THE GREAT SHADOW AND OTHER NAPOLEONIC TALES

A. CONAN DOYLE

CONTENTS

THE GREAT SHADOW

 I. THE NIGHT OF THE BEACONS

 II. COUSIN EDIE OF EYEMOUTH

 III. THE SHADOW ON THE WATERS

 IV. THE CHOOSING OF JIM

 V. THE MAN FROM THE SEA

 VI. A WANDERING EAGLE

 VII. THE SHADOW ON THE LAND

 VIII. THE COMING OF THE CUTTER

 IX. THE DOINGS AT WEST INCH

 X. THE RETURN OF THE SHADOW

 XI. THE GATHERING OF THE NATIONS

 XII. THE SHADOW ON THE LAND

 XIII. THE END OF THE STORM

 XIV. THE TALLY OF DEATH

 XV. THE END OF IT

THE CRIME OF THE BRIGADIER

THE "SLAPPING SAL"

THE GREAT SHADOW. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE NIGHT OF THE BEACONS. 

It is strange to me, Jock Calder of West Inch, to feel that though now, in the very centre of the nineteenth century, I am but five-and-fiftyyears of age, and though it is only once in a week perhaps that my wifecan pluck out a little grey bristle from over my ear, yet I have livedin a time when the thoughts and the ways of men were as different asthough it were another planet from this. For when I walk in my fields Ican see, down Berwick way, the little fluffs of white smoke which tellme of this strange new hundred-legged beast, with coals for food and athousand men in its belly, for ever crawling over the border. On a shiny day I can see the glint of the brass work as it takes thecurve near Corriemuir; and then, as I look out to sea, there is the samebeast again, or a dozen of them maybe, leaving a trail of black in theair and of white in the water, and swimming in the face of the wind aseasily as a salmon up the Tweed. Such a sight as that would have struckmy good old father speechless with wrath as well as surprise; for he wasso stricken with the fear of offending the Creator that he was chary ofcontradicting Nature, and always held the new thing to be nearly akin tothe blasphemous. As long as God made the horse, and a man downBirmingham way the engine, my good old dad would have stuck by thesaddle and the spurs. 

But he would have been still more surprised had he seen the peace andkindliness which reigns now in the hearts of men, and the talk in thepapers and at the meetings that there is to be no more war--save, ofcourse, with blacks and such like. For when he died we had beenfighting with scarce a break, save only during two short years, for verynearly a quarter of a century. Think of it, you who live so quietly andpeacefully now! Babies who were born in the war grew to be bearded menwith babies of their own, and still the war continued. Those who hadserved and fought in their stalwart prime grew stiff and bent, and yetthe ships and the armies were struggling. It was no wonder that folkcame at last to look upon it as the natural state, and thought how queerit must seem to be at peace. During that long time we fought the Dutch, we fought the Danes, we fought the Spanish, we fought the Turks, wefought the Americans, we fought the Monte-Videans, until it seemed thatin this universal struggle no race was too near of kin, or too far away, to be drawn into the quarrel. But most of all it was the French whom wefought, and the man whom of all others we loathed and feared and admiredwas the great Captain who ruled them. 

It was very well to draw pictures of him, and sing songs about him, andmake as though he were an impostor; but I can tell you that the fear ofthat man hung like a black shadow over all Europe, and that there was atime when the glint of a fire at night upon the coast would set everywoman upon her knees and every man gripping for his musket. He hadalways won: that was the terror of it. The Fates seemed to be behindhim. And now we knew that he lay upon the northern coast with a hundredand fifty thousand veterans, and the boats for their passage. But it isan old story, how a third of the grown folk of our country took up arms, and how our little one-eyed, one-armed man crushed their fleet. There was still to be a land of free thinking and free speaking inEurope. 

