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diff --git a/old/67228-0.txt b/old/67228-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index f92b3c2..0000000 --- a/old/67228-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8597 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The King's Own Borderers, Volume III -(of 3), by James Grant - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The King's Own Borderers, Volume III (of 3) - A Military Romance - -Author: James Grant - -Release Date: January 22, 2022 [eBook #67228] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Al Haines - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KING'S OWN BORDERERS, -VOLUME III (OF 3) *** - - - - - - - - THE KING'S OWN BORDERERS. - - A Military Romance. - - - BY - - JAMES GRANT, - - - AUTHOR OF - "SECOND TO NONE," "THE ROMANCE OF WAR," "THE YELLOW FRIGATE," - ETC. ETC. - - - - "Memories fast are thronging o'er me, - Of the grand old fields of Spain; - How he faced the charge of Junot, - And the fight where Moore was slain. - Oh the years of weary waiting - For the glorious chance he sought, - For the slowly ripened harvest - That life's latest autumn brought." - - - - IN THREE VOLUMES. - - VOL. III. - - - - LONDON: - GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, - BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL. - - 1865. - - - - - LONDON: - SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, - COVENT-GARDEN. - - - - - CONTENTS - OF - THE THIRD VOLUME. - - - CHAP. - - I. PLAYING WITH FIRE - II. THE POISONED WINE - III. PADRE FLOREZ - IV. THE ARMY MARCHES - V. HALT AT AZUMAR - VI. THE ADVANCE INTO SPAIN - VII. RETROGRESSION - VIII. A MESSAGE FROM THE ENEMY - IX. THE PRISONER - X. THE COURT-MARTIAL - XI. LOVE ME - XII. THE OLD BRIGADIER - XIII. THE RETREAT - XIV. FRESH DISASTERS - XV. A SMILE OF FORTUNE - XVI. PIQUE - XVII. THE COMBAT OF LUGO - XVIII. A WARNING - XIX. THE BATTLE OF CORUNNA - XX. THE BURIAL - XXI. TOO LATE - XXII. MADAME DE RIBEAUPIERRE - XXIII. THE "BIEN AIMÉ" - XXIV. MINDEN LODGE - XXV. THE REVELATIONS OF A NIGHT - - - - -THE KING'S OWN BORDERERS. - - - -CHAPTER I. - -PLAYING WITH FIRE. - - "Fraught with this fine intention, and well fenced - In mail of proof--her purity of soul, - She, for the future of her strength convinced, - And that her honour was a rock or mole, - Exceeding sagely from that hour dispensed - With any kind of troublesome control; - But whether Julia to the task was equal, - Is that which must be gathered in the sequel." - BYRON. - - -For two other entire days the rain continued to pour as it only pours -in the Peninsula during the wet season, and our travellers were -compelled to keep close within the doors of the Villa de Maciera. -Could Quentin have lifted the veil that hides the future, and -foreseen the turmoil and danger in which this unexpected delay would -eventually involve him, he would certainly have made some vigorous -efforts to procure horses or mules at Salorino, to push on for -Portalegre, in spite of wind or rain; but what, then, was he to do -with Donna Isidora? In such a November deluge she could neither -travel on horse or foot, and "leathern conveyances" were not to be -had in Spanish Estremadura in those days, nor in the present either, -probably. To leave her alone in that deserted house was not to be -thought of. - -So Quentin stayed. - -Time did not pass slowly, however. They did not read, you may be -assured, though books were plentifully strewed about, as the French -had been lighting their pipes with them; but Isidora took to teaching -Quentin the language of the fan, as spoken or used at the bull-fight, -the theatre, on the prado, or elsewhere, and with such a pair of eyes -beaming on him, over, under, or through the sticks of the aforesaid -fan, he proved an apt scholar. Who would have been otherwise? - -He taught her his name, at which she laughed very much, and thought -it an odd one. - -Ere the noon of the second day, they had made great progress in their -friendship, and, circumstanced as they were, could they have failed -to do so? Isolated and without resource, save in each other's -dangerous society, they could scarcely be ever separate in that huge -deserted house, in which they were besieged by the weather. - -That the impulsive Spanish girl had conceived a strong affection for -Quentin was evident from her occasional silence, her palpitation, her -changing look, and the half-suppressed fire of her dark eyes, when he -approached or spoke to her; then it would seem, that as he grew -bewildered and timid, she became bold and unconstrained. - -It would be difficult to trace the workings and describe the -struggles of Donna Isidora's heart in the growing passion she felt -for Quentin--the mere result of accidents which she could not -control, and a propinquity which she could not avoid; or how rapidly -the brief self-delusion of sisterhood and platonic affection melted -away before the warm and impulsive nature of her character; how -reason weakened as passion grew strong, and how she resolved to bend -him to her will, for in mind and race, rather more than years, she -was much his senior. - -She knew that Spain was almost lawless now; that ties were broken, -the bonds of society loosed, and that civil order, such as it was, -had disappeared amid the anarchy consequent to the French invasion: -hence a hundred wild schemes coursed through her busy brain. She -even hoped to lure him into the guerilla ranks, or to fly with her to -some remote part of the provinces, where they could never more be -traced; to the mountains of Estrella, the Sierra de Oca, or the dark -and wooded ranges of the Sierra Morena, where, forgotten alike by -friend and foe, they could live on unknown. Such were her vague -ideas for the future. For the present, it sufficed her that she -loved Quentin, and that he must be taught to love her in return. - -On the other hand, it is difficult to define exactly the feeling -which Quentin entertained for his young Spanish friend. Of her -wonderful beauty he was by no means insensible. Was it platonic -regard that _he_ felt? We should not think so at his years, and more -especially as we are disinclined to believe in such love at all. -Then what the deuce was it? the reader may ask. - -Flirtation, perhaps--"playing with fire," certainly. - -Young though he was, Quentin could not forget Flora Warrender, and -that sweet evening by the Kelpie's Pool, and the first thrill of -boyish love, with all the anxious moments, the feverish hopes that -stirred his heart--the tender memories of his grande passion, for -such it was; and thus something of chivalry in his breast made him -struggle against the present tempter and her piquante charms, for -Flora's gentle image always seemed to rise up between him and her; -and yet--and yet--there was something very bewildering in the hourly -companionship, the complete isolation and reliance of this lovely -young girl with whom he was now wandering in solitude--a -companionship known to themselves alone. It was delightful but -perilous work, and Quentin could not analyse, even if he cared to do -so, the emotions she was exciting in his breast. - -Where, when, and how was it all to end? He feared that he felt too -little anxiety for reaching Portalegre and delivering the reply to -Sir John Hope's despatch; and yet, if the storm abated, why tarry? - -Quentin was soon assured that Isidora loved him; and as he was not -without that most useful bump on his occiput denominated self-esteem, -he felt flattered accordingly; yet, withal, he struggled manfully -against the passion, with which this dangerous knowledge and -Isidora's attractions, were both calculated to inspire him. - -He was anxious to appear to advantage in her eyes. Why? She was -nothing to him, yet, for some time, she had been the object of all -his solicitude. In the course of conversation, she admitted that she -had many admirers, which, for a girl so attractive, was likely -enough. But why permit the development of a passion in her that -could lead to nothing good? Why respond to her growing tenderness? -Why--ay, there was the rub, the lure, and the peril. - -His affections, such as a lad not yet twenty may possess, were -promised elsewhere. Was Flora true, and remembering him still? This -was rub number two. - -Quentin Kennedy, I tremble for thee; and, if the truth must be told, -much more for the future peace and reputation of Donna Isidora de -Saldos, for neither a wholesome terror of Baltasar's wrath or the -Padre Trevino's knife may avail her much. - -"What if she loves me--loves me as dear Flora did?" thought Quentin; -and when this pleasing but alarming idea occurred to him, he really -dreaded that her heart might be too far involved in those tender -passages, coquetries, and other little matters incident to their -hourly intercourse: white hands taken almost inadvertently or as a -matter of course; a soft cheek, at times so near his own; and -darkly-lashed eyes that looked softly into his, were rather alluring, -certainly. - -In Spain, women do not shake hands with men; their dainty fingers -(dingy frequently) are kissed, or not touched at all; hence we may -suppose that Quentin and Isidora, when they began to sit hand-in-hand -looking out on the pouring rain as twilight deepened, had got a long -way on in lovemaking--in engineering parlance, that he had pushed the -trenches to the base of the glacis. - -Some one remarks somewhere, that the fogs and sleet of England mar -many a ripening love; but that under the clear skies, in the balmy -air, in the long sultry days, the voluptuous evenings, and still more -in the gorgeous moonlights of Spain, the gentle passion is of more -rapid growth, and becomes more impulsive, heartfelt, and keen. - -In the present instance, however, chance and a storm--such as that -which waylaid Dido and the Trojan hero--had been the inspirers of -Donna Isidora, who, sooth to say, found Quentin somewhat slow to -follow her example. - -"Mi hermano--my brother--you will be and must be," she would whisper -at times, in a manner that, to say the least of it, was very -bewitching. - -"I shall try, Donna Isidora." - -"Try, say you? Wherefore only _try_?" she asked, with her eyes full -of fire and inquiry. "Is it a task so difficult to feel esteem or -love for me? Go! I shall hate you!" Then she would thrust aside -his hand, and pouting, half turn away her flushing face, only that -the little hand might be taken again, an explanation made, and -reconciliation effected. - -On the evening of the second day, after one of those little poutings, -and after Isidora, in anger, had been absent from him nearly two -hours, she rejoined Quentin in the boudoir, which was their usual -apartment, and where he welcomed her reappearance so warmly, that her -face was overspread by happy and beautiful smiles. - -Poor Quentin, who was at that age when a young man is apt to slide -rather than fall into a regular love fit, was gradually being -ensnared. - -"The companionship of these few days I shall remember for ever," said -he. "You shall indeed be sorrowed for, hermana mia." - -"Think only of the present, and not of parting," said she, letting -her cheek sink upon his shoulder, as they sat, hand in hand, in the -window of the little boudoir, the objects of which were half hidden -in the twilight. - -Quentin felt his heart beat quickly, and his respiration become -thick, but he said with a tender smile-- - -"Isidora, I am almost afraid of you." - -"Afraid--and of _me_?" - -"Yes." - -"But why, mi querido?" - -"You carry a stiletto," said he, laughing, "and I don't like it." - -"There--behold!" she exclaimed in a breathless voice, as she drew the -long steel bodkin from her hair, which fell in a dark and ripply -volume over her shoulders and bosom; "I am defenceless now," she -added, throwing it on the sofa; but Quentin was slow to accept the -challenge. - -"Oh, Isidora, to what end is all this?" he asked, struggling with -himself, and almost remonstrating with her. "Why allure me to love -you, as love you I shall?" - -As he said this, the dark and lustrous eyes of the Castilian girl -filled with half-subdued fire; her lashes drooped, and she heaved a -long sigh. - -"You speak of love," she said, in a low voice, while her bosom -swelled beneath its scarlet corset and the thin muslin habit-shirt -that was gathered round her slender throat; "all men are alike to a -woman who is not in love; but in my heart I feel an emotion which -tells me that if I loved there would be to me but one only in the -world--he, my lover!" - -Her calm energy, and the deep sudden glance she shot at Quentin, -quite bewildered the poor fellow. - -"Tell me," she resumed, while his left hand was caressed in both of -hers, and her right cheek yet rested on his shoulder, while the -massive curls of her hair fell over him, "is there not something -delicious in the mystery and tremulousness of love; to feel that we -are no longer two, but one--ONE in heart and soul, in thought and -sympathy? Speak--you do not answer me--estrella mia--mi vida--mi -alma!" (my star--my life--my soul) she added, in a low but piercing -accent. - -Trembling with deep emotion, Quentin pressed his lips to her burning -brow, and there ensued a long pause, during which she lay with her -forehead against his cheek. - -"Listen to me, Quentin," said she, looking upward with swimming eyes; -"I would speak with you seriously, earnestly, from my heart." - -"Niña de mi alma--about what?" - -"Religion, love." - -"You choose an odd time for it--but wherefore?" - -"I would teach you mine," she whispered. - -"Yours--and for what purpose?" - -"That--that----" - -"Nay, I have courage enough to hear anything, dearest; for what -purpose, mi querida?" - -"That endearing term decides me--that we may be married, Quentin." - -"I--senora!" - -"You and I--what is there wonderful in that?" - -Had a shell exploded between them, poor Quentin could not have been -more nonplussed than by this proposition. - -"Flirtation is a very fine thing," says his Peninsular comrade, -Charles O'Malley, "but it's only a state of transition, after all; -the tadpole existence of the lover would be very great fun, if one -was never to become a frog under the hands of the parson." - -Some such reflection occurred to Quentin, who stammered-- - -"But, Isidora, people require money to marry." - -"Of course--sometimes." - -"Well, I am not the heir of a shilling in the world." - -"Nor am I the heiress of a pistole." - -"Well, dearest Isidora----" - -"Who should marry if we don't, whose circumstances are equal, and -whose position in the world is so exactly similar? Ah, that we had -the Padre Florez here!" - -Though this was said with the sweetest of smiles, Quentin failed to -see the force of her reasoning; but it was impossible to refrain from -kissing the rounded cheek that lay so near his own. - -Then an emotion of compunction stole into his heart, and rousing her -from the delicious trance into which she seemed sinking, he withdrew -a little (for he had never been made love to before, so surprise gave -him courage), and then said-- - -"Isidora, this must not be--be calm and listen to me: I promised your -brother--what was it that he said to me?--oh, Isidora, I must not -love you; moreover, I am pledged to love a girl who is far, far away, -and--but be calm, I beseech you, and think of the future!" - -She now sprung from his side to snatch her stiletto from the sofa -where it lay. Whether she meant to use it against herself, or him, -or both, for a moment he could scarcely tell; her dark eyes were -filled with a lurid gleam, and her cheek was now deadly pale; one -little hand, white and tremulous, tore back her streaming and -dishevelled hair; the other clutched the hilt of the weapon. She -gave a keen glance at the blade, and then, as if to place the -temptation to destroy beyond her reach, she snapped it to pieces and -cast them from her. - -Then snatching up a lamp which Quentin had lighted but a short time -before, she rushed from the room, leaving him alone, bewildered and -in darkness. - -Quentin hurried after, and called to her repeatedly; but there was no -response. He heard a door closed with violence at a distance, and -then all became still--terribly still, save the now familiar sound of -the rain lashing the walls and windows of the villa in the darkness -without, and the howling of the wind, as it tore through the bleak -October woods. - -Nearly an hour elapsed after this, and knowing her wild and impulsive -nature, his excitement and alarm for her safety became all but -insupportable. - -"Oh heavens, if she should have destroyed herself! Her death will be -laid to my charge." - -There seemed to be no length her fiery rashness was not capable of -leading her, and not unnaturally Congreve's well-known couplet -occurred to his memory:-- - - "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turn'd, - Nor hell a fury like a woman scorn'd!" - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -THE POISONED WINE. - - "Whatever can untune th' harmonious soul, - And its mild reasoning faculties control; - Give false ideas, raise desires profane, - And whirl in eddies the tumultuous brain; - Mixed with curs'd art, she direfully around, - Through all his nerves diffused the sad compound." - OVID. - - -When Donna Isidora rushed from Quentin, she took her way unerringly -(as she knew the villa well) up several flights of stairs, through -passages and suites of apartments, where he could not have followed -her without a guide, until she reached a little room, which had been -the library and confessional of the family chaplain. - -Remote from the rest of the house, its shelves full of books, its -table and desk littered with letters and papers, with little -religious pictures on the walls, a Madonna crowned by a white chaplet -on a bracket, a vase of withered lilies, and other little matters -indicative of taste, were all untouched as when the poor Padre Florez -had last been there. In rambling over the villa, if Ribeaupierre's -dragoons had been in the chamber, they found nothing in it which they -deemed valuable enough to destroy or carry off. - -Here it was that Donna Isidora had been, when, in a fit of petulance, -she had before absented herself from Quentin. She set down the lamp, -and taking up a book which she had been previously perusing, and -which she had found lying upon the desk where the padre had left it -open, for its pages were covered with dust, she muttered-- - -"Let me read it again, and let me be assured; but oh, if I should -destroy him or myself! What matter, then? Better both die than that -_she_ should have him, whoever she is--wherever she is! Oh, Padre -Florez--Padre Florez, if this anecdote you have left in my way should -be but a snare to death!" - -Then she ground her little pearly teeth as she spoke, and turned with -trembling hands the dust-covered page which the chaplain's hand had -indicated for some scientific purpose with certain marks in pencil, -ere he had cast the volume on his desk, doubtless when scared from -the villa by the irruption of Ribeaupierre's dragoons. - -It was a quarto volume on poisons, printed at Madrid, and the -paragraph which interested Isidora ran as follows. - -"Note of a medicated wine, which produceth various emotions and -quaint fancies, but chiefly love and madness for a time in those who -partake thereof. - -"Celius, an ancient Latin writer, telleth us of a company of young -men, who were drinking in a taberna of the luxurious city of -Agrigentum in Sicily, in those days when the tyrant Phalaris usurped -the sovereignty thereof, and who, on a sudden, were seized by a -malady of the brain. Being in sight of the sea, they believed -themselves to be on board of a ship which was about to be cast away -in a storm, and while clamouring and shouting wildly, to save -themselves, they flung out of the windows the whole of the furniture; -and in this belief they continued for some hours, even after being -brought before a magistrate, whom they mistook for a pilot, and -besought in moving terms to steer the galley aright, lest she should -founder. - -"On others, this wine acted as a philtre, and on seeing women, they -fell madly in love with them, threatening their own destruction if -their love were not responded to. - -"I was persuaded in my own mind, says Celius, that this singular -malady could only arise from some adulteration of the wine, and -therefore had the landlord summoned before a magistrate, who -compelled him to confess that he was in the habit of adulterating -wines with a mixture of henbane and mandrakes (the root of which is -said to bear a resemblance to the human form), and which must thus -doubtless be considered the cause of this singular disease." - -"Mandrake and henbane--a little of this mixture, and Quentin might -love me! There is no sea here, and he could never fancy the villa to -be a ship," thought Isidora, weeping tears of bitterness and wounded -pride. "If I can only bring this delirium on him, the real truth of -his heart may come out, and I shall learn whether he loves me or -loves me not, and who this other is that he prefers to me. But if in -his madness--pho! I can defend myself. Oh, Padre Florez, was it a -good or bad angel that tempted you to leave this open book in my way, -and lured me to read it?" - -A strange and deep dark smile came over the lovely face of this wild -and wilful girl as she took up the lamp and approached the cabinet of -the worthy Padre Florez, whose room seemed quite as much a laboratory -as a library, for goodly rows of phials and bottles contested for -place with the Bollandists, Acta Sanctorum, the Acts of the Council -of Trent, the Annals of Ferrereas, &c., for doubtless he had been the -doctor--a curer of bodies as well as of souls--in his comarca, or -district of Estremadura. - -Hastily and impatiently she passed her lamp along the rows of little -drawers containing herbs and simples, and the shelves of phials, the -labels of which were quite enigmas to her; but on the third occasion -a cry of joy escaped her. - -"Las Mandragoras--el Beleño!" she exclaimed, as she snatched two -small bottles, each full of a clear liquid, which bore those names. -But now a terrible yet natural doubt seized her. - -"How much of these may I pour in this wine without destroying us -_both_?--what matter how much--what matter how much, so far as I am -concerned? My life is neither a valuable nor a happy one; but -he--have I a right to destroy him, perhaps body and soul--ah, Madre -divina, body and soul, too! No matter--I must learn the truth, and -whether he loves or only fears me." - -In fact, the sudden passion which she had conceived for Quentin -seemed to have disordered her brain. - -She heard him calling her at that moment, and as there was no time to -lose in further consideration, she filled a small phial from both -bottles, thrust it in her bosom, and left the room, previously, by -what impulse we know not, concealing the book of the padre, who could -little have foreseen the dangerous use to which its open pages would -be put. - -With a heart that palpitated painfully between hope and fear, love -and anger, Isidora quitted the room of the padre to return to Quentin. - -He, in the meantime, had become greatly alarmed by her protracted -absence, and procuring a light by flashing powder in the pan of one -of his pistols, he was proceeding in search of her through the -chambers of the villa, from the walls of which many a grim old fellow -in beard and breast-plate looked grimly and sternly at him out of his -frame:--many a grave hidalgo by Diego Velasquez were there, and many -a scriptural Murillo, sold, perhaps, by that great painter for bread -in the streets of his native Seville. - -Of all the chateaux en Espagne, this Villa de Maciera, with its -episodes, was, perhaps, the last of which Quentin could have imagined -himself to be even temporarily master. Gloomy, empty, and deserted, -it seemed to be veritably one of the mysterious mansions of which he -had read so much in the romances of Mrs. Anne Radcliffe, who was then -in the zenith of her fame. - -"It is, indeed, a devil of a predicament," he muttered. - -Again and again he called her name aloud, without hearing other -response than the echoes. The place was mournfully still, and now -the wind and rain had ceased, and the night had become calm. Well, -there was some comfort in that; with morning he might resume his -journey; but this Spanish girl--his heart trembled for her, for there -seemed to be no extravagant impulse to which she was not capable of -giving way. - -To have responded to her wayward love, and then to have "levanted" on -the first convenient opportunity, "a way we (sometimes) have in the -army," might have been the treacherous measure adopted by many; but -Quentin, apart from his admiration of her beauty, had a sincere -regard for the girl, and though young in years, felt older by -experience than those years warranted. - -He thought she might have retired to her room--to rest, perhaps; yet -he could not hear her breathing, for when he listened at the door, -all was still within. - -He knocked gently, but there was no response, so pushing it open, he -entered. Isidora had told him that this was the apartment she -usually occupied when residing with the Condesa de Maciera. - -It was the perfection of a little bed-chamber; elaborate candelabra -of cut crystal glittered like prisms on the white marble mantelpiece, -the central ornament of which was an exquisite crucifix of ivory. -The floor was of polished oak, and the walls were hung with some -charming water-colour landscapes of the adjacent mountain scenery, in -chaste and narrow frames: and then the little bed, half buried amid -muslin curtains of the purest white, was much more like an English -than a Spanish one. - -Tent-form, the flowing drapery depended from a gilt coronet; the -pillows, edged with the finest lace, were all untouched and -unpressed, so Donna Isidora was not there. - -Quentin started as he saw her figure suddenly reflected in a large -cheval-glass. She was standing behind him, near the door of the -apartment, regarding him with an expression of mournful interest in -her eyes; her face pale as death, her hair flowing and dishevelled -over her shoulders, her hands pressed upon her bosom, and seeming -wondrously white when contrasted with the deep scarlet velvet of her -corset; her flounces of black and scarlet, and the taper legs ending -in the pretty Cordovan shoes, making altogether a very charming -portrait. - -"Senor," she said, in a low voice, "what were you seeking here?" - -"I sought you, Isidora; I became seriously alarmed----" - -"You do, then, care for me, senor--a little?" - -"Care for you, dearest Isidora----" - -"Yet you drove me away from you!" she said, in a voice full of tender -reproach. - -"Do not say so," replied Quentin, taking her hot and trembling hands -in his, and feeling very bewildered indeed. - -"Your studied coldness repelled me. Ah, Dios mio! how calm, how -collected you are, and I--! get me some water, friend--or some wine, -rather; and this other--this other--she----" - -"Who, senora?" - -"Some wine, my friend. I am cold and flushed by turns. Some wine, I -implore you!" - -"Permit me to lead you from this," said Quentin, conducting her back -to the boudoir, where he seated her on the sofa by his side, and -endeavoured to soothe her; but the memory of the late scene, and the -fire of jealousy that glowed in her heart, filled it with mingled -anger and love. - -While Quentin, all unconscious of what was about to ensue, was -untwisting the wire of a champagne flask, she--while the light seemed -to flash from her eyes, and her cheek flushed deeply--emptied the -entire contents of her secret phial into a crystal goblet, and when -the sparkling wine, with its pink tint and myriad globules, frothed -and effervesced, as Quentin poured it in, the poison--for such it -was--became at once concealed. - -"Drink with me," said she, kissing the cup and presenting it to him; -then, feverish and excited as he was, he took a deep draught; after -which, with another of her strange smiles, the donna drank the rest, -and, as she did so, the pallor of her little face, and the unnatural -light in her eyes, attracted the attention of Quentin. - -He took her hands in his, and began to speak, saying he knew not -what, for he seemed to have lost all control over his tongue; then -the room appeared to swim round him, while objects became wavering -and indistinct. - -"What--what is this that is coming over me?" he exclaimed. - -"Death, perhaps," said Isidora, laying her head on his shoulder, and -pressing his hand to her lips; "but, mi vida--mi querido--you will -not go from me to her?" - -"To whom?" - -"She--that other whom you love?" - -"Flora--Flora Warrender!" exclaimed Quentin, wildly, as the potent -wine and its dangerous adjuncts began to affect his brain. - -Whether the padre's beleño was the exact compound referred to by his -ancient authority, we are not prepared to say, but the effect of the -cup imbibed by Quentin was sufficiently disastrous. - -The objects in the room began to multiply with wonderful rapidity; -the white silk drapery of the walls seemed to be covered with falling -stars; the pale blue damask curtains of the windows assumed strange -shapes, and appeared to wave to and fro. The bronze statuettes on -the mantelpiece, the tables and buffets, appeared to be performing -fandangos and other fantastic dances, and, as the delirium crept over -him, Quentin grasped at the back of a sofa to save himself from -falling, while Isidora still clasped him in her arms; and now he -believed her to be Flora Warrender, and as such addressed, and even -caressed her. - -Another draught of pure champagne, which he took greedily to quench -the burning thirst that now seized him, completed the temporary -overthrow of his reason. - -Isidora seemed to pass away, and Flora Warrender took her place. He -wept as he kissed her hands, and spoke with sorrow of their long, -long separation; of the dangers and privations he had undergone, and -of Cosmo's tyranny; of the joy with which he beheld her again, and -now, that they never more would part; and thus, with every endearing -word, he unconsciously stabbed his rash and impetuous Spaniard, who, -although he spoke in English, and she was half delirious with the -wine, knew too well that when Quentin kissed her thick, dark wavy -hair that curled over her broad low forehead, and pressed her hand to -his heart, he was thinking of another, for whom these endearments -were intended. - -At last, stupefaction came over him, and sinking on a fauteuil, he -remembered no more. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -PADRE FLOREZ. - - "Not yet--I never knew till now - How precious life could be; - My heart is full of love--O Death, - I cannot come with thee! - Not yet--the flowers are in my path, - The sun is in the sky; - Not yet, my heart is full of hope-- - I cannot bear to die."--L.E.L. - - -On recovering from the insensibility that had come upon him, Quentin -had no idea of what period of time had elapsed since the occurrence -of the episode we have just described. In fact, he had considerable -difficulty in remembering where he was, so maddened was he by a -burning heat, by pricking pains through all his system, an -intolerable thirst, an aching head, and a throat and tongue that were -rough and dry. His temples throbbed fearfully, his pulse was quick; -there was a clamorous anxiety in his mind he knew not why or -wherefore; he had a recurrent hiccough; and, though he knew it not, -these were all the symptoms of being dangerously poisoned. - -The morning was bright and sunny. Refreshed by the past rains, the -rows of orange-trees around the stately terrace, the lawn of the -villa, the acacias that covered its walls, and the clumps of arbutus -and beech about it, looked fresh and green. - -Producing a grateful sensation, the cool morning breeze fanned his -throbbing temples, and on rousing himself, Quentin found that he was -lying on the marble terrace near the bronze fountain, of the cool and -sparkling water of which he drank deeply, as he had frequently done -before, while almost unconscious, by mere instinct, for now he had no -memory of it. - -Weak, faint, and giddy, and feeling seriously ill, he staggered up -and laved his hands and brow in the marble basin; then he endeavoured -to reflect or consider how his present predicament came about. Donna -Isidora, where was she? and where was Flora Warrender? for he had -misty memories of the endearments of both. - -It seemed that overnight he had a strange dream that the former--or -could it be the latter?--had been carried off by French soldiers, and -that he had neither the power to succour or to save her. - -This, however, was no dream, but a reality, for a patrol of French -cavalry, seeing lights in the villa, which they believed to be -deserted, had ridden upon the terrace and proceeded to search the -place. A few dismounted, and, armed with their swords and pistols, -entered the house. Amid her terror on witnessing the unexpected -stupefaction that had come over Quentin, the donna heard the clank of -hoofs on the terrace, and then the jingle of spurs and steel -scabbards on the tesselated floor of the vestibule. - -Alarm lest her brother had come in search of her, and had tracked -them hither, was her first emotion. Covering the insensible form of -Quentin with the blue damask drapery of a window, near which he had -sunk to sleep upon a fauteuil, she stooped and kissed his flushed -forehead; then taking a lamp, she endeavoured to make her way to the -room of the Padre Florez, which she considered alike remote and -secure; but her light was seen flashing from story to story up the -great marble staircase. - -"En avant, mes braves," cried an officer, laughing; "'tis only a -petticoat--follow, and capture." - -The dismounted Chasseurs uttered a shout, and giving chase, soon -secured the unfortunate Isidora. - -Shrieking, she was borne into the open air; her resistance, which was -desperate, only serving to provoke much coarse laughter and joking. -A few minutes after this, she found herself trussed like a bundle of -hay to the crupper of a troop-horse, and en route for Valencia de -Alcantara, the captive of a smart young officer of Chasseurs à -cheval, who further secured her close to his own person by a -waist-belt. By alternate caresses and jests, he endeavoured to -soothe her fears, her grief, and her passion; but seeing that the -girl was beautiful, he was determined not to release her, for he was -no other than our former jovial acquaintance, Eugene de Ribeaupierre, -the sous-lieutenant of the 24th Chasseurs. - -Partially roused by the noise and by her cries, Quentin had staggered -to the terrace like one in a dream, and had fallen beside the -fountain, so that his misty memories of having seen her carried off -by French Chasseurs was no vision, but reality. Yet, somehow, he -thought she might be in the villa after all, and he called her by -name repeatedly. - -And then there were memories of Flora Warrender that floated -strangely through his brain. It seemed that he had but recently seen -her, spoken with her, heard her voice, had embraced and clasped her -to his breast--that Flora, whom he thought was far, far away--the -Flora for whom he sorrowed and longed through the dreary hours of -many a march by night and day, whom he had dreamed of and prayed for. - -What mystery--what madness was this? - -The musical jangling of mule-bells was now heard, and ere long other -actors came upon the scene, as some jovial muleteers, cracking their -whips and their jokes, ascended the steps of the terrace, accompanied -by a tall, thin, and reverend-looking padre, wearing a huge shovel -hat and a long black serge soutan, the buttons of which, a close row, -extended from his chin to his ankles. - -The old Condesa de Maciera, who, after being again and again -terrified and harassed by the outrages of the plundering French -patrols and foraging parties, had at last fled with all her household -to the small Portuguese town of Marvao, had now sent her chaplain, -the Padre Florez, back to see what was the state of matters at her -villa, and he arrived thus most opportunely for Quentin Kennedy, -whose uniform at once secured him the interest both of the padre and -the muleteers. - -The latter proved luckily to be Ramon Campillo, of Miranda del Ebro, -his confrère Ignacio Noain, and others, whom Quentin had met before, -and who at once recognised him and overwhelmed him with questions, to -which he found the utter impossibility of giving satisfactory replies. - -His present state was as puzzling to himself as to the padre, who had -him conveyed within doors, and, strangely enough, into the boudoir, -the features of which brought back to Quentin's memory some of the -exciting and bewildering passages of last night. The unextinguished -lamp yet smoked on the table, broken crystal cups and champagne -flasks, chairs overturned, and a phial of very suspicious aspect, all -attracted the attention of Padre Florez. As he examined the latter, -and applied his nose and lips to the mouth, while endeavouring to -discover what the contents had been, he changed colour, and became -visibly excited. - -"Look to the stranger--what a mere boy he is!--but look to him, -Ramon, mi hijo," said he, "while I go to my room--my laboratory--and -see what I can do for him." - -The padre, who had a deep and friendly interest in the household of -his patrona the countess-dowager, and of the young Conde now serving -with the guerilla band of Baltasar de Saldos, looked anxiously -through the suites of rooms as he proceeded, sighing over the slashed -Murillos and smashed mirrors, and the too evident sabre-cuts in the -richly-carved cabinets of oak and ebony, in the gilded consoles, the -beautiful tables of marqueterie; and he groaned at last over the -ruins of some alabaster statuettes and great jars of Sèvres and -majolica, which, in the last night's search, the French had wantonly -dashed to pieces. - -Ere long, he reached his own room, and on looking about, he missed at -once his quarto volume on poisons, the work he had been -studying--particularly that fatal passage from Celius--when the -French dragoons drove the whole household from the villa. It was -gone; but in its place on the desk he found the two bottles left by -Isidora, the decoctions of mandrake and henbane. Here was a clue to -the illness of the Ingles below; but how had the matter come to pass? -Had he poisoned himself? This the padre doubted; but as an instant -remedy was necessary, an inquiry and explanation would follow the -cure. - -Selecting certain simples, the Padre Florez hurried back to his -patient, who was stretched on the sofa of the boudoir in a very -bewildered condition, endeavouring to understand and reply to the -somewhat earnest and impetuous inquiries of Ramon and his brother -muleteers, who were now en route from Marvao to Portalegre--news -which could not fail to interest Quentin; but he replied only by a -languid and haggard smile. - -He told them, however, that the sister of Don Baltasar de Saldos was -in the villa, and implored them to search for her, which they did, in -considerable excitement and surprise, leaving, as Ramon said, not -even a rat-hole unexamined, but no trace of her could be found. Then -Quentin rather surprised them by saying, impetuously, that she had -been carried off by the French. - -"Is it a dream, is she dead, or has she fled?" he asked of himself -again and again; "no, no; she would never leave me willingly, her -insane love forbids the idea." - -Ramon, in searching for the sister of the formidable guerilla chief, -whose name was already finding an echo in every Castilian heart, -found Quentin's cap, sabre, and pistols, and fortunately the despatch -or reply of Don Baltasar to Sir John Hope. Ignacio Noain found a -lady's shoe of Cordovan leather, which the padre identified as having -belonged to Donna Isidora. This served to corroborate the strange -story of Quentin; but Florez remembered that the donna was in the -habit of visiting the countess at the villa, and this little slipper -might have been left behind by her on some occasion. It was found, -however, in the vestibule, where it had fallen from her foot as the -dragoons somewhat roughly dragged her away. - -"In what way came this young stranger to speak of De Saldos' sister -at all? Had they eloped together? If so," thought the padre, "then -Heaven help the Englishman, for his doom is sealed!" - -"I am ill--ill, padre--ill in body and sick at heart!" said Quentin -faintly, as Florez, watch in hand, felt his pulse. - -"You appear to have been poisoned, my poor boy," said he. - -"Poisoned?" repeated Quentin, as a terrible fear and suspicion of -Isidora's revengeful pride rushed upon him. - -"Yes--beyond a doubt." - -"Shall I die, padre?" he asked in an agitated voice. - -"Oh no, my son, there is no fear of that--I shall cure you by a few -simple remedies." - -Quentin felt greatly relieved in mind on hearing this; but at present -thirst was his chief merit, with an internal heat and pain that gave -him no rest. - -"Of what were you partaking last night?" - -"Of wine only--champagne, which I found in a cabinet of the comedero -(dining-room)." - -"There is but one crystal cup remaining here unbroken." - -"From that I drank it," said Quentin, who, in his delirium, had -smashed a supper equipage of his own collecting. - -It was a large goblet of Venetian crystal, studded with -brilliantly-coloured stones. The Padre Florez looked at the dregs -and shook his white head. - -"This wine has been drugged--there is a fresh mystery here! And -Donna Isidora de Saldos was with you last night--you are assured of -that?" - -"As sure as that I live and breathe, Senor Padre." - -"Alone?" continued the priest, with knitted brows. - -"Alone." - -"How came it to pass that her brother entrusted her with you?" asked -the padre, suspiciously. - -Quentin was too ill to explain that she had been sent with him in -disguise, as the mother of the guerilla Trevino; and Padre Florez, -who naturally conceived the idea that they had eloped as lovers, and -had quarrelled, to prevent a great tragedy, set about curing him. - -He compelled him to drink quantities of new milk and salad oil, both -of which he procured from the muleteers who were bivouacking on the -terrace; after this, he gave him warm water mixed with the same oil, -and fresh butter, to provoke intense sickness, to destroy the -acrimony of the poison, and to prevent it doing injury to the bowels. - -"If the pain continues, Ramon, we shall have to kill a sheep," said -the padre, "and apply its intestines, reeking hot, to the stomach of -the patient; 'tis a remedy I have never known to fail in allaying -spasms there, especially if the sheep be a moreno." - -By nightfall, however, thanks to the good padre's real skill, which -was superior to his superstition in the efficacy of black-faced -mutton, Quentin was quite relieved, and after a time related his -whole story from the time of his leaving Herreruela. Florez listened -to him with considerable interest, approved of all he had done, and -gave him much good advice; but added that he feared De Saldos would -hold him accountable for the loss of his sister, for whose treatment, -and of whose ultimate fate among the French, he had the greatest -apprehension. He added that his visit to the villa seemed to have -been a special interposition of heaven in Quentin's favour, as he -would inevitably have died in mortal agonies but for the prompt and -simple applications which saved him. - -He desired Ramon to take special charge of the patient to Portalegre; -to see that by the way he got nothing stronger for food than milk, -gruel, or barley broth, and no wine whatever; and then giving them -all his benediction, which the muleteers received on their knees with -uncovered heads, he stuck his shovel hat on his worthy old cranium, -the thin hairs of which were white as snow, mounted his sleek mule, -and pricking its dapple flanks with his box stirrup-irons, departed -for Marvao, by the way of Valencia de Alcantara, where he hoped to -trace, and perhaps release the unfortunate girl from her captors. - -Impatient though the muleteers were to proceed with their train of -mules, which were laden chiefly with wine for Sir John Hope's -division, they agreed to remain for a night at the villa, where their -cattle grazed on the lawn. - -With dawn next day they set forth, with Quentin riding at the head of -the train, mounted on Madrina, and feeling very much like one in a -dream. - -"Come, Ignacio Noain, a stirrup-cup ere we go," said Ramon, as he -came forth, cracking his enormous whip, a blunderbuss slung on his -back, and his sombrero rakishly cocked over his left eye. - -Ignacio handed a cupful of wine to his leader. - -"Demonio!" said the latter, "this smacks of the borrachio skin." - -"To me it was luscious as a melon of Abrantes in June, after the -coarse aguardiente we drank last night," said Ignacio, who looked -rather bloodshot about the eyes. - -"Of course you haven't tried the casks of Valdepenas on the three -leading mules?" said Ramon, with a cunning leer. - -"They are for the English general and his staff, so every cask is -guarded by an outer one." - -"And thus your gimlet failed to reach the wine?" - -"Precisely so." - -"Maldita! the merchant who sold that wine must either be a rogue at -heart, or an old muleteer, to be so well up to all the tricks of the -road. And now, senor, here is milk for you; no wine; we must -remember the orders of Padre Florez," said Ramon, presenting Quentin -with a bowl of new goat's-milk, as he sat, pale as a spectre, on the -demipique saddle with which Madrina was accoutred, and which, in -addition to all her other fringe and worsted trappings, gave that -stately pet-mare very much the aspect of a mummer's nag. - -Quentin, though refreshed and revived by the cool and delicious -morning air, and cheered by the hope of being soon at head-quarters -with his present jovial guides, felt sad and bewildered when he -thought of Isidora, her beauty, her impetuous spirit, the wild and -sudden love she had professed for himself, and the too probable -horror of her fate in the hands of the French, who were so -unscrupulous towards the Spaniards and Portuguese. - -Then the mystery of the poison; it was no doubt, he hoped, some fatal -mistake, but one which might never be solved or explained. - -In fancy he seemed still to see her wondrous dark eyes, with their -thick black upper and lower lashes, while her soft musical voice -seemed to mingle with the melodious bells of the long train of mules -at the head of which Madrina paced as guide; and as they descended -the vine-clad hills towards the frontiers of Portugal, he turned in -his saddle to give a farewell glance at the deserted Villa de Maciera. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -THE ARMY MARCHES. - - "No martial shout is there--in silence dread, - Save the dull cadence of the soldier's tread, - Or where the measured beat of distant drum - Tells forth their slow advance--they come! they come! - On! England, on! and thou, O Scotland, raise, - 'Midst Lusias' wilds, thy shout of other days, - Till grim Alcoba catch thy slogan roar, - And trembling, glisten to thy blue claymore." - LORD GRENVILLE.