if ye please. Well, +Father Dwyer,<br> +ye see, was born at Aghan-lish, of an ould family, and he left it +in his<br> +will that he was to be buried in the family vault; and as +Aghan-lish was<br> +eighteen miles up the mountains, it was getting late when they +drew near.<br> +By that time the great procession was all broke up and gone home. +The<br> +coadjutors stopped to dine at the 'Blue Bellows' at the +cross-roads; the<br> +little boys took to pelting snowballs; there was a fight or two +on the way<br> +besides,—and in fact, except an ould deaf fellow that my father +took to<br> +mind the horses, he was quite alone. Not that he minded that +same; for when<br> +the crowd was gone, my father began to sing a droll song, and +told the deaf<br> +chap that it was a lamentation. At last they came in sight of +Aghan-lish.<br> +It was a lonesome, melancholy-looking place with nothing near it +except two<br> +or three ould fir-trees and a small slated house with one window, +where the<br> +sexton lived, and even that was shut up and a padlock on the +door. Well,<br> +my father was not over much pleased at the look of matters; but +as he was<br> +never hard put to what to do, he managed to get the coffin into +the vestry,<br> +and then when he had unharnessed the horses, he sent the deaf +fellow with<br> +them down to the village to tell the priest that the corpse was +there, and<br> +to come up early in the morning and perform Mass. The next thing +to do was<br> +to make himself comfortable for the night; and then he made a +roaring fire<br> +on the ould hearth,—for there was plenty of bog-fir +there,—closed the<br> +windows with the black cloaks, and wrapping two round himself, he +sat down<br> +to cook a little supper he brought with him in case of need.</p> + +<p>"Well, you may think it was melancholy enough to pass the +night up there<br> +alone with a corpse, in an ould ruined church in the middle of +the<br> +mountains, the wind howling about on every side, and the +snowdrift beating<br> +against the walls; but as the fire burned brightly, and the +little plate of<br> +rashers and eggs smoked temptingly before him, my father mixed a +jug of the<br> +strongest punch, and sat down as happy as a king. As long as he +was eating<br> +away he had no time to be thinking of anything else; but when all +was done,<br> +and he looked about him, he began to feel very low and melancholy +in his<br> +heart. There was the great black coffin on three chairs in one +corner; and<br> +then the mourning cloaks that he had stuck up against the windows +moved<br> +backward and forward like living things; and outside, the wild +cry of the<br> +plover as he flew past, and the night-owl sitting in a nook of +the old<br> +church. 'I wish it was morning, anyhow,' said my father, 'for +this is a<br> +lonesome place to be in; and faix, he'll be a cunning fellow that +catches<br> +me passing the night this way again.' Now there was one thing +distressed<br> +him most of all,—my father used always to make fun of the ghosts +and<br> +sperits the neighbors would tell of, pretending there was no such +thing;<br> +and now the thought came to him, 'May be they'll revenge +themselves on me<br> +to-night when they have me up here alone;' and with that he made +another<br> +jug stronger than the first, and tried to remember a few prayers +in case of<br> +need, but somehow his mind was not too clear, and he said +afterwards he<br> +was always mixing up ould songs and toasts with the prayers, and +when he<br> +thought he had just got hold of a beautiful psalm, it would turn +out to be<br> +'Tatter Jack Walsh' or 'Limping James' or something like that. +The storm,<br> +meanwhile, was rising every moment, and parts of the old abbey +were falling<br> +as the wind shook the ruin; and my father's spirits, +notwithstanding the<br> +punch, wore lower than ever.</p> + +<p>"'I made it too weak,' said he, as he set to work on a new +jorum; and<br> +troth, this time that was not the fault of it, for the first sup +nearly<br> +choked him.</p> + +<p>"'Ah,' said he, now, 'I knew what it was; this is like the +thing; and Mr.<br> +Free, you are beginning to feel easy and comfortable. Pass the +jar. Your<br> +very good health and song. I'm a little hoarse, it's true, but if +the<br> +company will excuse—'</p> + +<p>"And then he began knocking on the table with his knuckles, as +if there was<br> +a room full of people asking him to sing. In short, my father was +drunk as<br> +a fiddler; the last brew finished him; and he began roaring away +all kinds<br> +of droll songs, and telling all manner of stories as if he was at +a great<br> +party.</p> + +<p>"While he was capering this way about the room, he knocked +down his hat,<br> +and with it a pack of cards he put into it before leaving home, +for he was<br> +mighty fond of a game.</p> + +<p>"'Will ye take a hand, Mr. Free?' said he, as he gathered them +up and sat<br> +down beside the fire.</p> + +<p>"'I'm convanient,' said he, and began dealing out as if there +was a partner<br> +fornenst him.</p> + +<p>"When my father used to get this far in the story, he became +very confused.<br> +He says that once or twice he mistook the liquor, and took a pull +at the<br> +bottle of poteen instead of the punch; and the last thing he +remembers was<br> +asking poor Father Dwyer if he would draw near to the fire, and +not be<br> +lying there near the door.</p> + +<p>"With that he slipped down on the ground and fell fast asleep. +How long he<br> +lay that way he could never tell. When he awoke and looked up, +his hair<br> +nearly stood on an end with fright. What do you think he seen +fornenst him,<br> +sitting at the other side of the fire, but Father Dwyer himself. +There he<br> +was, divil a lie in it, wrapped up in one of the mourning cloaks, +trying to<br> +warm his hands at the fire. "'<i>Salve hoc nomine patri!</i>' said my +father,<br> +crossing himself, 'av it's your ghost, God presarve me!'</p> + +<p>"'Good-evening t'ye, Mr. Free,' said the ghost; 'and av I +might be bould,<br> +what's in the jug?'—for ye see, my father had it under his arm +fast, and<br> +never let it go when he was asleep.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Pater noster qui es in</i>,—poteen, sir,' said my father; for +the ghost<br> +didn't look pleased at his talking Latin.</p> + +<p>"'Ye might have the politeness to ax if one had a mouth on +him, then,' says<br> +the ghost.</p> + +<p>"'Sure, I didn't think the likes of you would taste +sperits.'</p> + +<p>"'Try me,' said the ghost; and with that he filled out a +glass, and tossed<br> +it off like a Christian.</p> + +<p>"'Beamish!' says the ghost, smacking his lips.</p> + +<p>"'The same,' says my father; 'and sure what's happened you has +not spoiled<br> +your taste.'</p> + +<p>"'If you'd mix a little hot,' says the ghost, 'I'm thinking it +would be<br> +better,—the night is mighty sevare.'</p> + +<p>"'Anything that your reverance pleases,' says my father, as he +began to<br> +blow up a good fire to boil the water.</p> + +<p>"'And what news is stirring?' says the ghost.</p> + +<p>"'Devil a word, your reverance,—your own funeral was the only +thing doing<br> +last week. Times is bad; except the measles, there's nothing in +our parts.'</p> + +<p>"'And we're quite dead hereabouts, too,' says the ghost.</p> + +<p>"'There's some of us so, anyhow, says my father, with a sly +look. 'Taste<br> +that, your reverance.'</p> + +<p>"'Pleasant and refreshing,' says the ghost; 'and now, Mr. +Free, what do you<br> +say to a little "spoilt five," or "beggar my neighbor"?'</p> + +<p>"'What will we play for? 'says my father, for a thought just +struck<br> +him,—'may be it's some trick of the Devil to catch my soul.'</p> + +<p>"'A pint of Beamish,' says the ghost.</p> + +<p>"'Done!' says my father; 'cut for deal. The ace of clubs,—you +have it.'</p> + +<p>"Now the whole time the ghost was dealing the cards, my father +never took<br> +his eyes off of him, for he wasn't quite aisy in his mind at all; +but when<br> +he saw him turn up the trump, and take a strong drink afterwards, +he got<br> +more at ease, and began the game.</p> + +<p>"How long they played it was never rightly known; but one +thing is sure,<br> +they drank a cruel deal of sperits. Three quart bottles my father +brought<br> +with him were all finished, and by that time his brain was so +confused with<br> +the liquor, and all he lost,—for somehow he never won a +game,—that he was<br> +getting very quarrelsome.</p> + +<p>"'You have your own luck to it,' says he, at last.</p> + +<p>"'True for you; and besides, we play a great deal where I come +from.'</p> + +<p>"'I've heard so,' says my father. 'I lead the knave, sir; +spades! Bad cess<br> +to it, lost again!'</p> + +<p>"Now it was really very distressing; for by this time, though +they only<br> +began for a pint of Beamish, my father went on betting till he +lost the<br> +hearse and all the six horses, mourning cloaks, plumes, and +everything.</p> + +<p>"'Are you tired, Mr. Free? May be you'd like to stop?'</p> + +<p>"'Stop! faith it's a nice time to stop; of course not.'</p> + +<p>"'Well, what will ye play for now?'</p> + +<p>"The way he said these woods brought a trembling all over my +father, and<br> +his blood curdled in his heart. 'Oh, murther!' says he to +himself, 'it's my<br> +sowl he's wanting all the time.'</p> + +<p>"'I've mighty little left,' says my father, looking at him +keenly, while he<br> +kept shuffling the cards quick as lightning.</p> + +<p>"'Mighty little; no matter, we'll give you plenty of time to +pay,—and if<br> +you can't do it, it shall never trouble you as long as you +live.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, you murthering devil!' says my father, flying at him +with a spade<br> +that he had behind his chair, 'I've found you out.'</p> + +<p>"With one blow he knocked him down, and now a terrible fight +begun, for the<br> +ghost was very strong, too; but my father's blood was up, and +he'd have<br> +faced the Devil himself then. They rolled over each other several +times,<br> +the broken bottles cutting them to pieces, and the chairs and +tables<br> +crashing under them. At last the ghost took the bottle that lay +on the<br> +hearth, and levelled my father to the ground with one blow. Down +he fell,<br> +and the bottle and the whiskey were both dashed into the fire. +That was<br> +the end of it, for the ghost disappeared that moment in a blue +flame that<br> +nearly set fire to my father as he lay on the floor.</p> + +<p>"Och, it was a cruel sight to see him next morning, with his +cheek cut open<br> +and his hands all bloody, lying there by himself,—all the broken +glass and<br> +the cards all round him,—the coffin, too, was knocked down off +the chair,<br> +may be the ghost had trouble getting into it. However that was, +the funeral<br> +was put off for a day, for my father couldn't speak; and as for +the sexton,<br> +it was a queer thing, but when they came to call him in the +morning, he had<br> +two black eyes, and a gash over his ear, and he never knew how he +got them.<br> +It was easy enough to know the ghost did it; but my father kept +the secret,<br> +and never told it to any man, woman, or child in them parts."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER IX.</p> + +<p>LISBON.</p> + +<p>I have little power to trace the events which occupied the +succeeding three<br> +weeks of my history. The lingering fever which attended my wound +detained<br> +me during that time at the château; and when at last I did +leave for<br> +Lisbon, the winter was already beginning, and it was upon a cold +raw<br> +evening that I once more took possession of my old quarters at +the Quay de<br> +Soderi.</p> + +<p>My eagerness and anxiety to learn something of the campaign +was ever<br> +uppermost, and no sooner had I reached my destination than I +despatched<br> +Mike to the quartermaster's office to pick up some news, and hear +which of<br> +my friends and brother officers were then at Lisbon. I was +sitting in a<br> +state of nervous impatience watching for his return, when at +length I heard<br> +footsteps approaching my room, and the next moment Mike's voice, +saying,<br> +"The ould room, sir, where he was before." The door suddenly +opened, and my<br> +friend Power stood before me.</p> + +<p>"Charley, my boy!"—"Fred, my fine fellow!" was all either +could say for<br> +some minutes. Upon my part, the recollection of his bold and +manly bearing<br> +in my behalf choked all utterance; while upon his, my haggard +cheek and<br> +worn look produced an effect so sudden and unexpected that he +became<br> +speechless.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes, however, we both rallied, and opened our +store of mutual<br> +remembrances since we parted. My career I found he was perfectly +acquainted<br> +with, and his consisted of nothing but one unceasing round of +gayety and<br> +pleasure. Lisbon had been delightful during the summer,—parties +to Cintra,<br> +excursions through the surrounding country, were of daily +occurrence; and<br> +as my friend was a favorite everywhere, his life was one of +continued<br> +amusement.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Charley, had it been any other man than +yourself, I should<br> +not have spared him; for I have fallen head over ears in love +with your<br> +little dark-eyed Portuguese."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Donna Inez, you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is she I mean, and you need not affect such an air of +uncommon<br> +<i>nonchalance</i>. She's the loveliest girl in Lisbon, and with +fortune to pay<br> +off all the mortgages in Connemara."</p> + +<p>"Oh, faith! I admire her amazingly; but as I never flattered +myself upon<br> +any preference—"</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Charley, no concealment, my old fellow; every one +knows the<br> +thing's settled. Your old friend, Sir George Dashwood, told me +yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Yesterday! Why, is he here, at Lisbon?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure he is; didn't I tell you that before? Confound it, +what a head<br> +I have! Why, man, he's come out as deputy adjutant-general; but +for him I<br> +should not have got renewed leave."</p> + +<p>"And Miss Dashwood, is she here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she came with him. By Jove, how handsome she is,—quite +a different<br> +style of thing from our dark friend, but, to my thinking, even +handsomer.<br> +Hammersley seems of my opinion, too."</p> + +<p>"How! Is Hammersley at Lisbon?"</p> + +<p>"On the staff here. But, confound it, what makes you so red, +you have no<br> +ill-feeling towards him now. I know he speaks most warmly of you; +no later<br> +than last night, at Sir George's—"</p> + +<p>What Power was about to add I know not, for I sprang from my +chair with a<br> +sudden start, and walked to the window, to conceal my agitation +from him.</p> + +<p>"And so," said I, at length regaining my composure in some +measure, "Sir<br> +George also spoke of my name in connection with the senhora?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure he did. All Lisbon does. What can you mean? But I +see, my dear<br> +boy; you know you are not of the strongest, and we've been +talking far too<br> +long. Come now, Charley, I'll say good-night. I'll be with you at +breakfast<br> +to-morrow, and tell you all the gossip; meanwhile promise me to +get quietly<br> +to bed, and so good-night."</p> + +<p>Such was the conflicting state of feeling I suffered from that +I made no<br> +effort to detain Power. I longed to be once more alone, to think, +calmly if<br> +I could, over the position I stood in, and to resolve upon my +plans for the<br> +future.</p> + +<p>My love for Lucy Dashwood had been long rather a devotion than +a hope. My<br> +earliest dawn of manly ambition was associated with the first +hour I met<br> +her. She it was who first touched my boyish heart, and suggested +a sense<br> +of chivalrous ardor within me; and even though lost to me +forever, I could<br> +still regard her as the mainspring of my actions, and dwell upon +my passion<br> +as the thing that hallowed every enterprise of my life.</p> + +<p>In a word, my love, however little it might reach her heart, +was everything<br> +to mine. It was the worship of the devotee to his protecting +saint. It was<br> +the faith that made me rise above misfortune and mishap, and led +me onward;<br> +and in this way I could have borne anything, everything, rather +than the<br> +imputation of fickleness.</p> + +<p>Lucy might not—nay, I felt she did not—love me. It was +possible that some<br> +other was preferred before me; but to doubt my own affection, to +suspect my<br> +own truth, was to destroy all the charm of my existence, and to +extinguish<br> +within me forever the enthusiasm that made me a hero to my own +heart.</p> + +<p>It may seem but poor philosophy; but alas, how many of our +happiest, how<br> +many of our brightest thoughts here are but delusions like this! +The<br> +dayspring of youth gilds the tops of the distant mountains before +us, and<br> +many a weary day through life, when clouds and storms are +thickening around<br> +us, we live upon the mere memory of the past. Some fast-flitting +prospect<br> +of a bright future, some passing glimpse of a sunlit valley, +tinges all our<br> +after-years.</p> + +<p>It is true that he will suffer fewer disappointments, he will +incur fewer<br> +of the mishaps of the world, who indulges in no fancies such as +these; but<br> +equally true is it that he will taste none of that exuberant +happiness<br> +which is that man's portion who weaves out a story of his life, +and who, in<br> +connecting the promise of early years with the performance of +later, will<br> +seek to fulfil a fate and destiny.</p> + +<p>Weaving such fancies, I fell sound asleep, nor woke before the +stir and<br> +bustle of the great city aroused me. Power, I found, had been +twice at my<br> +quarters that morning, but fearing to disturb me, had merely left +a few<br> +lines to say that, as he should be engaged on service during the +day,<br> +we could not meet before the evening. There were certain +preliminaries<br> +requisite regarding my leave which demanded my appearing before a +board of<br> +medical officers, and I immediately set about dressing; resolving +that, as<br> +soon as they were completed, I should, if permitted, retire to +one of the<br> +small cottages on the opposite bank of the Tagus, there to remain +until my<br> +restored health allowed me to rejoin my regiment.</p> + +<p>I dreaded meeting the Dashwoods. I anticipated with a heavy +heart how<br> +effectually one passing interview would destroy all my day-dreams +of<br> +happiness, and I preferred anything to the sad conviction of +hopelessness<br> +such a meeting must lead to.</p> + +<p>While I thus balanced with myself how to proceed, a gentle +step came to the<br> +door, and as it opened slowly, a servant in a dark livery +entered.</p> + +<p>"Mr. O'Malley, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, wondering to whom my arrival could be thus +early known.</p> + +<p>"Sir George Dashwood requests you will step over to him as +soon as you go<br> +out," continued the man; "he is so engaged that he cannot leave +home, but<br> +is most desirous to see you."</p> + +<p>"It is not far from here?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; scarcely five minutes' walk."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, if you will show me the way, I'll follow +you."</p> + +<p>I cast one passing glance at myself to see that all was right +about my<br> +costume, and sallied forth.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the Black Horse Square, at the door of a +large,<br> +stone-fronted building, a group of military men were assembled, +chatting<br> +and laughing away together,—some reading the lately-arrived +English<br> +papers; others were lounging upon the stone parapet, carelessly +puffing<br> +their cigars. None of the faces were known to me; so threading my +way<br> +through the crowd, I reached the steps. Just as I did so, a +half-muttered<br> +whisper met my ear:—</p> + +<p>"Who did you say?"</p> + +<p>"O'Malley, the young Irishman who behaved so gallantly at the +Douro."</p> + +<p>The blood rushed hotly to my cheek, my heart bounded with +exultation; my<br> +step, infirm and tottering but a moment before, became fixed and +steady,<br> +and I felt a thrill of proud enthusiasm playing through my veins. +How<br> +little did the speaker of those few and random words know what +courage he<br> +had given to a drooping heart, what renewed energy to a breaking +spirit!<br> +The voice of praise, too, coming from those to whom we had +thought<br> +ourselves unknown, has a magic about it that must be felt to be +understood.<br> +So it happened that in a few seconds a revolution had taken place +in all<br> +my thoughts and feelings, and I, who had left my quarters +dispirited and<br> +depressed, now walked confidently and proudly forward.</p> + +<p>"Mr. O'Malley, sir," said the servant to the officer waiting, +as we entered<br> +the antechamber.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mr. O'Malley," said the aide-de-damp, in his blandest +accent, "I hope<br> +you're better. Sir George is most anxious to see you; he is at +present<br> +engaged with the staff—"</p> + +<p>A bell rang at that moment, and cut short the sentence; he +flew to the door<br> +of the inner room, and returning in an instant, said,—</p> + +<p>"Will you follow me? This way, if you please."</p> + +<p>The room was crowded with general officers and aides-de-camp, +so that for<br> +a second or two I could not distinguish the parties; but no +sooner was my<br> +name announced, than Sir George Dashwood, forcing his way +through, rushed<br> +forward to meet me.</p> + +<p>"O'Malley, my brave fellow, delighted to shake your hand +again! How much<br> +grown you are,—twice the man I knew you; and the arm, too, is it +getting<br> +on well?"</p> + +<p>Scarcely giving me a moment to reply, and still holding my +hand tightly in<br> +his grasp, he introduced me on every side.</p> + +<p>"My young Irish friend, Sir Edward, the man of the Douro. My +Lord, allow me<br> +to present Lieutenant O'Malley, of the Fourteenth."</p> + +<p>"A very dashing thing, that of yours, sir, at Ciudad +Rodrigo."</p> + +<p>"A very senseless one, I fear, my Lord."</p> + +<p>"No, no, I don't agree with you at all; even when no great +results follow,<br> +the <i>morale</i> of an army benefits by acts of daring."</p> + +<p>A running fire of kind and civil speeches poured in on me from +all<br> +quarters, and amidst all that crowd of bronzed and war-worn +veterans, I<br> +felt myself the lion of the moment. Crawfurd, it appeared, had +spoken most<br> +handsomely of my name, and I was thus made known to many of those +whose own<br> +reputations were then extending over Europe.</p> + +<p>In this happy trance of excited pleasure I passed the morning. +Amidst<br> +the military chit-chat of the day around me, treated as an equal +by the<br> +greatest and the most distinguished, I heard all the confidential +opinions<br> +upon the campaign and its leaders; and in that most entrancing +of<br> +all flatteries,—the easy tone of companionship of our elders +and<br> +betters,—forgot my griefs, and half believed I was destined for +great<br> +things.</p> + +<p>Fearing, at length, that I had prolonged my visit too far, I +approached<br> +Sir George to take my leave, when, drawing my arm within his, he +retired<br> +towards one of the windows.</p> + +<p>"A word, O'Malley, before you go. I've arranged a little plan +for you;<br> +mind, I shall insist upon obedience. They'll make some difficulty +about<br> +your remaining here, so that I have appointed you one of our +extra<br> +aides-de-camp. That will free you from all trouble, and I shall +not be very<br> +exacting in my demands upon you. You must, however, commence your +duties<br> +to-day, and as we dine at seven precisely, I shall expect you. I +am<br> +aware of your wish to stay in Lisbon, my boy, and if all I hear +be true,<br> +congratulate you sincerely; but more of this another time, and so +good-by."<br> +So saying, he shook my hand once more, warmly; and without well +feeling how<br> +or why, I found myself in the street.</p> + +<p>The last few words Sir George had spoken threw a gloom over +all my<br> +thoughts. I saw at once that the report Power had alluded to had +gained<br> +currency at Lisbon. Sir George believed it; doubtless, Lucy, too; +and<br> +forgetting in an instant all the emulative ardor that so lately +stirred my<br> +heart, I took my path beside the river, and sauntered slowly +along, lost in<br> +my reflections.</p> + +<p>I had walked for above an hour before paying any attention to +the path I<br> +followed. Mechanically, as it were, retreating from the noise and +tumult-of<br> +the city, I wandered towards the country. My thoughts fixed but +upon<br> +one theme, I had neither ears nor eyes for aught around me; the +great<br> +difficulty of my present position now appearing to me in this +light,—my<br> +attachment to Lucy Dashwood, unrequited and unreturned as I felt +it,<br> +did not permit of my rebutting any report which might have +reached her<br> +concerning Donna Inez. I had no right, no claim to suppose her +sufficiently<br> +interested about me to listen to such an explanation, had I even +the<br> +opportunity to make it. One thing was thus clear to me,—all my +hopes had<br> +ended in that quarter; and as this conclusion sank into my mind, +a species<br> +of dogged resolution to brave my fortune crept upon me, which +only waited<br> +the first moment of my meeting her to overthrow and destroy +forever.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile I walked on,—now rapidly, as some momentary rush of +passionate<br> +excitement, now slowly, as some depressing and gloomy notion +succeeded;<br> +when suddenly my path was arrested by a long file of bullock cars +which<br> +blocked up the way. Some chance squabble had arisen among the +drivers, and<br> +to avoid the crowd and collision, I turned into a gateway which +opened<br> +beside me, and soon found myself in a lawn handsomely planted and +adorned<br> +with flowering shrubs and ornamental trees.</p> + +<p>In the half-dreamy state my musings had brought me to, I +struggled to<br> +recollect why the aspect of the place did not seem altogether +new. My<br> +thoughts were, however, far away,—now blending some memory of my +distant<br> +home with scenes of battle and bloodshed, or resting upon my +first<br> +interview with her whose chance word, carelessly and lightly +spoken, had<br> +written the story of my life. From this revery I was rudely +awakened by a<br> +rustling noise in the trees behind me, and before I could turn my +head, the<br> +two fore-paws of a large stag-hound were planted upon my +shoulders, while<br> +the open mouth and panting tongue were close beside my face. My +day-dream<br> +was dispelled quick as lightning; it was Juan, himself, the +favorite dog of<br> +the senhora, who gave me this rude welcome, and who now, by a +thousand wild<br> +gestures and bounding caresses, seemed to do the honors of his +house. There<br> +was something so like home in these joyful greetings that I +yielded myself<br> +at once his prisoner, and followed, or rather was accompanied by +him<br> +towards the villa.</p> + +<p>Of course, sooner or later, I should have called upon my kind +friends; then<br> +why not now, when chance has already brought me so near? Besides, +if I<br> +held to my resolution, which I meant to do,—of retiring to some +quiet and<br> +sequestered cottage till my health was restored,—the opportunity +might not<br> +readily present itself again. This line of argument perfectly +satisfied my<br> +reason; while a strong feeling of something like curiosity piqued +me to<br> +proceed, and before many minutes elapsed, I reached the house. +The door, as<br> +usual, lay wide open; and the ample hall, furnished like a +sitting-room,<br> +had its customary litter of books, music, and flowers scattered +upon the<br> +tables. My friend Juan, however, suffered me not to linger here, +but<br> +rushing furiously at a door before me, began a vigorous attack +for<br> +admittance.</p> + +<p>As I knew this to be the drawing-room, I opened the door and +walked in, but<br> +no one was to be seen; a half-open book lay upon an ottoman, and +a fan,<br> +which I recognized as an old acquaintance, was beside it, but the +owner was<br> +absent.</p> + +<p>I sat down, resolved to wait patiently for her coming, without +any<br> +announcement of my being there. I was not sorry, indeed, to have +some<br> +moments to collect my thoughts, and restore my erring faculties +to<br> +something like order.</p> + +<p>As I looked about the room, it seemed as if I had been there +but yesterday.<br> +The folding-doors lay open to the garden, just as I had seen them +last; and<br> +save that the flowers seemed fewer, and those which remained of a +darker<br> +and more sombre tint, all seemed unchanged. There lay the guitar +to whose<br> +thrilling chords my heart had bounded; there, the drawing over +which I had<br> +bent in admiring pleasure, suggesting some tints of light or +shadow, as the<br> +fairy fingers traced them; every chair was known to me, and I +greeted them<br> +as things I cared for.</p> + +<p>While thus I scanned each object around me, I was struck by a +little china<br> +vase which, unlike its other brethren, contained a bouquet of +dead and<br> +faded flowers; the blood rushed to my cheek; I started up; it was +one I had<br> +myself presented to her the day before we parted. It was in that +same vase<br> +I placed it; the very table, too, stood in the same position +beside that<br> +narrow window. What a rush of thoughts came pouring on me! And +oh!—shall I<br> +confess it?—how deeply did such a mute testimony of remembrance +speak<br> +to my heart, at the moment that I felt myself unloved and uncared +for by<br> +another! I walked hurriedly up and down, a maze of conflicting +resolves<br> +combating in my mind, while one thought ever recurred: "Would +that I had<br> +not come there!" and yet after all it may mean nothing; some +piece of<br> +passing coquetry which she will be the very first to laugh at. I +remembered<br> +how she spoke of poor Howard; what folly to take it otherwise! +"Be it so,<br> +then," said I, half aloud; "and now for my part of the game;" and +with this<br> +I took from my pocket the light-blue scarf she had given me the +morning we<br> +parted, and throwing it over my shoulder, prepared to perform my +part in<br> +what I had fully persuaded myself to be a comedy. The time, +however, passed<br> +on, and she came not; a thousand high-flown Portuguese phrases +had time to<br> +be conned over again and again by me, and I had abundant leisure +to enact<br> +my coming part; but still the curtain did not rise. As the day +was wearing,<br> +I resolved at last to write a few lines, expressive of my regret +at not<br> +meeting her, and promising myself an early opportunity of paying +my<br> +respects under more fortunate circumstances. I sat down +accordingly, and<br> +drawing the paper towards me, began in a mixture of French and +Portuguese,<br> +as it happened, to indite my billet.</p> + +<p>"Senhora Inez—" no—"Ma chère Mademoiselle Inez—" +confound it, that's too<br> +intimate; well, here goes: "Monsieur O'Malley presente ses +respects—" that<br> +will never do; and then, after twenty other abortive attempts, I +began<br> +thoughtlessly sketching heads upon the paper, and scribbling with +wonderful<br> +facility in fifty different ways: "Ma charmante amie—Ma plus +chère Inez,"<br> +etc., and in this most useful and profitable occupation did I +pass another<br> +half-hour.</p> + +<p>How long I should have persisted in such an employment it is +difficult to<br> +say, had not an incident intervened which suddenly but most +effectually put<br> +an end to it. As the circumstance is one which, however little +striking in<br> +itself, had the greatest and most lasting influence upon my +future career,<br> +I shall, perhaps, be excused in devoting another chapter to its +recital.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER X.</p> + +<p>A PLEASANT PREDICAMENT.</p> + +<p>As I sat vainly endeavoring to fix upon some suitable and +appropriate<br> +epithet by which to commence my note, my back was turned towards +the door<br> +of the garden; and so occupied was I in my meditations, that even +had any<br> +one entered at the time, in all probability I should not have +perceived it.<br> +At length, however, I was aroused from my study by a burst of +laughter,<br> +whose girlish joyousness was not quite new to me. I knew it well; +it was<br> +the senhora herself; and the next moment I heard her voice.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, I'm quite certain I saw his face in the mirror as +I passed.<br> +Oh, how delightful! and you'll be charmed with him; so, mind, you +must not<br> +steal him from me; I shall never forgive you if you do; and look, +only<br> +look! he has got the blue scarf I gave him when he marched to the +Douro."</p> + +<p>While I perceived that I was myself seen, I could see nothing +of the<br> +speaker, and wishing to hear something further, appeared more +than ever<br> +occupied in the writing before me.</p> + +<p>What her companion replied I could not, however, catch, but +only guess at<br> +its import by the senhora's answer. "<i>Fi done!</i>—I really am very +fond of<br> +him; but, never fear, I shall be as stately as a queen. You shall +see how<br> +meekly he will kiss my hand, and with what unbending reserve I'll +receive<br> +him."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" thought I; "mayhap, I'll mar your plot a little; but +let us<br> +listen."</p> + +<p>Again her friend spoke, but too low to be heard.</p> + +<p>"It is so provoking," continued Inez; "I never can remember +names, and his<br> +was something too absurd; but never mind, I shall make him a +grandee of<br> +Portugal. Well, but come along, I long to present him to +you."</p> + +<p>Here a gentle struggle seemed to ensue; for I heard the +senhora coaxingly<br> +entreat her, while her companion steadily resisted.</p> + +<p>"I know very well you think I shall be so silly, and perhaps +wrong; eh, is<br> +it not so? but you are quite mistaken. You'll be surprised at my +cold and<br> +dignified manner. I shall draw myself proudly up, thus, and +curtsying<br> +deeply, say, 'Monsieur, j'ai l' honneur de vous saluer.'"</p> + +<p>A laugh twice as mirthful as before interrupted her account of +herself,<br> +while I could hear the tones of her friend evidently in +expostulation.</p> + +<a name="0083"></a> +<img alt="0083.jpg (166K)" src="0083.jpg" height="641" width="777"> + +<p>[O'MALLEY FOLLOWING THE CUSTOM OF HIS COUNTRY.]</p> +<br><br> +<p>"Well, then, to be sure, you are provoking, but you really +promise to<br> +follow me. Be it so; then give me that moss-rose. How you have +fluttered<br> +me; now for it!"</p> + +<p>So saying, I heard her foot upon the gravel, and the next +instant upon the<br> +marble step of the door. There is something in expectation that +sets the<br> +heart beating, and mine throbbed against my side. I waited, +however, till<br> +she entered, before lifting my head, and then springing suddenly +up, with<br> +one bound clasped her in my arms, and pressing my lips upon her +roseate<br> +cheek, said,—</p> + +<p>"<i>Mar charmante amie!</i>" To disengage herself from me, and to +spring<br> +suddenly back was her first effort; to burst into an immoderate +fit of<br> +laughing, her second; her cheek was, however, covered with a deep +blush,<br> +and I already repented that my malice had gone so far.</p> + +<p>"Pardon, Mademoiselle," said I, in affected innocence, "if I +have so far<br> +forgotten myself as to assume a habit of my own country to a +stranger."</p> + +<p>A half-angry toss of the head was her only reply, and turning +towards the<br> +garden, she called to her friend:—</p> + +<p>"Come here, dearest, and instruct my ignorance upon your +national customs;<br> +but first let me present to you,—never know his name,—the +Chevalier de<br> +——What is it?"</p> + +<p>The glass door opened as she spoke; a tall and graceful figure +entered, and<br> +turning suddenly round, showed me the features of Lucy Dashwood. +We both<br> +stood opposite each other, each mute with amazement. <i>My</i> +feelings let me<br> +not attempt to convey; shame, for the first moment stronger than +aught<br> +else, sent the blood rushing to my face and temples, and the next +I was<br> +cold and pale as death. As for her, I cannot guess at what passed +in<br> +her mind. She curtsied deeply to me, and with a half-smile of +scarce<br> +recognition passed by me, and walked towards a window.</p> + +<p>"<i>Comme vous êtes amiable!</i>" said the lively Portuguese, +who comprehended<br> +little of this dumb show; "here have I been flattering myself +what friends<br> +you'd be the very moment you meet, and now you'll not even look +at each<br> +other."</p> + +<p>What was to be done? The situation was every instant growing +more and more<br> +embarrassing; nothing but downright effrontery could get through +with<br> +it now; and never did a man's heart more fail him than did mine +at this<br> +conjuncture. I made the' effort, however, and stammered out +certain<br> +unmeaning commonplaces. Inez replied, and I felt myself +conversing with the<br> +headlong recklessness of one marching to a scaffold, a coward's +fear at his<br> +heart, while he essayed to seem careless and indifferent.</p> + +<p>Anxious to reach what I esteemed safe ground, I gladly +adverted to the<br> +campaign; and at last, hurried on by the impulse to cover my +embarrassment,<br> +was describing some skirmish with a French outpost. Without +intending, I<br> +had succeeded in exciting the senhora's interest, and she +listened with<br> +sparkling eye and parted lips to the description of a sweeping +charge in<br> +which a square was broken, and several prisoners carried off. +Warming with<br> +the eager avidity of her attention, I grew myself more excited, +when just<br> +as my narrative reached its climax, Miss Dashwood walked gently +towards the<br> +bell, rang it, and ordered her carriage. The tone of perfect +<i>nonchalance</i><br> +of the whole proceeding struck me dumb; I faltered, stammered, +hesitated,<br> +and was silent. Donna Inez turned from one to the other of us +with a look<br> +of unfeigned astonishment and I heard her mutter to herself +something<br> +like a reflection upon "national eccentricities." Happily, +however,<br> +her attention was now exclusively turned towards her friend, and +while<br> +assisting her to shawl, and extorting innumerable promises of an +early<br> +visit, I got a momentary reprieve; the carriage drew up also, and +as the<br> +gravel flew right and left beneath the horses' feet, the very +noise and<br> +bustle relieved me. "<i>Adios</i>," then said Inez, as she kissed her +for the<br> +last time, while she motioned to me to escort her to her +carriage. I<br> +advanced, stopped, made another step forward, and again grew +irresolute;<br> +but Miss Dashwood speedily terminated the difficulty; for making +me a<br> +formal curtsey, she declined my scarce-proffered attention, and +left the<br> +room.</p> + +<p>As she did so, I perceived that on passing the table, her eyes +fell upon<br> +the paper I had been scribbling over so long, and I thought that +for<br> +an instant an expression of ineffable scorn seemed to pass across +her<br> +features, save which—and perhaps even in this I was +mistaken—her manner<br> +was perfectly calm, easy, and indifferent.</p> + +<p>Scarce had the carriage rolled from the door, when the +senhora, throwing<br> +herself upon her chair, clapped her hands in childish ecstasy, +while she<br> +fell into a fit of laughing that I thought would never have an +end. "Such<br> +a scene!" cried she; "I would not have lost it for the world; +what<br> +cordiality! what <i>empressement</i> to form acquaintance! I shall +never forget<br> +it, Monsieur le Chevalier; your national customs seem to run +sadly in<br> +extremes. One would have thought you deadly enemies; and poor me, +after a<br> +thousand delightful plans about you both!"</p> + +<p>As she ran on thus, scarce able to control her mirth at each +sentence, I<br> +walked the room with impatient strides, now, resolving to hasten +after the<br> +carriage, stop it, explain in a few words how all had happened, +and then<br> +fly from her forever; then the remembrance of her cold, impassive +look<br> +crossed me, and I thought that one bold leap into the Tagus might +be the<br> +shortest and easiest solution to all my miseries. Perfect +abasement,<br> +thorough self-contempt had broken all my courage, and I could +have cried<br> +like a child. What I said, or how I comforted myself after, I +know not; but<br> +my first consciousness came to me as I felt myself running at the +top of my<br> +speed far upon the road towards Lisbon.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XI.</p> + +<p>THE DINNER.</p> + +<p>It may easily be imagined that I had little inclination to +keep my promise<br> +of dining that day with Sir George Dashwood. However, there was +nothing<br> +else for it; the die was cast,—my prospects as regarded Lucy +were ruined<br> +forever. We were not, we never could be anything to each other; +and as for<br> +me, the sooner I braved my altered fortunes the better; and after +all, why<br> +should I call them altered. She evidently never had cared for me; +and even<br> +supposing that my fervent declaration of attachment had +interested her, the<br> +apparent duplicity and falseness of my late conduct could only +fall the<br> +more heavily upon me.</p> + +<p>I endeavored to philosophize myself into calmness and +indifference. One by<br> +one I exhausted every argument for my defence, which, however +ingeniously<br> +put forward, brought no comfort to my own conscience. I pleaded +the<br> +unerring devotion of my heart, the uprightness of my motives, and +when<br> +called on for the proofs,—alas! except the blue scarf I wore in +memory of<br> +another, and my absurd conduct at the villa, I had none. From the +current<br> +gossip of Lisbon, down to my own disgraceful folly, all, all was +against<br> +me.</p> + +<p>Honesty of intention, rectitude of purpose, may be, doubtless +they are,<br> +admirable supports to a rightly constituted mind; but even then +they must<br> +come supported by such claims to probability as make the injured +man feel<br> +he has not lost the sympathy of all his fellows. Now, I had none +of these,<br> +had even my temperament, broken by sickness and harassed by +unlucky<br> +conjectures, permitted my appreciating them.</p> + +<p>I endeavored to call my wounded pride to my aid, and thought +over the<br> +glance of haughty disdain she gave me as she passed on to her +carriage; but<br> +even this turned against me, and a humiliating sense of my own +degraded<br> +position sank deeply into my heart. "This impression at least," +thought I,<br> +"must be effaced. I cannot permit her to believe—"</p> + +<p>"His Excellency is waiting dinner, sir," said a lackey, +introducing a<br> +finely powdered head gently within the door. I looked at my +watch, it was<br> +eight o'clock; so snatching my sabre, and shocked at my delay, +I<br> +hastily followed the servant down-stairs, and thus at once cut +short my<br> +deliberations.</p> + +<p>The man must be but little observant or deeply sunk in his own +reveries,<br> +who, arriving half-an-hour too late for dinner, fails to detect +in the<br> +faces of the assembled and expectant guests a very palpable +expression of<br> +discontent and displeasure. It is truly a moment of awkwardness, +and one<br> +in which few are found to manage with success; the blushing, +hesitating,<br> +blundering apology of the absent man, is scarcely better than +the<br> +ill-affected surprise of the more practised offender. The +bashfulness of<br> +the one is as distasteful as the cool impertinence of the other; +both are<br> +so thoroughly out of place, for we are thinking of neither; our +thoughts<br> +are wandering to cold soups and rechaufféd +pâtés, and we neither care for<br> +nor estimate the cause, but satisfy our spleen by cursing the +offender.</p> + +<p>Happily for me I was clad in a triple insensibility to such +feelings,<br> +and with an air of most perfect unconstraint and composure walked +into<br> +a drawing-room where about twenty persons were busily discussing +what<br> +peculiar amiability in my character could compensate for my +present<br> +conduct.</p> + +<p>"At last, O'Malley, at last!" said Sir George. "Why, my dear +boy, how very<br> +late you are!"</p> + +<p>I muttered something about a long walk,—distance from Lisbon, +etc.</p> + +<p>"Ah! that was it. I was right, you see!" said an old lady in a +spangled<br> +turban, as she whispered something to her friend beside her, who +appeared<br> +excessively shocked at the information conveyed; while a fat, +round-faced<br> +little general, after eying me steadily through his glass, +expressed a<br> +<i>sotto voce</i> wish that I was upon <i>his</i> staff. I felt my cheek +reddening<br> +at the moment, and stared around me like one whose trials were +becoming<br> +downright insufferable, when happily dinner was announced, and +terminated<br> +my embarrassment.</p> + +<p>As the party filed past, I perceived that Miss Dashwood was +not among them;<br> +and with a heart relieved for the moment by the circumstance, and +inventing<br> +a hundred conjectures to account for it, I followed with the +aides-de-camp<br> +and the staff to the dinner-room.</p> + +<p>The temperament is very Irish, I believe, which renders a man +so elastic<br> +that from the extreme of depression to the very climax of high +spirits,<br> +there is but one spring. To this I myself plead guilty, and thus, +scarcely<br> +was I freed from the embarrassment which a meeting with Lucy +Dashwood must<br> +have caused, when my heart bounded with lightness.</p> + +<p>When the ladies withdrew, the events of the campaign became +the subject of<br> +conversation, and upon these, very much to my astonishment, I +found myself<br> +consulted as an authority. The Douro, from some fortunate +circumstance, had<br> +given me a reputation I never dreamed of, and I heard my opinions +quoted<br> +upon topics of which my standing as an officer, and my rank in +the service,<br> +could not imply a very extended observation. Power was absent on +duty; and<br> +happily for my supremacy, the company consisted entirely of +generals in the<br> +commissariat or new arrivals from England, all of whom knew still +less than<br> +myself.</p> + +<p>What will not iced champagne and flattery do? Singly, they are +strong<br> +impulses; combined, their power is irresistible. I now heard for +the first<br> +time that our great leader had been elevated to the peerage by +the title of<br> +Lord Wellington, and I sincerely believe—however now I may smile +at the<br> +confession—that, at the moment, I felt more elation at the +circumstance<br> +than he did. The glorious sensation of being in any way, no +matter how<br> +remotely, linked with the career of those whose path is a high +one, and<br> +whose destinies are cast for great events, thrilled through me; +and in<br> +all the warmth of my admiration and pride for our great captain, +a secret<br> +pleasure stirred within me as I whispered to myself, "And I, too, +am a<br> +soldier!"</p> + +<p>I fear me that very little flattery is sufficient to turn the +head of a<br> +young man of eighteen; and if I yielded to the "pleasant +incense," let my<br> +apology be that I was not used to it; and lastly, let me avow, if +I did get<br> +tipsy, I liked the liquor. And why not? It is the only tipple I +know of<br> +that leaves no headache the next morning to punish you for the +glories of<br> +the past night. It may, like all other strong potations, it is +true, induce<br> +you to make a fool of yourself when under its influence; but like +the<br> +nitrous-oxide gas, its effects are passing, and as the pleasure +is an<br> +ecstasy for the time, and your constitution none the worse when +it is over,<br> +I really see no harm in it.</p> + +<p>Then the benefits are manifest; for while he who gives becomes +never the<br> +poorer for his benevolence, the receiver is made rich indeed. It +matters<br> +little that some dear, kind friend is ready with his bitter +draught to<br> +remedy what he is pleased to call its unwholesome sweetness; you +betake<br> +yourself with only the more pleasure to the "blessed elixir," +whose<br> +fascinations neither the poverty of your pocket, nor the penury +of your<br> +brain, can withstand, and by the magic of whose spell you are +great and<br> +gifted. "<i>Vive la bagatelle!</i>" saith the Frenchman. "Long live +flattery!"<br> +say I, come from what quarter it will,—the only wealth of the +poor man,<br> +the only reward of the unknown one; the arm that supports us in +failure;<br> +the hand that crowns us in success; the comforter in our +affliction; the<br> +gay companion in our hours of pleasure; the lullaby of the +infant; the<br> +staff of old age; the secret treasure we lock up in our own +hearts, and<br> +which ever grows greater as we count it over. Let me not be told +that the<br> +coin is fictitious, and the gold not genuine; its clink is as +musical to<br> +the ear as though it bore the last impression of the mint, and +I'm not the<br> +man to cast an aspersion upon its value.</p> + +<p>This little digression, however seemingly out of place, may +serve to<br> +illustrate what it might be difficult to convey in other +words,—namely,<br> +that if Charles O'Malley became, in his own estimation, a very +considerable<br> +personage that day at dinner, the fault lay not entirely with +himself, but<br> +with his friends, who told him he was such. In fact, my good +reader, I was<br> +the lion of the party, the man who saved Laborde, who charged +through a<br> +brigade of guns, who performed feats which newspapers quoted, +though he<br> +never heard of them himself. At no time is a man so successful in +society<br> +as when his reputation heralds him; and it needs but little +conversational<br> +eloquence to talk well, if you have but a willing and ready +auditory. Of<br> +mine, I could certainly not complain; and as, drinking deeply, I +poured<br> +forth a whole tide of campaigning recital, I saw the old colonels +of<br> +recruiting districts exchanging looks of wonder and admiration +with<br> +officers of the ordnance; while Sir George himself, evidently +pleased at my<br> +<i>début</i>, went back to an early period of our acquaintance, +and related the<br> +rescue of his daughter in Galway.</p> + +<p>In an instant the whole current of my thoughts was changed. My +first<br> +meeting with Lucy, my boyhood's dream of ambition, my plighted +faith,<br> +my thought of our last parting in Dublin, when, in a moment of +excited<br> +madness, I told my tale of love. I remembered her downcast look, +as her<br> +cheek now flushing, now growing pale, she trembled while I spoke. +I thought<br> +of her, as in the crash of battle her image flashed across my +brain, and<br> +made me feel a rush of chivalrous enthusiasm to win her heart by +"doughty<br> +deeds."</p> + +<p>I forgot all around and about me. My head reeled, the wine, +the excitement,<br> +my long previous illness, all pressed upon me; and as my temples +throbbed<br> +loudly and painfully, a chaotic rush of discordant, ill-connected +ideas<br> +flitted across my mind. There seemed some stir and confusion in +the room,<br> +but why or wherefore I could not think, nor could I recall my +scattered<br> +senses, till Sir George Dashwood's voice roused me once again +to<br> +consciousness.</p> + +<p>"We are going to have some coffee, O'Malley. Miss Dashwood +expects us in<br> +the drawing-room. You have not seen her yet?"</p> + +<p>I know not my reply; but he continued:—</p> + +<p>"She has some letters for you, I think."</p> + +<p>I muttered something, and suffered him to pass on; no sooner +had he done<br> +so, however, than I turned towards the door, and rushed into the +street.<br> +The cold night air suddenly recalled me to myself, and I stood +for a moment<br> +endeavoring to collect myself; as I did so, a servant stopped, +and saluting<br> +me, presented me with a letter. For a second, a cold chill came +over me; I<br> +knew not what fear beset me. The letter, I at last remembered, +must be that<br> +one alluded to by Sir George, so I took it in silence, and walked +on.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XII.</p> + +<p>THE LETTER.</p> + +<p>As I hurried to my quarters, I made a hundred guesses from +whom the letter<br> +could have come; a kind of presentiment told me that it bore, in +some<br> +measure, upon the present crisis of my life, and I burned with +anxiety to<br> +read it.</p> + +<p>No sooner had I reached the light, than all my hopes on this +head vanished;<br> +the envelope bore the well-known name of my old college chum, +Frank Webber,<br> +and none could, at the moment, have more completely dispelled all +chance<br> +of interesting me. I threw it from me with disappointment, and +sat moodily<br> +down to brood over my fate.</p> + +<p>At length, however, and almost without knowing it, I drew the +lamp towards<br> +me, and broke the seal. The reader being already acquainted with +my amiable<br> +friend, there is the less indiscretion in communicating the +contents, which<br> +ran thus:—</p> + +<p> TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, No. 2,</p> + +<p> October 5, 1810.</p> + +<p> My Dear O'Malley,—Nothing short of your death and +burial,<br> + with or without military honors, can possibly excuse your +very<br> + disgraceful neglect of your old friends here. Nesbitt has +never<br> + heard of you, neither has Smith. Ottley swears never to have +seen<br> + your handwriting, save on the back of a protested bill. You +have<br> + totally forgotten <i>me</i>, and the dean informs me that you have +never<br> + condescended a single line to him; which latter inquiry on my +part<br> + nearly cost me a rustication.</p> + +<p> A hundred conjectures to account for your silence—a new +feature<br> + in you since you were here—are afloat. Some assert that +your<br> + soldiering has turned your head, and that you are above +corresponding<br> + with civilians. Your friends, however, who know you better +and<br> + value your worth, think otherwise; and having seen a +paragraph<br> + about a certain O'Malley being tried by court-martial for +stealing a<br> + goose, and maltreating the woman that owned it, ascribe your +not<br> + writing to other motives. Do, in any case, relieve our minds; +say,<br> + is it yourself, or only a relative that's mentioned?<br> + Herbert came over from London with a long story about +your<br> + doing wonderful things,—capturing cannon and general +officers by<br> + scores,—but devil a word of it is extant; and if you have +really<br> + committed these acts, they have "misused the king's press +damnably,"<br> + for neither in the "Times" nor the "Post" are you heard +of.<br> + Answer this point, and say also if you have got promotion; +for what<br> + precise sign you are algebraically expressed by at this +writing, may<br> + serve Fitzgerald for a fellowship question. As for us, we are +jogging<br> + along, <i>semper eadem</i>,—that is, worse and worse. Dear +Cecil<br> + Cavendish, our gifted friend, slight of limb and soft of +voice, has<br> + been rusticated for immersing four bricklayers in that +green<br> + receptacle of stagnant water and duckweed, yeleped the +"Haha."<br> + Roper, equally unlucky, has taken to reading for honors, and +obtained<br> + a medal, I fancy,—at least his friends shy him, and it must +be<br> + something of that kind. Belson—poor Belson (fortunately for +him he<br> + was born in the nineteenth, not the sixteenth century, or +he'd be most<br> + likely ornamenting a pile of fagots) ventured upon some +stray<br> + excursions into the Hebrew verbs,—the professor himself +never having<br> + transgressed beyond the declensions, and the consequence is, +he is<br> + in disgrace among the seniors. And as for me, a heavy charge +hangs<br> + over my devoted head even while I write. The senior lecturer, +it<br> + appears, has been for some time instituting some very +singular<br> + researches into the original state of our goodly college at +its<br> + founding. Plans and specifications showing its extent and +magnificence<br> + have been continually before the board for the last month; +and in such<br> + repute have been a smashed door-sill or an old arch, that +freshmen<br> + have now abandoned conic sections for crowbars, and instead +of the<br> + "Principia" have taken up the pickaxe. You know, my dear +fellow,<br> + with what enthusiasm I enter into any scheme for the +aggrandizement<br> + of our Alma Mater, so I need not tell you how ardently I<br> + adventured into the career now opened to me. My time was +completely<br> + devoted to the matter; neither means nor health did I +spare,<br> + and in my search for antiquarian lore, I have actually +undermined<br> + the old wall of the fellows' garden, and am each morning in +expectation<br> + of hearing that the big bell near the commons-hall has +descended<br> + from its lofty and most noisy eminence, and is snugly +reposing in<br> + the mud. Meanwhile accident put me in possession of a +most<br> + singular and remarkable discovery. Our chambers—I call +them<br> + ours for old association sake—are, you may remember, in the +Old<br> + Square. Well, I have been fortunate enough, within the very +precincts<br> + of my own dwelling, to contribute a very wonderful fact to +the<br> + history of the University; alone, unassisted, unaided, I +labored<br> + at my discovery. Few can estimate the pleasure I felt, the +fame<br> + and reputation I anticipated. I drew up a little memoir for +the<br> + board, most respectfully and civilly worded, having for title +the<br> + following:—</p> + +<p> ACCOUNT<br> + Of a remarkable Subterranean Passage lately discovered in +the<br> + Old Building of Trinity College, Dublin;<br> + With Observations upon its Extent, Antiquity, and Probable +Use.<br> + By F. WEBBER, Senior Freshman.</p> + +<p> My dear O'Malley, I'll not dwell upon the pride I felt in +my new<br> + character of antiquarian; it is enough to state, that my +very<br> + remarkable tract was well considered and received, and a +commission<br> + appointed to investigate the discovery, consisting of the<br> + vice-provost, the senior lecturer, old Woodhouse, the +sub-dean, and<br> + a few more.</p> + +<p> On Tuesday last they came accordingly in full academic +costume.<br> + I, being habited most accurately in the like manner, +conducted<br> + them with all form into my bed-room, where a large screen +concealed<br> + from view the entrance to the tunnel alluded to. Assuming a +very<br> + John Kembleish attitude, I struck this down with one hand, +pointing<br> + with the other to the wall, as I exclaimed, "There! look<br> + there!"</p> + +<p> I need only quote Barret's exclamation to enlighten you +upon my<br> + discovery as, drawing in his breath with a strong effort, he +burst<br> + out:—</p> + +<p> "May the Devil admire me, but it's a rat-hole!"</p> + +<p> I fear, Charley, he's right, and what's more, that the +board will<br> + think so, for this moment a very warm discussion is going on +among<br> + that amiable and learned body whether I shall any longer +remain an<br> + ornament to the University. In fact, the terror with which +they<br> + fled from my chambers, overturning each other in the +passage,<br> + seemed to imply that they thought me mad, and I do believe +my<br> + voice, look, and attitude would not have disgraced a blue +cotton<br> + dressing-gown and a cell in "Swift's." Be this as it may, few +men<br> + have done more for college than I have. The sun never stood +still<br> + for Joshua with more resolution than I have rested in my +career of<br> + freshman; and if I have contributed little to the fame, I +have done<br> + much for the funds of the University; and when they come to +compute<br> + the various sums I have paid in, for fines, penalties, and +what<br> + they call properly "impositions," if they don't place a +portrait of me<br> + in the examination hall, between Archbishop Ussher and Flood, +then<br> + do I say there is no gratitude in mankind; not to mention the +impulse<br> + I have given to the various artisans whose business it is +to<br> + repair lamps, windows, chimneys, iron railings, and watchmen, +all<br> + of which I have devoted myself to with an enthusiasm for +political<br> + economy well known, and registered in the College Street +police-office.</p> + +<p> After all, Charley, I miss you greatly. Your second in a +ballad is<br> + not to be replaced; besides, Carlisle Bridge has got low; +medical<br> + students and young attorneys affect minstrelsy, and actually +frequent<br> + the haunts sacred to our muse.</p> + +<p> Dublin is, upon the whole, I think, worse; though one +scarcely<br> + ever gets tired laughing at the small celebrities—</p> + +<p>Master Frank gets here indiscreet, so I shall skip.</p> + +<p> And so the Dashwoods are going too; this will make mine +a<br> + pitiable condition, for I really did begin to feel tender in +that<br> + quarter. You may have heard that she refused me; this, +however, is not<br> + correct, though I have little doubt it might have been,—had +I<br> + asked her.</p> + +<p> Hammersley has, you know, got his dismissal. I wonder how +the<br> + poor fellow took it when Power gave him back his letters and +his<br> + picture. How <i>you</i> are to be treated remains to be seen; in +any<br> + case, you certainly stand first favorite.</p> + +<p>I laid down the letter at this passage, unable to read +farther. Here, then,<br> +was the solution of the whole chaos of mystery; here the full +explanation<br> +of what had puzzled my aching brain for many a night long. These +were the<br> +very letters I had myself delivered into Hammersley's hands; this +the<br> +picture he had trodden to dust beneath his heel the morning of +our meeting.<br> +I now felt the reason of his taunting allusion to my "success," +his cutting<br> +sarcasm, his intemperate passion. A flood of light poured at once +across<br> +all the dark passages of my history; and Lucy, too,—dare I think +of her! A<br> +rapid thought shot through my brain. What if she had really cared +for me!<br> +What if for me she had rejected another's love! What if, trusting +to my<br> +faith, my pledged and sworn faith, she had given me her heart! +Oh, the<br> +bitter agony of that thought! To think that all my hopes were +shipwrecked<br> +with the very land in sight.</p> + +<p>I sprang to my feet with some sudden impulse, but as I did so +the blood<br> +rushed madly to my face and temples, which beat violently; a +parched and<br> +swollen feeling came about my throat; I endeavored to open my +collar<br> +and undo my stock, but my disabled arm prevented me. I tried to +call<br> +my servant, but my utterance was thick and my words would not +come; a<br> +frightful suspicion crossed me that my reason was tottering. I +made towards<br> +the door; but as I did so, the objects around me became confused +and<br> +mingled, my limbs trembled, and I fell heavily upon the floor. A +pang of<br> +dreadful pain shot through me as I fell; my arm was rebroken. +After this I<br> +knew no more; all the accumulated excitement of the evening bore +down with<br> +one fell swoop upon my brain. Ere day broke, I was delirious.</p> + +<p>I have a vague and indistinct remembrance of hurried and +anxious faces<br> +around my bed, of whispered words and sorrowful looks; but my own +thoughts<br> +careered over the bold hills of the far west as I trod them in +my<br> +boyhood, free and high of heart, or recurred to the din and crash +of the<br> +battle-field, with the mad bounding of the war-horse, and the +loud clang of<br> +the trumpet. Perhaps the acute pain of my swollen and suffering +arm gave<br> +the character to my mental aberration; for I have more than once +observed<br> +among the wounded in battle, that even when torn and mangled by +grape<br> +from a howitzer, their ravings have partaken of a high feature +of<br> +enthusiasm,—shouts of triumph and exclamations of pleasure, +even<br> +songs have I heard, but never once the low muttering of despair +or the<br> +half-stifled cry of sorrow and affliction.</p> + +<p>Such were the few gleams of consciousness which visited me; +and even to<br> +such as these I soon became insensible.</p> + +<p>Few like to chronicle, fewer still to read, the sad history of +a sick-bed.<br> +Of mine, I know but little. The throbbing pulses of the erring +brain, the<br> +wild fancies of lunacy, take no note of time. There is no past +nor future;<br> +a dreadful present, full of its hurried and confused impressions, +is all<br> +that the mind beholds; and even when some gleams of returning +reason flash<br> +upon the mad confusion of the brain, they come like sunbeams +through a<br> +cloud, dimmed, darkened, and perverted.</p> + +<p>It is the restless activity of the mind in fever that +constitutes its<br> +most painful anguish; the fast-flitting thoughts that rush ever +onwards,<br> +crowding sensation on sensation, an endless train of exciting +images<br> +without purpose or repose; or even worse, the straining effort to +pursue<br> +some vague and shadowy conception which evades us ever as we +follow, but<br> +which mingles with all around and about us, haunting us at +midnight as in<br> +the noontime. Of this nature was a vision which came constantly +before<br> +me, till at length, by its very recurrence, it assumed a kind of +real and<br> +palpable existence; and as I watched it, my heart thrilled with +the high<br> +ardor of enthusiasm and delight, or sunk into the dark abyss of +sorrow and<br> +despair. "The dawning of morning, the daylight sinking," brought +no other<br> +image to my aching sight; and of this alone, of all the +impressions of the<br> +period, has my mind retained any consciousness.</p> + +<p>Methought I stood within an old and venerable cathedral, where +the dim<br> +yellow light fell with a rich but solemn glow upon the fretted +capitals,<br> +or the grotesque tracings of the oaken carvings, lighting up the +fading<br> +gildings of the stately monuments, and tinting the varied hues of +time-worn<br> +banners. The mellow notes of a deep organ filled the air, and +seemed to<br> +attune the sense to all the awe and reverence of the place, where +the very<br> +footfall, magnified by its many echoes, seemed half a +profanation. I stood<br> +before an altar, beside me a young and lovely girl, whose bright +brown<br> +tresses waved in loose masses upon a neck of snowy whiteness; her +hand,<br> +cold and pale, rested within my own; we knelt together, not in +prayer, but<br> +a feeling of deep reverence stole over my heart, as she repeated +some few<br> +half-uttered words after me; I knew that she was mine. Oh, the +ecstasy of<br> +that moment, as, springing to my feet, I darted forward to press +her to my<br> +heart! When, suddenly, an arm was interposed between us, while a +low but<br> +solemn voice rang in my ears, "Stir not; for thou art false and +traitorous,<br> +thy vow a perjury, and thy heart a lie!" Slowly and silently the +fair form<br> +of my loved Lucy—for it was her—receded from my sight. One +look, one last<br> +look of sorrow—it was scarce reproach—fell upon me, and I sank +back upon<br> +the cold pavement, broken-hearted and forsaken.</p> + +<p>This dream came with daybreak, and with the calm repose of +evening; the<br> +still hours of the waking night brought no other image to my +eyes, and when<br> +its sad influence had spread a gloom and desolation over my +wounded heart,<br> +a secret hope crept over me, that again the bright moment of +happiness<br> +would return, and once more beside that ancient altar I'd kneel +beside my<br> +bride, and call her mine.</p> + +<p>For the rest, my memory retains but little; the kind looks +which came<br> +around my bedside brought but a brief pleasure, for in their +affectionate<br> +beaming I could read the gloomy prestige of my fate. The hurried +but<br> +cautious step, the whispered sentences, the averted gaze of those +who<br> +sorrowed for me, sunk far deeper into my heart than my friends +then thought<br> +of. Little do they think, who minister to the sick or dying, how +each<br> +passing word, each flitting glance is noted, and how the pale and +stilly<br> +figure which lies all but lifeless before them counts over the +hours he has<br> +to live by the smiles or tears around him!</p> + +<p>Hours, days, weeks rolled over, and still my fate hung in the +balance; and<br> +while in the wild enthusiasm of my erring faculties, I wandered +far in<br> +spirit from my bed of suffering and pain, some well-remembered +voice beside<br> +me would strike upon my ear, bringing me back, as if by magic, to +all the<br> +realities of life, and investing my almost unconscious state with +all the<br> +hopes and fears about me.</p> + +<p>One by one, at length, these fancies fled from me, and to the +delirium of<br> +fever succeeded the sad and helpless consciousness of illness, +far, far<br> +more depressing; for as the conviction of sense came back, the +sorrowful<br> +aspect of a dreary future came with it.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XIII.</p> + +<p>THE VILLA.</p> + +<p>The gentle twilight of an autumnal evening, calm, serene, and +mellow, was<br> +falling as I opened my eyes to consciousness of life and being, +and looked<br> +around me. I lay in a large and handsomely-furnished apartment, +in which<br> +the hand of taste was as evident in all the decorations as the +unsparing<br> +employment of wealth; the silk draperies of my bed, the inlaid +tables, the<br> +ormolu ornaments which glittered upon the chimney, were one by +one so many<br> +puzzles to my erring senses, and I opened and shut my eyes again +and again,<br> +and essayed by every means in my power to ascertain if they were +not the<br> +visionary creations of a fevered mind. I stretched out my hands +to feel the<br> +objects; and even while holding the freshly-plucked flowers in my +grasp I<br> +could scarce persuade myself that they were real. A thrill of +pain at this<br> +instant recalled me to other thoughts, and I turned my eyes upon +my wounded<br> +arm, which, swollen and stiffened, lay motionless beside me. +Gradually, my<br> +memory came back, and to my weak faculties some passages of my +former<br> +life were presented, not collectedly it is true, nor in any +order, but<br> +scattered, isolated scenes. While such thoughts flew past, my +ever-rising<br> +question to myself was, "Where am I now?" The vague feeling which +illness<br> +leaves upon the mind, whispered to me of kind looks and soft +voices; and<br> +I had a dreamy consciousness about me of being watched and cared +for, but<br> +wherefore, or by whom, I knew not.</p> + +<p>From a partly open door which led into a garden, a mild and +balmy air<br> +fanned my temples and soothed my heated brow; and as the light +curtain<br> +waved to and fro with the breeze, the odor of the rose and the +orange-tree<br> +filled the apartment.</p> + +<p>There is something in the feeling of weakness which succeeds +to long<br> +illness of the most delicious and refined enjoyment. The spirit +emerging as<br> +it were from the thraldom of its grosser prison, rises high and +triumphant<br> +above the meaner thoughts and more petty ambitions of daily life. +Purer<br> +feelings, more ennobling hopes succeed; and dreams of our +childhood,<br> +mingling with our promises for the future, make up an ideal +existence<br> +in which the low passions and cares of ordinary life enter not or +are<br> +forgotten. 'Tis then we learn to hold converse with ourselves; +'tis then we<br> +ask how has our manhood performed the promises of its youth, or +have our<br> +ripened prospects borne out the pledges of our boyhood? 'Tis +then, in<br> +the calm justice of our lonely hearts, we learn how our failures +are but<br> +another name for our faults, and that what we looked on as the +vicissitudes<br> +of fortune are but the fruits of our own vices. Alas, how +short-lived are<br> +such intervals! Like the fitful sunshine in the wintry sky, they +throw one<br> +bright and joyous tint over the dark landscape: for a moment the +valley and<br> +the mountain-top are bathed in a ruddy glow; the leafless tree +and the dark<br> +moss seem to feel a touch of spring; but the next instant it is +past; the<br> +lowering clouds and dark shadows intervene, and the cold blast, +the moaning<br> +wind, and the dreary waste are once more before us.</p> + +<p>I endeavored to recall the latest events of my career, but in +vain; the<br> +real and the visionary were inextricably mingled, and the scenes +of my<br> +campaigns were blended with hopes and fears and doubts which had +no<br> +existence save in my dreams. My curiosity to know where I was +grew now my<br> +strongest feeling, and I raised myself with one arm to look +around me. In<br> +the room all was still and silent, but nothing seemed to intimate +what I<br> +sought for. As I looked, however, the wind blew back the curtain +which<br> +half-concealed the sash-door, and disclosed to me the figure of a +man<br> +seated at a table; his back was towards me, but his broad +sombrero hat<br> +and brown mantle bespoke his nation; the light blue curl of +smoke<br> +which wreathed gently upwards, and the ample display of +long-necked,<br> +straw-wrapped flasks, also attested that he was enjoying himself +with true<br> +Peninsular gusto, having probably partaken of a long siesta.</p> + +<p>It was a perfect picture in its way of the indolent luxury of +the<br> +South,—the rich and perfumed flowers, half-closing to the night +air, but<br> +sighing forth a perfumed <i>buonas noches</i> as they betook +themselves to rest;<br> +the slender shadows of the tall shrubs, stretching motionless +across the<br> +walks; the very attitude of the figure himself was in keeping as +supported<br> +by easy chairs he lounged at full length, raising his head ever +and anon as<br> +if to watch the wreath of eddying smoke as it rose upwards from +his cigar<br> +and melted away in the distance.</p> + +<a name="0102"></a> +<img alt="0102.jpg (150K)" src="0102.jpg" height="638" width="803"> + +<p>[MR. FREE TURNED SPANIARD.]</p> +<br><br> +<p>"Yes", thought I, as I looked for some time, "such is the very +type of his<br> +nation. Surrounded by every luxury of climate, blessed with all +that earth<br> +can offer of its best and fairest, and yet only using such gifts +as mere<br> +sensual gratifications." Starting with this theme, I wove a whole +story for<br> +the unknown personage whom, in my wandering fancy, I began by +creating<br> +a grandee of Portugal, invested with rank honors, and riches; but +who,<br> +effeminated by the habits and usages of his country, had become +the mere<br> +idle voluptuary, living a life of easy and inglorious indolence. +My further<br> +musings were interrupted at this moment for the individual to +whom I<br> +had been so complimentary in my revery, slowly arose from his +recumbent<br> +position, flung his loose mantle carelessly across his left +shoulder, and<br> +pushing open the sash-door, entered my chamber. Directing his +steps to a<br> +large mirror, he stood for some minutes contemplating himself +with what,<br> +from his attitude, I judged to be no small satisfaction. Though +his back<br> +was still towards me, and the dim twilight of the room too +uncertain to see<br> +much, yet I could perceive that he was evidently admiring himself +in the<br> +glass. Of this fact I had soon the most complete proof; for as I +looked,<br> +he slowly raised his broad-leafed Spanish hat with an air of most +imposing<br> +pretension, and bowed reverently to himself.</p> + +<p>"<i>Come sta vostra senoria?</i>" said he.</p> + +<p>The whole gesture and style of this proceeding struck me as so +ridiculous,<br> +that in spite of all my efforts I could scarcely repress a laugh. +He turned<br> +quickly round and approached the bed. The deep shadow of the +sombrero<br> +darkened the upper part of his features, but I could distinguish +a pair of<br> +fierce-looking mustaches beneath, which curled upwards towards +his eyes,<br> +while a stiff point beard stuck straight from his chin. Fearing +lest my<br> +rude interruption had been overheard, I was framing some polite +speech in<br> +Portuguese, when he opened the dialogue by asking in that +language how I<br> +did.</p> + +<p>I replied, and was about to ask some questions relative to +where, and<br> +under whose protection I then was, when my grave-looking friend, +giving a<br> +pirouette upon one leg, sent his hat flying into the air, and +cried out in<br> +a voice that not even my memory could fail to recognize,—</p> + +<p>"By the rock of Cashel he's cured!—he's cured!—the fever's +over! Oh,<br> +Master Charles, dear! oh, Master, darling, and you ain't mad, +after all?"</p> + +<p>"Mad! no, faith! but I shrewdly suspect you must be."</p> + +<p>"Oh, devil a taste! But spake to me, honey; spake to me, +acushla!"</p> + +<p>"Where am I? Whose house is this? What do you mean by that +disguise, that<br> +beard—"</p> + +<p>"Whisht, I'll tell you all, av you have patience? But are you +cured? Tell<br> +me that first. Sure they was going to cut the arm off you, till +you got out<br> +of bed, and with your pistols, sent them flying, one out of the +window and<br> +the other down-stairs; and I bate the little chap with the saw +myself till<br> +he couldn't know himself in the glass."</p> + +<p>While Mike ran on at this rate, I never took my eyes from him, +and it was<br> +all my poor faculties were equal to, to convince myself that the +whole<br> +scene was not some vision of a wandering intellect. Gradually, +however, the<br> +well-known features recalled me to myself, and as my doubts gave +way at<br> +length, I laughed long and heartily at the masquerade absurdity +of his<br> +appearance.</p> + +<p>Mike, meanwhile, whose face expressed no small mistrust at the +sincerity of<br> +my mirth, having uncloaked himself, proceeded to lay aside his +beard and<br> +mustaches, saying, as he did so,—</p> + +<p>"There now, darling; there now, Master, dear,—don't be +grinning that<br> +way,—I'll not be a Portigee any more, av you'll be quiet and +listen to<br> +reason."</p> + +<p>"But, Mike, where am I? Answer me that one question."</p> + +<p>"You're at home, dear; where else would you be?"</p> + +<p>"At home?" said I, with a start, as my eye ranged over the +various articles<br> +of luxury and elegance around, so unlike the more simple and +unpretending<br> +features of my uncle's house,—"at home?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, just so; sure, isn't it the same thing. It's ould Don +Emanuel that<br> +owns it; and won't it be your own when you're married to that +lovely<br> +crayture herself?"</p> + +<p>I started up, and placing my hand upon my throbbing temples, +asked myself<br> +if I were really awake, or if some flight of fancy had not +carried me away<br> +beyond the bounds of reason and sense. "Go on, go on!" said I, at +length,<br> +in a hollow voice, anxious to gather from his words something +like a clew<br> +to this mystery. "How did this happen?"</p> + +<p>"Av ye mean how you came here, faith, it was just this way. +After you got<br> +the fever, and beat the doctors, devil a one would go near you +but myself<br> +and the major."</p> + +<p>"The major,—Major Monsoon?"</p> + +<p>"No, Major Power himself. Well, he told your friends up here +how it was<br> +going very hard with you, and that you were like to die; and the +same<br> +evening they sent down a beautiful litter, as like a hearse as +two peas,<br> +for you, and brought you up here in state,—devil a thing was +wanting but<br> +a few people to raise the cry to make it as fine a funeral as +ever I seen.<br> +And sure, I set up a whillilew myself in the Black Horse Square, +and the<br> +devils only laughed at me.</p> + +<p>"Well, you see they put you into a beautiful, elegant bed, and +the young<br> +lady herself sat down beside you, betune times fanning you with a +big<br> +fan, and then drying her eyes, for she was weeping like a +waterfall. 'Don<br> +Miguel,' says she to me,—for ye see, I put your cloak on by +mistake when I<br> +was leaving the quarters,—'Don Miguel, questa hidalgo é +vostro amigo?'</p> + +<p>"'My most particular friend,' says I; 'God spare him many +years to be so.'</p> + +<p>"'Then take up your quarters here,' says she, 'and don't leave +him; we'll<br> +do everything in our power to make you comfortable.'</p> + +<p>"'I'm not particular,' says I; 'the run of the house—'</p> + +<p>"Then this is the Villa Nuova?" said I, with a faint sigh.</p> + +<p>"The same," replied Mike; "and a sweet place it is for eating +and<br> +drinking,—for wine in buckets full, av ye axed for it, for +dancing and<br> +singing every evening, with as pretty craytures as ever I set +eyes upon.<br> +Upon my conscience, it's as good as Galway; and good manners it +is they<br> +have. What's more, none of your liberties or familiarities with +strangers;<br> +but it's Don Miguel, devil a less. 'Don Miguel, av it's plazing +to you to<br> +take a drop of Xeres before your meat?' or, 'Would you have a +shaugh of a<br> +pipe or cigar when you're done?' That's the way of it."</p> + +<p>"And Sir George Dashwood," said I, "has he been here? Has he +inquired for<br> +me?"</p> + +<p>"Every day either himself or one of the staff comes galloping +up at<br> +luncheon time to ask after you; and then they have a bit of +tender<br> +discourse with the senhora herself. Oh, devil a bit need ye fear +them,<br> +she's true blue; and it isn't the major's fault,—upon my +conscience it<br> +isn't,—for he does be coming the blarney over her in beautiful +style."</p> + +<p>"Does Miss Dashwood ever visit here?" said I, with a voice +faltering and<br> +uncertain enough to have awakened suspicion in a more practised +observer.</p> + +<p>"Never once; and that's what I call unnatural behavior, after +you saving<br> +her life; and if she wasn't—"</p> + +<p>"Be silent, I say."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, there, I won't say any more; and sure it's time +for me to be<br> +putting on my beard again. I'm going to the Casino with Catrina, +and sure<br> +it's with real ladies I might be going av it wasn't for Major +Power, that<br> +told them I wasn't a officer; but it's all right again. I gave +them a great<br> +history of the Frees from the time of Cuilla na Toole, that was +one of the<br> +family and a cousin of Moses, I believe; and they behave well to +one that<br> +comes from an ould stock."</p> + +<p>"Don Miguel! Don Miguel!" said a voice from the garden.</p> + +<p>"I'm coming, my angel! I'm coming, my turtle-dove!" said Mike, +arranging<br> +his mustaches and beard with amazing dexterity. "Ah, but it would +do your<br> +heart good av you could take a peep at us about twelve o'clock, +dancing<br> +'Dirty James' for a bolero, and just see Miss Catrina, the lady's +maid,<br> +doing 'cover the buckle' as neat as Nature. There now, there's +the lemonade<br> +near your hand, and I'll leave you the lamp, and you may go +asleep as soon<br> +as you please, for Miss Inez won't come in to-night to play the +guitar, for<br> +the doctor said it might do you harm now."</p> + +<p>So saying, and before I could summon presence of mind to ask +another<br> +question, Don Miguel wrapped himself in the broad folds of his +Spanish<br> +cloak, and strode from the room with the air of an hidalgo.</p> + +<p>I slept but little that night; the full tide of memory, +rushing in upon me,<br> +brought back the hour of my return to Lisbon and the wreck of all +my hopes,<br> +which from the narrative of my servant I now perceived to be +complete. I<br> +dare not venture upon recording how many plans suggested +themselves to my<br> +troubled spirit, and were in turn rejected. To meet Lucy +Dashwood; to make<br> +a full and candid declaration; to acknowledge that flirtation +alone with<br> +Donna Inez (a mere passing, boyish flirtation) had given the +coloring to<br> +my innocent passion, and that in heart and soul I was hers, and +hers<br> +only,—this was my first resolve; but alas! if I had not courage +to sustain<br> +a common interview, to meet her in the careless crowd of a +drawing-room,<br> +what could I do under circumstances like these? Besides, the +matter would<br> +be cut very short by her coolly declaring that she had neither +right nor<br> +inclination to listen to such a declaration. The recollection of +her look<br> +as she passed me to her carriage came flashing across my brain +and decided<br> +this point. No, no! I'll not encounter that; however appearances +for the<br> +moment had been against me, she should not have treated me thus +coldly and<br> +disdainfully. It was quite clear she had never cared for +me,—wounded pride<br> +had been her only feeling; and so as I reasoned I ended by +satisfying<br> +myself that in that quarter all was at end forever.</p> + +<p>Now then for dilemma number two, I thought. The senhora, my +first impulse<br> +was one of anything but gratitude to her by whose kind, tender +care my<br> +hours of pain and suffering had been soothed and alleviated. But +for her,<br> +I should have been spared all my present embarrassment, all my +shipwrecked<br> +fortunes; but for her I should now be the aide-de-camp residing +in Sir<br> +George Dashwood's own house, meeting with Lucy every hour of the +day,<br> +dining beside her, riding out with her, pressing my suit by every +means and<br> +with every advantage of my position; but for her and her dark +eyes—and,<br> +by-the-bye, what eyes they are! how full of brilliancy, yet how +teeming<br> +with an expression of soft and melting sweetness; and her mouth, +too,<br> +how perfectly chiselled those full lips,—how different from the +cold,<br> +unbending firmness of Miss Dashwood's! Not but I have seen Lucy +smile too,<br> +and what a sweet smile! How it lighted up her fair cheek, and +made her blue<br> +eyes darken and deepen till they looked like heaven's own vault. +Yes, there<br> +is more poetry in a blue eye. But still Inez is a very lovely +girl, and<br> +her foot never was surpassed. She is a coquette, too, about that +foot and<br> +ankle,—I rather like a woman to be so. What a sensation she +would make in<br> +England; how she would be the rage! And then I thought of home +and Galway,<br> +and the astonishment of some, the admiration of others, as I +presented her<br> +as my wife,—the congratulations of my friends, the wonder of the +men, the<br> +tempered envy of the women. Methought I saw my uncle, as he +pressed her in<br> +his arms, say, "Yes, Charley, this is a prize worth campaigning +for."</p> + +<p>The stray sounds of a guitar which came from the garden broke +in upon my<br> +musings at this moment. It seemed as if a finger was straying +heedlessly<br> +across the strings. I started up, and to my surprise perceived it +was Inez.<br> +Before I had time to collect myself, a gentle tap at the window +aroused me;<br> +it opened softly, while from an unseen hand a bouquet of fresh +flowers was<br> +thrown upon my bed. Before I could collect myself to speak, the +sash closed<br> +again and I was alone.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XIV.</p> + +<p>THE VISIT.</p> + +<p>Mike's performances at the masquerade had doubtless been of +the most<br> +distinguished character, and demanded a compensating period of +repose, for<br> +he did not make his appearance the entire morning. Towards noon, +however,<br> +the door from the garden gently opened, and I heard a step upon +the stone<br> +terrace, and something which sounded to my ears like the clank of +a sabre.<br> +I lifted my head, and saw Fred Power beside me.</p> + +<p>I shall spare my readers the recital of my friend, which, +however, more<br> +full and explanatory of past events, contained in reality little +more than<br> +Mickey Free had already told me. In fine, he informed me that our +army, by<br> +a succession of retreating movements, had deserted the northern +provinces,<br> +and now occupied the intrenched lines of Torres Vedras. That +Massena, with<br> +a powerful force, was still in march, reinforcements daily +pouring in<br> +upon him, and every expectation pointing to the probability that +he would<br> +attempt to storm our position.</p> + +<p>"The wise-heads," remarked Power, "talk of our speedy +embarkation, the<br> +sanguine and the hot-brained rave of a great victory and the +retreat of<br> +Massena; but I was up at headquarters last week with despatches, +and saw<br> +Lord Wellington myself."</p> + +<p>"Well, what did you make out? Did he drop any hint of his own +views?"</p> + +<p>"Faith, I can't say he did. He asked me some questions about +the troops<br> +just landed; he spoke a little of the commissary department, +damned the<br> +blankets, said that green forage was bad food for the artillery +horses,<br> +sent me an English paper to read about the O. P. riots, and said +the<br> +harriers would throw off about six o'clock, and that he hoped to +see me at<br> +dinner."</p> + +<p>I could not restrain a laugh at Power's catalogue of his +lordship's topics.<br> +"So," said I, "he at least does not take any gloomy views of our +present<br> +situation."</p> + +<p>"Who can tell what he thinks? He's ready to fight if fighting +will do<br> +anything, and to retreat, if that be better. But that he'll sleep +an hour<br> +less, or drink a glass of claret more—come what will of it—I'll +believe<br> +from no man living.</p> + +<p>"We've lost one gallant thing in any case, Charley," resumed +Power. "Busaco<br> +was, I'm told, a glorious day, and our people were in the heat of +it. So<br> +that, if we do leave the Peninsula now, that will be a confounded +chagrin.<br> +Not for you, my poor fellow, for you could not stir; but I was so +cursed<br> +foolish to take the staff appointment,—thus one folly ever +entails<br> +another."</p> + +<p>There was a tone of bitterness in which these words were +uttered that left<br> +no doubt upon my mind some <i>arrière pensée</i> +remained lurking behind them.<br> +My eyes met his; he bit his lip, and coloring deeply, rose from +the chair,<br> +and walked towards the window.</p> + +<p>The chance allusion of my man Mike flashed upon me at the +moment, and I<br> +dared not trust myself to break silence. I now thought I could +trace in my<br> +friend's manner less of that gay and careless buoyancy which ever +marked<br> +him. There was a tone, it seemed, of more grave and sombre +character, and<br> +even when he jested, the smile his features bore was not his +usual frank<br> +and happy one, and speedily gave way to an expression I had never +before<br> +remarked. Our silence which had now lasted for some minutes was +becoming<br> +embarrassing; that strange consciousness that, to a certain +extent, we were<br> +reading each other's thoughts, made us both cautious of breaking +it; and<br> +when at length, turning abruptly round, he asked, "When I hoped +to be up<br> +and about again?" I felt my heart relieved from I knew not well +what load<br> +of doubt and difficulty that oppressed it. We chatted on for some +little<br> +time longer, the news of Lisbon, and the daily gossip finishing +our topics.</p> + +<p>"Plenty of gayety, Charley, dinners and balls to no end! so +get well, my<br> +boy, and make the most of it."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I replied, "I'll do my best; but be assured the first +use I'll make<br> +of health will be to join the regiment. I am heartily ashamed of +myself for<br> +all I have lost already,—though not altogether my fault."</p> + +<p>"And will you really join at once?" said Power, with a look of +eager<br> +anxiety I could not possibly account for.</p> + +<p>"Of course I will; what have I, what can I have to detain me +here?"</p> + +<p>What reply he was about to make at this moment I know not, but +the door<br> +opened, and Mike announced Sir George Dashwood.</p> + +<p>"Gently, my worthy man, not so loud, if you please?" said the +mild voice of<br> +the general, as he stepped noiselessly across the room, evidently +shocked<br> +at the indiscreet tone of my follower. "Ah, Power, you here! and +our poor<br> +friend, how is he?"</p> + +<p>"Able to answer for himself at last, Sir George," said I, +grasping his<br> +proffered hand.</p> + +<p>"My poor lad! you've had a long bout of it; but you've saved +your arm, and<br> +that's well worth the lost time. Well, I've come to bring you +good news;<br> +there's been a very sharp cavalry affair, and our fellows have +been the<br> +conquerors."</p> + +<p>"There again, Power,—listen to that! We are losing +everything!"</p> + +<p>"Not so, not so, my boy," said Sir George, smiling blandly, +but archly.<br> +"There are conquests to be won here, as well as there; and in +your present<br> +state, I rather think you better fitted for such as these."</p> + +<p>Power's brow grew clouded; he essayed a smile, but it failed, +and he rose<br> +and hurried towards the window.</p> + +<p>As for me, my confusion must have led to a very erroneous +impression of my<br> +real feelings, and I perceived Sir George anxious to turn the +channel of<br> +the conversation.</p> + +<p>"You see but little of your host, O'Malley," he resumed; "he +is ever from<br> +home; but I believe nothing could be kinder than his arrangements +for you.<br> +You are aware that he kidnapped you from us? I had sent Forbes +over to<br> +bring you to us; your room was prepared, everything in readiness, +when he<br> +met your man Mike, setting forth upon a mule, who told him you +had just<br> +taken your departure for the villa. We both had our claim upon +you and, I<br> +believe, pretty much on the same score. By-the-bye, you have not +seen Lucy<br> +since your arrival. I never knew it till yesterday, when I asked +if she did<br> +not find you altered."</p> + +<p>I blundered out some absurd reply, blushed, corrected myself, +and got<br> +confused. Sir George attributing this, doubtless, to my weak +state, rose<br> +soon after, and taking Power along with him, remarked as he left +the<br> +room,—</p> + +<p>"We are too much for him yet, I see that; so we'll leave him +quiet some<br> +time longer."</p> + +<p>Thanking him in my heart for his true appreciation of my +state, I sank back<br> +upon my pillow to think over all I had heard and seen.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mister Charles," said Mike as he came forward with a +smile, "I<br> +suppose you heard the news? The Fourteenth bate the French down +at Merca<br> +there, and took seventy prisoners; but sure it's little good +it'll do,<br> +after all."</p> + +<p>"And why not, Mike?"</p> + +<p>"Musha! isn't Boney coming himself? He's bringing all the +Roossians down<br> +with him, and going to destroy us entirely."</p> + +<p>"Not at all, man; you mistake. He's nothing to do with Russia, +and has<br> +quite enough on his hands at this moment."</p> + +<p>"God grant it was truth you were talking! But, you see, I read +it myself in<br> +the papers (or Sergeant Haggarty did, which is the same thing) +that he's<br> +coming with the Cusacks."</p> + +<p>"With who?—with what?"</p> + +<p>"With the Cusacks."</p> + +<p>"What the devil do you mean? Who are they?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Tower of Ivory! did you never hear of the Cusacks, with +the red beards<br> +and the red breeches and long poles with pike-heads on them, that +does all<br> +the devilment on horseback,—spiking and spitting the people like +larks?"</p> + +<p>"The Cossacks, is it, you mean? The Cossacks?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, just so, the Cusacks. They're from Clare Island, and +thereabouts; and<br> +there's more of them in Meath. They're my mother's people, and +was always<br> +real devils for fighting."</p> + +<p>I burst out into an immoderate fit of laughing at Mike's +etymology, which<br> +thus converted Hetman Platoff into a Galway man.</p> + +<p>"Oh, murder! isn't it cruel to hear you laugh that way! There +now, alanna!<br> +be asy, and I'll tell you more news. We've the house to ourselves +to-day.<br> +The ould gentleman's down at Behlem, and the daughter's in +Lisbon, making<br> +great preparations for a grand ball they're to give when you are +quite<br> +well."</p> + +<p>"I hope I shall be with the army in a few days, Mike; and +certainly, if I'm<br> +able to move about, I'll not remain longer in Lisbon."</p> + +<p>"Arrah, don't say so, now! When was you ever so comfortable? +Upon my<br> +conscience, it's more like Paradise than anything else. If ye see +the<br> +dinner we sit down to every day; and as for drink,—if it wasn't +that I<br> +sleep on a ground-floor, I'd seldom see a blanket!"</p> + +<p>"Well, certainly, Mike, I agree with you, these are hard +things to tear<br> +ourselves away from."</p> + +<p>"Aren't they now, sir? And then Miss Catherine, I'm taching +her Irish!"</p> + +<p>"Teaching her Irish! for Heaven's sake, what use can she make +of Irish?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, the crayture, she doesn't know better; and as she was +always bothering<br> +me to learn her English, I promised one day to do it; but ye see, +somehow,<br> +I never was very proficient in strange tongues; so I thought to +myself<br> +Irish will do as well. So, you perceive, we're taking a course of +Irish<br> +literature, as Mr. Lynch says in Athlone; and, upon my +conscience, she's an<br> +apt scholar."</p> + +<p>"'Good-morning to you, Katey,' says Mr. Power to her the other +day, as he<br> +passed through the hall. 'Good-morning, my dear; I hear you speak +English<br> +perfectly now?'</p> + +<p>"'<i>Honia mon diaoul</i>,' says she, making a curtsey.</p> + +<p>"Be the powers, I thought he'd die with the laughing.</p> + +<p>"'Well, my dear, I hope you don't mean it,—do you know what +you're<br> +saying?'</p> + +<p>"'Honor bright, Major!' says I,—'honor bright!' and I gave +him a wink at<br> +the same time.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, that's it!' said he, 'is it!' and so he went off holding +his hands to<br> +his sides with the bare laughing; and your honor knows it wasn't +a blessing<br> +she wished him, for all that."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XV.</p> + +<p>THE CONFESSION.</p> + +<p>"What a strange position this of mine!" thought I, a few +mornings after<br> +the events detailed in the last chapter. "How very fascinating in +some<br> +respects, how full of all the charm of romance, and how +confoundly<br> +difficult to see one's way through!"</p> + +<p>To understand my cogitation right, <i>figurez-vous</i>, my dear +reader, a large<br> +and splendidly furnished drawing-room, from one end of which an +orangery<br> +in full blossom opens; from the other is seen a delicious little +boudoir,<br> +where books, bronzes, pictures and statues, in all the artistique +disorder<br> +of a lady's sanctum, are bathed in a deep purple light from a +stained glass<br> +window of the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p>On a small table beside the wood fire, whose mellow light is +flirting with<br> +the sunbeams upon the carpet, stands an antique silver +breakfast-service,<br> +which none but the hand of Benvenuto could have chiselled; beside +it sits<br> +a girl, young and beautiful; her dark eyes, beaming beneath their +long<br> +lashes, are fixed with an expression of watchful interest upon a +pale and<br> +sickly youth, who, lounging upon a sofa opposite, is carelessly +turning<br> +over the leaves of a new journal, or gazing steadfastly on the +fretted<br> +gothic of the ceiling, while his thoughts are travelling many a +mile away.<br> +The lady being the Senhora Inez; the nonchalant invalid, your +unworthy<br> +acquaintance, Charles O'Malley.</p> + +<p>What a very strange position to be sure.</p> + +<p>"Then you are not equal to this ball to-night?" said she, +after a pause of<br> +some minutes.</p> + +<p>I turned as she spoke; her words had struck audibly upon my +ear, but, lost<br> +in my revery, I could but repeat my own fixed thought,—how +strange to be<br> +so situated!</p> + +<p>"You are really very tiresome, Signor; I assure you, you are. +I have<br> +been giving you a most elegant description of the Casino +<i>fête</i>, and the<br> +beautiful costume of our Lisbon belles, but I can get nothing +from you but<br> +this muttered something, which may be very shocking for aught I +know. I'm<br> +sure your friend, Major Power, would be much more attentive to +me; that<br> +is," added she, archly, "if Miss Dashwood were not present."</p> + +<p>"What! why! You don't mean that there is anything there—that +Tower is<br> +paying attention to—"</p> + +<p>"<i>Madre divina</i>, how that seems to interest you, and how red +you are! If it<br> +were not that you never met her before, and that your +acquaintance did not<br> +seem to make rapid progress, then I should say you are in love +with her<br> +yourself."</p> + +<p>I had to laugh at this, but felt my face flushing more. "And +so," said I,<br> +affecting a careless and indifferent tone, "the gay Fred Power is +smitten<br> +at last!"</p> + +<p>"Was it so very difficult a thing to accomplish?" said she, +slyly.</p> + +<p>"He seems to say so, at least. And the lady, how does she +appear to receive<br> +his attentions?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I should say with evident pleasure and satisfaction, as +all girls do<br> +the advances of men they don't care for, nor intend to care +for."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," said I, slowly, "indeed, Senhora?" looking into her +eyes as I<br> +spoke, as if to read if the lesson were destined for my +benefit.</p> + +<p>"There, don't stare so!—every one knows that."</p> + +<p>"So you don't think, then, that Lucy,—I mean Miss +Dashwood—Why are you<br> +laughing so?"</p> + +<p>"How can I help it; your calling her Lucy is so good, I wish +she heard it;<br> +she's the very proudest girl I ever knew."</p> + +<p>"But to come back; you really think she does not care for +him?"</p> + +<p>"Not more than for you; and I may be pardoned for the simile, +having seen<br> +your meeting. But let me give you the news of our own +<i>fête</i>. Saturday is<br> +the day fixed; and you must be quite well,—I insist upon it. +Miss Dashwood<br> +has promised to come,—no small concession; for after all she has +never<br> +once been here since the day you frightened her. I can't help +laughing at<br> +my blunder,—the two people I had promised myself should fall +desperately<br> +in love with each other, and who will scarcely meet."</p> + +<p>"But I trusted," said I, pettishly, "that you were not +disposed to resign<br> +your own interest in me?"</p> + +<p>"Neither was I," said she, with an easy smile, "except that I +have so many<br> +admirers. I might even spare to my friends; though after all I +should be<br> +sorry to lose you, I like you."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I half bitterly, "as girls do those they never +intend to care<br> +for; is it not so?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, yes, and perhaps—But is it going to rain? How +provoking! and I<br> +have ordered my horse. Well, Signor Carlos, I leave you to your +delightful<br> +newspaper, and all the magnificent descriptions of battles and +sieges and<br> +skirmishes of which you seem doomed to pine without ceasing. +There, don't<br> +kiss my hand twice; that's not right."</p> + +<p>"Well, let me begin again—"</p> + +<p>"I shall not breakfast with you any more. But tell me, am I to +order a<br> +costume for you in Lisbon; or will you arrange all that yourself? +You must<br> +come to the <i>fête</i>, you know."</p> + +<p>"If you would be so very kind."</p> + +<p>"I will, then, be so very kind; and once more, <i>adios</i>." So +saying, and<br> +with a slight motion of her hand, she smiled a good-by, and left +me.</p> + +<p>"What a lovely girl!" thought I, as I rose and walked to the +window,<br> +muttering to myself Othello's line, and—</p> + +<p> "When I love thee not, chaos is come again."</p> + +<p>In fact, it was the perfect expression of my feeling; the only +solution<br> +to all the difficulties surrounding me, being to fall +desperately,<br> +irretrievably in love with the fair senhora, which, all things +considered,<br> +was not a very desperate resource for a gentleman in trouble. As +I thought<br> +over the hopelessness of one attachment, I turned calmly to +consider all<br> +the favorable points of the other. She was truly beautiful, +attractive in<br> +every sense; her manner most fascinating, and her disposition, so +far as<br> +I could pronounce, perfectly amiable. I felt already something +more than<br> +interest about her; how very easy would be the transition to a +stronger<br> +feeling! There was an <i>éclat</i>, too, about being her +accepted lover that had<br> +its charm. She was the belle <i>par excellence</i> of Lisbon; and then +a sense<br> +of pique crossed my mind as I reflected what would Lucy say of +him whom<br> +she had slighted and insulted, when he became the husband of the +beautiful<br> +millionnaire Senhora Inez?</p> + +<p>As my meditations had reached thus far, the door opened +stealthily, and<br> +Catherine appeared, her finger upon her lips, and her gesture +indicating<br> +caution. She carried on her arm a mass of drapery covered by a +large<br> +mantle, which throwing off as she entered, she displayed before +me a rich<br> +blue domino with silver embroidery. It was large and loose in its +folds, so<br> +as thoroughly to conceal the figure of any wearer. This she held +up before<br> +me for an instant without speaking; when at length, seeing my +curiosity<br> +fully excited, she said,—</p> + +<p>"This is the senhora's domino. I should be ruined if she knew +I showed it;<br> +but I promised—that is, I told—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, I understand," relieving her embarrassment about +the source of<br> +her civilities; "go on."</p> + +<p>"Well, there are several others like it, but with this small +difference,<br> +instead of a carnation, which all the others have embroidered +upon the<br> +cuff, I have made it a rose,—you perceive? La Senhora knows +nothing of<br> +this,—none save yourself knows it. I'm sure I may trust you with +the<br> +secret."</p> + +<p>"Fear not in the least, Catherine; you have rendered me a +great service.<br> +Let me look at it once more; ah, there's no difficulty in +detecting it. And<br> +you are certain she is unaware of it?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly so; she has several other costumes, but in this one +I know she<br> +intends some surprise, so be upon your guard."</p> + +<p>With these words, carefully once more concealing the rich +dress beneath the<br> +mantle, she withdrew; while I strolled forth to wonder what +mystery might<br> +lie beneath this scheme, and speculate how far I myself was +included in the<br> +plot she spoke of.</p> + +<p>For the few days which succeeded, I passed my time much alone. +The senhora<br> +was but seldom at home; and I remarked that Power rarely came to +see me. A<br> +strange feeling of half-coolness had latterly grown between us, +and instead<br> +of the open confidence we formerly indulged in when together, we +appeared<br> +now rather to chat over things of mere every-day interest than of +our own<br> +immediate plans and prospects. There was a kind of +pre-occupation, too, in<br> +his manner that struck me; his mind seemed ever straying from the +topics he<br> +talked of to something remote, and altogether, he was no longer +the frank<br> +and reckless dragoon I had ever known him. What could be the +meaning of<br> +this change? Had he found out by any accident that I was to blame +in my<br> +conduct towards Lucy; had any erroneous impression of my +interview with her<br> +reached his ears? This was most improbable; besides, there was +nothing in<br> +that to draw down his censure or condemnation, however +represented; and was<br> +it that he was himself in love with her, that, devoted heart and +soul to<br> +Lucy, he regarded me as a successful rival, preferred before him! +Oh, how<br> +could I have so long blinded myself to the fact! This was the +true solution<br> +of the whole difficulty. I had more than once suspected this to +be so; now<br> +all the circumstances of proof poured in upon me. I called to +mind his<br> +agitated manner the night of my arrival in Lisbon, his thousand +questions<br> +concerning the reasons of my furlough; and then, lately, the look +of<br> +unfeigned pleasure with which he heard me resolve to join my +regiment the<br> +moment I was sufficiently recovered. I remembered also how +assiduously he<br> +pressed his intimacy with the senhora, Lucy's dearest friend +here; his<br> +continual visits at the villa; those long walks in the garden, +where his<br> +very look betokened some confidential mission of the heart. Yes, +there was<br> +no doubt of it, he loved Lucy Dashwood! Alas, there seemed to be +no end to<br> +the complication of my misfortunes; one by one I appeared fated +to lose<br> +whatever had a hold upon my affections, and to stand alone, +unloved and<br> +uncared for in the world. My thoughts turned towards the senhora, +but<br> +I could not deceive myself into any hope there. My own feelings +were<br> +untouched, and hers I felt to be equally so. Young as I was, +there was no<br> +mistaking the easy smile of coquetry, the merry laugh of +flattered vanity,<br> +for a deeper and holier feeling. And then I did not wish it +otherwise. One<br> +only had taught me to feel how ennobling, how elevating in all +its impulses<br> +can be a deep-rooted passion for a young and beautiful girl! From +her<br> +eyes alone had I caught the inspiration that made me pant for +glory and<br> +distinction. I could not transfer the allegiance of my heart, +since it had<br> +taught that very heart to beat high and proudly. Lucy, lost to me +forever<br> +as she must be, was still more than any other woman ever could +be; all the<br> +past clung to her memory, all the prestige of the future must +point to it<br> +also.</p> + +<p>And Power, why had he not trusted, why had he not confided in +me? Was this<br> +like my old and tried friend? Alas! I was forgetting that in his +eye I was<br> +the favored rival, and not the despised, rejected suitor.</p> + +<p>"It is past now," thought I, as I rose and walked into the +garden; "the<br> +dream that made life a fairy tale is dispelled; the cold reality +of the<br> +world is before me, and my path lies a lonely and solitary one." +My first<br> +resolution was to see Power, and relieve his mind of any +uneasiness as<br> +regarded my pretentions; they existed no longer. As for me, I was +no<br> +obstacle to his happiness; it was, then, but fair and honorable +that I<br> +should tell him so; this done, I should leave Lisbon at once. The +cavalry<br> +had for the most part been ordered to the rear; still there was +always<br> +something going forward at the outposts.</p> + +<p>The idea of active service, the excitement of a campaigning +life, cheered<br> +me, and I advanced along the dark alley of the garden with a +lighter and a<br> +freer heart. My resolves were not destined to meet delay; as I +turned the<br> +angle of a walk, Power was before me. He was leaning against a +tree, his<br> +hands crossed upon his bosom, his head bowed forward, and his +whole air and<br> +attitude betokening deep reflection.</p> + +<p>He started as I came up, and seemed almost to change +color.</p> + +<p>"Well, Charley," said he, after a moment's pause, "you look +better this<br> +morning. How goes the arm?"</p> + +<p>"The arm is ready for service again, and its owner most +anxious for it. Do<br> +you know, Fred, I'm thoroughly weary of this life."</p> + +<p>"They're little better, however, at the lines. The French are +in position,<br> +but never adventure a movement; and except some few affairs at +the pickets,<br> +there is really nothing to do."</p> + +<p>"No matter, remaining here can never serve one's interests, +and besides, I<br> +have accomplished what I came for—"</p> + +<p>I was about to add, "the restoration of my health," when he +suddenly<br> +interrupted me, eying me fixedly as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Indeed! indeed! Is that so?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, half puzzled at the tone and manner of the +speech; "I can<br> +join now when I please; meanwhile, Fred, I have been thinking of +you. Yes,<br> +don't be surprised, at the very moment we met you were in my +thoughts."</p> + +<p>I took his arm as I said this, and led him down the alley.</p> + +<p>"We are too old and, I trust, too true friends, Fred, to have +secrets from<br> +each other, and yet we have been playing this silly game for some +weeks<br> +past. Now, my dear fellow, I have yours, and it is only fair +justice you<br> +should have mine, and, faith, I feel you'd have discovered it +long since,<br> +had your thoughts been as free as I have known them to be. Fred, +you are in<br> +love; there, don't wince, man, I know it; but hear me out. You +believe me<br> +to be so also; nay, more, you think that my chances of success +are better,<br> +stronger than your own; learn, then, that I have +none,—absolutely none.