There was a great beacon ready on the hill by Tweedmouth, built up oflogs and tar-barrels; and I can well remember how, night after night, Istrained my eyes to see if it were ablaze. I was only eight at thetime, but it is an age when one takes a grief to heart, and I felt asthough the fate of the country hung in some fashion upon me and myvigilance. And then one night as I looked I suddenly saw a littleflicker on the beacon hill--a single red tongue of flame in thedarkness. I remember how I rubbed my eyes, and pinched myself, andrapped my knuckles against the stone window-sill, to make sure that Iwas indeed awake. And then the flame shot higher, and I saw the redquivering line upon the water between; and I dashed into the kitchen, screeching to my father that the French had crossed and the Tweedmouthlight was aflame. He had been talking to Mr. Mitchell, the law studentfrom Edinburgh; and I can see him now as he knocked his pipe out at theside of the fire, and looked at me from over the top of his hornspectacles. 

"Are you sure, Jock?" says he. 

"Sure as death!" I gasped. 

He reached out his hand for the Bible upon the table, and opened it uponhis knee as though he meant to read to us; but he shut it again insilence, and hurried out. We went too, the law student and I, andfollowed him down to the gate which opens out upon the highway. Fromthere we could see the red light of the big beacon, and the glimmer of asmaller one to the north of us at Ayton. My mother came down with twoplaids to keep the chill from us, and we all stood there until morning, speaking little to each other, and that little in a whisper. The roadhad more folk on it than ever passed along it at night before; for manyof the yeomen up our way had enrolled themselves in the Berwickvolunteer regiments, and were riding now as fast as hoof could carrythem for the muster. Some had a stirrup cup or two before parting, andI cannot forget one who tore past on a huge white horse, brandishing agreat rusty sword in the moonlight. They shouted to us as they passedthat the North Berwick Law fire was blazing, and that it was thoughtthat the alarm had come from Edinburgh Castle. There were a few whogalloped the other way, couriers for Edinburgh, and the laird's son, andMaster Clayton, the deputy sheriff, and such like. And among othersthere was one a fine built, heavy man on a roan horse, who pulled up atour gate and asked some question about the road. He took off his hat toease himself, and I saw that he had a kindly long-drawn face, and agreat high brow that shot away up into tufts of sandy hair. 

"I doubt it's a false alarm, " said he. "Maybe I'd ha' done well to bidewhere I was; but now I've come so far, I'll break my fast with theregiment. "

He clapped spurs to his horse, and away he went down the brae. 

"I ken him weel, " said our student, nodding after him. "He's a lawyerin Edinburgh, and a braw hand at the stringin' of verses. Wattie Scottis his name. "

None of us had heard of it then; but it was not long before it was thebest known name in Scotland, and many a time we thought of how hespeered his way of us on the night of the terror. 

But early in the morning we had our minds set at ease. It was grey andcold, and my mother had gone up to the house to make a pot of tea forus, when there came a gig down the road with Dr. Horscroft of Ayton init and his son Jim. The collar of the doctor's brown coat came over hisears, and he looked in a deadly black humour; for Jim, who was butfifteen years of age, had trooped off to Berwick at the first alarm withhis father's new fowling piece. All night his dad had chased him, andnow there he was, a prisoner, with the barrel of the stolen gun stickingout from behind the seat. He looked as sulky as his father, with hishands thrust into his side-pockets, his brows drawn down, and his lowerlip thrusting out. 

"It's all a lie!" shouted the doctor as he passed. "There has been nolanding, and all the fools in Scotland have been gadding about the roadsfor nothing. "

His son Jim snarled something up at him on this, and his father struckhim a blow with his clenched fist on the side of his head, which sentthe boy's chin forward upon his breast as though he had been stunned. My father shook his head, for he had a liking for Jim; but we all walkedup to the house again, nodding and blinking, and hardly able to keep oureyes open now that we knew that all was safe, but with a thrill of joyat our hearts such as I have only matched once or twice in mylifetime. 

Now all this has little enough to do with what I took my pen up to tellabout; but when a man has a good memory and little skill, he cannot drawone thought from his mind without a dozen others trailing out behind it. And yet, now that I come to think of it, this had something to do withit after all; for Jim Horscroft had so deadly a quarrel with his father, that he was packed off to the Berwick Academy, and as my father had longwished me to go there, he took advantage of this chance to send me also. 