--1813. - - -On the 2nd day of November, 1808, the division of Sir John Hope broke -up from its cantonments at Portalegre, and by successive regiments -began its march towards Spain. - -The whole British army in Portugal was now pouring forward, and it -was calculated that when Sir John Moore effected a junction with the -Spanish armies, the united forces would amount to one hundred and -thirteen thousand men, to oppose the vast power of France, which was -divided into eight corps, led by the first soldiers of the Empire, -the Marshal-Dukes of Belluno, Istria, Cornegliano, Treviso, -Elchingen, Abrantes, Generals St. Cyr and Lefebre. - -To prevent this junction was the first measure of the French, -twenty-five thousand of whom attacked the main body of Blake's army -on the 31st of October, and, after an obstinate conflict of eight -hours, forced him back upon Valmeseda. He was without artillery, -otherwise this famous Irish soldier of fortune might have held the -ground against them, even though outnumbered as he was by eight -thousand bayonets. - -Meanwhile, Napoleon in person advanced to Burgos, where he -established his head-quarters, and from whence he issued an edict in -the name of his brother Joseph, as King of Spain, granting a pardon -to all Spaniards, soldiers, guerillas, and others, who, within one -month after his arrival at Madrid, would lay down their arms and -renounce all connextion with Great Britain. Soon after Madrid fell -into his hands, either by a memory of the terrors of Zaragossa or the -treachery of Morla, though sixty thousand Spaniards were ready to -defend its streets and gates! - -Sir John Moore was a young Scotch officer of great experience. He -had served at the capture of Corsica, and led the stormers of the -Mozzello Fort amid a shower of shot, shell, and hand-grenades. He -was present at the capture of many of the West India islands; he had -served in the Irish Rebellion, the disastrous expedition to Holland, -and the glorious one to Egypt, which wrested that country from the -French; and he had been Commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean and -Sweden. Though superseded temporarily by the vacillating ministry -who sent Sir Harry Burrard to Portugal, he was still modestly content -to act as third in command, nobly saying, that "he would never refuse -to serve his country while he was able, and that if the King -commanded him to act as ensign, he would obey him." - -It was this chivalrous spirit which, on arriving in Portugal after -the battle of Vimiera, made him declare to Sir Hew Dalrymple, that as -Sir Arthur Wellesley had done so much in winning that victory and the -battle of Roleia, it was but fair that _he_ should still continue to -take the lead in the task of freeing Portugal from the French; and -Moore offered generously, "if the good of the service required it, to -execute any part of the campaign allotted to him, without interfering -with Sir Arthur." - -After he obtained the command, the utmost activity prevailed at -head-quarters to forward the expedition for the relief of the Spanish -Peninsula, though he was left by Government almost without money. -"He was very desirous," says Napier, "that troops who had a journey -of six hundred miles to make, previous to meeting the enemy, should -not, at the commencement, be overwhelmed by the torrents of rain, -which in Portugal descend at this period with such violence as to -destroy the shoes, ammunition, and accoutrements of the soldier, and -render him almost unfit for service." - -In eight days he had his troops ready, and most of them in motion; -but difficulties soon occurred. The lazy Portuguese asserted that it -was impracticable to carry siege, or even field artillery, by the -mule and horse paths which traversed their vast mountain sierras; but -Sir John Moore discovered on his march that the roads, though very -bad, were open enough for the purpose; but the knowledge came rather -too late. - -The artillery, consisting of twenty-four pieces, with a thousand -cavalry, he sent with the division of Sir John Hope, whose orders -were to march by Elvas on the Madrid road. Moore retained one -brigade of six-pounders at head-quarters. - -Two brigades of infantry, under General Paget, were to march by Elvas -and Alcantara. Two others, under Marshal Beresford, by the way of -Coimbra, and three more, under General Fraser, were to move by the -city of Abrantes, near the right bank of the Tagus. - -The _whole_ to unite at Salamanca, the general rendezvous, where Sir -John Hope and Sir David Baird, with their divisions, were to join, if -they failed to do so at Valladolid. - -Such was the scheme of Sir John Moore for commencing operations -against the Emperor of France at the head of his mighty legions. - -Before the troops marched, he warned them in general orders, that the -Spaniards were a nation by habit and nature grave, austere, orderly, -and sober, but prone to ire and easily insulted; he therefore sought -to impress upon his soldiers the propriety of accommodating -themselves to the manners of those they were going among, and neither -by intemperance of conduct or language, to shock a people who were -grateful to Britain for an alliance which was to free them from the -bondage of France, and to restore them to their ancient liberty and -independence. - -"Upon entering Spain," concludes this most judicious order, "as a -compliment to the nation, the army will wear the _Red cockade_, in -addition to their own. For this purpose, cockades are ordered for -the non-commissioned officers and men; they will be sent from Madrid; -but in the meantime officers are requested to provide them and put -them on, as soon as they pass the frontier." - -Such expedition did the gallant Moore make, that he out-marched his -magazines; and to use his own words, "the army ran the risk of -finding itself in front of the enemy, with no more ammunition than -the men carried in their pouches." - -And now, to resume our humble story, it was on the 2nd of November, -the very day on which the second division was to march, that the -Muleteer Ramon of Miranda and his train entered Portalegre about -daybreak, with Quentin Kennedy riding on Madrina, looking pale, -weary, and exhausted. - -"Por Dios! we have just come in time, senor," said Ramon; "another -hour, and even the rear guard would have been difficult to overtake. -Here I shall leave you and my casks of Valdepenas, and then, ho for -Lisbon!" - -The sun had not yet risen, and the dull November haze that rolled -from the valleys along the sombre slopes of the rocky sierras, yet -hovered over the quaint little episcopal city of Portalegre. The -church bells and those of the Santa Engracia convent (at which -Quentin was to have left poor Isidora) were ringing out a farewell -peal to the departing British, and prayers for the success of their -arms were mingled with the morning matins at every altar in the -bishopric. The narrow streets were blocked up with sombre crowds of -people, and by troops in heavy marching order. All betokened hasty -preparations for advancing to the front, and amid the loud vivas of -the Portuguese could be heard the wailing of the poor soldiers' wives -who were to be left behind for on the 10th October, Sir John Moore, -who, though brave as a lion, was tender as a woman, and whose love -and devotion for his mother was a leading characteristic throughout -his short but brilliant life, issued the following order:-- - -"As in the course of the long march which the army is about to -undertake, and where no carls will be allowed, the women would -unavoidably be exposed to the greatest hardship and distress, -commanding officers are, therefore, desired to use their endeavours -to prevent as many as possible, _particularly those having young -children_, or such as are not stout or equal to fatigue, from -following the army. An officer will be charged to draw their -rations, and they will be sent back to England by the first good -opportunity; and, when landed, they will receive the same allowance -which they would have been entitled to if they had not embarked, to -enable them to reach their homes." - -Unfortunately, implicit obedience was not paid to this humane order, -and thus many women, with their children, followed the troops in -secret, and thus many, if not all, perished by the way, during the -horrors of the retreat to Corunna. - -Among these, inspired by love and trust, who courageously followed -the army on foot and in secrecy, or sometimes mounted on a poor lean -burro, which they grazed by the wayside, was the wife of Allan -Grange, the poor sergeant, reduced at Colchester barracks, a fragile -and ailing creature, who bore a pale, sickly, and consumptive little -baby at her breast. - -The advanced guard of Light Dragoons, with, oats and forage trussed -in nets and bags upon the cruppers, had already been detailed, and -were in their saddles, half a mile in front of the city, at the base -of the hill on which it stands. - -The twenty-four pieces of artillery were all in readiness, the trails -limbered up and the horses traced, with water-buckets, spare wheels -and forge-waggon, the gunners in their seats and saddles. - -The massed columns of infantry were in heavy marching order, with -great-coats rolled, canteens and havresacks slung crosswise, with -colours, in some instances cased, and locks hammerstalled; the -cavalry were in the great plaza, in close column of troops, every man -riding with a net of forage (chopped straw or whins) behind him; the -baggage-animals--horses, mules, and burros--already laden with tents, -bags, beds, boxes, and camp-kettles, amid the cracking of whips, and -oaths uttered in English, Irish, Spanish, and Portuguese, were driven -forth to make way for the troops, who, while staff and other officers -galloped about as if possessed by so many devils, began their march -for Spain. - -Bewildered by the confusion and hurly-burly of the scene amid which -he so suddenly found himself, and thrust by the pressure of the crowd -against the wall of the Santa Engracia convent, Quentin sat in the -saddle of Madrina and saw nearly the whole division of Sir John Hope -defile before him, a long and glittering array, for as the golden -light of the sun poured along the picturesque vista of the ancient -street, and the white rolling mists were dispelled or exhaled upward, -the burnished barrels, bayonets, and sword-blades, the polished -brasses of the accoutrements, and the glazed tops of the shakos, all -flashed and shone, while the thoroughfares resounded to the tramp of -horse and foot, spurs, scabbards, and chain bridles--to the sharp -blare of the cavalry trumpets, the drums of the infantry, and the -hoarse war pipes of the plaided Highlanders--the wild, strange music -that Scotsmen only _feel_ or understand. - -Many of the soldiers were pale and wan, from the comfortless wards of -Belem hospital, and many a bandaged head, many an arm in a scarf, and -plaster on a cheek, showed the part they had borne at Roleia and -Vimiera, and in the struggle which had just freed Portugal from those -who aimed at the conquest of Europe. - -Uniforms already old and thriftily patched with cloth of divers -colours, housings faded, chabraques worn bare, gun carriages minus -paint and oil, as they rumbled along; all spoke of service and hard -work--of harder work and keener service yet to come! - -And now advanced a corps, on hearing the well-known air played by -whose drums and fifes, Quentin made a leap from the saddle of -Madrina, and forced a passage through the dense crowd, for it was the -25th, "The King's Own Borderers," with the Castle of Edinburgh -shining on their colours, and all their old honours--"Nisi Dominus -Frustra," Egypt, and Egmont-op-Zee, that debouched into the main -street of Portalegre in a dense close column of sections, nine -hundred men, all marching as one to their old quick step of a -thousand memories-- - - "All the blue bonnets are bound for the border," - -or General Leslie's march to Long-Marston Moor in the days of the -great civil war. - -Endued with fresh strength by the sight of the regiment, Quentin -burst through the crowd, and, reaching the grenadiers, grasped the -hand of Rowland Askerne, on whose breast he saw a Portuguese order -glittering. - -"Quentin Kennedy, by all that's wonderful!" exclaimed the tall -captain, grasping his hand warmly in return. "Quentin, my boy, how -goes it?" - -"Hallo! talk of the----" began Monkton, clapping him on the back; "we -were just talking about you--thought you lost, gone, and all that -sort of thing, a martyr to duty; but welcome back, my dear lad!" - -"Where is old Major Middleton?" - -"With Buckle in rear of the column." - -"And little Boyle?" - -"Oh, Pimple is with Colyear carrying the colours; but where have you -been, and what the deuce have you been about, eh?" - -"You look pale and weary to begin a march this morning, sir," said -some of the soldiers, kindly, for Quentin was a favourite with them -all. - -"You must have a horse," said Askerne: "you look absolutely ill, -Quentin; how is this?" - -"It is a long story, Askerne," replied Kennedy, with a haggard smile. - -"Egad, I thought, and we _all_ thought, the duty one beyond your -years and experience." - -"Make way here in front, please; mark time, the grenadiers," said an -authoritative voice as the column issued from the city gate, and an -officer who nearly rode our hero down, pushed his horse between the -band and the first section of the grenadier company. Quentin looked -indignantly up, and found the cold, stern, and uncompromising eye of -Cosmo, the Master of Rohallion, steadily bent upon him. - -"You have returned, sir, _at last_?" was his stiff response to -Quentin's hasty salute. - -"It is little short of a miracle that I ever returned at all, Colonel -Crawford; I have undergone no small danger I beg to assure you, and -have but this instant entered Portalegre. I have acquitted myself of -the duty with which the general did me the honour to entrust me. The -junction will be formed with our division on the march, and I have a -despatch from the Guerilla Chief." - -"For whom?" - -"Sir John Hope, sir; shall I give it to him in person?" - -"No--I shall myself deliver it," replied Cosmo, who feared naturally -the favourable impression which Quentin might make on the good -general, to whom he had been represented as unworthy; "get your -musket and fall in with your company as soon as possible. We shall -have some _other_ work cut out for you ere long," added Cosmo, with a -dark and scornful smile, as he took, or rather snatched the despatch -from Quentin, who seemed more fit for a sick bed than for marching -among the sturdy grenadiers of the Borderers; but for that day he was -attached to the baggage guard, which was under Lieutenant Colville, -and this arrangement for his comfort was made by the kindness of the -old halberdier Norman Calder, who was now sergeant-major. He rode -the spare horse of Major Middleton, a boon but for which he could -never have kept up with the troops. - -With the baggage marched the rear guard of the division, having with -it the sick, the drunk, disorderly, and prisoners, together with a -medley of followers of a not very reputable kind, whose presence was -not conducive to reflection or comfort, and who noisily scorned alike -control or discipline. - -As Quentin was riding thus, he was passed from the rear by the -general and his staff. The former gave him a keen and inquiring -glance, answered his salute briefly, and passed on. Whether Cosmo -had mentioned him favourably, or the reverse, in delivering the -despatch of Don Baltasar, he knew not; but he knew that when once the -spiteful element attains ascendancy in the human heart, there is no -mode in which it will not seek to be gratified and no measure to its -malignity, and he sighed over an enmity that he dared neither to -grapple with or hope to overcome; and all this he owed to the -preference of Flora Warrender for him--her early friend and playmate -in youth. - -Well, there was some consolation in the cause! - -Though his reception by the Master of Rohallion neither disappointed -nor shocked him, it chilled the poor lad's heart, which grew heavy as -he saw how unavailing and how fruitless were all his efforts to -deserve praise or to win honour! - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -HALT AT AZUMAR. - - "Pleasures fled hence, wide now's the gulf between us; - Stern Mars has routed Bacchus and sweet Venus: - I can no more--the lamp's fast fading ray - Reminds me of parade ere break of day, - Where, shivering, I must strut, though bleak the morning, - Roused by the hateful drummer's early warning. - Come, then, my boat-cloak, let me wrap thee round, - And snore in concert stretched upon the ground." - _An Elegy._ - - -The noisy racket maintained by those who were in custody of the -rear-guard, the voices of others who whipped or cheered on the long -string of baggage animals (Evora horses, Castilian mules, and sturdy -burros or donkeys), the various novel sights and sounds incident to -the march of Hope's division, together with the appearance of the -division itself winding down the deep valleys and up the steep -mountains like a long and glittering snake, amid clouds of white -dust, out of which the sheen of arms and the waving of colours came -incessantly, won Quentin from his sadder thoughts, and he began to -feel, after all he had undergone, an emotion, of joy on finding -himself among his old comrades--a joy that can only be known by a -soldier--by one forming a part of that great and permanent, but -almost always happy family, a regiment of the line. - -The morning was bright and breezy; the large floating clouds cast -their flying shadows over the sunlit landscape at times, adding alike -to its beauty and the striking effect of the marching columns. - -Weary of the dark and sallow Spaniards, Quentin's eyes had run along -the ranks of the 25th, and their familiar faces, which seemed so fair -and ruddy when contrasted with those of the nations they had come to -free, were pleasant to look upon. - -Their colours, with the castle triple-towered and the city motto; the -familiar bugle calls, and more than all, the old quick-step of -General Leslie, which came floating rearward from time to time when -the corps traversed an eminence, all spake to him of his new but -moveable home, and the new associations he had learned to love. - -Cosmo--the impracticable and inscrutable--Cosmo Crawford--alone was -the feature there that marred his prospects and blighted his pleasure! - -He felt a sincere regret for poor Isidora, and this was not unmingled -with a little selfish dread of her brother, De Saldos, the scowling -Trevino, and others, when those guerillas joined the division, which -they would probably do in the course of a day or so; and what answer -would he make to them when they--and chiefly her brother--asked for -the missing donna? He felt himself, indeed, between the horns of a -dilemma, and many unpleasant forebodings mingled with his dreams of a -brilliant future. - -Amid these ideas recurred the longing to write home (how long, long -seemed the time that had elapsed since he left it!) that the good -Lord Rohallion and the gentle Lady Winifred--that dear Flora, and the -old quartermaster too, might learn something of what he had seen, and -done, and undergone since last they parted. - -Had Cosmo, in any of his letters, ever written to announce that he -was serving with the Borderers? - -This was a question Quentin had frequently asked of himself, and he -felt certain that the colonel had not done so, as in the other -instance, and unless he had been cruelly misrepresented, Lord -Rohallion or worthy John Girvan, and his old mentor the quaint -dominie, would assuredly have written to him long since. Thus it was -evident that in his correspondence with those at home in Carrick, the -haughty Master had totally ignored his name. - -Quentin's passion for Flora Warrender was a boyish devotion that -mingled with all his love and all his memories of home. She was -still a guiding star to his heart and hopes, the impulse of every -thought, the mainspring of every act and deed; and thus Quentin felt -that while this dear girl at home loved him--as sister, friend, and -sweetheart all combined, the spiteful hauteur of Cosmo was innocuous -and pointless indeed. - -As the paymaster of the regiment was riding with the rear-guard, -Quentin lost no time in placing in his hands a sufficient number of -those gold moidores that were found in the repositories of the late -Corporal Raoul, of the 24th Chasseurs a Cheval (the spoil so -liberally shared with him by Ribeaupierre), for the purpose of having -them transmitted by bill or otherwise to the quartermaster at -Rohallion, to repay the good man for the forty pounds he had placed -at his disposal on the night he left the castle to return no more; -and the fact of this debt being off his conscience made his spirit -more buoyant than ever. - -They were now marching through the province of Alentejo, the land of -wine and oil, the granary of Portugal. Long-bearded goats and great -bristly swine were to be seen in all the pastures, but few or no -horned cattle. Proceeding on a line parallel with the Spanish -frontier, they passed through the fortified town of Alegrete, which -is moated round by the small river Caia, and there each regiment made -its first brief halt for a few minutes before pushing on to Azumar, -some fourteen miles from Portalegre, where the division was to pass -the night. - -Those halts on the line of march were so brief that the bugles of the -leading corps always sounded the advance when those of the rear were -sounding the halt--ten minutes being the utmost time allotted. - -On reaching Azumar, the lieutenant-general with his staff, and the -colonels of corps, found quarters in the castle of the counts of that -name, while the rest of the troops remained without the walls of the -town. - -The night was fine for the season, and clear and starry; a pinkish -flush, that lingered beyond the summits of the Sierra Alpedriera to -the westward, showed where the November sun had set. Tents were -pitched for the whole force; but, before turning in for the night, -Captain Askerne, Monkton, and other Borderers, preferred to sup in a -cosy nook, sheltered by a ruined vineyard wall and a group of -gigantic chestnuts, under which their servants had lighted a rousing -fire of dry branches and wood, hewn down by the pioneers' hatchets. - -Each added the contents of his havresack to the common stock of the -party, and in the same fraternal fashion they shared the contents of -their canteens, flasks, and bottles; thus various kinds of liquor, -wine--brandy, and aguardiente, were contributed. What the repast -lacked in splendour or delicacy was amply made up for by good humour -and jollity, and to those who had an eye for the picturesque, that -element was not wanting. - -In the foreground the red glaring fire cast its light on the -soldierly fellows we have introduced to the reader, as they sat or -lounged on the grass in their regimental greatcoats, or cloaks of -blue lined with scarlet, and their swords and belts beside them. The -great chestnut trees were well-nigh leafless now, and with the rough -masonry of the old wall, coated with heavily-leaved vine and ivy, -formed a background. - -Further off, in another direction, were the glares of other -watchfires, around which similar groups were gathered--fires that -shed their light in fitful flashes on the long rows of white -bell-tents, on the dark figures that flitted to and fro, and on the -forms of the distant and solitary sentinels, who stood steadily on -their posts, the point of each man's bayonet shining like a red star -as the flame tipped it with fire. - -"Here comes Colville," said Monkton, as that individual, who was -somewhat of a dandy and man of fashion, lounged slowly up, and cast -himself languidly on the grass. "You have just been with the -colonel, I suppose?" - -"Yes--a deuced bore--to report the baggage all up with the battalion, -the guard dismissed to their tents, and luckily, no casualties, save -a mule that we lost in a bog." - -"And you found him bland, as usual?" - -"I found him quartered, not in the castle, as I expected, but in a -deserted house half ruined by the French," replied Colville, smiling; -"the only habitable apartment was the kitchen, where our colours are -lodged, and there he was eating a tough bullock steak, embers and -all, just as his man had cooked it, on the ramrod of an old pistol. -Egad, it was a picture!" - -"A dainty kabob we should have called it in Egypt," said Major -Middleton, laughing, with a huge magnum-bonum bottle of -brandy-and-water placed between his fat legs. "Ah, the Honourable -Cosmo should not have quitted his guardsman's comforts at the York -Coffee-house, or Betty Neale's fruit-shop in St. Jameses Street,* to -rough it with the line in the Peninsula!" - - -* Two favourite resorts of the Household Brigade in those days. - - -"Did he compliment you on bringing up your disorderly charge without -other loss than the mule?" asked Askerne. - -"The devil a bit," yawned Colville; "with his glass stuck in his eye, -he gave me one of his cool stares, and said, briefly, 'That will do, -sir--to your company.'" - -"Ah," grumbled Middleton, shaking his old head, while his pigtail -swayed to and fro, "the colonel may have in his veins good blood, as -it is called, but he has in his heart about as much of the milk of -human kindness as if it belonged to an old lawyer." - -The last part of the sentence, we are bound to add, was partly -mumbled into the mouth of the magnum, which at that moment the major -applied to his own. - -"Here comes Dick Warriston," said Monkton, as an officer muffled in a -cloak approached. "Hallo, Dick--how goes it, man?" - -"Good evening, gentlemen--thought I should find you out. I heard on -the march that our friend the volunteer had turned up again. How are -you, Kennedy? glad to see you safe and sound once more," said -Quentin's old friend, as they shook hands, and he cast his ample blue -muffling aside, displaying his well-built figure, with the scarlet -coat, green lapels, and massive gold epaulettes of the Scots Brigade. - -"Be seated, Dick." - -"Thanks, Askerne." - -"Do you prefer a chair, or a sofa?" asked Monkton. - -"The sofa, by all means," replied Warriston, stretching himself on -the grass. - -"There is brandy in that jar beside you, and Lisbon wine in the -bottle. Here, under these fine old chestnuts, we are quite a select -little pic-nic party, out of range of shot, shell, and everything----" - -"Except fireflies and mosquitoes, Willie--a poor substitute for the -girls, God bless them." - -"Whose trumpets are these? what's up now?" asked Monkton, as a sharp -cavalry call rang upon the night. - -"The 3rd Dragoons of the German Legion, Burgwesel's regiment, are -watering their horses." - -"Those Germans are regular trumps in their order and discipline," -said Monkton; "but as for the Portuguese, damme, they are not worth -their liquor. Even the Johnny Crapauds despise them. You have just -come in time, Warriston, to hear Kennedy relate to us his interview -with the guerilla chief; go on, lad, we are all listening," he added, -as he and others proceeded to light their cigars or charge their -pipes for a thorough bout of smoking. - -Quentin told them briefly as much of his adventures as he deemed it -necessary to relate or reveal, from the time of his parting from -Askerne to the hour of his return to Portalegre. The slaughter of -the French prisoners at Herreruela drew forth loud execrations and -unanimous condemnation. His illness at the Villa de Maciera was -alone a mystery which he could not explain, and the manner in which -he consequently and naturally blundered in narrating this part of his -story, drew forth the laughter and the empty jests of the younger -portion of his audience. - -"Damme," said Monkton, "you were a bold fellow, Kennedy, to become -spooney on the sister of such a melo-dramatic individual--such a -regular 'heavy villain' as this guerilla De Saldos! Egad, the sight -of the fellow, with those black moustachios you have described, each -like a snake twisted under his hooked nose, would be enough to -frighten the French!" - -"Very singular style of person, your Spanish friend, I should think," -lisped Colville, with his glass in his eye. - -"Remarkably so," added Ensign Pimple, raising his white eyebrows; -"decidedly a dangerous fellow to have a shindy with!" - -"A most interesting individual, no doubt," said Buckle the adjutant; -"but begad, not at all suited to a quiet rubber or a little supper -party; takes mustard to his lamb, perhaps, and pepper to his -enchanted eggs, but knows nothing, I'll be bound, of a devilled -kidney, a broiled bone, and a tumbler of decent whisky toddy. 'Full -of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard;' he is all spasms, big -boots, and blue fire--eh?" - -While they jested thus, and Quentin, with something of annoyance and -vexation, looked from one to another, Askerne and Warriston, who were -men of graver mood, had been eyeing him attentively. - -"My poor lad,"' said the former, laying a hand kindly on his -shoulder, "all this that you have related was a sad trial for you--a -great test of courage and discretion for one so young to be subjected -to, especially in a foreign country, and among a people so fierce and -lawless." - -"Your pistols were always my friends," said Quentin, laughing; "I -thought of them in every extremity, Captain Askerne; but fortunately -never had to use them." - -"Then keep them, Quentin, my boy, as a little present from me," said -the grenadier. - -"But to deprive you----" - -"Matters nothing--I took a handsome pair of silver-mounted pops from -the holsters of a French officer the other day." - -"Askerne has but anticipated me," said Warriston; "I had resolved to -give you mine, though they were a gift to me from my father's old -friend the Conservator of Scottish Privileges at Campvere, when the -Scots Brigade came home and turned their backs upon honest old -Holland for ever." - -"Well, Kennedy," said Monkton, with a droll twinkle in his eye, -"we've heard all your adventures, at least _so much_ as you wisely, -prudently, and discreetly choose to tell us; but I cannot help -thinking that we could make a few interesting notes on the time spent -in that ruined Château en Espagne. Was the donna young, black-eyed, -beautiful, and all that sort of thing, eh?" - -"By Jove," added Colville, in the same tone, "you are a regular St. -Francis, or St. Anthony! But unlike you, if the donnas on the other -side of the frontier think me worth their while, I am ready to be -subjected to any amount of seduction the dear creatures may choose to -put in practice." - -Affecting neither to hear Monkton's banter nor Colville's addition, -Quentin turned to Askerne, admiring the order that glittered on his -left breast. - -"This is Portuguese?" said he. - -"Yes, Quentin--the Tower and Sword--given to me by the Junta of -Oporto for capturing an exploring party, consisting of an officer and -ten French dragoons of Ribeaupierre's regiment, whom I cut off in a -narrow valley near Portalegre (on the very day after you left us), -where I had been sent with twenty of ours to bring in forage." - -"Askerne, I do envy you this decoration!" said Quentin, whose eyes -sparkled with genuine pleasure and admiration, for medals were almost -unknown in the British army then, and the Bath, as now, was only -given to field officers; "and they were, you say, dragoons of -Ribeaupierre?" - -"The same corps with some of whom you fell in among the Spanish -mountains. They are quartered in Valencia de Alcantara." - -"Ribeaupierre!" said the bantering Monkton; "there is a name for an -intelligent young man to go to bed with! It smacks of Anne -Radcliffe's mysterious romances of 'Sicily' and 'The Forest.'" - -"Yet it is the name of an officer as brave as any in France," said -Quentin; "the general who bears it was a subaltern with Napoleon in -the Regiment of La Fere, a town on an island of the Oise, where it -was originally raised." - -"Like that corps, the 24th Chasseurs à Cheval were originally under -the monarchy," said Warriston. - -"Their uniform is light green, faced and lapelled with white?" - -"Exactly, Quentin--the same uniform worn by the Emperor on almost -every occasion," replied Warriston; "the 24th were long known as the -Disinterested Regiment of Chartres." - -"An honourable title," said Askerne; "how came they to win it, thou -man of anecdote?" - -"About nineteen years ago, when the troubles of the Revolution were -first beginning, the regiment was quartered at Le Mans, a town of -France situated on the river Sarthe, if you have not forgotten your -geography, Rowland. The corps then belonged--such was the French -aristocratic term--to Louis Philip Joseph, Duke of Orleans,* the -notorious 'Egalité' who was guillotined by the mob in 1793; but it -was denominated 'of Chartres,' from the county of the name gifted to -his ancestor by Louis XIV. - - -* Father of Louis Philippe I., late King of the French. - - -"The outrages of the Revolutionists were at their height around the -whole of Mans. Day and night the dragoons of Chartres remained with -their accoutrements on and their horses saddled ready to assist the -magistrates and all peaceable citizens. Every day brought tidings of -new horrors in the rural districts, and every night saw the sky -reddened by the flames of burning chateaux, convents, and -abbey-churches, whose occupants were given to pillage and death. - -"So resolute and orderly were the dragoons of Chartres, so sturdily -and bravely did they protect the weak against the strong, enforce the -public peace, and conduct the transit of corn for the poor, that the -magistrates deemed it necessary to make some acknowledgment of their -services. A vote of thanks from the municipality preceded a gratuity -of eight hundred livres (no great sum among us certainly, but a -handsome one on the other side of the Channel) to be distributed -among the three hundred Chasseurs of the corps. - -"In a large bag the money, made, by the way, from the church bells of -France, was sent to the colonel, who gave it to the men to dispose of -as they pleased; upon which, instead of dividing it among themselves, -they resolved unanimously to bestow it upon a portion of the very -people who had been tormenting their lives for the last six months. - -"One of the dragoons, a mere youth named Raoul, waited upon the -Rector of St. Nicholas in the city of Le Mans and handing him the bag -with its contents, said-- - -"'Monsieur le Recteur, we want not this money. The pay of His -Majesty, whom God and St. Louis long preserve! secures us in all that -a soldier requires; but the poor, though they are the children of -God, are not so blessed. We, the dragoons of Chartres, beg, -therefore, that you will accept of this for their use, and put it to -the common stock for the aged and the indigent.'" - -"And this soldier was named Raoul?" said Quentin, who felt something -like a shock when he heard him mentioned. - -"So the newspapers said," replied Warriston. - -Quentin was silent, but the face of one of the dead dragoons whom he -had seen at Herreruela--he who had been dragged by his stirrup--came -vividly to memory; while, such is the effect of fancy, the moidores -that remained in his pocket seemed to become heavy as lead. - -The hour was late now, and he was completely overcome by fatigue. -With a knapsack for a pillow he dropped asleep, while his more hardy -comrades sat smoking and drinking, and discussing the fortune of the -coming struggle in Spain. - -As the light of the watch-fire waned and fell in flickering gleams on -his features, they seemed pinched, pale, and wan. - -"God help the poor fatherless boy," said Captain Warriston, with -considerable emotion; "what hard fate brings him here? He seems -quite a waif among us, and one that is hardly used by you fellows of -the 25th in particular. I wish I had him with me in the Scots -Brigade. This last devilish piece of duty has broken him completely -down!" - -"No, no, Warriston; there is good stuff in him yet," said Rowland -Askerne, as he divested his broad shoulders of his own ample cloak, -and kindly spread it over the sleeper. "At his age, I had neither -father nor mother nor friend to do _this_ for me, and I too was, like -him, a poor volunteer!" - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -THE ADVANCE INTO SPAIN. - - "Oh, life has many a varied tint, - Has many a bright and lovely hue, - Though care upon the brow may print - A sadder, darker colour too. - But hope still casts her rainbow wings - O'er many a scene of care and strife, - And gilds the hours round which she flings - The bright and varied tints of life." - CARPENTER. - - -Sir John Horn's division continued to march by the strong old -frontier town of Elvas, which crowns a rocky hill not far from where -the Guadiana sweeps south towards the sea. - -"To-morrow," said Monkton, as he placed the glaring red cockade of -Ferdinand VII. on his shako, "we shall be airing our most dulcet -Spanish in Old Castile, learning to dance the bolero, to tilt up our -legs in the fandango, and to twangle on the guitar." - -"I fear, Dick, that Marshal Soult will cut out more serious work for -us," said Major Middleton. - -"Do we halt at Elvas?" asked some one, as the regiment approached the -town. - -"Yes, thank Heaven!" exclaimed Monkton. - -"We have marched twenty miles to-day, and to-night I am going to the -camp of the 28th." - -"On duty?" - -"No; but because they have fallen in with a cask of whisky." - -"Whisky!" exclaimed several voices. "Whisky here?" - -"The best Farintosh. It was taken from the wreck of a Scotch -transport in Maciera Bay, and, may I never see morning, if I don't -beg, borrow, or steal at least a canteenful. The Slashers won't -refuse me, I am sure." - -Next morning, a march of ten miles brought them in sight of the great -castle of Badajoz--that place of terrible but immortal memory! - -Flanked by the waters of the Rivollas and Guadiana, flowing between -vineyards and olive groves, it towered in clear sharp outline against -the pure blue sky, on cliffs three hundred feet in height, with all -its grim batteries and tiers of cannon bristling, row on row; its -eight great bastions, each standing forth with one angle bathed in -strong yellow sunlight, and the other sunk in deep purple shadow; the -rich gothic spires and countless pinnacles of its churches and -convents, and the glittering casements of its white-walled mansions -that clustered on its rocky steep, all shining in the warm glow, -while, in the background, extended far away the long green wavy -outline of the mountains of Toledo. - -Kellerman and Victor had alike been foiled before it, as the -Portuguese had been in the days of the Archduke John of Austria, and -now the scarlet and yellow banners of King Ferdinand VII. were still -waving triumphantly upon the towers of San Cristoval, San Roque, and -the Forts of Picurina and Pardaleras. The united clangour of, -perhaps, five hundred bells, mellowed by the distance, came merrily -upon the morning breeze, a welcome to the British. Then a white puff -of smoke from the highest battery of the grand old citadel announced -the first gun of a royal salute. Another and another followed, -flashing from the dark embrasures, while the pale wreaths curled -upward and floated away, till the whole round of twenty-one pieces -was complete; but, as the city was two miles distant, each report -came faintly to the ear, and at an interval after the flash. - -Ere long, the twenty-eight arches of the noble bridge of the Guadiana -rang beneath the hoofs of our Light Dragoons, as the advanced guard -began to cross, and, amid the clangour of bells in spire and -campanile, and the "vivas" of the assembled thousands, the reiterated -shouts of "Viva los Ingleses!" "Viva los Escotos!" the infantry found -themselves defiling through the lower streets of Badajoz and entering -Spain. - -Eyes dark and bright sparkled with pleasure and welcome from many an -open lattice, and many a fan and veil were waved, and many a white -hand kissed to the passing troops, as, with colours waving and -bayonets fixed, they passed under the gaily crowded balconies on -their way to the Guadiana. - -Escorted by a guard of glittering Spanish lancers, mounted on -beautiful jennets, a quaint old coach, such as we only see depicted -in fairy tales or pantomimes, came slowly rumbling forward on its -carved and gilded wheels. It was gorgeous with burnished brasses and -coats armorial, but was shaped like a gigantic apple pie, drawn by -six sleek fat mules, that were almost hidden under their elaborate -trappings; and each pair had a little lean dark postilion, in -cocked-hat and epaulettes, floundering away in boots like -water-buckets, while, at the doors on both sides, hung two tripod -stools, as the means of ingress and egress. - -But, in front of this remarkable conveyance, the advanced guard -halted with carbine on thigh, the officers saluting and the trumpets -sounding, while the general and staff approached bare-headed, with -hat in hand, for in the recesses of this apple-pie were the most -Reverend Padres en Dios, the Archbishop of Santiago, the Bishop -Suffragan of Compostella, Senores the Captain-general, the Alcalde of -Badajoz, and a great many more, in civic robes and military uniforms, -with crosses and medals, and all of these persons clambered out of -the interior, and descended on terra firma by means of the -three-legged stools aforesaid, coach-steps being as yet unknown in -the realms of his Most Catholic majesty. - -"Well," said Monkton, "this turn-out beats all the buggies I ever -saw. By Jove! it is like Noah's ark on wheels. Such a team it would -be to 'tool' to Epsom with!" - -We shall skip the long and solemn, the flattering and bombastic -speeches made by the Spanish officials, and the curt but manly -responses given by the British on this auspicious occasion. Suffice -it to say that, after a brief halt, the division continued its route -by easy marches. The green hill of Albuera--the scene of a glorious -battle three years after--ere long became visible on the right flank; -but the day passed without any tidings being heard of the guerillas -of Don Baltasar de Saldos, a circumstance which, in the course of -conversation with Buckle the adjutant, the Master of Rohallion -contrived that Quentin should know. Naturally he felt anxious about -the matter, and feared in his heart that perhaps he had personally -something to do with the non-appearance of this famous partisan chief. - -Twenty-four miles beyond Badajoz brought the division, with all the -heavy artillery of the army, to Montijo, a little town of -Estremadura, where a camp was formed for the night near the Guadiana. - -As contrasted with "the Granary of Portugal," through which they had -latterly passed, the barrenness of wasted and long-neglected -Estremadura impressed all with poor ideas of Spain. - -"The great Conde was right," said Warriston, as the little group of -the other evening assembled again, in nearly a similar manner, to sup -by their watchfire, which was lighted near a deserted pottery in a -field where the Indian corn had grown and been reaped; "right indeed, -when he said if you wish to know what actual want is, carry on a war -in Spain!" - -"And the comforts of a Peninsular tour like ours are in no way -enhanced when one's exchequer is low," said Monkton. - -"True, Willie, and there is a wonderful sympathy between the animal -spirits and the breeches-pocket." - -"And I, for one, can show 'a regular soldier's thigh,' my purse has -long since collapsed." - -"Line it with these, Monkton," said Quentin, slipping a half-dozen -moidores into his hand. - -"What are these?--moidores, by the gods of the Greeks! But thanks, -my friend, I shall pay you at San Pedro, where I shall bring our -paymaster to book. I could lavish a colonel's pay, if I had it, -which is never likely to be the case, for we're a devilish slow -regiment, Quentin." - -"But some of our Highland corps are slower still," remarked an -officer. - -"I have known a fellow to be four years an ensign in one of them, and -every month at least once under fire all the time," said Askerne. - -"They never sell out or purchase in, and then there is no killing -them by bullets, starvation, or fatigue." - -"For the baggage guard to-morrow, Mr. Monkton," said old -Sergeant-major Calder, approaching the group, who were lounging on -the grass; "for the colours, Mr. Hardinge and Mr. Boyle." - -He saluted and retired, while Monkton apostrophized the baggage guard -in pretty round terms. - -"I should like to have halted one night at Badajoz," said Colville; -"there is a theatre there, and other means of spending money which -smack of civilization. Conyers----" - -"Who's he?" - -"Conyers of the 10th Hussars, one of Hope's extra aides-de-camp, says -there are some beautiful girls to be seen on the promenade of -poplars, the Prado beside the river, in the evening, where they all -go veiled, with fireflies strung in their hair, producing a very -singular effect." - -"I would rather be whispering soft nothings into their pretty ears -and over their white shoulders than be bivouacking here," said -Monkton. - -"I believe you, my friend; but perhaps the knife of some devil of a -lover or _cortejo_ might give your whisperings a point you never -expected," replied Askerne. - -"Try a sip from my canteen," said Monkton; "it contains some of the -stuff I got the other night at the camp of the 28th, and better -you'll find it than the aguardiente of the Spanish Hottentots. Take -a pull, Quentin, as a nightcap, and then turn in under that laurel -bush and sleep if you can, under your own bays, till the bugle sounds -the 'rouse.'" - -Remembering the injunctions of the worthy Padre Florez, Quentin -declined. - -"Well, well, boy, as you please," said Monkton, slinging his canteen -behind him; "but what the devil's that? Cavalry!" - -"It is the staff--the general," exclaimed Askerne, as they all -started to their feet, and proceeded to buckle on their swords, as -Sir John Hope, with several mounted staff officers and commanders of -corps, among whom was Colonel Cosmo Crawford, approached slowly, -checking their horses, and talking with considerable animation, while -their flowing scarlet and white plumes, their cocked-hats, -aiguilettes, and orders, the holsters, and housings of their horses, -were all visible in the glare of the watchfire, on which the servants -and pioneers were heaping fresh branches for the night, and the -occasional flashes of which brought out in strong light or threw into -deep shadow the martial group, imparting a Rembrandtish tone to the -horses and their riders. - -"What is this you say, Conyers?" Sir John was heard to ask; "repeat -it to Colonel Crawford of the 25th. You bring us----" - -"Most serious intelligence, sir," replied Conyers, who wore the blue -and scarlet of the 10th Hussars, and who seemed flushed and excited -by a long ride. "I have just come on the spur from Badajoz, and -there tidings have reached the Captain-general that yesterday the -Spaniards, under Don Joachim Blake, were again completely discomfited -at Espinosa, and that the Estremaduran army, which was beaten the day -before at Gamonal, is demoralized or cut to pieces; and that the -first, second, and fourth corps of the French army, seventy thousand -strong, are free to act in any quarter." - -"First, second, and fourth--these are the corps of Victor, Bessières, -and Lefebre." - -"Exactly, Sir John." - -"If they march against us, the whole siege and field artillery of the -army may be lost!" exclaimed Hope. - -"Nor is this all, sir," continued the aide-de-camp, speaking rapidly -and with growing excitement; "the movement made by the guerillas of -Baltasar de Saldos towards the hill of Albuera, to cover our advance, -has been anticipated!" - -"_Anticipated!