<br> +Don't interrupt me now, for this avowal cuts me deeply; my own +heart alone<br> +knows what I suffer as I record my wrecked fortunes; but I repeat +it, my<br> +hopes are at end forever; but, Fred, my boy, I cannot lose my +friend too.<br> +If I have been the obstacle to your path, I am so no more. Ask me +not why;<br> +it is enough that I speak in all truth and sincerity. Ere three +days I<br> +shall leave this, and with it all the hopes that once beamed upon +my<br> +fortunes, and all the happiness,—nay, not all, my boy, for I +feel some<br> +thrill at my heart yet, as I think that I have been true to +you."</p> + +<p>I know not what more I spoke nor how he replied to me. I felt +the warm<br> +grasp of his hand, I saw his delighted smile; the words of +grateful<br> +acknowledgment his lips uttered conveyed but an imperfect meaning +to my<br> +ear, and I remembered no more.</p> + +<p>The courage which sustained me for the moment sank gradually +as I meditated<br> +over my avowal, and I could scarce help accusing Power of a +breach of<br> +friendship for exacting a confession which, in reality, I had +volunteered<br> +to give him. How Lucy herself would think of my conduct was ever +occurring<br> +to my thoughts, and I felt, as I ruminated upon the conjectures +it might<br> +give rise to, how much more likely a favorable opinion might now +be formed<br> +of me, than when such an estimation could have crowned me with +delight.</p> + +<p>"Yes," thought I, "she will at last learn to know him who +loved her with<br> +truth and with devoted affection; and when the blight of all his +hopes is<br> +accomplished, the fair fame of his fidelity will be proved. The +march,<br> +the bivouac, the battle-field, are now all to me; and the +campaign alone<br> +presents a prospect which may fill up the aching void that +disappointed and<br> +ruined hopes have left behind them."</p> + +<p>How I longed for the loud call of the trumpet, the clash of +the steel, the<br> +tramp of the war-horse; though the proud distinction of a +soldier's life<br> +were less to me in the distance than the mad and whirlwind +passion of a<br> +charge, and the loud din of the rolling artillery.</p> + +<p>It was only some hours after, as I sat alone in my chamber, +that all the<br> +circumstances of our meeting came back clearly to my memory, and +I could<br> +not help muttering to myself,—</p> + +<p>"It is indeed a hard lot, that to cheer the heart of my +friend, I must bear<br> +witness to the despair that shed darkness on my own."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XVI.</p> + +<p>MY CHARGER.</p> + +<p>Although I felt my heart relieved of a heavy load by the +confession I had<br> +made to Power, yet still I shrank from meeting him for some days +after;<br> +a kind of fear lest he should in any way recur to our +conversation<br> +continually beset me, and I felt that the courage which bore me +up for my<br> +first effort would desert me on the next occasion.</p> + +<p>My determination to join my regiment was now made up, and I +sent forward a<br> +resignation of my appointment to Sir George Dashwood's staff, +which I<br> +had never been in health to fulfil, and commenced with energy all +my<br> +preparations for a speedy departure.</p> + +<p>The reply to my rather formal letter was a most kind note +written by<br> +himself. He regretted the unhappy cause which had so long +separated us, and<br> +though wishing, as he expressed it, to have me near him, +perfectly approved<br> +of my resolution.</p> + +<p> "Active service alone, my dear boy, can ever place you in +the<br> + position you ought to occupy; and I rejoice the more at your +decision<br> + in this matter, as I feared the truth of certain reports +here,<br> + which attributed to you other plans than those which a +campaign<br> + suggests. My mind is now easy on this score, and I pray you +forgive<br> + me if my congratulations are <i>mal à propos</i>."</p> + +<p>After some hints for my future management, and a promise of +some letters to<br> +his friends at headquarters, he concluded:—</p> + +<p> "As this climate does not seem to suit my daughter, I +have<br> + applied for a change, and am in daily hope of obtaining it. +Before<br> + going, however, I must beg your acceptance of the charger +which my<br> + groom will deliver to your servant with this. I was so struck +with<br> + his figure and action that I purchased him before leaving +England<br> + without well knowing why or wherefore. Pray let him see +some<br> + service under your auspices, which he is most unlikely to do +under<br> + mine. He has plenty of bone to be a weight carrier, and they +tell<br> + me also that he has speed enough for anything."</p> + +<p>Mike's voice in the lawn beneath interrupted my reading +farther, and on<br> +looking out, I perceived him and Sir George Dashwood's servant +standing<br> +beside a large and striking-looking horse, which they were both +examining<br> +with all the critical accuracy of adepts.</p> + +<p>"Arrah, isn't he a darling, a real beauty, every inch of +him?"</p> + +<p>"That 'ere splint don't signify nothing; he aren't the worse +of it," said<br> +the English groom.</p> + +<p>"Of coorse it doesn't," replied Mike. "What a fore-hand, and +the legs,<br> +clean as a whip!"</p> + +<p>"There's the best of him, though," interrupted the other, +patting the<br> +strong hind-quarters with his hand. "There's the stuff to push +him along<br> +through heavy ground and carry him over timber."</p> + +<p>"Or a stone wall," said Mike, thinking of Galway.</p> + +<p>My own impatience to survey my present had now brought me into +the<br> +conclave, and before many minutes were over I had him saddled, +and was<br> +cantering around the lawn with a spirit and energy I had not felt +for<br> +months long. Some small fences lay before me, and over these he +carried me<br> +with all the ease and freedom of a trained hunter. My courage +mounted with<br> +the excitement, and I looked eagerly around for some more bold +and dashing<br> +leap.</p> + +<p>"You may take him over the avenue gate," said the English +groom, divining<br> +with a jockey's readiness what I looked for; "he'll do it, never +fear him."</p> + +<p>Strange as my equipment was, with an undress jacket flying +loosely open,<br> +and a bare head, away I went. The gate which the groom spoke of +was a<br> +strongly-barred one of oak timber, nearly five feet high,—its +difficulty<br> +as a leap only consisted in the winding approach, and the fact +that it<br> +opened upon a hard road beyond it.</p> + +<p>In a second or two a kind of half fear came across me. My long +illness had<br> +unnerved me, and my limbs felt weak and yielding; but as I +pressed into the<br> +canter, that secret sympathy between the horse and his rider shot +suddenly<br> +through me, I pressed my spurs to his flanks, and dashed him at +it.</p> + +<p>Unaccustomed to such treatment, the noble animal bounded madly +forward.<br> +With two tremendous plunges he sprang wildly in the air, and +shaking his<br> +long mane with passion, stretched out at the gallop.</p> + +<a name="0124"></a> +<img alt="0124.jpg (204K)" src="0124.jpg" height="719" width="805"> + +<p>[CHARLEY TRYING A CHARGER.]</p> +<br><br> + + +<p>My own blood boiled now as tempestuously as his; and with a +shout of<br> +reckless triumph, I rose him at the gate. Just at the instant two +figures<br> +appeared before it,—the copse had concealed their approach +hitherto,—but<br> +they stood now as if transfixed. The wild attitude of the horse, +the not<br> +less wild cry of his rider, had deprived them for a time of all +energy; and<br> +overcome by the sudden danger, they seemed rooted to the ground. +What I<br> +said, spoke, begged, or imprecated, Heaven knows—not I. But they +stirred<br> +not! One moment more and they must lie trampled beneath my +horse's<br> +hoofs,—he was already on his haunches for the bound,—when, +wheeling half<br> +aside, I faced him at the wall. It was at least a foot higher and +of solid<br> +stone masonry, and as I did so I felt that I was perilling my +life to save<br> +theirs. One vigorous dash of the spur I gave him, as I lifted him +to the<br> +leap. He bounded beneath it quick as lightning; still, with a +spring like<br> +a rocket, he rose into the air, cleared the wall, and stood +trembling and<br> +frightened on the road outside.</p> + +<p>"Safe, by Jupiter! and splendidly done, too," cried a voice +near me, that I<br> +immediately recognized as Sir George Dashwood's.</p> + +<p>"Lucy, my love, look up,—Lucy, my dear, there's no danger +now. She has<br> +fainted! O'Malley, fetch some water,—fast. Poor fellow, your own +nerves<br> +seem shaken. Why, you've let your horse go! Come here, for +Heaven's sake!<br> +Support her for an instant. I'll fetch some water."</p> + +<p>It appeared to me like a dream; I leaned against the pillar of +the gate;<br> +the cold and death-like features of Lucy Dashwood lay motionless +upon my<br> +arm; her hand, falling heavily upon my shoulder, touched my +cheek. The<br> +tramp of my horse, as he galloped onward, was the only sound that +broke the<br> +silence, as I stood there, gazing steadfastly upon the pale brow +and paler<br> +cheek, down which a solitary tear was slowly stealing. I knew not +how the<br> +minutes passed; my memory took no note of time, but at length a +gentle<br> +tremor thrilled her frame, a slight, scarce-perceptible blush +colored her<br> +fair face, her lips slightly parted, and heaving a deep sigh, she +looked<br> +around her. Gradually her eyes turned and met mine. Oh, the +bliss<br> +unutterable of that moment! It was no longer the look of cold +scorn she had<br> +given me last; the expression was one of soft and speaking +gratitude. She<br> +seemed to read my very heart, and know its truth; there was a +tone of deep<br> +and compassionate interest in the glance; and forgetting +all,—everything<br> +that had passed,—all save my unaltered, unalterable love, I +kneeled beside<br> +her, and in words burning as my own heart burned, poured out my +tale<br> +of mingled sorrow and affection with all the eloquence of +passion. I<br> +vindicated my unshaken faith,—reconciling the conflicting +evidences with<br> +the proofs I proffered of my attachment. If my moments were +measured, I<br> +spent them not idly. I called to witness how every action of my +soldier's<br> +life emanated from her; how her few and chance words had decided +the<br> +character of my fate; if aught of fame or honor were my portion, +to her I<br> +owed it. As, hurried onwards by my ardent hopes, I forgot Power +and all<br> +about him, a step up the gravel walk came rapidly nearer, and I +had but<br> +time to assume my former attitude beside Lucy as her father came +up.</p> + +<p>"Well, Charley, is she better? Oh, I see she is. Here, we have +the whole<br> +household at our heels." So saying, he pointed to a string of +servants<br> +pressing eagerly forward with every species of restorative that +Portuguese<br> +ingenuity has invented.</p> + +<p>The next moment we were joined by the senhora, who, pale with +fear, seemed<br> +scarcely less in need of assistance than her friend.</p> + +<p>Amidst questions innumerable; explanations sought for on all +sides;<br> +mistakes and misconceptions as to the whole occurrence,—we took +our way<br> +towards the villa, Lucy walking between Sir George and Donna +Inez, while I<br> +followed, leaning upon Power's arm.</p> + +<p>"They've caught him again, O'Malley," said the general, +turning half round<br> +to me; "he, too, seemed as much frightened as any of us."</p> + +<p>"It is time, Sir George, I should think of thanking you. I +never was so<br> +mounted in my life—"</p> + +<p>"A splendid charger, by Jove!" said Power; "but, Charley, my +lad, no more<br> +feats of this nature, if you love me. No girl's heart will stand +such<br> +continual assaults as your winning horsemanship submits it +to."</p> + +<p>I was about making some half-angry reply, when he continued: +"There, don't<br> +look sulky; I have news for you. Quill has just arrived. I met +him at<br> +Lisbon; he has got leave of absence for a few days, and is coming +to our<br> +masquerade here this evening."</p> + +<p>"This evening!" said I, in amazement; "why, is it so +soon?"</p> + +<p>"Of course it is. Have you not got all your trappings ready? +The Dashwoods<br> +came out here on purpose to spend the day; but come, I'll drive +you into<br> +town. My tilbury is ready, and we'll both look out for our +costumes." So<br> +saying, he led me along towards the house, when, after a rapid +change of my<br> +toilet, we set out for Lisbon.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XVII.</p> + +<p>MAURICE.</p> + +<p>It seemed a conceded matter between Power and myself that we +should never<br> +recur to the conversation we held in the garden; and so, although +we dined<br> +<i>tête-à-tête</i> that day, neither of us +ventured, by any allusion the most<br> +distant, to advert to what it was equally evident was uppermost +in the<br> +minds of both.</p> + +<p>All our endeavors, therefore, to seem easy and unconcerned +were in vain;<br> +a restless anxiety to seem interested about things and persons we +were<br> +totally indifferent to, pervaded all our essays at conversation. +By<br> +degrees, we grew weary of the parts we were acting, and each +relapsed<br> +into a moody silence, thinking over his plans and projects, and +totally<br> +forgetting the existence of the other.</p> + +<p>The decanter was passed across the table without speaking, a +half nod<br> +intimated the bottle was standing; and except an occasional +malediction<br> +upon an intractable cigar, nothing was heard.</p> + +<p>Such was the agreeable occupation we were engaged in, when, +towards nine<br> +o'clock, the door opened, and the great Maurice himself stood +before us.</p> + +<p>"Pleasant fellows, upon my conscience, and jovial over their +liquor!<br> +Confound your smoking! That may do very well in a bivouac. Let us +have<br> +something warm!"</p> + +<p>Quill's interruption was a most welcome one to both parties, +and we<br> +rejoiced with a sincere pleasure at his coming.</p> + +<p>"What shall it be, Maurice? Port or sherry mulled, and an +anchovy?"</p> + +<p>"Or what say you to a bowl of bishop?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for the Church, Charley! Let us have the bishop; and +not to<br> +disparage Fred's taste, we'll be eating the anchovy while the +liquor's<br> +concocting."</p> + +<p>"Well, Maurice, and now for the news. How are matters at +Torres Vedras?<br> +Anything like movement in that quarter?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing very remarkable. Massena made a reconnoissance some +days since,<br> +and one of our batteries threw a shower of grape among the staff, +which<br> +spoiled the procession, and sent them back in very disorderly +time. Then<br> +we've had a few skirmishes to the front with no great results,—a +few<br> +courts-martial, bad grub, and plenty of grumbling."</p> + +<p>"Why, what would they have? It's a great thing to hold the +French army in<br> +check within a few marches of Lisbon."</p> + +<p>"Charley, my man, who cares twopence for the French army or +Lisbon or the<br> +Portuguese or the Junta or anything about it?—every man is +pondering over<br> +his own affairs. One fellow wants to get home again, and be sent +upon some<br> +recruiting station. Another wishes to get a step or two in +promotion, to<br> +come to Torres Vedras, where even the <i>grande armée</i> +can't. Then some of us<br> +are in love, and some of us are in debt. Their is neither glory +nor profit<br> +to be had. But here's the bishop, smoking and steaming with an +odor of<br> +nectar!"</p> + +<p>"And our fellows, have you seen them lately?"</p> + +<p>"I dined with yours on Tuesday. Was it Tuesday? Yes. I dined +with them.<br> +By-the-bye, Sparks was taken prisoner that morning."</p> + +<p>"Sparks taken prisoner! Poor fellow. I am sincerely sorry. How +did it<br> +happen, Maurice?"</p> + +<p>"Very simply. Sparks had a forage patrol towards Vieda, and +set out early<br> +in the morning with his party. It seemed that they succeeded +perfectly, and<br> +were returning to the lines, when poor Sparks, always susceptible +where the<br> +sex are concerned, saw, or thought he saw, a lattice gently open +as he rode<br> +from the village, and a very taper finger make a signal to him. +Dropping a<br> +little behind the rest, he waited till his men had debouched upon +the road,<br> +when riding quietly up, he coughed a couple of times to attract +the fair<br> +unknown; a handkerchief waved from the lattice in reply, which +was speedily<br> +closed, and our valiant cornet accordingly dismounted and entered +the<br> +house.</p> + +<p>"The remainder of the adventure is soon told; for in a few +seconds after,<br> +two men mounted on one horse were seen galloping at top speed +towards the<br> +French lines,—the foremost being a French officer of the 4th +Cuirassiers,<br> +the gentleman with his face to the tail, our friend Sparks; the +lovely<br> +unknown being a, <i>vieille moustache</i> of Loison's corps, who had +been<br> +wounded in a skirmish some days before, and lay waiting an +opportunity of<br> +rejoining his party. One of our prisoners knew this fellow well; +he had<br> +been promoted from the ranks, and was a Hercules for feats of +strength; so<br> +that, after all, Sparks could not help himself."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm really sorry; but as you say, Sparks's tender +nature is always<br> +the ruin of him."</p> + +<p>"Of him! ay, and of you; and of Power; and of myself; of all +of us. Isn't<br> +it the sweet creatures that make fools of us from Father Adam +down to<br> +Maurice Quill, neither sparing age nor rank in the service, +half-pay nor<br> +the veteran battalion—it's all one? Pass the jug, there. +O'Shaughnessy—"</p> + +<p>"Ah, by-the-bye, how's the major?"</p> + +<p>"Charmingly; only a little bit in a scrape just now. Sir +Arthur—Lord<br> +Wellington, I mean—had him up for his fellows being caught +pillaging, and<br> +gave him a devil of a rowing a few days ago.</p> + +<p>"'Very disorderly corps yours, Major O'Shaughnessy,' said the +general;<br> +'more men up for punishment than any regiment in the +service.'</p> + +<p>"Shaugh muttered something; but his voice was lost in a +loud<br> +cock-a-doo-do-doo, that some bold chanticleer set up at the +moment.</p> + +<p>"'If the officers do their duty, Major O'Shaughnessy, these +acts of<br> +insubordination do not occur.'</p> + +<p>"'Cock-a-doo-do-doo,' was the reply. Some of the staff found +it hard not to<br> +laugh; but the general went on,—</p> + +<p>"'If, therefore, the practice does not cease, I'll draft the +men into West<br> +India regiments.'</p> + +<p>"'Cock-a-doo-do-doo.'</p> + +<p>"'And if any articles pillaged from the inhabitants are +detected in the<br> +quarters, or about the person of the troops—'</p> + +<p>"'Cock-a-doo-do-<i>doo</i>,' screamed louder here than ever.</p> + +<p>"'Damn that cock! Where is it?'</p> + +<p>"There was a general look around on all sides, which seemed in +vain; when<br> +a tremendous repetition of the cry resounded from O'Shaughnessy's +coat<br> +pocket,—thus detecting the valiant major himself in the very +practice of<br> +his corps. There was no standing this: every one burst out into a +peal of<br> +laughing; and Lord Wellington himself could not resist, but +turned away,<br> +muttering to himself as he went, 'Damned robbers—every man of +them!' while<br> +a final war-note from the major's pocket closed the +interview."</p> + +<p>"Confound you, Maurice, you've always some villanous narrative +or other.<br> +You never crossed a street for shelter without making something +out of it."</p> + +<p>"True this time, as sure as my name's Maurice; but the bowl is +empty."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, here comes its successor. How long can you stay +among us?"</p> + +<p>"A few days at most. Just took a run off to see the sights. I +was all over<br> +Lisbon this morning; saw the Inquisition and the cells and the +place where<br> +they tried the fellows,—the kind of grand jury room with the +great picture<br> +of Adam and Eve at the end of it. What a beautiful creature she +is; hair<br> +down to her waist, and such eyes! 'Ah, ye darling!' said I to +myself,<br> +'small blame to him for what he did. Wouldn't I ate every crab in +the<br> +garden, if ye asked me!'"</p> + +<p>"I must certainly go to see her, Maurice. Is she very +Portuguese in her<br> +style?"</p> + +<p>"Devil a bit of it! She might be a Limerick-woman with elegant +brown hair<br> +and blue eyes and a skin like snow."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, they've pretty girls in Lisbon too, Doctor."</p> + +<p>"Yes, faith," said Power, "that they have."</p> + +<p>"Nothing like Ireland, boys; not a bit of it; they're the +girls for my<br> +money; and where's the man can resist them? From Saint Patrick, +that had to<br> +go and live in the Wicklow mountains—"</p> + +<p>"Saint Kevin, you mean, Doctor."</p> + +<p>"Sure it's all the same, they were twins. I made a little song +about them<br> +one evening last week,—the women I mean."</p> + +<p>"Let us have it, Maurice; let us have it, old fellow. What's +the measure?"</p> + +<p>"Short measure; four little verses, devil a more!"</p> + +<p>"But the time, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"Whenever you like to sing it; here it is,"—</p> + +<p> THE GIRLS OF THE WEST.</p> + +<p> Air,—"<i>Teddy, ye Gander</i>."</p> + +<p> (<i>With feeling: but not too slow</i>.)</p> + +<p> You may talk, if you please,<br> + Of the brown Portuguese,<br> + But wherever you roam, wherever you roam,<br> + You nothing will meet,<br> + Half so lovely or sweet,<br> + As the girls at home, the girls at home.</p> + +<p> Their eyes are not sloes,<br> + Nor so long is their nose,<br> + But between me and you, between me and you,<br> + They are just as alarming,<br> + And ten times more charming,<br> + With hazel and blue, with hazel and blue.</p> + +<p> They don't ogle a man,<br> + O'er the top of their fan<br> + Till his heart's in a flame, till his heart's in a flame<br> + But though bashful and shy,<br> + They've a look in their eye<br> + That just comes to the same, just comes to the same.</p> + +<p> No mantillas they sport,<br> + But a petticoat short<br> + Shows an ankle the best, an ankle the best,<br> + And a leg—but, O murther!<br> + I dare not go further;<br> + So here's to the west, so here's to the west.</p> + +<p>"Now that really is a sweet little thing. Moore's isn't +it?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it; my own muse, every word of it."</p> + +<p>"And the music?" said I.</p> + +<p>"My own, too. Too much spice in that bowl; that's an +invariable error in<br> +your devisers of drink, to suppose that the tipple you start with +can<br> +please your palate to the last; they forget that as we advance, +either in<br> +years or lush, our tastes simplify."</p> + +<p>"<i>Nous revenons à nos premières amours</i>. Isn't +that it?"</p> + +<p>"No, not exactly, for we go even further; for if you mark the +progression<br> +of a sensible man's fluids, you'll find what an emblem of life it +presents<br> +to you. What is his initiatory glass of 'Chablis' that he throws +down with<br> +his oysters but the budding expectancy of boyhood,—the +appetizing sense of<br> +pleasure to come; then follows the sherry with his soup, that +warming glow<br> +which strength and vigor in all their consciousness impart, as a +glimpse of<br> +life is opening before him. Then youth succeeds—buoyant, wild, +tempestuous<br> +youth—foaming and sparkling like the bright champagne whose +stormy surface<br> +subsides into a myriad of bright stars."</p> + +<p>"<i>Oeil de perdrix</i>."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it; woman's own eye, brilliant, sparkling, +life-giving—"</p> + +<p>"Devil take the fellow, he's getting poetical!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, Fred! if that could only last; but one must come to the +burgundies<br> +with his maturer years. Your first glass of hermitage is the +algebraic sign<br> +for five-and-thirty,—the glorious burst is over; the pace is +still good,<br> +to be sure, but the great enthusiasm is past. You can afford to +look<br> +forward, but confound it, you've along way to look back +also."</p> + +<p>"I say, Charley, our friend has contrived to finish the bishop +during his<br> +disquisition; the bowl's quite empty."</p> + +<p>"You don't say so, Fred. To be sure, how a man does forget +himself in<br> +abstract speculations; but let us have a little more, I've not +concluded my<br> +homily."</p> + +<p>"Not a glass, Maurice; it's already past nine. We are all +pledged to<br> +the masquerade, and before we've dressed and got there, 't will +be late<br> +enough."</p> + +<p>"But I'm not disguised yet, my boy, nor half."</p> + +<p>"Well, they must take you <i>au naturel</i>, as our countrymen do +their<br> +potatoes."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Doctor, Fred's right; we had better start."</p> + +<p>"Well, I can't help it; I've recorded my opposition to the +motion, but I<br> +must submit; and now that I'm on my legs, explain to me what's +that very<br> +dull-looking old lamp up there?"</p> + +<p>"That's the moon, man; the full moon."</p> + +<p>"Well, I've no objection; I'm full too: so come along, +lads."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XVIII.</p> + +<p>THE MASQUERADE.</p> + +<p>To form one's impression of a masked ball from the attempts at +this mode<br> +of entertainment in our country, is but to conceive a most +imperfect and<br> +erroneous notion. With us, the first <i>coup d'oeil</i> is everything; +the<br> +nuns, the shepherdesses, the Turks, sailors, eastern princes, +watchmen,<br> +moonshees, milestones, devils, and Quakers are all very well in +their way<br> +as they pass in the review before us, but when we come to mix in +the<br> +crowd, we discover that, except the turban and the cowl, the +crook and<br> +the broad-brim, no further disguise is attempted or thought of. +The nun,<br> +forgetting her vow and her vestments, is flirting with the devil; +the<br> +watchman, a very fastidious elegant, is ogling the fishwomen +through his<br> +glass; while the Quaker is performing a <i>pas seul</i> Alberti might +be proud<br> +of, in a quadrille of riotous Turks and half-tipsy Hindoos; in +fact, the<br> +whole wit of the scene consists in absurd associations. Apart +from this,<br> +the actors have rarely any claims upon your attention; for even +supposing<br> +a person clever enough to sustain his character, whatever it be, +you must<br> +also supply the other personages of the drama, or, in stage +phrase, he'll<br> +have nothing to "play up to." What would be Bardolph without +Pistol; what<br> +Sir Lucius O'Triuger without Acres? It is the relief which throws +out the<br> +disparities and contradictions of life that afford us most +amusement; hence<br> +it is that one swallow can no more make a summer, than one +well-sustained<br> +character can give life to a masquerade. Without such sympathies, +such<br> +points of contact, all the leading features of the individual, +making him<br> +act and be acted upon, are lost; the characters being mere +parallel lines,<br> +which, however near they approach, never bisect or cross each +other.</p> + +<p>This is not the case abroad: the domino, which serves for mere +concealment,<br> +is almost the only dress assumed, and the real disguise is +therefore thrown<br> +from necessity upon the talents, whatever they be, of the wearer. +It is<br> +no longer a question of a beard or a spangled mantle, a Polish +dress or<br> +a pasteboard nose; the mutation of voice, the assumption of a +different<br> +manner, walk, gesture, and mode of expression, are all necessary, +and no<br> +small tact is required to effect this successfully.</p> + +<p>I may be pardoned this little digression, as it serves to +explain in some<br> +measure how I felt on entering the splendidly lit up <i>salons</i> of +the<br> +villa, crowded with hundreds of figures in all the varied +costumes of a<br> +carnival,—the sounds of laughter mingled with the crash of the +music;<br> +the hurrying hither and thither of servants with refreshments; +the crowds<br> +gathered around fortune-tellers, whose predictions threw the +parties<br> +at each moment into shouts of merriment; the eager following of +some<br> +disappointed domino, interrogating every one to find out a lost +mask.<br> +For some time I stood an astonished spectator at the kind of +secret<br> +intelligence which seemed to pervade the whole assemblage, when +suddenly a<br> +mask, who for some time had been standing beside me, whispered in +French,—</p> + +<p>"If you pass your time in this manner, you must not feel +surprised if your<br> +place be occupied."</p> + +<p>I turned hastily round, but she was gone. She, I say, for the +voice was<br> +clearly a woman's; her pink domino could be no guide, for +hundreds of the<br> +same color passed me every instant. The meaning of the allusion I +had<br> +little doubt of. I turned to speak to Power, but he was gone; and +for the<br> +first moment of my life, the bitterness of rivalry crossed my +mind. It was<br> +true I had resigned all pretensions in his favor. My last meeting +with Lucy<br> +had been merely to justify my own character against an impression +that<br> +weighed heavily on me; still, I thought he might have +waited,—another day<br> +and I should be far away, neither to witness nor grieve over his +successes.</p> + +<p>"You still hesitate," whispered some one near me.</p> + +<p>I wheeled round suddenly, but could not detect the speaker, +and was again<br> +relapsing into my own musings, when the same voice +repeated,—</p> + +<p>"The white domino with the blue cape. Adieu."</p> + +<p>Without waiting to reflect upon the singularity of the +occurrence, I now<br> +hurried along through the dense crowd, searching on every side +for the<br> +domino.</p> + +<p>"Isn't that O'Malley?" said an Englishman to his friend.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the other; "the very man we want. O'Malley, +find a partner;<br> +we have been searching a <i>vis-à-vis</i> this ten +minutes."</p> + +<p>The speaker was an officer I had met at Sir George Dashwood's. +"How did you<br> +discover me?" said I, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Not a very difficult thing if you carry your mask in your +hand that way,"<br> +was the answer.</p> + +<p>And I now perceived that in the distraction of my thoughts I +had been<br> +carrying my mask in this manner since my coming into the +room.</p> + +<p>"There now, what say you to the blue domino? I saw her foot, +and a girl<br> +with such an instep must be a waltzer."</p> + +<p>I looked round, a confused effort at memory passing across my +mind; my eyes<br> +fell at the instant upon the embroidered sleeve of the domino, +where a<br> +rosebud worked in silver at once reminded me of Catrina's secret. +"Ah,"<br> +thought I, "La Senhora herself!" She was leaning upon the arm of +a tall and<br> +portly figure in black; who this was I knew not, nor sought to +discover,<br> +but at once advancing towards Donna Inez asked her to waltz.</p> + +<p>Without replying to me she turned towards her companion, who +seemed as it<br> +were to press her acceptance of my offer; she hesitated, however, +for an<br> +instant, and curtsying deeply, declined it. "Well," thought I, +"she at<br> +least has not recognized me."</p> + +<p>"And yet, Senhora," said I, half jestingly, "I <i>have</i> seen you +join a<br> +bolero before now."</p> + +<p>"You evidently mistake me," was the reply, but in a voice so +well feigned<br> +as almost to convince me she was right.</p> + +<p>"Nay, more," said I, "under your own fair auspices did I +myself first<br> +adventure one."</p> + +<p>"Still in error, believe me; I am not known to you."</p> + +<p>"And yet I have a talisman to refresh your memory, should you +dare me<br> +further."</p> + +<p>At this instant my hand was grasped warmly by a passing mask. +I turned<br> +round rapidly, and Power whispered in my ear,—</p> + +<p>"Yours forever, Charley; you've made my fortune."</p> + +<p>As he hurried on I could perceive that he supported a lady on +his arm, and<br> +that she wore a loose white domino with a deep blue cape. In a +second all<br> +thought of Inez was forgotten, and anxious only to conceal my +emotion, I<br> +turned away and mingled in the crowd. Lost to all around me, I +wandered<br> +carelessly, heedlessly on, neither noticing the glittering throng +around,<br> +nor feeling a thought in common with the gay and joyous spirits +that<br> +flitted by. The night wore on, my melancholy and depression +growing ever<br> +deeper, yet so spell-bound was I that I could not leave the +place. A<br> +secret sense that it was the last time we were to meet had gained +entire<br> +possession of me, and I longed to speak a few words ere we parted +forever.</p> + +<p>I was leaning on a window which looked out upon the courtyard, +when<br> +suddenly the tramp of horses attracted my attention, and I saw by +the<br> +clear moonlight a group of mounted men, whose long cloaks and +tall helmets<br> +announced dragoons, standing around the porch. At the same moment +the<br> +door of the <i>salon</i> opened, and an officer in undress, splashed +and<br> +travel-stained, entered. Making his way rapidly through the +crowd, he<br> +followed the servant, who introduced him towards the supper-room. +Thither<br> +the dense mass now pressed to learn the meaning of the singular +apparition;<br> +while my own curiosity, not less excited, led me towards the +door. As<br> +I crossed the hall, however, my progress was interrupted by a +group of<br> +persons, among whom I saw an aide-de-camp of Lord Wellington's +staff,<br> +narrating, as it were, some piece of newly-arrived intelligence. +I had<br> +no time for further inquiry, when a door opened near me, and Sir +George<br> +Dashwood, accompanied by several general officers, came forth, +the officer<br> +I had first seen enter the ball-room along with them. Every one +was by this<br> +unmasked, and eagerly looking to hear what had occurred.</p> + +<p>"Then, Dashwood, you'll send off an orderly at once?" said an +old general<br> +officer beside me.</p> + +<p>"This instant, my Lord. I'll despatch an aide-de-camp. The +troops shall be<br> +in marching order before noon. Oh, here's the man I want! +O'Malley, come<br> +here. Mount your horse and dash into town. Send for Brotherton +and M'Gregor<br> +to quarters, and announce the news as quickly as possible."</p> + +<p>"But what am I to announce, Sir George?"</p> + +<p>"That the French are in retreat,—Massena in retreat, my +lad."</p> + +<p>A tremendous cheer at this instant burst from the hundreds in +the<br> +<i>salon</i>, who now heard the glorious tidings. Another cheer and +another<br> +followed,—ten thousand <i>vivas</i> rose amidst the crash of the +band, as it<br> +broke into a patriotic war chant. Such a scene of enthusiasm and +excitement<br> +I never witnessed. Some wept with joy. Others threw themselves +into their<br> +friends' arms.</p> + +<p>"They're all mad, every mother's son of them!" said Maurice +Quill, as he<br> +elbowed his way through the mass; "and here's an old vestal won't +leave my<br> +arm. She has already embraced me three times, and we've finished +a flask of<br> +Malaga between us."</p> + +<p>"Come, O'Malley, are you ready for the road?"</p> + +<p>My horse was by this time standing saddled at the front. I +sprang at once<br> +to the saddle, and without waiting for a second order, set out +for Lisbon.<br> +Ten minutes had scarce elapsed,—the very shouts of joy of the +delighted<br> +city were still ringing in my ears,—when I was once again back +at the<br> +villa. As I mounted the steps into the hall, a carriage drew +up,—it was<br> +Sir George Dashwood's. He came forward, his daughter leaning upon +his arm.</p> + +<p>"Why, O'Malley, I thought you had gone."</p> + +<p>"I have returned, Sir George. Colonel Brotherton is in +waiting, and the<br> +staff also. I have received orders to set out for Benejos, where +the 14th<br> +are stationed, and have merely delayed to say adieu."</p> + +<p>"Adieu, my dear boy, and God bless you!" said the warm-hearted +old man, as<br> +he pressed my hand between both his. "Lucy, here's your old +friend about to<br> +leave; come and say good-by."</p> + +<p>Miss Dashwood had stopped behind to adjust her shawl. I flew +to her<br> +assistance. "Adieu, Miss Dashwood, and forever!" said I, in a +broken voice,<br> +as I took her hand in mine. "This is not your domino," said I, +eagerly, as<br> +a blue silk one peeped from beneath her mantle; "and the sleeve, +too,—did<br> +you wear this?" She blushed slightly, and assented.</p> + +<p>"I changed with the senhora, who wore mine all the +evening."</p> + +<p>"And Power, then, was not your partner?"</p> + +<p>"I should think not,—for I never danced."</p> + +<p>"Lucy, my love, are you ready? Come, be quick."</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Mr. O'Malley, and <i>au revoir, n'est-ce pas?</i>"</p> + +<p>I drew her glove from her hand as she spoke, and pressing my +lips upon her<br> +fingers, placed her within the carriage. "Adieu, and <i>au +revoir!</i>" said I.<br> +The carriage turned away, and a white glove was all that remained +to me of<br> +Lucy Dashwood!</p> + +<p>The carriage had turned the angle of the road, and its +retiring sounds were<br> +growing gradually fainter, ere I recovered myself sufficiently to +know<br> +where I stood. One absorbing thought alone possessed me. Lucy was +not lost<br> +to me forever; Power was not my rival in that quarter,—that was +enough for<br> +me. I needed no more to nerve my arm and steel my heart. As I +reflected<br> +thus, the long loud blast of a trumpet broke upon the silence of +the<br> +night, and admonished me to depart. I hurried to my room to make +my few<br> +preparations for the road; but Mike had already anticipated +everything<br> +here, and all was in readiness.</p> + +<p>But one thing now remained,—to make my adieu to the senhora. +With this<br> +intent, I descended a narrow winding stair which led from my +dressing-room,<br> +and opened by a little terrace upon the flower-garden beside +her<br> +apartments.</p> + +<p>As I crossed the gravelled alley, I could not but think of the +last time I<br> +had been there. It was on the eve of departure for the Douro. I +recalled<br> +the few and fleeting moments of our leave-taking, and a thought +flashed<br> +upon me,—what if she cared for me! What if, half in coquetry, +half in<br> +reality, her heart was mixed up in those passages which daily +association<br> +gives rise to?</p> + +<p>I could not altogether acquit myself of all desire to make her +believe me<br> +her admirer; nay, more, with the indolent <i>abandon</i> of my +country, I had<br> +fallen into a thousand little schemes to cheat the long hours +away, which,<br> +having no other object than the happiness of the moment, might +yet color<br> +all her after-life with sorrow.</p> + +<p>Let no one rashly pronounce me a coxcomb, vain and +pretentious, for all<br> +this. In my inmost heart I had no feeling of selfishness mingled +with the<br> +consideration. It was from no sense of my own merits, no +calculation of my<br> +own chances of success, that I thought thus. Fortunately, at +eighteen one's<br> +heart is uncontaminated with such an alloy of vanity. The first +emotions of<br> +youth are pure and holy things, tempering our fiercer passions, +and calming<br> +the rude effervescence of our boyish spirit; and when we strive +to please,<br> +and hope to win affection, we insensibly fashion ourselves to +nobler and<br> +higher thoughts, catching from the source of our devotion a +portion of that<br> +charm that idealizes daily life, and makes our path in it a +glorious and a<br> +bright one.</p> + +<p>Who would not exchange all the triumph of his later days, the +proudest<br> +moments of successful ambition, the richest trophies of +hard-won<br> +daring,—for the short and vivid flash that first shot through +his heart<br> +and told him he was loved. It is the opening consciousness of +life, the<br> +first sense of power that makes of the mere boy a man,—a man in +all his<br> +daring and his pride; and hence it is that in early life we feel +ever prone<br> +to indulge those fancied attachments which elevate and raise us +in our own<br> +esteem. Such was the frame of my mind when I entered the little +boudoir<br> +where once before I had ventured on a similar errand.</p> + +<p>As I closed the sash-door behind me, the gray dawn of breaking +day scarcely<br> +permitted my seeing anything around me, and I felt my way towards +the door<br> +of an adjoining room, where I supposed it was likely I should +find the<br> +senhora. As I proceeded thus, with cautious step and beating +heart, I<br> +thought I heard a sound near me. I stopped and listened, and was +about<br> +again to move on, when a half-stifled sob fell upon my ear. +Slowly and<br> +silently guiding my steps towards the sounds, I reached a sofa, +when, my<br> +eyes growing by degrees more accustomed to the faint light, I +could detect<br> +a figure which, at a glance, I recognized as Donna Inez. A +cashmere shawl<br> +was loosely thrown around her, and her face was buried in her +hands. As she<br> +lay, to all seeming, still and insensible before me, her +beautiful hair<br> +fell heavily upon her back and across her arm, and her whole +attitude<br> +denoted the very abandonment of grief. A short convulsive shudder +which<br> +slightly shook her frame alone gave evidence of life, except when +a sob,<br> +barely audible in the death-like silence, escaped her.</p> + +<p>I knelt silently down beside her, and gently withdrawing her +hand, placed<br> +it within mine. A dreadful feeling of self-condemnation shot +through me as<br> +I felt the gentle pressure of her taper fingers, which rested +without a<br> +struggle in my grasp. My tears fell hot and fast upon that pale +hand, as<br> +I bent in sadness over it, unable to utter a word. A rush of +conflicting<br> +thoughts passed through my brain, and I knew not what to do. I +now had no<br> +doubt upon my mind that she loved me, and that her present +affliction was<br> +caused by my approaching departure.</p> + +<p>"Dearest Inez!" I stammered out at length, as I pressed her +hands to my<br> +lips,—"dearest Inez!"—a faint sob, and a slight pressure of her +hand, was<br> +the only reply. "I have come to say good-by," continued I, +gaining a little<br> +courage as I spoke; "a long good-by, too, in all likelihood. You +have heard<br> +that we are ordered away,—there, don't sob, dearest, and, +believe me, I<br> +had wished ere we parted to have spoken to you calmly and openly; +but,<br> +alas, I cannot,—I scarcely know what I say."</p> + +<p>"You will not forget me?" said she, in a low voice, that sank +into my very<br> +heart. "You will not forget me?" As she spoke, her hand dropped +heavily<br> +upon my shoulder, and her rich luxuriant hair fell upon my cheek. +What a<br> +devil of a thing is proximity to a downy cheek and a black +eyelash, more<br> +especially when they belong to one whom you are disposed to +believe not<br> +indifferent to you! What I did at this precise moment there is no +necessity<br> +for recording, even had not an adage interdicted such +confessions, nor can<br> +I now remember what I said; but I can well recollect how, +gradually warming<br> +with my subject, I entered into a kind of half-declaration of +attachment,<br> +intended most honestly to be a mere <i>exposé</i> of my own +unworthiness to win<br> +her favor, and my resolution to leave Lisbon and its neighborhood +forever.</p> + +<p>Let not any one blame me rashly if he has not experienced the +difficulty of<br> +my position. The impetus of love-making is like the ardor of a +fox-hunt.<br> +You care little that the six-bar gate before you is the boundary +of another<br> +gentleman's preserves or the fence of his pleasure-ground. You go +slap<br> +along at a smashing-pace, with your head up, and your hand low, +clearing<br> +all before you, the opposing difficulties to your progress giving +half<br> +the zest, because all the danger to your career. So it is with +love; the<br> +gambling spirit urges one ever onward, and the chance of failure +is a<br> +reason for pursuit, where no other argument exists.</p> + +<p>"And you do love me?" said the senhora, with a soft, low +whisper that most<br> +unaccountably suggested anything but comfort to me.</p> + +<p>"Love you, Inez? By this kiss—I'm in an infernal scrape!" +said I,<br> +muttering this last half of my sentence to myself.</p> + +<p>"And you'll never be jealous again?"</p> + +<p>"Never, by all that's lovely!—your own sweet lips. That's the +very last<br> +thing to reproach me with."</p> + +<p>"And you promise me not to mind that foolish boy? For, after +all, you know,<br> +it was mere flirtation,—if even that."</p> + +<p>"I'll never think of him again," said I, while my brain was +burning to make<br> +out her meaning. "But, dearest, there goes the +trumpet-call—"</p> + +<p>"And, as for Pedro Mascarenhas, I never liked him."</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure, Inez?"</p> + +<p>"I swear it!—so no more of him. Gonzales Cordenza—I've broke +with him<br> +long since. So that you see, dearest Frederic—"</p> + +<p>"Frederic!" said I, starting almost to my feet with, +amazement, while she<br> +continued:—</p> + +<p>"I'm your own,—all your own!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the coquette, the heartless jilt!" groaned I, +half-aloud.</p> + +<p>"And O'Malley, Inez, poor Charley!—what of him?"</p> + +<p>"Poor thing! I can't help him. But he's such a puppy, the +lesson may do him<br> +good."</p> + +<p>"But perhaps he loved you, Inez?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure he did; I wished him to do so,—I can't bear not +to be loved.<br> +But, Frederic, tell me, may I trust you,—will you keep faithful +to me?"</p> + +<p>"Sweetest Inez! by this last kiss I swear that such as I kneel +before you<br> +now, you'll ever find me."</p> + +<p>A foot upon the gravel-walk without now called me to my feet; +I sprang<br> +towards the door, and before Inez had lifted her head from the +sofa, I had<br> +reached the garden. A figure muffled in a cavalry cloak passed +near me, but<br> +without noticing me, and the next moment I had cleared the +paling, and was<br> +hurrying towards the stable, where I had ordered Mike to be in +waiting.</p> + +<p>The faint streak of dull pink which announces the coming day +stretched<br> +beneath the dark clouds of the night, and the chill air of the +morning was<br> +already stirring in the leaves.</p> + +<p>As I passed along by a low beech hedge which skirted the +avenue, I was<br> +struck by the sound of voices near me. I stopped to listen, and +soon<br> +detected in one of the speakers my friend Mickey Free; of the +other I was<br> +not long in ignorance.</p> + +<p>"Love you, is it, bathershin? It's worship you, adore you, +my<br> +darling,—that's the word! There, acushla, don't cry; dry your +eyes—Oh,<br> +murther, it's a cruel thing to tear one's self away from the best +of<br> +living, with the run of the house in drink and kissing! Bad luck +to it for<br> +campaigning, any way, I never liked it!"</p> + +<p>Catrina's reply,—for it was she,—I could not gather; but +Mike resumed:—</p> + +<p>"Ay, just so, sore bones and wet grass, <i>accadenté</i>, +and half-rations. Oh,<br> +that I ever saw the day when I took to it! Listen to me now, +honey; here it<br> +is, on my knees I am before you, and throth it's not more nor +three, may be<br> +four, young women I'd say the like to; bad scran to me if I +wouldn't marry<br> +you out of a face this blessed morning just as soon as I'd look +at ye.<br> +Arrah, there now, don't be screeching and bawling; what'll the +neighbors<br> +think of us, and my own heart's destroyed with grief +entirely."</p> + +<p>Poor Catrina's voice returned an inaudible answer, and not +wishing any<br> +longer to play the eavesdropper, I continued my path towards the +stable.<br> +The distant noises from the city announced a state of movement +and<br> +preparation, and more than one orderly passed the road near me at +a gallop.<br> +As I turned into the wide courtyard, Mike, breathless and +flurried with<br> +running, overtook me.</p> + +<p>"Are the horses ready, Mike?" said I; "we must start this +instant?"</p> + +<p>"They've just finished a peck of oats apiece, and faix, that +same may be a<br> +stranger to them this day six months."</p> + +<p>"And the baggage, too?"</p> + +<p>"On the cars, with the staff and the light brigade. It was +down there I was<br> +now, to see all was right."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm quite aware; and now bring out the cattle. I hope +Catrina received<br> +your little consolations well. That seems a very sad affair."</p> + +<p>"Murder, real murder, devil a less! It's no matter where you +go, from<br> +Clonmel to Chayney, it's all one; they've a way of getting round +you. Upon<br> +my soul, it's like the pigs they are."</p> + +<p>"Like pigs, Mike? That appears a strange compliment you've +selected to pay<br> +them."</p> + +<p>"Ay, just like the pigs, no less. May be you've heard what +happened to<br> +myself up at Moronha?"</p> + +<p>"Look to that girth there. Well, go on."</p> + +<p>"I was coming along one morning, just as day was beginning to +break, when I<br> +sees a slip of a pig trotting before me, with nobody near him; +but as the<br> +road was lonely, and myself rather down in heart, I thought, +Musha! but yer<br> +fine company, anyhow, av a body could only keep you with him. +But, ye see,<br> +a pig—saving your presence—is a baste not easily flattered, so +I didn't<br> +waste time and blarney upon him, but I took off my belt, and put +it round<br> +its neck as neat as need be; but, as the devil's luck would have +it, I<br> +didn't go half an hour when a horse came galloping up behind me. +I turned<br> +round, and, by the blessed light, it was Sir Dinny himself was on +it!"</p> + +<p>"Sir Dennis Pack?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, bad luck to his hook nose. 'What are you doing there, my +fine<br> +fellow?' says he. 'What's that you have dragging there behind +you?'</p> + +<p>"'A boneen, sir,' says I. 'Isn't he a fine crayture?—av he +wasn't so<br> +troublesome.'</p> + +<p>"'Troublesome, troublesome—what do you mean?'</p> + +<p>"'Just so,' says I. 'Isn't he parsecutiug the life out of me +the whole<br> +morning, following me about everywhere I go? Contrary bastes they +always<br> +was.'</p> + +<p>"'I advise you to try and part company, my friend, +notwithstanding,' says<br> +he; 'or may be it's the same end you'll be coming to, and not +long either.'<br> +And faix, I took his advice; and ye see, Mister Charles, it's +just as I was<br> +saying, they're like the women, the least thing in life is enough +to bring<br> +them after us, <i>av ye only put the 'comether'</i> upon them."</p> + +<p>"And now adieu to the Villa Nuova," said I, as I rode slowly +down the<br> +avenue, turning ever and anon in my saddle to look back on each +well-known<br> +spot.</p> + +<p>A heavy sigh from Mike responded to my words.</p> + +<p>"A long, a last farewell!" said I, waving my hand towards the +trellised<br> +walls, now half-hidden by the trees; and, as I spoke, that +heaviness of the<br> +heart came over me that seems inseparable from leave-taking. The +hour of<br> +parting seems like a warning to us that all our enjoyments and +pleasures<br> +here are destined to a short and merely fleeting existence; and +as each<br> +scene of life passes away never to return, we are made to feel +that youth<br> +and hope are passing with them; and that, although the fair world +be as<br> +bright, and its pleasures as rich in abundance, our capacity of +enjoyment<br> +is daily, hourly diminishing; and while all around us smiles in +beauty and<br> +happiness, that we, alas! are not what we were.</p> + +<p>Such was the tenor of my thoughts as I reached the road, when +they were<br> +suddenly interrupted by my man Mike, whose meditations were +following<br> +a somewhat similar channel, though at last inclining to +different<br> +conclusions. He coughed a couple of times as if to attract my +attention,<br> +and then, as it were half thinking aloud, he muttered,—</p> + +<p>"I wonder if we treated the young ladies well, anyhow, Mister +Charles, for,<br> +faix, I've my doubts on it."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XIX.</p> + +<p>THE LINES.</p> + +<p>When we reached Lescas, we found that an officer of Lord +Wellington's staff<br> +had just arrived from the lines, and was occupied in making known +the<br> +general order from headquarters; which set forth, with customary +brevity,<br> +that the French armies, under the command of Massena, had retired +from<br> +their position, and were in full retreat,—the second and third +corps,<br> +which had been stationed at Villa Franca, having marched, during +the<br> +night of the 15th, in the direction of Manal. The officers in +command of<br> +divisions were ordered to repair instantly to Pero Negro, to +consult upon a<br> +forward movement, Admiral Berkeley being written to to provide +launches to<br> +pass over General Hill's, or any other corps which might be +selected, to<br> +the left bank of the Tagus. All now was excitement, heightened by +the<br> +unexpected nature of an occurrence which not even speculation +had<br> +calculated upon. It was but a few days before, and the news had +reached<br> +Torres Vedras that a powerful reinforcement was in march to join +Massena's<br> +army, and their advanced guard had actually reached Santarem. The +confident<br> +expectation was, therefore, that an attack upon the lines was +meditated.<br> +Now, however, this prospect existed no longer; for scarcely had +the heavy<br> +mists of the lowering day disappeared, when the vast plain, so +lately<br> +peopled by the thickened ranks and dark masses of a great army, +was seen in<br> +its whole extent deserted and untenanted.</p> + +<p>The smouldering fires of the pickets alone marked where the +troops had been<br> +posted, but not a man of that immense force was to be seen. +General Fane,<br> +who had been despatched with a brigade of Portuguese cavalry and +some<br> +artillery, hung upon the rear of the retiring army, and from him +we learned<br> +that the enemy were continuing their retreat northward, having +occupied<br> +Santarem with a strong force to cover the movement. Crawfurd was +ordered<br> +to the front with the light division, the whole army following in +the same<br> +direction, except Hill's corps, which, crossing the river at +Velada, was<br> +intended to harass the enemy's flank, and assist our future +operations.</p> + +<p>Such, in brief, was the state of affairs when I reached Villa +Franca<br> +towards noon, and received orders to join my regiment, then +forming part of<br> +Sir Stapleton Cotton's brigade.</p> + +<p>It must be felt to be thoroughly appreciated, the enthusiastic +pleasure<br> +with which one greets his old corps after some months of +separation: the<br> +bounding ecstasy with which the weary eye rests on the old +familiar faces,<br> +dear by every association of affection and brotherhood; the +anxious look<br> +for this one and for that; the thrill of delight sent through the +heart as<br> +the well-remembered march swells upon the ear; the very notes of +that rough<br> +voice which we have heard amidst the crash of battle and the +rolling of<br> +artillery, speak softly to our senses like a father's welcome; +from the<br> +well-tattered flag that waves above us to the proud steed of the +war-worn<br> +trumpeter, each has a niche in our affection.</p> + +<p>If ever there was a corps calculated to increase and foster +these<br> +sentiments, the 14th Light Dragoons was such. The warm affection, +the truly<br> +heart-felt regard, which existed among my brother officers, made +of our<br> +mess a happy home. Our veteran colonel, grown gray in +campaigning, was like<br> +a father to us; while the senior officers, tempering the warm +blood of<br> +impetuous youth with their hard-won experience, threw a charm of +peace and<br> +tranquillity over all our intercourse that made us happy when +together, and<br> +taught us to feel that, whether seated around the watch-fire or +charging<br> +amidst the squadrons of the enemy, we were surrounded by those +devoted<br> +heart and soul to aid us.</p> + +<p>Gallant Fourteenth!—ever first in every gay scheme of +youthful jollity, as<br> +foremost in the van to meet the foe—how happy am I to recall the +memory<br> +of your bright looks and bold hearts; of your manly daring and +your bold<br> +frankness; of your merry voices, as I have heard them in the +battle or in<br> +the bivouac! Alas and alas, that I should indulge such +recollections alone!<br> +How few—how very few—are left of those with whom I trod the +early steps<br> +of life, whose bold cheer I have heard above the clashing sabres +of the<br> +enemy, whose broken voice I have listened to above the grave of a +comrade!<br> +The dark pines of the Pyrenees wave above some, the burning sands +of India<br> +cover others, and the wide plains of Salamanca are the +abiding-place of<br> +still more.</p> + +<p>"Here comes O'Malley!" shouted a well-known voice, as I rode +down the<br> +little slope at the foot of which a group of officers were +standing beside<br> +their horses.</p> + +<p>"Welcome, thou man of Galway!" cried Hampden; "delighted to +have you once<br> +more among us. How confoundedly well the fellow is looking!"</p> + +<p>"Lisbon beef seems better prog than commissariat biscuit!" +said another.</p> + +<p>"A'weel, Charley?" said my friend the Scotch doctor; "how's a' +wi' ye man?<br> +Ye seem to thrive on your mishaps! How cam' ye by that braw +beastie ye're<br> +mounted on?"</p> + +<p>"A present, Doctor; the gift of a very warm friend."</p> + +<p>"I hope you invited him to the mess, O'Malley! For, by Jove, +our stables<br> +stand in need of his kind offices! There he goes! Look at him! +What a<br> +slashing pace for a heavy fellow!" This observation was made +with<br> +reference to a well-known officer on the commander-in-chief's +staff, whose<br> +weight—some two and twenty stone—never was any impediment to +his bold<br> +riding.</p> + +<p>"Egad, O'Malley, you'll soon be as pretty a light-weight as +our friend<br> +yonder. Ah, there's a storm going on there! Here comes the +colonel!"</p> + +<p>"Well, O'Malley, are you come back to us? Happy to see you, +boy! Hope<br> +we shall not lose you again in a hurry! We can't spare the +scapegraces!<br> +There's plenty of skirmishing going on! Crawfurd always asks for +the<br> +scapegraces for the pickets!"</p> + +<p>I shook my gallant colonel's hand, while I acknowledged, as +best I might,<br> +his ambiguous compliment.</p> + +<p>"I say, lads," resumed the colonel, "squad your men and form +on the road!<br> +Lord Wellington's coming down this way to have a look at you! +O'Malley, I<br> +have General Crawfurd's orders to offer you your old appointment +on his<br> +staff; without you prefer to remaining with the regiment!"</p> + +<p>"I can never be sufficiently grateful, sir, to the general: +but, in fact—I<br> +think—that is, I believe—"</p> + +<p>"You'd rather be among your own fellows. Out with it boy! I +like you all<br> +the better! But come, we mustn't let the general know that; so +that I shall<br> +forget to tell you all about it. Eh, isn't that best? But join +your troop<br> +now; I hear the staff coming this way."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, a crowd of horseman were seen advancing towards +us at a sharp<br> +trot, their waving plumes and gorgeous aiguillettes denoting +their rank<br> +as generals of division. In the midst, as they came nearer, I +could<br> +distinguish one whom once seen there was no forgetting; his plain +blue<br> +frock and gray trousers, unstrapped beneath his boots, not a +little unlike<br> +the trim accuracy of costume around him. As he rode to the head +of the<br> +leading squadron, the staff fell back and he stood alone before +us; for a<br> +second there was a dead silence, but the next instant—by what +impulse tell<br> +who can—one tremendous cheer burst from the entire regiment. It +was like<br> +the act of one man; so sudden, so spontaneous. While every cheek +glowed,<br> +and every eye sparkled with enthusiasm, he alone seemed cool and +unexcited,<br> +as, gently raising his hand, he motioned them to silence.</p> + +<p>"Fourteenth, you are to be where you always desire to be,—in +the advanced<br> +guard of the army. I have nothing to say on the subject of your +conduct<br> +in the field. I know <i>you</i>; but if in pursuit of the enemy, I +hear of any<br> +misconduct towards the people of the country, or any +transgression of the<br> +general orders regarding pillage, by G——, I'll punish you as +severely as<br> +the worst corps in the service, and you know <i>me!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Oh, tear an ages, listen to that; and there's to be no +plunder after all!"<br> +said Mickey Free; and for an instant the most I could do was not +to burst<br> +into a fit of laughter. The word, "Forward!" was given at the +moment, and<br> +we moved past in close column, while that penetrating eye, which +seemed to<br> +read our very thoughts, scanned us from one end of the line to +the other.</p> + +<p>"I say, Charley," said the captain of my troop, in a +whisper,—"I say, that<br> +confounded cheer we gave got us that lesson; he can't stand that +kind of<br> +thing."</p> + +<p>"By Jove! I never felt more disposed than to repeat it," said +I.</p> + +<p>"No, no, my boy, we'll give him the honors, nine times nine; +but wait till<br> +evening. Look at old Merivale there. I'll swear he's saying +something<br> +devilish civil to him. Do you see the old fellow's happy +look?"</p> + +<p>And so it was; the bronzed, hard-cast features of the veteran +soldier<br> +were softened into an expression of almost boyish delight, as he +sat,<br> +bare-headed, bowing to his very saddle, while Lord Wellington was +speaking.</p> + +<p>As I looked, my heart throbbed painfully against my side, my +breath came<br> +quick, and I muttered to myself, "What would I not give to be in +his place<br> +now!"</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XX.</p> + +<p>THE RETREAT OF THE FRENCH.</p> + +<p>It is not my intention, were I even adequate to the task, to +trace with<br> +anything like accuracy the events of the war at this period. In +fact, to<br> +those who, like myself, were performing a mere subaltern +character, the<br> +daily movements of our own troops, not to speak of the continual +changes<br> +of the enemy, were perfectly unknown, and an English newspaper +was more<br> +ardently longed for in the Peninsula than by the most eager crowd +of a<br> +London coffee-room; nay, the results of the very engagements we +were<br> +ourselves concerned in, more than once, first reached us through +the press<br> +of our own country. It is easy enough to understand this. The +officer in<br> +command of the regiment, and how much more, the captain of a +troop, or the<br> +subaltern under him, knows nothing beyond the sphere of his own +immediate<br> +duty; by the success or failure of his own party his knowledge is +bounded,<br> +but how far he or his may influence the fortune, of the day, or +of what is<br> +taking place elsewhere, he is totally ignorant; and an old +Fourteenth man<br> +did not badly explain, his ideas on the matter, who described +Busaco as "a<br> +great noise and a great smoke, booming artillery and rattling +small-arms,<br> +infernal confusion, and to all seeming, incessant blundering, +orders<br> +and counter-orders, ending with a crushing charge; when, not +being hurt<br> +himself, nor having hurt anybody, he felt much pleased to learn +that they<br> +had gained a victory." It is then sufficient for all the purposes +of my<br> +narrative, when I mention that Massena continued his retreat by +Santarem<br> +and Thomar, followed by the allied army, who, however desirous of +pressing<br> +upon the rear of their enemy, were still obliged to maintain +their<br> +communication with the lines, and also to watch the movement of +the large<br> +armies which, under Ney and Soult, threatened at any unguarded +moment to<br> +attack them in flank.</p> + +<p>The position which Massena occupied at Santarem, naturally one +of great<br> +strength, and further improved by intrenchments, defied any +attack on<br> +the part of Lord Wellington, until the arrival of the +long-expected<br> +reinforcements from England. These had sailed in the early part +of January,<br> +but delayed by adverse winds, only reached Lisbon on the 2d of +March; and<br> +so correctly was the French marshal apprised of the circumstance, +and so<br> +accurately did he anticipate the probable result, that on the +fourth he<br> +broke up his encampment, and recommenced his retrograde movement, +with an<br> +army now reduced to forty thousand fighting men, and with two +thousand<br> +sick, destroying all his baggage and guns that could not be +horsed. By a<br> +demonstration of advancing upon the Zezere, by which he held the +allies<br> +in check, he succeeded in passing his wounded to the rear, while +Ney,<br> +appearing with a large force suddenly at Leiria, seemed bent upon +attacking<br> +the lines. By these stratagems two days' march were gained, and +the French<br> +retreated upon Torres Novas and Thomar, destroying the bridges +behind them<br> +as they passed.</p> + +<p>The day was breaking on the 12th of March, when the British +first came in<br> +sight of the retiring enemy. We were then ordered to the front, +and broken<br> +up into small parties, threw out our skirmishers. The French +chasseurs,<br> +usually not indisposed to accept this species of encounter, +showed now less<br> +of inclination than usual, and either retreated before us, or +hovered in<br> +masses to check our advance; in this way the morning was passed, +when<br> +towards noon we perceived that the enemy was drawn up in battle +array,<br> +occupying the height above the village of Redinha. This little +straggling<br> +village is situated in a hollow traversed by a narrow causeway +which opens<br> +by a long and dangerous defile upon a bridge, on either side of +which a<br> +dense wood afforded a shelter for light troops, while upon the +commanding<br> +eminence above a battery of heavy guns was seen in position.</p> + +<p>In front of the village a brigade of artillery and a division +of infantry<br> +were drawn up so skilfully as to give the appearance of a +considerable<br> +force, so that when Lord Wellington came up he spent some time in +examining<br> +the enemy's position. Erskine's brigade was immediately ordered +up, and the<br> +Fifty-second and Ninety-fourth, and a company of the Forty-third +were led<br> +against the wooded slopes upon the French right. Picton +simultaneously<br> +attacked the left, and in less than an hour, both were +successful, and<br> +Ney's position was laid bare; his skirmishers, however, continued +to hold<br> +their ground in front, and La Ferrière, a colonel of +hussars, dashing<br> +boldly forward at this very moment, carried off fourteen +prisoners from<br> +the very front of our line. Deceived by the confidence of the +enemy, Lord<br> +Wellington now prepared for an attack in force. The infantry were +therefore<br> +formed into line, and, at the signal of three shots fired from +the centre,<br> +began their foremost movement.</p> + +<p>Bending up a gentle curve, the whole plain glistened with the +glancing<br> +bayonets, and the troops marched majestically onward; while the +light<br> +artillery and the cavalry, bounding forward from the left and +centre,<br> +rushed eagerly towards the foe. One deafening discharge from the +French<br> +guns opened at the moment, with a general volley of small-arms. +The smoke<br> +for an instant obscured everything, and when that cleared away, +no enemy<br> +was to be seen.</p> + +<p>The British pressed madly on, like heated blood-hounds; but +when they<br> +descended the slope, the village of Redinha was in flames, and +the French<br> +in full retreat beyond it. A single howitzer seemed our only +trophy, and<br> +even this we were not destined to boast of, for from the midst of +the<br> +crashing flame and dense smoke of the burning village, a troop of +dragoons<br> +rushed forward, and charging our infantry, carried it off. The +struggle,<br> +though but for a moment, cost them dear: twenty of their comrades +lay dead<br> +upon the spot; but they were resolute and determined, and the +officer who<br> +led them on, fighting hand to hand with a soldier of the +Forty-second,<br> +cheered them as they retired. His gallant bearing, and his coat +covered<br> +with decorations, bespoke him one of note, and well it might; he +who<br> +thus perilled his life to maintain the courage of his soldiers at +the<br> +commencement of a retreat, was none other than Ney himself, <i>le +plus brave<br> +des braves</i>. The British pressed hotly on, and the light troops +crossed the<br> +river almost at the same time with the French. Ney, however, fell +back upon<br> +Condeixa, where his main body was posted, and all farther pursuit +was for<br> +the present abandoned.</p> + +<p>At Casa Noval and at Foz d'Aronce, the allies were successful; +but the<br> +French still continued to retire, burning the towns and villages +in their<br> +rear, and devastating the country along the whole line of march +by every<br> +expedient of cruelty the heart of man has ever conceived. In the +words of<br> +one whose descriptions, however fraught with the most wonderful +power of<br> +painting, are equally marked by truth, "Every horror that could +make war<br> +hideous attended this dreadful march. Distress, conflagration, +death in<br> +all modes,—from wounds, from fatigue, from water, from the +flames, from<br> +starvation,—vengeance, unlimited vengeance, was on every side." +The<br> +country was a desert!</p> + +<p>Such was the exhaustion of the allies, who suffered even +greater privations<br> +than the enemy, that they halted upon the 16th, unable to proceed +farther;<br> +and the river Ceira, swollen and unfordable, flowed between the +rival<br> +armies.</p> + +<p>The repose of even one day was a most grateful interruption to +the<br> +harassing career we had pursued for some time past; and it seemed +that my<br> +comrades felt, like myself, that such an opportunity was by no +means to<br> +be neglected; but while I am devoting so much space and +trespassing on my<br> +reader's patience thus far with narrative of flood and field, let +me steal<br> +a chapter for what will sometimes seem a scarcely less congenial +topic, and<br> +bring back the recollection of a glorious night in the +Peninsula.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXI.</p> + +<p>PATRICK'S DAY IN THE PENINSULA.</p> + +<p>The <i>réveil</i> had not yet sounded, when I felt my +shoulder shaken gently as<br> +I lay wrapped up in my cloak beneath a prickly pear-tree.</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant O'Malley, sir; a letter, sir; a bit of a note, +your honor,"<br> +said a voice that bespoke the bearer and myself were countrymen. +I opened<br> +it, and with difficulty, by the uncertain light, read as +follows:—</p> + +<p> Dear Charley,—As Lord Wellington, like a good Irishman +as<br> + he is, wouldn't spoil Patrick's Day by marching, we've got a +little<br> + dinner at our quarters to celebrate the holy times, as my +uncle would<br> + call it. Maurice, Phil Grady, and some regular trumps will +all come,<br> + so don't disappoint us. I've been making punch all night, +and<br> + Casey, who has a knack at pastry, has made a goose-pie as big +as a<br> + portmanteau. Sharp seven, after parade. The second battalion +of<br> + the Fusiliers are quartered at Melanté, and we are +next them. Bring<br> + any of yours worth their liquor. Power is, I know, absent +with the<br> + staff; perhaps the Scotch doctor would come; try him. Carry +over<br> + a little mustard with you, if there be such in your +parts.</p> + +<p> Yours,</p> + +<p> D. O'SHAUGHNESSY.</p> + +<p> Patrick's day, and raining like blazes.</p> + +<p>Seeing that the bearer expected an answer, I scrawled the +words, "I'm<br> +there," with my pencil on the back of the note, and again turned +myself<br> +round to sleep. My slumbers were, however, soon interrupted once +more; for<br> +the bugles of the light infantry and the hoarse trumpet of the +cavalry<br> +sounded the call, and I found to my surprise that, though halted, +we were<br> +by no means destined to a day of idleness. Dragoons were already +mounted,<br> +carrying orders hither and thither, and staff-officers were +galloping right<br> +and left. A general order commanded an inspection of the troops, +and within<br> +less than an hour from daybreak the whole army was drawn up under +arms. A<br> +thin, drizzling rain continued to fall during the early part of +the day,<br> +but the sun gradually dispelled the heavy vapor; and as the +bright verdure<br> +glittered in its beams, sending up all the perfumes of a southern +clime, I<br> +thought I had never seen a more lovely morning. The staff were +stationed<br> +upon a little knoll beside the river, round the base of which the +troops<br> +defiled, at first in orderly, then in quick time, the bands +playing and the<br> +colors flying. In the same brigade with us the Eighty-eighth +came, and as<br> +they neared the commander-in-chief, their quick-step was suddenly +stopped,<br> +and after a pause of a few seconds, the band struck up "St. +Patrick's Day;"<br> +the notes were caught up by the other Irish regiments, and amidst +one<br> +prolonged cheer from the whole line, the gallant fellows moved +past.</p> + +<p>The grenadier company were drawn up beside the road, and I was +not long in<br> +detecting my friend O'Shaughnessy, who wore a tremendous shamrock +in his<br> +shako.</p> + +<p>"Left face, wheel! Quick march! Don't forget the mustard!" +said the bold<br> +major; and a loud roar of laughing from my brother officers +followed him<br> +off the ground. I soon explained the injunction, and having +invited some<br> +three or four to accompany me to the dinner, waited with all +patience for<br> +the conclusion of the parade.</p> + +<p>The sun was setting as I mounted, and joined by Hampden, +Baker, the doctor,<br> +and another, set out for O'Shaughnessy's quarters. As we rode +along, we<br> +were continually falling in with others bent upon the same errand +as<br> +ourselves, and ere we arrived at Melanté our party was +some thirty strong;<br> +and truly a most extraordinary procession did we form. Few of +the<br> +invited came without some contribution to the general stock; and +while a<br> +staff-officer flourished a ham, a smart hussar might be seen with +a plucked<br> +turkey, trussed for roasting; most carried bottles, as the +consumption of<br> +fluid was likely to be considerable; and one fat old major jogged +along on<br> +a broken-winded pony, with a basket of potatoes on his arm. Good +fellowship<br> +was the order of the day, and certainly a more jovial squadron +seldom was<br> +met together than ours. As we turned the angle of a rising +ground, a hearty<br> +cheer greeted us, and we beheld in front of an old ordnance +marquee a party<br> +of some fifty fellows engaged in all the pleasing duties of the +<i>cuisine</i>.<br> +Maurice, conspicuous above all, with a white apron and a ladle in +his hand,<br> +was running hither and thither, advising, admonishing, +instructing, and<br> +occasionally imprecating. Ceasing for a second his functions, he +gave us a<br> +cheer and a yell like that of an Indian savage, and then resumed +his duties<br> +beside a huge boiler, which, from the frequency of his +explorations into<br> +its contents, we judged to be punch.</p> + +<p>"Charley, my son, I've a place for you; don't forget. Where's +my learned<br> +brother?—haven't you brought him with you? Ah, Doctor, how goes +it?"</p> + +<a name="0158"></a> +<img alt="0158.jpg (139K)" src="0158.jpg" height="505" width="811"> + +<p>[GOING OUT TO DINNER.]</p> +<br><br> +<p>"Nae that bad, Master Quell: a' things considered, we've had +an awfu' time<br> +of it lately."</p> + +<p>"You know my friend Hampden, Maurice. Let me introduce Mr. +Baker, Mr.<br> +Maurice Quill. Where's the major?"</p> + +<p>"Here I am, my darling, and delighted to see you. Some of +yours, O'Malley,<br> +ain't they? Proud to have you, gentlemen. Charley, we are obliged +to have<br> +several tables; but you are to be beside Maurice, so take your +friends with<br> +you. There goes the 'Roast Beef;' my heart warms to that old +tune."</p> + +<p>Amidst a hurried recognition, and shaking of hands on every +side, I elbowed<br> +my way into the tent, and soon reached a corner, where, at a +table for<br> +eight, I found Maurice seated at one end; a huge, purple-faced +old major,<br> +whom he presented to us as Bob Mahon, occupied the other. +O'Shaughnessy<br> +presided at the table next to us, but near enough to join in all +the<br> +conviviality of ours.</p> + +<p>One must have lived for some months upon hard biscuit and +harder beef<br> +to relish as we did the fare before us, and to form an estimate +of our<br> +satisfaction. If the reader cannot fancy Van Amburgh's lions in +red coats<br> +and epaulettes, he must be content to lose the effect of the +picture. A<br> +turkey rarely fed more than two people, and few were abstemious +enough to<br> +be satisfied with one chicken. The order of the viands, too, +observed no<br> +common routine, each party being happy to get what he could, and +satisfied<br> +to follow up his pudding with fish, or his tart with a sausage. +Sherry,<br> +champagne, London porter, Malaga, and even, I believe, Harvey's +sauce were<br> +hobnobbed in; while hot punch, in teacups or tin vessels, was +unsparingly<br> +distributed on all sides. Achilles himself, they say, got tired +of eating,<br> +and though he consumed something like a prize ox to his own +cheek, he at<br> +length had to call for cheese, so that we at last gave in, and +having<br> +cleared away the broken tumbrels and baggage-carts of our army, +cleared for<br> +a general action.</p> + +<p>"Now, lads!" cried the major, "I'm not going to lose your time +and mine by<br> +speaking; but there are a couple of toasts I must insist upon +your drinking<br> +with all the honors; and as I like despatch, we'll couple them. +It so<br> +happens that our old island boasts of two of the finest fellows +that<br> +ever wore Russia ducks. None of your nonsensical geniuses, like +poets or<br> +painters or anything like that; but downright, straightforward, +no-humbug<br> +sort of devil-may-care and bad-luck-to-you kind of chaps,—real +Irishmen!<br> +Now, it's a strange thing that they both had such an antipathy to +vermin,<br> +they spent their life in hunting them down and destroying them; +and whether<br> +they met toads at home or Johnny Crapaud abroad, it was all one. +[Cheers.]<br> +Just so, boys; they made them leave that; but I see you are +impatient, so<br> +I'll not delay you, but fill to the brim, and with the best cheer +in your<br> +body, drink with me the two greatest Irishmen that ever lived, +'Saint<br> +Patrick and Lord Wellington.'"</p> + +<p>The Englishmen laughed long and loud, while we cheered with an +energy that<br> +satisfied even the major.</p> + +<p>"Who is to give us the chant? Who is to sing Saint Patrick?" +cried Maurice.<br> +"Come, Bob, out with it."</p> + +<p>"I'm four tumblers too low for that yet," growled out the +major.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, Charley, be you the man; or why not Dennis +himself? Come,<br> +Dennis, we cannot better begin our evening than with a song; let +us have<br> +our old friend 'Larry M'Hale.'"</p> + +<p>"Larry M'Hale!" resounded from all parts of the room, while +O'Shaughnessy<br> +rose once more to his legs.</p> + +<p>"Faith, boys, I'm always ready to follow your lead; but what +analogy can<br> +exist between 'Larry M'Hale' and the toast we have just drank I +can't see<br> +for the life of me; not but Larry would have made a strapping +light company<br> +man had he joined the army."</p> + +<p>"The song, the song!" cried several voices.</p> + +<p>"Well, if you will have it, here goes:"—</p> + +<p> LARRY M'HALE.</p> + +<p> AIR,—<i>"It's a bit of a thing</i>," <i>etc</i>.</p> + +<p> Oh, Larry M'Hale he had little to fear,<br> + And never could want when the crops didn't fail;<br> + He'd a house and demesne and eight hundred a year,<br> + And the heart for to spend it, had Larry M'Hale!<br> + The soul of a party, the life of a feast,<br> + And an illigant song he could sing, I'll be bail;<br> + He would ride with the rector, and drink with the priest,<br> + Oh, the broth of a boy was old Larry M'Hale!</p> + +<p> It's little he cared for the judge or recorder,<br> + His house was as big and as strong as a jail;<br> + With a cruel four-pounder, he kept in great order,<br> + He'd murder the country, would Larry M'Hale.<br> + He'd a blunderbuss too, of horse-pistols a pair;<br> + But his favorite weapon was always a flail.<br> + I wish you could see how he'd empty a fair,<br> + For he handled it neatly, did Larry M'Hale.</p> + +<p> His ancestors were kings before Moses was born,<br> + His mother descended from great Grana Uaile;<br> + He laughed all the Blakes and the Frenches to scorn;<br> + They were mushrooms compared to old Larry M'Hale.<br> + He sat down every day to a beautiful dinner,<br> + With cousins and uncles enough for a tail;<br> + And, though loaded with debt, oh, the devil a thinner,<br> + Could law or the sheriff make Larry M'Hale!</p> + +<p> With a larder supplied and a cellar well stored,<br> + None lived half so well, from Fair-Head to Kinsale,<br> + As he piously said, "I've a plentiful board,<br> + And the Lord he is good to old Larry M'Hale."<br> + So fill up your glass, and a high bumper give him,<br> + It's little we'd care for the tithes or repale;<br> + For ould Erin would be a fine country to live in,<br> + If we only had plenty like LARRY M'HALE.</p> + +<p>"Very singular style of person your friend Mr. M'Hale," lisped +a<br> +spooney-looking cornet at the end of the table.</p> + +<p>"Not in the country he belongs to, I assure you," said +Maurice; "but I<br> +presume you were never in Ireland."</p> + +<p>"You are mistaken there," resumed the other; "I was in +Ireland, though I<br> +confess not for a long time."</p> + +<p>"If I might be so bold," cried Maurice, "how long?"</p> + +<p>"Half an hour, by a stop-watch," said the other, pulling up +his stock; "and<br> +I had quite enough of it in that time."</p> + +<p>"Pray give us your experiences," cried out Bob Mahon; "they +should be<br> +interesting, considering your opportunities."</p> + +<p>"You are right," said the cornet; "they were so; and as they +illustrate a<br> +feature in your amiable country, you shall have them."</p> + +<p>A general knocking upon the table announced the impatience of +the company,<br> +and when silence was restored the cornet began:—</p> + +<p>When the 'Bermuda' transport sailed from Portsmouth for +Lisbon, I happened<br> +to make one of some four hundred interesting individuals who, +before they<br> +became food for powder, were destined to try their constitutions +on pickled<br> +pork. The second day after our sailing, the winds became adverse; +it blew<br> +a hurricane from every corner of the compass but the one it +ought, and the<br> +good ship, that should have been standing straight for the Bay of +Biscay,<br> +was scudding away under a double-reefed topsail towards the coast +of<br> +Labrador. For six days we experienced every sea-manoeuvre that +usually<br> +preludes a shipwreck, and at length, when, what from sea-sickness +and fear,<br> +we had become utterly indifferent to the result, the storm +abated, the sea<br> +went down, and we found ourselves lying comfortably in the harbor +of Cork,<br> +with a strange suspicion on our minds that the frightful scenes +of the past<br> +week had been nothing but a dream.</p> + +<p>"'Come, Mr. Medlicot,' said the skipper to me, 'we shall be +here for a<br> +couple of days to refit; had you not better go ashore and see the +country?'</p> + +<p>"I sprang to my legs with delight; visions of cowslips, larks, +daisies, and<br> +mutton-chops floated before my excited imagination, and in ten +minutes I<br> +found myself standing at that pleasant little inn at Cove which, +opposite<br> +Spike Island, rejoices in the name of the 'Goat and Garters.'</p> + +<p>"'Breakfast, waiter,' said I; 'a beefsteak,—fresh beef, mark +ye,—fresh<br> +eggs, bread, milk, and butter, all fresh. No more hard tack,' +thought I;<br> +'no salt butter, but a genuine land breakfast.'</p> + +<p>"Up-stairs, No. 4, sir,' said the waiter, as he flourished a +dirty napkin,<br> +indicating the way.</p> + +<p>"Up-stairs I went, and in due time the appetizing little meal +made its<br> +appearance. Never did a minor's eye revel over his broad acres +with more<br> +complacent enjoyment than did mine skim over the mutton and the +muffin,<br> +the tea-pot, the trout, and the devilled kidney, so invitingly +spread out<br> +before me. 'Yes,' thought I, as I smacked my lips, 'this is the +reward of<br> +virtue; pickled pork is a probationary state that admirably fits +us for<br> +future enjoyments.' I arranged my napkin upon my knee, seized my +knife<br> +and fork, and proceeded with most critical acumen to bisect a +beefsteak.<br> +Scarcely, however, had I touched it, when, with a loud crash, the +plate<br> +smashed beneath it, and the gravy ran piteously across the cloth. +Before I<br> +had time to account for the phenomenon, the door opened hastily, +and the<br> +waiter rushed into the room, his face beaming with smiles, while +he rubbed<br> +his hands in an ecstasy of delight.</p> + +<p>"'It's all over, sir,' said he; 'glory be to God! it's all +done.'</p> + +<p>"'What's over? What's done?' inquired I, with impatience.</p> + +<p>"'Mr. M'Mahon is satisfied,' replied he, 'and so is the other +gentleman.'</p> + +<p>"'Who and what the devil do you mean?'</p> + + +<a name="0163"></a> +<img alt="0163.jpg (181K)" src="0163.jpg" height="660" width="810"> + +<p> + +[DISADVANTAGE OF BREAKFASTING OVER A +DUELLING-PARTY.]</p> +<br><br> + +<p>"'It's over, sir, I say,' replied the waiter again; 'he fired +in the air.'</p> + +<p>"'Fired in the air! Was there a duel in the room below +stairs?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, sir,' said the waiter, with a benign smile.</p> + +<p>"'That will do,' said I, as seizing my hat, I rushed out of +the house, and<br> +hurrying to the beach, took a boat for the ship. Exactly half an +hour had<br> +elapsed since my landing, but even those short thirty minutes had +fully as<br> +many reasons that although there may be few more amusing, there +are some<br> +safer places to live in than the Green Isle."</p> + +<p>A general burst of laughter followed the cornet's story, which +was<br> +heightened in its effect by the gravity with which he told +it.</p> + +<p>"And after all," said Maurice Quill, "now that people have +given up making<br> +fortunes for the insurance companies by living to the age of +Methuselah,<br> +there's nothing like being an Irishman. In what other part of the +habitable<br> +globe can you cram so much adventure into one year? Where can you +be so<br> +often in love, in liquor, or in debt; and where can you get so +merrily out<br> +of the three? Where are promises to marry and promises to pay +treated with<br> +the same gentleman-like forbearance; and where, when you have +lost your<br> +heart and your fortune, are people found so ready to comfort you +in your<br> +reverses? Yes," said Maurice, as he filled his glass up to the +brim, and<br> +eyed it lusciously for a moment,—"yes, darling, here's your +health; the<br> +only girl I ever loved—in that part of the country, I mean. Give +her a<br> +bumper, lads, and I'll give you a chant."</p> + +<p>"Name! name! name!" shouted several voices from different +parts of the<br> +table.</p> + +<p>"Mary Draper!" said Maurice, filling his glass once more, +while the name<br> +was re-echoed by every lip at table.</p> + +<p>"The song! the song!"</p> + +<p>"Faith, I hope I haven't forgotten it," quoth Maurice. "No; +here it is."</p> + +<p>So saying, after a couple of efforts to assure the pitch of +his voice, the<br> +worthy doctor began the following words to that very popular +melody, "Nancy<br> +Dawson:"—</p> + +<p> MARY DRAPER.</p> + +<p> AIR,—<i>Nancy Dawson</i>.</p> + +<p> Don't talk to me of London dames,<br> + Nor rave about your foreign flames,<br> + That never lived, except in drames,<br> + Nor shone, except on paper;<br> + I'll sing you 'bout a girl I knew,<br> + Who lived in Ballywhacmacrew,<br> + And let me tell you, mighty few<br> + Could equal Mary Draper.</p> + +<p> Her cheeks were red, her eyes were blue,<br> + Her hair was brown of deepest hue,<br> + Her foot was small, and neat to view,<br> + Her waist was slight and taper;<br> + Her voice was music to your ear,<br> + A lovely brogue, so rich and clear,<br> + Oh, the like I ne'er again shall hear,<br> + As from sweet Mary Draper.</p> + +<p> She'd ride a wall, she'd drive a team,<br> + Or with a fly she'd whip a stream,<br> + Or may be sing you "Rousseau's Dream,"<br> + For nothing could escape her;<br> + I've seen her, too,—upon my word,—<br> + At sixty yards bring down her bird,<br> + Oh, she charmed all the Forty-third,<br> + Did lovely Mary Draper.</p> + +<p> And at the spring assizes' ball,<br> + The junior bar would one and all<br> + For all her fav'rite dances call,<br> + And Harry Dean would caper;<br> + Lord Clare would then forget his lore;<br> + King's Counsel, voting law a bore,<br> + Were proud to figure on the floor,<br> + For love of Mary Draper.</p> + +<p> The parson, priest, sub-sheriff too,<br> + Were all her slaves, and so would you,<br> + If you had only but one view,<br> + Of such a face and shape, or<br> + Her pretty ankles—But, ohone,<br> + It's only west of old Athlone<br> + Such girls were found—and now they're gone—<br> + So here's to Mary Draper!</p> + +<p>"So here's to Mary Draper!" sang out every voice, in such +efforts to catch<br> +the tune as pleased the taste of the motley assembly.</p> + +<p>"For Mary Draper and Co., I thank you," said Maurice. "Quill +drinks to<br> +Dennis," added he, in a grave tone, as he nodded to +O'Shaughnessy. "Yes,<br> +Shaugh, few men better than ourselves know these matters; and few +have had<br> +more experience of the three perils of Irishmen,—love, liquor, +and the law<br> +of arrest."</p> + +<p>"It's little the latter has ever troubled my father's son," +replied<br> +O'Shaughnessy. "Our family have been writ proof for centuries, +and he'd<br> +have been a bold man who would have ventured with an original or +a true<br> +copy within the precincts of Killinahoula."</p> + +<p>"Your father had a touch of Larry M'Hale in him," said I, +"apparently."</p> + +<p>"Exactly so," replied Dennis; "not but they caught him at +last, and a<br> +scurvy trick it was and well worthy of him who did it! Yes," said +he, with<br> +a sigh, "it is only another among the many instances where the +better<br> +features of our nationality have been used by our enemies as +instruments<br> +for our destruction; and should we seek for the causes of +unhappiness in<br> +our wretched country, we should find them rather in our virtues +than in<br> +our vices, and in the bright rather than in the darker phases of +our<br> +character."</p> + +<p>"Metaphysics, by Jove!" cried Quill; "but all true at the same +time. There<br> +was a mess-mate of mine in the 'Roscommon' who never paid +car-hire in his<br> +life. 'Head or harp, Paddy!' he would cry. 'Two tenpennies or +nothing.'<br> +'Harp, for the honor of ould Ireland!' was the invariable +response, and my<br> +friend was equally sure to make head come uppermost; and, upon my +soul,<br> +they seem to know the trick at the Home Office."</p> + +<p>"That must have been the same fellow that took my father," +cried<br> +O'Shaughnessy, with energy.</p> + +<p>"Let us hear the story, Dennis," said I.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Maurice, "for the benefit of self and fellows, let +us hear the<br> +stratagem!"</p> + +<p>"The way of it was this," resumed O'Shaughnessy. "My father, +who for<br> +reasons registered in the King's Bench spent a great many years +of his life<br> +in that part of Ireland geographically known as lying west of the +law,<br> +was obliged, for certain reasons of family, to come up to Dublin. +This he<br> +proceeded to do with due caution. Two trusty servants formed an +advance<br> +guard, and patrolled the country for at least five miles in +advance; after<br> +them came a skirmishing body of a few tenants, who, for the +consideration<br> +of never paying rent, would have charged the whole Court of +Chancery, if<br> +needful. My father himself, in an old chaise victualled like a +fortress,<br> +brought up the rear; and as I said before, he were a bold man who +would<br> +have attempted to have laid siege to him. As the column advanced +into the<br> +enemy's country, they assumed a closer order, the patrol and the +picket<br> +falling back upon the main body; and in this way they reached +that most<br> +interesting city called Kilbeggan. What a fortunate thing it is +for us in<br> +Ireland that we can see so much of the world without foreign +travel, and<br> +that any gentleman for six-and-eightpence can leave Dublin in the +morning,<br> +and visit Timbuctoo against dinner-time. Don't stare! it's truth +I'm<br> +telling; for dirt, misery, smoke, unaffected behavior, and black +faces,<br> +I'll back Kilbeggan against all Africa. Free-and-easy, pleasant +people ye<br> +are, with a skin, as begrimed and as rugged as your own potatoes! +But, to<br> +resume. The sun was just rising in a delicious morning of June, +when my<br> +father,—whose loyal antipathies I have mentioned made him also +an early<br> +riser,—was preparing for the road. A stout escort of his +followers were<br> +as usual under arms to see him safe in the chaise, the passage to +and from<br> +which every day being the critical moment of my father's +life.</p> + +<p>"'It's all right, your honor,' said his own man, as, armed +with a<br> +blunderbuss, he opened the bed-room door.</p> + +<p>"'Time enough, Tim,' said my father; 'close the door, for I +haven't<br> +finished my breakfast.'</p> + +<p>"Now, the real truth was, that my father's attention was at +that moment<br> +withdrawn from his own concerns by a scene which was taking place +in a<br> +field beneath his window.</p> + +<p>"But a few minutes before, a hack-chaise had stopped upon the +roadside, out<br> +of which sprang three gentlemen, who, proceeding into the field, +seemed<br> +bent upon something, which, whether a survey or a duel, my father +could not<br> +make out. He was not long, however, to remain in ignorance. One, +with an<br> +easy, lounging gait, strode towards a distant corner; another +took an<br> +opposite direction; while a third, a short, pursy gentleman, in a +red<br> +handkerchief and rabbit-skin waistcoat, proceeded to open a +mahogany<br> +box, which, to the critical eyes of my respected father, was +agreeably<br> +suggestive of bloodshed and murder.</p> + +<p>"'A duel, by Jupiter!' said my father, rubbing his hands. +'What a heavenly<br> +morning the scoundrels have,—not a leaf stirring, and a sod like +a<br> +billiard-table!'</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile the little man who officiated as second, it would +appear to<br> +<i>both</i> parties, bustled about with an activity little congenial +to his<br> +shape; and what between snapping the pistols, examining the +flints, and<br> +ramming down the charges, had got himself into a sufficient +perspiration<br> +before he commenced to measure the ground.</p> + +<p>"'Short distance and no quarter!' shouted one of the +combatants, from the<br> +corner of the field.</p> + +<p>"'Across a handkerchief, if you like!' roared the other.</p> + +<p>"'Gentlemen, every inch of them!' responded my father.</p> + +<p>"'Twelve paces!' cried the little man. 'No more and no less. +Don't forget<br> +that I am alone in this business!'</p> + +<p>"'A very true remark!' observed my father; 'and an awkward +predicament<br> +yours will be if they are not both shot!'</p> + +<p>"By this time the combatants had taken their places, and the +little man,<br> +having delivered the pistols, was leisurely retiring to give the +word.<br> +My father, however, whose critical eye was never at fault, +detected a<br> +circumstance which promised an immense advantage to one at the +expense of<br> +the other; in fact, one of the parties was so placed with his +back to the<br> +sun, that his shadow extended in a straight line to the very foot +of his<br> +antagonist.</p> + +<p>"'Unfair, unfair!' cried my father, opening the window as he +spoke, and<br> +addressing himself to him of the rabbit-skin. 'I crave your +pardon for the<br> +interruption,' said he; 'but I feel bound to observe that that +gentleman's<br> +shadow is likely to make a shade of him.'</p> + +<p>"'And so it is,' observed the short man; 'a thousand thanks +for your<br> +kindness, but the truth is, I am totally unaccustomed to this +kind of<br> +thing, and the affair will not admit of delay.'</p> + +<p>"'Not an hour!' said one.</p> + +<p>"'No, not five minutes!' growled the other of the +combatants.</p> + +<p>"'Put them up north and south,' said my father.</p> + +<p>"'Is it thus?'</p> + +<p>"'Exactly so. But now, again, the gentleman in the brown coat +is covered<br> +with the ash-tree.'</p> + +<p>"'And so he is!' said rabbit-skin, wiping his forehead with +agitation.</p> + +<p>"'Move them a little to the left,' said he.</p> + +<p>"'That brings me upon an eminence,' said the gentleman in +blue. 'I'll be<br> +d—d if I be made a cock shot of!'</p> + +<p>"'What an awkward little thief it is in the hairy waistcoat!' +said my<br> +father; 'he's lucky if he don't get shot himself!'</p> + +<p>"'May I never, if I'm not sick of you both!' ejaculated +rabbit-skin, in a<br> +passion. 'I've moved you round every point of the compass, and +the devil a<br> +nearer we are than ever!'</p> + +<p>"'Give us the word,' said one.</p> + +<p>"'The word!'</p> + +<p>"'Downright murder,' said my father.</p> + +<p>"'I don't care,' said the little man; 'we shall be here till +doomsday.'</p> + +<p>"'I can't permit this,' said my father; 'allow me.' So saying, +he stepped<br> +upon the window-sill, and leaped down into the field.</p> + +<p>"'Before I can accept of your politeness,' said he of the +rabbit-skin, 'may<br> +I beg to know your name and position in society?'</p> + +<p>"'Nothing more reasonable,' said my father. 'I'm Miles +O'Shaughnessy,<br> +Colonel of the Royal Raspers,—here is my card.'</p> + +<p>"The piece of pasteboard was complacently handed from one to +the other of<br> +the party, who saluted my father with a smile of most courteous +benignity.</p> + +<p>"'Colonel O'Shaughnessy,' said one.</p> + +<p>"'Miles O'Shaughnessy,' said the other.</p> + +<p>"'Of Killinahoula Castle,' said the third.</p> + +<p>"'At your service,' said my father, bowing, as he presented +his snuff-box;<br> +'and now to business, if you please, for my time also is +limited.'</p> + +<p>"'Very true,' observed he of the rabbit-skin; 'and, as you +observe, now to<br> +business; in virtue of which, Colonel Miles O'Shaughnessy, I +hereby arrest<br> +you in the King's name. Here is the writ; it's at the suit of +Barnaby<br> +Kelly, of Loughrea, for the sum of £1,482 19s. 7-1/2d., +which—'</p> + +<p>"Before he could conclude the sentence, my father discharged +one obligation<br> +by implanting his closed knuckles in his face. The blow, well +aimed and<br> +well intentioned, sent the little fellow summersetting like a +sugar<br> +hogshead. But, alas! it was of no use; the others, strong and +able-bodied,<br> +fell both upon him, and after a desperate struggle succeeded in +getting him<br> +down. To tie his hands, and convey him to the chaise, was the +work of a few<br> +moments; and as my father drove by the inn, the last object which +caught<br> +his view was a bloody encounter between his own people and the +myrmidons<br> +of the law, who, in great numbers, had laid siege to the house +during his<br> +capture. Thus was my father taken; and thus, in reward for +yielding to a<br> +virtuous weakness in his character, was he consigned to the +ignominious<br> +durance of a prison. Was I not right, then, in saying that such +is the<br> +melancholy position of our country, the most beautiful traits in +our<br> +character are converted into the elements of our ruin?"</p> + +<p>"I dinna think ye ha'e made out your case, Major?" said the +Scotch doctor,<br> +who felt sorely puzzled at my friend's logic. "If your faether +had na gi'en<br> +the bond—"</p> + +<p>"There is no saying what he wouldn't have done to the +bailiffs,"<br> +interrupted Dennis, who was following up a very different train +of<br> +reasoning.</p> + +<p>"I fear me, Doctor," observed Quill, "you are much behind us +in Scotland.<br> +Not but that some of your chieftains are respectable men, and +wouldn't get<br> +on badly even in Galway."</p> + +<p>"I thank ye muckle for the compliment," said the doctor, +dryly; "but I ha'e<br> +my doubts they'd think it ane, and they're crusty carls that's +no' ower<br> +safe to meddle wi'."</p> + +<p>"I'd as soon propose a hand of 'spoiled five' to the Pope of +Rome, as a<br> +joke to one of them," returned Maurice.</p> + +<p>"May be ye are na wrang there, Maister Quell."</p> + +<p>"Well," cried Hampden, "if I may be allowed an opinion, I can +safely aver I<br> +know no quarters like Scotland. Edinburgh beyond anything or +anywhere I was<br> +ever placed in."</p> + +<p>"Always after Dublin," interposed Maurice; while a general +chorus of voices<br> +re-echoed the sentiment.</p> + +<p>"You are certainly a strong majority," said my friend, +"against me; but<br> +still I recant not my original opinion. Edinburgh before the +world. For a<br> +hospitality that never tires; for pleasant fellows that improve +every day<br> +of your acquaintance; for pretty girls that make you long for a +repeal of<br> +the canon about being only singly blessed, and lead you to long +for a score<br> +of them, Edinburgh,—I say again, before the world."</p> + +<p>"Their ankles are devilish thick," whispered Maurice.</p> + +<p>"A calumny, a base calumny!"</p> + +<p>"And then they drink—"</p> + +<p>"Oh—"</p> + +<p>"Yes; they drink very strong tea."</p> + +<p>"Shall we ha'e a glass o' sherry together, Hampden?" said the +Scotch<br> +doctor, willing to acknowledge his defence of auld Reekie.</p> + +<p>"And we'll take O'Malley in," said Hampden; "he looks +imploringly."</p> + +<p>"And now to return to the charge," quoth Maurice. "In what +particular dare<br> +ye contend the palm with Dublin? We'll not speak of beauty. I +can't suffer<br> +any such profane turn in the conversation as to dispute the +superiority of<br> +Irishwomen's lips, eyes, noses, and eyebrows, to anything under +heaven.<br> +We'll not talk of gay fellows; egad, we needn't. I'll give you +the<br> +garrison,—a decent present,—and I'll back the Irish bar for +more genuine<br> +drollery, more wit, more epigram, more ready sparkling fun, than +the whole<br> +rest of the empire—ay, and all her colonies—can boast of."</p> + +<p>"They are nae remarkable for passing the bottle, if they +resemble their<br> +very gifted advocate," observed the Scotchman.</p> + +<p>"But they are for filling and emptying both, making its +current, as it<br> +glides by, like a rich stream glittering in the sunbeams with the +sparkling<br> +lustre of their wit. Lord, how I'm blown! Fill my pannikin, +Charley.<br> +There's no subduing a Scot. Talk with him, drink with him, fight +with him,<br> +and he'll always have the last of it; there's only one way of +concluding<br> +the treaty—"</p> + +<p>"And that is—"</p> + +<p>"Blarney him. Lord bless you, he can't stand it! Tell him +Holyrood's like<br> +Versailles, and the Trossach's finer than Mont Blanc; that +Geordie Buchanan<br> +was Homer, and the Canongate, Herculaneum,—then ye have him on +the hip.<br> +Now, ye never can humbug an Irishman that way; he'll know you're +quizzing<br> +him when you praise his country."</p> + +<p>"Ye are right, Hampden," said the Scotch doctor, in reply to +some<br> +observation. "We are vara primitive in the Hielands, and we keep +to our ain<br> +national customs in dress and everything; and we are vara slow to +learn,<br> +and even when we try we are nae ower successfu' in our +imitations, which<br> +sometimes cost us dearly enough. Ye may have heard, may be, of +the M'Nab o'<br> +that ilk, and what happened him with the king's equerry?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not quite certain," said Hampden, "if I ever heard the +story."</p> + +<p>"It's nae muckle of a story; but the way of it was this. When +Montrose came<br> +back from London, he brought with him a few Englishers to show +them the<br> +Highlands, and let them see something of deer-stalking,—among +the rest, a<br> +certain Sir George Sowerby, an aide-de-camp or an equerry of the +prince.<br> +He was a vara fine gentleman, that never loaded his ain gun, and +a'most<br> +thought it too much trouble to pull the trigger. He went out +every<br> +morning to shoot with his hair curled like a woman, and dressed +like a<br> +dancing-master. Now, there happened to be at the same time at the +castle<br> +the Laird o' M'Nab; he was a kind of cousin of the Montrose, and +a rough<br> +old tyke of the true Hieland breed, wha' thought that the head of +a clan<br> +was fully equal to any king or prince. He sat opposite to Sir +George at<br> +dinner the day of his arrival, and could not conceal his surprise +at the<br> +many new-fangled ways of feeding himself the Englisher adopted. +He ate his<br> +saumon wi' his fork in ae hand, and a bittock of bread in the +other. He<br> +would na touch the whiskey; helped himself to a cutlet wi' his +fingers. But<br> +what was maist extraordinary of all, he wore a pair o' braw white +gloves<br> +during the whole time o' dinner and when they came to tak' away +the cloth,<br> +he drew them off with a great air, and threw them into the middle +of it,<br> +and then, leisurely taking anither pair off a silver salver which +his ain<br> +man presented, he pat them on for dessert. The M'Nab, who, +although an<br> +auld-fashioned carl, was aye fond of bringing something new hame +to his<br> +friends, remarked the Englisher's proceeding with great care, and +the next<br> +day he appeared at dinner wi' a huge pair of Hieland mittens, +which he<br> +wore, to the astonishment of all and the amusement of most, +through the<br> +whole three courses; and exactly as the Englishman changed his +gloves, the<br> +M'Nab produced a fresh pair of goats' wool, four times as large +as the<br> +first, which, drawing on with prodigious gravity, he threw the +others into<br> +the middle of the cloth, remarking, as he did so,—</p> + +<p>"'Ye see, Captain, we are never ower auld to learn.'</p> + +<p>"All propriety was now at an end, and a hearty burst of +laughter from one<br> +end of the table to the other convulsed the whole company,—the +M'Nab and<br> +the Englishman being the only persons who did not join in it, but +sat<br> +glowering at each other like twa tigers; and, indeed, it needed, +a'<br> +the Montrose's interference that they had na quarrelled upon it +in the<br> +morning."</p> + +<p>"The M'Nab was a man after my own heart," said Maurice; "there +was<br> +something very Irish in the lesson he gave the Englishman."</p> + +<p>"I'd rather ye'd told him that than me," said the doctor, +dryly; "he would<br> +na hae thanked ye for mistaking him for ane of your +countrymen."</p> + +<p>"Come, Doctor," said Dennis, "could not ye give us a stave? +Have ye nothing<br> +that smacks of the brown fern and the blue lakes in your +memory?"</p> + +<p>"I have na a sang in my mind just noo except 'Johnny Cope,' +which may be<br> +might na be ower pleasant for the Englishers to listen to."</p> + +<p>"I never heard a Scotch song worth sixpence," quoth Maurice, +who seemed<br> +bent on provoking the doctor's ire. "They contain nothing save +some<br> +puling sentimentality about lasses with lint-white locks, or some +absurd<br> +laudations of the Barley Bree."</p> + +<p>"Hear till him, hear till him!" said the doctor, reddening +with impatience.</p> + +<p>"Show me anything," said Maurice, "like the 'Cruiskeen Lawn' +or the 'Jug<br> +of Punch;' but who can blame them, after all? You can't expect +much from a<br> +people with an imagination as naked as their own knees."</p> + +<p>"Maurice! Maurice!" cried O'Shaughnessy, reprovingly, who saw +that he was<br> +pushing the other's endurance beyond all bounds.</p> + +<p>"I mind weel," said the Scotchman, "what happened to ane o' +your countrymen<br> +wha took upon him to jest as you are doing now. It was to Laurie +Cameron he<br> +did it."</p> + +<p>"And what said the redoubted Laurie in reply?"</p> + +<p>"He did na say muckle, but he did something."</p> + +<p>"And what might it be?" inquired Maurice.</p> + +<p>"He threw him ower the brig of Ayr into the water, and he was +drowned."</p> + +<p>"And did Laurie come to no harm about the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, they tried him for it, and found him guilty; but when +they asked<br> +him what he had to say in his defence, he merely replied, 'When +the carl<br> +sneered about Scotland, I did na suspect that he did na ken how +to swim;'<br> +and so the end of it was, they did naething to Laurie."</p> + +<p>"Cool that, certainly," said I.</p> + +<p>"I prefer your friend with the mittens, I confess," said +Maurice, "though<br> +I'm sure both were most agreeable companion. But come, Doctor, +couldn't you<br> +give us,—</p> + +<p> Sit ye down, my heartie, and gie us a crack,<br> + Let the wind tak' the care o' the world on his back.'"</p> + +<p>"You maunna attempt English poethry, my freend Quell; for it +must be<br> +confessed ye'e a damnable accent of your ain."</p> + +<p>"Milesian-Phoenician-Corkacian; nothing more, my boy, and a +coaxing kind<br> +of recitative it is, after all. Don't tell me of your soft +Etruscan, your<br> +plethoric. <i>Hoch</i>-Deutsch, your flattering French. To woo and win +the<br> +girl of your heart, give me a rich brogue and the least taste in +life of<br> +blarney! There's nothing like it, believe me,—every inflection +of your<br> +voice suggesting some tender pressure of her soft hand or taper +waist,<br> +every cadence falling on her gentle heart like a sea-breeze on a +burning<br> +coast, or a soft sirocco over a rose-tree. And then, think, my +boys,—and<br> +it is a fine thought after all,—what a glorious gift that is, +out of the<br> +reach of kings to give or to take, what neither depends upon the +act of<br> +Union nor the <i>Habeas Corpus</i>. No! they may starve us, laugh at +us, tax us,<br> +transport us. They may take our mountains, our valleys, and our +bogs; but,<br> +bad luck to them, they can't steal our 'blarney;' that's the +privilege one<br> +and indivisible with our identity. And while an Englishman raves +of his<br> +liberty, a Scotchman of his oaten meal, blarney's <i>our</i> +birthright, and a<br> +prettier portion I'd never ask to leave behind me to my sons. If +I'd as<br> +large a family as the ould gentleman called Priam we used to hear +of at<br> +school, it's the only inheritance I'd give them, and one comfort +there<br> +would be besides, the legacy duty would be only a trifle. +Charley, my<br> +son, I see you're listening to me, and nothing satisfies me more +than to<br> +instruct inspiring youth; so never forget the old song,—</p> + +<p> 'If at your ease, the girls you'd please,<br> + And win them, like Kate Kearney,<br> + There's but one way, I've heard them say,<br> + Go kiss the Stone of Blarney.'"</p> + +<p>"What do you say, Shaugh, if we drink it with all the +honors?"</p> + +<p>"But gently: do I hear a trumpet there?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, there go the bugles. Can it be daybreak already?"</p> + +<p>"How short the nights are at this season!" said Quill.</p> + +<p>"What an infernal rumpus they're making! It's not possible the +troops are<br> +to march so early."</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't surprise me in the least," quoth Maurice; "there +is no knowing<br> +what the commander-in-chief's not capable of,—the reason's clear +enough."</p> + +<p>"And why, Maurice?"</p> + +<p>"There's not a bit of blarney about him."