But before I say a word about this school, I shall go back to where Ishould have begun, and give you a hint as to who I am; for it may bethat these words of mine may be read by some folk beyond the bordercountry who never heard of the Calders of West Inch. 

It has a brave sound, West Inch, but it is not a fine estate with abraw house upon it, but only a great hard-bitten, wind-swept sheep run, fringing off into links along the sea-shore, where a frugal man mightwith hard work just pay his rent and have butter instead of treacle onSundays. In the centre there is a grey-stoned slate-roofed house with abyre behind it, and "1703" scrawled in stonework over the lintel of thedoor. There for more than a hundred years our folk have lived, until, for all their poverty, they came to take a good place among the people;for in the country parts the old yeoman is often better thought of thanthe new laird. 

There was one queer thing about the house of West Inch. It has beenreckoned by engineers and other knowing folk that the boundary linebetween the two countries ran right through the middle of it, splittingour second-best bedroom into an English half and a Scotch half. Now thecot in which I always slept was so placed that my head was to the northof the line and my feet to the south of it. My friends say that if Ihad chanced to lie the other way my hair might not have been so sandy, nor my mind of so solemn a cast. This I know, that more than once in mylife, when my Scotch head could see no way out of a danger, my goodthick English legs have come to my help, and carried me clear away. But at school I never heard the end of this, for they would call me"Half-and-half" and "The Great Britain, " and sometimes "Union Jack. "When there was a battle between the Scotch and English boys, one sidewould kick my shins and the other cuff my ears, and then they would bothstop and laugh as though it were something funny. 

At first I was very miserable at the Berwick Academy. Birtwhistle wasthe first master, and Adams the second, and I had no love for either ofthem. I was shy and backward by nature, and slow at making a friendeither among masters or boys. It was nine miles as the crow flies, andeleven and a half by road, from Berwick to West Inch, and my heart grewheavy at the weary distance that separated me from my mother; for, markyou, a lad of that age pretends that he has no need of his mother'scaresses, but ah, how sad he is when he is taken at his word! At last Icould stand it no longer, and I determined to run away from the schooland make my way home as fast as I might. At the very last moment, however, I had the good fortune to win the praise and admiration ofevery one, from the headmaster downwards, and to find my school lifemade very pleasant and easy to me. And all this came of my falling byaccident out of a second-floor window. 

This was how it happened. One evening I had been kicked by Ned Barton, who was the bully of the school; and this injury coming on the top ofall my other grievances, caused my little cup to overflow. I vowed thatnight, as I buried my tear-stained face beneath the blankets, that thenext morning would either find me at West Inch or well on the way to it. Our dormitory was on the second floor, but I was a famous climber, andhad a fine head for heights. I used to think little, young as I was, ofswinging myself with a rope round my thigh off the West Inch gable, andthat stood three-and-fifty feet above the ground. There was not muchfear then but that I could make my way out of Birtwhistle's dormitory. I waited a weary while until the coughing and tossing had died away, andthere was no sound of wakefulness from the long line of wooden cots;then I very softly rose, slipped on my clothes, took my shoes in myhand, and walked tiptoe to the window. I opened the casement and lookedout. Underneath me lay the garden, and close by my hand was the stoutbranch of a pear tree. An active lad could ask no better ladder. Once in the garden I had but a five-foot wall to get over, and thenthere was nothing but distance between me and home. I took a firm gripof a branch with one hand, placed my knee upon another one, and wasabout to swing myself out of the window, when in a moment I was assilent and as still as though I had been turned to stone. 

