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diff --git a/old/68294-0.txt b/old/68294-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 312deb1..0000000 --- a/old/68294-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6014 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dulcie Carlyon, Volume II (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: Dulcie Carlyon, Volume II (of 3) - A novel - -Author: James Grant - -Release Date: June 11, 2022 [eBook #68294] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Al Haines - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DULCIE CARLYON, VOLUME II (OF -3) *** - - - - - - - - DULCIE CARLYON. - - - A Novel. - - - - BY - - JAMES GRANT, - - AUTHOR OF 'THE ROMANCE OF WAR,' ETC. - - - IN THREE VOLUMES. - - VOL. II. - - - - LONDON: - WARD AND DOWNEY, - 12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. - - 1886. - - [_All Rights Reserved._] - - - - -NEW NOVELS AT EVERY LIBRARY. - - -FROM THE SILENT PAST. By Mrs. HERBERT MARTIN. 2 Vols. - -COWARD AND COQUETTE. By the Author of 'The Parish of Hilby.' 1 vol. - -MIND, BODY, AND ESTATE. By the Author of 'Olive Varcoe.' 3 vols. - -AT THE RED GLOVE. By KATHARINE S. MACQUOID. 3 vols. - -WHERE TEMPESTS BLOW. By the Author of 'Miss Elvester's Girls.' 3 -vols. - -IN SIGHT OF LAND. By Lady DUFFUS HARDY. 3 vols. - -AS IN A LOOKING-GLASS. By F. C. PHILIPS. 1 vol. - -LORD VANECOURT'S DAUGHTER. By MABEL COLLINS. 3 vols. - - -WARD AND DOWNEY, PUBLISHERS, LONDON. - - - - -CONTENTS OF VOL. II. - - -CHAPTER - -I. SEPARATED - -II. AN UNWELCOME VISITOR - -III. A BRUSH WITH THE ZULUS - -IV. THE CAMP - -V. THE MASSACRE AT ISANDHLWANA - -VI. 'HAS SHE DISCOVERED ANYTHING?' - -VII. FEARS AND SUSPICIONS - -VIII. BY THE BUFFALO RIVER - -IX. ON THE KARROO - -X. FLORIAN JOINS THE MOUNTED INFANTRY - -XI. DULCIE'S NEW FRIEND - -XII. GIRLS' CONFIDENCES - -XIII. THE EVENING OF GINGHILOVO - -XIV. NEWS FROM THE SEAT OF WAR - -XV. PERSECUTION - -XVI. A THREAT - -XVII. WITH THE SECOND DIVISION - -XVIII. ON THE BANKS OF THE ITYOTYOSI - -XIX. FINDING THE BODY - -XX. THE SKIRMISH AT EUZANGONYAN - - - - -DULCIE CARLYON. - - - -CHAPTER I. - -SEPARATED. - -'Something must be done, and deuced soon too, to separate this pair -of spoons, or else they will be corresponding by letter, somehow or -anyhow, after he has taken himself off; and Lady Fettercairn is -always saying it is high time that something was definitely arranged -between the girl and me! But, of course, Finella thinks _him_ -handsome enough to be the hero of a three-volume novel.' - -Thus muttered Shafto, who, after a long absence, had returned to -Craigengowan again, believing that Hammersley must now be gone; but -he found, to his extreme annoyance, that two days of that officer's -visit yet remained; so, with the futile _fracas_ about the cards in -his mind, Shafto avoided him as much as possible, and the house and -grounds were ample enough to give him every scope for doing so. - -He was sedulously bent on working mischief, and Fate so arranged -that, on the second day, he had the power to do so. - -They were on the very eve of separation now, yet Finella knew their -love was mutual and true, and a glow of exultation was mingled with -the sadness of her heart--a glow which had a curious touch of fear in -it, as if such joy in his faith and truth could not be lasting. It -was a kind of foreboding of evil about to happen, and when the time -came that foreboding was remembered. - -On the day of Hammersley's departure, he was to leave Craigengowan -before dinner: thus, after luncheon, he contrived, unseen, to slip a -little note into her hand. It contained but two lines:-- - - -'Darling, meet me in the Howe of Craigengowan an hour hence, for the -last time. Do not fail. - -'V. H.' - - -She read it again and again, kissed it, of course, and slipped it -into her bosom. - -To avoid everyone and to be alone with her own thoughts, she ran -upstairs to the top of the house--to the summit of the old Scottish -square tower, which was the nucleus whereon much had been engrafted -even before the Melforts came to hold it, and going through a turret -door which opened on the stone bartizan--a pleasant promenade--she -sat down breathlessly, not to enjoy the lovely landscape which -stretched around her, where Bervie Brow and Gourdon Hill were already -casting their shadows eastward, but to wait and re-read her tiny note. - -She put her hand into her bosom to draw it forth; but it was -gone--she had lost it--and her first thought was, into whose hands -might it fall! - -She had a kind of stunned feeling at first, and then a glow of -indignation that she should be treated like a child, in awe of Lady -Fettercairn, and in a state of tutelage. - -Vincent Hammersley went to the trysting-place betimes--the shady Howe -of Craigengowan. The evening air was heavy with the fresh pungent -fragrance of the Scottish pines, the flat boughs of which nearly met -overhead thickly enough to exclude the sunshine, which here and there -found its way through breaks in the bronze-green canopy, and fell -like rays of gold on the thick grass and pine cones below; but there -was no appearance of Finella. - -Shafto had resolved to achieve a separation between these two, we -have said, and evil fortune put the power to do so completely in his -hands. - -Before Finella could reach the meeting-place among the shrubberies in -the lawn, she came face to face with Shafto. - -'Shafto!' she exclaimed, with intense annoyance, as she recoiled, -'you here--I did not know that you had returned.' - -'And didn't care, no doubt? Yes--you are on the way to meet someone -else?' - -'How do you know that?' - -'I found his little note to you.' - -'Where?' - -'At the foot of the turret stair.' - -'And you dared to read it.' - -'It was open. Dared!--well, I like that. Let us be friends at -least.' - -'I have much to pardon in you, Shafto,' said she, remembering the -unpleasant trick he had played Hammersley about the cards. - -'Let us understand each other, Finella.' - -'I thought we did so already,' said she defiantly, and impatiently at -his untimely presence; 'surely we have spoken plainly enough before -this.' - -His face was pale, and there was an expression of mischief in his -eyes that startled her. It was mere jealous rage that acted love. -He caught her hand, and, fearing him at that moment, she did not -withdraw it, but did so eventually and sharply. - -'What folly is this?' exclaimed Shafto; 'do not shrink from me thus, -Finella, but allow me to make a last appeal to you. I cannot think -that you are so utterly changed towards me, but that you are wilfully -blinding yourself.' - -'This is intolerable!' exclaimed the girl passionately, knowing that -precious time was passing, that Vivian had but a minute or two to -spare to receive a farewell kiss and last assurance of her love. - -'You used to love me, I think, in past days, before this man -Hammersley came here?' - -'I knew and loved him in London before I ever heard of your -existence,' she exclaimed, wound up to a pitch of desperation. 'Give -me up my note--I see it in your hand.' - -'His note?' - -'Mine, I say.' - -'You shall not have it for nothing then.' - -'What do you mean?' - -'Precisely what I say, pretty cousin. I must have some reward,' and -holding the note before her at arm's length he again captured her -right hand. - -'Restore my property. Would you be guilty of theft?' - -'No,' replied Shafto, laughing now with triumphant malice, as he -remembered Dulcie Carlyon and her locket. 'But what will you give me -for it?' - -'What _can_ I give you?' - -'Something better than your grandmother will for it--a kiss, freely,' -said he softly, as he saw what Finella did _not_ see--Vivian -Hammersley between the shrubberies, pausing in his approach, loth to -compromise her, yet perplexed and startled by the presence of Shafto -and the bearing of both. - -Finella flashed a defiant glance at her tormentor, but aware that he -was capable of much mischief, lest he might make some troublesome use -of the note with her grand-parents, of whom she certainly stood in -some awe, she was inclined to temporise with him. - -'If I give you a kiss, cousin Shafto, will you please give me my -note?' she asked. - -'Yes,' said he, and his heart leaped. - -'Take it, then.' - -She put up her sweet and innocent face to his, but instead of taking -one, he clasped her close to his breast, and holding her tightly, he -daringly and roughly kissed again and again the soft lips that he had -never touched before save in his day-dreams, and all this was in -sight of Vivian Hammersley, as he very well knew, and the latter, to -Shafto's secret and intense exultation, silently drew back and -disappeared. - -Shafto had certainly then his moment of triumph! - -Finella was greatly relieved when she obtained possession of her -note; but her proud little heart was full of fury and indignation at -the unwarrantable proceedings of Shafto, who hung or hovered about -her just long enough to preclude all hope of her meeting with -Hammersley, and when, full of sorrow, she returned to the house, she -could see nothing of him, but was told by Grapeston, the old butler, -that his departure had been suddenly hastened; that the trap was -already at the hall-door to take him to the station, and the captain -had charged him with a note for her. - -It was hastily written in pencil, and a pencilled address was on the -envelope. It ran thus:-- - - -'I went at the appointed time. You did not come, but I saw you -_elsewhere_ in the arms of your cousin, who doubtless has been -hereabout for some time past, unknown to me. _Those were no cousinly -kisses you gave him_. God may forgive your falsehood, but I never -will! - - -The room seemed to swim round her as she read and re-read the lines -like one in a dream. As she did so for the second time and took in -the whole situation, a cry almost escaped her. Then she heard some -farewells hastily exchanged on the terrace, and the sound of wheels -on gravel as the departing waggonette swept Hammersley away to the -railway station, and no power or chance of explanation was left her. - -The false light through which he--so brave, so true and -honourable--must now view her tortured and humiliated her, and -unmerited shame, mingled with just anger, burned in her heart. And -Shafto had brought all this about! - -Oh for language to describe her loathing of him! His was the -mistake--the crime to be explained; but would it ever be explained? -And she dared not complain to Lord or Lady Fettercairn, who openly -abetted Shafto's avaricious aspirations as regarded herself. - -She rushed away to her own room, lighted candles, and locked herself -in. She sat down by the dressing-table; was that wan face reflected -in the mirror hers? She leaned her elbows on the former, with her -face in her hands, and sat there sobbing heavily in grief and rage -without ever sighing, though her heart felt full to bursting. - -She pleaded a headache as an excuse for non-appearance at dinner, and -Lord and Lady Fettercairn exchanged a silent glance of mutual -intelligence and annoyance, not unmingled, perhaps, with satisfaction. - -Finella sat in her room as if turned to stone; at last she heard the -stable clock strike midnight, and mechanically she proceeded to -undress without summoning her maid. - -A rosebud was in the rich cream-tinted lace about her pretty neck. -_He_ had given it to her but that morning, as they lingered on the -terrace, and with haggard eyes she looked at it, kissed it, and put -it in her white bosom. - -This morning she was with him--her lover, her affianced husband--her -own--and he was hers--all to each other in the world--and now! - -'He hates me, most probably,' she murmured. - -A few days stole away, and she tried to act a part, for watchful eyes -were upon her. Hammersley was gone! Doubly gone! How she missed -his presence was known only to herself. He was ever so sweetly but -not obtrusively tender; so quick of wit, ready in attention and -speech, though the envious Shafto phrased it, 'he would coax a bird -off a tree.' He was so gentlemanly and gallant--every way such -irreproachably good style, that she loved him with all the strength -of her loving and passionate nature. The memory of the past--of her -lost happiness--lost more than she might ever know, through the -deliberate villainy of Shafto, rose ever before her with vivid -distinctness; the evening on which their love was avowed in the -drawing-room--the evening in the Howe of Craigengowan, when he gave -her the two rings, and many other chance or concerted meetings, were -before her now, and she could but clasp her hands tightly, while a -heavy sob rose in her throat. - -The wedding ring, he had given her to keep, was often drawn forth -fondly, and slipped on her wedding finger in secret--a temptation of -Fate, as any old Scotchwoman would have told her. She would have -written a letter of explanation to Hammersley, but knew not where to -address him; and ere long the announcement in a public print that he -had sailed from Plymouth with a strong detachment of the 2nd -Warwickshire, for the seat of war in South Africa, put it out of her -power to do so, and she had but to bear her misery helplessly. - -More than ever were they now separated! - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -AN UNWELCOME VISITOR. - -Lady Fettercairn was in the drawing-room at Craigengowan, and talking -with Shafto seriously and affectionately on the subject of Finella -and the wishes of herself and Lord Fettercairn; and Shafto was making -himself most agreeable to his 'grandmother,' for he was still in high -glee and elfish good humour at the mode in which he had 'choked off -that interloper, Hammersley,' when a valet announced that an elderly -woman 'wished to speak with her ladyship.' - -'What is her name?' - -'She declined to say.' - -'Is she one of our own people?' - -'I think not, my lady.' - -'But what can she want?' - -'She would not say--it was a private matter, she admitted.' - -'Very odd.' - -'She is most anxious to see your ladyship.' - -'It is some begging petition, of course,' said Shafto; 'desire her to -be off.' - -'It may be so, sir.' - -'Then show her the door.' - -'She seems very respectable, sir,' urged the valet. - -'But poor--the old story.' - -'Show her in,' said Lady Fettercairn. - -The elderly woman appeared, and curtseyed deeply twice in a graceful -and old-fashioned manner. Her once black hair was now seamed with -white; but her eyes were dark and sparkling; her cheeks were yet -tinged with red, and her rows of teeth were firm and white as ever, -for the visitor was Madelon Galbraith, now in her sixtieth year, and -with the assured confidence of a Highland woman she announced herself -by name. - -'I read in the papers,' said she, 'that the grandson of Lord -Fettercairn had shot some beautiful eaglets at the ruins of Finella's -castle. The grandson, thought I--that maun be the bairn I nursed, as -I nursed his mother before him, and so I'm come a the way frae -Ross-shire to see him, your leddyship.' - -'I have heard of you, Madelon, and that you were in early life nurse -to--to my younger son's wife,' said Lady Fettercairn, with a freezing -stare and slight inclination of her haughty head; but she added, 'be -seated.' - -'Yes--I was nurse to Captain MacIan's daughter Flora,' said Madelon, -her eyes becoming moist; 'the Captain saved my husband's life in the -Persian war, but was killed himself next day.' - -'What have we to do with this?' said Shafto, who felt himself growing -pale. - -'Nothing, of course,' replied Madelon sadly. - -'Then what do you want?' - -'What I have said. I heard that the son of Major Melfort--or MacIan -as he called himself in the past time--was here at Craigengowan, and -I made sae bold as to ca' and see him--the bairn I hae suckled.' - -'If you nursed my grandson, as you say,' said Lady Fettercairn, 'do -you not recognise him? Stand forward, Shafto.' - -'Shafto--is this Mr. Shafto!' exclaimed Madelon. - -'Yes, my son Lennard's son.' - -'Shafto Gyle!' said Madelon bewildered. - -'What _do_ you mean?' - -'What I say, my leddy.' - -'This is Major Melfort's only son.' - -'Only nephew! The bairn I nursed--the son of Lennard Melfort and my -darling Flora--was named after her, Florian, and was like herself, -dark-haired, dark-eyed, and winsome. Where is he? What is the -meaning of this, Mr. Shafto? I recognise ye now, though years hae -passed since I saw ye.' - -'She is mad or drunk!' exclaimed Shafto, starting up savagely. - -'I am neither,' said Madelon, firmly and defiantly. - -'Turn her out of the house!' said Shafto, with his hand on the bell. - -'There is some trick here--where is Florian?' - -'How the devil should I know, or be accountable for him to a creature -like you?' - -'Ay, ay, Mr. Shafto, as a bairn ye were aye crafty, shrewd, and -evil-natured, and if a lie could hae chokit ye, ye wad hae been deid -lang syne.' - -'This is most unseemly language, Madelon Galbraith,' said Lady -Fettercairn, rising from her chair, 'and to me it seems that you are -raving.' - -'Unseemly here or unseemly there, it is the truth,' said Madelon, -stoutly, and, sooth to say, Lady Fettercairn's estimation and -knowledge of Shafto's character endorsed the description given of it -by Madelon. - -'Florian was dark, and you are, as you were, fair and fause too; and -Florian had what you have not, and never had, a black mole-mark on -his right arm.' - -'Such marks pass away,' said Shafto. - -'No, these marks never pass away!' retorted Madelon; 'there is some -devilry at work here. I say, where is Florian? Ay, ay,' she -continued; 'my bairn, Florian, was born on a Friday, and a Friday's -birth, like a Friday's marriage, seldom is fortunate; but this is no -my bonnie black-eyed lad, Lady Fettercairn--so _where_ is he?' - -'This is intolerable!' said Lady Fettercairn, whom that name by old -association of ideas seemed to irritate; and, on a valet appearing in -obedience to a furious ring given to the bell by Shafto, she added, -'Show this intruder out of the house, and do so instantly.' - -The man was about to put his hand on Madelon, but the old Highland -woman drew herself up with an air of defiance, and swept out of the -room without another word. - -'See her not only out of the house, but off the grounds,' shouted -Shafto, who was almost beside himself with rage and genuine fear. -'Nay, I'll see to that myself,' he added. 'Such lunatics are -dangerous.' - -Seeing her hastening down the avenue, he whistled from the stable -court a huge mastiff, and by voice and action hounded it on her. The -dog bounded about her, barking furiously and tore her skirts to her -infinite terror, till the lodgekeeper dragged it off and closed the -gates upon her. Then she went upon her way, her Highland heart -bursting with rage and longing for revenge. - -Shafto was glad that Lord Fettercairn was absent, as he might have -questioned Madelon Galbraith more closely; but to his cost he was -eventually to learn that he had not seen the last of Florian's nurse. - -This visit taken in conjunction with the mode in which Finella now -treated him made Craigengowan somewhat uncomfortable for Shafto, so -he betook himself to Edinburgh, and to drown his growing fears -plunged into such a mad career of dissipation and extravagance that -Lord Fettercairn began to regret that he had ever discovered an heir -to his estates at all. - -While there Shafto saw in the newspaper posters one day the -announcement of the terrible disaster at Isandhlwana, 'with the total -extirpation of the 24th Warwickshire Foot!' - -'_His_ regiment, by Jove! I'll have a drink over this good news,' -thought the amiable Shafto, and certainly a deep 'drink' he did have. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -A BRUSH WITH THE ZULUS. - -When Florian recovered consciousness the African sun was high in the -sky; but he lay still for a space in his leafy concealment, as he -knew not what time had elapsed since he had last seen his mounted -pursuers, or how far or how near they might be off. - -Dried blood plastered all one side of his face, and blood was still -oozing from the wound in his temple. Over it he tied his -handkerchief, and with his white helmet off--as it was a conspicuous -object--he clambered to the edge of the donga and looked about him. - -The vast extent of waste and open veldt spread around him, but no -living object was visible thereon. His pursuers must have ridden -forward or returned to Elandsbergen without searching the donga, and -thus he was, for the time at least, free from them. - -In the distance he saw the Drakensberg range, and knew that his way -lay westward in the opposite direction. It is the name given to a -portion of the Ouathlamba Mountains, which form the boundary between -the Free States, Natal, and the land of the Basutos. They rise to a -height of nine thousand feet, and their topography is imperfectly -known. - -Having assured himself that he was unwatched and unseen, Florian -quitted the donga, and, after an anxious search of an hour or more, -succeeded in striking upon the ruts or wheel-tracks that must lead, -he knew, to the camp at Rorke's Drift, beside the Buffalo River, and -then he steadily, though weary and somewhat faint, proceeded upon his -return journey. - -How many miles he walked he knew not--there were no stones to mark -them; but evening was at hand, and he had traversed a district of -_ruggens_, as it is called there--a succession of many grassy -ridges--before an exclamation of supreme satisfaction escaped him, -when he saw the white bell-tents of Colonel Glyn's column, pitched on -the grassy veldt beside the winding stream, and, passing the advanced -sentinels, he lost no time in reporting himself to Sheldrake, and -relieving himself also of that unlucky gold which had so nearly cost -him his life. - -Sheldrake sent instantly for Dr. Gallipott, a staff-surgeon, who -dressed Florian's hurt. In the bearing of the latter as he related -his late adventures Sheldrake was struck with a certain grave -simplicity or quiet dignity--an air of ease and perfect -self-possession--far above his present position. - -'You are "not what you seem to be," as novels have it?' said the -young officer inquiringly. - -'I am a soldier, sir, as my---- (father was before me, he was about -to say, but paused in confusion and substituted) 'as my fate decided -for me.' - -Impressed by his whole story and the terrible risks and toil he had -undergone, young Sheldrake offered a substantial money reward to -Florian, who coloured painfully at the proposal, drew back, with just -the slightest air of hauteur, and declined it. - -'You are somewhat of an enigma to me,' said the puzzled officer. - -'Is there any news in camp, sir?' - -'Only that we enter Zululand to-morrow, and a draft from home joined -us to-day under Captain Hammersley.' - -Florian heard the name of Captain Hammersley without much concern, -save that he was one of the same corps. He little foresaw how much -their names and interests would be mingled in the future. - -'Here he comes,' said Sheldrake, as the handsome officer in his fresh -uniform came lounging, cigar in mouth, into the tent, and Florian, -with a salute, withdrew. Ere he did so, - -'Tom,' said Sheldrake to his servant, 'tell the messman to give the -sergeant a bottle of good wine; he'll need it to keep up his pecker -after last night's work and with the work before us to-morrow.' - -Florian thanked the officer and retired; and he and Bob Edgehill -shared the contents of the bottle, while the latter listened to his -narration. - -'You have grown to look very grave, Hammersley,' said Sheldrake; 'of -what are you thinking so much?' - -'Nothing.' - -'Nothing?' - -'Yes; the best way to get through life is _not_ to think at all,' -replied Hammersley bitterly, for his thoughts were ever and always of -Finella and that fatal evening in the shrubbery at Craigengowan, -where he saw her lift up her face to Shafto, who kissed her as though -he had been used to do so all his life. - -Colonel Glyn's column consisted of seven companies of his own -regiment, the 24th, the Natal Mounted Police, a body of Volunteers, -two 7-pounder Royal Artillery guns under Major Harness, and 1000 -natives under Rupert Lonsdale, late of the 74th Highlanders. - -At half-past three on the morning of the 12th of January, the -colonel, with four companies, some of the Natal Native Contingent, -and the mounted men, left his camp to reconnoitre the country of -Sirayo, which lay to the eastward of it. With his staff, Lord -Chelmsford accompanied this party, which, after a few miles' march, -reached a great donga, in a valley through which the Bashee River -flows, and wherein herds of cattle were collected, and their lowing -loaded the calm morning air, though they were all unseen, being -concealed in the rocky krantzes or precipitous fissures of the ravine. - -A body of Zulus now appeared on the hills above, and Florian regarded -them with intense interest, while the mounted men advanced against -them, and his company, with the others, pushed in skirmishing order -up the ravine where the cattle were known to be. - -He could see that these Zulu warriors were models of muscle and -athletic activity, and nearly black-skinned rather than -copper-coloured. They were dressed in feathers, with the tails of -wild animals round their bodies, behind and before; their ornaments -were massive rings formed of elephants' tusks, and their anklets were -of brass or polished copper; they had large oval shields, rifles, and -bundles or sheafs of assegais, their native deadly weapon, and they -bounded from rock to rock before our skirmishers with the activity of -tree-tigers. - -'With the assegai,' says Sir Arthur Cunynghame, 'the Zulu cuts his -food, he fights and does many useful things, and it is used as a -surgical instrument. Carefully sharpening it, he uses it to bleed -the human patient, and with it he inoculates his cow's tail. In the -chase it is his spear, a deadly weapon in his hand, and ready -instrument for skinning his game.' - -The orders of the main body of this reconnoitring force, which had -suddenly become an attacking one, were to ascend a hill on the left, -then to work round to the right rear of the enemy's position, and -assault and destroy a kraal belonging to the brother of Sirayo, whose -surrender the Government had demanded as one of the violators of the -British territory. - -The moment the companies of the 24th got into motion a sharp fire was -opened on them by the Zulus, who were crouching behind bushes and -great stones, and on the Native Contingent which led the attack, -under Commandant Browne. - -The latter had their own armament of assegais and shields, to which -the Government added Martini-Henrys or Enfields, but their -fighting-dress consisted of their own bare skins. Each company -generally was formed of a separate tribe, under its own chief, with a -nominal allowance of three British officers; but there were none of -minor rank, to lead sections, or so forth, as these natives could not -comprehend divided authority. They were pretty well drilled, and -many were skilled marksmen; but now many fell so fast under the fire -of the Zulus that every effort of their white officers was requisite -to get the others on. - -Dying or dead, with the red blood oozing from their bullet-wounds, -rolling about and shrieking in agony, or lying still and lifeless, -they studded all the rocky ascent, while the survivors gradually -worked their way upward, planting in their fire wherever a dark head -or limb appeared; and when they came within a short distance of the -enemy's position, the men of the 24th prepared to carry it by a rush. - -Hammersley's handsome face glowed under his white helmet, and his -dark eyes sparkled as he formed his company for attack on the march. - -'From the right--four paces extend!' - -Then the skirmishers swung away out at a steady double. - -Florian was now for the first time under fire. He heard the ping of -the rifle-bullets as they whistled past him from the smoke-hidden -position of the Zulus, and he heard the splash of the lead as they -starred the rocks close by. Then came that tightening of the chest -and increase of the pulse which the chance of sudden death or a -deadly wound inspire, till after a time that emotion passed away, and -in its place came the genuine British bull-dog longing to grapple -with the foe. - -The Zulus fired briskly and resolutely from their rocky eyries; and -while one party made a valiant stand at a cattle-kraal, another -nearly made the troops quail and recoil by hurling down huge -boulders, which they dislodged by powerful levers and sent thundering -and crashing from the summit of the hill till it was captured by the -bayonets of the 24th; they were put to flight in half an hour, and by -nine in the morning the whole affair was over, and Florian found he -had come unscathed through his baptism of fire; but Lieutenant -Sheldrake had his shoulder-arm lacerated by a launched assegai when -leading the left half-company. - -Sirayo's kraal, which lay farther up the Bashee Valley, was burned -later in the day by mounted men under Colonel Baker Russell. Our -losses were only fourteen; those of the Zulus were great, including -the capture of a thousand cattle and sheep. All the women and -children captured were sent back to their kraals by order of Lord -Chelmsford, who, on the 17th of January, rode out to the fatal hill -of Isandhlwana, which he selected as the next halting-place of the -centre column, and which was eventually to prove well nigh its grave! - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -THE CAMP. - -On the 20th of January the column began its march for the hill of -Isandhlwana, through a country open and treeless. - -'Where and how is Dulcie now?' was the ever-recurring thought of -Florian as he tramped on in heavy marching order in rear of -Hammersley's company. Oh, to be rich and free--rich enough, at -least, to save her from that cold world upon which she was cast, and -in which she must now be so lonely and desolate. - -But he was a soldier now, and serving face to face with death in a -distant and savage land, and, so far as she was concerned, hope was -nearly dead. - -'My position seems a strangely involved one!' thought Florian, when -he brooded over the changed positions of himself and Shafto; 'there -is some mystery in it which has not yet been unravelled. Am I to be -kept in this state of doubt and ignorance all my life--but that may -be a short period as matters go now. _My father!_ Must I never more -call or consider him I deemed to be so, by that name again!' - -Four companies of the 24th Regiment were left at Rorke's Drift when -Colonel Glyn's column reached Isandhlwana, which means the Lion's -Hill. Precipitous and abrupt to the westward, on the eastward it -slopes down to the watercourse, and grassy spurs and ridges rise from -it in every direction. The waggon track to Rorke's Drift passes over -its western ridge, and groups of lesser hills, covered with masses of -loose grey stones, rise in succession like waves of a sea in the -direction of the stream called the Buffalo. - -When the column reached the hill and began to pitch their tents, the -young soldiers of the 'new system' were sorely worn and -weary--'pumped out,' as they phrased it. 