</p> + +<p>The <i>réveil</i> sang out from every brigade, and the drums +beat to fall in,<br> +while Mike came galloping up at full speed to say that the bridge +of boats<br> +was completed, and that the Twelfth were already ordered to +cross. Not a<br> +moment was therefore to be lost; one parting cup we drained to +our next<br> +meeting, and amidst a hundred "good-bys" we mounted our horses. +Poor<br> +Hampden's brains, sadly confused by the wine and the laughing, he +knew<br> +little of what was going on around him, and passed the entire +time of our<br> +homeward ride in a vain endeavor to adapt "Mary Draper" to the +air of "Rule<br> +Britannia."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXII.</p> + +<p>FUENTES D'ONORO.</p> + +<p>From this period the French continued their retreat, closely +followed by<br> +the allied armies, and on the 5th of April, Massena once more +crossed the<br> +frontier into Spain, leaving thirty thousand of his bravest +troops behind<br> +him, fourteen thousand of whom had fallen or been taken +prisoners.<br> +Reinforcements, however, came rapidly pouring in. Two divisions +of the<br> +Ninth corps had already arrived, and Drouet, with eleven thousand +infantry<br> +and cavalry, was preparing to march to his assistance. Thus +strengthened,<br> +the French army marched towards the Portuguese frontier, and +Lord<br> +Wellington, who had determined not to hazard much by his blockade +of Ciudad<br> +Rodrigo, fell back upon the large table-land beyond the Turones +and the Dos<br> +Casas, with his left at Fort Conception, and his right resting +upon Fuentes<br> +d'Onoro. His position extended to about five miles; and here, +although<br> +vastly inferior in numbers, yet relying upon the bravery of the +troops, and<br> +the moral ascendency acquired by their pursuit of the enemy, he +finally<br> +resolved upon giving them battle.</p> + +<p>Being sent with despatches to Pack's brigade, which formed the +blockading<br> +force at Almeida, I did not reach Fuentes d'Onoro until the +evening of the<br> +3d. The thundering of the guns, which, even at the distance I was +at, was<br> +plainly heard, announced that an attack had taken place, but it +by no means<br> +prepared me for the scene which presented itself on my +return.</p> + +<p>The village of Fuentes d'Onoro, one of the most beautiful in +Spain, is<br> +situated in a lovely valley, where all the charms of verdure so +peculiar to<br> +the Peninsula seemed to have been scattered with a lavish hand. +The citron<br> +and the arbutus, growing wild, sheltered every cottage door, and +the<br> +olive and the laurel threw their shadows across the little +rivulet which<br> +traversed the village. The houses, observing no uniform +arrangement,<br> +stood wherever the caprice or the inclination of the builder +suggested,<br> +surrounded with little gardens, the inequality of the ground +imparting a<br> +picturesque feature to even the lowliest hut, while upon a craggy +eminence<br> +above the rest, an ancient convent and a ruined chapel looked +down upon the<br> +little peaceful hamlet with an air of tender protection.</p> + +<p>Hitherto this lovely spot had escaped all the ravages of war. +The light<br> +division of our army had occupied it for months long; and every +family was<br> +gratefully remembered by some one or other of our officers, and +more than<br> +one of our wounded found in the kind and affectionate watching of +these<br> +poor peasants the solace which sickness rarely meets with when +far from<br> +home and country.</p> + +<p>It was, then, with an anxious heart I pressed my horse forward +into a<br> +gallop as the night drew near. The artillery had been distinctly +heard<br> +during the day, and while I burned with eagerness to know the +result, I<br> +felt scarcely less anxious for the fate of that little hamlet +whose name<br> +many a kind story had implanted in my memory. The moon was +shining brightly<br> +as I passed the outpost, and leading my horse by the bridle, +descended the<br> +steep and rugged causeway to the village beneath me. The lanterns +were<br> +moving rapidly to and fro; the measured tread of infantry at +night—that<br> +ominous sound, which falls upon the heart so sadly—told me that +they<br> +were burying the dead. The air was still and breathless; not a +sound was<br> +stirring save the step of the soldiery, and the harsh clash of +the shovel<br> +as it struck the earth. I felt sad and sick at heart, and leaned +against a<br> +tree; a nightingale concealed in the leaves was pouring forth its +plaintive<br> +notes to the night air, and its low warble sounded like the dirge +of the<br> +departed. Far beyond, in the plain, the French watch-fires were +burning,<br> +and I could see from time to time the fatigue-parties moving in +search of<br> +their wounded. At this moment the clock of the convent struck +eleven, and a<br> +merry chime rang out, and was taken up by the echoes till it +melted away in<br> +the distance. Alas, where were those whose hearts were wont to +feel cheered<br> +at that happy peal; whose infancy it had gladdened; whose old age +it has<br> +hallowed? The fallen walls, the broken roof-trees, the ruin and +desolation<br> +on every side, told too plainly that they had passed away +forever! The<br> +smoking embers, the torn-up pathway, denoted the hard-fought +struggle; and<br> +as I passed along, I could see that every garden, where the +cherry and the<br> +apple-blossom were even still perfuming the air, had now its +sepulchre.</p> + +<p>"Halt, there!" cried a hoarse voice in front. "You cannot pass +this<br> +way,—the commander-in-chief's quarters."</p> + +<p>I looked up and beheld a small but neat-looking cottage, which +seemed to<br> +have suffered less than the others around. Lights were shining +brightly<br> +from the windows, and I could even detect from time to time a +figure<br> +muffled up in a cloak passing to and fro across the window; while +another,<br> +seated at a table, was occupied in writing. I turned into a +narrow path<br> +which led into the little square of the village, and here, as I +approached,<br> +the hum and murmur of voices announced a bivouac party. Stopping +to ask<br> +what had been the result of the day, I learned that a tremendous +attack<br> +had been made by the French in column upon the village, which was +at first<br> +successful; but that afterwards the Seventy-first and +Seventy-ninth,<br> +marching down from the heights, had repulsed the enemy, and +driven them<br> +beyond the Dos Casas. Five hundred had fallen in that fierce +encounter,<br> +which was continued through every street and alley of the little +hamlet.<br> +The gallant Highlanders now occupied the battle-field; and +hearing that the<br> +cavalry brigade was some miles distant, I willingly accepted +their offer to<br> +share their bivouac, and passed the remainder of the night among +them.</p> + +<p>When day broke, our troops were under arms, but the enemy +showed no<br> +disposition to renew the attack. We could perceive, however, from +the road<br> +to the southward, by the long columns of dust, that +reinforcements were<br> +still arriving; and learned during the morning, from a deserter, +that<br> +Massena himself had come up, and Bessiéres also, with +twelve hundred<br> +cavalry, and a battery of the Imperial Guard.</p> + +<p>From the movements observable in the enemy, it was soon +evident that the<br> +battle, though deferred, was not abandoned; and the march of a +strong<br> +force towards the left of their position induced our +commander-in-chief to<br> +despatch the Seventh Division, under Houston, to occupy the +height of Naval<br> +d'Aver—our extreme right—in support of which our brigade of +cavalry<br> +marched as a covering force. The British position was thus +unavoidably<br> +extended to the enormous length of seven miles, occupying a +succession of<br> +small eminences, from the division at Fort Conception to the +height of<br> +Naval d'Aver,—Fuentes d'Onoro forming nearly the centre of the +line.</p> + +<p>It was evident, from the thickening combinations of the +French, that a more<br> +dreadful battle was still in reserve for us; and yet never did +men look<br> +more anxiously for the morrow.</p> + +<p>As for myself, I felt a species of exhilaration I had never +before<br> +experienced; the events of the preceding day came dropping in +upon me from<br> +every side, and at every new tale of gallantry or daring I felt +my heart<br> +bounding with excited eagerness to win also my need of honorable +praise.</p> + +<p>Crawfurd, too, had recognized me in the kindest manner; and +while saying<br> +that he did not wish to withdraw me from my regiment on a day of +battle,<br> +added that he would make use of me for the present on his staff. +Thus was<br> +I engaged, from early in the morning till late in the evening, +bringing<br> +orders and despatches along the line. The troop-horse I rode—for +I<br> +reserved my gray for the following day—was scarcely able to +carry me<br> +along, as towards dusk I jogged along in the direction of Naval +d'Aver.<br> +When I did reach our quarters, the fires were lighted, and around +one of<br> +them I had the good fortune to find a party of the Fourteenth +occupied in<br> +discussing a very appetizing little supper. The clatter of +plates, and the<br> +popping of champagne corks were most agreeable sounds. Indeed, +the latter<br> +appeared to me so much too flattering an illusion, that I +hesitated giving<br> +credit to my senses in the matter, when Baker called out,—</p> + +<p>"Come, Charley, sit down; you're just in the nick. Tom Marsden +is giving us<br> +a benefit. You know Tom?"</p> + +<p>And here he presented me in due form to that best of +commissaries and most<br> +hospitable of horse-dealers.</p> + +<p>"I can't introduce you to my friend on my right," continued +Baker, "for my<br> +Spanish is only a skeleton battalion; but he's a trump,—that +I'll vouch<br> +for; never flinches his glass, and looks as though he enjoyed all +our<br> +nonsense."</p> + +<p>The Spaniard, who appeared to comprehend that he was alluded +to, gravely<br> +saluted me with a low bow, and offered his glass to hobnob with +me. I<br> +returned the curtesy with becoming ceremony, while Hampden +whispered in my<br> +ear,—</p> + +<p>"A fine-looking fellow. You know who he is? Julian, the +Guerilla chief."</p> + +<p>I had heard much of both the strangers. Tom Marsden was a +household word<br> +in every cavalry brigade; equally celebrated were his contracts +and his<br> +claret. He knew every one, from Lord Wellington to the +last-joined cornet;<br> +and while upon a march, there was no piece of better fortune than +to be<br> +asked to dine with him. So in the very thick of battle, Tom's +critical eye<br> +was scanning the squadrons engaged, with an accuracy as to the +number of<br> +fresh horses that would be required upon the morrow that nothing +but long<br> +practice and infinite coolness could have conferred.</p> + +<p>Of the Guerilla I need not speak. The bold feats he +accomplished, the aid<br> +he rendered to the cause of his country, have made his name +historical. Yet<br> +still with all this, fatigue, more powerful than my curiosity, +prevailed,<br> +and I sank into a heavy sleep upon the grass, while my merry +companions<br> +kept up their revels till near morning. The last piece of +consciousness I<br> +am sensible of was seeing Julian spreading his wide mantle over +me as I<br> +lay, while I heard his deep voice whisper a kind wish for my +repose.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXIII.</p> + +<p>THE BATTLE OF FUENTES D'ONORO.</p> + +<p>So soundly did I sleep that the tumult and confusion of the +morning never<br> +awoke me; and the Guerilla, whose cavalry were stationed along +the edge of<br> +the ravine near the heights of Echora, would not permit of my +being roused<br> +before the last moment. Mike stood near me with my horses, and it +was only<br> +when the squadrons were actually forming that I sprang to my feet +and<br> +looked around me.</p> + +<p>The day was just breaking; a thick mist lay upon the parched +earth, and<br> +concealed everything a hundred yards from where we stood. From +this dense<br> +vapor the cavalry defiled along the base of the hill, followed by +the<br> +horse artillery and the Guards, disappearing again as they passed +us,<br> +but proving, by the mass of troops now assembled, that our +position was<br> +regarded as the probable point of attack.</p> + +<p>While the troops continued to take up their position, the sun +shone out,<br> +and a slight breeze blowing at the same, moment, the heavy clouds +moved<br> +past, and we beheld the magnificent panorama of the battle-field. +Before<br> +us, at the distance of less than half a league, the French +cavalry were<br> +drawn up in three strong columns; the Cuirassiers of the Guard, +plainly<br> +distinguished by their steel cuirasses, flanked by the Polish +Lancers and a<br> +strong huzzar brigade; a powerful artillery train supported the +left, and<br> +an infantry force occupied the entire space between the right and +the<br> +rising ground opposite Poço Velho. Farther to the right +again, the column<br> +destined for the attack of Fuentes d'Onoro were forming, and we +could see<br> +that, profiting by their past experience, they were bent upon +attacking the<br> +village with an overwhelming force.</p> + +<p>For above two hours the French continued to manoeuvre, more +than one<br> +alteration having taken place in their disposition; fresh +battalions were<br> +moved towards the front, and gradually the whole of their cavalry +was<br> +assembled on the extreme left in front of our position. Our +people were<br> +ordered to breakfast where we stood; and a little after seven +o'clock a<br> +staff officer came riding down the line, followed in a few +moments after by<br> +General Crawfurd, when no sooner was his well-known brown cob +recognized by<br> +the troops than a hearty cheer greeted him along the whole +division.</p> + +<p>"Thank ye, boys; thank ye, boys, with all my heart. No man +feels more<br> +sensibly what that cheer means than I do. Guards, Lord Wellington +relies<br> +upon your maintaining this position, which is essential to the +safety of<br> +the whole line. You will be supported by the light division. I +need say<br> +no more. If such troops cannot keep their ground, none can. +Fourteenth,<br> +there's your place; the artillery and the Sixteenth are with you. +They've<br> +the odds of us in numbers, lads; but it will tell all the better +in the<br> +'Gazette.' I see they're moving; so fall in now, fall in; and +Merivale,<br> +move to the front. Ramsey, prepare to open your fire on the +attacking<br> +squadrons."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, the low murmuring sound of distantly moving +cavalry crept<br> +along the earth, growing louder and louder, till at length we +could detect<br> +the heavy tramp of the squadrons as they came on in a trot, our +pace<br> +being merely a walk. While we thus advanced into the plain, the +artillery<br> +unlimbered behind us, and the Spanish cavalry, breaking into +skirmishers,<br> +dashed boldly to the front.</p> + +<p>It was an exciting moment. The ground dipped between the two +armies so<br> +as to conceal the head of the advancing column of the French, and +as the<br> +Spanish skirmishers disappeared down the ridge, our beating +hearts and<br> +straining eyes followed their last horseman.</p> + +<p>"Halt! halt!" was passed from squadron to squadron, and the +same instant<br> +the sharp ring of the pistol shots and the clash of steel from +the valley,<br> +told us the battle had begun. We could hear the Guerilla war-cry +mingle<br> +with the French shout, while the thickening crash of fire-arms +implied a<br> +sharper conflict. Our fellows were already manifesting some +impatience<br> +to press on, when a Spanish horseman appeared above the ridge, +another<br> +followed, and another, and then pell-mell, broken and disordered, +they<br> +fell back before the pursuing cavalry in flying masses; while the +French,<br> +charging them hotly home, utterly routed and repulsed them.</p> + +<p>The leading squadrons of the French now fell back upon their +support; the<br> +column of attack thickened, and a thundering noise between their +masses<br> +announced their brigade of light guns as they galloped to the +front. It was<br> +then for the first time that I felt dispirited; far as my eye +could stretch<br> +the dense mass of sabres extended, defiling from the distant +hills and<br> +winding its slow length across the plain. I turned to look at our +line,<br> +scarce one thousand strong, and could not help feeling that our +hour was<br> +come: the feeling flashed vividly across my mind, but the next +instant I<br> +felt my cheek redden with shame as I gazed upon the sparkling +eyes and bold<br> +looks around me, the lips compressed, the hands knitted to their +sabres;<br> +all were motionless, but burning to advance.</p> + +<p>The French had halted on the brow of the hill to form, when +Merivale came<br> +cantering up to us.</p> + +<p>"Fourteenth, are you ready? Are you ready, lads?"</p> + +<p>"Ready, sir! ready!" re-echoed along the line.</p> + +<p>"Then push them home and charge! Charge!" cried he, raising +his voice to a<br> +shout at the last word.</p> + +<p>Heavens, what a crash was there! Our horses, in top condition, +no sooner<br> +felt the spur than they bounded madly onwards. The pace—for the +distance<br> +did not exceed four hundred yards—was like racing. To resist the +impetus<br> +of our approach was impossible; and without a shot fired, +scarcely a<br> +sabre-cut exchanged, we actually rode down their advanced +squadrons,<br> +hurling them headlong upon their supporting division, and rolling +men and<br> +horses beneath us on every side. The French fell back upon their +artillery;<br> +but before they could succeed in opening their fire upon us, we +had<br> +wheeled, and carrying off about seventy prisoners, galloped back +to our<br> +position with the loss of but two men in the affair. The whole +thing was so<br> +sudden, so bold, and so successful, that I remember well, as we +rode<br> +back, a hearty burst of laughter was ringing through the squadron +at the<br> +ludicrous display of horsemanship the French presented as they +tumbled<br> +headlong down the hill; and I cannot help treasuring the +recollection,<br> +for from that moment, all thought of anything short of victory +completely<br> +quitted my mind, and many of my brother officers, who had +participated in<br> +my feelings at the commencement of the day, confessed to me +afterwards that<br> +it was then for the first time they felt assured of beating the +enemy.</p> + +<p>While we slowly fell back to our position, the French were +seen advancing<br> +in great force from the village of Almeida, to the attack of +Poço Velho;<br> +they came on at a rapid pace, their artillery upon their front +and flank,<br> +large masses of cavalry hovering around them. The attack upon the +village<br> +was now opened by the large guns; and amidst the booming of the +artillery<br> +and the crashing volleys of small fire-arms, rose the shout of +the<br> +assailants, and the wild cry of the Guerilla cavalry, who had +formed in<br> +front of the village. The French advanced firmly, driving back +the pickets,<br> +and actually inundated the devoted village with a shower of +grape; the<br> +blazing fires burst from the ignited roofs; and the black, dense +smoke,<br> +rising on high, seemed to rest like a pall over the little +hamlet.</p> + +<p>The conflict was now a tremendous one; our Seventh Division +held the<br> +village with the bayonet; but the French continuing to pour in +mass upon<br> +mass, drove them back with loss, and at the end of an hour's hard +fighting,<br> +took possession of the place.</p> + +<p>The wood upon the left flank was now seen to swarm with light +infantry, and<br> +the advancement of their whole left proved that they meditated to +turn our<br> +flank; the space between the village and the hill of Naval d'Aver +became<br> +thus the central position; and here the Guerilla force, led on by +Julian<br> +Sanches, seemed to await the French with confidence. Soon, +however, the<br> +cuirassiers came galloping to the spot, and almost without +exchanging a<br> +sabre-cut, the Guerillas fell back, and retired behind the +Turones. This<br> +movement of Julian was more attributable to anger than to fear; +for his<br> +favorite lieutenant, being mistaken for a French officer, was +shot by a<br> +soldier of the Guards a few minutes before.</p> + +<p>Montbrun pursued the Guerillas with some squadrons of horse, +but they<br> +turned resolutely upon the French, and not till overwhelmed by +numbers did<br> +they show any disposition to retreat.</p> + +<p>The French, however, now threw forward their whole cavalry, +and driving<br> +back the English horse, succeeded in turning the right of the +Seventh<br> +Division. The battle by this time was general. The staff officers +who came<br> +up from the left informed us that Fuentes d'Onoro was attacked in +force,<br> +Massena himself leading the assault in person; while thus for +seven miles<br> +the fight was maintained hotly at intervals, it was evident that +upon the<br> +maintenance of our position the fortune of the day depended. +Hitherto we<br> +had been repulsed from the village and the wood; and the dark +masses of<br> +infantry which were assembled upon our right, seemed to threaten +the hill<br> +of Naval d'Aver with as sad a catastrophe.</p> + +<p>Crawfurd came now galloping up among us, his eye flashing +fire, and his<br> +uniform splashed and covered with foam:</p> + +<p>"Steady Sixteenth, steady! Don't blow your horses! Have your +fellows<br> +advanced, Malcolm?" said he, turning to an officer who stood +beside him.<br> +"Ay, there they go!" pointing with his finger to the wood where, +as he<br> +spoke, the short ringing of the British rifle proclaimed the +advance of<br> +that brigade. "Let the cavalry prepare to charge! And now, +Ramsey, let us<br> +give it them home!"</p> + +<p>Scarcely were the words spoken, when the squadrons were +formed, and in an<br> +instant after, the French light infantry were seen retreating +from the<br> +wood, and flying in disorderly masses across the plain. Our +squadrons<br> +riding down among them, actually cut them to atoms, while the +light<br> +artillery, unlimbering, threw in a deadly discharge of +grape-shot.</p> + +<p>"To the right, Fourteenth, to the right!" cried General +Stewart. "Have at<br> +their hussars!"</p> + +<p>Whirling by them, we advanced at a gallop, and dashed towards +the enemy,<br> +who, not less resolutely bent, came boldly forward to meet us. +The shock<br> +was terrific! The leading squadrons on both sides went down +almost to a<br> +man, and all order being lost, the encounter became one of hand +to hand.</p> + +<p>The struggle was deadly; neither party would give way; and +while fortune<br> +now inclined hither and thither, Sir Charles Stewart singled out +the French<br> +general, Lamotte, and carried him off his prisoner. Meanwhile +Montbrun's<br> +cavalry and the cuirassiers came riding up, and the retreat now +sounding<br> +through our ranks, we were obliged to fall back upon the +infantry. The<br> +French pursued us hotly; and so rapid was their movement, that +before<br> +Ramsey's brigade could limber up and away, their squadrons had +surrounded<br> +him and captured his guns.</p> + +<p>"Where is Ramsey?" cried Crawfurd, as he galloped to the head +of our<br> +division. "Cut off—cut off! Taken, by G——! There he goes!" +said he,<br> +pointing with his finger, as a dense cloud of mingled smoke and +dust moved<br> +darkly across the plain. "Form into column once more!"</p> + +<p>As he spoke, the dense mass before us seemed agitated by some +mighty<br> +commotion; the flashing of blades, and the rattling of +small-arms, mingled<br> +with shouts of triumph or defiance, burst forth, and the ominous +cloud<br> +lowering more darkly, seemed peopled by those in deadly strife. +An English<br> +cheer pealed high above all other sounds; a second followed; the +mass was<br> +rent asunder, and like the forked lightning from a thunder-cloud, +Ramsey<br> +rode forth at the head of his battery, the horses bounding madly, +while the<br> +guns sprang behind them like things of no weight; the gunners +leaped to<br> +their places, and fighting hand to hand with the French cavalry, +they flew<br> +across the plain.</p> + +<p>"Nobly done, gallant Ramsey!" said a voice behind me. I turned +at the<br> +sound; it was Lord Wellington who spoke. My eye fixed upon his +stern<br> +features, I forgot all else; when he suddenly recalled me to +my<br> +recollection by saying,—</p> + +<p>"Follow your brigade, sir. Charge!"</p> + +<p>In an instant I was with my people, who, intervening betwixt +Ramsey and his<br> +pursuers, repulsed the enemy with loss, and carried off several +prisoners.<br> +The French, however, came up in greater strength; overwhelming +masses of<br> +cavalry came sweeping upon us, and we were obliged to retire +behind the<br> +light division, which rapidly formed into squares to resist the +cavalry.<br> +The Seventh Division, which was more advanced, were, however, too +late for<br> +this movement, and before they could effect their formation, the +French<br> +were upon them. At this moment they owed their safety to the +Chasseurs<br> +Britanniques, who poured in a flanking fire, so close, and with +so deadly<br> +an aim, that their foes recoiled, beaten and bewildered.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the French had become masters of Pogo Velho; the +formidable<br> +masses had nearly outflanked us on the right. The battle was lost +if we<br> +could not fall back upon our original position, and concentrate +our force<br> +upon Fuentes d'Onoro. To effect this was a work of great +difficulty; but<br> +no time was to be lost. The Seventh Division were ordered to +cross the<br> +Turones, while Crawfurd, forming the light division into squares, +covered<br> +their retreat, and supported by the cavalry, sustained the whole +force of<br> +the enemy's attack.</p> + +<p>Then was the moment to witness the cool and steady bravery of +British<br> +infantry; the squares dotted across the enormous plain seemed as +nothing<br> +amidst that confused and flying multitude, composed of +commissariat<br> +baggage, camp-followers, peasants, and finally, broken pickets +and videttes<br> +arriving from the wood. A cloud of cavalry hovered and darkened +around<br> +them; the Polish Lancers shook their long spears, impatient of +delay, and<br> +the wild huzzas burst momentarily from their squadrons as they +waited for<br> +the word to attack. But the British stood firm and undaunted; and +although<br> +the enemy rode round their squares, Montbrun himself at their +head, they<br> +never dared to charge them. Meanwhile the Seventh Division fell +back, as<br> +if on a parade, and crossing the river, took up their ground at +Frenada,<br> +pivoting upon the First Division; the remainder of the line also +fell back,<br> +and assumed a position at right angles with their former one, the +cavalry<br> +forming in front, and holding the French in check during the +movement. This<br> +was a splendid manoeuvre, and when made in face of an +overnumbering enemy,<br> +one unmatched during the whole war.</p> + +<p>At sight of this new front, the French stopped short, and +opened a fire<br> +from their heavy guns. The British batteries replied with vigor +and<br> +silenced the enemy's cannon. The cavalry drew out of range, and +the<br> +infantry gradually fell back to their former position. While this +was going<br> +on, the attack upon Fuentes d'Onoro was continued with unabated +vigor.<br> +The three British regiments in the lower town were pierced by +the<br> +French tirailleurs, who poured upon them in overwhelming numbers; +the<br> +Seventy-ninth were broken, ten companies taken, and Cameron, +their colonel,<br> +mortally wounded. Thus the lower village was in the hands of the +enemy,<br> +while from the upper town the incessant roll of musketry +proclaimed the<br> +obstinate resistance of the British.</p> + +<p>At this period the reserves were called up from the right, in +time to<br> +resist the additional troops which Drouet continued to bring on. +The<br> +French, reinforced by the whole Sixth Corps, now came forward at +a<br> +quick-step. Dashing through the ruined streets of the lower town, +they<br> +crossed the rivulet, fighting bravely, and charged against the +height.<br> +Already their leading files had gained the crag beside the +chapel. A French<br> +colonel holding his cap upon his sword-point waved on his +men.</p> + +<p>The grizzly features of the grenadiers soon appeared, and the +dark column,<br> +half-climbing, half-running, were seen scaling the height. A +rifle-bullet<br> +sent the French leader tumbling from the precipice; and a +cheer—mad and<br> +reckless as the war-cry of an Indian—rent the sky, as the 71st +and 79th<br> +Highlanders sprang upon the enemy.</p> + +<p>Our part was a short one; advancing in half squadrons, we were +concealed<br> +from the observation of the enemy by the thick vineyards which +skirted the<br> +lower town, waiting, with impatience, the moment when our gallant +infantry<br> +should succeed in turning the tide of battle. We were ordered to +dismount,<br> +and stood with our bridles on our arms, anxious and expectant. +The charge<br> +of the French column was made close to where we were +standing,—the<br> +inspiriting cheers of the officers, the loud <i>vivas</i> of the men, +were<br> +plainly heard by us as they rushed to the assault; but the space +between<br> +us was intersected by walls and brushwood, which totally +prevented the<br> +movements of cavalry.</p> + +<p>Fearlessly their dark column moved up the heights, fixing the +bayonets<br> +as they went. No tirailleurs preceded them, but the tall shako of +the<br> +Grenadier of the Guard was seen in the first rank. Long before +the end of<br> +the column had passed us, the leading files were in action. A +deafening<br> +peal of musketry—so loud, so dense, it seemed like +artillery—burst forth.<br> +A volume of black smoke rolled heavily down from the heights and +hid all<br> +from our view, except when the vivid lightning of the platoon +firing rent<br> +the veil asunder, and showed us the troops almost in hand to hand +conflict.</p> + +<p>"It's Picton's Division, I'm certain," cried Merivale; "I hear +the bagpipes<br> +of the Highlanders."</p> + +<p>"You are right, sir," said Hampden, "the Seventy-first are in +the same<br> +brigade, and I know their bugles well. There they go again!"</p> + +<p>"Fourteenth! Fourteenth!" cried a voice from behind, and at +the same<br> +moment, a staff officer, without his hat, and his horse bleeding +from a<br> +recent sabre-cut, came up. "You must move to the rear, Colonel +Merivale;<br> +the French have gained the heights! Move round by the causeway; +bring up<br> +your squadrons as quickly as you can, and support the +infantry!"</p> + +<p>In a moment we were in our saddles; but scarcely was the word +"to fall in"<br> +given, when a loud cheer rent the very air; the musketry seemed +suddenly<br> +to cease, and the dark mass which continued to struggle up the +heights<br> +wavered, broke, and turned.</p> + +<p>"What can that be?" said Merivale. "What can it mean?"</p> + +<p>"I can tell you, sir," said I, proudly, while I felt my heart +throb as<br> +though it would bound from my bosom.</p> + +<p>"And what is it, boy? Speak!"</p> + +<p>"There it goes again! That was an Irish shout! The +Eighty-eighth are at<br> +them!"</p> + +<p>"By Jove, here they come!" said Hampden. "God help the +Frenchmen now!"</p> + +<p>The words were not well spoken, when the red coats of our +gallant fellows<br> +were seen dashing through the vineyard.</p> + +<p>"The steel, boys; nothing but the steel!" shouted a loud voice +from the<br> +crag above our heads.</p> + +<p>I looked up. It was the stern Picton himself who spoke. The +Eighty-eighth<br> +now led the pursuit, and sprang from rock to rock in all the +mad<br> +impetuosity of battle; and like some mighty billow rolling before +the gale,<br> +the French went down the heights.</p> + +<p>"Gallant Eighty-eighth! Gloriously done!" cried Picton, as he +waved his<br> +hat.</p> + +<p>"Aren't we Connaught robbers, now?" shouted a rich brogue, as +its owner,<br> +breathless and bleeding, pressed forward in the charge.</p> + +<p>A hearty burst of laughter mingled with the din of the +battle.</p> + +<p>"Now for it, boys! Now for <i>our</i> work!" said old Merivale, +drawing his<br> +sabre as he spoke. "Forward! and charge!"</p> + +<p>We waited not a second bidding, but bursting from our +concealment,<br> +galloped down into the broken column. It was no regular charge, +but an<br> +indiscriminate rush. Scarcely offering resistance, the enemy fell +beneath<br> +our sabres, or the still more deadly bayonets of the infantry, +who were<br> +inextricably mingled up in the conflict.</p> + +<p>The chase was followed up for above half a mile, when we fell +back,<br> +fortunately in good time; for the French had opened a heavy fire +from their<br> +artillery, and regardless of their own retreating column, poured +a shower<br> +of grape among our squadrons. As we retired, the struggling files +of the<br> +Rangers joined us,—their faces and accoutrements blackened and +begrimed<br> +with powder; many of them, themselves wounded, had captured +prisoners; and<br> +one huge fellow of the grenadier company was seen driving before +him a<br> +no less powerful Frenchman, and to whom, as he turned from time +to time<br> +reluctantly, and scowled upon his jailer, the other vociferated +some Irish<br> +imprecation, whose harsh intentions were made most palpably +evident by a<br> +flourish of a drawn bayonet.</p> + +<p>"Who is he?" said Mike; "who is he, ahagur?"</p> + +<p>"Sorra one o' me knows," said the other; "but it's the chap +that shot<br> +Lieutenant Mahony, and I never took my eye off him after; and if +the<br> +lieutenant's not dead, sure it'll be a satisfaction to him that I +cotch<br> +him."</p> + +<p>The lower town was now evacuated by the French, who retired +beyond the<br> +range of our artillery; the upper continued in the occupation of +our<br> +troops; and worn out and exhausted, surrounded by dead and dying, +both<br> +parties abandoned the contest, and the battle was over.</p> + +<p>Both sides laid claim to the victory; the French, because, +having taken the<br> +village of Poço Velho, they had pierced the British line, +and compelled<br> +them to fall back and assume a new position; the British, because +the<br> +attack upon Fuentes d'Onoro has been successfully resisted, and +the<br> +blockade of Almeida—the real object of the battle—maintained. +The loss<br> +to each was tremendous; fifteen hundred men and officers, of whom +three<br> +hundred were prisoners, were lost by the allies, and a far +greater number<br> +fell among the forces of the enemy.</p> + +<p>After the action, a brigade of the light division released the +troops in<br> +the village, and the armies bivouacked once more in sight of each +other.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXIV.</p> + +<p>A RENCONTRE.</p> + +<p>"LIEUTENANT O'MALLEY, 14th Light Dragoons, to serve as extra +aide-de-camp<br> +to Major-General Crawfurd, until the pleasure of his Royal +Highness the<br> +Prince Regent is known." Such was the first paragraph of a +general order,<br> +dated Fuentes d'Onoro, the day after the battle, which met me as +I woke<br> +from a sound and heavy slumber, the result of thirteen hours on +horseback.</p> + +<p>A staff appointment was not exactly what I desired at the +moment; but I<br> +knew that with Crawfurd my duties were more likely to be at the +pickets and<br> +advanced posts of the army, than in the mere details of +note-writing or<br> +despatch-bearing; besides that, I felt, whenever anything of +importance<br> +was to be done, I should always obtain his permission to do duty +with my<br> +regiment.</p> + +<p>Taking a hurried breakfast, therefore, I mounted my horse, and +cantered<br> +over to Villa Formosa, where the general's quarters were, to +return my<br> +thanks for the promotion, and take the necessary steps for +assuming my new<br> +functions.</p> + +<p>Although the sun had risen about two hours, the fatigue of the +previous day<br> +had impressed itself upon all around. The cavalry, men and +horses, were<br> +still stretched upon the sward, sunk in sleep; the videttes, +weary and<br> +tired, seemed anxiously watching for the relief; and the +disordered and<br> +confused appearance of everything bespoke that discipline had +relaxed its<br> +stern features, in compassion for the bold exertions of the +preceding day.<br> +The only contrast to this general air of exhaustion and weariness +on every<br> +side was a corps of sappers, who were busily employed upon the +high grounds<br> +above the village. Early as it was, they seemed to have been at +work<br> +some hours,—at least so their labors bespoke; for already a +rampart<br> +of considerable extent had been thrown up, stockades implanted, +and a<br> +breastwork was in a state of active preparation. The officer of +the party,<br> +wrapped up in a loose cloak, and mounted upon a sharp-looking +hackney, rode<br> +hither and thither as the occasion warranted, and seemed, as well +as from<br> +the distance I could guess, something of a tartar. At least I +could not<br> +help remarking how, at his approach, the several inferior +officers seemed<br> +suddenly so much more on the alert, and the men worked with an +additional<br> +vigor and activity. I stopped for some minutes to watch him, and +seeing<br> +an engineer captain of my acquaintance among the party, couldn't +resist<br> +calling out:—</p> + +<p>"I say, Hatchard, your friend on the chestnut mare must have +had an easier<br> +day yesterday than some of us, or I'll be hanged if he'd be so +active this<br> +morning." Hatchard hung his head in some confusion, and did not +reply;<br> +and on my looking round, whom should I see before me but the +identical<br> +individual I had so coolly been criticising, and who, to my utter +horror<br> +and dismay, was no other than Lord Wellington himself. I did not +wait for a<br> +second peep. Helter-skelter, through water, thickets, and +brambles, away I<br> +went, clattering down the causeway like a madman. If a French +squadron had<br> +been behind me, I should have had a stouter heart, although I did +not fear<br> +pursuit. I felt his eye was upon me,—his sharp and piercing +glance, that<br> +shot like an arrow into me; and his firm look stared at me in +every object<br> +around.</p> + +<p>Onward I pressed, feeling in the very recklessness of my +course some relief<br> +to my sense of shame, and ardently hoping that some +accident—some smashed<br> +arm or broken collar-bone—might befall me and rescue me from any +notice<br> +my conduct might otherwise call for. I never drew rein till I +reached the<br> +Villa Formosa, and pulled up short at a small cottage where a +double sentry<br> +apprised me of the general's quarters. As I came up, the low +lattice sprang<br> +quickly open, and a figure, half dressed, and more than half +asleep,<br> +protruded his head.</p> + +<p>"Well, what has happened? Anything wrong?" said he, whom I now +recognized<br> +to be General Crawfurd.</p> + +<p>"No, nothing wrong, sir," stammered I, with evident confusion. +"I'm merely<br> +come to thank you for your kindness in my behalf."</p> + +<p>"You seemed in a devil of a hurry to do it, if I'm to judge by +the pace<br> +you came at. Come in and take your breakfast with us; I shall be +dressed<br> +presently, and you'll meet some of your brother +aides-de-camp."</p> + +<p>Having given my horse to an orderly, I walked into a little +room, whose<br> +humble accommodations and unpretending appearance seemed in +perfect<br> +keeping with the simple and unostentatious character of the +general. The<br> +preparations for a good and substantial breakfast were, however, +before<br> +me, and an English newspaper of a late date spread its most ample +pages<br> +to welcome me. I had not been long absorbed in my reading, when +the door<br> +opened, and the general, whose toilet was not yet completed, made +his<br> +appearance.</p> + +<p>"Egad, O'Malley, you startled me this morning. I thought we +were in for it<br> +again."</p> + +<p>I took this as the most seasonable opportunity to recount my +mishap of the<br> +morning, and accordingly, without more ado, detailed the unlucky +meeting<br> +with the commander-in-chief. When I came to the end, Crawfurd +threw himself<br> +into a chair and laughed till the very tears coursed down his +bronzed<br> +features.</p> + +<p>"You don't say so, boy? You don't really tell me you said +that? By Jove! I<br> +had rather have faced a platoon of musketry than have stood in +your shoes!<br> +You did not wait for a reply, I think?"</p> + +<p>"No, faith, sir, that I did not!"</p> + +<p>"Do you suspect he knows you?"</p> + +<p>"I trust not, sir; the whole thing passed so rapidly!"</p> + +<p>"Well, it's most unlucky in more ways than one!" He paused for +a few<br> +moments as he said this, and then added, "Have you seen the +general order?"<br> +pushing towards me a written paper as he spoke. It ran +thus:—</p> + +<p> G.O. ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, VILLA FORMOSA,</p> + +<p> May 6, 1811.</p> + +<p> <i>Memorandum</i>.—Commanding officers are requested to send +in to<br> + the military secretary, as soon as possible, the names of +officers they<br> + may wish to have promoted in succession to those who have +fallen<br> + in action."</p> + +<p>"Now look at this list. The Honorable Harvey Howard, Grenadier +Guards,<br> +to be first lieutenant, <i>vice</i>—No, not that. Henry +Beauchamp—George<br> +Villiers—ay, here it is! Captain Lyttleton, Fourteenth Light +Dragoons,<br> +to be major in the Third Dragoon Guards, <i>vice</i> Godwin, killed in +action;<br> +Lieutenant O'Malley to be captain, <i>vice</i> Lyttleton, promoted. +You see,<br> +boy, I did not forget you; you were to have had the vacant troop +in your<br> +own regiment. Now I almost doubt the prudence of bringing your +name under<br> +Lord Wellington's notice. He may have recognized you; and if he +did so,<br> +why, I rather think—that is, I suspect—I mean, the quieter you +keep the<br> +better."</p> + +<p>While I poured forth my gratitude as warmly as I was able for +the general's<br> +great kindness to me, I expressed my perfect concurrence in his +views.</p> + +<p>"Believe me, sir," said I, "I should much rather wait any +number of years<br> +for my promotion, than incur the risk of a reprimand; the more +so, as it is<br> +not the first time I have blundered with his lordship." I here +narrated<br> +my former meeting with Sir Arthur, at which Crawfurd's mirth +again burst<br> +forth, and he paced the room, holding his sides in an ecstasy of +merriment.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, lad, we'll hope for the best; we'll give you the +chance that<br> +he has not seen your face, and send the list forward as it is. +But here<br> +come our fellows."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, the door opened, and three officers of his staff +entered, to<br> +whom, being severally introduced, we chatted away about the news +of the<br> +morning until breakfast.</p> + +<p>"I've frequently heard of you from my friend Hammersley," said +Captain<br> +Fitzroy, addressing me. "You were intimately acquainted, I +believe?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! Pray, where is he now? We have not met for a long +time."</p> + +<p>"The poor fellow's invalided; that sabre-cut upon his head has +turned out<br> +a sad affair, and he's gone back to England on a sick leave. Old +Dashwood<br> +took him back with him as private secretary, or something of that +sort."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said another, "Dashwood has daughters, hasn't he? No bad +notion of<br> +his; for Hammersley will be a baronet some of these days, with a +rent-roll<br> +of eight or nine thousand per annum."</p> + +<p>"Sir George Dashwood," said I, "has but one daughter, and I am +quite sure<br> +that in his kindness to Hammersley no intentions of the kind you +mention<br> +were mixed up."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know," said the third, a pale, sickly youth, +with handsome<br> +but delicate features. "I was on Dashwood's staff until a few +weeks ago,<br> +and certainly I thought there was something going on between +Hammersley<br> +and Miss Lucy, who, be it spoken, is a devilish fine girl, though +rather<br> +disposed to give herself airs."</p> + +<p>I felt my cheek and my temples boiling like a furnace; my hand +trembled as<br> +I lifted my coffee to my lips; and I would have given my expected +promotion<br> +twice over to have had any reasonable ground of quarrel with the +speaker.</p> + +<p>"Egad, lads," said Crawfurd, "that's the very best thing I +know about a<br> +command. As a bishop is always sure to portion off his daughters +with<br> +deaneries and rectories, so your knowing old general always +marries his<br> +among his staff."</p> + +<p>This sally was met with the ready laughter of the +subordinates, in which,<br> +however little disposed. I was obliged to join.</p> + +<p>"You are quite right, sir," rejoined the pale youth; "and Sir +George has no<br> +fortune to give his daughter."</p> + +<p>"How came it, Horace, that you got off safe?" said Fitzroy, +with a certain<br> +air of affected seriousness in his voice and manner. "I wonder +they let<br> +such a prize escape them."</p> + +<p>"Well, it was not exactly their fault, I do confess. Old +Dashwood did the<br> +civil towards me, and <i>la belle Lucie</i> herself was condescending +enough to<br> +be less cruel than to the rest of the staff. Her father threw us +a good<br> +deal together; and in fact, I believe—I fear—that is—that I +didn't<br> +behave quite well."</p> + +<p>"You may rest perfectly assured of it, sir," said I; "whatever +your<br> +previous conduct may have been, you have completely relieved your +mind on<br> +this occasion, and behaved most shamefully."</p> + +<p>Had a shell fallen in the midst of us, the faces around me +could not have<br> +been more horror-struck than when, in a cool, determined tone, I +spoke<br> +these few words. Fitzroy pushed his chair slightly back from the +table, and<br> +fixed his eyes full upon me. Crawfurd grew dark-purple over his +whole face<br> +and forehead, and looked from one to the other of us without +speaking;<br> +while the Honorable Horace Delawar, the individual addressed, +never changed<br> +a muscle of his wan and sickly features, but lifting his eyes +slowly from<br> +his muffin, lisped softly out,—</p> + +<p>"You think so? How very good!"</p> + +<p>"General Crawfurd," said I, the moment I could collect myself +sufficiently<br> +to speak, "I am deeply grieved that I should so far have +forgotten myself<br> +as to disturb the harmony of your table; but when I tell you that +Sir<br> +George Dashwood is one of my warmest friends on earth; that from +my<br> +intimate knowledge of him, I am certain that gentleman's +statements are<br> +either the mere outpourings of folly or worse—"</p> + +<p>"By Jove, O'Malley! you have a very singular mode of +explaining away the<br> +matter. Delawar, sit down again. Gentlemen, I have only one word +to say<br> +about this transaction; I'll have no squabbles nor broils here; +from this<br> +room to the guard-house is a five minutes' walk. Promise me, upon +your<br> +honors, this altercation ends here, or as sure as my name's +Crawfurd, you<br> +shall both be placed under arrest, and the man who refuses to +obey me shall<br> +be sent back to England."</p> + +<p>Before I well knew in what way to proceed, Mr. Delawar rose +and bowed<br> +formally to the general, while I imitated his example; silently +we resumed<br> +our places, and after a pause of a few moments, the current of +conversation<br> +was renewed, and other topics discussed, but with such evident +awkwardness<br> +and constraint that all parties felt relieved when the general +rose from<br> +table.</p> + +<p>"I say, O'Malley, have you forwarded the returns to the +adjutant-general's<br> +office?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; I despatched them this morning before leaving my +quarters."</p> + +<p>"I am glad of it; the irregularities on this score have called +forth a<br> +heavy reprimand at headquarters."</p> + +<p>I was also glad of it, and it chanced that by mere accident I +remembered to<br> +charge Mike with the papers, which, had they not been lying +unsealed upon<br> +the table before me, would, in all likelihood, have escaped my +attention.<br> +The post started to Lisbon that same morning, to take advantage +of which<br> +I had sat up writing for half the night. Little was I aware at +the<br> +moment what a mass of trouble and annoyance was in store for me +from the<br> +circumstance.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXV.</p> + +<p>ALMEIDA.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 7th we perceived, from a movement in the +French camp,<br> +that the wounded were being sent to the rear, and shortly +afterwards the<br> +main body of their army commenced its retreat. They moved with +slow, and as<br> +it were, reluctant steps; and Bessiéres, who commanded the +Imperial Guard,<br> +turned his eyes more than once to that position which all the +bravery of<br> +his troops was unavailing to capture. Although our cavalry lay in +force to<br> +the front of our line, no attempt was made to molest the +retreating French;<br> +and Massena, having retired beyond the Aguada, left a strong +force to watch<br> +the ford, while the remainder of the army fell back upon Cuidad +Rodrigo.</p> + +<p>During this time we had succeeded in fortifying our position +at Fuentes<br> +d'Onoro so strongly as to resist any new attack, and Lord +Wellington now<br> +turned his whole attention to the blockade of Almeida, which, by +Massena's<br> +retreat, was abandoned to its fate.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 10th I accompanied General Crawfurd in +a<br> +reconnoissance of the fortress, which, from the intelligence we +had lately<br> +received, could not much longer hold out against our blockade. +The fire<br> +from the enemy's artillery was, however, hotly maintained; and as +night<br> +fell, some squadrons of the Fourteenth, who were picketed near, +were unable<br> +to light their watch-fires, being within reach of their shot. As +the<br> +darkness increased so did the cannonade, and the bright flashes +from the<br> +walls and the deep booming of the artillery became incessant.</p> + +<p>A hundred conjectures were afloat to account for the +circumstance; some<br> +asserting that what we heard were mere signals to Massena's army; +and<br> +others, that Brennier was destroying and mutilating the fortress +before he<br> +evacuated it to the allies.</p> + +<p>It was little past midnight when, tired from the fatigues of +the day, I had<br> +fallen asleep beneath a tree, an explosion, louder than any which +preceded<br> +it, burst suddenly forth, and as I awoke and looked about me, I +perceived<br> +the whole heavens illuminated by one bright glare, while the +crashing<br> +noise of falling stones and crumbling masonry told me that a mine +had been<br> +sprung; the moment after, all was calm and still and motionless; +a thick<br> +black smoke increasing the sombre darkness of the night shut out +every star<br> +from view, and some drops of heavy rain began to fall.</p> + +<p>The silence, ten times more appalling than the din which +preceded it,<br> +weighed heavily upon my senses, and a dread of some unknown +danger crept<br> +over me; the exhaustion, however, was greater than my fear, and +again I<br> +sank into slumber.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had I been half an hour asleep, when the blast of a +trumpet again<br> +awoke me, and I found, amidst the confusion and excitement about, +that<br> +something of importance had occurred. Questions were eagerly +asked on all<br> +sides, but no one could explain what had happened. Towards the +town all was<br> +as still as death, but a dropping, irregular fire of musketry +issued from<br> +the valley beside the Aguada. "What can this mean; what can it +be?" we<br> +asked of each other. "A sortie from the garrison," said one; "A +night<br> +attack by Massena's troops," cried another; and while thus we +disputed and<br> +argued, a horseman was heard advancing along the road at the top +of his<br> +speed.</p> + +<p>"Where are the cavalry?" cried a voice I recognized as one of +my brother<br> +aides-de-camp. "Where are the Fourteenth?"</p> + +<p>A cheer from our party answered this question, and the next +moment,<br> +breathless and agitated, he rode in among us.</p> + +<p>"What is it? Are we attacked?"</p> + +<p>"Would to Heaven that were all! But come along, lads, follow +me."</p> + +<p>"What can it be, then?" said I again; while my anxiety knew no +bounds.</p> + +<p>"Brennier has escaped; burst his way through Pack's Division, +and has<br> +already reached Valde Mula."</p> + +<p>"The French have escaped!" was repeated from mouth to mouth; +while,<br> +pressing spurs to our horses, we broke into a gallop, and dashed +forward in<br> +the direction of the musketry. We soon came up with the 36th +Infantry, who,<br> +having thrown away their knapsacks, were rapidly pressing the +pursuit. The<br> +maledictions which burst from every side proved how severely the +misfortune<br> +was felt by all, while the eager advance of the men bespoke how +ardently<br> +they longed to repair the mishap.</p> + +<p>Dark as was the night, we passed them in a gallop, when +suddenly the<br> +officer who commanded the leading squadron called out to +halt.</p> + +<p>"Take care there, lads!" cried he; "I hear the infantry before +us; we shall<br> +be down upon our own people."</p> + +<p>The words were hardly spoken, when a bright flash blazed out +before us, and<br> +a smashing volley was poured into the squadron.</p> + +<p>"The French! the French, by Jove!" said Hampden. "Forward, +boys! charge<br> +them!"</p> + +<p>Breaking into open order, to avoid our wounded comrades, +several of whom<br> +had fallen by the fire, we rode down among them. In a moment +their order<br> +was broken, their ranks pierced, and fresh squadrons coming up at +the<br> +instant, they were sabred to a man.</p> + +<p>After this the French pursued their march in silence, and even +when<br> +assembling in force we rode down upon their squares, they never +halted nor<br> +fired a shot. At Barba del Puerco, the ground being unfit for +cavalry, the<br> +Thirty-sixth took our place, and pressed them hotly home. Several +of<br> +the French were killed, and above three hundred made prisoners, +but our<br> +fellows, following up the pursuit too rashly, came upon an +advanced body of<br> +Massena's force, drawn up to await and cover Brennier's retreat; +the result<br> +was the loss of above thirty men in killed and wounded.</p> + +<p>Thus were the great efforts of the three preceding days +rendered fruitless<br> +and nugatory. To maintain this blockade, Lord Wellington, with an +inferior<br> +force, and a position by no means strong, had ventured to give +the enemy<br> +battle; and now by the unskilfulness of some, and the negligence +of others,<br> +were all his combinations thwarted, and the French general +enabled to march<br> +his force through the midst of the blockading columns almost +unmolested and<br> +uninjured.</p> + +<p>Lord Wellington's indignation was great, as well it might be; +the prize for<br> +which he had contested was torn from his grasp at the very moment +he had<br> +won it, and although the gallantry of the troops in the pursuit +might,<br> +under other circumstances, have called forth eulogium, his only +observation<br> +on the matter was a half-sarcastic allusion to the inconclusive +effects of<br> +undisciplined bravery. "Notwithstanding," says the general order +of the<br> +day, "what has been printed in gazettes and newspapers, we have +never seen<br> +small bodies, unsupported, successfully opposed to large; nor has +the<br> +experience of any officer realized the stories which all have +read, of<br> +whole armies being driven by a handful of light infantry and +dragoons."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXVI.</p> + +<p>A NIGHT ON THE AZAVA.</p> + +<p>Massena was now recalled, and Marmont, having assumed the +command of<br> +the French, army, retired towards Salamanca, while our troops +went into<br> +cantonments upon the Aguada. A period of inaction succeeded to +our previous<br> +life of bustle and excitement, and the whole interest of the +campaign was<br> +now centred in Beresford's army, exposed to Soult in +Estramadura.</p> + +<p>On the 15th Lord Wellington set out for that province, having +already<br> +directed a strong force to march upon Badajos.</p> + +<p>"Well, O'Malley," said Crawfurd, as he returned from bidding +Lord<br> +Wellington good-by, "your business is all right; the +commander-in-chief has<br> +signed my recommendation, and you will get your troop."</p> + +<p>While I continued to express my grateful acknowledgments for +his kindness,<br> +the general, apparently inattentive to all I was saying, paced +the room<br> +with hurried steps, stopping every now and then to glance at a +large map of<br> +Spain which covered one wall of the apartment, while he muttered +to himself<br> +some broken and disjointed sentences.</p> + +<p>"Eight leagues—too weak in cavalry—with the left upon Fuenta +Grenaldo—a<br> +strong position. O'Malley, you'll take a troop of dragoons and +patrol the<br> +country towards Castro; you'll reconnoitre the position the Sixth +Corps<br> +occupies, but avoid any collision with the enemy's pickets, +keeping the<br> +Azava between you and them. Take rations for three days."</p> + +<p>"When shall I set out, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Now!" was the reply.</p> + +<p>Knowing with what pleasure the hardy veteran recognized +anything like<br> +alacrity and despatch, I resolved to gratify him; and before half +an hour<br> +had elapsed, was ready with my troop to receive his final +orders.</p> + +<p>"Well done, boy!" said he, as he came to the door of the hut, +"you've lost<br> +no time. I don't believe I have any further instructions to give +you; to<br> +ascertain as far as possible the probable movement of the enemy +is my<br> +object, that's all." As he spoke this, he waved his hand, and +wishing me<br> +"Good-by," walked leisurely back into the house. I saw that his +mind was<br> +occupied by other thoughts; and although I desired to obtain some +more<br> +accurate information for my guidance, knowing his dislike to +questions, I<br> +merely returned his salute, and set forth upon my journey.</p> + +<p>The morning was beautiful; the sun had risen about an hour, +and the earth,<br> +refreshed by the heavy dew of the night, was breathing forth all +its<br> +luxuriant fragrance. The river which flowed beside us was clear +as crystal,<br> +showing beneath its eddying current the shining, pebbly bed, +while upon<br> +the surface, the water-lilies floated or sank as the motion of +the stream<br> +inclined. The tall cork-trees spread their shadows about us, and +the richly<br> +plumed birds hopped from branch to branch awaking the echoes with +their<br> +notes.</p> + +<p>It is but seldom that the heart of man is thoroughly attuned +to the<br> +circumstances of the scenery around him. How often do we need a +struggle<br> +with ourselves to enjoy the rich and beautiful landscape which +lies smiling<br> +in its freshness before us! How frequently do the blue sky and +the calm air<br> +look down upon the heart darkened and shadowed with affliction! +And how<br> +often have we felt the discrepancy between the lowering look of +winter and<br> +the glad sunshine of our hearts! The harmony of the world without +with our<br> +thoughts within is one of the purest, as it is one of the +greatest, sources<br> +of happiness. Our hopes and our ambitions lose their selfish +character when<br> +we feel that fortune smiles upon us from all around, and the +flattery which<br> +speaks to our hearts from the bright stars and the blue sky, the +peaked<br> +mountain or the humble flower, is greater in its mute eloquence +than all<br> +the tongue of man can tell us.</p> + +<p>This feeling did I experience in all its fulness as I +ruminated upon my<br> +bettered fortunes, and felt within myself that secret instinct +that tells<br> +of happiness to come. In such moods of mind my thoughts strayed +ever<br> +homewards, and I could not help confessing how little were all my +successes<br> +in my eyes, did I not-hope for the day when I should pour forth +my tale of<br> +war and battle-field to the ears of those who loved me.</p> + +<p>I resolved to write home at once to my uncle. I longed to tell +him each<br> +incident of my career, and my heart glowed as I thought over the +broken<br> +and disjointed sentences which every cotter around would whisper +of my<br> +fortunes, far prouder as they would be in the humble deeds of one +they<br> +knew, than in the proudest triumphs of a nation's glory.</p> + +<p>Indeed, Mike himself gave the current to my thoughts. After +riding beside<br> +me for some time in silence, he remarked,—</p> + +<p>"And isn't it Father Rush will be proud when he sees your +honor's a<br> +captain; to think of the little boy that he used to take before +him on the<br> +ould gray mare for a ride down the avenue,—to think of him being +a real<br> +captain, six feet two without his boots, and galloping over the +French as<br> +if they were lurchers! Peggy Mahon, that nursed you, will be the +proud<br> +woman the day she hears it; and there won't be a soldier sober in +his<br> +quarters that night in Portumna barracks! 'Pon my soul, there's +not a thing<br> +with a red coat on it, if it was even a scarecrow to frighten the +birds<br> +from the barley, that won't be treated with respect when they +hear of the<br> +news."</p> + +<p>The country through which we travelled was marked at every +step by the<br> +traces of a retreating army: the fields of rich corn lay +flattened beneath<br> +the tramp of cavalry, or the wheels of the baggage-wagons; the +roads, cut<br> +up and nearly impassable, were studded here and there with marks +which<br> +indicated a bivouac. At the same time, everything around bore a +very<br> +different aspect from what we had observed in Portugal; there, +the<br> +vindictive cruelty of the French soldiery had been seen in full +sway: the<br> +ruined château, the burned villages, the desecrated altars, +the murdered<br> +peasantry,—all attested the revengeful spirit of a beaten and +baffled<br> +enemy. No sooner, however, had they crossed the frontiers, than, +as if by<br> +magic, their character became totally changed. Discipline and +obedience<br> +succeeded to recklessness and pillage; and instead of treating +the natives<br> +with, inhumanity and cruelty, in all their intercourse with the +Spaniards<br> +the French behaved with moderation and even kindness. Paying +for<br> +everything, obtaining their billets peaceably and quietly, +marching with<br> +order and regularity, they advanced into the heart of the +country, showing,<br> +by the most irrefragable proof, the astonishing evidences of a +discipline<br> +which, by a word, could convert the lawless irregularities of a +ruffian<br> +soldiery into the orderly habits and obedient conduct of a +highly-organized<br> +army.</p> + +<p>As we neared the Azava, the tracks of the retiring enemy +became gradually<br> +less perceptible, and the country, uninjured by the march, +extended for<br> +miles around us in all the richness and abundance of a favored +climate. The<br> +tall corn, waving its yellow gold, reflected like a sea the +clouds that<br> +moved slowly above it. The wild gentian and the laurel grew +thickly around,<br> +and the cattle stood basking in the clear streams, while some +listless<br> +peasant lounged upon the bank beside them. Strange as all these +evidences<br> +of peace and tranquillity were, so near to the devastating track +of a<br> +mighty army, yet I have more than once witnessed the fact, and +remarked<br> +how, but a short distance from the line of our hurried march, the +country<br> +lay untouched and uninjured; and though the clank of arms and the +dull roll<br> +of the artillery may have struck upon the ear of the far-off +dweller in his<br> +native valley, he listened as he would have done to the passing +thunder as<br> +it crashed above him; and when the bright sky and pure air +succeeded to<br> +the lowering atmosphere and the darkening storm, he looked forth +upon his<br> +smiling fields and happy home, while he muttered to his heart a +prayer of<br> +thanksgiving that the scourge was passed.</p> + +<p>We bivouacked upon the bank of the river, a truly Salvator +Rosa scene;<br> +the rocks, towering high above us, were fissured by the channel +of many a<br> +trickling stream, seeking, in its zigzag current, the bright +river below.<br> +The dark pine-tree and the oak mingled their foliage with the +graceful<br> +cedar, which spread its fan-like branches about us. Through the +thick shade<br> +some occasional glimpses of a starry sky could yet be seen, and a +faint<br> +yellow streak upon the silent river told that the queen of night +was there.</p> + +<p>When I had eaten my frugal supper, I wandered forth alone upon +the bank<br> +of the stream, now standing to watch its bold sweeps as it +traversed the<br> +lonely valley before me, now turning to catch a passing glance at +our<br> +red watch-fires and the hardy features which sat around. The +hoarse and<br> +careless laugh, the deep-toned voice of some old campaigner +holding forth<br> +his tale of flood and field, were the only sounds I heard; and +gradually I<br> +strolled beyond the reach of even these. The path beside the +river, which<br> +seemed scarped from the rock, was barely sufficient for the +passage of<br> +one man, a rude balustrade of wood being the only defence against +the<br> +precipice, which, from a height of full thirty feet, looked down +upon the<br> +stream. Here and there some broad gleam of moonlight would fall +upon the<br> +opposite bank, which, unlike the one I occupied, stretched out +into rich<br> +meadow and pasturage, broken by occasional clumps of ilex and +beech. River<br> +scenery has been ever a passion with me. I can glory in the bold +and broken<br> +outline of a mighty mountain; I can gaze with delighted eyes upon +the<br> +boundless seas, and know not whether to like it more in all the +mighty<br> +outpouring of its wrath, when the white waves lift their heads to +heaven<br> +and break themselves in foam upon the rocky beach, or in the calm +beauty of<br> +its broad and mirrored surface, in which the bright world of sun +and sky<br> +are seen full many a fathom deep. But far before these, I love +the happy<br> +and tranquil beauty of some bright river, tracing its winding +current<br> +through valley and through plain, now spreading into some calm +and waveless<br> +lake, now narrowing to an eddying stream with mossy rocks and +waving trees<br> +darkening over it. There's not a hut, however lowly, where the +net of the<br> +fisherman is stretched upon the sward, around whose hearth I do +not picture<br> +before me the faces of happy toil and humble contentment, while, +from the<br> +ruined tower upon the crag, methinks I hear the ancient sounds of +wassail<br> +and of welcome; and though the keep be fissured and the curtain +fallen, and<br> +though for banner there "waves some tall wall-flower," I can +people its<br> +crumbling walls with images of the past; and the merry laugh of +the warder,<br> +and the clanking tread of the mailed warrior, are as palpably +before me as<br> +the tangled lichen that now trails from its battlements.</p> + +<p>As I wandered on, I reached the little rustic stair which led +downward from<br> +the path to the river's side; and on examining farther, perceived +that at<br> +this place the stream was fordable; a huge flat rock, filling up +a great<br> +part of the river's bed, occupied the middle, on either side of +which the<br> +current ran with increased force.</p> + +<p>Bent upon exploring, I descended the cliff, and was preparing +to cross,<br> +when my attention was attracted by the twinkle of a fire at some +distance<br> +from me, on the opposite side; the flame rose and fell in fitful +flashes,<br> +as though some hand were ministering to it at the moment. As it +was<br> +impossible, from the silence on every side, that it could proceed +from a<br> +bivouac of the enemy, I resolved on approaching it, and examining +it for<br> +myself. I knew that the shepherds in remote districts were +accustomed thus<br> +to pass the summer nights, with no other covering save the blue +vault above<br> +them. It was not impossible, too, that it might prove a Guerilla +party, who<br> +frequently, in small numbers, hang upon the rear of a retreating +army. Thus<br> +conjecturing, I crossed the stream, and quickening my pace, +walked forward<br> +in the direction of the blaze. For a moment a projecting rock +obstructed my<br> +progress; and while I was devising some means of proceeding +farther, the<br> +sound of voices near me arrested my attention. I listened, and +what was my<br> +astonishment to hear that they spoke in French. I now crept +cautiously to<br> +the verge of the rock and looked over; the moon was streaming in +its full<br> +brilliancy upon a little shelving strand beside the stream, and +here I<br> +now beheld the figure of a French officer. He was habited in the +undress<br> +uniform of a <i>chasseur á cheval</i>, but wore no arms; indeed +his occupation<br> +at the moment was anything but a warlike one, he being leisurely +employed<br> +in collecting some flasks of champagne which apparently had been +left to<br> +cool within the stream.</p> + +<p>"<i>Eh bien, Alphonse!</i>" said a voice in the direction of the +fire, "what are<br> +you delaying for?"</p> + +<p>"I'm coming, I'm coming," said the other; "but, <i>par Dieu!</i> I +can only find<br> +five of our bottles; one seems to have been carried away by the +stream."</p> + +<p>"No matter," replied the other, "we are but three of us, and +one is, or<br> +should be, on the sick list."</p> + +<p>The only answer to this was the muttered chorus of a French +drinking-song,<br> +interrupted at intervals by an imprecation upon the missing +flask. It<br> +chanced, at this moment, that a slight clinking noise attracted +me, and on<br> +looking down, I perceived at the foot of the rock the prize he +sought for.<br> +It had been, as he conceived, carried away by an eddy of the +stream and was<br> +borne, as a true prisoner-of-war, within my grasp. I avow that +from this<br> +moment my interest in the scene became considerably heightened; +such a waif<br> +as a bottle of champagne was not to be despised in circumstances +like mine;<br> +and I watched with anxious eyes every gesture of the impatient +Frenchman,<br> +and alternately vibrated between hope and fear, as he neared or +receded<br> +from the missing flask.</p> + +<p>"Let it go to the devil," shouted his companion, once more. +"Jacques has<br> +lost all patience with you."</p> + +<p>"Be it so, then," said the other, as he prepared to take up +his burden. At<br> +this instant I made a slight effort so to change my position as +to obtain<br> +a view of the rest of the party. The branch by which I supported +myself,<br> +however, gave way beneath my grasp with a loud crash. I lost my +footing,<br> +and slipping downward from the rock, came plump into the stream +below. The<br> +noise, the splash, and more than all, the sudden appearance of a +man beside<br> +him, astounded the Frenchman, who almost let fall his pannier, +and thus we<br> +stood confronting each other for at least a couple of minutes in +silence. A<br> +hearty burst of laughter from both parties terminated this +awkward moment,<br> +while the Frenchman, with the readiness of his country, was the +first to<br> +open the negotiation.</p> + +<p>"<i>Sacré Dieu!</i>" said he, "what can you be doing here? +You're English,<br> +without doubt."</p> + +<p>"Even so," said I; "but that is the very question I was about +to ask you;<br> +what are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Eh bien</i>," replied the other, gayly, "you shall be answered +in all<br> +frankness. Our captain was wounded in the action of the 8th, and +we heard<br> +had been carried up the country by some peasants. As the army +fell back, we<br> +obtained permission to go in search of him. For two days all was +fruitless;<br> +the peasantry fled at our approach; and although we captured some +of our<br> +stolen property—among other things, the contents of this +basket—yet we<br> +never came upon the track of our comrade till this evening. A +good-hearted<br> +shepherd had taken him to his hut, and treated him with every +kindness,<br> +but no sooner did he hear the gallop of our horses and the clank +of our<br> +equipments, than, fearing himself to be made a prisoner, he fled +up the<br> +mountains, leaving our friend behind him; <i>voilà notre +histoire</i>. Here we<br> +are, three in all, one of us with a deep sabre-cut in his +shoulder. If you<br> +are the stronger party, we are, I suppose, your prisoners; if +not—"</p> + +<p>What was to have followed I know not, for at this moment his +companion, who<br> +had finally lost all patience, came suddenly to the spot.</p> + +<p>"A prisoner," cried he, placing a heavy hand upon my shoulder, +while with<br> +the other he held his drawn sword pointed towards my breast.</p> + +<p>To draw a pistol from my bosom was the work of a second; and +while gently<br> +turning the point of his weapon away, I coolly said,—</p> + +<p>"Not so fast, my friend, not so fast! The game is in my hands, +not yours. I<br> +have only to pull this trigger, and my dragoons are upon you; +whatever fate<br> +befall me, yours is certain."</p> + +<p>A half-scornful laugh betrayed the incredulity of him I +addressed, while<br> +the other, apparently anxious to relieve the awkwardness of the +moment,<br> +suddenly broke in with,—</p> + +<p>"He is right, Auguste, and you are wrong; we are in his power; +that is,"<br> +added he, smiling, "if he believes there is any triumph in +capturing such<br> +<i>pauvres diables</i> as ourselves."</p> + +<p>The features of him he addressed suddenly lost their scornful +expression,<br> +and sheathing his sword with an air of almost melodramatic +solemnity,<br> +he gravely pulled up his mustaches, and after a pause of a few +seconds,<br> +solemnly ejaculated a malediction upon his fortune.</p> + +<p>"<i>C'est toujours ainsi</i>," said he, with a bitterness that only +a Frenchman<br> +can convey when cursing his destiny. "<i>Soyez bon enfant</i>, and see +what will<br> +come of it. Only be good-natured, only be kind, and if you +haven't bad luck<br> +at the end of it, it's only because fortune has a heavier stroke +in reserve<br> +for you hereafter."</p> + +<p>I could not help smiling at the Frenchman's philosophy, which, +assuming<br> +as a good augury, he gayly said, "So, then, you'll not make us +prisoners.<br> +Isn't it so?"</p> + +<p>"Prisoners," said the other, "nothing of the kind. Come and +sup with us;<br> +I'll venture to say our larder is as well stocked as your own; in +any case<br> +an omelette, a cold chicken, and a glass of champagne are not bad +things in<br> +our circumstances."</p> + +<p>I could not help laughing outright at the strangeness of the +proposal.<br> +"I fear I must decline," said I; "you seem to forget I am placed +here to<br> +watch, not to join you."</p> + +<p>"<i>A la bonne heure</i>," cried the younger of the two; "do both. +Come along;<br> +<i>soyez bon camarade</i>; you are always near your own people, so +don't refuse<br> +us."</p> + +<p>In proportion as I declined, they both became more pressing in +their<br> +entreaties, and at last, I began to dread lest my refusal might +seem to<br> +proceed from some fear as to the good faith of the invitation, +and I never<br> +felt so awkwardly placed as when one plumply pressed me by +saying,—</p> + +<p>"<i>Mais pourquoi pas, mon cher?</i>"</p> + +<p>I stammered out something about duty and discipline, when they +both<br> +interrupted me by a long burst of laughter.</p> + +<p>"Come, come!" said they; "in an hour—in half an hour, if you +will—you<br> +shall be back with your own people. We've had plenty of fighting +latterly,<br> +and we are likely to have enough in future; we know something of +each other<br> +by this time in the field; let us see how we get on in the +bivouac!"</p> + +<p>Resolving not to be outdone in generosity, I replied at once, +"Here goes,<br> +then!"</p> + +<p>Five minutes afterwards I found myself seated at their bivouac +fire. The<br> +captain, who was the oldest of the party, was a fine soldier-like +fellow of<br> +some forty years old; he had served in the Imperial Guard through +all the<br> +campaigns of Italy and Austria, and abounded in anecdotes of the +French<br> +army. From him I learned many of those characteristic traits +which so<br> +eminently distinguish the imperial troops, and saw how completely +their<br> +bravest and boldest feats of arms depended upon the personal +valor of him<br> +who led them on. From the daring enterprise of Napoleon at Lodi +to the<br> +conduct of the lowest corporal in the <i>grande armée</i>, the +picture presents<br> +nothing but a series of brilliant and splendid chivalry; while, +at the same<br> +time, the warlike character of the nation is displayed by that +instinctive<br> +appreciation of courage and daring which teaches them to follow +their<br> +officers to the very cannon's mouth.</p> + +<p>"It was at Elchingen," said the captain, "you should have seen +them. The<br> +regiment in which I was a lieutenant was ordered to form close +column, and<br> +charge through a narrow ravine to carry a brigade of guns, which, +by a<br> +flanking fire, were devastating our troops. Before we could reach +the<br> +causeway, we were obliged to pass an open plain in which the +ground dipped<br> +for about a hundred yards; the column moved on, and though it +descended one<br> +hill, not a man ever mounted the opposite one. A very avalanche +of balls<br> +swept the entire valley; and yet amidst the thunder and the +smoke, the red<br> +glare of the artillery, and the carnage around them, our +grenadiers marched<br> +firmly up. At last, Marshal Ney sent an aide-de-camp with orders +to the<br> +troops to lie flat down, and in this position the artillery +played over<br> +us for above half an hour. The Austrians gradually slackened, and +finally<br> +discontinued their fire; this was the moment to resume the +attack. I crept<br> +cautiously to my knees and looked about. One word brought my men +around me;<br> +but I found to my horror that of a battalion who came into action +fourteen<br> +hundred strong, not five hundred remained; and that I myself, a +mere<br> +lieutenant, was now the senior officer of the regiment. Our +gallant colonel<br> +lay dead beside my feet. At this instant a thought struck me. I +remembered<br> +a habit he possessed in moments of difficulty and danger, of +placing in his<br> +shako a small red plume which he commonly carried in his belt. I +searched<br> +for it, and found it. As I held it aloft, a maddening cheer burst +around<br> +me, while from out the line each officer sprang madly forward, +and rushed<br> +to the head of the column. It was no longer a march. With a loud +cry of<br> +vengeance, the mass rushed forward, the men trying to outstrip +their<br> +officers, and come first in contact with the foe. Like tigers on +the<br> +spring, they fell upon the enemy, who, crushed, overwhelmed, and +massacred,<br> +lay in slaughtered heaps around the cannon. The cavalry of the +Guard came<br> +thundering on behind us; a whole division followed; and three +thousand five<br> +hundred prisoners, and fourteen pieces of artillery were +captured.</p> + +<p>"I sat upon the carriage of a gun, my face begrimed with +powder, and my<br> +uniform blackened and blood-stained. The whole thing appeared +like some<br> +shocking dream. I felt a hand upon my shoulder, while a rough +voice called<br> +in my ear, '<i>Capitaine du soixante-neuvième, tu es mon +frère!</i>'</p> + +<p>"It was Ney who spoke. This," added the brave captain, his +eyes filling as<br> +he said the words,—"this is the sabre he gave me."</p> + +<p>I know not why I have narrated this anecdote; it has little in +itself, but<br> +somehow, to me it brings back in all its fulness the recollection +of that<br> +night.</p> + +<p>There was something so strongly characteristic of the old +Napoleonist<br> +in the tone of his narrative that I listened throughout with +breathless<br> +attention. I began to feel too, for the first time, what a +powerful arm<br> +in war the Emperor had created by fostering the spirit of +individual<br> +enterprise. The field thus opened to fame and distinction left no +bounds<br> +to the ambition of any. The humble conscript, as he tore himself +from the<br> +embraces of his mother, wiped his tearful eyes to see before him +in the<br> +distance the bâton of a marshal. The bold soldier who +stormed a battery<br> +felt his heart beat more proudly and more securely beneath the +cordon of<br> +the Legion than behind a cuirass of steel; and to a people in +whom the<br> +sense of duty alone would seem cold, barren, and inglorious, he +had<br> +substituted a highly-wrought chivalrous enthusiasm; and by the +<i>prestige</i><br> +of his own name, the proud memory of his battles, and the glory +of those<br> +mighty tournaments at which all Europe were the spectators, he +had<br> +converted a nation into an army.</p> + +<p>By a silent and instinctive compact we appeared to avoid those +topics of<br> +the campaign in which the honor of our respective arms was +interested; and<br> +once, when, by mere accident, the youngest of the party adverted +to Fuentes<br> +d'Onoro, the old captain adroitly turned the current of the +conversation by<br> +saying, "Come, Alphonse, let's have a song."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the other. "<i>Les Pas de Charge</i>."</p> + +<p>"No, no," said the captain; "if I am to have a choice, let it +be that<br> +little Breton song you gave us on the Danube."</p> + +<p>"So be it then," said Alphonse. "Here goes!"</p> + +<p>I have endeavored to convey, by a translation, the words he +sang; but I<br> +feel conscious how totally their feeling and simplicity are lost +when<br> +deprived of their own <i>patois</i>, and the wild but touching melody +that<br> +accompanied them.</p> + +<p> THE BRETON HOME.</p> + +<p> When the battle is o'er, and the sounds of fight<br> + Have closed with the closing day,<br> + How happy around the watch-fire's light<br> + To chat the long hours away;<br> + To chat the long hours away, my boy,<br> + And talk of the days to come,<br> + Or a better still and a purer joy,<br> + To think of our far-off home.</p> + +<p> How many a cheek will then grow pale,<br> + That never felt a tear!<br> + And many a stalwart heart will quail,<br> + That never quailed in fear!<br> + And the breast that like some mighty rock<br> + Amidst the foaming sea<br> + Bore high against the battle's shock<br> + Now heaves like infancy.</p> + +<p> And those who knew each other not<br> + Their hands together steal,<br> + Each thinks of some long hallowed spot,<br> + And all like brothers feel:<br> + Such holy thoughts to all are given;<br> + The lowliest has his part;<br> + The love of home, like love of heaven,<br> + Is woven in our heart.</p> + +<p>There was a pause as he concluded, each sank in his own +reflections. How<br> +long we should have thus remained, I know not; but we were +speedily aroused<br> +from our reveries by the tramp of horses near us. We listened, +and could<br> +plainly detect in their rude voices and coarse laughter the +approach of a<br> +body of Guerillas. We looked from one to the other in silence and +in fear.<br> +Nothing could be more unfortunate should we be discovered. Upon +this point<br> +we were left little time to deliberate; for with a loud cheer, +four Spanish<br> +horsemen galloped up to the spot, their carbines in the rest. The +Frenchmen<br> +sprang to their feet, and seized their sabres, bent upon making a +resolute<br> +resistance. As for me, my determination was at once taken. +Remaining<br> +quietly seated upon the grass, I stirred not for a moment, but +addressing<br> +him who appeared to be the chief of the Guerillas, said, in +Spanish:—</p> + +<p>"These are my prisoners; I am a British officer of dragoons, +and my party<br> +is yonder."</p> + +<p>This evidently unexpected declaration seemed to surprise them, +and they<br> +conferred for a few moments together. Meanwhile they were joined +by two<br> +others, in one of whom we could recognize, by his costume, the +real leader<br> +of the party.</p> + +<p>"I am captain in the light dragoons," said I, repeating my +declaration.</p> + +<p>"<i>Morte de Dios!</i>" replied he; "it is false; you are a +spy!"</p> + +<p>The word was repeated from lip to lip by his party, and I saw, +in their<br> +lowering looks and darkened features, that the moment was a +critical one<br> +for me.</p> + +<p>"Down with your arms!" cried he, turning to the Frenchmen. +"Surrender<br> +yourselves our prisoners; I'll not bid ye twice!"</p> + +<p>The Frenchmen turned upon me an inquiring look, as though to +say that upon<br> +me now their hopes entirely reposed.</p> + +<p>"Do as he bids you," said I; while at the same moment I sprang +to my legs,<br> +and gave a loud, shrill whistle, the last echo of which had not +died away<br> +in the distance ere it was replied to.</p> + + +<a name="0217"></a> +<img alt="0217.jpg (167K)" src="0217.jpg" height="1043" width="677"> + +<p>[THE TABLES TURNED.]</p> +<br><br> + +<p>"Make no resistance now," said I to the Frenchmen; "our safety +depends on this."</p> + +<p>While this was passing two of the Spaniards had dismounted, +and detaching a<br> +coil of rope which hung from their saddle-peak, were proceeding +to tie the<br> +prisoners wrist to wrist; the others, with their carbines to the +shoulder,<br> +covered us man by man, the chief of the party having singled out +me as his<br> +peculiar prey.</p> + +<p>"The fate of Mascarenhas might have taught you better," said +he, "than to<br> +play this game." And then added with a grim smile, "But we'll see +if an<br> +Englishman will not make as good a carbonado as a +Portuguese!"</p> + +<p>This cruel speech made my blood run cold, for I knew well to +what he<br> +alluded. I was at Lisbon at the time it happened, but the +melancholy fate<br> +of Julian Mascarenhas, the Portuguese spy, had reached me there. +He was<br> +burned to death at Torres Vedras!</p> + +<p>The Spaniard's triumph over my terror was short-lived, indeed, +for scarcely<br> +had the words fallen from his lips, when a party of the +Fourteenth,<br> +dashing through the river at a gallop, came riding up. The +attitude of the<br> +Guerillas, as they sat with presented arms, was sufficient for my +fellows<br> +who needed not the exhortation of him who rode foremost of the +party:—</p> + +<p>"Ride them down, boys! Tumble them over! Flatten their broad +beavers, the<br> +infernal thieves!"</p> + +<p>"Whoop!" shouted Mike, as he rode at the chief with the force +of a<br> +catapult. Down went the Spaniard, horse and all; and before he +could<br> +disentangle himself, Mike was upon him, his knee pressed upon his +neck.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it enough for ye to pillage the whole country without +robbing the<br> +king's throops!" cried he, as he held him fast to the earth with +one hand,<br> +while he presented a loaded pistol to his face.</p> + +<p>By this time the scene around me was sufficiently ludicrous. +Such of the<br> +Guerillas as had not been thrown by force from their saddles, had +slid<br> +peaceably down, and depositing their arms upon the ground, +dropped upon<br> +their knees in a semicircle around us, and amidst the hoarse +laughter of<br> +the troopers, and the irrepressible merriment of the Frenchmen, +rose up the<br> +muttered prayers of the miserable Spaniards, who believed that +now their<br> +last hour was come.</p> + +<p>"<i>Madre de Dios</i>, indeed!" cried Mike, imitating the tone of a +repentant<br> +old sinner in a patched mantle; "it's much the blessed Virgin +thinks of<br> +the like o' ye, thieves and rogues as ye are; it a'most puts me +beyond my<br> +senses to see ye there crossing yourselves like <i>rale</i> +Christians."</p> + +<p>If I could not help indulging myself in this retributive +cruelty towards<br> +the chief, and leaving him to the tender mercies of Mike, I +ordered the<br> +others to rise and form in line before me. Affecting to occupy +myself<br> +entirely with them, I withdrew the attention of all from the +French<br> +officers, who remained quiet spectators of the scene around +them.</p> + +<p>"<i>Point de façons</i>, gentlemen," said I, in a whisper. +"Get to your horses<br> +and away! Now's your time. Good-by!"</p> + +<p>A warm grasp of the hand from each was the only reply, and I +turned once<br> +more to my discomforted friends the Guerillas.</p> + +<p>"There, Mike, let the poor devil rise. I confess appearances +were strong<br> +against me just now."</p> + +<p>"Well, Captain, are you convinced by this time that I was not +deceiving<br> +you?"</p> + +<p>The Guerilla muttered some words of apology between his teeth, +and while he<br> +shook the dust from his cloak, and arranged the broken feather of +his<br> +hat, cast a look of scowling and indignant meaning upon Mike, +whose rough<br> +treatment he had evidently not forgiven.</p> + +<p>"Don't be looking at me that way, you black thief! or +I'll—"</p> + +<p>"Hold there!" said I; "no more of this. Come, gentlemen, we +must be<br> +friends. If I mistake not, we've got something like refreshment +at our<br> +bivouac. In any case you'll partake of our watch-fire till +morning."</p> + +<p>They gladly accepted our invitation, and ere half an hour +elapsed Mike's<br> +performance in the part of host had completely erased every +unpleasant<br> +impression his first appearance gave rise to; and as for myself, +when I did<br> +sleep at last, the confused mixture of Spanish and Irish airs +which issued<br> +from the thicket beside me, proved that a most intimate alliance +had grown<br> +up between the parties.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXVII.</p> + +<p>MIKE'S MISTAKE.</p> + +<p>An hour before daybreak the Guerillas were in motion, and +having taken a<br> +most ceremonious leave of us, they mounted their horses and set +out upon<br> +their journey. I saw their gaunt figures wind down the valley, +and watched<br> +them till they disappeared in the distance. "Yes, brigands though +they be,"<br> +thought I, "there is something fine, something heroic in the +spirit of<br> +their unrelenting vengeance." The sleuth-hound never sought the +lair of<br> +his victim with a more ravening appetite for blood than they +track the<br> +retreating columns of the enemy. Hovering around the line of +march, they<br> +sometimes swoop down in masses, and carry off a part of the +baggage, or the<br> +wounded. The wearied soldier, overcome by heat and exhaustion, +who drops<br> +behind his ranks, is their certain victim; the sentry on an +advanced post<br> +is scarcely less so. Whole pickets are sometimes attacked and +carried off<br> +to a man; and when traversing the lonely passes of some mountain +gorge, or<br> +defiling through the dense shadows of a wooded glen, the stoutest +heart has<br> +felt a fear, lest from behind the rock that frowned above him, or +from the<br> +leafy thicket whose branches stirred without a breeze, the sharp +ring of a<br> +Guerilla carbine might sound his death-knell.</p> + +<p>It was thus in the retreat upon Corunna fell Colonel Lefebvre. +Ever<br> +foremost in the attack upon our rear-guard, this gallant youth +(he was<br> +scarce six-and-twenty), a colonel of his regiment, and decorated +with the<br> +Legion of Honor, he led on every charge of his bold "<i>sabreurs</i>," +riding<br> +up to the very bayonets of our squares, waving his hat above his +head, and<br> +seeming actually to court his death-wound; but so struck were our +brave<br> +fellows with his gallant bearing, that they cheered him as he +came on.</p> + +<p>It was in one of these moments as, rising high in his +stirrups, he bore<br> +down upon the unflinching ranks of the British infantry, the +shrill whistle<br> +of a ball strewed the leaves upon the roadside, the exulting +shout of a<br> +Guerilla followed it, and the same instant Lefebvre fell forward +upon his<br> +horse's mane, a deluge of blood bursting from his bosom. A broken +cry<br> +escaped his lips,—a last effort to cheer on his men; his noble +charger<br> +galloped forward between our squares, bearing to us our prisoner, +the<br> +corpse of his rider.</p> + +<p>"Captain O'Malley," said a mounted dragoon to the advanced +sentry at the<br> +bottom of the little hill upon which I was standing. "Despatches +from<br> +headquarters, sir," delivering into my hands a large sealed +packet from the<br> +adjutant-general's office. While he proceeded to search for +another letter<br> +of which he was the bearer, I broke the seal and read as +follows:—</p> + +<p> ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE.</p> + +<p> May 15.</p> + +<p> Sir,—On the receipt of this order you are directed, +having previously<br> + resigned your command to the officer next in seniority, +to<br> + repair to headquarters at Fueutes d'Onoro, there to report +yourself<br> + under arrest.</p> + +<p> I have the honor to be your obedient servant,</p> + +<p> GEORGE HOPETON,</p> + +<p> <i>Military Secretary</i>.</p> + +<p>"What the devil can this mean?" said I to myself, as I read +the lines over<br> +again and again. "What have I done lately, or what have I left +undone to<br> +involve me in this scrape? Ah!" thought I, "to be sure, it can be +nothing<br> +else. Lord Wellington <i>did</i> recognize me that unlucky morning, +and has<br> +determined not to let me pass unpunished. How unfortunate. +Scarcely<br> +twenty-four hours have elapsed since fortune seemed to smile upon +me from<br> +every side, and now the very destiny I most dreaded stares me +fully in the<br> +face." A reprimand, or the sentence of a court-martial, I shrank +from with<br> +a coward's fear. It mattered comparatively little from what +source arising,<br> +the injury to my pride as a man and my spirit as a soldier would +be almost<br> +the same.</p> + +<p>"This is the letter, sir," said the orderly, presenting me +with a packet,<br> +the address of which was in Power's hand-writing. Eagerly tearing +it open,<br> +I sought for something which might explain my unhappy position. +It bore the<br> +same date as the official letter, and ran thus:—</p> + +<p> My Dear Charley,—I joined yesterday, just in time to +enjoy the<br> + heartiest laugh I have had since our meeting. If notoriety +can gratify<br> + you, by Jove, you have it; for Charles O'Malley and his man +Mickey<br> + Free are bywords in every mess from Villa Formosa to the +rear-guard.<br> + As it's only fair you should participate a little in the fun +you've<br> + originated, let me explain the cause. Your inimitable man +Mike, to<br> + whom it appears you intrusted the report of killed and +wounded for<br> + the adjutant-general, having just at that moment accomplished +a<br> + letter to his friends at home, substituted his correspondence +for your<br> + returns, and doubtless, sent the list of the casualties as +very<br> + interesting information to his sweetheart in Ireland. If such +be the<br> + case, I hope and trust she has taken the blunder in better +part than<br> + old Colbourn, who swears he'll bring you to a court-martial, +under<br> + Heaven knows what charges. In fact, his passion has known no +bounds<br> + since the event; and a fit of jaundice has given his face a +kind of<br> + neutral tint between green and yellow, like nothing I know of +except<br> + the facings of the "dirty half-hundred." [2]</p> + +<p>[Footnote 2: For the information of my unmilitary readers, I +may<br> +remark that this sobriquet was applied to the 50th Regiment.]</p> + +<p> As Mr. Free's letter may be as great a curiosity to you as +it has<br> + been to us, I enclose you a copy of it, which Hopeton +obtained for<br> + me. It certainly places the estimable Mike in a strong light +as a<br> + despatch-writer. The occasional interruption to the current +of the<br> + letter, you will perceive, arises from Mike having used the +pen of a<br> + comrade, writing being, doubtless, an accomplishment +forgotten in<br> + the haste of preparing Mr. Free for the world; and the +amanuensis<br> + has, in more than one instance, committed to paper more than +was<br> + meant by the author:—</p> + +<p> Mrs. M'Gra,—Tear an' ages, sure I need not be treating +he<br> + way. Now, just say Mrs. Mary—ay, that'll do—Mrs. Mary, +it's may be<br> + surprised you'll be to be reading a letter from your humble +servant,<br> + sitting on the top of the Alps,—arrah, may be it's not the +Alps; but<br> + sure she'll never know,—fornent the whole French army, +with Bony<br> + himself and all his jinnerals—God be between us and +harm—ready to<br> + murther every mother's son of us, av they were able, Molly +darlin';<br> + but, with the blessing of Providence, and Lord Wellington +and Mister<br> + Charles, we'll bate them yet, as we bate them afore.</p> + +<p> My lips is wathering at the thought o' the plunder. I +often<br> + of Tim Riley, that was hanged for sheep-stealing; he'd be +worth his<br> + weight in gold here.</p> + +<p> Mr. Charles is now a captain—devil a less—and myself +might be<br> + somethin' that same, but ye see I was always of a bashful +n<br> + and recommended the master in my place. "He's mighty young, +Mister<br> + Charles is," says my Lord Wellington to me,—"He's mighty +young, Mr.<br> + Free." "He is, my lord," says I; "he's young, as you +obsarve, but<br> + he's as much divilment in him as many that might be his +father."<br> + "That's somethin', Mr. Free," says my lord; "ye say he +comes from a<br> + good stock?" "The <i>rale</i> sort, my lord," says I; "an ould, +ancient<br> + family, that's spent every sixpence they had in treating +their<br> + neighbors. My father lived near him for years,"—you see, +Molly, I<br> + said that to season the discourse. "We'll make him a +captain," says<br> + my lord; "but, Mr. Free, could we do nothing for you?" +"Nothing, at<br> + present, my lord. When my friends comes into power," says +I, "they'll<br> + think of me. There's many a little thing to give away in +Ireland, and<br> + they often find it mighty hard to find a man for +lord-lieutenant; and<br> + if that same, or a tide-waiter's place was vacant—" "Just +tell me,"<br> + says my lord. "It's what I'll do," says I. "And now, +wishing you<br> + happy dreams, I'll take my lave." Just so, Molly, it's hand +and glove<br> + we are. A pleasant face, agreeable manners seasoned with +natural<br> + modesty, and a good pair of legs, them's the gifts to push +a man's<br> + way in the world. And even with the ladies—but sure I am +forgetting,<br> + my master was proposed for, and your humble servant too, by +two<br> + illigant creatures in Lisbon; but it wouldn't do, Molly, +it's higher<br> + nor that we'll be looking,—<i>rale</i> princesses, the devil a +less. Tell<br> + Kitty Hannigan I hope she's well; she was a disarving +young<br> + in her situation in life. Shusey Dogherty, at the cross +roa<br> + I don't forget the name—was a good-looking slip too; give +her my<br> + affectionate salutations, as we say in the Portuguese. I +hope I'll be<br> + able to bear the inclementuous nature of your climate when +I go back;<br> + but I can't expect to stay long—for Lord Wellington can't +do without<br> + me. We play duets on the guitar together every evening. The +master is<br> + shouting for a blanket, so no more at present from,</p> + +<p> Your very affectionate friend,</p> + +<p> MICKEY FREE.</p> + +<p> P. S.—I don't write this myself, for the Spanish tongue +p<br> + out o' the habit of English. Tell Father Rush, if he'd +study the<br> + Portuguese, I'd use my interest for him with the Bishop of +Toledo.<br> + It's a country he'd like—no regular stations, but +promiscuous eating<br> + and drinking, and as pretty girls as ever confessed their +sins.</p> + +<p> My poor Charley, I think I am looking at you. I think I +can<br> + see the struggle between indignation, and laughter, which +every line<br> + of this letter inflicts upon you. Get back as quickly as you +can, and<br> + we'll try if Crawfurd won't pull you through the business. In +any<br> + case, expect no sympathy; and if you feel disposed to be +angry with<br> + all who laugh at you, you had better publish a challenge in +the next<br> + general order. George Scott, of, the Greys, bids me say, that +if<br> + you're hard up for cash, he'll give you a couple of hundred +for<br> + Mickey Free. I told him I thought you'd accept it, as your +uncle<br> + has the breed of those fellows upon his estate, and might +have no<br> + objection to weed his stud. Hammersley's gone back with the +Dashwoods;<br> + but I don't think you need fear anything in that quarter.<br> + At the same time, if you wish for success, make a bold push +for the<br> + peerage and half-a-dozen decorations, for Miss Lucy is most +decidedly<br> + gone wild about military distinction. As for me, my affairs +go on<br> + well: I've had half-a-dozen quarrels with Inez, but we parted +good<br> + friends, and my bad Portuguese has got me out of all +difficulties with<br> + papa, who pressed me tolerably close as to fortune. I shall +want<br> + your assistance in this matter yet. If parchments will +satisfy him, I<br> + think I could get up a qualification; but somehow the matter +must<br> + be done, for I'm resolved to have his daughter.</p> + +<p> The orderly is starting, so no more till we meet.</p> + +<p> Yours ever, FRED POWER.</p> + +<p>"Godwin," said I, as I closed the letter, "I find myself in a +scrape at<br> +headquarters; you are to take the command of the detachment, for +I must set<br> +out at once."</p> + +<p>"Nothing serious, I hope. O'Malley?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; nothing of consequence. A most absurd blunder of my +rascally<br> +servant."</p> + +<p>"The Irish fellow yonder?"</p> + +<p>"The same."</p> + +<p>"He seems to take it easily, however."</p> + +<p>"Oh, confound him! he does not know what trouble he has +involved me in; not<br> +that he'll care much when he does."</p> + +<p>"Why, he does not seem to be of a very desponding temperament. +Listen to<br> +the fellow! I'll be hanged, if he's not singing!"</p> + +<p>"I'm devilishly disposed to spoil his mirth. They tell me, +however, he<br> +always keeps the troop in good humor; and see, the fellows are +actually<br> +cleaning his horses for him, while he is sitting on the +bank!"</p> + +<p>"Faith, O'Malley, that fellow knows the world. Just hear +him."</p> + +<p>Mr. Free was, as described, most leisurely reposing on a bank, +a mug of<br> +something drinkable beside him, and a pipe of that curtailed +proportion<br> +which an Irishman loves held daintily between his fingers. He +appeared to<br> +be giving his directions to some soldiers of the troop, who were +busily<br> +cleaning his horses and accoutrements for him.</p> + + +<a name="0225"></a> +<img alt="0225.jpg (189K)" src="0225.jpg" height="656" width="798"> + +<p>[MR. FREE PIPES WHILE HIS FRIENDS +PIPE-CLAY.]</p> +<br><br> + +<p>"That's it, Jim! Rub 'em down along the hocks; he won't kick; +it's only<br> +play. Scrub away, honey; that's the devil's own carbine to get +clean."</p> + +<p>"Well, I say, Mr. Free, are you going to give us that ere +song?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I'll be danged if I burnish your sabre, if you don't +sing."</p> + +<p>"Tear an' ages! ain't I composing it? Av I was Tommy Moore, I +couldn't be<br> +quicker."</p> + +<p>"Well, come along, my hearty; let's hear it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, murther!" said Mike, draining the pot to its last few +drops, which he<br> +poured pathetically upon the grass before him; and then having +emptied the<br> +ashes from his pipe, he heaved a deep sigh, as though to say life +had no<br> +pleasures in store for him. A brief pause followed, after which, +to the<br> +evident delight of his expectant audience, he began the following +song, to<br> +the popular air of "Paddy O'Carroll":—</p> + +<p> BAD LUCK TO THIS MARCHING.</p> + +<p> Air,—<i>Paddy O'Carroll</i>.</p> + +<p> Bad luck to this marching,<br> + Pipe-claying, and starching,<br> + How neat one must be to be killed by the French,<br> + I'm sick of parading,<br> + Through wet and cowld wading,<br> + Or standing all night to be shot in a trench.<br> + To the tune of a fife<br> + They dispose of your life,<br> + You surrender your soul to some illigant lilt;<br> + Now, I like Garryowen,<br> + When I hear it at home,<br> + But it's not half so sweet when you're going to be kilt.</p> + +<p> Then, though up late and early,<br> + Our pay comes so rarely,<br> + The devil a farthing we've ever to spare;<br> + They say some disaster<br> + Befell the paymaster;<br> + On my conscience, I think that the money's not there.<br> + And just think what a blunder,<br> + They won't let us plunder,<br> + While the convents invite us to rob them, 'tis clear;<br> + Though there isn't a village,<br> + But cries, "Come and pillage,"<br> + Yet we leave all the mutton behind for Mounseer.</p> + +<p> Like a sailor that's nigh land,<br> + I long for that island<br> + Where even the kisses we steal if we please;<br> + Where it is no disgrace<br> + If you don't wash your face,<br> + And you've nothing to do but to stand at your ease.<br> + With no sergeant t'abuse us,<br> + We fight to amuse us;<br> + Sure, it's better bate Christians than kick a baboon.<br> + How I'd dance like a fairy<br> + To see ould Dunleary,<br> + And think twice ere I'd leave it to be a dragoon!</p> + +<p>"There's a sweet little bit for you," said Mike, as he +concluded; "thrown<br> +off as aisy as a game at football."</p> + +<p>"I say, Mr. Free, the captain's looking for you; he's just +received<br> +despatches from the camp, and wants his horses."</p> + +<p>"In that case, gentlemen, I must take my leave of you; with +the more<br> +regret, too, that I was thinking of treating you to a supper this +evening.<br> +You needn't be laughing; it's in earnest I am. Coming, sir, +coming!"<br> +shouted he, in a louder tone, answering some imaginary call, as +an excuse<br> +for his exit.</p> + +<p>When he appeared before me, an air of most business-like +alacrity had<br> +succeeded to his late appearance, and having taken my orders to +get the<br> +horses in readiness, he left me at once, and in less than half an +hour we<br> +were upon the road.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXVIII.</p> + +<p>MONSOON IN TROUBLE.</p> + +<p>As I rode along towards Fuentes d'Onoro, I could not help +feeling provoked<br> +at the absurd circumstances in which I was involved. To be made +the subject<br> +of laughter for a whole army was by no means a pleasant +consideration; but<br> +what I felt far worse was the possibility that the mention of my +name in<br> +connection with a reprimand might reach the ears of those who +knew nothing<br> +of the cause.</p> + +<p>Mr. Free himself seemed little under the influence of similar +feelings; for<br> +when, after a silence of a couple of hours, I turned suddenly +towards him<br> +with a half-angry look, and remarked, "You see, sir, what your +confounded<br> +blundering has done," his cool reply was,—</p> + +<p>"Ah, then! won't Mrs. M'Gra be frightened out of her life when +she reads<br> +all about the killed and wounded in your honor's report? I wonder +if they<br> +ever had the manners to send my own letter afterwards, when they +found out<br> +their mistake!"</p> + +<p>"<i>Their</i> mistake, do you say? rather <i>yours!</i> You appear to +have a happy<br> +knack of shifting blame from your own shoulders. And do you fancy +that<br> +they've nothing else to do than to trouble their heads about your +absurd<br> +letters?"</p> + +<p>"Faith, it's easily seen you never saw my letter, or you +wouldn't be saying<br> +that. And sure, it's not much trouble it would give Colonel +Fitzroy or any<br> +o' the staff that write a good hand just to put in a line to Mrs. +M'Gra, to<br> +prevent her feeling alarmed about that murthering paper. Well, +well; it's<br> +God's blessing! I don't think there's anybody of the name of +Mickey Free<br> +high up in the army but myself; so that the family won't be going +into<br> +mourning for me on a false alarm."</p> + +<p>I had not patience to participate in this view of the case; so +that I<br> +continued my journey without speaking. We had jogged along for +some time<br> +after dark, when the distant twinkle of the-watch-fires announced +our<br> +approach to the camp. A detachment of the Fourteenth formed the +advanced<br> +post, and from the officer in command I learned that Power was +quartered<br> +at a small mill about half a mile distant; thither I accordingly +turned my<br> +steps, but finding that the path which led abruptly down to it +was broken<br> +and cut up in many places, I sent Mike back with the horses, and +continued<br> +my way alone on foot.</p> + +<p>The night was deliciously calm; and as I approached the little +rustic mill,<br> +I could not help feeling struck with Power's taste in a +billet.</p> + +<p>A little vine-clad cottage, built close against a rock, nearly +concealed<br> +by the dense foliage around it, stood beside a clear rivulet +whose eddying<br> +current supplied water to the mill, and rose in a dew-like spray +which<br> +sparkled like gems in the pale moonlight. All was still within, +but as I<br> +came nearer I thought I could detect the chords of a guitar. "Can +it be,"<br> +thought I, "that Master Fred has given himself up to minstrelsy; +or is<br> +it some little dress rehearsal for a serenade? But no," thought +I, "that<br> +certainly is not Power's voice." I crept stealthily down the +little path,<br> +and approached the window; the lattice lay open, and as the +curtain waved<br> +to and fro with the night air, I could see plainly all who were +in the<br> +room.</p> + +<p>Close beside the window sat a large, dark-featured Spaniard, +his hands<br> +crossed upon his bosom and his head inclined heavily forward, the +attitude<br> +perfectly denoting deep sleep, even had not his cigar, which +remained<br> +passively between his lips, ceased to give forth its blue smoke +wreath. At<br> +a little distance from him sat a young girl, who, even by the +uncertain<br> +light, I could perceive was possessed of all that delicacy of +form and<br> +gracefulness of carriage which characterize her nation.</p> + +<p>Her pale features—paler still from the contrast with her jet +black<br> +hair and dark costume—were lit up with an expression of +animation and<br> +enthusiasm as her fingers swept rapidly and boldly across the +strings of a<br> +guitar.</p> + +<p>"And you're not tired of it yet?" said she, bending her head +downwards<br> +towards one whom I now for the first time perceived.</p> + +<p>Reclining carelessly at her feet, his arm leaning upon her +chair, while his<br> +hand occasionally touched her taper fingers, lay my good friend, +Master<br> +Fred Power. An undress jacket, thrown loosely open, and a black +neck-cloth,<br> +negligently knotted, bespoke the easy <i>nonchalance</i> with which +he<br> +prosecuted his courtship.</p> + +<p>"Do sing it again?" said he, pressing her fingers to his +lips.</p> + +<p>What she replied, I could not catch; but Fred resumed: "No, +no; he never<br> +wakes. The infernal clatter of that mill is his lullaby."</p> + +<p>"But your friend will be here soon," said she. "Is it not +so?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, poor Charley! I'd almost forgotten him. By-the-bye, you +mustn't fall<br> +in love with him. There now, do not look angry; I only meant +that, as I<br> +knew he'd be desperately smitten, you shouldn't let him fancy he +got any<br> +encouragement."</p> + +<p>"What would you have me do?" said she, artlessly.</p> + +<p>"I have been thinking over that, too. In the first place, +you'd better<br> +never let him hear you sing; scarcely ever smile; and as far as +possible,<br> +keep out of his sight."</p> + +<p>"One would think, Senhor, that all these precautions were to +be taken more<br> +on my account than on his. Is he so very dangerous, then?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it! Good-looking enough he is, but, only a boy; +at the same<br> +time, a devilish bold one! And he'd think no more of springing +through that<br> +window and throwing his arms round your neck, the very first +moment of his<br> +arrival, than I should of whispering how much I love you."</p> + +<p>"How very odd he must be! I'm sure I should like him."</p> + +<p>"Many thanks to both for your kind hints; and now to take +advantage of<br> +them." So saying, I stepped lightly upon the window-sill, cleared +the<br> +miller with one spring, and before Power could recover his legs +or<br> +Margeritta her astonishment, I clasped her in my arms, and kissed +her on<br> +either cheek.