There was a face looking at me from over the coping of the wall. Achill of fear struck to my heart at its whiteness and its stillness. The moon shimmered upon it, and the eyeballs moved slowly from side toside, though I was hid from them behind the screen of the pear tree. Then in a jerky fashion this white face ascended, until the neck, shoulders, waist, and knees of a man became visible. He sat himselfdown on the top of the wall, and with a great heave he pulled up afterhim a boy about my own size, who caught his breath from time to time asthough to choke down a sob. The man gave him a shake, with a few roughwhispered words, and then the two dropped together down into the garden. I was still standing balanced with one foot upon the bough and one uponthe casement, not daring to budge for fear of attracting theirattention, for I could hear them moving stealthily about in the longshadow of the house. Suddenly, from immediately beneath my feet, Iheard a low grating noise and the sharp tinkle of falling glass. 

"That's done it, " said the man's eager whisper. "There is room foryou. "

"But the edge is all jagged!" cried the other in a weak quaver. 

The fellow burst out into an oath that made my skin pringle. 

"In with you, you cub, " he snarled, "or--"

I could not see what he did, but there was a short, quick gasp of pain. 

"I'll go! I'll go!" cried the little lad. 

But I heard no more, for my head suddenly swam, my heel shot off thebranch, I gave a dreadful yell, and came down, with my ninety-fivepounds of weight, right upon the bent back of the burglar. If you askme, I can only say that to this day I am not quite certain whether itwas an accident or whether I designed it. It may be that while I wasthinking of doing it Chance settled the matter for me. The fellow wasstooping with his head forward thrusting the boy through a tiny window, when I came down upon him just where the neck joins the spine. He gavea kind of whistling cry, dropped upon his face, and rolled three timesover, drumming on the grass with his heels. His little companionflashed off in the moonlight, and was over the wall in a trice. As forme, I sat yelling at the pitch of my lungs and nursing one of my legs, which felt as if a red-hot ring were welded round it. 

It was not long, as may be imagined, before the whole household, fromthe headmaster to the stable boy, were out in the garden with lamps andlanterns. The matter was soon cleared: the man carried off upon ashutter, and I borne in much state and solemnity to a special bedroom, where the small bone of my leg was set by Surgeon Purdie, the younger ofthe two brothers of that name. As to the robber, it was found that hislegs were palsied, and the doctors were of two minds as to whether hewould recover the use of them or no; but the Law never gave them achance of settling the matter, for he was hanged after Carlisle assizes, some six weeks later. It was proved that he was the most desperaterogue in the North of England, for he had done three murders at theleast, and there were charges enough against him upon the sheet to havehanged him ten times over. 

Well now, I could not pass over my boyhood without telling you aboutthis, which was the most important thing that happened to me. But Iwill go off upon no more side tracks; for when I think of all that iscoming, I can see very well that I shall have more than enough to dobefore I have finished. For when a man has only his own little privatetale to tell, it often takes him all his time; but when he gets mixed upin such great matters as I shall have to speak about, then it is hard onhim, if he has not been brought up to it, to get it all set down to hisliking. But my memory is as good as ever, thank God, and I shall try toget it all straight before I finish. 

It was this business of the burglar that first made a friendship betweenJim Horscroft, the doctor's son, and me. He was cock boy of the schoolfrom the day he came; for within the hour he had thrown Barton, who hadbeen cock before him, right through the big blackboard in theclass-room. Jim always ran to muscle and bone, and even then he wassquare and tall, short of speech and long in the arm, much given tolounging with his broad back against walls, and his hands deep in hisbreeches pockets. I can even recall that he had a trick of keeping astraw in the corner of his mouth, just where he used afterwards to holdhis pipe. Jim was always the same for good and for bad since first Iknew him. 

Heavens, how we all looked up to him! We were but young savages, andhad a savage's respect for power. There was Tom Carndale of Appleby, who could write alcaics as well as mere pentameters and hexameters, yetnobody would give a snap for Tom; and there was Willie Earnshaw, whohad every date, from the killing of Abel, on the tip of his tongue, sothat the masters themselves would turn to him if they were in doubt, yethe was but a narrow-chested lad, over long for his breadth; and what didhis dates help him when Jack Simons of the lower third chivied him downthe passage with the buckle end of a strap? But you didn't do thingslike that with Jim Horscroft. What tales we used to whisper about hisstrength! How he put his fist through the oak-panel of thegame-room door; how, when Long Merridew was carrying the ball, he caughtup Merridew, ball and all, and ran swiftly past every opponent to thegoal. It did not seem fit to us that such a one as he should troublehis head about spondees and dactyls, or care to know who signed theMagna Charta. When he said in open class that King Alfred was the man, we little boys all felt that very likely it was so, and that perhaps Jimknew more about it than the man who wrote the book. 