'We may laugh at the old -stiff stock and pipeclay school,' says a popular military writer, -'but it may be no laughing matter some day to find out that, together -with the stock and pipeclay which could easily be spared, we have -sacrificed the old _solidity_ which army reformers should have -'grappled to their souls with hooks of steel,' and painfully was that -want of hardihood and foresight shown in the tragedy that was acted -on the Hill of Isandhlwana. - -A long ridge, green and grassy, ran southward of the camp, and -overlooked an extensive valley. Facing this ridge, and on the -extreme left of the camp, were pitched the tents of the Natal Native -Contingent. A space of three hundred yards intervened between this -force and the next two regiments. - -The British Infantry occupied the centre, and a little above their -tents were those of Lord Chelmsford and the head-quarter staff. The -mounted infantry and the artillery were on the right, lining the -verge of the waggon track--road it could scarcely be called. The -camp was therefore on a species of sloping plateau, overlooked by the -crest of the hill, which rose in its rear, sheer as a wall of rock. -The waggons of each corps were parked in its rear. - -The camp looked lively and picturesque on the slope of the great -green hill, the white tents in formal rows, with the red coats -flitting in and out, and the smoke of fires ascending here and there, -as the men proceeded to cook their rations. - -Florian was detailed for out-piquet duty that night, for the Zulus -were reported to be in force in the vicinity, and no one on that duty -could close an eye or snatch a minute's repose. The circle of the -outposts from the centre of the camp extended two thousand five -hundred yards by day, lessened to one thousand four hundred by night, -though the mounted videttes were further forward of course; but, by a -most extraordinary oversight, no breastworks or other barriers were -formed to protect the camp. - -Before coming to the personal adventures of our friends in this -story, we are compelled for a little space to follow that of the war. - -Early on the morning of the following day, the mounted infantry and -police, under Major Dartnell, proceeded to reconnoitre the -mountainous ground in the direction of a fastness in the rocks known -as Matyano's stronghold, while the Natal force, under Lonsdale, moved -round the southern base of the Malakota Hill to examine the great -dongas it overlooked. - -Dartnell's party halted and bivouacked at some distance from the -camp, to which he sent a note stating that he had a clear view over -all the hills to the eastward, and the Zulus were clustering there in -such numbers that he dared not attack them unless reinforced by three -companies of the 24th next morning. - -A force to aid him left the camp accordingly at daybreak, in light -marching order, without knapsacks, greatcoats, or blankets, with one -day's cooked provisions and seventy rounds per man; and with it went -Lord Chelmsford. - -These three detached parties so weakened the main body in camp that -it consisted then of only thirty mounted infantry for videttes, -eighty mounted volunteers and police, seventy men of the Royal -Artillery, six companies of the 24th, including Hammersley's, and two -of the Natal Native Contingent. - -When these reconnoitring parties were far distant from Isandhlwana, -the Zulus in sight of them were seen to be falling back, apparently -retiring on what was afterwards found most fatally to be a skilfully -preconceived plan; and, prior to making a general attack upon them, -Lord Chelmsford and his staff made a halt for breakfast. - -It was at that crisis that a messenger--no other than Sergeant -Florian MacIan--came from the camp mounted, with tidings that the -enemy were in sight on the left, and that the handful of mounted men -had gone forth against them. - -On this Lord Chelmsford ordered the Native Contingent to return at -once to the hill of Isandhlwana. - -Soon after shots were briskly exchanged with the enemy in front; a -vast number were 'knocked over,' and some taken prisoners. One of -the latter admitted to the staff, when questioned, that his King -Cetewayo expected a large muster that day--some twenty-five thousand -men at least. - -It was noon now, and a suspicion that something might be wrong in the -half-empty camp occurred to Lord Chelmsford and his staff, and this -suspicion was confirmed, when the distant but deep hoarse boom of -heavy guns came hurtling through the hot atmosphere. - -'Do you hear that?' was the cry on all hands; 'there is fighting -going on at the camp--we are attacked in the rear!' - -Then a horseman came galloping down from a lofty hill with the -startling tidings that he could see the flashing of the cannon at the -hill of Isandhlwana, and that it was enveloped on every side by smoke! - -To the crest of that hill Lord Chelmsford and his staff galloped in -hot haste and turned their field-glasses in the direction of the -distant camp, but if there had been smoke it had drifted away, and -all seemed quiet and still. The rows of white bell-tents shone -brightly in the clear sunshine, and no signs of conflict were -visible. Many men were seen moving among the tents, but they were -supposed to be British soldiers. - -This was at two in the afternoon, and the suspicion of any -fatality--least of all the awful one that had occurred--was dismissed -from the minds of the staff and Lord Chelmsford, who did not turn his -horse's head towards the camp till a quarter to three, according to -the narrative of Captain Lucas of the Cape Rifles. - -When, with Colonel Glyn's detachment, he had marched within four -miles of it, he came upon the Native Contingent halted in confusion, -indecision, and something very like dismay, and their bewilderment -infected the party of the General, towards whom, half an hour after, -a single horseman came up at full speed. - -He was Commandant Lonsdale, the gallant leader of the Natal -Contingent, who had gone so close to the camp that he had been fired -on by what he thought were our own troops, but proved to be Zulus in -the red tunics of the slain, the same figures whom the staff from the -distant hill had seen through their field glasses moving among the -snow-white tents. - -Out of one of them he saw a Zulu come with a blood-dripping assegai -in his hand. He then wheeled round his horse, and, escaping a shower -of rifle-bullets, galloped on to warn Lord Chelmsford of the terrible -trap into which he was about to fall. The first words he uttered -were, 'My Lord, the camp is in possession of the enemy!' - -Of the troops he had left there that morning nothing now remained but -the dead, and that was nearly all of them. - -The silence of death was there! And now we must note what had -occurred in the absence of the General, of Colonel Glyn, and the main -body of the second column. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -THE MASSACRE AT ISANDHLWANA. - -'What the deuce is up?' cried Hammersley and other officers, as they -came rushing out of their tents when the sound of firing was heard -all along the crest of the hill on the left of the camp, as had been -reported to Lord Chelmsford; and, soon after, the few Mounted -Infantry under Colonel Durnford were seen falling back, pursued -swiftly by Zulus, who, like a dark human wave, came rolling in -thousands over the grim crest of the hill, throwing out dense clouds -of skirmishers, whose close but desultory fire fringed all their -front with smoke. - -There was no occasion for drum to be beaten or bugle blown to summon -the troops; in a moment all rushed to arms, and the companies were -formed and 'told off' in hot and nervous haste. - -The Zulus came on in very regular masses, eight deep, maintaining a -steady fire till within assegai distance, when they ceased firing, -and launched with aim unerring their deadly darts. - -Our troops responded by a close and searching fire, under which the -black-skinned savages fell in heaps, but their places were fearlessly -taken by others. - -The rocket battery had been captured by them in their swift advance, -and every man of it perished in a moment with Colonel Russell. - -Driven back by their furious rush and force, the cavalry gave way, -and Captain Mostyn, with two companies of the noble 24th, was -despatched at the double to the eastern neck of the hill of -Isandhlwana, where the Zulus in vast force were pressing along to -outflank the camp, and on this wing of theirs he at once opened a -disastrous fire. - -Near the Royal Artillery guns the other two companies of the 24th -were extended in skirmishing order; this was about half-past twelve -p.m., and, as the mighty semicircle--the horns of the Zulu -army--closed on them, every officer and man felt that they were -fighting for bare existence now, and only procrastinating the moment -of extirpation. - -The shock which Hammersley's heart had received by the supposed -deception of Finella was still too terribly fresh to render him -otherwise than desperate and reckless of life, and in the coming -_mêlée_ he fought like a tiger. - -He longed to forget both it and her--to put death itself, as he had -now put distance, between himself and the place where that cruel blow -had descended upon him; thus he exposed himself with a temerity that -astonished Sheldrake, Florian, and others. - -D'Aquilar Pope's company of the 24th was thrown forward in extended -order near the waggon track till his left touched the files of the -right near the Artillery. Facing the north were the companies of -Mostyn, Cavaye, and Hammersley, with two of the Native Contingent, -all in extended order, and over them the guns threw shot and shell -eastward. But all the alternative companies were without supports to -feed the fighting line, unless we refer to some of the Native -Contingent held as a kind of reserve. - -The crest of that precipitous mountain in front of which our luckless -troops were fighting with equal discipline and courage in the silent -hush of desperation, is more than 4,500 feet high; but the camp upon, -its eastern slope had been in no way prepared, as we have said, for -defence by earthworks or otherwise. - -'The tents,' we are told, 'were all standing, just as they had been -left when the troops under Chelmsford and Glyn marched out that -morning, and their occupants were chiefly officers' servants, -bandsmen, clerks, and other non-combatants, who, until they were -attacked, were unconscious of danger. Fifty waggons, which were to -have gone back to the commissariat camp at Rorke's Drift, about six -miles in the rear as the crow flies, had been drawn up the evening -before in their lines on the neck between the track and the hill, and -were still packed in the same position. All other waggons were in -rear of the corps to which they were attached. The oxen having been -collected for safety when the Zulus first came in sight, many of them -were regularly yoked in.' - -It was not until after one o'clock that our handful of gallant -fellows on the slope of the hill fully realised the enormous strength -of the advancing army, now ascertained to have been _fourteen -thousand men_, under Dabulamanzi. - -By that time the Zulus had fought to within two hundred yards of the -Natal Contingent, which broke and fled, thus leaving a gap in the -fighting line, and through that gap the Zulus--loading the air with a -tempest of triumphant yells and shrieks--burst like a living sea, and -in an instant all became hopeless confusion. - -'Form company square,' cried Hammersley, brandishing his sword; -'fours deep, on the centre--close.' - -But there was no time to close in or form rallying-squares, and never -again would our poor lads 're-form company.' - -Before Mostyn's and Cavaye's companies could close, or even fix their -bayonets, they were destroyed to a man, shot down, assegaied, and -disembowelled, while the shrieks and fiend-like yells of the Zulus -began to grow louder as the rattle of the musketry grew less, and the -swift game of death went on. - -Hammersley's company, which had been on the extreme left, though -unable to form square, succeeded in reaching, but in a shattered -condition, a kind of terrace on the southern face of the hill, from -whence, as the smoke cleared away, they could see the Zulus using -their short, stabbing assegais with awful effect upon all they -overtook below. - -Under the fire of the cannon, which had been throwing case-shot, the -Zulus fell in groups rather than singly, and went down by hundreds; -but as fast as their advanced files melted away, hordes of fresh -savages came pouring up exultingly from the rear to feed the awful -harvest of death; and, as they closed in, 'Limber up!' was the cry of -Major Smith, the Artillery commanding officer; but the limber gunners -failed to reach their seats, and, save a sergeant and eight, all -perished under the assegai; and while in the act of spiking a gun, -the Major was slain amid an awful _mêlée_ and scene of carnage, where -horse and foot, white man and black savage, were all struggling and -fighting in a dense and maddened mass around the cannon-wheels. - -Notwithstanding the manner in which he exposed himself, Hammersley, -up to this time, found himself untouched; but his subaltern, poor -Vincent Sheldrake, whose wounded sword-arm rendered him very -helpless, was bleeding from several stabs and two bullet-wounds, -which it was impossible to dress, yet he strove to save his servant -Tom, who was lying in his last agony, and who, in gratitude, strove -to accord him a military salute, and died in the attempt. - -'Poor Vincent! you are covered with wounds!' said Hammersley. - -'Ay; so many that my own mother--God bless her!--wouldn't know me; so -many that if I was stripped of these bloody rags you would think I -was tattooed. It is no crutch and toothpick business this!' replied -Sheldrake, with a grim faint smile, as from weakness he fell forward -on his hands and knees, and Florian stood over him with bayonet fixed -and rifle at the charge. - -At that moment an assegai flung by a Zulu finished the mortal career -of Sheldrake. But Florian shot the former through the head, and the -savage--a sable giant--made a kind of wild leap in the air and fell -back on a gashed pile of the dead and the dying. It was Florian's -last cartridge, and his rifle-barrel was hot from continued firing by -this time. - -All was over now! - -Every man who could escape strove to make his way to the Buffalo -River, but that proved impossible even for mounted men. Intersected -by deep watercourses, encumbered by enormous boulders of granite, the -ground was of such a nature that the fleet-footed Zulus, whose bare -feet were hard as horses' hoofs, alone could traverse it, and the -river, itself swift, deep, and unfordable, had banks almost -everywhere jagged by rocks sharp and steep. - -A few reached the stream, among them Vivian Hammersley, his heart -swollen with rage and grief by the awful result of that bloody and -disastrous day, by the destruction of his beloved regiment--the old -24th--for which he could not foresee the other destruction that 'the -Wolseley Ring' would bring upon it and the entire British Army, and -the loss by cruel deaths of all his brother-officers--the entire -jolly mess-table. In that time of supreme agony of heart, we believe -he almost forgot his quarrel with Finella Melfort, but found the -track to Helpmakaar and Rorke's Drift, where a company of the 24th -were posted under the gallant young Bromhead; but most of the -fugitives were entirely ignorant of the district through which they -wildly sought to make their escape, and thus were easily overtaken -and slain by the Zulus; and so hot was the pursuit of these poor -creatures, that even of those who strove to gain a point on the -Buffalo, four miles from Isandhlwana, none but horsemen reached the -river, and of these many were shot or drowned in attempting to cross -it. - -Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Pulleine of the 24th, on perceiving all -lost, and that the open camp was completely in the hands of the -savages, called to Lieutenant Melville, and said, - -'As senior lieutenant, you will take the colours, which must be saved -at all risks, and make the best of your way from here!' - -He shook warmly the hand of young Melville, who, as adjutant, was -mounted, and then exclaimed to the few survivors: - -'Men of the old 24th, here we are, and here we must fight it out!' - -Then his gallant 'Warwickshires' threw themselves in a circle round -him, and perished where they stood. - -Melville galloped off with the colours, escorted by Lieutenant -Coghill of the same corps, and by Florian, who was ordered to do so, -as colour-sergeant, and who, luckily for himself, had found a strong -horse. These three fugitives were closely pursued, and with great -difficulty kept together till they reached the Buffalo River, the -bank of which was speedily lined with Zulu pursuers armed with rifle -and assegai. - -Melville's horse was shot dead in the whirling stream, and the -green-silk colours, heavy with gold-embroidered honours, slipped from -his hands. Coghill, a brave young Irish officer, reached the Natal -side untouched and in perfect safety; but on seeing his Scottish -comrade clinging to a rock while seeking vainly to recover the lost -colours, he went back to his assistance, and his horse was then shot, -as was also that of Florian, who failed to get his right foot out of -the stirrup, and was swept away with the dead animal down the stream. - -The Zulus now continued a heavy fire, particularly on Melville, whose -scarlet patrol jacket rendered him fatally conspicuous among the -greenery by the river-side at that place. Two great boulders, six -feet apart, lie there, and between them he and Coghill took their -last stand, and fought, sword in hand, till overwhelmed. 'Here,' -says Captain Parr in his narrative, 'we found them lying side by -side, and buried them on the spot'--truly brothers in arms, in glory -and in death. - -When all but drowned, Florian succeeded in disentangling his foot -from the stirrup-iron, and struck out for the Natal side. A shrill -yell from the other bank announced that he was not unseen; bullets -ploughed the water into tiny white spouts about him, and many a long -reedy dart was launched at him--but with prayer in his heart and -prayer on his lips he struggled on, and reached the bank, where he -lay still, worn breathless, incapable of further exertion, and -weakened by his recent fall in the donga, after escaping from -Elandsbergen; thus believing that all was over with him, the Zulus -ceased firing, and went in search of congenial carnage elsewhere. -And there, dying to all appearance, in a reedy swamp by the Buffalo -river, the tall grass around him, bristling with launched assegais, -lay Florian Melfort, the true heir of Fettercairn, friendless and -alone. - -* * * * * - -No Briton survived in camp to see the complete end of the awful scene -that was acted there! And of that scene no actual record exists. -For a brief period--a very brief one--a hand to hand fight went on -among, and even in, the tents, and the company of Captain Reginald -Younghusband of the 24th alone appears to have made any organized -resistance. Making a wild rally on a plateau below the crest of the -hill, they fought till their last cartridges were expended, and then -died, man by man, on the ground where they stood. The Zulus surged -round and over them with tiger-like activity, frantic gestures, -remorseless ferocity, and lust of blood, whirling and flinging their -ponderous knobkeries, or war-clubs, one blow from which would suffice -to brain a bullock. - -Even the savage warriors who slew and mutilated them were filled with -admiration at their courage, while tossing their own dead again and -again on the bayonet-blades to bear down the hedge of steel. 'Ah, -those red soldiers at Isandhlwana!' said the Zulus after; 'how few -they were, and how they fought! They fell like stones--each man in -his place.' - -There is something pathetic in the description of the stand made by -the _last man_ (poor Bob Edgehill, of the 24th), as given in the -_Natal Times_. - -Keeping his face to the foe, he struggled towards the crest of the -hill overlooking the camp, till he reached a small cavern in the -rocks. Therein he crept, and with rifle and bayonet kept the Zulus -at bay, while they, taking advantage of the cover some rocks and -boulders afforded them, endeavoured by threes and fours to shoot him. - -Bob--that rackety Warwickshire lad--was very wary. He did not fire -hurriedly, but shot them down in succession, taking a steady and -deliberate aim. At last his only remaining cartridge was dropped -into the breech-block of his rifle; another Zulu fell, and then he -was slain. This was about five in the evening, when the shadow of -the hill of Isandhlwana was falling far eastward across the valley -towards the ridge of Isipesi. - -'We ransacked the camp,' said a Zulu prisoner afterwards, 'and took -away everything we could find. We broke up the ammunition-boxes and -took all the cartridges. We practised a great deal at our kraals -with the rifles and ammunition. Lots of us had the same sort of -rifle that the soldiers used, having bought them in our own country, -but some who did not know how to use it had to be shown by those who -did.' - -Five entire companies of the 1st battalion of the 24th perished -there, with ninety men of the 2nd battalion; 832 officers and men -mutilated and disembowelled, in most instances stripped, lay there -dead, shot in every position, amid gashed and gory horses, mules, and -oxen, while 1400 oxen and £60,000 of commissariat supplies were -carried off. - -At ten minutes past six in the evening of that most fatal day Lord -Chelmsford was joined by Colonel Glyn's force. A kind of column was -formed, with the guns in the centre, with the companies of the 2nd -battalion of the 24th on each flank, and when the sun had set, and -its last light was lingering redly on the rocky scalp of Isandhlwana, -this force was within two miles of the camp, where now alone the dead -lay. The opaque outline of the adjacent hills was visible, with the -dark figures of the Zulus pouring in thousands over them in the -direction of Ulundi; and after shelling the neck of the Isandhlwana -Hill--where it would seem none of the enemy were, for no response was -made--the shattered force, crestfallen in spirit, heavy in heart, and -after having marched thirty miles, and been without food for -forty-eight hours, bivouacked among the corpses of their comrades. - -When, five months after, the burial parties were sent to this awful -place, great difficulty was experienced in finding the bodies, the -tropical grass had grown so high, while the stench from the -slaughtered horses and oxen was overpowering. Every conceivable -article, with papers, letters, and photographs of the loved and the -distant, were thickly strewn about. 'A strange and terrible calm -seemed to reign in this solitude of death and nature. Grass had -grown luxuriantly about the waggons, sprouting from the seed that had -dropped from the loads, falling on soil fertilised by the blood of -the gallant fallen. The skeletons of some rattled at the touch. In -one place lay a body with a bayonet thrust to the socket between the -jaws, transfixing the head a foot into the ground. Another lay under -a waggon, covered by a tarpaulin, as if the wounded man had gone to -sleep while his life-blood ebbed away. In one spot over fifty bodies -were found, including those of three officers, and close by another -group of about seventy; and, considering that they had been exposed -for five months, they were in a singular state of preservation.' - -Such is the miserable story of Isandhlwana. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -HAS SHE DISCOVERED ANYTHING? - -Finella Melfort knew by the medium of telegrams and despatches in the -public prints--all read in nervous haste, with her heart sorely -agitated--that Hammersley had escaped the Isandhlwana slaughter, and -was one of the few who had reached a place of safety. So did Shafto, -but with no emotion of satisfaction, it may be believed. - -When the latter returned to Craigengowan, Lady Fettercairn had not -the least suspicion of the bitter animosity with which Finella viewed -him, and of course nothing of the episode in the shrubbery, and thus -was surprised when her granddaughter announced a sudden intention of -visiting Lady Drumshoddy, as if to avoid Shafto, but delayed doing so. - -At his approach she recoiled from him, not even touching his -proffered hand. All the girlish friendship she once had for this -newly discovered cousin had passed away now, crushed out by a -contempt for his recent conduct, so that it was impossible for her to -meet him or greet him upon their former terms. She feared that her -loathing and hostility might be revealed in every tone and gesture, -and did not wish that Lord or Lady Fettercairn should discover this. - -To avoid his now odious society--odious because of the unexplainable -quarrel he had achieved between herself and the now absent -Vivian--she would probably have quitted Craigengowan permanently, and -taken up her residence with her maternal relation at Drumshoddy -Lodge; but she preferred the more refined society of Lady -Fettercairn, and did not affect that of the widow of the ex-Advocate -and Indian Civilian, who was vulgarly bent on urging the interests of -Shafto, and would have derided those of Hammersley in terms -undeniably coarse had she discovered them. And Lady Drumshoddy, -though hard by nature as gun-metal, was a wonderful woman in one way. -She could back her arguments by the production of tears at any time. -She knew not herself where they came from, but she could 'pump' them -up whenever she had occasion to taunt her granddaughter with what she -termed contumacy and perverseness of spirit. - -On the day Shafto returned Finella was in the drawing-room alone. -She was posed in a listless attitude. Her slender hands lay idly in -her lap; her face had grown thin and grave in expression, to the -anxiety and surprise of her relatives. Her chair was drawn close to -the window, and she was gazing, with unseeing eyes apparently, on the -wintry landscape, where the lawn and the leafless trees were powdered -with snow, and a red-breasted robin, with heart full of hope, was -trilling his song on a naked branch. - -It was a cheerless prospect to a cheerless heart. She had drawn from -her portemonnaie (wherein she always kept it) the bitter little -farewell note of Hammersley, and, after perusing it once more, -returned it slowly to its place of concealment. - -Where was he then? How employed--marching or fighting, in peril or -in safety? Did he think of her often, and with anger? Would he ever -come back to her, and afford a chance of explanation and -reconciliation? Ah no! it was more than probable their paths in -life would never cross each other again. - -Tears welled in her eyes as she went over in memory some episodes of -the past. She saw again his eager eyes and handsome face so near her -own, heard his tender and pleading voice in her ear, and recalled the -touch of his lips and the clasp of his firm white hand. - -Another hand touched her shoulder, and she recoiled with a shudder on -seeing Shafto. - -'What is this I hear,' said he; 'that you think of leaving -Craigengowan?' - -'Yes,' she replied, curtly. - -'Because I have returned, I presume?' - -'Yes.' - -His countenance darkened as he asked: - -'But--why so?' - -'Because I loathe that the same roof should be over you and me. -Think of what your infamous cunning has caused!' - -'A separation,' said he, laughing malevolently, 'a quarrel between -that fellow and you?' - -'Yes,' she replied with flashing eyes. - -'Can nothing soften this hostility towards me?' he asked after a -pause. - -'Nothing. I never wish to see your face or hear your voice again.' - -'Well, if you leave Craigengowan simply to avoid me I shall certainly -tell your grandmother the reason; and how will you like that?' - -'You will?' - -'By heaven, I will! That he and you alike resented my regard for -you?' - -To say that Shafto loved Finella, with all her beauty, would be what -a writer calls a 'blasphemy on the master-passion;' but he admired -her immensely, longed for her, and more particularly for her money, -as a protection--a barrier against future and unseen contingencies. - -At his threat Finella grew pale with anticipated annoyance and -mortification; but in pure dread of Shafto's malevolence, and for the -other reasons given, she did not hasten her preparations for -departure, and ere long the arrival of a new guest at Craigengowan -decided her on remaining, for this guest was one for whom she -conceived a sudden and lasting affection, and with whom she found -ties and sympathies in common. - -After being out most part of a day riding, Shafto returned in the -evening, and, throwing his horse's bridle to a groom, was ascending -the staircase to his own room, when, framed as it were in the archway -of a corridor, he saw, to his utter bewilderment, the face and figure -of Dulcie Carlyon! - -His voice failed him, and with parted lips and dilated eyes she gazed -at him in equal amazement, too, but she was the first to speak. - -'Shafto,' she exclaimed, 'you here--_you_?' - -'Yes,' he snapped; 'what is there strange in that? This is my -grandfather's house.' - -'Your grandfather's house?' she repeated, and then the details of the -situation came partly before her. She lifted up her eyes, wet with -tears like dewy violets, for his voice, if hard and harsh, was -associated with her home and Revelstoke, but she shrank from him, and -her lips grew white on finding herself so suddenly face to face with -one whom she felt intuitively was a kind of evil genius in her life! - -Dulcie just then seemed a delightful object to the eye. That pure -waxen skin, which always accompanies red-golden hair, was set off to -the utmost advantage by the dead black of her deep mourning, and her -plump white arms and slender hands were coquettishly set off by long -black lace gloves, for Dulcie was dressed for dinner, and her soft -white neck shone like satin in contrast to a single row of jet beads, -her only other ornament being Florian's locket, on which the startled -eyes of Shafto instantly fell. - -Dulcie saw this, and instinctively she placed her hand--a slim and -ringless little white hand--upon it, as if to protect it, and gather -strength from its touch; but her bosom now heaved at the sight of -Shafto, and fear and indignation grew there together, for she was -losing her habitual sense of self-control. - -'You--here?' he said again inquiringly. - -'Yes,' she replied in a broken voice, 'and I wonder if I am the same -girl I was a year ago, when poor papa was well and living, and I had -dear Florian--to love me!' - -'Dulcie _here_--d--nation!' thought Shafto: 'first old Madelon -Galbraith and now Dulcie; by Jove the plot is thickening--the links -may be closing!' - -He had an awful fear and presentiment of discovery; thus perspiration -stood like bead-drops on his brow; yet the mystery of her presence -was very simple. - -Poor Mrs. Prim could stand no longer the cold treatment and the -'whim-whams,' as she called them, of Lady Fettercairn; she had gone -away, and it was known at Craigengowan that a substitute--a more -pleasing one, in the person of a young English girl--was coming as -companion, through the instrumentality of the Rev. Mr. Pentreath. - -Shafto had been absent in Edinburgh when this arrangement was made. -Lady Fettercairn had thought the matter too petty, too trivial, to -mention in any of her letters to her 'grandson;' Dulcie knew not -where Shafto was, and thus the poor girl had come unwittingly to -Craigengowan, and into the very jaws of that artful schemer! - -Few at the first glance might have recognised in Dulcie the bright, -brilliant little girl whom Florian loved and Shafto had insulted by -his so-called passion. The character of her face and perhaps of -herself were somewhat changed since her affectionate father's death, -and Florian's departure to Africa in a position so humble and -hopeless. The bright hair which used to ripple in a most becoming -and curly fringe over her pretty white forehead had to be abandoned -for braiding, as Lady Fettercairn did not approve of a 'dependant' -dressing her hair in what she deemed a fast fashion, though -sanctioned by Royalty; and now it was simply shed back over each -shell-like ear without a ripple if possible, but Dulcie's hair always -would ripple somehow. - -'Shafto,' said Dulcie, in a tone of deep reproach; 'what have you -done with Florian? But I need not ask.' - -'By the locket you wear, you must have seen or heard from him since -he and I parted,' replied Shafto, with the coolest effrontery; 'so -what has he done with himself?' - -'I should ask that of you.' - -'Of me!' - -'Yes--why is he not here?' - -'Why the deuce should he be _here_?' was the rough response. - -'He is your cousin, is he not?' - -'Yes: we are full cousins certainly,' admitted Shafto with charming -frankness. - -'Nothing more?' - -'What the devil more should we be?' asked Shafto, coarsely, annoyed -by her questions. - -'Friends--you were almost brothers once--in the dear old Major's -time.' - -'We are not enemies; he chose some way to fortune, I suppose, when -Fate gave me mine.' - -'And you know not where he is?' - -'No.' - -'Nor what he has done with himself?' - -'No--no--I tell you no!' exclaimed Shafto, maddened with annoyance by -these persistent questions and her tearful interest in her lover. - -'Poor Florian!' said the girl, sadly and sweetly, 'he has become a -soldier, and is now in Zululand.' - -Shafto certainly started at this intelligence. - -'In Zululand,' he chuckled; '_he_ too there! Well, beggars can't be -choosers, so he chose to take the Queen's shilling.' - -'Oh, Shafto, how hard-hearted you are!' exclaimed Dulcie, restraining -her tears with difficulty. - -'Am I? So he has left you--gone away--become a soldier; well, I -don't think that a paying kind of business. Why bother about him?' - -'Why--Shafto?' - -'It will be strange if you do so long.' - -'Wherefore?' - -'Because, to my mind, a woman is seldom faithful, unless it suits her -purpose to be so; and in this instance it won't suit yours.' - -Dulcie's eyes sparkled with anger, though they were eyes that, -fringed by the longest lashes, looked at one usually sweetly, -candidly, with an innocent and fearless expression. Her bosom -heaved, as she said-- - -'Florian will gain a name for himself, I am sure; and if he dies----' -Her voice broke. - -'If not in the field it will be where England's heroes usually die.' - -'Where?' - -'In the workhouse,' was the mocking response of Shafto; and he -thought, 'If he is killed by a Zulu assegai, or any other way, to -prevent exposure or public gossip, the game will still lie in my -hands.' - -In the public prints Dulcie had of course seen details of the episode -of Lieutenants Melville and Coghill, and their attempts to save that -fatal colour, which was afterwards found in the Buffalo, and -decorated with immortelles by the Queen at Osborne; the papers also -added that the colour-sergeant who accompanied them was missing, and -that his body had not been found. - -_Missing!