</p> + +<p>"Charley! Charley! Damn it, man, it won't do!" cried Fred; +while the young<br> +lady, evidently more amused at his discomfiture than affronted at +the<br> +liberty, threw herself into a seat, and laughed immoderately.</p> + +<p>"Ha! Hilloa there! What is't?" shouted the miller, rousing +himself from his<br> +nap, and looking eagerly round. "Are they coming? Are the French +coming?"</p> + +<p>A hearty renewal of his daughter's laughter was the only +reply; while Power<br> +relieved his anxiety by saying,—</p> + +<p>"No, no, Pedrillo, not the French; a mere marauding +party,—nothing more. I<br> +say, Charley," continued he, in a lower tone, "you had better +lose no time<br> +in reporting yourself at headquarters. We'll walk up together. +Devilish<br> +awkward scrape, yours."</p> + +<p>"Never fear, Fred; time enough for all that. For the present, +if you permit<br> +me, I'll follow up my acquaintance with our fair friend +here."</p> + +<p>"Gently, gently!" said he, with a look of most imposing +seriousness. "Don't<br> +mistake her; she's not a mere country girl: you understand?—been +bred in a<br> +convent here,—rather superior kind of thing."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Fred, I'm not the man to interfere with you for a +moment."</p> + +<p>"Good-night, Senhor," said the old miller, who had been +waiting patiently<br> +all this time to pay his respects before going.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's it!" cried Power, eagerly. "Good-night, +Pedrillo."</p> + +<p>"<i>Buonos noches</i>," lisped out Margeritta, with a slight +curtsy.</p> + +<p>I sprang forward to acknowledge her salutation, when Power +coolly<br> +interposed between us, and closing the door after them, placed +his back<br> +against it.</p> + +<p>"Master Charley, I must read you a lesson—"</p> + +<p>"You inveterate hypocrite, don't attempt this nonsense with +<i>me</i>. But come,<br> +tell me how long you have been here?"</p> + +<p>"Just twenty-four of the shortest hours I ever passed at an +outpost. But<br> +listen,—do you know that voice? Isn't it O'Shaughnessy?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure it is. Hear the fellow's song."</p> + +<p> "My father cared little for shot or shell,<br> + He laughed at death and dangers;<br> + And he'd storm the very gates of hell<br> + With a company of the 'Rangers.'<br> + So sing tow, row, row, row, row," etc.</p> + +<p>"Ah, then, Mister Power, it's twice I'd think of returning +your visit, if I<br> +knew the state of your avenue. If there's a grand jury in Spain, +they might<br> +give you a presentment for this bit of road. My knees are as bare +as a<br> +commissary's conscience, and I've knocked as much flesh off my +shin-bones<br> +as would make a cornet in the hussars!"</p> + +<p>A regular roar of laughter from both of us apprized Dennis of +our vicinity.</p> + +<p>"And it's laughing ye are? Wouldn't it be as polite just to +hold a candle<br> +or lantern for me in this confounded watercourse?"</p> + +<p>"How goes it, Major?" cried I, extending my hand to him +through the window.</p> + +<p>"Charley—Charley O'Malley, my son! I'm glad to see you. It's +a hearty<br> +laugh you gave us this morning. My friend Mickey's a pleasant +fellow for a<br> +secretary-at-war. But it's all settled now; Crawfurd arranged it +for you<br> +this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"You don't say so! Pray tell me all about it."</p> + +<p>"That's just what I won't; for ye see I don't know it; but I +believe old<br> +Monsoon's affair has put everything out of their heads."</p> + +<p>"Monsoon's affair! What is that? Out with it, Dennis."</p> + +<p>"Faith, I'll be just as discreet about that as your own +business. All I can<br> +tell you is, that they brought him up to headquarters this +evening with<br> +a sergeant's guard, and they say he's to be tried by +court-martial; and<br> +Picton is in a blessed humor about it."</p> + +<p>"What could it possibly have been? Some plundering affair, +depend on it."</p> + +<p>"Faith, you may swear it wasn't for his little charities, as +Dr. Pangloss<br> +calls them, they've pulled him up," cried Power.</p> + +<p>"Maurice is in high feather about it," said Dennis. "There are +five of them<br> +up at Fuentes, making a list of the charges to send to Monsoon; +for Bob<br> +Mahon, it seems, heard of the old fellow's doings up the +mountains."</p> + +<p>"What glorious fun!" said Tower. "Let's haste and join them, +boys."</p> + +<p>"Agreed," said I. "Is it far from this?"</p> + +<p>"Another stage. When we've got something to eat," said the +major, "if Power<br> +has any intentions that way—"</p> + +<p>"Well, I really did begin to fear Fred's memory was lapsing; +but somehow,<br> +poor fellow, smiles have been more in his way than sandwiches +lately."</p> + +<p>An admonishing look from Power was his only reply, as he +walked towards the<br> +door. Bent upon teasing him, however, I continued,—</p> + +<p>"My only fear is, he may do something silly."</p> + +<p>"Who? Monsoon, is it?"</p> + +<p>"No, no. Not Monsoon; another friend of ours."</p> + +<p>"Faith, I scarcely thought your fears of old Monsoon were +called for. He's<br> +a fox—the devil a less."</p> + +<p>"No, no, Dennis. I wasn't thinking of him. My anxieties were +for a most<br> +soft-hearted young gentleman,—one Fred Power."</p> + +<p>"Charley, Charley!" said Fred, from the door, where he had +been giving<br> +directions to his servant about supper. "A man can scarce do a +more silly<br> +thing than marry in the army; all the disagreeables of married +life, with<br> +none of its better features."</p> + +<p>"Marry—marry!" shouted O'Shaughnessy, "upon my conscience, +it's<br> +incomprehensible to me how a man can be guilty of it. To be sure, +I don't<br> +mean to say that there are not circumstances,—such as half-pay, +old age,<br> +infirmity, the loss of your limbs, and the like; but that, with +good health<br> +and a small balance at your banker's, you should be led into such +an<br> +embarrassment—"</p> + +<p>"Men will flirt," said I, interrupting; "men will press taper +fingers, look<br> +into bright eyes, and feel their witchery; and although the fair +owners be<br> +only quizzing them half the time, and amusing themselves the +other, and<br> +though they be the veriest hackneyed coquettes—"</p> + +<p>"Did you ever meet the Dalrymple girls, Dennis?" said Fred, +with a look I<br> +shall never forget.</p> + +<p>What the reply was I cannot tell. My shame and confusion were +overwhelming,<br> +and Power's victory complete.</p> + +<p>"Here comes the prog," cried Dennis, as Power's servant +entered with a very<br> +plausible-looking tray, while Fred proceeded to place before us a +strong<br> +army of decanters.</p> + +<p>Our supper was excellent, and we were enjoying ourselves to +the utmost,<br> +when an orderly sergeant suddenly opened the door, and raising +his hand to<br> +his cap, asked if Major Power was there.</p> + +<p>"A letter for you, sir."</p> + +<p>"Monsoon's writing, by Jove! Come, boys, let us see what it +means. What a<br> +hand the old fellow writes! The letters look all crazy, and are +tumbling<br> +against each other on every side. Did you ever see anything half +so tipsy<br> +as the crossing of that <i>t?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Read it. Read it out, Fred!"</p> + +<p> Tuesday Evening.</p> + +<p> Dear Power,—I'm in such a scrape! Come up and see me +at<br> + once, bring a little sherry with you, and we'll talk over +what's to be<br> + done.</p> + +<p> Yours ever,</p> + +<p> B. MONSOON.</p> + +<p> Quarter-General.</p> + +<p>We resolved to finish our evening with the major; so that, +each having<br> +armed himself with a bottle or two, and the remnants of our +supper, we set<br> +out towards his quarters, under the guidance of the orderly. +After a sharp<br> +walk of half an hour, we reached a small hut, where two sentries +of the<br> +Eighty-eighth were posted at the door.</p> + +<p>O'Shaughnessy procured admittance for us, and in we went. At a +small table,<br> +lighted by a thin tallow candle, sat old Monsoon, who, the +weather being<br> +hot, had neither coat nor wig on; an old cracked china tea-pot, +in which<br> +as we found afterwards he had mixed a little grog, stood before +him, and a<br> +large mass of papers lay scattered around on every side,—he +himself being<br> +occupied in poring over their contents, and taking occasional +draughts from<br> +his uncouth goblet.</p> + +<p>As we entered noiselessly, he never perceived us, but +continued to mumble<br> +over, in a low tone, from the documents before him:—</p> + +<p>"Upon my life, it's like a dream to me! What infernal stuff +this brandy<br> +is!"</p> + +<p> CHARGE No. 8.—For conduct highly unbecoming an officer +and<br> + a gentleman, in forcing the cellar of the San Nicholas +convent at<br> + Banos, taking large quantities of wine therefrom, and +subsequently<br> + compelling the prior to dance a bolero, thus creating a riot, +and<br> + tending to destroy the harmony between the British and the +Portuguese,<br> + so strongly inculcated to be preserved by the general +orders.</p> + +<p>"Destroy the harmony! Bless their hearts! How little they know +of it! I've<br> +never passed a jollier night in the Peninsula! The prior's a +trump, and<br> +as for the bolero, he <i>would</i> dance it. I hope they say nothing +about my<br> +hornpipe."</p> + +<p> CHARGE No. 9.—For a gross violation of his duty as an +officer, in<br> + sending a part of his brigade to attack and pillage the +alcalde of<br> + Banos; thereby endangering the public peace of the town, +being a<br> + flagrant breach of discipline and direct violation of the +articles of<br> + war.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm afraid I was rather sharp on the alcalde, but we +did him no harm<br> +except the fright. What sherry the fellow had! 't would have been +a sin to<br> +let it fall into the hands of the French."</p> + +<p> CHARGE No. 10.—For threatening, on or about the night of +the<br> + 3d, to place the town of Banos under contribution, and +subsequently<br> + forcing the authorities to walk in procession before him, in +absurd<br> + and ridiculous costumes.</p> + +<p>"Lord, how good it was! I shall never forget the old alcalde! +One of my<br> +fellows fastened a dead lamb round his neck, and told him it was +the golden<br> +fleece. The commander-in-chief would have laughed himself if he +had been<br> +there. Picton's much too grave,—never likes a joke."</p> + +<p> CHARGE No. 11.—For insubordination and disobedience, in +refusing<br> + to give up his sword, and rendering it necessary for the +Portuguese<br> + guard to take it by force,—thereby placing himself in a<br> + situation highly degrading to a British officer.</p> + +<p>"Didn't I lay about me before they got it! Who's that? Who's +laughing<br> +there? Ah, boys, I'm glad to see you! How are you, Fred? Well, +Charley,<br> +I've heard of your scrape; very sad thing for so young a fellow +as you are.<br> +I don't think you'll be broke; I'll do what I can. I'll see what +I can do<br> +with Picton; we are very old friends, were at Eton together."</p> + +<p>"Many thanks, Major; but I hear your own affairs are not +flourishing.<br> +What's all this court-martial about?"</p> + +<p>"A mere trifle; some little insubordination in the legion. +Those Portuguese<br> +are sad dogs. How very good of you, Fred, to think of that little +supper."</p> + +<p>While the major was speaking, his servant, with a dexterity +the fruit of<br> +long habit, had garnished the table with the contents of our +baskets, and<br> +Monsoon, apologizing for not putting on his wig, sat down among +us with a<br> +face as cheerful as though the floor was not covered with the +charges of<br> +the court-martial to be held on him.</p> + +<p>As we chatted away over the campaign and its chances, Monsoon +seemed little<br> +disposed to recur to his own fortunes. In fact, he appeared to +suffer much<br> +more from what he termed my unlucky predicament than from his own +mishaps.<br> +At the same time, as the evening wore on, and the sherry began to +tell upon<br> +him, his heart expanded into its habitual moral tendency, and by +an easy<br> +transition, he was led from the religious association of convents +to the<br> +pleasures of pillaging them.</p> + +<p>"What wine they have in their old cellars! It's such fun +drinking it out of<br> +great silver vessels as old as Methuselah. 'There's much treasure +in the<br> +house of the righteous,' as David says; and any one who has ever +sacked a<br> +nunnery knows that."</p> + +<p>"I should like to have seen that prior dancing the bolero," +said Power.</p> + +<p>"Wasn't it good, though! He grew jealous of me, for I +performed a hornpipe.<br> +Very good fellow the prior; not like the alcalde,—there was no +fun in him.<br> +Lord bless him! he'll never forget me."</p> + +<p>"What did you do with him, Major?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll tell you; but you mustn't let it be known, for I +see they have<br> +not put it in the court-martial. Is there no more sherry there? +There, that<br> +will do; I'm always contented. 'Better a dry morsel with +quietness,' as<br> +Moses says. Ay, Charley, never forget that 'a merry heart is just +like<br> +medicine.' Job found out that, you know."</p> + +<p>"Well, but the alcalde, Major."</p> + +<p>"Oh! the alcalde, to be sure. These pious meditations make me +forget<br> +earthly matters."</p> + +<p>"This old alcalde at Banos, I found out, was quite spoiled by +Lord<br> +Wellington. He used to read all the general orders, and got an +absurd<br> +notion in his head that because we were his allies, we were not +allowed to<br> +plunder. Only think, he used to snap his fingers at Beresford, +didn't care<br> +twopence about the legion, and laughed outright at Wilson. So, +when I was<br> +ordered down there, I took another way with him. I waited till +night-fall,<br> +ordered two squadrons to turn their jackets, and sent forward one +of my<br> +aides-de-camp, with a few troopers, to the alcalde's house. They +galloped<br> +into the courtyard, blowing trumpets and making an infernal +hubbub. Down<br> +came the alcalde in a passion. 'Prepare quarters quickly, and +rations for<br> +eight hundred men.'</p> + +<p>"'Who dares to issue such an order?' said he.</p> + +<p>"The aide-de-camp whispered one word in his ear, and the old +fellow<br> +grew pale as death. 'Is he here; is he coming,—is he coming?' +said he,<br> +trembling from head to foot.</p> + +<p>"I rode in myself at this moment looking thus,—</p> + +<p>"'<i>Où est le malheureux?</i>' said I, in French,—you know +I speak French like<br> +Portuguese."</p> + +<p>"Devilish like, I've no doubt," muttered Power.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Pardon, gracias eccellenza!</i>' said the alcalde, on his +knees."</p> + +<p>"Who the deuce did he take you for, Major?"</p> + +<p>"You shall hear; you'll never guess, though. Lord, I shall +never forget it!<br> +He thought I was Marmont; my aide-de-camp told him so."</p> + +<p>One loud burst of laughter interrupted the major at this +moment, and it was<br> +some considerable time before he could continue his +narrative.</p> + +<p>"And do you really mean," said I, "that you personated the +Duke de Raguse?"</p> + +<p>"Did I not, though? If you had only seen me with a pair of +great mustaches,<br> +and a drawn sabre in my hand, pacing the room up and down in +presence of<br> +the assembled authorities. Napoleon himself might have been +deceived. My<br> +first order was to cut off all their heads; but I commuted the +sentence<br> +to a heavy fine. Ah, boys, if they only understood at +headquarters how to<br> +carry on a war in the Peninsula, they'd never have to grumble in +England<br> +about increased taxation! How I'd mulet the nunneries! How I'd +grind the<br> +corporate towns! How I'd inundate the country with exchequer +bills! I'd<br> +sell the priors at so much a head, and put the nuns up to auction +by the<br> +dozen."</p> + +<p>"You sacrilegious old villain! But continue the account of +your exploits."</p> + +<p>"Faith, I remember little more. After dinner I grew somewhat +mellow, and<br> +a kind of moral bewilderment, which usually steals over me about +eleven<br> +o'clock, induced me to invite the alcalde and all the aldermen to +come and<br> +sup. Apparently, we had a merry night of it, and when morning +broke,<br> +we were not quite clear in our intellects. Hence came that +infernal<br> +procession; for when the alcalde rode round the town with a paper +cap, and<br> +all the aldermen after him, the inhabitants felt offended, it +seems, and<br> +sent for a large Guerilla force, who captured me and my staff, +after a very<br> +vigorous resistance. The alcalde fought like a trump for us, for +I promised<br> +to make him Prefect of the Seine; but we were overpowered, +disarmed, and<br> +carried off. The remainder you can read in the court-martial, for +you may<br> +think that after sacking the town, drinking all night, and +fighting in the<br> +morning, my memory was none of the clearest."</p> + +<p>"Did you not explain that you were not the +marshal-general?"</p> + +<p>"No, faith, I know better than that; they'd have murdered me +had they known<br> +their mistake. They brought me to headquarters in the hope of a +great<br> +reward, and it was only when they reached this that they found +out I<br> +was not the Duke de Raguse; so you see, boys, it's a very +complicated<br> +business."</p> + +<p>"'Gad, and so it is," said Power, "and an awkward one, +too."</p> + +<p>"He'll be hanged, as sure as my name's Dennis!" vociferated +O'Shaughnessy,<br> +with an energy that made the major jump from his chair. "Picton +will hang<br> +him!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid," said Monsoon; "they know me so well. Lord +bless you,<br> +Beresford couldn't get on without me!"</p> + +<p>"Well, Major," said I, "in any case, you certainly take no +gloomy nor<br> +desponding view of your case."</p> + +<p>"Not I, boy. You know what Jeremiah says: 'a merry heart is a +continual<br> +feast;' and so it is. I may die of repletion, but they'll never +find me<br> +starved with sorrow."</p> + +<p>"And, faith, it's a strange thing!" muttered O'Shaughnessy, +thinking aloud;<br> +"a most extraordinary thing! An honest fellow would be sure to be +hanged;<br> +and there's that old rogue, that's been melting down more saints +and<br> +blessed Virgins than the whole army together, he'll escape. Ye'll +see he<br> +will!"</p> + +<p>"There goes the patrol," said Fred; "we must start."</p> + +<p>"Leave the sherry, boys; you'll be back again. I'll have it +put up<br> +carefully."</p> + +<p>We could scarcely resist a roar of laughter as we said, +"Good-night."</p> + +<p>"Adieu, Major," said I; "we shall meet soon."</p> + +<p>So saying, I followed Power and O'Shaughnessy towards their +quarters.</p> + +<p>"Maurice has done it beautifully!" said Power. "Pleasant +revelations the<br> +old fellow will make on the court-martial, if he only remembers +what we've<br> +heard to-night! But here we are, Charley; so good-night, and +remember, you<br> +breakfast with me to-morrow."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXIX.</p> + +<p>THE CONFIDENCE.</p> + +<p>"I have changed the venue, Charley," said Power, as he came +into my room<br> +the following morning,—"I've changed the venue, and come to +breakfast with<br> +you."</p> + +<p>I could not help smiling as a certain suspicion crossed my +mind; perceiving<br> +which, he quickly added,—</p> + +<p>"No, no, boy! I guess what you're thinking of. I'm not a bit +jealous in<br> +that quarter. The fact is, you know, one cannot be too +guarded."</p> + +<p>"Nor too suspicious of one's friends, apparently."</p> + +<p>"A truce with quizzing. I say, have you reported +yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and received this moment a most kind note from the +general. But it<br> +appears I'm not destined to have a long sojourn among you, for +I'm desired<br> +to hold myself in readiness for a journey this very day."</p> + +<p>"Where the deuce are they going to send you now?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not certain of my destination. I rather suspect there are +despatches<br> +for Badajos. Just tell Mike to get breakfast, and I'll join +you<br> +immediately."</p> + +<p>When I walked into the little room which served as my <i>salon</i>, +I found<br> +Power pacing up and down, apparently wrapped in meditation.</p> + +<p>"I've been thinking, Charley," said he, after a pause of about +ten<br> +minutes,—"I've been thinking over our adventures in Lisbon. +Devilish<br> +strange girl that senhora! When you resigned in my favor, I took +it for<br> +granted that all difficulty was removed. Confound it! I no sooner +began to<br> +profit by your absence, in pressing my suit, than she turned +short round,<br> +treated me with marked coldness, exhibited a hundred wilful and +capricious<br> +fancies, and concluded one day by quietly confessing to me you +were the<br> +only man she cared for."</p> + +<p>"You are not serious in all this, Fred?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Ain't I though, by Jove! I wish to Heaven I were not! My dear +Charley,<br> +the girl is an inveterate flirt,—a decided coquette. Whether she +has a<br> +particle of heart or not, I can't say; but certainly her greatest +pleasure<br> +is to trifle with that of another. Some absurd suspicion that you +were in<br> +love with Lucy Dashwood piqued her vanity, and the anxiety to +recover a<br> +lapsing allegiance led her to suppose herself attached to you, +and made her<br> +treat all my advances with the most frigid indifference or +wayward caprice;<br> +the more provoking," continued he, with a kind of bitterness in +his tone,<br> +"as her father was disposed to take the thing favorably; and, if +I must say<br> +it, I felt devilish spooney about her myself.</p> + +<p>"It was only two days before I left, that in a conversation +with Don<br> +Emanuel, he consented to receive my addresses to his daughter on +my<br> +becoming lieutenant-colonel. I hastened back with delight to +bring her the<br> +intelligence, and found her with a lock of hair on the book +before her,<br> +over which she was weeping. Confound me, if it was not yours! I +don't<br> +know what I said, nor what she replied; but when we parted, it +was with a<br> +perfect understanding we were never to meet again. Strange girl! +She came<br> +that evening, put her arm within mine as I was walking alone in +the garden,<br> +and half in jest, half in earnest, talked me out of all my +suspicions, and<br> +left me fifty times more in love with her than ever. Egad! I +thought I used<br> +to know something about women, but here is a chapter I've yet to +read.<br> +Come, now, Charley, be frank with me; tell me all you know."</p> + +<p>"My poor Fred, if you were not head and ears in love, you +would see as<br> +plainly as I do that your affairs prosper. And after all, how +invariable<br> +is it that the man who has been the veriest flirt with +women,—sighing,<br> +serenading, sonneteering, flinging himself at the feet of every +pretty girl<br> +he meets with,—should become the most thorough dupe to his own +feelings<br> +when his heart is really touched. Your man of eight-and-thirty is +always<br> +the greatest fool about women."</p> + +<p>"Confound your impertinence! How the devil can a fellow with a +mustache not<br> +stronger that a Circassian's eyebrow read such a lecture to +<i>me?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Just for the very reason you've mentioned. You <i>glide</i> into +an attachment<br> +at <i>my</i> time of life; you <i>fall</i> in love at <i>yours</i>."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Power, musingly, "there is some truth in that. +This flirting is<br> +sad work. It is just like sparring with a friend; you put on the +gloves in<br> +perfect good humor, with the most friendly intentions of +exchanging a few<br> +amicable blows; you find yourself insensibly warm with the +enthusiasm of<br> +the conflict, and some unlucky hard knock decides the matter, and +it ends<br> +in a downright fight.</p> + +<p>"Few men, believe me, are regular seducers; and among those +who behave<br> +'vilely' (as they call it), three-fourths of the number have been +more<br> +sinned against than sinning. You adventure upon love as upon a +voyage to<br> +India. Leaving the cold northern latitudes of first acquaintance +behind<br> +you, you gradually glide into the warmer and more genial climate +of<br> +intimacy. Each day you travel southward shortens the miles and +the hours of<br> +your existence; so tranquil is the passage, and so easy the +transition, you<br> +suffer no shock by the change of temperature about you. Happy +were it for<br> +us that in our courtship, as in our voyage, there were some +certain Rubicon<br> +to remind us of the miles we have journeyed! Well were it if +there were<br> +some meridian in love!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure, Fred, that there is not that same shaving +process they<br> +practise on the line, occasionally performed for us by parents +and<br> +guardians at home; and I'm not certain that the iron hoop of old +Neptune is<br> +not a pleasanter acquaintance than the hair-trigger of some +indignant<br> +and fire-eating brother. But come, Fred, you have not told me the +most<br> +important point,—how fare your fortunes now; or in other words, +what are<br> +your present prospects as regards the senhora?"</p> + +<p>"What a question to ask me! Why not request me to tell you +where Soult will<br> +fight us next, and when Marmont will cross the frontier? My dear +boy, I<br> +have not seen her for a week, an entire week,—seven full days +and nights,<br> +each with their twenty-four hours of change and vacillation."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, give me the last bulletin from the seat of war; +that at least<br> +you can do. Tell me how you parted."</p> + +<p>"Strangely enough. You must know we had a grand dinner at the +villa the<br> +day before I left; and when we adjourned for our coffee to the +garden, my<br> +spirits were at the top of their bent. Inez never looked so +beautiful,<br> +never was one half so gracious; and as she leaned upon my arm, +instead<br> +of following the others towards the little summer-house, I +turned, as if<br> +inadvertently, into a narrow, dark alley that skirts the +lake."</p> + +<p>"I know it well; continue."</p> + +<p>Power reddened slightly, and went on:—</p> + +<p>"'Why are we taking this path?' said Donna Inez; 'this is, +surely, not a<br> +short way?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, I wished to make my adieux to my old friends the swans. +You know I go<br> +to-morrow.'</p> + +<p>"'Ah, that's true,' added she. 'I'd quite forgotten it.'</p> + +<p>"This speech was not very encouraging; but as I felt myself in +for the<br> +battle, I was not going to retreat at the skirmish. 'Now or +never,' thought<br> +I. I'll not tell you what I said. I couldn't, if I would. It is +only with<br> +a pretty woman upon one's arm; it is only when stealing a glance +at her<br> +bright eyes, as you bend beyond the border of her bonnet,—that +you know<br> +what it is to be eloquent. Watching the changeful color of her +cheek with<br> +a more anxious heart than ever did mariner gaze upon the fitful +sky above<br> +him, you pour out your whole soul in love; you leave no time for +doubt, you<br> +leave no space for reply. The difficulties that shoot across her +mind you<br> +reply to ere she is well conscious of them; and when you feel her +hand<br> +tremble, or see her eyelids fall, like the leader of a storming +party when<br> +the guns slacken in their fire, you spring boldly forward in the +breach,<br> +and blind to every danger around you, rush madly on, and plant +your<br> +standard upon the walls."</p> + +<p>"I hope you allow the vanquished the honors of war," said I, +interrupting.</p> + +<p>Without noticing my observation, he continued:—</p> + +<p>"I was on my knee before her, her hand passively resting in +mine, her eyes<br> +bent <i>upon</i> me softly and tearfully—"</p> + +<p>"The game was your own, in fact."</p> + +<p>"You shall hear.</p> + +<p>"'Have we stood long enough thus, Senhor?' said she, bursting +into a fit of<br> +laughter.</p> + +<p>"I sprang to my legs in anger and indignation.</p> + +<p>"'There, don't be passionate; it is so tiresome. What do you +call that tree<br> +there?'</p> + +<p>"'It is a tulip-tree,' said I, coldly.</p> + +<p>"'Then, to put your gallantry to the test, do climb up there +and pluck me<br> +that flower. No, the far one. If you fall into the lake and are +drowned,<br> +why it would put an end to this foolish interview.'</p> + +<p>"'And if not?' said I.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, then I shall take twelve hours to consider of it; and if +my decision<br> +be in your favor, I'll give you the flower ere you leave +to-morrow.'</p> + +<p>"It's somewhat about thirty years since I went bird-nesting, +and hang me,<br> +if a tight jacket and spurs are the best equipment for climbing a +tree; but<br> +up I went, and, amidst a running fire of laughter and quizzing, +reached the<br> +branch and brought it down safely.</p> + +<p>"Inez took especial care to avoid me the rest of the evening. +We did not<br> +meet until breakfast the following morning. I perceived then that +she wore<br> +the flower in her belt; but, alas! I knew her too well to augur +favorably<br> +from that; besides that, instead of any trace of sorrow or +depression at my<br> +approaching departure, she was in high spirits, and the life of +the party.<br> +'How can I manage to speak with her?' said I to myself. 'But one +word,—I<br> +already anticipate what it must be; but let the blow +fall—anything is<br> +better than this uncertainty.'</p> + +<p>"'The general and the staff have passed the gate, sir,' said +my servant at<br> +this moment.</p> + +<p>"'Are my horses ready?'</p> + +<p>"'At the door, sir; and the baggage gone forward.'</p> + +<p>"I gave Inez one look—</p> + +<p>"'Did you say more coffee?' said she, smiling.</p> + +<p>"I bowed coldly, and rose from the table. They all assembled +upon the<br> +terrace to see me ride away.</p> + +<p>"'You'll let us hear from you,' said Don Emanuel.</p> + +<p>"'And pray don't forget the letter to my brother,' cried old +Madame Forjas.</p> + +<p>"Twenty similar injunctions burst from the party, but not a +word said Inez.</p> + +<p>"'Adieu, then!' said I. 'Farewell.'</p> + +<p>"'Adios! Go with God!' chorused the party.</p> + +<p>"'Good-by, Senhora,' said I. 'Have <i>you</i> nothing to tell me +ere we part?'</p> + +<p>"'Not that I remember,' said she, carelessly. 'I hope you'll +have good<br> +weather.'</p> + +<p>"'There is a storm threatening,' said I, gloomily.</p> + +<p>"'Well, a soldier cares little for a wet jacket.'</p> + +<p>"'Adieu!' said I, sharply, darting at her a look that spoke my +meaning.</p> + +<p>"'Farewell!' repeated she, curtsying slightly, and giving one +of her<br> +sweetest smiles.</p> + +<p>"I drove the spurs into my horse's flanks, but holding him +firmly on the<br> +curb at the same moment, instead of dashing forward, he bounded +madly in<br> +the air.</p> + +<p>"'What a pretty creature!' said she, as she turned towards the +house; then<br> +stopping carelessly, she looked round,—</p> + +<p>"'Should you like this bouquet?'</p> + +<p>"Before I could reply, she disengaged it from her belt, and +threw it<br> +towards me. The door closed behind her as she spoke. I galloped +on to<br> +overtake the staff, <i>et voilà tout</i>. Now, Charley, read my +fate for me, and<br> +tell me what this portends."</p> + +<p>"I confess I only see one thing certain in the whole."</p> + +<p>"And that is?" said Power.</p> + +<p>"That Master Fred Power is more irretrievably in love than any +gentleman on<br> +full pay I ever met with."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, I half fear as much! Is that orderly waiting for +you, Charley?<br> +Who do you want my man?"</p> + +<p>"Captain O'Malley, sir. General Crawfurd desires to see you at +headquarters<br> +immediately."</p> + +<p>"Come, Charley, I'm going towards Fuentes. Take your cap; +we'll walk down<br> +together."</p> + +<p>So saying, we cantered towards the village, where we +separated,—Power to<br> +join some Fourteenth men stationed there on duty, and I to the +general's<br> +quarters to receive my orders.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXX.</p> + +<p>THE CANTONMENT.</p> + +<p>Soon after this the army broke up from Caja, and went into +cantonments<br> +along the Tagus, the headquarters being at Portalegre. We were +here joined<br> +by four regiments of infantry lately arrived from England, and +the 12th<br> +Light Dragoons. I shall not readily forget the first impression +created<br> +among our reinforcements by the habits of our life at this +period.</p> + +<a name="0247"></a> +<img alt="0247.jpg (127K)" src="0247.jpg" height="514" width="812"> + +<p>[A HUNTING TURN-OUT IN THE PENINSULA.]</p> +<br><br> + +<p>Brimful of expectation, they had landed at Lisbon, their minds +filled with<br> +all the glorious expectancy of a brilliant campaign; sieges, +storming, and<br> +battle-fields floated before their excited imagination. +Scarcely,<br> +however, had they reached the camp, when these illusions were +dissipated.<br> +Breakfasts, dinners, private theatricals, pigeon matches, formed +our daily<br> +occupation. Lord Wellington's hounds threw off regularly twice a +week;<br> +and here might be seen every imaginable species of equipment, +from the<br> +artillery officer mounted on his heavy troop horse, to the +infantry<br> +subaltern on a Spanish jennet. Never was anything more ludicrous +than our<br> +turn-out. Every quadruped in the army was put into requisition. +And even<br> +those who rolled not from their saddles from sheer necessity, +were most<br> +likely to do so from laughing at their neighbors. The pace may +not have<br> +equalled Melton, nor the fences have been as stubborn as in +Leicestershire,<br> +but I'll be sworn there was more laughter, more fun, and more +merriment,<br> +in one day with us, than in a whole season with the best +organized pack in<br> +England. With a lively trust that the country was open and the +leaps easy,<br> +every man took the field. Indeed, the only anxiety evinced at +all, was to<br> +appear at the meet in something like jockey fashion, and I must +confess<br> +that this feeling was particularly conspicuous among the +infantry. Happy<br> +the man whose kit boasted a pair of cords or buck skins; thrice +happy he<br> +who sported a pair of tops. I myself was in that enviable +position, and<br> +well remember with what pride of heart I cantered up to cover in +all the<br> +superior <i>éclat</i> of my costume, though, if truth were to +be spoken, I doubt<br> +if I should have passed muster among my friends of the "Blazers." +A round<br> +cavalry jacket and a foraging cap with a hanging tassel were the +strange<br> +accompaniments of my more befitting nether garments. Whatever our +costumes,<br> +the scene was a most animated one. Here the shell-jacket of a +heavy dragoon<br> +was seen storming the fence of a vineyard; there the dark green +of a<br> +rifleman was going the pace over the plain. The unsportsmanlike +figure of<br> +a staff officer might be observed emerging from a drain, while +some<br> +neck-or-nothing Irishman, with light infantry wings, was flying +at every<br> +fence before him, and overturning all in his way. The rules and +regulations<br> +of the service prevailed not here; the starred and gartered +general, the<br> +plumed and aiguilletted colonel obtained but little deference and +less<br> +mercy from his more humble subaltern. In fact, I am half disposed +to think<br> +that many an old grudge of rigid discipline or severe duty met +with its<br> +retribution here. More than once have I heard the muttered +sentences around<br> +me which boded like this,—</p> + +<p>"Go the pace, Harry, never flinch it! There's old +Colquhoun—take him in<br> +the haunches; roll him over!"</p> + +<p>"See here, boys—watch how I'll scatter the staff—Beg your +pardon,<br> +General, hope I haven't hurt you. Turn about—fair play—I have +taught<br> +<i>you</i> to take up a position now."</p> + +<p>I need scarcely say there was one whose person was sacred from +all such<br> +attacks. He was well mounted upon a strong, half-breed horse; +rode always<br> +foremost, following the hounds with the same steady pertinacity +with which<br> +he would have followed the enemy, his compressed lip rarely +opening for a<br> +laugh when even the most ludicrous misadventure was enacting +before him;<br> +and when by chance he would give way, the short ha! ha! was over +in a<br> +moment, and the cold, stern features were as fixed and impassive +as before.</p> + +<p>All the excitement, all the enthusiasm of a hunting-field, +seemed powerless<br> +to turn his mind from the pre-occupation which the mighty +interests he<br> +presided over, exacted. I remember once an incident which, +however trivial<br> +in itself, is worth recording as illustrative of what I mean. We +were going<br> +along at a topping pace, the hounds, a few fields in advance, +were hidden<br> +from our view by a small beech copse. The party consisted of not +more than<br> +six persons, one of whom was Lord Wellington himself. Our run had +been a<br> +splendid one, and as we were pursuing the fox to earth, every man +of us<br> +pushed his horse to his full stride in the hot enthusiasm of such +a moment.</p> + +<p>"This way, my lord, this way," said Colonel Conyers, an old +Melton man, who<br> +led the way. "The hounds are in the valley; keep to the left." As +no reply<br> +was made, after a few moments' pause Conyers repeated his +admonition, "You<br> +are wrong, my lord, the hounds are hunting yonder."</p> + +<p>"I know it!" was the brief answer given, with a shortness that +almost<br> +savored of asperity; for a second or two not a word was +spoken.</p> + +<p>"How far is Niza, Gordon?" inquired Lord Wellington.</p> + +<p>"About five leagues, my lord," replied the astonished +aide-de-camp.</p> + +<p>"That's the direction, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my lord."</p> + +<p>"Let's go over and inspect the wounded."</p> + +<p>No more was said, and before a second was given for +consideration, away<br> +went his lordship, followed by his aide-de-camp, his pace the +same<br> +stretching gallop, and apparently feeling as much excitement, as +he dashed<br> +onwards towards the hospital, as though following in all the +headlong<br> +enthusiasm of a fox chase.</p> + +<p>Thus passed our summer; a life of happy ease and recreation +succeeding to<br> +the harassing fatigues and severe privations of the preceding +campaign.<br> +Such are the lights and shadows of a soldier's life; such the +checkered<br> +surface of his fortunes. Constituting, by their very change, that +buoyant<br> +temperament, that happy indifference, which enables him to derive +its full<br> +enjoyment from each passing incident of his career.</p> + +<p>While thus we indulged in all the fascinations of a life of +pleasure, the<br> +rigid discipline of the army was never for a moment forgotten. +Reviews,<br> +parades, and inspections were of daily occurrence, and even a +superficial<br> +observer could not fail to detect that under this apparent +devotion to<br> +amusement and enjoyment, our commander-in-chief concealed a deep +stroke of<br> +his policy.</p> + +<p>The spirits of both men and officers, broken, in spite of +their successes,<br> +by the incessant privations they had endured, imperatively +demanded this<br> +period of rest and repose. The infantry, many of whom had served +in the<br> +ill-fated campaign of Walcharen, wore still suffering from the +effects of<br> +the intermittent fever. The cavalry, from deficient forage, +severe marches,<br> +and unremitting service, were in great part unfit for duty. To +take the<br> +field under circumstances like these was therefore impossible; +and with the<br> +double object of restoring their wonted spirit to his troops, and +checking<br> +the ravages which sickness and the casualties of war had made +within his<br> +ranks, Lord Wellington embraced the opportunity of the enemy's +inaction to<br> +take up his present position on the Tagus.</p> + +<p>But while we were enjoying all the pleasures of a country +life, enhanced<br> +tenfold by daily association with gay and cheerful companions, +the<br> +master-mind, whose reach extended from the profoundest +calculations of<br> +strategy to minutest details of military organization, was never +idle.<br> +Foreseeing that a period of inaction, like the present, must only +be like<br> +the solemn calm that preludes the storm, he prepared for the +future by<br> +those bold conceptions and unrivalled combinations which were to +guide him<br> +through many a field of battle and of danger to end his career of +glory in<br> +the liberation of the Peninsula.</p> + +<p>The failure of the attack upon Badajos had neither damped his +ardor nor<br> +changed his views; and he proceeded to the investment of Ciudad +Rodrigo<br> +with the same intense determination of uprooting the French +occupation in<br> +Spain by destroying their strongholds and cutting off their +resources.<br> +Carrying aggressive war in one hand, he turned the other towards +the<br> +maintenance of those defences which, in the event of disaster or +defeat,<br> +must prove the refuge of the army.</p> + +<p>To the lines of Torres Vedras he once more directed his +attention. Engineer<br> +officers were despatched thither; the fortresses were put into +repair; the<br> +bridges broken or injured during the French invasion were +restored; the<br> +batteries upon the Tagus were rendered more effective, and +furnaces for<br> +heating shot were added to them.</p> + +<p>The inactivity and apathy of the Portuguese government but ill +corresponded<br> +with his unwearied exertions; and despite of continual +remonstrances and<br> +unceasing representations, the bridges over the Leira and Alva +were left<br> +unrepaired, and the roads leading to them, so broken as to be +almost<br> +impassable, might seriously have endangered the retreat of the +army, should<br> +such a movement be deemed necessary.</p> + +<p>It was in the first week of September. I was sent with +despatches for the<br> +engineer officer in command at the lines, and during the +fortnight of my<br> +absence, was enabled for the first time to examine those +extraordinary<br> +defences which, for the space of thirty miles, extended over a +country<br> +undulating in hill and valley, and presenting, by a succession of +natural<br> +and artificial resources, the strongest and most impregnable +barrier that<br> +has ever been presented against the advance of a conquering +army.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXXI.</p> + +<p>MICKEY FREE'S ADVENTURE.</p> + +<p>When I returned to the camp, I found the greatest excitement +prevailing on<br> +all sides. Each day brought in fresh rumors that Marmont was +advancing<br> +in force; that sixty thousand Frenchmen were in full march upon +Ciudad<br> +Rodrigo, to raise the blockade, and renew the invasion of +Portugal.<br> +Intercepted letters corroborated these reports; and the Guerillas +who<br> +joined us spoke of large convoys which they had seen upon the +roads from<br> +Salamanca and Tamanes.</p> + +<p>Except the light division, which, under the command of +Crawfurd, were<br> +posted upon the right of the Aguada, the whole of our army +occupied the<br> +country from El Bodon to Gallegos; the Fourth Division being +stationed at<br> +Fuente Guenaldo, where some intrenchments had been hastily thrown +up.</p> + +<p>To this position Lord Wellington resolved upon retreating, as +affording<br> +points of greater strength and more capability of defence than +the other<br> +line of road, which led by Almeida upon the Coa. Of the enemy's +intentions<br> +we were not long to remain in doubt; for on the morning of the +24th, a<br> +strong body were seen descending from the pass above Ciudad +Rodrigo, and<br> +cautiously reconnoitring the banks of the Aguada. Far in the +distance a<br> +countless train of wagons, bullock-cars, and loaded mules were +seen winding<br> +their slow length along, accompanied by several squadrons of +dragoons.</p> + +<p>Their progress was slow, but as evening fell they entered the +gates of<br> +the fortress; and the cheering of the garrison mixing with the +strains<br> +of martial music, faint from distance, reached us where we lay +upon the<br> +far-off heights of El Bodon. So long as the light lasted, we +could perceive<br> +fresh troops arriving; and even when the darkness came on, we +could detect<br> +the position of the reinforcing columns by the bright watch-fires +which<br> +gleamed along the plain.</p> + +<p>By daybreak we were under arms, anxiously watching for the +intentions of<br> +our enemy, which soon became no longer dubious. Twenty-five +squadrons of<br> +cavalry, supported by a whole division of infantry, were seen to +defile<br> +along the great road from Ciudad Rodrigo to Guenaldo. Another +column,<br> +equally numerous, marched straight upon Espeja; nothing could be +more<br> +beautiful, nothing more martial, than their appearance: emerging +from a<br> +close mountain gorge, they wound along the narrow road and +appeared upon<br> +the bridge of the Aguada just as the morning sun was bursting +forth,<br> +its bright beams tipping the polished cuirassiers and their +glittering<br> +equipments, they shone in their panoply like the gay troop of +some ancient<br> +tournament. The lancers of Berg, distinguished by their scarlet +dolmans<br> +and gorgeous trappings, were followed by the Cuirassiers of the +Guard,<br> +who again were succeeded by the <i>chasseurs à cheval</i>, +their bright steel<br> +helmets and light-blue uniforms, their floating plumes and +dappled<br> +chargers, looking the very <i>beau idéal</i> of light horsemen; +behind, the dark<br> +masses of the infantry pressed forward and deployed into the +plain; while,<br> +bringing up the rear, the rolling din, like distant thunder, +announced the<br> +"dread artillery."</p> + +<p>On they came, the seemingly interminable line converging on to +that one<br> +spot upon whose summit now we assembled a force of scarcely ten +thousand<br> +bayonets.</p> + +<p>While this brilliant panorama was passing before our eyes, we +ourselves<br> +were not idle. Orders had been sent to Picton to come up from the +left with<br> +his division. Alten's cavalry and a brigade of artillery were +sent to the<br> +front, and every preparation which the nature of the ground +admitted was<br> +made to resist the advance of the enemy. While these movements on +either<br> +side occupied some hours, the scene was every moment increasing +in<br> +interest. The large body of cavalry was now seen forming into +columns of<br> +attack. Nine battalions of infantry moved up to their support, +and forming<br> +into columns, echelons, and squares, performed before us all the +manoeuvres<br> +of a review with the most admirable precision and rapidity; but +from these<br> +our attention was soon taken by a brilliant display upon our +left. Here,<br> +emerging from the wood which flanked the Aguada, were now to be +seen the<br> +gorgeous staff of Marmont himself. Advancing at a walk, they came +forward<br> +amidst the <i>vivas</i> of the assembled thousands, burning with ardor +and<br> +thirsting for victory. For a moment, as I looked, I could detect +the<br> +marshal himself, as, holding his plumed hat above his head, he +returned the<br> +salute of a lancer regiment, who proudly waved their banners as +he passed;<br> +but, hark, what are those clanging sounds which, rising high +above the<br> +rest, seem like the war-cry of a warrior?</p> + +<p>"I can't mistake those tones," said a bronzed old veteran +beside me; "those<br> +are the brass bands of the Imperial Guard. Can Napoleon be there? +See,<br> +there they come!" As he spoke, the head of a column emerged from +the wood,<br> +and deploying as they came, poured into the plain. For above an +hour that<br> +mighty tide flowed on, and before noon a force of sixty thousand +men was<br> +collected in the space beneath us.</p> + +<p>I was not long to remain an unoccupied spectator of this +brilliant display,<br> +for I soon received orders to move down with my squadron to the +support of<br> +the Eleventh Light Dragoons, who were posted at the base of the +hill. The<br> +order at the moment was anything but agreeable, for I was mounted +upon a<br> +hack pony, on which I had ridden over from Crawfurd's Division +early in the<br> +morning, and suspecting that there might be some hot work during +the day,<br> +had ordered Mike to follow with my horse. There was no time, +however, for<br> +hesitation, and I moved my men down the slope in the direction of +the<br> +skirmishers.</p> + +<p>The position we occupied was singularly favorable,—our flanks +defended on<br> +either side by brushwood, we could only be assailed in front; and +here,<br> +notwithstanding our vast inferiority of force, we steadily +awaited the<br> +attack. As I rode from out the thick wood, I could not help +feeling<br> +surprised at the sounds which greeted me. Instead of the usual +low and<br> +murmuring tones, the muttered sentences which precede a cavalry +advance,—a<br> +roar of laughter shook the entire division, while exclamations +burst from<br> +every side around me: "Look at him now!" "They have him, by +heavens, they<br> +have him!" "Well done, well done!" "How the fellow rides!" "He's +hit, he's<br> +hit!" "No, no!" "Is he down?" "He's down!"</p> + +<p>A loud cheer rent the air at this moment, and I reached the +front in time<br> +to learn, the reason of all this excitement. In the wide plain +before me a<br> +horseman was seen, having passed the ford of the Aguada, to +advance at<br> +the top of his speed towards the British lines. As he came +nearer, it was<br> +perceived that he was accompanied by a led horse, and apparently +with total<br> +disregard of the presence of an enemy, rode boldly and carelessly +forward.<br> +Behind him rode three lancers, their lances couched, their horses +at speed;<br> +the pace was tremendous, and the excitement intense: for +sometimes, as the<br> +leading horseman of the pursuit neared the fugitive, he would +bend suddenly<br> +upon the saddle, and swerving to the right or the left, totally +evade him,<br> +while again at others, with a loud cry of bold defiance, rising +in his<br> +stirrups, he would press on, and with a shake of his bridle that +bespoke<br> +the jockey, almost distance the enemy.</p> + +<p>"That must be your fellow, O'Malley; that must be your Irish +groom!" cried<br> +a brother officer. There could be no doubt of it. It was Mike +himself.</p> + +<p>"I'll be hanged, if he's not playing with them!" said Baker. +"Look at the<br> +villain! He's holding in; that's more than the Frenchmen are +doing. Look!<br> +look at the fellow on the gray horse! He has flung his trumpet to +his back,<br> +and drawn his sabre."</p> + +<p>A loud cheer burst from the French lines; the trumpeter was +gaining at<br> +every stride. Mike had got into deep ground, and the horses would +not keep<br> +together. "Let the brown horse go! Let him go, man!" shouted the +dragoons,<br> +while I re-echoed the cry with my utmost might. But not so, Mike +held<br> +firmly on, and spurring madly, he lifted his horse at each +stride, turning<br> +from time to time a glance at his pursuer. A shout of triumph +rose from the<br> +French side; tin; trumpeter was beside him; his arm was uplifted; +the sabre<br> +above his head. A yell broke from the British, and with +difficulty could<br> +the squadron be restrained. For above a minute the horses went +side by<br> +side, but the Frenchman delayed his stroke until he could get a +little in<br> +the front. My excitement had rendered me speechless; if a word +could have<br> +saved my poor fellow, I could not have spoken. A mist seemed to +gather<br> +across my eyes, and the whole plain and its peopled thousands +danced before<br> +my vision.</p> + +<p>"He's down!" "He's down, by heavens!" "No! no, no!" "Look +there! Nobly<br> +done!" "Gallant fellow!" "He has him! he has him, by ——!" A +cheer that<br> +rent the very air above us broke from the squadrons, and Mike +galloped in<br> +among us, holding the Frenchman by the throat with one hand; the +bridle of<br> +his horse he firmly grasped with his own in the other.</p> + +<a name="0255"></a> +<img alt="0255.jpg (154K)" src="0255.jpg" height="627" width="820"> + +<p>[MIKE CAPTURING THE TRUMPETER.]</p> +<br><br> + +<p>"How was it? How did he do it?"</p> + +<p>"He broke his sword-arm with a blow, and the Frenchman's sabre +fell to the<br> +earth."</p> + +<p>"Here he is, Mister Charles; and musha, but it's trouble he +gave me to<br> +catch him! And I hope your honor won't be displeased at me losing +the brown<br> +horse. I was obliged to let him go when the thief closed on me; +but sure,<br> +there he is! May I never, if he's not galloping into the lines by +himself!"<br> +As he spoke, my brown charger came cantering up to the squadrons, +and took<br> +his place in the line with the rest.</p> + +<p>I had scarcely time to mount my horse, amidst a buzz of +congratulations,<br> +when our squadron was ordered to the front. Mixed up with +detachments from<br> +the Eleventh and Sixteenth, we continued to resist the enemy for +about two<br> +hours.</p> + +<p>Our charges were quick, sharp, and successive, pouring in our +numbers<br> +wherever the enemy appeared for a moment to be broken, and then +retreating<br> +under cover of our infantry when the opposing cavalry came down +upon us in<br> +overwhelming numbers.</p> + +<p>Nothing could be more perfect than the manner in which the +different troops<br> +relieved each other during this part of the day. When the French +squadrons<br> +advanced, ours met them as boldly. When the ground became no +longer<br> +tenable, we broke and fell back, and the bayonets of the infantry +arrested<br> +their progress. If the cavalry pressed heavily upon the squares, +ours came<br> +up to the relief, and as they were beaten back, the artillery +opened upon<br> +them with an avalanche of grape-shot.</p> + +<p>I have seen many battles of greater duration and more +important in result;<br> +many there have been in which more tactic was displayed, and +greater<br> +combinations called forth,—but never did I witness a more +desperate<br> +hand-to-hand conflict than on the heights of El Bodon.</p> + +<p>Baffled by our resistance, Montbrun advanced with the +Cuirassiers of the<br> +Guard. Riding down our advanced squadrons, they poured upon us +like some<br> +mighty river, overwhelming all before it, and charged, cheering, +up the<br> +heights. Our brave troopers were thrown back upon the artillery, +and many<br> +of them cut down beside the guns. The artillerymen and the +drivers shared<br> +the same fate, and the cannon were captured. A cheer of +exultation burst<br> +from the French, and their <i>vivas</i> rent the air. Their exultation +was<br> +short-lived, and that cheer their death-cry; for the Fifth Foot, +who had<br> +hitherto lain concealed in the grass, sprang madly to their feet, +their<br> +gallant Major Ridge at their head. With a yell of vengeance they +rushed<br> +upon the foe; the glistening bayonets glanced amidst the cavalry +of the<br> +French; the troops pressed hotly home; and while the cuirassiers +were<br> +driven down the hill, the guns were recaptured, limbered up, and +brought<br> +away. This brilliant charge was the first recorded instance of +cavalry<br> +being assailed by infantry in line.</p> + +<p>But the hill could no longer be held; the French were +advancing on either<br> +flank; overwhelming numbers pressed upon the front, and retreat +was<br> +unavoidable. The cavalry were ordered to the rear, and Picton's +Division,<br> +throwing themselves into squares, covered the retreating +movement.</p> + +<p>The French dragoons bore down upon every face of those devoted +battalions;<br> +the shouts of triumph cheered them as the earth trembled beneath +their<br> +charge,—but the British infantry, reserving their fire until the +sabres<br> +clanked with the bayonet, poured in a shattering volley, and the +cry of the<br> +wounded and the groans of the dying rose from the smoke around +them.</p> + +<p>Again and again the French came on; and the same fate ever +awaited then.<br> +The only movement in the British squares was closing up the +spaces as their<br> +comrades fell or sank wounded to the earth.</p> + +<p>At last reinforcements came up from the left; the whole +retreated across<br> +the plain, until as they approached Guenaldo, our cavalry, +having<br> +re-formed, came to their aid with one crushing charge, which +closed the<br> +day.</p> + +<p>That same night Lord Wellington fell back, and concentrating +his troops<br> +within a narrow loop of land bounded on either flank by the Coa, +awaited<br> +the arrival of the light division, which joined us at three in +the morning.</p> + +<p>The following day Marmont again made a demonstration of his +force, but no<br> +attack followed. The position was too formidable to be easily +assailed, and<br> +the experience of the preceding day had taught him that, however +inferior<br> +in numbers, the troops he was opposed to were as valiant as they +were ably<br> +commanded.</p> + +<p>Soon after this, Marmont retired on the valley of the Tagus. +Dorsenne also<br> +fell back, and for the present at least, no further effort was +made to<br> +prosecute the invasion of Portugal.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXXII.</p> + +<p>THE SAN PETRO.</p> + +<p>"Not badly wounded, O'Malley, I hope?" said General Crawfurd, +as I waited<br> +upon him soon after the action.</p> + +<p>I could not help starting at the question, while he repeated +it, pointing<br> +at the same time to my left shoulder, from which a stream of +blood was now<br> +flowing down my coat-sleeve.</p> + +<p>"I never noticed it, sir, till this moment. It can't be of +much<br> +consequence, for I have been on horseback the entire day, and +never felt<br> +it."</p> + +<p>"Look to it at once, boy; a man wants all his blood for this +campaign. Go<br> +to your quarters. I shall not need you for the present; so pray +see the<br> +doctor at once."</p> + +<p>As I left the general's quarters, I began to feel sensible of +pain, and<br> +before a quarter of an hour had elapsed, had quite convinced +myself that my<br> +wound was a severe one. The hand and arm were swollen, heavy, and +distended<br> +with hemorrhage beneath the skin, my thirst became great, and a +cold,<br> +shuddering sensation passed over me from time to time.</p> + +<p>I sat down for a moment upon the grass, and was just +reflecting within<br> +myself what course I should pursue, when I heard the tramp of +feet<br> +approaching. I looked up, and perceived some soldiers in fatigue +dresses,<br> +followed by a few others who, from their noiseless gestures and +sad<br> +countenances, I guessed were carrying some wounded comrade to the +rear.</p> + +<p>"Who is it, boys?" cried I.</p> + +<p>"It's the major, sir, the Lord be good to him!" said a +hardy-looking<br> +Eighty-eighth man, wiping his eye with the cuff of his coat as he +spoke.</p> + +<p>"Not your major? Not Major O'Shaughnessy?" said I, jumping up +and rushing<br> +forward towards the litter. Alas, too true, it was the gallant +fellow<br> +himself! There he lay, pale and cold; his bloodless cheek and +parted lips<br> +looking like death itself. A thin blue rivulet trickled from his +forehead,<br> +but his most serious wound appeared to be in the side; his coat +was open,<br> +and showed a mass of congealed and clotted blood, from the midst +of which,<br> +with every motion of the way, a fresh stream kept welling upward. +Whether<br> +from the shock or my loss of blood or from both together, I know +not, but I<br> +sank fainting to the ground.</p> + +<p>It would have needed a clearer brain and a cooler judgment +than I possessed<br> +to have conjectured where I was, and what had occurred to me, +when next<br> +I recovered my senses. Weak, fevered, and with a burning thirst, +I lay,<br> +unable to move, and could merely perceive the objects which lay +within the<br> +immediate reach of my vision. The place was cold, calm, and still +as the<br> +grave. A lamp, which hung high above my head, threw a faint light +around,<br> +and showed me, within a niche of the opposite wall, the figure of +a<br> +gorgeously dressed female; she appeared to be standing +motionless, but as<br> +the pale light flickered upon her features, I thought I could +detect the<br> +semblance of a smile. The splendor of her costume and the +glittering gems<br> +which shone upon her spotless robe gleamed through the darkness +with an<br> +almost supernatural brilliancy, and so beautiful did she look, so +calm her<br> +pale features, that as I opened and shut my eyes and rubbed my +lids, I<br> +scarcely dared to trust to my erring senses, and believe it could +be<br> +real. What could it mean? Whence this silence; this cold sense of +awe<br> +and reverence? Was it a dream; was it the fitful vision of a +disordered<br> +intellect? Could it be death? My eyes were riveted upon that +beautiful<br> +figure. I essayed to speak, but could not; I would have beckoned +her<br> +towards me, but my hands refused their office. I felt I know not +what charm<br> +she possessed to calm my throbbing brain and burning heart; but +as I turned<br> +from the gloom and darkness around to gaze upon her fair brow and +unmoved<br> +features, I felt like the prisoner who turns from the cheerless +desolation<br> +of his cell, and looks upon the fair world and the smiling +valleys lying<br> +sunlit and shadowed before him.</p> + +<p>Sleep at length came over me; and when I awoke, the day seemed +breaking,<br> +for a faint gray tint stole through a stained-glass window, and +fell in<br> +many colored patches upon the pavement. A low muttering sound +attracted me;<br> +I listened, it was Mike's voice. With difficulty raising myself +upon one<br> +arm, I endeavored to see more around me. Scarcely had I assumed +this<br> +position, when my eyes once more fell upon the white-clad figure +of the<br> +preceding night. At her feet knelt Mike, his hands clasped, and +his head<br> +bowed upon his bosom. Shall I confess my surprise, my +disappointment! It<br> +was no other than an image of the blessed Virgin, decked out in +all the<br> +gorgeous splendor which Catholic piety bestows upon her saints. +The<br> +features, which the imperfect light and my more imperfect +faculties had<br> +endowed with an expression of calm, angelic beauty, were, to my +waking<br> +senses, but the cold and barren mockery of loveliness; the eyes, +which my<br> +excited brain gifted with looks of tenderness and pity, stared +with no<br> +speculation in them; yet contrasting my feelings of the night +before, full<br> +as they were of, their deceptions, with my now waking thoughts, I +longed<br> +once more for that delusion which threw a dreamy pleasure over +me, and<br> +subdued the stormy passions of my soul into rest and repose.</p> + +<p>"Who knows," thought I, "but he who kneels yonder feels now as +I did then?<br> +Who can tell how little the cold, unmeaning reality before him +resembles<br> +the spiritualized creation the fervor of his love and the ardor +of his<br> +devotion may have placed upon that altar? Who can limit or bound +the depth<br> +of that adoration for an object whose attributes appeal not only +to every<br> +sentiment of the heart, but also to every sense of the brain? I +fancy<br> +that I can picture to myself how these tinselled relics, these +tasteless<br> +waxworks, changed by the magic of devotion and of dread, become +to the<br> +humble worshipper images of loveliness and beauty. The dim +religious light;<br> +the reverberating footsteps echoed along those solemn aisles; the +vaulted<br> +arches, into whose misty heights the sacred incense floats +upward, while<br> +the deep organ is pealing its notes of praise or prayer,—these +are no<br> +slight accessories to all the pomp and grandeur of a church whose +forms and<br> +ceremonial, unchanged for ages and hallowed by a thousand +associations,<br> +appeal to the mind of the humblest peasant or the proudest noble +by all the<br> +weaknesses as by all the more favored features of our +nature."</p> + +<p>How long I might have continued to meditate in this strain I +know not, when<br> +a muttered observation from Mike turned the whole current of my +thoughts.<br> +His devotion over, he had seated himself upon the steps of the +altar, and<br> +appeared to be resolving some doubts within himself concerning +his late<br> +pious duties.</p> + +<p>"Masses is dearer here than in Galway. Father Rush would be +well pleased<br> +at two-and-sixpence for what I paid three doubloons for, this +morning.<br> +And sure it's droll enough. How expensive an amusement it is to +kill the<br> +French! Here's half a dollar I gave for the soul of a cuirassier +that I<br> +kilt yesterday, and nearly twice as much for an artilleryman I +cut down at<br> +the guns; and because the villain swore like a heythen, Father +Pedro told<br> +me he'd cost more nor if he died like a decent man."</p> + +<p>At these words he turned suddenly round towards the Virgin, +and crossing<br> +himself devoutly, added,—</p> + +<p>And sure it's yourself knows if it's fair to make me pay for +devils that<br> +don't know their duties; and after all, if you don't understand +English nor<br> +Irish, I've been wasting my time here this two hours."</p> + +<p>"I say, Mike, how's my friend the major! How's Major +O'Shaughnessy?"</p> + +<p>"Charmingly, sir. It was only loss of blood that ailed him. A +thief with<br> +a pike—one of the chaps they call Poles, bekase of the long +sticks they<br> +carry with them—stuck the major in the ribs; but Doctor +Quill—God reward<br> +him! he's a great doctor and a funny divil too—he cured him in +no time."</p> + +<p>"And where is he now, Mike?"</p> + +<p>"Just convanient, in a small chapel off the sacristy; and +throuble enough<br> +we have to keep him quiet. He gave up the <i>con</i>fusion of roses, +and took<br> +to punch; and faith, it isn't hymns nor paslams [psalms] he's +singing all<br> +night. And they had me there, mixing materials and singing songs, +till I<br> +heard the bell for matins; and what between the punch and the +prayers, I<br> +never closed my eyes."</p> + +<p>"What do they call this convent?"</p> + +<p>"It is a hard word, I misremember. It's something like +saltpetre. But how's<br> +your honor? It's time to ask."</p> + +<p>"Much better, Mike, much better. But as I see that either your +drink or<br> +your devotion seems to have affected your nerves, you'd better +lie down for<br> +an hour or two. I shall not want you."</p> + +<p>"That's just what I can't; for you see I'm making a song for +this evening.<br> +The Rangers has a little supper, and I'm to be there; and though +I've made<br> +one, I'm not sure it'll do. May be your honor would give me your +opinion<br> +about it?"</p> + +<p>"With all my heart, Mike; let's hear it."</p> + +<p>"Arrah, is it here, before the Virgin and the two blessed +saints that's<br> +up there in the glass cases? But sure, when they make an hospital +of the<br> +place, and after the major's songs last night—"</p> + +<p>"Exactly so, Mike; out with it."</p> + +<p>"Well, Ma'am," said he, turning towards the Virgin, "as I +suspect you don't<br> +know English, may be you'll think it's my offices I'm singing. +So, saving<br> +your favor, here it is."</p> + +<p> MR. FREE'S SONG.</p> + +<p> AIR,—"<i>Arrah, Catty, now can't you be asy?</i>"</p> + +<p> Oh, what stories I'll tell when my sodgering's o'er,<br> + And the gallant Fourteenth is disbanded;<br> + Not a drill nor parade will I hear of no more,<br> + When safely in Ireland landed.<br> + With the blood that I spilt, the Frenchmen I kilt,<br> + I'll drive the young girls half crazy;<br> + And some cute one will cry, with a wink of her eye,<br> + "Mister Free, now <i>why can't you be asy?</i>"</p> + +<p> I'll tell how we routed the squadrons in fight,<br> + And destroyed them all at "Talavera,"<br> + And then I'll just add how we finished the night,<br> + In learning to dance the "bolera;"<br> + How by the moonshine we drank raal wine,<br> + And rose next day fresh as a daisy;<br> + Then some one will cry, with a look mighty sly,<br> + "Arrah, Mickey, <i>now can't you lie asy?</i>"</p> + +<p> I'll tell how the nights with Sir Arthur we spent,<br> + Around a big fire in the air too,<br> + Or may be enjoying ourselves in a tent,<br> + Exactly like Donnybrook fair too.<br> + How he'd call out to me: "Pass the wine, Mr. Free,<br> + For you're a man never is lazy!"<br> + Then some one will cry, with a wink of her eye,<br> + "Arrah, Mickey, dear, <i>can't you be asy?</i>"</p> + +<p> I'll tell, too, the long years in fighting we passed,<br> + Till Mounseer asked Bony to lead him;<br> + And Sir Arthur, grown tired of glory at last,<br> + Begged of one Mickey Free to succeed him.<br> + "But, acushla," says I, "the truth is I'm shy!<br> + There's a lady in Ballymacrazy!<br> + And I swore on the book—" He gave me a look,<br> + And cried: "Mickey, <i>now can't you be asy?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Arrah, Mickey, now can't you be <i>asy?</i>" sang out a voice in +chorus, and<br> +the next moment Dr. Quill himself made his appearance.</p> + +<p>"Well, O'Malley, is it a penitential psalm you're singing, or +is my friend<br> +Mike endeavoring to raise your spirits with a Galway sonata?"</p> + +<p>"A little bit of his own muse, Doctor, nothing more; but tell +me, how goes<br> +it with the major,—is the poor fellow out of danger?"</p> + +<p>"Except from the excess of his appetite, I know of no risk he +runs. His<br> +servant is making gruel for him all day in a thing like the +grog-tub of a<br> +frigate. But you've heard the news,—Sparks has been exchanged. +He came<br> +here last night; but the moment he caught sight of me, he took +his<br> +departure. Begad, I'm sure he'd rather pass a month in Verdun +than a week<br> +in my company!"</p> + +<p>"By-the-bye, Doctor, you never told me how this same antipathy +of Sparks<br> +for you had its origin."</p> + +<p>"Sure I drove him out of the Tenth before he was three weeks +with the<br> +regiment."</p> + +<p>"Ay, I remember; you began the story for me one night on the +retreat from<br> +the Coa, but something broke it off in the middle."</p> + +<p>"Just so, I was sent for to the rear to take off some +gentleman's legs that<br> +weren't in dancing condition; but as there's no fear of +interruption now,<br> +I'll finish the story. But first, let us have a peep at the +wounded. What<br> +beautiful anatomists they are in the French artillery! Do you +feel the<br> +thing I have now in my forceps? There,—don't jump,—that's a bit +of the<br> +brachial nerve most beautifully displayed. Faith, I think I'll +give Mike a<br> +demonstration."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mister Quill, dear! Oh, Doctor, darling!"</p> + +<p>"Arrah, Mickey, now can't ye be asy?" sang out Maurice, with a +perfect<br> +imitation of Mike's voice and manner.</p> + +<p>"A little lint here! Bend your arm,—that's it—Don't move +your fingers.<br> +Now, Mickey, make me a cup of coffee with a glass of brandy in +it. And now,<br> +Charley, for Sparks. I believe I told you what kind of fellows +the Tenth<br> +were,—regular out-and-outers. We hadn't three men in the +regiment that<br> +were not from the south of Ireland,—the <i>bocca Corkana</i> on their +lips, fun<br> +and devilment in their eyes, and more drollery and humbug in +their hearts<br> +than in all the messes in the service put together. No man had +any chance<br> +among them if he wasn't a real droll one; every man wrote his own +songs and<br> +sang them too. It was no small promotion could tempt a fellow to +exchange<br> +out of the corps. You may think, then, what a prize your friend +Sparks<br> +proved to us; we held a court-martial upon him the week after he +joined. It<br> +was proved in evidence that he had never said a good thing in his +life,<br> +and had about as much notion of a joke as a Cherokee has of the +Court of<br> +Chancery; and as to singing, Lord bless you, he had a tune with +wooden<br> +turns to it,—it was most cruel to hear; and then the look of +him, those<br> +eyes, like dropsical oysters, and the hair standing every way, +like a field<br> +of insane flax, and the mouth with a curl in it like the slit in +the side<br> +of a fiddle. A pleasant fellow that for a mess that always +boasted the<br> +best-looking chaps in the service.</p> + +<p>"'What's to be done with him?' said the major; 'shall we tell +him we are<br> +ordered to India, and terrify him about his liver?'</p> + +<p>"'Or drill him into a hectic fever?'</p> + +<p>"'Or drink him dry?'</p> + +<p>"'Or get him into a fight and wing him?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, no,' said I, 'leave him to me; we'll laugh him out of +the corps.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, we'll leave him to you, Maurice,' said the rest.</p> + +<p>"And that day week you might read in the 'Gazette,' 'Pierce +Flynn<br> +O'Haygerty, to be Ensign, 10th Foot, <i>vice</i> Sparks, +exchanged.'"</p> + +<p>"But how was it done, Maurice; you haven't told me that."</p> + +<p>"Nothing easier. I affected great intimacy with Sparks, +bemoaned our hard<br> +fate, mutually, in being attached to such a regiment: 'A damnable +corps<br> +this,—low, vulgar fellows, practical jokes; not the kind of +thing one<br> +expects in the army. But as for me, I've joined it partly from +necessity.<br> +You, however, who might be in a crack regiment, I can't conceive +your<br> +remaining in it.'</p> + +<p>"'But why did you join, Doctor?' said he; 'what necessity +could have<br> +induced you?'</p> + +<p>"'Ah, my friend,' said I, '<i>that</i> is the secret,—<i>that</i> is +the hidden<br> +grief that must lie buried in my own bosom.'</p> + +<p>"I saw that his curiosity was excited, and took every means to +increase it<br> +farther. At length, as if yielding to a sudden impulse of +friendship, and<br> +having sworn him to secrecy, I took him aside, and began +thus,—</p> + +<p>"'I may trust you, Sparks, I feel I may; and when I tell you +that my<br> +honor, my reputation, my whole fortune is at stake, you will +judge of the<br> +importance of the trust.'</p> + +<p>"The goggle eyes rolled fearfully, and his features exhibited +the most<br> +craving anxiety to hear my story.</p> + +<p>"'You wish to know why I left the Fifty-sixth. Now I'll tell +you; but mind,<br> +you're pledged, you're sworn, never to divulge it.'</p> + +<p>"'Honor bright.'</p> + +<p>"'There, that's enough; I'm satisfied. It was a slight +infraction of the<br> +articles of war; a little breach of the rules and regulations of +the<br> +service; a trifling misconception of the mess code,—they caught +me one<br> +evening leaving the mess with—What do you think in my pocket? +But<br> +you'll never tell! No, no, I know you'll not; eight forks and +a<br> +gravy-spoon,—silver forks every one of them. There now,' said I, +grasping<br> +his hand, 'you have my secret; my fame and character are in your +hands, for<br> +you see they made me quit the regiment,—a man can't stay in a +corps where<br> +he is laughed at.'</p> + +<p>"Covering my face with my handkerchief, as if to conceal my +shame, I turned<br> +away, and left Sparks to his meditations. That same evening we +happened to<br> +have some strangers at mess; the bottle was passing freely round, +and as<br> +usual the good spirits of the party at the top of their bent, +when suddenly<br> +from the lower end of the table, a voice was heard demanding, in +tones of<br> +the most pompous importance, permission to address the president +upon a<br> +topic where the honor of the whole regiment was concerned.</p> + +<p>"'I rise, gentlemen,' said Mr. Sparks, 'with feelings the most +painful;<br> +whatever may have been the laxity of habit and freedom of +conversation<br> +habitual in this regiment, I never believed that so flagrant an +instance as<br> +this morning came to my ears—'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, murder!' said I. 'Oh, Sparks, darling, sure you're not +going to<br> +tell?'</p> + +<p>"'Doctor Quill,' replied he, in an austere tone, 'it is +impossible for me<br> +to conceal it.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, Sparks, dear, will you betray me?'</p> + +<p>"I gave him here a look of the most imploring entreaty, to +which he replied<br> +by one of unflinching sternness.</p> + +<p>"'I have made up my mind, sir,' continued he; 'it is possible +the officers<br> +of this corps may look more leniently than I do upon this +transaction; but<br> +know it they shall.'</p> + +<p>"'Out with it, Sparks; tell it by all means!' cried a number +of voices; for<br> +it was clear to every one, by this time, that he was involved in +a hoax.</p> + +<p>"Amidst, therefore, a confused volley of entreaty on one side, +and my<br> +reiterated prayers for his silence, on the other, Sparks thus +began:—</p> + +<p>"'Are you aware, gentlemen, why Dr. Quill left the +Fifty-sixth?'</p> + +<p>"'No, no, no!' rang from all sides; 'let's have it!'</p> + +<p>"'No, sir,' said he, turning towards me, 'concealment is +impossible; an<br> +officer detected with the mess-plate in his pocket—'</p> + +<p>"They never let him finish, for a roar of laughter shook the +table from one<br> +end to the other; while Sparks, horror-struck at the lack of +feeling and<br> +propriety that could make men treat such a matter with ridicule, +glared<br> +around him on every side.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, Maurice, Maurice!' cried the major, wiping his eyes, +'this is too<br> +bad; this is too bad!'</p> + +<p>"'Gracious Heaven!' screamed Sparks, 'can you laugh at +it?'</p> + +<p>"'Laugh at it!' re-echoed the paymaster, 'God grant I only +don't burst a<br> +blood-vessel!' And once more the sounds of merriment rang out +anew, and<br> +lasted for several minutes.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, Maurice Quill,' cried an old captain, 'you've been too +heavy on the<br> +lad. Why, Sparks, man, he's been humbugging you.'</p> + +<p>"Scarcely were the words spoken when he sprang from the room. +The whole<br> +truth flashed at once upon his mind; in an instant he saw that he +had<br> +exposed himself to the merciless ridicule of a mess-table and +that all<br> +peace for him, in that regiment at least, was over.</p> + +<p>"We got a glorious fellow in exchange for him; and Sparks +descended into<br> +a cavalry regiment,—I ask your pardon, Charley,—where, as you +are well<br> +aware, sharp wit and quick intellect are by no means +indispensable. There<br> +now, don't be angry or you'll do yourself harm. So good-by, for +an hour or<br> +two."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXXIII.</p> + +<p>THE COUNT'S LETTER.</p> + +<p>O'Shaughnessy's wound, like my own, was happily only +formidable from the<br> +loss of blood. The sabre or the lance are rarely, indeed, so +death-dealing<br> +as the musket or the bayonet; and the murderous fire from a +square of<br> +infantry is far more terrific in its consequences than the +heaviest charge<br> +of a cavalry column. In a few weeks, therefore, we were once more +about and<br> +fit for duty; but for the present the campaign was ended. The +rainy season<br> +with its attendant train of sickness and sorrow set in. The +troops were<br> +cantoned along the line of the frontier,—the infantry occupying +the<br> +villages, and the cavalry being stationed wherever forage could +be<br> +obtained.</p> + +<p>The Fourteenth were posted at Avintas, but I saw little of +them. I was<br> +continually employed upon the staff; and as General Crawfurd's +activity<br> +suffered no diminution from the interruption of the campaign, +rarely passed<br> +a day without eight or nine hours on horseback.</p> + +<p>The preparations for the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo occupied our +undivided<br> +attention. To the reduction of this fortress and of Badajos, +Lord<br> +Wellington looked as the most important objects, and prosecuted +his plans<br> +with unremitting zeal. To my staff appointment I owed the +opportunity of<br> +witnessing that stupendous feature of war, a siege; and as many +of my<br> +friends formed part of the blockading force, I spent more than +one night in<br> +the trenches. Indeed, except for this, the tiresome monotony of +life was<br> +most irksome at this period. Day after day the incessant rain +poured down.<br> +The supplies were bad, scanty, and irregular; the hospitals +crowded with<br> +sick; field-sports impracticable; books there were none; and a +dulness and<br> +spiritless depression prevailed on every side. Those who were +actively<br> +engaged around Ciudad Rodrigo had, of course, the excitement and +interest<br> +which the enterprise involved: but even there the works made slow +progress.<br> +The breaching artillery was defective in every way: the rain +undermined the<br> +faces of the bastions; the clayey soil sank beneath the weight of +the heavy<br> +guns; and the storms of one night frequently destroyed more than +a whole<br> +week's labor had effected.</p> + +<p>Thus passed the dreary months along; the cheeriest and gayest +among us<br> +broken in spirit, and subdued in heart by the tedium of our life. +The very<br> +news which reached us partook of the gloomy features of our +prospects. We<br> +heard only of strong reinforcements marching to the support of +the French<br> +in Estramadura. We were told that the Emperor, whose successes in +Germany<br> +enabled him to turn his entire attention to the Spanish campaign, +would<br> +himself be present in the coming spring, with overwhelming odds +and a firm<br> +determination to drive us from the Peninsula.</p> + +<p>In that frame of mind which such gloomy and depressing +prospects are well<br> +calculated to suggest, I was returning one night to my quarters +at Mucia,<br> +when suddenly I beheld Mike galloping towards me with a large +packet in his<br> +hand, which he held aloft to catch my attention. "Letters from +England,<br> +sir," said he, "just arrived with the general's despatches." I +broke the<br> +envelope at once, which bore the war-office seal, and as I did +so, a<br> +perfect avalanche of letters fell at my feet. The first which +caught my eye<br> +was an official intimation from the Horse Guards that the Prince +Regent had<br> +been graciously pleased to confirm my promotion to the troop, my +commission<br> +to bear date from the appointment, etc., etc. I could not help +feeling<br> +struck, as my eye ran rapidly across the lines, that although the +letter<br> +came from Sir George Dashwood's office, it contained not a word +of<br> +congratulation nor remembrance on his part, but was couched in +the usual<br> +cold and formal language of an official document. Impatient, +however, to<br> +look over my other letters, I thought but little of this; so, +throwing them<br> +hurriedly into my sabretasche, I cantered on to my quarters +without delay.<br> +Once more alone in silence, I sat down to commune with my far-off +friends,<br> +and yet with all my anxiety to hear of home, passed several +minutes in<br> +turning over the letters, guessing from whom they might have +come, and<br> +picturing to myself their probable contents. "Ah, Frank Webber, I +recognize<br> +your slap-dash, bold hand without the aid of the initials in the +corner;<br> +and this—what can this be?—this queer, misshapen thing, +representing<br> +nothing save the forty-seventh proposition of Euclid, and the +address<br> +seemingly put on with a cat's-tail dipped in lampblack? Yes, true +enough,<br> +it is from Mister Free himself. And what have we here? This +queer, quaint<br> +hand is no new acquaintance; how many a time have I looked upon +it as the<br> +<i>ne plus ultra</i> of caligraphy! But here is one I'm not so sure +of. Who<br> +could have written this bolt-upright, old-fashioned +superscription, not<br> +a letter of which seems on speaking terms with its neighbor? The +very O<br> +absolutely turns its back upon the M in O'Malley, and the final Y +wags his<br> +tail with a kind of independent shake, as if he did not care a +curse for<br> +his predecessors! And the seal, too,—surely I know that +griffin's head,<br> +and that stern motto, <i>Non rogo sed capio</i>. To be sure, it is +Billy<br> +Considine's, the count himself. The very paper, yellow and +time-stained,<br> +looks coeval with his youth; and I could even venture to wager +that his<br> +sturdy pen was nibbed half a century since. I'll not look farther +among<br> +this confused mass of three-cornered billets, and long, +treacherous-looking<br> +epistles, the very folding of which denote the dun. Here goes for +the<br> +count!" So saying to myself, I drew closer to the fire, and began +the<br> +following epistle:—</p> + +<p> O'MALLEY CASTLE, November 3.</p> + +<p> Dear Charley,—Here we sit in the little parlor with your +last<br> + letter, the "Times," and a big map before us, drinking your +health,<br> + and wishing you a long career of the same glorious success +you have<br> + hitherto enjoyed. Old as I am—eighty-two or eighty-three (I +forget<br> + which) in June—I envy you with all my heart. Luck has +stood<br> + to you, my boy; and if a French sabre or a bayonet finish you +now,<br> + you've at least had a splendid burst of it. I was right in my +opinion<br> + of you, and Godfrey himself owns it now,—a lawyer, indeed! +Bad<br> + luck to them! we've had enough of lawyers. There's old +Hennesy,—honest<br> + Jack, as they used to call him,—that your uncle trusted<br> + for the last forty years, has raised eighteen thousand pounds +on the<br> + title-deeds, and gone off to America. The old scoundrel! But +it's<br> + no use talking; the blow is a sore one to Godfrey, and the +gout<br> + more troublesome than ever. Drumgold is making a motion +in<br> + Chancery about it, to break the sale, and the tenants are in +open<br> + rebellion and swear they'll murther a receiver, if one is +sent down<br> + among them. Indeed, they came in such force into Galway +during<br> + the assizes, and did so much mischief, that the cases for +trial were<br> + adjourned, and the judges left with a military escort to +protect them.<br> + This, of course, is gratifying to our feelings; for, thank +Providence,<br> + there is some good in the world yet. Kilmurry was sold last +week<br> + for twelve thousand. Andy Blake would foreclose the +mortgage,<br> + although we offered him every kind of satisfaction. This has +done<br> + Godfrey a deal of harm; and some pitiful economy—taking +only<br> + two bottles of claret after his dinner—has driven the gout +to his<br> + head. They've been telling him he'd lengthen his days by +this, and<br> + I tried it myself, and, faith, it was the longest day I ever +spent in<br> + my life. I hope and trust you take your liquor like a +gentleman and<br> + an Irish gentleman.</p> + +<p> Kinshela, we hear, has issued an execution against the +house and<br> + furniture; but the attempt to sell the demesne nearly killed +your<br> + uncle. It was advertised in a London paper, and an offer made +for it<br> + by an old general whom you may remember when down here. +Indeed,<br> + if I mistake not, he was rather kind to you in the beginning. +It<br> + would appear he did not wish to have his name known, but we +found<br> + him out, and such a letter as we sent him! It's little liking +he'll<br> + have to buy a Galway gentleman's estate over his head, that +same Sir<br> + George Dashwood! Godfrey offered to meet him anywhere he<br> + pleased, and if the doctor thought he could bear the sea +voyage,<br> + he'd even go over to Holyhead; but the sneaking fellow sent +an<br> + apologetic kind of a letter, with some humbug excuse about +very<br> + different motives, etc. But we've done with him, and I think +he<br> + with us.</p> + +<p>When I had read thus far, I laid down the letter, unable to go +on; the<br> +accumulated misfortunes of one I loved best in the world, +following so fast<br> +one upon another, the insult—unprovoked, gratuitous insult—to +him upon<br> +whom my hopes of future happiness so much depended, completely +overwhelmed<br> +me. I tried to continue. Alas, the catalogue of evils went on; +each line<br> +bore testimony to some farther wreck of fortune, some clearer +evidence of a<br> +ruined house.</p> + +<p>All that my gloomiest and darkest forebodings had pictured was +come to<br> +pass; sickness, poverty, harassing unfeeling creditors, +treachery, and<br> +ingratitude were goading to madness and despair a spirit whose +kindliness<br> +of nature was unequalled. The shock of blasted fortunes was +falling upon<br> +the dying heart; the convictions which a long life had never +brought<br> +home—that men were false and their words a lie—were stealing +over the<br> +man upon the brink of the grave; and he who had loved his +neighbor like a<br> +brother was to be taught, at the eleventh hour, that the beings +he trusted<br> +were perjured and forsworn.</p> + +<p>A more unsuitable adviser than Considine, in difficulties like +these, there<br> +could not be; his very contempt for all the forms of law and +justice was<br> +sufficient to embroil my poor uncle still farther; so that I +resolved at<br> +once to apply for leave, and if refused, and no other alternative +offered,<br> +to leave the service. It was not without a sense of sorrow +bordering on<br> +despair, that I came to this determination. My soldier's life had +become<br> +a passion with me. I loved it for its bold and chivalrous +enthusiasm, its<br> +hour of battle and strife, its days of endurance and hardship, +its trials,<br> +its triumphs; its very reverses were endeared by those they were +shared<br> +with; and the spirit of adventure and the love of danger—that +most<br> +exciting of all gambling—had now entwined themselves in my very +nature. To<br> +surrender all these at once, and to exchange the daily, hourly +enthusiasm<br> +of a campaign for the prospects now before me, was almost +maddening. But<br> +still a sustaining sense of duty of what I owed to him, who, in +his love,<br> +had sacrificed all for me, overpowered every other consideration. +My mind<br> +was made up.</p> + +<p>Father Rush's letter was little more than a recapitulation of +the count's.<br> +Debt, distress, sickness, and the heart-burnings of altered +fortunes filled<br> +it; and when I closed it, I felt like one over all whose views in +life a<br> +dark and ill-omened cloud was closing forever. Webber's I could +not read;<br> +the light and cheerful raillery of a friend would have seemed, at +such a<br> +time, like the cold, unfeeling sarcasm of an enemy. I sat down at +last to<br> +write to the general, enclosing my application for leave, and +begging of<br> +him to forward it, with a favorable recommendation, to +headquarters.</p> + +<p>This done, I lay down upon my bed, and overcome by fatigue and +fretting,<br> +fell asleep to dream of my home and those I had left there; +which,<br> +strangely too, were presented to my mind with all the happy +features that<br> +made them so dear to my infancy.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXXIV.</p> + +<p>THE TRENCHES.</p> + +<p>"I have not had time, O'Malley, to think of your application," +said<br> +Crawfurd, "nor is it likely I can for a day or two. Read that." +So saying,<br> +he pushed towards me a note, written, in pencil, which ran +thus:—</p> + +<p> CIUDAD RODRIGO, December 18.</p> + +<p> Dear C.,—Fletcher tells me that the breaches will be +practicable<br> + by to-morrow evening, and I think so myself. Come over, then, +at<br> + once, for we shall not lose any time.</p> + +<p> Yours, W.</p> + +<p>"I have some despatches for your regiment, but if you prefer +coming along<br> +with me—"</p> + +<p>"My dear General, dare I ask for such a favor?"</p> + +<p>"Well, come along; only remember that, although my division +will be<br> +engaged, I cannot promise you anything to do. So now, get your +horses<br> +ready; let's away."</p> + +<p>It was in the afternoon of the following day that we rode into +the large<br> +plain before Ciudad Rodrigo, and in which the allied armies were +now<br> +assembled to the number of twelve thousand men. The loud booming +of<br> +the siege artillery had been heard by me for some hours before; +but<br> +notwithstanding this prelude and my own high-wrought +expectations, I<br> +was far from anticipating the magnificent spectacle which burst +upon my<br> +astonished view. The air was calm and still; a clear, blue, +wintry sky<br> +stretched overhead, but below, the dense blue smoke of the +deafening guns<br> +rolled in mighty volumes along the earth, and entirely concealed +the lower<br> +part of the fortress; above this the tall towers and battlemented +parapets<br> +rose into the thin, transparent sky like fairy palaces. A bright +flash of<br> +flame would now and then burst forth from the walls, and a +clanging crash<br> +of the brass metal be heard; but the unceasing roll of our +artillery nearly<br> +drowned all other sounds, save when a loud cheer would burst from +the<br> +trenches, while the clattering fall of masonry, and the crumbling +stones<br> +as they rolled down, bespoke the reason of the cry. The utmost +activity<br> +prevailed on all sides; troops pressed forward to the reliefs in +the<br> +parallels; ammunition wagons moved to the front; general and +staff officers<br> +rode furiously about the plain; and all betokened that the hour +of attack<br> +was no longer far distant.</p> + +<p>While all parties were anxiously awaiting the decision of our +chief, the<br> +general order was made known, which, after briefly detailing the +necessary<br> +arrangements, concluded with the emphatic words, "Ciudad Rodrigo +<i>must</i> be<br> +stormed to-night." All speculation as to the troops to be engaged +in this<br> +daring enterprise was soon at an end; for with his characteristic +sense of<br> +duty, Lord Wellington made no invidious selection, but merely +commanded<br> +that the attack should be made by whatever divisions might chance +to be<br> +that day in the trenches. Upon the Third and Light Divisions, +therefore,<br> +this glorious task devolved. The former was to attack the main +breach;<br> +to Crawfurd's Division was assigned the, if possible, more +difficult<br> +enterprise of carrying the lesser one; while Pack's Portuguese +Brigade were<br> +to menace the convent of La Caridad by a feint attack, to be +converted into<br> +a real one, if circumstances should permit.</p> + +<p>The decision, however matured and comprehensive in all its +details, was<br> +finally adopted so suddenly that every staff officer upon the +ground was<br> +actively engaged during the entire evening in conveying the +orders to the<br> +different regiments. As the day drew to a close, the cannonade +slackened on<br> +either side, a solitary gun would be heard at intervals, and in +the calm<br> +stillness around, its booming thunder re-echoed along the valleys +of the<br> +Sierra; but as the moon rose and night set in, these were no +longer heard,<br> +and a perfect stillness and tranquillity prevailed around. Even +in the<br> +trenches, crowded with armed and anxious soldiers, not a whisper +was heard;<br> +and amidst that mighty host which filled the plain, the tramp of +a patrol<br> +could be distinctly noted, and the hoarse voice of the French +sentry upon<br> +the walls, telling that all was well in Ciudad Rodrigo.</p> + +<p>The massive fortress, looming larger as its dark shadow stood +out from the<br> +sky, was still as the grave; while in the greater breach a faint +light was<br> +seen to twinkle for a moment, and then suddenly to disappear, +leaving all<br> +gloomy and dark as before.</p> + +<p>Having been sent with orders to the Third Division, of which +the<br> +Eighty-eighth formed a part, I took the opportunity of finding +out<br> +O'Shaughnessy, who was himself to lead an escalade party in +M'Kinnon's<br> +Brigade. He sprang towards me as I came forward, and grasping my +hand with<br> +a more than usual earnestness, called out, "The very man I +wanted! Charley,<br> +my boy, do us a service now!"</p> + +<p>Before I could reply, he continued in a lower tone, "A young +fellow of<br> +ours, Harry Beauclerc, has been badly wounded in the trenches; +but by some<br> +blunder, his injury is reported as a slight one, and although the +poor<br> +fellow can scarcely stand, he insists upon going with the +stormers."</p> + +<p>"Come here, Major, come here!" cried a voice at a little +distance.</p> + +<p>"Follow me, O'Malley," cried O'Shaughnessy, moving in the +direction of the<br> +speaker.</p> + +<p>By the light of a lantern we could descry two officers +kneeling upon the<br> +ground; between them on the grass lay the figure of a third, upon +whose<br> +features, as the pale light fell, the hand of death seemed +rapidly<br> +stealing. A slight froth, tinged with blood, rested on his lip, +and the<br> +florid blood which stained the buff facing of his uniform +indicated that<br> +his wound was through the lungs.</p> + +<p>"He has fainted," said one of the officers, in a low tone.</p> + +<p>"Are you certain it is fainting?" said the other, in a still +lower.</p> + +<p>"You see how it is, Charley," said O'Shaughnessy; "this poor +boy must be<br> +carried to the rear. Will you then, like a kind fellow, hasten +back to<br> +Colonel Campbell and mention the fact. It will kill Beauclerc +should any<br> +doubt rest upon his conduct, if he ever recover this."</p> + +<p>While he spoke, four soldiers of the regiment placed the +wounded officer in<br> +a blanket. A long sigh escaped him, and he muttered a few broken +words.</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow, it's his mother he's talking of! He only joined +a month<br> +since, and is a mere boy. Come, O'Malley, lose no time. By Jove! +it is too<br> +late; there goes the first rocket for the columns to form. In ten +minutes<br> +more the stormers must fall in."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Giles?" said he to one of the officers, +who had stopped<br> +the soldiers as they were moving off with their burden,—"what is +it?"</p> + +<p>"I have been cutting the white tape off his arm; for if he +sees it on<br> +waking, he'll remember all about the storming."</p> + +<p>"Quite right—thoughtfully done!" said the other; "but who is +to lead his<br> +fellows? He was in the forlorn hope."</p> + +<p>"I'll do it," cried I, with eagerness. "Come, O'Shaughnessy, +you'll not<br> +refuse me."</p> + +<p>"Refuse you, boy!" said he, grasping my hand within both of +his, "never!<br> +But you must change your coat. The gallant Eighty-eighth will +never mistake<br> +their countryman's voice. But your uniform would be devilish +likely to get<br> +you a bayonet through it; so come back with me, and we'll make +you a Ranger<br> +in no time."</p> + +<p>"I can give your friend a cap."</p> + +<p>"And I," said the other, "a brandy flask, which, after all, is +not the<br> +worst part of a storming equipage."</p> + +<p>"I hope," said O'Shaughnessy, "they may find Maurice in the +rear.<br> +Beauclerc's all safe in his hands."</p> + +<p>"That they'll not," said Giles, "you may swear. Quill is this +moment in the<br> +trenches, and will not be the last man at the breach."</p> + +<p>"Follow me now, lads," said O'Shaughnessy, in a low voice. +"Our fellows are<br> +at the angle of this trench. Who the deuce can that be, talking +so loud?"</p> + +<p>"It must be Maurice," said Giles.</p> + +<p>The question was soon decided by the doctor himself, who +appeared giving<br> +directions to his hospital-sergeant.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Peter, take the tools up to a convenient spot near the +breach.<br> +There's many a snug corner there in the ruins; and although we +mayn't have<br> +as good an operation-room as in old 'Steevens's,' yet we'll beat +them<br> +hollow in cases."</p> + +<p>"Listen to the fellow," said Giles, with a shudder. "The +thought of his<br> +confounded thumbscrews and tourniquets is worse to me than a +French<br> +howitzer."</p> + +<p>"The devil a kinder-hearted fellow than Maurice," said +O'Shaughnessy, "for<br> +all that; and if his heart was to be known this moment, he'd +rather handle<br> +a sword than a saw."</p> + +<p>"True for you, Dennis," said Quill, overhearing him, "but we +are both<br> +useful in our way, as the hangman said to Lord Clare."</p> + +<p>"But should you not be in the rear, Maurice?" said I.</p> + +<p>"You are right, O'Malley," said he, in a whisper; "but, you +see, I owe the<br> +Cork Insurance Company a spite for making me pay a gout premium, +and that's<br> +the reason I'm here. I warned them at the time that their +stinginess would<br> +come to no good."</p> + +<p>"I say, Captain O'Malley," said Giles, "I find I can't be as +good as my<br> +word with you; my servant has moved to the rear with all my +traps."</p> + +<p>"What is to be done?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Is it shaving utensils you want?" said Maurice. "Would a +scalpel serve<br> +your turn?"</p> + +<p>"No, Doctor, I'm going to take a turn of duty with your +fellows to-night."</p> + +<p>"In the breach, with the stormers?"</p> + +<p>"With the forlorn hope," said O'Shaughnessy. "Beauclerc is so +badly wounded<br> +that we've sent him back; and Charley, like a good fellow, has +taken his<br> +place."</p> + +<p>"Martin told me," said Maurice, "that Beauclerc was only +stunned; but,<br> +upon my conscience, the hospital-mates, now-a-days, are no better +than the<br> +watchmakers; they can't tell what's wrong with the instrument +till they<br> +pick it to pieces. Whiz! there goes a blue light."</p> + +<p>"Move on, move on," whispered O'Shaughnessy; "they're telling +off the<br> +stormers. That rocket is the order to fall in."</p> + +<p>"But what am I to do for a coat?"</p> + +<p>"Take mine, my boy," said Maurice, throwing off an upper +garment of coarse<br> +gray frieze as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"There's a neat bit of uniform," continued he, turning himself +round for<br> +our admiration; "don't I look mighty like the pictures of George +the First<br> +at the battle of Dettingen!"</p> + +<p>A burst of approving laughter was our only answer to this +speech, while<br> +Maurice proceeded to denude himself of his most extraordinary +garment.</p> + +<p>"What, in the name of Heaven, is it?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Don't despise it, Charley; it knows the smell of gunpowder as +well as any<br> +bit of scarlet in the service;" while he added, in a whisper, +"it's the<br> +ould Roscommon Yeomanry. My uncle commanded them in the year '42, +and this<br> +was his coat. I don't mean to say that it was new then; for you +see it's a<br> +kind of heirloom in the Quill family, and it's not every one I'd +be giving<br> +it to."</p> + +<p>"A thousand thanks, Maurice," said I, as I buttoned it on, +amidst an<br> +ill-suppressed titter of laughter.</p> + +<p>"It fits you like a sentry-box," said Maurice, as he surveyed +me with a<br> +lantern. "The skirts separate behind in the most picturesque +manner; and<br> +when you button the collar, it will keep your head up so high +that the<br> +devil a bit you'll see except the blessed moon. It's a thousand +pities you<br> +haven't the three-cocked hat with the feather trimming. If you +wouldn't<br> +frighten the French, my name's not Maurice. Turn about here till +I admire<br> +you. If you only saw yourself in a glass, you'd never join the +dragoons<br> +again. And look now, don't be exposing yourself, for I wouldn't +have those<br> +blue facings destroyed for a week's pay."</p> + +<p>"Ah, then, it's yourself is the darling, Doctor, dear!" said a +voice behind<br> +me. I turned round; it was Mickey Free, who was standing with a +most<br> +profound admiration of Maurice beaming in every feature of his +face. "It's<br> +yourself has a joke for every hour o' the day."</p> + +<p>"Get to the rear, Mike, get to the rear with the cattle; this +is no place<br> +for you or them."</p> + +<p>"Good-night, Mickey," said Maurice.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, your honor," muttered Mike to himself; "may I +never die till<br> +you set a leg for me."</p> + +<p>"Are you dressed for the ball?" said Maurice, fastening the +white tape upon<br> +my arm. "There now, my boy, move on, for I think I hear Picton's +voice; not<br> +that it signifies now, for he's always in a heavenly temper when +any one's<br> +going to be killed. I'm sure he'd behave like an angel, if he +only knew the<br> +ground was mined under his feet."</p> + +<p>"Charley, Charley!" called out O'Shaughnessy, in a suppressed +voice, "come<br> +up quickly!"</p> + +<p>"No. 24, John Forbes—here! Edward Gillespie—here!"</p> + +<p>"Who leads this party, Major O'Shaughnessy?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Beauclerc, sir," replied O'Shaughnessy, pushing me +forward by the arm<br> +while he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Keep your people together, sir; spare the powder, and trust +to your cold<br> +iron." He grasped my hand within his iron grip, and rode on.</p> + +<p>"Who was it, Dennis?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know him, Charley? That was Picton."</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXXV.</p> + +<p>THE STORMING OF CIUDAD RODRIGO.</p> + +<p>Whatever the levity of the previous moment, the scene before +us now<br> +repressed it effectually. The deep-toned bell of the cathedral +tolled<br> +seven, and scarcely were its notes dying away in the distance, +when the<br> +march of the columns was heard stealing along the ground. A low +murmuring<br> +whisper ran along the advanced files of the forlorn hope; stocks +were<br> +loosened; packs and knapsacks thrown to the ground; each man +pressed his<br> +cap more firmly down upon his brow, and with lip compressed and +steadfast<br> +eye, waited for the word to move.</p> + +<p>It came at last: the word "March!" passed in whispers from +rank to rank,<br> +and the dark mass moved on. What a moment was that as we advanced +to the<br> +foot of the breach! The consciousness that at the same instant, +from<br> +different points of that vast plain, similar parties were moving +on; the<br> +feeling that at a word the flame of the artillery and the flash +of steel<br> +would spring from that dense cloud, and death and carnage, in +every shape<br> +our imagination can conceive, be dealt on all sides; the hurried, +fitful<br> +thought of home; the years long past compressed into one minute's +space;<br> +the last adieu of all we've loved, mingling with the muttered +prayer to<br> +Heaven, while, high above all, the deep pervading sense that +earth has no<br> +temptation strong enough to turn us from that path whose ending +must be a<br> +sepulchre!</p> + +<p>Each heart was too full for words. We followed noiselessly +along the turf,<br> +the dark figure of our leader guiding us through the gloom. On +arriving<br> +at the ditch, the party with the ladders moved to the front. +Already some<br> +hay-packs were thrown in, and the forlorn hope sprang +forward.</p> + +<p>All was still and silent as the grave. "Quietly, my men, +quietly!" said<br> +M'Kinnon; "don't press." Scarcely had he spoken when a musket +whose charge,<br> +contrary to orders, had not been drawn, went off. The whizzing +bullet could<br> +not have struck the wall, when suddenly a bright flame burst +forth from the<br> +ramparts, and shot upward towards the sky. For an instant the +whole scene<br> +before us was bright as noonday. On one side, the dark ranks and +glistening<br> +bayonets of the enemy; on the other, the red uniform of the +British<br> +columns: compressed like some solid wall, they stretched along +the plain.</p> + +<p>A deafening roll of musketry from the extreme right announced +that the<br> +Third Division was already in action, while the loud cry of our +leader, as<br> +he sprang into the trench, summoned us to the charge. The leading +sections,<br> +not waiting for the ladders, jumped down, others pressing rapidly +behind<br> +them, when a loud rumbling thunder crept along the earth, a +hissing,<br> +crackling noise followed, and from the dark ditch a forked and +livid<br> +lightning burst like the flame from a volcano, and a mine +exploded.<br> +Hundreds of shells and grenades scattered along the ground were +ignited at<br> +the same moment; the air sparkled with the whizzing fuses, the +musketry<br> +plied incessantly from the walls, and every man of the leading +company<br> +of the stormers was blown to pieces. While this dreadful +catastrophe was<br> +enacting before our eyes, the different assaults were made on all +sides;<br> +the whole fortress seemed girt around with fire. From every part +arose the<br> +yells of triumph and the shouts of the assailants. As for us, we +stood upon<br> +the verge of the ditch, breathless, hesitating, and +horror-struck. A sudden<br> +darkness succeeded to the bright glare, but from the midst of the +gloom the<br> +agonizing cries of the wounded and the dying rent our very +hearts.</p> + +<p>"Make way there! make way! here comes Mackie's party," cried +an officer<br> +in the front, and as he spoke the forlorn hope of the +Eighty-eighth came<br> +forward at a run; jumping recklessly into the ditch, they made +towards the<br> +breach; the supporting division of the stormers gave one +inspiring cheer,<br> +and sprang after them. The rush was tremendous; for scarcely had +we reached<br> +the crumbling ruins of the rampart, when the vast column, +pressing on like<br> +some mighty torrent, bore down upon our rear. Now commenced a +scene to<br> +which nothing I ever before conceived of war could in any degree +compare:<br> +the whole ground, covered with combustibles of every deadly and +destructive<br> +contrivance, was rent open with a crash; the huge masses of +masonry bounded<br> +into the air like things of no weight; the ringing clangor of the +iron<br> +howitzers, the crackling of the fuses, the blazing splinters, the +shouts of<br> +defiance, the more than savage yell of those in whose ranks alone +the dead<br> +and the dying were numbered, made up a mass of sights and sounds +almost<br> +maddening with their excitement. On we struggled; the mutilated +bodies of<br> +the leading files almost filling the way.</p> + +<p>By this time the Third Division had joined us, and the crush +of our<br> +thickening ranks was dreadful; every moment some well-known +leader fell<br> +dead or mortally wounded, and his place was supplied by some +gallant fellow<br> +who, springing from the leading files, would scarcely have +uttered his<br> +cheer of encouragement, ere he himself was laid low. Many a voice +with<br> +whose notes I was familiar, would break upon my ear in tones of +heroic<br> +daring, and the next moment burst forth in a death-cry. For above +an hour<br> +the frightful carnage continued, fresh troops continually +advancing, but<br> +scarcely a foot of ground was made; the earth belched forth its +volcanic<br> +fires, and that terrible barrier did no man pass. In turn the +bravest and<br> +the boldest would leap into the whizzing flame, and the taunting +cheers of<br> +the enemy triumphed in derision at the effort.</p> + +<p>"Stormers to the front! Only the bayonet! trust to nothing but +the<br> +bayonet!" cried a voice whose almost cheerful accents contrasted +strangely<br> +with the dead-notes around, and Gurwood, who led the forlorn hope +of<br> +the Fifty-second, bounded into the chasm; all the officers +sprang<br> +simultaneously after him; the men pressed madly on; a roll of +withering<br> +musketry crashed upon them; a furious shout replied to it. The +British,<br> +springing over the dead and dying, bounded like blood-hounds on +their prey.<br> +Meanwhile the ramparts trembled beneath the tramp of the light +division,<br> +who, having forced the lesser breach, came down upon the flank of +the<br> +French. The garrison, however, thickened their numbers, and +bravely held<br> +their ground. Man to man now was the combat. No cry for quarter, +no<br> +supplicating look for mercy; it was the death struggle of +vengeance and<br> +despair. At this instant an explosion louder than the loudest +thunder shook<br> +the air; the rent and torn up ramparts sprang into the sky; the +conquering<br> +and the conquered were alike the victims; for one of the greatest +magazines<br> +had been ignited by a shell; the black smoke, streaked with a +lurid flame,<br> +hung above the dead and the dying. The artillery and the +murderous musketry<br> +were stilled, paralyzed, as it were, by the ruin and devastation +before<br> +them. Both sides stood leaning upon their arms; the pause was +but<br> +momentary; the cries of wounded comrades called upon their +hearts. A fierce<br> +burst of vengeance rent the air; the British closed upon the foe; +for one<br> +instant they were met; the next, the bayonets gleamed upon the +ramparts,<br> +and Ciudad Rodrigo was won.