Well, it was this business of the burglar that drew his attention to me;for he patted me on my head, and said that I was a spunky little devil, which blew me out with pride for a week on end. For two years we wereclose friends, for all the gap that the years had made between us, andthough in passion or in want of thought he did many a thing that galledme, yet I loved him like a brother, and wept as much as would havefilled an ink bottle when at last he went off to Edinburgh to study hisfather's profession. Five years after that did I tide at Birtwhistle's, and when I left had become cock myself, for I was wiry and as tough aswhalebone, though I never ran to weight and sinew like my greatpredecessor. It was in Jubilee Year that I left Birtwhistle's, and thenfor three years I stayed at home learning the ways of the cattle; butstill the ships and the armies were wrestling, and still the greatshadow of Bonaparte lay across the country. How could I guess that Itoo should have a hand in lifting that shadow for ever from our people?

CHAPTER II. 

COUSIN EDIE OF EYEMOUTH. 

Some years before, when I was still but a lad, there had come over to usupon a five weeks' visit the only daughter of my father's brother. Willie Calder had settled at Eyemouth as a maker of fishing nets, and hehad made more out of twine than ever we were like to do out of thewhin-bushes and sand-links of West Inch. So his daughter, Edie Calder, came over with a braw red frock and a five shilling bonnet, and a kistfull of things that brought my dear mother's eyes out like a partan's. It was wonderful to see her so free with money, and she but a slip of agirl, paying the carrier man all that he asked and a whole twopenceover, to which he had no claim. She made no more of drinkingginger-beer than we did of water, and she would have her sugar in hertea and butter with her bread just as if she had been English. 

I took no great stock of girls at that time, for it was hard for me tosee what they had been made for. There were none of us at Birtwhistle'sthat thought very much of them; but the smallest laddies seemed to havethe most sense, for after they began to grow bigger they were not sosure about it. We little ones were all of one mind: that a creaturethat couldn't fight and was aye carrying tales, and couldn't so much asshy a stone without flapping its arm like a rag in the wind, was no usefor anything. And then the airs that they would put on, as if they weremother and father rolled into one; for ever breaking into a game with"Jimmy, your toe's come through your boot, " or "Go home, you dirty boy, and clean yourself, " until the very sight of them was weariness. 

So when this one came to the steading at West Inch I was not bestpleased to see her. I was twelve at the time (it was in the holidays)and she eleven, a thin, tallish girl with black eyes and the queerestways. She was for ever staring out in front of her with her lipsparted, as if she saw something wonderful; but when I came behind herand looked the same way, I could see nothing but the sheep's trough orthe midden, or father's breeches hanging on a clothes-line. And then ifshe saw a lump of heather or bracken, or any common stuff of that sort, she would mope over it, as if it had struck her sick, and cry, "How sweet! how perfect!" just as though it had been a painted picture. She didn't like games, but I used to make her play "tig" and such like;but it was no fun, for I could always catch her in three jumps, and shecould never catch me, though she would come with as much rustle andflutter as ten boys would make. When I used to tell her that she wasgood for nothing, and that her father was a fool to bring her up likethat, she would begin to cry, and say that I was a rude boy, and thatshe would go home that very night, and never forgive me as long as shelived. But in five minutes she had forgot all about it. What wasstrange was that she liked me a deal better than I did her, and shewould never leave me alone; but she was always watching me and runningafter me, and then saying, "Oh, here you are!" as if it were a surprise. 