_" - -"Yes, Sir John." - -"How, how?" asked several voices. - -"General de Ribeaupierre with his whole brigade, consisting of the -24th Chasseurs à Cheval, the Westphalian Light Horse, numbering five -hundred and sixty sabres, and the Dragoons of Napoleon, five hundred -strong, aided by Laborde's corps and some field guns, issued from -Valencia de Alcantara, attacked the guerillas in a valley near San -Vincente, and captured their five pieces of artillery, killing the -Conde de Maciera, a captain of Lancers, who made three charges to -retake them; so De Saldos informs the Captain-general at Badajoz, -that there must be treachery somewhere." - -"Treachery," reiterated the general, while Cosmo Crawford put his -glass to his eye and glanced with a malicious smile towards the group -where Quentin, with others, stood listening to all this with the -deepest interest, for until the "Courier," or some English paper -reached them, they were often ignorant for months of what was enacted -in other parts of Spain. - -"Don Baltasar is on the march, however, to join us," resumed Captain -Conyers; "he has made a detour by the left bank of the Valverde, and -by to-morrow evening hopes to make his report to you in person." - -"I thank you, Captain Conyers," said the general; "come, gentlemen, -this is not so bad after all! To-morrow night we halt at Merida." - -"Had you not better despatch a message to De Saldos, saying so," -suggested an officer. - -"My horse is used up, sir," said Captain Conyers, smiling; "he has -gone forty-five miles, on a feed of chopped whin, over the most -infernal roads too!" - -"There is that young volunteer of ours," said Cosmo; "he acquitted -himself so well before, Sir John----" - -"That we should give him an opportunity of doing so again," -interrupted the lieutenant-general. - -"A good idea!" muttered some of the staff. - -"Mr. Kennedy," said Cosmo, beckoning forward the anxious listener; "a -message saying where we shall halt to-morrow is to be despatched to -the guerilla De Saldos; you will, of course, only be too happy to -bear it?" - -"I beg most respectfully to decline, sir," said Quentin, -emphatically, and with growing anger. - -"What the devil, sirrah?" Cosmo was beginning. - -"Ha--indeed, and wherefore?" asked the general. - -"I am scarcely able to keep up with the regiment, General Hope," -replied Quentin; "I have been seriously ill, and am more fit for -hospital than for duty." - -The general knit his brows, and Cosmo dealt Quentin, through his -eyeglass, a glance of cool scrutiny, that deepened into withering -scorn or hate without alloy. - -"Very well, we must send an orderly dragoon," said Sir John Hope, -turning away. - -"Take care, Mr. Kennedy," said Cosmo, "lest at a future time this -refusal may be remembered against you to your disadvantage." - -"Crawford doesn't like you, Quentin," said Askerne, after the staff -rode away; "it is a great pity, for, though cold and haughty, he is a -brave and good officer." - -"Damme, don't scoff at the service, Askerne," said Monkton, with mock -severity. - -Poor Quentin had a heavy heart that night; we are not sure that he -did not shed some bitter and unavailing tears, for the forebodings of -coming evil banished sleep when he most needed it, and crushed the -soul within him. - -But his comrades as usual sat long by the watch-fire, passing the -night with song, jest, and anecdote. They had neither care for the -present nor fear for the future, and their jollity formed a strong -contrast to his forlorn sadness. - -"I think we should now turn in," said Monkton; "we march betimes -to-morrow; to your tents, O Borderers! But what the deuce is that?" - -"The _générale_," said Colville. - -"Already!" - -"Already, Monkton; and there sounds the gathering of the Gordons in -the streets of Montijo." - -"The nights are very short in the Penin-in-insula," said Monkton, -scrambling up and making several attempts to buckle his belt. - -"You'll have to sober yourself on the march, Willie," said Askerne, -giving him a rough shake. - -"By Jove! to have to fall in when one should go to sleep--to nod and -drowse and dream while tramping on and on, your nose coming every -minute down on the tin canteen or the knapsack of the man in front of -you! It is miserable work; but what with contract powder that won't -explode, ammunition shoes warranted not to last, diseased bullocks -shot while at fever heat and eaten half raw, we are little likely to -beat the French, either in fighting or marching." - -"Unless, like them, we learn to hang an occasional commissary or -contractor," said old Middleton, as he sprang with agility on his -horse; and the regiment formed open column of companies in the dark, -for daybreak was yet an hour distant. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -RETROGRESSION. - - "Lucius, the horsemen are returned from viewing - The number, strength, and posture of our foes, - Who now encamp within a short hour's march. - On the high point of yonder western tower, - We ken them from afar, the setting sun - Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets, - And covers all the field with gleams of fire." - _Cato_, Act v. - - -Ere noon next day, while the division was traversing the grassy plain -amid which lies the ancient city of Merida, the sound of distant -firing on their right flank announced the repulse, by the guerillas, -of some of the cavalry of Laborde's corps, when making a -reconnoissance. The light white puffs of the musketry that curled -along the green hill-sides, came nearer and nearer, and it soon -became known that the band of the formidable De Saldos el Estudiente, -above two thousand strong, had joined the division of Sir John Hope; -as the newspaper of Lord Rohallion had it, a measure fully arranged -"by the skill and courage" of our young volunteer. But though the -army continued its march for several days, no recognition of his -service, in orders or otherwise, ever reached him from head-quarters, -and happily for himself, he saw nothing of the dreaded Baltasar, who -fortunately was left in the rear, with an open sabre cut. - -Ribeaupierre's cavalry brigade abandoned Valencia de Alcantara -without firing a shot, on its flank being turned, and fell back, no -one knew exactly where or in what direction. - -Hope's division halted at Merida, a place eminently calculated to -excite the deepest interest in the thinking or historical visitor, by -its ancient remains; its great bridge of more than eighty arches -spanning the broad waters of the Guadiana; the ruins of its Roman -castle, which Alfonso the Astrologer gifted to the knights of -Santiago, and in the vaults of which Baltasar's guerillas had thrust -some unfortunate French prisoners; its triumphal arch of Julius -Cæsar, under which the division passed with drums beating and colours -flying, and its crumbling amphitheatre:--Merida, of old the Rome of -Spain, and the home of the aged and disabled soldiers of the 5th and -10th legions of Augustus Cæsar, whose great pyramid still towers -there, amid the ruins of its contemporaries. - -There was ample accommodation in the town for the officers of the -division; but yet not enough to prevent a dispute about rank, or -precedence, or something else, between a Captain Winton of the -Borderers, and an officer of the German Legion. So they met about -daybreak near the Baths of Diana. The former was attended by Askerne -of the Grenadiers, and the latter by Major Burgwesel of his own -corps, and at the second fire Winton shot his man dead, Cosmo coolly -lending his pistols for this occasion, without comment or inquiry, -either of which would have been ungentlemanly, according to the -temper or spirit of the service then. - -Prior to this event, on the evening the division halted, Quentin, -about the hour of sunset, had wandered to the old Roman aqueduct -which lies near the city, and he remained for a time lost in thought -while surveying its mouldering arches, and the piles of columns, -bases, flowered capitals, enriched friezes, Corinthian entablatures, -and broken statues, lying amid the weeds and long grass, the remains -of the once superb temples, ruined by the Goths and Moors; and -perhaps he was thinking of his old dominie at Rohallion, and the -worthy pedant's profound veneration for the ancient days of Rome, the -mistress of all the then known world. - -The place was solitary and almost buried amid old vineyards and -groves of now leafless trees. Under one of the mouldering arches, -from which, notwithstanding the lateness of the season, masses of -luxuriant creepers and trailers were yet hanging, Quentin, leaning on -his musket, lingered to admire the scenery and the glory of the -golden sunset, which spread its farewell radiance over the vast -plain, of which Merida, from its situation on a lofty eminence, -commands a view in every direction--the olive groves yet green and -waving in the breeze, and the winding Guadiana, while far away in -distance, all tinted in dusky blue or russet brown, but edged with -flaming gold, stretched the mountain sierras, range over range, -towards the north. - -From the pleasant contemplation of this evening landscape he was -suddenly roused by seeing a pair of fierce dark eyes glaring into his -own. - -It was the guerilla Trevino, of whom it seems a mockery to give his -once prefix of Padre! - -"So, senor," said he, with a terrible grimace, "we meet again, do we?" - -"It seems so, senor," replied Quentin, haughtily, as he stepped back -a pace, "and what then?" - -"Only that I find you in very bad company." - -"I am alone, senor." - -"Well, and you alone form the company I refer to," replied the -Spaniard, insolently, and with a savage grin, while the fingers of -his right hand clutched the haft of his knife, and his thumb was -firmly planted on the pommel. There was no mistaking this action or -his air for anything else than open hostility, so Quentin warily -stepped back another pace, and glanced hastily round to be assured -that no other guerillas were lurking near, and then grasping the -barrel of his musket, which was unloaded, he stood ready on his -defence against an antagonist who possessed, perhaps, twice his -bodily strength. - -"What do you mean, Senor Trevino, by accosting me in this manner?" he -demanded. - -"I mean, _hombre_, that I have been lately at the Convent of Sant -Engracia, and that Donna Isidora has _not_ been heard of there; so, -in the meantime, I and two or three others have sworn across our -knives to kill you, that is all; leaving to time to reveal what you -have done with her." - -Something of this kind was what Quentin had long dreaded; but -disdaining any attempt to explain or expostulate, and exasperated by -the injustice to which he was subjected, he clutched his musket and -said sternly-- - -"Stand back, fellow!" - -"Ha! _perro y ladron_ (dog and thief)--you will have it, then!" - -With head stooped, body crouching, and knife drawn, the Spaniard was -springing like a tiger upon Quentin, when the brass butt of Brown -Bess, swung by no sparing or erring hand, fell full on his left -temple, from whence it slid very unpleasantly down on his -collar-bone, and tumbled him bleeding and senseless on the ground. - -After this, Quentin, who was in no mood to feel any compunction about -the affair, turned and left him to recover as he might, resolving, -until in a more secure neighbourhood, not to indulge his taste for -the picturesque or antique, and feeling exceeding thankful that he -had not left his musket as usual in his tent. - -"You were just in time, sir," said a voice, as Quentin turned to -leave the ruined aqueduct; "an instant later and that Spanish thief -had put his knife into you." - -The speaker was Allan Grange, of the 25th, who, stooping down, took -from Trevino's relaxed hand his knife, a very ugly pig-butcher-like -weapon. A guerilla, doubtless some friend of Trevino's, was -hastening forward at this moment, but on seeing Quentin joined by a -comrade he drew back a little way, and so the affair ended for the -time; but this was not the last that Quentin was fated to hear of the -encounter. - -By the ruinous town of Medellin (the birthplace of the conqueror of -Mexico), where the Guadiana was fabled of old to rise, after running -twenty miles under ground; by the wretched town of Miajadas, and by -Truxillo, with its feudal towers and Moorish walls, when the French -had ruined alike the house in which Pizarro was born and the noble -palace of the Conde de Lopesa, the division continued its march amid -rough and stormy weather, and, after passing Talavera de la Reyna--so -called from the queen of Alonzo XI., to distinguish it from other -places of the same name--halted, on the 22nd day of November, at the -Escurial, that magnificent palace, twenty-five miles from Madrid, -built by Philip II. in commemoration of the battle of St. Quentin, a -holy personage, to whom he solemnly dedicated it. - -With his regiment, our hero bivouacked outside the little village of -Escurial de Abajo. The night was a fearful one of storm. Over the -bare and desolate country the winter wind swept in tempestuous gusts -and the rain fell in torrents, swelling all the streams of the -Guadarama--for the weather was completely broken now. - -In that horrible bivouac poor Quentin lost his blanket--his whole -household furniture. Near him lay a soldier's wife with a sick -infant; he spread it over both and left it with them; when the -regiment shifted its ground next day the mother and child dropped by -the wayside, so Quentin never saw them or his blanket again. - -Here, as Sir John Moore had foreseen, and as General Hope had stated -his fears to Cosmo, the enemy did _press forward_ from Valladolid and -Tordesillas, and the advanced posts of their cavalry being reported -in sight, strong guards were posted and picquets thrown forward in -front of the Escurial. - -This forward movement of the French threatened to cut off Hope's -communication with Sir John Moore, who was then at Salamanca, and -might lose his artillery. - -To prevent this, and effect a junction with the main body under the -general, Hope marched from the Escurial on the 27th of November, and -crossed the long and lofty mountain chain of the Guadarama, the -cliffs of which are so steep that the Spaniards of old likened them -to straight spindles. Moving by Villa Castin, a market-town at their -base, he halted at Avila, on the right bank of the Ajada, where -Quentin was billeted in the same house with Monkton, in that dark and -narrow street in which the spiritual Maria Theresa was -born--"_Nuestra Serifica Madre_," as she is named by the old -Castilians. - -The enemy's light cavalry were still pressing on, and at times their -carbines were heard popping in the distance, when responding to our -skirmishers. It was the gloomy morning of the first day of December; -the rain was still falling in torrents, and the sky looked dark and -louring. - -Save an occasional exchange of shots between outposts and petty -skirmishes, nothing of interest had taken place with the enemy, and -the toil of this retrograde movement dispirited the troops. Even -Monkton, one of the most heedless men in the regiment, was sullen and -spiritless. Wearied by their long march, he and Quentin sat in their -bare and miserable billet, silent and moody. It was in the house of -a hatter, or maker of sombreros, facing the dark and narrow street, -which was overshadowed by a gigantic parish church, the bells of -which were ringing in honour of the British, and their notes came -mournfully on the passing gusts of wind. - -It was indeed a wild evening in Avila. The rain was pouring down in -one uniform and ceaseless sheet, the wind bellowing in the -thoroughfares with a melancholy sound, and the swollen Ajada was -boiling in foam against the piers of its ancient bridge. - -A miserable meal of tough beef, boiled with a little rice in a -pipkin, had been served up by Monkton's servant, a poor half-starved -fellow, whose single shirt had long since been reduced to its collar -and wristbands, whose red coat showed innumerable darns and patches, -and who now regretted the days when he forsook his plough on -Tweedside to become a soldier. With their feet planted on a brasero -of charcoal, cloaks muffled about them for warmth, and cigars in -their mouths, our two warriors ruefully surveyed the bare whitewashed -walls of their room, and then looked at each other. - -"Rain, rain!" exclaimed Monkton; "what an infernal climate! And this -is the land of grapes and sunshine! I've never seen such drops since -I was in the West Indies with our flank companies, at the capture of -Martinique." - -At that moment, amid the lashing of the rain on wall and window, the -roar of the wind, and the rush of the gorged gutters, the tramp of a -horse was heard, and the voice of Buckle, who was brigade-adjutant -for the day, was heard shouting-- - -"Fall in, the outlying picquets of the 1st brigade--sound bugle!" - -But his voice and the half-strangled bugle notes were alike borne -away by the tempest. - -A heavy malediction escaped Monkton. This worthy sub had puffed at -his fragrant Havannah till he had smoked himself into such a soothed -state that he was quite indisposed "to be bothered about anything or -anybody," as he said; and now he remembered that on halting the -sergeant-major had warned him for out-picquet. - -He sprang up and kicked the brasero aside, sending the smouldering -charcoal flying right and left. - -"Out-picquet!" he exclaimed, "and the rain coming down in bucketfuls! -Damme, who would be a soldier abroad, while there are chimneys to -sweep at home?" - -A smart single knock now came to the door, as he belted his sword -beneath his cloak. - -"Come in--is that you, sergeant-major?" - -"Yes, sir," said old Norman Calder, who was muffled in his grey -great-coat, which, as he said, "smoked like a killogie." - -"Where are these infernal picquets parading?" - -"I've just come to show you, sir; they are falling in under the -arcades opposite the Bishop's palace, where the staff are quartered. -Fresh ammunition has just been served out to all." - -"That looks like work." - -"Yes, sir; the enemy's cavalry are in force upon the road towards -Villa Castin, in our rear." - -"We have heard little else since we fell back from the Escurial." - -As a volunteer is always the first man for any perilous duty, Quentin -buttoned his great-coat over his accoutrements and musket, and set -out to join Monkton's picquet, which Buckle was parading, with -several others, under some quaint old arcades of stone, above which -the houses, with broad balconies and rich entablatures, remnants of -the days when Avila was rich and flourishing, rose to a considerable -height. - -The daylight was nearly gone now, and already the half-drenched and -half-fed soldiers looked pale and weary. - -"As the weather has been frequently wet, and as the duty of to-night -is an important one, you will be careful, gentlemen, to inspect the -arms, flints, and ammunition of your picquets," said Buckle; "and as -the prickers may not be deemed sufficient to indicate the state of -the touch-holes, the butts will be brought to the front." - -"Butts to the front," an order then in use, was given by Monkton and -each officer in succession, after which the ranks were opened, and -every man blew down the barrel of his musket, so that by applying a -hand to the touch-hole the real state of the vent was ascertained by -the inspector. - -"Handle arms--with ball cartridge, prime, and load--secure arms!" -followed rapidly, and away went the out-picquets, double-quick, -through rain and mire, wind and storm, to their several posts, -Monkton's being a mile and a half beyond the bridge of the Ajada, in -tolerably open ground, interspersed with groups of little trees. - -Under one of these he sheltered his picquet, and two hundred yards in -front of it posted his line of sentinels, with orders not to walk to -and fro, but to stand steadily on their posts, to look straight to -their front, to fire on all who could not give the countersign, and -to keep up a regular communication with each other and with those of -the picquets on both flanks; and then each man was left for his -solitary hour, the time allotted for such duty when in front of an -enemy. - -About daybreak, after a short nap in the thicket, and after imbibing -a sip from his canteen of rum grog--the last of its contents--Quentin -found himself on this solitary but important duty, posted on the -centre of the highway, gazing steadily into the murky obscurity -before him, and thanking Heaven in his heart that the rain had -ceased, and that the cold and biting December wind was passing away. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -A MESSAGE FROM THE ENEMY. - - "'Tis true, unruffled and serene I've met - The common accidents of life, but here - Such an unlooked-for storm of ills falls on me - It beats down all my strength--I cannot bear it." - ADDISON. - - -This was not the first occasion on which Quentin had enacted the part -of sentinel; but never had he done so with the knowledge that the -enemy was before him, and perhaps at that moment closer than he had -any idea of, among the mist that obscured the landscape. - -All was quiet in front and rear; save the drip of the last night's -rain from an over-charged leaf, or the croaking of the bull-frogs in -a marsh close by, not a sound broke the stillness. - -The dull grey winter morning stole slowly in; the distant mountain -peaks of the Guadarama grew red, but all else remained opaque and -dim, save the jagged summits of that lofty _sierra_--a Spanish word -very descriptive of a range of conical hills, being evidently (as we -are informed by a letter of the dominie) derived from _serra_, the -Latin word for a saw. - -On the slope of a hill, at a little distance from where Quentin -stood, was a gibbet, a strong post about twenty feet high, having two -horizontal beams crosswise on its summit, and from these four arms -there hung four robbers, each by the neck, and their long black hair -waved over their faces as they swung slowly to and fro in the morning -wind, with the ravens wheeling around them, and perching on the arms -of the gibbet. - -The bull-frogs in the marsh croaked vigorously, and like every other -place in Spain, even this fetid swamp had its legend; for here it was -that the Cid, Rodrigo de Bivar, when proceeding at the head of twenty -young and brave hidalgoes, on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint -James at Compostella, saw an aged and half-naked leper in the midst -of the slough. Leaping from his horse, Rodrigo dragged the poor man -forth, and to the wrath and disgust of his mail-shirted companions, -seated him on his own charger, Babieca; thereafter he set him at -table with them, and finally, in the extremity of his humility and -Christian charity, shared his bed with him. In the night the -cavalier awoke, and beheld the leper standing on a cloud above his -bed, midway between the floor and ceiling, surrounded by a blaze of -light and clad in white and shining robes; and ere he vanished he -informed the Cid that he was Saint Lazarus, who had taken the form of -a leper to test his charity, which was so commendable that God had -granted he should prosper in all things, but chiefly in his wars -against the infidel dogs who were troubling all Spain. - -As the mists drew upward, Quentin could see about half a mile distant -in front, a line of French cavalry videttes, each sitting motionless -in his saddle, and both horse and rider looking like one huge and -mis-shapen figure, as the scarlet cloak of the latter was spread over -the crupper of his charger behind him. - -While gazing steadily and with deep interest at the enemy, he was -somewhat surprised to see two French dragoons suddenly ride from -their own lines straight along the road towards his post. - -That they were deserters--his first idea--was impossible, as they -rode leisurely and were not fired on by their picquets. By their -light green uniforms and brass helmets with flowing plumes he soon -saw that they were Chasseurs à Cheval, and that one, who rode a few -paces in front of the other, was an officer, with a white -handkerchief tied as an extempore flag of truce to the point of his -sabre. - -Monkton, and the main body of the picquet, were rather beyond hail, -and for a minute Quentin was irresolute what to do; but before he -could decide upon anything, the officer came fairly up to him, and -checking his horse on the bit, said in tolerable English-- - -"Monsieur le soldat, we have come hither on an errand of mercy. An -old and valued officer of our corps is sinking under the fatigue of -last night and the suffering incident to an old wound, so we have -ridden over to see if there is not at least one brave and generous -man among you, who will give us a mouthful of eau-de-vie or any other -spirit to keep him alive; for though our surgeons order this, -_sangdieu_, we haven't a drop in the whole brigade." - -The interchange of many civilities, wine, biscuits, tobacco, and -newspapers, frequently took place between our outposts and the French -during the Peninsular wars. To such a length was this eventually -carried, that they frequently went over to smoke at each other's -watchfires; but a very stringent order of the Duke of Wellington put -a stop to these visits. - -Before the speaker had concluded his singular request, Quentin had -time to recognise in him the French lieutenant whom he had so -signally befriended at Herreruela. - -"Monsieur de Ribeaupierre," said he, "don't you remember me?" - -"_Parbleu!_ yes--this is fortunate, my friend," said the other, -grasping Quentin's hand; "I am glad to see you again, but not with -the musket still--what! no promotion yet?" - -"I am still but a volunteer." - -"Ah--you should serve the emperor!" - -"And then, we have not yet fought a battle." - -"Had you not fallen back so rapidly on our advance from Valladolid -and Tordesillas, we should have had the pleasure of capturing and -escorting you all to France." - -"Thanks for your good intentions." - -"I still hope to see them carried out," said Ribeaupierre, laughing; -"but here come some of your people," he added, waving his -handkerchief, as Monkton, who had witnessed this interview, came -hurrying forward, with his sergeant, and a section of the picquet -with bayonets fixed. - -Quentin rapidly acquainted Monkton with the object of the Frenchman's -visit, adding-- - -"He is Ribeaupierre, the French officer of whom I told you--son of -the brigadier of the same name." - -"Ah--indeed; then I have much pleasure in meeting him," said Monkton, -as he and the officer saluted each other very courteously. - -On inquiry being made, it was discovered that the sergeant of the -picquet, Ewen Donaldson, alone had any brandy, so he readily poured -the contents of his canteen into the flask of Ribeaupierre, who, -after thanking him profusely, handed it to his orderly, saying-- - -"Paul, mon camarade, away with this for our patient; use your spurs, -and I shall follow." - -The dragoon galloped away. Ribeauperre offered a five-franc piece to -Donaldson, who being a gruff Scotsman, declined it so bluffly that -the young officer coloured to the peak of his helmet. - -"You will join me in a cigar then, mon camarade?" said he, politely -proffering his open cigar case. Then saluting Monkton again, he -said, "Excuse me, monsieur l'officier, if, before returning, I speak -a word or two in your presence with the friend to whom I owe my -life--whom my good mother remembers every night in her prayers, for I -told her of our adventures near Valencia." - -"Your mother, monsieur? Is it possible that she is with the army at -this season?" - -"She is with the emperor's court at Madrid, and hopes to see you all -set sail from Lisbon. By the way," added Ribeaupierre, with a smile -of waggery, "your lively Spanish friend, Donna Isidora, will be quite -consoled when I tell her that I have seen you--alive and well too! -She thinks of you with remorse and tears, as one whom she had -poisoned in mistake, she says. How came all that to pass? We sent a -patrol to search the Villa de Maciera for you, but no trace of you -could be found." - -"Is she still in your hands?" asked Quentin, with an expression of -interest. - -"Yes, monsieur," replied the other, caressing his moustache. - -"A prisoner?" - -"_Peste_! What an idea!" - -"I trust you--you have treated her well and kindly?" - -"She shall answer for herself, some time hence." - -"A prisoner! Poor Isidora! She will be quite inconsolable." - -"Inconsolable? Mom ami, you forget in whose charming society she is! -We fellows of the 24th Chasseurs are unrivalled in conversational -powers and the general art of pleasing. She spoke of you very -often--thought you a very nice fellow--but so quiet--so _triste_!" - -Quentin was glad that Monkton, whom he did not wish to hear all this, -had gradually gone beyond earshot. - -"And she--she----" he was beginning with emotions of annoyance and -mortification. - -"Be assured that she became quite consoled among the 24th, and now, -as Madame Jules de Marbœuf, (for my comrade Jules took her off my -hands), she has learned to think that we Frenchmen are not such bad -fellows, after all." - -"This is indeed news!" exclaimed Quentin; "Isidora married--married, -and to a Frenchman!" - -"Ah--la belle tigresse is quite tamed now; but _I_ must begone. -_Ouf--peste--tonnerre de Dieu!_ what a night we have had, monsieur," -he added to Monkton, who again approached. "I have been so soaked -that I felt as if the rain was filtering through the marrow of my -bones. If you effect your junction with M. le Général Moore, I -suppose we shall have the little variety of a general action." - -"It is extremely probable," replied Monkton, smiling at the French -officer's free and easy manner. - -"That will indeed be gay--we are so anxious to measure swords with -your cavalry. Do you know that General Foy, in one of his -despatches, attributes your accidental victories----" - -"_Accidental?_" - -"That is the word, my friends----" - -"For Roleia and Vimiera--eh?" - -"Yes, for anything you like--Trafalgar and the Nile, if you please." - -"Well, and Foy attributes them----" - -"To two great elements you Anglais possess." - -"Powder and pluck?" - -"No--rum and ros-bif--ha, ha! _Au revoir_--we shall meet again," and -putting spurs to his horse, Ribeaupierre, keeping his white -handkerchief still displayed, rode across to his own lines, turning, -however, repeatedly to kiss his hand, as his horse caracoled along. - -Relieved from his post, Quentin rejoined the main body of the picquet -in the grove of trees, where he remained apart from the men and full -of thought; for though his self-esteem was somewhat piqued on -learning that Isidora had so easily forgot him, he was greatly -pleased to hear of her safety, and hoped that the circumstance, when -known, would relieve him from the hostility of Baltasar and his -ragamuffins, of whom he not unnaturally had a constant dread. These -ideas were mingled with something of amusement--that the -brother-in-law of Baltasar, the most ferocious of Spanish patriots, -should be a Frenchman! - -Just as the picquets rejoined their regiments, prior to the whole -division moving from Avila, Rowland Askerne called Quentin aside, -and, with a face expressive of extreme concern, said-- - -"I wish to speak particularly with you, Quentin--there is evidently -something most unpleasant on the tapis." - -"Regarding what--or who?" - -"You, my friend." - -"Me--how--in what way?" asked Quentin. - -"Baltasar de Saldos, the guerilla, who has been so long in the rear, -wounded, has now joined the division, and has been at the quarters of -Sir John Hope in the Bishop's palace." - -"Surely, that matters nothing to me," said Quentin, with growing -anger and alarm. - -"Listen. I was in the street, speaking with the colonel, when the -general, who was bowing out the formidable guerilla, beckoned him, -and on their meeting I heard him say-- - -"'The information just given me, Colonel Crawford, by the guerilla, -fully corroborates the character you gave me at Portalegre of that -young fellow--what is his name?' - -"'Kennedy.' - -"'Ah, yes; you remember?' - -"'Yes, Sir John,' replied the colonel, turning rather pale, I -thought, as he glanced towards me. - -"'But I have spoken with Major Middleton of yours, and unlike you, he -gives him the very highest character. How am I to reconcile these -discrepancies?' - -"Crawford then mumbled I know not what; but it was something about a -previous knowledge of you--of old contumacy and insolence unknown to -others; then I turned away, as it was alike impossible and improper -to listen." - -These tidings filled Quentin's breast with rage, alarm, and intense -mortification. Here was a secret enmity against which there was no -contending, bringing with it accusations of which he knew neither the -nature nor the name. - -One moment he felt inclined to rush into the presence of the general, -and boldly demand to know of what his hostile colonel had accused -him; and then there was De Saldos too! But in approaching Sir John -Hope, he remembered that the proper mode could only be in writing, -the letter being transmitted by the captain of the company to which -he was attached, under cover to Cosmo, his particular enemy (who -might then forward it with such comments as he chose), for such is -the rule and etiquette of the service. - -Before he could resolve on what was to be done, while fretting and -chafing in his billet, and just as the bugles were sounding the -warning for the march, the old sergeant-major, Norman Calder, -entered, accompanied by two soldiers of the light company, with their -bayonets fixed. - -The faces of his three visitors expressed considerable compunction, -for our young volunteer, as we have said elsewhere, was a favourite -with the whole corps. - -"Mr. Kennedy," said Calder, "I have come on a sorrowful errand to -you; but I only obey the orders given to me by my superior officers." - -"And these orders are, sir?" demanded Quentin, furiously. - -"To disarm you and march you a close prisoner with the quarter-guard." - -"For what reason?" asked Quentin, in a faint voice. - -"I dinna ken, sir--I have only Colonel Crawford's orders." - -"Of what am I accused?" - -"That is more than I can say, sir; but if you are innocent you have -nothing to fear. Take courage and set a stout heart to a steep brae, -as we say at home, and you may turn the flanks of fortune yet," added -the worthy old non-commissioned officer, patting Quentin on the -shoulder, for he saw that this open and public, and most unmerited -humiliation before the entire division, cut him to the soul, and -crushed all his spirit for the time. - -* * * * * - -The division marched about sunrise, and Quentin, instead of being as -usual with the grenadiers of the gallant Borderers, enjoying the -society of Askerne and other officers, found himself trudging with -the quarter-guard, a special prisoner, and kept apart from all others -under a small escort, that marched on each side of him with muskets -loaded and bayonets fixed; for not being a commissioned officer, -there could be no other arrest for him than a close one. - -And thus, with a heavy--heavy heart, full almost to bursting with -mortification and grief, ignorant of the accusations against him and -of what was to be his fate, he marched with the division towards the -ancient city of Alva on the Tormes, which they entered on the evening -of the 4th December, and there, as they were to halt for seven days, -Quentin was informed by Lieutenant Buckle that he was to be tried by -a general court-martial. - -He felt that all, indeed, was over with him now! - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -THE PRISONER. - - "I would my weary course were o'er, - Yet scarce can look for end save this, - To dash to pieces on the shore, - Or founder in the dark abyss. - Fond thoughts, sweet hopes! oh, far more blest - My bosom had it never known - Your presence, since in vain possest, - To lose you while you seemed my own." - RODRIGUEZ LOBO. - - -He rapidly learned that the court-martial was in the garrison orders -to assemble on the 5th instant, and that charges of the most serious -nature, involving, perhaps, the terrible penalty of--death, were to -be brought against him! - -What sudden mystery--what inexplicable horror was this? - -On the night he entered Alva he was relieved from the humiliation of -an armed escort or guard by the influence of Askerne and Warriston, -who both bound themselves by their parole of honour for his -appearance whenever required. He was thus at liberty to go about the -town, but he cared not to avail himself of it, and remained in his -quarters. - -The evening of the 4th of December was dull and gloomy. Setting amid -saffron haze and shorn of all his beams, the lurid sun looming large -and crimson like a wondrous globe, shed a steady light along the -waters of the Tormes, a deep stream, which there rolls under a high -and ancient bridge, that was afterwards blown up when the British -retreated from Burgos. - -An old Moorish wall surrounds Alva, which stands on the slope of a -hill, and there, above its flat-terraced mansions, rises the great -palace of the powerful Dukes of Alva and Berwick, where Ferdinand -Alvarez of Toledo, the terror of the Low Countries and the institutor -of "the Court of Blood," first saw the light. In an angle of the -Moorish rampart, then crumbling in ruins, stands a high round tower -of considerable strength and antiquity. Herein was posted the -quarter-guard of the 1st Brigade, and in an upper chamber Quentin had -his billet, and there he sat alone, after the day's march, left to -his own reflections, and these were mournful and gloomy enough. - -The aspect of this chamber was little calculated to raise his -drooping spirit. Almost destitute of furniture, it was built of -massive stone, vaulted, and had three narrow windows, the sides and -horse-shoe arches of which were covered with elaborate zigzag Moorish -ornaments, arabesques, and uncouth inscriptions, which, though he -knew it not, were texts and quotations from the Koran in Arabic. -These had probably been gilded and gaudily coloured once, but now -were simply coated with mouldy whitewash. One of these windows -opened to the hill on the slope of which stands Alva, and afforded a -view of its tiled and terraced roofs, all drenched by the recent -rain. Another faced the mountains of Leon, and the third showed the -narrow gorge through which the red and swollen Tormes lay rolling -under the bridge; beyond which, on an eminence, were posted a brigade -of field guns and a cavalry picquet; the horses were linked together, -and the troops cloaked. - -All looked wet and dreary, dull and mournful, and as the December sun -went down beyond the dark and purple hills where Salamanca lies, the -pipers of the 92nd played "Lochaber no more," their evening retreat, -and this air, so sad, so slow and wailing, as they marched along the -old Moorish wall, affected Quentin so deeply that he covered his face -with his hands and wept. - -What would that fine old soldier, courtier, and cavalier, the mirror -of old-fashioned courage and honour, Lord Rohallion, say or think, -when he heard of his disgrace? What would Lady Winifred--what the -old quartermaster, John Girvan? and what would the emotions of Flora -Warrender be? - -Whether the charges against him were false or true--proved or -refuted--she at least would be lost to him for ever, for his career -was closed ere it was well begun, and he felt that no other road in -life lay open to him. He felt too, instinctively, that Baltasar de -Saldos and his sister Donna Isidora were in some manner the secret -source of the present evil turn in his fortune; but how or in what -fashion he was yet to learn. - -The phrase, that the charges involved death or such other punishment -as a court-martial might award, was ever before him. - -The vagueness of the latter recourse, rather than the terror of the -first, cut him to the heart, as all the penalties inflicted by such a -court are severe and disgraceful. - -Cosmo, he heard, had suggested that he should be handed over to the -tender mercies of the Spanish civil authorities; but Sir John Hope -insisted that the charges were such as only a military court could -take cognizance of; so what on earth were they? Unconscious alike of -a mistake or crime, oh, how he longed for the time of trial! - -As the darkness of the sombre eve crept on, its gloom was singularly -in unison with his own sombre thoughts. - -Bright visions had faded away and airy bubbles burst. Chateaux en -Espagne were no longer tenable now! How many gorgeous day-dreams of -glory and honour, of rank and fame, of position in society attained -by worth and merit, were now dissolved in air! His naturally warm, -generous, and kindly heart had become seared, callous, and -misanthropical. Experience and the world had tried their worst upon -him, and thus, for a time, a mere boy in years became a -bitter-hearted man, for a day dawn of a glorious ambition seemed to -be sinking prematurely into a black and stormy night. - -He had seen so many new places and met such a variety of strangers; -he had been involved in so many episodes, and had experienced so much -by land and sea, and, within a very few months, so much seemed to -have happened, that a dreamy dubiety appeared to obscure the past; -and thus his former monotonous existence at Rohallion--monotonous as -compared with the stir of war--came only at times with clearness, as -it were in gleams and flashes of thought and memory. He had nothing -tangible about him--not even a lock of Flora's hair--to convince him -of past realities, or that he had ever been elsewhere than with the -25th; and yet out of this chaos Flora's face and figure, her eyes and -expression of feature, her identity, stood strongly forth. Oh! there -was neither obscurity nor indistinctness there! - -And now, amid his sorrow, he felt a keen longing to write to her, -under cover to John Girvan; but then, he reflected, was such a course -honourable in him or deserved by Lord and Lady Rohallion, who hoped -to hail her one day as their daughter-in-law? And what mattered her -regard for him now--now, with the heavy doom of a court-martial -hanging over his head! And yet, if even death were to be his fate, -he felt that he would die all the more happily with the knowledge and -surety that Flora still loved him. - -Deep, deep indeed were his occasional bursts of bitterness at Cosmo; -but when he remembered that Cosmo's mother had also been a mother to -himself--when all the memory of her love for him, her early kindness, -her caresses, her kisses on his infant brow, her increasing -tenderness--came rushing back upon him, his heart flew to his head, -and Quentin felt that even yet he could almost forgive all the -studied wrong and injustice the narrow spirit and furious jealousy of -her son now made him suffer. But how were the members of the -regiment or of the division to understand all this! - -Amid the reverie in which he had been indulging in the dark, the door -of the upper chamber of the old tower opened, and two officers, in -long regimental cloaks, entered, accompanied by a soldier with a -parcel. - -"Well, Quentin, old fellow--how goes it?" said Monkton's cheerful -voice. - -"Cheer up, my boy," added Askerne; "before this time to-morrow we -shall have known the worst, and it will be past. We have brought you -a bottle of capital wine. It is a present from Ramon Campillo, the -jolly muleteer, who came in after the division, and leaves again, for -the French lines, I fear." - -"A sly dog, who butters his bread on both sides, likely," said -Monkton; "my man has brought you a fowl and a loaf, so we shall make -a little supper together." - -"Here, boy, drink," said Askerne, when the soldier lighted a candle, -and they all looked with commiseration upon Quentin's pale cheek and -bloodshot eyes; "I insist upon it--you seem ill and weary." - -He could perceive that both Askerne and Monkton looked grave, -earnest, and anxious, for they knew more of the charges against him -than they cared to tell. - -"At what hour does the court assemble to-morrow?" he asked. - -"Ten, Kennedy." - -"Who is the president?" - -"Colonel Colquhoun Grant, of the King's Light Dragoons--a hussar -corps." - -"Where does it meet?" asked Quentin, wearily. - -"In one of the rooms of the Alva Palace. Now we cannot stay above -ten minutes, Quentin. We are both in orders for the court, which of -course is a mixed one, and this visit, if known, might cost us our -commissions perhaps; but I know Monkton's servant to be a sure -fellow." - -"Sure, sir," repeated the soldier, "I should think so! It was to -_my_ poor wife and child that Mr. Kennedy--the Lord reward him for -it!