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXXVI.</p> + +<p>THE RAMPART.</p> + +<p>While such were the scenes passing around me, of my own part +in them, I<br> +absolutely knew nothing; for until the moment that the glancing +bayonets<br> +of the light division came rushing on the foe, and the loud, long +cheer of<br> +victory burst above us, I felt like one in a trance. Then I +leaned against<br> +an angle of the rampart, overpowered and exhausted; a bayonet +wound, which<br> +some soldier of our own ranks had given me when mounting the +breach, pained<br> +me somewhat; my uniform was actually torn to rags; my head bare; +of my<br> +sword, the hilt and four inches of the blade alone remained, +while my left<br> +hand firmly grasped the rammer of a cannon, but why or wherefore +I could<br> +not even guess. As thus I stood, the unceasing tide of soldiery +pressed on;<br> +fresh divisions came pouring in, eager for plunder, and thirsting +for the<br> +spoil. The dead and the dying were alike trampled beneath the +feet of that<br> +remorseless mass, who, actuated by vengeance and by rapine, +sprang fiercely<br> +up the breach.</p> + +<p>Weak and exhausted, faint from my wound, and overcome by my +exertions, I<br> +sank among the crumbling ruin. The loud shouts which rose from +the town,<br> +mingled with cries and screams, told the work of pillage was +begun; while<br> +still a dropping musketry could be heard on the distant rampart, +where even<br> +yet the French made resistance. At last even this was hushed, but +to it<br> +succeeded the far more horrifying sounds of rapine and of murder; +the<br> +forked flames of burning houses rose here and there amidst the +black<br> +darkness of the night; and through the crackling of the timbers, +and the<br> +falling crash of roofs, the heart-rending shriek of women rent +the very<br> +air. Officers pressed forward, but in vain were their efforts to +restrain<br> +their men; the savage cruelty of the moment knew no bounds of +restraint.<br> +More than one gallant fellow perished in his fruitless endeavor +to enforce<br> +obedience; and the most awful denunciations were now uttered +against those<br> +before whom, at any other time, they dared not mutter.</p> + +<p>Thus passed the long night, far more terrible to me than all +the dangers of<br> +the storm itself, with all its death and destruction dealing +around it. I<br> +know not if I slept: if so, the horrors on every side were +pictured in my<br> +dreams; and when the gray dawn was breaking, the cries from the +doomed city<br> +were still ringing in my ears. Close around me the scene was +still<br> +and silent; the wounded had been removed during the night, but +the<br> +thickly-packed dead lay side by side where they fell. It was a +fearful<br> +sight to see them as, blood-stained and naked (for already +the<br> +camp-followers had stripped the bodies), they covered the entire +breach.<br> +From the rampart to the ditch, the ranks lay where they had stood +in life.<br> +A faint phosphoric flame flickered above their ghastly corpses, +making even<br> +death still more horrible. I was gazing steadfastly, with all +that stupid<br> +intensity which imperfect senses and exhausted faculties possess, +when the<br> +sound of voices near aroused me.</p> + +<p>"Bring him along,—this way, Bob. Over the breach with the +scoundrel, into<br> +the fosse."</p> + +<p>"He shall die no soldier's death, by Heaven!" cried another +and a deeper<br> +voice, "if I lay his skull open with my axe."</p> + +<p>"Oh, mercy, mercy! as you hope for—"</p> + +<p>"Traitor! don't dare to mutter here!" As the last words were +spoken, four<br> +infantry soldiers, reeling from drunkenness, dragged forward a +pale and<br> +haggard wretch, whose limbs trailed behind him like those of +palsy, his<br> +uniform was that of a French chasseur, but his voice bespoke him +English.</p> + +<p>"Kneel down there, and die like a man! You were one once!"</p> + +<p>"Not so, Bill, never. Fix bayonets, boys! That's right! Now +take the word<br> +from me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, forgive me! for the love of Heaven, forgive me!" screamed +the voice of<br> +the victim; but his last accents ended in a death-cry, for as he +spoke, the<br> +bayonets flashed for an instant in the air, and the next were +plunged into<br> +his body. Twice I had essayed to speak, but my voice, hoarse from +shouting,<br> +came not; and I could but look upon this terrible murder with +staring eyes<br> +and burning brain. At last speech came, as if wrested by the very +excess of<br> +my agony, and I muttered aloud, "O God!" The words were not +well-spoken,<br> +when the muskets were brought to the shoulders, and reeking with +the blood<br> +of the murdered man, their savage faces scowled at me as I +lay.</p> + +<p>A short and heart-felt prayer burst from my lips, and I was +still. The<br> +leader of the party called out, "Be steady, and together. One, +two! Ground<br> +arms, boys! Ground arms!" roared he, in a voice of thunder; "it's +the<br> +captain himself!" Down went the muskets with a crash; while, +springing<br> +towards me, the fellows caught me in their arms, and with one +jerk mounted<br> +me upon their shoulders, the cheer that accompanied the sudden +movement<br> +seeming like the yell of maniacs. "Ha, ha, ha! we have him now!" +sang their<br> +wild voices, as, with blood-stained hands and infuriated +features, they<br> +bore me down the rampart. My sensations of disgust and repugnance +to the<br> +party seemed at once to have evidenced themselves, for the +corporal,<br> +turning abruptly round, called out,—</p> + +<p>"Don't <i>pity</i> him, Captain; the scoundrel was a deserter; he +escaped from<br> +the picket two nights ago, and gave information of all our plans +to the<br> +enemy."</p> + +<p>"Ay," cried another, "and what's worse, he fired through an +embrasure near<br> +the breach, for two hours, upon his own regiment. It was there we +found<br> +him. This way, lads."</p> + +<p>So saying, they turned short from the walls, and dashed down a +dark<br> +and narrow lane into the town. My struggles to get free were +perfectly<br> +ineffectual, and to my entreaties they were totally +indifferent.</p> + +<p>In this way, therefore, we made our entrance into the Plaza, +where some<br> +hundred soldiers, of different regiments, were bivouacked. A +shout of<br> +recognition welcomed the fellows as they came; while suddenly a +party of<br> +Eighty-eighth men, springing from the ground, rushed forward with +drawn<br> +bayonets, calling out, "Give him up this minute, or, by the +Father of<br> +Moses, we'll make short work of ye!"</p> + +<p>The order was made by men who seemed well disposed to execute +it; and I was<br> +accordingly grounded with a shock and a rapidity that savored +much more<br> +of ready compliance than any respect for my individual comfort. A +roar of<br> +laughter rang through the motley mass, and every powder-stained +face around<br> +me seemed convulsed with merriment. As I sat passively upon the +ground,<br> +looking ruefully about, whether my gestures or my words +heightened the<br> +absurdity of my appearance, it is hard to say; but certainly the +laughter<br> +increased at each moment, and the drunken wretches danced round +me in<br> +ecstasy.</p> + +<p>"Where is your major? Major O'Shaughnessy, lads?" said I.</p> + +<p>"He's in the church, with the general, your honor," said the +sergeant of<br> +the regiment, upon whom the mention of his officer's name seemed +at once<br> +to have a sobering influence. Assisting me to rise (for I was +weak as a<br> +child), he led me through the dense crowd, who, such is the +influence of<br> +example, now formed into line, and as well as their state +permitted, gave<br> +me a military salute as I passed. "Follow me, sir," said the +sergeant;<br> +"this little dark street to the left will take us to the private +door of<br> +the chapel."</p> + +<p>"Wherefore are they there, Sergeant?"</p> + +<p>"There's a general of division mortally wounded."</p> + +<p>"You did not hear his name?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. All I know is, he was one of the storming party at +the lesser<br> +breach."</p> + +<p>A cold, sickening shudder came over me; I durst not ask +farther, but<br> +pressed on with anxious steps towards the chapel.</p> + +<p>"There, sir, yonder, where you see the light. That's the +door."</p> + +<p>So saying, the sergeant stopped suddenly, and placed his hand +to his cap. I<br> +saw at once that he was sufficiently aware of his condition not +to desire<br> +to appear before his officers; so, hurriedly thanking him, I +walked<br> +forward.</p> + +<p>"Halt, there! and give the countersign," cried a sentinel, who +with fixed<br> +bayonet stood before the door.</p> + +<p>"I am an officer," said I, endeavoring to pass in.</p> + +<p>"Stand bock, stand bock!" said the harsh voice of the +Highlander, for such<br> +he was.</p> + +<p>"Is Major O'Shaughnessy in the church?"</p> + +<p>"I dinna ken," was the short, rough answer.</p> + +<p>"Who is the officer so badly wounded?"</p> + +<p>"I dinna ken," repeated he, as gruffly as before; while he +added, in a<br> +louder key, "Stand bock, I tell ye, man! Dinna ye see the staff +coming?"</p> + +<p>I turned round hastily, and at the same instant several +officers, who<br> +apparently from precaution had dismounted at the end of the +street, were<br> +seen approaching. They came hurriedly forward, but without +speaking. He<br> +who was in advance of the party wore a short, blue cape over an +undress<br> +uniform. The rest were in full regimentals. I had scarcely time +to throw a<br> +passing glance upon him, when the officer I have mentioned as +coming first<br> +called out in a stern voice,—</p> + +<p>"Who are you, sir?"</p> + +<p>I started at the sounds; it was not the first time those +accents had been<br> +heard by me.</p> + +<p>"Captain O'Malley, Fourteenth Light Dragoons."</p> + +<p>"What brings you here, sir? Your regiment is at Caya."</p> + +<p>"I have been employed as acting aide-de-camp to General +Crawfurd," said I,<br> +hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"Is that your staff uniform?" said he, as with compressed brow +and stern<br> +look he fixed his eyes upon my coat. Before I had time to reply, +or,<br> +indeed, before I well knew how to do so, a gruff voice from +behind called<br> +out,—</p> + +<p>"Damn me! if that ain't the fellow that led the stormers +through a broken<br> +embrasure! I say, my lord, that's the yeoman I was telling you +of. Is it<br> +not so, sir?" continued he, turning towards me.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. I led a party of the Eighty-eight at the +breach."</p> + +<p>"And devilish well you did it, too!" added Picton, for it was +he who<br> +recognized me. "I saw him, my lord, spring down from the parapet +upon a<br> +French gunner, and break his sword as he cleft his helmet in two. +Yes, yes;<br> +I shall not forget in a hurry how you laid about you with the +rammer of the<br> +gun! By Jove! that's it he has in his hand!"</p> + +<p>While Picton ran thus hurriedly on, Lord Wellington's calm but +stern<br> +features never changed their expression. The looks of those +around were<br> +bent upon me with interest and even admiration; but his evinced +nothing of<br> +either.</p> + +<p>Reverting at once to my absence from my post, he asked +me,—</p> + +<p>"Did you obtain leave for a particular service, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No, my lord. It was simply from an accidental circumstance +that—"</p> + +<p>"Then, report yourself at your quarters as under arrest."</p> + +<p>"But, my lord—" said Picton. Lord Wellington waited not for +the<br> +explanation, but walked firmly forward, and strode into the +church. The<br> +staff followed in silence, Picton turning one look of kindness on +me as he<br> +went, as though to say, "I'll not forget you."</p> + +<p>"The devil take it," cried I, as I found myself once more +alone, "but<br> +I'm unlucky! What would turn out with other men the very basis of +their<br> +fortune, is ever with me the source of ill-luck."</p> + +<p>It was evident, from Picton's account, that I had +distinguished myself<br> +in the breach; and yet nothing was more clear than that my +conduct had<br> +displeased the commander-in-chief. Picturing him ever to my +mind's eye as<br> +the <i>beau idéal</i> of a military leader, by some fatality of +fortune I was<br> +continually incurring his displeasure, for whose praise I would +have<br> +risked my life. "And this confounded costume—What, in the name +of every<br> +absurdity, could have ever persuaded me to put it on. What +signifies it,<br> +though a man should cover himself with glory, if in the end he is +to be<br> +laughed at? Well, well, it matters not much, now my soldiering's +over! And<br> +yet I could have wished that the last act of my campaigning had +brought<br> +with it pleasanter recollections."</p> + +<p>As thus I ruminated, the click of the soldier's musket near +aroused me:<br> +Picton was passing out. A shade of gloom and depression was +visible upon<br> +his features, and his lip trembled as he muttered some sentences +to<br> +himself.</p> + +<p>"Ha! Captain—I forget the name. Yes, Captain O'Malley; you +are released<br> +from arrest. General Crawfurd has spoken very well of you, and +Lord<br> +Wellington has heard the circumstances of your case."</p> + +<p>"Is it General Crawfurd, then, that is wounded, sir?" said I, +eagerly.</p> + +<p>Picton paused for a moment, while, with an effort, he +controlled his<br> +features into their stern and impassive expression, then added +hurriedly<br> +and almost harshly:—</p> + +<p>Yes, sir; badly wounded through the arm and in the lung. He +mentioned you<br> +to the notice of the commander-in-chief, and your application for +leave is<br> +granted. In fact, you are to have the distinguished honor of +carrying back<br> +despatches. There, now; you had better join your brigade."</p> + +<p>"Could I not see my general once more? It may be for the last +time."</p> + +<p>"No, sir!" sternly replied Picton. "Lord Wellington believes +you under<br> +arrest. It is as well he should suppose you obeyed his +orders."</p> + +<p>There was a tone of sarcasm in these words that prevented my +reply; and<br> +muttering my gratitude for his well-timed and kindly interference +in my<br> +behalf, I bowed deeply and turned away.</p> + +<p>"I say, sir!" said Picton, as he returned towards the church, +"should<br> +anything befall,—that is, if, unfortunately, circumstances +should make you<br> +in want and desirous of a staff appointment, remember that you +are known to<br> +General Picton."</p> + +<p>Downcast and depressed by the news of my poor general, I +wended my way with<br> +slow and uncertain steps towards the rampart. A clear, cold, +wintry sky and<br> +a sharp, bracing air made my wound, slight as it was, more +painful, and<br> +I endeavored to reach the reserves, where I knew the +hospital-staff had<br> +established, for the present, their quarters. I had not gone far +when, from<br> +a marauding party, I learned that my man Mike was in search of me +through<br> +the plain. A report of my death had reached him, and the poor +fellow was<br> +half distracted.</p> + +<p>Longing anxiously to allay his fears on my account, which I +well knew<br> +might lead him into any act of folly or insanity, I pressed +forward;<br> +besides—shall I confess it?—amidst the manifold thoughts of +sorrow and<br> +affliction which weighed me down, I could not divest myself of +the feeling<br> +that so long as I wore my present absurd costume, I could be +nothing but an<br> +object of laughter and ridicule to all who met me.</p> + +<p>I had not long to look for my worthy follower, for I soon +beheld him<br> +cantering about the plain. A loud shout brought him beside me; +and<br> +truly the poor fellow's delight was great and sincere. With a +thousand<br> +protestations of his satisfaction, and reiterated assurances of +what he<br> +would not have done to the French prisoners if anything had +happened me, we<br> +took our way together towards the camp.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXXVII.</p> + +<p>THE DESPATCH.</p> + +<p>I was preparing to visit the town on the following morning, +when my<br> +attention was attracted by a dialogue which took place beneath my +window.</p> + +<p>"I say, my good friend," cried a mounted orderly to Mike, who +was busily<br> +employed in brushing a jacket,—"I say, are you Captain +O'Malley's man?"</p> + +<p>"The least taste in life o' that same," replied he, with a +half-jocular<br> +expression.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said the other, "take up these letters to your +master. Be<br> +alive, my fine fellow, for they are despatches, and I must have a +written<br> +return for them."</p> + +<p>"Won't ye get off and take a drop of somethin' refreshing; the +air is cowld<br> +this morning."</p> + +<p>"I can't stay, my good friend, but thank you all the same; so +be alive,<br> +will you?"</p> + +<p>"Arrah, there's no hurry in life. Sure, it's an invitation to +dinner to<br> +Lord Wellington or a tea-party at Sir Denny's; sure, my master's +bothered<br> +with them every day o' th' week: that's the misfortune of being +an<br> +agreeable creature; and I'd be led into dissipation myself, if I +wasn't<br> +rear'd prudent."</p> + +<p>"Well, come along, take these letters, for I must be off; my +time is<br> +short."</p> + +<p>"That's more nor your nose is, honey," said Mike, evidently +piqued at the<br> +little effect his advances had produced upon the Englishman. +"Give them<br> +here," continued he, while he turned the various papers in every +direction,<br> +affecting to read their addresses.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing for me here, I see. Did none of the generals +ask after<br> +me?"</p> + +<p>"You <i>are</i> a queer one!" said the dragoon, not a little +puzzled what to<br> +make of him.</p> + +<p>Mike meanwhile thrust the papers carelessly into his pocket, +and strode<br> +into the house, whistling a quick-step as he went, with the air +of a man<br> +perfectly devoid of care or occupation. The next moment, however, +he<br> +appeared at my door, wiping his forehead with the back of his +hand, and<br> +apparently breathless with haste.</p> + +<p>"Despatches, Mister Charles, despatches from Lord Wellington. +The orderly<br> +is waiting below for a return."</p> + +<p>"Tell him he shall have it in one moment," replied I. "And now +bring me a<br> +light."</p> + +<p>Before I had broken the seal of the envelope, Mike was once +more at the<br> +porch.</p> + +<p>"My master is writing a few lines to say he'll do it. Don't be +talking<br> +of it," added he, dropping his voice, "but they want him to take +another<br> +fortress."</p> + +<p>What turn the dialogue subsequently took, I cannot say, for I +was entirely<br> +occupied by a letter which accompanied the despatches. It ran as +follows:—</p> + +<p> QUARTER-GENERAL,</p> + +<p> CIUDAD RODRIGO, Jan. 20, 1812.</p> + +<p> Dear Sir,—The commander-in-chief has been kind enough to +accord you<br> + the leave of absence you applied for, and takes the +opportunity<br> + of your return to England to send you the accompanying +letters<br> + for his Royal Highness the Duke of York. To his approval +of<br> + your conduct in the assault last night you owe this +distinguished<br> + mark of Lord Wellington's favor, which, I hope, will be +duly<br> + appreciated by you, and serve to increase your zeal for that +service<br> + in which you have already distinguished yourself.</p> + +<p> Believe me that I am most happy in being made the medium +of<br> + this communication, and have the honor to be,</p> + +<p> Very truly yours,</p> + +<p> T. PICTON.</p> + +<p>I read and re-read this note again and again. Every line was +conned over by<br> +me, and every phrase weighed and balanced in my mind. Nothing +could be more<br> +gratifying, nothing more satisfactory to my feelings; and I would +not have<br> +exchanged its possession for the brevet of a +lieutenant-colonel.</p> + +<p>"Halloo, Orderly!" cried I, from the window, as I hurriedly +sealed my few<br> +words of acknowledgment, "take this note back to General Picton, +and here's<br> +a guinea for yourself." So saying, I pitched into his ready hand +one of the<br> +very few which remained to me in the world. "This is, indeed, +good news!"<br> +said I, to myself. "This is, indeed, a moment of unmixed +happiness!"</p> + +<p>As I closed the window, I could hear Mike pronouncing a +glowing eulogium<br> +upon my liberality, from which he could not, however, help in +some degree<br> +detracting, as he added:</p> + +<p>"But the devil thank him, after all! Sure, it's himself has +the illigant<br> +fortune and the fine place of it!"</p> + +<p>Scarcely were the last sounds of the retiring horseman dying +away in the<br> +distance, when Mike's meditations took another form, and he +muttered<br> +between his teeth, "Oh, holy Agatha! a guinea, a raal gold guinea +to a<br> +thief of a dragoon that come with the letter, and here am I +wearing a<br> +picture of the holy family for a back to my waistcoat, all out of +economy;<br> +and sure, God knows, but may be they'll take their dealing trick +out of<br> +me in purgatory for this hereafter; and faith, it's a beautiful +pair of<br> +breeches I'd have had, if I wasn't ashamed to put the twelve +apostles on<br> +my legs."</p> + +<p>While Mike ran on at this rate, my eyes fell upon a few lines +of postscript<br> +in Picton's letter, which I had not previously noticed.</p> + +<p> "The official despatches of the storming are, of course, +intrusted to<br> + senior officers, but I need scarcely remind you that it will +be a<br> + polite and proper attention to his Royal Highness to present +your<br> + letters with as little delay as possible. Not a moment is to +be lost<br> + on your landing in England."</p> + +<p>"Mike!" cried I, "how look the cattle for a journey?"</p> + +<p>"The chestnut is a little low in flesh, but in great wind, +your honor; and<br> +the black horse is jumping like a filly."</p> + +<p>"And Badger?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Howld him, if you can, that's all; but it's murthering work +this, carrying<br> +despatches day after day."</p> + +<p>"This time, however, Mike, we must not grumble."</p> + +<p>"May be it isn't far?"</p> + +<p>"Why, as to that, I shall not promise much. I'm bound for +England, Mickey."</p> + +<p>"For England!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mike, and for Ireland."</p> + +<p>"For Ireland! whoop!" shouted he, as he shied his cap into one +corner of<br> +the room, the jacket he was brushing into the other, and began +dancing<br> +round the table with no bad imitation of an Indian war dance.</p> + +<p> "How I'll dance like a fairy,<br> + To see ould Dunleary,<br> + And think twice ere I leave it to be a dragoon."</p> + +<p>"Oh, blessed hour! Isn't it beautiful to think of the +illuminations and<br> +dinners and speeches and shaking of hands, huzzaing, and +hip-hipping. May<br> +be there won't be pictures of us in all the shops,—Mister +Charles and his<br> +man Mister Free. May be they won't make plays out of us; myself +dressed in<br> +the gray coat with the red cuffs, the cords, the tops, and the +Caroline hat<br> +a little cocked, with a phiz in the side of it." Here he made a +sign with<br> +his expanded fingers to represent a cockade, which he designated +by this<br> +word. "I think I see myself dining with the corporation, and the +Lord Major<br> +of Dublin getting up to propose the health of the hero of El +Bodon, Mr.<br> +Free; and three times three, hurra! hurra! hurra! Musha, but it's +dry I am<br> +gettin' with the thoughts of the punch and the poteen negus."</p> + +<p>"If you go on at this rate, we're not likely to be soon at our +journey's<br> +end. So be alive now; pack up my kit; I shall start by twelve +o'clock."</p> + +<p>With one spring Mike cleared the stairs, and overthrowing +everything and<br> +everybody in his way, hurried towards the stable, chanting at the +top of<br> +his voice the very poetical strain he had indulged me with a few +minutes<br> +before.</p> + +<p>My preparations were rapidly made; a few hurried lines of +leave-taking to<br> +the good fellows I had lived so much with and felt so strongly +attached to,<br> +with a firm assurance that I should join them again ere long, was +all<br> +that my time permitted. To Power I wrote more at length, +detailing the<br> +circumstances which my own letters informed me of, and also those +which<br> +invited me to return home. This done, I lost not another moment, +but set<br> +out upon my journey.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</p> + +<p>THE LEAVE.</p> + +<p>After an hour's sharp riding we reached the Aguada, where the +river was yet<br> +fordable; crossing this, we mounted the Sierra by a narrow and +winding pass<br> +which leads through the mountains towards Almeida. Here I turned +once more<br> +to cast a last and farewell look at the scene of our late +encounter. It<br> +was but a few hours that I had stood almost on the same spot, and +yet how<br> +altered was all around. The wide plain, then bustling with all +the life and<br> +animation of a large army, was now nearly deserted,—some +dismounted guns,<br> +some broken-up, dismantled batteries, around which a few +sentinels seemed<br> +to loiter rather than to keep guard; a strong detachment of +infantry could<br> +be seen wending their way towards the fortress, and a confused +mass of<br> +camp-followers, sutlers, and peasants following their steps for +protection<br> +against the pillagers and the still ruder assaults of their own +Guerillas.<br> +The fortress, too, was changed indeed. Those mighty walls before +whose<br> +steep sides the bravest fell back baffled and beaten, were now a +mass of<br> +ruin and decay; the muleteer could be seen driving his mule along +through<br> +the rugged ascent of that breach to win whose top the best blood +of<br> +Albion's chivalry was shed; and the peasant child looked timidly +from those<br> +dark enclosures in the deep fosse below, where perished hundreds +of our<br> +best and bravest. The air was calm, clear, and unclouded; no +smoke obscured<br> +the transparent atmosphere; the cannon had ceased; and the voices +that rang<br> +so late in accents of triumphant victory were stilled in death. +Everything,<br> +indeed, had undergone a mighty change; but nothing brought the +altered<br> +fortunes of the scene so vividly to my mind as when I remembered +that when<br> +last I had seen those walls, the dark shako of the French +grenadiers<br> +peered above their battlements, and now the gay tartan of the +Highlanders<br> +fluttered above them, and the red flag of England waved boldly in +the<br> +breeze.</p> + +<p>Up to that moment my sensations were those of unmixed +pleasure. The thought<br> +of my home, my friends, my country, the feeling that I was +returning with<br> +the bronze of the battle upon my cheek, and the voice of praise +still<br> +ringing in my heart,—these were proud thoughts, and my bosom +heaved short<br> +and quickly as I revolved them; but as I turned my gaze for the +last time<br> +towards the gallant army I was leaving, a pang of sorrow, of +self-reproach,<br> +shot through me, and I could not help feeling how far less +worthily was<br> +I acting in yielding to the impulse of my wishes, than had I +remained to<br> +share the fortunes of the campaign.</p> + +<p>So powerfully did these sensations possess me, that I sat +motionless for<br> +some time, uncertain whether to proceed; forgetting that I was +the bearer<br> +of important information, I only remembered that by my own desire +I was<br> +there; my reason but half convinced me that the part I had +adopted was<br> +right and honorable, and more than once my resolution to proceed +hung in<br> +the balance. It was just at this critical moment of my doubts +that Mike,<br> +who had been hitherto behind, came up.</p> + +<p>"Is it the upper road, sir?" said he, pointing to a steep and +rugged path<br> +which led by a zigzag ascent towards the crest of the +mountain.</p> + +<p>I nodded in reply, when he added:—</p> + +<p>"Doesn't this remind your honor of Sleibh More, above the +Shannon, where we<br> +used to be grouse shooting? And there's the keeper's house in the +valley;<br> +and that might be your uncle, the master himself, waving his hat +to you."</p> + +<p>Had he known the state of my conflicting feelings at the +moment, he could<br> +not more readily have decided this doubt. I turned abruptly away, +put<br> +spurs to my horse, and dashed up the steep pass at a pace which +evidently<br> +surprised, and as evidently displeased, my follower.</p> + +<p>How natural it is ever to experience a reaction of depression +and lowness<br> +after the first burst of unexpected joy! The moment of happiness +is<br> +scarce experienced ere come the doubts of its reality, the fears +for its<br> +continuance; the higher the state of pleasurable excitement, the +more<br> +painful and the more pressing the anxieties that await on it; the +tension<br> +of delighted feelings cannot last, and our overwrought faculties +seek<br> +repose in regrets. Happy he who can so temper his enjoyments as +to view<br> +them in their shadows as in their sunshine; he may not, it is +true, behold<br> +the landscape in the blaze of its noonday brightness, but he need +not fear<br> +the thunder-cloud nor the hurricane. The calm autumn of <i>his</i> +bliss, if it<br> +dazzle not in its brilliancy, will not any more be shrouded in +darkness and<br> +in gloom.</p> + +<p>My first burst of pleasure over, the thought of my uncle's +changed fortunes<br> +pressed deeply on my heart, and a hundred plans suggested +themselves in<br> +turn to my mind to relieve his present embarrassments; but I knew +how<br> +impracticable they would all prove when opposed by his +prejudices. To<br> +sell the old home of his forefathers, to wander from the roof +which had<br> +sheltered his name for generations, he would never consent to; +the law<br> +might by force expel him, and drive him a wanderer and an exile, +but of<br> +his own free will the thing was hopeless. Considine, too, would +encourage<br> +rather than repress such feelings; his feudalism would lead him +to any<br> +lengths; and in defence of what he would esteem a right, he would +as soon<br> +shoot a sheriff as a snipe, and, old as he was, ask for no better +amusement<br> +than to arm the whole tenantry and give battle to the king's +troops on the<br> +wide plain of Scariff. Amidst such conflicting thought, I +travelled on<br> +moodily and in silence, to the palpable astonishment of Mike, who +could not<br> +help regarding me as one from whom fortune met the most +ungrateful returns.<br> +At every new turn of the road he would endeavor to attract my +attention by<br> +the objects around,—no white-turreted château, no tapered +spire in the<br> +distance, escaped him; he kept up a constant ripple of +half-muttered praise<br> +and censure upon all he saw, and instituted unceasing comparisons +between<br> +the country and his own, in which, I am bound to say, Ireland +rarely, if<br> +ever, had to complain of his patriotism.</p> + +<p>When we arrived at Almeida, I learned that the "Medea" +sloop-of-war was<br> +lying off Oporto, and expected to sail for England in a few days. +The<br> +opportunity was not to be neglected. The official despatches, I +was aware,<br> +would be sent through Lisbon, where the "Gorgon" frigate was in +waiting to<br> +convey them; but should I be fortunate enough to reach Oporto in +time, I<br> +had little doubt of arriving in England with the first +intelligence of the<br> +fall of Ciudad Rodrigo. Reducing my luggage, therefore, to the +smallest<br> +possible compass, and having provided myself with a juvenile +guide for the<br> +pass of La Reyna, I threw myself, without undressing, upon the +bed, and<br> +waited anxiously for the break of day to resume my journey.</p> + +<p>As I ruminated over the prospect my return presented, I +suddenly remembered<br> +Frank Webber's letter, which I had hastily thrust into a +portfolio without<br> +reading, so occupied was I by Considine's epistle; with a little +searching<br> +I discovered it, and trimming my lamp, as I felt no inclination +to sleep, I<br> +proceeded to the examination of what seemed a more than usually +voluminous<br> +epistle. It contained four closely-written pages, accompanied by +something<br> +like a plan in an engineering sketch. My curiosity becoming +further<br> +stimulated by this, I sat down to peruse it. It began thus:—</p> + +<p> Official Despatch of Lieutenant-General Francis Webber to +Lord<br> + Castlereagh, detailing the assault and capture of the old +pump, in<br> + Trinity College, Dublin, on the night of the second of +December,<br> + eighteen hundred and eleven, with returns of killed, +wounded,<br> + and missing, with other information from the seat of war.</p> + +<p> HEADQUARTERS, No. 2, OLD SQUARE.</p> + +<p> My Lord,—In compliance with the instructions contained in +your<br> + lordship's despatch of the twenty-first ultimo, I +concentrated the<br> + force under my command, and assembling the generals of +division,<br> + made known my intentions in the following general +order:—</p> + +<p> A. G. O.</p> + +<p> The following troops will this evening assemble at +headquarters, and<br> + having partaken of a sufficient dinner for the next two +days, with<br> + punch for four, will hold themselves in readiness to march +in the<br> + following order:—</p> + +<p> Harry Nesbitt's Brigade of Incorrigibles will form a +blockading<br> + force, in the line extending from the vice-provost's house +to the<br> + library. The light division, under Mark Waller, will +skirmish from<br> + the gate towards the middle of the square, obstructing the +march of<br> + the Cuirassiers of the Guard, which, under the command of +old Duncan<br> + the porter, are expected to move in that direction. Two +columns of<br> + attack will be formed by the senior sophisters of the Old +Guard, and<br> + a forlorn hope of the "cautioned" men at the last four +examinations<br> + will form, under the orders of Timothy O'Rourke, beneath +the shadow<br> + of the dining-hall.</p> + +<p> At the signal of the dean's bell the stormers will move +forward. A<br> + cheer from the united corps will then announce the moment +of attack.</p> + +<p> The word for the night will be, "May the Devil admire +me!"</p> + +<p> The commander-of-the-forces desires that the different +corps should<br> + be as strong as possible, and expects that no man will +rema<br> + any pretence whatever, in the rear with the lush. During +the main<br> + assault, Cecil Cavendish will make a feint upon the +provost's<br> + windows, to be converted into a real attack if the ladies +scream.</p> + +<p> GENERAL ORDER.</p> + +<p> The commissary-general, Foley, will supply the following +articles for<br> + the use of the troops: Two hams; eight pair of chickens, +the same to<br> + be roasted; a devilled turkey; sixteen lobsters; eight +hundred of<br> + oysters, with a proportionate quantity of cold sherry and +hot punch.</p> + +<p> The army will get drunk by ten o'clock to-night.</p> + +<p> Having made these dispositions, my lord, I proceeded to +mislead<br> + the enemy as to our intentions, in suffering my servant to be +taken<br> + with an intercepted despatch. This, being a prescription by +Doctor<br> + Colles, would convey to the dean's mind the impression that I +was<br> + still upon the sick list. This being done, and four canisters +of<br> + Dartford gunpowder being procured on tick, our military chest +being in<br> + a most deplorable condition, I waited for the moment of +attack.</p> + +<p> A heavy rain, accompanied with a frightful hurricane, +prevailed<br> + during the entire day, rendering the march of the troops who +came<br> + from the neighborhood of Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam +Street, a<br> + service of considerable fatigue. The outlying pickets in +College Green,<br> + being induced probably by the inclemency of the season, were +rather<br> + tipsy on joining, and having engaged in a skirmish with old +M'Calister,<br> + tying his red uniform over his head, the moment of attack<br> + was precipitated, and we moved to the trenches by half-past +nine<br> + o'clock.</p> + +<p> Nothing could be more orderly, nothing more perfect, than +the<br> + march of the troops. As we approached the corner of the +commons-hall,<br> + a skirmish on the rear apprised us that our intentions had +become<br> + known; and I soon learned from my aide-de-camp, Bob +Moore,<br> + that the attack was made by a strong column of the enemy, +under<br> + the command of old Fitzgerald.</p> + +<p> Perpendicular (as your lordship is aware he is styled by +the army)<br> + came on in a determined manner, and before many minutes +had<br> + elapsed had taken several prisoners, among others Tom +Drummond,—Long<br> + Tom,—who, having fallen on all fours, was mistaken for a<br> + long eighteen. The success, however, was but momentary; +Nesbitt's<br> + Brigade attacked them in flank, rescued the prisoners, +extinguished<br> + the dean's lantern, and having beaten back the heavy porters, +took<br> + Perpendicular himself prisoner.</p> + +<p> An express from the left informed me that the attack upon +the<br> + provost's house had proved equally successful; there wasn't a +whole<br> + pane of glass in the front, and from a footman who deserted, +it was<br> + learned that Mrs. Hutchinson was in hysterics.</p> + +<p> While I was reading this despatch, a strong feeling of the +line<br> + towards the right announced that something was taking place +in that<br> + direction. Bob Moore, who rode by on Drummond's back, +hurriedly<br> + informed me that Williams had put the lighted end of his +cigar to<br> + one of the fuses, but the powder, being wet, did not +explode<br> + notwithstanding his efforts to effect it. Upon this, I +hastened to the<br> + front, where I found the individual in question kneeling upon +the<br> + ground, and endeavoring, as far as punch would permit him, to +kindle a<br> + flame at the portfire. Before I could interfere, the spark +had caught;<br> + a loud, hissing noise followed; the different magazines +successively<br> + became ignited, and at length the fire reached the great +four-pound<br> + charge.</p> + +<p> I cannot convey to your lordship, by any words of mine, an +idea of<br> + this terrible explosion; the blazing splinters were hurled +into the<br> + air, and fell in fiery masses on every side from the park to +King<br> + William; Ivey the bell-ringer, was precipitated from the +scaffold<br> + beside the bell, and fell headlong into the mud beneath; +the<br> + surrounding buildings trembled at the shock; the windows +were<br> + shattered, and in fact a scene of perfect devastation ensued +on all<br> + sides.</p> + +<p> When the smoke cleared away, I rose from my recumbent +position,<br> + and perceived with delight that not a vestige of the pump +remained.<br> + The old iron handle was imbedded in the wall of the +dining-hall, and<br> + its round knob stood out like the end of a queue.</p> + +<p> Our loss was, of course, considerable; and ordering the +wounded<br> + to the rear, I proceeded to make an orderly and regular +retreat. At<br> + this time, however, the enemy had assembled in force. Two +battalions<br> + of porters, led on by Dr. Dobbin, charged us on the flank; +a<br> + heavy brigade poured down upon us from the battery, and but +for<br> + the exertions of Harry Nesbitt, our communication with our +reserves<br> + must have been cut off. Cecil Cavendish also came up; for +although<br> + beaten in his great attack, the forces under his command had +penetrated<br> + by the kitchen windows, and carried oil a considerable +quantity<br> + of cold meat.</p> + +<p> Concentrating the different corps, I made an echelon +movement<br> + upon the chapel, to admit of the light division coming up. +This they<br> + did in a few moments, informing me that they had left +Perpendicular<br> + in the haha, which, as your lordship is aware, is a fosse of +the<br> + very greenest and most stagnant nature. We now made good our +retreat<br> + upon number "2," carrying our wounded with us. The +plunder<br> + we also secured; but we kicked the prisoners, and suffered +them to<br> + escape.</p> + +<p> Thus terminated, my lord, one of the brightest +achievements of the<br> + undergraduate career. I enclose a list of the wounded, as +also an<br> + account of the various articles returned in the +commissary-general's<br> + list.</p> + +<p> Harry Nesbitt: severely wounded; no coat nor hat; a +black-eye;<br> + left shoe missing.</p> + +<p> Cecil Cavendish: face severely scratched; supposed to have +received<br> + his wound in the attack upon the kitchen.</p> + +<p> Tom Drummond: not recognizable by his friends; his +features<br> + resembling a transparency disfigured by the smoke of the +preceding<br> + night's illumination.</p> + +<p> Bob Moore: slightly wounded.</p> + +<p> I would beg particularly to recommend all these officers +to your<br> + lordship's notice; indeed, the conduct of Moore, in kicking +the dean's<br> + lantern out of the porter's hand, was marked by great +promptitude<br> + and decision. This officer will present to H. R. H. the +following<br> + trophies, taken from the enemy: The dean's cap and tassel; +the key<br> + of his chambers; Dr. Dobbin's wig and bands; four porters' +helmets,<br> + and a book on the cellar.</p> + +<p> I have the honor to remain, my lord, etc.,</p> + +<p> FRANCIS WEBBER.</p> + +<p> G. O.</p> + +<p> The commander-of-the-forces returns his thanks to the +various<br> + officers and soldiers employed in the late assault, for +their<br> + persevering gallantry and courage. The splendor of the +achievement<br> + can only be equalled by the humanity and good conduct of +the troops.<br> + It only remains for him to add, that the less they say +about the<br> + transaction, and the sooner they are severally confined to +their beds<br> + with symptoms of contagious fever, the better.</p> + +<p> Meanwhile, to concert upon the future measures of the +campaign, the<br> + army will sup to-night at Morrison's.</p> + +<p>Here ended this precious epistle, rendering one fact +sufficiently<br> +evident,—that, however my worthy friend advanced in years, he +had not<br> +grown in wisdom.</p> + +<p>While ruminating upon the strange infatuation which could +persuade a gifted<br> +and an able man to lavish upon dissipation and reckless absurdity +the<br> +talents that must, if well directed, raise him to eminence and +distinction,<br> +a few lines of a newspaper paragraph fell from the paper I was +reading. It<br> +ran thus:—</p> + +<p> LATE OUTRAGE IN TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN.</p> + +<p> We have great pleasure in stating that the serious +disturbance which<br> + took place within the walls of our University a few +evenings since,<br> + was in no wise attributable to the conduct of the students. +A party<br> + of ill-disposed townspeople were, it would appear, the +instigators<br> + and perpetrators of the outrage. That their object was the +total<br> + destruction of our venerated University there can be but +little<br> + doubt. Fortunately, however, they did not calculate upon +the <i>esprit<br> + de corps</i> of the students, a body of whom, under the +direction of Mr.<br> + Webber, successfully opposed the assailants, and finally +drove them<br> + from the walls.</p> + +<p> It is, we understand, the intention of the board to +confer some mark<br> + of approbation upon Mr. Webber, who, independently of this, +has<br> + strong claims upon their notice, his collegiate success +pointing him<br> + out as the most extraordinary man of his day.</p> + +<p> This, my dear Charley, will give you some faint conception +of one<br> + of the most brilliant exploits of modern days. The bulletin, +believe<br> + me, is not Napoleonized into any bombastic extravagance of +success.<br> + The tiling was splendid; from the brilliant firework of the +old pump<br> + itself, to the figure of Perpendicular dripping with +duckweed, like<br> + an insane river-god, it was unequalled. Our fellows behaved +like<br> + trumps; and to do them justice, so did the enemy. But +unfortunately,<br> + notwithstanding this, and the plausible paragraphs of the<br> + morning papers, I have been summoned before the board for +Tuesday<br> + next.</p> + +<p> Meanwhile I employ myself in throwing off a shower of +small<br> + squibs for the journals, so that if the board deal not +mercifully with<br> + me, I may meet with sympathy from the public. I have just +despatched<br> + a little editorial bit for the "Times," calling, in terms +of<br> + parental tenderness, upon the University to say—</p> + +<p> "How long will the extraordinary excesses of a learned +funct<br> + be suffered to disgrace college? Is Doctor —— to be +permitted to<br> + exhibit an example of more riotous insubordination than +would be<br> + endured in an undergraduate? More on this subject +hereafter."</p> + +<p> "'Saunders' News-letter.'—Dr. Barret appeared at the +head<br> + police-office, before Alderman Darley, to make oath that +neither he<br> + nor Catty were concerned in the late outrage upon the +pump." etc.,<br> + etc.</p> + +<p> Paragraphs like these are flying about in every provincial +paper of<br> + the empire. People shake their heads when they speak of the +University,<br> + and respectable females rather cross over by King William +and<br> + the Bank than pass near its precincts.</p> + +<p> Tuesday Evening.</p> + +<p> Would you believe it, they've expelled me! Address your +next<br> + letter as usual, for they haven't got rid of me yet.</p> + +<p> Yours, F. W.</p> + +<p>"So I shall find him in his old quarters," thought I, "and +evidently not<br> +much altered since we parted." It was not without a feeling of (I +trust<br> +pardonable) pride that I thought over my own career in the +interval. My<br> +three years of campaigning life had given me some insight into +the world,<br> +and some knowledge of myself, and conferred upon me a boon, of +which I know<br> +not the equal,—that, while yet young, and upon the very +threshold of life,<br> +I should have tasted the enthusiastic pleasures of a soldier's +fortune, and<br> +braved the dangers and difficulties of a campaign at a time when, +under<br> +other auspices, I might have wasted my years in unprofitable +idleness or<br> +careless dissipation.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XXXIX.</p> + +<p>LONDON.</p> + +<p>Twelve hours after my arrival in England I entered London. I +cannot attempt<br> +to record the sensations which thronged my mind as the din and +tumult of<br> +that mighty city awoke me from a sound sleep I had fallen into in +the<br> +corner of the chaise. The seemingly interminable lines of +lamplight, the<br> +crash of carriages, the glare of the shops, the buzz of voices, +made up a<br> +chaotic mass of sights and sounds, leaving my efforts at thought +vain and<br> +fruitless.</p> + +<p>Obedient to my instructions, I lost not a moment in my +preparations to<br> +deliver my despatches. Having dressed myself in the full uniform +of my<br> +corps, I drove to the Horse Guards. It was now nine o'clock, and +I learned<br> +that his Royal Highness had gone to dinner at Carlton House. In a +few words<br> +which I spoke with the aide-de-camp, I discovered that no +information of<br> +the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo had yet reached England. The greatest +anxiety<br> +prevailed as to the events of the Peninsula, from which no +despatches had<br> +been received for several weeks past.</p> + +<p>To Carlton House I accordingly bent my steps, without any +precise<br> +determination how I should proceed when there, nor knowing how +far<br> +etiquette might be an obstacle to the accomplishment of my +mission. The<br> +news of which I was the bearer was, however, of too important a +character<br> +to permit me to hesitate, and I presented myself to the +aide-de-camp in<br> +waiting, simply stating that I was intrusted with important +letters to his<br> +Royal Highness, the purport of which did not admit of delay.</p> + +<p>"They have not gone to dinner yet," lisped out the +aide-de-camp, "and if<br> +you would permit me to deliver the letters—"</p> + +<p>"Mine are despatches," said I, somewhat proudly, and in no way +disposed to<br> +cede to another the honor of personally delivering them into the +hands of<br> +the duke.</p> + +<p>"Then you had better present yourself at the levee to-morrow +morning,"<br> +replied he, carelessly, while he turned into one of the window +recesses,<br> +and resumed the conversation with one of the +gentlemen-in-waiting.</p> + +<p>I stood for some moments uncertain and undecided; reluctant on +the one<br> +part to relinquish my claim as the bearer of the despatches, and +equally<br> +unwilling to defer their delivery till the following day.</p> + +<p>Adopting the former alternative, I took my papers from my +sabretasche,<br> +and was about to place them in the hands of the aide-de-camp, +when the<br> +folding-doors at the end of the apartment suddenly flew open, and +a large<br> +and handsome man with a high bald forehead entered hastily.</p> + +<p>The different persons in waiting sprang from their lounging +attitudes upon<br> +the sofas, and bowed respectfully as he passed on towards another +door.<br> +His dress was a plain blue coat, buttoned to the collar, and his +only<br> +decoration a brilliant star upon the breast. There was that air, +however,<br> +of high birth and bearing about him that left no doubt upon my +mind he was<br> +of the blood royal.</p> + +<p>As the aide-de-camp to whom I had been speaking opened the +door for him to<br> +pass out, I could hear some words in a low voice, in which the +phrases,<br> +"letters of importance" and "your Royal Highness" occurred. The +individual<br> +addressed turned suddenly about, and casting a rapid glance +around the<br> +room, without deigning a word in reply, walked straight up to +where I was<br> +standing.</p> + +<p>"Despatches for me, sir?" said he, shortly, taking, as he +spoke, the packet<br> +from my hand.</p> + +<p>"For his Royal Highness the commander-in-chief," said I, +bowing<br> +respectfully, and still uncertain in whose presence I was +standing. He<br> +broke the seal without answering, and as his eye caught the first +lines of<br> +the despatch, broke out into an exclamation of—</p> + +<p>Ha, Peninsular news! When did you arrive, sir?"</p> + +<p>"An hour since, sir."</p> + +<p>"And these letters are from—"</p> + +<p>"General Picton, your Royal Highness."</p> + +<p>"How glorious! How splendidly done!" muttered he to himself, +as he ran his<br> +eyes rapidly over the letter. "Are you Captain O'Malley, whose +name is<br> +mentioned here so favorably?"</p> + +<p>I bowed deeply in reply.</p> + +<p>"You are most highly spoken of, and it will give me sincere +pleasure to<br> +recommend you to the notice of the Prince Regent. But stay a +moment," so<br> +saying, he hurriedly passed from the room, leaving me overwhelmed +at the<br> +suddenness of the incident, and a mark of no small astonishment +to the<br> +different persons in waiting, who had hitherto no other idea but +that my<br> +despatches were from Hounslow or Knightsbridge.</p> + +<p>"Captain O'Malley," said an officer covered with decorations, +and whose<br> +slightly foreign accent bespoke the Hanoverian, "his Royal +Highness<br> +requests you will accompany me." The door opened as he spoke, and +I found<br> +myself in a most splendidly lit-up apartment,—the walls covered +with<br> +pictures, and the ceiling divided, into panels resplendent with +the richest<br> +gilding. A group of persons in court dresses were conversing in a +low tone<br> +as we entered, but suddenly ceased, and saluting my conductor +respectfully,<br> +made way for us to pass on. The folding-doors again opened as +we<br> +approached, and we found ourselves in a long gallery, whose +sumptuous<br> +furniture and costly decorations shone beneath the rich tints of +a massive<br> +lustre of ruby glass, diffusing a glow resembling the most +gorgeous sunset.<br> +Here also some persons in handsome uniform were conversing, one +of whom<br> +accosted my companion by the title of "Baron;" nodding familiarly +as he<br> +muttered a few words in German, he passed forward, and the next +moment the<br> +doors were thrown suddenly wide, and we entered the +drawing-room.</p> + +<p>The buzz of voices and the sound of laughter reassured me as I +came<br> +forward, and before I had well time to think where and why I was +there, the<br> +Duke of York advanced towards me, with a smile of peculiar +sweetness in its<br> +expression, and said, as he turned towards one side:—</p> + +<p>"Your Royal Highness—Captain O'Malley!"</p> + +<p>As he spoke the Prince moved forward, and bowed slightly.</p> + +<p>"You've brought us capital news, Mr. O'Malley. May I beg, if +you're not<br> +too much tired, you'll join us at dinner. I am most anxious to +learn the<br> +particulars of the assault."</p> + +<p>As I bowed my acknowledgments to the gracious invitation, he +continued:—</p> + +<p>"Are you acquainted with my friend here?—but of course you +can scarcely<br> +be; you began too early as a soldier. So let me present you to my +friend,<br> +Mr. Tierney," a middle-aged man, whose broad, white forehead and +deep-set<br> +eyes gave a character to features that were otherwise not +remarkable in<br> +expression, and who bowed rather stiffly.</p> + +<p>Before he had concluded a somewhat labored compliment to me, +we were joined<br> +by a third person, whose strikingly-handsome features were lit up +with an<br> +expression of the most animated kind. He accosted the Prince with +an air<br> +of easy familiarity, and while he led him from the group, +appeared to be<br> +relating some anecdote which actually convulsed his Royal +Highness with<br> +laughter.</p> + +<p>Before I had time or opportunity to inquire who the individual +could<br> +be, dinner was announced, and the wide folding-doors being thrown +open,<br> +displayed the magnificent dining-room of Carlton House in all the +blaze and<br> +splendor of its magnificence.</p> + +<p>The sudden change from the rough vicissitudes of campaigning +life to all<br> +the luxury and voluptuous elegance of a brilliant court, created +too much<br> +confusion in my mind to permit of my impressions being the most +accurate<br> +or most collected. The splendor of the scene, the rank, but even +more the<br> +talent of the individuals by whom I was surrounded, had all their +full<br> +effect upon me. And although I found, from the tone of the +conversation<br> +about, how immeasurably I was their inferior, yet by a delicate +and<br> +courteous interest in the scene of which I had lately partaken, +they took<br> +away the awkwardness which in some degree was inseparable from +the novelty<br> +of my position among them.</p> + +<p>Conversing about the Peninsula with a degree of knowledge +which I could<br> +in no wise comprehend from those not engaged in the war, they +appeared<br> +perfectly acquainted with all the details of the campaign; and I +heard on<br> +every side of me anecdotes and stories which I scarcely believed +known<br> +beyond the precincts of a regiment. The Prince himself—the grace +and charm<br> +of whose narrative talents have seldom been excelled—was +particularly<br> +conspicuous, and I could not help feeling struck with his +admirable<br> +imitations of voice and manner. The most accomplished actor could +not have<br> +personated the canny, calculating spirit of the Scot, or the +rollicking<br> +recklessness of the Irishman, with more tact and <i>finesse</i>. But +far above<br> +all this, shone the person I have already alluded to as speaking +to his<br> +Royal Highness in the drawing-room. Combining the happiest +conversational<br> +eloquence with a quick, ready, and brilliant fancy, he threw from +him in<br> +all the careless profusion of boundless resource a shower of +pointed and<br> +epigrammatic witticisms. Now illustrating a really difficult +subject by one<br> +happy touch, as the blaze of the lightning will light up the +whole surface<br> +of the dark landscape beneath it; now turning the force of an +adversary's<br> +argument by some fallacious but unanswerable jest, accompanying +the whole<br> +by those fascinations of voice, look, gesture, and manner which +have made<br> +those who once have seen, never able to forget Brinsley +Sheridan.</p> + +<p>I am not able, were I even disposed, to record more +particularly the<br> +details of that most brilliant evening of my life. On every side +of me I<br> +heard the names of those whose fame as statesmen or whose repute +as men of<br> +letters was ringing throughout Europe. They were then, too, not +in the easy<br> +indolence of ordinary life, but displaying with their utmost +effort those<br> +powers of wit, fancy, imagination, and eloquence which had won +for them<br> +elsewhere their high and exalted position. The masculine +understanding<br> +and powerful intellect of Tierney vied with the brilliant and +dazzling<br> +conceptions of Sheridan. The easy <i>bonhomie</i> and English +heartiness of Fox<br> +contrasted with the cutting sarcasm and sharp raillery of +O'Kelly. While<br> +contesting the palm with each himself, the Prince evinced powers +of mind<br> +and eloquent facilities of expression that, in any walk of life, +must<br> +have made their possessor a most distinguished man. Politics, +war, women,<br> +literature, the turf, the navy, the opposition, architecture, and +the<br> +drama, were all discussed with a degree of information and +knowledge that<br> +proved to me how much of real acquirements can be obtained by +those whose<br> +exalted station surrounds them with the collective intellect of a +nation.<br> +As for myself, the time flew past unconsciously. So brilliant a +display of<br> +all that was courtly and fascinating in manner, and all that was +brightest<br> +in genius, was so novel to me, that I really felt like one +entranced. To<br> +this hour, my impression, however confused in details, is as +vivid as<br> +though that evening were but yesternight; and although since that +period<br> +I have enjoyed numerous opportunities of meeting with the great +and the<br> +gifted, yet I treasure the memory of that evening as by far the +most<br> +exciting of my whole life.</p> + +<p>While I abstain from any mention of the many incidents of the +evening,<br> +I cannot pass over one which, occurring to myself, is valuable +but as<br> +showing, by one slight and passing trait, the amiable and kind +feeling of<br> +one whose memory is hallowed in the service.</p> + +<p>A little lower than myself, on the opposite side of the table, +I perceived<br> +an old military acquaintance whom I had first met in Lisbon. He +was then on<br> +Sir Charles Stewart's staff, and we met almost daily. Wishing to +commend<br> +myself to his recollection, I endeavored for some time to catch +his eye,<br> +but in vain; but at last when I thought I had succeeded, I called +to him,—</p> + +<p>"I say, Fred, a glass of wine with you."</p> + +<p>When suddenly the Duke of York, who was speaking to Lord +Hertford, turned<br> +quickly round, and taking the decanter in his hand, +replied,—</p> + +<p>"With pleasure, O'Malley. What shall it be, my boy?"</p> + +<p>I shall never forget the manly good-humor of his look as he +sat waiting for<br> +my answer. He had taken my speech as addressed to himself, and +concluding<br> +that from fatigue, the novelty of the scene, my youth, etc., I +was not over<br> +collected, vouchsafed in this kind way to receive it.</p> + +<p>"So," said he, as I stammered out my explanation, "I was +deceived. However,<br> +don't cheat me out of my glass of wine. Let us have it now."</p> + +<p>With this little anecdote, whose truth I vouch for, I shall +conclude. More<br> +than one now living was a witness to it, and my only regret in +the mention<br> +of it is my inability to convey the readiness with which he +seized the<br> +moment of apparent difficulty to throw the protection of his kind +and<br> +warm-hearted nature over the apparent folly of a boy.</p> + +<p>It was late when the party broke up, and as I took my leave of +the Prince,<br> +he once more expressed himself in gracious terms towards me, and +gave<br> +me personally an invitation to a breakfast at Hounslow on the +following<br> +Saturday.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XL.</p> + +<p>THE BELL AT BRISTOL.</p> + +<p>On the morning after my dinner at Carlton House, I found my +breakfast-table<br> +covered with cards and invitations. The news of the storming of +Ciudad<br> +Rodrigo was published in all the morning papers, and my own +humble name, in<br> +letters of three feet long, was exhibited in placards throughout +the city.<br> +Less to this circumstance, however, than to the kind and gracious +notice of<br> +the Prince, was I indebted for the attentions which were shown me +by<br> +every one; and indeed, so flattering was the reception I met +with, and so<br> +overwhelming the civility showered on me from all sides, that it +required<br> +no small effort on my part not to believe myself as much a hero +as they<br> +would make me. An eternal round of dinners, balls, breakfasts, +and<br> +entertainments filled up the entire week. I was included in +every<br> +invitation to Carlton House, and never appeared without receiving +from his<br> +Royal Highness the most striking marks of attention. Captivating +as all<br> +this undoubtedly was, and fascinated as I felt in being the lion +of London,<br> +the courted and sought after by the high, the titled, and the +talented of<br> +the great city of the universe, yet amidst all the splendor and +seduction<br> +of that new world, my heart instinctively turned from the glare +and<br> +brilliancy of gorgeous saloons, from the soft looks and softer +voice of<br> +beauty, from the words of praise as they fell from the lips of +those whose<br> +notice was fame itself,—to my humble home amidst the mountains +of the<br> +west. Delighted and charmed as I felt by that tribute of flattery +which<br> +associated my name with one of the most brilliant actions of my +country,<br> +yet hitherto I had experienced no touch of home or fatherland. +England was<br> +to me as the high and powerful head of my house, whose greatness +and whose<br> +glory shed a halo far and near, from the proudest to the humblest +of those<br> +that call themselves Britons; but Ireland was-the land of my +birth,—the<br> +land of my earliest ties, my dearest associations,—the kind +mother whose<br> +breath had fanned my brow in infancy, and for her in my manhood +my heart<br> +beat with every throb of filial affection. Need I say, then, how +ardently<br> +I longed to turn homeward; for independent of all else, I could +not avoid<br> +some self-reproach on thinking what might be the condition of +those I<br> +prized the most on earth, at that very moment I was engaging in +all the<br> +voluptuous abandonment, and all the fascinating excesses of a +life of<br> +pleasure. I wrote several letters home, but received no answer; +nor did I,<br> +in the whole round of London society, meet with a single person +who could<br> +give me information of my family or my friends. The Easter recess +had sent<br> +the different members of Parliament to their homes; and thus, +within a<br> +comparatively short distance of all I cared for, I could learn +nothing of<br> +their fate.</p> + +<p>The invitations of the Prince Regent, which were, of course, +to be regarded<br> +as commands, still detained me in London; and I knew not in what +manner<br> +to escape from the fresh engagements which each day heaped upon +me. In<br> +my anxiety upon the subject, I communicated my wishes to a friend +on the<br> +duke's staff, and the following morning, as I presented myself at +his<br> +levee, he called me towards him and addressed me:—</p> + +<p>"What leave have you got, Captain O'Malley?"</p> + +<p>"Three months, your Royal Highness."</p> + +<p>"Do you desire an unattached troop; for if so, an opportunity +occurs just<br> +at this moment."</p> + +<p>"I thank you most sincerely, sir, for your condescension in +thinking of me;<br> +but my wish is to join my regiment at the expiration of my +leave."</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought they told me you wanted to spend some time in +Ireland?"</p> + +<p>"Only sufficient to see my friends, your Royal Highness. That +done, I'd<br> +rather join my regiment immediately."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that alters the case! So then, probably, you'd like to +leave us at<br> +once. I see how it is; you've been staying here against your will +all this<br> +while. Then, don't say a word. I'll make your excuses at Carlton +House; and<br> +the better to cover your retreat, I'll employ you on service. +Here, Gordon,<br> +let Captain O'Malley have the despatches for Sir Henry Howard, at +Cork." As<br> +he said this, he turned towards me with an air of affected +sternness in his<br> +manner, and continued: "I expect, Captain O'Malley, that you will +deliver<br> +the despatches intrusted to your care without a moment's loss of +time. You<br> +will leave London within an hour. The instructions for your +journey will<br> +be sent to your hotel. And now," said he, again changing his +voice to its<br> +natural tone of kindliness and courtesy,—"and now, my boy, +good-by, and a<br> +safe journey to you. These letters will pay your expenses, and +the occasion<br> +save you all the worry of leave-taking."</p> + +<p>I stood confused and speechless, unable to utter a single word +of gratitude<br> +for such unexpected kindness. The duke saw at once my difficulty, +and as he<br> +shook me warmly by the hand, added, in a laughing tone,—</p> + +<p>"Don't wait, now; you mustn't forget that your despatches are +pressing."</p> + +<p>I bowed deeply, attempted a few words of acknowledgment, +hesitated,<br> +blundered, broke down, and at last got out of the room, Heaven +knows how,<br> +and found myself running towards Long's at the top of my speed. +Within that<br> +same hour I was rattling along towards Bristol as fast as four +posters<br> +could burn the pavement, thinking with ecstasy over the pleasures +of my<br> +reception in England; but far more than all, of the kindness +evinced<br> +towards me by him who, in every feeling of his nature, and in +every feature<br> +of his deportment was "every inch a prince."</p> + +<p>However astonished I had been at the warmth, by which I was +treated in<br> +London, I was still less prepared for the enthusiasm which +greeted me in<br> +every town through which I passed. There was not a village where +we stopped<br> +to change horses whose inhabitants did not simultaneously pour +forth to<br> +welcome me with every demonstration of delight. That the fact of +four<br> +horses and a yellow chaise should have elicited such testimonies +of<br> +satisfaction, was somewhat difficult to conceive; and even had +the<br> +important news that I was the bearer of despatches been +telegraphed from<br> +London by successive postboys, still the extraordinary excitement +was<br> +unaccountable. It was only on reaching Bristol that I learned to +what<br> +circumstance my popularity was owing. My friend Mike, in humble +imitation<br> +of election practices, had posted a large placard on the back of +the<br> +chaise, announcing, in letters of portentous length, something +like the<br> +following:—</p> + +<p> "Bloody news! Fall of Ciudad Rodrigo! Five thousand +prisoners<br> + and two hundred pieces of cannon taken!"</p> + +<p>This veracious and satisfactory statement, aided by Mike's +personal<br> +exertions, and an unwearied performance on the trumpet he had +taken from<br> +the French dragoon, had roused the population of every hamlet, +and made our<br> +journey from London to Bristol one scene of uproar, noise, and +confusion.<br> +All my attempts to suppress Mike's oratory or music were +perfectly<br> +unavailing. In fact, he had pledged my health so many times +during the day;<br> +he had drunk so many toasts to the success of the British arms, +so many to<br> +the English nation, so many in honor of Ireland, and so many in +honor of<br> +Mickey Free himself,—that all respect for my authority was lost +in his<br> +enthusiasm for my greatness, and his shouts became wilder, and +the blasts<br> +from the trumpet more fearful and incoherent; and finally, on the +last<br> +stage of our journey, having exhausted as it were every tribute +of his<br> +lungs, he seemed (if I were to judge by the evidence of my ears) +to be<br> +performing something very like a hornpipe on the roof of the +chaise.</p> + +<p>Happily for me there is a limit to all human efforts, and even +<i>his</i> powers<br> +at length succumbed; so that, when we arrived at Bristol, I +persuaded him<br> +to go to bed, and I once more was left to the enjoyment of some +quiet. To<br> +fill up the few hours which intervened before bedtime, I strolled +into the<br> +coffee room. The English look of every one, and everything +around, had<br> +still its charm for me; and I contemplated, with no small +admiration, that<br> +air of neatness and propriety so observant from the bright-faced +clock that<br> +ticked unwearily upon the mantelpiece, to the trim waiter +himself, with<br> +noiseless step and a mixed look of vigilance and vacancy. The +perfect<br> +stillness struck me, save when a deep voice called for +"another<br> +brandy-and-water," and some more modestly-toned request would +utter a<br> +desire for "more cream." The attention of each man, absorbed in +the folds<br> +of his voluminous newspaper, scarcely deigning a glance at the +new-comer<br> +who entered, was in keeping with the general +surroundings,—giving, in<br> +their solemnity and gravity, a character of almost religious +seriousness,<br> +to what, in any other land, would be a scene of riotous and +discordant<br> +tumult. I was watching all this with a more than common interest, +when the<br> +door opened, and the waiter entered with a large placard. He was +followed<br> +by another with a ladder, by whose assistance he succeeded in +attaching the<br> +large square of paper to the wall above the fireplace. Every one +about rose<br> +up, curious to ascertain what was going forward; and I myself +joined in the<br> +crowd around the fire. The first glance of the announcement +showed me<br> +what it meant; and it was with a strange mixture of shame and +confusion I<br> +read:—</p> + +<p> "<i>Fall of Ciudad Rodrigo: with a full and detailed account +of the<br> + storming of the great breach, capture of the enemy's cannon, +etc., by<br> + Michael Free, 14th Light Dragoons</i>."</p> + +<p>Leaving the many around me busied in conjecturing who the +aforesaid Mr.<br> +Free might be, and what peculiar opportunities he might have +enjoyed for<br> +his report, I hurried from the room and called the waiter.</p> + +<p>"What's the meaning of the announcement you've just put up in +the<br> +coffee-room? Where did it come from?"</p> + +<p>"Most important news, sir; exclusively in the columns of the +'<i>Bristol<br> +Telegraph</i>,'—the gentleman has just arrived—"</p> + +<p>"Who, pray? What gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Free, sir, No. 13—large bed-room—blue damask—supper +for<br> +two—oysters—a devil—brandy-and-water-mulled port."</p> + +<p>"What the devil do you mean? Is the fellow at supper?"</p> + +<p>Somewhat shocked by the tone I ventured to assume towards the +illustrious<br> +narrator, the waiter merely bowed his reply.</p> + +<p>"Show me to his room," said I; "I should like to see him."</p> + +<p>"Follow me, if you please, sir,—this way. What name shall I +say, sir?"</p> + +<p>"You need not mind announcing me,—I'm an old +acquaintance,—just show me<br> +the room."</p> + +<p>"I beg pardon, sir, but Mr. Meekins, the editor of the +'<i>Telegraph</i>,' is<br> +engaged with him at present; and positive orders are given not to +suffer<br> +any interruption."</p> + +<p>"No matter; do as I bid you. Is that it? Oh, I hear his voice. +There, that<br> +will do. You may go down-stairs, I'll introduce myself."</p> + +<a name="0317"></a> +<img alt="0317.jpg (203K)" src="0317.jpg" height="689" width="801"> + +<p>[CAPTAIN MICKEY FREE RELATING HIS HEROIC +DEEDS.]</p> +<br><br> + +<p>So saying, and slipping a crown into the waiter's hand, I +proceeded<br> +cautiously towards the door, and opened it stealthily. My caution +was,<br> +however, needless; for a large screen was drawn across this part +of the<br> +room, completely concealing the door, closing which behind me, I +took my<br> +place beneath the shelter of this ambuscade, determined on no +account to be<br> +perceived by the parties.</p> + +<p>Seated in a large arm-chair, a smoking tumbler of mulled port +before him,<br> +sat my friend Mike, dressed in my full regimentals, even to the +helmet,<br> +which, unfortunately however for the effect, he had put on back +foremost; a<br> +short "dudeen" graced his lip, and the trumpet so frequently +alluded to lay<br> +near him.</p> + +<p>Opposite him sat a short, puny, round-faced little gentleman +with rolling<br> +eyes and a turned up nose. Numerous sheets of paper, pens, etc., +lay<br> +scattered about; and he evinced, by his air and gesture, the most +marked<br> +and eager attention to Mr. Free's narrative, whose frequent +interruptions,<br> +caused by the drink and the oysters, were viewed with no small +impatience<br> +by the anxious editor.</p> + +<p>"You must remember, Captain, time's passing; the placards are +all out. Must<br> +be at press before one o'clock to-night,—the morning edition is +everything<br> +with us. You were at the first parallel, I think."</p> + +<p>"Devil a one o' me knows. Just ring that bell near you. Them's +elegant<br> +oysters; and you're not taking your drop of liquor. Here's a +toast for you:<br> +'May—' Whoop! raal Carlingford's, upon my conscience! See now, +if I won't<br> +hit the little black chap up there the first shot."</p> + +<p>Scarcely were the words spoken, when a little painted bust of +Shakespeare<br> +fell in fragments on the floor, as an oyster-shell laid him +low.</p> + +<p>A faint effort at a laugh at the eccentricities of his friend +was all the<br> +poor editor could accomplish, while Mike's triumph knew no +bounds.</p> + +<p>"Didn't I tell you? But come now, are you ready? Give the pen +a drink, if<br> +you won't take one yourself."</p> + +<p>"I am ready, quite ready," responded the editor.</p> + +<p>"Faith, and it's more nor I am. See now, here it is: The night +was<br> +murthering dark; you could not see a stim."</p> + +<p>"Not see a—a what?"</p> + +<p>"A stim, bad luck to you; don't you know English? Hand me the +hot water.<br> +Have you that down yet?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Pray proceed."</p> + +<p>"The Fifth Division was orthered up, bekase they were fighting +chaps; the<br> +Eighty-eighth was among them; the Rangers—Oh, upon my soul, we +must drink<br> +the Rangers! Here, devil a one o' me will go on till we give them +all the<br> +honors—Hip!—begin."</p> + +<p>"Hip!" sighed the luckless editor, as he rose from his chair, +obedient to<br> +the command.</p> + +<p>"Hurra! hurra! hurra! Well done! There's stuff in you yet, +ould foolscap!<br> +The little bottle's empty; ring again, if ye plaze.</p> + +<p> 'Oh, Father Magan<br> + Was a beautiful man,<br> + But a bit of a rogue, a bit of a rogue!<br> + He was just six feet high,<br> + Had a cast in his eye,<br> + And an illigint brogue, an illigint brogue!</p> + +<p> 'He was born in Killarney,<br> + And reared up in blarney—'</p> + +<p>"Arrah, don't be looking miserable and dissolute that way. +Sure, I'm only<br> +screwing myself up for you; besides, you can print the song av +you like.<br> +It's a sweet tune, 'Teddy, you Gander,'"</p> + +<p>"Really, Mr. Free, I see no prospect of our ever getting +done."</p> + +<p>"The saints in Heaven forbid!" interrupted Mike, piously; "the +evening's<br> +young, and drink plenty. Here now, make ready!"</p> + +<p>The editor once more made a gesture of preparation.</p> + +<p>"Well, as I was saying," resumed Mike, "it was pitch dark when +the columns<br> +moved up, and a cold, raw night, with a little thin rain falling. +Have you<br> +that down?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Pray go on."</p> + +<p>"Well, just as it might be here, at the corner of the trench, +I met Dr.<br> +Quill. 'They're waiting for you, Mr. Free,' says he, 'down there. +Picton's<br> +asking for you.' 'Faith, and he must wait,' says I, 'for I'm +terrible<br> +dry.' With that, he pulled out his canteen and mixed me a +little<br> +brandy-and-water. 'Are you taking it without a toast?' says +Doctor Maurice.<br> +'Never fear,' says I; 'here's Mary Brady—'"</p> + +<p>"But, my dear sir," interposed Mr. Meekins, "pray <i>do</i> +remember this is<br> +somewhat irrelevant. In fifteen minutes it will be twelve +o'clock."</p> + +<p>"I know it, ould boy, I know it. I see what you're at. You +were going to<br> +observe how much better we'd be for a broiled bone."</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the kind, I assure you. For Heaven's sake, no more +eating and<br> +drinking!"</p> + +<p>"No more eating nor drinking! Why not? You've a nice notion of +a convivial<br> +evening. Faith, we'll have the broiled bone sure enough, and, +what's more,<br> +a half gallon of the strongest punch they can make us; an' I hope +that,<br> +grave as you are, you'll favor the company with a song."</p> + +<p>"Really, Mr. Free—"</p> + +<p>"Arrah, none of your blarney! Don't be misthering me! Call me +Mickey, or<br> +Mickey Free, if you like better."</p> + +<p>"I protest," said the editor, with dismay, "that here we are +two hours at<br> +work, and we haven't got to the foot of the great breach."</p> + +<p>"And wasn't the army three months and a half in just getting +that far, with<br> +a battering train and mortars and the finest troops ever were +seen? And<br> +there you sit, a little fat creature, with your pen in your hand, +grumbling<br> +that you can't do more than the whole British army. Take care you +don't<br> +provoke me to beat you; for I am quiet till I'm roused. But, by +the Rock o'<br> +Cashel—"</p> + +<p>Here he grasped the brass trumpet with an energy that made the +editor<br> +spring from his chair.</p> + +<p>"For mercy's sake, Mr. Free—"</p> + +<p>"Well, I won't; but sit down there, and don't be bothering me +about sieges<br> +and battles and things you know nothing about."</p> + +<p>"I protest," rejoined Mr. Meekins, "that, had you not sent to +my office<br> +intimating your wish to communicate an account of the siege, I +never should<br> +have thought of intruding myself upon you. And now, since you +appear<br> +indisposed to afford the information in question, if you will +permit me,<br> +I'll wish you a very good-night."</p> + +<p>"Faith, and so you shall, and help me to pass one too; for not +a step out<br> +o' that chair shall you take till morning. Do ye think I am going +to be<br> +left here by myself all alone?"</p> + +<p>"I must observe—" said Mr. Meekins.</p> + +<p>"To be sure, to be sure," said Mickey; "I see what you mean. +You're not the<br> +best of company, it's true; but at a pinch like this—There now, +take, your<br> +liquor."</p> + +<p>"Once for all, sir," said the editor, "I would beg you to +recollect that,<br> +on the faith of your message to me, I have announced an account +of the<br> +storming of Ciudad Rodrigo for our morning edition. Are you +prepared, may I<br> +ask, for the consequences of my disappointing ten thousand +readers?"</p> + +<p>"It's little I care for one of them. I never knew much of +reading myself."</p> + +<p>"If you think to make a jest of me—" interposed Mr. Meekins, +reddening<br> +with passion.</p> + +<p>"A jest of you! Troth, it's little fun I can get out of you; +you're as<br> +tiresome a creature as ever I spent an evening with. See now, I +told you<br> +before not to provoke me; we'll have a little more drink; ring +the bell.<br> +Who knows but you'll turn out better by-and-by?"</p> + +<p>As Mike rose at these words to summon the waiter, Mr. Meekins +seized the<br> +opportunity to make his escape. Scarcely had he reached the door, +however,<br> +when he was perceived by Mickey, who hurled the trumpet at him +with all his<br> +force, while he uttered a shout that nearly left the poor editor +lifeless<br> +with terror. This time, happily, Mr. Free's aim failed him, and +before he<br> +could arrest the progress of his victim, he had gained the +corridor,<br> +and with one bound, cleared the first flight of the staircase, +his pace<br> +increasing every moment as Mike's denunciations grew louder and +louder,<br> +till at last, as he reached the street, Mr. Free's delight +overcame his<br> +indignation, and he threw himself upon a chair and laughed +immoderately.</p> + +<p>"Oh, may I never! if I didn't frighten the editor. The little +spalpeen<br> +couldn't eat his oysters and take his punch like a man. But sure +if he<br> +didn't, there's more left for his betters." So saying, he filled +himself<br> +a goblet and drank it off. "Mr. Free, we won't say much for +your<br> +inclinations, for maybe they are not the best; but here's bad +luck to the<br> +fellow that doesn't think you good company; and here," added he, +again<br> +filling his glass,—"and here's may the devil take editors and +authors and<br> +compositors, that won't let us alone, but must be taking our +lives and our<br> +songs and our little devilments, that belongs to one's own +family, and tell<br> +them all over the world. A lazy set of thieves you are, every one +of you;<br> +spending your time inventing lies, devil a more nor less; and +here," this<br> +time he filled again,—"and here's a hot corner and Kilkenny +coals, that's<br> +half sulphur, to the villain—"</p> + +<p>For what particular class of offenders Mike's penal code was +now devised, I<br> +was not destined to learn; for overcome by punch and indignation, +he gave<br> +one loud whoop, and measured his length upon the floor. Having +committed<br> +him to the care of the waiters, from whom I learned more fully +the<br> +particulars of his acquaintance with Mr. Meekins, I enjoined +them,<br> +strictly, not to mention that I knew anything of the matter; and +betook<br> +myself to my bed sincerely rejoicing that in a few hours more +Mike would<br> +be again in that laud where even his eccentricities and excesses +would be<br> +viewed with a favorable and forgiving eye.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XLI.</p> + +<p>IRELAND.</p> + +<p>"You'd better call your master up," said the skipper to Mickey +Free, on the<br> +second evening after our departure from Bristol; "he said he'd +like to have<br> +a look at the coast."</p> + +<p>The words were overheard by me, as I lay between sleeping and +waking in the<br> +cabin of the packet, and without waiting for a second invitation, +I rushed<br> +upon deck. The sun was setting, and one vast surface of yellow +golden light<br> +played upon the water, as it rippled beneath a gentle gale. The +white foam<br> +curled at our prow, and the rushing sound told the speed we were +going at.<br> +The little craft was staggering under every sheet of her canvas, +and her<br> +spars creaked as her white sails bent before the breeze. Before +us, but to<br> +my landsman's eyes scarcely perceptible, were the ill-defined +outlines of<br> +cloudy darkness they called land, and which I continued to gaze +at with a<br> +strange sense of interest, while I heard the names of certain +well-known<br> +headlands assigned to apparently mere masses of fog-bank and +vapor.</p> + +<p>He who has never been separated in early years, while yet the +budding<br> +affections of his heart are tender shoots, from the land of his +birth and<br> +of his home, knows nothing of the throng of sensations that crowd +upon him<br> +as he nears the shore of his country. The names, familiar as +household<br> +words, come with a train of long-buried thoughts; the feeling of +attachment<br> +to all we call our own—that patriotism of the heart—stirs +strongly within<br> +him, as the mingled thrills of hope and fear alternately move him +to joy or<br> +sadness.</p> + +<p>Hard as are the worldly struggles between the daily cares of +him who carves<br> +out his own career and fortune, yet he has never experienced the +darkest<br> +poverty of fate who has not felt what it is to be a wanderer, +without a<br> +country to lay claim to. Of all the desolations that visit us, +this is the<br> +gloomiest and the worst. The outcast from the land of his +fathers, whose<br> +voice must never be heard within the walls where his infancy was +nurtured,<br> +nor his step be free upon the mountains where he gambolled in his +youth,<br> +this is indeed wretchedness. The instinct of country grows and +strengthens<br> +with our years; the joys of early life are linked with it; the +hopes of<br> +age point towards it; and he who knows not the thrill of ecstasy +some<br> +well-remembered, long-lost-sight-of place can bring to his heart +when<br> +returning after years of absence, is ignorant of one of the +purest sources<br> +of happiness of our nature.</p> + +<p>With what a yearning of the heart, then, did I look upon the +dim and misty<br> +cliffs, that mighty framework of my island home, their stern +sides lashed<br> +by the blue waters of the ocean, and their summits lost within +the clouds!<br> +With what an easy and natural transition did my mind turn from +the wild<br> +mountains and the green valleys to their hardy sons, who toiled +beneath<br> +the burning sun of the Peninsula; and how, as some twinkling +light of the<br> +distant shore would catch my eye, did I wonder within myself +whether<br> +beside that hearth and board there might not sit some whose +thoughts<br> +were wandering over the sea beside the bold steeps of El Bodon, +or the<br> +death-strewn plain of Talavera,—their memories calling up some +trait of<br> +him who was the idol of his home; whose closing lids some fond +mother had<br> +watched over; above whose peaceful slumber her prayers had +fallen; but<br> +whose narrow bed was now beneath the breach of Badajos, and his +sleep the<br> +sleep that knows not waking!</p> + +<p>I know not if in my sad and sorrowing spirit I did not envy +him who thus<br> +had met a soldier's fate,—for what of promise had my own! My +hopes of<br> +being in any way instrumental to my poor uncle's happiness grew +hourly<br> +less. His prejudices were deeply rooted and of long standing; to +have asked<br> +him to surrender any of what he looked upon as the prerogatives +of his<br> +house and name, would be to risk the loss of his esteem. What +then remained<br> +for me? Was I to watch, day by day and hour by hour, the falling +ruin of<br> +our fortunes? Was I to involve myself in the petty warfare of +unavailing<br> +resistance to the law? And could I stand aloof from my best, my +truest, my<br> +earliest friend, and see him, alone and unaided, oppose his weak +and final<br> +struggle to the unrelenting career of persecution. Between these +two<br> +alternatives the former could be my only choice; and what a +choice!</p> + +<p>Oh, how I thought over the wild heroism of the battle-field, +the reckless<br> +fury of the charge, the crash, the death-cry, and the sad picture +of the<br> +morrow, when all was past, and a soldier's glory alone remained +to shed its<br> +high halo over the faults and the follies of the dead.</p> + +<p>As night fell, the twinkling of the distant lighthouses—some +throwing<br> +a column of light from the very verge of the horizon, others +shining<br> +brightly, like stars, from some lofty promontory—marked the +different<br> +outlines of the coast, and conveyed to me the memory of that +broken and<br> +wild mountain tract that forms the bulwark of the Green Isle +against the<br> +waves of the Atlantic. Alone and silently I trod the deck, now +turning to<br> +look towards the shore, where I thought I could detect the +position of some<br> +well-known headland, now straining my eyes seaward to watch some +bright<br> +and flitting star, as it rose from or merged beneath the foaming +water,<br> +denoting the track of the swift pilot-boat, or the hardy lugger +of the<br> +fisherman; while the shrill whistle of the floating sea-gull was +the only<br> +sound save the rushing waves that broke in spray upon our +quarter.</p> + +<p>What is it that so inevitably inspires sad and depressing +thoughts as we<br> +walk the deck of some little craft in the silence of the night's +dark<br> +hours? No sense of danger near, we hold on our course swiftly and +steadily,<br> +cleaving the dark waves and bending gracefully beneath the +freshening<br> +breeze. Yet still the motion, which, in the bright sunshine of +the noonday<br> +tells of joy and gladness, brings now no touch of pleasure to our +hearts.<br> +The dark and frowning sky, the boundless expanse of gloomy water, +spread<br> +like some gigantic pall around us, and our thoughts either turn +back upon<br> +the saddest features of the past or look forward to the future +with a<br> +sickly hope that all may not be as we fear it.</p> + +<p>Mine were, indeed, of the gloomiest; and the selfishness alone +of the<br> +thought prevented me from wishing that, like many another, I had +fallen by<br> +a soldier's death on the plains of the Peninsula!</p> + +<p>As the night wore on, I wrapped myself in my cloak and lay +down beneath the<br> +bulwark. The whole of my past life came in review before me, and +I thought<br> +over my first meeting with Lucy Dashwood; the thrill of boyish +admiration<br> +gliding into love; the hopes, the fears, that stirred my heart; +the firm<br> +resolve to merit her affection, which made me a soldier. Alas, +how little<br> +thought she of him to whose whole life she had been a guide-star +and a<br> +beacon! And as I thought over the hard-fought fields, the long, +fatiguing<br> +marches, the nights around the watch-fires, and felt how, in the +whirl<br> +and enthusiasm of a soldier's life, the cares and sorrows of +every day<br> +existence are forgotten, I shuddered to reflect upon the career +that might<br> +now open before me. To abandon, perhaps forever, the glorious +path I had<br> +been pursuing for a life of indolence and weariness, while my +name, that<br> +had already, by the chance of some fortunate circumstances, begun +to be<br> +mentioned with a testimony of approval, should be lost in +oblivion or<br> +remembered but as that of one whose early promise was not borne +out by the<br> +deeds of his manhood.</p> + +<p>As day broke, overcome by watching, I slept, but was soon +awoke by the stir<br> +and bustle around me. The breeze had freshened, and we were +running under<br> +a reefed mainsail and foresail; and as the little craft bounded +above the<br> +blue water, the white foam crested above her prow, and ran in +boiling<br> +rivulets along towards the after-deck. The tramp of the seamen, +the hoarse<br> +voice of the captain, the shrill cry of the sea-birds, betokened, +however,<br> +nothing of dread or danger; and listlessly I leaned upon my elbow +and asked<br> +what was going forward.</p> + +<p>"Nothing, sir; only making ready to drop our anchor."</p> + +<p>"Are we so near shore, then?" said I.</p> + +<p>"You've only to round that point to windward, and have a clear +run into<br> +Cork harbor."</p> + +<p>I sprang at once to my legs. The land-fog prevented my seeing +anything<br> +whatever, but I thought that in the breeze, fresh and balmy as it +blew, I<br> +could feel the wind off shore. "At last," said I,—"at last!" as +I stepped<br> +into the little wherry which shot alongside of us, and we glided +into the<br> +still basin of Cove. How I remember every white-walled cottage, +and the<br> +beetling cliffs, and that bold headland beside which the valley +opens, with<br> +its dark-green woods, and then Spike Island. And what a stir is +yonder,<br> +early as it is; the men-of-war tenders seem alive with people, +while still<br> +the little village is sunk in slumber, not a smoke-wreath rising +from its<br> +silent hearths. Every plash of the oars in the calm water as I +neared the<br> +land, every chance word of the bronzed and hardy fisherman, told +upon my<br> +heart. I felt it was my home.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it beautiful, sir? Isn't it illigant?" said a voice +behind me, which<br> +there could be little doubt in my detecting, although I had not +seen the<br> +individual since I left England.</p> + +<p>"Is not what beautiful?" replied I, rather harshly, at the +interruption of<br> +my own thoughts.</p> + +<p>"Ireland, to be sure; and long life to her!" cried he, with a +cheer that<br> +soon found its responsive echoes in the hearts of our sailors, +who seconded<br> +the sentiment with all their energy.</p> + +<p>"How am I to get up to Cork, lads?" said I. "I am pressed for +time, and<br> +must get forward."</p> + +<p>"We'll row your honor the whole way, av it's plazing to +you."</p> + +<p>"Why, thank you, I'd rather find some quicker mode of +proceeding."</p> + +<p>"Maybe you'd have a chaise? There's an elegant one at +M'Cassidy's."</p> + +<p>"Sure, the blind mare's in foal," said the bow oar. "The devil +a step she<br> +can go out of a walk; so, your honor, take Tim Riley's car, and +you'll get<br> +up cheap. Not that you care for money; but he's going up at eight +o'clock<br> +with two young ladies."</p> + +<p>"Oh, be-gorra!" said the other, "and so he is. And faix, ye +might do worse;<br> +they're nice craytures."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "your advice seems good; but perhaps they +might object to<br> +my company."</p> + +<p>"I've no fear; they're always with the officers. Sure, the +Miss<br> +Dalrymples—"</p> + +<p>"The Miss Dalrymples! Push ahead, boys; it must be later than +I thought. We<br> +must get the chaise; I can't wait."</p> + +<p>Ten minutes more brought us to land.</p> + +<p>My arrangements were soon made, and as my impatience to press +forward<br> +became greater the nearer I drew to my destination, I lost not a +moment.</p> + +<p>The yellow chaise—sole glory of Cove—was brought forth at my +request; and<br> +by good fortune, four posters which had been down the preceding +evening<br> +from Cork to some gentleman's seat near were about to return. +These were<br> +also pressed into my service; and just as the first early riser +of the<br> +little village was drawing his curtain to take a half-closed +eye-glance<br> +upon the breaking morning, I rattled forth upon my journey at a +pace which,<br> +could I only have secured its continuance, must soon have +terminated my<br> +weary way.</p> + +<p>Beautiful as the whole line of country is, I was totally +unconscious of it;<br> +and even Mike's conversational powers, divided as they were +between myself<br> +and the two postilions, were fruitless in arousing me from the +deep<br> +pre-occupation of my mind by thoughts of home.</p> + +<p>It was, then, with some astonishment I heard the boy upon the +wheeler ask<br> +whither he should drive me to.</p> + +<p>"Tell his honor to wake up; we're in Cork now."</p> + +<p>"In Cork! Impossible, already!"</p> + +<p>"Faith, may be so; but it's Cork, sure enough."</p> + +<p>"Drive to the 'George.' It's not far from the +commander-in-chief's<br> +quarters."</p> + +<p>"'Tis five minutes' walk, sir. You'll be there before they're +put to<br> +again."</p> + +<p>"Horses for Fermoy!" shouted out the postilions, as we tore up +to the door<br> +in a gallop. I sprang out, and by the assistance of the waiter, +discovered<br> +Sir Henry Howard's quarters, to whom my despatches were +addressed. Having<br> +delivered them into the hands of an aide-de-camp, who sat bolt +upright in<br> +his bed, rubbing his eyes to appear awake, I again hurried +down-stairs, and<br> +throwing myself into the chaise, continued my journey.</p> + +<p>"Them's beautiful streets, any how!" said Mike, "av they +wasn't kept so<br> +dirty, and the houses so dark, and the pavement bad. That's Mr. +Beamish's,<br> +that fine house there with the brass rapper and the green lamp +beside it;<br> +and there's the hospital. Faix, and there's the place we beat the +police<br> +when I was here before; and the house with the sign of the +Highlander is<br> +thrown down; and what's the big building with the stone posts at +the door?"</p> + +<p>"The bank, sir," said the postilion, with a most deferential +air as Mike<br> +addressed him. "What bank, acushla?"</p> + +<p>"Not a one of me knows, sir; but they call it the bank, though +it's only an<br> +empty house."</p> + +<p>"Cary and Moore's bank, perhaps?" said I, having heard that in +days long<br> +past some such names had failed in Cork for a large amount.</p> + +<p>"So it is; your honor's right," cried the postilion; while +Mike, standing<br> +up on the box, and menacing the house with his clinched fist, +shouted out<br> +at the very top of his voice:</p> + +<p>"Oh, bad luck to your cobwebbed windows and iron railings! +Sure, it's my<br> +father's son ought to hate the sight of you."</p> + +<p>"I hope, Mike, your father never trusted his property in such +hands?"</p> + +<p>"I don't suspect he did, your honor. He never put much belief +in the banks;<br> +but the house cost him dear enough without that."</p> + +<p>As I could not help feeling some curiosity in this matter, I +pressed Mickey<br> +for an explanation.</p> + +<p>"But maybe it's not Cary and Moore's, after all; and I may be +cursing<br> +dacent people."</p> + +<p>Having reassured his mind by telling him that the reservation +he made by<br> +the doubt would tell in their favor should he prove mistaken, he +afforded<br> +me the following information:—</p> + +<p>"When my father—the heavens be his bed!—was in the 'Cork,' +they put him<br> +one night on guard at that same big house you just passed, av it +was the<br> +same; but if it wasn't that, it was another. And it was a +beautiful fine<br> +night in August and the moon up, and plenty of people walking +about,<br> +and all kinds of fun and devilment going on,—drinking and +dancing and<br> +everything.</p> + +<p>"Well, my father was stuck up there with his musket, to walk +up and down,<br> +and not say, 'God save you kindly,' or the time of day or +anything, but<br> +just march as if he was in the barrack-yard; and by reason of his +being the<br> +man he was he didn't like it half, but kept cursing and swearing +to himself<br> +like mad when he saw pleasant fellows and pretty girls going by, +laughing<br> +and joking.</p> + +<p>"'Good-evening, Mickey,' says one. 'Fine sport ye have all to +yourself,<br> +with your long feather in your cap.'</p> + +<p>"'Arrah, look how proud he is,' says another, 'with his head +up as if he<br> +didn't see a body.'</p> + +<p>"'Shoulder, hoo!' cried a drunken chap, with a shovel in his +hand. Then<br> +they all began laughing away at my father.</p> + +<p>"'Let the dacent man alone,' said an ould fellow in a wig. +'Isn't he<br> +guarding the bank, wid all the money in it?'</p> + +<p>"'Faix, he isn't,' says another; 'for there's none left.'</p> + +<p>"'What's that you're saying?' says my father.</p> + +<p>"'Just that the bank's broke; devil a more!' says he.</p> + +<p>"'And there's no goold in it?' says my father.</p> + +<p>'"Divil a guinea.'</p> + +<p>"'Nor silver?'</p> + +<p>"'No, nor silver; nor as much as sixpence, either.'</p> + +<p>"'Didn't ye hear that all day yesterday when the people was +coming in with<br> +their notes, the chaps there were heating the guineas in a +frying-pan,<br> +pretending that they were making them as fast as they could; and +sure, when<br> +they had a batch red-hot they spread them out to cool; and what +betune the<br> +hating and the cooling, and the burning the fingers counting +them, they<br> +kept the bank open to three o'clock, and then they ran away.'</p> + +<p>"'Is it truth yer telling?' says my father.</p> + +<p>"'Sorra word o' lie in it! Myself had two-and-fourpence of +their notes.'</p> + +<p>"'And so they're broke,' says my father, 'and nothing +left?'</p> + +<p>"'Not a brass farden.'</p> + +<p>"'And what am I staying here for, I wonder, if there's nothing +to guard?'</p> + +<p>"'Faix, if it isn't for the pride of the thing—'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, sorra taste!'</p> + +<p>"'Well, may be for divarsion.'</p> + +<p>"'Nor that either.'</p> + +<p>"'Faix, then you're a droll man, to spend the evening that +way,' says he;<br> +and all the crowd—for there was a crowd—said the same. So with +that my<br> +father unscrewed his bayonet, and put his piece on his shoulder, +and walked<br> +off to his bed in the barrack as peaceable as need be. But well, +when they<br> +came to relieve him, wasn't there a raal commotion? And faith, +you see, it<br> +went mighty hard with my father the next morning; for the bank +was open<br> +just as usual, and my father was sintinced to fifty lashes, but +got<br> +off with a week in prison, and three more rowling a big stone in +the<br> +barrack-yard."</p> + +<p>Thus chatting away, the time passed over, until we arrived at +Fermoy.<br> +Here there was some little delay in procuring horses; and during +the<br> +negotiation, Mike, who usually made himself master of the +circumstances of<br> +every place through which he passed, discovered that the grocer's +shop of<br> +the village was kept by a namesake, and possibly a relation of +his own.</p> + +<p>"I always had a notion, Mister Charles, that I came from a +good stock; and<br> +sure enough, here's 'Mary Free' over the door there, and a +beautiful place<br> +inside; full of tay and sugar and gingerbread and glue and coffee +and bran,<br> +pickled herrings, soap, and many other commodities."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you'd like to claim kindred, Mike," said I, +interrupting; "I'm<br> +sure she'd feel flattered to discover a relative in a Peninsular +hero."</p> + +<p>"It's just what I'm thinking; av we were going to pass the +evening here,<br> +I'd try if I couldn't make her out a second cousin at least."</p> + +<p>Fortune, upon this occasion, seconded Mike's wishes, for when +the horses<br> +made their appearance, I learned, to my surprise, that the near +side one<br> +would not bear a saddle, and the off-sider could only run on his +own<br> +side. In this conjuncture, the postilion was obliged to drive +from what,<br> +<i>Hibernicè</i> speaking, is called the perch,—no ill-applied +denomination to<br> +a piece of wood which, about the thickness of one's arm, is hung +between<br> +the two fore-springs, and serves as a resting-place in which the +luckless<br> +wight, weary of the saddle, is not sorry to repose himself.</p> + +<p>"What's to be done?" cried I. "There's no room within; my +traps barely<br> +leave space for myself among them."</p> + +<p>"Sure, sir," said the postilion, "the other gentleman can +follow in the<br> +morning coach; and if any accident happens to yourself on the +road, by<br> +reason of a break-down, he'll be there as soon as yourself."</p> + +<p>This, at least, was an agreeable suggestion, and as I saw it +chimed with<br> +Mike's notions, I acceded at once; he came running up at the +moment.</p> + +<p>"I had a peep at her through the window, Mister Charles, and, +faix, she has<br> +a great look of the family."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mickey, I'll leave you twenty-four hours to cultivate +the<br> +acquaintance; and to a man like you the time, I know, is ample. +Follow me<br> +by the morning's coach. Till then, good-by."</p> + +<p>Away we rattled once more, and soon left the town behind us. +The wild<br> +mountain tract which stretched on either side of the road +presented one<br> +bleak and brown surface, unrelieved by any trace of tillage or +habitation;<br> +an apparently endless succession of fern-clad hills lay on every +side;<br> +above, the gloomy sky of leaden, lowering aspect, frowned darkly; +the sad<br> +and wailing cry of the pewet or the plover was the only sound +that broke<br> +the stillness, and far as the eye could reach, a dreary waste +extended.<br> +The air, too, was cold and chilly; it was one of those days +which, in our<br> +springs, seemed to cast a retrospective glance towards the winter +they have<br> +left behind them. The prospect was no cheering one; from heaven +above or<br> +earth below there came no sight nor sound of gladness. The rich +glow of the<br> +Peninsular landscape was still fresh in my memory,—the luxurious +verdure;<br> +the olive, the citron, and the vine; the fair valleys teeming +with<br> +abundance; the mountains terraced with their vineyards; the +blue<br> +transparent sky spreading o'er all; while the very air was rife +with the<br> +cheering song of birds that peopled every grove. What a contrast +was here!<br> +We travelled on for miles, but no village nor one human face did +we see.<br> +Far in the distance a thin wreath of smoke curled upward; but it +came from<br> +no hearth; it arose from one of those field-fires by which +spendthrift<br> +husbandry cultivates the ground. It was, indeed, sad; and yet, I +know not<br> +how, it spoke more home to my heart than all the brilliant +display and all<br> +the voluptuous splendor I had witnessed in London. By degrees +some traces<br> +of wood made their appearance, and as we descended the mountain +towards<br> +Cahir, the country assumed a more cultivated and cheerful +look,—patches of<br> +corn or of meadow-land stretched on either side, and the voice of +children<br> +and the lowing of oxen mingled with the cawing of the rooks, as +in dense<br> +clouds they followed the ploughman's track. The changed features +of the<br> +prospect resembled the alternate phases of temperament of the +dweller on<br> +the soil,—the gloomy determination; the smiling carelessness; +the dark<br> +spirit of boding; the reckless jollity; the almost savage +ferocity of<br> +purpose, followed by a child-like docility and a womanly +softness; the<br> +grave, the gay, the resolute, the fickle; the firm, the yielding, +the<br> +unsparing, and the tender-hearted,—blending their contrarieties +into one<br> +nature, of whose capabilities one cannot predicate the bounds, +but to whom,<br> +by some luckless fatality of fortune, the great rewards of life +have been<br> +generally withheld until one begins to feel that the curse of +Swift was<br> +less the sarcasm wrung from indignant failures than the cold and +stern<br> +prophecy of the moralist.</p> + +<p>But how have I fallen into this strain! Let me rather turn my +eyes forward<br> +towards my home. How shall I find all there? Have his altered +fortunes<br> +damped the warm ardor of my poor uncle's heart? Is his smile +sicklied over<br> +by sorrow; or shall I hear his merry laugh and his cheerful voice +as in<br> +days of yore? How I longed to take my place beside that hearth, +and in the<br> +same oak-chair where I have sat telling the bold adventures of a +fox-chase<br> +or some long day upon the moors, speak of the scenes of my +campaigning<br> +life, and make known to him those gallant fellows by whose side I +have<br> +charged in battle, or sat in the bivouac! How will he glory in +the<br> +soldier-like spirit and daring energy of Fred Power! How will he +chuckle<br> +over the blundering earnestness and Irish warmth of +O'Shaughnessy! How will<br> +he laugh at the quaint stories and quainter jests of Maurice +Quill! And how<br> +often will he wish once more to be young in hand as in heart to +mingle with<br> +such gay fellows, with no other care, no other sorrow, to depress +him, save<br> +the passing fortune of a soldier's life!</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XLII.</p> + +<p>THE RETURN.</p> + +<p>A rude shock awoke me as I lay asleep in the corner of the +chaise; a shout<br> +followed, and the next moment the door was torn open, and I heard +the<br> +postilion's voice crying to me:—</p> + +<p>"Spring out! Jump out quickly, sir!"</p> + +<p>A whole battery of kicks upon the front panel drowned the rest +of his<br> +speech; but before I could obey his injunction, he was pitched +upon the<br> +road, the chaise rolled over and the pole snapped short in the +middle,<br> +while the two horses belabored the carriage and each other with +all their<br> +might. Managing, as well as I was able, to extricate myself, I +leaped out<br> +upon the road, and by the aid of a knife, and at the cost of some +bruises,<br> +succeeded in freeing the horses from their tackle. The postboy, +who had<br> +escaped without any serious injury, labored manfully to aid me, +blubbering<br> +the whole time upon the consequences his misfortune would bring +down upon<br> +his head.</p> + +<p>"Bad luck to ye!" cried he, apostrophizing the off-horse, a +tall, raw-boned<br> +beast, with a Roman nose, a dipped back, and a tail ragged and +jagged like<br> +a hand-saw,—"bad luck to ye! there never was a good one of your +color!"</p> + +<p>This, for the information of the "unjockeyed," I may add, was +a species of<br> +brindled gray.</p> + +<p>"How did it happen, Patsey; how did it happen, my lad?"</p> + +<p>"It was the heap o' stones they left in the road since last +autumn; and<br> +though I riz him at it fairly, he dragged the ould mare over it +and broke<br> +the pole. Oh, wirra, wirra!" cried he, wringing his hands in an +agony of<br> +grief, "sure there's neither luck nor grace to be had with ye +since the day<br> +ye drew the judge down to the last assizes!"</p> + +<p>"Well, what's to be done?"</p> + +<p>"Sorra a bit o' me knows; the shay's ruined intirely, and the +ould divil<br> +there knows he's conquered us. Look at him there, listening to +every word<br> +we're saying! You eternal thief, may be its ploughing you'd like +better!"</p> + +<p>"Come, come," said I, "this will never get us forward. What +part of the<br> +country are we in?"</p> + +<p>"We left Banagher about four miles behind us; that's Killimur +you see with<br> +the smoke there in the hollow."</p> + +<p>Now, although I did not see Killimur (for the gray mist of the +morning<br> +prevented me recognizing any object a few hundred yards distant), +yet from<br> +the direction in which he pointed, and from the course of the +Shannon,<br> +which I could trace indistinctly, I obtained a pretty accurate +notion of<br> +where we were.</p> + +<p>"Then we are not very far from Portumna?"</p> + +<p>"Just a pleasant walk before your breakfast."</p> + +<p>"And is there not a short cut to O'Malley Castle over that +mountain?"</p> + +<p>"Faix, and so there is; and ye can be no stranger to these +parts if ye know<br> +that."</p> + +<p>"I have travelled it before now. Just tell me, is the wooden +bridge<br> +standing over the little stream? It used to be carried away every +winter in<br> +my time."</p> + +<p>"It's just the same now. You'll have to pass by the upper +ford; but it<br> +comes to the same, for that will bring you to the back gate of +the demesne,<br> +and one way is just as short as the other."</p> + +<p>"I know it, I know it; so now, do you follow me with my +luggage to the<br> +castle, and I'll set out on foot."</p> + +<p>So saying, I threw off my cloak, and prepared myself for a +sharp walk of<br> +some eight miles over the mountain. As I reached the little knoll +of land<br> +which, overlooking the Shannon, affords a view of several miles +in every<br> +direction, I stopped to gaze upon the scene where every object +around was<br> +familiar to me from infancy: the broad, majestic river, sweeping +in bold<br> +curves between the wild mountains of Connaught and the wooded +hills and<br> +cultivated slopes of the more fertile Munster, the tall chimneys +of many a<br> +house rose above the dense woods where in my boyhood I had spent +hours and<br> +days of happiness. One last look I turned towards the scene of my +late<br> +catastrophe ere I began to descend the mountain. The postboy, +with the<br> +happy fatalism of his country, and a firm trust in the future, +had<br> +established himself in the interior of the chaise, from which a +blue curl<br> +of smoke wreathed upward from his pipe; the horses grazed +contentedly by<br> +the roadside; and were I to judge from the evidence before me, I +should say<br> +that I was the only member of the party inconvenienced by the +accident. A<br> +thin sleeting of rain began to fall; the wind blew sharply in my +face, and<br> +the dark clouds, collecting in masses above, seemed to threaten a +storm.<br> +Without stopping for even a passing look at the many well-known +spots<br> +about, I pressed rapidly on. My old experience upon the moors had +taught<br> +me that sling trot in which jumping from hillock to hillock over +the<br> +boggy surface, you succeed in accomplishing your journey not only +with<br> +considerable speed, but perfectly dryshod.</p> + +<p>By the lonely path which I travelled, it was unlikely I should +meet any<br> +one. It was rarely traversed except by the foot of the sportsman, +or some<br> +stray messenger from the castle to the town of Banagher. Its +solitude,<br> +however, was in no wise distasteful to me; my heart was full to +bursting.