But soon I found that there was good in her too. She used sometimes togive me pennies, so that once I had four in my pocket all at the sametime; but the best part of her was the stories that she could tell. She was sore frightened of frogs, so I would bring one to her, and tellher that I would put it down her neck unless she told a story. That always helped her to begin; but when once she was started it waswonderful how she would carry on. And the things that had happened toher, they were enough to take your breath away. There was a Barbaryrover that had been at Eyemouth, and he was coming back in five years ina ship full of gold to make her his wife; and then there was awandering knight who had been there also, and he had given her a ringwhich he said he would redeem when the time came. She showed me thering, which was very like the ones upon my bed curtain; but she saidthat this one was virgin gold. I asked her what the knight would do ifhe met the Barbary rover, and she told me that he would sweep his headfrom his shoulders. What they could all see in her was more than Icould think. And then she told me that she had been followed on her wayto West Inch by a disguised prince. I asked her how she knew it was aprince, and she said by his disguise. Another day she said that herfather was preparing a riddle, and that when it was ready it would beput in the papers, and anyone who guessed it would have half his fortuneand his daughter. I said that I was good at riddles, and that she mustsend it to me when it was ready. She said it would be in the _BerwickGazette_, and wanted to know what I would do with her when I won her. Isaid I would sell her by public roup for what she would fetch; but shewould tell no more stories that evening, for she was very techy aboutsome things. 

Jim Horscroft was away when Cousin Edie was with us, but he came backthe very week she went; and I mind how surprised I was that he shouldask any questions or take any interest in a mere lassie. He asked me ifshe were pretty; and when I said I hadn't noticed, he laughed and calledme a mole, and said my eyes would be opened some day. But very soon hecame to be interested in something else, and I never gave Edie anotherthought until one day she just took my life in her hands and twisted itas I could twist this quill. 

That was in 1813, after I had left school, when I was already eighteenyears of age, with a good forty hairs on my upper lip and every hope ofmore. I had changed since I left school, and was not so keen on gamesas I had been, but found myself instead lying about on the sunny side ofthe braes, with my own lips parted and my eyes staring just the same asCousin Edie's used to do. It had satisfied me and filled my whole lifethat I could run faster and jump higher than my neighbour; but now allthat seemed such a little thing, and I yearned, and yearned, and lookedup at the big arching sky, and down at the flat blue sea, and felt thatthere was something wanting, but could never lay my tongue to what thatsomething was. And I became quick of temper too, for my nerves seemedall of a fret, and when my mother would ask me what ailed me, or myfather would speak of my turning my hand to work, I would break intosuch sharp bitter answers as I have often grieved over since. Ah! a manmay have more than one wife, and more than one child, and more than onefriend; but he can never have but the one mother, so let him cherish herwhile he may. 

One day when I came in from the sheep, there was my father sitting witha letter in his hands, which was a very rare thing with us, except whenthe factor wrote for the rent. Then as I came nearer to him I saw thathe was crying, and I stood staring, for I had always thought that it wasnot a thing that a man could do. I can see him now, for he had so deepa crease across his brown cheek that no tear could pass it, but musttrickle away sideways and so down to his ear, hopping off on to thesheet of paper. My mother sat beside him and stroked his hands like shedid the cat's back when she would soothe it. 

"Aye, Jeannie, " said he, "poor Willie's gone. It's from the lawyer, andit was sudden or they'd ha' sent word of it. Carbuncle, he says, and aflush o' blood to the head. "

"Ah! well, his trouble's over, " said my mother. 

My father rubbed his ears with the tablecloth. 

"He's left a' his savings to his lassie, " said he, "and by gom if she'snot changed from what she promised to be she'll soon gar them flee. You mind what she said of weak tea under this very roof, and it at sevenshillings the pound!"

My mother shook her head, and looked up at the flitches of bacon thathung from the ceiling. 

"He doesn't say how much, but she'll have enough and to spare, he says. And she's to come and bide with us, for that was his last wish. "

"To pay for her keep!" cried my mother sharply. I was sorry that sheshould have spoken of money at that moment, but then if she had not beensharp we would all have been on the roadside in a twelvemonth. 