--gave his blanket on the night we bivouacked at the Escurial," -added the man, in a broken voice; "the night I lost them both--never -to see them again." - -Askerne now asked Quentin many questions concerning his recent -wanderings; the answers to some of these he jotted down in his -note-book; and he gave much good advice for his guidance on the -morrow, adding, with a sigh of annoyance, that he feared there was a -deep scheme formed against him, and that, as several outrages had -been committed by our retreating troops, it was not improbable that -he might be sacrificed to soothe the ruffled feelings of the -Spaniards. - -"What leads you to think so?" asked Quentin. - -"This subpœna, which Monkton's servant picked up in a wine-house -and brought us," replied Askerne, opening a letter and reading it, as -follows: - - - "Head-quarters, Alva-de-Tormes, - December 4th. - -"SENOR PADRE,--A general court-martial having been appointed to be -held here, for the trial of Mr. Quentin Kennedy, serving with the -25th Regiment, upon sundry charges exhibited against him; and the -said Mr. Kennedy having represented that your testimony will be very -material in the investigation of some of the articles of charge, and -having requested that you may be officially summoned as a witness, I -am to desire you, and you are hereby required, to give your -attendance here to-morrow, at ten o'clock in the morning, at which -time it is conceived your evidence will become necessary. - - "I have the honour to be, &c., &c., - "LLOYD CONYERS, Staff Captain, - "Deputy Judge Advocate. - -"El Senor Padre Trevino." - - -"This is some trickery!" exclaimed Quentin; "Trevino is the ruffian -of whom I have spoken more than once; the man's doubly my enemy. -Well, well! save myself, it matters little to any one what becomes of -me," he added bitterly. "I have no kindred--not a relation that I -know of in the wide world, and save yourselves, no friends now to -regret me or to remember me, save one of whom I cannot speak. It is -thus better as it is." - -"How?" asked Askerne, who grasped him firmly by the hand. - -"For if this false accusation, whatever it is, be proved against me, -then none shall blush for my dishonour or sorrow for my fall. Fools -may laugh and the wicked may jeer, but the death volley will close up -my ears for ever. It may do more," he added, in a broken voice; "it -may be the means of revealing to me who was my mother, who my father, -with the great secret of eternity after all; so, my dear Askerne, I -am, you see, reckless of the future." - -"Damme, Quentin, this will never do----" Monkton was beginning, when -Askerne spoke. - -"In this mingled mood of sullenness and resignation you will destroy -all chance of defeating the machinations of your enemy, for such -I--I--consider our colonel to be," said the captain of grenadiers, -after a pause. "Buckle and I will prepare your declaration for -to-morrow, and it shall be sent to you for revision and emendation -soon after reveille; but you must take courage--I insist upon it, for -your own sake!" - -"I do not lack it!" replied Quentin, firmly. - -"By courage, I do not mean an indifference that is the result of -misanthropy, or a boldness that is gathered from despair. At your -years, Quentin, either were unnatural," said Askerne, kindly. - -"My brave lad," said Monkton, putting an arm round him as an elder -brother might have done, "have you really no fear of--of death?" - -"To say that I have not," replied Quentin, with quivering lip, "would -be to state that which is false; but I know death to be the ordinance -of God--the fate of all mankind. It is but the end of the course of -time--welcome only to such as are weary of their lives. I am not -weary of mine, therefore I would indeed find it hard to die. I have -always known that I must die, but never considered where or how--how -near or how distant the day of doom might be; but I do shrink with -horror at the contemplation of dying with a disgrace upon me--a -stigma which, though I am innocent, time may never remove." - -"I fear that we are but poor comforters, and that you are taking the -very blackest view of matters," said Askerne; "but be advised by me, -and take courage--a resolute and modest bearing always wins respect. -In the court to-morrow are friends who will not see you wronged, for -every member there is alike a judge and a juryman. Put your trust in -Heaven and in your own innocence; sleep well if you can----" - -"And be sure to take something by way of breakfast--a broiled bone -and a glass of Valdepenas--you have a long and anxious day before -you." - -"And so, till we meet again, good night--God bless you, my hearty!" - -They shook him warmly by the hand, and retired. - -He heard their footsteps descending the stone steps of the old tower -(erst trod by the feet of many a turbaned Moor and steel-clad -crusader), and then dying away in distance; but soothed and relieved -in mind by a visit performed at such risk by his friends, and hoping -much--he knew not what--from the notes made by Rowland Askerne, -Quentin lay down on his pallet and strove to sleep, amid a silence -broken only by the beating of his own heart, and the rush of the -Tormes in its deep and rocky bed. - -"_They_ at least believe in me, and will not desert me!" he repeated -to himself again and again. - -But, the brave boyish spirit and hope--the enthusiastic desire to -achieve something great and good, no matter what, by land or sea, by -flood or field--a glorious deed that present men should vaunt, and -those of future times would speak of--where were that hope and spirit -_now_? - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -THE COURT-MARTIAL. - - "Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, - These three alone lead life to sovereign power. - Yet not for power, (power of herself - Would come uncall'd for,) but to live by law, - Acting the law we live by without fear; - And because right is right, to follow right - Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence." - TENNYSON. - - -The court-martial assembled in a large and magnificent apartment of -the Alva palace or castle, which stands in the centre of the town. -It is in a good state of preservation, and the chamber usually -occupied by the terrible duke, with all its ancient furniture, still -remains there in its original state. - -On the walls of the great apartment selected for the court hung the -armour of the successive princes of the house of Toledo from a very -remote period--indeed, from the mail shirts that had resisted the -Moorish scimitars down to the steel caps and jacks of the war of the -Spanish succession; and many of the breast-plates were emblazoned -with the armorial bearings and trophies of those warlike dukes who -boast of their descent from the Paleologi Emperors of the East, and -who were first ennobled as peers of Leon by Alphonso VI., or the -Brave, of Castile, in 1085. - -As Quentin approached the great embattled door of this stately -mansion, many soldiers of the regiment were crowding about it, and -all these muttered their good wishes; many a hard but honest hand was -held out to him, and many a forage-cap waved in silence, evincing -emotions of good-will that stirred his heart with gratitude, and gave -him new courage as he entered the court, attended by the -provost-marshal. - -He certainly looked wan and ill; traces yet remained of his recent -illness at the Villa de Maciera; to these were added anxiety, lack of -proper food and sleep, with the toil and exposure incident to the -campaign, all of which served to give him interest in the eyes of -many, for the court was crowded by spectators, chiefly officers of -nearly every regiment in the division, and a few Spanish citizens and -priests of Alva. - -His young face appeared sorrow-struck in feature, and many read -there, in the thoughtful brow, the quivering lip, and the sad but -restless eye, indications of a proud but suffering spirit. Save -these, and an occasional unconscious twitching of the hands, Quentin, -though awed by the presence, and the hapless and novel predicament in -which he found himself, was calm and collected in appearance. - -He was simply clad in his unlaced and plain red coat, without a belt -or accoutrement of any kind, to indicate that he was a prisoner; and -he was accommodated with a chair and separate table, on which lay -writing materials, but these he had not the slightest intention of -using. - -At the head of a long table of formidable aspect, whereon lay a Bible -and the "Articles of War," and which was littered with pens, paper, -letters, &c., sat the president of the court, Colonel Colquhoun -Grant, in the gorgeous uniform of the 15th Hussars, blue faced with -red, and the breast a mass of silver embroidery that might have -turned a sword-cut. He wore the Order of Merit, given to every -officer of his regiment by the Emperor of Germany fourteen years -before, for their unexampled bravery in the affair of Villiers en -Couche, a name still borne on the standard of the Hussars. - -The other members, fourteen in number, belonged to different -regiments; but Quentin was truly glad to see among them the familiar -faces of Askerne and two other captains of the Borderers. All were -in full uniform, and were seated on the right and left of the -president, according to their seniority in the army; Captain Conyers, -acting as judge-advocate, being placed at the foot of the court, -which, by the showy uniform, large epaulettes of silver or gold, the -crimson sashes, and, in four instances, tartan plaids, of the -members, had a very rich and striking appearance as the morning -sunshine streamed along the stately room through six lofty and -latticed windows. - -A considerable bustle and treading of feet on the tessellated floor -announced the entrance of the various witnesses, among whom Quentin -recognised the tall figure of the Master of Rohallion, the sturdy -paunch of worthy Major Middleton, the sun-burned faces of Buckle and -others of the Borderers, together with a Dominican monk, in whom, -notwithstanding his freshly-shaven chin, long robe, and knotted -girdle, he recognised, with astonishment, Trevino! Other guerillas -were present, but the most prominent was Don Baltasar. - -The handsome but sallow visage of the latter was pale nearly as that -of a corpse; his bloodless lips and white glistening teeth appeared -ghastly beneath the coal-black and enormous moustaches that were -twisted savagely up to each ear. His nostrils were contracting and -dilating with wild, mad passion, and it was evident that nothing but -the presence he stood in prevented him from rushing, sword in hand, -on Quentin, and ending, there and then, the proceedings of the court -and our story by immolating him on the spot. - -Quite undeterred by his formidable aspect or excitement, some of the -younger officers were seen to quiz Baltasar, whose costume, an -embroidered black velvet jacket, with a pair of British flank-company -wings, and other accessories, was sufficiently mock-heroic, fanciful, -and absurd. - -"Who acts as the prisoner's counsel or friend?" asked Colonel Grant, -the president. - -"I--Captain Warriston, 94th--Scots Brigade," said the full mellow -voice of that officer, as he entered, fully accoutred with sword, -sash, and gorget, and took his seat at the little table beside -Quentin Kennedy, who, at the moment, felt his heart very full indeed. - -Captain Conyers now read the order for assembling the court, and then -the members, each with his ungloved right hand placed upon the open -Bible, were sworn the usual oath, "to administer justice according to -the rules and articles for the better government of his Majesty's -forces, &c., without partiality, favour, or affection, &c.; and -further, not to divulge the sentence of the court until approved of, -or the vote or opinion of any member thereof, unless required to do -so by a court of law." - -This formula over, the judge advocate desired Quentin to stand while -the charges against him were read; and to his utter bewilderment they -ran thus, briefly, as we omit many dates and repetitions:-- - -"Mr. Quentin Kennedy, volunteer, serving with his Majesty's 25th -Foot, accused in the following instances of conduct unbecoming a -gentleman and soldier: - -"_First;_ of rescuing by the strong hand a French officer and lawful -prisoner of war from Don Baltasar de Saldos, in direct violation of -the 51st clause of the 2nd section of the 'Articles of War.' - -"_Second;_ of giving the rescued prisoner such intelligence as -enabled the enemy, then cantoned in Valencia de Alcantara, to -anticipate, by a combined attack, the junction about to be formed by -the guerilla force of Don Baltasar with the division of the allied -army under Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope, and thus causing the -loss of five field-guns and many Spanish subjects. - -"_Third;_ of snaring away from the cantonment at Herreruela the -sister of Don Baltasar de Saldos, who has not since been heard of, -her fate being thus involved in mystery, or worse, and thereby the -prisoner contravened the order issued by Sir John Moore, urging the -conciliation of the Spanish people on the army entering Castile. - -"_Fourth;_ of assaulting in the town of Merida, to the effusion of -blood, the Reverend Padre Trevino, lately a Dominican monk of -Salamanca, and now chaplain to Don Baltasar de Saldos, in direct -contravention of the 37th clause of the 2nd section of the 'Articles -of War,' concerning any officer or soldier 'who shall offer violence -to a chaplain of the army or to _any other minister of God's word_.' - -"_Fifth;_ of plundering an inhabitant to the extent of at least -eighty gold moidores, part of which were found in his baggage and -part given to the paymaster of his Majesty's 25th Foot for -transmission home. - -"_Sixth;_ for refusing or declining to take another despatch to Don -Baltasar, from Montijo, and thereby showing a complicity with the -enemy and dread of detection by the loyal party in Spain." - -So ended this farrago of words. - -Aware that sooner or later the proceedings of the court-martial -(which we can assure the reader made some noise at the time) would be -read at Rohallion, Colonel Crawford had all the charges framed in the -name of the general of division. - -"Oh, Cosmo!" thought Quentin, "you aim not only at my life, but at my -honour!" - -"Well, 'pon my soul," thought the Master, after he heard the list of -charges read, "if the fellow gets over all these, I'll say that, with -a fair match, and equally weighted, he might run a race with the -devil himself!" - -Quentin pleaded _not guilty_. - -The court was then cleared of the witnesses and the proceedings -commenced. - -With the regular detail of these we have no intention of afflicting -the reader; suffice it, that the solemn and dreary writing down of -every question and answer so lengthened them out that they became a -source of irritation and agony to one whose temperament was so sharp -and impetuous as that of Quentin Kennedy, burning as he was with -indignation at accusations so false and so unmerited, and some of -which he had a difficulty in refuting; and, we regret to add, that -the form of procedure was then, as it is still, old-fashioned, -cumbrous, loose, and tedious. - -There was no regular legal counsel for the prisoner or for the -prosecution either; no cross-examination, save such as might emanate -from some unusually sharp fellow, who kept himself awake, and -affected to take notes, when in reality he was caricaturing -Middleton's pigtail, Smith's paunch, and Brown's nose. - -The witnesses were sometimes examined pell-mell, just as their names -stood on the list; their evidence, however, being carefully written -down, to the end that it might be read over to them for after-thought -or revision before the opinions of the court, as to guilt and -sentence, were asked; a formula that always begins with the junior -member, the president having the casting vote. - -Such was then, as it is now, the somewhat rambling, free and easy -tenor of a general court-martial; yet, with all its idiosyncrasies, -it is ever a just and honourable tribunal, and such as no true -soldier would ever wish to change for a civil one. Every member -sworn is bound to give an opinion. In the French service a military -offence can be tried after the lapse of ten years; with us, the -period is three. - -Warriston objected to the competency of the court; but the president -over-ruled his objection by stating that a Volunteer of the Line, -like every other camp-follower, was amenable to the "Articles of War." - -The transmission of the despatch to Don Baltasar was easily proved by -Cosmo and others, and by the reply, which lay on the table. - -Though handsome and soldierly in aspect and bearing, the Master of -Rohallion could scarcely conceal a very decided animus in delivering -his evidence. Brave and proud, he was yet weak enough and small -enough in mind to _hate_ Quentin Kennedy with that species of -animosity which is always the most bitter, because it arises from a -sense of unmerited wrong done to the weaker victim. - -In answer to a question by the president: - -"Of the prisoner's antecedents," said he, "I know very little--little -at least that is good or honourable." - -"Colonel Crawford, you will be so good as explain." - -"He was received as an orphan, an outcast, I believe, into the house -of my father, General Lord Rohallion, when I was serving with the -Brigade of Guards. That house he deserted ungratefully and -disappeared for a time, no trace of him being discovered but a -silver-mounted walking-stick, which I knew to be his, and which was -found beside a murdered man, a vagrant or gipsy, in the vault of an -old ruin called Kilhenzie. How it came there, I pretend not to say; -but on searching the vault, whither my pointers led me, I picked up -the stick, with marks of blood upon it, some days after the body had -been taken away." - -On hearing this cruel and artful speech, which contained so much of -reality, Quentin almost started from his chair, his eyes flashing and -his pale nether lip quivering with rage; but Warriston held him -forcibly back. - -"Prisoner," said the president, "do you know a place in Scotland -called the castle of Kilhenzie?" - -"I do not understand the meaning of this question," said Captain -Warriston, rising impetuously, "and to it I object! It is not -precise on the part of the prosecution, and discloses an intention of -following up a line of examination of which neither the prisoner nor -his _amici curiæ_ have received due notice, and which, moreover, is -not stated in the six charges before the court." - -After a consultation, Colonel Grant replied: - -"The line of examination in this instance, Captain Warriston, is to -prove previous character; thus we find it quite relevant to question -the prisoner concerning the episode referred to. It may bear very -materially on other matters before the court. Mr. Kennedy, do you -know a place called Kilhenzie?" - -"I do, sir," said Quentin, and for a moment there rushed upon his -memory recollections of many a happy hour spent there with Flora -Warrender, near its crumbling walls and giant dule-tree. - -"Are you aware of any remarkable circumstance occurring there in -which you were an actor?" - -Poor Quentin's pallor now gave way to a flush of shame and honest -anger; but he replied-- - -"Driven into the ruin by a torrent of rain, I found a dead body lying -there among the straw; it filled me with alarm and dismay, so I -hastened from the place." - -"Leaving behind you a walking-stick?" - -"Yes, sir; it would appear so." - -"Covered with blood." - -"Most likely," said Quentin, remembering the wound he had received -from Cosmo's hand. - -"All this, Colonel Grant, has nothing to do with the case," urged -Warriston, firmly. - -"It seems to cast grave doubts on the previous character and -antecedents of the prisoner." - -"It seems also to show the peculiar vindictiveness of the -prosecution." - -"You are unwise, Captain Warriston," said the president, severely. - -"I am here as the friend of the prisoner." - -"For what reason did you leave the castle of Rohallion?" asked the -court. - -Quentin gazed full at the Master with his eyes flashing so -dangerously that this personage, fearing he might be driven to say -something which might bring ridicule on him--though Quentin would -rather have died than uttered Flora's name there--begged that the -first charge might be proceeded with. - -Sworn across two drawn swords in the Spanish fashion, Baltasar, -Trevino, and other guerillas, inspired by spite and hostility, -related in succession how Quentin had rescued the French prisoner; -how he had undertaken to conduct Donna Isidora in safety to -Portalegre, a mere day's ride; but had made away with her, on the -road, in some manner unknown, as well as with a horse and mule, the -property of her brother. - -"A singular duenna to have charge of a young Spanish beauty--eh, -Carysfort?" he heard a hussar say. - -"By Jove, Villars, I wish it had been my luck--that's all," was the -laughing reply. - -Quentin wished the same with all his heart. - -Then came details of the attack made on the guerillas by -Ribeaupierre's cavalry brigade. The charge of giving intelligence to -the enemy was based on bare assumption, and was unsupported by a -tittle of evidence. - -Next followed the Padre Trevino, costumed for the occasion and -effect, a rare example of a wolf in sheep's clothing, who showed his -wounded caput, and told, in a whining voice, the sorrowful story of -his maltreatment at the aqueduct of Merida, whither he had gone to -pray in solitude. The assault was proved beyond a doubt by the -evidence of a certain Martin Sedillo, an ill-looking dog with one -eye, formerly an alguazil of Salamanca and now a guerilla, who swore -distinctly that he saw Quentin beat the padre down with the butt-end -of his musket. - -"You distinctly saw him strike the padre down?" repeated Colonel -Grant. - -"Si, senor presidente y senores oficiales," said the guerilla, bowing -low. - -"Wantonly?" - -"Most wantonly, senores." - -"Retire. Call the next witness on the list--private Allan Grange, -25th Foot." - -To the Borderer, on his entrance, the previous questions were -repeated by the court. - -"Yes, sir--I saw Mr. Kennedy strike down the guerilla (who was not -then habited like a friar) with his clubbed musket, but only in time -to save his life from _this dagger_, which I took from the hand of -his reverence." - -As he spoke, Allan Grange handed a knife of very ugly aspect to the -president, who saw the name _Trevino_ burned, by a hot iron, on the -haft. - -"Allan Grange, were you ever tried by a court-martial?" asked the -judge advocate, looking among his memoranda for one furnished by -Colonel Crawford. - -"Yes, sir," faltered the soldier, growing red and pale by turns. - -"And were reduced to the ranks, at Colchester?" - -"Yes, sir," he replied, sadly. - -"And you were sentenced to be flogged--three hundred lashes, I think, -by the Defaulter's Book?" - -"A sentence kindly remitted by Major Middleton," said Grange, proudly. - -"There, this will do--you may go," said Colonel Grant; and then some -of the members smiled and looked at each other, as much as to say, -"we see how much your evidence is worth." - -Quentin knew that Donna Isidora was in the French camp; but when -Warriston mentioned this to be the case, the only witness called to -prove it, Lieutenant Monkton, was unable to repeat what Ribeaupierre -said, as he had been beyond hearing at that particular moment. - -On the fifth charge, concerning the gold moidores, Quentin thought -himself bewitched when the one-eyed guerilla, Martin Sedillo, -deliberately swore, with the drawn swords of two officers crossed -under his bearded chin, "that he was plundered of them at Herreruela -by the prisoner, whom he was ready to warrant as false as Galalou!" - -"Who was he?" inquired Askerne, looking at his watch impatiently for -the third time. - -"Galalou betrayed the French army at Roncesvalles," said Colonel -Grant; "as we say in Scotland, false as Menteith. It is a local -phrase." - -His refusal to bear another despatch to De Saldos was easily proved, -and that circumstance seemed to corroborate much that had preceded it. - -Matters were now looking gloomy indeed. Quentin became sick at -heart; he drained his water-jug, yet his lips grew parched and dry; -he felt the toils closing around him, and already, in fancy, he heard -the president passing the terrible sentence of death! - -The bitter conviction came home to his soul, that hate and wiles, -against which it was in vain for innocence to contend, were -triumphing over him; and that even if pardoned, the memory that he -had been arraigned, and on such cruel charges, would live! - -Shame for unmerited reproach and unavailing sorrow for a lost -youth--a blighted, it might be, a long life taken away, and perhaps -by a shameful death--were some of the deep, the bitter, and stinging -emotions felt on this day by poor Quentin Kennedy. - -While that court-martial lasted he lived a lifetime in every hour of -it! - -His declaration or defence, read by Warriston, was simply a -recapitulation of some of the leading features of our narrative, -which he had no means of substantiating; the mass of evidence against -him was summed up, but was too strong in some points to be easily -disposed of. His youth and inexperience were dwelt upon, but it -seemed without much avail. Neither did the warm manner in which -Major Middleton, Buckle, Sergeant-major Calder and others, bore -testimony to his spotless character, seem to find much weight. To -satisfy the Spaniards, a victim was wanted, and here was one ready -made to hand. - -It was now nearly four o'clock, and the Court was about to be cleared -for the consideration of the opinion and sentence, when the sharp and -well-known twang of a French cavalry trumpet rang in the court before -the palace, and the tramping of horses was heard. - -"Thank God!" muttered Askerne (who had frequently consulted his -watch) as he exchanged a rapid glance with Monkton; "that muleteer -has served us well!" - -At that moment of terrible expectation an officer of the 7th Hussars -entered hastily, and presented a note to the judge advocate. - -"What interruption is this, Captain Conyers?" asked Colonel Grant, -sternly. - -"An officer from the French lines, come in under a flag of truce, -requests to be examined by the Court for the defence," replied -Conyers. - -Every face present expressed extreme astonishment. - -"What is his name?" asked the president. - -"Eugene de Ribeaupierre--sous-lieutenant of the 24th Chasseurs à -Cheval," said Conyers, consulting an embossed calling-card. - -"Is it he whose name occurs so frequently in the declaration of the -prisoner?" - -"Most probably, sir." - -"Admit him." - -The clank of a sabre and the jingle of steel spurs were heard, and -then Eugene de Ribeaupierre, looking handsome and gay, but flushed -after a long ride from Fonteveros, entered, helmet in hand, and bowed -low to the Court and all who were present. - -"Ha, mon ami!" said he, shaking Quentin's hand with warmth, "I am -come in time, I hope; the proceedings are not yet closed, monsieur?" -he asked anxiously of the president. - -"No--but how did _you_ come to hear of them?" was the suspicious -question. - -"From Ramon Campillo, a muleteer of Miranda del Ebro; the same person -who conveyed M. Kennedy from the Villa de Maciera to Portalegre, and -who was passing through our camp this morning. He came expressly to -my tent to tell me all about it, and that charges were to be made -which I alone could refute. I reported the affair to my father, the -General, who generously gave me leave to come here, with an -escort--so I have come, messieurs, to be sworn and examined." - -"Askerne," whispered Monkton, "you are a rare fellow!" - -"How, Willie?" - -"Damme, by your foresight we shall yet baffle Crawford, De Saldos, -Trevino and Co.!" - -"Hush, hush! You are rash." - -It is almost needless to describe how the young French officer, after -being duly sworn by the judge advocate, corroborated in every -particular the statement made in Quentin's declaration--statements of -which he could have had no previous cognisance, save as an actor in -the episodes referred to. He described how Quentin had saved his -life from a deliberate attempt at assassination on the part of De -Saldos, and became strongly excited on referring to the infamous -massacre of the prisoners by Trevino. He asserted that the moidores -were taken by himself from the holsters of Raoul, a dead corporal of -his troop, who found them amid the plunder of Coimbra. He asserted, -on his oath and honour as an officer and chevalier of the Legion of -Honour, that the movement made by the troops of his father, -collaterally with those of General Hope and the guerillas of -Baltasar, was not consequent to any information given him by the -prisoner, but had been resolved on long before, as a printed order of -the emperor, which he had the honour to lay on the table, would amply -testify! - -As for Donna Isidora, he freely and laughingly acknowledged that he -had carried her away from the villa, and that she was now Madame de -Marbœuf, wife of his friend Jules de Marbœuf, colonel of the -24th, as the Padre Florez, who, ignorant of that auspicious event, -had come to effect her release from the French camp, could now -substantiate, as he was now without the court, and ready to appear. - -The long, thin figure of the padre, wearing his flowing soutan and -shovel hat, next appeared to corroborate all this, and also to state -the sickly condition in which he handed over Quentin to the muleteers -at the Villa de Maciera. - -"Every link is thus supplied beyond a doubt!" exclaimed Colonel Grant. - -Quentin was acquitted amid a burst of applause that found an echo in -the hearty hurrah given by the King's Own Borderers in the palace -square without. - -"And now, monsieur," said Ribeaupierre, presenting Quentin with a -valuable diamond ring, "accept this as a present from madame my -mother, who drew it from her finger as I left the camp, with the -request that you will wear it for her sake, and in memory of the day -on which you saved my life from that barbarous Spaniard among the -mountains of Herreruela." - -Within an hour after rendering service so valuable, and indeed so -priceless, and after having some luncheon with Askerne, Grant, -Conyers, and other officers who composed the court, the gallant and -generous Ribeaupierre had mounted and ridden from Alva de Tormes, -attended by a strong escort, in front of which rode a Polish lancer, -with a white handkerchief in token of truce streaming from the head -of his lance; and so ended--like a dream to Quentin--this episode, -this chivalric intervention, which was dictated by a noble spirit -worthy of the knightly days of the Chevalier Bayard, or of Bertrand -du Guesclin. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -LOVE ME. - - "You do return me back on memory's path - To dear remembered scenes. Old Scotland's scenes! - It is a glorious land! I long to roam, - Doubly a lover, 'mong its wildest charms; - Its glens, its rocky coast, its towering cliffs - Come o'er me like a dream of infancy, - Startling the soul to momentary rapture; - It is the voice of home!"--DANIEL. - - -Two or three days passed before Quentin quite recovered his -equanimity, or felt assured of his safety, and then as the whole -affair of the court-martial seemed like a night-mare, he might have -deemed it all a dream, but for the occasional comments and -congratulations of his friends, and for the splendid gift of Madame -de Ribeaupierre, which he prized greatly for its whole history, and -which he longed greatly to place on one of Flora Warrender's tiny -fingers. - -Three days after the sitting of the court, tidings came to Alva that -Baltasar de Saldos and his guerilla force had suffered a sharp -repulse with great loss by the French, whose post at Fonteveras they -had attacked with unexampled fury and blind rashness--both perhaps -inspired by Donna Isidora's defection from her country's cause--and -that in the confused retreat upon Hope's picquets, the luckless -Baltasar had been shot dead by one of the Westphalian Light Horse. - -We are not ashamed to say that Quentin on hearing this from Major -Middleton, felt a species of relief, self-preservation being one of -the first laws of nature, and he never could have felt himself -perfectly safe in Spain while Baltasar de Saldos trod its soil. - -Reflection on all the past served but to embitter the disgust and -wrath with which he viewed the bearing of Cosmo Crawford at the -recent trial, his whole connexion with it, and the terrible and -hopeless malevolence he exhibited in reference to the episode at -Kilhenzie, an affair which there was some difficulty in explaining, -without referring to other and irrelevant matters; so Quentin burned -with impatient eagerness for a general engagement with the French, -for anything that would serve to blot out the recollection of his -late unmerited humiliation; but he never thought of the enemy now -without the face, figure, and voice of his friend Ribeaupierre rising -upbraidingly before him. - -Cosmo could have dismissed Quentin from the regiment, with or without -cause, a colonel being himself sole judge of the expediency of so -getting rid of a volunteer; but he was ashamed that his own family -should hear of an act so petty. The onus of the futile court-martial -fell on the general of division, and there were many chances against -Quentin ever relating its secret history at Rohallion, as ere long -bullets would be flying thick as winter hail. - -Amid that confidence which is inspired by a borrachio-skin of good -Valdepenas, varied by stiff brandy-and-water, Quentin, so far as he -deemed necessary or right, made "a clean breast of it" to his friends -and comrades, and detailed anew his adventures on the road from -Herreruela and at the Villa de Maciera. Though he was complimented -by Warriston and Askerne, whose praise was of value, there were not a -few, such as Monkton, Colville, Ensigns Colyear, Boyle and others, -who laughed immoderately, and voted him "a downright spoon"--wishing -"such jolly good-luck had been theirs as to have a dazzling Castilian -chucking herself at their heads." - -"Yes, damme," said Monkton, "I should have had another story to tell; -though, certainly, Kennedy, your Dulcinea did not 'let concealment -like a worm i' the bud'--how does the quotation end? Now, Pimple, -are you going to keep that blessed borrachio-skin all night? Why, -man, you have squeezed it till it has become like a half-empty -bagpipe." - -Elsewhere we have mentioned that, after reading the famous newspaper -paragraph which made such a commotion among the secluded household at -Rohallion, the quartermaster offered to write to Quentin, and that -Flora gave him a tiny note to enclose in his letter. - -So it was on this night, when returning from Monkton's billet to his -own, with a head none of the clearest, after talking a vast deal, -smoking cigars and drinking the country wine, that Quentin was -startled--completely sobered, in fact--by his servant placing in his -hand a letter, and saying briefly that "the mail had come up that -evening from the rear," which meant from Lisbon. - -This letter was covered by such a multitude of post-marks that some -time elapsed before Quentin--all unused to receive such -documents--could bring himself to examine the contents; nor, in his -mute astonishment, did he do so, until he had fully deciphered the -address, which was in old John Girvan's hand, and the seal, an -antiquated button of the 25th Foot, with the number, of course, -reversed. - -Every word seemed like _a voice from home_, and all the past--faces, -forms, scenes, and places, came like a living and moving panorama on -his memory. - -Then, almost giddy with delight, a heart tremulous with anxiety, and -eyes that grew moist--so moist, indeed, that for some seconds he -could see no more than that the letter was dated more than a month -back, Quentin was striving to read the square, old-fashioned writing -of his early friend, when something dropped from between the pages--a -tiny note, sealed by blue wax--the crest a hare _sejant_, the -cognisance of the Warrenders. - -Excited anew, he opened this with extreme care but tremulous haste. -It was a single sheet of note-paper, on which two words were written, -in a hand he knew right well--_From Flora_--and in it was a valuable -ring, studded with precious stones. - -We are compelled to admit that Quentin kissed the words and the ring -some dozen times or so before he put the paper containing the former -next his heart, in the most approved manner of all lovers, and the -circlet on his finger, where he continued to admire it from time to -time, while deciphering the long and somewhat prosy, but kind letter -of his worthy old friend, who evidently knew nothing about the -unlucky court-martial being on the tapis when he wrote it, Lord -Rohallion's startling reply from the Horse Guards not having then -arrived. - - -"MY DEAR QUENTIN,--And so by God's providence, through the humble -medium of a stray newspaper, we have found you at last! Ye rash and -ungrateful callant to leave us all in such a fashion, and well-nigh -unto demented lest you had come to skaith or evil. I'll never forget -the night the news first came to Rohallion that you had been found. -You mind o' my auld Flanders greybeard--the Roman amphora, as the -dominie calls it--he and I, wi' Spillsby and auld Jack Andrews, -emptied it to the last drop, drinking your health, pouring forth -libations in your honour, as Symon Skail hath it, and singing 'Should -auld acquaintance be forgot' as we have never sung it since Robbie -Burns left Mossgiel. - -"And so, Quentin, my lad, ye have gone forth even as I went, nigh -half a century ago, and have joined the glorious old 25th too! The -Lord's blessing be on the old number, wherever it be--even on the -head of a beer barrel! I joined the Borderers with little more than -my father's benediction on my head, and, what served me better, one -of my mother's pease-bannocks in my pouch. After Minden I came home -a corporal, and proud I am to say, that I was the poor wayworn -soldier-lad whom Burns saw passing the inn at Brownhill, and whom he -invited to share his supper on the night he wrote his song-- - - "When wild war's deadly blast had blawn." - -But ere long, by putting my trust in Providence (and a gude deal in -pipeclay), I became, as I am now, and hope you one day shall be, a -commissioned officer! - -"As for Cosmo the Master, I fear me you'll find him a harsh and -severe colonel. He was aye a dour laddie, and a heartbreak to his -mother. - -"The Lord and the Lady Rohallion, and a' body here, down to the -running footman, send you their best remembrances. Miss Flora, of -Ardgour, writes for herself, and what her note contains is no -business of _mine_. Yesterday I caught her looking at the map of -Spain in the library, and then she turned to that of Europe. - -"'Girvanmains, it seems only the length of a finger from here to -Spain,' said she, placing a bonnie white hand on the map, 'and yet it -is so far--so _very_ far away!' - -"She often comes into my snuggery and speaks of you, the puir lassie, -with her eyes and heart full. She has taken your terrier as her -peculiar care, and sees that the gamekeeper has your guns and -fishing-tackle always in order, for she looks forward, doubtless, to -a time when you will need them all again. - -"She is as handsome and high-spirited as ever! Young Ferny of -Fernwoodlee, dangles pretty closely about her now, and village -gossips say they may make a good match, as his lands march with the -haughs of Ardgour. If they do, I am sure you won't care much about -it now, for active service rubs all soft nonsense out of a young -fellow's head, just as his waistbelt rubs his coat bare. (How little -the worthy quartermaster, as he blundered on, conceived that he was -now sticking pins and needles into poor Quentin by this incidental -communication about the young fox-hunting laird of Fernwoodlee!) - -"A long war is before us, Quentin, lad, and you're certain to rise in -the service and be spoken about in future times, as Wolfe and -Abercrombie are now. Maybe I'll not live to see the day--at my years -it is not likely, but I know that it _will_ happen for all that, when -the grass is growing green above me in the auld kirkyard up the glen. - -"The dominie--he is sitting opposite me brewing his toddy at this -moment--hopes that you have not fallen into the vile habit of -uttering oaths--a habit peculiar to gentlemen of our army ever since -it 'swore so terribly in Flanders.' He bids me say that 'from a -common custom of swearing, according to Hierocles (some Roman loon, I -warrant) men easily slide into falsity; therefore do not use to -swear.' He also hopes that you are not becoming contaminated in -those realms of the Pope, who, though he founded all the bishoprics -and most of the universities of Christendom, enjoyeth the evil repute -of being little better than a Pagan and idolater among us here in -Carrick. Moreover, ye are in an especial manner to avoid the snares -of the female sex, and remember the mischief that was wrought by a -light limmer named Helen of Troy. - -"From myself, dear Quentin, I say avoid all duellists, drunkards, -gamblers, and fools; as a good old friend of mine--a brave soldier, -too--saith in his book, 'Provide for your soul, and God will provide -for your honour. If your name be forgot in the annals of time, it -will make a noble figure in the muster-roll of eternity.' - -"If you are short of the needful, I have still a few more golden shot -in the locker, so fail not to draw on me through Greenwood and Cox, -or your paymaster. - -"I would give much, if I had it, to have one glimpse of the old corps -again, though no one in it, I suppose, remembers old John Girvan now! - -"Are the bringers-up still dressed from the right flank by a flam on -the drum? Does the colonel still use a speaking-trumpet? Is the -point of war beaten now in honour of every new commission? Are the -sergeants' pikes still stretchers for the wounded? Are pigtails -always dressed straight by the back seam of the coat, and--but Lord! -Lord! what am I asking? I clean forgot that the service is going to -the devil, for the order that abolished the queues will be the ruin -of it, from the Horse Guards to the Hottentot battalions! I can't -fancy the 25th, like the Manx cats, with their tails cut off! In my -time there would have been open mutiny if the atrocity had been -attempted. - -"Even the hair-powder is passing out of fashion now, unless a colonel -happens to be powdered by time. Gentlemanly spirit will pass away -too, I fear me, and the cautious time will come when a man will think -twice before accepting an invitation to go out with a brother officer -and breathe the morning air, about reveillez, at ten paces, with a -pair of saw-handled pops. - -"In Rohallion's time the 25th used to wear their hair and pigtails so -floured and pomatumed that many a good meal the barrack rats have -made off our caputs, when we lay asleep on the wood benches of the -guard-house. - -"And they (the Horse Guards, we presume) have substituted cloth -pantaloons for the pipe-clayed breeches in which we fought at Minden -and New York. This _may_ be an improvement, for, in my time, our -pipeclayed smalls were often a mass of mud on the march, and in wet -weather one might as well have been in a bog of quick lime, for they -regularly skinned us. - -"And now, Quentin, my dear, dear laddie, to close an ower lang -letter." - -To Askerne, who came in at that moment, Quentin showed the letter of -the worthy veteran, and it proved to the captain a source of some -amusement, so quaint and old-fashioned were Girvan's ideas of the -regiment and of the service. - -"Well, Kennedy, what does Miss Flora's letter contain--eh?" asked -Askerne, with a waggish smile. - -"Don't jest, pray--I depend on your honour." - -"You may, indeed, Quentin." - -"It contained only this ring." - -"Oho!" exclaimed Askerne, with a merry laugh, "these stones tell a -story, my friend." - -"A story!" - -"Yes." - -"How?" - -"Is it possible that you don't know? Read their names; collect the -initial letters, and tell me what they make?" - -"Lapis-lazuli, opal, verde-antique, emerald, malachite, emerald." - -"Well--what are these?" - -"LOVE ME!" said Quentin, colouring with pleasure and surprise. - -"The language of the stones seems new to you, Kennedy; but you are in -luck, my friend. Who is the donor?" - -"A dear, dear friend." - -"Flora, you say--are you sure it is not Donna Isidora?" - -"Impossible--thank Heaven!--a Miss Flora Warrender." - -"Warrender--Warrender--I know that name; is she of Ardgour?" - -"The same." - -"Her father fell at the head of the Corsican Rangers, in Egypt. I -knew him well--a brave old fellow as ever wore a red coat." - -"You will not speak of this before our fellows?" urged Quentin, -earnestly. - -"Betray confidence! you have my word, Kennedy. And now let me to -bed. I am for the baggage-guard; as we are falling back, it starts -with the artillery, two hours before the division marches to-morrow." - -The ring had now a new interest in Quentin's eyes, and he was never -tired of reading the six mystical stones. - -"Dearest Flora," he said to himself, "how happy I am now, that not -even that lovely Spaniard could for a moment tempt me to forget you!" - -For all that, the "lovely Spaniard" was very nearly doing a vast deal -of mischief. - -Finding that he was alone, and all was quiet in his billet, he sat -far into the hours of the silent night, writing a long, long letter -to his friend the quartermaster--the story of his past adventures; -and to Flora he enclosed the only gift he possessed--the ring of -Madame de Ribeaupierre--with its remarkable story, and he had barely -sealed the envelope when he heard the warning bugle for the -baggage-guard to turn out sounding in the dark and silent streets of -Alva; and then, with a weary head but happy heart, he sought his -pallet, and without undressing, courted sleep for a couple of hours, -before the drums of the division beat the _générale_. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -THE OLD BRIGADIER. - - "I cannot deem why men so toil for fame, - A porter is a porter, though his load - Be the oceaned world, and although his road - Be down the ages. What is in a name? - Ah! 'tis our spirit's curse to strive and seek. - Although its heart is rich in pearls and ores, - The sea, complains upon a thousand shores; - Sea-like we moan for ever."--ALEXANDER SMITH. - - -By this time the snows of a bleak and early winter lay deep in the -grassy glens and on the heathery hills of Carrick; the mountain burns -and rivulets that whilome flowed to the Doon and the Girvan were -frozen hard and fast, and, suspended in mid-air, the cascade of the -Lollards' Linn hung under its gothic arch like the beard of Father -Christmas. Long icicles hung from the eaves of the houses and from -the quaint stone gurgoyles of the old square keep. - -The sound of the woodman's axe echoed in the leafless oakwood shaw -and the brown thickets of Ardgour, and everywhere the hedges and -trees were being lopped and trimmed by the shears or bill-hook of the -gardener and husbandman. - -In the clear frosty air, from many a mountain loch rang up the cheers -of the jovial curlers, with the roar of the granite curling-stones as -they swept along the glassy _rinks_, and many a hearty fellow -anticipated, his appetite sharpened by the frosty air, the banquet of -salt beef and greens, with steaming whisky toddy, that closed his -day's sport, at the Rohallion Arms in Maybole. - -The cattle were in their heather-roofed shielings on the sheltered -sides of the hills, the sheep and swine were among the pea-ricks, the -dusky smoke of the ruddy winter fire ascended into the clear blue air -from many a happy hearth and thatched homestead; but, as the roads -that wound over hill and lea were buried deep in snow, news of the -distant war in Spain come slowly and uncertainly to such remote -dwellings as the castle of Rohallion--how much more uncertainly and -slowly to those glens in Sutherland and Ross, where a few heaps of -stones amid the desert waste now mark the birthplaces of those who -manned the ranks of our noblest Scottish regiments in that old and -glorious war. - -As yet no further tidings had been heard either of Quentin Kennedy or -of his court-martial. All that had been heard at home, through the -columns of the London _Courier_, was that the slender army of Sir -John Moore was falling back before the overwhelming masses of the -enemy, and that ere long all might be confusion in its ranks--perhaps -dismay! - -After the receipt of the Adjutant-General Sir Harry Calvert's letter, -the public papers were searched in vain for further tidings of -Quentin Kennedy, but none were found. "Our own correspondent," with -his camp-gossip, had no place in the newspaper columns of those days. -The mails were then often late and always uncertain; many that came -by sea were lost between storms and privateers, and the vague anxiety -of Quentin's friends gradually became painful suspense, and amid it -Lord Rohallion once more _wrote with energy_ recommending his young -protégé to the duke. - -Dinner was over, and the wax-candles in the candelabra and girandoles -of crystal had been lighted in the antique yellow drawing-room; Lady -Rohallion, seated as usual in her own corner, was engaged, according -to her wont, upon some piece of knitting or other work for the poor -or old folks on the estate; her grey hair, somewhat needlessly -powdered, was dressed back as of old. Lord Rohallion had brought his -decanter of claret with him into the drawing-room and placed it on a -guéridon table by his side; and there he sat, in a cushioned -easy-chair, lingering over the wine, and gazing dreamily into the -large fire that blazed in the old-fashioned brass-basket between the -delf-lined jambs of the fireplace. - -The wind was sighing through the old sycamores of the avenue, and the -roar of the sea was heard on the Partan Craig. - -Flora was idling over the piano, practising the "Battle of Prague," -the Duke of York's grand march, or some such piece of music then in -vogue with young ladies, and near her hovered her present admirer, -Jack Ferny of Fernwoodlee, a good-looking but brainless young fellow -with sandy hair and a pea-green hunting-coat of the fast kind worn -when the Pavilion was in its glory at Brighton. Ferny's estate was a -small one, and he was evidently, as gossips said, "doing his best to -make ducks and drakes of it." - -He was strongly addicted to betting, and was a keen fox-hunter and -sportsman. Beyond the kennel or the stable he had very few ideas; -and so little capability had he of adapting his conversation to time, -place, or person, that he was now prosing away to the preoccupied -Flora about sporting matters. - -First it was of a famous match against time by the noted pedestrian, -Captain Barclay of Urie; and next, how, when coursing among the -Carrick hills, his two favourite stag-hounds so pressed a hare they -had put up yesterday, that she leaped down a precipice more than -fifty feet in height, and then the hounds followed without the -slightest hesitation. - -"Good heavens! they were killed, of course!" said Flora, looking up -with wonder. - -"Killed, Miss Warrender?