_ - -As no name had yet been given, Dulcie was yet mercifully ignorant of -what that appalling word contained for her! - -'Already you appear to be quite at home here in Craigengowan,' said -Shafto, after an awkward pause. - -'I am at home,' replied Dulcie simply; 'and hope this may be the -happiest I have had since papa died.' - -(But she doubted that, with Shafto as an inmate.) - -'I am glad to hear it; but you don't mean to treat me--an old -friend--as you have done?' - -'Friend!' she exclaimed, and laughed a little bitter laugh, that -sounded strange from lips so fresh, so young and rosy. - -'You have not yet accepted my hand.' - -'Nor ever shall, Shafto Gyle,' said she defiantly, and still -withholding hers. - -'Melfort!' said he menacingly. - -'I knew and shall always know you as Shafto Gyle.' - -It was not quite a random speech this, but it stung the hearer. He -crimsoned with fury, and thought--'She is as vindictive as Finella. -Has she discovered _anything about me_?' - -'Shafto, do you know that the dressing-bell was rung some time -since?' said Lady Fettercairn with the same asperity, as she appeared -in the corridor. - -Both started. How long had she been there, and what had she -overheard? was in the mind of each. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -FEARS AND SUSPICIONS. - -'Well, Dulcie,' said Shafto, who, full of his own fears, contrived to -confront her alone before the dinner, which was always a late one at -Craigengowan, 'won't you even smile--now that we are for a little -time apart--for old acquaintance sake?' - -'How can I smile, feeling as I do--and knowing what I do?' - -'_What_ do you know?' he asked huskily, and changing colour at this -new and stinging remark. - -'That poor Florian is facing such perils in South Africa,' she -replied in a low voice. - -'Pooh! is that all?' said Shafto, greatly relieved; 'he'll get on, as -well as he can expect, no doubt.' - -'Amid all the wealth that surrounds you, could you not have done -something for him?' asked the girl, wistfully and reproachfully. - -'Poor relations are a deuced bother, and here they dislike his name -somehow.' - -As his fears passed away Shafto's aspect became menacing, and knowing -her helplessness and her dependent position in the house to which he -was the heir, for a moment or two the girl's spirit failed her. - -'Well, what do you mean to say now?' he asked abruptly. - -'About whom?' she asked softly and wonderingly. - -'Me!' - -'I shall say nothing, Shafto--nothing to injure you at least--with -reference to old times.' - -'What the devil could you say that would injure me in the eyes of my -own family?' - -Dulcie thought of the locket stolen from her so roughly, of his -subsequent villainy therewith, and of his tampering with her long and -passionate letter to Florian, but remained judiciously silent, while -striving to look at him with defiant haughtiness. - -'I am speaking to you, Dulcie; will you have the politeness to attend -to me?' - -'To what end and purpose?' - -She eyed him with chilling steadiness now, though her heart was full -of fear; but his shifty grey eyes quailed under the cold gaze he -challenged, and thought how closely her bearing and her words -resembled those of Finella. - -'You don't like me, Dulcie,' said he with a bitter smile, 'that is -pretty evident.' - -'No, I simply hate you!' said she, losing all control over herself. - -'You are charmingly frank, Miss Carlyon, but hate is a game that two -can play at; so beware, I say, _beware!_ I must hold the winning -cards.' - -'Oh, how brave and generous you are to threaten and torture a poor, -weak girl whom you call an old friend, and under your own roof!' - -'And the dear dove of Florian--Florian the private soldier!' he -sneered fiercely. - -'How horrible, how cruel!' she wailed, and covered her eyes with her -hands. - -'Never mind,' he resumed banteringly, 'you have got back your locket -again.' - -'I wonder how you dare to refer to it!' she exclaimed, and for a -moment the angry gleam of her eyes was replaced by a soft, dreamy -smile, as she recalled the time and place when Florian clasped the -locket round her neck, when the bells of Revelstoke Church were heard -on the same breeze that wafted around them the perfumes of the -sweetbriar and wild apple blossoms in the old quarry near the sea, -which was their trysting-place. How happy they were then, and how -bright the future even in its utter vacuity, when seen through the -rosy medium of young love! - -Shafto divined her thoughts, for he said with jealous anger-- - -'You used the term dare with reference to your precious locket?' - -'Yes; the locket of which you, Shafto Gyle, deprived me with coarse -violence, like--like----' - -'Well, what?' - -'The garotters who are whipped in prison!' - -His face grew very dark; then he said-- - -'We may as well have a truce to this sort of thing. A quarrel -between you and me, Dulcie Carlyon, would only do me no harm, but you -very much. The grandmater wouldn't keep you in the house an hour.' - -'How chivalrous, how gentlemanly, you are!' - -'Hush!' said he, with alarm, for at that instant the dinner-bell was -clanging, and Finella with others came into the drawing-room, Lady -Fettercairn luckily the last, though Shafto had warily withdrawn -abruptly from Dulcie's vicinity at the first sound of it. Her first -dinner in the stately dining-room of Craigengowan, with its lofty -arched recess, where stood the massive sideboard arrayed with ancient -plate, its hangings and full-length pictures, was a new experience--a -kind of dream to Dulcie. The lively hum of many well-bred voices in -easy conversation; the great epergne with its pyramid of fruit, -flowers, ferns, and feathery grasses; the servants in livery, who -were gliding noiselessly about, and seemed to be perpetually -presenting silver dishes at her left elbow; old Mr. Grapeston, the -solemn butler, presiding over the entire arrangements--all seemed -part of a dream, from which she would waken to find herself in her -old room at home, and see the waves rolling round the bleak -promontory of Revelstoke Church and in the estuary of the Yealm; and, -sooth to say, though used to all this luxury now, and though far from -imaginative, Shafto had not been without some fears at first that he -too might waken from a dream, to find himself once more perched on a -tall stool in Lawyer Carlyon's gloomy office, and hard at work over -an ink-spotted desk, the memory of which he loathed with a disgust -indescribable. - -Seeing that Dulcie looked sad and abstracted, Finella, who kindly -offered a seat beside her, said softly and sweetly: - -'I hope you won't feel strange among us; but I see you are full of -thought. Did you leave many dear friends behind you--at home, I -mean?' - -'Many; oh yes--all the village, in fact,' said Dulcie, recalling the -sad day of her departure; 'but, perhaps, I was selfish enough to -regret one most--my pet.' - -'What was it?' - -'A dear little canary--only a bird.' - -'And why didn't you bring it?' - -'People said that a great lady like Lady Fettercairn would not permit -one like me to have pets, and so--and so I gave him to our curate, -dear old Mr. Pentreath. Oh, how the bird sang as I was leaving him!' - -'Poor Miss Carlyon?' said Finella, touched by the girl's sweet and -childlike simplicity. - -For a moment--but a moment only--Dulcie was struck by the painful -contrast between her own fate and position in life, and those of the -brilliant Finella Melfort, and with it came a keen sense of -inequality and injustice; but Finella, fortunately for herself, was -an heiress of money, and not--as Lord Fettercairn often reminded -her--an unlucky landed proprietor, in these days of starving -crofters, failing tenants, Irish assassinations, and agricultural -collapses, with defiant notices of impossibility to pay rent, and -clamours for reduction thereof. She was heiress to nothing of that -sort, but solid gold shaken from the Rupee Tree. - -When the ladies withdrew to the drawing-room, Dulcie gladly -accompanied them, instead of retiring (as perhaps Lady Fettercairn -expected) to her own apartment; we say gladly, as she was as much -afraid of the society of Shafto as he was of hers--and she had a -great dread she scarcely knew of what. - -How, if this cold, stately, and aristocratic lady, to whom she now -owed her bread, and whose paid dependant she was, should discover -that Shafto, the recovered 'grandson,' had ever made love to her once -upon a time in her Devonshire home? - -Dulcie, as it was her first experience of Craigengowan, did not sink -into her position there, by withdrawing first, and, more than all, -silently. She effusively shook hands with everyone in a kindly -country fashion, but withdrew her slender fingers from Shafto's eager -clasp with a haughty movement that Lady Fettercairn detected, and -with some surprise and some anger, too; but to which she did not give -immediate vent. - -'Her hair is unpleasantly red,' said she to Finella after a time. - -'Nay, grandmamma,' replied the latter; 'I should call it golden--and -what a lovely skin she has!' - -'Red I say her hair is; and she looks ill.' - -'Well, even if it is, she couldn't help her hair, unless she dyed it; -besides, she is in mourning for her father, poor thing, and has had a -long, long journey. No one looks well after that--and she travelled -third-class she told me, poor girl.' - -'How shocking! Don't speak of it.' - -Dulcie had indeed done so. Her exchequer was a limited one; and -farewell gifts to some of her dear old people had reduced it to a -minimum. - -'She seems rather a Devonshire hoyden,' said Lady Fettercairn, slowly -fanning herself; 'but I hope she will be able to make herself useful -to me.' - -'Grandmamma, I quite adore her!' exclaimed the impulsive Finella; 'we -shall be capital friends, I am sure.' - -'But you must never forget who she is.' - -'An orphan--or a lawyer's daughter, do you mean?' - -'What then?' - -'My paid companion,' said Lady Fettercairn icily; but Finella was not -to be repressed, and exclaimed: - -'I am sure that she is, by nature, a very jolly girl.' - -'Don't use such a phrase, Finella; it is positive slang.' - -'It expresses a great deal anyway, grand-mamma,' said Finella, who -was somewhat of an enthusiast; and added, 'There is something very -pathetic at times in her dark blue eyes--something that seems almost -to look beyond this world.' - -'What an absurd idea!' - -'She has evidently undergone great sorrow, poor thing.' - -'All these folks who go out as companions and governesses, and so -forth, have undergone all that sort of thing, if you believe them; -but they must forget their sorrows, be lively, and make themselves -useful. What else are they paid for?' - -Lady Fettercairn had been quite aware at one time that Shafto had -been in the employment of a Mr. Carlyon in Devonshire, and Dulcie -wondered that no questions were asked her on the subject; but -doubtless the distasteful idea had passed from the aristocratic mind -of the matron, and Shafto (save to Dulcie in private) had no desire -to revive Devonshire memories, so _he_ never referred to it either. - -Dulcie, her grief partially over and her fear of Shafto nearly so, -revelled at first in the freedom and beauty of her surroundings. -Craigengowan House (or Castle, as it was sometimes called, from its -turrets and whilom moat) was situated, she saw, among some of the -most beautiful mountain scenery of the Mearns; and, as she had spent -all her life (save when at school) in Devonshire, the lovely and -fertile surface of which can only be described as being billowy to a -Scottish eye, she took in the sense of a complete change with wonder, -and regarded the vast shadowy mountains with a little awe. - -In the first few weeks after her arrival at Craigengowan she had -plenty of occupation, but of a kind that only pleased her to a -certain extent. - -She had Lady Fettercairn's correspondence to attend to; her numerous -invitations to issue and respond to; her lap-dog to wash with scented -soaps--but Dulcie always doted dearly on pets; and she had to play -and sing to order, and comprehensively to make herself 'useful;' yet -she had the delight of Finella's companionship, friendship, and--she -was certain--regard. But she was imaginative and excitable; and when -night came, and she found herself alone in one of the panelled rooms -near the old Scoto-French turrets, with their vanes creaking -overhead, and she had to listen to the boisterous Scottish gales that -swept through the bleak and leafless woods and howled about the old -house, as a warning that winter had not yet departed, poor little -English Dulcie felt eerie, and sobbed on her pillow for the dead and -the absent; for the days that would return no more; for her parents -lying at Revelstoke, and Florian--who was she knew not where! - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -BY THE BUFFALO RIVER. - -The morning of a new day was well in when Florian, lying among the -tall, wavy reeds and feathery grass by the river-bank, awoke from a -sleep that had been deep and heavy, induced by long exhaustion, toil, -and over-tension of the nerves. Ere he started up, and as he was -drifting back to consciousness, his thoughts had been, not of the -awful slaughter from which he had escaped, but, strange to say, of -Dulcie Carlyon, the object of his constant and most painful -solicitude. - -His returning thoughts had been of the past and her. In fancy he saw -her again, with her laughing dark blue eyes and her winning smile; he -felt the pressure of her little hand, and heard the tones of her -voice, so soft and winning, and saw her, not as he saw her last, in -deep mourning, but in her favourite blue serge trimmed with white, -and a smart sailor's hat girt with a blue yachting ribbon above her -ruddy golden hair; then there came an ominous flapping of heavy -wings, and he started up to find two enormous Kaffir vultures -wheeling overhead in circles round him! - -On every side reigned profound silence, broken only by the -lap-lapping of the Buffalo as it washed against rocks and boulders on -its downward passage to the Indian Ocean. A few miles distant rose -the rocky crest of fatal Isandhlwana, reddened to the colour of blood -by the rising sun, and standing up clearly defined in outline against -a sky of the deepest blue; and a shudder came over him as he looked -at it, and thought of all that had happened, and of those who were -lying unburied there. - -His sodden uniform was almost dried now by the heat of the sun, but -he felt stiff and sore in every joint, and on rising from the earth -he knew not which way to turn. He knew that two companies of the -first battalion of his regiment were at Helpmakaar, with the -regimental colour, and that one of the second battalion was posted at -Rorke's Drift, under Lieutenant Bromhead, but of where these places -lay he had not the least idea. He was defenceless too, for though he -had his sword-bayonet he had lost his rifle when his horse was shot -in the stream. - -He passed a hand across his brow as if to clear away his painful and -anxious thoughts, and was making up his mind to follow the course of -the river upward as being the most likely mode of reaching Rorke's -Drift when a yell pierced his ears, and he found himself surrounded -by some twenty black-skinned Zulus, with gleaming eyes and glistening -teeth, all adorned with cow-tails, feathers, and armlets, and armed -in their usual fashion--Zulus who had been resting close by him among -the long reeds, weary, as it proved; after their night's conflict at -Rorke's Drift and their repulse at that place. - -Florian's blood ran cold! - -Already he seemed to feel their keen assegais piercing his body and -quivering in his flesh. However, to his astonishment, these savages, -acting under the orders of their leader, did nothing worse then than -strip him of his belts and tunic, and, strange enough, examined him -to see if he was wounded anywhere. - -He then understood their leader to say--for he had picked up a few -words of their not unmusical language--that they would give him as a -present to Cetewayo. - -Their leader proved to be one of the sons of Sirayo--one of the -original causes of the war, and has been described as a model Zulu -warrior, lithe, muscular, and without an ounce of superfluous flesh -on his handsome limbs; one who could launch an assegai with unerring -aim, and spring like a tiger to close quarters with knife or -knobkerie--the same warrior who lay long a prisoner in the gaol of -Pietermaritzburg after the war was over. - -They dragged Florian across the river at a kind of ford, and partly -took him back the way he had come from Isandhlwana, and awful were -the sights he saw upon it--the dead bodies of comrades, all -frightfully gashed and mutilated, with here and there a wounded -horse, which, after partially recovering from its first agony, was -cropping, or had cropped, the grass around in a limited circle, which -showed the weakness caused by loss of blood; and Florian, with a -prayerful heart, marvelled that his savage captors spared _him_, as -they assegaied these helpless animals in pure wantonness and lust of -cruelty. - -All day they travelled Florian knew not in what direction, and when -they found him sinking with exertion they gave him a kind of cake -made of mealies to eat, and a draught of _utywala_ from a gourd. -This is Kaffir beer, or some beverage which is like thin gruel, but -on which the army of Cetewayo contrived to get intoxicated on the -night before the battle of Ulundi. - -Early next day he was taken to a military kraal, situated in a -solitary and pastoral plain, surrounded by grassy hills, where he was -given to understand he would be brought before the king. - -Like all other military kraals, it consisted of some hundred -beehive-shaped huts, surrounded by a strong wooden palisade, nine -feet high and two feet thick. He was thrust into a hut, and for a -time left to his own reflections. - -The edifice was of wicker-work made of wattles, light and straight, -bent over at regular distances till they met at the apex, on the -principle of a Gothic groined arch. The walls were plastered, the -roof neatly thatched; the floor was hard and smooth. Across it ran a -ledge, which served as a cupboard, where all the clay utensils were -placed, and among these were squat-shaped jars capable of holding -twenty gallons of Kaffir beer. - -Ox-hide shields and bundles of assegais were hung on the walls, which -were thin enough to suggest the idea of breaking through them to -escape; but that idea no sooner occurred to the unfortunate prisoner -than he abandoned it. He remembered the massive palisade, and knew -that within and without were the Zulu warriors in thousands, for the -kraal was the quarters of an Impi or entire column. - -After a time he was brought before Cetewayo, who was seated in a kind -of chair at the door of a larger hut than the rest, with a number of -indunas (or colonels) about him, all naked save at the loins, wearing -fillets or circlets on their shaven heads, and armed with rifles; and -now, sooth to say, as he eyed this savage potentate wistfully and -with dread anxiety, Florian Melfort thought not unnaturally that he -was face to face with a death that might be sudden or one of acute -and protracted torture. - -There is no need for describing the appearance of the sable monarch, -with whose face and burly figure the London photographers have made -all so familiar; but on this occasion though he was nude, all save a -royal mantle over his shoulders--a mantle said to have borne 'a -suspicious resemblance to an old tablecloth with fringed edges'--he -wore his other 'royal' ensignia, which these artists perhaps never -saw--a kind of conical helmet or head-dress, with a sort of floating -puggaree behind, and garnished by three feathers, not like the modern -badge of the Prince of Wales--but like three old regimental hackles, -one on the top and one on each side. - -Near him Florian saw a white man, clad like a Boer, whom he supposed -to be another unfortunate prisoner like himself, but who proved to be -that strange character known as 'Cetewayo's Dutchman,' who was there -to act as interpreter. - -This personage, whose name was Cornelius Viljoen, had been a Natal -trader, and acted as a kind of secretary to the Zulu King throughout -the war; but latterly he was treated with suspicion, and remained as -a prisoner in his hands, and now he was ordered to ask Florian a -series of questions. - -'Can you unspike the two pieces of cannon captured by the warriors of -Dabulamanza at Isandhlwana?' - -These were seven-pounder Royal Artillery guns. - -'I cannot,' replied Florian. - -'Why?' - -'Because I am not a gunner--neither am I a mechanic,' he replied, -unwilling to perform this task for the service of the enemy. - -'The king desires me to tell you that if you can do this, and teach -his young men the way to handle these guns, he will give you a -hundred head of oxen, a kraal by the Pongola River, where your people -will never find you, and you will ever after be a great man among the -Zulus.' - -Again Florian protested his inability, assuring them that he knew -nothing of artillery. - -When questioned as to the strength of the three columns that entered -Zululand, the king and all his indunas seemed incredulous as to their -extreme weakness when compared to the vast forces they were to -encounter, and when told that there were hundreds of thousands of red -soldiers who could come from beyond the sea, they laughed aloud with -unbelief, and Cetewayo said the more that came the more there would -be to kill, and that when he had driven the last of the British and -the last of the Boers into the salt sea together, he would divide all -their lands among his warriors. - -Cetewayo waved his hand, as much as to say the interview was over, -and said something in a menacing tone to Cornelius Viljoen. - -'You had better consider the king's wish,' said the latter to -Florian; 'he tells me that if you do not obey him in the matter of -the guns, you will be cut in small pieces with an assegai, joint by -joint, beginning with the toes and finger-tips, so that you may be -long, long of dying, and pray for death.' - -For three successive days he was visited by the Dutchman, who -repeated the king's request and threat, and, in pity perhaps for his -youth, the speaker besought him to comply; but Florian was resolute. - -Each day at noon the latter was escorted by two tall and powerful -Zulus, one armed with a musket loaded, and the other with a -double-barbed assegai, into the adjacent mealie fields, where, to -sustain life, he was permitted with his hands unbound to make a -plentiful repast on this hermit-like diet; and it was while thus -engaged he began to see and consider that this was his only chance of -escape, if he could do so, by preventing the explosion of the musket -borne by one of his guards from rousing all the warriors in and about -the kraal. - -Florian was quite aware now of the reason _why_ Methlagazulu (for so -the son of Sirayo was named) had so singularly spared his life, when -captured beside the Buffalo River, and he knew now that if he failed -to obey the request of Cetewayo in the matter of unspiking the two -seven-pounders, or wore out the patience of that sable potentate, he -would be put to a cruel death; and he shrewdly suspected, from all he -knew of the Zulu character, that even were he weak enough, or traitor -enough, to do what he was requested, he would be put to death no -doubt all the same, despite the promised kraal and herd of cattle -beyond the Pongola River. - -He had seen too much of ruthless slaughter of late not to be able to -nerve himself--to screw his courage up to the performance of a -desperate deed to secure his own deliverance and safety. - -His two escorts were quite off their guard, while he affected to be -feeding himself with the green mealies, and no more dreamt that he -would attack them empty-handed or unarmed than take a flight into the -air. - -Suddenly snatching the assegai from the Zulu, who, unsuspecting him, -held it loosely, he plunged it with all his strength--a strength that -was doubled by the desperation of the moment--into the heart of the -other, who was armed with the rifle--a Martini-Henry taken at -Isandhlwana--and leaving it quivering in his broad, brawny, and naked -breast, he seized the firearm as the dying man fell, and wrenched -away his cartridge-belt. - -The whole thing was done quick as thought, and the other Zulu, -finding himself disarmed, fled yelling towards the kraal, about a -mile distant, while Florian, his heart beating wildly, his head in a -whirl, rushed with all his speed towards a wood--his first -impulse--for shelter and concealment. - -In the lives of most people there are some episodes they care not to -recall or to remember, but this, though a desperate one, was not one -of these to Florian. - -He had the start of a mile in case of pursuit, which was certain; but -he knew that a mile was but little advantage when his pursuers were -fleet and hard-footed Zulus. - -Whatever the reason, the pursuit of him was not so immediate as he -anticipated; but he had barely gained the shelter of the thicket, -which, with a great undergrowth or jungle, was chiefly composed of -yellow wood and assegai trees, when, on giving a backward glance, he -saw the black-skinned Zulus issuing in hundreds from the gates in the -palisading, and spreading all over the intervening veldt. - -Would he, or could he, escape so many? - -A few shots that were fired at him by some of the leading pursuers -showed that he was not unseen; but, as the Zulus knew not how to -sight their rifles or judge of distance, their bullets either flew -high in the air or entered the ground some sixty yards or so from -their feet; and Florian, knowing that they would be sure to enter the -wood at the point where he disappeared in it, turned off at an angle, -and creeping for some distance among the underwood to conceal, if -possible, his trail, which they would be sure to follow, he reached a -tree, the foliage of which was dense. He slung his rifle over his -back, and climbed up for concealment, and then for the first time he -became aware that his hands, limbs, and even his face, were -lacerated, torn, and bleeding from the leaves and thorns of the -sharp, spiky plants among which he had been creeping.[*] - - -[*] The escape of Florian from the kraal is an incident similar, in -some instances, to that of Private Grandier, of Weatherly's Horse, -after the affair at Inhlobane. - - -He had scarcely attained a perch where he hoped to remain unseen till -nightfall, or the Zulus withdrew, and where he sat, scarcely daring -to breathe, when the wood resounded with their yells. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -ON THE KARROO. - -Heedless of the spikes and brambles of the star-shaped carrion-flower -and other Euphorbia, prickly cacti, and so forth, as if their bare -legs were clothed in mail, the Zulus rushed hither and thither about -the wood in their fierce and active search, and, as they never -doubted they would find the fugitive, they became somewhat perplexed -when he was nowhere to be seen; and after traversing it again and -again, they dispersed in pursuit over the open country, and then -Florian began to breathe more freely. - -He had lost his white helmet in the Buffalo, and been since deprived -of his scarlet tunic; thus, fortunately for himself, his attire -consisted chiefly of a pair of tattered regimental trousers and a -blue flannel shirt, and these favoured his concealment among the -dense foliage of the tree. - -Night came on, but he dared not yet quit the wood, lest the searchers -might be about; and he dared not sleep lest he might fall to the -ground, break a limb, perhaps, and lie there to perish miserably. - -When all was perfectly still, and the bright stars were shining out, -he thought of quitting his place of concealment; but a strange sound -that he heard, as of some heavy body being dragged through the -underwood, and another that seemed like mastication or chewing, made -him pause in alarm and great irresolution. - -Florian thought that night would never pass; its hours seemed -interminable. At last dawn began to redden the east, and he knew -that his every hope must lie in the opposite direction; and, stiff -and sore, he dropped a fresh cartridge into the breech-block of his -recently acquired rifle, and then slid to the ground and looked -cautiously about him. - -Then the mysterious sounds he had heard in the night were fearfully -accounted for, and his heart seemed to stand still when, not twenty -paces from him, he saw a lion of considerable size, and he knew that -more than one horse of the Kind's Dragoon Guards. had been devoured -by such animals in that country. - -Florian had never seen one before, even in a menagerie; and, -expecting immediate death, he regarded it with a species of horrible -fascination, while his right hand trembled on the lock of his rifle, -for as a serpent fascinates a bird, so did the glare of that lion's -eye paralyze Florian for a time. - -The African lion is much larger than the Asiatic, and is more -powerful, its limbs being a complete congeries of sinews. This -terrible animal manifested no signs of hostility, but regarded -Florian lazily, as he lay among the bushes near a half-devoured -quagga, on which his hunger had been satiated. His jaws, half open, -showed his terrific fangs. Florian knew that if he fired he might -only wound, not slay the animal, and, with considerable presence of -mind he passed quickly and silently out of the wood into the open, at -that supreme crisis forgetting even all about the Zulus, but giving -many a backward nervous glance. - -It has been remarked in the Cape Colony that a change has come over -the habits of the lion on the borders of civilization. In the -interior, where he roams free and unmolested, his loud roar is heard -at nightfall and in the early dawn reverberating among the hills; but -where guns are in use and traders' waggon-wheels are heard--perhaps -the distant shriek of a railway engine--he seems to have learned the -lesson that his own safety, and even his chances of food, lie in -silence. - -Over a grassy country, tufted here and there by mimosa-trees and -prickly Euphorbia bushes, Florian, without other food than the green -mealies of which he had had a repast on the previous day, marched -manfully on westward, in the hope of somewhere striking on the -Buffalo River, and getting on the border of Natal, for there alone -would he be in safety. But he had barely proceeded four miles or so, -when he came suddenly upon three Zulus driving some cattle along a -grassy hollow, and a united shout escaped them as they perceived him. -Two were armed with rifles, and one carried a sheaf of assegais. - -The two former began to handle their rifles, which were -muzzle-loaders; but, quick as lightning, Florian dropped on his right -knee, planting on the left his left elbow, and sighting his rifle at -seven hundred yards, in good Hythe fashion, knocked over the first, -and then the second ere he could reload; for both had fired at him, -but as they were no doubt ignorant of the use of the back-sight, -their shot had gone he knew not where. - -One was killed outright; the other was rolling about in agony, -beating the earth with his hands, and tearing up tufts of grass in -his futile efforts to stand upright. - -The third, with the assegais, instead of possessing himself of the -fallen men's arms and ammunition to continue the combat, terrified -perhaps to see both shot down so rapidly, and at such a great -distance, fled with the speed of a hare in the direction of that -hornets' nest, the military kraal. - -To permit him to escape and reach that place in safety would only, -Florian knew, too probably destroy his chances of reaching the -frontier, so he took from his knee a quiet pot-shot at the savage, -who fell prone on his face, and with a quickened pace Florian -continued his progress westward. - -Compunction he had none. He only thought of his own desperate and -lonely condition, of those who had perished at Isandhlwana, of poor -Bob Edgehill and his song-- - - 'Merrily, lads, so ho!' - -the chorus of which he had led when the 'trooper' came steaming out -of Plymouth harbour. - -He had now to traverse miles of a genuine South African _karroo_, a -dreary, listless, and uniform plain, broken here and there by -straggling _kopjies_, or small hills of schistus or slate, the colour -of which was a dull ferruginous brown. No trace of animal nature was -there--not even the Kaffir vulture; and the withered remains of the -fig-marigold and other succulent plants scattered over the solitary -waste crackled under his feet as he trod wearily on. - -Night was closing again, when, weary and footsore, he began to feel a -necessity for rest and sleep, and on reaching a little donga, through -which flowed a stream where some indigo and cotton bushes were -growing wild, he was thankful to find among them some melons and -beans. Of these he ate sparingly; then, laying his loaded rifle -beside him, he crept into a place where the shrubs grew thickest, and -fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. - -Laden with moisture, the mild air of the African night seemed to kiss -his now hollow cheeks and lull his senses into soft repose. - -Next day betimes he set out again, unseen by any human eye, and after -traversing the karroo (far across which his shadow was thrown before -him by the rising sun) for a few more miles, a cry of joy escaped him -when he came suddenly upon a bend of the Buffalo River and knew that -the opposite bank was British territory. - -Slinging his rifle, he boldly swam across, and had not proceeded -three miles when he struck upon a kind of beaten path that ran north -and south; but, as a writer says, 'the worst by-way leading to a -Cornish mine, the steepest ascent in the Cumberland hills which -draught horses would never be faced at, is a right-royal Queen's -highway compared with a Natal road.' - -Great was his new joy when, after a time spent in some indecision, he -saw a strange-looking vehicle approaching at a slow pace, though -drawn by six Cape horses. This proved to be Her Majesty's post-cart -proceeding from Greytown to Dundee, _viâ_ Helpmakaar, the very point -for which the escaped prisoner was making his way. - -It overtook him after a time, and he got a seat in it among four or -five men like Boers, who, however, proved to be Englishmen. It was a -wretched conveyance, without springs, and covered with strips of old -canvas, patched in fifty places, and fastened down by nails. No -luggage is allowed for passengers in these post-carts, which carry -the mail-bags alone. - -A naked Kaffir running on foot, armed with a whip, cut away -indefatigably at the two leaders; another on the box plied a long -jambok or team-whip of raw ox-thong, urging the animals on the while -in his own guttural language, and only used English when compelled to -have recourse to abuse, and after ten miles' progress along a -road--if it could be called so--encumbered by boulders in some -places, deep with mud in others, Florian found himself in the village -of Helpmakaar, and among the tents of the few survivors of the two -battalions of the 24th Regiment. - -Then he heard for the first time of the valiant defence of Rorke's -Drift by Bromhead and Chard, with only one hundred and thirty men of -all ranks against four thousand Zulus, all flushed with the slaughter -at Isandhlwana. - -He was told how the gallant few in that sequestered post beside the -Buffalo River--merely a loop-holed store-house, a parapet of -biscuit-boxes, and a thatched hospital, wherein thirty-five sick men -lay--fought with steady valour for hours throughout that terrible -night, resisting every attempt made by the wild thousands to storm -it, and without other light than the red flashes of the musketry that -streaked the gloom; how the hospital roof took fire, and how six -noble privates defended like heroes the doorway with their bayonets -(till most of the sick were brought forth), each winning the Victoria -Cross; how no less than six times the Zulus, over piles of their own -dead, got inside the wretched barricades, and six times were hurled -back by our soldiers with the queen of weapons, which none can wield -like them--the bayonet. - -'Thank God that some of the dear old 24th are left, after all!' was -the exclamation of Florian, when among their tents he heard this -heroic story, and related his own desperate adventures to a circle of -bronzed and eager listeners. - -For the first time after several days he saw his face in a mirror, -and was startled by the wild and haggard aspect of it and the glare -in his dark eyes. - -'Surely,' thought he, 'I am not the same fellow of the dear old days -at Revelstoke--not the lad whom Dulcie remembers--this stern, -wild-eyed man, who looks actually old for his years;' but he had gone -through and faced much, hourly, of danger, suffering, and probable -death. Could he be the same lad whom she loved and still loves, and -with whom she fished and boated on the Erme and Yealm, and gathered -berries in the Plymstock woods and the old quarries by the sea? - -How often of late had he lived a _lifetime_ in a _minute_! - -There were sweet and sad past memories, future hopes, strange doubts, -retrospections, and present sufferings all condensed again and again -into that brief space, with strange recollections of his youth--his -dead parents, the old home, the cottage near Revelstoke, Dulcie, -Shafto, and old nurse Madelon--a host of confused thoughts, and ever -and always 'the strong vitality of youth rebelling against possible -death'--for death is always close in war. - -But it was not death that Florian feared, but--like the duellists in -'The Tramp Abroad'--_mutilation_. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -FLORIAN JOINS THE MOUNTED INFANTRY. - -Vincent Hammersley, we have said, achieved, with a few others, his -escape to the Natal side of the Buffalo River, and reached the -village of Helpmakaar, situated about five miles therefrom, where two -companies of the first battalion of his unfortunate regiment were -posted, under the command of a field-officer, and where for a few -days he found himself in comparative comfort, though he and his -brother-officers had a crushing sense of sorrow and mortification for -what had befallen their corps at Isandhlwana; for regiments were not -then what they have become now, mere scratch battalions, without much -cohesion in peace or war, but were happy, movable homes--one family, -indeed--full of _cameraderie_, grand traditions, and old _esprit de -corps_; and often at Helpmakaar was the surmise, which is ever in the -minds of our soldiers at the scene of war, put in words, 'What will -they think of this at home? What are folks in Britain saying about -this?' - -Hearing of Florian's arrival, kindly he sent for him to congratulate -him on his escape, and the interview took place in what was termed -the 'mess-tent' (an old tarpaulin stretched on poles), where, seeing -his worn and wasted aspect, he insisted on his taking some -refreshment before relating what he and several officers were anxious -to hear--details of the gallant but fatal episode of Melville and -Coghill, when they perished on the left bank of the Buffalo. They -then heard his subsequent adventures and the story of his narrow -escape. - -'I should like to have seen you potting those three fellows on the -open karroo,' said an officer. - -'It was a mercy to me that they knew not how to sight their rifles, -sir, or I should not have been here to-clay probably,' replied -Florian modestly. - -'By Jove!' said Hammersley, 'I can't think enough of your act in the -mealie-field, polishing off the Zulu who had the rifle with the -assegai of his companion, and so becoming master of the situation. -There were courage and decision in the act--two valuable impulses, -for indecision and weakness of character are at the bottom of half -the failures of life. You can't go about thus, in your -shirt-sleeves,' added Hammersley. 'I have an old guard-tunic in my -baggage; it will be good enough to fight in, and is at your service.' - -'Thanks, sir,' replied Florian, colouring; 'but how can I appear in -an officer's tunic?' - -'One may wear anything here,' said Hammersley, laughing. 'By Jove! -you are sure to be an officer some day soon; but meantime you may rip -off the badges.' - -Florian was glad of the gift, as all the stores of every description -had been captured at Isandhlwana. - -Hammersley had seriously begun the apparently hopeless task of -rooting Finella's image out of his heart. - -'Flirts and coquettes,' he would think, 'I have met by dozens in -society; but I could little have thought that the childlike, -apparently straightforward and impulsive Finella would form such a -deuced combination of both characters! And, not content by bestowing -an engagement ring, I actually gave her--ass that I was!--a wedding -one. Yet I am not sure that I would not do all the same folly over -again. "Unstable as water--thou shalt not excel." So we have it in -Genesis.' - -A hundred times he asked of himself, how could she lure him into -loving her and then deceive him so, and for such a cub as -Shafto?--the bright, childlike, outspoken girl. The act seemed to -belie her honest, fearless, and beautiful eyes--for honest, fearless, -and sweet they were indeed. Oh! it was all like a bad dream, that -sudden episode in the garden at Craigengowan. How much of that game -had been going on before and since? This thought, when it occurred -to him, seemed to turn his heart to stone or steel. - -Hammersley was now, by his own request, appointed to the Mounted -Infantry. His casual remark about the tunic had fired the sparks of -ambition in Florian's heart; thus he might run great risks, face more -peril, and thus win more honour. - -He volunteered to join the same force, and was placed in Hammersley's -troop, which was to form a part of the column to relieve Colonel -Pearson's force, then isolated and blockaded by the Zulus at a place -called Etschowe, where he had skilfully turned an old Norwegian -mission-station into a fort. - -Nearly on the summit of the Tyoe Mountains, more than two thousand -feet in height, it stood amid a district of wonderful sylvan beauty. -An open and hilly country lay on the south, bounded by the vast -ranges of the Umkukusi Mountains; on the north the Umtalazi River -rolled in blue and silver tints through the green and grassy karroo. -On the westward lay the Hintza forest of dark primeval wood, and far -away, nearly forty miles to the eastward, could be seen Port Durnford -or the shore of the Indian Ocean. - -But there the Colonel, whose force consisted chiefly of a battalion -of his own regiment, the 3rd Buffs, six companies of the Lanarkshire, -a naval brigade, some cavalry and artillery, found himself undergoing -all the inconvenience of a blockade, with provisions and stores -decreasing fast and of twelve messengers, whom he had sent to Lord -Chelmsford asking instructions and succour, eleven had been slain on -the way, so there was nothing for it but to fight to the last, and -defend the fort till help came, or share the fate of those who fell -at Isandhlwana. - -Fort Tenedos (so called from her Majesty's ship of that name) was -thirty miles distant from Etschowe, and formed the base from which -Lord Chelmsford went to succour the latter place at the head of -nearly 7,000 men of all arms. - -Hammersley's little troop was with the vanguard of the leading -division, which was composed of a strong naval brigade, with two -Gatlings, or 'barrel-organs,' as the sailors called them, 900 -Argyleshire Highlanders, 580 of the Lanarkshire and Buffs, 350 -Mounted Infantry, and a local contingent; and another column, -similarly constituted, under Colonel Pemberton of the 60th Rifles. -'I am glad to have you on this duty with me,' said Hammersley, as the -Mounted Infantry rode off in the dark hours of the morning, 'to feel -the way,' _en route_ to the Tugela River. - -'I thank you, sir,' replied Florian; 'and am proud to be still under -your orders. I only wish that Mr. Sheldrake were with us too.' - -'Poor Sheldrake is lying yet unburied with all the rest!' - -'With what solicitude,' thought Hammersley, smiling in the dark, 'he -used to caress his almost invisible moustache! This Mounted Infantry -service is rather desperate work,' he said aloud. 'Why did you -volunteer for it?' - -'To win honour and rank, if I can. But you, sir?' - -'To forget--if possible--to forget!' was the somewhat enigmatical -reply of Hammersley. Then, after a long pause, he said somewhat -irrelevantly, 'My instinct told me from the first that you are a -gentleman, though a sergeant in my company.' - -'Yes, I am a gentleman,' replied Florian; 'I have passed through a -school of adversity to you unknown, Captain Hammersley. - -'Sorry to hear it--poor fellow.' - -'And yet, sir, if I may venture to make the remark, from some things -I have heard you say, you seem to be at warfare with the world.' - -'In one sense, at least, I am embittered against it,' said -Hammersley, and urged, he knew not by what emotion, unless that -impulse which inspires men at times to make strange confidences, he -added, 'I have learned the truth of what an author says, "That a -woman can smile in a man's face and breathe vows of fidelity in his -ear, each one of which is black as her own heart." This is the reason -I volunteered for this rough work. Have you learned that too?' - -'No, sir, thank Heaven!' - -'As yet you are lucky; some day you may be undeceived.' - -The noise made by the convoy, two miles and a half long, descending -towards the river, could now be heard in the rear. It consisted of -113 waggons, each drawn by twelve oxen; fifty strongly wheeled -Scottish carts; and about fifty mules all laden. - -Every man carried in his spare and expansion pouches 200 rounds of -ball-cartridge. - -As the sun rose, the appearance of the long column, with the convoy, -descending towards the river, and leaving the forests behind, was -impressive and imposing. Brightness, colour, sound, and action, all -were there. - -Like a river of shining steel, the keen bayonets seemed to flash and -ripple in the sunshine; the red coats and white helmets came out in -strong relief against the background of green; the pipes of the -Highlanders, and the drums and fifes of the other corps, loaded the -calm moist morning air with sounds, in which others blended--the -neighing of chargers, the lowing of the team-oxen, the rumble and -clatter of many wheels, the yells and other unearthly cries of the -Kaffir drivers. - -Rain had fallen heavily of late; and the Tugela, at the point at -which the column crossed, was six hundred yards in breadth. The -mounted infantry were first over, and rode in extended -order--scouting--each man with his loaded rifle planted by the butt -on his right thigh. Florian was mounted on a horse which he named -Tattoo--as it was a grey having many dark spots and curious -stripes--a nag he soon learned to love as a great pet indeed. The -country around was open; thus with the sharp activity of the scouting -force on one hand and the partial absence of wood or scrub on the -other, the Zulus had few or no opportunities for surprise or ambush, -and the relieving column had achieved half the distance to be -traversed before any great difficulties occurred. - -Each night, on halting, an entrenched camp or laager was formed, with -a shelter built twenty yards distant outside, and the strictest -silence was enjoined after the last bugles had sounded. On the march -the column was joined by the 57th 'Regiment,' the 'Old Die Hards' of -Peninsular fame, whom they received with hearty cheers. - -Some Zulus in their simple war array were visible on the 1st of -April; and during the night many red signal-fires were seen to flash -up on the hills to the north, thus indicating the gathering of a -great force, and these continued to blaze, though the rain fell -heavily, wetting every man in the laager to the skin, as the column -was without tents. - -It was a night of anxiety, gloom, and suffering. In fitful gleams, -between masses of black and flying cloud, the weird, white moon shone -out at times; but no sound reached the alert advanced sentinels, save -the melancholy howl of the jackal or the hoarse croak of the Kaffir -vulture expectant of its coming feast. - -The trumpets sounded at dawn on the 2nd of April. The mounted -infantry sprang into their saddles and galloped forth to reconnoitre, -while the troops unpiled and stood to their arms, though no one knew -where the wily and stealthy Zulus were. Captain Percy Barrow, of the -19th Hussars, had reconnoitred on the previous day eight miles to the -north-east, as far as Wamoquendo, and could see nothing of them, and -on the morning Hammersley with his troop had ridden as far in a -westerly direction with the same success, and yet ere the day closed -the desperate battle of Ginghilovo was fought. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -DULCIE'S NEW FRIEND. - -And how fared it with Dulcie at Craigengowan? - -The season was the early days of April; but in the Mearns they are -usually more like last days of March, when the Bervie, the Finella -River, and their tributaries were hurrying towards the sea in haste, -as if they had no time to dally with the pebbles and boulders that -impeded them; when the early-yeaned lambs begin to gambol and play, -and the cloud and sunshine seem to chase each other over the tender -grass; and when violets, as Shakspeare has it, 'sweeter than the lids -of Juno's eyes,' give their fragrance to the passing breeze. - -As yet Dulcie knew nothing of what had exactly befallen Florian, like -many others who had deep and thrilling interest in the lists of the -sergeants, rank and file. - -Like Finella, Shafto knew that Hammersley's name had not appeared in -the list of casualties, and he remembered him--jealousy apart--with a -bitter hatred; for latterly the former, even before the affair of the -cards, had been very cold, and many a time, notwithstanding Shafto's -position in the house, used to honour him with only a calm and -supercilious stare. Now it has been said truly that there are few -things more irritating to one's vanity than to be calmly ignored. -'Argument, disagreement, even insolence, are each in their way easier -to bear than that species of lofty indifference intended to convey a -sensation of inferiority and of belonging to a lower class of beings -altogether. It gives the feeling of there being something _wrong_ -about you without your exactly knowing _what_.' - -But Shafto felt the falsehood of his position whenever he was with -supposed equals and failed to assume perfect confidence or proper -dignity. - -Though comfortable enough in her new surroundings, Dulcie was -somewhat changed from the winsome and impulsive Dulcie whom we first -described in the sailor's hat and blue serge suit at Revelstoke. -Though her keener grief had subsided, anxiety about Florian, who had -not another creature in the world to love him but herself, and a -natural doubt about her own future had stolen the roundness from her -cheeks, and the roseleaf tints too, while her skin in its delicate -whiteness had become waxen in aspect, and the coils of her red golden -hair seemed almost too heavy for her shapely head and slender neck. -But she was far from idle. She had 'my lady's' lap-dog, a snarling -little brute whose teeth filled her with terror, to feed and comb -daily; she had much 'lovely china' to dust; a wardrobe to attend to, -and rich laces to darn; she had notes innumerable to write; and be -always smiling and lively as well as useful when her heart was full -of dull pain and despondency concerning the unfortunate Florian, -which at night especially put her in a species of fever, and made her -turn and toss restlessly on her pillow, and start from sleep with a -little cry of terror as she flung out her arms as if to ward off the -frightful thoughts of what might be happening, or had happened -already, so far, far away. And all this was the harder to bear -because she was then without a friend or confidant with whom she -could share the burden of her secret sorrow. - -She had been some time at Cravengowan before she discovered in its -place of honour the portrait of young Lennard Melfort, which had been -so long relegated to a lumber-attic, and its resemblance to 'Major -MacIan,' even in his elder years, startled and amazed her; moreover, -it was still more wonderful that it so closely resembled Florian, -whom all at Revelstoke were astounded to hear was only the Major's -nephew, and not his son, while Shafto, she saw, bore no likeness to -the picture at all. - -She was never weary of looking at it, and asking questions of Finella -about Lennard, which that young lady was unable to answer, as that -which had happened to him occurred long before she was born. - -As for Shafto, he never dared to look at this work of art. Though -the portrait of a young man, and his last memory of the Major was -that of a prematurely old one, the likeness between the two was -marvellous; and its deep, thoughtful eyes seemed to follow, to haunt, -and to menace him. He loathed it; and though one of the best efforts -of Sir Daniel Macnee, the President of the Royal Scottish Academy, he -would fain, if he could, have found some plan for its destruction. -He avoided, however, as much as possible, the apartment in which it -hung. - -To his annoyance, one morning, he found Dulcie radiant with joy, and -an ugly word hovered on his lips when he discovered the cause thereof. - -She had been reading about the march of the relieving column towards -Etschowe under Lord Chelmsford, and saw Florian's name mentioned in -connection with a brilliant scouting exploit of the Mounted Infantry -under Captain Hammersley; and a great happiness thrilled her heart, -for now she knew that, up to the date given, he was alive and well, -and she thought of writing to him, but would he ever get the -letter?--she knew nothing of the camp postal arrangements, and feared -it might be futile to do so. Moreover, she had an irrepressible -dread of Lady Fettercairn, whose bearing to her was as cold as that -of Finella was kind and warm. - -'Don't you ever wear flowers in your hair, Miss Carlyon?' said the -latter, as she regarded with honest admiration the glories of -Dulcie's ruddy hair shot with gold. - -'No.' - -'Why?' - -'So few tints go well with my hair: people call it red,' said Dulcie. - -'People who are your enemies.' - -'I never had an enemy,' said Dulcie simply. - -'That I can well believe. Then it must be those who are envious of -your loveliness,' added Finella frankly. - -'A pink or crimson rose would never do in my hair, Miss Melfort.' - -'But a white one would,' said Finella, selecting a creamy white rose -from a conservatory vase, and pinning it in Dulcie's hair, giving it -a kindly pat as she did so. 'Look, grandmamma; doesn't she look -lovely now?' - -And the frank and impulsive girl would have kissed poor Dulcie but -for a cold and somewhat discouraging stare she encountered in the -eyes of Lady Fettercairn. - -'Somehow, Miss Carlyon,' she whispered after a time, 'I don't get on -well with grandmamma. It is my fault, of course: I suppose I am a -little wretch!' - -The friendship of these--though one was a wealthy heiress and the -other but a poor companion--grew rapidly apace; both were too warm -hearted, too affectionate and impulsive by habit, for it to be -otherwise, and it enabled them to pass hours together--though young -girls, like older ones, dearly love a little gossip of their own -kind--without any sense of embarrassment or weariness; for ere long -it came to pass that they shared their mutual confidence; and, as we -shall show, Finella came to speak of Vivian Hammersley to Dulcie, and -the latter to her of Florian. But there was something in Dulcie's -sweet soft face that made people older than Finella confide to her -their troubles and difficulties, for she was quick to sympathise with -and to understand all kinds of grief and sorrow. - -One evening as they walked together on the terrace, and tossed -biscuit to a pair of stately long-necked swans, the white plumage of -which gleamed like snow in the setting sun as they swam gently to and -fro in an ornamental pond (a portion of the old moat) that lay in -front of the house, Dulcie said, with tears of gratitude glittering -in her blue eyes-- - -'You have done me a world of good by your great kindness of heart to -me, Finella--oh, I beg your pardon--Miss Melfort I mean--the name -escaped me,' exclaimed Dulcie, covered with confusion. - -'Call me always Finella,' said the other emphatically. - -'Oh, I dare not do so before Lady Fettercairn.' - -'Then do so at other times, Dulcie. You talk of doing you good--I do -not believe anyone could have the heart to do you harm.' - -'Why?' - -'You seem so good--so pure, so simple. Oh, I do love you, Dulcie!' -she exclaimed, with true girlish effusiveness. - -'I thank you very much; and yet we think you Scotch folks are cold -and stiff.' - -'_We_--who?' - -'The English, I mean.' - -'They must be like the Arab who had never seen the world, and thought -it must be all his father's tent,' said Finella laughing; 'the -insular, untravelled English, I mean.' - -'Such kindness is delightful to a lonely creature like me. I have -fortunately only myself to work for, however.' - -'And no one else to think of?' - -'Oh--yes--yes,' said the girl sadly and passionately; 'but he is far, -far away, and every day seems to make the void in my heart deeper, -the ache keener, the silence more hard to bear.' - -'Our emotions seem somehow the same,' said Finella, after a pause. -Then thinking that she had perhaps admitted too much, or laid a -secret uselessly bare, Dulcie blushed, and thought to change the -subject by saying reflectively, 'How many great and pleasant things -one might do if one had the chance of doing so; but such chances -never come in my way, for every change with me has been for the -worse.' - -'Not, I hope, in coming to Craigengowan?' - -'Oh no; they are painful matters I refer to. First, I lost my dear -papa, and was thereby cast on the world penniless. Since then I have -lost one who loved me quite as well as papa did.' - -'Another?' said Finella inquiringly. - -'Yes; but let me not speak of that,' replied Dulcie hastily, and -colouring deeply again; so Finella, like a lady, thought to drop the -subject, but somehow, with the instinctive curiosity of her sex, -unconsciously revived it again, after a time. - -Dulcie, however, perhaps forgetting her present position, and -remembering chiefly her old acquaintance with Shafto, was mystified. -She thought 'the cousins' were free to marry, so why don't they? If -engaged, they act strangely to each other--Finella to him -especially--thus she said:-- - -'Is there anything between Mr. Shafto and you, Finella?' - -'Yes,' replied the latter, growing pale with anger. - -'What is it?' - -'Hatred on my part!' - -'And on his?' - -'Pretended love and--and--avarice. He knows I am rich.' - -'But why hatred?' asked Dulcie, without surprise. - -'That is my secret, Dulcie.' - -'I beg your pardon, I have no right to question you. Surely you are -one of those people who always get what they wish for.' - -'Why?--for riches do not always give happiness.' - -'I mean because you are so good and sweet.' - -But Finella shook her pretty head sadly as she thought of Vivian -Hammersley, and replied: - -'Young says in his "Night Thoughts:" - - '"Wishing of all employment is the worst!" - -and Young was right, perhaps.' - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -GIRLS' CONFIDENCES. - -It was a sweet and mild spring morning, and Finella and Dulcie, each -with a shawl over her pretty head, were again promenading on the -terrace before the mansion. Lady Fettercairn was not yet down, and -the breakfast-bell had not yet been rung. The trees were already -making a show of greenery, with half-developed foliage; the oak was -putting out its red buds; the laburnums were clothed in green and -gold, and the voice of the cuckoo could be heard in the woods of -Craigengowan. - -'The cuckoo--listen!' said Dulcie, pausing in her walk. - -'His note is, I believe, a call to love,' said Finella softly. - -'The male only uses it; and see, yonder he sits on a bare bough.' - -'You can wish: one can do so when they hear the cuckoo.' - -'And wish, as I often do, in vain,' said Dulcie, with a tone of -sadness unconsciously. - -'For what?' - -'To hear from one who is far--far away from me; the only friend I -have in the world.' - -'He of whom you spoke some time ago--a brother.' - -'I have no brother, nor a relation on this side of the grave, Miss -Melfort.' - -'Call me Finella,' said the latter, again struck by Dulcie's desolate -tone. 'Who is it--a lover?' she added, becoming, of course, deeply -interested. - -'A lover--yes,' replied Dulcie, with a fond smile. 'The dearest and -sweetest fellow in the world!' - -'Yet he left you because your papa died and you became penniless?' - -'Oh!--no, no; do not say that. Do not think so hardly of Florian!' - -'Florian!--what a funny, delightful name; just like one in a novel!' -exclaimed Finella. 