"Aye, she'll pay, and she's coming this very day. Jock lad, I'll wantyou to drive to Ayton and meet the evening coach. Your Cousin Edie willbe in it, and you can fetch her over to West Inch. "

And so off I started at quarter past five with Souter Johnnie, thelong-haired fifteen-year-old, and our cart with the new-paintedtail-board that we only used on great days. The coach was in just as Icame, and I, like a foolish country lad, taking no heed to the yearsthat had passed, was looking about among the folk in the Inn front for aslip of a girl with her petticoats just under her knees. And as Islouched past and craned my neck there came a touch to my elbow, andthere was a lady dressed all in black standing by the steps, and I knewthat it was my cousin Edie. 

I knew it, I say, and yet had she not touched me I might have passed hera score of times and never known it. My word, if Jim Horscroft hadasked me then if she were pretty or no, I should have known how toanswer him! She was dark, much darker than is common among our borderlasses, and yet with such a faint blush of pink breaking through herdainty colour, like the deeper flush at the heart of a sulphur rose. Her lips were red, and kindly, and firm; and even then, at the firstglance, I saw that light of mischief and mockery that danced away at theback of her great dark eyes. She took me then and there as though I hadbeen her heritage, put out her hand and plucked me. She was, as I havesaid, in black, dressed in what seemed to me to be a wondrous fashion, with a black veil pushed up from her brow. 

"Ah! Jack, " said she, in a mincing English fashion, that she had learnedat the boarding school. "No, no, we are rather old for that"--thisbecause I in my awkward fashion was pushing my foolish brown faceforward to kiss her, as I had done when I saw her last. "Just hurry uplike a good fellow and give a shilling to the conductor, who has beenexceedingly civil to me during the journey. "

I flushed up red to the ears, for I had only a silver fourpenny piecein my pocket. Never had my lack of pence weighed so heavily upon me asjust at that moment. But she read me at a glance, and there in aninstant was a little moleskin purse with a silver clasp thrust into myhand. I paid the man, and would have given it back, but she still wouldhave me keep it. 

"You shall be my factor, Jack, " said she, laughing. "Is this ourcarriage? How funny it looks! And where am I to sit?"

"On the sacking, " said I. 

"And how am I to get there?"

"Put your foot on the hub, " said I. "I'll help you. "

I sprang up and took her two little gloved hands in my own. As she cameover the side her breath blew in my face, sweet and warm, and all thatvagueness and unrest seemed in a moment to have been shredded away frommy soul. I felt as if that instant had taken me out from myself, andmade me one of the race. It took but the time of the flicking of thehorse's tail, and yet something had happened, a barrier had gone downsomewhere, and I was leading a wider and a wiser life. I felt it all ina flush, but shy and backward as I was, I could do nothing but flattenout the sacking for her. Her eyes were after the coach which wasrattling away to Berwick, and suddenly she shook her handkerchief in theair. 

"He took off his hat, " said she. "I think he must have been an officer. He was very distinguished looking. Perhaps you noticed him--a gentlemanon the outside, very handsome, with a brown overcoat. "

I shook my head, with all my flush of joy changed to foolish resentment. 

"Ah! well, I shall never see him again. Here are all the green braesand the brown winding road just the same as ever. And you, Jack, Idon't see any great change in you either. I hope your manners arebetter than they used to be. You won't try to put any frogs down myback, will you?"

I crept all over when I thought of such a thing. 

"We'll do all we can to make you happy at West Inch, " said I, playingwith the whip. 

"I'm sure it's very kind of you to take a poor lonely girl in, " saidshe. 

"It's very kind of you to come, Cousin Edie, " I stammered. "You'll findit very dull, I fear. "

"I suppose it is a little quiet, Jack, eh? Not many men about, as Iremember it. "

"There is Major Elliott, up at Corriemuir. He comes down of an evening, a real brave old soldier who had a ball in his knee under Wellington. "

"Ah, when I speak of men. Jack, I don't mean old folk with balls intheir knees. I meant people of our own age that we could make friendsof. By the way, that crabbed old doctor had a son, had he not?"

