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diff --git a/23217-0.txt b/23217-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a5253c --- /dev/null +++ b/23217-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,610 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 23217 *** + + + + +THE ROLL-CALL OF THE REEF + +By A. T. Quiller-Couch ("Q.") + + +"Yes, sir," said my host, the quarryman, reaching down the relics from +their hook in the wall over the chimneypiece; "they've hung here all my +time, and most of my father's. The women won't touch 'em; they're afraid +of the story. So here they'll dangle, and gather dust and smoke, till +another tenant comes and tosses 'em out o' doors for rubbish. Whew! 'tis +coarse weather, surely." + +He went to the door, opened it, and stood studying the gale that beat +upon his cottage-front, straight from the Manacle Reef. The rain drove +past him into the kitchen, aslant like threads of gold silk in the shine +of the wreck-wood fire. Meanwhile, by the same firelight, I examined the +relics on my knee. The metal of each was tarnished out of knowledge. But +the trumpet was evidently an old cavalry trumpet, and the threads of +its party-colored sling, though fretted and dusty, still hung together. +Around the side-drum, beneath its cracked brown varnish. I could +hardly trace a royal coat-of-arms and a legend running, "Per Mare Per +Terrain"--the motto of the marines. Its parchment, though black and +scented with wood-smoke, was limp and mildewed; and I began to tighten +up the straps--under which the drumsticks had been loosely thrust--with +the idle purpose of trying if some music might be got out of the old +drum yet. + +But as I turned it on my knee, I found the drum attached to the +trumpet-sling by a curious barrel-shaped padlock, and paused to examine +this. The body of the lock was composed of half a dozen brass rings, +set accurately edge to edge; and, rubbing the brass with my thumb, I saw +that each of the six had a series of letters engraved around it. + +I knew the trick of it, I thought. Here was one of those word padlocks, +once so common; only to be opened by getting the rings to spell a +certain word, which the dealer confides to you. + +My host shut and barred the door, and came back to the hearth. + +"'Twas just such a wind--east by south--that brought in what you've got +between your hands. Back in the year 'nine, it was; my father has told +me the tale a score o' times. You're twisting round the rings, I see. +But you'll never guess the word. Parson Kendall, he made the word, and +he locked down a couple o' ghosts in their graves with it; and when his +time came he went to his own grave and took the word with him." + +"Whose ghosts, Matthew?" + +"You want the story, I see, sir. My father could tell it better than I +can. He was a young man in the year 'nine, unmarried at the time, and +living in this very cottage, just as I be. That's how he came to get +mixed up with the tale." + +He took a chair, lighted a short pipe, and went on, with his eyes fixed +on the dancing violet flames: + +"Yes, he'd ha' been about thirty year old in January, eighteen 'nine. +The storm got up in the night o' the twenty-first o' that month. My +father was dressed and out long before daylight; he never was one to +bide in bed, let be that the gale by this time was pretty near lifting +the thatch over his head. Besides which, he'd fenced a small 'taty-patch +that winter, down by Lowland Point, and he wanted to see if it stood the +night's work. He took the path across Gunner's Meadow--where they buried +most of the bodies afterward. The wind was right in his teeth at the +time, and once on the way (he's told me this often) a great strip of +oarweed came flying through the darkness and fetched him a slap on the +cheek like a cold hand. But he made shift pretty well till he got to +Lowland, and then had to drop upon hands and knees and crawl, digging +his fingers every now and then into the shingle to hold on, for he +declared to me that the stones, some of them as big as a man's head, +kept rolling and driving past till it seemed the whole foreshore was +moving westward under him. The fence was gone, of course; not a stick +left to show where it stood; so that, when first he came to the place, +he thought he must have missed his bearings. My father, sir, was a +very religious man; and if he reckoned the end of the world was at +hand--there in the great wind and night, among the moving stones--you +may believe he was certain of it when he heard a gun fired, and, with +the same, saw a flame shoot up out of the darkness to windward, making +a sudden fierce light in all the place about. All he could find to +think or say was, 'The Second Coming! The Second Coming! The Bridegroom +cometh, and the wicked He will toss like a ball into a large country'; +and being already upon his knees, he just bowed his head and 'bided, +saying this over and over. + +"But by'm by, between two