'So he is called Florian?' - -'He, too, was poor. He could not marry me, and probably never can do -so.' - -'How sad!' said Finella, with genuine sympathy, though from her own -experience she could not quite understand poverty. - -'Florian--my poor Florian!' said Dulcie, quite borne away by this new -sympathy, as she covered her face with her white and tremulous hands, -and tried to force back her tears, while Finella kissed, caressed, -and tried most sweetly to console her. - -'See!' said Dulcie, after a pause, opening her silver locket. - -'Oh, what a handsome young fellow!' exclaimed Finella. 'Are you -engaged?' - -'Hopelessly so.' - -'Hopelessly?' - -'I have said we are too poor to marry.' - -'I don't understand this,' said Finella, greatly perplexed: 'won't he -become rich in time?' - -'Never: he is a soldier, fighting in Africa.' - -'A soldier!' said Finella, becoming more deeply interested; 'not an -officer?' - -'His father or uncle was,' replied Dulcie confusedly. 'Poverty drove -him into the ranks.' - -'Of what regiment?' - -'The 24th Warwickshire.' - -Finella changed colour, and her breath seemed to be taken from her, -when she heard the name of Hammersley's corps; and thus, after a -time, a great gush of confidence took possession of both girls. - -'I am rich,' said Finella; 'I will buy him back to you--I will, I -will. Do not weep, dearest Dulcie. The memory of a past that has -been happy is always sweet; is it not?' - -'Yes, even if the present be sad.' - -'I do believe, Dulcie, that tears agree with you.' - -'Why?' - -'Because they make those blue eyes of yours positively lovely.' - -Dulcie for a moment felt pleasure. Florian had said the same thing -once before, and she only half believed him; but to have it endorsed -by such a girl as Finella made it valuable indeed to her. - -'And Florian--I am quite _au fait_ with his name,' said Finella; 'he -is a gentleman?' - -'Oh, yes--yes!' exclaimed Dulcie impetuously. - -'Poor fellow! Then am I to understand that there is a kind of -undefined engagement between you?' - -'Something of that kind,' answered Dulcie, simply. 'We knew we might -have to wait for each other for years, if, indeed, we ever meet -again. We never spoke of marriage quite. How could we, hopeless and -poor as we were?' - -'But you spoke of love, surely?' said Finella, softly and archly. - -'Of love for each other--oh, yes; many, many times.' - -'Well, Dulcie, I shall purchase Florian's discharge, as I have said. -This kind of thing can't go on,' said Finella decidedly, unaware that -neither officer nor soldier can quit the service when face to face -with an enemy or at the actual seat of war. - -Finella was in the act of closing Dulcie's silver locket, when a -voice said: - -'Please to let me look at this, Miss Carlyon. I have remarked your -invariable ornament.' - -The speaker was Lady Fettercairn, who had approached them unnoticed. - -Blushing deeply, Dulcie, with tremulous little fingers, re-opened the -locket, expectant, perhaps, of reprehension; but Lady Fettercairn -became strangely agitated. - -'Lennard!' she exclaimed. 'This is my son Lennard as he looked when -I saw him last.' - -'Oh, no, madam, that cannot be,' said Dulcie. - -'Where got you it?' - -'At home in Devonshire, where the photograph was taken about a year -ago.' - -'Ah--true,' said Lady Fettercairn: 'when Lennard was that age--the -age of this young man--the art was scarcely known. And who is he?' - -Dulcie hesitated. - -'I have no right to ask,' said Lady Fettercairn, hauteur blending -with the certainly deep interest with which she regarded the contents -of the still open locket. - -'One who loved me,' said Dulcie, with a kind of sob. - -'And whom you love?' said the lady, stiffly. - -'Yes, madam.' - -'It is the image of Lennard!' continued Lady Fettercairn musingly; -'but there sounds the breakfast-bell,' she added, and turned abruptly -away. - -What were the precise antecedents of this girl, Miss Carlyon, who had -been recommended to her by her friend, the vicar, in London? thought -Lady Fettercairn, as her cold, passive, and aristocratic frame of -mind resumed its sway. Yet, though she remained silent on the -subject, and disdained to inquire further about it, that miniature -interested her deeply, and frequently at table and elsewhere Dulcie -caught her eyes resting on the locket. - -It filled her with a distinct and haunting memory of one seen long -ago, and not in dreams, for Lady Fettercairn was not of an -imaginative turn of mind. - -It may seem strange that amid all this Dulcie never thought of -mentioning that Florian was the cousin of Shafto; but she knew how -distasteful to Lady Fettercairn was anyone connected with the family -of Lennard's dead wife, Flora MacIan. - -When Shafto heard of all this, as he did somehow, the qualms of alarm -he experienced on seeing first Madelon Galbraith and then Dulcie at -Craigengowan were renewed; and he resolved, if he could, to get -possession of that locket, and deface or destroy the dangerous -likeness it contained. - -But Dulcie had an intuitive perception or suspicion of this; and -finding that his evil gaze rested upon it repeatedly, after a time -she ceased to wear it, but locked it away in a secure place, from -whence she could draw it when she chose for her own private -delectation. - -When Finella, in mutual confidence, told Dulcie of the manner in -which Shafto had brought about a separation between herself and -Vivian Hammersley, the girl expressed her indignation, but no -surprise. She knew all he was capable of doing, and related the two -ugly episodes of the locket. - -'Heavens!' exclaimed Finella; 'if Lord Fettercairn knew of this -business he would surely expel him from Craigengowan.' - -'No, no; the person expelled would to a certainty be poor me--an -expulsion that Lady Fettercairn would endorse to the full on learning -that Shafto had sought to make love to me. Then I should again be -more than ever homeless; so let us be silent, dear Finella.' - -'Do you ever ride, Dulcie?' asked the latter. - -'How can I ride now? In papa's time I had a beautiful little Welsh -cob, on which I used to scamper about the shady lanes and breezy -moors in Devonshire. I can see still in fancy his dear little head, -high withers, and short joints.' - -'You shall ride with me,' said Finella, in her pretty, imperative -way. 'I have three pads of my own.' - -'But I have no habit.' - -'Then you shall wear one of mine. I have several. A blue or green -one will be most becoming to you; and though you are as plump as a -little English partridge, I have one that will be sure to fit you.' - -'Thanks. Oh, how kind you are.' - -'Now, let us go to the stables. I go there once every day to feed -"Fern," as you shall see.' - -Sandy Macrupper, the head-groom, always thought the stables never -looked so bright as during the time of Finella's visit. He had known -her from her childhood, and taught her to ride her first Shetland -pony. He was a hard-featured and sour-visaged old man, with that -peculiarity of grooms, a very small head and puckered face. He was -clad in an orthodox, long-bodied waistcoat, in one of the pockets of -which a currycomb was stuck, and wore short corded breeches. He was -always closely shaven, and wore a scrupulously white neckcloth, -carefully tied. His grey eyes were bright and keen; his short legs -had that peculiar curve that indicates a horsy individual. And when -the ladies appeared, he came forth from the harness-room with smiling -alacrity, a piece of chamois-leather in one hand and a snaffle-bit in -the other. - -'Good-morning, miss,' said he, touching his billycock. - -'Good-morning, Sandy. I want Fern and Flirt for a spin about the -country to-day after luncheon;' and the sound of Finella's voice was -the signal for many impatient neighs of welcome and much rattling of -stall-collars and wooden balls. - -Fern, the favourite pad of Finella--a beautiful roan, with a deal of -Arab blood in it--gave a loud whinny of delight and recognition, and -thrust forward his soft tan-coloured muzzle in search of the carrot -which she daily brought to regale him with; but Flirt preferred -apples and sugar. Then, regardless of what stablemen might be -looking on, she put her arms round Flirt's neck, and rubbed her -peach-like cheek against his velvety nose. - -On hearing of the projected ride, at luncheon, Lady Fettercairn's -face grew cloudy, and she took an opportunity of saying: - -'Finella, you are putting that girl, Miss Carlyon, quite out of her -place, and I won't stand it.' - -'Oh, grandmamma!' exclaimed Finella, deprecatingly, 'this is only a -little kindness to one who has seen better times; and she had a horse -of her own in Devonshire.' - -'Ah! no doubt she told you so.' - -The horses were duly brought round in time: Fern with his silky mane -carefully and prettily plaited by the nimble little fingers of -Finella--a process which old Sandy Macrupper always watched with -delight and approval. And Dulcie, mounted on Flirt, a spotted grey, -looked every inch a lady of the best style, in an apple-green habit -of Finella's, with her golden hair beautifully coiled under a smart -top-hat, put well forward over her forehead. She was perfect, to her -little tan-coloured gauntlet gloves, and was--Lady Fettercairn, who -glanced from the window, was compelled to admit silently--'very good -form indeed.' - -Escorted by Shafto and a groom, they set forth; and, save for the -unwelcome presence of the former, to Dulcie it was a day of delight, -which she thought she never should forget. - -Dulcie, we have said, had been wont to scamper about the Devonshire -lanes, where the clustered apples grew thick overhead, on her Welsh -cob, and now on horseback she felt at home in her own sphere again; -her colour mounted, her blue eyes sparkled, and the girl looked -beautiful indeed. - -She almost felt supremely happy; and Finella laughed as she watched -her enjoying the sensations of power and management, and the -independence given by horse-exercise--the life, the stir, the action, -and joyous excitement of a thorough good 'spin' along a breezy -country road. - -Shafto, however, was in a sullen temper, and vowed secretly that -never again would he act their cavalier, because the girls either -ignored him by talking to each other, or only replied to any remarks -he ventured to make and these were seldom of an amusing or original -nature. Indeed, he felt painfully and savagely how hateful his -presence was to both. - -Despite Lady Fettercairn, other rides followed, for Finella was -difficult to control, and in her impulsive and coaxing ways proved -generally irrepressible. Thus she took Dulcie all over the country: -to the ruined castle of Fettercairn, to Den Finella, and to the great -cascade--a perpendicular rock, more than seventy feet high, over -which the Finella River pours on its way from Garvock, where it -rises, to the sea at Johnshaven. - -Returning slowly from one of these rides, with their pads at a -walking pace, with the groom a long way in their rear, Dulcie, -breaking a long silence, during which both seemed to be lost in -thought, said: - -'Troubles are doubly hard to bear when we have to keep them to -ourselves; thus I feel happier, at least easier in mind, now that I -have told you all about poor Florian.' - -'And I, that I have told you about Captain Hammersley,' replied -Finella; 'though of course I shall never see him again.' - -'Never--why so?' - -'After what he saw, and what he no doubt thinks, how can I expect to -do so? My greatest affliction is that I must seem so black in his -eyes. Yet it is impossible for me not to feel the deepest and most -tender interest in him--to watch with aching heart the news from the -seat of war, and all the movements of his regiment--the movements in -which he must have a share.' - -'Things cannot, nay, must not, go on thus between you. The false -position should be cleared up, explained away. What is to be done?' - -'Grin and bear it, as the saying is, Dulcie. Nothing can avail us -now--nothing,' said Finella, with a break in her voice.' - -'Finella, let me help you and him.' - -'How?' - -'I shall write about it to Florian. I mean to write him now, at all -events.' - -Despite all she had been told about the antecedents of the latter, -Finella blushed scarlet at the vision of what Hammersley--the proud -and haughty Vivian Hammersley--would think of his love-affairs being -put into the hands of one of his own soldiers; but Dulcie, thinking -only of who Florian was, did not see it in this light, or that it -would seem like a plain attempt to lure an angry lover back again. - -'Unless you wish me to die of shame,' said Finella, after a bitter -pause--'shame and utter mortification--you will do no such thing, -Dulcie Carlyon!' - -The latter looked at the speaker, and saw that her dark eyes were -flashing dangerously as she added: - -'He left me in a gust of rage and suspicion of his own free will; and -of his own free will must he return.' - -'Will he ever do so, if the cause for that just rage and suspicion, -born of his very love for you, is not explained away?' - -'No, certainly. He is proud, and so am I; but I will never love -anyone else, and mean in time to come to invest in the sleekest of -tom-cats and die an old maid,' she added, with a little sob in her -throat. - -'And meanwhile you are in misery?' - -'As you see, Dulcie; but I will rather die than fling myself at any -man's head, especially at his, through the medium of a letter of -yours; but I thank you for the kind thought, dear Dulcie.' - -So the latter said no more on the subject, yet made up her mind as to -what she would do. - -The circumstance that both their lovers, so dissimilar in rank and -private means, were serving in the same regiment, facing the same -dangers, and enduring the same hardships, formed a kind of -sympathetic tie between these two girls, who could share their -confidences with each other alone, though their positions in life, by -present rank and their probable future, were so far apart. - -They never thought of how young they were, or that, if both their -lovers were slain or never seen by them again through the -contingencies of life, others would come to them and speak of love, -perhaps successfully. Such ideas never occurred, however. Both were -too romantic to be practical; and both--the rich one and the poor -one--only thought of the desolate and forlorn years that stretched -like a long and gloomy vista before them, with nothing to look -forward to, and no one to care for, unless they became Sisters of -Charity; and Finella, with all her thousands, sometimes spoke -bitterly of doing so. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -THE EVENING OF GINGHILOVO. - -Much about the time that the conversation we have just recorded was -taking place between the two fair equestriennes, the subject thereof, -then with the troops in the laager of Ginghilovo, was very full of -the same matter they had in hand--himself and his supposed wrongs. - -'She never could have really cared for me, or she never could have -acted as she did, unless she wished with the contingencies of war to -have two strings to her bow,' thought Hammersley, as he lay on the -grass a little apart from all, and sucked his briar-root viciously. -'Perhaps she thought it was her money I wanted--not herself. Ah, how -could she look into her glass and think so!' - -Ever before him he had that horrid episode in the shrubbery, and saw -in memory the girl he loved so passionately in the arms of another, -who was giving her apparently the kisses men only give to one woman -in the world--a sight that seemed to scorch his eyes and heart. - -'Yes,' he would mutter, 'one may be mistaken in some things, but -there are some things there is no mistaking, and that affair was one -of them.' - -Perhaps at _that_ very instant of time Finella was posed, as he had -seen her last, with 'Cousin' Shafto, and the thought made him hate -her! He felt himself growing colder and harder, though his heart -ached sorely, for the 'soul-hunger of love' was in it. - -'Well, well,' he would mutter, as he tugged his dark moustache; 'what -are called hearts have surely gone to the wall in this Victorian age.' - -His bitter memories would have soon passed away, could he have seen, -as if in a magic mirror, at that moment Finella, in her riding-habit, -on her knees in the solitude of her own room, before a large photo of -a handsome young fellow in the uniform of the 24th (his helmet under -his right arm, his left hand on the hilt of his sword), gazing at it, -yet scarcely seeing it, so full were her soft eyes of hot salt tears, -while her sweet little face looked white, woe-begone, and most -miserable. But now the bugles sounding on the various flanks of the -laager, when about six in the evening a general hum of voices -pervaded it, and the order 'Stand to your arms!' announced that the -enemy was in sight of the trenches. - -In front of the old kraal of Ginghilovo, behind an earthen breastwork -and abattis of felled trees, were the 60th Rifles, in their tunics of -dark green, and sailors of the _Shah_ with their Gatling guns, which -they playfully called 'bull-dogs and barrel-organs.' - -They were flanked by some of the 57th and two seven-pounders; the -Argyleshire Highlanders, then in green tartan trews, held the rear -face; and the defences were prolonged by the Lanarkshire, the 3rd -Buffs, and some more of the Naval Brigade with a rocket battery. - -Every heart in the laager beat high, and every face flushed with -intense satisfaction, as two sombre columns of Zulus appeared, -spreading like a human flood over the ground, after crossing the -reedy Inyezane stream, deploying in a loose formation, which enabled -them to find cover behind scattered boulders and patches of bush. - -Now, when on the eve of an action, Hammersley, like every other -officer, felt that new and hitherto unknown dread and doubt of the -result which has more than once come upon our troops of all ranks, -born of the new and abominable system which in so many ways has -achieved the destruction of the grand old British army--'the army -which would go anywhere, and do anything'--by the abolition of the -regimental system, and with it the power of cohesion; but the worst, -the so-called 'territorial system,' had not yet come. - -Encouraged by the countenance and praises of Hammersley, Florian left -nothing undone to win himself a name, and had already become -distinguished for his daring, discretion, and acuteness of -observation among all the Mounted Infantry when scouting or -reconnoitring, and his further promotion seemed now to be only a -matter of time. - -Both courted danger, apparently with impunity, as the brave and -dashing often do: Florian with a view to the future; Hammersley to -forget. Soldiers will make fun, even when under fire, so some of his -comrades quizzed Florian in his old laced tunic, and dubbed him 'the -Captain;' but Vivian Hammersley thought, how like a gentleman and -officer he looked in the half-worn garment he had given him. - -Through the long, wavy, and reed-like grass two columns of Zulus -crept swiftly on in close rather than extended order, and furiously -assailed the north face of the square held by the Highlanders, -flanked as usual by extended horns, and all yelling like fiends -broken loose, while brandishing their great shields and glittering -assegais, till smitten with death and destruction under the -close-rolling Highland musketry. - -They were commanded by a noble savage, named Somapo, with Dabulamanzi -and the eldest son of Sirayo as seconds. - -Almost unseen by the darkness of their uniforms, the Rifles lay down -flat behind their shelter-trenches; the barrels of their weapons -rested firmly on the earthen bank, enabling them to take steady and -deadly aim, while dropping in quick succession the cartridges into -the breech-blocks without even moving the left arm or the right -shoulder, against which the butt-plate of the rifle rested, and their -terrible fire knocked over in writhing heaps the Zulus, who, in all -their savage fury and bravery, came rushing on ten thousand strong -and more. - -'Their white and coloured shields,' wrote one who was present, 'their -crests of leopard-skin and feathers, and wild ox-tails dangling from -their necks, gave them a terrible unearthly appearance. Every ten or -fifteen yards, and a shot would be fired, and then, with an unearthly -yell, they would again rush on with a sort of measured dance, while a -humming and buzzing sound in time to their movement was kept up.' - -Meanwhile the laager was literally zoned with fire and enveloped with -smoke; yet within it no sound was heard save the rattling roar of the -musketry, the clatter of the breech-blocks, and triumphant bagpipes -of the Highlanders, with an occasional groan or exclamation of agony -as a bullet found its billet. - -In the fury of their advance and struggles to get onward over their -own dead and dying, the Zulus from the rear would break through the -fighting line, jostling and dashing each other aside, and rush -yelling on, until they too bit the dust. - -The booming of the Gatling guns and the dread hiss of the blazing -rockets were heard ever and anon amid the medley of other sounds, and -for half an hour the showers of lead and iron tore through and -through the naked masses, where the places of the fallen were -instantly taken by others. - -By half-past six the shrill yells of the Zulus died away; but in mute -despair and fury they still struggled in hope to storm the laager, -when, if once within its defences, the fate of all would be sealed. - -Four times like a living sea they flung themselves against it, and -four times by sheets of lead and iron they were hurled back from the -reddened bayonet's point, while some remained in the open, firing -from behind the bloody piles of their own dead, which lay in awful -lines or swathes of black bodies with white shields, a hundred yards -apart, in rear of each other. - -At last the survivors gave way, and all fled in confusion. - -'Forward, the Mounted Infantry!' cried Lord Chelmsford. - -And these, under Captain Barrow and Hammersley, sprang with alacrity -to their saddles, slinging their rifles as they filed out of the -laager. - -'Front form squadron!' was now the order, and the sections of fours -swept round into line. - -'Come on, my lads!' cried Hammersley, as he unsheathed his sword and -dug the spurs into his horse; 'forward--trot, gallop! By Jove! an -hour of this work - - '"Is worth an age without a name!"' - -And away went the Mounted Infantry over the terrible swathes at a -swinging pace. - -Like most of the few officers of that peculiar and extemporised -force, Vivian Hammersley had been accustomed to cross country and -ride to hounds, and to deem that the greatest outdoor pleasure in -life. - -Tattoo, Florian's horse, fortunately for him in the work he had to do -that evening, proved to be a tried Cape shooting-horse, accustomed to -halt the moment his rein is dropped, and to stand like a rock when -his rider fires. An experienced shooting-horse requires no sign from -his master when required to stand, and on hearing a sound or stir in -the bush is alert as a dog scenting danger or game. - -Florian loved the animal like a friend, and often shared his beer -with him, as Homer tells us the Greek warriors of old shared their -wine with their battle-chargers; we suppose it is only human nature -that we must love something that is in propinquity with us. - -The Mounted Infantry overtook the fugitive Zulus, and fell furiously, -sword in hand, upon their left flank, but not without receiving a -scattered fire that emptied a few saddles. - -The routed fled with a speed peculiarly their own; but Captain Barrow -and his improvised troopers were in close pursuit, and from the -laager their sword-blades could be seen flashing in the evening -sunshine, as the cuts were dealt downward on right and left, and the -foe was overtaken, pierced, and ridden over and through. - -In this work the force necessarily became somewhat broken, and -Hammersley, who, in the ardour of the pursuit, and being splendidly -mounted, had outstripped all the Mounted Infantry and gone perilously -far in advance, had his horse shot under him. - -'Captain Hammersley--Hammersley! He will be cut to pieces!' cried -several of the soldiers, who saw him and his horse go down in a cloud -of dust, and in another moment he was seen astride the fallen animal -contending against serious odds with his sword and revolver. And now -ensued one of those episodes which were of frequent occurrence in the -service of our Mounted Infantry. - -Florian saw the sore strait in which Hammersley was placed, and had, -quick as thought, but one desire--to save him or die by his side. At -that part of the field a watercourse--a tributary of the Inyezene -River--separated him from Hammersley, but putting the pace upon -Tattoo, he rode gallantly to face it. Rider and horse seemed to -possess apparently but one mind--one impulse. Tattoo cocked his -slender ears, gave a glance at the water, sparkling in the setting -sun, and, springing from his powerful and muscular hind-legs, cleared -the stream from bank to bank--a distance not less than fifteen feet. - -'Well done, old man!' exclaimed Florian; 'you _are_ game!' - -'Hurra!' burst from several of the troop, some of whom failed to -achieve the leap. So Florian rode forward alone, and in less time -than we have taken to record it, was by the side of Hammersley, who -was bleeding from a wound in the left arm from an assegai launched at -him by one of three powerful savages with whom he was contending, and -in whom Florian recognised Methagazulu, the son of the famous Sirayo. - -The last shot in Hammersley's revolver disposed of one; Florian shot -a second, 'and drove his bayonet through the side of Sirayo's son, -whom others were now returning to succour, and, lifting Hammersley on -his own horse, conducted him rearward to a place of safety, covering -the rear with his rifle, pouring in a quick fire with an excellent -aim till a dozen of his comrades came up and received them both with -a cheer. - -Though wounded, Methagazulu did not die then, for, as we have -elsewhere said, the close of the war found him a prisoner in the gaol -of Pietermaritzburg. - -But for the succour so promptly accorded by Florian, another moment -would have seen that savage, after wounding Hammersley by one -assegai, give him the _coup de grace_ with another; as it is a -superstition with the Zulus that if they do not rip their enemies -open, disembowelling them, as their bodies swell and burst when dead, -so will those of the slayers in life; and so firm is their belief in -that, that after the victory had been won at Rorke's Drift many of -the Zulus were seen to pause, even under a heavy fire, to rip up a -few of our dead who lay outside the entrenchment; and cases have been -known in which warriors who have been unable to perform this -barbarous ceremony have committed suicide to escape what they deemed -their inevitable doom. - -Florian tied his handkerchief round Hammersley's arm, above the -wound, to stay the blood, till he left him safely with the ambulance -waggons and in care of Staff-Surgeon Gallipot; and though faint with -the bleeding, for the wound was long and deep--a regular -gash--Hammersley wrung the hand of his saver, and said: - -'My gallant young fellow, you will have good reason if I live--as I -doubt not I will--to recall this evening's work with satisfaction.' - -'I shall ever remember, sir, with pride that I saved your life--the -life of the only friend I have now in our decimated regiment since I -lost poor Bob Edgehill.' - -'It is not that I mean,' said Hammersley faintly, 'but, if spared, I -shall see to your future, and all that sort of thing, you understand.' - -'I thank you, sir, and hope----' - -'Hope nothing,' said Hammersley, closing his eyes, as memory brought -a gush of bitterness to his heart. - -'Why, sir?' - -'Because when one is prepared for the worst, disappointment can never -come.' - -Florian knew not what to make of this sudden change of mood in his -officer, and so remained discreetly silent. - -'Have you any water in your bottle?' asked Hammersley. - -'A little, sir.' - -'Then give me a drop, for God's sake--mine is empty.' - -Florian took the water-bottle from his waist-belt and drew out the -plug; the sufferer drank thirstily, and on being placed in a sitting -position, with a blanket about him, strove to obtain a little sleep, -being weary and faint with the events of the past day. - -'Whoever he is, that lad has good blood in his veins, and he has no -fear of lavishing it,' was his last thought as he watched the -receding figure of Florian leading away his favourite Tattoo by the -bridle. - -Our total casualties at Ginghilovo were only sixty-one; those of the -Zulus above twelve hundred. The story of the encounter might have -been different had another column of ten thousand men, which had been -despatched from Ulundi by Cetewayo the day after the march of Somapo, -effected a junction with the latter. - -Etschowe, the point to be relieved, was now fifteen miles distant; -but Colonel Pearson in his isolated fort must have heard of the -victory, for Florian, when out with a few files on scouting duty, -could see the signals of congratulation flashed therefrom. - -After the fierce excitement of the past day, he felt--he knew not -why--depressed and almost sorrowful; but perhaps the solitudes among -which he rode impressed him when night came on. - -Lighted up by hundreds and thousands of stars, the clear sky spread -like a vast shining canopy overhead, and then the great round moon -shed down a flood of silver sheen on the grassy downs where the black -bodies of the naked dead, with fallen jaws and glistening teeth and -eyes, lay thick as leaves in autumn, and Tattoo picked his steps -gingerly among them. - -And in such a solemn and silent time, more keenly than ever, came to -Florian's mind the ever-recurring thoughts of Dulcie Carlyon and of -what she was doing; where was she and with whom--in safety or in -peril? - -Next morning Florian--as he was detailed for duty to the front with -the Mounted Infantry, paid a farewell visit to Captain Hammersley, -whom he found reposing among some straw in a kind of tilt cart, and -rather feverish from the effects of his wound, and who had been -desired to remain behind in the laager for a little time, though he -could with difficulty be prevailed upon to do so. - -Preceding the march of the column, the Mounted Infantry under Barrow -filed forth at an easy pace in search of the enemy. - -It was scarcely a new experience to Florian now, or to any man with -the army in Zululand, that of putting a savage to death. Every rifle -slew them by scores, when a hundred rounds of ammunition per man were -poured into the naked hordes in less than an hour's time. - -Lord Chelmsford left some of the Kentish Buffs, the Lanarkshire, and -the Naval Brigade to garrison the laager at Ginghilovo, and marched -for Etschowe with the 57th, the 60th Rifles, and Argyleshire -Highlanders, escorting a long train of Scottish carts, laden with -food and stores, preceded by the Mounted Infantry scouting far in -advance. - -The whole column wore the white helmet, but the dark green of the -Rifles and the green tartan trews of the Highlanders varied the -colour of the scarlet mass that marched up the right bank of the -Inyezene river, with drums beating and bayonets flashing in the April -sunshine. - -Along the whole line of march were seen shields, rifles, assegais, -furs, and feathers strewed about in thousands, cast away by the -fugitives who had fled from Ginghilovo, and here and there the Kaffir -vultures, hovering in mid air above a donga, or swooping down into it -with a fierce croak, indicated where some dead men were lying. - -Briskly the troops pushed on to rescue Colonel Pearson and his -isolated garrison, which, during a blockade that had now extended to -ten weeks, had been in daily expectation of experiencing the fate of -those who perished at Isandhlwana; and surmounting all the natural -difficulties of a rugged country, intersected by watercourses which -recent rains had swollen, by sunset the mounted men under Barrow were -close to the fort, and heard the hearty British cheers of a hungry -garrison mingling with a merry chorus which they were singing. - -Under Colonel Pemberton, the Rifles pushed on ahead with Lord -Chelmsford, just as an officer on a grey charger came dashing round -the base of the hill surmounted by the fort. - -'Here is Pearson, gentlemen,' cried the Commander-in-Chief. - -'How are you, my friend?' - -'Old fellow--how are you?' and grasping each other's hand, they rode -on towards the fort, where the General was received with an -enthusiasm which grew higher when the Argyleshire Highlanders marched -in with all their kilted pipers playing 'The Campbells are coming.' - -The fort was destroyed and abandoned, and on the 4th of April the -united columns began to fall back on Ginghilovo, the Mounted Infantry -as usual in front, but clad in the uniform of that service--a Norfolk -jacket and long untanned boots, all patched and worn now. - -It was justly conceived that the laager would not be reached without -fighting, as a body of Zulus, led in person by Dabulamanzi and the -son of Sirayo, was expected to bar the way, and consequently serious -loss of life was expected; but so far as Florian was concerned, he -felt that he could face any danger now with comparative indifference, -and his daily pleasure consisted in carefully grooming and feeding -Tattoo; and Florian, as he rode on, was thinking with some perplexity -of the farewell words of Captain Hammersley. - -'Good-bye, sergeant--we have all our troubles, I suppose, whatever -they are, and I should not care much if mine were ended here at -Ginghilovo.' - -'I should think that you cannot have much to trouble you, sir,' was -Florian's laughing response as he left him. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -NEWS FROM THE SEAT OF WAR. - -It was a soft and breezy April morning. The young leaves had -scarcely burst their husk-like sheaths in the alternate showers and -sunshine; the lambs were bleating in the meadows, the birds sang on -bush and tree, the white clouds were floating in the azure sky, and -the ivy rustled on the old walls of turreted Craigengowan, when there -came some tidings that found a sharp echo in the hearts of Dulcie and -Finella. - -Arm-in-arm, as girls will often do, they were idling and talking of -themselves and their own affairs in all the luxury of being together -alone, near a stately old gateway of massive iron bars, hung on solid -pillars, surmounted by time-worn wyverns, and all around it, without -and within, grew tall nettles, mighty hemlock, and other weeds; while -the avenue to which it once opened had disappeared, and years upon -years ago been blended with the lawn, for none had trod it for 146 -years, since the last loyal Laird of Craigengowan had ridden forth to -fight for King James VIII., saying that it was not to be unclosed -again till his return; and he returned no more, so it remains closed -unto this day. - -And it has been more than once averred by the peasantry that on the -13th of November, the anniversary of the battle in which he fell, -when the night wind is making an uproar in the wintry woods of -Craigengowan, the low branches crashing against each other, a weird -moon shines between rifts in the black flying clouds, and the -funeral-wreaths of the departed harvest flutter on the leafless -hedges, a spectred horseman, in the costume of Queen Anne's time, his -triangular hat bound with feathers, a square-skirted coat and gilded -gambadoes--a pale, shimmering figure, through which the stars -sparkle--can be seen outside the old iron gate, gazing with wistful -and hollow eyes through the rusty bars, as if seeking for the -vanished avenue down which he had ridden with his cuirassed troop to -fight for King James VIII.; for sooth to say, old Craigengowan is as -full of ghostly legends as haunted Glamis itself. - -Finella had just told this tale to Dulcie when a valet rode past the -gate and entered the lawn by another with the post-bag for the house. -From this Finella took out a newspaper--one of the many it -contained--and with eager eyes the two girls scanned its columns for -the last news from Zululand, and simultaneously a shrill exclamation, -which made the man turn in his saddle as he rode on, escaped them -both. - -The paper contained a brief telegraphic notice of the conflict at the -laager of Ginghilovo, and with it the following paragraph: - - -'Captain Vivian Hammersley, of the unfortunate 24th Regiment, led a -squadron of Barrow's Mountain Infantry; and having, with the most -brilliant gallantry, pressed the flying foe much too far, had his -horse shot under him, and was in danger of being instantly assegaied -by several infuriated savages, who were driven off and shot down in -quick succession by Sergeant Florian MacIan, who mounted the wounded -officer on his own horse and brought him safely into the lines, for -which noble act of humanity and valour he is, we believe, recommended -for promotion by Captain Barrow, of the 19th Hussars, commanding the -Mounted Infantry, and by Lord Chelmsford. The fatal day of -Isandhlwana has made many commissions vacant in the unfortunate 24th -Foot; and we have no doubt that one of them will be conferred upon -this gallant young sergeant.' - - -'Oh, Dulcie, let me kiss you--I can't kiss your Florian just now!' -exclaimed the impulsive Finella, embracing her companion, whose eyes, -like her own, were brimming with tears of joy and sympathy. - -Hammersley had received a wound of which no details were given; and -that circumstance, by its vaguity, filled the heart of Finella with -the keenest anxiety. Oh, if he should die believing what he did of -her, when she had been and was still so true and loyal to him! - -The intelligence rather stunned her; and for some minutes she -remained paralyzed with dismay. She was powerless, with all her -wealth, to succour in any way her suffering lover, and no resolution -could shape itself in her mind. He might be dying, or already dead, -for the fight had taken place some days ago--dying amid suffering and -misery, while she remained idly, lazily, and in comfort amid the -luxuries of Craigengowan. Even Dulcie failed to console her; and -declining to appear at the breakfast-table, she took refuge in her -own room, with the usual feminine plea of a headache. - -'Florian, poor dear Florian! so good, so brave, so fearless!' said -Dulcie to herself aloud; 'how glad I am he has achieved this, for -_her_ sake!' - -How sweet and soft grew her voice as she uttered the name of the -lost, the absent one, while an hysterical lump was rising in her -throat, and Shafto, who had seen the paper and knew the source of -this emotion, looked grimly in her face, with twitching lips and -knitted brows. - -'I have no chance,' thought he, 'with these two girls--either Dulcie -the poor or Finella the rich. Yet why should I not contrive to bend -_both_ to my purpose?' was his evil afterthought. 'Well,' said he -aloud; 'you have seen the news, of course?' - -'Yes, Shafto,' replied Dulcie in a low voice, while her tears fell -fast. - -'So--he is not killed yet!' - -She regarded him with bitter reproach. - -'Don't cry, Dulcie!' said Shafto, with a little emotion of shame, 'or -you will make me feel like a brute now.' - -'I always thought you must have felt like one long ago,' retorted the -girl, as she swept disdainfully past him. - -As Lord and Lady Fettercairn had no desire to bring the name of -Captain Hammersley on the _tapis_, no reference whatever to the -affair of Ginghilovo, or even to the Zulu War, was made in the -presence of Finella. - -Even if the latter had not been engaged, as she still could not help -deeming herself, to Hammersley, and had she not a decided, repugnance -to Shafto, her pride and her whole soul must have revolted against a -_mariage de convenance_. She had formed, girl-like, her own -conceptions of an ideal man, and beyond all whom she met, in London -or elsewhere, Vivian Hammersley was her 'Prince Charming;' and in a -day or two her mind was partially set at rest when she read a -description of his wound, a flesh one, inflicted by an assegai, and -which was then healing fast, but, as she knew, only to enable him to -face fresh perils. - -To be bartered away to anyone after being grotesquely wooed did not -suit her independent views, and ere long her grandparents began to -think with annoyance that they had better let her alone; but Lady -Fettercairn was impatient and irrepressible. - -Not so Shafto. - -He had a low opinion of the sex, picked up perhaps in the bar-parlour -of the inn at Revelstoke, if not inherent in his own nature. He had -read somewhere that 'women love a judicious mixture of hardihood and -flattery--the whole secret lies in that;' also, that if their hearts -are soft their heads are softer in proportion. - -Lady Fettercairn was somewhat perplexed when watching the young folks -at Craigengowan. - -She shrewdly suspected, of course, that Finella's coldness to Shafto -was due to the influence of their late guest Hammersley, though she -never could have guessed at the existence of the wedding-ring and -diamond keeper he had entrusted to her care; but she failed to -understand the terms on which her 'grandson' was with her companion, -Miss Carlyon, and, though there was nothing tangible or -reprehensible, there was an undefined something in their bearing she -did not like. - -Sometimes when talking of Devonshire, of Revelstoke, of the old town -of Newton Ferrars, the dell that led to Noss, of the Yealm, the Erme, -and the sea-beat Mewstone as safe and neutral topics, the girl seemed -affable enough to him, for memories of her English home softened her -heart; but when other topics were broached she was constrained to him -and icy cold. - -Was this acting? - -To further the interests of Shafto by keeping him and Finella -isolated and as much together as possible, Lady Fettercairn did not -go to London and thus seek society. Fashionable folks--unless -Parliamentary--do not return to town till Easter; but Lord -Fettercairn, though a Representative Peer, cared very little about -English and still less about Scottish affairs, or indeed any -interests but his own; so, instead of leaving Craigengowan, they had -invited a few guests there--men who had come for rod-fishing in the -Bervie, the Carron and the Finella, with some ladies to entertain -them, thus affording the girl means of avoiding Shafto whenever she -chose. - -The stately terrace before the house often looked gay from the number -of guests promenading in the afternoon, or sitting in snug corners in -wicker chairs covered with soft rugs--the ladies drinking tea, the -bright colours of their dresses coming out well against the grey -walls of the picturesque old mansion. - -Among other visitors were the vinegar-visaged Lady Drumshoddy, and -Messrs. Kippilaw, senior and junior, the latter a dapper little -tomtit of a Writer to the Signet, intensely delighted and flattered -to be among such 'swell' company, believing it was the result of his -natural brilliance and attractions, and not of respect for his worthy -old father, Kenneth Kippilaw. - -The latter--a _rara avis_, scarce as the dodo and his kindred--was -intensely national--a lover of his country and of everything -Scottish; an enthusiast at Burns' festivals, and singularly patriotic -to be what is locally termed a 'Parliament House bred man.' Thus the -anti-nationality or utter indifference of Lord Fettercairn was a -frequent bone of contention between them; and so bitterly did they -sometimes argue about Scotland and her neglected interests, that it -is a marvel the Peer did not seek out a more obsequious agent. - -'Like his uncle, the late Master of Melfort, Mr. Shafto must go into -Parliament,' said old Mr. Kippilaw; 'but I hope he will make a better -use of his time.' - -'What do you mean?' asked Lord Fettercairn coldly. - -'By attending to Scottish affairs, and getting us equal grants with -England and Ireland for public purposes.' - -'Stuff--the old story, my dear sir. Who cares about Scotland or her -interests?' - -'Ay, who indeed!' exclaimed old Kippilaw, growing warm. - -'She is content to be a mere province now.' - -'The more shame for her--a province that contributes all her millions -to the Imperial Exchequer and gets nothing in return.' - -'A sure sign she doesn't want anything,' replied the peer, with one -of his silent laughs. 'I wish you would not worry me with this -patriotic "rot," Kippilaw--excuse the vulgarity of the phrase; but so -long as I can get my rents out of Craigengowan and Finella, I don't -care a jot if all the rest, Scotland with all its rights and wrongs, -history, poetry and music, was ten leagues under the sea!' - -So thus, for two reasons, political and personal, the 'Fettercairns' -just then did not go to 'town.' - -On the terrace this very afternoon Lady Fettercairn was watching -Finella and Dulcie, linked arm in arm conversing apart from all, and -her smooth brow clouded; for she knew well that the fact of -Hammersley owing his life to Florian MacIan would make--as it did--a -new tie between the two girls. - -'You see, Shafto,' said she, 'how more than ever does Finella put -that girl out of her place. Though most useful as she is to me, -always pleasant and irreproachably lady-like, I think I must get rid -of her.' - -'Not yet--not yet, grandmother,' said Shafto, who did not just _then_ -wish this climax; 'do give her another chance.' - -'To please you, I will, my dear boy; but I fear I am rash.' - -'I wish Finella were not so beastly rich!' he exclaimed. - -'Do not use such shocking terms, Shafto! But why?' - -'It makes me look like a fortune-hunter, being after her.' - -'"After her"? Another vulgarism--impossible--you--you--the heir of -Fettercairn!' - -'Well, it gives one no credit for disinterested affection,' said this -plausible young gentleman. - -We have said that Lady Fettercairn was irrepressible in seeking to -control Finella. - -'How quiet and abstracted you seem! Why don't you entertain our -friends?' said she, as the girl drew near her in an angle of the -terrace, where they were alone. - -'I am thinking, grandmamma,' said Finella wearily. - -'You seem to be for ever thinking, child; and I wonder what it can -all be about.' - -'I don't believe, grandmamma, it would interest you,' said Finella, a -little defiantly. - -'There you are wrong, Finella; what interests you, must of necessity -interest me,' said Lady Fettercairn, haughtily yet languidly, as she -fanned herself. - -'Not always.' - -'Is it something new, then? I suspect your thoughts,' she continued -with some asperity. 'Finella, listen to me again. You and Shafto -are the only two left of the Melfort family; we wish the two branches -united, for their future good--the good of the name and the title; -and if Shafto goes into Parliament, I do not see why he should not -perhaps become Viscount or Earl of Fettercairn.' - -'The old story! I have no ambition, grandmamma,' shrugging her -shoulders, 'and certainly none to be the wife of Shafto, even were he -made a duke. So please to let me alone,' she added desperately, 'or -I may tell you that of--of--Shafto you may not like to hear.' - -And in sooth now, Lady Fettercairn, like her lord, had heard so much -evil of Shafto lately that she abruptly dropped the subject for the -time. - -And now Shafto began once more to persecute poor Dulcie--a -persecution which might have a perilous effect upon her future. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -PERSECUTION. - -Shafto felt, with no small satisfaction, that he could, to a certain -extent, control the actions of both these girls. Finella could not -reveal the secret of her quarrel with him without admitting the terms -on which she had been with Hammersley; and Dulcie, he thought, dared -not resent his conduct, lest--through his influence with Lady -Fettercairn--she might be cast into the world, without even a -certificate that would enable her to procure another situation of any -kind. Thus, to a certain extent, he revelled in security so far as -both were concerned. - -And deeming now that all must be at an end between Finella and -Hammersley, he thought to pique the former perhaps by attentions to -Dulcie--attentions by which he might ultimately gain some little -favours for himself. - -In both instances vain thoughts! - -He was aware that he had an ample field of old and mutual interest or -associations to go back upon with Dulcie; thus he thought if he could -entangle her into an apparent flirtation for the purpose of -mortifying Finella, and catching her heart on the rebound, sore as it -must be with the seeming indifference of Hammersley, he would gain -his end; and this mutual intimacy eventually annoyed and surprised -Lady Fettercairn, and was likely to prove fatal to the interests and -position of Dulcie, whom he felt he must either win for himself in -some fashion, and, if not, in revenge have her expelled from -Craigengowan. - -One day the girl was alone. She was feeding the swans in the -artificial lakelet that lay below the terrace. It was a serene and -sunny forenoon; the water was smooth as crystal, and reflected the -old house with all its turrets, crow-stepped gables, and -dormer-gablets line for line. It mirrored also the swans swimming -double, bird and shadow, like beautiful drifting boats, and the great -white water-lilies that seemed to sleep rather than float on its -surface. - -It was indeed a drowsy, golden afternoon, and Dulcie Carlyon, an -artist at heart, was fully impressed by the loveliness of her -surroundings, when Shafto stood before her. - -Shafto!--she quite shivered. - -'Oh!' she exclaimed, as if a toad had crossed her path. - -'A penny for your thoughts, Dulcie.' said that personage smilingly, -seeing that she had been pondering so deeply that his approach had -been unnoticed by her. - -'They might startle you more than you think,' replied Dulcie, with -undisguised annoyance. - -'Indeed; are you weaving out a romance?' - -'Perhaps.' - -'With yourself for the heroine, or Finella; and that fellow Florian -for the hero? Then there must be the requisite villain.' - -'Oh, he is ready to hand,' said she daringly, with a flash in her -blue eyes. - -Shafto's brow grew black as midnight, and what coarse thing he might -have said we know not, but policy made him ignore her reply. - -'Please not to remain speaking to me,' said she, glancing nervously -at the windows of the house; 'your doing so may displease the friends -of Finella.' - -'It is of her I wish to speak. Listen, Dulcie. I have not the -influence over her I had hoped to have before you came among us. If -that interloper Hammersley had not absorbed her interest, no doubt, -as matters once looked, she might have pleased her relations and -bound herself to me, provided she had never found out that I had -loved a dear one, far away in Devonshire, and had but a -half-concealed fancy for herself.' - -Dulcie listened to this special pleading in contemptuous silence. - -'I don't want to marry her now, any more than she wants to marry me,' -he resumed unblushingly; 'but I may tell you it is rather hard to be -ordered to play the lover to a girl who will scarcely throw me a -civil word.' - -'After the cruel trick you played her, is it to be expected?' - -'So--you are in her confidence, then?' - -But Dulcie only thought, 'What paradox is this? He dared again to -make love to herself, after all that had passed with reference to -Florian, and yet to be jealous of Finella's profound disdain of him.' - -'Won't you try and love me a little, Dulcie?' said he, attempting his -most persuasive tone. - -'What do you mean, Shafto?' demanded the girl in great anger and -perplexity; 'even if I would take you, which I would rather die than -do, with all your wealth and prospective title, you could not marry -me and Finella too!' - -'Who speaks of marriage?' growled Shafto, under his breath, while a -malicious smile glittered in his cold eyes, as he added aloud, 'You -know which I wish to marry.' - -'Then it cannot be me, nor shall it be Finella either, for the matter -of that.' - -'Does she act under your influence?' - -'Do not think of it--she is under a more potent influence than I -possess,' replied Dulcie, who, bewildered by his manner and remarks, -was turning away, when he again confronted her, and the girl glanced -uneasily at the windows, where, although she knew it not, the eyes of -those she dreaded most were observing them both. - -To marry Dulcie, even if she would have him, certainly did not suit -'the book' of Shafto; but, as he admired her attractive person, and -hated Florian with unreasoning rancour, as some men do who have -wronged others, he would gladly have lured her into a _liaison_ with -himself. He knew, however, her pride and purity too well, but he was -not without the hope of blunting them, and eventually bending her to -his will, under the threat or pressure of getting her expelled from -Craigengowan, and thrown penniless, friendless, and with, perhaps, a -tainted name, upon a cold, bitter, and censorious world. - -'I know you better than to believe that you love me any more than I -do you,' said Dulcie, with ill-concealed scorn; 'love is not in your -nature, even for the brilliant Finella. You love her money--not -herself.' - -Dissembling his rage, he said in a suppliant tone: - -'Why are you so cold and repellant to me, Dulcie?' - -'I do not know that I am markedly so.' - -'But I do: beyond the affair of the locket, born of my very regard -for you, what is my offence?' - -'What you are doing now, following me about--forcing your society on -me, and tormenting as you do. I shall be compromised with Lady -Fettercairn if you do not take care.' - -'I think you treat me with cruel coldness, considering the love I -have borne you so long. Why should not we be even the friends we -once were at Revelstoke, and like each other always?' - -'After all you have done to Florian!' - -'What _have_ I done to Florian?' he demanded, changing colour under -the influence of his own secret thoughts. - -'Cast him forth into the world penniless.' - -'Oh, is that all?' said he, greatly relieved. - -'Yes, that is all, so far as I know as yet.' - -Again his brow darkened at this chance shot; but, still dissembling, -he said: - -'My dear little Dulcie, what is the use of all this foolish regard -for Florian and revengeful mood at me? We shall never see him again.' - -'Oh, Shafto, how can you talk thus coldly of Florian, with whom you -went to school and college together, played together as boys, and -read together as men--were deemed almost brothers rather than -cousins! Shame on you!' and she stamped her little foot on the -ground as she spoke. - -'How pretty you look when angry! You do not care for me just now, -perhaps; but in time you will, Dulcie.' - -'Never, Shafto.' - -'Surely you don't mean to carry on this game ever and always?' - -'Ever and always, while I am a dependant here.' - -'But I will take you away from here, and you need be a dependant no -longer,' said he, while his countenance brightened and his manner -warmed, as he utterly mistook her meaning. 'My allowance is most -handsome, thanks to Lord--Lord--to my grandfather, and he can't last -for ever. The old fellow is sixty-eight if he is a day. Forget all -past unpleasantness; think only of the future, and all I can make it -for you. I will give you any length of time if you will only give me -your love.' - -'Never, I tell you. Oh, this is intolerable!' exclaimed the girl -passionately, finding that he still barred her way. - -'Beware, Dulcie,' said he, as his shifty eyes flashed. 'The world -and success in it are for him who knows how to wait; meantime, let us -be friends. Friendship is said to be more enduring than love.' - -'Well--we shall never be even friends again, Shafto.' - -'Why?' - -'Well do you know _why_. And let me remind you that all sin brings -its own punishment in this world.' - -'If found out,' he interrupted. - -'And in the next, whether found out here or not.' - -'Why the deuce do you preach thus to me?' he asked savagely, his -fears again awakened, so true is it that - - 'Many a shaft at random sent - Finds mark the archer never meant.' - - -'And what do you take me for that you treat me thus, and talk to me -in this manner?' - -'What do I take you for? By your treatment of me I take you to be an -insolent, cruel, and heartless fellow, who can be worse at times.' - -'Take care! the pedestal you stand on may give way. It lies with me -to smash it, and some fine day you may be sorry for the way in which -you have dared to treat me, Shafto----' - -'Gyle,' interrupted Dulcie almost spitefully. - -'Melfort, d--n you!' he retorted coarsely, and losing all command -over himself. - -Tears now sprang to her eyes, and then, as he half feared to carry -the matter so far with her, he apologized. - -'Let me pass, sir,' said she. - -'Won't you give me one little kiss first, Dulcie?' - -She made no reply, but fixed her lovely dark blue eyes upon him with -an expression of such loathing and contempt that even he was stung to -the heart by it. - -'Let me pass, sir!' she exclaimed again. - -He stood aside to let her do so, and she swept by, holding her golden -head haughtily erect; but Dulcie feared him now more than ever, and -certainly she had roused revenge in his heart, with certain vague -emotions of alarm. - -Of all the thousands of homes in Scotland and England how miserable -and unlucky was the chance that cast her under the same roof with the -evil-minded Shafto! thought the girl in the solitude of her own room. -But then, otherwise, she would never have known and shared the sweet -and flattering friendship of Finella Melfort; and, as she never knew -what wicked game Shafto might play, he would perhaps succeed in -depriving her even of that solace as the end of his persecution. - -The whole tenor of the conversation or interview forced upon her by -Shafto impressed her with a keen and deep sense of humiliation that -made her weep bitterly; how much more keen would the sense of that -have been had she known what in the purity of her nature she never -suspected, that, amid all his grotesque love-making, marriage was no -way comprehended in his scheme! - -Much as she disliked Shafto, an emotion of delicacy, with a timid -doubt of the future with regard to Captain Hammersley, and what was -behind that future with regard to 'the cousins,' as she of course -deemed them to be, induced Dulcie to remain silent with Finella on -the subject of his persistent and secret attentions to herself, -though she would have deplored to see Finella the wife of Shafto. - -The interview we have described had not passed without observers, we -have said. - -'Fettercairn, look how Miss Carlyon and Shafto are flirting near the -Swan's Pool!' said the Lady of that Ilk, drawing her husband's -attention to the pair from a window of the drawing-room. - -'What makes you think they are doing so?' he asked, but nevertheless -with knitted brows. - -'Cannot you see it?' - -'No; it is so long since I did anything in that way myself that -really I--aw----' - -'See with what _empressement_ he bends down to address her, and she -keeps her head down, too, though she seems to crest it up at times.' - -'But she edges away from him palpably, as if she disliked what he is -saying, and, by Jove, she looks indignant, too!' - -'That may be all acting, in suspicion that she is observed, or it may -be to lure him on; one never knows what may be passing in a girl's -mind--if she thinks herself attractive especially.' - -'Well--to me they seem quarrelling,' said Lord Fettercairn. - -'Quarrelling--and with my companion! How could Shafto condescend to -do so?' - -'That is more than I can tell you--he is rather a riddle to me; but -the girl is decidedly more than pretty, and very good style, too.' - -'And hence the more dangerous. I must speak with Shafto on this -subject seriously, or----' - -'What then?' - -'Get rid of her.' - -'If we fail in marrying Shafto to Finella, who can say whom he may -marry, as his instincts seem somewhat low, and after we are gone -there may be a whole clan of low and sordid prodigals here in -Craigengowan.' - -'And Radicals!' suggested Lady Fettercairn. - -'Desecrating the spots rendered almost sacred by association with a -great and famous past,' said Lord Fettercairn loftily. - -What this great and famous 'past' was, he could scarcely have told. -It was not connected with his own mushroom line, whatever it might -have been with the former lords of Craigengowan, whose guests had at -times been Kings of Scotland and Princes of France and Spain. - -'Finella is young, and does not know her own heart,' he resumed; -'besides, I believe it is enough generally to recommend a girl to -marry a certain man, for her to set her face against him -unreasoningly. But I think--and hope--that our Finella is different -from the common run of girls.' - -'Not in contriving, perhaps, to fall in love with the wrong man.' - -'You mean that young fellow Hammersley?' - -'Yes; I must own to having most grave suspicions,' replied Lady -Fettercairn. - -'She is a Melfort, and as such has no notion of being coerced.' - -Lady Fettercairn thought of Lennard and Flora MacIan and remained -silent, remembering that _he_ too, the disowned and the outcast, was -a genuine Melfort in the same sense. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -A THREAT. - -To Finella, so pure in mind and proud in spirit, it was fast becoming -utterly intolerable to find herself in the false and degraded -position the craft of Shafto had placed her in with regard to so -honourable a man as Vivian Hammersley; and the more she brooded over -it, the deeper became her loathing of the daring trickster--a -sentiment which she was, by the force of circumstances, compelled to -veil and conceal from her guardians: hence, the more bitter her -thoughts, the more passionate her longing for an explanation, and -more definite her wishes. - -Hammersley, though still a fact, seemed somehow to have passed out of -her life, and thus she often said in a kind of wailing way to Dulcie: - -'Oh, that he had never come here, or that I had never known or met -him, in London or anywhere else! Then I should not have felt what it -is to love and to lose him!' - -'Pardon me, darling, but take courage,' replied Dulcie, caressing -her. 'I have written to Florian at last, and his reply will tell us -all about Captain Hammersley, and how he is looking, and so forth; -though Florian, in a position so subordinate, cannot be in his -confidence, of course.' - -She did not add that she had in her letter told the whole story of -the false position in which Finella had been placed, lest the -latter's pride might revolt at such interference in her affairs, -however well and kindly meant; and lest the letter--if it proved -disappointing, by her lover remaining jealous, suspicious, obdurate, -or contemptuous, if Florian ventured to speak on the subject, which -she scarcely hoped--should prove a useless humiliation to Finella, -who longed eagerly as herself for the reply. - -But Dulcie prayed in her simple heart that good might come of it -before the evil which she so nervously dreaded fell upon herself; for -Shafto had made such humble apologies for his conduct to her on the -day he interrupted her when feeding the swans, that, though she gave -him her hand in token, not of forgiveness but of truce, she feared he -was concocting fresh mischief; for soon after, encouraged thereby, he -began his old persecution, but carefully and in secret again. - -Finding that his chances with Finella were now apparently _nil_, even -though all seemed at an end between her and Vivian Hammersley, -Shafto, by force of old habit, perhaps, turned his attention to -Dulcie, who, in her humble and dependent capacity, had a difficult -card to play, while feeling exasperated and degraded by the passion -he expressed for her on every available opportunity. Not that he -would, she suspected, have married a poor girl like her, as one with -money, no matter who, was the wisest match for him, lest the -discovery of who he was came to pass, though that he deemed -impossible now. - -Shafto had learned and imitated much among the new and aristocratic -folks in whose circle he found himself cast; and thus it was that he -dared to make secret love, and to torment the helpless Dulcie with -words that spoke of-- - - 'Riches and love and pleasure, - And all but the name of wife.' - - -Had he done that, she would have treated him quite as coldly and -scornfully; but she could do no more than she did. Yet he was fast -making her life at Craigengowan a torture, and she feared him almost -more than his so-called grandmother, who was only a proud and selfish -patrician, while he--ah, she knew too well what he was capable of; -but Dulcie had something more to learn yet. - -One day, after having imbibed more wine, or _eau-de-vie_, than was -good for him in Mr. Grapeston's pantry, as he sometimes did, he -addressed the girl in a way there was no misunderstanding. She -trembled and grew pale. - -'Well, one thing I promise you if you try to please me,' said he--'to -_please_ me, do you understand?