<br> +Each moment as I walked some new feature of my home presented +itself<br> +before me. Now it was all happiness and comfort; the scene of its +ancient<br> +hospitable board, its warm hearth, its happy faces, and its ready +welcome<br> +were all before me, and I increased my speed to the utmost, when +suddenly a<br> +sense of sad and sorrowing foreboding would draw around me, and +the image<br> +of my uncle's sick-bed, his worn features, his pallid look, his +broken<br> +voice would strike upon my heart, and all the changes that +poverty,<br> +desertion, and decay can bring to pass would fall upon my heart, +and weak<br> +and trembling I would stand for some moments unable to +proceed.</p> + +<p>Oh, how many a reproachful thought came home to me at what I +scrupled<br> +not to call to myself the desertion of my home! Oh, how many a +prayer I<br> +uttered, in all the fervor of devotion, that my selfish +waywardness and<br> +my yearning for ambition might not bring upon me, in after-life, +years<br> +of unavailing regret! As I thought thus, I reached the brow of a +little<br> +mountain ridge, beneath which, at a distance of scarcely more +than a mile,<br> +the dark woods of O'Malley Castle stretched, before me. The house +itself<br> +was not visible, for it was situated in a valley beside the +river. But<br> +there lay the whole scene of my boyhood: there the little creek +where my<br> +boat was kept, and where I landed on the morning after my duel +with Bodkin;<br> +there stretched for many a mile the large, callow meadows, where +I trained<br> +my horses, and schooled them for the coming season; and far in +the<br> +distance, the brown and rugged peak of old Scariff was lost in +the clouds.<br> +The rain by this time had ceased, the wind had fallen, and an +almost<br> +unnatural stillness prevailed around; but yet the heavy masses of +vapor<br> +frowned ominously, and the leaden hue of land and water wore a +gloomy and<br> +depressing aspect. My impatience to get on increased every +moment, and<br> +descending the mountain at the top of my speed, I at length +reached the<br> +little oak paling that skirted the wood, opened the little +wicket, and<br> +entered the path. It was the self-same one I had trod in revery +and<br> +meditation the night before I left my home. I remember, too, +sitting down<br> +beside the little well which, enclosed in a frame of rock, ran +trickling<br> +across the path to be lost among the gnarled roots and fallen +leaves<br> +around. Yes, this was the very spot.</p> + +<p>Overcome for the instant by my exertion and by my emotion, I +sat down upon<br> +the stone, and taking off my cap, bathed my heated and throbbing +temples in<br> +the cold spring, Refreshed at once, I was about to rise and press +onward,<br> +when suddenly my attention was caught by a sound which, faint +from<br> +distance, scarce struck upon my ear. I listened again; but all +was still<br> +and silent, the dull splash of the river as it broke upon the +reedy shore<br> +was the only sound I heard. Thinking it probably some mere +delusion of my<br> +heated imagination, I rose to push forward; but at the moment a +slight<br> +breeze stirred in the leaves around me, the light branches +rustled and bent<br> +beneath it, and a low moaning sound swelled upward, increasing +each instant<br> +as it came; like the distant roar of some mighty torrent it grew +louder as<br> +the wind bore it towards me, and now falling, now swelling, it +burst<br> +forth into one loud, prolonged cry of agony and grief. O God! it +was the<br> +death-wail! I fell upon my knees, my hands clasped in agony; the +sweat<br> +of misery dropped off my brow, and with a heart bleeding and +breaking I<br> +prayed—I know not what. Again the terrible cry smote upon my +ear, and I<br> +could mark the horrible cadences of the death-song, as the voices +of the<br> +mourners joined in chorus.</p> + +<p>My suspense became too great to bear. I dashed madly forward, +one sound<br> +still ringing in my ears, one horrid image before my eyes. I +reached the<br> +garden wall; I cleared the little rivulet beside the +flower-garden; I<br> +traversed its beds (neglected and decayed); I gained the avenue, +taking<br> +no heed of the crowds before me,—some on foot, some on +horseback, others<br> +mounted upon the low country car, many seated in groups upon the +grass,<br> +their heads bowed upon their bosoms, silent and speechless. As I +neared the<br> +house the whole approach was crowded with carriages and horsemen. +At the<br> +foot of the large flight of steps stood the black and mournful +hearse,<br> +its plumes nodding in the breeze. With the speed of madness and +the<br> +recklessness of despair I tore my way through the thickly +standing groups<br> +upon the steps; I could not speak, I could not utter. Once more +the<br> +frightful cry swelled upward, and in its wild notes seemed to +paralyze me;<br> +for with my hands upon my temples, I stood motionless and still. +A heavy<br> +footfall as of persons marching in procession came nearer and +nearer, and<br> +as the sounds without sank into sobs of bitterness and woe, the +black pall<br> +of a coffin, borne on men's shoulders, appeared at the door, and +an old man<br> +whose gray hair floated in the breeze, and across whose stern +features a<br> +struggle for self-mastery—a kind of spasmodic effort—was +playing, held<br> +out his hand to enforce silence. His eye, lack-lustre and dimmed +with age,<br> +roved over the assembled multitude, but there was no recognition +in his<br> +look until at last he turned it on me. A slight hectic flush +colored his<br> +pale cheek, his lip trembled, he essayed to speak, but could not. +I sprang<br> +towards him, but choked by agony, I could not utter; my look, +however,<br> +spoke what my tongue could not. He threw his arms around me, and +muttering<br> +the words, "Poor Godfrey!" pointed to the coffin.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XLIII.</p> + +<p>HOME.</p> + +<p>Many, many years have passed away since the time I am now +about to speak<br> +of, and yet I cannot revert, even for a moment, to the period +without a sad<br> +and depressing feeling at my heart. The wreck of fortune, the +thwarting of<br> +ambition, the failure in enterprise, great though they be, are +endurable<br> +evils. The never-dying hope that youth is blessed with will find +its<br> +resting-place still within the breast, and the baffled and beaten +will<br> +struggle on unconquered; but for the death of friends, for the +loss of<br> +those in whom our dearest affections were centred, there is no +solace,—the<br> +terrible "never" of the grave knows no remorse, and even memory, +that in<br> +our saddest hours can bring bright images and smiling faces +before us,<br> +calls up here only the departed shade of happiness, a passing +look at that<br> +Eden of our joys from which we are separated forever. And the +desolation of<br> +the heart is never perfect till it has felt the echoes of a last +farewell<br> +on earth reverberating within it.</p> + +<p>Oh, with what tortures of self-reproach we think of all former +intercourse<br> +with him that is gone! How would we wish to live our lives once +more,<br> +correcting each passage of unkindness or neglect! How deeply do +we blame<br> +ourselves for occasions of benefit lost, and opportunities +unprofited by;<br> +and how unceasingly, through after-life, the memory of the +departed recurs<br> +to us! In all the ties which affection and kindred weave around +us, one<br> +vacant spot is there, unseen and unknown by others, which no +blandishments<br> +of love, no caresses of friendship can fill up; although the rank +grass<br> +and the tall weeds of the churchyard may close around the humble +tomb,<br> +the cemetery of the heart is holy and sacred, pure from all the +troubled<br> +thoughts and daily cares of the busy world. To that hallowed spot +do we<br> +retire as into our chamber, and when unrewarded efforts bring +discomfiture<br> +and misery to our minds, when friends are false, and cherished +hopes are<br> +blasted, we think on those who never ceased to love till they had +ceased to<br> +live; and in the lonely solitude of our affliction we call upon +those who<br> +hear not, and may never return.</p> + +<p>Mine was a desolate hearth. I sat moodily down in the old oak +parlor, my<br> +heart bowed down with grief. The noiseless steps, the mourning +garments of<br> +the old servants; the unnatural silence of those walls within +which from<br> +my infancy the sounds of merriment and mirth had been familiar; +the large<br> +old-fashioned chair where he was wont to sit, now placed against +the<br> +wall,—all spoke of the sad past. Yet, when some footsteps would +draw near,<br> +and the door would open, I could not repress a thrill of hope +that he was<br> +coming; more than once I rushed to the window and looked out; I +could have<br> +sworn I heard his voice.</p> + +<p>The old cob pony he used to ride was grazing peacefully before +the door;<br> +poor Carlo, his favorite spaniel, lay stretched upon the terrace, +turning<br> +ever and anon a look towards the window, and then, as if wearied +of<br> +watching for him who came not, he would utter a long, low, +wailing cry, and<br> +lie down again to sleep. The rich lawn, decked with field flowers +of many<br> +a hue, stretched away towards the river, upon whose calm surface +the<br> +white-sailed lugger scarce seemed to move; the sounds of a +well-known Irish<br> +air came, softened by distance, as some poor fisherman sat +mending his net<br> +upon the bank, and the laugh of children floated on the breeze. +Yes, they<br> +were happy.</p> + +<p>Two months had elapsed since my return home; how passed by me +I know not; a<br> +lethargic stupor had settled upon me. Whole days long I sat at +the window,<br> +looking listlessly at the tranquil river, and watching the white +foam as,<br> +borne down from the rapids, it floated lazily along. The count +had left me<br> +soon, being called up to Dublin by some business, and I was +utterly alone.<br> +The different families about called frequently to ask after me, +and would,<br> +doubtless, have done all in their power to alleviate my sorrow, +and lighten<br> +the load of my affliction; but with a morbid fear, I avoided +every one, and<br> +rarely left the house except at night-fall, and then only to +stroll by some<br> +lonely and deserted path.</p> + +<p>Life had lost its charm for me; my gratified ambition had +ended in the<br> +blackest disappointment, and all for which I had labored and +longed was<br> +only attained that I might feel it valueless.</p> + +<p>Of my circumstances as to fortune I knew nothing, and cared +not more;<br> +poverty and riches could matter little now; all my day dreams +were<br> +dissipated now, and I only waited for Considine's return to leave +Ireland<br> +forever. I had made up my mind, if by any unexpected turn of fate +the war<br> +should cease in the Peninsula, to exchange into an Indian +regiment. The<br> +daily association with objects which recalled but one image to my +brain,<br> +and that ever accompanied by remorse of conscience, gave me not a +moment's<br> +peace. My every thought of happiness was mixed up with scenes +which now<br> +presented nothing but the evidences of blighted hope; to remain, +then,<br> +where I was, would be to sink into the heartless misanthropist, +and I<br> +resolved that with my sword I would carve out a soldier's fortune +and a<br> +soldier's grave.</p> + +<p>Considine came at last. I was sitting alone, at my usual post +beside the<br> +window, when the chaise rattled up to the door; for an instant I +started to<br> +my legs; a vague sense of something like hope shot through me, +the whole<br> +might be a dream, and <i>he</i>—The next moment I became cold and +sick, a<br> +faintish giddiness obscured my sight, and though I felt his grasp +as he<br> +took my hand, I saw him not. An indistinct impression still +dwells upon my<br> +mind of his chiding me for my weakness in thus giving way; of his +calling<br> +upon me to assert my position, and discharge the duties of him +whose<br> +successor I now was. I heard him in silence; and when he +concluded, faintly<br> +pledging myself to obey him, I hurried to my room, and throwing +myself upon<br> +my bed burst into an agony of tears. Hitherto my pent up sorrow +had wasted<br> +me day by day; but the rock was now smote, and in that gush of +misery my<br> +heart found relief.</p> + +<p>When I appeared the following morning, the count was struck +with my altered<br> +looks; a settled sorrow could not conceal the changes which time +and<br> +manhood had made upon me; and as from a kind of fear of showing +how deeply<br> +I grieved, I endeavored to conceal it, by degrees I was enabled +to converse<br> +calmly and dispassionately upon my fortunes.</p> + +<p>"Poor Godfrey," said he, "appointed me his sole executor a few +days before<br> +it happened; he knew the time was drawing near, and strange +enough,<br> +Charley, though he heard of your return to England, he would not +let us<br> +write. The papers spoke of you as being at Carlton House almost +daily; your<br> +name appeared at every great festival; and while his heart warmed +at your<br> +brilliant success, he absolutely dreaded your coming home. +'Poor<br> +fellow,' he would say, 'what a change for him, to leave the +splendor<br> +and magnificence of his Prince's board for our meagre fare and +altered<br> +fortunes! And then,' he added, 'as for me—God forgive me!—I can +go now;<br> +but how should I bear to part with him if he comes back to me.' +And now,"<br> +said the count, when he had concluded a detailed history of my +dear uncle's<br> +last illness,—"and now, Charley, what are your plans?"</p> + +<p>Briefly, and in a few words, I stated to him my intentions. +Without placing<br> +much stress upon the strongest of my reasons—my distaste to what +had once<br> +been home—I avowed my wish to join my regiment at once.</p> + +<p>He heard me with evident impatience, and as I finished, seized +my arm<br> +in his strong grasp. "No, no, boy, none of this; your tone of +assumed<br> +composure cannot impose on Bill Considine. You must not return to +the<br> +Peninsula—at least not yet awhile; the disgust of life may be +strong at<br> +twenty, but it's not lasting; besides, Charley," here his voice +faltered<br> +slightly, "<i>his</i> wishes you'll not treat lightly. Read this."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, he took a blotted and ill-written letter from +his<br> +breast-pocket, and handed it to me. It was in my poor uncle's +hand, and<br> +dated the very morning of his death. It ran thus:—</p> + +<p> Dear Bill,—Charley must never part with the old +house,<br> + come what will; I leave too many ties behind for a stranger's +heritage;<br> + he must live among my old friends, and watch, protect<br> + and comfort them. He has done enough for fame; let him +now<br> + do something for affection. We have none of us been over +good<br> + to these poor people; one of the name must try and save +our<br> + credit. God bless you both! It is, perhaps, the last time I +shall<br> + utter it.</p> + +<p> G. O'M.</p> + +<p>I read these few and, to me, affecting lines over and over, +forgetful of<br> +all save of him who penned them; when Considine, who supposed +that my<br> +silence was attributable to doubt and hesitation, called +out:—</p> + +<p>"Well, what now?"</p> + +<p>"I remain," said I, briefly.</p> + +<p>He seized me in his arms with transport, as he said:—</p> + +<p>"I knew it, boy, I knew it. They told me you were spoiled by +flattery, and<br> +your head turned by fortune; they said that home and country +would weigh<br> +lightly in the balance against fame and glory; but I said no, I +knew you<br> +better. I told them indignantly that I had nursed you on my knee; +that I<br> +watched you from infancy to boyhood, from boy to man; that he of +whose<br> +stock you came had one feeling paramount to all, his love of his +own<br> +fatherland, and that you would not disgrace him. Besides, +Charley, there's<br> +not an humble hearth for many a long mile around us, where, +amidst the<br> +winter's blast, tempered not excluded, by frail walls and +poverty,—there's<br> +not one such but where poor Godfrey's name rises each night in +prayer, and<br> +blessings are invoked on him by those who never felt them +themselves."</p> + +<p>"I'll not desert them."</p> + +<p>"I know you'll not, boy, I know you'll not. Now for the +means."</p> + +<p>Here he entered into a long and complicated exposure of my +dear uncle's<br> +many difficulties, by which it appeared that, in order to leave +the estate<br> +free of debt to me, he had for years past undergone severe +privations.<br> +These, however,—such is the misfortune of an unguided +effort,—had but<br> +ill succeeded, and there was scarcely a farm on the property +without its<br> +mortgage. Upon the house and demesne a bond for three thousand +pounds still<br> +remained; and to pay off this, Considine advised my selling a +portion of<br> +the property.</p> + +<p>"It's old Blake lent the money; and only a week before your +uncle died,<br> +he served a notice for repayment. I never told Godfrey; it was no +use. It<br> +could only embitter his last few hours; and, besides, we had six +months to<br> +think of it. The half of that time has now elapsed, however; we +must see to<br> +this."</p> + +<p>"And did Blake really make this demand, knowing my poor +uncle's<br> +difficulties?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I half think he did not; for Godfrey was too fine a +fellow ever to<br> +acknowledge anything of the sort. He had twelve sheep killed for +the poor<br> +in Scariff, at a time when not a servant of the house tasted meat +for<br> +months; ay, and our own table, too, none of the most abundant, I +assure<br> +you."</p> + +<p>What a picture was this, and how forcibly did it remind me of +what I had<br> +witnessed in times past. Thus meditating, we returned to the +house; and<br> +Considine, whose activity never slumbered, sat down to con over +the<br> +rent-roll with old Maguire the steward.</p> + +<p>When I joined the count in the evening, I found him surrounded +by maps,<br> +rent-rolls, surveys, and leases. He had been poring over these +various<br> +documents, to ascertain from which portion of the property we +could best<br> +recruit our failing finances. To judge from the embarrassed look +and manner<br> +with which he met me, the matter was one of no small difficulty. +The<br> +encumbrances upon the estate had been incurred with an unsparing +hand; and<br> +except where some irreclaimable tract of bog or mountain rendered +a loan<br> +impracticable, each portion of the property had its share of +debt.</p> + +<p>"You can't sell Killantry, for Basset has above six thousand +pounds on it<br> +already. To be sure, there's the Priest's Meadows,—fine land and +in good<br> +heart; but Malony was an old tenant of the family, and I cannot +recommend<br> +your turning him over to a stranger. The widow M'Bride's farm is +perhaps<br> +the best, after all, and it would certainly bring the sum we +want; still,<br> +poor Mary was your nurse, Charley, and it would break her heart +to do it."</p> + +<p>Thus, wherever we turned, some obstacle presented itself, if +not from<br> +moneyed causes, at least from those ties and associations which, +in an<br> +attached and faithful tenantry, are sure to grow up between them +and the<br> +owner of the soil.</p> + +<p>Feeling how all-important these things were—endeavoring as I +was to fulfil<br> +the will and work out the intentions of my uncle—I saw at once +that to<br> +sell any portion of the property must separate me, to a certain +extent,<br> +from those who long looked up to our house, and who, in the +feudalism of<br> +the west, could ill withdraw their allegiance from their own +chief to swear<br> +fealty to a stranger. The richer tenants were those whose +industry and<br> +habits rendered them objects of worth and attachment; to the +poorer ones,<br> +to whose improvidence and whose follies (if you will) their +poverty was<br> +owing, I was bound by those ties which the ancient habit of my +house had<br> +contracted for centuries. The bond of benefit conferred can be +stronger<br> +than the debt of gratitude itself. What was I then to do? My +income would<br> +certainly permit of my paying the interest upon my several +mortgages, and<br> +still retaining wherewithal to live; the payment of Blake's bond +was my<br> +only difficulty, and small as it was, it was still a +difficulty.</p> + +<p>"I have it, Charley!" said Considine; "I've found out the way +of doing it.<br> +Blake will have no objection, I'm sure, to take the widow's farm +in payment<br> +of his debt, giving you a power of redemption within five years. +In that<br> +time, what with economy, some management, perhaps," added he, +smiling<br> +slightly,—"perhaps a wife with money may relieve all your +embarrassments<br> +at once. Well, well, I know you are not thinking of that just +now; but<br> +come, what say you to my plan?"</p> + +<p>"I know not well what to say. It seems to be the best; but +still I have my<br> +misgivings."</p> + +<p>"Of course you have, my boy; nor could I love you if you'd +part with an old<br> +and faithful follower without them. But, after all, she is only a +hostage<br> +to the enemy; we'll win her back, Charley."</p> + +<p>"If you think so—"</p> + +<p>"I do. I know it."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, be it so; only one thing I bargain,—she must +herself consent<br> +to this change of masters. It will seem to her a harsh measure +that the<br> +child she had nursed and fondled in her arms should live to +disunite her<br> +from those her oldest attachments upon earth. We must take care, +sir, that<br> +Blake cannot dispossess her; this would be too hard."</p> + +<p>"No, no; that we'll guard against. And now, Charley, with +prudence and<br> +caution, we'll clear off every encumbrance, and O'Malley Castle +shall yet<br> +be what it was in days of yore. Ay, boy, with the descendant of +the old<br> +house for its master, and not that general—how do you call +him?—that came<br> +down here to contest the county, who with his offer of thirty +thousand<br> +pounds thought to uproot the oldest family of the west. Did I +ever show you<br> +the letter we wrote him?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," replied I, trembling with agitation as I spoke; +"you merely<br> +alluded to it in one of yours."</p> + +<p>"Look here, lad!" said he, drawing it from the recesses of a +black leather<br> +pocket-book. "I took a copy of it; read that."</p> + +<p>The document was dated, "O'Malley Castle, December 9th." It +ran thus:—</p> + +<p> Sir,—I have this moment learned from my agent, that you, +or<br> + some one empowered by you for the purpose, made an offer of +several<br> + thousand pounds to buy up the different mortgages upon my +property,<br> + with a subsequent intention of becoming its possessor. Now, +sir, I<br> + beg to tell you, that if your ungentlemanlike and underhand +plot<br> + had succeeded, you dared not darken with your shadow the +door-sill<br> + of the house you purchased. Neither your gold nor your +flattery—and<br> + I hear you are rich in both—could wipe out from the +minds<br> + and hearts of my poor tenantry the kindness of centuries. Be +advised,<br> + then, sir; withdraw your offer; let a Galway gentleman +settle<br> + his own difficulties his own way; his troubles and cares are +quite<br> + sufficient, without your adding to them. There can be but +one<br> + mode in which your interference with him could be deemed +acceptable:<br> + need I tell you, sir, who are a soldier, how that is? As +I<br> + know your official duties are important, and as my +nephew—who<br> + feels with me perfectly in this business—is abroad, I can +only say<br> + that failing health and a broken frame shall not prevent my +undertaking<br> + a journey to England, should my doing so meet your wishes<br> + on this occasion. I am, sir,</p> + +<p> Your obedient servant, GODFREY O'MALLEY.</p> + +<p>"This letter," continued Considine, "I enclosed in an +envelope, with the<br> +following few lines of my own:"—</p> + +<p> "Count Considine presents his compliments to +Lieutenant-General<br> + Dashwood; and feeling that as the friend of Mr. Godfrey +O'Malley,<br> + the mild course pursued by that gentleman may possibly be +attributed<br> + to his suggestion, he begs to assure General Dashwood that +the reverse<br> + was the case, and that he strenuously counselled the +propriety<br> + of laying a horsewhip upon the general's shoulders, as a +preliminary<br> + step in the transaction.</p> + +<p> "Count Considine's address is No. 16 Kildare Street."</p> + +<p>"Great God!" said I, "is this possible?"</p> + +<p>"Well may you say so, my boy: for—would you believe +it?—after all that,<br> +he writes a long blundering apology, protesting I know not what +about<br> +motives of former friendship, and terminating with a civil hint +that we<br> +have done with him forever. And of my paragraph he takes no +notice; and<br> +thus ends the whole affair."</p> + +<p>"And with it my last hope also!" muttered I to myself.</p> + +<p>That Sir George Dashwood's intentions had been misconstrued +and mistaken I<br> +knew perfectly well; that nothing but the accumulated evils of +poverty and<br> +sickness could have induced my poor uncle to write such a letter +I was<br> +well aware; but now the mischief was accomplished, the evil was +done, and<br> +nothing remained but to bear with patience and submission, and to +endeavor<br> +to forget what thus became irremediable.</p> + +<p>"Sir George Dashwood made no allusion to me, sir, in his +reply?" inquired<br> +I, catching at anything like a hope.</p> + +<p>"Your name never occurs in his letter. But you look pale, boy; +all these<br> +discussions come too early upon you; besides, you stay too much +at home,<br> +and take no exercise."</p> + +<p>So saying, Considine bustled off towards the stables to look +after some<br> +young horses that had just been taken up; and I walked out alone +to ponder<br> +over what I had heard, and meditate on my plans for the +future.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XLIV.</p> + +<p>AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.</p> + +<p>As I wandered on, the irritation of my spirit gradually +subsided. It was,<br> +to be sure, distressing to think over the light in which my +uncle's letter<br> +had placed me before Sir George Dashwood, had even my reputation +only with<br> +him been at stake; but with my attachment to his daughter, it +was<br> +almost maddening. And yet there was nothing to be done; to +disavow my<br> +participation would be to throw discredit upon my uncle. Thus +were my hopes<br> +blighted; and thus, at that season when life was opening upon me, +did I<br> +feel careless and indifferent to everything. Had my military +career still<br> +remained to me, that at least would have suggested scenes +sufficient to<br> +distract me from the past; but now my days must be spent where +every spot<br> +teemed with memories of bygone happiness and joys never to come +back again.</p> + +<p>My mind was, however, made up; and without speaking a word to +Considine, I<br> +turned homeward, and sat down at my writing-table. In a few brief +lines I<br> +informed my army agent of my intention of leaving the service, +and desired<br> +that he would sell out for me at once. Fearing lest my resolution +might not<br> +be proof against the advice and solicitation of my friends, I +cautioned him<br> +against giving my address, or any clew by which letters might +reach me.</p> + +<p>This done, I addressed a short note to Mr. Blake, requesting +to know the<br> +name of his solicitor, in whose hands the bond was placed, and +announcing<br> +my intention of immediate repayment.</p> + +<p>Trifling as these details were in themselves, I cannot help +recording how<br> +completely they changed the whole current of my thoughts. A new +train of<br> +interests began to spring up within me; and where so lately the +clang of<br> +the battle, the ardor of the march, the careless ease of the +bivouac, had<br> +engrossed every feeling, now more humble and homely thoughts +succeeded; and<br> +as my personal ambition had lost its stimulant, I turned with +pleasure to<br> +those of whose fate and fortunes I was in some sort the guardian. +There may<br> +be many a land where the verdure blooms more in fragrance and in +richness,<br> +where the clime breathes softer, and a brighter sky lights up +the<br> +landscape; but there is none—I have travelled through many a +one—where<br> +more touching and heart-bound associations are blended with the +features<br> +of the soil than in Ireland, and cold must be the spirit, and +barren the<br> +affections of him who can dwell amidst its mountains and its +valleys, its<br> +tranquil lakes, its wooded fens, without feeling their humanizing +influence<br> +upon him. Thus gradually new impressions and new duties +succeeded; and ere<br> +four months elapsed, the quiet monotony of my daily life healed +up the<br> +wounds of my suffering, and in the calm current of my present +existence, a<br> +sense of content, if not of happiness, crept gently over me, and +I ceased<br> +to long for the clash of arms and the loud blast of the +trumpet.</p> + +<p>Unlike all my former habits, I completely abandoned the sports +of the<br> +field. He who had participated in them with me was no longer +there; and the<br> +very sight of the tackle itself suggested sad and depressing +thoughts.</p> + +<p>My horses I took but little pleasure in. To gratify the good +and kind<br> +people about, I would walk through the stables, and make some +passing<br> +remark, as if to show some interest; but I felt it not. No; it +was only by<br> +the total change of all the ordinary channels of my ideas that I +could bear<br> +up; and now my days were passed in the fields, either listlessly +strolling<br> +along, or in watching the laborers as they worked. Of my +neighbors I saw<br> +nothing; returning their cards, when they called upon me, was the +extent of<br> +our intercourse; and I had no desire for any further. As +Considine had left<br> +me to visit some friends in the south, I was quite alone, and for +the first<br> +time in my life, felt how soothing can be such solitude. In each +happy<br> +face, in every grateful look around me, I felt that I was +fulfilling my<br> +uncle's last behest; and the sense of duty, so strong when it +falls upon<br> +the heart accompanied by the sense of power, made my days pass +rapidly<br> +away.</p> + +<p>It was towards the close of autumn, when I one morning +received a letter<br> +from London, informing me that my troop had been sold, and the +purchase<br> +money—above four thousand pounds—lodged to my credit at my +banker's.</p> + +<p>As Mr. Blake had merely answered my former note by a civil +message that the<br> +matter in question was by no means pressing, I lost not a moment, +when<br> +this news reached me, to despatch Mike to Gurt-na-Morra with a +few lines,<br> +expressing my anxious desire to finish the transaction, and +begging of Mr.<br> +Blake to appoint a day for the purpose.</p> + +<p>To this application Mr. Blake's reply was, that he would do +himself the<br> +honor of waiting upon me the following day, when the arrangements +I desired<br> +could be agreed upon. Now this was exactly what I wished, if +possible,<br> +to avoid. Of all my neighbors, he was the one I predetermined to +have no<br> +intercourse with; I had not forgotten my last evening at his +house, nor had<br> +I forgiven his conduct to my uncle. However, there was nothing +for it but<br> +submission; the interview need not be a long, and it should be a +last one.<br> +Thus resolving, I waited in patience for the morrow.</p> + +<p>I was seated at my breakfast the next morning, conning between +whiles the<br> +columns of the last paper, and feeding my spaniel, who sat upon a +large<br> +chair beside me, when the door opened, and the servant announced, +"Mr.<br> +Blake;" and the instant after that gentleman bustled in holding +out both<br> +his hands with all evidences of most friendly warmth, and calling +out,—</p> + +<p>"Charley O'Malley, my lad! I'm delighted to see you at +last!"</p> + +<p>Now, although the distance from the door to the table at which +I sat<br> +was not many paces, yet it was quite sufficient to chill down all +my<br> +respectable relative's ardor before he approached: his rapid pace +became<br> +gradually a shuffle, a slide, and finally a dead stop; his +extended arms<br> +were reduced to one hand, barely advanced beyond his waistcoat; +his voice,<br> +losing the easy confidence of its former tone, got husky and dry, +and broke<br> +into a cough; and all these changes were indebted to the mere +fact of<br> +my reception of him consisting in a cold and distant bow, as I +told the<br> +servant to place a chair and leave the room.</p> + +<p>Without any preliminary whatever, I opened the subject of our +negotiation,<br> +expressed my regret that it should have waited so long, and my +desire to<br> +complete it.</p> + +<p>Whether it was that the firm and resolute tone I assumed had +its effect at<br> +once, or that disappointed at the mode in which I received his +advances he<br> +wished to conclude our interview as soon as need be, I know not; +but he<br> +speedily withdrew from a capacious pocket a document in +parchment, which,<br> +having spread at large upon the table, and having leisurely put +on his<br> +spectacles, he began to hum over its contents to himself in an +undertone.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, here it is," said he. "'Deed of conveyance between +Godfrey<br> +O'Malley, of O'Malley Castle, Esq., on the one part'—perhaps +you'd like<br> +your solicitor to examine it,—'and Blake, of Gurt'—because +there is no<br> +hurry, Captain O'Malley—'on the other.' In fact, after all, it +is a mere<br> +matter of form between relatives," said he, as I declined the +intervention<br> +of a lawyer. "I'm not in want of the money—'all the lands and +tenements<br> +adjoining, in trust, for the payment of the said three +thousand'—thank<br> +God, Captain, the sum is a trifle that does not inconvenience me! +The boys<br> +are provided for; and the girls—the pickpockets, as I call them, +ha,<br> +ha, ha!—not ill off neither;—'with rights of turbary on the +said<br> +premises'—who are most anxious to have the pleasure of seeing +you. Indeed,<br> +I could scarcely keep Jane from coming over to-day. 'Sure he's my +cousin,'<br> +says she; 'and what harm would it be if I went to see him?' +Wild,<br> +good-natured girls, Captain! And your old friend Matthew—you +haven't<br> +forgot Matthew?—has been keeping three coveys of partridge for +you<br> +this fortnight. 'Charley,' says he,—they call you Charley +still,<br> +Captain,—'shall have them, and no one else.' And poor Mary—she +was<br> +a child when you were here—Mary is working a sash for you. But +I'm<br> +forgetting—I know you have so much business on your hands—"</p> + +<p>"Pray, Mr. Blake, be seated. I know nothing of any more +importance than the<br> +matter before us. If you will permit me to give you a check for +this money.<br> +The papers, I'm sure, are perfectly correct."</p> + +<p>"If I only thought it did not inconvenience you—"</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the kind, I assure you. Shall I say at sight, or +in ten days<br> +hence?"</p> + +<p>"Whenever you please, Captain. But it's sorry I am to come +troubling you<br> +about such things, when I know you are thinking of other matters. +And, as<br> +I said before, the money does not signify to me; the times, thank +God, are<br> +good, and I've never been very improvident."</p> + +<p>"I think you'll find that correct."</p> + +<p>"Oh, to be sure it is! Well, well; I'm going away without +saying half what<br> +I intended."</p> + +<p>"Pray do not hurry yourself. I have not asked have you +breakfasted, for I<br> +remember Galway habits too well for that. But if I might offer +you a glass<br> +of sherry and water after your ride?"</p> + +<p>"Will you think me a beast if I say yes, Captain? Time was +when I didn't<br> +care for a canter of ten or fifteen miles in the morning no more +than<br> +yourself; and that's no small boast; God forgive me, but I never +see that<br> +clover-field where you pounded the Englishman, without swearing +there never<br> +was a leap made before or since. Is this Mickey, Captain? Faith, +and it's<br> +a fine, brown, hearty-looking chap you're grown, Mickey. That's +mighty<br> +pleasant sherry, but where would there be good wine if it wasn't +here? Oh,<br> +I remember now what it was I wanted. Peter,—my son Peter, a slip +of a boy,<br> +he's only sixteen,—well, d'you see, he's downright deranged +about the<br> +army: he used to see your name in the papers every day, and that +terrible<br> +business at—what's the name of the place?—where you rode on the +chap's<br> +back up the breach."</p> + +<p>"Ciudad Rodrigo, perhaps," said I, scarcely able to repress a +laugh.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, since that he'll hear of nothing but going into +the army; ay,<br> +and into the dragoons too. Now, Captain, isn't it mighty +expensive in the<br> +dragoons?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no, not particularly so,—at least in the regiment I +served with."</p> + +<p>"I promised him I'd ask you; the boy's mad, that's the fact. I +wish,<br> +Captain, you'd just reason with him a little; he'll mind what you +say,<br> +there's no fear of that. And you see, though I'd like to do +what's fair,<br> +I'm not going to cut off the girls for the sake of the boys; with +the<br> +blessing of Providence, they'll never be able to reproach me for +that. What<br> +I say is this: treat <i>me</i> well, and I'll treat you the same. +Marry the man<br> +my choice would pick out for you, and it's not a matter of a +thousand or<br> +two I'll care for. There was Bodkin—you remember him?" said he, +with a<br> +grin; "he proposed for Mary, but since the quarrel with you, she +could<br> +never bear the sight of him, and Alley wouldn't come down to +dinner if he<br> +was in the house. Mary's greatly altered; I wish you heard her +sing 'I'd<br> +mourn the hopes that leave me.' Queer girl she is; she was little +more<br> +than a child when you were here, and she remembers you just as if +it was<br> +yesterday."</p> + +<p>While Mr. Blake ran on at this rate, now dilating upon my own +manifold<br> +virtues and accomplishments, now expatiating upon the more +congenial<br> +theme,—the fascinations of his fair daughters, and the various +merits of<br> +his sons,—I could not help feeling how changed our relative +position was<br> +since our last meeting; the tone of cool and vulgar patronage he +then<br> +assumed towards the unformed country lad was now converted into +an air of<br> +fawning and deferential submission, still more distasteful.</p> + +<p>Young as I was, however, I had already seen a good deal of the +world; my<br> +soldiering had at least taught me something of men, and I had far +less<br> +difficulty in deciphering the intentions and objects of my worthy +relative,<br> +than I should have had in the enigmatical mazes of the parchment +bond of<br> +which he was the bearer. After all, to how very narrow an extent +in life<br> +are we fashioned by our own estimate of ourselves! My changed +condition<br> +affected me but little until I saw how it affected others; that +the<br> +position I occupied should seem better now that life had lost the +great<br> +stimulus of ambition, was somewhat strange; and that flattery +should pay<br> +its homage to the mourning coat which it would have refused to my +soldier's<br> +garb, somewhat surprised me. Still my bettered fortunes shone +only brightly<br> +by reflected light; for in my own heart I was sad, spiritless, +and<br> +oppressed.</p> + +<p>Feeling somewhat ashamed at the coldness with which I treated +a man so much<br> +my elder, I gradually assumed towards Mr. Blake a manner less +reserved. He<br> +quickly availed himself of the change, and launched out into an +eloquent<br> +<i>exposé</i> of my advantages and capabilities; the only +immediate effect of<br> +which was to convince me that my property and my prospects must +have been<br> +very accurately conned over and considered by that worthy +gentleman before<br> +he could speak of the one or the other with such perfect +knowledge.</p> + +<p>"When you get rid of these little encumbrances, your rent-roll +will be<br> +close on four thousand a year. There's Bassett, sure, by only +reducing his<br> +interest from ten to five per cent, will give you a clear eight +hundred per<br> +annum; let him refuse, and I'll advance the money. And, besides, +look at<br> +Freney's farm; there's two hundred acres let for one third of the +value,<br> +and you must look to these tilings; for, you see, Captain, we'll +want you<br> +to go into Parliament; you can't help coming forward at the next +election,<br> +and by the great gun of Athlone, we'll return you."</p> + +<p>Here Mr. Blake swallowed a full bumper of sherry, and getting +up a little<br> +false enthusiasm for the moment, grasped me by both hands and +shook me<br> +violently; this done, like a skilful general, who, having fired +the last<br> +shot of his artillery, takes care to secure his retreat, he +retired towards<br> +the door, where his hat and coat were lying.</p> + +<p>"I've a hundred apologies to make for encroaching upon your +time; but, upon<br> +my soul, Captain, you are so agreeable, and the hours have passed +away so<br> +pleasantly—May I never, if it is not one o'clock!—but you must +forgive<br> +me."</p> + +<p>My sense of justice, which showed me that the agreeability had +all been on<br> +Mr. Blake's side, prevented me from acknowledging this compliment +as it<br> +deserved; so I merely bowed stiffly, without speaking. By this +time he had<br> +succeeded in putting on his great-coat, but still, by some +mischance or<br> +other, the moment of his leaving-taking was deferred; one time he +buttoned<br> +it awry, and had to undo it all again; then, when it was properly +adjusted,<br> +he discovered that his pocket-handkerchief was not available, +being left in<br> +the inner coat-pocket; to this succeeded a doubt as to the safety +of the<br> +check, which instituted another search, and it was full ten +minutes before<br> +he was completely caparisoned and ready for the road.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Captain, good-by!" said he warmly, yet warily, not +knowing at<br> +what precise temperature the metal of my heart was fusible. At a +mild heat<br> +I had been evidently unsinged, and the white glow of his flattery +seemed<br> +only to harden me. The interview was now over, and as I thought +sufficient<br> +had been done to convince my friend that the terms of distant +acquaintance<br> +were to be the limits of our future intercourse, I assumed a +little show of<br> +friendliness, and shook his hand warmly.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Mr. Blake; pray present my respectful compliments to +your<br> +friends. Allow me to ring for your horse; you are not going to +have a<br> +shower, I hope."</p> + +<p>"No, no, Captain, only a passing cloud," said he, warming up +perceptibly<br> +under the influence of my advances, "nothing more. Why, what is +it I'm<br> +forgetting now! Oh, I have it! May be I'm too bold; but sure an +old friend<br> +and relation may take a liberty sometimes. It was just a little +request<br> +of Mrs. Blake, as I was leaving the house." He stopped here as if +to take<br> +soundings, and perceiving no change in my countenance, continued: +"It was<br> +just to beg, that, in a kind and friendly way, you'd come over +and eat your<br> +dinner with us on Sunday; nobody but the family, not a soul—Mrs. +Blake and<br> +the girls; a boiled leg of mutton; Matthew; a fresh trout, if we +can catch<br> +one! Plain and homely, but a hearty welcome, and a bottle of old +claret,<br> +may be, too—ah! ah! ah!"</p> + +<p>Before the cadence of Mr. Blake's laugh had died away, I +politely but<br> +resolutely declined the proffered invitation, and by way of +setting the<br> +question at rest forever, gave him to understand that, from +impaired health<br> +and other causes, I had resolved upon strictly confining myself +to the<br> +limits of my own house and grounds, at least for the present.</p> + +<p>Mr. Blake then saluted me for the last time, and left the +room. As he<br> +mounted his hackney, I could not help overhearing an abortive +effort he<br> +made to draw Mike into something like conversation; but it proved +an utter<br> +failure, and it was evident he deemed the man as incorrigible as +the<br> +master.</p> + +<p>"A very fine young man the captain is—remarkable!—and it's +proud I am to<br> +have him for a nephew!"</p> + +<p>So saying, he cantered down the avenue, while Mickey, as he +looked after<br> +him, muttered between his teeth, "And faix, it's prouder you'd be +av he was<br> +your son-in-law!"</p> + +<p>Mike's soliloquy seemed to show me, in a new light, the +meaning of my<br> +relative's manner. It was for the first time in my life that such +a thought<br> +had occurred to me, and it was not without a sense of shame that +I now<br> +admitted it.</p> + +<p>If there be something which elevates and exalts us in our +esteem, tinging<br> +our hearts with heroism and our souls with pride, in the love +and<br> +attachment of some fair and beautiful girl, there is something +equally<br> +humiliating in being the object of cold and speculative +calculation to a<br> +match-making family: your character studied; your pursuits +watched; your<br> +tastes conned over; your very temperament inquired into; +surrounded<br> +by snares; environed by practised attentions; one eye fixed upon +the<br> +registered testament of your relative, the other riveted upon +your own<br> +caprices; and then those thousand little cares and kindnesses +which come so<br> +pleasurably upon the heart when the offspring of true affection, +perverted<br> +as they are by base views and sordid interest, are so many shocks +to the<br> +feeling and understanding. Like the Eastern sirocco, which seems +to breathe<br> +of freshness and of health, and yet bears but pestilence and +death upon its<br> +breezes,—so these calculated and well-considered traits of +affection only<br> +render callous and harden the heart which had responded warmly, +openly, and<br> +abundantly to the true outpourings of affection. At how many a +previously<br> +happy hearth has the seed of this fatal passion planted its +discord! How<br> +many a fair and lovely girl, with beauty and attractions +sufficient to<br> +win all that her heart could wish of fondness and devotion, has, +by this<br> +pernicious passion, become a cold, heartless, worldly coquette, +weighing<br> +men's characters by the adventitious circumstances of their birth +and<br> +fortune, and scrutinizing the eligibility of a match with the +practised<br> +acumen with which a notary investigates the solvency of a +creditor. How do<br> +the traits of beauty, gesture, voice, and manner become converted +into the<br> +common-place and distasteful trickery of the world! The very +hospitality of<br> +the house becomes suspect, their friendship is but fictitious; +those rare<br> +and goodly gifts of fondness and sisterly affection which grow up +in<br> +happier circumstances, are here but rivalry, envy, and +ill-conceived<br> +hatred. The very accomplishments which cultivate and adorn life, +that light<br> +but graceful frieze which girds the temple of homely happiness, +are here<br> +but the meditated and well-considered occasions of display. All +the bright<br> +features of womanhood, all the freshness of youth, and all its +fascinations<br> +are but like those richly-colored and beautiful fruits, seductive +to the<br> +eye and fair to look upon, but which within contain nothing but a +core of<br> +rottenness and decay.</p> + +<p>No, no; unblessed by all which makes a hearth a home, I may +travel on my<br> +weary way through life; but such a one as this I will not make +the partner<br> +of my sorrows and my joys, come what will of it!</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XLV.</p> + +<p>A SURPRISE.</p> + +<p>From the hour of Mr. Blake's departure, my life was no longer +molested. My<br> +declaration, which had evidently, under his auspices, been made +the subject<br> +of conversation through the country, was at least so far +successful, as<br> +it permitted me to spend my time in the way I liked best, and +without the<br> +necessity of maintaining the show of intercourse, when in reality +I kept<br> +up none, with the neighborhood. While thus, therefore, my life +passed on<br> +equably and tranquilly, many mouths glided over, and I found +myself already<br> +a year at home, without it appearing more than a few weeks. +Nothing seems<br> +so short in retrospect as monotony; the number, the variety, the +interest<br> +of the events which occupy us, making our hours pass glibly and +flowingly,<br> +will still suggest to the mind the impressions of a longer period +than<br> +when the daily routine of our occupations assumes a character of +continued<br> +uniformity. It seems to be the <i>amende</i> made by hours of +weariness and<br> +tedium, that, in looking back upon them, they appear to have +passed rapidly<br> +over. Not that my life, at the period I speak of, was devoid of +interest;<br> +on the contrary, devoting myself with zeal and earnestness to the +new<br> +duties of my station, I made myself thoroughly acquainted with +the<br> +condition of my property, the interest of my tenantry, their +prospects,<br> +their hopes, their objects. Investigating them as only he can who +is<br> +the owner of the soil, I endeavored to remedy the ancient vices +of the<br> +land,—the habits of careless, reckless waste, of indifference +for the<br> +morrow; and by instilling a feature of prudent foresight into +that<br> +boundless confidence in the future upon which every Irishman of +every<br> +rank lives and trusts, I succeeded at last in so far ameliorating +their<br> +situation, that a walk through my property, instead of +presenting—as it<br> +at first did—a crowd of eager and anxious supplicants, +entreating for<br> +abatements in rent, succor for their sick, and sometimes even +food itself,<br> +showed me now a happy and industrious people, confident in +themselves, and<br> +firmly relying on their own resources.</p> + +<p>Another spring was now opening, and a feeling of calm and +tranquil<br> +happiness, the result of my successful management of my estate, +made my<br> +days pass pleasantly along. I was sitting at a late breakfast in +my little<br> +library; the open window afforded a far and wide prospect of the +country,<br> +blooming in all the promise of the season, while the drops of the +passing<br> +shower still lingered upon the grass, and were sparkling like +jewels under<br> +the bright sunshine. Masses of white and billowy cloud moved +swiftly<br> +through the air, coloring the broad river with many a shadow as +they<br> +passed. The birds sang merrily, the trees shook their leaves in +concert,<br> +and there was that sense of movement in everything on earth and +sky which<br> +gives to spring its character of lightness and exhilaration. The +youth of<br> +the year, like the youth of our own existence, is beautiful in +the restless<br> +activity which marks it. The tender flower that seems to open as +we look;<br> +the grass that springs before our eyes,—all speak of promise. +The changing<br> +phases of the sky, like the smiles and tears of infancy, excite +without<br> +weariness, and while they engage our sympathies, they fatigue not +our<br> +compassion.</p> + +<p>Partly lost in thought as I looked upon the fair and varied +scene before<br> +me, now turning to the pages of the book upon the +breakfast-table, the<br> +hours of the morning passed quickly over, and it was already +beyond noon. I<br> +was startled from my revery by sounds which I could scarcely +trust my<br> +ears to believe real. I listened again, and thought I could +detect them<br> +distinctly. It seemed as though some one were rapidly running +over the keys<br> +of a pianoforte, essaying with the voice to follow the notes, and +sometimes<br> +striking two or three bold and successive chords; then a merry +laugh would<br> +follow, and drown all other sounds. "What can it be?" thought I. +"There is,<br> +to be sure, a pianoforte in the large drawing-room; but then, who +would<br> +venture upon such a liberty as this? Besides, who is capable of +it? There,<br> +it can be no inexperienced performer gave that shake; my worthy +housekeeper<br> +never accomplished that!" So saying, I jumped from the +breakfast-table,<br> +and set off in the direction of the sound. A small drawing-room +and the<br> +billiard-room lay between me and the large drawing-room; and as I +traversed<br> +them, the music grew gradually louder. Conjecturing that, whoever +it might<br> +be, the performance would cease on my entrance, I listened for a +few<br> +moments before opening the door. Nothing could be more singular, +nothing<br> +more strange, than the effect of those unaccustomed sounds in +that silent<br> +and deserted place. The character of the music, too, contributed +not<br> +a little to this; rapidly passing from grave to gay, from the +melting<br> +softness of some plaintive air to the reckless hurry and +confusion of an<br> +Irish jig, the player seemed, as it were, to run wild through all +the<br> +floating fancies of his memory; now breaking suddenly off in the +saddest<br> +cadence of a song, the notes would change into some quaint, +old-fashioned<br> +crone, in which the singer seemed so much at home, and gave the +queer<br> +drollery of the words that expression of archness so eminently +the<br> +character of certain Irish airs. "But what the deuce is this?" +said I, as,<br> +rattling over the keys with a flowing but brilliant finger, +she,—for<br> +it was unquestionably a woman,—with a clear and sweet voice, +broken by<br> +laughter, began to sing the words of Mr. Bodkin's song, "The Man +for<br> +Galway." When she had finished the last verse, her hand strayed, +as it<br> +were, carelessly across the instrument, while she herself gave +way to a<br> +free burst of merriment; and then, suddenly resuming the air, she +chanted<br> +forth the following words, with a spirit and effect I can convey +no idea<br> +of:—</p> + +<p> "To live at home,<br> + And never roam;<br> + To pass his days in sighing;<br> + To wear sad looks,<br> + Read stupid books,<br> + And look half dead or dying;<br> + Not show his face,<br> + Nor join the chase,<br> + But dwell a hermit always:<br> + Oh, Charley, dear!<br> + To me 'tis clear,<br> + You're not the man for Galway!"</p> + +<p>"You're not the man for Galway!" repeated she once more, while +she closed<br> +the piano with a loud bang.</p> + +<p>"And why not, my dear, why not the man for Galway?" said I, +as, bursting<br> +open the door, I sprang into the room.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's you, is it?—at last! So I've unearthed you, have +I?"</p> + +<p>With these words she burst into an immoderate fit of laughter; +leaving me,<br> +who intended to be the party giving the surprise, amazed, +confused, and<br> +speechless, in the middle of the floor.</p> + +<a name="0362"></a> +<img alt="0362.jpg (178K)" src="0362.jpg" height="733" width="789"> + +<p>[BABY BLAKE.]</p> +<br><br> + +<p>That my reader may sympathize a little in my distresses, let +me present him<br> +with the <i>tableau</i> before me. Seated upon the piano-stool was a +young-lady<br> +of at most eighteen years: her face, had it not been for its +expression of<br> +exuberant drollery and malicious fun, would have been downright +beautiful;<br> +her eyes, of the deepest blue, and shaded by long lashes, instead +of<br> +indulging the character of pensive and thoughtful beauty for +which Nature<br> +destined them, sparkled with a most animated brightness; her +nose,<br> +which, rather short, was still beautifully proportioned, gave, +with<br> +her well-curled upper lip, a look of sauciness to the features +quite<br> +bewitching; her hair—that brilliant auburn we see in a <i>Carlo +Dolci</i>—fell<br> +in wild and massive curls upon her shoulders. Her costume was a +dark-green<br> +riding-habit, not of the newest in its fashion, and displaying +more than<br> +one rent in its careless folds; her hat, whip, and gloves lay on +the floor<br> +beside her, and her whole attitude and bearing indicated the most +perfect<br> +ease and carelessness.</p> + +<p>"So you are caught—taken alive!" said she, as she pressed her +hands upon<br> +her sides in a fresh burst of laughter.</p> + +<p>"By Jove! this is a surprise indeed!" said I. "And, pray, into +whose fair<br> +hands have I fallen a captive?" recovering myself a little, and +assuming a<br> +half air of gallantry.</p> + +<p>"So you don't know me, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Upon my life I do not!"</p> + +<p>"How good! Why, I'm Baby Blake."</p> + +<p>"Baby Blake?" said I, thinking that a rather strange +appellation for one<br> +whose well-developed proportions betokened nothing of +infancy,—"Baby<br> +Blake?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure; your cousin Baby."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" said I, springing forward. "Let me embrace my +relative."<br> +Accepting my proffered salutation with the most exemplary +coolness, she<br> +said:—</p> + +<p>"Get a chair, now, and let's have a talk together."</p> + +<p>"Why the devil do they call you Baby?" said I, still puzzled +by this<br> +palpable misnomer.</p> + +<p>"Because I am the youngest, and I was always the baby," +replied she,<br> +adjusting her ringlets with a most rural coquetry. "Now tell me +something.<br> +Why do you live shut up here like a madman, and not come near us +at<br> +Gurt-na-Morra?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's a long story, Baby. But, since we are asking +questions, how did<br> +you get in here?"</p> + +<p>"Just through the window, my dear; and I've torn my habit, as +you see."</p> + +<p>So saying, she exhibited a rent of about two feet long, +thrusting through<br> +it a very pretty foot and ankle at the same time.</p> + +<p>"As my inhospitable customs have cost you a habit, you must +let me make you<br> +a present of one."</p> + +<p>"No, will you though? That's a good fellow. Lord! I told them +I knew you<br> +weren't a miser; that you were only odd, that's all."</p> + +<p>"And how did you come over, Baby?"</p> + +<p>"Just cantered over with little Paddy Byrne. I made him take +all the walls<br> +and ditches we met, and they're scraping the mud off him ever +since. I'm<br> +glad I made you laugh, Charley; they say you are so sad. Dear me, +how<br> +thirsty I am! Have you any beer?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure, Baby. But wouldn't you like some luncheon?"</p> + +<p>"Of all things. Well, this is fun!" said she, as taking my +arm, I led her<br> +from the drawing-room. "They don't know where I'm gone,—not one +of them;<br> +and I've a great mind not to tell them, if you wouldn't +blab."</p> + +<p>"Would it be quite proper?"</p> + +<p>"Proper!" cried she, imitating my voice. "I like that! as if I +was going to<br> +run away with you! Dear me, what a pretty house, and what nice +pictures!<br> +Who is the old fellow up there in the armor?"</p> + +<p>"That's Sir Hildebrand O'Malley," said I, with some pride in +recognizing an<br> +ancestor of the thirteenth century.</p> + +<p>"And the other old fright with the wig, and his hands stuck in +his<br> +pockets?"</p> + +<p>"My grandfather, Baby."</p> + +<p>"Lord, how ugly he is! Why, Charley, he hasn't the look of +you. One would<br> +think, too, he was angry at us. Ay, old gentleman, you don't like +to see me<br> +leaning on Cousin Charley's arm! That must be the luncheon; I'm +sure I hear<br> +knives and forks rattling there."</p> + +<p>The old butler's astonishment was not inferior to my own a few +minutes<br> +before, when I entered the dining-room with my fair cousin upon +my arm.<br> +As I drew a chair towards the table, a thought struck me that +possibly<br> +it might only be a due attention to my fair guest if I invited +the<br> +housekeeper, Mrs. Magra, to favor us with her presence; and +accordingly, in<br> +an undertone, so as not to be overheard by old Simon, I +said,—</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, Baby, you'd like to have Mrs. Magra to keep us +company?"</p> + +<p>"Who's she?" was the brief answer.</p> + +<p>"The housekeeper; a very respectable old matron."</p> + +<p>"Is she funny?"</p> + +<p>"Funny! not a bit."</p> + +<p>"Oh, then, never mind her. What made you think of her?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought, perhaps you'd think—That is people might +say—In fact I<br> +was doing a little bit proper on your account."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that was it, was it? Thank you for nothing, my dear; Baby +Blake can<br> +take care of herself. And now just help me to that wing there. Do +you know,<br> +Cousin Charley, I think you're an old quiz, and not half as good +a fellow<br> +as you used to be?"</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Baby, don't be in such a hurry to pronounce upon +me. Let us<br> +take a glass of wine. Fill Miss Blake's glass, Simon."</p> + +<p>"Well, you may be better when one comes to know you. I detest +sherry. No,<br> +never mind, I'll take it, as it's here. Charley, I'll not +compliment you<br> +upon your ham; they don't know how to save them here. I'll give +you such<br> +a receipt when you come over to see us. But will you come? That's +the<br> +question."</p> + +<p>"How can you ask me! Don't you think I'll return your +visit?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, hang your ceremony! Come and see us, like a good-natured +fellow that<br> +knew us since we played together and quarrelled over our toys on +the grass.<br> +Is that your sword up there? Did you hear that noise? That was +thunder:<br> +there it comes. Look at that!"</p> + +<p>As she spoke, a darkness like night overspread the landscape; +the waves of<br> +the river became greatly agitated, and the rain, descending in +torrents,<br> +beat with tremendous force against the windows; clap after clap +of thunder<br> +followed; the lightning flashed fearfully through the gloom; and +the wind,<br> +growing every moment stronger, drove the rain with redoubled +violence<br> +against the glass. For a while we amused ourselves with watching +the<br> +effects of the storm without: the poor laborers flying from their +work; the<br> +dripping figures seeking shelter beneath the trees; the barques; +the very<br> +loaded carts themselves,—all interested Miss Baby, whose eye +roved from<br> +the shore to the Shannon, recognizing with a practised eye every +house upon<br> +its banks, and every barque that rocked and pitched beneath the +gale.</p> + +<p>"Well, this is pleasant to look out at," said she, at length, +and after the<br> +storm had lasted for above an hour, without evincing any show of +abatement;<br> +"but what's to become of <i>me?</i>"</p> + +<p>Now that was the very question I had been asking myself for +the last twenty<br> +minutes without ever being able to find the answer.</p> + +<p>"Eh, Charley, what's to become of me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, never fear; one thing's quite certain, you cannot leave +this in such<br> +weather. The river is certainly impassable by this time at the +ford, and to<br> +go by the road is out of the question; it is fully twelve miles. +I have it,<br> +Baby; you, as I've said before, can't leave this, but I can. Now, +I'll go<br> +over to Gurt-na-Morra, and return in the morning to bring you +back; it will<br> +be fine by that time."</p> + +<p>"Well, I like your notion. You'll leave me all alone here to +drink tea, I<br> +suppose, with your friend Mrs. Magra. A pleasant evening I'd have +of it;<br> +not a bit—"</p> + +<p>"Well, Baby, don't be cross; I only meant this arrangement +really for your<br> +sake. I needn't tell you how very much I'd prefer doing the +honors of my<br> +poor house in person."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see what you mean,—more propers. Well, well, I've a +great deal to<br> +learn; but look, I think its growing lighter."</p> + +<p>"No, far from it; it's only that gray mass along the horizon +that always<br> +bodes continual rain."</p> + +<p>As the prospect without had little cheering to look upon, we +sat down<br> +beside the fire and chatted away, forgetting very soon in a +hundred mutual<br> +recollections and inquiries, the rain and the wind, the thunder +and the<br> +hurricane. Now and then, as some louder crash would resound above +our<br> +heads, for a moment we would turn to the window, and comment upon +the<br> +dreadful weather; but the next, we had forgotten all about it, +and were<br> +deep in our confabulations.</p> + +<p>As for my fair cousin, who at first was full of contrivances +to pass<br> +the time,—such as the piano, a game at backgammon, chicken +hazard,<br> +battledoor,—she at last became mightily interested in some of +my<br> +soldiering adventures, and it was six o'clock ere we again +thought that<br> +some final measure must be adopted for restoring Baby to her +friends, or at<br> +least, guarding against the consequences her simple and guileless +nature<br> +might have involved her in.</p> + +<p>Mike was called into the conference, and at his suggestion, it +was decided<br> +that we should have out the phaeton, and that I should myself +drive<br> +Miss Blake home; a plan which offered no other difficulties than +this<br> +one,—namely, that of above thirty horses in my stables, I had +not a single<br> +pair which had ever been harnessed.</p> + +<p>This, so far from proving the obstacle I deemed it, seemed, on +the<br> +contrary, to overwhelm Baby with delight.</p> + +<p>"Let's have them. Come, Charley, this will be rare fun; we +couldn't have a<br> +team of four, could we?"</p> + +<p>"Six, if you like it, my dear coz—only who's to hold them? +They're young<br> +thorough-breds,—most of them never backed; some not bitted. In +fact, I<br> +know nothing of my stable. I say, Mike, is there anything fit to +take out?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; there's Miss Wildespin, she's in training, to be +sure; but we<br> +can't help that; and the brown colt they call, 'Billy the +Bolter,'—they're<br> +the likeliest we have; without your honor would take the two +chestnuts we<br> +took up last week; they're raal devils to go; and if the tackle +will hold<br> +them, they'll bring you to Mr. Blake's door in forty +minutes."</p> + +<p>"I vote for the chestnuts," said Baby, slapping her boot with +her<br> +horsewhip.</p> + +<p>"I move an amendment in favor of Miss Wildespin," said I, +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"He'll never do for Galway," sang Baby, laying her whip on my +shoulder with<br> +no tender hand; "yet you used to cross the country in good style +when you<br> +were here before."</p> + +<p>"And might do so again, Baby."</p> + +<p>"Ah, no; that vile dragoon seat, with your long stirrup, and +your heel<br> +dropped, and your elbow this way, and your head that! How could +you ever<br> +screw your horse up to his fence, lifting him along as you came +up through<br> +the heavy ground, and with a stroke of your hand sending him pop +over, with<br> +his hind-legs well under him?" Here she burst into a fit of +laughter at my<br> +look of amazement, as with voice, gesture, and look she actually +dramatized<br> +the scene she described.</p> + +<p>By the time that I had costumed my fair friend in my dragoon +cloak and a<br> +foraging cap, with a gold band around it, which was the extent of +muffling<br> +my establishment could muster, a distant noise without apprised +us that the<br> +phaeton was approaching. Certainly, the mode in which that +equipage came<br> +up to the door might have inspired sentiments of fear in any +heart less<br> +steeled against danger than my fair cousin's. The two blood +chestnuts (for<br> +it was those Mike harnessed, having a groom's dislike to take a +racer out<br> +of training) were surrounded by about twenty people: some at +their heads;<br> +some patting them on the flanks; some spoking the wheels; and a +few, the<br> +more cautious of the party, standing at a respectable distance +and offering<br> +advice. The mode of progression was simply a spring, a plunge, a +rear,<br> +a lounge, and a kick; and considering it was the first time they +ever<br> +performed together, nothing could be more uniform than their +display.<br> +Sometimes the pole would be seen to point straight upward, like a +lightning<br> +conductor, while the infuriated animals appeared sparring with +their<br> +fore-legs at an imaginary enemy. Sometimes, like the pictures in +a<br> +school-book on mythology, they would seem in the act of diving, +while<br> +with their hind-legs they dashed the splash-board into fragments +behind<br> +them,—their eyes flashing fire, their nostrils distended, their +flanks<br> +heaving, and every limb trembling with passion and +excitement.</p> + +<p>"That's what I call a rare turn-out," said Baby, who enjoyed +the proceeding<br> +amazingly.</p> + +<p>"Yes; but remember," said I, "we're not to have all these +running footmen<br> +the whole way."</p> + +<p>"I like that near-sider with the white fetlock."</p> + +<p>"You're right, Miss," said Mike, who entered at the moment, +and felt quite<br> +gratified at the criticism,—"you're right, Miss; it's himself +can do it."</p> + +<p>"Come, Baby, are you ready?"</p> + +<p>"All right, sir," said she, touching her cap knowingly with +her forefinger.</p> + +<p>"Will the tackle hold, Mike?" said I.</p> + +<p>"We'll take this with us, at any rate," pointing, as he spoke, +to a<br> +considerable coil of rope, a hammer, and a basket of nails, he +carried on<br> +his arm. "It's the break harness we have, and it ought to be +strong enough;<br> +but sure if the thunder comes on again, they'd smash a chain +cable."</p> + +<p>"Now, Charley," cried Baby, "keep their heads straight; for +when they go<br> +that way, they mean going."</p> + +<p>"Well, Baby, let's start; but pray remember one thing,—if I'm +not as<br> +agreeable on the journey as I ought to be, if I don't say as many +pretty<br> +things to my pretty coz, it's because these confounded beasts +will give me<br> +as much as I can do."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, look after the cattle, and take another time for +squeezing my<br> +hand. I say, Charley, you'd like to smoke, now, wouldn't you? If +so, don't<br> +mind me."</p> + +<p>"A thousand thanks for thinking of it; but I'll not commit +such a trespass<br> +on good breeding."</p> + +<p>When we reached the door, the prospect looked dark and dismal +enough. The<br> +rain had almost ceased, but masses of black clouds were hurrying +across<br> +the sky, and the low rumbling noise of a gathering storm crept +along the<br> +ground. Our panting equipage, with its two mounted grooms +behind,—for to<br> +provide against all accident, Mike ordered two such to follow +us,—stood<br> +in waiting. Miss Blake's horse, held by the smallest imaginable +bit of<br> +boyhood, bringing up the rear.</p> + +<p>"Look at Paddy Byrne's face," said Baby, directing my +attention to the<br> +little individual in question.</p> + +<p>Now, small as the aforesaid face was, it contrived, within its +limits, to<br> +exhibit an expression of unqualified fear. I had no time, +however, to give<br> +a second look, when I jumped into the phaeton and seized the +reins. Mike<br> +sprang up behind at a look from me, and without speaking a word, +the<br> +stablemen and helpers flew right and left. The chestnuts, seeing +all free<br> +before them, made one tremendous plunge, carrying the +fore-carriage clear<br> +off the ground, and straining every nut, bolt, screw, and strap +about us<br> +with the effort.</p> + +<p>"They're off now," cried Mickey.</p> + +<p>"Yes, they are off now," said Baby. "Keep them going."</p> + +<p>Nothing could be easier to follow than this advice; and in +fact so little<br> +merit had I in obeying it, that I never spoke a word. Down the +avenue we<br> +went, at the speed of lightning, the stones and the water from +the late<br> +rain flying and splashing about us. In one series of plunges, +agreeably<br> +diversified by a strong bang upon the splash-board, we reached +the gate.<br> +Before I had time to utter a prayer for our safety, we were +through and<br> +fairly upon the high road.</p> + +<p>"Musha, but the master's mad!" cried the old dame of the +gate-lodge; "he<br> +wasn't out of this gate for a year and a half, and look +now—"</p> + +<p>The rest was lost in the clear ringing laugh of Baby, who +clapped her hands<br> +in ecstasy and delight.</p> + +<p>"What a spanking pair they are! I suppose you wouldn't let me +get my hand<br> +on them?" said she, making a gesture as if to take the reins.</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid, my dear!" said I; "they've nearly pulled my +wrists off<br> +already."</p> + +<p>Our road, like many in the west of Ireland, lay through a +level tract of<br> +bog; deep ditches, half filled with water, on either side of us, +but,<br> +fortunately, neither hill nor valley for several miles.</p> + +<p>"There's the mail," said Baby, pointing to a dark speck at a +long distance<br> +off.</p> + +<p>Ere many minutes elapsed, our stretching gallop, for such had +our pace<br> +sobered into, brought us up with it, and as we flew by, at top +speed, Baby<br> +jumped to her feet, and turning a waggish look at our beaten +rivals, burst<br> +out into a fit of triumphant laughter.</p> + +<p>Mike was correct as to time; in some few seconds less than +forty minutes we<br> +turned into the avenue of Gurt-na-Morra. Tearing along like the +very moment<br> +of their starting, the hot and fiery animals galloped up the +approach, and<br> +at length came to a stop in a deep ploughed field, into which, +fortunately<br> +for us, Mr. Blake, animated less by the picturesque than the +profitable,<br> +had converted his green lawn. This check, however, was less owing +to my<br> +agency than to that of my servants; for dismounting in haste, +they flew to<br> +the horses' heads, and with ready tact, and before I had helped +my cousin<br> +to the ground, succeeded in unharnessing them from the carriage, +and led<br> +them, blown and panting, covered with foam, and splashed with +mud, into the<br> +space before the door.</p> + +<p>By this time we were joined by the whole Blake family, who +poured forth in<br> +astonishment at our strange and sudden appearance. Explanation on +my part<br> +was unnecessary, for Baby, with a volubility quite her own, gave +the whole<br> +recital in less than three minutes. From the moment of her advent +to her<br> +departure, they had it all; and while she mingled her ridicule at +my<br> +surprise, her praise of my luncheon, her jests at my prudence, +the whole<br> +family joined heartily in her mirth, while they welcomed, with +most<br> +unequivocal warmth, my first visit to Gurt-na-Morra.</p> + +<p>I confess it was with no slight gratification I remarked that +Baby's visit<br> +was as much a matter of surprise to them as to me. Believing her +to have<br> +gone to visit at Portumna Castle, they felt no uneasiness at her +absence;<br> +so that, in her descent upon me, she was really only guided by +her own<br> +wilful fancy, and that total absence of all consciousness of +wrong which<br> +makes a truly innocent girl the hardiest of all God's creatures. +I was<br> +reassured by this feeling, and satisfied that, whatever the +intentions of<br> +the elder members of the Blake family, Baby was, at least, no +participator<br> +in their plots or sharer in their intrigues.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XLVI.</p> + +<p>NEW VIEWS.</p> + +<p>When I found myself the next morning at home, I could not help +ruminating<br> +over the strange adventures of the preceding day, and felt a kind +of<br> +self-reproach at the frigid manner in which I had hitherto +treated all the<br> +Blake advances, contrasting so ill for me with the unaffected +warmth and<br> +kind good-nature of their reception. Never alluding, even by +accident, to<br> +my late estrangement; never, by a chance speech, indicating that +they<br> +felt any soreness for the past,—they talked away about the +gossip of<br> +the country: its feuds, its dinners, its assizes, its balls, +its<br> +garrisons,—all the varied subjects of country life were gayly +and<br> +laughingly discussed; and when, as I entered my own silent and +deserted<br> +home, and contrasted its look of melancholy and gloom with the +gay and<br> +merry scene I so lately parted from, when my echoing steps +reverberated<br> +along the flagged hall,—I thought of the happy family picture I +left<br> +behind me, and could not help avowing to myself that the goods of +fortune<br> +I possessed were but ill dispensed, when, in the midst of every +means and<br> +appliance for comfort and happiness, I lived a solitary man, +companionless<br> +and alone.</p> + +<p>I arose from breakfast a hundred times,—now walking +impatiently towards<br> +the window, now strolling into the drawing-room. Around, on every +side, lay<br> +scattered the prints and drawings, as Baby had thrown them +carelessly<br> +upon the floor; her handkerchief was also there. I took it up; I +know not<br> +why,—some lurking leaven of old romance perhaps suggested +it,—but I hoped<br> +it might prove of delicate texture, and bespeaking that lady-like +coquetry<br> +which so pleasantly associates with the sex in our minds. Alas, +no! Nothing<br> +could be more palpably the opposite: torn, and with a knot—some +hint to<br> +memory—upon one corner, it was no aid to my careering fancy. And +yet—and<br> +yet, what a handsome girl she is; how finely, how delicately +formed that<br> +Greek outline of forehead and brow; how transparently soft that +downy pink<br> +upon her cheek! With what varied expression those eyes can +beam!—ay, that<br> +they can: but, confound it, there's this fault, their very +archness, their<br> +sly malice, will be interpreted by the ill-judging world to any +but the<br> +real motive. "How like a flirt!" will one say. "How impertinent! +How<br> +ill-bred!" The conventional stare of cold, patched, and painted +beauty,<br> +upon whose unblushing cheek no stray tinge of modesty has +wandered, will be<br> +tolerated, even admired; while the artless beamings of the soul +upon the<br> +face of rural loveliness will be condemned without appeal.</p> + +<p>Such a girl may a man marry who destines his days to the wild +west; but woe<br> +unto him!—woe unto him, should he migrate among the more +civilized and<br> +less charitable <i>coteries</i> of our neighbors!</p> + +<p>"Ah, here are the papers, and I was forgetting. Let me +see—'Bayonne'—ay,<br> +'march of the troops—Sixth Corps.' What can that be without? I +say, Mike,<br> +who is cantering along the avenue?"</p> + +<p>"It's me, sir. I'm training the brown filly for Miss Mary, as +your honor<br> +bid me last night."</p> + +<p>"Ah, very true. Does she go quietly?"</p> + +<p>"Like a lamb, sir; barrin' she does give a kick now and then +at the sheet,<br> +when it bangs against her legs."</p> + +<p>"Am I to go over with the books now, sir?" said a wild-looking +shockhead<br> +appearing within the door.</p> + +<p>"Yes, take them over, with my compliments; and say I hope Miss +Mary Blake<br> +has caught no cold."</p> + +<p>"You were speaking about a habit and hat, sir?" said Mrs. +Magra, curtsying<br> +as she entered.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mrs. Magra; I want your advice. Oh, tell Barnes I really +cannot be<br> +bored about those eternal turnips every day of my life. And, +Mike, I wish<br> +you'd make them look over the four-horse harness. I want to try +those<br> +grays; they tell me they'll run well together. Well, Freney, +more<br> +complaints, I hope? Nothing but trespasses! I don't care, so +you'd not<br> +worry me, if they eat up every blade of clover in the grounds; +I'm sick<br> +of being bored this way. Did you say that we'd eight couple of +good<br> +dogs?—quite enough to begin with. Tell Jones to ride into +Banagher and<br> +look after that box; Buckmaster sent it from London two months +ago, and it<br> +has been lying there ever since. And, Mrs. Magra, pray let the +windows be<br> +opened, and the house well aired; that drawing-room would be all +the better<br> +for new papering."</p> + +<p>These few and broken directions may serve to show my +readers—what<br> +certainly they failed to convince myself of—that a new chapter +of my life<br> +had opened before me; and that, in proportion to the length of +time<br> +my feelings had found neither vent nor outlet, they now rushed +madly,<br> +tempestuously into their new channels, suffering no impediment to +arrest,<br> +no obstacle to oppose their current.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be conceived more opposite to my late, than my +present habits<br> +now became. The house, the grounds, the gardens, all seemed to +participate<br> +in the new influence which beamed upon myself; the stir and +bustle of<br> +active life was everywhere perceptible; and amidst numerous +preparations<br> +for the moors and the hunting-field, for pleasure parties upon +the river,<br> +and fishing excursions up the mountains, my days were spent. The +Blakes,<br> +without even for a moment pressing their attentions upon me, +permitted me<br> +to go and come among them unquestioned and unasked. When, nearly +every<br> +morning, I appeared in the breakfast-room, I felt exactly like a +member of<br> +the family; the hundred little discrepancies of thought and habit +which<br> +struck me forcibly at first, looked daily less apparent; the +careless<br> +inattentions of my fair cousins as to dress, their free-and-easy +boisterous<br> +manner, their very accents, which fell so harshly on my ear, +gradually made<br> +less and less impression, until at last, when a raw English +Ensign, just<br> +arrived in the neighborhood, remarked to me in confidence, "What +devilish<br> +fine girls they were, if they were not so confoundedly Irish!" I +could not<br> +help wondering what the fellow meant, and attributed the +observation more<br> +to his ignorance than to its truth.</p> + +<p>Papa and Mamma Blake, like prudent generals, so long as they +saw the forces<br> +of the enemy daily wasting before them; so long as they could +with impunity<br> +carry on the war at his expense,—resolved to risk nothing by a +pitched<br> +battle. Unlike the Dalrymples, they could leave all to time.</p> + +<p>Oh, tell me not of dark eyes swimming in their own ethereal +essence;<br> +tell me not of pouting lips, of glossy ringlets, of taper +fingers, and<br> +well-rounded insteps; speak not to me of soft voices, whose +seductive<br> +sounds ring sweetly in our hearts; preach not of those thousand +womanly<br> +graces so dear to every man, and doubly to him who lives apart +from all<br> +their influences and their fascinations; neither dwell upon +congenial<br> +temperament, similarity of taste, of disposition, and of thought; +these are<br> +not the great risks a man runs in life. Of all the temptations, +strong as<br> +these may be, there is one greater than them all, and that is, +propinquity!</p> + +<p>Show me the man who has ever stood this test; show me the man, +deserving<br> +the name of such, who has become daily and hourly exposed to the +breaching<br> +artillery of flashing eyes, of soft voices, of winning smiles, +and kind<br> +speeches, and who hasn't felt, and that too soon too, a breach +within<br> +the rampart of his heart. He may, it is true,—nay, he will, in +many<br> +cases,—make a bold and vigorous defence; sometimes will he +re-intrench<br> +himself within the stockades of his prudence; but, alas! it is +only to<br> +defer the moment when he must lay down his arms. He may, like a +wise man<br> +who sees his fate inevitable, make a virtue of necessity, and +surrender at<br> +discretion; or, like a crafty foe, seeing his doom before him, +under the<br> +cover of the night he may make a sortie from the garrison, and +run for his<br> +life. Ignominious as such a course must be, it is often the only +one left.</p> + +<p>But to come back. Love, like the small-pox, is most dangerous +when you take<br> +it in the natural way. Those made matches, which Heaven is +supposed to<br> +have a hand in, when placing an unmarried gentleman's property in +the<br> +neighborhood of an unmarried lady's, which destine two people for +each<br> +other in life, because their well-judging friends have agreed, +"They'll do<br> +very well; they were made for each other,"—these are the mild +cases of the<br> +malady. This process of friendly vaccination takes out the poison +of the<br> +disease, substituting a more harmless and less exciting +affection; but the<br> +really dangerous instances are those from contact, that same +propinquity,<br> +that confounded tendency every man yields to, to fall into a +railroad of<br> +habit; that is the risk, that is the danger. What a bore it is to +find that<br> +the absence of one person, with whom you're in no wise in love, +will spoil<br> +your morning's canter, or your rowing party upon the river! How +much put<br> +out are you, when she, to whom you always gave your arm in to +dinner,<br> +does not make her appearance in the drawing-room; and your tea, +too, some<br> +careless one, indifferent to your taste, puts a lump of sugar too +little,<br> +or cream too much, while she—But no matter; habit has done for +you what<br> +no direct influence of beauty could do, and a slave to your own +selfish<br> +indulgences, and the cultivation of that ease you prize so +highly, you fall<br> +over head and ears in love.</p> + +<p>Now, you are not, my good reader, by any means to suppose that +this was my<br> +case. No, no; I was too much what the world terms the "old +soldier" for<br> +that. To continue my illustration: like the fortress that has +been often<br> +besieged, the sentry upon the walls keeps more vigilant watch; +his ear<br> +detects the far-off clank of the dread artillery; he marks each +parallel;<br> +he notes down every breaching battery; and if he be captured, at +least it<br> +is in fair fight.</p> + +<p>Such were some of my reflections as I rode slowly home one +evening from<br> +Gurt-na-Morra. Many a time, latterly, had I contrasted my own +lonely and<br> +deserted hearth with the smiling looks, the happy faces, and the +merry<br> +voices I had left behind me; and many a time did I ask myself, +"Am I never<br> +to partake of a happiness like this?" How many a man is seduced +into<br> +matrimony from this very feeling! How many a man whose hours have +passed<br> +fleetingly at the pleasant tea-table, or by the warm hearth of +some old<br> +country-house, going forth into the cold and cheerless night, +reaches his<br> +far-off home only to find it dark and gloomy, joyless and +companionless?<br> +How often has the hard-visaged look of his old butler, as, with +sleepy eyes<br> +and yawning face, he hands a bed-room candle, suggested thoughts +of married<br> +happiness? Of the perils of propinquity I have already spoken; +the risks of<br> +contrast are also great. Have you never, in strolling through +some fragrant<br> +and rich conservatory, fixed your eye upon a fair and lovely +flower, whose<br> +blossoming beauty seems to give all the lustre and all the +incense of<br> +the scene around? And how have you thought it would adorn and +grace the<br> +precincts of your home, diffusing fragrance on every side. Alas, +the<br> +experiment is not always successful. Much of the charm and many +of the<br> +fascinations which delight you are the result of association of +time and of<br> +place. The lovely voice, whose tones have spoken to your heart, +may, like<br> +some instrument, be delightful in the harmony of the orchestra, +but, after<br> +all, prove a very middling performer in a duet.</p> + +<p>I say not this to deter men from matrimony, but to warn them +from a<br> +miscalculation which may mar their happiness. Flirtation is a +very fine<br> +thing, but it's only a state of transition after all. The tadpole +existence<br> +of the lover would be great fun, if one was never to become a +frog under<br> +the hands of the parson. I say all this dispassionately and +advisedly. Like<br> +the poet of my country, for many years of my life,—</p> + +<p> "My only books were woman's looks,"</p> + +<p>and certainly I subscribe to a circulating library.</p> + +<p>All this long digression may perhaps bring the reader to where +it brought<br> +me,—the very palpable conviction, that, though not in love with +my cousin<br> +Baby, I could not tell when I might eventually become so.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XLVII.</p> + +<p>A RECOGNITION.</p> + +<p>The most pleasing part about retrospect is the memory of our +bygone hopes.<br> +The past, however happy, however blissful, few would wish to live +over<br> +again; but who is there that does not long for, does not pine +after the<br> +day-dream which gilded the future, which looked ever forward to +the time to<br> +come as to a realization of all that was dear to us, lightening +our present<br> +cares, soothing our passing sorrows by that one thought?</p> + +<p>Life is marked out in periods in which, like stages in a +journey, we rest<br> +and repose ourselves, casting a look, now back upon the road we +have been<br> +travelling, now throwing a keener glance towards the path left +us. It is at<br> +such spots as these remembrance comes full upon us, and that we +feel how<br> +little our intentions have swayed our career or influenced our +actions;<br> +the aspirations, the resolves of youth, are either looked upon as +puerile<br> +follies, or a most distant day settled on for their realization. +The<br> +principles we fondly looked to, like our guide-stars, are dimly +visible,<br> +not seen; the friends we cherished are changed and gone; the +scenes<br> +themselves seem no longer the sunshine and the shade we loved; +and, in<br> +fact, we are living in a new world, where our own altered +condition gives<br> +the type to all around us; the only link that binds us to the +past being<br> +that same memory that like a sad curfew tolls the twilight of our +fairest<br> +dreams and most cherished wishes.</p> + +<p>That these glimpses of the bygone season of our youth should +be but fitful<br> +and passing—tinging, not coloring the landscape of our life—we +should be<br> +engaged in all the active bustle and turmoil of the world, +surrounded by<br> +objects of hope, love, and ambition, stemming the strong tide in +whose<br> +fountain is fortune.</p> + +<p>He, however, who lives apart, a dreary and a passionless +existence, will<br> +find that in the past, more than in the future, his thoughts have +found<br> +their resting-place; memory usurps the place of hope, and he +travels<br> +through life like one walking onward; his eyes still turning +towards some<br> +loved forsaken spot, teeming with all the associations of his +happiest<br> +hours, and preserving, even in distance, the outline that he +loved.</p> + +<p>Distance in time, as in space, smooths down all the +inequalities of<br> +surface; and as the cragged and rugged mountain, darkened by +cliff and<br> +precipice, shows to the far-off traveller but some blue and misty +mass,<br> +so the long-lost-sight-of hours lose all the cares and griefs +that tinged<br> +them, and to our mental eye, are but objects of uniform +loveliness and<br> +beauty; and if we do not think of</p> + +<p> "The smiles, the tears,<br> + Of boyhood's years,"</p> + +<p>it is because, like April showers, they but checker the spring +of our<br> +existence.</p> + +<p>For myself, baffled in hope at a period when most men but +begin to feel it,<br> +I thought myself much older than I really was; the +disappointments of the<br> +world, like the storms of the ocean, impart a false sense of +experience to<br> +the young heart, as he sails forth upon his voyage; and it is an +easy error<br> +to mistake trials for time.</p> + +<p>The goods of fortune by which I was surrounded, took nothing +from the<br> +bitterness of my retrospect; on the contrary, I could not help +feeling that<br> +every luxury of my life was bought by my surrender of that career +which had<br> +elated me in my own esteem, and which, setting a high and noble +ambition<br> +before me, taught me to be a man.</p> + +<p>To be happy, one must not only fulfil the duties and exactions +of his<br> +station, but the station itself must answer to his views and +aspirations<br> +in life. Now, mine did not sustain this condition: all that my +life had<br> +of promise was connected with the memory of her who never could +share my<br> +fortunes; of her for whom I had earned praise and honor; becoming +ambitious<br> +as the road to her affection, only to learn after, that my hopes +were but a<br> +dream, and my paradise a wilderness.</p> + +<p>While thus the inglorious current of my life ran on, I was not +indifferent<br> +to the mighty events the great continent of Europe was +witnessing. The<br> +successes of the Peninsular campaign; the triumphant entry of +the<br> +British into France; the downfall of Napoleon; the restoration of +the<br> +Bourbons,—followed each other with the rapidity of the most +common-place<br> +occurrences; and in the few short years in which I had sprung +from boyhood<br> +to man's estate, the whole condition of the world was altered. +Kings<br> +deposed; great armies disbanded; rightful sovereigns restored to +their<br> +dominions; banished and exiled men returned to their country, +invested with<br> +rank and riches; and peace, in the fullest tide of its blessings, +poured<br> +down upon the earth devastated and blood-stained.</p> + +<p>Years passed on; and between the careless abandonment to the +mere amusement<br> +of the hour, and the darker meditation upon the past, time +slipped away.<br> +From my old friends and brother officers I heard but rarely. +Power, who at<br> +first wrote frequently, grew gradually less and less +communicative. Webber,<br> +who had gone to Paris at the peace, had written but one letter; +while, from<br> +the rest, a few straggling lines were all I received. In truth be +it told,<br> +my own negligence and inability to reply cost me this apparent +neglect.</p> + +<p>It was a fine evening in May, when, rigging up a sprit-sail, I +jumped into<br> +my yawl, and dropped easily down the river. The light wind gently +curled<br> +the crested water, the trees waved gently and shook their +branches in the<br> +breeze, and my little barque, bending slightly beneath, rustled +on her<br> +foamy track with that joyous bounding motion so inspiriting to +one's<br> +heart. The clouds were flying swiftly past, tinging with their +shadows the<br> +mountains beneath; the Munster shore, glowing with a rich +sunlight, showed<br> +every sheep-cot and every hedge-row clearly out, while the deep +shadow of<br> +tall Scariff darkened the silent river where Holy Island, with +its ruined<br> +churches and melancholy tower, was reflected in the still +water.</p> + +<p>It was a thoroughly Irish landscape: the changeful sky; the +fast-flitting<br> +shadows; the brilliant sunlight; the plenteous fields; the broad +and<br> +swelling stream; the dark mountain, from whose brown crest a +wreath of thin<br> +blue smoke was rising,—were all there smiling yet sadly, like +her own<br> +sons, across whose lowering brow some fitful flash of fancy ever +playing<br> +dallies like sunbeams on a darkening stream, nor marks the depth +that lies<br> +below.</p> + +<p>I sat musing over the strange harmony of Nature with the +temperament of<br> +man, every phase of his passionate existence seeming to have its +type in<br> +things inanimate, when a loud cheer from the land aroused me, and +the<br> +words, "Charley! Cousin Charley!" came wafted over the water to +where<br> +I lay. For some time I could but distinguish the faint outline of +some<br> +figures on the shore; but as I came nearer, I recognized my fair +cousin<br> +Baby, who, with a younger brother of some eight or nine years +old, was<br> +taking an evening walk.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Charley," said she, "the boys have gone over to +the castle to<br> +look for you; we want you particularly this evening."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, Cousin Baby! Well, I fear you must make my +excuses."</p> + +<p>"Then, once for all, I will not. I know this is one of your +sulky moods,<br> +and I tell you frankly I'll not put up with them any more."</p> + +<p>"No, no, Baby, not so; out of spirits if you will, but not out +of temper."</p> + +<p>"The distinction is much too fine for me, if there be any. But +there now,<br> +do be a good fellow; come up with us—come up with me!"</p> + +<p>As she said this she placed her arm within mine. I thought, +too,—perhaps<br> +it was but a thought,—she pressed me gently. I know she blushed +and turned<br> +away her head to hide it.</p> + +<p>"I don't pretend to be proof to your entreaty, Cousin Baby," +said I, with<br> +half-affected gallantry, putting her fingers to my lips.</p> + +<p>"There, how can you be so foolish; look at William yonder; I +am sure he<br> +must have seen you!" But William, God bless him! was +bird's-nesting or<br> +butterfly-hunting or daisy-picking or something of that kind.</p> + +<p>O ye young brothers, who, sufficiently old to be deemed +companions and<br> +<i>chaperons</i>, but yet young enough to be regarded as having +neither eyes nor<br> +ears, what mischief have ye to answer for; what a long reckoning +of tender<br> +speeches, of soft looks, of pressed hands, lies at your door! +What an<br> +incentive to flirtation is the wily imp who turns ever and anon +from his<br> +careless gambols to throw his laughter-loving eyes upon you, +calling up the<br> +mantling blush to both your cheeks! He seems to chronicle the +hours of your<br> +dalliance, making your secrets known unto each other. We have +gone through<br> +our share of flirtation in this life: match-making mothers, +prying aunts,<br> +choleric uncles, benevolent and open-hearted fathers, we +understand to the<br> +life, and care no more for such man-traps than a Melton man, well +mounted<br> +on his strong-boned thorough-bred, does for a four-barred +ox-fence that<br> +lies before him. Like him, we take them flying; never relaxing +the slapping<br> +stride of our loose gallop, we go straight ahead, never turning +aside,<br> +except for a laugh at those who flounder in the swamps we sneer +at. But we<br> +confess honestly, we fear the little, brother, the small urchin +who, with<br> +nankeen trousers and three rows of buttons, performs the part of +Cupid. He<br> +strikes real terror into our heart; he it is who, with a cunning +wink or<br> +sly smile, seems to confirm the soft nonsense we are weaving; by +some<br> +slight gesture he seems to check off the long reckoning of our +attentions,<br> +bringing us every moment nearer to the time when the score must +be settled<br> +and the debt paid. He it is who, by a memory delightfully +oblivious of<br> +his task and his table-book, is tenacious to the life of what you +said<br> +to Fanny; how you put your head under Lucy's bonnet; he can +imitate to<br> +perfection the way you kneeled upon the grass; and the wretch has +learned<br> +to smack his lips like a <i>gourmand</i>, that he, may convey another +stage of<br> +your proceeding.</p> + +<p>Oh, for infant schools for everything under the age of ten! +Oh, for<br> +factories for the children of the rich! The age of prying +curiosity is from<br> +four-and-a-half to nine, and Fonché himself might get a +lesson in <i>police</i><br> +from an urchin in his alphabet.</p> + +<p>I contrived soon, however, to forget the presence of even the +little<br> +brother. The night was falling; Baby appeared getting fatigued +with her<br> +walk, for she leaned somewhat more heavily upon my arm, and I—I +cannot<br> +tell wherefore—fell into that train of thinking aloud, which +somehow, upon<br> +a summer's eve, with a fair girl beside one, is the very nearest +thing to<br> +love-making.</p> + +<p>"There, Charley, don't now—ah, don't! Do let go my hand; they +are coming<br> +down the avenue."</p> + +<p>I had scarcely time to obey the injunction, when Mr. Blake +called out:—</p> + +<p>"Well, indeed! Charley, this is really fortunate; we have got +a friend to<br> +take tea with us, and wanted you to meet him."</p> + +<p>Muttering an internal prayer for something not exactly the +welfare of the<br> +aforesaid friend, whom I judged to be some Galway squire, I +professed aloud<br> +the pleasure I felt in having come in so opportunely.</p> + +<p>"He wishes particularly to make your acquaintance."</p> + +<p>"So much the worse," thought I to myself; "it rarely happens +that this<br> +feeling is mutual."</p> + +<p>Evidently provoked at the little curiosity I exhibited, Blake +added,—</p> + +<p>"He's on his way to Fermoy with a detachment."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! what regiment, pray?"</p> + +<p>"The 28th Foot."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I don't know them."</p> + +<p>By this time we reached the steps of the hall-door, and just +as we did so,<br> +the door opened suddenly, and a tall figure in uniform presented +himself.<br> +With one spring he seized my hand and nearly wrung it off.</p> + +<p>"Why what," said I, "can this be? Is it really—"</p> + +<p>"Sparks," said he,—"your old friend Sparks, my boy; I've +changed into the<br> +infantry, and here I am. Heard by chance you were in the +neighborhood; met<br> +Mr. Blake, your friend here, at the inn, and accepted his +invitation to<br> +meet you."</p> + +<p>Poor Sparks, albeit the difference in his costume, was the +same as ever.<br> +Having left the Fourteenth soon after I quitted them, he knew but +little of<br> +their fortunes; and he himself had been on recruiting stations +nearly the<br> +whole time since we had met before.</p> + +<p>While we each continued to extol the good fortune of the +other,—he mine as<br> +being no longer in the service, and I his for still being so,—we +learned<br> +the various changes which had happened to each of us during our +separation.<br> +Although his destination was ultimately Fermoy, Portumua was +ordered to<br> +be his present quarter; and I felt delighted to have once more an +old<br> +companion within reach, to chat over former days of campaigning +and nights<br> +of merriment in the Peninsula.</p> + +<p>Sparks soon became a constant visitor and guest at +Gurt-na-Morra; his good<br> +temper, his easy habits, his simplicity of character, rapidly +enabled him<br> +to fall into all their ways; and although evidently not what Baby +would<br> +call "the man for Galway," he endeavored with all his might to +please every<br> +one, and certainly succeeded to a considerable extent.</p> + +<p>Baby alone seemed to take pleasure in tormenting the poor sub. +Long before<br> +she met with him having heard much from me of his exploits +abroad, she was<br> +continually bringing up some anecdote of his unhappy loves or +mis-placed<br> +passions; which he evidently smarted under the more, from the +circumstance<br> +that he appeared rather inclined to like my fair cousin.</p> + +<p>As she continued this for some time, I remarked that Sparks, +who at<br> +first was all gayety and high spirits, grew gradually more +depressed and<br> +dispirited. I became convinced that the poor fellow was in love; +very<br> +little management on my part was necessary to obtain his +confession; and<br> +accordingly, the same evening the thought first struck me, as we +were<br> +riding slowly home towards O'Malley Castle, I touched at first +generally<br> +upon the merits of the Blakes, their hospitality, etc., then +diverged to<br> +the accomplishments and perfections of the girls, and lastly, +Baby herself,<br> +in all form, came up for sentence.</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes!" said Sparks, with a deep sigh, "it is quite as you +say; she is a<br> +lovely girl; and that liveliness in her character, that +elasticity in her<br> +temperament, chastened down as it might be, by the feeling of +respect for<br> +the man she loved! I say, Charley, is it a very long attachment +of yours?"</p> + +<p>"A long attachment of mine! Why, my dear Sparks, you can't +suppose that<br> +there is anything between us! I pledge you my word most +faithfully."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, don't tell me that; what good can there be in +mystifying me?"</p> + +<p>"I have no such intention, believe me. My cousin Baby, however +I like and<br> +admire her, has no other place in my affection than a very +charming girl<br> +who has lightened a great many dreary and tiresome hours, and +made my<br> +banishment from the world less irksome than I should have found +it without<br> +her."</p> + +<p>"And you are really not in love?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it!"</p> + +<p>"Nor going to marry her either?"</p> + +<p>"Not the least notion of it!—a fact. Baby and I are excellent +friends, for<br> +the very reason that we were never lovers; we have had no <i>petits +jeux</i><br> +of fallings out and makings up; no hide-and-seek trials of +affected<br> +indifference and real disappointments; no secrets, no griefs, nor +grudges;<br> +neither quarrels nor keepsakes. In fact, we are capital cousins; +quizzing<br> +every one for our own amusement; riding, walking, boating +together; in<br> +fact, doing and thinking of everything save sighs and +declarations; always<br> +happy to meet, and never broken-hearted when we parted. And I can +only add,<br> +as a proof of my sincerity, that if you feel as I suspect you do +from your<br> +questions, I'll be your ambassador to the court of Gurt-na-Morra +with<br> +sincere pleasure."</p> + +<p>"Will you really? Will you, indeed, Charley, do this for me? +Will you<br> +strengthen my wishes by your aid, and give me all your influence +with the<br> +family?"</p> + +<p>I could scarcely help smiling at poor Sparks's eagerness, or +the<br> +unwarrantable value he put upon my alliance, in a case where his +own<br> +unassisted efforts did not threaten much failure.</p> + +<p>"I repeat it, Sparks, I'll make a proposal for you in all +form, aided and<br> +abetted by everything recommendatory and laudatory I can think +of; I'll<br> +talk of you as a Peninsular of no small note and promise; and +observe rigid<br> +silence about your Welsh flirtation and your Spanish +elopement."</p> + +<p>"You'll not blab about the Dalrymples, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"Trust me; I only hope you will be always equally discreet: +but now—when<br> +shall it be? Should you like to consider the matter more?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, nothing of the kind; let it be to-morrow, at once, if +I am to<br> +fail; even that—anything's better than suspense."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, to-morrow be it," said I.</p> + +<p>So I wished him a good-night, and a stout heart to hear his +fortune withal.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XLVIII.</p> + +<p>A MISTAKE.</p> + +<p>I ordered my horses at an early hour; and long before +Sparks—lover that<br> +he was—had opened his eyes to the light, was already on my way +towards<br> +Gurt-na-Morra. Several miles slipped away before I well +determined how I<br> +should open my negotiations: whether to papa Blake, in the first +instance,<br> +or to madame, to whose peculiar province these secrets of the +home<br> +department belonged; or why not at once to Baby?—because, after +all, with<br> +her it rested finally to accept or refuse. To address myself to +the heads<br> +of the department seemed the more formal course; and as I was +acting<br> +entirely as an "envoy extraordinary," I deemed this the fitting +mode of<br> +proceeding.</p> + +<p>It was exactly eight o'clock as I drove up to the door. Mr. +Blake was<br> +standing at the open window of the breakfast-room, sniffing the +fresh air<br> +of the morning. The Blake mother was busily engaged with the +economy of the<br> +tea-table; a very simple style of morning costume, and a nightcap +with a<br> +flounce like a petticoat, marking her unaffected toilet. Above +stairs, more<br> +than one head <i>en papillate</i> took a furtive peep between the +curtains; and<br> +the butler of the family, in corduroys and a fur cap, was weeding +turnips<br> +in the lawn before the door.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Blake had barely time to take a hurried departure, when +her husband<br> +came out upon the steps to bid me welcome. There is no +physiognomist like<br> +your father of a family, or your mother with marriageable +daughters.<br> +Lavater was nothing to them, in reading the secret springs of +action, the<br> +hidden sources of all character. Had there been a good +respectable bump<br> +allotted by Spurzheim to "honorable intentions," the matter had +been<br> +all fair and easy,—the very first salute of the gentleman would +have<br> +pronounced upon his views. But, alas! no such guide is +forthcoming; and the<br> +science, as it now exists, is enveloped in doubt and difficulty. +The gay,<br> +laughing temperament of some, the dark and serious composure of +others; the<br> +cautious and reserved, the open and the candid, the witty, the +sententious,<br> +the clever, the dull, the prudent, the reckless,—in a word, +every variety<br> +which the innumerable hues of character imprint upon the human +face divine<br> +are their study. Their convictions are the slow and patient +fruits of<br> +intense observation and great logical accuracy. Carefully noting +down<br> +every lineament and feature,—their change, their action, and +their<br> +development,—they track a lurking motive with the scent of a +bloodhound,<br> +and run down a growing passion with an unrelenting speed. I have +been<br> +in the witness-box, exposed to the licensed badgering and +privileged<br> +impertinence of a lawyer, winked, leered, frowned, and sneered at +with all<br> +the long-practised tact of a <i>nisi prius</i> torturer; I have stood +before the<br> +cold, fish-like, but searching eye of a prefect of police, as he +compared<br> +my passport with my person, and thought he could detect a +discrepancy in<br> +both,—but I never felt the same sense of total exposure as when +glanced at<br> +by the half-cautious, half-prying look of a worthy father or +mother, in a<br> +family where there are daughters to marry, and "nobody coming to +woo."</p> + +<p>"You're early, Charley," said Mr. Blake, with an affected +mixture of<br> +carelessness and warmth. "You have not had breakfast?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. I have come to claim a part of yours; and if I +mistake not, you<br> +seem a little later than usual."</p> + +<p>"Not more than a few minutes. The girls will be down +presently; they're<br> +early risers, Charley; good habits are just as easy as bad ones; +and, the<br> +Lord be praised! my girls were never brought up with any +other."</p> + +<p>"I am well aware of it, sir; and indeed, if I may be permitted +to take<br> +advantage of the <i>apropos</i>, it was on the subject of one of your +daughters<br> +that I wished to speak to you this morning, and which brought me +over at<br> +this uncivilized hour, hoping to find you alone."</p> + +<p>Mr. Blake's look for a moment was one of triumphant +satisfaction; it was<br> +but a glance, however, and repressed the very instant after, as +he said,<br> +with a well got-up indifference,—</p> + +<p>"Just step with me into the study, and we're sure not to be +interrupted."</p> + +<p>Now, although I have little time or space for such dallying, I +cannot help<br> +dwelling for a moment upon the aspect of what Mr. Blake dignified +with the<br> +name of his study. It was a small apartment with one window, the +panes of<br> +which, independent of all aid from a curtain, tempered the +daylight through<br> +the medium of cobwebs, dust, and the ill-trained branches of some +wall-tree<br> +without.</p> + +<p>Three oak chairs and a small table were the only articles of +furniture,<br> +while around, on all sides, lay the <i>disjecta membra</i> of Mr. +Blake's<br> +hunting, fishing, shooting, and coursing equipments,—old +top-boots,<br> +driving whips, odd spurs, a racing saddle, a blunderbuss, the +helmet of the<br> +Galway Light Horse, a salmon net, a large map of the county with +a marginal<br> +index to several mortgages marked with a cross, a stable lantern, +the<br> +rudder of a boat, and several other articles representative of +his daily<br> +associations; but not one book, save an odd volume of Watty +Cox's<br> +Magazine, whose pages seemed as much the receptacle of brown +hackles for<br> +trout-fishing as the resource of literary leisure.</p> + +<p>"Here we'll be quite cosey, and to ourselves," said Mr. Blake, +as, placing<br> +a chair for me, he sat down himself, with the air of a man +resolved to<br> +assist, by advice and counsel, the dilemma of some dear +friend.