squalls, he made bold to lift his head and +look, and then by the light--a bluish color 'twas--he saw all the coast +clear away to Manacle Point, and off the Manacles in the thick of the +weather, a sloop-of-war with topgallants housed, driving stern foremost +toward the reef. It was she, of course, that was burning the flare. My +father could see the white streak and the ports of her quite plain +as she rose to it, a little outside the breakers, and he guessed easy +enough that her captain had just managed to wear ship and was trying to +force her nose to the sea with the help of her small bower anchor and +the scrap or two of canvas that hadn't yet been blown out of her. But +while he looked, she fell off, giving her broadside to it foot by foot, +and drifting back on the breakers around Carn Du and the Varses. The +rocks lie so thick thereabout that 'twas a toss up which she struck +first; at any rate, my father could'nt tell at the time, for just then +the flare died down and went out. + +"Well, sir, he turned then in the dark and started back for Coverack to +cry the dismal tidings--though well knowing ship and crew to be past any +hope, and as he turned the wind lifted him and tossed him forward 'like +a ball,' as he'd been saying, and homeward along the foreshore. As +you know, 'tis ugly work, even by daylight, picking your way among the +stones there, and my father was prettily knocked about at first in +the dark. But by this 'twas nearer seven than six o'clock, and the day +spreading. By the time he reached North Corner, a man could see to read +print; hows'ever, he looked neither out to sea nor toward Coverack, but +headed straight for the first cottage--the same that stands above North +Corner to-day. A man named Billy Ede lived there then, and when my +father burst into the kitchen bawling, 'Wreck! wreck!' he saw Billy +Ede's wife, Ann, standing there in her clogs with a shawl over her head, +and her clothes wringing wet. + +"'Save the chap!' says Billy Ede's wife, Ann. + +"'What d'ee mean by crying stale fish at that rate?' + +"'But 'tis a wreck, I tell 'ee.' + +"'Ive a-zeed 'n, too; and so has every one with an eye in his head.' + +"And with that she pointed straight over my father's shoulder, and he +turned; and there, close under Dolor Point, at the end of Coverack town, +he saw another wreck washing, and the point black with people, like +emmets, running to and fro in the morning light. While he stood staring +at her, he heard a trumpet sounded on board, the notes coming in little +jerks, like a bird rising against the wind; but faintly, of course, +because of the distance and the gale blowing--though this had dropped a +little. + +"'She's a transport,' said Billy Ede's wife, Ann, 'and full of +horse-soldiers, fine long men. When she struck they must ha' pitched the +horses over first to lighten the ship, for a score of dead horses had +washed in afore I left, half an hour back. An' three or four soldiers, +too--fine long corpses in white breeches and jackets of blue and gold. I +held the lantern to one. Such a straight young man!' + +"My father asked her about the trumpeting. + +"'That's the queerest bit of all. She was burnin' a light when me an' +my man joined the crowd down there. All her masts had gone; whether they +carried away, or were cut away to ease her, I don't rightly know. Her +keelson was broke under her and her bottom sagged and stove, and she +had just settled down like a sitting hen--just the leastest list to +starboard; but a man could stand there easy. They had rigged up ropes +across her, from bulwark to bulwark, an' besides these the men were +mustered, holding on like grim death whenever the sea made a clean +breach over them, an' standing up like heroes as soon as it passed. The +captain an' the officers were clinging to the rail of the quarterdeck, +all in their golden uniforms, waiting for the end as if 'twas King +George they expected. There was no way to help, for she lay right beyond +cast of line, though our folk tried it fifty times. And beside them +clung a trumpeter, a whacking big man, an' between the heavy seas he +would lift his trumpet with one hand, and blow a call; and every time he +blew the men gave a cheer. There [she says]--hark 'ee now--there he +goes agen! But you won't hear no cheering any more, for few are left to +cheer, and their voices weak. Bitter cold the wind is, and I reckon +it numbs their grip o' the ropes, for they were dropping off fast with +every sea when my man sent me home to get his breakfast. Another +wreck, you say? Well, there's no hope for the tender dears, if 'tis the +Manacles. You'd better run down and help yonder; though 'tis little help +any man can give. Not one came in alive while I was there. The tide's +flowing, an' she won't hold together another hour, they say.' + +"Well, sure enough, the end was coming fast when my father got down to +the point. Six men had been cast up alive, or just breathing--a seaman +and five troopers. The