--egad, no! To the astonishment of us all, -we saw puss and the hounds scouring along the road towards Maybole; -but the Ayr stage, coming up with four spanking greys, caused her to -make for a field of grass, and though turned five several times by -the hounds, she made her escape down a burn at last, for of course -they lost the scent." - -Finding that Flora had relapsed into listlessness, and that he failed -to interest her by his scraps of information on the Newmarket Craven -meeting, such as his horse Rolla, eight stone, running against Lord -Sackville's Tag, also eight stone, across the flat for a thousand -guineas, and that three to one was being taken on Rolla; that the -betting was even at Epsom on the brown colt, by Eclipse, out of Mrs. -Fitzherbert, and other gossip of similar character, he was compelled -to resume his place near the old Lord, who was just in the act of -pressing him politely to join in another glass of claret, when Jack -Andrews limped in with a letter, which the running-footman had at -that moment brought from Maybole. The mail from Ayr had broken down -near the bank of the Boon in the snow, and the guard had brought on -the bags to Dalrymple, on one of the horses, at the risk of his life. -Oblong and official, the cover of the letter showed that it was "On -His Majesty's service." - -"News of Quentin Kennedy, doubtless," said Lord Rohallion, peering -about for his eye-glass. - -"I pray God it be not unfortunate news about Cosmo!" thought Lady -Winifred, for the tidings that came to many a poor mother in those -days of war were sad enough sometimes. - -Fernwoodlee, who had seen Quentin Kennedy, and knew the rumours -concerning him and Flora, observed with annoyance that she was pale -and colourless with ill-concealed interest, as she drew near Lord -Rohallion, who on opening the missive found, to his no small -surprise, that it referred neither to Quentin nor Cosmo, but to -_himself_, and was from Sir Harry Calvert, who wrote, that "by the -direction of his Royal Highness the Field-Marshal -Commanding-in-Chief, he had the pleasure to acquaint him that his -lordship's repeated applications and wishes for command of a brigade -could now be gratified, and that his name would appear in the next -_Gazette_; and that as troops were being assembled in great force at -Shorncliffe camp, his Royal Highness hoped that his lordship would, -within a week, be ready to set out for that place, where his services -were greatly required, and where his proper staff would be selected." - -This announcement fell with a startling effect upon Lord and Lady -Rohallion. - -"Appointed to a brigade--a brigade for foreign service! My dear -Reynold, you cannot for a moment think of accepting this command?" -said Lady Winifred, anxiously taking his right hand between her own. - -"I applied for it, as you are aware, dearest, repeatedly." - -"About the time of the first unhappy expedition to Egypt; but you -have long since relinquished all idea of serving again, and now--now, -Reynold----" - -"I am bound to accept it, Winny," said he, with more of sadness than -of his old enthusiasm in his tone. "I am well up the list of -major-generals," he added, with a faint smile, "and must do something -for promotion. I may be a field-marshal yet, Winny, and a K.G. to -boot." - -Perhaps in his secret heart he would rather have wished that this -command had not been offered him; he felt that he was rather old now, -rather staid and formed in habit, and that he had too long settled -down into the easy tenor of a quiet country life to care for the -hurly-burly and anxiety of leading a brigade--it might ultimately be -a division--in the field; but he knew that honour and duty compelled -him to accept it. - -Thus he wrote to the adjutant-general that very night accepting the -command, and again urging that something should be done for his young -protégé, Quentin Kennedy. - -The letter left by the mail next morning, and Lord Rohallion prepared -to bid farewell once more to the old mansion of his forefathers, and -to buckle on the same sword that he had drawn on the plains of -Minden, when a stripling ensign, forty-nine years before. - -It was with sad forebodings that Lady Rohallion prepared to break up -her quiet and happy household, and bid farewell to friends and -neighbours, for she proposed, in the first instance, to accompany her -dear old husband to Shorncliffe, and Flora, their ward, who could not -be left behind, to the unmistakable dismay of young Fernwoodlee, was -to go with them. - -She was the only one who felt any pleasure in the anticipated change -and long journey by post-horses, as it promised at least all that -novelty so charming to a young girl. - -Poor Lady Rohallion! She knew that by her husband's frequently -expressed desire for military employment (parliamentary and -diplomatic matters he detested) he was bound in honour--especially at -a time when all Britain was in arms--to accept the first command -offered him by the Duke of York, his old friend and comrade. She had -long feared the crisis, but, as time passed on and no appointment -came, she ceased to think of it; but now it had come at last, and -when least expected, and she was about to be subjected to a double -separation, from her husband and her son. - -Cut off as Britain was then from the continent, the majority of its -people had few views or sympathies beyond their own fireside or -immediate circle. The scene of the probable campaign in which -Rohallion would serve, was wild and remote, the people desperate and -lawless; our force in the field small, most pitifully so, when -compared with the masses of the dreaded and then abhorred French. - -She could perceive that her courtly old lord vacillated between -sincere sorrow for leaving her and a love for his profession, with a -hope of distinguishing himself and trying his strength and skill -against some of the famous marshals of the new empire--the heroes of -the Italian, German, and Egyptian campaigns--those corporals of le -petit caporal, who had picked up their epaulettes on the barricades -of Paris, or at the foot of the guillotine on which King Louis and -the noblest in France died; for thus were the marshal dukes of the -great emperor viewed by the high-flying aristocracy of the Pitt -administration, in the old fighting days "when George the Third was -king." - -Lord Cockburn, in his "Memorials," describes, with happy fidelity, "a -singular race of old Scottish ladies," that have completely passed -away. "They were," says he, "a delightful set; strong-headed, -warm-hearted, and high-spirited; the fire of their tempers not always -latent; merry even in solitude; very resolute; indifferent about the -modes and habits of the modern world, and adhering to their own ways, -so as to stand out like primitive rocks above ordinary society. -Their prominent qualities of sense, humour, affection, and spirit, -were embodied in curious outsides, for all dressed, and spoke, and -did exactly as they chose; their language, like their habits, -entirely Scottish, but without any other vulgarity than what perfect -naturalness is sometimes taken for." - -One of that genuine race was the handsome and stately old Lady -Winifred of Rohallion. - -A Scottish lady of the kindly old school, one who in infancy had been -nursed and fondled by warm-hearted and periwigged old gentlemen and -hoopskirted gentlewomen, who boasted that they were the last of the -true old Scots, born when a Stuart was on the throne, and before -their country was sold by the Whigs, and when her Parliament -assembled on the ringing of St. Gileses bell; she who in girlhood had -seen and known many of the gallant and loyal who had dined and drunk -with Kilmarnock and Balmerino, and who had drawn their swords for -James VIII. at Falkirk and Culloden; who treasured in secret the -white rose, and yearly drank to "the king ower the water"--she felt -now that she would be sadly at a loss and strange among English -modern society. Her local ideas and usefulness, her strong Jacobite -sympathies and loyalty to a dead race of kings, her nervous terror of -democracy and foreigners, might pass for eccentricity; but how could -those among whom she would now be thrown know or understand her -little weakness for the heraldry, genealogy, connexions, and past -glories of the Maxwells of Nithsdale and the Crawfords of Rohallion; -for she knew them to be people who spoke of the late cardinal-duke as -"the dead Pretender;" who voted all that was not English absurd or -vulgar, and who basked in the rays of the star of Brunswick as it -beamed on the breast of "the first gentleman in Europe," the future -George IV.: with her powder and patches, her broad Scottish accent, -and her high-heeled shoes, she felt that she would be, in such an -atmosphere, an anachronism--a fish out of water! - -These minor considerations of self, however, were completely merged -or lost eventually in distress at the prospect of being separated -from her husband, and in dread of the perils and hardships he might -have to encounter at the seat of war--at his advanced years, too! - -To add to her anxiety, the death-watch had ticked for several nights -in the four-poster of the great old state bedroom, and this devilish -little pediculus wrought the good lady as much alarm as Sir Harry -Calvert's missive from the Horse Guards had done. - -Amid all this, Flora's chief thought was, that at Shorncliffe she -would be nearer Quentin Kennedy, by the entire length nearly of -Britain, and as Lord Rohallion was to pass through London, he would -see the Duke of York personally about him and his prospects. - -The last night they were to spend in the old castle was a wild, cold, -and bitter one. The waves of the Firth of Clyde boiled in mountains -of white foam over the Partan Craig, and as Elsie Irvine said, "the -yowls of the sealghs were heard on the wind, just as they were on the -nicht that Quentin was shipwrecked, and a' body kent they were never -heard for nocht." - -The tempest roared round the snow-clad promontory on which the old -castle stood, and on this night one of the oldest sycamores in the -avenue was uprooted with a mighty crash by the wind, an omen -decidedly of coming woe. Black clouds sailed like ghostly ships -across the otherwise clear frosty sky, and in the distance the scud -and the ocean blended together in storm and darkness. - -On that night, the _last_ they were to spend in their old home, sleep -scarcely visited the eyes of either Lady Rohallion or her husband. - -She was full of melancholy forebodings, tears, and prayers, the -result of her education and temperament, and she was thinking of -Flora's parents, of John Warrender of Ardgour, who fell in Egypt, and -of his widow's broken heart; while in Lord Rohallion's mind, real -regret for the coming separation was mingling with anxieties and -little vanities about how he would handle his brigade in the field, -as he had so long grown "rusty." - -As the morning dawned--the morning of a clear and bright December -day, Lady Winifred's spirits rose a little, especially after the sun -burst forth auspiciously from the parting clouds. - -The poor quartermaster was heart-broken with the idea of being left -behind; but he had the household to look after, and all the live -stock, including Quentin's terrier and Flora's birds, all of which -she solemnly committed to his care. - -On this morning, when they were to set out, trunks, mails, imperials, -and all the usual incumbrances of a long journey were borne forth to -the haunted gate where the carriage stood, with its four horses -pawing the hard frosty ground, and their breath ascending like steam, -in the clear cold air. Old Jack Andrews limped about, whistling the -point of war, with uncommon vigour, and with a new lightness in his -eye and step, at the prospect of seeing military life again. - -All the tenantry of the estate and the fishermen of the hamlet -mustered at the old castle-gate, and the Rohallion volunteers, all in -full uniform, with cocked-hats and pigtails, were there in honour of -the brave old Brigadier and his gentle lady; and there too, were all -the household, from bluff Mr. Spillsby the butler, to John Legate, -the long, lean running-footman, and all looked sad and downhearted. - -The dominie had overnight prepared a long Latin address to read on -the occasion, but happily for all concerned, he had left it behind -him; and now his great horn barnacles were obscured and dim, as he -lifted his old three-cornered castor and kissed her ladyship's hand -with profound reverence and affection, and then Miss Flora's, as they -were assisted by Fernwoodlee and the quartermaster into the carriage. - -"Farewell, dominie," said the old Lord, as he shook the good man's -hand. "I'll expect you to write me sometimes, and tell us how all -the folk here and the school bairns are coming on." - -"Woe is me, Rohallion! and you are again going to follow the drum!" -he replied, shaking his queue and queer old wig: "it was invented by -Bacchus, who, as Polysenus declares, used it first in the Indian war, -but from the sorrow created by its sound, I verily believe its -inventor to be the devil--the great author of the bagpipe." - -"Hush, dominie," said his lordship, laughing, "for here comes Pate of -Maybole." - -This was the piper of the barony town, in the burgh livery, who now -appeared; and as the coachman whipped up his horses, the sobs of the -servants were drowned in the skirl with which Pate blew out his bag -to the air of the good Lord Moira's Farewell to Scotland: - - "London's bonnie woods and braes, - I maun leave them a', lassie, - For who can thole when Britain's faes, - Wad gie Britons law, lassie?" - -And striding as only a Scottish piper strides and swaggers, he played -before the carriage down the avenue and out upon the high road; while -there was not an eye unmoistened at that time-worn castle gate, as -its old lord and his lady went forth upon their way "to the wars in -the far-awa land." - -It was a silent house that night in Rohallion. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -THE RETREAT. - - "Lords and dukes and noble princes, - On thy fatal banks were slain; - Fatal banks that gave to slaughter - All the pride and flower of Spain. - Furious press the hostile squadrons-- - Furious he repels their rage; - Loss of blood at length enfeebles-- - Who can war with thousands wage?" - _Old Spanish Ballad._ - - -On the llth of December the division of Sir John Hope quitted Alva -and marched towards Tordesillas. - -By this time Sir John Moore had discovered that Bonaparte, abandoning -his project of entering the southern provinces, was on the march to -intercept his retreat towards the sea-coast and Portugal, while -another column was advancing against him from the direction of Burgos. - -To frustrate a design that might prove so fatal to his slender army, -Moore was compelled to relinquish all hope of fighting the Duke of -Dalmatia; so, countermanding the order for the advance of his various -divisions, he requested Romana to defend the bridge of -Mansilla-de-los-Mulos, and while he fell back towards the Douro, -ordered all the heavy baggage to be conveyed to Astorga. - -On hearing of these movements, Bonaparte exclaimed energetically to -Soult, who related it to Major Charles Napier of the 43rd-- - -"_Moore is the only general now fit to contend with me; I shall -advance against him in person._" - -Marching to his left, Moore crossed the Douro at Toro, to form a -junction with Sir David Baird on the 21st December at Vallada. On -the day before this, near the magnificent Abbey of Sahagun, nine -hundred French cavalry pressing on, were met by four hundred of ours -under Lord Paget, who repulsed them by one brilliant charge, sabreing -thirty, and taking two hundred and sixty prisoners. - -Bonaparte advanced with his main body, a hundred thousand strong, by -four routes, towards Benevente, along roads buried deep in snow, -through which, by force or bribery, he had thousands of Spanish -labourers cutting pathways, for the winter had set in with unusual -rigour; but the division of Sir John Hope, whose cavalry and -artillery suffered much by the loss of their horses, which died fast -of the glanders, entered the town before him on the 24th of the same -month. - -The sufferings of the army during this retreat towards the north-west -angle of Spain were very great, and the regimental officers were -compelled to carry their personal effects--at least such as were -absolutely necessary--about with them in bags or knapsacks, for the -baggage animals (carts there were none) died, or were lost by the -way. All bandsmen, batsmen, servants, and grooms were very properly -turned into the ranks, as Moore had resolved that there should be -available _as many muskets as possible_. Seven officers had but one -tent, and every mounted officer had to groom and rub down his own -horse: arrangements whereat the grumbling, from the staff -particularly, was deep if not loud. The rations were also -diminished: but of all the corps none suffered less than the Highland -regiments. After marching hundreds of miles through snow, rain, and -storm, by roads unchanged since the Moors traversed them, the 79th -and 92nd particularly had never a man on the sick-list, a fact -attributable either to their native hardihood or the serviceable -nature of their costume. - -Snow was falling heavily as Hope's division entered the crumbling mud -walls of the small and miserable town of Benevente in Leon, where the -officers and men, irrespective of rank, crowded for shelter into the -houses and the castle, while a line of cavalry picquets with a few -pieces of artillery, held the bridge of Orviegro. - -Weary and foot-sore, Quentin, after cleaning his musket, flung -himself on a heap of straw in one of the rooms of that wonderful old -castle which is the residence of the Dukes of Ossuna, and which -Southey, in his letters from Spain, describes as one of the finest -monuments of the age of Spanish chivalry, adding, "we have nothing in -England which approaches to its grandeur. Berkeley, Raby, even -Warwick and Windsor, are poor fabrics in comparison." - -Projecting from a wall, a gigantic arm and hand in armour sustain a -magnificent lamp to light the grand staircase of the castle. - -Its open galleries and horse-shoe Saracenic arches, that spring from -fluted and twisted columns of porphyry and granite; its long -aerial-like cloisters, with jasper pillars, jagged arches, and -tessellated floors; its recessed seats, deep niches, and canopied -alcoves, covered with quaint arabesques in scarlet, blue, and gold, -were now crowded by wet, weary, and almost shoeless (certainly -shirtless) infantry, who piled their muskets or heaped up their -knapsacks and camp kettles, without heed, in those noble apartments, -where they smoked and made fires of whatever they could lay hands on; -many a gilded chair became fuel, and pictures by Velasquez, Murillo, -and other eminent painters of the Spanish school, were torn from the -walls, and, with a curse on the Spaniards, rolled up and thrust under -a pot of rice soup. - -In fact, the troops were now fast becoming reckless, and everything -that was combustible was destroyed on this occasion, the family -archives of the Dukes of Ossuna alone escaping. - -Maddened by cold and hunger, they cared not how they made themselves -comfortable for the night; but with the first peep of dawn, the -report of cannon was heard at the bridge, the bugles sounded the -turn-out, and hundreds of hoarse voices were heard shouting, - -"Stand to your arms! turn out! The enemy are coming on--the -out-picquets are engaged!" - -The division got under arms to continue its retreat, which the flank -companies were ordered to cover by forming in front of the town; and -so came in this dreary 25th of December. - -"A merry Christmas and a happy new year!" cried Monkton to Quentin, -as the grenadiers of Askerne left the battalion double-quick, and -just in time to witness a very brilliant cavalry encounter. - -It was about the hour of nine in the morning, and from the slope on -which Benevente stands, they could see in a little plain below the -bridge of the Orviegro, three squadrons of the Imperial Guard led by -a dashing officer in a furred pelisse, skirmishing with the -out-picquets of the light cavalry, and endeavouring to cross the -river by a ford there. The red flashing of the carbines on both -sides was incessant; in the clear frosty air the reports rang -sharply, and the figures of the Imperial Light Cavalry, in their -brilliant uniforms, were distinctly visible upon the spotless -background of snow. No one was hit on either side, however, as the -dragoon is seldom much of a shot. - -But suddenly two squadrons of the splendid 10th Hussars, by order of -Lord Paget, and led by Brigadier-General Stewart, defiled out of -Benevente to support the picquets, their loose scarlet pelisses and -plumes waving as they galloped along, and rapidly forming line, they -advanced with a loud hurrah, and keeping their horses well in hand, -lest they should be blown, against the Chasseurs à Cheval of the -Guard, who drew up on the crest of an eminence to receive them. - -Many who looked on held their breath, and excitement repressed the -rising cheer as the adverse lines of cavalry met! There was a -mingled yell and hurrah; the long straight swords of the French on -one side, and the crooked sabres of the 10th on the other, all -uplifted, flashed keenly in the morning sun; then there was a -terrible shock; hussars and chasseurs were all mingled in a wild -tumultuous mass, and on both sides horses and men went down among -bloody and trodden snow; but the French fled at full speed, leaving -the ground strewed with killed and wounded men, and encumbered by -scared horses that rushed about with empty saddles. - -Eighty-five French Chasseurs and fifty of our smart Hussars were -lying there dead or writhing in all the agony of sword wounds among -the snow; but with loud cheers the survivors came trotting into -Benevente, bringing with them seventy dismounted prisoners, among -whom was the leader of the French, superbly dressed in a green -uniform that had a profusion of gold and fur trimming upon it. He -was led forward between two Hussars, who had each his carbine resting -on his thigh. - -"Paget," exclaimed Brigadier-General Sir Charles Stewart, hurrying up -at a canter, "allow me to present you with a valuable prisoner. We -have just had the honour to take Lieutenant-General Lefebre -Desnouettes, commander of the cavalry of the Imperial Guard." - -Lord Paget bowed very low to the captive. - -Pale, exhausted, and covered with sword-cuts, he was the picture of a -soldier; and his eyes had that keen, bright, almost wolfish -expression, peculiar to those who have recently stared the grim King -of Terrors face to face on the battlefield. He was led away, and was -soon after presented to Sir John Moore, to whom he spoke with intense -bitterness of his own defeat. - -"Bonaparte," said he, "is the minion of fortune; he never forgives -the unfortunate, but ever believes them culpable!" - -Moore sought to console him, and presented him with a splendid -oriental scimitar, which Lefebre ever after preserved with gratitude, -and wore in England, whither he was despatched at once in charge of -Captain Wyndham, one of the general's aides-de-camp. - -The division continued its retreat by the ruined walls and mouldering -citadel of Astorga, and Villa Franca del Bierzo, and, though many -perished by the way, Quentin Kennedy, endowed by spirit and -enthusiasm rather than bodily strength, bore up manfully amid the -fatigue, the privations, and the horrors of that long and devious -retreat of so many hundred miles, along roads covered with deep snow, -over steep and rugged mountain sierras, through half-frozen rivers, -where the bridges had been broken down or blown up, and by narrow -defiles, followed by an enthusiastic enemy, whose well-victualled -force, outnumbering by three times that of Moore, came on fast and -surely, with flying artillery, lightly-armed dragoons, and pestilent -little Voltigeurs, skirmishing every foot of the way--the sharp -ringing of carbines and the boom of field-pieces being the invariable -close of each day's march, and the prelude to its resumption in the -cold, dark early morning, when the cavalry rear-guard held the -advance of the foe in check, till the jaded and half-slept infantry -pushed on, and on, and on--hopeless, heartless, and in rags, leaving, -en route, in the form of dead and dying men, women, children, and -horses, traces of the havoc that neglect and disaster were making in -the ranks, for now the Spanish authorities omitted utterly to supply -the troops with either billets or rations, or any necessary -provisions. - -A junction of Hope's division with the main body of the British army -was effected, however; on the 31st of December, Moore quitted Astorga -with his famine-stricken force, and so hot and fierce was the -pursuit, that on the following day, the first of the new year, -Napoleon entered the little town at the head of eighty thousand horse -and foot, with two hundred pieces of cannon, while many thousand -bayonets more were on the march to join him! - -The Emperor, however, went no further than Astorga, for there he left -to Soult--to use his own inflated words--"the glorious mission of -destroying the British--of pursuing them to the point of embarkation, -and driving them into the sea!" - -And the state of matters we have described continued until the army -reached Lugo, after a five days' march through a rugged and savage -country. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -FRESH DISASTERS. - - "Oh, plenteous England! comfort's dwelling-place - Blest be thy well-fed, glossy, John-Bull face! - Blest be the land of Aldermanic paunches, - Rich turtle-soup, and glorious ven'son haunches! - Inoculated by mad martial ardour, - Why did I ever quit thy well-stored larder? - Why, fired with scarlet-fever, in ill time, - Come here to fight and starve in this accursed clime?" - - -On this march the army was in arrears of pay, so Quentin's remaining -moidores soon melted away, as he shared them, to the last vintin, -fraternally with his friends and comrades; but long ere the army -reached Lugo, he saw many a strange and startling episode of horror -and suffering. - -Moore's troops continued to make forced marches to prevent the foe -from closing on their flanks, and now every day provisions grew -scarcer. - -The skies were lowering, and heavy clouds rested on the tops of the -gloomy mountains; the rough, narrow, and wretched roads were -knee-deep in drifted snow; half-famished and half-frozen, the -soldiers became desperate, and, in defiance of Moore's orders, -plundered whatever they could get to satisfy the cravings of nature. - -From Astorga to Villa Franca (in the mountain district called the -Bierzo--so lovely in summer), is a route of fully sixty English -miles, through wild and savage mountain tracts and passes, where the -horses failed, as their shoes were worn away; but though there were -plenty of iron-works near Villa Franca, there was no time to re-shoe -them, so every hour saw whole sections of our noble English horses -shot down, lest they should fall into the hands of the pursuing -enemy; and then the dismounted troopers had to trudge on foot, laden -with all their useless trappings. - -One of the 3rd Light Dragoons of the German Legion, whose horse had -been shot according to the usage of war, was urged by Major Burgwesel -to go on faster. - -"Herr Major," said he, "the game is pretty well played out with me, -and if you expect me to march quicker with all this load, you may as -well shoot me as you have done my poor horse." - -"Himmel und Erde, get on, fellow!" shouted the major, with an angry -malediction. - -On this, the exasperated dragoon placed a pistol to his mouth and -blew out his brains, to the horror of the stern major. - -Now came rain in torrents, and even the baggage had to be dragged -through the melting snow, as the mules and burros perished in scores -by the way. Then the spare arms were abandoned and the extra -ammunition destroyed; next, knapsacks were cast away occasionally, -and everything that might serve to lighten the burden of the -despairing soldiers, many of whom were found frozen and dead in the -bodegas and cellars of Villa Franca by the French advanced guard. - -A mile beyond this place, poor Ensign Pimple (as Monkton used to call -him) gave in, utterly incapable of proceeding further; weeping like a -child, in utter prostration, he sank in exhaustion by the wayside, -and no doubt perished during the night. - -After passing Benvibre the French cavalry came up with the long line -of stragglers in the rear, and slashed among them right and left, -treading others under foot as they galloped through, and so stupefied -were some by fatigue and others by intoxication, that they could -neither resist nor seek safety in flight. Two thousand were taken -prisoners between Astorga and Lugo; a thousand more fled away towards -Portugal; many of these were concealed by the Spaniards, and few were -ever heard of again. - -So on and on the army toiled from Villa Franca to Castro up the Monte -del Cebrero, a long and continued ascent, through one of the wildest -districts in Spain, where, in summer, woods of umbrageous oak, alder, -and hazel, with groves of wild pears, cherries, and mulberries, make -the landscape lovely; but now it was wild and desolate; and there, to -add to other misfortunes, the sick and wounded had to be abandoned -among the melting snow. - -On the sloping road towards Castro-Gonzalo, Askerne found a poor -rifleman of the old 95th lying on his back, and blowing bells of -blood from his mouth; he had been riddled by canister shot, and all -his limbs were broken. - -"Unfortunate fellow," said he, with commiseration: "what can I do for -you?" - -"Have me shot, sir--shot dead, for the mercy of God!" was the -terrible reply. - -"I looked round," says an officer in one of his letters, "when we had -hardly gained the highest point of those slippery precipices, and saw -the rear of the army winding along the narrow road--I saw the way -marked by the wretched people, who lay on all sides expiring from -fatigue and the severity of the cold; their bodies reddened in spots -the white surface of the ground." - -There a Portuguese bullock driver who had been with the British since -the landing of the army, was seen dying amid the snow on his knees, -with his hands clasped in an attitude of prayer before a little -wooden crucifix, a consolation not left to the hundreds of our -soldiers, who were flinging themselves down in utter despair to die, -with curses and bitter imprecations on their lips--curses on the -Spaniards, who, they fancied, had betrayed them. - -And there, too, were women and little children! - -About nightfall, just as the grenadiers of the Borderers struggled up -the Monte del Cebrero through all the horrible débris that the -columns in front had left behind, they passed several of the sick and -artillery waggons, broken down or abandoned by the wayside. In these -were many soldiers' wives and sick men dead and frozen! - -In one was a woman in labour dying, with her infant, amid the icy -drift; in another a woman already dead, with a wailing infant tugging -at her white cold breast. The little one was taken by good old -Sergeant-major Calder, who wrapped it in his great-coat, but it died -of cold ere the summit of the mountain was attained. - -From one of those covered sick-waggons that lay broken down and -abandoned among the snow and sleet, there came the sound of a strange -wailing song sung by a woman. This prompted Quentin to leave the -ranks, which were somewhat irregular now, and peep in. There he -found a soldier of the 25th lying dead, and his wife, with their -child, sitting by his side, in misery. They formed a touching group! - -She was evidently deranged by suffering, terror, and sorrow, and she -was a pretty young woman, too. She heard not the wailing of the -infant that nestled among the wet straw by her side, but sat with her -husband's head in her lap, and her hollow eyes fixed on vacancy, as -she toyed with his hair, and "crooned" a fragment of an old Scottish -song to a plaintive air, somewhat like that of "My Love's in -Germanie." - - "They say my love is dead, - Gone to his gory bed, - They say my love is dead, - Ayont the sea. - In the stillness o' the night, - When the moon is shining bright, - My true-love's shroud sae white - Haunteth me, - Haunteth me! - My true love's shroud sae white - Haunteth me!" - - -"Good heavens, sir," said a soldier, "it is poor Allan Grange, the -sergeant who was broken at Colchester, and his wife, too! She's -clean demented, puir thing! Ailie, woman, come awa; the regiment is -moving on." - -Quentin too, tried his powers of persuasion, but without avail, and -the stern order of Cosmo, to "Close up--close up, and move on--no -loitering!" together with the distant boom of a French field-piece, -the flash of which came redly through the drift and darkness, -compelled them to leave her. If she lived she must soon after have -fallen into the hands of the enemy. At all events, Ailie Grange was -heard of no more. - -In one of the many skirmishes with the enemy's light dragoons, a -singular instance of gross treachery occurred at the little village -of Palacios de la Valduerna. There a sergeant of our 7th Hussars, -belonging to Captain Duckinfield's detachment, vanquished, in single -combat, a French dragoon and took him prisoner. The Frenchman threw -down his sword, drew off his leather gauntlet, and held out his hand -in token of amity. Then the sergeant, with the characteristic -generosity of a gallant Englishman, also put forth his right hand; -but inserting his left into his holster, the Frenchman drew a pistol, -blew his captor's wrist to pieces, and killed his horse under him. - -Before the poor hussar could rise from under his fallen charger, the -would-be assassin was bayoneted by some of Romana's Spanish soldiers, -who in their rage and hatred, made up a fire and consumed his body to -ashes; after this, in blind vengeance, they somewhat needlessly slew -his horse. - -At this part of the disastrous retreat nearly a hundred waggons that -were coming on, laden with shoes and clothes for Romana's Spaniards, -from England, but too late to be of any avail, fell into the hands of -the enemy. - -As the column defiled past them, Quentin saw the body of an officer -lying dead under one of the wheels in a pool of blood, snow, and -mire. A vague recollection, combined with a horrible anxiety, made -him draw near to observe the corpse. - -It was that of Warriston! his kind and generous friend, Captain -Richard Warriston, of the Scots Brigade; but "push on--push on," was -the order, and there was no time given for thought, examination, or -inquiry........ - -On, and on yet! and at last it was found necessary, at Nogales, to -abandon the military chest. Why its contents were not distributed -among the troops it is difficult to say, unless that time would have -been lost by the process of division. Two bullock-carts, laden with -twenty-five thousand pounds in dollars, were backed over a lofty -precipice, and fell crashing from the summit among the rocks and snow -beneath; and then as the waggons broke and the casks burst, the broad -silver dollars flew far and wide. - -It was hoped that this money would escape the observation of the -French, and so fall into the hands of the Spaniards. Part was found -by the former, part by the Gallician peasantry, and a Highland -tradition tells us of a thrifty Scots paymaster who contrived to -conceal a cask or two under a certain cork-tree, where he found the -specie all safe when he went back to Spain for it, after Toulouse; -and that he bought therewith a snug little estate on the shore of the -Moray Firth. - -At the very time that the bullock-carts with the treasure were cast -over the precipice, by some absurd mistake, Quentin's battalion, with -two pieces of cannon, were engaged with the enemy in order _to -protect it_! - -Evening was coming on, and shimmering through the slanting sheet, a -cloud of French cavalry passed along the snowy and miry way, while -the two field guns were ploughing lanes of death through their ranks; -but still with brandished sabres and cries of "Vive la France! Vive -l'Empereur!" they came on thundering to the attack. - -"Square against cavalry!" was now the cry; "square on the grenadiers!" - -It was formed double-quick, and a smile of grim joy spread over every -sallow and weather-beaten face as the toil-worn and tattered regiment -made the movement, enclosing many of the wounded foes as well as -friends. The light company formed the rear face of the square. - -Cosmo was undoubtedly brave, for a lofty expression of pride and -defiance spread over his features on beholding the rapidity with -which the square was formed. Jolly old Middleton drew off his gloves -and stuck them in his belt; he then flourished an enormous sabre, so -rusty and notched in the edge that it was known as "Jock Middleton's -hand-saw," saying-- - -"I like to use my tools, lads, without mittens; the cat that wore -gloves never caught mice." - -The officers dressed the four faces as well as the shattered and -unequal state of the companies could form them now. Sending a last -discharge of grape plunging into the masses of the foe, the gunners -rushed for shelter behind the wall of bayonets, and now through the -gloom of evening, the wrack, mist, and smoke, on came the French -dragoons like rolling thunder! - -As the ground was tolerably open the square was approached on three -faces. - -Against one was a brigade of cuirassiers, their brass helmets with -scarlet plumes and brass corslets with elaborate shoulder-belts all -dimmed by rain; opposed to another was the Lancer Regiment of -Napoleon-Louis, the hereditary Duc de Berg, with white plumes and -kalpecks in their busbies; and on the third face came the Light -Dragoons of Ribeaupierre, in pale green lapelled with white and laced -with silver, their tricolors waving above a forest of flashing sabres. - -Quentin felt his heart beating wildly as they came on. In the -square, every eye lit up, every brow was knit, and every lip -compressed; but not a shot was fired until the foe was within -pistol-range, when, from the faces of the square, there opened a -close and disastrous fire, first from the right to the left, and then -it became a wild roar of musketry, the men loading and firing as fast -as they could, while many a pistol and carbine-shot took effect in -their ranks, and Quentin was covered by the blood of a man who was -killed thus by his side. - -Yells of death were mingled with shouts of rage and defiance, as -horse and man went down on every hand, the front squadrons swerving -or recoiling madly on the rear, thus making all advance impossible; -steeds reared, plunged, and neighed, their riders groaned, shrieked, -and swore; swords, helmets, shakos, and broken lances were seen -flying into the air, while lancers and cuirassiers, wounded and -dying, were crushed and trodden flat by hoofs and falling horses. - -The whole cuirassier brigade became an undistinguishable mass of -confusion and indiscriminate slaughter; but not a horseman came -within sword's point of that steady and invincible square of infantry. - -At that moment, when the firing slackened a little, the voice of the -Master of Rohallion was heard. - -"Well done, my brave Borderers! kneeling ranks, fire a -volley--ready--present--_fire_!" - -It rang like thunder in the winter air, and found a thousand echoes -among the mountains, and ere these died away the ruin of the foe was -complete. This was the first occasion on which Quentin had fired a -shot in grim earnest, and a thrill passed through his heart as he -pulled the trigger and sent a bullet on its errand, while ignorant of -its effect amid the smoke in front. - -Ere the butts were again on the earth in their original position, and -the bristling bayonets were pointed upward, amid the smoke that -rolled around them like a murky curtain, the cavalry were seen in -full flight, leaving a terrible débris of death and bloodshed behind -them on the snow-clad mountain slope. - -"The battalion will form quarter-distance column," cried Cosmo, as -coolly as if he was in Colchester again. Then he ordered the pouches -of the dead and wounded to be emptied, as ammunition was running -short. The field guns were then limbered up, and once more the weary -retreat was resumed with all speed. - -Sergeant Ewen Donaldson, whose leg was shattered by a carbine-ball, -was here left behind, after some of the soldiers had made an effort -to drag him along with them. - -"Push on, boys--push on, and never mind me," said the poor fellow; -"before morning I shall be gone to where I'm fast wearin' awa'--the -land o' the leal." - -And this, too probably, was the case. - -The tender and compassionate heart of Sir John Moore bled at the -misery he beheld hourly on this miserable retreat. He bitterly -deplored the relaxation of discipline consequent on it, and he never -ceased issuing orders, warm exhortations, cheering addresses, and -stirring appeals to honour and courage, to keep up the spirit of -those under his command; but despair and sullen apathy reigned in -many instances in officers and men alike, while the retreat lasted. -But, with all this, grand and touching instances of humanity were not -wanting to brighten the terrible picture. - -An infantry officer, in despair of proceeding further, turned aside -into a thicket of trees, to lie down and die unseen and uncared for; -but there he found a soldier's wife stretched at the point of death, -and, with the last effort of expiring nature, she implored him to -receive and preserve her child. He did so, and endued with fresh -strength and energy by the trust, he carried the infant on his back, -and it never quitted his care till he reached one of the transports -in the bay of Vigo, after the battle of Corunna.* - - -* Edinburgh Annual Register. - - -At a place where the green coats of the 95th dotted the snow, showing -where a skirmish had been, Quentin assisted a rifleman to place one -of his comrades in a waggon that stood near. - -"Tom--old fellow," said the sufferer, in a weak voice, for he was -dying with a bullet in his chest, and rustled fatuously among the -damp straw on which they placed him; "I say, Tom--we've long been -comrades." - -"Yes, Bill," said the other, in a husky voice, "ever since -Copenhagen." - -"Well, when I'm dead, I want you to do summut for me, and I'll give -you all I have in the world. My kit's wore out, ever so long ago, -but I've three biscuits in my havresack, and you're welcome to them; -give one to poor Pat Riley's widow." - -"But wot am I to do for you, Bill?" - -"Close my right eye, Tom; dont'ee forget; the cursed French knocked -t'other out at Vimiera." - -"Yes, Bill--I was wounded that day, too." - -Bill's eye was closed, and the snow and the sods were over him within -an hour after this, and close by Tom sat, munching his legacy, for he -was starving, with his fierce moist eyes fixed on the little mound -where his old comrade lay. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -A SMILE OF FORTUNE. - - "But little; I am arm'd, and well prepared.-- - Give me your hand, Bassanio; fare-you-well! - Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you; - For herein Fortune shows herself more kind - Than is her custom."--_The Merchant of Venice._ - - -No music was heard now on that dreary retreat. The bagpipes of the -indomitable Highlanders sent up their bold, wild skirl at times upon -the winter blast, showing where the Camerons, the Gordon Highlanders, -or the Black Watch trod bare-knee'd through the snow; but no other -quickstep met the ear; even Leslie's march cheered the Borderers no -more; and many a man among them wished himself with the other -battalions of the corps, broiling in India, or serving anywhere but -in Spain. - -To reach their transports and abandon the country by sea, without -risking the slaughter of a useless battle with those whose numbers -were so overwhelming, was, for a time, the sole object of the British -generals. - -Disorders usually prevail in a retreating army, and many -circumstances served to augment them on this occasion. Our soldiers -were enraged by the apparent apathy or treachery of the Spanish -officials, who withheld all supplies; these latter, at the same time -did not conceal that they believed themselves to be abandoned by the -British to the enemy, in whose overwhelming numbers, with true -Spanish obstinacy, they refused to believe. - -Perceiving, however, that unless by some vigorous resistance he -crippled his pursuers, a flight by sea would be impossible, Sir John -Moore recalled General Fraser's division from the Vigo road, and on -the 6th of January, after a sharp cavalry encounter at Cacabelos, -where Colbert, a distinguished French general, was killed, he took up -a position near the city of Lugo, on the Minho, in Gallicia, a place -situated on high ground. - -So pressed were the cavalry, and so dreadfully had the horses -suffered during the retreat, that on entering Lugo many fell dead -beneath their riders, and others were mercifully shot. Four hundred -of their carcasses, with bridles, saddles, and holsters on--the -steeds that whilome had been in the ranks of our splendid 7th, 10th, -15th, and 18th Hussars--lay in the market-place and thoroughfares. -There were none of our soldiers who had strength to dig trenches deep -enough to bury them; the Spaniards were too lazy or apathetic for the -work, or cared not to attempt it while the enemy's voltigeurs or -sharpshooters were within sight of their old ruined walls. Swelling -in the rain, bursting, and putrefying, the bodies lay there, a prey -to herds of devouring dogs, and flocks of carrion birds. - -At Lugo the army might have rested for some days, had the bridges of -the now swollen rivers been blown up; but the mines had failed, and -on the 5th of January the pursuing French came in sight in force, and -at last a battle was looked for. - -The evening of the 5th proved a very eventful one for the humble -fortunes of our hero, and the _last_ of his service in the ranks of -the King's Own Borderers. - -About four in the afternoon, during a partial cessation of the sleet -and rain which had been incessant for so many days, melting the snow -on the mountains and swelling the rivers, Quentin found himself -posted as an advanced sentinel in front of the line of out-picquets, -near the road leading from Lugo to Nogales. Dark clouds enveloped -the mighty range of mountains in the distance, but from their summits -it was known, by the intelligence of scouts, that the enemy was -descending in force. - -A blue patch was visible here and there overhead, through the flying -vapour, and there, already bright and twinkling, a few "sentinel -stars set their watch in the sky." - -After the slaughter of the worn or half-dead cavalry horses, all was -still, and now not a sound stirred the air save the tolling of the -cathedral bell in Lugo, or the roar of the Minho, swollen by a -hundred tributaries, and rushing in wild career through an -uncultivated waste of stunted laurel bushes to mingle with the -Atlantic. - -That day Quentin had tasted no food save a handful of corn which he -received from Major Middleton, whom he had found fraternally sharing -a feed of it with his now lean and gaunt Rosinante-looking charger, -which he had stabled under a cork-tree and covered with his blanket, -complimenting himself by the old adage that "a merciful man is -merciful to his beast." - -Oppressed by the sombre scenery, the drenched and uncultivated waste, -and the gloom of the December evening, Quentin leaned on his musket, -a prey to a fit of intense despondency, and tears almost came to his -eyes as he thought of all the horrors he had witnessed since the day -on which he landed at the bay of Maciera, the campaign he had served -so fruitlessly, and of what was before him on landing, friendlessly, -in England. - -Better it was to die in Spain, like poor Warriston, whose dead face, -as he lay with others, mangled and doubtless yet unburied, in that -savage mountain waste, amid the melting snows, came keenly back to -memory now! - -From this unpleasant reverie he was suddenly roused by seeing a -mounted officer, muffled in a blue cloak, with a plain unplumed -cocked-hat, riding along the chain of advanced sentinels, questioning -or addressing a few words to each, as if to ascertain that all were -on the alert. - -Gradually he came on, his horse, a lean but clean-limbed and active -bay, picking its way among the rough stones and stunted laurel -bushes. As he drew nearer, Quentin could perceive him to be a -general officer, accompanied, at a little distance, by an orderly -sergeant in the blue, white-faced, and silver-braided uniform of the -18th Hussars. On his approaching, Quentin "presented arms." - -"Walk about," said he, while touching his hat. This is the usual -response of an officer when ceremony is to be waived; but, -immediately after, perceiving by Quentin's uniform--for the poor -fellow had now parted with his great-coat as well as his blanket, and -in a similar fashion--that he was _not_ a private soldier, he came -close up to him, and said, "You are, I presume, aware that the enemy -is in front?" - -"Yes, sir--and more immediately, Ribeaupierre's dragoon brigade and -Lallemand's corps." - -"Exactly," replied the other, with a pleasant smile; "I like to find -a young soldier well-informed of the work in hand--that he knows what -he is about, and takes an interest in his profession. Your regiment -is----" - -"The 25th Foot, sir--2nd battalion." - -"You are, I see, a volunteer?" - -"Yes, sir." - -"How long have you served?" - -"Nearly since the campaign opened." - -"Without promotion, too!" - -"And likely to be without it now, I fear." - -"It is somewhat unusual for a volunteer to be posted as a sentinel," -said the other, with a keen glance. - -"I go where Colonel Crawford orders me," replied Quentin; "and if -there was much risk, I spared him the trouble by volunteering -readily." - -"A young fellow of spirit! Are you born to a fortune?" - -"Fortune!" repeated Quentin, with a start, and in a voice that was -very touching; "alas, sir, I fear that I am born only to _failure_!" - -"Failure?" said the other, as his colour deepened. - -"Yes, sir--like our expedition to Spain." - -The officer seemed much struck by a remark that appeared to coincide -with certain ideas and fears of destiny that were peculiarly his own. -He knitted his brows, and said-- - -"Young man, you speak very confidently of the fate of 'this -expedition to Spain.' Do you know what you are talking about?" - -"I trust, sir, that I do," replied Quentin, modestly. - -"Then, perhaps," said the other, with a smile as he propounded what -he deemed a puzzling question, "you will be good enough to explain -the maxims which guide an expedition by land or sea?" - -"I shall try," said Quentin, colouring deeply and seeking to remember -some of the old quartermaster's enthusiastic tutelage. - -"Do so." - -"There are, I think, four great maxims." - -"Yes--at least, and I shall be glad to hear them." - -"First, sir, in an armed expedition of any kind, there should always -be secrecy of design, and also, of all preparation. Second: the -force and the means employed should always be proportionate to the -_end_ to be achieved; (which is not _our_ case here, else we had been -in Madrid to-night and not fugitives in Lugo.) Third: there is -requisite a complete knowledge of the country for which the -expedition is destined; in that at least our brave Sir John Moore is -unequalled. Fourth: there is required a commander, who like him has -all the turn of mind which is most adapted for that particular branch -of the war." - -"Upon my honour you are a very singular young man," replied the -other, with something between a smile and a frown hovering on his -fair and open countenance. "You might teach Cæsar himself a lesson; -but before you go any further in your remarks, I think it right to -inform you that _I_ am Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore." - -Quentin was silenced and petrified. He felt sinking with shame at -his own confidence and sudden effrontery, both the offspring of -gloomy disappointment; then he strove to remember all he had said, -and continued to gaze almost stupidly at the worthy general, who -seemed to enjoy the situation and laughed heartily, and said, in a -manner that was winning and reassuring-- - -"I wish Davie Baird or Lord Paget had been with me to hear all this!" - -Mild in face and disposition, though somewhat fierce in temper when a -boy, Sir John Moore possessed a figure that was tall and graceful. -His features were perfectly regular; his eyes were hazel, and his -hair of a rich brown colour. His whole face was expressive of -cheerfulness and benignity, save at times when a hopeless or -desponding emotion seized his mind. There was a very perceptible -scar on one of the cheeks, where his face had been traversed by a -bullet when leading on the 92nd at Egmont-op-Zee. - -In his holsters he always carried the pistols given to him by the -attainted Earl Marischal, when he was present, as a young subaltern -of the 51st Foot, at the famous reviews of the Prussian army near -Potsdam, together with a pocket edition of Horace bearing the Earl's -autograph; and these he valued highly as relics of that sturdy old -Jacobite, once Scotland's premier peer. - -Moore was now in his forty-eighth year, having been born at Glasgow, -in 1761, in a house long known as "Donald's Land," in the -Trongate--an edifice demolished in 1854. But to resume:-- - -After enjoying Quentin's confusion for a moment, he asked-- - -"Are there any other gentlemen volunteers serving with the Borderers?" - -"No, sir, myself only." - -"Indeed!