</p> + +<p>After a few preliminary observations, which, like a breathing +canter before<br> +a race, serves to get your courage up, and settle you well in +your seat,<br> +I opened my negotiation by some very broad and sweeping truisms +about the<br> +misfortunes of a bachelor existence, the discomforts of his +position,<br> +his want of home and happiness, the necessity for his one day +thinking<br> +seriously about marriage; it being in a measure almost as +inevitable<br> +a termination of the free-and-easy career of his single life +as<br> +transportation for seven years is to that of a poacher. "You +cannot go on,<br> +sir," said I, "trespassing forever upon your neighbors' +preserves; you must<br> +be apprehended sooner or later; therefore, I think, the better +way is to<br> +take out a license."</p> + +<p>Never was a small sally of wit more thoroughly successful. Mr. +Blake<br> +laughed till he cried, and when he had done, wiped his eyes with +a snuffy<br> +handkerchief, and cried till he laughed again. As, somehow, I +could not<br> +conceal from myself a suspicion as to the sincerity of my +friend's mirth,<br> +I merely consoled myself with the French adage, that "he laughs +best who<br> +laughs last;" and went on:—</p> + +<p>"It will not be deemed surprising, sir, that a man should come +to the<br> +discovery I have just mentioned much more rapidly by having +enjoyed the<br> +pleasure of intimacy with your family; not only by the example of +perfect<br> +domestic happiness presented to him, but by the prospect held out +that<br> +a heritage of the fair gifts which adorn and grace a married life +may<br> +reasonably be looked for among the daughters of those themselves +the<br> +realization of conjugal felicity."</p> + +<p>Here was a canter, with a vengeance; and as I felt blown, I +slackened my<br> +pace, coughed, and resumed:—</p> + +<p>"Mary Blake, sir, is, then, the object of my present +communication; she<br> +it is who has made an existence that seemed fair and pleasurable +before,<br> +appear blank and unprofitable without her. I have, therefore, to +come at<br> +once to the point, visited you this morning, formally to ask her +hand in<br> +marriage; her fortune, I may observe at once, is perfectly +immaterial, a<br> +matter of no consequence [so Mr. Blake thought also]; a +competence fully<br> +equal to every reasonable notion of expenditure—"</p> + +<p>"There, there; don't, don't!" said Mr. Blake, wiping his eyes, +with a sob<br> +like a hiccough,—"don't speak of money! I know what you would +say, a<br> +handsome settlement,—a well-secured jointure, and all that. Yes, +yes, I<br> +feel it all."</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, sir, I believe I may add that everything in this +respect will<br> +answer your expectations."</p> + +<p>"Of course; to be sure. My poor dear Baby! How to do without +her, that's<br> +the rub! You don't know, O'Malley, what that girl is to me—you +can't know<br> +it; you'll feel it one day though—that you will!"</p> + +<p>"The devil I shall!" said I to myself. "The great point is, +after all, to<br> +learn the young lady's disposition in the matter—"</p> + +<p>"Ah, Charley, none of this with me, you sly dog! You think I +don't know<br> +you. Why, I've been watching,—that is, I have seen—no, I mean +I've<br> +heard—They—they,—people will talk, you know."</p> + +<p>"Very true, sir. But, as I was going to remark—"</p> + +<p>Just at this moment the door opened, and Miss Baby herself, +looking most<br> +annoyingly handsome, put in her head.</p> + +<p>"Papa, we're waiting breakfast. Ah, Charley, how d'ye do?"</p> + +<p>"Come in, Baby," said Mr. Blake; "you haven't given me my kiss +this<br> +morning."</p> + +<p>The lovely girl threw her arms around his neck, while her +bright and<br> +flowing locks fell richly upon his shoulder. I turned rather +sulkily away;<br> +the thing always provokes me. There is as much cold, selfish +cruelty in<br> +such <i>coram publico</i> endearments, as in the luscious display of +rich rounds<br> +and sirloins in a chop-house to the eyes of the starved and +penniless<br> +wretch without, who, with dripping rags and watering lip, eats +imaginary<br> +slices, while the pains of hunger are torturing him!</p> + +<p>"There's Tim!" said Mr. Blake, suddenly. "Tim Cronin!—Tim!" +shouted he<br> +to, as it seemed to me, an imaginary individual outside; while, +in the<br> +eagerness of pursuit, he rushed out of the study, banging the +door as he<br> +went, and leaving Baby and myself to our mutual edification.</p> + +<p>I should have preferred it being otherwise; but as the Fates +willed it<br> +thus, I took Baby's hand, and led her to the window. Now, there +is one<br> +feature of my countrymen which, having recognized strongly in +myself, I<br> +would fain proclaim; and writing as I do—however little people +may suspect<br> +me—solely for the sake of a moral, would gladly warn the +unsuspecting<br> +against. I mean, a very decided tendency to become the consoler, +the<br> +confidant of young ladies; seeking out opportunities of assuaging +their<br> +sorrow, reconciling their afflictions, breaking eventful passages +to<br> +their ears; not from any inherent pleasure in the tragic phases +of<br> +the intercourse, but for the semi-tenderness of manner, that +harmless<br> +hand-squeezing, that innocent waist-pressing, without which +consolation is<br> +but like salmon without lobster,—a thing maimed, wanting, and +imperfect.</p> + +<p>Now, whether this with me was a natural gift, or merely a "way +we have in<br> +the army," as the song says, I shall not pretend to say; but I +venture<br> +to affirm that few men could excel me in the practice I speak of +some<br> +five-and-twenty years ago. Fair reader, do pray, if I have the +happiness<br> +of being known to you, deduct them from my age before you +subtract from my<br> +merits.</p> + +<p>"Well, Baby, dear, I have just been speaking about you to +papa. Yes,<br> +dear—don't look so incredulous—even of your own sweet self. +Well, do you<br> +know, I almost prefer your hair worn that way; those same silky +masses look<br> +better falling thus heavily—"</p> + +<p>"There, now, Charley! ah, don't!"</p> + +<p>"Well, Baby, as I was saying, before you stopped me, I have +been asking<br> +your papa a very important question, and he has referred me to +you for the<br> +answer. And now will you tell me, in all frankness and honesty, +your mind<br> +on the matter?"</p> + +<p>She grew deadly pale as I spoke these words, then suddenly +flushed up<br> +again, but said not a word. I could perceive, however, from her +heaving<br> +chest and restless manner, that no common agitation was stirring +her bosom.<br> +It was cruelty to be silent, so I continued:—</p> + +<p>"One who loves you well, Baby, dear, has asked his own heart +the question,<br> +and learned that without you he has no chance of happiness; that +your<br> +bright eyes are to him bluer than the deep sky above him; that +your soft<br> +voice, your winning smile—and what a smile it is!—have taught +him that he<br> +loves, nay, adores you! Then, dearest—what pretty fingers those +are! Ah,<br> +what is this? Whence came that emerald? I never saw that ring +before,<br> +Baby!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that," said she, blushing deeply,—"that is a ring the +foolish<br> +creature Sparks gave me a couple of days ago; but I don't like +it—I don't<br> +intend to keep it."</p> + +<p>So saying, she endeavored to draw it from her finger, but in +vain.</p> + +<p>"But why, Baby, why take it off? Is it to give him the +pleasure of putting<br> +it on again? There, don't look angry; we must not fall out, +surely."</p> + +<p>"No, Charley, if you are not vexed with me—if you are +not—"</p> + +<p>"No, no, my dear Baby; nothing of the kind. Sparks was quite +right in not<br> +trusting his entire fortune to my diplomacy; but at least, he +ought to have<br> +told me that he had opened the negotiation. Now, the question +simply is:<br> +Do you love him? or rather, because that shortens matters: Will +you accept<br> +him?"</p> + +<p>"Love who?"</p> + +<p>"Love whom? Why Sparks, to be sure!"</p> + +<p>A flash of indignant surprise passed across her features, now +pale as<br> +marble; her lips were slightly parted, her large full eyes were +fixed<br> +upon me steadfastly, and her hand, which I had held in mine, she +suddenly<br> +withdrew from my grasp.</p> + +<p>"And so—and so it is of Mr. Sparks's cause you are so +ardently the<br> +advocate?" she said at length, after a pause of most awkward +duration.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course, my dear cousin. It was at his suit and +solicitation I<br> +called on your father; it was he himself who entreated me to take +this<br> +step; it was he—"</p> + +<p>But before I could conclude, she burst into a torrent of tears +and rushed<br> +from the room.</p> + +<p>Here was a situation! What the deuce was the matter? Did she, +or did she<br> +not, care for him? Was her pride or her delicacy hurt at my being +made the<br> +means of the communication to her father? What had Sparks done or +said to<br> +put himself and me in such a devil of a predicament? Could she +care for any<br> +one else?</p> + +<p>"Well, Charley!" cried Mr. Blake, as he entered, rubbing his +hands in a<br> +perfect paroxysm of good temper,—"well, Charley, has love-making +driven<br> +breakfast out of your head?"</p> + +<p>"Why, faith, sir, I greatly fear I have blundered my mission +sadly. My<br> +cousin Mary does not appear so perfectly satisfied; her +manner—"</p> + +<p>"Don't tell me such nonsense. The girl's manner! Why, man, I +thought you<br> +were too old a soldier to be taken in that way."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, sir, the best thing, under the circumstances, is +to send over<br> +Sparks himself. Your consent, I may tell him, is already +obtained."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my boy; and my daughter's is equally sure. But I don't +see what we<br> +want with Sparks at all. Among old friends and relatives as we +are, there<br> +is, I think, no need of a stranger."</p> + +<p>"A stranger! Very true, sir, he is a stranger; but when that +stranger is<br> +about to become your son-in-law—"</p> + +<p>"About to become what?" said Mr. Blake, rubbing his +spectacles, and placing<br> +them leisurely on his nose to regard me,—"to become what?"</p> + +<p>"Your son-in-law. I hope I have been sufficiently explicit, +sir, in making<br> +known Mr. Sparks's wishes to you."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Sparks! Why damn me, sir—that is—I beg pardon for +the<br> +warmth—you—you never mentioned his name to-day till now. You +led me to<br> +suppose that—in fact, you told me most clearly—"</p> + +<p>Here, from the united effects of rage and a struggle for +concealment, Mr.<br> +Blake was unable to proceed, and walked the room with a +melodramatic stamp<br> +perfectly awful.</p> + +<p>"Really, sir," said I at last, "while I deeply regret any +misconception or<br> +mistake I have been the cause of, I must, in justice to myself, +say that<br> +I am perfectly unconscious of having misled you. I came here this +morning<br> +with a proposition for the hand of your daughter in behalf +of—"</p> + +<p>"Yourself, sir. Yes, yourself. I'll be—no! I'll not swear; +but—but just<br> +answer me, if you ever mentioned one word of Mr. Sparks, if you +ever<br> +alluded to him till the last few minutes?"</p> + +<p>I was perfectly astounded. It might be, alas, it was exactly +as he stated!<br> +In my unlucky effort at extreme delicacy, I became only so very +mysterious<br> +that I left the matter open for them to suppose that it might be +the Khan<br> +of Tartary was in love with Baby.</p> + +<p>There was but one course now open. I most humbly apologized +for my blunder;<br> +repeated by every expression I could summon up, my sorrow for +what had<br> +happened; and was beginning a renewal of negotiation "in re +Sparks," when,<br> +overcome by his passion, Mr. Blake could hear no more, but +snatched up his<br> +hat and left the room.</p> + +<p>Had it not been for Baby's share in the transaction I should +have laughed<br> +outright. As it was, I felt anything but mirthful; and the only +clear and<br> +collected idea in my mind was to hurry home with all speed, and +fasten a<br> +quarrel on Sparks, the innocent cause of the whole mishap. Why +this thought<br> +struck me let physiologists decide.</p> + +<p>A few moments' reflection satisfied me that under present +circumstances,<br> +it would be particularly awkward to meet with any others of the +family.<br> +Ardently desiring to secure my retreat, I succeeded, after some +little<br> +time, in opening the window-sash; consoling myself for any injury +I was<br> +about to inflict upon Mr. Blake's young plantation in my descent, +by the<br> +thought of the service I was rendering him while admitting a +little fresh<br> +air into his sanctum.</p> + +<p>For my patriotism's sake I will not record my sensations as I +took my way<br> +through the shrubbery towards the stable. Men are ever so prone +to revenge<br> +their faults and their follies upon such inoffensive agencies as +time and<br> +place, wind or weather, that I was quite convinced that to any +other but<br> +Galway ears my <i>exposé</i> would have been perfectly clear +and intelligible;<br> +and that in no other country under heaven would a man be expected +to marry<br> +a young lady from a blunder in his grammar.</p> + +<p>"Baby may be quite right," thought I; "but one thing is +assuredly true,—if<br> +I'll never do for Galway, Galway will never do for me. No, hang +it! I have<br> +endured enough for above two years. I have lived in banishment, +away from<br> +society, supposing that, at least, if I isolated myself from the +pleasures<br> +of the world I was exempt from its annoyances." But no; in the +seclusion of<br> +my remote abode troubles found their entrance as easily as +elsewhere, so<br> +that I determined at once to leave home; wherefor, I knew not. If +life had<br> +few charms, it had still fewer ties for me. If I was not bound by +the bonds<br> +of kindred, I was untrammelled by their restraints.</p> + +<p>The resolution once taken, I burned to put it into effect; and +so<br> +impatiently did I press forward as to call forth more than one +remonstrance<br> +on the part of Mike at the pace we were proceeding. As I neared +home, the<br> +shrill but stirring sounds of drum and fife met me; and shortly +after a<br> +crowd of country people filled the road. Supposing it some mere +recruiting<br> +party, I was endeavoring to press on, when the sounds of a full +military<br> +band, in the exhilarating measure of a quick-step, convinced me +of my<br> +error; and as I drew to one side of the road, the advanced guard +of an<br> +infantry regiment came forward. The men's faces were flushed, +their<br> +uniforms dusty and travel-stained, their knapsacks strapped +firmly on, and<br> +their gait the steady tramp of the march. Saluting the subaltern, +I asked<br> +if anything of consequence had occurred in the south that the +troops were<br> +so suddenly under orders. The officer stared at me for a moment +or two<br> +without speaking, and while a slight smile half-curled his lip, +answered:—</p> + +<p>"Apparently, sir, you seem very indifferent to military news, +otherwise you<br> +can scarcely be ignorant of the cause of our route."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary," said I, "I am, though a young man, an old +soldier, and<br> +feel most anxious about everything connected with the +service."</p> + +<p>"Then it is very strange, sir, you should not have heard the +news.<br> +Bonaparte has returned from Elba, has arrived at Paris, been +received with<br> +the most overwhelming enthusiasm, and at this moment the +preparations for<br> +war are resounding from Venice to the Vistula. All our forces, +disposable,<br> +are on the march for embarkation. Lord Wellington has taken the +command,<br> +and already, I may say, the campaign has begun."</p> + +<p>The tone of enthusiasm in which the young officer spoke, the +astounding<br> +intelligence itself, contrasting with the apathetic indolence of +my own<br> +life, made me blush deeply, as I, muttered some miserable apology +for my<br> +ignorance.</p> + +<p>"And you are now <i>en route?</i>"</p> + +<p>"For Fermoy; from which we march to Cove for embarkation. The +first<br> +battalion of our regiment sailed for the West Indies a week +since, but a<br> +frigate has been sent after them to bring them back; and we hope +all to<br> +meet in the Netherlands before the month is over. But I must beg +your<br> +pardon for saying adieu. Good-by, sir."</p> + +<p>"Good-by, sir; good-by," said I, as still standing in the +road, I was so<br> +overwhelmed with surprise that I could scarcely credit my +senses.</p> + +<p>A little farther on, I came up with the main body of the +regiment, from<br> +whom I learned the corroboration of the news, and also the +additional<br> +intelligence that Sparks had been ordered off with his detachment +early in<br> +the morning, a veteran battalion being sent into garrison in the +various<br> +towns of the south and west.</p> + +<p>"Do you happen to know a Mr. O'Malley, sir?" said the major, +coming up with<br> +a note in his hand.</p> + +<p>"I beg to present him to you," said I, bowing.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, Sparks gave me this note, which he wrote with a +pencil as we<br> +crossed each other on the road this morning. He told me you were +an old<br> +Fourteenth man. But your regiment is in India, I believe; at +least Power<br> +said they were under orders when we met him."</p> + +<p>"Fred Power! Are you acquainted with him? Where is he now, +pray?"</p> + +<p>"Fred is on the staff with General Vandeleur, and is now in +Belgium."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" said I, every moment increasing my surprise at some +new piece of<br> +intelligence. "And the Eighty-eighth?" said I, recurring to my +old friends<br> +in that regiment.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the Eighty-eighth are at Gibraltar, or somewhere in the +Mediterranean;<br> +at least, I know they are not near enough to open the present +campaign<br> +with us. But if you'd like to hear any more news, you must come +over to<br> +Borrisokane; we stop there to-night."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll certainly do so."</p> + +<p>"Come at six then, and dine with us."</p> + +<p>"Agreed," said I; "and now, good-morning."</p> + +<p>So saying, I once more drove on; my head full of all that I +had been<br> +hearing, and my heart bursting with eagerness to join the gallant +fellows<br> +now bound for the campaign.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER XLIX.</p> + +<p>BRUSSELS.</p> + +<p>I must not protract a tale already far too long, by the +recital of my<br> +acquaintance with the gallant Twenty-sixth. It is sufficient that +I should<br> +say that, having given Mike orders to follow me to Cove, I joined +the<br> +regiment on their march, and accompanied them to Cork. Every hour +of<br> +each day brought us in news of moment and importance; and amidst +all the<br> +stirring preparations for the war, the account of the splendid +spectacle<br> +of the <i>Champ de Mai</i> burst upon astonished Europe, and the +intelligence<br> +spread far and near that the enthusiasm of France never rose +higher in<br> +favor of the Emperor. And while the whole world prepared for the +deadly<br> +combat, Napoleon surpassed even himself, by the magnificent +conceptions for<br> +the coming conflict, and the stupendous nature of those plans by +which he<br> +resolved on resisting combined and united Europe.</p> + +<p>While our admiration and wonder of the mighty spirit that +ruled the<br> +destinies of the continent rose high, so did our own ardent and +burning<br> +desire for the day when the open field of fight should place us +once more<br> +in front of each other.</p> + +<p>Every hard-fought engagement of the Spanish war was thought of +and talked<br> +over; from Talavera to Toulouse, all was remembered. And while +among the<br> +old Peninsulars the military ardor was so universally displayed, +among the<br> +regiments who had not shared the glories of Spain and Portugal, +an equal,<br> +perhaps a greater, impulse was created for the approaching +campaign.</p> + +<p>When we arrived at Cork, the scene of bustle and excitement +exceeded<br> +anything I ever witnessed. Troops were mustering in every +quarter;<br> +regiments arriving and embarking; fresh bodies of men pouring in; +drills,<br> +parades, and inspections going forward; arms, ammunition, and +military<br> +stores distributing; and amidst all, a spirit of burning +enthusiasm<br> +animated every rank for the approaching glory of the newly-arisen +war.</p> + +<p>While thus each was full of his own hopes and expectations, I +alone felt<br> +depressed and downhearted. My military caste was lost to me +forever, my<br> +regiment many, many a mile from the scene of the coming strife; +though<br> +young, I felt like one already old and bygone. The last-joined +ensign<br> +seemed, in his glowing aspiration, a better soldier than I, as, +sad and<br> +dispirited, I wandered through the busy crowds, surveying with +curious eye<br> +each gallant horseman as he rode proudly past. What was wealth +and fortune<br> +to me? What had they ever been, compared with all they cost +me?—the<br> +abandonment of the career I loved, the path in life I sought and +panted<br> +for. Day after day I lingered on, watching with beating heart +each<br> +detachment as they left the shore; and when their parting cheer +rang high<br> +above the breeze, turned sadly back to mourn over a life that had +failed in<br> +its promise, and an existence now shorn of its enjoyment.</p> + +<p>It was on the evening of the 3d of June that I was slowly +wending my way<br> +back towards my hotel. Latterly I had refused all invitations to +dine<br> +at the mess. And by a strange spirit of contradiction, while I +avoided<br> +society, could yet not tear myself away from the spot where +every<br> +remembrance of my past life was daily embittered by the scenes +around me.<br> +But so it was; the movement of the troops, their reviews, their +arrivals,<br> +and departures, possessed the most thrilling interest for me. +While I could<br> +not endure to hear the mention of the high hopes and glorious +vows each<br> +brave fellow muttered.</p> + +<p>It was, as I remember, on the evening of the 3d of June, I +entered my hotel<br> +lower in spirits even than usual. The bugles of the gallant +Seventy-first,<br> +as they dropped down with the tide, played a well-known march I +had heard<br> +the night before Talavera. All my bold and hardy days came +rushing madly to<br> +my mind; and my present life seemed no longer endurable. The last +army<br> +list and the newspaper lay on my table, and I turned to read the +latest<br> +promotions with that feeling of bitterness by which an unhappy +man loves to<br> +tamper with his misery.</p> + +<p>Almost the first paragraph I threw my eyes upon ran +thus:—</p> + +<p> OSTEND, May 24.</p> + +<p> The "Vixen" sloop-of-war, which arrived at our port this +morning,<br> + brought among several other officers of inferior note<br> + Lieutenant-General Sir George Dashwood, appointed as<br> + Assistant-Adjutant-General<br> + on the staff of his Grace the Duke of Wellington. The +gallant<br> + general was accompanied by his lovely and accomplished +daughter,<br> + and his military secretary and aide-de-camp, Major +Hammersley,<br> + of the 2d Life Guards. They partook of a hurried +<i>déjeuné</i><br> + with the Burgomaster, and left immediately after for +Brussels.</p> + +<p>Twice I read this over, while a burning, hot sensation settled +upon my<br> +throat and temples. "So Hammersley still persists; he still +hopes. And<br> +what then?—what can it be to me?—my prospects have long since +faded and<br> +vanished! Doubtless, ere this, I am as much forgotten as though +we had<br> +never met,—would that we never had!" I threw up the window-sash; +a light<br> +breeze was gently stirring, and as it fanned my hot and bursting +head, I<br> +felt cooled and relieved. Some soldiers were talking beneath the +window and<br> +among them I recognized Mike's voice.</p> + +<p>"And so you sail at daybreak, Sergeant?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mister Free; we have our orders to be on board before +the flood-tide.<br> +The 'Thunderer' drops down the harbor to-night, and we are merely +here to<br> +collect our stragglers."</p> + +<p>"Faix, it's little I thought I'd ever envy a sodger any more; +but someway,<br> +I wish I was going with you."</p> + +<p>"Nothing easier, Mike," said another, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, true for you, but that's not the way I'd like to do it. +If my master,<br> +now, would just get over his low spirits, and spake a word to the +Duke of<br> +York, devil a doubt but he'd give him his commission back again, +and then<br> +one might go in comfort."</p> + +<p>"Your master likes his feather pillow better than a mossy +stone under his<br> +head, I'm thinking; and he ain't far wrong either."</p> + +<p>"You're out there, Neighbor. It's himself cares as little for +hardship as<br> +any one of you; and sure it's not becoming me to say it, but the +best blood<br> +and the best bred was always the last to give in for either cold +or hunger,<br> +ay, or even complain of it."</p> + +<p>Mike's few words shot upon me a new and a sudden +conviction,—what was to<br> +prevent my joining once more? Obvious as such a thought now was, +yet never<br> +until this moment did it present itself so palpably. So +habituated does<br> +the mind become to a certain train of reasoning, framing its +convictions<br> +according to one preconceived plan, and making every fact and<br> +every circumstance concur in strengthening what often may be but +a<br> +prejudice,—that the absence of the old Fourteenth in India, the +sale of<br> +my commission, the want of rank in the service, all seemed to +present an<br> +insurmountable barrier to my re-entering the army. A few chance +words now<br> +changed all this, and I saw that as a volunteer at least, the +path of glory<br> +was still open, and the thought was no sooner conceived, than the +resolve<br> +to execute it. While, therefore, I walked hurriedly up and down, +devising,<br> +planning, plotting, and contriving, each instant I would stop to +ask myself<br> +how it happened I had not determined upon this before.</p> + +<p>As I summoned Mike before me, I could not repress a feeling of +false shame,<br> +as I remembered how suddenly so natural a resolve must seem to +have<br> +been adopted; and it was with somewhat of hesitation that I +opened the<br> +conversation.</p> + +<p>"And so, sir, you are going after all,—long life to you? But +I never<br> +doubted it. Sure, you wouldn't be your father's son, and not join +divarsion<br> +when there was any going on."</p> + +<p>The poor fellow's eyes brightened up, his look gladdened, and +before he<br> +reached the foot of the stairs, I heard his loud cheer of delight +that once<br> +more we were off to the wars.</p> + +<p>The packet sailed for Liverpool the next morning. By it we +took our<br> +passage, and on the third morning I found myself in the +waiting-room at<br> +the Horse Guards, expecting the moment of his Royal Highness's +arrival; my<br> +determination being to serve as a volunteer in any regiment the +duke might<br> +suggest, until such time as a prospect presented itself of +entering the<br> +service as a subaltern.</p> + +<p>The room was crowded by officers of every rank and arm in the +service. The<br> +old, gray-headed general of division; the tall, stout-looking +captain of<br> +infantry; the thin and boyish figure of the newly-gazetted +cornet,—were<br> +all there; every accent, every look that marked each trait of +national<br> +distinction in the empire, had its representative. The reserved +and distant<br> +Scotchman; the gay, laughing, exuberant Patlander; the dark-eyed, +and<br> +dark-browed North Briton,—collected in groups, talked eagerly +together;<br> +while every instant, as some new arrival would enter, all eyes +would turn<br> +to the spot, in eager expectation of the duke's coming. At last +the clash<br> +of arms, as the guard turned out, apprised us of his approach, +and we<br> +had scarcely time to stand up and stop the buzz of voices, when +the door<br> +opened, and an aide-de-camp proclaimed in a full tone,—</p> + +<p>"His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief!"</p> + +<p>Bowing courteously on every side, he advanced through the +crowd, turning<br> +his rapid and piercing look here and there through the room, +while with<br> +that tact, the essential gift of his family, he recognized each +person by<br> +his name, directing from one to the other some passing +observation.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Sir George Cockburn, how d' ye do?—your son's +appointment is made<br> +out. Major Conyers, that application shall be looked to. Forbes, +you must<br> +explain that I cannot possibly put men in the regiment of their +choice; the<br> +service is the first thing. Lord L——, your memorial is before +the Prince<br> +Regent; the cavalry command will, I believe, however, include +your name."</p> + +<p>While he spoke thus, he approached the place where I was +standing, when,<br> +suddenly checking himself, he looked at me for a moment somewhat +sternly.<br> +"Why not in uniform, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Your Royal Highness, I am not in the army."</p> + +<p>"Not in the army—not in the army? And why, may I beg to know, +have<br> +you—But I'm speaking to <i>Captain</i> O'Malley, if I mistake +not?"</p> + +<p>"I held that rank, sir, once; but family necessities compelled +me to sell<br> +out. I have now no commission in the service, but am come to +beseech your<br> +Royal Highness's permission to serve as a volunteer."</p> + +<p>"As a volunteer, eh—a volunteer? Come, that's right, I like +that; but<br> +still, we want such fellows as you,—the man of Ciudad Rodrigo. +Yes, my<br> +Lord L——, this is one of the stormers; fought his way through +the trench<br> +among the first; must not be neglected. Hold yourself in +readiness,<br> +Captain—hang it, I was forgetting; Mr. O'Malley, I mean—hold +yourself<br> +in readiness for a staff appointment. Smithson, take a note of +this."<br> +So saying, he moved on; and I found myself in the street, with a +heart<br> +bounding with delight, and a step proud as an emperor's.</p> + +<p>With such rapidity the events of my life now followed one upon +the other,<br> +that I could take no note of time as it passed. On the fourth day +after<br> +my conversation with the duke I found myself in Brussels. As yet +I heard<br> +nothing of the appointment, nor was I gazetted to any regiment or +any<br> +situation on the staff. It was strange enough, too, I met but few +of my old<br> +associates, and not one of those with whom I had been most +intimate in my<br> +Peninsular career; but it so chanced that very many of the +regiments who<br> +most distinguished themselves in the Spanish campaigns, at the +peace of<br> +1814 were sent on foreign service. My old friend Power was, I +learned,<br> +quartered at Courtrai; and as I was perfectly at liberty to +dispose of my<br> +movements at present, I resolved to visit him there.</p> + +<p>It was a beautiful evening on the 12th of June. I had been +inquiring<br> +concerning post-horses for my journey, and was returning slowly +through<br> +the park. The hour was late—near midnight—but a pale moonlight, +a calm,<br> +unruffled air, and stronger inducements still, the song of the +nightingales<br> +that abound in this place, prevailed on many of the loungers to +prolong<br> +their stay; and so from many a shady walk and tangled arbor, the +clank of<br> +a sabre would strike upon the ear, or the low, soft voice of +woman would<br> +mingle her dulcet sound with the deep tones of her companion. I +wandered<br> +on, thoughtful and alone; my mind pre-occupied so completely with +the<br> +mighty events passing before me, I totally forgot my own humble +career, and<br> +the circumstances of my fortune. As I turned into an alley which +leads from<br> +the Great Walk towards the Palace of the Prince of Orange, I +found my path<br> +obstructed by three persons who were walking slowly along in +front of me.<br> +I was, as I have mentioned, deeply absorbed in thought, so that I +found<br> +myself close behind them before I was aware of their presence. +Two of the<br> +party were in uniform, and by their plumes, upon which a passing +ray of<br> +moonlight flickered, I could detect they were general officers; +the<br> +third was a lady. Unable to pass them, and unwilling to turn +back, I<br> +was unavoidably compelled to follow, and however unwilling, to +overhear<br> +somewhat of their conversation.</p> + +<p>"You mistake, George, you mistake! Depend upon it, this will +be no<br> +lengthened campaign; victory will soon decide for one side or the +other.<br> +If Napoleon beats the Prussians one day, and beat us the next, +the German<br> +States will rally to his standard, and the old confederation of +the Rhine<br> +will spring up once more in all the plenitude of its power. The +<i>Champ de<br> +Mai</i> has shown the enthusiasm of France for their Emperor. Louis +XVIII fled<br> +from his capital, with few to follow, and none to say, 'God bless +him!' The<br> +warlike spirit of the nation is roused again; the interval of +peace, too<br> +short to teach habits of patient and enduring industry, is yet +sufficient<br> +to whet the appetite for carnage; and nothing was wanting, save +the<br> +presence of Napoleon alone, to restore all the brilliant +delusions and<br> +intoxicating splendors of the empire."</p> + +<p>"I confess," said the other, "I take a very different view +from yours in<br> +this matter; to me, it seems that France is as tired of battles +as of the<br> +Bourbons—"</p> + +<p>I heard no more; for though the speaker continued, a misty +confusion passed<br> +across my mind. The tones of his voice, well-remembered as they +were by me,<br> +left me unable to think; and as I stood motionless on the spot, I +muttered<br> +half aloud, "Sir George Dashwood." It was he, indeed; and she who +leaned<br> +upon his arm could be no other than Lucy herself. I know not how +it was;<br> +for many a long month I had schooled my heart, and taught myself +to believe<br> +that time had dulled the deep impression she had made upon me, +and that,<br> +were we to meet again, it would be with more sorrow on my part +for my<br> +broken dream of happiness than of attachment and affection for +her who<br> +inspired it; but now, scarcely was I near her—I had not gazed +upon her<br> +looks, I had not even heard her voice—and yet, in all their +ancient force,<br> +came back the early passages of my love; and as her footfall +sounded gently<br> +upon the ground, my heart beat scarce less audibly. Alas, I could +no<br> +longer disguise from myself the avowal that she it was, and she +only, who<br> +implanted in my heart the thirst for distinction; and the moment +was ever<br> +present to my mind in which, as she threw her arms around her +father's<br> +neck, she muttered, "Oh, why not a soldier!"</p> + +<p>As I thus reflected, an officer in full dress passed me +hurriedly,<br> +and taking off his hat as he came up with the party before me, +bowed<br> +obsequiously.</p> + +<p>"My Lord ——, I believe, and Sir George Dashwood?" They +replied by a<br> +bow. "Sir Thomas Picton wishes to speak with you both for a +moment; he is<br> +standing beside the 'Basin.' If you will permit—" said he, +looking towards<br> +Lucy.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," said Sir George; "if you will have the +goodness to<br> +accompany us, my daughter will wait our coming here. Sit down, +Lucy, we<br> +shall not be long away."</p> + +<p>The next moment she was alone. The last echoes of their +retiring footsteps<br> +had died away in the grassy walk, and in the calm and death-like +stillness<br> +I could hear every rustle of her silk dress. The moonlight fell +in<br> +fitful, straggling gleams between the leafy branches, and showed +me her<br> +countenance, pale as marble. Her eyes were upturned slightly; her +brown<br> +hair, divided upon her fair forehead, sparkled with a wreath of +brilliants,<br> +which heightened the lustrous effect of her calm beauty; and now +I could<br> +perceive her dress bespoke that she had been at some of the +splendid<br> +entertainments which followed day after day in the busy +capital.</p> + +<p>Thus I stood within a few paces of <i>her</i>, to be near to whom, +a few hours<br> +before, I would willingly have given all I possessed in the +world; and yet<br> +now a barrier, far more insurmountable than time and space, +intervened<br> +between us; still it seemed as though fortune had presented this +incident<br> +as a last farewell between us. Why should I not take advantage of +it? Why<br> +should I not seize the only opportunity that might ever occur of +rescuing<br> +myself from the apparent load of ingratitude which weighed on my +memory?<br> +I felt in the cold despair of my heart that I could have no hold +upon her<br> +affection; but a pride, scarce less strong that the attachment +that gave<br> +rise to it, urged me to speak. By one violent effort I summoned +up my<br> +courage; and while I resolved to limit the few words I should say +merely<br> +to my vindication, I prepared to advance. Just at this instant, +however, a<br> +shadow crossed the path; a rustling sound was heard among the +branches, and<br> +the tall figure of a man in a dragoon cloak stood before me. Lucy +turned<br> +suddenly at the sound; but scarcely had her eyes been bent in +the<br> +direction, when, throwing off his cloak, he sprang forward and +dropped at<br> +her feet. All my feeling of shame at the part I was performing +was now<br> +succeeded by a sense of savage and revengeful hatred. It was +enough that<br> +I should be brought to look upon her whom I had lost forever +without the<br> +added bitterness of witnessing her preference for a rival. The +whirlwind<br> +passion of my brain stunned and stupefied me. Unconsciously I +drew my sword<br> +from my scabbard, and it was only as the pale light fell upon the +keen<br> +blade that the thought flashed across me, "What could I mean to +do?"</p> + +<p>"No, Hammersley,"—it was he indeed,—said she, "it is unkind, +it is<br> +unfair, nay, it is unmanly to press me thus; I would not pain +you, were<br> +it not that, in sparing you now, I should entail deeper injury +upon you<br> +hereafter. Ask me to be your sister, your friend; ask me to feel +proudly<br> +in your triumphs, to glory in your success; all this I do feel; +but, oh! I<br> +beseech you, as you value your happiness, as you prize mine, ask +me no more<br> +than this."</p> + +<p>There was a pause of some seconds; and at length, the low +tones of a man's<br> +voice, broken and uncertain in their utterance, said,—</p> + +<p>"I know it—I feel it—my heart never bade me hope—and +now—'tis over."</p> + +<p>He stood up as he spoke, and while he threw the light folds of +his mantle<br> +round him, a gleam of light fell upon his features. They were +pale as<br> +death; two dark circles surrounded his sunken eyes, and his +bloodless lip<br> +looked still more ghastly, from the dark mustache that drooped +above it.</p> + +<p>"Farewell!" said he, slowly, as he crossed his arms sadly upon +his breast;<br> +"I will not pain you more."</p> + +<p>"Oh, go not thus from me!" said she, as her voice became +tremulous with<br> +emotion; "do not add to the sorrow that weighs upon my heart! I +cannot,<br> +indeed I cannot, be other than I am; and I do but hate myself to +think that<br> +I cannot give my love where I have given all my esteem. If +time—" But<br> +before she could continue further, the noise of approaching +footsteps was<br> +heard, and the voice of Sir George, as he came near. Hammersley +disappeared<br> +at once, and Lucy, with rapid steps, advanced to meet her father, +while I<br> +remained riveted upon the spot. What a torrent of emotions then +rushed upon<br> +my heart! What hopes, long dead or dying, sprang up to life +again! What<br> +visions of long-abandoned happiness flitted before me! Could it +be<br> +then—dare I trust myself to think it—that Lucy cared for me? +The thought<br> +was maddening! With a bounding sense of ecstasy, I dashed across +the park,<br> +resolving, at all hazards, to risk everything upon the chance, +and wait<br> +the next morning upon Sir George Dashwood. As I thought thus, I +reached my<br> +hotel, where I found Mike in waiting with a letter. As I walked +towards the<br> +lamp in the <i>porte cochere</i>, my eyes fell upon the address. It +was General<br> +Dashwood's hand; I tore it open, and read as follows:—</p> + +<p> Dear Sir,—Circumstances into which you will excuse me +entering,<br> + having placed an insurmountable barrier to our former terms +of<br> + intimacy, you will, I trust, excuse me declining the honor of +any<br> + nearer acquaintance, and also forgive the liberty I take in +informing<br> + you of it, which step, however unpleasant to my feelings, +will save<br> + us both the great pain of meeting.</p> + +<p> I have only this moment heard of your arrival in Brussels, +and<br> + take thus the earliest opportunity of communicating with +you.<br> + With every assurance of my respect for you personally, and +an<br> + earnest desire to serve you in your military career, I beg to +remain,</p> + +<p> Very faithfully yours,</p> + +<p> GEORGE DASHWOOD</p> + +<p>"Another note, sir," said Mike, as he thrust into my +unconscious hands a<br> +letter he had just received from an orderly.</p> + +<p>Stunned, half stupefied, I broke the seal. The contents were +but three<br> +lines:—</p> + +<p> Sir,—I have the honor to inform you that Sir Thomas +Picton has<br> + appointed you an extra aide-de-camp on his personal staff. +You will,<br> + therefore, present yourself to-morrow morning at the +Adjutant-General's<br> + office, to receive your appointment and instructions.<br> + I have the honor to be, etc.,</p> + +<p> G. FITZROY.</p> + +<p>Crushing the two letters in my fevered hand, I retired to my +room, and<br> +threw myself, dressed as I was, upon my bed. Sleep, that seems to +visit us<br> +in the saddest as in the happiest times of our existence, came +over me,<br> +and I did not wake until the bugles of the Ninety-fifth were +sounding the<br> +reveille through the park, and the brightest beams of the morning +sun were<br> +peering through the window.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER L.</p> + +<p>AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE.</p> + +<p>"Mr. O'Malley," said a voice, as my door opened, and an +officer in undress<br> +entered,—"Mr. O'Malley, I believe you received your appointment +last night<br> +on General Picton's staff?"</p> + +<p>I bowed in reply, as he resumed:—</p> + +<p>"Sir Thomas desires you will proceed to Courtrai with these +despatches in<br> +all haste. I don't know if you are well mounted, but I recommend +you, in<br> +any case, not to spare your cattle."</p> + +<p>So saying, he wished me a good-morning, and left me, in a +state of no small<br> +doubt and difficulty, to my own reflections. What the deuce was I +to do?<br> +I had no horse; I knew not where to find one. What uniform should +I wear?<br> +For, although appointed on the staff, I was not gazetted to any +regiment<br> +that I knew of, and hitherto had been wearing an undress frock +and a<br> +foraging cap; for I could not bring myself to appear as a +civilian among<br> +so many military acquaintances. No time was, however, to be lost; +so I<br> +proceeded to put on my old Fourteenth uniform, wondering whether +my costume<br> +might not cost me a reprimand in the very outset of my career. +Meanwhile<br> +I despatched Mike to see after a horse, caring little for the +time, the<br> +merits, or the price of the animal provided he served my present +purpose.</p> + +<p>In less than twenty minutes my worthy follower appeared +beneath my window,<br> +surrounded by a considerable mob, who seemed to take no small +interest in<br> +the proceedings.</p> + +<p>"What the deuce is the matter?" cried I, as I opened the sash +and looked<br> +out.</p> + +<p>"Mighty little's the matter, your honor; it's the savages, +here,<br> +that's admiring my horsemanship," said Mike, as he belabored a +tall,<br> +scraggy-looking mule with a stick which bore an uncommon +resemblance to a<br> +broom-handle.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean to do with that beast?" said I. "You surely +don't expect<br> +me to ride a mule to Courtrai?"</p> + +<p>"Faith, and if you don't, you are likely to walk the journey; +for there<br> +isn't a horse to be had for love or money in the town; but I am +told that<br> +Mr. Marsden is coming up to-morrow with plenty, so that you may +as well<br> +take the journey out of the soft horns as spoil a better; and if +he only<br> +makes as good use of his fore-legs as he does of his hind ones, +he'll think<br> +little of the road."</p> + +<a name="0410"></a> +<img alt="0410.jpg (191K)" src="0410.jpg" height="656" width="808"> + +<p>[MICKEY ASTONISHES THE NATIVES.]</p> +<br><br> + +<p>A vicious lash out behind served in a moment to corroborate +Mike's<br> +assertion, and to scatter the crowd on every side.</p> + +<p>However indisposed to exhibit myself with such a turn-out, my +time did not<br> +admit of any delay; and so, arming myself with my despatches, and +having<br> +procured the necessary information as to the road, I set out from +the Belle<br> +Vue, amidst an ill-suppressed titter of merriment from the mob, +which<br> +nothing but fear of Mike and his broomstick prevented becoming a +regular<br> +shout of laughter.</p> + +<p>It was near night-fall as, tired and weary of the road, I +entered the<br> +little village of Halle. All was silent and noiseless in the +deserted<br> +streets; nor a lamp threw its glare upon the pavement, nor even a +solitary<br> +candle flickered through the casement. Unlike a town, garrisoned +by troops,<br> +neither sentry nor outpost was to be met with; nothing gave +evidence that<br> +the place was held by a large body of men; and I could not help +feeling<br> +struck, as the footsteps of my mule were echoed along the +causeway, with<br> +the silence almost of desolation around me. By the creaking of a +sign, as<br> +it swung mournfully to and fro, I was directed to the door of the +village<br> +inn, where, dismounting, I knocked for some moments, but without +success.<br> +At length, when I had made an uproar sufficient to alarm the +entire<br> +village, the casement above the door slowly opened, and a head +enveloped<br> +in a huge cotton nightcap—so, at least, it appeared to me from +the<br> +size—protruded itself. After muttering a curse in about the most +barbarous<br> +French I ever heard, he asked me what I wanted there; to which I +replied,<br> +most nationally, by asking in return, where the British dragoons +were<br> +quartered.</p> + +<p>"They have left for Nivelle this morning, to join some +regiments of your<br> +own country."</p> + +<p>"Ah! ah!" thought I, "he mistakes me for a Brunswicker;" to +which, by<br> +the uncertain light, my uniform gave me some resemblance. As it +was now<br> +impossible for me to proceed farther, I begged to ask where I +could procure<br> +accommodation for the night.</p> + +<p>"At the burgomaster's. Turn to your left at the end of this +street, and<br> +you will soon find it. They have got some English officers there, +who, I<br> +believe in my soul, never sleep."</p> + +<p>This was, at least, pleasant intelligence, and promised a +better<br> +termination to my journey than I had begun to hope for; so +wishing my<br> +friend a good-night, to which he willingly responded, I resumed +my way<br> +down the street. As he closed the window, once more leaving me to +my own<br> +reflections, I began to wonder within myself to what arm of the +service<br> +belonged these officers to whose convivial gifts he bore +testimony. As I<br> +turned the corner of the street, I soon discovered the +correctness of his<br> +information. A broad glare of light stretched across the entire +pavement<br> +from a large house with a clumsy stone portico before it. On +coming nearer,<br> +the sound of voices, the roar of laughter, the shouts of +merriment that<br> +issued forth, plainly bespoke that a jovial party were seated +within.<br> +The half-shutter which closed the lower part of the windows +prevented my<br> +obtaining a view of the proceedings; but having cautiously +approached the<br> +casement, I managed to creep on the window-sill and look into the +room.</p> + +<a name="0412"></a> +<img alt="0412.jpg (154K)" src="0412.jpg" height="1043" width="672"> + +<p>[THE GENTLEMEN WHO NEVER SLEEP.]</p> +<br><br> + +<p>There the scene was certainly a curious one. Around a large +table sat a<br> +party of some twenty persons, the singularity of whose appearance +may<br> +be conjectured when I mention that all those who appeared to be +British<br> +officers were dressed in the robes of the <i>échevins</i> (or +aldermen) of the<br> +village; while some others, whose looks bespoke them as sturdy +Flemings,<br> +sported the cocked hats and cavalry helmets of their associates. +He who<br> +appeared the ruler of the feast sat with his back towards me, and +wore, in<br> +addition to the dress of burgomaster, a herald's tabard, which +gave him<br> +something the air of a grotesque screen at its potations. A huge +fire<br> +blazed upon the ample hearth, before which were spread several +staff<br> +uniforms, whose drabbled and soaked appearance denoted the reason +of the<br> +party's change of habiliments. Every imaginable species of +drinking-vessel<br> +figured upon the board, from the rich flagon of chased silver to +the humble<br> +<i>cruche</i> we see in a Teniers picture. As well as I could hear, +the language<br> +of the company seemed to be French, or, at least, such an +imitation of that<br> +language as served as a species of neutral territory for both +parties to<br> +meet in.</p> + +<p>He of the tabard spoke louder than the others, and although, +from the<br> +execrable endeavors he made to express himself in French, his +natural voice<br> +was much altered, there was yet something in his accents which +seemed<br> +perfectly familiar to me.</p> + +<p>"Mosheer l'Abbey," said he, placing his arm familiarly on the +shoulder of<br> +a portly personage, whose shaven crown strangely contrasted with +a pair<br> +of corked moustachios,—"Mosheer l'Abbey, nous sommes +frères, et moi,<br> +savez-vous, suis évèque,—'pon my life it's true; I +might have been Bishop<br> +of Saragossa, if I only consented to leave the Twenty-third. Je +suis bong<br> +Catholique. Lord bless you, if you saw how I loved the nunneries +in Spain!<br> +J'ai tres jolly souvenirs of those nunneries; a goodly company of +little<br> +silver saints; and this waistcoat you see—mong gilet—was a +satin<br> +petticoat of our Lady of Loretto."</p> + +<p>Need I say, that before this speech was concluded, I had +recognized in the<br> +speaker nobody but that inveterate old villain, Monsoon +himself.</p> + +<p>"Permettez, votre Excellence," said a hale, jolly-looking +personage on his<br> +left, as he filled the major's goblet with obsequious +politeness.</p> + +<p>"Bong engfong," replied Monsoon, tapping him familiarly on the +head.<br> +"Burgomaster, you are a trump; and when I get my promotion, I'll +make<br> +you prefect in a wine district. Pass the lush, and don't look +sleepy!<br> +'Drowsiness,' says Solomon, 'clothes a man in rags;' and no man +knew the<br> +world better than Solomon. Don't you be laughing, you raw boys. +Never mind<br> +them, Abbey; ils sont petits garçongs—fags from Eton and +Harrow; better<br> +judges of mutton broth than sherry negus."</p> + +<p>"I say, Major, you are forgetting this song you promised +us."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," said several voices together; "the song, Major! +the song!"</p> + +<p>"Time enough for that; we're doing very well as it is. Upon my +life,<br> +though, they hold a deal of wine. I thought we'd have had them +fit to<br> +bargain with before ten, and see, it's near midnight; and I must +have my<br> +forage accounts ready for the commissary-general by to-morrow +morning."</p> + +<p>This speech having informed me the reason of the Major's +presence there,<br> +I resolved to wait no longer a mere spectator of their +proceedings; so<br> +dismounting from my position, I commenced a vigorous attack upon +the door.</p> + +<p>It was some time before I was heard; but at length the door +was opened, and<br> +I was accosted by an Englishman, who, in a strange compound of +French and<br> +English, asked, "What the devil I meant by all that uproar?" +Determining<br> +to startle my old friend the major, I replied, that "I was +aide-de-camp to<br> +General Picton, and had come down on very unpleasant business." +By this<br> +time the noise of the party within had completely subsided, and +from a few<br> +whispered sentences, and their thickened breathing, I perceived +that they<br> +were listening.</p> + +<p>"May I ask, sir," continued I, "if Major Monsoon is here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," stammered out the ensign, for such he was.</p> + +<p>"Sorry for it, for his sake," said I; "but my orders are +peremptory."</p> + +<p>A deep groan from within, and a muttered request to pass down +the sherry,<br> +nearly overcame my gravity; but I resumed:—</p> + +<p>"If you will permit me, I will make the affair as short as +possible. The<br> +major, I presume, is here?"</p> + +<p>So saying, I pushed forward into the room, where now a slight +scuffling<br> +noise and murmur of voices had succeeded silence. Brief as was +the<br> +interval of our colloquy, the scene within had, notwithstanding, +undergone<br> +considerable change. The English officers, hastily throwing off +their<br> +aldermanic robes, were busily arraying themselves in their +uniforms, while<br> +Monsoon himself, with a huge basin of water before him, was +endeavoring to<br> +wash the cork from his countenance in the corner of his +tabard.</p> + +<p>"Very hard upon me, all this; upon my life, so it is! Picton +is always at<br> +me, just as if we had not been school-fellows. The service is +getting worse<br> +every day. Regardez-moi, Curey, mong face est propre? Eh? There, +thank you.<br> +Good fellow the Curey is, but takes a deal of fluid. Oh, +Burgomaster! I<br> +fear it is all up with me! No more fun, no more jollification, no +more<br> +plunder—and how I did do it. Nothing like watching one's little +chances!<br> +'The poor is hated even by his neighbor.' Oui, Curey, it is +Solomon says<br> +that, and they must have had a heavy poor-rate in his day to make +him say<br> +so. Another glass of sherry!"</p> + +<p>By this time I approached the back of the chair, and slapping +him heartily<br> +on the shoulder, called out,—</p> + +<p>"Major, old boy, how goes it?"</p> + +<p>"Eh?—what—how!—who is this? It can't be—egad, sure it is, +though.<br> +Charley! Charley O'Malley, you scapegrace, where have you been? +When did<br> +you join?"</p> + +<p>"A week ago, Major. I could resist it no longer. I did my best +to be a<br> +country gentleman, and behave respectably, but the old temptation +was too<br> +strong for me. Fred Power and yourself, Major, had ruined my +education; and<br> +here I am once more among you."</p> + +<p>"And so Picton and the arrest and all that, was nothing but a +joke?" said<br> +the old fellow, rolling his wicked eyes with a most cunning +expression.</p> + +<p>"Nothing more, Major, set your heart at rest."</p> + +<p>"What a scamp you are," said he, with another grin. "Il est +mon fils—il<br> +est mon fils, Curey," presenting me, as he spoke, while the +burgomaster, in<br> +whose eyes the major seemed no inconsiderable personage, saluted +me with<br> +profound respect.</p> + +<p>Turning at once towards this functionary, I explained that I +was the<br> +bearer of important despatches, and that my horse—I was ashamed +to say my<br> +mule—having fallen lame, I was unable to proceed.</p> + +<p>"Can you procure me a remount, Monsieur?" said I, "for I must +hasten on to<br> +Courtrai."</p> + +<p>"In half an hour you shall be provided, as well as with a +mounted guide for<br> +the road. Le fils de son Excellence," said he, with emphasis, +bowing to the<br> +major as he spoke; who, in his turn, repaid the courtesy with a +still lower<br> +obeisance.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Charley; here is a clean glass. I am delighted to +see you, my<br> +boy! They tell me you have got a capital estate and plenty of +ready. Lord,<br> +we so wanted you, as there's scarcely a fellow with sixpence +among us. Give<br> +me the lad that can do a bit of paper at three months, and always +be ready<br> +for a renewal. You haven't got a twenty-pound note?" This was +said <i>sotto<br> +voce</i>. "Never mind; ten will do. You can give me the remainder at +Brussels.<br> +Strange, is it not, I have not seen a bit of clean bank paper +like this for<br> +above a twelvemonth!" This was said as he thrust his hand into +his pocket,<br> +with one of those peculiar leers upon his countenance which, +unfortunately,<br> +betrayed more satisfaction at his success than gratitude for the +service.<br> +"You are looking fat—too fat, I think," said he, scrutinizing me +from head<br> +to foot; "but the life we are leading just now will soon take +that off. The<br> +slave-trade is luxurious indolence compared to it. Post haste to +Nivelle<br> +one day; down to Ghent the next; forty miles over a paved road in +a<br> +hand-gallop, and an aide-de-camp with a watch in his hand at the +end of it,<br> +to report if you are ten minutes too late. And there is +Wellington has his<br> +eye everywhere. There is not a truss of hay served to the +cavalry, nor a<br> +pair of shoes half-soled in the regiment, that he don't know of +it. I've<br> +got it over the knuckles already."</p> + +<p>"How so, Major? How was that?"</p> + +<p>"Why, he ordered me to picket two squadrons of the Seventh, +and a supper<br> +was waiting. I didn't like to leave my quarters, so I took up my +telescope<br> +and pitched upon a sweet little spot of ground on a hill; rather +difficult<br> +to get up, to be sure, but a beautiful view when you're on it. +'There is<br> +your ground, Captain,' said I, as I sent one of my people to mark +the spot.<br> +He did not like it much; however, he was obliged to go. And, +would you<br> +believe it?—so much for bad luck!—there turned out to be no +water within<br> +two miles of it—not a drop, Charley; and so, about eleven at +night, the<br> +two squadrons moved down into Grammont to wet their lips, and +what is<br> +worse, to report me to the commanding officer. And only think! +They put me<br> +under arrest because Providence did not make a river run up a +mountain!"</p> + +<p>Just as the major finished speaking, the distant clatter of +horses' feet<br> +and the clank of cavalry was heard approaching. We all rushed +eagerly to<br> +the door; and scarcely had we done so, when a squadron of +dragoons came<br> +riding up the street at a fast trot.</p> + +<p>"I say, good people," cried the officer, in French, "where +does the<br> +burgomaster live here?"</p> + +<p>"Fred Power, 'pon my life!" shouted the major.</p> + +<p>"Eh, Monsoon, that you? Give me a tumbler of wine, old boy; +you are sure to<br> +have some, and I am desperately blown."</p> + +<p>"Get down, Fred, get down! We have an old friend here."</p> + +<p>"Who the deuce d'ye mean?" said he, as throwing himself from +the saddle he<br> +strode into the room. "Charley O'Malley, by all that's +glorious!"</p> + +<p>"Fred, my gallant fellow!" said I.</p> + +<p>"It was but this morning, Charley, that I so wished for you +here. The<br> +French are advancing, my lad. They have crossed the frontier; +Zeithen's<br> +corps have been attacked and driven in; Blucher is falling back +upon Ligny;<br> +and the campaign is opened. But I must press forward. The +regiment is close<br> +behind me, and we are ordered to push for Brussels in all +haste."</p> + +<p>"Then these despatches," said I, showing my packet, "'tis +unnecessary to<br> +proceed with?"</p> + +<p>"Quite so. Get into the saddle and come back with us."</p> + +<p>The burgomaster had kept his word with me; so mounted upon a +strong<br> +hackney, I set out with Power on the road to Brussels. I have had +occasion<br> +more than once to ask pardon of my reader for the prolixity of +my<br> +narrative, so I shall not trespass on him here by the detail of +our<br> +conversation as we jogged along. Of me and my adventures he +already knows<br> +enough—perhaps too much. My friend Power's career, abounding as +it did in<br> +striking incidents, and all the light and shadow of a soldier's +life,<br> +yet not bearing upon any of the characters I have presented to +your<br> +acquaintance, except in one instance,—of that only shall I +speak.</p> + +<p>"And the senhora, Fred; how goes your fortune in that +quarter?"</p> + +<p>"Gloriously, Charley! I am every day expecting the promotion +in my regiment<br> +which is to make her mine."</p> + +<p>"You have heard from her lately, then?"</p> + +<p>"Heard from her! Why, man, she is in Brussels."</p> + +<p>"In Brussels?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure. Don Emanuel is in high favor with the duke, and +is now<br> +commissary-general with the army; and the senhora is the <i>belle</i> +of the<br> +Rue Royale, or at least, it's a divided sovereignty between her +and Lucy<br> +Dashwood. And now, Charley, let me ask, what of her? There, +there, don't<br> +blush, man. There is quite enough moonlight to show how tender +you are in<br> +that quarter."</p> + +<p>"Once for all, Fred, pray spare me on that subject. You have +been far too<br> +fortunate in your <i>affaire de coeur</i>, and I too much the reverse, +to permit<br> +much sympathy between us."</p> + +<p>"Do you not visit, then; or is it a cut between you?" "I have +never met her<br> +since the night of the masquerade of the villa—at least, to +speak to—"</p> + +<p>"Well, I must confess, you seem to manage your own affairs +much worse than<br> +your friends'; not but that in so doing you are exhibiting a very +Irish<br> +feature of your character. In any case, you will come to the +ball? Inez<br> +will be delighted to see you; and I have got over all my +jealousy."</p> + +<p>"What ball? I never heard of it."</p> + +<p>"Never heard of it! Why, the Duchess of Richmond's, of course. +Pooh, pooh,<br> +man! Not invited?—of course you are invited; the staff are never +left out<br> +on such occasions. You will find your card at your hotel on your +return."</p> + +<p>"In any case, Fred—"</p> + +<p>"I shall insist upon your going. I have no <i>arrière +pensée</i> about a<br> +reconciliation with the Dashwoods, no subtle scheme, on my honor; +but<br> +simply I feel that you will never give yourself fair chances in +the world,<br> +by indulging your habit of shrinking from every embarrassment. +Don't be<br> +offended, boy. I know you have pluck enough to storm a battery; I +have seen<br> +you under fire before now. What avails your courage in the field, +if you<br> +have not presence of mind in the drawing-room? Besides, +everything else out<br> +of the question, it is a breach of etiquette towards your chief +to decline<br> +such an invitation."</p> + +<p>"You think so?"</p> + +<p>"Think so?—no; I am sure of it."</p> + +<p>"Then, as to uniform, Fred?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, as to that, easily managed. And now I think of it, they +have sent me<br> +an unattached uniform, which you can have; but remember, my boy, +if I put<br> +you in my coat, I don't want you to stand in my shoes. Don't +forget also<br> +that I am your debtor in horseflesh, and fortunately able to +repay you. I<br> +have got such a charger; your own favorite color, dark chestnut, +and<br> +except one white leg, not a spot about him; can carry sixteen +stone over a<br> +five-foot fence, and as steady as a rock under fire."</p> + +<p>"But, Fred, how are you—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind me; I have six in my stable, and intend to +share with you.<br> +The fact is, I have been transferred from one staff to another +for the last<br> +six months, and four of my number are presents. Is Mike with you? +Ah, glad<br> +to hear it; you will never get on without that fellow. Besides, +it is a<br> +capital thing to have such a connecting link with one's +nationality. No<br> +fear of your ever forgetting Ireland with Mr. Free in your +company. You<br> +are not aware that we have been correspondents. A fact, I assure +you. Mike<br> +wrote me two letters; and such letters they were! The last was a +Jeremiad<br> +over your decline and fall, with a very ominous picture of a +certain Miss<br> +Baby Blake."</p> + +<p>"Confound the rascal!"</p> + +<p>"By Jove, though, Charley, you were coming it rather strong +with Baby. Inez<br> +saw the letter, and as well as she could decipher Mike's +hieroglyphics, saw<br> +there was something in it; but the name Baby puzzled her +immensely, and she<br> +set the whole thing down to your great love of children. I don't +think that<br> +Lucy quite agreed with her."</p> + +<p>"Did she tell it to Miss Dashwood?" I inquired, with fear and +trembling.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that she did; in fact, Inez never ceases talking of you +to Lucy. But<br> +come, lad, don't look so grave. Let's have another brush with the +enemy;<br> +capture a battery of their guns; carry off a French marshal or +two; get the<br> +Bath for your services, and be thanked in general orders,—and I +will wager<br> +all my <i>château en Espagne</i> that everything goes well."</p> + +<p>Thus chatting away, sometimes over the past, of our former +friends and<br> +gay companions, of our days of storm and sunshine; sometimes +indulging in<br> +prospects for the future, we trotted along, and as the day was +breaking,<br> +mounted the ridge of low hills, from whence, at the distance of a +couple of<br> +leagues, the city of Brussels came into view.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER LI.</p> + +<p>THE DUCHESS OF RICHMOND'S BALL.</p> + +<p>Whether we regard the illustrious and distinguished personages +who thronged<br> +around, or we think of the portentous moment in which it was +given, the<br> +Duchess of Richmond's ball, on the night of the 15th of June, +1815, was not<br> +only one of the most memorable, but, in its interest, the most +exciting<br> +entertainment that the memory of any one now living can +compass.</p> + +<p>There is always something of no common interest in seeing the +bronzed and<br> +war-worn soldier mixing in the crowd of light-hearted and +brilliant<br> +beauty. To watch the eye whose proud glance has flashed over the +mail-clad<br> +squadrons now bending meekly beneath the look of some timid girl; +to hear<br> +the voice that, high above the battle or the breeze, has shouted +the<br> +hoarse word "Charge!" now subdued into the low, soft murmur of +flattery or<br> +compliment. This, at any rate, is a picture full of its own +charm; but when<br> +we see these heroes of a hundred fights; when we look upon these +hardy<br> +veterans, upon whose worn brows the whitened locks of time are +telling,<br> +indulging themselves in the careless gayety of a moment, snatched +as it<br> +were from the arduous career of their existence, while the tramp +of the<br> +advancing enemy shakes the very soil they stand on, and where it +may be<br> +doubted whether each aide-de-camp who enters comes a new votary +of pleasure<br> +or the bearer of tidings that the troops of the foe are +advancing, and<br> +already the work of death has begun: this is, indeed, a scene to +make the<br> +heart throb, and the pulse beat high; this is a moment second in +its proud<br> +excitement only to the very crash and din of battle itself. And +into this<br> +entrancing whirlwind of passion and of pleasure, of brilliant +beauty<br> +and ennobled greatness, of all that is lovely in woman and all +that is<br> +chivalrous and heroic in man, I brought a heart which, young in +years, was<br> +yet tempered by disappointment; still, such was the fascination, +such the<br> +brilliancy of the spectacle, that scarcely had I entered, than I +felt a<br> +change come over me,—the old spirit of my boyish ardor, that +high-wrought<br> +enthusiasm to do something, to be something which men may speak +of, shot<br> +suddenly through me, and I felt my cheek tingle and my temples +throb, as<br> +name after name of starred and titled officers were announced, to +think<br> +that to me, also, the path of glorious enterprise was +opening.</p> + +<p>"Come along, come along," said Power, catching me by the arm, +"you've not<br> +been presented to the duchess. I know her. I'll do it for you; or +perhaps<br> +it is better Sir Thomas Picton should. In any case, <i>filez</i> after +me, for<br> +the dark-eyed senhora is surely expecting us. There, do you see +that dark,<br> +intelligent-looking fellow leaning over the end of the sofa? That +is Alava.<br> +And there, you know who that is, that <i>beau ideal</i> of a hussar? +Look how<br> +jauntily he carries himself; see the careless but graceful sling +with which<br> +he edges through the crowd; and look! Mark his bow! Did you see +that,<br> +Charley? Did you catch the quick glance he shot yonder, and the +soft smile<br> +that showed his white teeth? Depend upon it, boy, some fair heart +is not<br> +the better nor the easier for that look."</p> + +<p>"Who is it?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Lord Uxbridge, to be sure; the handsomest fellow in the +service; and there<br> +goes Vandeleur, talking with Vivian; the other, to the left, is +Ponsonby."</p> + +<p>"But stay, Fred, tell me who that is?" For a moment or two, I +had some<br> +difficulty in directing his attention to the quarter I desired. +The<br> +individual I pointed out was somewhat above the middle size; his +uniform of<br> +blue and gold, though singularly plain, had a look of richness +about it;<br> +besides that, among the orders which covered his breast, he wore +one star<br> +of great brilliancy and size. This, however, was his least +distinction; for<br> +although surrounded on every side by those who might be deemed +the very<br> +types and pictures of their <i>caste</i>, there was something in the +easy but<br> +upright carriage of his head, the intrepid character of his +features, the<br> +bold and vigorous flashing of his deep blue eye, that marked him +as no<br> +common man. He was talking with an old and prosy-looking +personage in<br> +civilian dress; and while I could detect an anxiety to get free +from<br> +a tiresome companion, there was an air of deferential, and even +kind<br> +attention in his manner, absolutely captivating.</p> + +<p>"A thorough gentleman, Fred, whoever he be," said I.</p> + +<p>"I should think so," replied Power, dryly; "and as our +countrymen would<br> +say, 'The Devil thank him for it!' That is the Prince of Orange; +but see,<br> +look at him now, his features have learned another fashion." And +true it<br> +was; with a smile of the most winning softness, and with a voice, +whose<br> +slightly foreign accent took nothing from its interest, I heard +him<br> +engaging a partner for a waltz.</p> + +<p>There was a flutter of excitement in the circle as the lady +rose to take<br> +his arm, and a muttered sound of, "How very beautiful, quelle est +belle,<br> +c'est un ange!" on all sides. I leaned forward to catch a glance +as she<br> +passed; it was Lucy Dashwood. Beautiful beyond anything I had +ever seen<br> +her, her lovely features lit up with pleasure and with pride, she +looked in<br> +every way worthy to lean upon the arm of royalty. The graceful +majesty of<br> +her walk, the placid loveliness of her gentle smile, struck every +one<br> +as she passed on. As for me, totally forgetting all else, not +seeing or<br> +hearing aught around me, I followed her with my eye until she was +lost<br> +among the crowd, and then, with an impulse of which I was not +master,<br> +followed in her steps.</p> + +<p>"This way, this way," said Power; "I see the senhora." So +saying, we<br> +entered a little boudoir, where a party was playing at cards. +Leaning on<br> +the back of a chair, Inez was endeavoring, with that mixture of +coquetry<br> +and half malice she possessed, to distract the attention of the +player. As<br> +Power came near, she scarcely turned her head to give him a kind +of saucy<br> +smile; while, seeing me, she held out her hand with friendly +warmth, and<br> +seemed quite happy to meet me.</p> + +<p>"Do, pray, take her away; get her to dance, to eat ice, or +flirt with you,<br> +for Heaven's sake!" said the half-laughing voice of her victim. +"I have<br> +revoked twice, and misdealt four times since she has been here. +Believe me,<br> +I shall take it as the greatest favor, if you'll—"</p> + +<p>As he got thus far he turned round towards me, and I perceived +it was Sir<br> +George Dashwood. The meeting was as awkward for him as for me; +and while a<br> +deep flush covered my face, he muttered some unintelligible +apology, and<br> +Inez burst into a fit of laughter at the ludicrous <i>contretemps</i> +of our<br> +situation.</p> + +<p>"I will dance with you now, if you like," said she, "and that +will be<br> +punishing all three. Eh, Master Fred?"</p> + +<p>So saying, she took my arm as I led her toward the +ball-room.</p> + +<p>"And so you really are not friends with the Dashwoods? How +very provoking,<br> +and how foolish, too! But really, Chevalier, I must say you treat +ladies<br> +very ill. I don't forget your conduct to me. Dear me, I wish we +could move<br> +forward, there is some one pushing me dreadfully!"</p> + +<p>"Get on, Ma'am, get on!" said a sharp, decided voice behind +me. I turned,<br> +half smiling, to see the speaker. It was the Duke of Wellington +himself,<br> +who, with his eye fixed upon some person at a distance, seemed to +care<br> +very little for any intervening obstruction. As I made way for +him to pass<br> +between us, he looked hardly at me, while he said in a short, +quick way,—</p> + +<p>"Know your face very well: how d'ye do?" With this brief +recognition he<br> +passed on, leaving me to console Inez for her crushed sleeve, by +informing<br> +her who had done it.</p> + +<p>The ball was now at its height. The waltzers whirled past in +the wild<br> +excitement of the dance. The inspiriting strains of the music, +the sounds<br> +of laughter, the din, the tumult, all made up that strange medley +which,<br> +reacting upon the minds of those who cause it, increases the +feeling<br> +of pleasurable abandonment, making the old feel young, and the +young<br> +intoxicated with delight.</p> + +<p>As the senhora leaned upon me, fatigued with waltzing, I was +endeavoring to<br> +sustain a conversation with her; while my thoughts were wandering +with my<br> +eyes to where I had last seen Lucy Dashwood.</p> + +<p>"It must be something of importance; I'm sure it is," said +she, at the<br> +conclusion of a speech of which I had not heard one word. "Look +at General<br> +Picton's face!"</p> + +<p>"Very pretty, indeed," said I; "but the hair is unbecoming," +replying to<br> +some previous observation she had made, and still lost in a +revery. A<br> +hearty burst of laughter was her answer as she gently shook my +arm,<br> +saying,—</p> + +<p>"You really are too bad! You've never listened to one word +I've been<br> +telling you, but keep continually staring with your eyes here and +there,<br> +turning this way and looking that, and with a dull, vacant, and +unmeaning<br> +smile, answering at random, in the most provoking manner. There +now, pray<br> +pay attention, and tell me what that means." As she said this, +she pointed<br> +with her fan to where a dragoon officer, in splashed and +spattered uniform,<br> +was standing talking to some three or four general officers. "But +here<br> +comes the duke; it can't be anything of consequence."</p> + +<p>At the same instant the Duke of Wellington passed with the +Duchess of<br> +Richmond on his arm.</p> + +<p>"No, Duchess; nothing to alarm you. Did you say ice?"</p> + +<p>"There, you heard that, I hope!" said Inez; "there is nothing +to alarm us."</p> + +<p>"Go to General Picton at once; but don't let it be remarked," +said an<br> +officer, in a whisper, as he passed close by me.</p> + +<p>"Inez, I have the greatest curiosity to learn what that new +arrival has to<br> +say for himself; and if you will permit me, I'll leave you with +Lady Gordon<br> +for one moment—"</p> + +<p>"Delighted, of all things. You are without exception, the +most<br> +tiresome—Good-by."</p> + +<p>"Sans adieu," said I, as I hurried through the crowd towards +an open<br> +window, on the balcony outside of which Sir Thomas Picton was +standing.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mr. O'Malley, have you a pencil? There, that'll do. Ride +down to<br> +Etterbeeck with this order for Godwin. You have heard the news, I +suppose,<br> +that the French are in advance? The Seventy-ninth will muster in +the Grando<br> +Place. The Ninety-second and the Twenty-eighth along the Park and +the<br> +Boulevard. Napoleon left Fresnes this morning. The Prussians have +fallen<br> +back. Zeithen has been beaten. We march at once."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, to-night. There, don't delay! But above all, let +everything be<br> +done quietly and noiselessly. The duke will remain here for an +hour longer<br> +to prevent suspicion. When you've executed your orders, come back +here."</p> + +<p>I mounted the first horse I could find at the door, and +galloped with top<br> +speed over the heavy causeway to Etterbeeck. In two minutes the +drum beat<br> +to arms, and the men were mustering as I left. Thence I hastened +to the<br> +barracks of the Highland Brigade and the 28th Regiment; and +before half an<br> +hour, was back in the ball-room, where, from the din and tumult, +I guessed<br> +the scene of pleasure and dissipation continued unabated. As I +hurried up<br> +the staircase a throng of persons were coming down, and I was +obliged to<br> +step aside to let them pass.</p> + +<p>"Ah, come here, pray," said Picton, who, with a lady cloaked +and hooded<br> +leaning upon his arm, was struggling to make way through the +crowd. "The<br> +very man!"</p> + +<p>"Will you excuse me if I commit you to the care of my +aide-de-camp, who<br> +will see you to your carriage? The duke has just desired to see +me." This<br> +he said in a hurried and excited tone; and the same moment +beckoned to me<br> +to take the lady's arm.</p> + +<p>It was with some difficulty I succeeded in reaching the spot, +and had only<br> +time to ask whose carriage I should call for, ere we arrived in +the hall.</p> + +<p>"Sir George Dashwood's," said a low, soft voice, whose accents +sank into<br> +my very heart. Heaven! it was Lucy herself; it was her arm that +leaned on<br> +mine, her locks that fluttered beside me, her hand that hung so +near, and<br> +yet I could not speak. I tried one word; but a choking feeling in +my throat<br> +prevented utterance, and already we were upon the door-steps.</p> + +<p>"Sir George Dashwood's carriage," shouted the footman, and the +announcement<br> +was repeated by the porter. The steps were hurried down; the +footman stood<br> +door in hand; and I led her forward, mute and trembling. Did she +know me? I<br> +assisted her as she stepped in; her hand touched mine: it was the +work of a<br> +second; to me it was the bliss of years. She leaned a little +forward; and<br> +as the servant put up the steps, said in her soft, sweet tone, +"Thank you,<br> +sir. Good-night."</p> + +<p>I felt my shoulder touched by some one who, it appeared, was +standing close<br> +to me for some seconds; but so occupied was I in gazing at her +that I paid<br> +no attention to the circumstance. The carriage drove away and +disappeared<br> +in the thick darkness of a starless night. I turned to re-enter +the house,<br> +and as I did so, the night lamp of the hall fell upon the +features of<br> +the man beside me, and showed me the pale and corpse-like face of +Fred<br> +Hammersley. His eye was bent upon me with an expression of fierce +and fiery<br> +passion, in which the sadness of long-suffering also mingled. His +bloodless<br> +lips parted, moved as though speaking, while yet no sound issued; +and his<br> +nostril, dilating and contracting by turns, seemed to denote some +deep and<br> +hidden emotion that worked within him.</p> + +<p>"Hammersley," said I, holding out my hand towards +him,—"Hammersley, do not<br> +always mistake me?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head mournfully as it fell forward upon his +breast, and<br> +covering his arm, moved slowly away without speaking.</p> + +<p>General Picton's voice as he descended the stairs, accompanied +by Generals<br> +Vandeleur and Vivian, aroused me at once, and I hurried towards +him.</p> + +<p>"Now, sir, to horse. The troops will defile by the Namur gate, +and meet me<br> +there in an hour. Meanwhile tell Colonel Cameron that he must +march with<br> +the light companies of his own and the Ninety-second at +once."</p> + +<p>"I say, Picton, they'll say we were taken by surprise in +England; won't<br> +they?" said a sharp, strong voice, in a half-laughing tone from +behind.</p> + +<p>"No, your Grace," said Sir Thomas, bowing slightly; "they'll +scarcely do so<br> +when they hear the time we took to get under arms."</p> + +<p>I heard no more; but throwing myself into the saddle of my +troop horse,<br> +once more rode back to the Belle Vue to make ready for the +road.</p> + +<p>The thin pale crescent of a new moon, across which masses of +dark and inky<br> +clouds were hurrying, tipped with its faint and sickly light the +tall<br> +minarets of the Hotel de Ville, as I rode into the Grande Place. +Although<br> +midnight, the streets were as crowded as at noonday; horse, foot, +and<br> +dragoons passing and hurrying hither; the wild pibroch of the +Highlander;<br> +the mellow bugle of the Seventy-first; the hoarse trumpet of the +cavalry;<br> +the incessant roll of the drum,—mingled their sounds with the +tide of<br> +human voices, in which every accent was heard, from the reckless +cheer of<br> +anticipated victory, to the heart-piercing shriek of woman's +agony. Lights<br> +gleamed from every window; from the doors of almost every house +poured<br> +forth a crowd of soldiers and townsfolk. The sergeants, on one +side,<br> +might be seen telling off their men, their cool and steady +countenances<br> +evidencing no semblance of emotion; while near them some young +ensign,<br> +whose beardless cheek and vacant smile bespoke the mere boy, +looked on with<br> +mingled pride and wonder at the wild scene before him. Every now +and then<br> +some general officer with his staff came cantering past; and as +the efforts<br> +to muster and form the troops grew more pressing, I could mark +how soon we<br> +were destined to meet the enemy.</p> + +<p>There are few finer monuments of the architecture of the +Middle Ages than<br> +the Grande Place of Brussels,—the rich façade of the +Hôtel de Ville, with<br> +its long colonnade of graceful arches, upon every keystone of +which some<br> +grim, grotesque head is peering; the massive cornices; the heavy +corbels<br> +carved into ten thousand strange and uncouth fancies; but finer +than all,<br> +the taper and stately spire, fretted and perforated like some +piece of<br> +silver filigree, stretches upward towards the sky, its airy +pinnacle<br> +growing finer and more beautiful as it nears the stars it points +to.<br> +How full of historic associations is every dark embrasure, every +narrow<br> +casement around! Here may have stood the great emperor, Charles +the Fifth,<br> +meditating upon that greatness he was about to forego forever; +here from<br> +this tall window, may have looked the sad and sickly features of +Jeanne<br> +Laffolle, as with wandering eye and idiot smile she gazed upon +the gorgeous<br> +procession beneath. There is not a stone that has not echoed to +the tread<br> +of haughty prince or bold baron; yet never, in the palmiest days +of ancient<br> +chivalry, did those proud dwellings of the great of old look out +upon a<br> +braver and more valiant host than now thronged beneath their +shadow. It was<br> +indeed a splendid sight, where the bright gleams of torch and +lantern threw<br> +the red light around, to watch the measured tread and steady +tramp of the<br> +Highland regiments as they defiled into the open space; each +footstep as it<br> +met the ground, seeming in its proud and firm tread, to move in +more than<br> +sympathy with the wild notes of their native mountains; silent +and still<br> +they moved along; no voice spoke within their ranks, save that of +some<br> +command to "Close up—take ground—to the right—rear rank—close +order."<br> +Except such brief words as these, or the low muttered praise of +some<br> +veteran general as he rode down the line, all was orderly and +steady as<br> +on a parade. Meanwhile, from an angle of the square, the band of +an<br> +approaching regiment was heard; and to the inspiriting quickness +of "The<br> +Young May Moon," the gallant Twenty-eighth came forward and took +up their<br> +ground opposite to the Highlanders.</p> + +<p>The deep bell of the Hôtel de Ville tolled one. The +solemn sound rang out<br> +and died away in many an echo, leaving upon the heart a sense of +some<br> +unknown depression; and there was something like a knell in the +deep<br> +cadence of its bay; and over many a cheek a rapid trace of gloomy +thought<br> +now passed; and true—too true, alas!—how many now listened for +the last<br> +time!</p> + +<p>"March! march!" passed from front to rear; and as the bands +burst forth<br> +again in streams of spirit-stirring harmony, the Seventy-ninth +moved on;<br> +the Twenty-eighth followed; and as they debouched from the +"Place" the<br> +Seventy-first and the Ninety-second succeeded them. Like wave +after wave,<br> +the tide of armed men pressed on, and mounted the steep and +narrow street<br> +towards the upper town of Brussels. Here Pack's Brigade was +forming in the<br> +Place Royale; and a crowd of staff officers dictating orders, and +writing<br> +hurriedly on the drum-heads, were also seen. A troop of dragoons +stood<br> +beside their horses at the door of the Belle Vue, and several +grooms with<br> +led horses walked to and fro.</p> + +<p>"Ride forward, sir, to the Bois de Cambre," said Picton, "and +pivot the<br> +troops on the road to Mont St. Jean. You will then wait for my +coming up,<br> +or further orders."</p> + +<p>This command, which was given to me, I hastened to obey; and +with<br> +difficulty forcing my way through the opposing crowd, at length +reached the<br> +Namur gate. Here I found a detachment of the Guards, who as yet +had got no<br> +orders to march, and were somewhat surprised to learn the forward +movement.<br> +Ten minutes' riding brought me to the angle of the wood, whence I +wrote a<br> +few lines to my host of the Belle Vue, desiring him to send Mike +after me<br> +with my horses and my kit. The night was cold, dark, and +threatening; the<br> +wind howled with a low and wailing cry through the dark +pine-trees; and as<br> +I stood alone and in solitude, I had time to think of the +eventful hours<br> +before me, and of that field which ere long was to witness the +triumph or<br> +the downfall of my country's arms. The road which led through the +forest of<br> +Soignies caught an additional gloom from the dark, dense woods +around. The<br> +faint moon only showed at intervals; and a lowering sky, without +a single<br> +star, stretched above us. It was an awful and a solemn thing to +hear the<br> +deep and thundering roll of that mighty column, awakening the +echoes of<br> +the silent forest as they went. So hurried was the movement that +we had<br> +scarcely any artillery, and that of the lightest calibre; but the +clash and<br> +clank of the cavalry, the heavy, monotonous tramp of infantry +were there;<br> +and as division followed after division, staff officers rode +hurriedly to<br> +and fro, pressing the eager troops still on.</p> + +<p>"Move up there, Ninety-fifth. Ah, Forty-second, we've work +before us!" said<br> +Picton, as he rode up to the head of his brigade. The air of +depression<br> +which usually sat upon his careworn features now changed for a +light and<br> +laughing look, while his voice was softened and subdued into a +low and<br> +pleasing tone. Although it was midsummer, the roads were heavy +and deep<br> +with mud. For some weeks previously the weather had been rainy; +and<br> +this, added to the haste and discomfort of the night march, +considerably<br> +increased the fatigue of the troops. Notwithstanding these +disadvantages,<br> +not a murmur nor complaint was heard on any side.</p> + +<p>"I'm unco glad to get a blink o' them, onyhow," said a tall, +raw-boned<br> +sergeant, who marched beside me.</p> + +<p>"Faith, and may be you won't be over pleased at the expression +of their<br> +faces, when you see them," said Mike, whose satisfaction at the +prospect<br> +before him was still as great as that of any other amidst the +thousands<br> +there.</p> + +<p>The day was slowly breaking, as a Prussian officer, splashed +and covered<br> +with foam, came galloping up at full speed past us. While I was +yet<br> +conjecturing what might be the intelligence he brought, Power +rode up to my<br> +side.</p> + +<p>"We're in for it, Charley," said he. "The whole French army +are in march;<br> +and Blucher's aide-de-camp, who has arrived, gives the number at +one<br> +hundred and fifty thousand men. The Prussians are drawn up +between St.<br> +Amand and Sombref, and the Nassau and Dutch troops are at Quatre +Bras, both<br> +expecting to be attacked."</p> + +<p>"Quatre Bras was the original rallying spot for our troops, +was it not?"<br> +said I.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. It is that we're now marching upon; but our +Prussian friend<br> +seems to think we shall arrive too late. Strong French corps are +already at<br> +Fresnes, under the command, it is said, of Marshal Ney."</p> + +<p>The great object of the British commander-in-chief was to +arrive at Quatre<br> +Bras in sufficient time to effect his junction with Blucher +before a battle<br> +should be fought. To effect this no exertion was spared: efforts +almost<br> +super-human were made; for, however prepared for a forward +movement, it was<br> +impossible to have anticipated anything until the intentions of +Napoleon<br> +became clearly manifest. While Nivelles and Charleroi were +exposed to him<br> +on one side, Namur lay open on the other; and he could either +march upon<br> +Brussels, by Mons or Halle, or, as he subsequently attempted, by +Quatre<br> +Bras and Waterloo. No sooner, however, were his intentions +unmasked, and<br> +the line of his operations manifested, than Lord Wellington, with +an energy<br> +equal to the mighty occasion that demanded it, poured down with +the whole<br> +force under his command to meet him.</p> + +<p>The march was a most distressing one; upward of +three-and-twenty miles,<br> +with deep and cut-up roads, in hot, oppressive weather, in a +country almost<br> +destitute of water. Still the troops pressed forward, and by noon +came<br> +within hearing of the heavy cannonade in front, which indicated +the<br> +situation of the battle. From this time aide-de-camp followed +aide-de-camp<br> +in quick succession, who, from their scared looks and hurried +gestures,<br> +seemed to bode but ill-fortune to the cause we cared for. What +the precise<br> +situation of the rival armies might be we knew not; but we heard +the French<br> +were in overwhelming numbers; that the Dutch troops had abandoned +their<br> +position; the Hanoverians being driven back, the Duke of +Brunswick—the<br> +brave sovereign of a gallant people—fell charging at the head of +his black<br> +hussars. From one phrase which constantly met our ears, it seemed +that<br> +the Bois de Bossu was the key of the position. This had been won +and lost<br> +repeatedly by both sides; and as we neared the battle-field a +despatch<br> +hurriedly announced to Picton the importance of at once +recovering this<br> +contested point. The Ninety-fifth were ordered up to the attack. +Scarcely<br> +was the word given, when fatigue, thirst, and exhaustion were +forgotten;<br> +with one cheer the gallant regiment formed into line, and +advanced upon<br> +the wood. Meanwhile the Highland Brigade moved down towards the +right; the<br> +Royals and the Twenty-eighth debouched upon the left of the road; +and in<br> +less than half an hour after our arrival our whole force was in +action.</p> + +<p>There is something appalling, to the bravest army, in coming +up to battle<br> +at the time that an overwhelming and conquering foe are carrying +victory<br> +triumphantly before them: such was our position at Quatre Bras. +Bravely and<br> +gloriously as the forces of the Prince of Orange fought, the day, +however,<br> +was not theirs. The Bois de Bossu, which opened to the enemy the +road to<br> +Brussels, was held by their tirailleurs; the valley to the right +was rode<br> +over by their mounted squadrons, who with lance and sabre carried +all<br> +before them; their dark columns pressed steadily on; and a +death-dealing<br> +artillery swept the allied ranks from flank to flank. Such was +the field<br> +when the British arrived, and throwing themselves into squares, +opposed<br> +their unaided force to the dreadful charges of the enemy. The +batteries<br> +showered down their storms of grape; Milhaud's Heavy Dragoons, +assisted by<br> +crowds of lancers, rushed upon the squares, but they stood +unbroken and<br> +undaunted, as sometimes upon three sides of their position the +infuriated<br> +horsemen of the enemy came down. Once, and once only, were the +French<br> +successful; the 42d, who were stationed amidst tall corn-fields, +were<br> +surrounded with cavalry before they knew it. The word was given +to form<br> +square; the Lancers were already among them, and fighting back to +back, the<br> +gallant Highlanders met the foe. Fresh numbers poured down upon +them, and<br> +already half the regiment was disabled and their colonel killed. +These<br> +brave fellows were rescued by the 44th, who, throwing in a +withering<br> +volley, fixed bayonets and charged. Meanwhile the 95th had won +and lost the<br> +wood, which, now in the possession of the French tirailleurs, +threatened to<br> +turn the left of our position. It was at this time that a body of +cavalry<br> +were seen standing to the left of the Enghien road, as if in +observation.<br> +An officer sent forward to reconnoitre, returned with the +intelligence that<br> +they were British troops, for he had seen their red uniforms.</p> + +<p>"I can't think it, sir," said Picton. "It is hardly possible +that any<br> +regiment from Enghien could have arrived already. Ride forward, +O'Malley,<br> +and if they be our fellows, let them carry that height yonder; +there are<br> +two guns there cutting the 92d to pieces."</p> + +<p>I put spurs to my horse, cleared the road at once, and dashing +across<br> +the open space to the left of the wood, rode on in the direction +of the<br> +horsemen. When I came within the distance of three hundred yards +I examined<br> +them with my glass, and could plainly detect the scarlet coats +and bright<br> +helmets. "Ha," thought I, "the 1st Dragoon Guards, no doubt." +Muttering<br> +to myself thus much, I galloped straight on; and waving my hand +as I came<br> +near, announced that I was the bearer of an order. Scarcely had I +done so,<br> +when four horsemen, dashing spurs into their steeds, plunged +hastily out<br> +from the line, and before I could speak, surrounded me. While the +foremost<br> +called out, as he flourished his sabre above his head, +"Rendez-vous!" At<br> +the same moment I was seized on each side, and led back a captive +into the<br> +hands of the enemy.</p> + +<p>"We guess your mistake, Capitaine," said the French officer +before whom I<br> +was brought. "We are the regiment of Berg, and our scarlet +uniform cost us<br> +dearly enough yesterday."</p> + +<p>This allusion, I afterwards learned, was in reference to a +charge by a<br> +cuirassier regiment, which, in mistaking them for English, poured +a volley<br> +into them, and killed and wounded about twenty of their +number.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER LII.</p> + +<p>QUATRE BRAS.</p> + +<p>Those who have visited the field of Quatre Bras will remember +that on the<br> +left of the high road, and nearly at the extremity of the Bois de +Bossu,<br> +stands a large Flemish farm-house, whose high pitched roof, +pointed gables,<br> +and quaint, old-fashioned chimneys, remind one of the +architecture<br> +so frequently seen in Tenier's pictures. The house, which, with +its<br> +dependencies of stables, granaries, and out-houses, resembles a +little<br> +village, is surrounded by a large, straggling orchard of aged +fruit-trees,<br> +through which the approach from the high road leads. The interior +of this<br> +quaint dwelling, like all those of its class, is only remarkable +for a<br> +succession of small, dark, low-ceiled rooms, leading one into +another;<br> +their gloomy aspect increased by the dark oak furniture, the +heavy<br> +armories, and old-fashioned presses, carved in the grotesque +taste of the<br> +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Those who visit it now may +mark the<br> +trace of cannon-shot here and there through the building; more +than<br> +one deep crack will attest the force of the dread artillery. +Still the<br> +traveller will feel struck with the rural peace and quietude of +the scene;<br> +the speckled oxen that stand lowing in the deep meadows; the +splash of the<br> +silvery trout as he sports in the bright stream that ripples +along over its<br> +gravelly bed; the cawing of the old rooks in the tall +beech-trees; but more<br> +than all, the happy laugh of children,—speak of the spot as one +of retired<br> +and tranquil beauty; yet when my eyes opened upon it on the +morning of the<br> +17th of June, the scene presented features of a widely different +interest.<br> +The day was breaking as the deep, full sound of the French bugles +announced<br> +the reveille. Forgetful of where I was, I sprang from my bed and +rushed to<br> +the window; the prospect before me at once recalled me to my +recollection,<br> +and I remembered that I was a prisoner. The exciting events +around left me<br> +but little time and as little inclination to think over my old +misfortunes;<br> +and I watched, with all the interest of a soldier, the movement +of the<br> +French troops in the orchard beneath. A squadron of dragoons, who +seemed to<br> +have passed the night beside their horses, lay stretched or +seated in all<br> +the picturesque groupings of a bivouac,—some already up and +stirring;<br> +others leaned half listlessly upon their elbows, and looked about +as if<br> +unwilling to believe the night was over; and some, stretched in +deep<br> +slumber, woke not with the noise and tumult around them. The room +in which<br> +I was confined looked out upon the road to Charleroi; I could +therefore<br> +see the British troops; and as the French army had fallen back +during the<br> +night, only an advanced guard maintaining the position, I was +left to my<br> +unaided conjectures as to the fortune of the preceding day of +battle. What<br> +a period of anxiety and agitation was that morning to me; what +would I<br> +not have given to learn the result of the action since the moment +of my<br> +capture! Stubborn as our resistance had been, we were evidently +getting the<br> +worst, of it; and if the Guards had not arrived in time, I knew +we must<br> +have been beaten.</p> + +<p>I walked up and down my narrow room, tortured and agonized by +my doubts,<br> +now stopping to reason over the possibilities of success, now +looking from<br> +the window to try if, in the gesture and bearing of those +without, I could<br> +conjecture anything that passed. Too well I knew the vaunting +character<br> +of the French soldier, in defeat as in victory, to put much +confidence in<br> +their bearing. While, however, I watched them with an eager eye, +I heard<br> +the tramp of horsemen coming along the paved causeway. From the +moment my<br> +ear caught the sound to that of their arrival at the gate of the +orchard,<br> +but few minutes elapsed; their pace was indeed a severe one, and +as they<br> +galloped through the narrow path that led to the farm-house, they +never<br> +drew rein till they reached the porch. The party consisted of +about a dozen<br> +persons whose plumed hats bespoke them staff officers; but their +uniforms<br> +were concealed beneath their great-coats. As they came along the +picket<br> +sprang to their feet, and the guard at the door beneath presented +arms.<br> +This left no doubt upon my mind that some officer of rank was +among them,<br> +and as I knew that Ney himself commanded on the preceding day, I +thought<br> +it might be he. The sound of voices beneath informed me that the +party<br> +occupied the room under that in which I was, and although I +listened<br> +attentively I could hear nothing but the confused murmur of +persons<br> +conversing together without detecting even a word. My thoughts +now fell<br> +into another channel, and as I ruminated over my old position, I +heard the<br> +noise of the sentry at my door as he brought his musket to the +shoulder,<br> +and the next moment an officer in the uniform of the Chasseurs of +the Guard<br> +entered. Bowing politely as he advanced to the middle of the +room, he<br> +addressed me thus:—</p> + +<p>"You speak French, sir?" and as I replied in the affirmative, +continued:—</p> + +<p>"Will you, then, have the goodness to follow me this way?"</p> + +<p>Although burning with anxiety to learn what had taken place, +yet somehow I<br> +could not bring myself to ask the question. A secret pride +mingled with my<br> +fear that all had not gone well with us, and I durst not expose +myself to<br> +hear of our defeat from the lips of an enemy. I had barely time +to ask into<br> +whose presence I was about to be ushered, when with a slight +smile of a<br> +strange meaning, he opened the door and introduced me into the +saloon.<br> +Although I had seen at least twelve or fourteen horsemen arrive, +there were<br> +but three persons in the room as I entered. One of these, who sat +writing<br> +at a small table near the window, never lifted his head on my +entrance, but<br> +continued assiduously his occupation. Another, a tall, +fine-looking man<br> +of some sixty years or upward, whose high, bald forehead and +drooping<br> +mustache, white as snow, looked in every way the old soldier of +the empire,<br> +stood leaning upon his sabre; while the third, whose stature, +somewhat<br> +below the middle size, was yet cast in a strong and muscular +mould, stood<br> +with his back to the fire, holding on his arms the skirts of a +gray surtout<br> +which he wore over his uniform; his legs were cased in the tall +<i>bottes à<br> +l'écuyère</i> worn by the <i>chasseur à cheval</i>, +and on his head a low cocked<br> +hat, without plume or feather, completed his costume. There was +something<br> +which, at the very moment of my entrance, struck me as uncommon +in his air<br> +and bearing, so much so that when my eyes had once rested on his +pale but<br> +placid countenance, his regular, handsome, but somewhat stern +features, I<br> +totally forgot the presence of the others and looked only at +him.</p> + +<p>"What's your rank, sir?" said he, hurriedly, and with a tone +which bespoke<br> +command.</p> + +<p>"I have none at present, save—"</p> + +<p>"Why do you wear your epaulettes then, sir?" said he, harshly, +while from<br> +his impatient look, and hurried gesture, I saw that he put no +faith in my<br> +reply.</p> + +<p>"I am an aide-de-camp to General Picton, but without +regimental rank."</p> + +<p>"What was the British force under arms yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"I do not feel at liberty to give you any information as to +the number or<br> +the movements of our army."</p> + +<p>"<i>Diantre! Diantre!</i>" said he, slapping his boot with his +horsewhip, "do<br> +you know what you've been saying there, eh? Cambronne, you heard +him, did<br> +you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sire, and if your Majesty would permit me to deal with +him, I would<br> +have his information, if he possess any, and that ere long, +too."</p> + +<p>"Eh, <i>gaillard</i>," said he, laughing, as he pinched the old +general's ear in<br> +jest, "I believe you, with all my heart."</p> + +<p>The full truth flashed upon my mind. I was in presence of the +Emperor<br> +himself. As, however, up to this moment I was unconscious of his +presence,<br> +I resolved now to affect ignorance of it throughout.</p> + +<p>"Had you despatches, sir?" said he, turning towards me with a +look of stern<br> +severity. "Were any despatches found upon him when he was taken?" +This<br> +latter question was directed to the aide-de-camp who introduced +me, and who<br> +still remained at the door.</p> + +<p>"No, Sire, nothing was found upon him except this locket."</p> + +<p>As he said these words he placed in Napoleon's hands the +keepsake which St.<br> +Croix had left with me years before in Spain, and which, as the +reader may<br> +remember, was a miniature of the Empress Josephine.</p> + +<p>The moment the Emperor threw his eyes upon it, the flush which +excitement<br> +had called into his cheek disappeared at once. He became pale as +death, his<br> +very lips as bloodless as his wan cheek.</p> + +<p>"Leave me, Lefebvre; leave me, Cambronne, for a moment. I will +speak with<br> +this gentleman alone."</p> + +<p>As the door closed upon them he leaned his arm upon the +mantelpiece, and<br> +with his head sunk upon his bosom, remained some moments without +speaking.</p> + +<p>"Augure sinistre!" muttered he within his teeth, as his +piercing gaze was<br> +riveted upon the picture before him. "Voilà la +troisième fois peut-être<br> +la dernière." Then suddenly rousing himself, he advanced +close to me, and<br> +seizing me by the arm with a grasp like iron, inquired:—</p> + +<p>"How came you by this picture? The truth, sir; mark me, the +truth!"</p> + +<p>Without showing any sign of feeling hurt at the insinuation of +this<br> +question, I detailed, in as few words as I could, the +circumstance by which<br> +the locket became mine. Long before I had concluded, however, I +could mark<br> +that his attention flagged, and finally wandered far away from +the matter<br> +before him.</p> + +<p>"Why will you not give me the information I look for? I seek +for no breach<br> +of faith. The campaign is all but over. The Prussians were beaten +at Ligny,<br> +their army routed, their artillery captured, ten thousand +prisoners taken.<br> +Your troops and the Dutch were conquered yesterday, and they are +in full<br> +retreat on Brussels. By to-morrow evening I shall date my +bulletin from<br> +the palace at Laeken. Antwerp will be in my possession within +twenty-four<br> +hours. Namur is already mine. Cambronne, Lefebvre," cried he, +"cet homme-là<br> +n'en sait rien," pointing to me as he spoke; "let us see the +other." With<br> +this he motioned slightly with his hand as a sign for me to +withdraw, and<br> +the next moment I was once more in the solitude of my +prison-room, thinking<br> +over the singular interview I had just had with the great +Emperor.</p> + +<p>How anxiously pass the hours of one who, deprived of other +means of<br> +information, is left to form his conjectures by some passing +object or some<br> +chance murmur. The things which, in the ordinary course of life, +are passed<br> +by unnoticed and unregarded, are now matters of moment,—with +what scrutiny<br> +he examines the features of those whom he dare not question; with +what<br> +patient ear he listens to each passing word. Thus to me, a +prisoner,<br> +the hours went by tardily yet anxiously; no sabre clanked; no +war-horse<br> +neighed; no heavy-booted cuirassier tramped in the courtyard +beneath my<br> +window, without setting a hundred conjectures afloat as to what +was about<br> +to happen. For some time there had been a considerable noise and +bustle in<br> +and about the dwelling. Horsemen came and went continually. The +sounds of<br> +galloping could be heard along the paved causeway; then the +challenge of<br> +the sentry at the gate; then the nearer tread of approaching +stops, and<br> +many voices speaking together, would seem to indicate that some +messenger<br> +had arrived with despatches. At length all these sounds became +hushed and<br> +still. No longer were the voices heard; and except the measured +tread of<br> +the heavy cuirassier, as he paced on the flags beneath, nothing +was to be<br> +heard. My state of suspense, doubly greater now than when the +noise and<br> +tumult suggested food for conjecture, continued till towards +noon, when<br> +a soldier in undress brought me some breakfast, and told me to +prepare<br> +speedily for the road.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had he left the room, when the rumbling noise of +wagons was heard<br> +below, and a train of artillery carts moved into the little +courtyard<br> +loaded with wounded men. It was a sad and frightful sight to see +these poor<br> +fellows, as, crammed side by side in the straw of the +<i>charrette</i>, they<br> +lay, their ghastly wounds opening with every motion of the wagon, +while<br> +their wan, pale faces were convulsed with agony and suffering. Of +every<br> +rank, from the sous-lieutenant to the humble soldier, from every +arm of the<br> +service, from the heavy cuirassier of the guard to the light and +intrepid<br> +tirailleur, they were there. I well remember one, an +artillery-man of<br> +the guard, who, as they lifted him forth from the cart, presented +the<br> +horrifying spectacle of one both of whose legs had been carried +away by a<br> +cannon-shot. Pale, cold, and corpse-like, ha lay in their arms; +his head<br> +lay heavily to one side, his arms fell passively as in death. It +was at<br> +this moment a troop of lancers, the advanced guard of D'Erlon's +Division,<br> +came trotting up the road; the cry of "Vive l'Empereur!" burst +from them<br> +as they approached; its echo rang within the walls of the +farm-house, when<br> +suddenly the dying man, as though some magic touch had called him +back to<br> +life and vigor, sprang up erect between his bearers, his filmy +eye flashing<br> +fire, a burning spot of red coloring his bloodless cheek. He cast +one wild<br> +and hurried look around him, like one called back from death to +look<br> +upon the living; and as he raised his blood-stained hand above +his head,<br> +shouted, in a heart-piercing cry, "Vive l'Empereur!" The effort +was his<br> +last. It was the expiring tribute of allegiance to the chief he +adored. The<br> +blood spouted in cataracts from his half-closed wounds, a +convulsive spasm<br> +worked through his frame, his eyes rolled fearfully, as his +outstretched<br> +hands seemed striving to clutch some object before them, and he +was dead.<br> +Fresh arrivals of wounded continued to pour in; and now I thought +I could<br> +detect at intervals the distant noise of a cannonade. The wind, +however,<br> +was from the southward, and the sounds were too indistinct to be +relied on.</p> + +<p>"Allons, aliens, mon cher!" said a rough but good-humored +looking fellow,<br> +as he strode into my room. He was the quartermaster of Milhaud's +Dragoons,<br> +under whose care I was now placed, and came to inform me that we +were to<br> +set out immediately.</p> + +<p>Monsieur Bonnard was a character in his way; and if it were +not so near the<br> +conclusion of my history, I should like to present him to my +readers. As<br> +it is, I shall merely say he was a thorough specimen of one class +of<br> +his countrymen,—a loud talker, a louder swearer, a vaporing, +boasting,<br> +overbearing, good-natured, and even soft-hearted fellow, who +firmly<br> +believed that Frenchmen were the climax of the species, and +Napoleon the<br> +climax of Frenchmen. Being a great <i>bavard</i>, he speedily told me +all that<br> +had taken place during the last two days. From him I learned that +the<br> +Prussians had really been beaten at Ligny, and had fallen back, +he knew<br> +not where. They were, however, he said, hotly pursued by Grouchy, +with<br> +thirty-five thousand men, while the Emperor himself was now +following the<br> +British and Dutch armies with seventy thousand more.</p> + +<p>"You see," continued he, "l'affaire est faite! Who can resist +the Emperor?"</p> + +<p>These were sad tidings for me; and although I did not place +implicit<br> +confidence in my informant, I had still my fears that much of +what he said<br> +was true.</p> + +<p>"And the British, now," said I, "what direction have they +taken?"