seaman was the only one that had breath to speak; +and while they were carrying him into the town, the word went round +that the ship's name was the 'Despatch,' transport, homeward-bound +from Corunna, with a detachment of the Seventh Hussars, that had been +fighting out there with Sir John Moore. The seas had rolled her further +over by this time, and given her decks a pretty sharp slope; but a dozen +men still held on, seven by the ropes near the ship's waist, a couple +near the break of the poop, and three on the quarterdeck. Of these three +my father made out one to be the skipper; close by him clung an +officer in full regimentals--his name, they heard after, was Captain +Dun-canfield; and last came the tall trumpeter; and if you'll believe +me, the fellow was making shift there, at the very last, to blow 'God +Save the King.' What's more, he got to 'Send us victorious,' before an +extra big sea came bursting across and washed them off the deck--every +man but one of the pair beneath the poop--and he dropped his hold before +the next wave; being stunned, I reckon. The others went out of sight at +once, but the trumpeter--being, as I said, a powerful man as well as a +tough swimmer--rose like a duck, rode out a couple of breakers, and came +in on the crest of the third. The folks looked to see him broke like +an egg at their very feet; but when the smother cleared, there he was, +lying face downward on a ledge below them; and one of the men that +happened to have a rope round him--I forgot the fellow's name, if I ever +heard it--jumped down and grabbed him by the ankle as he began to slip +back. Before the next big sea, the pair were hauled high enough to be +out of harm, and another heave brought them up to grass. Quick work, but +master trumpeter wasn't quite dead; nothing worse than a cracked head +and three staved ribs. In twenty minutes or so they had him in bed, with +the doctor to tend him. + +"Now was the time--nothing being left alive upon the transport--for my +father to tell of the sloop he'd seen driving upon the Manacles. And +when he got a hearing, though the most were set upon salvage, and +believed a wreck in the hand, so to say, to be worth half a dozen they +couldn't see, a good few volunteered to start off with him and have a +look. They crossed Lowland Point; no ship to be seen on the Manacles +nor anywhere upon the sea. One or two was for calling my father a liar. +'Wait till we come to Dean Point,' said he. Sure enough, on the far side +of Dean Pont they found the sloop's mainmast washing about with half a +dozen men lashed to it, men in red jackets, every mother's son drowned +and staring; and a little further on, just under the Dean, three or four +bodies cast up on the shore, one of them a small drummer-boy, side-drum +and all; and near by part of a ship's gig, with 'H.M.S. Primrose' cut +on the stern-board. From this point on the shore was littered thick with +wreckage and dead bodies--the most of them marines in uniform--and in +Godrevy Cove, in particular, a heap of furniture from the captain's +cabin, and among it a water-tight box, not much damaged, and full of +papers, by which, when it came to be examined, next day, the wreck was +easily made out to be the 'Primrose,' of eighteen guns, outward bound +from Portsmouth, with a fleet of transports for the Spanish war--thirty +sail, I've heard, but I've never heard what became of them. Being +handled by merchant skippers, no doubt they rode out the gale, and +reached the Tagus safe and sound. Not but what the captain of the +'Primrose'--Mein was his name--did quite right to try and club-haul his +vessel when he found himself under the land; only he never ought to have +got there, if he took proper soundings. But it's easy talking. + +"The 'Primrose,' sir, was a handsome vessel--for her size one of the +handsomest in the King's service'--and newly fitted out at Plymouth +Dock. So the boys had brave pickings from her in the way of brass-work, +ship's instruments, and the like, let alone some barrels of stores not +much spoiled. They loaded themselves with as much as they could carry, +and started for home, meaning to make a second journey before the +preventive men got wind of their doings, and came to spoil the fun. +'Hullo!' says my father, and dropped his gear, 'I do believe there's +a leg moving?' and running fore, he stooped over the small drummer-boy +that I told you about. The poor little chap was lying there, with his +face a mass of bruises, and his eyes closed; but he had shifted one +leg an inch or two, and was still breathing. So my father pulled out a +knife, and cut him free from his drum--that was lashed on to him with a +double turn of Manila rope--and took him up and carried him along here +to this very room that we're sitting in. He lost a good deal by this; +for when he went back to fetch the bundle he'd dropped, the preventive +men had got hold of it, and were thick as thieves along the foreshore; +so that 'twas only by