--while you remain under this roof, -which I hope, darling, will not be long now--I shall trouble you no -more.' - -'To please you, Shafto!' stammered the girl; 'what _do_ you mean?' - -'I'll tell you that by-and-by, my pretty Dulcie, when the time comes.' - -She drew back with a pallid face and a hauteur that would have become -Lady Fettercairn herself, while he in turn made her a low mock bow, -and stalked tipsily off with what he thought a dignity of bearing, -leaving her sick with terror of a future of insult and apprehension. - -Somehow she felt at his mercy, and began to contemplate flight, but -to where? - -Watching closely, Lady Fettercairn observed the extreme caution and -coldness of Dulcie's bearing to Shafto; but, not believing in it, or -that a person in her dependent state could resist advances of any -kind from one in his lofty position, supposed she had only to wait -long enough and observe with care to find out if aught was wrong. - -'But why wait?' said Lady Drumshoddy; 'why not dismiss the creature -at once?' she added with asperity. - -'How comes it that you are so intimate with this girl Carlyon?' said -Lady Fettercairn one day. - -'Your companion?' said Shafto. - -'Yes.' - -'How often have I told you that we are old friends--knew each other -in Devonshire since we were a foot high.' - -'But this intimacy now is--to say the least of it, -Shafto--undignified.' - -'I am sorry you think so.' - -'Besides, she has a lover, I believe, whose likeness she wears in a -locket; and though she may be content to throw him over for rank and -wealth with you, surely you would not care to receive a second-hand -affection.' - -'How your tongue goes on, grandmother!' said Shafto, greatly -irritated; 'you are like Finella's pad Fern when it gets the bit -between its teeth.' - -'Thank you! But this lover or cousin, or whatever he is, of whom -Miss Carlyon actually once spoke to me--who is he, and where is he?' - -'How the deuce should I know!' exclaimed Shafto, growing pale; 'gone -to the dogs, I suppose, as I always thought he would.' - -'It was of him that madwoman spoke?' - -'Yes, Madelon Galbraith. He was named Florian after his _aunt_.' - -'Miss MacIan.' - -That was enough for Lady Fettercairn, who, dropping that subject, -returned with true feminine persistence to the other. - -'I don't like this sort of thing, I repeat, Shafto.' - -'What sort of thing?' - -'This secret flirting with my companion, Miss Carlyon.' - -'I don't flirt with her; and, by Jove, he'd be a pretty clever fellow -who could do so.' - -'Why?' - -'She is so devilish stand-off, grandmother.' - -'I am truly glad to hear it.' - -'But can't I talk with her? We are old acquaintances, and have -naturally much to say to each other.' - -'Too much, I fear. You may talk, as you say, but not hover about -her.' - -'Anything more?' asked Shafto rudely. - -'Yes, I wish you to settle down----' - -'Oh! and marry Finella?' - -'Yes, that you know well, dear Shafto,' said the lady coaxingly. - -'Oh, by Jove! that is easier said than done. You don't know all the -outs and ins of Finella; and one can't walk the course, so far as I -can see.' - -Shafto withdrew, but not before he saw the lace-edged handkerchief -come into use, to hide the tears she did not shed at the brusque -manner of her 'grandson,' who had failed to convince her, for she -said to herself bitterly: - -'There is a curse upon Craigengowan! Our youngest son threw himself -and his life away upon a beggarly governess; and now our only -grandson seems likely to play the same game with my upstart -companion! I _do_ like the girl, but, however, I must get rid of -her.' - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -WITH THE SECOND DIVISION. - -Meanwhile the events of the war were treading thick on each other in -Zululand. A fresh disaster had ensued at the Intombe river, where a -detachment of the 80th Regiment was cut to pieces, and again old -soldiers spoke with sorrow and disgust of the blunders and incapacity -of those at head-quarters, who by their newfangled systems had -reduced our once grand army to chaos. - -Such alarms and surprises, like too many of the disasters and -disgraces which befell our arms in these latter wars, were entirely -due to the new formation of our battalions. 'That the destruction of -the regimental system by Lord Cardwell has been the original cause of -all our reverses, surprises, and humiliation, there can be little -hesitation in saying,' to quote Major Ashe. 'The men at Isandhlwana -were not well handled, it must be admitted, but it has since leaked -out that many of them would not rally round their officers, but -attempted safety in flight. Dozens of the men, sergeants, and other -non-commissioned officers, have since disclosed that they did not -know the names of their company officers, or those of their right or -left hand men.' - -Hence, by the newfangled system, there could be neither confidence -nor cohesion. Elsewhere he tells us that the once-splendid 91st -Highlanders, 'the envy of all recruiting sergeants, could only muster -200 men when ordered to Zululand,' but was made up by volunteers from -other regiments--men all strangers to each other and to their -officers, and whose facings were all the colours of the rainbow. -Then, after the Intombe, followed the storming of the Inhlobane -Mountain, where fell the gallant Colonel Weatherley, and the no less -gallant old frontier farmer Pict Nys, who was last seen fighting to -his final gasp against a horde of Zulus, across the dead body of his -favourite horse, an empty revolver in his left hand, a blood-dripping -sabre in his right, and more than one assegai, launched from a -distance, quivering in his body. - -The cry went to Britain now for more troops; and fresh reinforcements -came, while the army in Zululand was reconstituted by Lord Chelmsford -at Durban. - -There, amid a brilliant staff in their new uniforms fresh from home, -was one central figure, the ill-starred Prince Imperial of France, -who had landed two days after the battle of Kambula, and had been -appointed an extra aide-de-camp to the general commanding. - -The army was now formed into two divisions: one under Major-General -Crealock, C.B., and another under Major-General Newdigate, while a -flying column under Sir Evelyn Wood was to act independently. -Hammersley's squadron of Mounted Infantry was attached to the Second -Division, with the movements of which our story has necessarily alone -to do. - -The 16th of April saw it marching northward of Natal, and on the 4th -of May Lord Chelmsford, who had joined it after church parade--for -the day was Sunday--suggested that a reconnaissance should be made -towards the Valley of the Umvolosi River to select ground for an -entrenched camp, and for this purpose Hammersley's squadron and -Buller's Horse were ordered to the front. - -The local troopers under that brilliant officer were now clad in a -uniform manner--in brown cord breeches, mimosa-coloured jackets, long -gaiters laced to the knee, and broad cavalier hats, with long scarlet -or blue puggarees. The open collars of their flannel shirts -displayed their bronzed necks; and picturesque-looking fellows they -were, all armed with sabres and rifles of various patterns, slung -across the back by a broad leather sling. Their horses were rough -but serviceable, and active as mountain deer. - -After riding some miles over grassy plateaux and rugged hilly ground, -tufted with cabbage-tree wood, on a bright and pleasant morning, the -local Horse were signalled to retire, as it was discovered that a -great body of Zulus were watching their movements. - -Unaware of this, Hammersley, with his Mounted Infantry, rode on for -three miles, till they reached a great plateau near a place called -Zungen Nek, where the pathway, if such it could be styled, was -bordered by mimosa thorns, and where two bullets mysteriously -fired--no one could tell from where, for no enemy was to be -seen--whistled through the little squadron harmlessly, though both -were as close to Florian as they could pass without hitting him, and -one made Tattoo toss his head and lay his quivering little ears -angrily back on his neck. - -At this time some officers who had cantered to the front from where -the division was halted, saw the dark figures of many of the enemy -creeping along in the jungle, and watching them so intently that they -were all unaware of their retreat being cut off by twenty of the -Mounted Infantry under a sergeant--Florian. - -'Forward, and at them!' cried the latter, as his men slung their -rifles and galloped in loose formation, sabre in hand, to attack the -savages, but suddenly found themselves on the edge of some -precipitous cliffs, some three hundred feet in height, which -compelled them for a moment or two to rein up till a narrow track was -found, down which they descended in single file in a scrambling way, -the hoofs of the rear horses throwing sand, gravel, and stones over -those in front. - -When the sounds made by the descent ceased, and the soldiers gained a -turfy plateau, nothing could be seen of the foe, and all was -silence--a silence that could be felt, like the darkness that rested -on the land of Egypt. Then there burst forth a united yell that -seemed to rend the welkin, and a vast horde of black-skinned Zulus, -led by Methagazulu (the son of Sirayo), who had recovered from the -wound he received at Ginghilovo, came rushing on, brandishing their -assegais and rifles. - -This ambuscade was more than Florian anticipated, and believing that -all was lost, and that he and his party would be utterly cut off to a -man, he gave the order to retire on the spur, and they splashed, -girdle deep, through a ford of the Umvolosi, on which, as if by the -guidance of Heaven, they chanced to hit. - -With yells of baffled rage the savages followed them so closely that -Florian and another trooper named Tom Tyrrell, who covered the rear, -had to face about and fire by turns, till the open ground on the -other side was reached. - -'A close shave that business,' said Tom breathlessly. 'I thought -that in three minutes' time every man Jack of us would have been -assegaied.' - -Galloping out of range, Florian's party now rejoined that of -Hammersley, who congratulated them on their escape, and they all rode -together back to head-quarters. But these movements had alarmed the -whole valley of the White Umvolosi. - -On every hand, in quick succession, signal fires, formed of vast -heaps of dried grass, blazed on the hill-tops; vast columns of black -smoke shot upwards to the bright blue sky, and were repeated from -summit to summit, showing that the whole country was actively alive -with armed warriors, who in many places could be seen driving and -goading their herds of cattle into rocky kloofs and all kinds of -places inaccessible to horse and foot alike. - -From the summit of the Zungen Nek a full view of the beautiful valley -through which the Umvolosi rolls could be obtained, and near a place -there, called Conference Hill, were seen, like a field of snow, the -white tents of the Second Division shining in the bright, sunny light. - -Twenty-three days it remained encamped there, and during that time a -vast amount of useful information regarding the topography of the -country in which the coming campaign would be, was furnished by the -reports and sketches made by Colonel Buller, the Prince Imperial, by -Hammersley, and even by Florian, who was a very clever draughtsman, -and on many occasions was complimented by the staff in such terms as -made his young heart swell in his breast. - -But the sketches of none surpassed those of the handsome and -unfortunate Prince, whose passion for information was boundless, and -the questions he was wont to ask of all were searching in the extreme. - -One day, when out on a reconnaisance, the Mounted Infantry were -suddenly fired upon from a kraal, and in the conflict that ensued -many were killed and wounded, especially of the enemy, who were -completely routed. - -The great and unfathomable mystery of death was close indeed to -Florian on that day, and around him lay hundreds who had discovered -it within an hour or less. He had narrowly escaped it by skilfully -dodging a ponderous knobkerie flung at his head as the last dying -effort of a warrior whose black and naked breast had been pierced by -a bullet from Tom Tyrrell's rifle, and from which the crimson blood -was welling as if from a squirt; and so close was the weapon to doing -Florian a mortal mischief that it took the gilt spike close off the -top of his helmet. - -And now, on the very evening before the division broke up its camp -and marched, occurred an event which proved to Florian, and to his -favourite captain too, the chief one of the campaign. - -How little those who live at home at ease can know of the delight it -gives an exile to have tidings, by letter or otherwise, from those -who are dear to them in the old country when far, far away from it! -No matter how short the sentences, how few the facts, or how clumsy -the expressions, they all seem to show that we are not forgotten by -the old fireside; for even amid the keen and fierce excitement of war -the soldier has often time for much thought of friends and home, -especially in the lonely watches of the night, and a pang goes to his -heart with the fear that, as he is absent, he may be forgotten. - -Florian had often envied the delight with which his comrades, Tom -Tyrrell or poor Bob Edgehill, who perished at Isandhlwana, and others -received letters from distant friends and relatives; but month after -month had passed, and none ever came to him, nor did he expect any. - -In all the world there was no one to think of him save Dulcie -Carlyon. How he longed to write to her, but knew not where she was. - -At last there came an evening--he never forgot it--when the sergeant -who acted as regimental postman brought him a letter--a letter -addressed to himself, and in the handwriting of Dulcie! - -His fingers trembled as he carefully but hastily cut open the -envelope. It was dated from Craigengowan, a place of which he -scarcely knew the name, but thought he had heard it mentioned by Mr. -Kenneth Kippilaw on the eventful day when he and Shafto visited that -gentleman at his office. - -After many prettily expressed protestations of regard for -himself--every word of which stirred his heart deeply--of joy that he -was winning distinction, and of fear for the awful risks he ran in -war, she informed him that the situation obtained for her had been -that of companion to Lady Fettercairn, 'and who do you think I found -installed here as master of the whole situation, as heir to the title -and a truly magnificent property--Shafto! Perhaps I am wrong to tell -you, lest it may worry you, but he has resumed his persecution of me. -He often taunts me about you, and fills me with terror lest he may do -me a mischief with Lady Fettercairn, as he has already contrived to -do with his cousin, Miss Finella (a dear darling girl) and Captain -Hammersley, the officer whose life you so bravely saved at -Ginghilovo, and who, I now learn, is in your regiment. It was an -infamous trick, but it succeeded in separating them and nearly -breaking Finella's heart.' - -The letter then proceeded to detail how Finella, to her extreme -dismay and discomfiture, had dropped Hammersley's pencilled note; how -Shafto had found it, and intercepted her in the shrubbery on her way -to the place of rendezvous, and would only restore it on receiving, -as a bribe, a cousinly kiss, which she was compelled to accord, when -he rudely seized her and snatched several before she could repulse -him; how Hammersley had passed at that fatal moment, and misconceived -the whole situation, since when, language could not express the -loathing Finella had of Shafto. That was the whole affair. - -'You know Shafto and all of which he is capable,' continued Dulcie; -'so poor Finella is heartbroken in contemplating the horrid view her -lover must take of her, but is without the means of explaining it -away, nor will her great pride permit her to do so.' - -Dulcie under the same roof with Shafto, and apparently the bosom -friend of Hammersley's love! Florian had now a clue to some of the -bitter remarks that, in moments of unintentional confidence, his -superior had uttered from time to time. - -That Shafto and Dulcie were in such close proximity to each -other--meeting daily and hourly--filled Florian's mind with no small -anxiety. He had no doubt of Dulcie's faith, trust, and purity; but -neither had he any doubt of Shafto's subtle character and the -mischief of which he was capable, and which he might work the -helpless and unfortunate girl if he pursued, as she admitted he did, -the odious and unwelcome love-making he had begun at Revelstoke. - -As he read and re-read her letter in that hot, burning, and far-away -land, how vividly every expression of her perfect face, every -inflection of her soft and sympathetic voice, came back to memory, -till his heart swelled and his eyes grew dim. How self-possessed she -was, with all her gentleness; how self-reliant, with all her timidity. - -'Should I show this letter to Hammersley?' thought Florian. 'The -communication in it must concern him very closely--very dearly, and -my darling, impulsive little Dulcie has evidently written it with a -purpose.' - -Then Florian remembered that though suave and condescendingly kind to -him, especially since the episode at Ginghilovo, Hammersley was -naturally a man of a proud and haughty spirit, and might resent one -in Florian's junior position interfering in the most tender secrets -of his life. - -Florian was keenly desirous of fulfilling what was evidently the wish -of Dulcie--of befriending her friend, and perhaps, by achieving a -reconciliation, conferring an unexampled favour upon his officer; yet -he shrank from the delicate task, while giving it long and anxious -thought. - -He tossed up a florin. - -'If it is a head, I'll do it. Head it is!' he exclaimed, and went -straight to the tent of Hammersley, whom he found lounging on his -camp-bed, with a cigar in his mouth and his patrol-jacket open. - -'What is up?' he demanded abruptly, as if disturbed in a reverie. - -'Only, sir, that I have just had a letter,' began Florian, colouring -deeply, and pausing. - -'From home?' - -'Yes, sir.' - -'I hope it contains pleasant news.' - -'It is from one who is very dear to me.' - -'Oh, the old story--a girl, no doubt?' - -'Yes, sir.' - -'The more fool you: the faith of the sex is writ in water, as the -poet has it.' - -'I hope not, in my case and in some others, Captain Hammersley; but -if you will pardon me I cannot help stating that in my letter there -is something that concerns yourself and your happiness very nearly -indeed.' - -Hammersley stared at this information. - -'Concerns me?' he asked. - -'Yes, and Miss Finella Melfort: permit me to mention her name.' - -The red blood suffused Hammersley's bronzed face from temples to -chin, and he sprang to his feet. - -'What the devil _do_ you mean, MacIan?' he exclaimed sharply; his -supreme astonishment, however, exceeding any indignation to hear that -name on a stranger's lips. 'I know well that you are not what you -seem by your present position in life; but how came you to know the -name of that young lady?' - -'She is mentioned in this letter, sir--the letter of the only being -in all the world who cares for me,' replied Florian, with a palpable -break in his voice. - -'Mentioned in what fashion?' asked Hammersley curtly and with knitted -brows. - -'Please to read this paragraph for yourself, sir.' - -'Thanks.' - -Hammersley took the letter, and saw that it was written in a most -lady-like hand. - -'Dulcie?' said he, just glancing at the signature; 'is she your -sister?' - -'I have no sister. I think I have told you that I am alone in the -world.' - -'I have a delicacy in reading a young lady's letter,' said -Hammersley, whose hand shook on perceiving by the next glance that it -was dated from 'Craigengowan.' - -Florian indicated the long paragraph with a finger; and as Hammersley -read it his face became again deeply suffused. - -'Permit me again, my good fellow,' said he as he read it twice, as if -to impress its contents on his mind; and then, returning the letter -with unsteady hand to Florian, he seated himself on the edge of the -camp-bed and passed a hand across his forehead. - -'Thank you for showing me this! You can understand what I felt and -thought on seeing the episode this young lady explains so kindly in -her letter--God bless the girl! It seems all too good to be true.' - -'You do not know the vile trickery of which this fellow Shafto is -capable,' said Florian. - -'I do,' replied Hammersley, remembering the affair of the cards. -'Finella!' said he, as if to himself, 'how her memory haunts me! By -Jove, she is a witch, a sorceress!--like that other Finella after -whom she told me she is named, and who lived--I don't know when--in -the year of the Flood, I think. I thank you from my soul, MacIan, -for the sight of this letter, and it will be a further incitement to -me to further your interests in every way within my power. Heaven -knows how gladly I would betake me to my pen; but this is no time for -letter-writing. By daybreak we shall be in our saddles, and on the -spur to the front.' - -Florian saluted his officer and withdrew, leaving him to the full -tide of his new thoughts. - -So she was true to him after all! The whole affair, so black -apparently, seemed to be so simply and truthfully explained away by -Dulcie's letter that he could not doubt the terrible misconception -under which he had laboured, nor did he wish to do so. The tables -were completely turned. - -It was he--himself--who had cruelly wronged, doubted, upbraided, and -quitted Finella, and now from him must the reparation come. His mind -was full of the repentant, glowing, and gushing letter he would write -her, renewing his protestations of love and faith, and imploring her -to forgive him; but when could that letter be written and sent to the -rear?--for the division advanced by dawn on the morrow, and there -would scarcely be a halt, he supposed, till it reached Ulundi. - -And how could a letter reach her from the Cape at Craigengowan -unknown to Lady Fettercairn?--who, he knew but too well, was bitterly -opposed to his love for Finella, and for many cogent reasons the -adherent of Shafto. - -How would it all end with them both now? - -In a runaway marriage too probably, unless he got knocked on the head -in Zululand, a process he rather shrank from now, as life seemed to -be invested with new attributes, greater hopes, and greater value. - -Finella's _mignonne_ face came before him; the small, straight nose, -with thin, arched nostrils; the proud yet soft hazel eyes, with thin, -long lashes; the firm coral lips; the abundant hair of richest brown; -and with all these came, too, the memory of her favourite perfume, -the faint odour of jasmine that clung to her draperies and laces. - -In a similar mood to some extent, but without the sense of having -aught to explain or a reparation to make, Florian lay in another tent -at some little distance, contemplating the contents of a pretty white -leather toy, lined with pale blue satin--a case containing a -photo--altogether an unsuitable thing for the pocket of a soldier's -tunic, or to place in his haversack, it may be among cooked rations, -shoe-brushes, and a sponge for pipeclay; but it contained a poor -reflection, though delicately tinted, of Dulcie's own sweet face. - -He continued by turns to re-read her letter and contemplate her photo -till the daylight faded and the moon, golden not silver coloured, -shone amid a sky wherein dark blue seemed to blend with apple green -at the horizon, lighting up all the lonely landscape, and making the -blue gum trees and euphorbiæ stand out in opaque _silhouette_, while -the--to him--new constellations of that southern hemisphere seemed to -play hide-and-seek, as they sparkled in and out in the cloudless dome -of heaven. - -As there he lay, full of his own thoughts and tender memories, he was -all unaware of two evil spirits that hovered near, and were actually -watching him. Both were evil-visaged personages, and though clad in -the ordinary costume of Cape Colonists belonged to the Natal -Volunteer Force. - -One had two hideous bullet wounds but lately healed--one on each -cheek--and his jaws were almost destitute of teeth, as Florian's -pistol had left them; for this personage was no other than Josh -Jarrett, the ex-landlord of the so-called hotel at Elandsbergen; and -the other was Dick of the Droogveldt--one of the two ruffians that -had pursued Florian on horseback till his fall into the bushy donga -concealed him from them. - -On the destruction of the town of Elandsbergen by the Zulus these two -worthies, for the sake of the ample pay given to the Colonial troops, -and being incapable of obtaining any other means of livelihood, had -joined the Volunteer Horse, and while serving in that capacity had -discovered and recognised Florian. - -'He's a boss now in the Mounted Infantry; but I'll be cursed if I -don't put a lead plug into him on the first opportunity--kill him as -I would a puff-adder!' said Josh Jarrett fiercely, as he mumbled the -last words into the mouth of a metal flask filled with that -villainous compound known as Cape Smoke, while they grinned, but -without fun, and winked to each other portentously. - -'Hopportunities we'll 'ave in plenty, with the work as goes on here,' -responded Dick of the Droogveldt (which means a dry district), 'and -that cursed fellow shall never quit Zululand alive, all the more so -that they say he is to be made an officer soon.' - -For Dick, like Josh, was one of 'Cardwell's recruits,' as they are -named, and had been a deserter from a line regiment. So their -appearance in camp probably accounted for the two mysterious shots -that Florian had so recently escaped.[*] - - -[*] For many interesting details of the Zulu War, I am indebted to -the narrative of Major Ashe; but more particularly to the Private -Journal of the Chief of the Staff. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -ON THE BANKS OF THE ITYOTYOSI. - -It was bitterly cold in camp that night--one of the _noctes -ambrosianæ_ in Zululand, as Hammersley said laughingly; and on the -morning of the 1st June, when the thin ice stood in the buckets -inside the tents, the latter were struck, and the Second Division -began its march from the Blood River towards the Itelezi Hill. - -'My darling little Finella--may God love you and bless you!' was the -morning prayer of Hammersley as he sprung on his horse, and the -squadron of Mounted Infantry went cantering forward; prior to which, -Florian, after fraternally sharing a ration biscuit with -Tattoo--while the animal whinnied and rubbed his velvet nose against -his cheek, as if thanking him therefor--kissed him quite as tenderly -as Finella ever did Fern; for a genuine trooper has a true affection -for his horse. - -As the squadron rode on in advance of the column, Hammersley beckoned -Florian to his side, and, as they trotted on together, he asked him -many a kindly question about Dulcie Carlyon, of his past life and -future hopes and wishes, betraying a genuine interest which touched -Florian keenly. - -In due time the Itelezi Hill, a long mass, the brown sides of which -were scored by rocky ravines and woody kloofs, the lurking-places of -many Zulus, who acted as spies along the border, was reached; and -now, on the bank of the Ityotyosi River, at a short distance from the -Natal frontier, a halt was made, and another temporary camp formed on -ground selected by the Prince Imperial of France, who had previously -examined it. - -In advance of the whole force on the same morning, the Prince had -ridden on with instructions to examine the nature of the ground -through which the march would lie; and with an emotion of deep -interest, for which he could not account, Florian saw him ride off at -full speed, accompanied by Lieutenant Carey, of the 98th Regiment, -the Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General, with six of Captain -Bettington's European Horse; and pushing on over the open and -pastoral country, the Prince and his party soon disappeared in the -vicinity of the Itelezi Hill, which he reached about ten a.m. - -On the same day Sir Evelyn Wood--with orders to keep one day's march -in front of the Second Division--was reconnoitring in advance of his -flying column, when the halt was made by the Ityotyosi River, where -despatches from the rear overtook the staff, and a few minutes after, -the General sent his orderly for Florian, whom he found carefully -grooming and rubbing down Tattoo. - -Though ignorant of having committed any _faux pas_, Florian's first -idea was that he had fallen into a scrape, and with some trepidation -of spirit and manner found himself before the General, who, wearing a -braided patrol-jacket and a white helmet girt by a puggaree, was -examining the country through a field-glass. - -'Sergeant,' said he, holding forth his hand, 'I have to congratulate -you.' - -'On what, sir?' asked Florian. - -'Your appointment to a second-lieutenancy in your regiment, as the -reward of your disinterested bravery at Ginghilovo, and general -conduct on all occasions. It is duly notified in the _Gazette_, and -here is the letter of the Adjutant-General.' - -Florian's breath was quite taken away by this intelligence. For a -few moments he could scarcely realise the truth of what the general, -with great kindness and interest of manner, had said to him. He felt -like one in a dream, from which he might awaken to disappointment; -and the white tents of the camp, the Ityotyosi that flowed beside -them, the woods and distant hills, seemed to be careering round him, -and it was only when after a little time he felt the firm grasp of -Hammersley's hand, and heard the warm and hearty congratulations from -him and other officers, that he felt himself now indeed to be one of -them. - -The first to accord him a 'a salute as Second Lieutenant' (a rank -since then abolished) was Tom Tyrrell. - -'Let me shake your hand for the last time, sir, as your comrade,' -said he. - -'Not for the last time, I hope, Tom,' replied Florian, whose thoughts -were flashing home to Dulcie, and all she would feel and think and -say. - -An officer--he was already an officer! As his father--or he whom he -had so long deemed his father--was before him. His foot was firmly -planted on the ladder now, and with the thought of Dulcie's joy his -own redoubled. - -'Come to the mess tent,' said Hammersley. 