--what--are you named Kennedy--Quentin Kennedy?" - -"Yes, sir," replied Quentin, faintly, and his heart sunk. ("Oh," -thought he, "he has heard of that accursed court-martial--who has -not? It is all over with me now!") - -"Have you not seen the last War Office Gazette, which came this -morning from England?" - -"No, sir, I am sorry to say that--that--" stammered Quentin, ignorant -of what dereliction of duty might be here inferred; "I only--that -is----" - -"Then get a look of it, and there you will find yourself gazetted to -a lieutenancy in the 7th, or Royal Fusiliers. I congratulate you, -sir--your regiment is at present in England, where I wish we all -were, with honour and safety." - -Quentin was overwhelmed by this intimation. - -"Oh, sir, are you sure of this?" exclaimed the poor lad, trembling -with many mingled emotions. - -"Sure as that I now address you; and if your name be Quentin Kennedy, -serving with the King's Own Borderers--full lieutenant in the corps, -which has _no other_ subalterns. Now you cannot continue to serve -thus--carrying a musket with the 25th; other work must be found for -you. When will you be relieved from this post?" - -"In a few minutes, sir--my hour is nearly up." - -"Then you will take a note from me to Crawford, your colonel," said -Moore; and drawing forth a note book, he rapidly pencilled a note, -tore it out, folded it and addressed it. - - -"The bearer hereof," it ran, "Mr. Q. Kennedy, having been appointed -by his Majesty to a lieutenancy in the 7th Fusiliers, will serve on -my personal staff, as an extra aide-de-camp, until he can join his -regiment, now in Britain. - -"JOHN MOORE, Lieut.-Gen." - - -"You will show this to Colonel Crawford and to the adjutant-general, -with my compliments. It will be in orders to-morrow. Wyndham has -gone to London with poor General Lefebre and the despatches of our -cavalry affairs at Sahagun and Benevente, so I must have your -assistance in his place during this _expedition_," he added, -smilingly, with an emphasis. "Captain Hardinge will lend you a -horse--I know he has some spare cattle--meet me at my quarters -opposite the cathedral to-morrow morning early; till then good-bye, -Lieutenant Kennedy, and I wish you success!" - -Moore drew off his glove, shook Quentin's hand with friendly -cordiality, and rode away at a canter, leaving our sentinel in a very -bewildered state of mind indeed. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -PIQUE. - - "These hands are brown with toil; that brow is scarred; - Still must you sweat and swelter in the sun, - And trudge with feet benumbed the winter snow, - Nor intermission have until the end. - Thou canst not draw down fame upon thy head, - And yet wouldst cling to life!"--ALEXANDER SMITH. - - -"A lieutenant in the 7th, or Royal Fusiliers!--am I actually so?" was -the question Quentin asked of himself repeatedly. - -There could be no doubt about it; the general had said so, and the -Gazette confirmed it, that he, Quentin Kennedy, volunteer with the -25th Foot, had been appointed to that regiment, one of the oldest -corps of the line--a "crack one," too--commanded by General Sir -Alured Clark, G.C.B. Long known as the _South British Fusiliers_, to -distinguish them from the Scottish corps and the famous Welsh -Fusiliers, armed with the same weapon, the 7th were without officers -of the rank of ensign until a year or two ago; thus, at the time we -refer to, their two battalions had no less than sixty-four -lieutenants. - -This sudden promotion, which put him so completely beyond the power -of his rival and enemy, the Master of Rohallion, and which gave him -independence and a position in society too, puzzled Quentin for a -time; but briefly so, as reflection showed him that he must owe it to -the great interest possessed by Lord Rohallion, who, he was aware, -had now traced him to the Borderers; and this, indeed, was the secret -of the whole affair. - -And Flora Warrender--she must have seen his appointment in the -Gazette long before it had thus casually met the sharp eye of Sir -John Moore, and could he doubt that she rejoiced at the event? - -To be raised at once from a position so subordinate and anomalous, so -unrecognised and so fraught with useless peril as that of a gentleman -volunteer, from the ranks as it were of that army whose dreadful -sufferings he shared and whose many dangers he risked--to be raised -to the rank of an officer in a regiment so distinguished as the Royal -Fusiliers, and to be at once, temporarily though it were, placed on -the general's staff, and beyond the reach of Cosmo's coldness, pique, -and hauteur, was indeed to be independent, and to taste of happiness -supreme! - -His heart was full of joy, of enthusiasm, and gratified ambition; but -sincere gratitude and increased regard for the kind and fatherly old -Lord to whom he owed it were not wanting now; and Quentin resolved to -write a letter pouring out his thanks, and expressive of all he felt, -on the first opportunity. He was right to make the last reserve -mentally, for opportunities for committing one's lucubrations to -paper were sadly wanting now when within musket shot of the French -advanced guard. - -He was full of genuine regard for the good and great Sir John Moore, -full of enthusiastic devotion, gratitude, and admiration, too! How -was it possible that he could feel otherwise? Apart from the news of -his promotion in life, which must soon have reached him, he blessed -the chance which made his informant the resolute and gallant leader -of the British army! - -After obtaining the warm congratulations of those who were his -friends, and who hailed him now as a brother officer (as for old -Middleton he almost wept for joy, and swore to wet the new commission -deeply), most grateful indeed to his heart were the humble but -earnest felicitations of the soldiers, who crowded round him, poor -fellows, all haggard, ragged, and starving though they were, begging -leave to shake his hand, and to wish him all success and prosperity -to the end of his days. And Quentin felt that such genuine and -heartfelt wishes as theirs were well worth remembering as an -incentive for the future. - -But little time was there for joy or loitering now, as the French -were coming on and were again close at hand. - -Relieved from the out-picquet on the Nogales road just as the winter -dusk was deepening, he passed through the gloomy streets of Lugo, -where ammunition waggons, unclaimed or abandoned baggage, and dead -horses weltering in pools of dark blood, added greatly to the -confusion of those crowded, ancient, narrow, and decidedly dirty -thoroughfares; which were destitute alike of lamps, pavement, and -police, and were full of holes, puddles, mud, and mire. There were -sentinels, with bayonets fixed, at the doors of all the wine-shops -and bodegas; yet crowds of famished soldiers loitered about them, -while the dreaded provost-marshal guard, with cord and triangles, and -patrols of horse and foot passed slowly to and fro in every -direction, to enforce that order which the alcalde and his alguazils -considered hopeless. - -Quentin soon found, however, where the colonel and colours of the -Borderers were lodged. It was an old mansion which had once belonged -to the Knights of Santiago, the highest order of chivalry in Spain; -and above its arched door, where two of the colonel's servants were -chatting and smoking--one leisurely polishing a pair of hessian -boots, and the other oiling the harness of his charger--he saw carved -on a large marble block the badge of the order: a sword _gules_, the -hilt powdered with fleurs-de-lis, and the stern motto, _Sanguine -Arabum_. - -It happened, though seated over his wine, after such a dinner as the -exigencies of the time enabled him to procure, and though in company -with his old friend the gallant and fashionable Lord Paget, then in -his fortieth year, rehearsing together their gay but somewhat coarse -memories and experiences of Carlton House and the Pavilion, the -Honourable Cosmo was far from being in the best of humours. - -A full conviction of the sudden and disastrous turn in the prospects -of the expedition--the army was now only fighting to escape -home--together with the knowledge that on landing in England a horde -of harpies--Jews, lawyers, and tipstaves, were all ready to pounce -upon him, with protested bills, accounts, I.O.U.'s, post-obits, -bonds, and Heaven only knows what more, the result of his Guards' -life and reckless expenditure in London--all this, we say, well nigh -drove him frantic; and Paget's memories of their brilliant past, and -their wild, disreputable orgies with the Prince of Wales and his set, -added stings to the terror with which he viewed the future. - -Flora's fair acres might have stood in the gap between him and ruin, -but fate and Quentin Kennedy ordained it should be otherwise. - -"Egad, Paget, you see how it is; I've drained the paternal pump -dry--there are bounds to patience, and his lordship will not advance -me another guinea beyond my allowance. Indeed, I could scarcely -expect it; and thus, I dare not land in England!" - -"Let us be afloat before we talk of landing," replied Paget; "it will -be a deuced bad affair for us all if we don't find our transports in -Vigo Bay; and, _entre nous_, I think Moore has some doubts about -them." - -"I don't care a straw if undistinguishable ruin should fall upon us -all!" - -"Which is certain to be the case, if the said transports are not -there," replied the other, with a yawn. "But come, Crawford, fill -your glass again; is this champagne some of the stuff we found in -Colbert's baggage?" - -"My fate will soon be decided," said the other, pursuing his own -thoughts; "to-morrow, perhaps, for I can see some indication of -taking up a position here, in front of Lugo." - -"Yes; but the infernal miners failed at the bridges of the Minho, and -the Sil--the river of gold." - -"Thus, I say," continued Cosmo, doggedly, "Paget, old fellow, my fate -will soon be decided!" - -"And it is----" - -"Death on a Spanish battle-field, or to rot in an English prison!" - -"Don't talk so bitterly; once in London again, we shall see what can -be done. Another glass of this sparkling liquid!--wine, wine, I -say--drown the blue devils in a red sea of it!" exclaimed the gay -Paget. - -"Something stronger than wine for me now," said Cosmo, as he filled a -large glass nearly full with undiluted brandy, and drained it; "life -is short, and not very merry here." - -"Egad! I know no place, however, where it is so difficult to live -and so easy to die." - -"Right--so easy to die!" added Cosmo, with a strange and sickly smile. - -It was at this inauspicious moment that a servant in -uniform--liveries there were none then with the army--brought in -Quentin's name. - -"What the devil can this fellow possibly want with me?" said Cosmo, -full of surprise at a circumstance so unusual as a visit from -Quentin; "is he below?" - -"Yes, sir." - -"What does he wish?" - -"To see you, sir," replied the soldier, with a second salute. - -"Who is it?" drawled Paget, watching his cigar-smoke curling upward, -and depositing the leg he was destined to leave at Waterloo on a -spare chair. - -"That fellow who was tried by a court-martial at Alva de Tormes." - -"Tried--ah, I remember, for everything but high treason and -housebreaking, eh?--ha! ha!" - -"Yes; but who gave the charges the go-by at racing speed. Send him -up!" - -Quentin entered with a flush on his cheek and a painful beating in -his heart. He bowed low to General Paget, whom he knew by sight, and -to Cosmo, who responded by a quiet stare, and who, before he was -addressed, said sharply-- - -"I generally have my eye on you, sir, and I thought that you were -with the outlying picquets in front of the town?" - -"I was, Colonel Crawford; but----" - -"_Was_--and how does it come to pass that you are relieved, or here -at this time?" asked Cosmo, loftily. - -"Because, sir, I am now Lieutenant Kennedy, of the 7th Fusiliers, -serving on the personal staff of Sir John Moore." - -On hearing this Paget raised his eyebrows and smiled; but Cosmo -hastily thrust his gold glass into his right eye, and glared at -Quentin through it as he wheeled his chair half round, and surveyed -him with cool insolence from head to foot. - -"Are you mad, fellow?" he asked, quietly but earnestly. - -"Less so than you, Colonel Crawford," replied Quentin, with -suppressed passion; "I have here to show you a note from the general." - -"To show _me_?" - -"Yes, sir; because it goes from you direct to the adjutant-general -for insertion in orders." - -Cosmo coughed, and very leisurely opened the little note which -Quentin handed to him. - -"So, sir," said he, "so far as this scrap of paper imports--and I -know Moore's writing well--he has appointed you an extra -aide-de-camp?" - -"He has done me the honour, Colonel Crawford." - -"Your health, sir," said Lord Paget, frankly; "I congratulate -you--won't you drink?" - -"You might more usefully fill up the time necessary to qualify you -for a staff appointment by serving with some corps of the army." - -"The 25th, perhaps?" said Quentin, whose temper Cosmo's cutting -coldness was rapidly bringing to a white heat. - -"No, sir," he replied, with one of his insolent smiles, "I did not -mean our friends the Borderers." - -"What corps, then?" - -"The Belem Rangers; what do you think of them?" - -"Crawford!" exclaimed Lord Paget, starting with astonishment, for -this imaginary corps was our general Peninsular term for all -skulkers, malingerers, and others who showed the white feather, by -loitering in the great hospital of Belem, near Lisbon. - -Quentin felt all that the studied insult implied; the blood rushed -back upon his aching heart, and he grew very pale. The conviction -now that his position was _different_, that Cosmo wished by -deliberate insolence to provoke and destroy him, rushed upon his -mind, and gave him coolness and reflection, so he said, quietly-- - -"I shall not report your kind suggestion to Sir John Moore; but I -presume I may now withdraw?" - -"Sir," resumed Cosmo, starting from his chair pale with passion, as -he seemed now to have a legitimate and helpless object on which to -wreak his bitterness of soul--a bitterness all the deeper that it was -now inflamed by wine--"sir, I refer to General Lord Paget if your -bearing has not something of a mutinous sneer in it?" - -"My smile might, Colonel Crawford; but not bearing, be assured of -that." - -"Sir, what the devil do you mean? Is it to bandy words with me? You -hear him, Paget?" said Cosmo, incoherently, and purple alike with -fury and a sense of shame at the exhibition he was making; "you hear -him?" - -"I have no intention of insulting you," urged Quentin, anxious only -to begone. - -"Insults are never suspected by me, but when I know they are -intended, as I feel they are now. Even your presence here is an -insult! Now, sir, do you understand me, and your resource--your -resource--do you understand _that_--eh?" - -"For God's sake, Crawford! are you mad?" interposed Lord Paget; "what -the devil is up between you?" - -"More than I can tell you, Paget." - -"With this mere lad, and you a man of the world!" - -"'Sblood! Yes, with him." - -The Master's mad pride had involved him in many quarrels, and he had -paraded more than one man at the back of Montague House, in London, -in the Duke's Walk at Holyrood, and elsewhere--luckless fellows who -had resented his overbearing disposition--so a duel to him was -nothing, and in his baffled pique and ungovernable fury he was now -wicked enough to aim at one. - -"Cosmo Crawford," exclaimed Quentin, his dark eyes flashing through -the moisture that filled them, "Master of Rohallion," he added in a -choking voice, "I have too often, as a child, slept on your good old -mother's breast to level a pistol at yours, else, sir--else----" - -"Bah!" shouted Cosmo, turning on his heel; "I thought so. Belem for -ever!" - -"To-morrow we may be engaged with the enemy," said Quentin, in the -same broken voice; "I shall be in the field, and mounted too; then -let us see whether you or I ride closest to the bayonets of the -French!" - -"Agreed--agreed!" said Cosmo, with stern energy, as his pale eyes, -that shrunk and dilated, filled with more than usual of their old -baleful gleam, and he wrung with savage energy the proffered hand of -Quentin, who hastened away. - -"By Jove," said Paget, laughing, as he filled his glass with -champagne, "this same beats cock-fighting! But what the devil is it -all about?" - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -THE COMBAT OF LUGO. - - "New clamours and new clangours now arise, - The sound of trumpets mixed with fighting cries, - With frenzy seized, I run to meet th' alarms, - Resolved on death, resolved to die in arms. - But first to gather friends, with them t' oppose, - If fortune favoured, and repel the foes-- - Spurred by my courage--by my country fired, - With sense of honour and revenge inspired!" - _Æneis_ ii. - - -"Whatever may be their misery," says General Napier, "soldiers will -always be found clean at a review and ready at a fight." The order -to take up a position and form line of battle in front of Lugo had -scarcely been issued, when a change came over the bearing, aspect, -and emotions of the men. Pale, weary, and exhausted though they -were, vigour and discipline were restored to the ranks, with -confidence and valour! - -The stragglers came hurrying in to rejoin the regiments, that they -might share in the battle which was to give them vengeance for the -past, or, it might be, a last relief for the future. Three fresh -battalions, left by Sir David Baird in his advance to Astorga, had -joined Sir John Moore in rear of Villa Franca, and thus, at Lugo, he -found himself at the head of nineteen thousand hardy and well-tried -men. - -Moore's generous kindness to Quentin on this occasion served -completely to obliterate the affair of the preceding evening. He -soon procured him a horse, and pleased with the modest bearing, the -grateful and earnest desire to serve and deserve, with the enthusiasm -of the young subaltern, he presented him with the sword of General -Colbert, a French officer, (said to be of Scottish descent,) who had -been shot by a rifleman of the 95th at Cazabelos, on the 3rd of -January. - -"Take this sabre," said he, "and preserve it alike as the present of -a friend and the weapon of one of France's bravest soldiers. The -hilt is plain enough; and as for the blade, let the enemy be the best -judges of _that_. Follow me now to the lines." - -That sabre Quentin resolved to treasure, even as he treasured the -ring of Flora Warrender. - -Grey day was breaking now, and at that dread time when the troops -were forming, and the morning gun pealed from the old walls of -Lugo--the early hour of a chill winter morning--he knew that she who -loved him so well, all unconscious of his danger, the beloved of his -heart, was lying calmly in her bed at home, asleep, perhaps with a -smile upon her lips, while he was here, far away, face to face and -front to front with Death! - -He rode forth with Stanhope, Burrard, Hardinge, Grahame of Lynedoch -(the future hero of Barossa), and others of Moore's brilliant staff, -his young heart beating high with pride and joy, as well it might -with such companions and on such an auspicious day. - -"On this ground, gentlemen, unless the enemy advance in great -strength," said Moore, "I shall only be too happy to meet them." - -As Quentin passed the 25th moving into position in close column of -subdivisions, many a hand grasped his in hearty greeting, and many a -cap was waved, for the eyes of the whole corps were on him. - -"'Tis well," said Moore; "I like that spirit much! They seem proud -of you, Kennedy, as one of their corps. Pass the orders, gentlemen, -to the generals of division and brigade to prepare for action." - -The staff separated at a gallop. - -"Off with the hammer-stalls," was now the command; "uncase -colours--examine flints, priming, and ammunition." - -About mid-day, after standing for some hours under arms with their -colours flying and exposed to a keen and biting wind, the British saw -the dark masses of the French appear. There was no sun shining; thus -no burnished steel flashed from amid their sombre ranks, which -numbered seventeen thousand infantry and four thousand horse, with -fifty guns; and now, all soaked with a drenching rain overnight, they -were deploying into line, while many other columns were pouring -forward in their rear. - -Moore's right, chiefly composed of the Guards, was posted on flat and -open ground, flanked by a bend of the Minho. His centre was among -vineyards and low stone walls. His left was somewhat thrown back, -resting on the mountains and supported by cavalry. - -It was his intention to engage deeply with his right and centre and -bear the enemy on, before he closed up with the left wing, in which -he placed the flower of his troops, including the Highland Regiments, -hoping thus to bring on a decisive battle, and have the French so -handled by the bayonet that he might continue the remainder of the -retreat unmolested. - -Further hope than this, alas! he had none. - -As the French deployed along the mountain ridge in front of Lugo, -they could not see distinctly either the strength or position of the -British; so Soult advanced with four field guns and some squadrons of -horse under Colonel Lallemand, to feel the way and throw a few shot -at the vineyard walls on speculation. - -"Bah! M. le Maréchal," said Colonel Lallemand, confidently; "they -are all fled, those pestilent English, or 'tis only a rear-guard we -have here." - -"I suspect, M. le Colonel, you will find something more than a -rear-guard," replied Soult, as fifteen white puffs of smoke rose up -from the low walls in front, and a dozen or so round cannon-shot came -crashing among their gun-carriages, dismounting two twelve-pounders -and smashing the wheel of a third. - -On this Soult drew back his squadrons and made a feint on the right, -while sending a strong column and five guns against the left, where -these fresh regiments were posted. - -Coming on with wild halloos, and not a few of them chanting the -"Carmagnole," the French drove in the line of skirmishers, when -Moore, followed now only by Quentin Kennedy, all the rest of his -staff being elsewhere, came galloping along and called upon the left -to "advance." - -They were now fairly under fire and fast closing up. How different -from such work in the present day! Now we may open a destructive -fusillade at a thousand yards rifle-range, and so fire on for hours; -then, after coming within range with Brown Bess, scarcely three -rounds would be fired, before British and foreign pluck were tested -by the bayonet. - -Perceiving that the skirmishers of the Borderers were also falling -back before a peppery cloud of little voltigeurs in light green. - -"Mr. Kennedy," said Moore, "ride to the Honourable Colonel -Crawford--tell him to advance at once in line; I will lead on the -regiments here." - -Quentin, who was tolerably well mounted, dashed up to where Cosmo, -cold and stern as ever, sat on his horse at the head of the regiment. - -"Colonel Crawford," said he, with a profound salute, "it is Sir John -Moore's order that you advance with the bayonet--the whole left wing -is to be thrown forward." - -Cosmo's eyes flashed and dilated with anger at having to take an -order from Quentin; he frowned and lingered. - -"Did you hear me, Colonel Crawford--that your battalion is to charge?" - -"Orders, and from _you_?" said Cosmo, grinding his teeth. - -"From Sir John Moore," urged Quentin, breathlessly. - -Now there is at times a wild impulse which seizes the heart of man -and will make him set, it may be, the fate of all his future--it may -be life itself, upon the issue of a single chance; and such a daring -impulse now fired the soul of Quentin. - -"Twenty-fifth," he exclaimed, brandishing his sabre, "you are to -advance--prepare to charge." - -"Dare you give orders here?" cried Cosmo, hoarse with passion, and -scarcely knowing what he said; "I follow none--let all who dare -follow me. Rohallion leads, but follows none." - -"Come on then _together_." - -"Forward--double quick--charge!" they cried together with their -horses neck and neck rushing onward, while the battalion, with a loud -hurrah, fell upon the enemy, bayoneting the skirmishers and closing -on the main body. - -"Bravo, Kennedy!" cried old Middleton, waving his rusty sabre; "I -wish Dick Warriston was here to see you to-day. It's a proud man -he'd be, for dearly he loved you, lad. Whoop! here we are right on -the top of the vagabonds," he added, as the front rank of a -sallow-visaged, grimly-bearded, grey-coated French column broke in -disorder and gave way before the furious advance of the Borderers, -whose two field officers were at that moment unhorsed. - -Middleton's charger received a ball in its counter and he had a -narrow escape from another, which buried itself in a great old silver -hunting-watch which he wore in his fob, and was known as the -"regimental clock." Quentin perceived him scrambling up, however, -unhurt, just as he had hurried to the assistance of Cosmo, who, some -twenty yards in front of the corps, had been knocked from his saddle -in the mêlée by two Frenchmen, who had their muskets withdrawn, -bayonets fixed, and butts upwards, to pin him to the earth on which -he lay helpless. - -Dashing spurs into his horse, Quentin rushed upon one, and rode him -right down, at the same moment burying his sabre in the body of the -other. The first voltigeur was only stunned; but the second fell, -wallowing in blood. - -Quentin dragged Cosmo up, and assisted him to remount. - -"I thank Heaven, sir," said he; "I was just in time to save your -life." - -"From any other hands than yours it had been welcome," said he, -haughtily; "however, I thank you. Sound, bugler, to halt, and -re-form on the colours!" - -As Quentin rode away, the proud consciousness in his heart, that he -had returned great good for great evil, gave place to another. He -saw the second Frenchman rolling in blood on the ground, and -clutching the grass in his agony. Then a sensation of deadly -sickness came over his destroyer's heart--a sensation that he could -neither analyse nor describe. So he spurred madly toward the extreme -left, where Sir John Moore by accident found himself in front of his -old regiment, the 51st, in which he had served as ensign. - -With a voice and face alike expressive of animation, he waved his -cocked-hat and called upon them as his old comrades to advance to the -charge. At that moment the light company of the 76th set the -example, and the whole left wing rushed furiously on the French with -the bayonet. There was a dreadful yell and shock; scores of men -tumbled over each other, many never to rise again; the butt-end was -freely used, and in a minute or less, the French attack was routed, -leaving four hundred dead, dotting all the slope. In the front rank -of the 51st, Brigade-Major David Roberts engaged a French officer -hand to hand and slew him; but the major's sword-arm was shattered by -two bullets fired by two French soldiers, who were instantly -bayoneted by an Irishman of the 51st, named Connor. He killed a few -more, while his hand was in, for which he was promoted on the spot. - -After this Soult made no further attack, and thus it became apparent -to Moore, that the wary and skilful old veteran was only waiting -until Laborde's division, which was in the rear, should come up, -together with a portion of the sixth corps, which was marching by the -way of Val des Orres. - -All the next day the two armies remained embattled in sight of each -other, almost without firing a shot--Soult waiting and Moore -watching--the foe coming on hourly in fresh force, till "the darkness -fell, and with it the English general's hope to engage his enemy on -equal terms." - -Quentin spent the evening of that anxious day in the bivouac of his -old friends the Borderers, who were sharing as usual the contents of -their havresacks and canteens, and congratulating each other on -escapes, for save a few contusions none had been hit, and none were -absent save Monkton, who was stationed with a picquet of twenty men -at the bend of the Minho. Before and after an action, there is an -effect that remains for a time on the minds and manner of both -officers and men. The former show more kindness and suavity to the -latter, and generally the latter to each other. There is more -kindness, less silly banter, more quietness and seriousness, and the -oath is seldom heard, even on the tongue of a fool. It may be, that -all have felt eternity nearer them than usual, and yet in time of -war, the soldier is face to face with it daily. - -Large fires were lighted all along the British line, and in their -glare, the piles of arms were seen to flash and glitter, while for -warmth, the weary soldiers lay beside them in close ranks on the damp -earth. - -"A plucky thing that was of yours to-day, Kennedy," said Middleton, -"sabreing the voltigeur and remounting the colonel. You left _me_, -your old friend, to shift for myself, however." - -"I saw you were in no danger, major," said Quentin, with some -confusion; "and being independent now of Crawford, I wished--I -wished----" - -"To heap ashes on his head; I fear I am not generous enough to have -acted as you did, and marred a step in the regiment." - -"A shot grazed my cap _here_," said a captain named Drummond; -"another inch, and there had been a company vacant." - -"I wonder what the devil Moore is loitering here for?" asked some one. - -"Kennedy's on the staff now; he ought to know the secrets of the -bureau," said Colville. - -"Has anything oozed out, Quentin?" asked Askerne. - -"He can tell us that we'll attack the French position about daybreak, -before Loison, Laborde, or Ney can join," said Colyear, laughing. - -"Ney is at Villa Franca," added Captain Winton, a grave and -thoughtful officer (who fought a duel at Merida). "I suspect Moore -remains here, in expectation of being attacked _before_ these -reinforcements come up." - -"Now would be the time to fall back in the night towards Vigo, and -take up a position to cover the embarkation," said Askerne. - -"Right, Rowland," responded Quentin; "we are only able to fight one -battle, and desperation will make us do so well. And it is not meant -that after winning a battle we should enter Castile again with a -handful of jaded men, and not an ally to aid us between Corunna and -the ridges of the Sierra Morena. I heard Moore himself say this." - -"Who comes here?" they heard a sentinel challenge at a distance. - -"What comes here would be more grammatical, my friend," replied a -dolorous voice which they knew, as four soldiers appeared, half -supporting and half carrying an officer. - -"What is all that?" asked Middleton. - -"The mangled remains of William Monkton, esquire, lieutenant, 25th -Foot," replied that personage, as the soldiers laid him on the turf -near the watchfire. - -"What is the matter, Willie? are you wounded?" asked Askerne, putting -a canteen of grog to the sufferer's mouth. - -"I should think so! a devil of a runaway horse from the enemy's -lines came smash over me. I say, Doctor Salts-and-senna," he added -to the assistant surgeon, who had joined the group; "I am not past -your skill, I hope?" - -"Why, Monkton, you haven't even a bone broken," said the doctor, half -angrily, as he rapidly felt him all over; "you are sadly bruised, -though, and will have to ride, if we continue the retreat." - -At that moment Hardinge galloped up to Cosmo, who was sitting on a -fallen tree, cloaked and alone, near his horse, for his officers -seldom cared to join him, or he to join them. - -"Colonel Crawford," said he, hurriedly, but loud enough to be heard -by all, "the whole line is to fall instantly back towards Corunna by -a forced night march. All the fires are to be kept brightly burning -to deceive the enemy, and all movements will be made left about, to -prevent the clashing of the pouches being heard. Move in silence, as -we must completely mask our retreat. Mr. Kennedy, you will be so -good as take these orders without delay along the line, and desire -the 51st, the 76th, and the cavalry of the left flank, to fall back -and be off, without sound of bugle. Thirty-five miles in our rear, -the bridge of Betanzos is being undermined; that point once passed, -and the bridge blown up, we shall be safe!" - -It was indeed time to fall back. Soult's first reinforcements had -come up in overwhelming force, and in the stores of Lugo there was -not bread for _one_ more day's subsistence. The troops were exhorted -by Moore to keep order and "to make a great exertion, which he -trusted would be the _last_ required of them." - -At ten o'clock the march began. - -In rear of the position the country was encumbered by intricate lanes -and stone walls; but officers who had examined all the avenues were -selected to guide the columns, and just as a dreadful storm of wind -and rain, mixed with icy sleet, burst forth upon that devoted army, -the rearward march began, and when the dull January morning stole -slowly in, save a few wretched, barefooted, and worn-out stragglers, -nothing remained of the British position in front of Lugo but the -drenched and soddened dead bodies of those who had fallen in the -conflict, and the smouldering ashes of the long line of watch-fires, -that extended from the mountains towards the bend of the Minho. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -A WARNING. - - "Soft; I did but dream. - O, coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me! - The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight, - Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. - What do I fear? Myself? there's none else by." - _Richard III._ - - -Sir John Moore and General Paget, with the cavalry, covered the -retreat; the former ordered several small bridges to be destroyed to -check the enemy's advance; but such was the inefficiency of the -engineer force, that in every instance the mines _failed_. The rain, -the wind, and the sleet continued; more soldiers perished by the way, -and more stragglers were taken or sabred by the enemy's light horse; -then again demoralization and despair pervaded the ranks. So -numerous did the stragglers of all corps become, that more than once -they found themselves strong enough to face about and check the -cavalry of Lallemand and Ribeaupierre. The Guards, Artillery, and -Highlanders alone preserved their discipline. - -So great was the fatigue endured by the troops, that, on the evening -of the 10th, when the 3rd battalion of the Royal Scots entered -Betanzos, it mustered, under the colours, nine officers, three -sergeants, and _three_ privates; "all the rest had dropped on the -roads, and many did not rejoin for three days." - -At this place, which is a village at the foot of a hill, where the -Mandeo was crossed by a wooden bridge, on which the engineers were -hard at work, they were attacked by Ribeaupierre's dragoons, who, -however, were repulsed by the 23th Regiment; the bridge was -destroyed, and its beams and planks hurled into the swollen stream, -which swept them away to the Gulf of Ferrol. - -And here a party of straggling invalids, exhausted by fatigue, were -closely pressed by the French cavalry; a Sergeant Newman, of the 2nd -battalion of the 43rd, who was himself nearly worn out, rallied them -with his pike, and gradually collected four hundred men of all -regiments. With great presence of mind, he formed those poor fellows -into subdivisions, and made them fire and retire by sections, each -re-forming in rear of the others, so that he most effectually covered -the retreat of the disabled men who covered all that fearful -road--conduct so spirited that he was publicly thanked by Generals -Fraser and Fane. - -The destruction of the bridge more decidedly secured the retreat; but -more men perished between Betanzos and Lugo than anywhere else, since -that rearward march began. Moore, by his energy, massed the army, -now reduced to fourteen thousand infantry, which, on the morning of -the llth January, fell back on Corunna, under his immediate and -personal superintendence. - -"Stanhope," said he to his favourite aide-de-camp, who was almost -ever by his side, "we are now within a few miles of Corunna; ride -forward with me, as I am all anxiety to see if our fleet is in the -bay--Kennedy will accompany us." - -Quentin bowed, put spurs to his horse, and quitting Paget's cavalry -rearguard together, they rode rapidly along the line of march to the -front. - -They soon reached the heights of Corunna, and saw the town beneath -them about four miles distant; then a sad expression stole over -Moore's handsome face, but no exclamation escaped him. - -Not a ship was visible in the Bays of Orsan or Betanzos, nor in the -harbour of the town; the Roads of Ferrol and all the expanse of water -were open and empty! - -Fortune was against him and his army, for contrary winds detained the -fleet of men-of-war and transports at Vigo, a hundred and twenty -miles distant by sea. - -The morning was sunny, and Corunna on its fortified peninsula--the -_Corun_, or "tongue of land" of the Celts--was seen distinctly, with -all its strong bastions and gothic spires; its almost land-locked -harbour, guarded by the castles of San Martino and Santa Cruz, with -the flag of King Ferdinand VII. flying on the fort of San Antonio -(which crowns a high and insular rock), and on the Pharos of Hercules. - -For Sir John Moore there was nothing left now but to prepare to -defend the position in front of the town till the fleet should come -round. He quartered his army in Corunna and its suburbs; the reserve -he posted at El Burgo, on the river Mero, the bridge of which he -destroyed. - -He also sent an engineer officer with a party of sappers to blow up -the bridge of Cambria. Some delay took place in the ignition of the -mine, and he despatched Quentin Kennedy to the officer with an angry -expostulation. - -Mortified by repeated failures elsewhere during the retreat, the -officer was anxious to perform this duty effectually. He approached -the mine to examine it, and at that moment it exploded! - -Quentin felt the earth shake beneath his feet; the arch of the bridge -sprung upward like a huge lid; a column of dark earth, stones, and -dust, spouted into the air to descend in ruins, bringing with them -the mutilated fragments of the poor engineer officer, who was -literally blown to pieces; but this was a mere squib when compared -with the explosion of two magazines containing four thousand casks of -powder, which were blown up on the 13th, to prevent them from falling -into the hands of the enemy. On this occasion, says an eye-witness, -"there ensued a crash like the bursting forth of a volcano; the earth -trembled for miles, the rocks were torn from their bases, and the -agitated waters rolled the vessels as in a storm; a vast column of -smoke and dust, shooting out fiery sparks from its sides, arose -perpendicularly and slowly to a great height, and then a shower of -stones and fragments of all kinds bursting out of it with a roaring -sound, killed several persons who remained too near the spot. A -stillness, only interrupted by the lashing of the waves on the shore, -succeeded, and the business of the war went on." - -All this powder had been sent from England and left there, by the -red-tapists of the time, to be destroyed thus, while more than once -the armies of Britain and Spain had been before the enemy with their -pouches empty! - -In Corunna, the jaded British had now breathing time, but the -exulting French were still pouring on. Some of Moore's staff -suggested that he should send a flag of truce to Soult and negotiate -for permission to embark unmolested--a suggestion which his undaunted -heart rejected with scorn and anger. - -"I rely on my own powers," said he, "for defying the enemy, and -extricating with honour my troops from their perilous position." - -Food, shelter, and rest restored vigour, and force of habit brought -discipline back to the ranks; fresh ammunition was served out, and in -many instances the men were supplied with new firelocks in lieu of -those rusted and worn by the weather during the retreat; but hearty -were the cheers that rung in Corunna when, on the evening of the -14th, the fleet of transports from Vigo were seen bearing slowly into -the harbour, under full sail, and coming each in succession to -anchor. At the same time, however, an orderly, sent by Sir David -Baird, came spurring in hot haste to announce that the French had -repaired the bridge of El Burgo, and that their cavalry and artillery -were crossing the Mero, a few miles from Corunna. - -With the rest of the staff, Quentin passed all that night in his -saddle, riding between the town and beach with orders and -instructions, for, under cover of the friendly darkness, the whole of -the women and children, sick and wounded, dismounted dragoons, all -the best horses--the useless were shot on the beach--and fifty-two -pieces of cannon were embarked; eleven six-pounders and one field -howitzer being only retained for immediate service. - -"Hardinge," said Moore, as his staff rode into the upper town, "you -will ride over to Sir David Baird; you, Major Colborne, to Lord -Paget; and you, Kennedy, to General Leith, to say, that at daybreak, -_if the French do not move_, they are to fall back with their corps -for instant embarkation." - -And with these welcome orders, the three aides-de-camp separated at -full speed. - -On this night of anxiety and bustle, the Master of Rohallion remained -idly in his billet, a pretty villa, the windows of which faced the -little bay of Orsan, with the suburb of the Pescadera extending from -its garden on the west towards the mainland. - -Paget and some other friends of his, after seeing their sound horses -embarked and the useless shot, had supped with him. No one expected -any engagement to take place now; they made light of past sorrows, -spoke laughingly of the amusements that awaited them at home, and -drank deeply. - -Any momentary emotion of gratitude felt by Cosmo for the noble manner -in which young Kennedy saved his life at Lugo was completely -forgotten now, all the recollection of that event being completely -merged in a whirlwind of rage at the aide-de-camp for having taunted -him to the charge, and for actually daring to lead on the battalion -in the face of so many superior officers! - -Cosmo had never wearied of descanting on this military enormity, and -all night long, as he became inflamed by what he imbibed, he -consulted with Paget, Burrard, and others, as to whether he should -call Kennedy out or bring him before a court-martial again. - -The former mode of proceeding at Alva having failed "to smash him," -they were averse to another, and all were of opinion that for the -latter course Cosmo had allowed too many days to elapse. - -"Trouble your head no more about it," said Paget, while playing with -the tassels of his gold sash; "we'll laugh the affair over at -Brighton in a few days or so. Soothe your mind, meantime, by the -study of these classic frescoes. I wonder who the devil decorated -this villa!" - -"Cupid and Psyche," said Burrard, who had been adding a few -decorations, such as beards and tails, with a burnt cork; "Pyramus -and Thisbe; and, by Jove, the story of Leda!" - -"Egad! such lively imaginations and odd propensities those pagan -fellows had! Au revoir, Crawford; we'll have the _générale_ beaten -for the last time on Spanish ground to-morrow, and then hey for the -high road to Old England!" added the gay hussar, who, before six -months were past, figured in an elopement, a duel, and damages to the -tune of twenty thousand pounds--an affair that made more noise in the -world of fashion than even the Spanish campaign. - -Cosmo was at last alone, and though he mixed a glass of brandy with a -goblet of champagne, he felt strange and sad thoughts stealing over -him. - -He was hot and flushed, and his heart beat tumultuously and -anxiously, he knew not why. He threw open the sash of one of the -lofty windows, which were divided in lattice-fashion from the ceiling -to the floor, and looked out upon the night. - -It was silent, clear, and starry, and not a sound broke the calm -stillness, save the chafing of the waves on the rocks that bordered -the bay. - -The snow had melted, and the garden of the villa being thickly -planted with evergreens, looked quite unlike a winter one. - -Cosmo's brain, at least his whole nervous system, seemed to have -received a shock by that fall from his horse at Lugo. He was -restless, feverish, and anxious, without knowing why; for being brave -as man could be, he had no fear for the morrow, and really cared very -little whether a battle was fought or not. - -"What is this that is stealing over me--can it be illness?" he asked -of himself. - -Thoughts and memories of home, his family, and many an old and once -tender association that he had long forgotten were stealing over him -now, together with an uncontrollable sadness and depression of mind: -his father's cheerful voice, his mother's loving face, came vividly -to recollection, with emotions of tenderness for which he could not -account--emotions which he strove to repress as unnatural to him, and -which actually provoked him, by the strange pertinacity with which -they thrust themselves upon his fancy. - -"Pshaw!" said he, "that deuced tumble in front of the enemy has -unmanned me--and that fellow, too! Confound him," he muttered -through his clenched teeth, "I hate him!" - -At that moment the great bell of the citadel tolled the hour of -three. He arose and stepped out into the garden. The last note of -that deep and full but distant bell, yet vibrated in the stilly air; -the stars were reflected in the dark waters of the bay, and the light -that shone in the great Pharos of Hercules, three hundred feet above -it, as it revolved slowly on its ancient tower, cast tremulous rays -at regular intervals far across the sea on one side and the inlet of -Orsan on the other. - -The ocean breeze came gratefully to the flushed brow of Cosmo, who -suddenly perceived near him a man in a strange uniform. - -He stood in the centre of the garden walk at a short distance from -the open window, his figure being clearly defined against the starry -sky beyond, and by a ray of light which shone from the room Cosmo -could perceive that his dress was scarlet. - -Supposing he was some straggler or other man who should be in -quarters, Crawford, whose step was somewhat unsteady, walked boldly -up to the tall stranger, who remained silent and immovable. - -He wore an old-fashioned flowing red coat without a collar, but -having deep cuffs, all profusely laced; a large brigadier wig and -three-cornered hat, sleeve ruffles, and a long slender sword, and he -stood with his right hand firmly planted on a walking cane. His -bearing was noble and lofty; his long, pale, and handsome features, -in which Cosmo recognised a startling likeness of _his own_, wore a -deathlike hue, and his eyes were sad and stony in expression. - -Cosmo Crawford attempted to speak, but the words failed on his lips; -he felt the hair bristle on his scalp, and a thrill of terror pass -all over him as the figure, phantom, fancy, or whatever it was, -pointed with its thin white hand to _the plain before Corunna_, and -then the whole outline began to fade, the stars shone through it, and -it seemed to melt away into space! - -An icy horror came over Cosmo, and his soul trembled as he remembered -the bugbear of his boyhood, the story of the haunted gate at -Rohallion, and the wraith of his uncle John the Master, who had been -slain by the side of Cornwallis in America. He rushed back to the -room and flung himself panting on a sofa. - -Then with a furious oath at his own timidity, folly, or fancy, he -issued boldly into the garden again, but nothing was there save the -laurel bushes that bordered the lonely walk where he had seen that -wondrous and fantastic dream. - -All seemed still--horribly so--all save the beating of his heart and -the rustling of the regimental colours, which the night wind stirred, -and which, in virtue of his rank, were always lodged in his apartment. - -"_Was that a warning?