paying one or two to look the other way that he +picked up anything worth carrying off: which you'll allow to be hard, +seeing that he was the first man to give news of the Wreck. + +"Well, the inquiry was held, of course, and my father gave evidence, and +for the rest they had to trust to the sloop's papers, for not a soul was +saved besides the drummer-boy, and he was raving in a fever, brought on +by the cold and the fright. And the seaman and the five troopers gave +evidence about the loss of the 'Despatch,' The tall trumpeter, too, +whose ribs were healing, came forward and kissed the book; but somehow +his head had been hurt in coming ashore, and he talked foolish-like, and +'twas easy seen he would never be a proper man again. The others were +taken up to Plymouth, and so went their ways; but the trumpeter stayed +on in Coverack; and King George, finding he was fit for nothing, sent +him down a trifle of a pension after a while-enough to keep him in board +and lodging, with a bit of tobacco over. + +"Now the first time that this man--William Tallifer he called +himself--met with the drummer-boy, was about a fortnight after the +little chap had bettered enough to be allowed a short walk out of doors, +which he took, if you please, in full regimentals. There never was a +soldier so proud of his dress. His own suit had shrunk a brave bit with +the salt water; but into ordinary frock an' corduroys he declared he +would not get, not if he had to go naked the rest of his life; so my +father--being a good-natured man, and handy with the needle--turned to +and repaired damages with a piece or two of scarlet cloth cut from the +jacket of one of the drowned Marines. Well, the poor little chap chanced +to be standing, in this rig out, down by the gate of Gunner's Meadow, +where they had buried two score and over of his comrades. The morning +was a fine one, early in March month; and along came the cracked +trumpeter, likewise taking a stroll. + +"'Hullo!' says he; 'good mornin'! And what might you be doin' here?' + +"'I was a-wishin',' says the boy, 'I had a pair o' drumsticks. Our lads +were buried yonder without so much as a drum tapped or a musket fired; +and that's not Christian burial for British soldiers.' + +"'Phut!' says the trumpeter, and spat on the ground; 'a parcel of +Marines!' + +"The boy eyed him a second or so, and answered up: 'If I'd a tav of turf +handy, I'd bung it at your mouth, you greasy cavalryman, and learn you +to speak respectful of your betters. The Marines are the handiest body +o' men in the service.' + +"The trumpeter looked down on him from the height of six-foot two, and +asked: 'Did they die well?' + +"'They died very well. There was a lot of running to and fro at first, +and some of the men began to cry, and a few to strip off their clothes. +But when the ship fell off for the last time, Captain Mein turned and +said something to Major Griffiths, the commanding officer on board, and +the Major called out to me to beat to quarters. It might have been for a +wedding, he sang it out so cheerful. We'd had word already that 'twas to +be parade order; and the men fell in as trim and decent as if they were +going to church. One or two even tried to shave at the last moment. The +Major wore his medals. One of the seamen, seeing I had work to keep the +drum steady--the sling being a bit loose for me, and the wind what you +remember--lashed it tight with a piece of rope; and that saved my life +afterward, a drum being as good as a cork until it's stove, I kept +beating away until every man was on decks and then the Major formed them +up and told them to die like British soldiers, and the chaplain was in +the middle of a prayer when she struck. In ten minutes she was gone. +That was how they died, cavalryman.' + +"'And that was very well done, drummer of the Marines. What's your +name?' + +"'John Christian.' + +"'Mine's William George Tallifer, trumpeter, of the Seventh Light +Dragoons--the Queen's Own. I played "God Save the King" while our men +were drowning. Captain Duncanfield told me to sound a call or two, to +put them in heart; but that matter of "God Save the King" was a notion +of my own. I won't say anything to hurt the feelings of a Marine, even +if he's not much over five-foot tall; but the Queen's Own Hussars is +a tearin' fine regiment. As between horse and foot, 'tis a question o' +which gets a chance. All the way from Sahagun to Corunna 'twas we that +took and gave the knocks--at Mayorga and Rueda, and Bennyventy.'--The +reason, sir, I can speak the names so pat, is that my father learnt +'em by heart afterward from the trumpeter, who was always talking +about Mayorga and Rueda and Bennyventy.'