</p> + +<p>"Bah, they're in retreat on Brussels, and will probably +capitulate<br> +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Capitulate!"</p> + +<p>"Oui, oui; ne vous fâchez pas, camarade," said he, +laughing. "What could<br> +you do against Napoleon? You did not expect to beat him, surely? +But come,<br> +we must move on; I have my orders to bring you to Planchenoit +this evening,<br> +and our horses are tired enough already."</p> + +<p>"Mine, methinks, should be fresh," said I.</p> + +<p>"<i>Parbleu, mon!</i>" replied he; "he has twice made the journey +to Fresnes<br> +this morning with despatches for Marshal Ney; the Emperor is +enraged<br> +with the marshal for having retreated last night, having the wood +in his<br> +possession; he says he should have waited till daybreak, and then +fallen<br> +upon your retreating columns. As it is, you are getting away +without much<br> +loss. <i>Sacristie</i>, that was a fine charge!" These last words he +muttered to<br> +himself, adding, between his teeth, "Sixty-four killed and +wounded."</p> + +<p>"What was that? Who were they?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Our fellows," replied he, frankly; "the Emperor ordered up +two<br> +twelve-pounders, and eight squadrons of lancers; they fell upon +your light<br> +dragoons in a narrow part of the high road. But suddenly we heard +a noise<br> +in front; your hussars fell back, and a column of your heavy +dragoons came<br> +thundering down upon us. <i>Parbleu!</i> they swept over us as if we +were broken<br> +infantry; and there! there!" said he, pointing to the courtyard, +from<br> +whence the groans of the wounded still rose,—"there are the +fruits of that<br> +terrible charge."</p> + +<p>I could not restrain an outbreak of triumphant pleasure at +this gallant<br> +feat of my countrymen.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," said the honest quartermaster; "it was a fine +thing; but a<br> +heavy reckoning is at hand. But come, now, let us take the +road."</p> + +<p>In a few moments more I found myself seated upon a heavy +Norman horse,<br> +whose lumbering demi-peak saddle was nearly cleft in two by a +sabre-cut.</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay," said Monsieur Bonnard, as he saw my eye fixed on the +spot, "it<br> +was one of your fellows did that; and the same cut clove poor +Pierre from<br> +the neck to the seat."</p> + +<p>"I hope," said I, laughing, "the saddle may not prove an +unlucky one."</p> + +<p>"No, no," said the Frenchman, seriously; "it has paid its debt +to fate."</p> + +<p>As we pressed on our road, which, broken by the heavy guns, +and ploughed up<br> +in many places by the artillery, was nearly impassable, we could +distinctly<br> +hear from time to time the distant boom of the large guns, as the +retiring<br> +and pursuing armies replied to each other; while behind us, but +still a<br> +long way off, a dark mass appeared on the horizon: they were the +advancing<br> +columns of Ney's Division.</p> + +<p>"Have the troops come in contact more than once this +morning?"</p> + +<p>"Not closely," said the quartermaster; "the armies have kept a +respectful<br> +distance; they were like nothing I can think of," said the +figurative<br> +Frenchman, "except two hideous serpents wallowing in mire, and +vomiting at<br> +each other whole rivers of fire and flame."</p> + +<p>As we approached Planchenoit, we came up to the rear-guard of +the French<br> +army; from them we learned that Ney's Division, consisting of the +Eighth<br> +Corps, had joined the Emperor; that the British were still in +retreat, but<br> +that nothing of any importance had occurred between the rival +armies, the<br> +French merely firing their heavy guns from time to time to +ascertain by<br> +the reply the position of the retreating forces. The rain poured +down in<br> +torrents; gusts of cold and stormy wind swept across the wide +plains, or<br> +moaned sorrowfully through the dense forest. As I rode on by the +side of my<br> +companion, I could not help remarking how little the effects of a +fatiguing<br> +march and unfavorable weather were apparent on those around me. +The spirit<br> +of excited gayety pervaded every rank; and unlike the stern +features which<br> +the discipline of our service enforces, the French soldiers were +talking,<br> +laughing and even singing, as they marched; the canteens passed +freely from<br> +hand to hand, and jests and toasts flew from front to rear along +the dark<br> +columns; many carried their loaves of dark rye-bread on the tops +of their<br> +bayonets; and to look upon that noisy and tumultuous mass as they +poured<br> +along, it would have needed a practised eye to believe them the +most<br> +disciplined of European armies.</p> + +<p>The sun was just setting, as mounting a ridge of high land +beside the high<br> +road, my companion pointed with his finger to a small farm-house, +which,<br> +standing alone in the plain, commands an extensive view on every +side of<br> +it.</p> + +<p>"There," said he,—"there is the <i>quartier +général</i>; the Emperor sleeps<br> +there to-night. The King of Holland will afford him a bed +to-morrow night."</p> + +<p>The dark shadows of the coming night were rapidly falling as I +strained my<br> +eyes to trace the British position. A hollow, rumbling sound +announced the<br> +movement of artillery in our front.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Arnotte?" said the quartermaster to a dragoon +officer who rode<br> +past.</p> + +<p>"It is nothing," replied the other, laughing, "but a <i>ruse</i> of +the Emperor.<br> +He wishes to ascertain if the enemy are in force, or if we have +only a<br> +strong rear-guard before us."</p> + +<p>As he spoke fifteen heavy guns opened there fire, and the +still air<br> +reverberated with a loud thunder. The sound had not died away, +the very<br> +smoke lay yet heavily upon the moist earth, when forty pieces of +British<br> +cannon rang out their answer, and the very plain trembled beneath +the<br> +shock.</p> + +<p>"Ha, they are there, then!" exclaimed the dragoon, as his eyes +flashed with<br> +ecstasy. "Look! see! the artillery are limbering up already. The +Emperor is<br> +satisfied."</p> + +<p>And so it was. A dark column of twelve hundred horse that +accompanied the<br> +guns into the plain, now wheeled slowly round, and wound their +long track<br> +far away to the right. The rain fell in torrents; the wind was +hushed;<br> +and as the night fell in darkness, the columns moved severally to +their<br> +destinations. The bivouacs were formed; the watch-fires were +lighted; and<br> +seventy thousand men and two hundred pieces of cannon occupied +the heights<br> +of Planchenoit.</p> + +<p>"My orders are to bring you to La Caillon," said the +quartermaster; "and if<br> +you only can spur your jaded horse into a trot, we shall soon +reach it."</p> + +<p>About a hundred yards from the little farm-house, stood a +small cottage of<br> +a peasant. Here some officers of Marshal Soult's staff had taken +up their<br> +quarters; and thither my guide now bent his steps.</p> + +<p>"Comment, Bonnard!" said an aide-de-camp, as we rode up. +"Another prisoner?<br> +<i>Sacrebleu!</i> We shall have the whole British staff among us. You +are<br> +in better luck than your countryman, the general, I hope," said +the<br> +aide-decamp. "His is a sad affair; and I'm sorry for it, too. +He's a fine,<br> +soldier-like looking fellow."</p> + +<p>"Pray, what has happened?" said I. "To what do you +allude?"</p> + +<p>"Merely to one of your people who has just been taken with +some letters and<br> +papers of Bourmont's in his possession. The Emperor is in no very +amicable<br> +humor towards the traitor, and resolves to pay off some part of +his debt on<br> +his British correspondent."</p> + +<p>"How cruel! How unjust!"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, it is hard, I confess, to be shot for the fault of +another.<br> +Mais, que voulez-vous?"</p> + +<p>"And when is this atrocious act to take place?"</p> + +<p>"By daybreak to-morrow," said he, bowing, as he turned towards +the hut.<br> +"Meanwhile, let me counsel you, if you would not make another in +the party,<br> +to reserve your indignation for your return to England."</p> + +<p>"Come along," said the quartermaster; "I find they have got +quarters for<br> +you in the granary of the farm. I'll not forget you at +supper-time."</p> + +<p>So saying, he gave his horse to an orderly, and led me by a +little path<br> +to a back entrance of the dwelling. Had I time or inclination for +such a<br> +scene, I might have lingered long to gaze at the spectacle before +me. The<br> +guard held their bivouac around the quarters of the Emperor; and +here,<br> +beside the watch-fires, sat the bronzed and scarred veterans who +had braved<br> +every death and danger, from the Pyramids to the Kremlin. On +every side I<br> +heard the names of those whom history has already consigned to +immortality;<br> +and as the fitful blaze of a wood-fire flashed from within the +house, I<br> +could mark the figure of one who, with his hands behind his back, +walked<br> +leisurely to and fro, his head leaned a little forward as though +in deep<br> +thought; but as the light fell upon his pale and placid features, +there was<br> +nothing there to indicate the stormy strife of hope and fear that +raged<br> +beneath. From the rapid survey I took around I was roused by an +officer,<br> +who, saluting me, politely desired me to follow him. We mounted a +flight of<br> +stone steps which, outside the wall of the building, led to the +upper story<br> +of a large but ruined granary. Here a sentry was posted, who +permitting us<br> +to pass forward, I found myself in a small, mean-looking +apartment, whose<br> +few articles of coarse furniture were dimly lighted by the feeble +glimmer<br> +of a lamp. At the farther end of the room sat a man wrapped in a +large blue<br> +cavalry cloak, whose face, covered with his hands as he bent +downward,<br> +was completely concealed from view. The noise of the opening door +did not<br> +appear to arouse him, nor did he notice my approach. As I +entered, a faint<br> +sigh broke from him, as he turned his back upon the light; but he +spoke not<br> +a word.</p> + +<p>I sat for some time in silence, unwilling to obtrude myself +upon the<br> +sorrows of one to whom I was unknown; and as I walked up and down +the<br> +gloomy chamber, my thoughts became riveted so completely upon my +own<br> +fortunes that I ceased to remember my fellow-prisoner. The hours +passed<br> +thus lazily along, when the door suddenly opened, and an officer +in the<br> +dress of a lancer of the guard stood for an instant before me, +and then,<br> +springing forward, clasped me by both hands, and called +out,—</p> + +<p>"Charles, mon ami, c'est bien toi?"</p> + +<p>The voice recalled to my recollections what his features, +altered by time<br> +and years, had failed to do. It was Jules St. Croix, my former +prisoner in<br> +the Peninsula. I cannot paint the delight with which I saw him +again; his<br> +presence now, while it brought back the memory of some of my +happiest days,<br> +also assured me that I was not friendless.</p> + +<p>His visit was a brief one, for he was in attendance on Marshal +Lobau's<br> +staff. In the few minutes, however, of his stay, he said,—</p> + +<p>"I have a debt to pay, Charles, and have come to discharge it. +In an hour<br> +hence I shall leave this with despatches for the left of our +line. Before<br> +I go, I'll come here with two or three others, as it were, to +wish you a<br> +good-night. I'll take care to carry a second cloak and a foraging +cap; I'll<br> +provide a fast horse; you shall accompany us for some distance. +I'll see<br> +you safe across our pickets; for the rest, you must trust to +yourself.<br> +C'est arrangé, n'est-ce-pas?"</p> + +<p>One firm grasp of his hand, to which I responded by another, +followed, and<br> +he was gone.</p> + +<p>Everything concurred to show me that a tremendous battle must +ensue on the<br> +morrow, if the British forces but held their position. It was, +then, with a<br> +feeling of excitement approaching to madness that I saw my +liberty before<br> +me; that once more I should join in the bold charge and the rude +shock<br> +of arms, hear the wild cry of my gallant countrymen, and either +live to<br> +triumph with them in victory, or wait not to witness our defeat. +Fast flew<br> +my hopes, as with increasing impatience I waited St. Croix's +coming, and<br> +with anxious heart listened to every sound upon the stairs which +might<br> +indicate his approach. At length he came. I heard the gay and +laughing<br> +voices of his companions as they came along; the door opened, and +affecting<br> +the familiarity of old acquaintance to deceive the sentry, they +all shook<br> +me by the hand and spoke in terms of intimacy.</p> + +<p>"Labedoyère is below," said St. Croix, in a whisper; +"you must wait here a<br> +few moments longer, and I'll return for you; put on the cloak and +cap, and<br> +speak not a word as you pass out. The sentry will suppose that +one of our<br> +party has remained behind; for I shall call out as if speaking to +him, as I<br> +leave the room."</p> + +<p>The voice of an officer calling in tones of impatience for the +party<br> +to come down, cut short the interview; and again assuring me of +their<br> +determination to stand by me, they left the chamber and descended +into the<br> +court. Scarcely had the door closed behind them, when my +fellow-prisoner,<br> +whom I had totally forgotten, sprang on his legs and came towards +me. His<br> +figure screening the lamplight as he stood, prevented my +recognizing his<br> +features, but the first tones of his voice told me who he +was.</p> + +<p>"Stay, sir," cried he, as he placed his hand upon my arm; "I +have overheard<br> +your project. In an hour hence you will be free. Can you—-will +you perform<br> +a service for one who will esteem it not the less that it will be +the last<br> +that man can render him? The few lines which I have written here +with my<br> +pencil are for my daughter."</p> + +<p>I could bear no more, and called out in a voice broken as his +own,—</p> + +<p>"Oh, be not deceived, sir. Will you, even in an hour like +this, accept a<br> +service from one whom you have banished from your house?"</p> + +<p>The old man started as I spoke; his hand trembled till it +shook my very<br> +arm, and after a pause and with an effort to seem calm and +collected, he<br> +added,—</p> + +<p>"My hours are few. Some despatches of General Bourmont with +which the duke<br> +intrusted me were found in my possession. My sentence is a +hurried one, and<br> +it is death. By to-morrow's sunrise—"</p> + +<p>"Stay, stay!" said I. "You shall escape; my life is in no +danger. I have,<br> +as you see, even friends among the staff. Besides, I have done +nothing to<br> +compromise or endanger my position."</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said he, sternly, "I will not act such a part as +this. The tears<br> +you have seen in these old eyes are not for myself. I fear not +death.<br> +Better it were it should have come upon the field of glorious +battle; but<br> +as it is, my soldier's honor is intact, untainted."</p> + +<p>"You refuse the service on account of him who proffers it," +said I, as I<br> +fell heavily upon a seat, my head bowed upon my bosom.</p> + +<p>"Not so, not so, my boy," replied he, kindly. "The near +approach of death,<br> +like the fading light of day, gives us a longer and a clearer +view before<br> +us. I feel that I have wronged you; that I have imputed to you +the errors<br> +of others; but, believe me, if I have wronged you, I have +punished my own<br> +heart; for, Charles, I have loved you like a son."</p> + +<p>"Then prove it," said I, "and let me act towards you as +towards a father.<br> +You will not? You refuse me still? Then, by Heaven, I remain to +share your<br> +fate! I well know the temper of him who has sentenced you, and +that, by one<br> +word of mine, my destiny is sealed forever."</p> + +<p>"No, no, boy! This is but rash and insane folly. Another year +or two, nay,<br> +perhaps a few months more, and in the common course of Nature I +had ceased<br> +to be; but you, with youth, with fortune, and with hope—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not with hope!" said I, in a voice of agony.</p> + +<p>"Nay, say not so," replied he, calmly, while a sickly smile +played sadly<br> +over his face; "you will give this letter to my daughter, you +will tell her<br> +that we parted as friends should part; and if after that, when +time shall<br> +have smoothed down her grief, and her sorrow be rather a dark +dream of the<br> +past than a present suffering,—if then you love her, and +if—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, tempt me not thus!" said I, as the warm tears gushed from +my eyes.<br> +"Lead me not thus astray from what my honor tells me I should do. +Hark!<br> +They are coming already. I hear the clank of their sabres; they +are<br> +mounting the steps; not a moment is to be lost! Do you refuse me +still?"</p> + +<p>"I do," replied he, firmly; "I am resolved to bide my +fate."</p> + +<p>"Then so do I," cried I, as folding my arms, I sat down beside +the window,<br> +determined on my course.</p> + +<p>"Charley, Charley," said he, stooping over me, "my friend, my +last hope,<br> +the protector of my child—"</p> + +<p>"I will not go," said I, in a hollow whisper.</p> + +<p>Already they were at the door; I heard their voices as they +challenged the<br> +sentry; I heard his musket as he raised it to his shoulder. The +thought<br> +flashed across me. I jumped up, and throwing the loose mantle of +the French<br> +dragoon around him, and replacing his own with the foraging cap +of St.<br> +Croix, I sprang into a corner of the room, and seating myself so +as to<br> +conceal my face, waited the result. The door opened, the party +entered<br> +laughing and talking together.</p> + +<p>"Come, Eugène," said one, taking Sir George by the arm, +"you have spent<br> +long enough time here to learn the English language. We shall be +late at<br> +the outpost. Messieurs les Anglais, good-night, good-night!"</p> + +<p>This was repeated by the others as they passed out with Sir +George Dashwood<br> +among them, who, seeing that my determination was not to be +shaken, and<br> +that any demur on his part must necessarily compromise both, +yielded to a<br> +<i>coup-de-main</i> what he never would have consented to from an +appeal to his<br> +reason. The door closed; their steps died away in the distance. +Again a<br> +faint sound struck my ear; it was the challenge of the sentry +beneath,<br> +and I heard the tramp of horses' feet. All was still, and in a +burst of<br> +heart-felt gratitude I sank upon my knees, and thanked God that +he was<br> +safe.</p> + +<p>So soundly did I sleep, that not before I was shaken several +times by the<br> +shoulder could I awake on the following morning.</p> + +<p>"I thought there were two prisoners here," said a gruff voice, +as an old<br> +mustached-looking veteran cast a searching look about the room. +"However,<br> +we shall have enough of them before sunset. Get—get up; Monsieur +le Duc de<br> +Dalmatie desires some information you can give him."</p> + +<p>As he said this, he led me from the room; and descending the +flight of<br> +stone steps, we entered the courtyard. It was but four o'clock, +the rain,<br> +still falling in torrents, yet every one was up and stirring.</p> + +<p>"Mount this horse," said my gruff friend, "and come with me +towards the<br> +left; the marshal has already gone forward."</p> + +<p>The heavy mist of the morning, darkened by the lowering clouds +which almost<br> +rested on the earth, prevented our seeing above a hundred yards +before<br> +us; but the hazy light of the watch-fires showed me extent of the +French<br> +position, as it stretched away along the, ridge towards the Halle +road. We<br> +rode forward at a trot, but in the deep clayey soil we sank at +each moment<br> +to our horses' fetlocks. I turned my head as I heard the tramp +and splash<br> +of horsemen behind, and perceived that I was followed by two +dragoons,<br> +who, with their carbines on the rest, kept their eyes steadily +upon me to<br> +prevent any chance of escape. In a slight hollow of the ground +before us<br> +stood a number of horsemen, who conversed together in a low tone +as we came<br> +up.</p> + +<p>"There, that is the marshal," said my companion, in a whisper, +as we joined<br> +the party.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Monsieur le Duc," said an engineer colonel, who stood +beside Soult's<br> +horse with a colored plan in his hand,—"yes, that is the +Château de<br> +Goumont, yonder. It is, as you perceive, completely covered by +the rising<br> +ground marked here. They will doubtless place a strong artillery +force in<br> +this quarter."</p> + +<p>"Ah, who is this?" said the marshal, turning his eyes suddenly +upon me, and<br> +then casting a look of displeasure around him, lest I should have +overheard<br> +any portion of their conversation. "You are deficient in cavalry, +it would<br> +appear, sir," said he to me.</p> + +<p>"You must feel, Monsieur le Duc," said I, calmly, "how +impossible it is for<br> +me, as a man of honor and a soldier, to afford you any +information as to<br> +the army I belong to."</p> + +<p>"I do not see that, sir. You are a prisoner in our hands; your +treatment,<br> +your fortune, your very life depends on us. Besides, sir, when +French<br> +officers fall into the power of your people, I have heard they +meet with no<br> +very ceremonious treatment."</p> + +<p>"Those who say so, say falsely," said I, "and wrong both your +countrymen<br> +and mine. In any case—"</p> + +<p>"The Guards are an untried force in your service," said he, +with a mixture<br> +of inquiry and assertion.</p> + +<p>I replied not a word.</p> + +<p>"You must see, sir," continued he, "that all the chances are +against you.<br> +The Prussians beaten, the Dutch discouraged, the Belgians only +waiting for<br> +victory to incline to our standard, to desert your ranks and pass +over to<br> +ours; while your troops, scarcely forty thousand,—nay, I might +say, not<br> +more than thirty-five thousand. Is it not so?"</p> + +<p>Here was another question so insidiously conveyed that even a +change of<br> +feature on my part might have given the answer. A half smile, +however, and<br> +a slight bow was all my reply; while Soult muttered something +between his<br> +teeth, which called forth a laugh from those around him.</p> + +<p>"You may retire, sir, a little," said he, dryly, to me.</p> + +<p>Not sorry to be freed from the awkwardness of my position, I +fell back to<br> +the little rising ground behind. Although the rain poured down +without<br> +ceasing, the rising sun dispelled, in part, the heavy vapor, and +by degrees<br> +different portions of the wide plain presented themselves to +view; and<br> +as the dense masses of fog moved slowly along, I could detect, +but still<br> +faintly, the outline of the large, irregular building which I had +heard<br> +them call the Château de Goumont, and from whence I could +hear the clank of<br> +masonry, as, at intervals, the wind bore the sounds towards me. +These were<br> +the sappers piercing the walls for musketry; and this I could now +perceive<br> +was looked upon as a position of no small importance. Surrounded +by a<br> +straggling orchard of aged fruit-trees, the château lay +some hundred yards<br> +in advance of the British line, commanded by two eminences,—one +of which,<br> +in the possession of the French, was already occupied by a park +of eleven<br> +guns; of the other I knew nothing, except the passing glance I +had obtained<br> +of its position on the map. The Second Corps, under Jerome +Bonaparte, with<br> +Foy and Kellermann's Brigade of light artillery, stretched behind +us. On<br> +the right of these came D'Erlon's Corps, extending to a small +wood, which<br> +my companion told me was Frischermont; while Lobau's Division was +stationed<br> +to the extreme right towards St. Lambert, to maintain the +communication<br> +with Grouchy at Wavre, or, if need be, to repel the advance of +the<br> +Prussians and prevent their junction with the Anglo-Dutch army. +The<br> +Imperial Guard, with the cavalry, formed the reserve. Such was, +in<br> +substance, the information given me by my guide, who seemed to +expatiate<br> +with pleasure over the magnificent array of battle, while he felt +a pride<br> +in displaying his knowledge of the various divisions and their +leaders.</p> + +<p>"I see the marshal moving towards the right," said he; "we had +better<br> +follow him."</p> + +<p>It was now about eight o'clock as from the extremity of the +line I could<br> +see a party of horsemen advancing at a sharp canter.</p> + +<p>"That must be Ney," said my companion. "See how rashly he +approaches the<br> +English lines!"</p> + +<p>And so it was. The party in question rode fearlessly down the +slope, and<br> +did not halt until they reached within about three hundred yards +of what<br> +appeared a ruined church.</p> + +<p>"What is that building yonder?"</p> + +<p>"That—that," replied he, after a moment's thought,—"that +must be La Haye<br> +Sainte; and yonder, to the right of it, is the road to Brussels. +There,<br> +look now! Your people are in motion. See, a column is moving +towards the<br> +right, and the cavalry are defiling on the other side of the +road! I was<br> +mistaken, that cannot be Ney. <i>Sacre Dieu!</i> it was the Emperor +himself, and<br> +here he comes."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, the party galloped forward and pulled up short +within a few<br> +yards of where we stood.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" cried he, as his sharp glance fell upon me, "there is my +taciturn<br> +friend of Quatre Bras. You see, sir, I can dispense with your +assistance<br> +now; the chess-board is before me;" and then added, in a tone he +intended<br> +not to be overheard, "Everything depends on Grouchy."</p> + +<p>"Well, Haxo," he called out to an officer who galloped up, +<i>chapeau</i> in<br> +hand, "what say you? Are they intrenched in that position?"</p> + +<p>"No, Sire, the ground is open, and in two hours more will be +firm enough<br> +for the guns to manoeuvre."</p> + +<p>"Now, then, for breakfast," said Napoleon, as with an easy and +tranquil<br> +smile he turned his horse's head and cantered gently up the +heights<br> +towards La Belle Alliance. As he approached the lines, the cry of +"Vive<br> +l'Empereur!" burst forth. Regiment after regiment took it up; and +from the<br> +distant wood of Frischermont to the far left beside Merke-braine, +the<br> +shout resounded. So sudden, so simultaneous the outbreak, that he +himself,<br> +accustomed as he well was to the enthusiasm of his army, seemed +as he<br> +reined in his horse, and looked with proud and elated eye upon +the<br> +countless thousands, astounded and amazed. He lifted with slow +and graceful<br> +action his unplumed hat above his head, and while he bowed that +proud front<br> +before which kings have trembled, the acclamation burst forth +anew, and<br> +rent the very air.</p> + +<p>At this moment the sun shone brilliantly from out the dark +clouds, and<br> +flashed upon the shining blades and glistening bayonets along the +line. A<br> +dark and lowering shadow hung gloomily over the British position, +while the<br> +French sparkled and glittered in the sunbeams. His quick glance +passed with<br> +lightning speed from one to the other; and I thought that, in his +look,<br> +upturned to heaven, I could detect the flitting thought which +bade him hope<br> +it was an augury. The bands of the Imperial Guard burst forth in +joyous and<br> +triumphant strains; and amidst the still repeated cries of +"L'Empereur!<br> +l'Empereur!" he rode slowly along towards La Belle Alliance.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER LIII.</p> + +<p>WATERLOO.</p> + +<p>Napoleon's first intention was to open the battle by an attack +upon the<br> +extreme right; but Ney, who returned from an observation of the +ground,<br> +informed him that a rivulet swollen by the late rains had now +become a<br> +foaming torrent perfectly impassable to infantry. To avoid this +difficulty<br> +he abandoned his favorite manoeuvre of a flank movement, and +resolved to<br> +attack the enemy by the centre. Launching his cavalry and +artillery by the<br> +road to Brussels, he hoped thus to cut off the communication of +the British<br> +with their own left, as well as with the Prussians, for whom he +trusted<br> +that Grouchy would be more than a match.</p> + +<p>The reserves were in consequence all brought up to the centre. +Seven<br> +thousand cavalry and a massive artillery assembled upon the +heights of La<br> +Belle Alliance, and waited but the order to march. It was eleven +o'clock,<br> +and Napoleon mounted his horse and rode slowly along the line; +again the<br> +cry of "Vive l'Empereur!" resounded, and the bands of the various +regiments<br> +struck up their spirit-stirring strains as the gorgeous staff +moved along.<br> +On the British side all was tranquil; and still the different +divisions<br> +appeared to have taken up their ground, and the long ridge from +Ter-la-Haye<br> +to Merke-braine bristled with bayonets. Nothing could possibly be +more<br> +equal than the circumstances of the field. Each army possessed an +eminence<br> +whence their artillery might play. A broad and slightly +undulating valley<br> +lay between both. The ground permitted in all places both cavalry +and<br> +infantry movements, and except the crumbling walls of the +Château of<br> +Hougoumont. or the farm-house of La Haye Sainte, both of which +were<br> +occupied by the British, no advantage either by Nature or art +inclined to<br> +either side. It was a fair stand-up fight. It was the mighty +tournament,<br> +not only of the two greatest nations, but the two deadliest +rivals and<br> +bitterest enemies, led on by the two greatest military geniuses +that the<br> +world has ever seen; it might not be too much to say, or ever +will see.<br> +As for me, condemned to be an inactive spectator of the mighty +struggle,<br> +doomed to witness all the deep-laid schemes and well-devised +plans of<br> +attack which were destined for the overthrow of my country's +arms, my state<br> +was one of torture and suspense. I sat upon the little rising +ground of<br> +Rossomme; before me in the valley, where yet the tall corn waved +in ripe<br> +luxuriance, stood the quiet and peaceful-looking old +Château of Hougoumont,<br> +and the blossoming branches of the orchard; the birds were gayly +singing<br> +their songs; the shrill whistle of the fatal musketry was to be +heard; and<br> +through my glass I could detect the uniform of the soldiers who +held the<br> +position, and my heart beat anxiously and proudly as I recognized +the<br> +Guards. In the orchard and the garden were stationed some +riflemen,—at<br> +least their dress and the scattered order they assumed bespoke +them such.<br> +While I looked, the tirailleurs of Jerome's Division advanced +from the<br> +front of the line, and descending the hill in a sling trot, broke +into<br> +scattered parties, keeping up as they went a desultory and +irregular fire.<br> +The English skirmishers, less expert in this peculiar service, +soon fell<br> +back, and the head of Reille's Brigade began their march towards +the<br> +château. The English artillery is unmasked and opens its +fire. Kellermann<br> +advances at a gallop his twelve pieces of artillery; the +château is<br> +concealed from view by the dense smoke, and as the attack +thickens, fresh<br> +troops pour forward, the artillery thundering on either side; the +entire<br> +lines of both armies stand motionless spectators of the terrific +combat,<br> +while every eye is turned towards that devoted spot from whose +dense mass<br> +of cloud and smoke the bright glare of artillery is flashing, as +the<br> +crashing masonry, the burning rafters, and the loud yell of +battle add<br> +to the frightful interest of the scene. For above an hour the +tremendous<br> +attack continues without cessation; the artillery stationed upon +the height<br> +has now found its range, and every ringing shot tells upon the +tottering<br> +walls; some wounded soldiers return faint and bleeding from the +conflict,<br> +but there are few who escape. A crashing volley of fire-arms is +now heard<br> +from the side where the orchard stands; a second, and a third +succeed, one<br> +after the other as rapid as lightning itself. A silence follows, +when,<br> +after a few moments, a deafening cheer bursts forth, and an +aide-de-camp<br> +gallops up to say that the orchard has been carried at the point +of the<br> +bayonet, the Nassau sharp-shooters who held it having, after a +desperate<br> +resistance, retired before the irresistible onset of the French +infantry.<br> +"A moi! maintenant!" said General Foy, as he drew his sabre and +rode down<br> +to the head of his splendid division, which, anxious for the word +to<br> +advance, was standing in the valley. "En avant! mes braves!" +cried he,<br> +while, pointing to the château with his sword, he dashed +boldly forward.<br> +Scarcely had he advanced a hundred yards, when a cannon-shot, +"ricocheting"<br> +as it went, struck his horse in the counter and rolled him dead +on the<br> +plain. Disengaging himself from the lifeless animal, at once he +sprang to<br> +his feet, and hurried forward. The column was soon hid from my +view, and I<br> +was left to mourn over the seemingly inevitable fate that +impended over my<br> +gallant countrymen.</p> + +<p>In the intense interest which chained me to this part of the +field, I had<br> +not noticed till this moment that the Emperor and his staff were +standing<br> +scarcely thirty yards from where I was. Napoleon, seated upon a +gray,<br> +almost white, Arabian, had suffered the reins to fall loosely on +the neck<br> +as he held with both hands his telescope to his eye; his dress, +the usual<br> +green coat with white facings, the uniform of the <i>chasseurs +à cheval</i>,<br> +was distinguished merely by the cross of the legion; his high +boots were<br> +splashed and mud-stained from riding through the deep and clayey +soil; his<br> +compact and clean-bred charger looked also slightly blown and +heated, but<br> +he himself, and I watched his features well, looked calm, +composed, and<br> +tranquil. How anxiously did I scrutinize that face; with what a +throbbing<br> +heart did I canvass every gesture, hoping to find some passing +trait of<br> +doubt, of difficulty, or of hesitation; but none was there. +Unlike one who<br> +looked upon the harrowing spectacle of the battle-field, whose +all was<br> +depending on the game before him; gambling with one throw his +last his only<br> +stake, and that the empire of the world. Yet, could I picture to +myself one<br> +who felt at peace within himself,—naught of reproach, naught of +regret to<br> +move or stir his spirit, whose tranquil barque had glided over +the calm sea<br> +of life, unruffled by the breath of passion,—I should have +fancied such<br> +was he.</p> + +<p>Beside him sat one whose flashing eye and changing features +looked in every<br> +way his opposite; watching with intense anxiety the scene of the +deadly<br> +struggle round the château, every look, every gesture told +the changing<br> +fortune of the moment; his broad and brawny chest glittered with +orders and<br> +decorations, but his heavy brow and lowering look, flushed almost +black<br> +with excitement, could not easily be forgotten. It was Soult, +who, in his<br> +quality of major-general, accompanied the Emperor throughout the +day.</p> + +<p>"They have lost it again, Sire," said the marshal, +passionately; "and see,<br> +they are forming beneath the cross-fire of the artillery; the +head of the<br> +column keeps not its formation two minutes together; why does he +not move<br> +up?"</p> + +<p>"Domont, you know the British; what troops are those in the +orchard? They<br> +use the bayonet well."</p> + +<p>The officer addressed pointed his glass for a moment to the +spot. Then,<br> +turning to the Emperor, replied, as he touched his hat, "They are +the<br> +Guards, Sire."</p> + +<p>During this time Napoleon spoke not a word; his eye ever bent +upon the<br> +battle, he seemed to pay little if any attention to the +conversation about<br> +him. As he looked, an aide-de-camp, breathless and heated, +galloped up.</p> + +<p>"The columns of attack are formed, Sire; everything is ready, +and the<br> +marshal only waits the order."</p> + +<p>Napoleon turned upon his saddle, and directing his glass +towards Ney's<br> +Division, looked fixedly for some moments at them. His eye moved +from front<br> +to rear slowly, and at last, carrying his telescope along the +line, he<br> +fixed it steadily upon the far left. Here, towards St. Lambert, a +slight<br> +cloud seemed to rest on the horizon, as the Emperor continued to +gaze<br> +steadfastly at it. Every glass of the staff was speedily turned +in that<br> +direction.</p> + +<p>"It is nothing but a cloud; some exhalation from the low +grounds in that<br> +quarter," whispered one.</p> + +<p>"To me," said another, "they look like trees, part of the Bois +de Wavre."</p> + +<p>"They are men," said the Emperor, speaking for the first time. +"Est-ce<br> +Grouchy? Est-ce Blucher?"</p> + +<p>Soult inclines to believe it to be the former, and proceeds to +give his<br> +reasons; but the Emperor, without listening, turns towards +Domont, and<br> +orders him, with his division of light cavalry and Subervic's +Brigade, to<br> +proceed thither at once. If it be Grouchy, to establish a +junction with<br> +him; to resist, should it prove to be the advanced guard of +Marshal<br> +Blucher. Scarcely is the order given when a column of cavalry, +wheeling<br> +"fours about," unravels itself from the immense mass, and seems +to<br> +serpentine like an enormous snake between the squares of the +mighty army.<br> +The pace increases at every moment, and at length we see them +emerge from<br> +the extreme right and draw up, as if on parade, above half a mile +from the<br> +wood. This movement, by its precision and beauty, attracted our +entire<br> +attention, not only from the attack upon Hougoumont, but also +from an<br> +incident which had taken place close beside us. This was the +appearance<br> +of a Prussian hussar who had been taken prisoner between Wavre +and<br> +Planchenoit; he was the bearer of a letter from Bulow to +Wellington,<br> +announcing his arrival at St. Lambert, and asking for orders.</p> + +<p>This at once explains the appearance on the right; but the +prisoner also<br> +adds, that the three Prussian corps were at Wavre, having pushed +their<br> +patrols two leagues from that town without ever encountering any +portion of<br> +the force under the command of Grouchy. For a moment not a word +is spoken.<br> +A silence like a panic pervades the staff; the Emperor himself is +the first<br> +to break it.</p> + +<p>"This morning," said he, turning towards Soult, "the chances +were ninety to<br> +one in our favor; Bulow's arrival has already lost us thirty of +the number;<br> +but the odds are still sufficient, if Grouchy but repair the +<i>horrible<br> +fault</i> he has committed."</p> + +<p>He paused for a moment, and as he lifted up his own hand, and +turned a look<br> +of indignant passion towards the staff, added, in a voice the +sarcasm of<br> +whose tone there is no forgetting:—</p> + +<p>"Il s'amuse à Gembloux! Still," said he, speaking +rapidly and with more<br> +energy than I had hitherto noticed, "Bulow may be entirely cut +off. Let<br> +an officer approach. Take this letter, sir," giving as he spoke, +Bulow's<br> +letter to Lord Wellington,—"give this letter to Marshal Grouchy; +tell him<br> +that at this moment he should be before Wavre; tell him that +already, had<br> +he obeyed his orders—but no, tell him to march at once, to press +forward<br> +his cavalry, to come up in two hours, in three at farthest. You +have but<br> +five leagues to ride; see, sir, that you reach him within an +hour."</p> + +<p>As the officer hurries away at the top of his speed, an +aide-de-camp from<br> +General Domont confirms the news; they are the Prussians whom he +has before<br> +him. As yet, however, they are debouching from the wood, and have +attempted<br> +no forward movement.</p> + +<p>"What's Bulow's force, Marshal?"</p> + +<p>"Thirty thousand, Sire."</p> + +<p>"Let Lobau take ten thousand, with the Cuirassiers of the +Young Guard, and<br> +hold the Prussians in check."</p> + +<p>"Maintenant, pour les autres," this he said with a smile, as +he turned his<br> +eyes once more towards the field of battle. The aide-de-camp of +Marshal<br> +Ney, who, bare-headed and expectant, sat waiting for orders, +presented<br> +himself to view. The Emperor turned towards him as he said, with +a clear<br> +and firm voice:—</p> + +<p>"Tell the marshal to open the fire of his batteries; to carry +La Haye<br> +Sainte with the bayonet, and leaving an infantry division for +its<br> +protection, to march against La Papelotte and La Haye. They must +be carried<br> +by the bayonet."</p> + +<p>The aide-de-camp was gone; Napoleon's eye followed him as he +crossed the<br> +open plain and was lost in the dense ranks of the dark columns. +Scarcely<br> +five minutes elapsed when eighty guns thundered out together, and +as the<br> +earth shook and trembled beneath, the mighty movement of the day +began its<br> +execution. From Hougoumont, where the slaughter and the carnage +continued<br> +unslackened and unstayed, every eye was now turned towards the +right. I<br> +knew not what troops occupied La Haye Sainte, or whether they +were British<br> +who crowned the heights above it; but in my heart how fervently +did I pray<br> +that they might be so. Oh, in that moment of suspense and +agonizing doubt,<br> +what would I not have given to know that Picton himself and the +fighting<br> +Fifth were there; that behind that ridge the Greys, the Royals, +and the<br> +Enniskilleners sat motionless, but burning to advance; and the +breath<br> +of battle waved among the tartans of the Highlanders, and blew +upon the<br> +flashing features of my own island countrymen. Had I known this, +I could<br> +have marked the onset with a less failing spirit.</p> + +<p>"There goes Marcognet's Division," said my companion, +springing to his<br> +legs; "they're moving to the right of the road. I should like to +see the<br> +troops that will stand before them."</p> + +<p>So saying, he mounted his horse, and desiring me to accompany +him, rode to<br> +the height beside La Belle Alliance. The battle was now raging +from the<br> +Château de Hougoumont to St. Lambert, where the Prussian +tirailleurs, as<br> +they issued from the wood, were skirmishing with the advanced +posts of<br> +Lobau's Brigade. The attack upon the centre, however, engrossed +all my<br> +attention, and I watched the dark columns as they descended into +the plain,<br> +while the incessant roll of the artillery played about them. To +the right<br> +of Ney's attack, D'Erlon advanced with three divisions, and the +artillery<br> +of the Guard. Towards this part of the field my companion moved. +General le<br> +Vasseur desired to know if the division on the Brussels road were +English<br> +or Hanoverian troops, and I was sent for to answer the question. +We passed<br> +from square to square until at length we found ourselves upon the +flank of<br> +D'Erlon's Division. Le Vasseur, who at the head of his +cuirassiers waited<br> +but the order to charge, waved impatiently with his sword for us +to<br> +approach. We were now to the right of the high road, and about +four hundred<br> +yards from the crest of the hill where, protected by a slight +hedge,<br> +Picton, with Kempt's Brigade, waited the attack of the enemy.</p> + +<p>Just at this moment an incident took place which, while in +itself one of<br> +the most brilliant achievements of the day, changed in a signal +manner my<br> +own fortunes. The head of D'Erlon's column pressed with fixed +bayonets up<br> +the gentle slope. Already the Belgian infantry give way before +them. The<br> +brave Brunswickers, overwhelmed by the heavy cavalry of France, +at first<br> +begin to waver, then are broken; and at last retreat in disorder +up the<br> +road, a whirlwind of pursuing squadrons thundering behind them. +"En avant!<br> +en avant! la victoire est ènous," is shouted madly through +the impatient<br> +ranks; and the artillery is called up to play upon the British +squares;<br> +upon which, fixed and immovable, the cuirassiers have charged +without<br> +success. Like a thunderbolt, the flying artillery dashes to the +front;<br> +but scarcely has it reached the bottom of the ascent, when, from +the deep<br> +ground, the guns become embedded in the soil, the wheels refuse +to move. In<br> +vain the artillery drivers whip and spur their laboring cattle. +Impatiently<br> +the leading files of the column prick with their bayonets the +struggling<br> +horses. The hesitation is fatal; for Wellington, who, with eager +glance,<br> +watches from an eminence beside the high road the advancing +column, sees<br> +the accident. An order is given; and with one fell swoop, the +heavy cavalry<br> +brigade pour down. Picton's Division deploys into line; the +bayonets glance<br> +above the ridge; and with a shout that tells above the battle, on +they<br> +come, the fighting Fifth. One volley is exchanged; but the +bayonet is now<br> +brought to the charge, and the French division retreat in close +column,<br> +pursued by their gallant enemy. Scarcely have the leading +divisions fallen<br> +back, and the rear pressed down upon, or thrown into disorder, +when the<br> +cavalry trumpets sound a charge; the bright helmets of the +Enniskilleners<br> +come flashing in the sunbeams, and the Scotch Greys, like a +white-crested<br> +wave, are rolling upon the foe. Marcognet's Division is +surrounded; the<br> +dragoons ride them down on every side; the guns are captured; the +drivers<br> +cut down; and two thousand prisoners are carried off. A sudden +panic seems<br> +to seize upon the French, as cavalry, infantry, and artillery are +hurried<br> +back on each other. Vainly the French attempt to rally; the +untiring enemy<br> +press madly on; the household brigade, led on by Lord Uxbridge, +came<br> +thundering down the road, riding down with their gigantic force +the mailed<br> +cuirassiers of France. Borne along with the retreating torrents, +I was<br> +carried on amidst the densely commingled mass. The British +cavalry, which,<br> +like the lightnings that sever the thunder-cloud, pierces through +in every<br> +direction, plunged madly upon us. The roar of battle grew louder, +as hand<br> +to hand they fought. Milhaud's Heavy Dragoons, with the 4th +Lancers, came<br> +up at a gallop. Picton presses forward, waving his plumed hat +above his<br> +head; his proud eye flashes with the fire of victory. That moment +is his<br> +last. Struck in the forehead by a musket-ball, he falls dead from +the<br> +saddle; and the wild yell of the Irish regiments, as they ring +his<br> +death-cry, are the last sounds which he hears. Meanwhile the Life +Guards<br> +are among us; prisoners of rank are captured on every side; and +I, seizing<br> +the moment, throw myself among the ranks of my countrymen, and am +borne to<br> +the rear with the retiring squadrons.</p> + +<p>As we reached the crest of the hill above the road, a loud +cheer in the<br> +valley beneath us burst forth, and from the midst of the dense +smoke a<br> +bright and pointed flame shot up towards the sky. It was the +farm-house La<br> +Haye Sainte, which the French had succeeded in setting fire to +with hot<br> +shot. For some time past the ammunition of the corps that held it +had<br> +failed, and a dropping irregular musketry was the only reply to +the<br> +incessant rattle of the enemy. As the smoke cleared away we +discovered that<br> +the French had carried the position; and as no quarter was given +in that<br> +deadly hand-to-hand conflict, not one returned to our ranks to +toll the<br> +tale of their defeat.</p> + +<p>"This is the officer that I spoke of," said an aide-decamp, as +he rode up<br> +to where I was standing bare-headed and without a sword. "He has +just made<br> +his escape from the French lines, and will be able to give your +lordship<br> +some information."</p> + +<p>The handsome features and gorgeous costume of Lord Uxbridge +were known<br> +to me; but I was not aware, till afterward, that a +soldier-like,<br> +resolute-looking officer beside him was General Graham. It was +the latter<br> +who first addressed me.</p> + +<p>"Are you aware, sir," said he, "if Grouchy's force have +arrived?"</p> + +<p>"They have not; on the contrary, shortly before I escaped, an +aide-de-camp<br> +was despatched to Gembloux, to hasten his coming. And the troops, +for they<br> +must be troops, were debouching from the wood yonder. They seem +to form a<br> +junction with the corps to the right; they are the Prussians. +They arrived<br> +there before noon from St. Lambert, and are part of Bulow's +Corps. Count<br> +Lobau and his division of ten thousand men were despatched, about +an hour<br> +since, to hold them in check."</p> + +<p>"This is great news," said Lord Uxbridge. "Fitzroy must know +it at once."</p> + +<p>So saying, he dashed spurs into his horse, and soon +disappeared amidst the<br> +crowd on the hill-top.</p> + +<p>"You had better see the duke, sir," said Graham. "Your +information is too<br> +important to be delayed. Captain Calvert, let this officer have a +horse;<br> +his own is too tired to go much farther."</p> + +<p>"And a cap, I beg of you," added I in an undertone, "for I +have already<br> +found a sabre."</p> + +<p>By a slightly circuitous route we reached the road, upon which +a mass<br> +of dismounted artillery-carts, baggage-wagons, and tumbrils were +heaped<br> +together as a barricade against the attack of the French +dragoons, who more<br> +than once had penetrated to the very crest of our position. Close +to this<br> +and on a little rising ground, from which a view of the entire +field<br> +extended, from Hougoumont to the far left, the Duke of Wellington +stood<br> +surrounded by his staff. His eye was bent upon the valley before +him, where<br> +the advancing columns of Ney's attack still pressed onward; while +the fire<br> +of sixty great guns poured death and carnage into his lines. The +Second<br> +Belgian Division, routed and broken, had fallen back upon the +27th<br> +Regiment, who had merely time to throw themselves into square, +when<br> +Milhaud's cuirassiers, armed with their terrible long, straight +swords,<br> +came sweeping down upon them. A line of impassable bayonets, a +living<br> +<i>chevaux-de-frise</i> of the best blood of Britain, stood firm and +motionless<br> +before the shock. The French <i>mitraille</i> played mercilessly on +the ranks;<br> +but the chasms were filled up like magic, and in vain the bold +horsemen of<br> +Gaul galloped round the bristling files. At length the word, +"Fire!" was<br> +heard within the square, and as the bullets at pistol-range +rattled upon<br> +them, the cuirass afforded them no defence against the deadly +volley. Men<br> +and horses rolled indiscriminately upon the earth. Then would +come a charge<br> +of our clashing squadrons, who, riding recklessly upon the foe, +were in<br> +their turn to be repulsed by numbers, and fresh attacks poured +down upon<br> +our unshaken infantry.</p> + +<p>"That column yonder is wavering. Why does he not bring up his +supporting<br> +squadrons?" inquired the duke, pointing to a Belgian regiment of +light<br> +dragoons, who were formed in the same brigade with the 7th +Hussars.</p> + +<p>"He refuses to oppose his light cavalry to cuirassiers, my +lord," said an<br> +aide-de-camp, who had just returned from the division in +question.</p> + +<p>"Tell him to march his men off the ground," said the duke in a +quiet and<br> +impassive tone.</p> + +<p>In less than ten minutes the "Belgian regiment" was seen to +defile from the<br> +mass and take the road to Brussels, to increase the panic of that +city by<br> +circulating and strengthening the report that the English were +beaten, and<br> +Napoleon in full march upon the capital.</p> + +<p>"What's Ney's force; can you guess, sir?" said the Duke of +Wellington,<br> +turning to me.</p> + +<p>"About twelve thousand men, my lord."</p> + +<p>"Are the Guard among them?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; the Guard are in reserve above La Belle +Alliance."</p> + +<p>"In what part of the field is Bonaparte?"</p> + +<p>"Nearly opposite to where we stand."</p> + +<p>"I told you, gentlemen, Hougoumont never was the great attack. +The battle<br> +must be decided here," pointing as he spoke to the plain beneath +us, where<br> +Ney still poured on his devoted columns, where yet the French +cavalry rode<br> +down upon our firm squares.</p> + +<p>As he spoke, an aide-de-camp rode up from the valley.</p> + +<p>"The Ninety-second requires support, my lord. They cannot +maintain their<br> +position half an hour longer with out it."</p> + +<p>"Have they given way, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No—"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, they must stand where they are. I hear cannon +towards the<br> +left; yonder, near Frischermont."</p> + +<p>At this moment the light cavalry swept past the base of the +hill on which<br> +we stood, hotly followed by the French heavy cuirassier brigade. +Three<br> +of our guns were taken; and the cheering of the French infantry, +as they<br> +advanced to the charge, presaged their hope of victory.</p> + +<p>"Do it, then," said the duke, in reply to some whispered +question of Lord<br> +Uxbridge; and shortly after the heavy trot of advancing squadrons +was heard<br> +behind.</p> + +<p>They were the Life Guards and the Blues, who, with the 1st +Dragoon Guards<br> +and the Enniskilleners, were formed into close column.</p> + +<p>"I know the ground, my lord," said I to Lord Uxbridge.</p> + +<p>"Come along, sir, come along," said he, as he threw his hussar +jacket<br> +loosely behind him to give freedom to his sword arm. "Forward, my +men,<br> +forward; but steady, hold your horses in hand, threes about, and +together,<br> +charge!</p> + +<p>"Charge!" he shouted; while as the word flew from squadron to +squadron,<br> +each horseman bent upon his saddle, and that mighty mass, as +though<br> +instinct with but one spirit, dashed like a thunderbolt upon the +column<br> +beneath them. The French, blown and exhausted, inferior besides +in weight,<br> +both of man and horse, offered but a short resistance. As the +tall corn<br> +bends beneath the sweeping hurricane, wave succeeding wave, so +did the<br> +steel-clad squadrons of France fall before the nervous arm of +Britain's<br> +cavalry. Onward they went, carrying death and ruin before them, +and never<br> +stayed their course until the guns were recaptured, and the +cuirassiers,<br> +repulsed, disordered, and broken, had retired beneath the +protection of<br> +their artillery.</p> + +<p>There was, as a brilliant and eloquent writer on the subject +mentions, a<br> +terrible sameness in the whole of this battle. Incessant charges +of cavalry<br> +upon the squares of our infantry, whose sole manoeuvre consisted +in either<br> +deploying into line to resist the attack of the infantry, or +falling back<br> +into square when the cavalry advanced; performing those two +evolutions<br> +under the devastating fire of artillery, before the unflinching +heroism of<br> +that veteran infantry whose glories have been reaped upon the +blood-stained<br> +fields of Austerlitz, Marengo, and Wagram, or opposing an +unbroken front<br> +to the whirlwind swoop of infuriated cavalry. Such were the +enduring and<br> +devoted services demanded from the English troops; and such they +failed not<br> +to render. Once or twice had temper nearly failed them, and the +cry ran<br> +through the ranks, "Are we never to move forward? Only let us at +them!" But<br> +the word was not yet spoken which was to undam the pent-up +torrent, and<br> +bear down with unrelenting vengeance upon the now exulting +columns of the<br> +enemy.</p> + +<p>It was six o'clock; the battle had continued with unchanged +fortune for<br> +three hours. The French, masters of La Haye Sainte, could never +advance<br> +farther into our position. They had gained the orchard of +Hougoumont; but<br> +the château was still held by the British Guards, although +its blazing<br> +roof and crumbling walls made its occupation rather the desperate +stand of<br> +unflinching valor than the maintenance of an important position. +The smoke<br> +which hung upon the field rolled in slow and heavy masses back +upon the<br> +French lines, and gradually discovered to our view the entire of +the army.<br> +We quickly perceived that a change was taking place in their +position. The<br> +troops, which on their left stretched far beyond Hougoumont, were +now moved<br> +nearer to the centre. The attack upon the château seemed +less vigorously<br> +supported, while the oblique direction of their right wing, +which, pivoting<br> +upon Planchenoit, opposed a face to the Prussians, all denoted a +change in<br> +their order of battle. It was now the hour when Napoleon, at last +convinced<br> +that nothing but the carnage he could no longer support could +destroy the,<br> +unyielding ranks of British infantry; that although Hougoumont +had been<br> +partially, La Haye Sainte completely won; that upon the right of +the road<br> +the farm-houses Papolotte and La Haye were nearly surrounded by +his troops,<br> +which with any other army must prove the forerunner of +defeat,—yet still<br> +the victory was beyond his grasp. The bold stratagems, whose +success the<br> +experience of a life had proved, were here to be found powerless. +The<br> +decisive manoeuvre of carrying one important point of the enemy's +lines, of<br> +turning him upon the flank, or piercing him through the centre, +were here<br> +found impracticable. He might launch his avalanche of grape-shot, +he might<br> +pour down his crashing columns of cavalry, he might send forth +the iron<br> +storm of his brave infantry; but though death in every shape +heralded their<br> +approach, still were others found to fill the fallen ranks, and +feed with<br> +their hearts' blood the unslaked thirst for slaughter. Well might +the<br> +gallant leader of this gallant host, as he watched the reckless +onslaught<br> +of the untiring enemy, and looked upon the unflinching few who, +bearing the<br> +proud badge of Britain, alone sustained the fight, well might he +exclaim,<br> +"Night or Blucher!"</p> + +<p>It was now seven o'clock, when a dark mass was seen to form +upon the<br> +heights above the French centre, and divide into three gigantic +columns,<br> +of which the right occupied the Brussels road. These were the +reserves,<br> +consisting of the Old and Young Guards, and amounting to +twelve<br> +thousand,—the <i>élite</i> of the French army,—reserved by +the Emperor for<br> +a great <i>coup-de-main</i>. These veterans of a hundred battles had +been<br> +stationed from the beginning of the day, inactive spectators of +the fight;<br> +their hour was now come, and with a shout of "Vive l'Empereur!" +which rose<br> +triumphantly over the din and crash of battle, they began their +march.<br> +Meanwhile aides-de-camp galloped along the lines announcing the +arrival of<br> +Grouchy, to reanimate the drooping spirits of the men; for at +last a doubt<br> +of victory was breaking upon the minds of those who never before, +in the<br> +most adverse hour of fortune, deemed <i>his</i> star could be set that +led them<br> +on to glory.</p> + +<p>"They are coming; the attack will be made on the centre, my +lord," said<br> +Lord Fitzroy Somerset, as he directed his glass upon the column. +Scarcely<br> +had he spoken when the telescope fell from his hand, as his arm, +shattered<br> +by a French bullet, fell motionless to his side.</p> + +<p>"I see it," was the cool reply of the duke, as he ordered the +Guards to<br> +deploy into line and lie down behind the ridge, which now the +French<br> +artillery had found the range of, and were laboring at their +guns. In front<br> +of them the Fifty-second, Seventy-first, and Ninety-fifth were +formed; the<br> +artillery stationed above and partly upon the road, loaded with +grape, and<br> +waited but the word to open.</p> + +<p>It was an awful, a dreadful moment. The Prussian cannon +thundered on our<br> +left; but so desperate was the French resistance, they made but +little<br> +progress. The dark columns of the Guard had now commenced the +ascent, and<br> +the artillery ceased their fire as the bayonets of the grenadiers +showed<br> +themselves upon the slope. Then began that tremendous cheer from +right<br> +to left of our line, which those who heard never can forget. It +was the<br> +impatient, long-restrained burst of unslaked vengeance. With the +instinct<br> +which valor teaches, they knew the hour of trial was come; and +that wild<br> +cry flew from rank to rank, echoing from the, blood-stained walls +of<br> +Hougoumont to the far-off valley of La Papelotte. "They come! +they come!"<br> +was the cry; and the shout of "Vive l'Empereur!" mingled with the +out-burst<br> +of the British line.</p> + +<p>Under an overwhelming shower of grape, to which succeeded a +charge of<br> +cavalry of the Imperial Guard, the head of Ney's column fired its +volley<br> +and advanced with the bayonet. The British artillery now opened +at half<br> +range, and although the plunging fire scathed and devasted the +dark ranks<br> +of the Guard, on they came, Ney himself on foot at their head. +Twice the<br> +leading division of that gallant column turned completely round, +as the<br> +withering fire wasted and consumed them; but they were resolved +to win.</p> + +<p>Already they gained the crest of the hill, and the first line +of the<br> +British were falling back before them. The artillery closes up; +the<br> +flanking fire from the guns upon the road opens upon them; the +head of<br> +their column breaks like a shell; the duke seizes the moment, and +advances<br> +on foot towards the ridge.</p> + +<p>"Up, Guards, and at them!" he cried.</p> + +<p>The hour of triumph and vengeance had arrived. In a moment the +Guards were<br> +on their feet; one volley was poured in; the bayonets were +brought to<br> +the charge; they closed upon the enemy; then was seen the most +dreadful<br> +struggle that the history of all war can present. Furious +with<br> +long-restrained passion, the Guards rushed upon the leading +divisions; the<br> +Seventy-first and Ninety-fifth and Twenty-sixth overlapped them +on the<br> +flanks. Their generals fell thickly on every side; Michel, +Jamier, and<br> +Mallet are killed; Friant lies wounded upon the ground; Ney, his +dress<br> +pierced and ragged with balls, shouts still to advance; but the +leading<br> +files waver; they fall back; the supporting divisions thicken; +confusion,<br> +panic succeeds. The British press down; the cavalry come +galloping up to<br> +their assistance; and at last, pell-mell, overwhelmed and beaten, +the<br> +French fell back upon the Old Guard. This was the decisive moment +of the<br> +day; the duke closed his glass, as he said,—</p> + +<p>"The field is won. Order the whole line to advance."</p> + +<p>On they came, four deep, and poured like a torrent from the +height.</p> + +<p>"Let the Life Guards charge them," said the duke; but every +aide-de-camp on<br> +his staff was wounded, and I myself brought the order to Lord +Uxbridge.</p> + +<p>Lord Uxbridge had already anticipated his orders, and bore +down with four<br> +regiments of heavy cavalry upon the French centre. The Prussian +artillery<br> +thundered upon their flank and at their rear. The British bayonet +was in<br> +their front; while a panic fear spread through their ranks, and +the cry of<br> +"Sauve qui peut!" resounded on all sides. In vain Ney, the +bravest of the<br> +brave, in vain Soult, Bertrand, Gourgaud, and Labedoyère, +burst from the<br> +broken, disorganized mass, and called on them to stand fast. A +battalion<br> +of the Old Guard, with Cambronne at their head, alone obeyed the +summons;<br> +forming into square, they stood between the pursuers and their +prey,<br> +offering themselves a sacrifice to the tarnished honor of their +arms. To<br> +the order to surrender they answered with a cry of defiance; and +as our<br> +cavalry, flushed and elated with victory, rode round their +bristling<br> +ranks, no quailing look, no craven spirit was there. The Emperor +himself<br> +endeavored to repair the disaster; he rode with lightning speed +hither and<br> +thither, commanding, ordering, nay, imploring, too; but already +the night<br> +was falling, the confusion became each moment more inextricable, +and the<br> +effort was a fruitless one. A regiment of the Guards, and two +batteries<br> +were in reserve behind Planchenoit. He threw them rapidly into +position;<br> +but the overwhelming impulse of flight drove the mass upon them, +and they<br> +were carried away upon the torrent of the beaten army. No sooner +did the<br> +Emperor see this his last hope desert him, than he dismounted +from his<br> +horse, and drawing his sword, threw himself into a square, which +the first<br> +regiment of Chasseurs of the Old Guard had formed with a remnant +of the<br> +battalion. Jerome followed him, as he called out,—</p> + +<p>"You are right, brother; here should perish all who bear the +name of<br> +Bonaparte."</p> + +<p>The same moment the Prussian light artillery rend the ranks +asunder, and<br> +the cavalry charge down upon the scattered fragments. A few of +his staff,<br> +who never left him, place the Emperor upon a horse and fly +through the<br> +death-dealing artillery and musketry. A squadron of the Life +Guards, to<br> +which I had attached myself, came up at the moment, and as +Blucher's<br> +hussars rode madly here and there, where so lately the crowd of +staff<br> +officers had denoted the presence of Napoleon, expressed their +rage and<br> +disappointment in curses and cries of vengeance.</p> + +<p>Cambronne's battalion stood yet unbroken, and seemed to defy +every attack<br> +that was brought against them. To the second summons to surrender +they<br> +replied as indignantly as at first; and Vivian's Brigade was +ordered to<br> +charge them. A cloud of British horse bore down on every face of +the<br> +devoted square; but firm as in their hour of victory, the heroes +of Marengo<br> +never quailed; and twice the bravest blood of Britian recoiled, +baffled and<br> +dismayed. There was a pause for some minutes, and even then, as +we surveyed<br> +our broken and blood-stained squadrons, a cry of admiration burst +from our<br> +ranks at the gallant bearing of that glorious infantry. Suddenly +the tramp<br> +of approaching cavalry was heard; I turned my head and saw two +squadrons of<br> +the Second Life Guards. The officer who led them on was +bare-headed; his<br> +long dark hair streaming wildly behind him, and upon his pale +features,<br> +to which not even the headlong enthusiasm of battle had lent one +touch of<br> +color. He rode straight to where I was standing, his dark eyes +fixed upon<br> +me with a look so fierce, so penetrating, that I could not look +away.<br> +The features, save in this respect, had almost a look of idiocy. +It was<br> +Hammersley.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" he cried at last, "I have sought you out the entire day, +but in vain.<br> +It is not yet too late. Give me your hand, boy. You once called +on me to<br> +follow <i>you</i>, and I did not refuse; I trust you'll do the like by +<i>me</i>. Is<br> +it not so?"</p> + + +<a name="0471"></a> +<img alt="0471.jpg (155K)" src="0471.jpg" height="533" width="784"> + +<p>[DEATH OF HAMMERSLEY.]</p> +<br><br> +<p>A terrible perception of his meaning shot through my mind as I +clasped his<br> +clay-cold hand in mine, and for a moment I did not speak.</p> + +<p>"I hoped for better than this," said he, bitterly, and as a +glance of<br> +withering scorn flashed from his eye. "I did trust that he who +was<br> +preferred before me was at least not a coward."</p> + +<p>As the word fell from his lips I nearly leaped from my saddle, +and<br> +mechanically raised my sabre to cleave him on the spot.</p> + +<p>"Then follow me!" shouted he, pointing with his sword to the +glistening<br> +ranks before us.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" said I, with a voice hoarse with passion, while +burying my spurs<br> +in my horse's flanks, I sprang on a full length before him, and +bore down<br> +upon the enemy. A loud shout, a deafening volley, the agonizing +cry of the<br> +wounded and the dying, were all I heard, as my horse, rearing +madly upward,<br> +plunged twice into the air, and then fell dead upon the earth, +crushing me<br> +beneath his cumbrous weight, lifeless and insensible.</p> + +<p>The day was breaking; the cold, gray light of morning was +struggling<br> +through the misty darkness, when I once more recovered my +consciousness.<br> +There are moments in life when memory can so suddenly conjure up +the whole<br> +past before us, that there is scarcely time for a doubt ere the +disputed<br> +reality is palpable to our senses. Such was this to me. One +hurried glance<br> +upon the wide, bleak plain before me, and every circumstance of +the<br> +battle-field was present to my recollection. The dismounted guns, +the<br> +broken wagons, the heaps of dead or dying, the straggling parties +who on<br> +foot or horseback traversed the field, and the dark litters which +carried<br> +the wounded, all betokened the sad evidences of the preceding +day's battle.</p> + +<p>Close around me where I lay the ground was marked with the +bodies of our<br> +cavalry, intermixed with the soldiers of the Old Guard. The broad +brow and<br> +stalwart chest of the Saxon lay bleaching beside the bronzed and +bearded<br> +warrior of Gaul, while the torn-up ground attested the +desperation of that<br> +struggle which closed the day.</p> + +<p>As my eye ranged over this harrowing spectacle, a dreadful +anxiety shot<br> +through me as I asked myself whose had been the victory. A +certain confused<br> +impression of flight and of pursuit remained in my mind; but at +the moment,<br> +the circumstances of my own position in the early part of the day +increased<br> +the difficulty of reflection, and left me in a state of intense +and<br> +agonizing uncertainty. Although not wounded, I had been so +crushed by my<br> +fall that it was not without pain I got upon my legs. I soon +perceived<br> +that the spot around me had not yet been visited by those +vultures of the<br> +battle-field who strip alike the dead and dying. The distance of +the place<br> +from where the great conflict of the battle had occurred was +probably the<br> +reason; and now, as the straggling sunbeams fell upon the earth, +I could<br> +trace the helmet of the Enniskilleners, or the tall bearskin of +the Scotch<br> +Greys, lying in thick confusion where the steel cuirass and long +sword of<br> +the French dragoons showed the fight had been hottest. As I +turned my eyes<br> +hither and thither I could see no living thing near me. In every +attitude<br> +of struggling agony they lay around; some buried beneath their +horses, some<br> +bathed in blood, some, with clinched hands and darting eyeballs, +seemed<br> +struggling even in death; but all was still,—not a word, not a +sigh, not a<br> +groan was there. I was turning to leave the spot, and uncertain +which way<br> +to direct my steps, looked once more around, when my glance +rested upon<br> +the pale and marble features of one who, even in that moment of +doubt and<br> +difficulty, there was no mistaking. His coat, torn widely open, +was grasped<br> +in either hand, while his breast was shattered with balls and +bathed in<br> +gore. Gashed and mutilated as he lay, still the features wore no +trace of<br> +suffering; cold, pale, motionless, but with the tranquil look of +sleep, his<br> +eyelids were closed, and his half-parted lips seemed still to +quiver in<br> +life. I knelt down beside him; I took his hand in mine; I bent +over and<br> +whispered his name; I placed my hand upon his heart, where even +still the<br> +life blood was warm,—but he was dead. Poor Hammersley! His was a +gallant<br> +soul; and as I looked upon his blood-stained corpse, my tears +fell fast and<br> +hot upon his brow to think how far I had myself been the cause of +a life<br> +blighted in its hope, and a death like his.</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER LIV.</p> + +<p>BRUSSELS.</p> + +<p>Once more I would entreat my reader's indulgence for the +prolixity of<br> +a narrative which has grown beneath my hands to a length I had +never<br> +intended. This shall, however, be the last time for either the +offence or<br> +the apology. My story is now soon concluded.</p> + +<p>After wandering about for some time, uncertain which way to +take, I at<br> +length reached the Charleroi road, now blocked by carriages and +wagons<br> +conveying the wounded towards Brussels. Here I learned, for the +first time,<br> +that we had gained the battle, and heard of the total +annihilation of the<br> +French army, and the downfall of the Emperor. On arriving at the +farm-house<br> +of Mont St. Jean, I found a number of officers, whose wounds +prevented<br> +their accompanying the army in its forward movement. One of them, +with whom<br> +I was slightly acquainted, informed me that General Dashwood had +spent<br> +the greater part of the night upon the field in search of me and +that my<br> +servant Mike was in a state of distraction at my absence that +bordered on<br> +insanity. While he was speaking, a burst of laughter and the +tones of a<br> +well-remembered voice behind attracted my attention.</p> + +<p>"Made a very good thing of it, upon my life. A +dressing-case,—not gold,<br> +you know, but silver-gilt,—a dozen knives with blood-stone +handles, and a<br> +little coffee-pot, with the imperial arms,—not to speak of three +hundred<br> +Naps in a green silk purse—Lord! it reminds me of the Peninsula. +Do you<br> +know those Prussians are mere barbarians, haven't a notion of +civilized<br> +war. Bless your heart, my fellows in the Legion would have +ransacked the<br> +whole coach, from the boot to the sword-case, in half the time +they took to<br> +cut down the coachman."</p> + +<p>"The major, as I live!" said I. "How goes it, Major?"</p> + +<p>"Eh, Charley! when did you turn up? Delighted see you. They +told me you<br> +were badly wounded or killed or something of that kind. But I +should have<br> +paid the little debt to your executors all the same."</p> + +<p>"All the same, no doubt, Major; but where, in Heaven's name, +did you fall<br> +upon that mine of pillage you have just been talking of?"</p> + +<p>"In the Emperor's carriage, to be sure, boy. While the duke +was watching<br> +all day the advance of Ney's column and keeping an anxious +look-out for the<br> +Prussians, I sat in a window in this old farm-house, and never +took my eye<br> +off the garden at Planchenoit. I saw the imperial carriage there +in the<br> +morning; it was there also at noon; and they never put the horses +to it<br> +till past seven in the evening. The roads were very heavy, and +the crowd<br> +was great. I judged the pace couldn't be a fast one; and with +four of the<br> +Enniskilleners I charged it like a man. The Prussians, however, +had the<br> +start of us; and if they hadn't thought, from my seat on +horseback and<br> +my general appearance, that I was Lord Uxbridge, I should have +got but a<br> +younger son's portion. However, I got in first, filled my pockets +with a<br> +few little <i>souvenirs</i> of the Emperor, and then laying my hands +upon what<br> +was readiest, got out in time to escape being shot; for two of +Blucher's<br> +hussars, thinking I must be the Emperor, fired at me through the +window."</p> + +<p>"What an escape you had!"</p> + +<p>"Hadn't I though? Fortunate, too, my Enniskilleners saw the +whole thing;<br> +for I intend to make the circumstance the ground of an +application for a<br> +pension. Hark ye, Charley, don't say anything about the +coffee-pot and<br> +the knives. The duke, you know, has strange notions of his own on +these<br> +matters. But isn't that your fellow fighting his way yonder?"</p> + +<p>"Tear and ages! don't howld me—that's himself,—devil a one +else!"</p> + +<p>This exclamation came from Mickey Free, who, with his dress +torn and<br> +dishevelled, his eyes bloodshot and strained, was upsetting and +elbowing<br> +all before him, as he made his way towards me through the +crowd.</p> + +<p>"Take that fellow to the guard-house! Lay hold of him, +Sergeant! Knock him<br> +down! Who is the scoundrel?"</p> + +<p>Such were the greetings he met with on every side. Regardless +of everything<br> +and everybody, he burst his way through the dense mass.</p> + +<p>"Oh, murther! oh, Mary! oh, Moses! Is he safe here after +all?"</p> + +<p>The poor fellow could say no more, but burst into a torrent of +tears.<br> +A roar of laughter around him soon, however, turned the current +of his<br> +emotions; when, dashing the scalding drops from his eyelids, he +glared<br> +fiercely like a tiger on every side.</p> + +<p>"Ye're laughing at me, are ye," cried he, "bekase I love the +hand that fed<br> +me, and the master that stood to me? But let us see now which of +us two has<br> +the stoutest heart,—you with your grin on you, or myself with +the salt<br> +tears on my face."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, he sprang upon them like a madman, striking right +and left at<br> +everything before him. Down they went beneath his blows, levelled +with the<br> +united strength of energy and passion, till at length, rushing +upon him<br> +in numbers, he was overpowered and thrown to the ground. It was +with some<br> +difficulty I accomplished his rescue; for his enemies felt by no +means<br> +assured how far his amicable propensities for the future could be +relied<br> +upon; and, indeed, Mike himself had a most constitutional +antipathy to<br> +binding himself by any pledge. With some persuasion, however, I +reconciled<br> +all parties; and having, by the kindness of a brother officer, +provided<br> +myself with a couple of troop horses, I mounted, and set out for +Brussels,<br> +followed by Mickey, who had effectually cured his auditory of any +tendency<br> +to laughter at his cost.</p> + +<p>As I rode up to the Belle Vue, I saw Sir George Dashwood in +the window. He<br> +was speaking to the ambassador, Lord Clancarty, but the moment he +caught my<br> +eye, he hurried down to meet me.</p> + +<p>"Charley, safe,—safe, my boy! Now am I really happy. The +glorious day had<br> +been one of sorrow to me for the rest of my life had anything +happened to<br> +you. Come up with me at once; I have more than one friend here +who longs to<br> +thank you."</p> + +<p>So saying, he hurried me along; and before I could well +remember where I<br> +was, introduced me to a number of persons in the saloon.</p> + +<p>"Ah, very happy to know you, sir," said Lord Clancarty. +"Perhaps we had<br> +better walk this way. My friend Dashwood has explained to me the +very<br> +pressing reasons there are for this step; and I, for my part, see +no<br> +objection."</p> + +<p>"What, in Heaven's name, can he mean?" thought I, as he +stopped short,<br> +expecting me to say something, while, in utter confusion, I +smiled,<br> +simpered, and muttered some common-places.</p> + +<p>"Love and war, sir," resumed the ambassador, "very admirable +associates,<br> +and you certainly have contrived to couple them most closely +together. A<br> +long attachment, I believe?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, a very long attachment," stammered I, not knowing +which of us<br> +was about to become insane.</p> + +<p>"A very charming person, indeed; I have seen the lady," +replied his<br> +lordship, as he opened the door of a small room, and beckoned me +to follow.<br> +The table was covered with paper and materials for writing; but +before<br> +I had time to ask for any explanation of this unaccountable +mystery, he<br> +added, "Oh, I was forgetting; this must be witnessed. Wait one +moment."</p> + +<p>With these words he left the room, while I, amazed and +thunderstruck,<br> +vacillating between fear and hope, trembling lest the delusive +glimmering<br> +of happiness should give way at every moment, and yet totally +unable to<br> +explain by any possible supposition how fortune could so far have +favored<br> +me.</p> + +<p>While yet I stood hesitating and uncertain, the door opened, +and the<br> +senhora entered. She looked a little pale though not less +beautiful than<br> +ever; and her features wore a slight trace of seriousness, which +rather<br> +heightened than took from the character of her loveliness.</p> + +<p>"I heard you had come, Chevalier," said she, "and so I ran +down to shake<br> +hands with you. We may not meet again for some time."</p> + +<p>"How so, Senhora? You are not going to leave us, I trust?"</p> + +<p>"Then you have not seen Fred. Oh, I forgot; you know nothing +of our plans."</p> + +<p>"Here we are at last," said the ambassador, as he came in +followed by Sir<br> +George, Power, and two other officers. "Ah, <i>ma belle</i>, how +fortunate to<br> +find you here! I assure you, it is a matter of no small +difficulty to get<br> +people together at such a time as this."</p> + +<p>"Charley, my dear friend," cried Power, "I scarcely hoped to +have had a<br> +shake hands with you ere I left."</p> + +<p>"Do, Fred, tell me what all this means? I am in a perfect maze +of doubt and<br> +difficulty, and cannot comprehend a word I hear about me."</p> + +<p>"Faith, my boy, I have little time for explanation. The man +who was at<br> +Waterloo yesterday, is to be married to-morrow, and to sail for +India in a<br> +week, has quite enough upon his hands."</p> + +<p>"Colonel Power, you will please to put your signature here," +said Lord<br> +Clancarty, addressing himself to me.</p> + +<p>"If you will allow me," said Fred, "I had rather represent +myself."</p> + +<p>"Is not this the colonel, then? Why, confound it, I have been +wishing him<br> +joy the last quarter of an hour!"</p> + +<p>A burst of laughter from the whole party, in which it was +pretty evident I<br> +took no part, followed this announcement.</p> + +<p>"And so you are not Colonel Power? Nor going to be married, +either?"</p> + +<p>I stammered out something, while, overwhelmed with confusion, +I stooped<br> +down to sign the paper. Scarcely had I done so, when a renewed +burst of<br> +laughter broke from the party.</p> + +<p>"Nothing but blunders, upon my soul," said the ambassador, as +he handed the<br> +paper from one to another.</p> + +<p>What was my confusion to discover that instead of Charles +O'Malley, I had<br> +written the name of Lucy Dashwood. I could bear no more. The +laughing and<br> +raillery of my friends came upon my wounded and irritated +feelings like the<br> +most poignant sarcasm. I seized my cap and rushed from the room. +Desirous<br> +of escaping from all that knew me, anxious to bury my agitated +and<br> +distracted thoughts in solitude and quiet, I opened the first +door before<br> +me, and seeing it an empty and unoccupied room, throw myself upon +a sofa,<br> +and buried my head within my hands. Oh, how often had the phantom +of<br> +happiness passed within my reach, but still glided from my grasp! +How often<br> +had I beheld the goal I aimed at, as it were before me, and the +next moment<br> +all the bleak reality of my evil fortune was lowering around +me!</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lucy, Lucy!" I exclaimed aloud, "but for you and a few +words<br> +carelessly spoken, I had never trod that path of ambition whose +end has<br> +been the wreck of all my happiness. But for you, I had never +loved so<br> +fondly; I had never filled my mind with one image which, +excluding every<br> +other thought, leaves no pleasure but in it alone. Yes, Lucy, but +for you I<br> +should have gone tranquilly down the stream of life with naught +of grief or<br> +care, save such as are inseparable from the passing chances of +mortality;<br> +loved, perhaps, and cared for by some one who would have deemed +it no<br> +disgrace to have linked her fortune to my own. But for you, and I +had never<br> +been—"</p> + +<p>"A soldier, you would say," whispered a soft voice, as a light +hand gently<br> +touched my shoulder. "I had come," continued she, "to thank you +for a gift<br> +no gratitude can repay,—my father's life; but truly, I did not +think to<br> +hear the words you have spoken; nor having heard them, can I feel +their<br> +justice. No, Mr. O'Malley, deeply grateful as I am to you for the +service<br> +you once rendered myself, bound as I am by every tie of +thankfulness, by<br> +the greater one to my father, yet do I feel that in the impulse I +had given<br> +to your life, if so be that to me you owe it, I have done more to +repay<br> +my debt to you, than by all the friendship, all the esteem I owe +you; if,<br> +indeed, by my means, you became a soldier, if my few and random +words<br> +raised within your breast that fire of ambition which has been +your<br> +beacon-light to honor and to glory, then am I indeed proud."</p> + +<p>"Alas, alas, Lucy!—Miss Dashwood, I would say,—forgive me, +if I know not<br> +the very words I utter. How has my career fulfilled the promise +that gave<br> +it birth? For you, and you only, to gain your affection, to win +your heart,<br> +I became a soldier; hardship, danger, even death itself were +courted by me,<br> +supported by the one thought that you had cared for or had pitied +me; and<br> +now, and now—"</p> + +<p>"And now," said she, while her eyes beamed upon me with a very +flood of<br> +tenderness, "is it nothing that in my woman's heart I have glowed +with<br> +pride at triumphs I could read of, but dared not share in? Is it +nothing<br> +that you have lent to my hours of solitude and of musing the +fervor of that<br> +career, the maddening enthusiasm of that glorious path my sex +denied me?<br> +I have followed you in my thoughts across the burning plains of +the<br> +Peninsula, through the long hours of the march in the dreary +nights, even<br> +to the battle-field. I have thought of you; I have dreamed of +you; I have<br> +prayed for you."</p> + +<p>"Alas, Lucy, but not loved me!"</p> + +<p>The very words, as I spoke them, sank with a despairing +cadence upon my<br> +heart. Her hand, which had fallen upon mine, trembled violently; +I pressed<br> +my lips upon it, but she moved it not. I dared to look up; her +head was<br> +turned away, but her heaving bosom betrayed her emotion.</p> + +<p>"No, no, Lucy," cried I, passionately, "I will not deceive +myself; I ask<br> +for more than you can give me. Farewell!"</p> + +<p>Now, and for the last time, I pressed her hand once more to my +lips; my hot<br> +tears fell fast upon it. I turned to go, and threw one last look +upon her.<br> +Our eyes met; I cannot say what it was, but in a moment the whole +current<br> +of my thoughts was changed; her look was bent upon me beaming +with softness<br> +and affection, her hand gently pressed my own, and her lips +murmured my<br> +name.</p> + +<p>The door burst open at this moment, and Sir George Dashwood +appeared. Lucy<br> +turned one fleeting look upon her father, and fell fainting into +my arms.</p> + +<p>"God bless you, my boy!" said the old general, as he hurriedly +wiped a tear<br> +from his eye; "I am now, indeed, a happy father."</p> + + +<a name="0481"></a> +<img alt="0481.jpg (184K)" src="0481.jpg" height="1043" width="665"> + +<p>[THE WELCOME HOME.]</p> + +<br><br><br><br><p>CHAPTER LV.</p> + +<p>CONCLUSION.</p> + +<p> * * * * *</p> + +<p>The sun had set about half an hour. Already were the dusky +shadows blending<br> +with the faint twilight, as on a lovely July evening we entered +the little<br> +village of Portumna,—we, I say; for Lucy was beside me. For the +last few<br> +miles of the way I had spoken little; thoughts of the many times +I had<br> +travelled that same road, in how many moods, occupied my mind; +and<br> +although, as we flew rapidly along, some well-known face would +every now<br> +and then present itself, I had but time for the recognition ere +we were<br> +past. Arousing myself from my revery, I was pointing out to Lucy +certain<br> +well-known spots in the landscape, and directing her attention to +places<br> +with the names of which she had been for some time familiar, when +suddenly<br> +a loud shout rent the air, and the next moment the carriage was +surrounded<br> +by hundreds of country people, some of whom brandished blazing +pine<br> +torches; others carried rude banners in their hands,—but all +testified<br> +the most fervent joy as they bade us welcome. The horses were +speedily<br> +unharnessed, and their places occupied by a crowd of every age +and sex,<br> +who hurried us along through the straggling street of the +village, now a<br> +perfect blaze of bonfires.</p> + +<p>Mounds of turf, bog-fir, and tar-barrels sent up their ruddy +blaze, while<br> +hundreds of wild, but happy faces, flitted around and through +them,—now<br> +dancing merrily in chorus; now plunging madly into the midst of +the fire,<br> +and scattering the red embers on every side. Pipers were there +too, mounted<br> +upon cars or turf-kishes; even the very roof-tops rang out their +merry<br> +notes; the ensigns of the little fishing-craft waved in the +breeze, and<br> +seemed to feel the general joy around them; while over the door +of the<br> +village inn stood a brilliantly lighted transparency, +representing the head<br> +of the O'Malleys holding a very scantily-robed young lady by the +tips of<br> +the fingers; but whether this damsel was intended to represent +the genius<br> +of the west, or my wife, I did not venture to inquire.</p> + +<p>If the welcome were rude, assuredly it was a hearty one. Kind +wishes and<br> +blessings poured in on every side, and even our own happiness +took a<br> +brighter coloring from the beaming looks around us. The scene was +wild;<br> +the lurid glare of the red torchlight, the frantic gestures, the +maddening<br> +shouts, the forked flames rising amidst the dark shadows of the +little<br> +hamlet, had something strange and almost unearthly in their +effect; but<br> +Lucy showed no touch of fear. It is true she grasped my hand a +little<br> +closer, but her fair cheek glowed with pleasure, and her eye +brightened as<br> +she looked; and as the rich light fell upon her beauteous +features, how<br> +many a blessing, heart-felt and deep, how many a word of fervent +praise was<br> +spoken.</p> + +<p>"Ah, then, the Lord be good to you; it's yourself has the +darling blue<br> +eyes! Look at them, Mary; ain't they like the blossoms on a +peacock's tail?<br> +Musha, may sorrow never put a crease in that beautiful cheek! The +saints<br> +watch over you, for your mouth is like a moss-rose! Be good to +her, yer<br> +honor, for she's a raal gem: devil fear you, Mr. Charles, but +you'd have a<br> +beauty!"</p> + +<p>We wended our way slowly, the crowd ever thickening around us, +until we<br> +reached the market-place. Here the procession came to a stand, +and I could<br> +perceive, by certain efforts around me, that some endeavor was +making to<br> +enforce silence.</p> + +<p>"Whisht, there! Hould your prate! Be still, Paddy! Tear an' +ages, Molly<br> +Blake, don't be holding me that way; let us hear his reverence. +Put him up<br> +on the barrel. Haven't you got a chair for the priest? Run, and +bring a<br> +table out of Mat Haley's. Here, Father—here, your reverence; +take care,<br> +will you,—you'll have the holy man in the blaze!"</p> + +<p>By this time I could perceive that my worthy old friend Father +Rush was in<br> +the midst of the mob with what appeared to be a written oration, +as long as<br> +the tail of a kite, between his hands.</p> + +<p>"Be aisy, there, ye savages! Who's tearing the back of my +neck? Howld me up<br> +straight! Steady, now—hem!"</p> + +<p>"Take the laste taste in life to wet your lips, your +riverence," said a<br> +kind voice, while at the same moment a smoking tumbler of what +seemed to be<br> +punch appeared on the heads of the crowd.</p> + +<p>"Thank ye, Judy," said the father, as he drained the cup. +"Howld the light<br> +up higher; I can't read my speech. There now, be quiet, will ye! +Here goes.<br> +Peter, stand to me now and give me the word."</p> + +<p>This admonition was addressed to a figure on a barrel behind +the priest,<br> +who, as well as the imperfect light would permit me to descry, +was the<br> +coadjutor of the parish, Peter Nolan. Silence being perfectly +established,<br> +Father Rush began:—</p> + +<p> "When Mars, the god of war, on high,<br> + Of battles first did think,<br> + He girt his sword upon his thigh,<br> + And—</p> + +<p>and—what is't, Peter?"</p> + +<p> "And mixed a drop of drink."</p> + +<p>"And mixed a drop of drink," quoth Father Rush, with great +emphasis; when<br> +scarcely were the spoken words than a loud shout of laughter +showed him his<br> +mistake, and he overturned upon the luckless curate the full vial +of his<br> +wrath.</p> + +<p>"What is it you mean, Father Peter? I'm ashamed of ye; faith, +it's may be<br> +yourself, not Mars, you are speaking of."</p> + +<p>The roar of merriment around prevented me hearing what passed; +but I could<br> +see by Peter's gestures—for it was too dark to see his +face—that he was<br> +expressing deep sorrow for the mistake. After a little time, +order was<br> +again established, and Father Rush resumed:—</p> + +<p> "But love drove battles from his head,<br> + And sick of wounds and scars,<br> + To Venus bright he knelt, and said—</p> + +<p>and said—and said; what the blazes did he say?"</p> + +<p> "I'll make you Mrs. Mars,"</p> + +<p>shouted Peter, loud enough to be heard.</p> + +<p>"Bad luck to you, Peter Nolan, it's yourself's the ruin of me +this blessed<br> +night! Here have I come four miles with my speech in my pocket, +<i>per imbres<br> +et ignes</i>." Here the crowd crossed themselves devoutly. "Ay, just +so; and<br> +he spoiled it for me entirely." At the earnest entreaty, however, +of the<br> +crowd, Father Rush, with renewed caution to his unhappy prompter, +again<br> +returned to the charge:</p> + +<p> "Thus love compelled the god to yield<br> + And seek for purer joys;<br> + He laid aside his helm and shield,<br> + And took—</p> + +<p>took—took—"</p> + +<p> "And took to corduroys,"</p> + +<p>cried Father Nolan.</p> + +<p>This time, however, the good priest's patience could endure no +more, and he<br> +levelled a blow at his luckless colleague, which, missing his +aim, lost him<br> +his own balance, and brought him down from his eminence upon the +heads of<br> +the mob.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had I recovered the perfect convulsion of laughter +into which this<br> +scene had thrown me, when the broad brim of Father Nolan's hat +appeared at<br> +the window of the carriage. Before I had time to address him, he +took it<br> +reverently from his head, disclosing in the act the +ever-memorable features<br> +of Master Frank Webber!</p> + +<p>"What! Eh! Can it be?" said I.</p> + +<p>"It is surely not—" said Lucy, hesitating at the name.</p> + +<p>"Your aunt, Miss Judy Macan, no more than the Rev. Peter +Nolan, I assure<br> +you; though, I confess, it has cost me much more to personate the +latter<br> +character than the former, and the reward by no means so +tempting."</p> + +<p>Here poor Lucy blushed deeply at the remembrance of the scene +alluded to;<br> +and anxious to turn the conversation, I asked by what stratagem +he had<br> +succeeded to the functions of the worthy Peter.</p> + +<p>"At the cost of twelve tumblers of the strongest punch ever +brewed at the<br> +O'Malley Arms. The good father gave in only ten minutes before +the oration<br> +began, and I had barely time to change my dress and mount the +barrel,<br> +without a moment's preparation."</p> + +<p>The procession once more resumed its march; and hurried along +through the<br> +town, we soon reached the avenue. Here fresh preparations for +welcoming us<br> +had also been made; but regardless of blazing tar-barrels and +burning logs,<br> +the reckless crowd pressed madly on, their wild cheers waking the +echoes as<br> +they went. We soon reached the house; but with a courtesy which +even<br> +the humblest and poorest native of this country is never devoid +of, the<br> +preparations of noise and festivity had not extended to the +precincts of<br> +the dwelling. With a tact which those of higher birth and older +blood might<br> +be proud of, they limited the excesses of their reckless and +careless<br> +merriment to their own village; so that as we approached the +terrace, all<br> +was peaceful, still, and quiet.</p> + +<p>I lifted Lucy from the carriage, and passing my arm around +her, was<br> +assisting her to mount the steps, when a bright gleam of +moonlight burst<br> +forth and lit up the whole scene. It was, indeed, an impressive +one. Among<br> +the assembled hundreds there who stood bare-headed, beneath the +cold<br> +moonlight, not a word was now spoken, not a whisper heard. I +turned from<br> +the lawn, where the tall beech-trees were throwing their gigantic +shadows,<br> +to where the river, peering at intervals through the foliage, was +flowing<br> +on its silvery track, plashing amidst the tall flaggers that +lined its<br> +banks,—all were familiar, all were dear to me from childhood. +How doubly<br> +were they so now! I lifted up my eyes towards the door, and what +was my<br> +surprise at the object before them! Seated in a large chair was +an old man,<br> +whose white hair, flowing in straggling masses upon his neck and +shoulders,<br> +stirred with the night air; his hands rested upon his knees, and +his eyes,<br> +turned slightly upward, seemed to seek for some one he found it +difficult<br> +to recognize. Changed as he was by time, heavily as years had +done their<br> +work upon him, the stern features were not to be mistaken; but as +I looked,<br> +he called out in a voice whose unshaken firmness seemed to defy +the touch<br> +of time,—</p> + +<p>"Charley O'Malley, come here, my boy! Bring her to me, till I +bless you<br> +both. Come here, Lucy,—I may call you so. Come here, my +children. I have<br> +tried to live on to see this day, when the head of an old house +comes back<br> +with honor, with fame, and with fortune, to dwell amidst his own +people in<br> +the old home of his fathers."</p> + +<p>The old man bent above us, his white hair falling upon the +fair locks of<br> +her who knelt beside him, and pressed his cold and quivering hand +within<br> +her own.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Lucy," said I, as I led her within the house, "this is +home."</p> + +<p>Here now ends my story. The patient reader who has followed me +so far<br> +deserves at my hands that I should not trespass upon his kindness +one<br> +moment beyond the necessity; if, however, any lurking interest +may remain<br> +for some of those who have accompanied me through this my +history, it<br> +may be as well that I should say a few words farther, ere they +disappear<br> +forever.</p> + +<p>Power went to India immediately after his marriage, +distinguished himself<br> +repeatedly in the Burmese war, and finally rose to a high command +that he<br> +this moment holds, with honor to himself and advantage to his +country.</p> + +<p>O'Shaughnessy, on half-pay, wanders about the Continent, +passing his<br> +summers on the Rhine, his winters at Florence or Geneva. Known to +and by<br> +everybody, his interest in the service keeps him <i>au courant</i> to +every<br> +change and regulation, rendering him an invaluable companion to +all to whom<br> +an army list is inaccessible. He is the same good fellow he ever +was, and<br> +adds to his many excellent qualities the additional one of being +the only<br> +man who can make a bull in French!</p> + +<p>Monsoon, the major, when last I saw him, was standing on the +pier at<br> +Calais, endeavoring, with a cheap telescope, to make out the +Dover cliffs,<br> +from a nearer prospect of which certain little family +circumstances might<br> +possibly debar him. He recognized me in a moment, and held out +his hand,<br> +while his eye twinkled with its ancient drollery.</p> + +<p>"Charley, my son, how goes it? Delighted to see you. What a +pity I did not<br> +meet you yesterday! Had a little dinner at Crillon's. Harding, +Vivian, and<br> +a few others. They all wished for you; 'pon my life they +did."</p> + +<p>"Civil, certainly," thought I, "as I have not the honor of +being known to<br> +them."</p> + +<p>"You are at Meurice's," resumed he; "a very good house, but +give you bad<br> +wine, if they don't know you. They know me," added he, in a +whisper; "never<br> +try any tricks upon me. I'll just drop in upon you at six."</p> + +<p>"It is most unfortunate, Major; I can't have the pleasure you +speak of; we<br> +start in half an hour."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Charley, never mind; another time. By-the-bye, +now I think of<br> +it, don't you remember something of a ten-pound note you owe +me?"</p> + +<p>"As well as I remember, Major, the circumstance was reversed. +You are the<br> +debtor."</p> + +<p>"Upon my life, you are right; how droll. No matter; let me +have the ten,<br> +and I'll give you a check for the whole."</p> + +<p>The major thrust his tongue into his cheek as he spoke, gave +another leer,<br> +pocketed the note, and sauntered down the pier, muttering +something to<br> +himself about King David and greenhorns; but how they were +connected I<br> +could not precisely overhear.</p> + +<p>Baby Blake, or Mrs. Sparks,—to call her by her more +fitting<br> +appellation,—is as handsome as ever, and not less good-humored +and<br> +light-hearted, her severest trials being her ineffectual efforts +to convert<br> +Sparks into something like a man for Galway.</p> + +<p>Last of all, Mickey Free. Mike remains attached to our fortune +firmly, as<br> +at first he opened his career; the same gay, rollicksome +Irishman, making<br> +songs, making love, and occasionally making punch, he spends his +days and<br> +his nights pretty much as he was wont to do some thirty years +ago. He<br> +obtains an occasional leave of absence for a week or so, but for +what<br> +precise purpose, or with what exact object, I have never been +completely<br> +able to ascertain. I have heard, it as true, that a very +fascinating<br> +companion and a most agreeable gentleman frequents a certain +oyster-house<br> +in Dublin called Burton Bindon's. I have also been told of a +distinguished<br> +foreigner, whose black mustache and broken English were the +admiration of<br> +Cheltenham for the last two winters. I greatly fear from the high +tone of<br> +the conversation in the former, and for the taste in continental +characters<br> +in the latter resort, that I could fix upon the individual whose +convivial<br> +and social gifts have won so much of their esteem and admiration; +but were<br> +I to run on thus, I should recur to every character of my story, +with each<br> +and all of whom you have, doubtless, grown well wearied. So here +for the<br> +last time, and with every kind wish, I say, adieu!</p> + +<p>L'ENVOI.</p> + +<p>Kind friends,—It is somewhat unfortunate that the record of +the happiest<br> +portion of my friend's life should prove the saddest part of my +duty as<br> +his editor, and for this reason, that it brings me to that spot +where my<br> +acquaintance with you must close, and sounds the hour when I must +say,<br> +good-bye.</p> + +<p>They, who have never felt the mysterious link that binds the +solitary<br> +scribe in his lonely study, to the circle of his readers, can +form no<br> +adequate estimate of what his feelings are when that chain is +about to be<br> +broken; they know not how often, in the fictitious garb of his +narrative,<br> +he has clothed the inmost workings of his heart; they know not +how<br> +frequently he has spoken aloud his secret thoughts, revealing, as +though to<br> +a dearest friend, the springs of his action, the causes of his +sorrow, the<br> +sources of his hope; they cannot believe by what a sympathy he is +bound to<br> +those who bow their heads above his pages; they do not think how +the ideal<br> +creations of his brain are like mutual friends between him and +the world,<br> +through whom he is known and felt and thought of, and by whom he +reaps in<br> +his own heart the rich harvest of flattery and kindness that are +rarely<br> +refused to any effort to please, however poor, however humble. +They know<br> +not this, nor can they feel the hopes, the fears, that stir +within him, to<br> +earn some passing word of praise; nor think they, when won, what +brightness<br> +around his humble hearth it may be shedding. These are the +rewards for<br> +nights of toil and days of thought; these are the recompenses +which pay the<br> +haggard cheek, the sunken eye, the racked and tired head. These +are the<br> +stakes for which one plays his health, his leisure, and his life, +yet not<br> +regrets the game.</p> + +<p>Nearly three years have now elapsed since I first made my bow +before you.<br> +How many events have crowded into that brief space! How many +things of<br> +vast moment have occurred! Only think that in the last few months +you've<br> +frightened the French; terrified M. Thiers; worried the Chinese; +and are,<br> +at this very moment, putting the Yankees into a "<i>most uncommon +fix</i>;" not<br> +to mention the minor occupations of ousting the Whigs; +reinstating the<br> +Tories, and making O'Connell Lord Mayor,—and yet, with all these +and a<br> +thousand other minor cares, you have not forgotten your poor +friend, the<br> +Irish Dragoon. Now this was really kind of you, and in my heart I +thank you<br> +for it.</p> + +<p>Do not, I entreat you, construe my gratitude into any sense of +future<br> +favors,—no such thing; for whatever may be my success with you +hereafter,<br> +I am truly deeply grateful for the past. Circumstances, into +which I<br> +need not enter, have made me for some years past a resident in a +foreign<br> +country, and as my lot has thrown me into a land where the +reputation of<br> +writing a book is pretty much on a par with that of picking a +pocket, it<br> +may readily be conceived with what warm thankfulness I have +caught at any<br> +little testimonies of your approval which chance may have thrown +in my way.</p> + +<p>Like the reduced gentlewoman who, compelled by poverty to cry +fresh eggs<br> +through the streets, added after every call, "I hope nobody hears +me;" so<br> +I, finding it convenient, for a not very dissimilar reason, to +write books,<br> +keep my authorship as quietly to myself as need be, and comfort +me with the<br> +assurance that nobody knows me.</p> + +<p>A word now to my critics. Never had any man more reason to be +satisfied<br> +with that class than myself. As if you knew and cared for the +temperament<br> +of the man you were reviewing; as if you were aware of the fact +that it was<br> +at any moment in your power, by a single article of severe +censure, to have<br> +extinguished in him forever all effort, all ambition for +success,—you have<br> +mercifully extended to him the mildest treatment, and meted out +even your<br> +disparagement, with a careful measure.</p> + +<p>While I have studied your advice with attention, and read your +criticisms<br> +with care, I confess I have trembled more than once before your +more<br> +palpable praise; for I thought you might be hoaxing me.</p> + +<p>Now and then, to be sure, I have been accused of impressing +real<br> +individuals, and compelling them to serve in my book; that this +reproach<br> +was unjust, they who know me can best vouch for, while I myself +can<br> +honestly aver, that I never took a portrait without the consent +of the<br> +sitter.</p> + +<p>Others again have fallen foul of me, for treating of things, +places, and<br> +people with which I had no opportunity of becoming personally +acquainted.<br> +Thus one of my critics has showed that I could not have been a +Trinity<br> +College man; and another has denied my military matriculation. +Now,<br> +although both my Latin and my learning are on the peace +establishment, and<br> +if examined in the movements for cavalry, it is perfectly +possible I should<br> +be cautioned, yet as I have both a degree and a commission I +might have<br> +been spared this reproach.</p> + +<p>"Of coorse," says Father Malachi Brennan, who leans over my +shoulder while<br> +I write,—"of coorse you ought to know all about these things as +well as<br> +the Duke of Wellington or Marshal Soult himself. UNDE DERYVATUR +MILES.<br> +Ain't you in the Derry militia?" I hope the Latin and the +translation will<br> +satisfy every objection.</p> + +<p>While, then, I have nothing but thankfulness in my heart +respecting the<br> +entire press of my own country, I have a small grudge with my +friends of<br> +the far west; and as this is a season of complaint against the +Yankees,<br> +"Why shouldn't I roll my tub also?" A certain New York paper, +called the<br> +"Sunday Times," has thought fit for some time past to fill its +columns with<br> +a story of the Peninsular war, announcing it as "by the author of +Charles<br> +O'Malley." Heaven knows that injured individual has sins enough +of his own<br> +to answer for, without fathering a whole foundling hospital of +American<br> +balderdash; but this kidnapping spirit of brother Jonathan would +seem to be<br> +the fashion of the day! Not content with capturing Macleod, who +unhappily<br> +ventured within his frontier, he must come over to Ireland and +lay hands<br> +on Harry Lorrequer. Thus difficulties are thickening every day. +When they<br> +dispose of the colonel, then comes the boundary question; after +that there<br> +is Grogan's affair, then me. They may liberate Macleod; [3] they +may<br> +abandon the State of Maine,—but what recompense can be made to +me for this<br> +foul attack on my literary character? It has been suggested to me +from the<br> +Foreign Office that the editor might be hanged. I confess I +should like<br> +this; but after all it would be poor satisfaction for the injury +done me.<br> +Meanwhile, as Macleod has the <i>pas</i> of me, I'll wait patiently, +and think<br> +the matter over.</p> + +<p>[Footnote 3: I have just read that Macleod and Grogan have +been liberated.<br> +May I indulge a hope that <i>my</i> case will engage the sympathies of +the<br> +world during the Christmas holidays. H. L.]</p> + +<p>It was my intention, before taking leave of you, to have +apologized<br> +separately for many blunders in my book; but the errors of the +press are<br> +too palpable to be attributed to me. I have written letters +without end,<br> +begged, prayed, and entreated that more care might be bestowed; +but<br> +somehow, after all, they have crept in in spite of me. Indeed, +latterly I<br> +began to think I had found out the secret of it. My publisher, +excellent<br> +man, has a kind of pride about printing in Ireland, and he thinks +the<br> +blunders, like the green cover to the volume, give the thing a +national<br> +look. I think it was a countryman of mine of whom the story is +told, that<br> +he apologized for his spelling by the badness of his pen. This +excuse, a<br> +little extended, may explain away anacronisms, and if it won't I +am sorry<br> +for it, for I have no other.</p> + +<p>Here then I conclude: I must say, adieu! Yet can I not do so +before I<br> +again assure you that if perchance I may have lightened an hour +of <i>your</i><br> +solitude, you, my kind friends, have made happy whole weeks and +days of<br> +<i>mine</i>; and if happily I have called up a passing smile upon +<i>your</i> lip,<br> +your favor has spoken joy and gladness to many a heart around +<i>my</i> board.<br> +Is it, then, strange that I should be grateful for the past; be +sorrowful<br> +for the present?</p> + +<p>To one and all, then, a happy Christmas; and if before the new +year, you<br> +have not forgotten me, I shall be delighted to have your company +at OUR<br> +MESS.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile believe me most respectfully and faithfully +yours,</p> + +<p> HARRY LORREQUER.</p> + +<p> BRUSSELS, November, 1841.</p> + +<p>THE END.</p> + +<br><br><br><br> + + +<p>End of Project Gutenberg's Charles O'Malley, Vol. 2, by +Charles Lever</p> + +<p>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES O'MALLEY, VOL. +2 ***</p> + +<p>This file should be named 8mly210h.htm or 8mly210h.zip<br> +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, +8mly211h.htm<br> +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, +8mly210ah.htm</p> + +<p>Produced by David Widger, Jonathan Ingram, Charles Franks<br> +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</p> + +<p>Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several +printed<br> +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the +US<br> +unless a copyright notice is included. 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