_--bah! And the cup of wine!" he exclaimed. -"By this time to-morrow night," he reflected, "I may have been again -in battle. I may be safe and scatheless, or dreadfully mutilated and -beggared for life, or by this hour--dreadful thought, I may be in -eternity! I may have learned the secret of life and death, of -existence and extinction, and this body may be lying stark, stripped, -and bloody, with its glazed eyes fixed on the stars of heaven! Bah! -another glass of wine, then!" - -Cosmo slept but little that night, and it was with a stern and gloomy -foreboding of evil that he saw the day dawn stealing over the dark -grey sea and the lofty citadel of Corunna. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -THE BATTLE OF CORUNNA. - - "Marked you yon moving mass, the dark array - Of yon deep column wind its sullen way? - Low o'er its barded brow, the plumed boast, - Glittering and gay, of France's wayward host, - With gallant bearing wings its venturous flight, - Cowers o'er its kindred bands, and waves them to the fight." - LORD GRENVILLE. - - -The army was now rid of every incumbrance, and all was prepared for -the withdrawal of the fighting men as soon as darkness should again -set in, and four o'clock in the afternoon of the 16th was the time -fixed by Moore for doing so; but lo! at two o'clock on that anxious -day a messenger came from Sir John Hope to state that the whole -French army, then in position on the heights above Corunna, was -getting under arms--that a general movement was taking place along -the entire line, twenty thousand strong! - -"Stand to your arms--unpile, unpile!" was the cry from right to left. - -Long ere this, the whole British army had been in position. - -Sir David Baird held the right with his division, while Sir John -Hope's was formed across the main road, with its left towards the -Mero river; but the whole of this combined line was exposed to, and -almost enfiladed by, a brigade of French guns posted on the rocks -above the little village of Elvina. - -Fraser's division remained before the gates of Corunna to watch the -coast road, and be prepared to advance on any point. - -But all the advantage, in strength of position, of horse, foot, and -artillery, was in favour of the enemy. The only cavalry in the field -with Moore were _forty_ troopers of the 15th Hussars, under the -command of a lieutenant named Knight. - -Opposed to Hope and Baird's slender line were the heavy divisions of -Delaborde, Merle, and Merniet, while the cavalry of the French left, -under De Lahausaye, Lorge, Franceschi, Ribeaupierre, and others, were -thrown forward, almost in echelon and in heavy columns, along the -whole British right, hemming them in between the Mero and the harbour -of Corunna, and menacing even the rear so far as San Cristoval, a -mile beyond Sir David Baird, whom, however, Fraser and Lord Paget -covered. - -Joy sparkled in Moore's eyes as he rode along the line at the head of -his staff, and to Colonel Graham of Balgowan he expressed his regret -that "the lateness of the hour and the shortness of the evening would -prevent them from profiting by the victory which he confidently -anticipated." - -The afternoon was dull and sunless; grey clouds covered all the -louring sky; the sea towards the offing looked black and stormy, and -the ramparts of Corunna, washed by the white waves from the west, -seemed hard, sombre, and gloomy; but the British were in high spirits -and full of hope at the prospect of giving a graceful and a glorious -close to this inauspicious campaign. - -Through Moore's telescope, which he lent him, Quentin swept the -French lines. He could see the masses of the Old Guard in their tall -grenadier caps, grey great-coats and enormous scarlet epaulettes; -then the ordinary infantry of the line, in their short-waisted blue -coatees and wide scarlet trousers, advancing in three dense columns -along the heights towards the British position. He could see the -guns being unlimbered and prepared for service on the ridge of rock -that covered the flank of the infantry; and he could also see the -cavalry of the left; the cuirassiers of Lahausaye in helmets and -corslets of brass, with flowing scarlet plumes and straight swords of -great length; the chasseurs of Lorge and Ribeaupierre, in light -green, with their horse-hair plumes all floating like a sea of red -and white; then the picturesque column of Franceschi, in which were a -corps of Polish lancers, with all their tricoloured bannerols -fluttering; and some of the Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard, with -white turbans and crosses of gold, all brandishing their crooked -sabres and loading the heavy air with uncouth and tumultuous cries. - -On the other hand were the cool and silent British infantry; steady -and still they stood in their solid ranks, their arms loaded, primed, -and "ordered," the bayonets fixed and colours flying; and no sound -was heard along all their line, save when the pipers of the Black -Watch, the 92nd, or some other Scottish regiment, played loud, in -defiance of the advancing foe, some historical or traditionary air of -the clan or tribe from whence its name was taken or its ranks were -filled. - -To the 42nd, with the 4th and 50th, was entrusted the defence of the -extreme right, the weakest point of the line, and on _their -maintenance of which_ the safety and honour of the army rested. - -As Quentin passed his old battalion in Hope's division on the road -that led from Aris to Corunna, he saluted Cosmo, but received no -response. Grim as Ajax, the Master was advancing with his eyes fixed -on the enemy and his left hand clutching his gathered reins. At that -moment perhaps, he thought less of the horrid dream of -yesternight--for a dream he assuredly deemed it--than of the ruinous -bonds, the crushing mortgages, the post-obits, and secret loans at -fifty and sixty per cent., that a French bullet might that day close, -together with his own existence, and he actually felt a species of -grim satisfaction that thereby the crew of money-lenders would be -outwitted. - -"This is a day that will live in history, major," said Quentin, as he -passed jolly old Middleton, in rear of the corps, trotting his -barrel-bellied cob, an animal of grave and solemn deportment. - -"Likely enough, lad," replied the other; "but I've seen too many of -these historical days now, and I would sell cheaply alike my share in -them, with the chance of being honourably mentioned by some future -Hume or Smollett." - -"So, Monkton, you've recovered your Lugo mishap." - -"Quite, Kennedy," replied that individual, whom he overtook marching -on the left flank of his company; "never felt jollier in my -life--breakfasted about twelve to-day with Middleton and Colville on -mulled claret dashed with old brandy. So we are going to engage at -last! Well, I hope we shall polish off old Johnny Soult, and get on -board betimes--then ho, for Old England!" - -"There, gentlemen, is the first gun!" exclaimed Rowland Askerne, with -his eyes full of animation, as he pointed with his sword to a -field-piece that flashed on the rocks above Elvina. Then a 12-pound -shot hummed harmlessly through the air along the whole line of -Baird's division. - -"Tyrol, tra la, la lira!" sang the reckless Monkton; "this begins the -game in earnest!" - -"At such a time how can you be so thoughtless, Willie?" said Askerne, -with some asperity; and now, from the great French battery on the -rocks, the shot and shell fell thick and fast upon the British line, -while, led by the Duke of Dalmatia in person, the three solid columns -of Delaborde, Neale, and Merniet, descended with yells to the -assault, tricolours waving, swords flashing, and eagles brandished. - -A cloud of skirmishers preceded them, and the white puffs of smoke -that spirted from among the underwood, the low dykes, hedgerows and -laurel bushes, marked where they nestled and took quiet "pot shots" -at the old 95th, and other British sharp-shooters, who fell back in -disorder, as the light six-pounders failed to protect them against -the French heavy guns, which swept Moore's line to the centre, with -round shot, grape, and canister. - -From his master in the art of war, Sir Ralph Abercrombie, Moore had -learned that the presence of a commander is always most useful near -that point at which the greatest struggle is likely to occur; thus he -remained near Lord Bentinck's brigade, and close to the 42nd, on the -extreme right, and there Quentin and his staff accompanied him. - -The French left carried the village of Elvina, and dividing into two -great masses, one poured on against Baird's front, and the other -assailed his right under cover of their gun battery, while their -right assailed Hope at the pretty hamlet of Palavia Abaxo. And now -the roar and carnage of the battle became general all over the field; -men were falling fast on every side, "and human lives were lavished -everywhere;" Baird's left arm was shattered by a grape-shot, and he -was taken from the front to have it amputated; Middleton was struck -about the same time, in the left side. - -Lifting his cocked-hat, and bowing almost to his holsters, while a -cloud of hair-powder flew about his head, this fine old soldier said, -faintly, to the Master of Rohallion-- - -"I am wounded, colonel, and have the honour to request you will order -another officer to take command of the left." He then ambled away on -his old nag towards Corunna. - -"Close in, men--fill up the gaps," was the incessant cry of the -officers and sergeants; "close up the rear ranks--close up!" and -cheerily they did so, those brave hearts and true. - -As it was, the sparks of the flints, the burning of priming (many of -the muskets being bushed with brass), caused many of the front rank -men to have their cheeks bleeding by splinters or scorched by powder; -but these were constant occurrences before the days of percussion -locks and caps. - -The fire of the enemy was terrible, and all who were not wounded had -narrow escapes. Quentin had no less than three during the first -hour; a ball struck one of his holster pipes, another tore through -his havresack, smashing his ration biscuits, and a third perforated -his shako, and had he been an inch taller, he had been a dead man. -The first tightening of the heart relaxed--the first wild thrill of -anxiety over, and Quentin felt as cool as the oldest veteran there. - -The light field guns as they retired from Elvina came tearing past -with blood and human hair upon their wheels and on the hoofs of their -galloping horses, showing the carnage through which they had passed; -but they were again unlimbered and brought into action to check the -dragoons of Lorge, who menaced the right with pistol and sabre. - -Sir John, who, with eagle eye, had been watching the movements of the -enemy through the openings in the white smoke which rolled along the -slopes and filled all the hollows, observed that no more infantry -were coming on than those which outflanked the right of Baird's -division, now commanded by his successor. - -"Kennedy," said he to Quentin, whose coolness delighted and even -amused him, "ride to my friend Paget, and order him to wheel to the -right of the French advance, to menace and attack their gun battery. -Stanhope, spur on to Fraser and order him to support Paget." - -While his aides rode off with these orders, he threw back the 4th -Regiment in person, and opened a heavy fire on the French, now -pouring along the valley on his right, while the old "Half Hundred" -and the Black Watch confronted those who were breaking through Elvina. - -"Well done, 50th--well done, my majors!" he exclaimed to two -favourite officers who led the corps; but in the deadly struggle that -ensued, one, Major Charles Napier, was taken prisoner, and the other, -the Honourable Major Stanhope, was mortally wounded. - -Strewed with killed and wounded, the field was now a veritable hell -upon earth, all along the lines in the valley and on the hills. - -The boom of the heavy guns from the rock pealed solemnly on the ear, -and their bright red flashes came luridly out of the dusky vapour -where the haze of a winter eve and the smoke of battle mingled. - -Then there was the shrill scream of the shells as they soared aloft, -describing fiery arcs through the cold grey sky, seeming to streak it -with light; and there was the _whirr_ or deep _hum_ of the cannon -shot as they tore along the corpse-strewn ground, or through the -empty air. - -After delivering his orders to Lord Paget, Quentin turned his horse -to the right and pursued the Aris road in rear of Hope's division, -rushing at full speed over a great cork tree which the cannon shot -had cut down; but he reined up for a moment near the flank of the -Borderers. - -Issuing from Palavia Abaxo, a corps of Delaborde's came furiously on -with a savage yell, their bayonets fixed and tricolours flying -defiantly, though torn by grape and musketry. - -They were grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, and their long grey coats -seemed black and sombre amid the smoke. Twice those men, the heroes -of Austerlitz and Marengo, wavered, though never ceasing to pour in -their fire; for the resolute aspect of the Borderers--calm and -voiceless, but determined--seemed to arrest them, so the human surge -paused in its onward roll. - -Then it was that the Master of Rohallion, though cold-blooded, or -animated chiefly by that selfish cosmopolitanism which is so peculiar -to the Scottish aristocracy, felt something of his father's gallant -spirit swell up in his heart. - -"The 50th and the Highlanders are carrying all before them on the -right," cried he, raising himself in his stirrups and brandishing his -sword, "come on, 25th, let them see that we on the left are brother -Scotsmen, as well as British soldiers--follow me--_charge_!" - -And now, with a loud hurrah and like a living wall, while the pipes -rung shrill and high, the regiment rushed headlong on the foe, and -plunging into the mass with the bayonet, hurled it back in ruin and -bloody disorder beyond the village. - -In this charge poor Rowland Askerne fell dead with a ball in his -heart; Colville perished under five bayonet wounds; Colyear had the -staff of the king's colour broken in his hand, and many others fell -killed and wounded; but Cosmo, as if his life was a charmed one, yet -escaped unhurt, and re-formed the corps in splendid order close to -the village of Palavia Abaxo. - -Quentin, who had only checked his horse to witness his old comrades -make this most glorious charge, galloped on towards the right, where -he found the foe still pressing forward, and Moore, sword in hand, at -the head of the 42nd, most of whose pouches were now empty. - -"My brave Highlanders!" the general exclaimed, "you have still your -bayonets--_remember Egypt_!" - -With a wild cheer, their plumes and tartans waving amid the smoke, -the Celts rushed on and drove the French back in disorder upon Elvina. - -A few minutes after this, just as Quentin dismounted to breathe his -horse, and just as Captain (afterwards General and Viscount) Hardinge -came forward to report that the Guards were advancing to support -Bentinck's brigade, a round shot from the enemy's battery on those -fatal rocks passed through them. - -By the velocity of the ball, the mere force of the air, Quentin was -knocked down, breathless and panting. When he staggered up, he found -the general lying near him, and a startled group gathering round them. - -_The same ball_ had mortally wounded Sir John Moore, by shattering -his left breast and shoulder. Hurled from his saddle, he now lay on -his back, bleeding and dying! - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -THE BURIAL. - - "Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, - As his corse to the ramparts we hurried, - Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot, - O'er the grave where our hero we buried. - - "We buried him darkly at dead of night, - The sods with our bayonets turning, - By the struggling moonbeams' misty light, - And the lantern dimly burning." - CHARLES WOLFE. - - -Moore's first impulse was to struggle into a sitting posture, and, -while resting on his right hand, to watch the wild conflict between -the French and Highlanders at Elvina. Not a sigh of pain escaped -him, as he bent his keen blue eyes on the corps engaged in front; but -on seeing the black and crimson plumes of the 42nd triumphantly -waving in the village, a smile of gratification stole over his -handsome face, and he allowed himself to be borne to the rear by six -Highlanders and guardsmen, Quentin Kennedy and Captain Hardinge -assisting to keep him in an easy position with the sash of the latter. - -"Report to General Hope that I am wounded," said he, calmly, "and -desire him to assume the command." - -Quentin observed that Sir John's sword had got entangled in the -wound, and that the hilt was actually entering it. On this, Captain -Hardinge kindly and gently attempted to unbuckle it. - -"Never mind it, dear Hardinge," said the dying hero; "I had rather it -should go out of the field with me." - -Fast flowed the blood, and the torture of the complicated wound was -terrible! His hands were become cold and clammy, and his face grew -deadly pale in the dusky twilight. - -"Colonel Graham of Balgowan, and Captain Woodford of the Guards, are -both gone for surgeons," said Quentin, in his ear, while Captain -Hardinge now strove in vain to stop the crimson current with his -sash; "they will soon be here." - -"You will recover from your injuries," said Hardinge; "I can perceive -it, Sir John, by the expression of your eyes." - -"No, Hardinge," said he, gravely; "I feel that to be impossible!" - -Several times he made the bearers turn him round that he might behold -the field of battle, and then a sublime expression stole over his -fine face on seeing that everywhere the French were falling back, and -that his slender army, after all its sufferings, was triumphant! - -At this moment a spring waggon passed, in which lay Colonel Wynch, of -the 4th Regiment, who was wounded. - -"Who's in that blanket?" asked the colonel, faintly. - -"Sir John Moore, most severely wounded," replied Quentin. - -On hearing this, the good colonel, though bleeding fast, insisted on -letting his general have the waggon; but the Highlanders urged that -they would carry him easier in the blanket, "so they proceeded with -him to his quarters in Corunna, weeping as they went." - -Still the echoing musketry pealed through the murky air, and still -the death-dealing blaze reddened the dusk of the coming evening. -Heavily it volleyed at times in the intervals between the cannon on -the rocks, and through the mingled haze up came the blood-red disc of -the winter moon. Great clouds of white powder smoke crept sluggishly -along the earth, and through it the flashes of the French guns above -Elvina came redly and luridly out. - -On being brought to his billet in Corunna, Sir John Moore was laid on -a pallet and examined, and then all could see the terrible nature of -his wound. - -The entire left shoulder was shattered; the arm hung by a piece of -skin; the ribs over the heart were stripped of flesh and bruised to -pieces, and the muscles of the breast were torn in long strips that -had become interlaced by the recoil of the fatal cannon-ball. - -In the dusk of the gloomy apartment, where he lay rapidly dying on a -poor mattrass, he recognised the face of Colonel Anderson, an old -friend and comrade of twenty years and more. It was the third time -Anderson had seen him borne from a field thus steeped in blood, but -never before so awfully mangled. Moore pressed the hand of his old -friend, who was deeply moved. - -"Anderson," said he, with a sad smile, "you know I have always wished -to die in this way." - -Anderson answered only with his tears, yet he was a weather-beaten -soldier, who had looked death in the face on many a hard-fought field. - -"Are the French beaten?" Moore asked of all who came in, -successively, and the assurances that they were retiring fast soothed -his dying moments. - -"I hope the people of England will be satisfied--I hope my dear -country will do me justice!" said he, with touching earnestness; "oh, -Anderson, you will see my friends at home as soon as you can--tell -them everything--my poor mother----" Here his voice completely -failed him; he became deeply agitated; but after a pause said, -"Hope--Hope--I have much to say to him, but am too weak now! Are all -my aides-de-camp well?" - -"Yes," replied Anderson, who did not wish to distress him by the -information that young Captain Burrard was mortally wounded. - -"I have made my will, and--and--have remembered all my servants. -Colbourne has it--tell Willoughby that Colbourne is to get his -lieutenant-colonelcy.--Oh, it is a great satisfaction to me that we -have beaten the French. Is Paget in the room?" - -"No," replied Anderson, in a low voice. - -"It is General Paget, I mean; remember me to him--he is a fine -fellow! I feel myself so strong--ah, I fear that I shall be a long -time in dying!" - -In the intervals of his faint and disjointed remarks the boom of the -distant artillery was occasionally heard, and their fitful flashes -reddened the walls and windows of the room where he lay. - -"Is that young lieutenant of the Fusiliers--Kennedy--is, is he here?" - -"I am here, sir," said Quentin, in a choking voice. - -"I cannot see you--the light of my eyes fails me now. I meant--I -meant--for you." - -What he "meant" to have done, Quentin was fated never to know. - -In broken accents the general thanked the surgeons politely for the -care they had taken; and apologized for the trouble he gave them. He -then said to the son of Earl Stanhope, who served on his staff, - -"Remember me--Stanhope--to--your sister." - -He referred to the famous and brilliant Lady Hester Stanhope, whom he -was said to have loved, and who died in Syria in 1839. Here his -voice again completely failed him, and while pressing to his breast -the hand of Colonel Anderson, who had saved his life at St. Lucia, he -expired without a struggle in his forty-eighth year...... - -All stood in silence around the pallet whereon that brave gentleman -and Christian soldier lay dead, and some time elapsed before they -could realize the full extent of the calamity which had befallen -them, and with moistened eyes they watched the pale still face, the -fallen jaw, the shattered and blood-soaked form. - -Just as Colonel Anderson knelt down to close the eyes of his dead -friend and commander, Quentin Kennedy, with a heavy sigh in his -throat, a sob in his breast, issued from the house, and grasping the -sabre of Colbert, Moore's doubly-prized gift, he leaped on his horse, -and, as if to relieve himself from thoughts of grief and sorrow, -galloped towards the battle-field. - -The night was now quite dark, and Sir John Hope had succeeded in -following out Moore's dispositions so well, that he had driven the -whole French line so far back that the British had now advanced far -beyond their original position. - -All Soult's ammunition was expended, though his troops were still the -most numerous. He could not advance, and neither could he retreat, -as the rain-swollen Mero was foaming along in full flood in his rear, -and the rudely re-constructed bridge of El Burgo was his only avenue -for escape. - -It was now that Hope ordered a great line of watch-fires to be -lighted by the picquets, and to have them kept burning to deceive the -enemy, while the wounded, so far as possible, were carried off, and -the whole army embarked, covered by Rowland Hill's brigade, which was -posted in and near the ramparts of the citadel. - -The field presented a scene of unexampled horror as Quentin rode back -towards Corunna. Worn out by the long day passed under arms, the -troops fell back, in somewhat shattered order, by companies and -regiments towards the beach, the shadow of night concealing -innumerable episodes of suffering, of solitary and unpitied -dissolution. - -The British loss was estimated at eight hundred, the French at three -thousand men, so superior were our arms and firing. - -In a place where the dead lay thick there sat a piper of the 92nd; he -was wounded and bleeding to death, yet he played to his retreating -comrades so long as strength remained, and then lay back dead, with -the mouth-piece of the chanter between his relaxed jaws. - -Everywhere in the dark Quentin heard voices calling for water. - -"Un verre de l'eau, pour l'amour de Dieu!" cried many a poor -Frenchman unheeded, as the columns fell back in fierce exultation -upon Corunna, in many instances double quick. - -Quentin rode back to the town, a three-miles' distance, and having -neither post nor duty to repair to, went straight through the dark -and crowded streets, which were full of soldiers and terrified -citizens, to the house where he had seen his beloved leader expire. -The door stood open; the mansion was dark, empty, chilly, and silent, -and the body had been removed, he knew not where. - -Just as he was turning away irresolute whether to inquire for the -Borderers and get into one of the hundred boats now plying in the -dark with war-worn troops, between the mole and fleet of transports, -or whether he should join the staff of General Hill, whose brigade -still occupied the citadel, a mounted staff-officer passed near him, -and, by the light of a torch held by a Spaniard, who ran through the -street, they recognised each other. - -"'Tis well I have met you, Kennedy--come this way--we are about to -pay the last earthly rites to poor Sir John Moore." - -He who spoke was Captain Hardinge, and Kennedy, without a word, for -his heart was very full, accompanied him into the strong old citadel -of Corunna. The church bells were tolling midnight, and all was -pitchy blackness around, for the moon was hidden; but in the dim -distance, along the abandoned position on the hills, a line of -watch-fires burned like dim and wavering stars to deceive the beaten -but yet too powerful enemy. - -The dim light of a lantern, upheld by a soldier, shone faintly on a -group of officers who stood near, silent, sad, and thoughtful, and -leaning on their swords. All were bareheaded. Beside them lay a -body muffled in a blue cloak and a blanket soaked with blood--the -mutilated remains of Moore, for whom no coffin could be procured. - -Close by, a party of the 9th or East Norfolk Regiment were digging a -grave, and there stood the chaplain-general, book in hand, but -without a surplice, for the sound of distant cannon announced that -the French, already discovering that they were foiled, were pushing -on to St. Lucia, and hastened the interment. - -The "lantern dimly burning" was held by Sergeant Rollo, of the -Artillery, who died lately at Tynemouth, in his eighty-second year, -and by its fitful light the body was deposited in its last home. - -"Aid me, good gentlemen," said Colonel Anderson, with a broken voice, -as the aides-de-camp lowered the remains into the rudely-dug hole, -Quentin as the youngest carrying the feet. "It is a strange -fatality, this! He always said that if he fell in battle, he wished -to be buried where he died, and you see, gentlemen, his wish has been -fulfilled." - -Near him lay his countryman, General Anstruther, who had died of -suffering and privations on the march. - -Hastily the burial service was read, and the soldiers of the brave -old 9th covered him up, literally, "the sod with their bayonets -turning." - -All lingered for a few minutes near the spot, and when they withdrew, -there was not an eye unmoistened among them. - -Thus passed away Sir John Moore, like Wolfe, in the moment of victory! - -"A soldier from his earliest youth," says General Napier, "he -thirsted for the honours of his profession, and feeling that he was -worthy to lead a British army, hailed the fortune that placed him at -the head of the troops destined for Spain. The stream of time passed -rapidly, and the inspiring hopes of triumph disappeared, but the -austerer glory of suffering remained; with a firm heart he accepted -that gift of a severe fate, and confiding in the strength of his -genius, disregarded the clamours of presumptuous ignorance; opposing -sound military views to the foolish projects so insolently thrust -upon him by the ambassador, he conducted a long and arduous retreat -with sagacity, intelligence, and fortitude. No insult could disturb, -no falsehood deceive him, no remonstrances shake his determination; -fortune frowned without subduing his constancy; death struck, and the -spirit of the man remained unbroken, when his shattered body scarcely -afforded it habitation. Having done all that was just towards -others, he remembered what was due to himself. Neither the shock of -the mortal blow, nor the lingering hours of acute pain which preceded -his dissolution, could quell the pride of his gallant heart, or lower -the feeling with which (conscious of merit) he asserted his right to -the gratitude of the country he had served so truly. - -"If glory be a distinction, _for such a man death is not a leveller_!" - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -TOO LATE. - - "The storm of fight is hushed; the mingled roar - Of charging squadrons swells the blast no more: - Gone are the bands of France; the crested pride - Of war, which lately clothed the mountain side, - Gone--as the winter cloud which tempests bear, - In broken shadows through the waste of air." - - -Grey dawn came slowly in, stealing over land and sea, as Quentin rode -from the citadel of Corunna. - -It was difficult to believe that one night--one short night -only--filled the interval of time since the fierce excitement of -yesterday. Within those few hours how much had happened! Many an -eye that met his with a kind smile was sightless now, and many a -cheerful and hearty voice with which he was familiar was silenced for -ever. - -When passing through one of the streets, he came suddenly upon Sir -John Hope, who now commanded the army, and who said, while reining in -his horse, which looked jaded and weary as himself-- - -"Oh--glad I've seen you, Mr. Kennedy; is your horse fresh?" - -"Tolerably so, sir," replied Quentin. - -"Then you will oblige me by riding round by the Santiago road, over -the ground where Fraser's division was posted yesterday, before he -advanced to support Paget, and bring off any stragglers you may see -there. We have not a moment to lose, as the French are getting -several guns into position above the San Diego Point, to open on our -transports." - -Without waiting for an answer, and as if his expressed wish was quite -sufficient, the general cantered off towards the mole. - -No way delighted with this duty, in the grey twilight of the morning, -Quentin galloped through the Pescadera, quitted the outer -fortifications, issued upon the road that led to Santiago de -Compostella, and ere long found himself on that which he had now no -heart to look upon--the field of battle--that vast sepulchre--that -ripe harvest of death and suffering! - -The dead were there mutilated in every conceivable mode, and lying in -every conceivable position; some lay in little piles where the grape -had mowed them down. Red-coat and blue-coat, Frank and Briton, the -red-trowsered Celt of Gaul and the kilted Celt of Scotland, lay over -each other in heaps, many of them yet in the death clutch of each -other, but all sleeping peacefully the long, long slumber that knows -no waking. It was a sad and terrible homily! - -Muskets smashed at the stock, swords broken, bayonets bent, caps -crushed; belts, plumes, and epaulettes torn; drums broken and bugles -trod flat; half-buried shot and exploded shells, strewed all the -ground, which was furrowed, torn up, and soaked in blood; trees were -barked and lopped by the passing bullets, and hedges were scorched by -fire. - -Already the plunderers had been at work; an officer, covered with -wounds, lay stripped, nearly nude, so his uniform had doubtless been -a rich one. He was quite dead, and wore on his left arm a bracelet -of female hair--a love relic; his head rested in the lap of a -beautiful Spanish girl, so dark that she was half like a mulatto or -gitana of Granada, and such she appeared to be by her picturesque -costume. She was weeping bitterly, and over her dark cheeks and -quivering lips the hot tears fell upon the cold face of the dead man. -Her sobs were quite inaudible, for her grief was too deep for -utterance. - -Close by, with the medals of many an honourable battle on his breast, -lay a grey-haired grenadier of the Garde Impériale, who had died -about twenty minutes before, and the calm of dissolution was -smoothing out the wrinkles that care, it might be a hidden sorrow, -had traced upon his now ghastly face--so smoothly then that he became -in aspect almost young again, as when, perhaps, a conscript he left -his father's cottage and his mother's arms. - -As Quentin rode on many called to him for succour that he was unable -to yield, and to their piteous cries he was compelled to turn a deaf -ear. Many lay wounded, faint and unseen, among the long rich grass, -where they were lulled alike by weakness and the hum of insect life -awaking with the rising sun; and these scarcely noticed him as he -trotted slowly past, carefully guiding his horse among them. - -Tormented by thirst, many crawled, like bruised worms, to where a -little runnel ran down the green slope from San Cristoval, and drank -thirstily of its water in the hollow of their hands, and without a -shudder, though the purity of the stream was tainted by blood, for -further up lay a soldier of the Cameron Highlanders, dead, with his -head buried in the stream. He, too, had crawled there; but the -weight of his knapsack had pressed his head and shoulders below the -water, and thus, unable to rise from weakness, the poor fellow had -actually been choked in a hole about twelve inches deep. - -No stragglers were visible, and an awful stillness had succeeded to -the roar of sound that rung there yesternight; and now from his -reverie Quentin was roused by the boom of a cannon at a distance. -Others followed rapidly, and at irregular intervals. It was the -French guns above St. Lucia firing over the flat point of San Diego -on the last of the transports and the last of our troops who were -embarking. Hill's brigade had now left the citadel, and Beresford, -with the rearguard, had already put off from the shore. - -Such were the startling tidings Quentin received from a mounted -Spaniard, a fellow not unlike a contrabandista, who passed, spurring -with his box-stirrups recklessly over the field towards Santiago. On -hearing this, Quentin instantly galloped towards the harbour. - -It was too late now to think of getting his horse off, so he resolved -to abandon it and take the first boat he could obtain. The last of -the troops were gone now in the English launches, and not a single -Spanish barquero could he prevail upon to put off; and so furious was -the cannonade which the French had opened from the headland to the -southward of Corunna, that many of the masters of our crowded -transports cut their cables; four ran foul of each other and went -aground in shoal water. Then, amid the cries, cheers, uproar, and a -thousand other sounds on land and sea, the troops were removed from -them to others, and they were set on fire, while the first ships of -the fleet were standing out to sea, and had already made an offing. - -This delay nearly proved favourable to Quentin. A Spanish boatman at -last offered for ten duros to take him off to the nearest ship, which -lay about a mile distant; but just as he dismounted to embark, a yell -of rage and terror was uttered by the crowd upon the mole, and a -party of French light dragoons rode through them recklessly, treading -some under foot and sabreing others. - -At the risk of being pistolled, Quentin was about to spring into the -sea, when an officer made an attempt to cut him down, but his cap -saved his head from the first stroke. In wild desperation, with one -hand he clung to the chasseur's bridle, and with the other strove to -grasp his uplifted sword-arm. - -"Rendez-vous!" cried the Frenchman, furiously. - -"Eugene--sauvez-moi!" was all that Quentin could utter, ere his -assailant, whom at that moment he recognised, cut him over the head, -and he fell, blinded in his own blood. - -It was the _last_ blow struck in our first campaign in Spain. - -When Quentin partially recovered he found himself supported in the -arms of the young Lieutenant de Ribeaupierre, who was profuse in his -exclamations of sorrow and regret as he bound the wound up with his -own hands, and led him away from the mole, expressing genuine anxiety -and commiseration. - -"Take care of your prisoner, M. le Lieutenant," said an officer, -authoritatively. "_Sangdieu!_ we have not picked up so many!" - -"I shall be answerable for him. Ah, mon Dieu! why did I not know you -sooner? Why did you not speak first, my dear friend?" Ribeaupierre -continued to repeat. - -The captain of his troop gave them a stern and scrutinizing glance. -He was a forbidding looking man, with that swaggering -spur-and-sabre-clattering bearing peculiar to some of those who had -found their epaulettes on the barricades or among the ruins of the -Bastile--a species of military ruffian, whose bearing was tempered -only by the politeness which all military discipline--French -especially--infuses in the manners of men. - -"Take his sword away," said this personage, gruffly. - -"Eugene, ask him if I may retain it--it was the last gift of Sir John -Moore?" said Quentin, with intense anxiety. - -"That is well--you shall keep it, monsieur," said the gruff captain; -"Sir John Moore was indeed a soldier!" - -"Am I, then, a prisoner?" said Quentin, with a sigh of intense -bitterness, as he looked after the distant ships, now beyond even the -range of the guns at San Diego, and bearing away with all their sails -set--away for England! - -"My captain has seen you--it must be so," replied Ribeaupierre, -leading him into the city; "but prisoner or not, remember, mon ami, -that you are with _me_." - -The measured tramp of infantry was now heard, and guarded by fixed -bayonets, some thirty or forty British prisoners passed with an air -of sullen defiance in their faces and bearing. They were men of all -regiments, gleaned up on the field or in the suburbs, and they were -marched towards the citadel. Quentin gave a convulsive start as he -recognised the face of Cosmo among them! - -He saw Quentin covered with blood--wounded to all appearance -severely, and a prisoner too; so he gave him a parting smile full of -malignity and hate. - -Quentin cared not for this, he sprang forward to speak with him; but -at that moment the blood burst forth afresh, his senses reeled, and -he fainted. - -On that evening the tricolour was seen hoisted half-mast high on the -citadel of Corunna, and the British fleet, though "far away on the -billow," could hear the French artillery as they fired a funeral -salute over the grave of Sir John Moore, in a spirit that was worthy -of France and the best days of France's chivalry! - -True it is, indeed, that "he whose talents exacted the praises of -Soult, of Wellington, and of NAPOLEON, could be no ordinary soldier." - -But there was one in whose heart a blank remained that no posthumous -honours could ever fill up--the heart of his mother, to whom Sir John -Moore was ever a tender and affectionate son, and whom he loved with -great filial devotion. - -It was not for some weeks after all this that Quentin learned that -the Master of Rohallion had been sent a prisoner of war to Verdun, in -the department of the Meuse, where his fierce pride having procured -him the enmity of the commandant, he could never effect an exchange; -thus he remained on parole five long and miserable years, even until -the battle of Toulouse was fought; and, in the meantime, worthy old -Jack Middleton recovered from his wound, and was appointed -lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd Battalion of the King's Own Borderers. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -MADAME DE RIBEAUPIERRE. - - "Who should it be? Where shouldst thou look for kindness? - When we are sick, where can we look for succour? - When we are wretched, where can we complain? - And when the world looks cold and surly on us, - Where can we go to meet a warmer eye - With such sure confidence as to a mother?" - JOANNA BAILLIE. - - -A month after the occurrence of the stirring events we have just -narrated, Quentin Kennedy found himself an inmate of the same house -with his young French friend at Corunna--the pretty villa that faced -the bay of Orsan, the same mansion in which the Master of Rohallion -spent that remarkable night before the battle. - -General de Ribeaupierre had been appointed by Marshal Soult military -governor of the town and citadel of Corunna, in which there was a -strong French garrison; but instead of occupying the gloomy quarters -assigned to the governor, Madame de Ribeaupierre, who had joined him, -preferred the little Villa de Orsan near the coast, and had prevailed -upon him to place Eugene on his staff as an aide-de-camp, and thus -the whole of her household now seemed, for the time, to be peacefully -located in that remote corner of Gallicia. - -Both madame and her husband the general were considerably past the -prime of life. He was a fine courtly gentleman of the old French -school, and in his secret heart was a sincere monarchist, but not so -rashly as to oppose in act or spirit the tide of events which had -replaced the line of St. Louis by Napoleon, with whom he had served -early in life, as we have before stated, in the Regiment of La Fere. - -Madame might still be called handsome, though long past forty. -Perfectly regular, finely cut, and having all the impress of good -birth and high culture, her features were remarkably beautiful. Her -manner was singularly sweet, gentle, and pleasing; yet she had an eye -and a lip indicative of a proud and lofty spirit, that had enabled -her to confront the blackest horrors of the Revolution in France. - -Powdered white as snow, she wore her hair dressed back over a little -cushion, with a few stray ringlets falling behind in the coquettish -manner of the old Bourbon days (when patches and pomatum were in all -their glory), while her full bust, plump white arms, her short -sleeves with long elbow-gloves, her peaked stomacher and her -amplitude of brocade skirt, with many a deep flounce and frill of old -Maltese lace, all made her a pleasing picture at a time when, in -imitation of the prevailing French taste, the English woman of -fashion wore a huge muslin cap, her waist under her armpits, and her -skirts so tight that she resembled nothing in this world but a long -bolster set on end. - -Knowing how much the young prisoner of war and Eugene owed to each -other, and how much the former had suffered recently under the sabre -of the latter, she rivalled her husband in kindness, and was -unremitting in her hospitality, her nursing, and her motherly -attention. - -Quentin had the care of the best surgeons on the French staff--a -class of medical men who far excelled the rabble of apothecary boys -then commissioned for the British army; the cool season of the year -was favourable for his recovering from such an ugly slash on the -caput as Eugene's steel had bestowed; so, our hero, having youth and -health on his side, grew rapidly well, and by the 16th of -February--one month after the battle--he had become quite -convalescent; but politeness even could scarcely make him repress his -impatience to begone; yet he knew that, though the guest of General -Ribeaupierre, he was still a prisoner of war, and could not leave any -French territory until duly exchanged. - -During his illness he had many a strange and fantastic dream of Flora -and of home. But now there came to him dim memories of an infancy -_beyond_ that spent at Rohallion; there was the quaint foreign town, -with its winding river, its antique bridge, its boats and windmills. -Like a dream, or some vision of mystic memory, he remembered this -place in all its details and features, and with them came the old and -confused recollection of a lady, it might be, nay, it _must_ have -been, his own mother, in rich velvet with powdered hair. Then came -his father's face, pale and despairing, and the night of the wreck at -the Partan Craig, all jumbled oddly together. - -Was it a sense of pre-existence--that sense felt by so many at -different times--that haunted him? - -Was it a sense of the _unreality_ of the present f conflicting with -the certainty of the past? - -We cannot say; but there came upon his mind a strange consciousness -that this scene, this river, with its town and woods and hills, this -lady in velvet and powder, were not creations of the fancy, and were -not new to him. - -Was it a phase of that which is termed by Dr. Wigan the "duality of -the human mind," which comes upon us at times-- - - "As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood, - _And ebb into a former life?