--We made the rear-guard, under +General Paget; and drove the French every time; and all the infantry did +was to sit about in wine-shops till we whipped 'em out, an' steal an' +straggle an' play the tomfool in general. And when it came to a +stand-up fight at Corunna, 'twas we that had to stay seasick aboard the +transports, an' watch the infantry in the thick o' the caper. Very well +they behaved, too--specially the Fourth Regiment, an' the Forty-Second +Highlanders, an' the Dirty Half-Hundred. Oh, ay; they're decent +regiments, all three. But the Queen's Own Hussars is a tearin' fine +regiment. So you played on your drum when the ship was goin' down? +Drummer John Christian, I'll have to get you a new pair of sticks.' + +"The very next day the trumpeter marched into Helston, and got a +carpenter there to turn him a pair of box-wood drumsticks for the boy. +And this was the beginning of one of the most curious friendships you +ever heard tell of. Nothing delighted the pair more than to borrow a +boat off my father and pull out to the rocks where the 'Primrose' and +the 'Despatch' had struck and sunk; and on still days 'twas pretty +to hear them out there off the Manacles, the drummer playing his +tattoo--for they always took their music with them--and the trumpeter +practising calls, and making his trumpet speak like an angel. But if +the weather turned roughish, they'd be walking together and talking; +leastwise the youngster listened while the other discoursed about Sir +John's campaign in Spain and Portugal, telling how each little skirmish +befell; and of Sir John himself, and General Baird, and General Paget, +and Colonel Vivian, his own commanding officer, and what kind of men +they were; and of the last bloody stand-up at Corunna, and so forth, as +if neither could have enough. + +"But all this had to come to an end in the late summer, for the boy, +John Christian, being now well and strong again, must go up to Plymouth +to report himself. 'Twas his own wish (for I believe King George had +forgotten all about him), but his friend wouldn't hold him back. As for +the trumpeter, my father had made an arrangement to take him on as +lodger, as soon as the boy left; and on the morning fixed for the start, +he was up at the door here by five o'clock, with his trumpet slung by +his side, and all the rest of his belongings in a small valise. A Monday +morning it was, and after breakfast he had fixed to walk with the boy +some way on the road toward Helston, where the coach started. My father +left them at breakfast together, and went out to meat the pig, and do a +few odd morning jobs of that sort. When he came back, the boy was still +at table, and the trumpeter sat with the rings in his hands, hitched, +together just as they be at this moment. + +"'Look at this,' he says to my father, showing him the lock. 'I picked +it up off a starving brass-worker in Lisbon, and it is not one of your +common locks that one word of six letters will open at any time. +There's janius in this lock; for you've only to make the rings spell any +six-letter word you please and snap down the lock upon that, and never +a soul can open it--not the maker, even--until somebody comes along that +knows the word you snapped it on. Now Johnny here's goin', and he leaves +his drum behind him; for, though he can make pretty music on it, the +parchment sags in wet weather, by reason of the sea-water getting at it; +an' if he carries it to Plymouth, they'll only condemn it and give +him another. And, as for me, I shan't have the heart to put lip to the +trumpet any more when Johnny's gone. So we've chosen a word together, +and locked 'em together upon that; and, by your leave, I'll hang 'em +here together on the hook over your fireplace. Maybe Johnny'll come +back; maybe not. Maybe, if he comes, I'll be dead an' gone, and he'll +take 'em apart an' try their music for old sake's sake. But if he never +comes, nobody can separate 'em; for nobody besides knows the word. And +if you marry and have sons, you can tell 'em that here are tied together +the souls of Johnny Christian, drummer of the Marines, and William +George Tallifer, once trumpeter of the Queen's Own Hussars. Amen.' + +"With that he hung the two instruments 'pon the hook there; and the boy +stood up and thanked my father and shook hands; and the pair went out of +the door, toward Helston. + +"Somewhere on the road they took leave of one another; but nobody saw +the parting, nor heard what was said between them. About three in the +afternoon the trumpeter came walking back over the hill; and by the time +my father came home from the fishing, the cottage was tidied up, and the +tea ready, and the whole place shining like a new pin. From that time +for five years he lodged here with my father, looking after the house +and tilling the garden. And all the while he was steadily failing; the +hurt in his head spreading, in a manner, to his limbs. My father watched +the feebleness growing on him, but said nothing. And from first to last +neither spake a word about the drummer, John Christian; nor did any +letter reach them, nor word of his doings. + +"The rest of the tale you're free to believe, sir, or not, as you +please. It stands upon my father's words, and he always declared he was +ready to kiss the Book upon it, before judge and jury. He said, too, +that he never had the wit to make up such a yarn; and he defied any one +to explain about the lock, in particular, by any other tale. But you +shall judge for yourself. + +"My father said that about three o'clock in the morning, April +fourteenth, of the year 'fourteen, he and William Tallifer were sitting +here, just as you and I, sir, are sitting now. My father had put on his +clothes a few minutes before, and was mending his spiller by the light +of the horn lantern, meaning to set off before daylight to haul the +trammel. The trumpeter hadn't been to bed at all. Toward the last he +mostly spent his nights (and his days, too) dozing in the elbow-chair +where you sit at this minute. He was dozing then (my father said) with +his chin dropped forward on his chest, when a knock sounded upon the +door, and the door opened, and in walked an upright young man in scarlet +regimentals. + +"He had grown a brave bit, and his face the color of wood-ashes; but it +was the drummer, John Christian. Only his uniform was different from +the one he used to wear, and the figures '38' shone in brass upon his +collar. + +"The drummer walked past my father as if he never saw him, and stood by +the elbow-chair and said: + +"'Trumpeter, trumpeter, are you one with me?' + +"And the trumpeter just lifted the lids of his eyes, and answered: 'How +should I not be one with you, drummer Johnny--Johnny boy? If you come, I +count; if you march, I mark time; until the discharge comes.' + +"'The discharge has come to-night,' said the drummer; and the word is +Corunna no longer.' And stepping to the chimney-place, he unhooked +the drum and trumpet, and began to twist the brass rings of the lock, +spelling the word aloud, so--'C-O-R-U-N-A.' When he had fixed the last +letter, the padlock opened in his hand. + +"'Did you know, trumpeter, that, when I came to Plymouth, they put me +into a line regiment?' + +"'The 38th is a good regiment,' answered the old Hussar, still in his +dull voice; 'I went back with them from Sahagun to Corunna. At Corunna +they stood in General Fraser's division, on the right. They behaved +well. + +"'But I'd fain see the Marines again,' says the drummer, handing him +the trumpet; 'and you, you shall call once more for the Queen's Own. +Matthew,' he says, suddenly, turning on my father--and when he turned, +my father saw for the first time that his scarlet jacket had a round +hole by the breast-bone, and that the blood was welling there--'Matthew, +we shall want your boat.' + +"Then my father rose on his legs like a man in a dream, while they two +slung on, the one his drum, and t'other his trumpet. He took the lantern +and went quaking before them down to the shore, and they breathed +heavily behind him; and they stepped into his boat, and my father pushed +off. + +"'Row you first for Dolor Point,' says the drummer. So my father rowed +them past the white houses of Coverack to Dolor Point, and there, at +a word, lay on his oars. And the trumpeter, William Tallifer, put his +trumpet to his mouth and sounded the reveille. The music of it was like +rivers running. + +"'They will follow,' said the drummer. Matthew, pull you now for the +Manacles. + +"So my father pulled for the Manacles, and came to an easy close outside +Carn Du. And the drummer took his sticks and beat a tattoo, there by the +edge of the reef; and the music of it was like a rolling chariot. + +"'That will do,' says he, breaking off; 'they will follow. Pull now for +the shore under Gunner's Meadow.' + +"Then my father pulled for the shore and ran his boat in under Gunner's +Meadow. And they stepped out, all three, and walked up to the meadow. +By the gate the drummer halted, and began his tattoo again, looking out +toward the darkness over the sea. + +"And while the drum beat, and my father held his breath, there came up +out of the sea and the darkness a troop of many men, horse and foot, and +formed up among the graves; and others rose out of the graves and formed +up--drowned Marines with bleached faces, and pale Hussars, riding +their horses, all lean and shadowy. There was no clatter of hoofs or +accoutrements, my father said, but a soft sound all the while like the +beating of a bird's wing; and a black shadow lay like a pool about the +feet of all. The drummer stood upon a little knoll just inside the +gate, and beside him the tall trumpeter, with hand on hip, watching them +gather; and behind them both my father, clinging to the gate. When no +more came, the drummer stopped playing, and said, 'Call the roll.' + +"Then the trumpeter stepped toward the end man of the rank and called, +'Troop Sergeant-Major Thomas Irons,' and the man answered in a thin +voice, 'Here.' + +"'Troop Sergeant-Major Thomas Irons, how is it with you?' + +"The man answered, 'How should it be with me? When I was young, I +betrayed a girl; and when I was grown, I betrayed a friend, and for +these I must pay. But I