'We must wet the -commission and drink the health of the Queen after tiffin.' - -For the first time on that auspicious afternoon Florian found himself -among his equals, and the kindness with which they welcomed him to -their circle made his affectionate and appreciative heart swell. -Hammersley was President of the Mess Committee, and was a wonderful -strategist in the matter of 'providing grub,' as he said. - -A few rough boards that went with the baggage formed the table, and -at 'tiffin' that day the _menu_ comprised vegetable soup, a sirloin -of beef, an _entrée_ or two, for a wonder, with plenty of -brandy-pawnee and 'square-face;' and what the repast lacked in -delicacy and splendour was amply made up by the general jollity and -good humour that pervaded the board, though, for all they knew, -another hour might find them face to face with the enemy. - -Would either Hammersley or Florian be spared to write to the girl he -loved? - -In the case of Florian it seemed somewhat impossible, especially now, -when he had--all unknown to himself--two secret and unscrupulous -enemies on his trail, and intent on his destruction. - -Meanwhile a terrible tragedy, that was to form a part of the world's -history, was being acted not very far off from where that jocund -circle sat round the board presided over by Hammersley. - -Sir Evelyn Wood, we have said, was reconnoitring in advance of his -column, which was then on the march from Munhla Hill towards the -Ityotyosi River. Scattered in extended order among the growing -undulations and watercourses, the Horse of Redvers Buller were -scouting. - -Rain had fallen during the night, but the sky of the afternoon was -clear, bright, and without a cloud, from the far horizon to the -zenith. - -Following, but at a distance, the line taken by the Prince Imperial -and his six reconnoitring troopers, General Wood, after issuing from -a dense coppice of thorn trees, interspersed with graceful date palms -and enormous feathery bamboo canes, came suddenly on a deep and -smooth tributary of the Ityotyosi, and after contriving to ford it at -a place where its banks were fringed by beautiful acacias and -drooping palms with fan-shaped leaves, to his astonishment some -mounted men appeared in his front, and all apparently fugitives. - -With twelve of his troopers the fearless Buller, who had seen them -also, now came galloping up and rode on with Sir Evelyn, and in -rounding the base of a tall cliff they came suddenly upon Lieutenant -Carey, of the 98th Foot, and four troopers of Bettington's Corps, all -riding at a furious pace, their horses flecked with white foam, and -with sides bloody by the goring spurs. - -They reined up pale and breathlessly, and in another minute or two -their terrible secret was told. - -'Where is the Prince Imperial?' cried Sir Evelyn, as he rushed his -horse over some fallen trees in his haste to meet the fugitives. - -But Carey, who seemed as dead beat as his horse, was at first -apparently incapable of replying. - -'Speak, sir!' cried the General impetuously. 'What has happened?' - -Still Carey seemed incapable of speech. - -'Sir,' said one of the troopers, 'the Prince, I fear, is killed.' - -The speaker was Private Le Toque, a Frenchman. - -'Is that the case? Tell me instantly, sir!' resumed the General, -with growing excitement. - -'I fear it is so,' faltered Carey, in a low voice. - -'Then _what are you doing here, sir?_' - -A veil must be drawn over the rest of the interview, which was of a -most painful character, wrote Major Ashe in his narrative of the -occurrence. - -A soldier--Tom Tyrrell, encouraged by the knowledge that his late -comrade Florian was there--came rushing into the mess-tent, where -Florian, with those who were now his brother-officers, was seated in -happiness and jollity, bearing the terrible tidings, which spread -through the camp like wildfire, and all who had horses mounted and -rode forth to discover if they were true, and all spoke sternly and -reprehensively of the luckless Lieutenant Carey, who eventually was -tried by a court-martial, and died two years after in India, some -said of a broken heart. - -As Florian was one of the searchers for the slain Prince, the story -of this latter's tragic death does not lie apart from ours. - -It would seem, briefly, then, that the charger ridden by the Prince, -when he left Lord Chelmsford's camp, and which in the end chiefly led -to his death, was a clumsy and awkward animal, given to rearing and -shying. After crossing the Ityotyosi, then swollen by the recent -rains, the Prince and his party rode on through a district covered -with grass-like rush, kreupelboom, and dwarf acacias. - -The Prince, who from the time of his landing had always sought out -any Frenchmen who might be among the local levies, and frequently -gave them sovereigns, was riding with Le Toque by his side; and the -latter, in the gaiety of his heart, and exhilarated by the beauty of -the morning, sang more than one French song as they rode onward, such -as-- - - '_Eh gai, gai, gai, mon officier!_' - -And as they began to ascend a still nameless hill with a flat top, -the Prince sang loudly 'Les deux Grenadiers,' an old Bonapartist -ditty--Le Toque joining in the chorus of Beranger's chanson:-- - - 'Vieux grenadiers suivons un vieux soldat, - Suivon un vieux soldat! - Suivon un vieux soldat! - Suivon un vieux soldat!' - -On the summit of the koppie the party slackened their girths, while -the Prince made a sketch of the landscape. 'We may here digress to -say,' adds the _Cape Argus_, 'that the Prince's talent with pen and -pencil, combined with his remarkable proficiency in military -surveying (which so distinguished the first Napoleon), made his -contributions to our knowledge of the country to be traversed of -great value.' - -Amid the heat and splendour of an African noon they now rode on to a -deserted kraal, consisting of five beehive-shaped huts, near a dry -donga, or old watercourse, where they unsaddled and knee-haltered -their horses to graze, while the Prince and his companions chatted -and smoked, all unaware that some forty armed Zulus were actually -stalking them like deer, crawling stealthily and softly on their -hands and knees through the long Tambookie grass and mealies, drawing -their rifles and assegais after them. - -About four o'clock Corporal Grub, of Bettington's Horse, got a -glimpse of a Zulu, and warned the Prince of the circumstance. - -'Saddle up at once!' said the latter; 'prepare to mount!' - -The brief orders had scarcely left his lips when a volley from forty -rifles crashed through the long Tambookie grass and waving reeds, -which bent as if before a breeze, and then the ferocious lurkers -rushed with flashing and glistening teeth, bloodshot, rolling eyes, -and loud yells, upon the solitary party of eight men. - -Terrified by the sudden tumult, all the horses swerved wildly round; -a trooper named Rogers was shot dead with his left foot in the -stirrup, and those who actually got into their saddles found it -impossible to control their horses, so terrific were the yells, -mingled with ragged shots, and they bore their riders across the open -karoo and towards the deep and dangerous donga. - -Prince Napoleon's horse, a difficult one to mount at all times, and -sixteen hands high, resisted every attempt at remounting in its then -state of terror; thus one by one the party rode or were borne away, -while the unhappy Prince endeavoured to vault into his saddle. - -'_Mon Prince, dépêchez-vous, si'l vous plait!_' cried his countryman -trooper, Le Toque, as he rushed past, lying across but not in his -saddle, and then the heir of France found himself alone--alone and -face to face with more than forty merciless and pitiless savages! - -Who can tell what may have flashed through the brave lad's mind in -that moment of fierce excitement and supreme mental agony--what -thoughts of France and Imperial glory--the glorious past, the dim -future, and, more than all, no doubt, of the lonely mother, who was -so soon to weep for him at Chiselhurst--to weep the tears that no -condolence could quench! - -When last seen by Le Toque, as the latter gave a backward and -despairing glance, he was grasping a stirrup-leather in vain attempts -to mount the maddened animal, which trod upon him, and broke away -when the strap parted; and then, for a moment, the young Napoleon -covered his face with his hands--deserted, abandoned to an awful -death, which no Christian eye was then to see. - -All the obloquy of this tragedy was now heaped upon Lieutenant Carey, -a native of the south of England. It was dark night when he got to -head-quarters, and at that time nothing could be done to ascertain -the fate of the deserted one. - -Scarcely a man slept in our camp by the Ityotyosi River, and after -'lights out' had been sounded by the bugles, the soldiers could talk -of nothing else but the poor Prince Imperial. - -'The news of his death,' wrote an officer who was in the camp, 'fell -like a thunderbolt on all! At first it was regarded as one of those -reports that so often went round. Bit by bit, however, it assumed a -form. Even then people were incredulous, only half believing the -dreadful tale. The two questions first asked were--What will they -say at home? and, secondly, the poor Empress? All was wildest -excitement, and brave men absolutely broke down under the blow. To -them it looked a black and bitter disgrace. The chivalrous young -Prince, repaying the hospitality shown him by England with his -sword--entrusted to us by his widowed mother--to have been killed in -a mere paltry reconnaissance! to have fallen without all his escort -having been killed first! to lie there dead and alone! Many there -were who would have given up life to have been lying with him, so -that our British honour might have been kept sacred.' - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -FINDING THE BODY. - -'Fall in, the Mounted Infantry!' cried the voice of Hammersley, when -with earliest dawn strong parties were detailed from the camps of the -Second Division and Sir Evelyn Wood to scout the scene of the -tragedy; and as his squadron rode forth in the grey light with -rifle-butt resting on the thigh, just as the dawn began to redden the -summit of the Itelezi Hill, Florian remembered that this mournful -search was his first duty as an officer; but the calamity clouded the -joy of his promotion, and would be always associated with it. - -He felt himself again the equal of Dulcie Carlyon; but, still, to -what end? He could not go home to her, nor could she come there to -him, a combatant in Zululand; besides, he knew well enough that an -officer's pay, unless when on service, is not sufficient for himself -without the encumbrance of a wife; and with this enforced practical -view of the situation he could only sigh as he rode on and thought of -poor Dulcie. - -As some of the Volunteer Horse went to the front, Florian became -conscious that two, wearing huge, battered hats, who rode together, -were regarding him furtively, and with a curiously hostile and -scowling expression; and his heart gave a kind of leap when he -recognised in these, two of the ruffians whose odious features were -indelibly impressed upon his memory by the adventures of that -horrible night in the so-called hotel at Elandsbergen--Josh Jarrett -and Dick of the Droogveldt, with his short, thickset figure, small, -dull eyes, and heavy, bull-dog visage. - -That they would work him some mischief, if possible, in their new -capacity he never doubted; and possibly enough it was their design to -do so, secretly and securely, amid the often confused scouting and -scampering to and fro of the Mounted Infantry among bush and cover of -every kind. But, as they were then going to the front, he thought it -unwise to move in the matter at the time; besides, they might be -knocked on the head, and all on the ground were thinking only of the -Prince Imperial. - -A deep silence hovered over the ranks of the various searching -parties that rode round by the base of the flat-topped Itelezi Hill. -The swallow-tailed banneroles of the 17th Lancers, who looked -handsome and gay in their white helmets and blue tunics faced and -lapelled with white, fluttered out on the morning wind; but the iron -hoofs of their horses fell without a sound on the soft and elastic -turf of the green veldt. Occasionally a low murmur would be heard as -the searchers drew nearer the fatal kraal, and the lance was slung -and the carbine grasped instinctively when at times the black Kaffir -vultures, hinting of a dreadful repast, rose from among the tall, -feathery Tambookie grass, and, croaking angrily, winged their way -aloft as if enraged and interrupted. - -Driving out roughly by lance point and rifle bullet about a hundred -Zulus from some holes and scrub, several of the Lancers under -Lieutenant Frith, their adjutant, and the Mounted Infantry under -Hammersley, next drew near the fatal donga, which some officers -crossed on foot. Among those who were in advance of all the rest was -Lieutenant Dundonald Cochrane, of the Cornish Light Infantry. - -'Look!' cried Hammersley to Florian, as Cochrane was seen to pause -and with reverence take off his helmet. Then a hum went along the -ranks of the searchers, who all knew what he had found. - -And there, on the sloping bank of the donga in the evening sunshine, -with his head pillowed on some sweet wild-flowers, nude as he came -into the world, save that a reliquary and locket with his father's -miniature were round his neck--supposed to be potent fetishes--lay -the poor young Prince, the guest of Britain, the hope of Imperial -France, and the only son of his mother, dead, and gashed by sixteen -assegai wounds, among them the usual cruel Zulu _coup de grace_--the -gash in the stomach. - -It was found that, though an accomplished swordsman, he had failed to -use his sword--the sword of his father the Emperor--which had dropped -from the scabbard in his attempts to mount; but that, seizing an -assegai which had been hurled at him, he had defended himself till he -sank under repeated wounds; and a tuft of human hair clenched in his -left hand attested the valour and the desperation of his resistance. - -His faithful little Scottish terrier was found dead by his side. - -All around him the ground was trampled, torn, and stained by gouts of -blood. - -A bier was now formed by crossed lances of the 17th Lancers, covered -by cut rushes and a cavalry cloak. Reverently and almost with -womanly tenderness did our soldiers raise the body, and on this bier, -so befitting to one of his name, Prince Napoleon was borne by loving -hands by the rough and rugged track that led towards the hill of -Itelezi; while all around the place where they had found him were -flowers of gold and crimson tint, where in the gouts and pools of -blood bright-winged moths and butterflies were battening. - -That the Prince was duly prepared to meet any fate that might befall -him the remarkable prayer composed by him fully attests. It was -found in his repositories, and was published in the papers of the -time. - -The entire Second Division was under arms to receive his remains when -brought into the camp beside the river. The body was borne through -the lines on a gun-carriage, wrapped in linen and shrouded by a Union -Jack; the funeral service was performed by the Catholic chaplain to -the forces, and Lord Chelmsford acted as chief mourner. Though -tolerably accustomed to bloodshed now, a profound impression of gloom -pervaded the faces of the troops. - -By mule-cart the body was sent to Pietermaritzburg, and in passing -through Ladysmith there occurred a scene that was touching from its -simplicity. This is a small village in the Division of Riversdale or -Kannaland, where the body remained for the night at the entrance -thereof, in the bleak open veldt, under a guard of honour; but from -the school-house there came forth, and lined the roadway, a -procession of little black children, who, to the accompaniment of an -old cracked harmonium, sang a hymn, as the soldiers of the 58th -Regiment took the body away, and sweetly and softly the voices of the -little ones rose and fell on the chilly air of the morning. - -'This,' says Captain Thomasson, of the Irregular Horse, in his -narrative, 'was but one mark of the feeling that all in the colony, -whatever their age, colour, position, or sex, had at the sudden and -terrible close of that bright young life. And it may safely be -affirmed that not one disassociated in his mind from the thought of -the dead son, the recollection of the blow awaiting the widowed -mother.' - -The next striking scene was at Durban, the only port in Natal Colony, -where the troops handed over the remains to the blue-jackets of -H.M.S. _Shah_ for conveyance to England. - -Here the poor old majordomo of the Prince was left behind. He was so -inconsolable for the loss of his master, that it was feared he would -lose his reason, and more than once he said, with simple truth and -bitterness: - -'My master would not have abandoned one of them!' - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -THE SKIRMISH AT EUZANGONYAN. - -The transmission rearwards of the Prince's remains causing a day's -delay in the advance of the division, Florian gladly availed himself -of it to write to Dulcie a letter full of love and all the -enthusiastic outpouring of his heart to one who was so far away; to -express his astonishment on learning that she was an inmate of the -same house with Shafto, their _bête noir_, of whom she was to beware, -he added impressively. - -He told of his military success--of all that might be in store for -them yet; for Florian had, if small means at present, the vast riches -of youth and hope to draw upon, especially in his brighter moments, -and--if spared--his future promotion from the rank of -second-lieutenant was now but a thing of time. - -There had not been much brightness in his life latterly; but it was -impossible for him not to admit that the dawn of a happier day had -come, and that he had made substantial progress in his profession. - -He told her--among many other things--of Vivian Hammersley's -friendship and favour for himself, even when in the rank and file, -and of his pride and gratitude therefor; of the change her letter to -himself had made in Hammersley's views of Miss Melfort, for whom he -sent an enclosure from the Captain, lest watchful eyes--perchance -those of Shafto--might examine too closely the contents of the -Craigengowan post-bag; and from old experience they knew what the man -was capable of--not respecting even 'the property of H.M. -Postmaster-General.' - -For, now that Florian was an officer, his friend Hammersley, though -proud as Lucifer and at times haughty to a degree, was, under the -circumstances, not loth to avail himself of Dulcie's assistance in -this matter, so necessary to his own happiness; so the two missives -in one were despatched, and with an emotion of thankfulness that was -deep and genuine, Florian dropped it into the regimental post-bag at -the orderly-room tent, for conveyance with the mail to Durban. - -The Second Division began its forward march on the 3rd of January, -and encamped half a mile distant from the kraal near which the Prince -Imperial had perished, while Sir Evelyn Wood's column, advancing by -the left, proceeded along the further side of the Ityotyosi. Already -the bad rations to which they were reduced--eight pounds of inferior -oats and no hay--were telling severely on the horses of the 17th -Lancers and Mounted Infantry. - -On the 4th, when encamped on the bank of the Nondweni River, a -cavalry patrol, under Redvers Duller, Hammersley, and others, had a -narrow escape from being cut off by two thousand five hundred Zulus, -of whom, on the following day, the entire cavalry column went forth -in search. - -When the whole mounted force was getting under arms, Hammersley threw -away the end of a cigar before falling in, and said to Florian-- - -'Look here, old fellow, I have been thinking about you. I am not a -millionnaire, you know, but I have enough and to spare. You have -not, I presume--pardon me for saying so; but now that you are an -officer, and must want many things, my cheque-book is at your -disposal, if you wish to draw on old Chink the Paymaster.' - -'A thousand thanks to you, Captain Hammersley,' replied Florian, his -heart swelling and his colour deepening with gratitude; 'but I have -no need to trespass on your kindness--I want nothing here; we are all -pretty much alike in Zululand--officer and private, general and -drum-boy.' - -'Yes, by Jove! but in the time to come?' - -'Thanks again, I say, dear Hammersley, but I am inclined to let -to-morrow take care of to-morrow, especially while campaigning in -Zululand.' - -'Tiresome work I find that, with all my zeal for the service,' -observed Hammersley, as the entire cavalry force moved off about four -in the morning, when the sky and landscape were alike dark. 'We have -much bodily endurance, and run enormous risks which the people at -home don't understand or fully appreciate, because our antagonists -are naked savages, though second to no men in the world for reckless -valour; thus honour may be accorded to us but scantily and -grudgingly, because they _are_ savages and not civilised enemies, or, -as some one says of the days of the Great Duke, when so many thousand -men in red coats and blue breeches met and beat so many thousand men -in blue coats and red breeches.' - -General Marshall, with the King's Dragoon Guards and 17th Lancers, -had reconnoitred the country in advance as far as the Upoko River, -and there effected a junction with Buller's command on the same -ground where the latter had escaped the ambuscade referred to. - -On a green plain below it a great mass of Zulus, sombre and dark, -spotted with the grey of their oval shields, was seen hovering, the -flash of an assegai-head sparkling out at times when the sun arose, -and near them, enveloped in smoke and all sheeted with flame at once, -were some kraals that had been set on fire by the Irregular Horse; so -the scene, if beautiful, was also a stirring one. - -Above the vast mountain opposite, where the Upoko (a tributary of the -great White Umvulosi, which flows towards the sea) was rolling in -golden sheen between banks clothed with date palms, Kaffir plums, -flowering acacias, and thornwood, the uprisen sun was shining in all -his glory. The mountain was torn by ravines and studded with mimosa -groups. On the left of the troops rose the vast Inhlatzatye, or -mountain of greenstone, turned to crimson in the morning sun, its -base clothed with lovely pasture, and twenty miles in its rear was -known to be Ulundi, the great military kraal of Cetewayo, the chief -object of the advance. - -In the immediate foreground was the force of cavalry, with all their -white helmets and sword blades shining in the sun, the dark blue of -the Lancers, and the sombre uniforms of the Irregular Horse, relieved -and varied by the bright scarlet of the King's Dragoon Guards and the -mimosa-coloured tunics of the Mounted Infantry. - -The sharp blare of the trumpets sounded 'the advance.' - -'Buller's Horse to the left!' cried the officer of that name, digging -spurs into his charger; 'Whalley's to the right! Frontier Light -Horse and Hammersley's Mounted Infantry the centre!' - -Uncovering to the flanks, the formation was made at a canter, and the -forward movement began. During the morning Florian had more than -once (till his men required his attention) an unpleasant sense of the -presence of two secret enemies on the ground, which made him look -frequently to where the oddly costumed volunteer troopers were -advancing, and before that day's fighting was quite over he had -bitter cause to know that both _were_ in the field. - -The 1st King's Dragoon Guards had been quartered in the same barracks -with the regiment to which these two deserters belonged, and, feeling -themselves now in hourly expectation of recognition by some of them, -the camp of the Second Division had become perilous for the two -desperadoes, and on that day they had resolved to 'levant,' but not -before effecting their villainous purpose, if possible. - -They knew well that by the rules of the service, at foreign stations, -when there is no doubt as to the identity of a deserter, he is sent -at once to his own corps to be dealt with there; moreover, they know -that the fact of their serving with the Volunteer Horse constituted -another crime--that of fraudulent enlistment; and neither had any -desire to be tied to the wheel of a field-piece and flogged as an -example to others, for that punishment had not been quite abandoned -yet. - -While Colonel Buller's force was advancing, the Zulus had moved off -by companies in singularly regular formation, and taken post in the -rocky ravines at the base of the Euzangonyan Hill, which was covered -with thick scrub and high feathery reeds, that swayed to and fro in -the wind like a mighty cornfield. - -After crossing the river, the Irregulars and Mounted Infantry at full -speed advanced to within three hundred yards of the foe, and leaped -from their saddles, with rifles unslung. The horses were then led -forward out of fire, or nearly so, by every third file, told off for -that purpose. - -Kneeling and creeping forward by turns, the fighting line opened a -steady fire upon the partly concealed Zulus, whose dark figures were -half seen, half hidden amid the smoke that eddied along the slopes of -the hill, and this continued till the watchful Buller, who was -surveying the position through a field-glass from the summit of a -knoll, discovered from a flank movement that the Zulus had a large -force in reserve, and, in a wily manner, were luring his troops on to -destruction. - -He ordered his bugle to sound the 'retire' and the whole to recross -the river, but not before several men were killed or wounded, with -fifteen horses placed _hors de combat_; then the Queen's cavalry were -ordered to advance to the attack with lance and sword. - -In his saddle, Florian watched them advance in imposing order, led by -that _preux chevalier_, Drury Lowe, the hero of Zurapore, where the -pursuit and the destruction of Tantia Topee were achieved in the -Indian war. When Buller's scouting horse, skilled marksmen even from -the saddle, and mounted on cattle nimble as antelopes, had partly -failed, he could scarcely hope to achieve much with his heavy Lancers -and still heavier Dragoon Guardsmen; but sending a troop of the -latter to guard against any chance of the Zulus creeping down the bed -of the river, he led three troops of Lancers close to the margin, -where the marigold figs grew in profusion, and the yellow Kaffir -melons, large as 40-pound shot, were floating in the current; and -splashing through, he deployed them on some open ground beyond, full -of that fiery confidence that there is nothing in war which the -genuine dragoon cannot achieve. - -'By Jove!' exclaimed Hammersley, 'but it is sad to see these splendid -Lancers going in for this kind of work. It is hopeless for them to -charge such a position, and attempt, at the lance's point, to ferret -these savages out of their holes and dongas.' - -From the Euzangonyan Hill the Zulus were now firing heavily, but as -their rifles were all wrongly sighted--if sighted at all--their -bullets went high into the air. Between these and Lowe spread a -mealie-field, which he believed to be full of other Zulus, and -resolved to let all who might be lurking there feel what the point of -a lance is, he rode straight at it. - -'Trot--gallop--charge!' sounded the trumpets; and with their horses' -manes and the banneroles of their levelled lances streaming backward -on the wind, the 17th rushed on, sweeping through the tall, brown -stalks of the dead mealies, but found no Zulus there. - -When clear of the mealies, Lowe ordered some of the Lancers to -dismount and open fire with their carbines on those Zulus who were -lurking on the hill-slope among some thorn-trees, and there many were -shot down, and their half-devoured and festering remains were found -by our soldiers in the subsequent August. - -After punishing them severely, the cavalry were recalled, but not -before there were some casualties among the Lancers, whose adjutant, -Lieutenant Frith--a favourite officer--was shot through the heart, -and brought to camp dead across the saddle of his charger. - -From fastnesses that were quite inaccessible to horsemen, the Zulus, -covered by an undergrowth of prickly thorns and plants with enormous -brown spiky leaves, continued to fire heavily, wreathing all the -hill-side in white smoke, streaked with jets of fire; while another -portion of them, yelling and running with the swiftness of hares, -lined the bed of the river and opened a sputtering fusilade in flank, -rendering the whole position of our cavalry most perilous. - -'Retire by alternate squadrons!' was now the order for the cavalry, -and beautifully and steadily was the movement executed. - -'Fours about--trot,' came the order in succession from the leaders of -the even and odd squadrons. - -A front was thus kept to the Zulus, but the hope to lure them from -their fastnesses by a movement they had never seen before, and to -have a chance of attacking them in the open, proved vain; and upon -broken and steep ground, on which it would have been impossible for -any cavalry force to assail them, they were seen swarming in vast -black hordes round the flanks of the Euzangonyan Hill, and still -maintaining a sputtering but distant though defiant fire, while the -cavalry and other mounted men fell back towards their respective -columns; and now it was that the calamitous outrage we have hinted at -occurred. - -When the cavalry began to fall back by alternate squadrons, it was -remarked that two men of the Irregular Horse lingered at a -considerable distance in the rear, still firing occasionally, as if -they had not heard the sound of the trumpet to 'retire.' - -'Those rash fools will get knocked on the head if they don't come -back,' said Hammersley to Florian, as they were riding leisurely now -at a little distance in rear of their men. 'They are nearly six -hundred yards off. Well, we have not got even a scratch to-day,' he -added, laughing, as he manipulated and proceeded to light a cigar; -'and now to get back to camp and have a deep drink of bitter beer. -By Jove, I am thirsty as a bag of sand.' - -'And I too,' said Florian. - -Again the 'retire' was sounded, now by two trumpeters together, but -without avail apparently. - -At that moment two rifle-shots came upon the speakers, delivered by -the very men in question, and then they were seen to gallop at full -speed, not after the retreating column, but at an angle towards the -north-west, on perceiving that their shots had taken fatal effect; -for Hammersley, struck by one, fell from his saddle on his face, and -rolled over apparently in mortal agony, while Florian felt Tattoo -give a kind of writhing bound under him and nearly topple over on his -forehead till recovered by the use of spur and bridle-bit. Florian -at once dismounted, for the horse was seriously wounded; but he could -only give a despairing glance at his friend, if he meant to act -decisively and avenge him. - -'These scoundrels are deserters doubly--I know; follow me, men, we -have not a moment to lose!' cried Florian, in a voice husky with -rage, grief, and excitement, as he leaped upon poor Hammersley's -horse; and with a section of four men, one of whom was Tom Tyrrell, -he spurred after them at full speed, without waiting for orders given -or permission accorded. - -If he was to act at all, there was no time for either. - -He never doubted for a moment that they were Josh Jarrett and Dick of -the Droogveldt, who were boldly attempting to escape in the face of -the column after failing to shoot himself, and who had now fully -thousand yards start of him and his pursuing party. - - - -END OF VOL. 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