_" - - -We pretend not to say; but poor Quentin was sorely puzzled, and that -sabre cut in no way made his reasoning faculties clearer. - -His room, a large one facing the bay of Orsan, was decorated for him -daily by a quantity of beautiful flowers, which madame procured from -the conservatory of the captain-general--flowers so charming at that -season--scarlet and white camellias, rare geraniums, and glorious -roses of every hue; while in the trellis-work verandah without were -magnolias and creeping plants whose tendrils were covered with -odoriferous flowers, through which the sea-breeze came, blending and -mingling pleasantly with the fragrant and earthy odour of the tiled -floor, which was daily sprinkled with spring water. - -And there in a softly-cushioned easy-chair he sat for hours gazing -dreamily out upon the sunlit bay, where the brown Spanish -fisher-boats, with lateen sails striped red and white, manned by dark -and picturesque-looking fellows in shirts and caps of scarlet and -blue, were always preparing for sea, or tacking out of the bay with -the white foam curling under the bows--a life of movement and bustle -that contrasted sadly with his own inertia and made him feverish with -impatience. - -Even Eugene's aspect, as he came clattering and rattling to and fro, -between the citadel and the villa, in uniform and accoutred with -spurs and sabre, showed that the game of life was still played -briskly by others, and fretted Quentin's soul. - -"A prisoner," he repeated to himself, "and for heaven knows how long! -Is this the fruit of my ambition? Is this the prize I have striven, -struggled, and starved--fought and bled for during all the horrors of -that campaign? Unlucky indeed was the hour when Hope sent me beyond -the city on a bootless errand, and when Eugene cut me down on that -accursed beach! Captivity even thus, though surrounded by every -kindness and luxury, is more than I can either bear or endure! -Besides," he added, bitterly, aloud, "I may be reported dead or -missing, and Flora--may--might--and my commission too--may be -cancelled." - -"No, no, my good young friend," said Madame de Ribeaupierre, who had -entered unheard; "my husband, the general, saw all that properly -arranged, and despatched Eugene in person, with a memorandum of your -name and regiment, to the commissaire for British prisoners, to -inform him that we had you here, where we mean to keep you as long as -we can." - -"It was most kind, dear madame," said Quentin, bowing low to hide -confusion for his petulance, and leading the lady to a chair close by -his own. - -"Kind, monsieur, say you? It was but just and proper that your -friends should know of your safety," said she, with a bending of the -neck, a species of bow that reminded Quentin of old Lady Rohallion; -for this Frenchwoman had all that old-fashioned grace which, in -Scotland, died with the Jacobites, and in France expired with the -monarchy. "Judging by my own fears and emotions, I was most anxious -that--that your mother, I presume, should know that you, at least, -had not perished on that unhappy 16th of January." - -"My mother," repeated Quentin, and with the memory of his recent -dreams a thrill of sadness came over his heart, as he looked into the -fine dark eyes of this noble French matron, who seemed so inspired by -feminine tenderness and commiseration that she placed her white hand -caressingly on the half-healed scar which Quentin's short crisp hair -but partially concealed. - -"A naughty boy was my Eugene to do this, but he has never ceased to -deplore it. Yes, your mother; ah, mon Dieu! it was well that she did -not see as I saw you, after the mischief Eugene wrought, when the -Chasseurs of the 24th carried you into the citadel covered with -blood! Yet, if she knew all, she might safely trust you with me; for -I have known what it is to lose a child ere this, and others whom I -loved dearly--to be left alone, reft of that being whom I hoped was -to love and remember me long after I had passed away. Eugene is a -good boy, and I love him dearly; but you--your mother, mon ami?" - -"Madame, I have no mother." - -"Mon Dieu! and you so young!" - -"No, nor any relation in the world," said Quentin, in a voice half -angry and half broken, "save some brave friends who died at Corunna, -and one in Scotland, far away, I never had any who loved me." - -"L'Ecosse--l'Ecosse!" repeated Madame de Ribeaupierre with sudden -interest. "We old-fashioned French love the memory of the old -alliances when our royal houses so often intermarried, and still -respect the land where the line of St. Louis finds a home; and so," -she added, with kindling eyes, "monsieur is an Ecossais?" - -"Yes, madame, I have every reason to believe so?" - -"To believe--only to believe, monsieur?" - -"Yes, madame." - -"How?" - -"It is my secret," said Quentin, smiling. - -"Pardonnez-moi?" said madame, colouring slightly. - -"My name is one of the oldest in Scotland." - -"True--true; mon Dieu! I know there are earls of that name who have -the tressure floré and counterfloré in their coat-of-arms," said she, -while a sad and beautiful smile lit up her fine face, and she -smoothed her powdered hair with a tremulous hand. "I had a dear -friend who once bore the name--but it was in the old days of the -monarchy, and for the sake of that friend I shall love you more than -ever;" and patting Quentin on the head, she kissed him on the brow -just as her son entered with a servant in livery, who came to -announce that the carriage was at the door. - -"Tres bien, Louis," said she; "monsieur will accompany us, Eugene, -the day is so fine; he shall take his first drive with me, and you -may follow on horseback if you choose. I don't like spurs in a -carriage." - -"I shall be very happy, my dear madame, though our mutual friend, the -General de Ribeaupierre, has seen fit to send me no less than four -times this morning with absurd messages to the sappers who are -repairing the bridge of El Burgo," replied Eugene, whose boots and -light-green uniform bore evident traces of mud. - -"Come, Eugene, and never mind; as I am only your mamma, and not your -intended, you have no need to be so particular with your toilet; and -if your horse is weary, order a fresh one." - -Quentin enjoyed the drive greatly, as it was his first active step -towards final recovery and strength. - -It was the evening of a clear and sunny day--one of the earliest of -spring--and Quentin surveyed, with equal delight and interest, the -long lines of massive bastions, towers, and battlemented walls that -enclosed the town and citadel of Corunna--that vast stone frontage, -with all its rows of grim cannon that peered through dark port-holes -or frowned _en barbette_, steeped in the warm radiance of a red -setting sun that tinged the sea and surf with the hue of blood, -sinking every alternate angle of the fortifications in deep and -solemn shadow. - -The music of a French regimental band came floating pleasantly from -time to time on the thin air, as they played the grand march of the -Emperor along the ramparts; and now the carriage, by Eugene's desire, -was stopped near a part of the citadel where Sir John Moore's grave -lay, and where the French sappers were already building the great -granite monument which the noble Soult erected to his memory, and -which the Marquis of Romana completed. - -Quentin descended from the carriage and approached the spot. - -He was the last, the only British soldier in Corunna now. He sat -down on one of the blocks and looked wistfully at the place where he -knew the poor shattered corse lay uncoffined. Then the manly figure, -the gentle face, the soldierly presence, and the winning manner of -Moore came vividly to memory, and Quentin covered his eyes with his -hand, as he could not control his emotion. - -He was the last solitary mourner by the grave of him whose memory -Charles Wolfe embalmed in verse. - -The French sappers, who had been singing and laughing gaily at their -work, respected his grief; they became quite silent, and saluted him -with great politeness. Then Madame de Ribeaupierre took him by the -hand and they drove away. - -In the general's well-hung, cosy, and handsome Parisian carriage, he -passed more than once over the field of battle. Its sad débris had -vanished now; the people of the adjacent villages had gleaned up -every bullet and button. The dead were buried in trenches. Here and -there might lie a solitary grave, but already the young spring grass -was growing over them all. Quentin knew the ground where the -Borderers had been posted, and thus he knew which of those fatal -mounds was likely to hold the noble and true-hearted Rowland Askerne, -Colville, and others whom he knew and mourned for. - -Even the _étourdi_ Eugene was silent, when, for the last time, they -surveyed the field. - -"Here the 24th charged a square of one of your Scots regiments," said -he; "and here fell poor Jules de Marbœuf. It was his last battle." - -"Killed?" - -"Yes--dead as Hector, by some of your bare-legged Scotsmen, who took -the eagle of the 24th. _Sacre Dieu!_--think of that!"* - - -* In February after the battle, two French eagles, each weighing -fifteen ounces of silver, were sold to a silversmith in Chichester by -a soldier of the 92nd Highlanders, who said that he had bayoneted the -Frenchmen, and brought the trophies home in his knapsack.--_Annual -Register_ for 1809. - - -"And Donna Isidora?" said Quentin, not caring much about the eagle. - -"The sorrowful widow--_peste!_ she is at Lugo with the Light -Division." - -"She is not coming here, I trust?" - -"Can't say, mon camarade; but pardieu, I should hope not." - -Though Quentin knew that his commission and promotion in the 7th -Fusiliers were now both secured, he writhed under the idea of being a -prisoner of war; but there was no help for it. He had given his -parole of honour, and by that he was bound to abide. - -Not even the keen longing to see Flora, to tell his story and lay his -laurels, while they were yet fresh, at her feet, could lure him to -break his bonds; but being intensely wearied of Corunna, he hailed -with extreme satisfaction a change in the plans of the really -delightful family with whom he resided. - -Tidings of a new and more powerful expedition, destined to drive the -French from Spain, under Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of -Wellington, had now come to all the Emperor's marshals and garrisons -officially; and thus General de Ribeaupierre resolved on sending his -lady, in charge of Eugene, to Paris, whither they begged Quentin to -accompany them. - -Anything was better than lingering in Corunna or setting out for -Verdun; and so, bidding adieu to the kind old general, within a few -weeks after his convalescence, Quentin found himself kindly adjusting -the wraps and mufflings of madame on the deck of the _Bien Aimé_, a -privateer brig, mounting six 12-pounders, M. Marin, captain, bound -for the mouth of the Loire; and long did he and Eugene pace the deck -together that night, building castles, exchanging confidences, and -smoking cigars, while the wild waves of the Bay of Biscay tore past -in dark ridges to leeward, and the last of the Galician hills, the -great Sierra de Mondonedo, sank into the dark world of waters astern. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -THE "BIEN AIMÉ." - - "He had fought the red English, he said, - In many a battle in Spain; - He cursed the red English, and prayed - To meet and fight them again!"--THACKERAY. - - -_Le Bien Aimé_ encountered very rough weather, and beat hard against -the westerly winds which always prevail in the stormy Bay of Biscay, -where the broad waves of the Atlantic roll in all their full and -unbroken weight. - -The third night was so dark and gusty, that neither Quentin Kennedy -nor Eugene de Ribeaupierre turned in, but remained at the table much -later than usual, listening to the somewhat piratical yarns and -experiences of M. Jehan Marin, a short, thick-set, and savage-looking -fellow, who wore a tricoloured nightcap, a pea-jacket, and a broad -black belt, with a square brass buckle of most melodramatic size. He -viewed Quentin evidently with intense dislike, as one of those sacré -Anglais, whom he hated as so many snakes or other reptiles, and to -this sentiment was added a profound contempt for him as a soldier. -Quentin was soon sensible of all this, but deemed it neither safe nor -worth his while to notice it; besides, the life of a prisoner of war -was deemed of very little value by land or sea in those days. - -On this night, just as they went on deck to have a last glance at the -pitchy blackness amid which _Le Bien Aimé_ was careering, a flash -broke through it, and a cannon-shot boomed across her forefoot; -another flash followed, and the shot went through her foresail, which -was bellying out upon the wind. - -"Tonnerre de Dieu! what is that?" cried M. Marin, choking and -sputtering with passion and alarm, as he jumped upon a carronade and -peered to windward, from whence the assault came, but could see -nothing, so intense was the darkness. - -Boom! another heavy gun came, and now he could make out a strange -ship, looming large and black on the larboard bow, and carrying an -enormous spread of canvas, considering the nature of the night, and -it was the guns of her starboard-quarter that were tickling _Le Bien -Aimé_ in this rough fashion. - -"Nombril de Beelzebub!" bellowed Captain Marin, "here we are in -action without seeing or knowing who the devil it is with! Beat to -quarters--pipe up the hammocks and open the magazine!" - -Just as he was speaking and gesticulating furiously, another shot -knocked the fiddle-head of the _Bien Aimé_ all to splinters; so -matters were looking decidedly serious. By this time, and long ere -the drum beat, his crew, half dressed, were all at their quarters, -and the hammocks were bundled anyhow into the side nettings. - -"Clear away those weather-guns--cast loose the lashings, and load!" -shouted Marin; "stand by the watch to shorten sail; 'way aloft and -hand the topgallant sails; small-arm men, aft, and blaze away!" - -_Le Bien Aimé_ was now hove full in the wind's eye, so that the next -shot from this strange ship went no one knew where. - -There were terrible confusion, growling, swearing, with lack of -discipline, on board, but no lack of pluck among the crew, and fifty -of the most finished ragamuffins that ever sailed from the Loire or -Brest stood to their guns. - -The next cannon that flashed from the strange ship made Quentin, who -clung to a belaying pin on the port side, spring backwards -involuntarily, the red light of the explosion seemed so close; but it -enabled him to see for an instant the large ship with her lee side -full of men. - -"She is a frigate, at least!" exclaimed Marin, with a frightful oath, -as he drew his cutlass; "we cannot fight her; she may be French, and -the whole affair a mistake, though: hush, silence fore and aft--they -are hailing!" - -"Ho--brig ahoy!" sang out a voice in most unmistakeable English. - -Jehan Marin ground his yellow teeth--those cursed English! Could he -doubt that any but they would first fire and then question? - -"Hallo!" he replied. - -"What brig is that?" hailed the officer, through a trumpet, and -Quentin felt his heart beating wildly with anxiety and anticipation. -Next moment he heard Eugene and the French skipper engaged in a brief -but very angry expostulation. - -"What is the matter?" he asked, as Eugene joined him. - -"Don't inquire," said he, "lest I blush that I am a Frenchman." - -"Then your conference concerned me?" - -"It certainly did, mon ami." - -"How?" - -"Marin wished to force you to deceive your countrymen, by replying to -them in English--replying with his pistol at your head. _Sangdieu!_ -you comprehend?" - -Before Quentin could reply, the question, - -"What brig is that? d--n it, you had better look sharp!" came over -the black surging water from the foe. - -"Stand by the braces, and be ready to fill the sails to the -yard-heads, and bear away right before the wind," said Marin; then, -raising his voice, he shouted a deep and bitter curse through his -trumpet. - -"Hail again," cried the officer; "this is His Britannic Majesty's -ship _Medusa_--send a boat off instantly with your skipper and his -papers." - -Instead of complying, Marin daringly gave orders to fire his three -12-pounders on the portside, to fill his yards, and bear right away -before the western breeze; but on the appearance of the first -portfire glittering on his deck, bang came another shot from this -pugnacious stranger, which took his foreyard right in the sling; it -came crashing down on deck, breaking the arm of one man and the leg -of another; and before M. Marin had made up his mind what to do next, -the _Medusa_, a fifty-gun ship, forged a little way ahead of him, as -if she meant to sweep his deck or sink him; but neither was her -object, for a boat's crew of those "pestilent Englishmen," with -pistols in their belts and cutlasses in their teeth, were alongside -in a moment, holding on with boat-hooks to the forechains, as the now -partly unmanageable brig rose and fell heavily on the black waves of -that stormy midnight sea. Another boat-load clung like leeches to -the starboard quarter, and in less than five minutes the _Bien Aimé_ -was the lawful prize of the British frigate, _Medusa_. - -Her crew were all disarmed and placed under a guard of marines; a -strong hawser was run on board and made fast to the capstan or -windlass, the yard heads were trimmed, a jury fore-yard rigged in a -trice, and the privateer in tow of the _Medusa_ stood off towards the -coast of "perfidious Albion." The weather was so rough, however, -that they were compelled to slack off or let go the towline; but -lanterns were hoisted at the foreyard, and thus they kept company -till daylight. - -"Fortune changes," said Eugene, laughing with all the nonchalance of -a Frenchman; "you are now free, and I am a prisoner." - -The prize-master, a rough and somewhat elderly man for a middy--one -of those hardworking fellows whose boast it used to be that they came -into the service through the hawse-holes, questioned the cabin -passengers sharply and categorically. - -"You, sir," said he, looking at Eugene, cutlass in hand; "what are -you?" - -"Eugene de Ribeaupierre, sous-lieutenant in the French service, and -ready to give my parole." - -"Keep it till we are at Spithead; and you, sir," he added, turning -furiously to Quentin, "are an Englishman, I see, and in the French -service too--eh?" - -"No, sir; I happen to be a Scotsman, and in the British service." - -"Where are your papers?" - -"I have none." - -"Oho; d--n me! you have none?" said he, suspiciously. - -"No; but my name is recorded in the ship's books as a prisoner of -war, a lieutenant in the 7th Fusiliers, proceeding to Paris on -parole." - -The mid shook Quentin's hand on hearing this, and ordered a jorum of -grog, in which Eugene good-naturedly joined him, remarking-- - -"Ma foi, monsieur, don't be too sure of having us at the Spithead." - -"Why not, if the wind holds good?" - -"Some of our ships may retake us--aha!" - -"No fear of that, mounseer; the sea at present is only open to _us_," -was the composed reply. - -Marin, who sat in a corner, imprecated his fate bitterly; he cursed -what he considered Eugene's squeamishness, which prevented him from -availing himself compulsorily of Quentin's aid to deceive the -_Medusa_; but consoled himself by the hope that "he would yet take it -out of the hides of those 'sacré Anglais,' in some fashion or other." - -"Take up the slack of your jawing-tackle, Johnny," said the mid; -"drink your grog, shut up, and turn in; your ill luck to-night may be -mine to-morrow." - -Madame de Ribeaupierre was greatly concerned by the turn her affairs -had taken; but at a time when the whole sea was covered by the -cruisers of the largest fleet in the world, it was strange that she -did not anticipate some such catastrophe. - -When it was reported to the captain of the _Medusa_ that the wife of -General de Ribeaupierre was in the _Bien Aimé_, he politely offered -her the use of a cabin on board his ship; but having no wish to be -separated from Eugene, she continued in the privateer, with which the -frigate kept company for several days, until she saw her close in -shore under the white cliffs of Old England, when she brought her -starboard tacks on board, and, like a great eagle in search of fresh -prey, stood over towards the coast of France. Thus, on the evening of -the 16th of March, exactly two months after the battle of Corunna, -Quentin found the _Bien Aimé_ safely anchored at Spithead, close by -the guns of a line-of-battle ship. - -There Eugene gave his parole, and Quentin found himself a free man! - -The news spread rapidly in Portsmouth and in the Isle of Wight that -the wife and son of Bonaparte's favourite cavalry officer, the -Governor of Corunna, had been brought in as prisoners; and thus, on -the very day they were preparing to go on shore, escorted by Quentin, -a staff-officer, in full uniform, came fussily on board in a boat -pulled by marines. - -Quentin recognised in him Lloyd Conyers, the aide-de-camp, whom he -had frequently seen in Spain. - -He had come, he stated, "by direction of the General commanding in -the Isle of Wight, to invite Madame de Ribeaupierre, with her friends -and attendants, to share the hospitality of his house--to consider it -as her home, in fact, until she could make such arrangements as she -wished." - -"Is the general married, monsieur?" asked madame, smiling; "for I am -not so very old." - -"Madame, the general is married, and is nearer seventy than sixty," -replied Conyers, laughing behind his great staff plume. "A boat is in -readiness, and a carriage awaits you on the beach. The general lives -at Minden Lodge, St. Helen's--we dine at half-past six." - -Madame de Ribeaupierre, who was considerably crushed and crestfallen, -accepted the general's offer; and accompanied by her maid, who had -many misgivings and vague terrors of the natives, by her son and her -aide-de-camp, as she laughingly styled Quentin, landed in the Isle of -Wight; and for the first time in her life found herself treading -English ground. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -MINDEN LODGE. - - "What thing is Love, which not can countervail - Naught save itself? even such a thing is Love. - And worldly wealth in worth as far doth fail, - As lowest earth doth yield to heaven above. - Divine is Love, and scorneth worldly pelf, - And can be bought with nothing but with self." - RALEIGH. - - -The month was only March; but in that southern portion of England, -the white daisy and the golden buttercup already spotted the green -sward; the hedge-rows nearly in full leaf, were quite like -bird-meadows, so full were they of song; while the coo of the -ring-dove and the wild pigeon were already heard in the copse. The -gardens teemed with beautiful flowers, and the air was delicious, the -heat of the great white chalky cliffs being tempered by the breeze -from the deep blue sea. - -When the three guests reached his residence at St. Helen's, the -general and all his suite were absent, at the inspection of the -parochial artillery; for even then, so lately as the days of Corunna, -the ancient custom of each parish in the Isle of Wight providing -itself with one small piece of cannon, usually a six-pounder, to be -kept in the church, or some small house built for the purpose close -by, was still in force; and the recent threats of invasion had made -the islanders somewhat expert as gunners, in handling their brigade -of some thirty field-pieces. - -Built on an eminence at the pretty village of St. Helen's, near the -mouth of the Bradinghaven, Minden Lodge was a spacious and handsome -mansion; and though the three visitors knew not the names of the -localities, from the lofty windows of the spacious and elegant -drawing-room, they had a fine view of Calshot Castle, of Portsmouth -steeped in sunny haze, about seven miles distant, its harbour crowded -with shipping; Spithead, with all the men-of-war at anchor, and the -little _Bien Aimé_, with the union-jack waving above her tricolour; -while far off in distance rose the taper spire of Chichester -Cathedral. - -The rolling of carriage wheels upon gravel walks, the opening and -shutting of doors, announced the return of the general's party from -the inspection; but for a time no one appeared, and already the hands -of the ormolu clock indicated a quarter past six. - -Madame had made rather an elaborate toilet; her maid had dressed and -powdered her fine hair to perfection, and she was in all the -amplitude of her flowered brocade and rich black lace, her antique -steel and diamond ornaments, a gift from the Grand Monarque to her -grandmother the Marquise de Louvre; Eugene had on the full uniform of -the 24th Chasseurs à Cheval, minus only his sword; Quentin felt -himself obliged to appear in some kind of uniform, too (mufti was -vulgar then), and so had carefully brushed up his old and worn-out -volunteer coat of the 25th, to which he added a pair of silver -epaulettes and a crimson sash, bought from a Jew of Corunna, who had -no doubt found them on the field. - -They were sorely discoloured and torn; but he had the handsome gold -belt and the sabre of General Colbert--the gift of Moore. Embrowned, -taller, fuller, manlier, and looking even more handsome than ever, he -was not astonished at being totally unrecognised; though he was -startled, and beyond description bewildered, when the familiar voice -of old Jack Andrews (who was clad in the Crawford livery), as he -threw open the drawing-room door, announced "Lord and Lady Rohallion, -Miss Warrender, _and_ Captain Conyers." - -Looking not a day older, but rather younger and better than when he -had seen them last, Lord Rohallion entered in the full uniform of a -general officer, as orthodoxly powdered and pig-tailed as ever; Lady -Winifred in all the plenitude of her old-fashioned costume, with her -high-dressed hair puffed and white as snow, and looking, though -senior in years, somewhat the counterpart of Madame de Ribeaupierre, -her necklace and ornaments being equally antique, with opals and -diamonds that were _reversible_ in the course of an entertainment; -and there, too, was Flora, looking so charming, so dove-eyed, and -blooming, in full dress for dinner, but leaning on the arm of a -lisping and most-decidedly-too-attentive puppy of an aide-de-camp. - -So confounded was Quentin by the sudden appearance of these four -persons, that he stood as if rooted to the carpet, unable to speak or -advance, while apologies were profusely made by Lord and Lady -Rohallion for their absence at the inspection on Bemerston Downs. - -"You will make this house your home, my dear Madame de Ribeaupierre," -said Lady Winifred, "until you choose to leave it for Paris----" - -"We shall be in no hurry arranging the cartel for that," said Lord -Rohallion; "though I have no doubt," he added to Eugene, "you will be -impatient to rejoin your regiment--light cavalry, I think?" Eugene -bowed very low; "and this gentleman----" - -"Monsieur Kennedy--a name once very dear to me," said Madame de -Ribeaupierre, presenting Quentin; "and dearer now again for the -services he and my Eugene have performed for each other." - -Lord Rohallion bowed, and shook the hand of Quentin cordially, but -did not remark his features particularly, till the expression of -astonishment and joy, half mingled by doubt and fear, which he saw, -while surveying alternately the faces of Flora and Lady Winifred, -attracted all his attention. - -"Quentin--Quentin Kennedy!" they exclaimed together. Flora seemed -tottering and deadly pale; but Lady Rohallion threw herself into his -arms, and sobbed hysterically. - -Conyers played with the tassels of his sash, and thought himself -decidedly in the way.... - -Brief and rapid were the questions asked, and explanations given now; -other guests came crowding in till the dinner-party was complete, and -Jack Andrews made the gong send its thunder from the vestibule: thus -they were compelled to compose themselves, nor indulge in that which -well-bred English society so eminently abhors--a scene. - -"I was thought too old to command a brigade in the field, Quentin," -said Lord Rohallion, shaking the hand of his young friend, at least -for the sixth time; "so the Duke of York kindly sent me to this quiet -place. If the flat-bottomed boats ever leave Boulogne, they will -find me, however, at my post; and, egad! I hope to show them there -is life in the old dog yet!" - -Conyers, the aide, who no doubt usually acted as esquire to la belle -Flora, was considerably put out--disgusted, in fact--when he found -her completely appropriated by another; while he was compelled to -offer his arm to the buxom wife of an adjutant of a Veteran battalion. - -"Flora!" - -"Quentin!" - -They had no other words for each other, even in whispers, as they -went mechanically to the dining-room, where all the cold formality of -a grand state dinner was to be enacted and endured. - -A strange throbbing thrill ran through Quentin's heart, as memory -went back to that last meeting in the sycamore avenue, and _the last -kiss_ given there, as he seemed with the touch of her hand to take up -the long-dropped link of a life that had passed away--his boyish life -of joy and love at Rohallion--long dropped, but never forgotten! - -They were young, but, strange to say, in their instance, separation -for a time, instead of cooling, strengthened their mutual regard; and -when Flora spoke, the old familiar sound of her soft and beloved -voice made the tender link complete. - -She drew off her glove and smilingly held up a little white hand. -There was but one ring on it--the diamond gift of Madame de -Ribeaupierre, sent at a time when Quentin had no other gift to send; -and the curious history of it afforded them ample conversation during -dinner. As for Eugene, who sat opposite, he seemed immensely -consoled, under his unhappy circumstances, by a blue-eyed and fair -ringleted daughter of the Commissary General from Newport, that young -lady's patriotic animosity to France seeming in no way to extend to a -handsome young fellow in the green coat lapelled with white of the -24th Chasseurs à Cheval; so thus the daughter of "la perfide Albion" -had it all her own way. - -Then the old General and Madame de Ribeaupierre were, as Eugene -phrased it in the French camp style, "like a couple of -_fourbisseurs_," they sat with their powdered heads so close -together; but they were deep in recollections of the old court of the -Bourbons, of the Scoto-French alliance, of the days of the monarchy, -all of which Eugene was wont to stigmatize as "the rubbish of the -world before the flood," for he was one of those young men who -wisely, perhaps, don't see much use in looking back at any time. - -Lady Rohallion had, of course, innumerable questions to ask -concerning Cosmo; but, kept so distantly aloof as he had been by that -uncompromising personage, Quentin found great difficulty in -satisfying the anxious mother. Then Lord Rohallion asked many a -question concerning the old Borderers; but as Quentin's battalion had -been the second, and was consequently a new one, he had some -difficulty in satisfying all his inquiries. - -Fresh from foreign service and the seat of war, whence some rather -exaggerated stories of scrapes and perils had preceded him, Quentin -experienced all the intense boredom of finding himself "an object of -interest." This annoyance was all the greater, that he was absorbing -and absorbed by Flora, the heiress, the general's beautiful and -wealthy ward, who had already turned the heads of all the hard-up -fellows in the adjacent garrison towns. - -All things have an end; even the longest and most stately of dinners, -so in due time the ladies retired to the drawing-room. As Madame de -Ribeaupierre passed Quentin, her cheek was flushed with pleasure and -gratified pride by the attention she had received from the courtly -old lord--that noble pair d'Ecosse; her eyes were bright, and she -still looked indeed beautiful. - -"Ah, my child, Quentin, I can see what I can see," she whispered; "it -is she whom you love, then?" - -"Yes, madame, most dearly," said Quentin, smiling. - -"C'est un ange! and I shall always love her, too!" exclaimed the -impulsive Frenchwoman, as she kissed Flora's blushing cheek. - -"Quentin, follow us soon," said the latter, tapping him with her fan; -"I want to hear more about that Spanish lady at the Villa de Maciera." - -The gentlemen lingered over their wine; much "shop and pipeclay" were -talked, with reserve, however, as Eugene was present; but the merits -of the new shako, and the probability of the expected brevet, were as -usual fully discussed. The first to join the ladies in the -drawing-room was Quentin, who felt very much as if in a dream, from -which he might waken to find himself in the cabin of the _Bien Aimé_, -in the Villa de Orsan, or, worse still, in some comfortless bivouac -in Estremadura; and glad were these united friends when the guests -had taken their leave, and they were all left to themselves in the -drawing-room. - -Much conversation and many explanations ensued; and a very simple -remark, by stirring a certain chord of memory, was the happy means of -bringing about a very unexpected revelation or dénouement--one, -indeed, so remarkable as to deserve a chapter to itself. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - -THE REVELATIONS OF A NIGHT. - - "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, - Old Time is still a-flying; - And this same flower that smiles to-day, - To-morrow will be dying. - Then be not coy, but use your time, - And while you may, go marry; - For having lost but once your prime, - You may for ever tarry."--HERRICK. - - -"It has come strangely about, Madame Rohallion, how my son Eugene, -and your--your friend, Mr. Kennedy, have met during the contingencies -of service in Spain," said Madame de Ribeaupierre; "and it is all the -more strange that my name was once Kennedy." - -We are sorry to say that the good lady pronounced it Kinnidee. - -"Yours, madame?" - -"My first husband was so named." - -"Madame has then been twice married?" - -"Yes; and Eugene is the only son of the general's first wife, for he -has been twice married, too," said Madame Ribeaupierre, with one of -her merry little laughs. - -"But I have always loved you, madame, as my mother," said the young -officer. - -"Indeed, child, you never knew any other," replied madame, as Eugene -kissed her forehead very affectionately. - -"Then was your first husband a Scotsman?" asked Lord Rohallion. - -"He was, monsieur le general, a captain in the King's service during -the monarchy." - -"Was he killed in action, madame?" - -"No, poor man--he was drowned at sea." - -"In what year was this?" - -"Alas! it was in 1798." - -A keen, bright glance was exchanged by Lord and Lady Rohallion on -hearing this; a light seemed to break upon their minds simultaneously. - -"Madame, pardon me," said the lady, very hurriedly, "but may I -enquire what is your Christian name?" - -"Josephine." - -"Josephine!" - -"Yes, madame. I was named at the font, Josephine St. Marie Duré de -Lusart." - -"Good heavens, my lord, if it should be so!" exclaimed Lady -Rohallion, hurrying to her escritoire and bringing forth an old faded -and yellow packet, from which she took a ring--the same that had been -found on Quentin's father. It bore, as we have stated elsewhere, the -name of Josephine graven on the gold, and a crest, a demi-griffin cut -on an amethyst. - -"This ring, madame--this ring--where did it come from? It was my -mother's gift to my first husband, Captain Kennedy, of the Scottish -regiment de Berwick, in the service of France; and this letter," -continued Madame de Ribeaupierre, with increasing agitation, "this -letter was mine--mine, written to him after he had left me with our -child to return to his own country, whither I was to follow him----" - -"And this commission, madame?" - -"Was his--was his," she exclaimed, becoming deeply excited, as she -pressed to her lips the signature of Louis XVI. "How came it here? -And this letter, too, of Monsieur le Comte d'Artois, written to him -after the campaigns on the Meuse and Rhine?" - -"They were found in the pocket-book of Quentin's father, when he was -cast drowned on the beach, with him, then a little child, senseless -and benumbed by cold," said Lady Rohallion, with one arm placed -caressingly round the Frenchwoman's neck, and with her eyes full of -tears, as the wild and stormy night on which our story opened came -back to memory. - -Madame Ribeaupierre became quite hysterical. - -"My son--you? oh, mon Dieu! mon Dieu! and this was your secret at the -Villa de Orsan," she exclaimed, in a very touching voice, as she -pressed to her breast the somewhat bewildered Quentin, who, having -been deeply engaged with Flora, had heard not a word of the foregoing -conversation. - -After a time, however, she related that her husband, who had left -Scotland in consequence of some quarrel, she believed, with his own -family, had taken his mother's name of Kennedy, and entered the -regiment de Berwick, in which he faithfully served the French -monarchy, even after it was completely shattered by the Revolution. - -That, on a rumour rising that Monsieur, then residing at Holyrood, -was about to reconstitute the Hundred Scottish Guards, with consent -of the British Government, he departed hurriedly from France, leaving -her at Arques, with her mother, Madame Duré de Lusart, who was then -on her death-bed. Accompanied by the Abbé Lebrun, an old friend, he -set out for Scotland, taking with him their little son. She added, -that the vessel in which they sailed was a Scottish brig, under -cartel, and bound for the Clyde; but it was, nevertheless, attacked -by a French privateer, off the coast of Britain somewhere--where she -knew not--but far to the north. The vessel was driven on a rock, and -all perished save the Abbé Lebrun, who saw both her husband and child -sink into the waves and die together. - -More fortunate, M. l'Abbé floated out to sea upon a spar, and was -picked up next morning, in a most exhausted condition, by the same -privateer which had done all the mischief. - -Notwithstanding all the skill of the great Doctor Thiebault, who came -from Paris, her mother died, and now she found herself childless and -alone in France--the terrible France of the Republic--and where she -was hourly in peril of the guillotine as an aristocrat. - -The Bastile had been razed to the ground; that was good; but the -change that had come over France was not for the better; "the gilded -coach, the red-heeled slipper, and the supper of the Regency; the -powdered marquise, for a smile of whose dimpled mouth the deadly -rapier flashed in the moonlight--the perfumed beauty, for one of -whose glances a poet would have ransacked his brain to render it -smoothly in verse;" the high-bred old courtier, the gilded salon--had -all given place to regiments of sans-culottes, to assassins, and the -sovereign people--to the République démocratique et sociale; to -planting trees of liberty, and grape-shotting the mob; to sham Roman -citizens and tribunes; to women debating the existence of a God, and -dancing nude in the fêtes of Venus; to a France of heroes and -madmen--a Paris of "monkeys and tigers!" - -Her country had become intolerable to her; she was long in despair, -she said, and but for the kindness and love of her friend, Marie de -Ribeaupierre, a chauoinesse of the Chapter of Salles, in Beaujolais, -she must have sunk under the loss of all her friends; but after a -time Marie's brother came; he was then a captain in the regiment of -La Fere, a handsome man, and in the prime of life, and, happily for -himself, stood high in the favour of Citizen Bonaparte. In the end, -she added, with a little smile and a very faint blush, she learned to -love him. They were married, and then she strove to console herself -for the loss of her own child by making a pet of his, the little -Eugene. - -"Ah, mon Dieu! mon Dieu!" she exclaimed, "what subtle instinct was -this? what mysterious voice was that which whispered in my heart to -love you, Quentin? I have only learned your name to-night; but how -often did I ask of myself, at the Villa de Orsan, what is this -stranger--this young Scottish officer--to me, that I should feel so -deeply interested in him? Oh, Ribeaupierre, my dear husband, what a -strange story I shall have to tell you! That he, for whom I prayed -nightly, and thanked God for saving the life of _your_ son Eugene, -proves to be mine--the child of my own bosom--my long-lost little -Quentin! Truly the hand of a kind and blessed Providence has been in -all this!" - -After she became a little more composed, she desired her maid to -bring from her dressing-table a casket, which she unlocked, saying -that she would show Quentin a miniature of his father--a relic on -which she had not looked for many a day; and he gazed on it with -eager, earnest, and mournful tenderness. - -It was the face of a dark-complexioned and thoughtful-looking young -man, with his hair simply tied by a blue ribbon; there was a singular -combination of mildness, sadness, and softness in the features and -their expression; but when it was handed to Lady Rohallion, a sharp -little cry, as if of pain, escaped her. - -"Reynold--my lord--look here--you know this face!" she exclaimed. - -"My brother Ranulph, for a thousand guineas! Why, madame, this is a -miniature of my brother Ranulph Crawford, who was killed, we were -told, in the defence of the Tuileries." - -"No--no--impossible! impossible! Captain Crawford who fell there was -our dear friend--he commanded the grenadiers of the regiment de -Berwick. My husband took, I know not why, his mother's name in -France; and that miniature he hung round my neck on the day we were -married in Arques by the good Abbé Lebrun." - -"I can swear that it was painted for me, about three years after -Minden, by honest David Allan of Alloa, whose name should be within -it." - -"True, monsieur, behold!" she added, opening the locket by a spring; -"there is the name of Monsieur Allan, and this is Quentin's hair, -when it was the colour of gold, woven up with--with his poor -father's." - -"This is wonder upon wonder!" exclaimed Flora Warrender, as she hung -on the neck of Madame de Ribeaupierre, who kept the right hand of -Quentin pressed upon her heart, while Eugene, who stood by, was -stroking his moustache, and thinking if he had anything to do in the -way of kissing, he would certainly prefer Flora. - -Lady Rohallion was silent. - -So the boy, by whose cradle in infancy she had watched with such -motherly solicitude, was the nephew of her husband, the cousin-german -of Cosmo; the son of that younger brother who had been the first love -of her girlish days--the worshipper of her girlish beauty, in the -pleasant times long past in sunny Nithsdale, the courtly gentleman -and gallant soldier of fortune, over whose life she had cast a -shadow. It was a strange mystery! - -Some such idea was passing in the mind of her husband. - -"Good heavens, Winny! so that poor father, whose fate is yet a legend -among our tenantry--the poor man who struggled so bravely to save his -child, when the ship was shattered on the Partan Craig--who died in -sight of Rohallion, and whom honest John Girvan buried as became a -soldier in the old kirkyard--our own ancestral burying-place--was my -dear brother Ranulph!" exclaimed Lord Rohallion, with a sudden gush -of affection and emotion; "and 'tis his boy we have so loved and -protected, Winny! Poor Ranulph--poor Ranulph! I should like to have -looked on your handsome and honest face once again ere it was laid in -the grave; but it could not be, for I was absent. Madame, do you -know that his drowned corpse was carried forth by his father's people -from the gate of the house in which he was born, and every room of -which has echoed to his voice in boyhood, and past the very haunts in -which we played together, under the old sycamores of the avenue, by -the Lollards' Linn and the Kelpie's Pool, on the Girvan Water. Thank -God, poor Ranulph, you found a grave at last among your own people, -and where your forefathers lie; but we have much to make amends for," -added the old Lord, as he placed Flora's hand in that of Quentin; -"may you both live long to enjoy all the happiness you deserve; and -be assured that my last prayer will be for both of you!" - -* * * * - -What follows? - -Orange wreaths and snow-white satin dresses, kid gloves and wedding -favours, compliments and kisses, a marriage settlement and so forth, -were all the subjects for mature consideration ere long at Minden -Lodge; and within a month Quentin _Crawford_--he had to change his -name, as well as Flora--departed with his bride to spend the -honeymoon among the green summer woods and purple heather braes of -Rohallion; and joyful indeed was the salute that pealed from the guns -on the battery--whilome those of La Bonne Citoyenne under the -direction of the old quartermaster, who concluded by a general salvo -that scared the rooks from the keep, sent the seabirds screaming in -flocks to the Partan Craig, and made the dominie jump a yard high in -his square-toed shoes; and red and rousing were the bonfires that -blazed on the old castle rock and on the heights of Ardgour in honour -of the day. - -Cosmo, we have said, was enjoying the seclusion and safety from duns -afforded by the fortress of Verdun, where we have no wish to disturb -him. - -Monkton, long since retired upon full pay as colonel, is still one of -the most popular members of the Caledonian U.S. Club; but poor old -Middleton died a lieutenant-general some years ago, near his native -place, the secluded village of the Stennis, in Lothian. The old -watch, which was the providential means of saving his life in action, -he never had repaired; but it always hung above his mantelpiece with -the bullet in it, for he said that no clock in the land could ever -remind him so well of time and eternity. - -Donna Isidora accompanied the French troops to Paris, and made a -tremendous sensation as a Spanish opera-dancer. In London she became -the rage, and, as _La Fille de l'Air_, her benefits were ably puffed -and conducted by her secretary, whose name always figured in the -bills as El Senor Trevino. - -Old John Girvan "sleeps the sleep that knows no waking" in the green -kirkyard of Rohallion; but he lived to dandle a young Quentin on his -knee, and to hear the dominie teach a little Flora to lisp her first -letters under the old oak-trees of Ardgour. - -Eugene de Ribeaupierre, now one of the generals of the second Empire, -has lived to lead his division of cavalry at Inkerman and the -Tchernaya, at Solferino and Magenta, as bravely as ever his father -did at Corunna, at Austerlitz, or Smolensko, in the wars of Napoleon -the First. - - - -THE END. - - - - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KING'S OWN BORDERERS, -VOLUME III (OF 3) *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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