died as a man ought. God save the King!' + +"The trumpeter called to the next man, 'Trooper Henry Buckingham,' and +the next man answered, 'Here.' + +"'Trooper Henry Buckingham, how is it with you?' + +"'How should it be with me? I was a drunkard, and I stole, and in Lugo, +in a Wine-shop, I killed a man. But I died as a man should. God save the +King!' + +"So the trumpeter went down the line; and when he had finished, the +drummer took it up, hailing the dead Marines in their order. Each man +answered to his name, and each man ended with 'God save the King!' When +all were hailed, the drummer stepped back to his mound, and called: + +"'It is well. You are content, and we are content to join you. Wait, +now, a little while.' + +"With this he turned and ordered my father to pick up the lantern, and +lead the way back. As my father picked it up, he heard the ranks of the +dead men cheer and call, 'God save the King!' all together, and saw them +waver and fade back into the dark, like a breath fading off a pane. + +"But when they came back here to the kitchen, and my father set the +lantern down, it seemed they'd both forgot about him. For the drummer +turned in the lantern-light--and my father could see the blood still +welling out of the hole in his breast--and took the trumpet-sling from +around the other's neck, and locked drum and trumpet together again, +choosing the letters on the lock very carefully. While he did this, he +said. + +"'The word is no more Corunna, but Bayonne. As you left out an "n" in +Corunna, so must I leave out an "n" in Bayonne.' And before snapping the +padlock, he spelt out the word slowly--'B-A-Y-O-N-E.' After that, he +used no more speech; but turned and hung the two instruments back on the +hook; and then took the trumpeter by the arm; and the pair walked out +into the darkness, glancing neither to right nor left. + +"My father was on the point of following, when he heard a sort of +sigh behind him; and there, sitting in the elbow-chair, was the very +trumpeter he had just seen walk out by the door! If my father's heart +jumped before, you may believe it jumped quicker now. But after a bit, +he went up to the man asleep in the chair and put a hand upon him. It +was the trumpeter in flesh and blood that he touched; but though the +flesh was warm, the trumpeter was dead. + +"Well, sir, they buried him three days after; and at first my father was +minded to say nothing about his dream (as he thought it). But the day +after the funeral, he met Parson Kendall coming from Helston market; and +the parson called out: 'Have 'ee heard the news the coach brought down +this mornin'?' 'What news?' says my father. 'Why, that peace is agreed +upon.' 'None too soon,' says my father. 'Not soon enough for our poor +lads at Bayonne,' the parson answered. 'Bayonne!' cries my father, with +a jump. 'Why, yes;' and the parson told him all about a great sally the +French had made on the night of April 13th. 'Do you happen to know +if the 38th Regiment was engaged?' my father asked. 'Come, now,' said +Parson Kendall, 'I didn't know you was so well up in the campaign. But, +as it happens, I do know that the 38th was engaged, for 'twas they that +held a cottage and stopped the French advance.' + +"Still my father held his tongue; and when, a week later, he walked +in Helston and bought a 'Mercury' off the Sherborne rider, and got the +landlord of the 'Angel' to spell out the list of killed and wounded, +sure enough, there among the killed was Drummer John Christian, of the +38th Foot. + +"After this there was nothing for a religious man but to make a clean +breast. So my father went up to Parson Kendall, and told the whole +story. The parson listened, and put a question or two, and then asked: + +"'Have you tried to open the lock since that night?' + +"'I haven't dared to touch it,' says my father. + +"'Then come along and try.' When the parson came to the cottage here, he +took the things off the hook and tried the lock. 'Did he say "Bayonne?' +The word has seven letters.' + +"'Not if you spell it with one "n" as he did,' says my father. + +"The parson spelt it out--'B-A-Y-O-N-E' 'Whew!' says he, for the lock +had fallen open in his hand. + +"He stood considering it a moment, and then he says: 'I tell you what. I +shouldn't blab this all round the parish, if I was you. You won't get no +credit for truth-telling, and a miracle's wasted on a set of fools. But +if you like, I'll shut down the lock again upon a holy word that no one +but me shall know, and neither drummer nor trumpeter, dead or alive, +shall frighten the secret out of me.' + +"'I wish to heaven you would, parson,' said my father. + +"The parson chose the holy word there and then, and shut the lock back +upon it, and hung the drum and trumpet back in their place. He is gone +long since, taking the word with him. And till the lock is broken by +force nobody will ever separate those two." + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 23217 *** |