"Oh yes, that's Jim Horscroft, my best friend. "

"Is he at home?"

"No. He'll be home soon. He's still at Edinburgh studying. "

"Ah! then we'll keep each other company until he comes, Jack. And I'mvery tired and I wish I was at West Inch. "

I made old Souter Johnnie cover the ground as he has never done beforeor since, and in an hour she was seated at the supper table, where mymother had laid out not only butter, but a glass dish of gooseberry jam, which sparkled and looked fine in the candle-light. I could see that myparents were as overcome as I was at the difference in her, though notin the same way. My mother was so set back by the feather thing thatshe had round her neck that she called her Miss Calder instead of Edie, until my cousin in her pretty flighty way would lift her forefinger toher whenever she did it. After supper, when she had gone to bed, theycould talk of nothing but her looks and her breeding. 

"By the way, though, " says my father, "it does not look as if she wereheart-broke about my brother's death. "

And then for the first time I remembered that she had never said a wordabout the matter since I had met her. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE SHADOW ON THE WATERS. 

It was not very long before Cousin Edie was queen of West Inch, and weall her devoted subjects from my father down. She had money and tospare, though none of us knew how much. When my mother said that fourshillings the week would cover all that she would cost, she fixed onseven shillings and sixpence of her own free will. The south room, which was the sunniest and had the honeysuckle round the window, was forher; and it was a marvel to see the things that she brought from Berwickto put into it. Twice a week she would drive over, and the cart wouldnot do for her, for she hired a gig from Angus Whitehead, whose farm layover the hill. And it was seldom that she went without bringingsomething back for one or other of us. It was a wooden pipe for myfather, or a Shetland plaid for my mother, or a book for me, or a brasscollar for Rob the collie. There was never a woman more free-handed. 

But the best thing that she gave us was just her own presence. To me itchanged the whole country-side, and the sun was brighter and the braesgreener and the air sweeter from the day she came. Our lives werecommon no longer now that we spent them with such a one as she, and theold dull grey house was another place in my eyes since she had set herfoot across the door-mat. It was not her face, though that was winsomeenough, nor her form, though I never saw the lass that could match her;but it was her spirit, her queer mocking ways, her fresh new fashion oftalk, her proud whisk of the dress and toss of the head, which made onefeel like the ground beneath her feet, and then the quick challenge inher eye, and the kindly word that brought one up to her level again. 

But never quite to her level either. To me she was always somethingabove and beyond. I might brace myself and blame myself, and do what Iwould, but still I could not feel that the same blood ran in our veins, and that she was but a country lassie, as I was a country lad. The moreI loved her the more frightened I was at her, and she could see thefright long before she knew the love. I was uneasy to be away from her, and yet when I was with her I was in a shiver all the time for fear mystumbling talk might weary her or give her offence. Had I known more ofthe ways of women I might have taken less pains. 

"You're a deal changed from what you used to be, Jack, " said she, looking at me sideways from under her dark lashes. 

"You said not when first we met, " says I. 

"Ah! I was speaking of your looks then, and of your ways now. You usedto be so rough to me, and so masterful, and would have your own way, like the little man that you were. I can see you now with your touzledbrown hair and your mischievous eyes. And now you are so gentle andquiet and soft-spoken. "

"One learns to behave, " says I. 

"Ah, but, Jack, I liked you so much better as you were!"

Well, when she said that I fairly stared at her, for I had thought thatshe could never have quite forgiven me for the way I used to carry on. That anyone out of a daft house could have liked it, was clean beyond myunderstanding. I thought of how when she was reading by the door Iwould go up on the moor with a hazel switch and fix little clay balls atthe end of it, and sling them at her until I made her cry. And then Ithought of how I caught an eel in the Corriemuir burn and chivied herabout with it, until she ran screaming under my mother's apron half madwith fright, and my father gave me one on the ear-hole with the porridgestick which knocked me and my eel under the kitchen dresser. And thesewere the things that she missed! Well, she must miss them, for my handwould wither before I could do them now. But for the first time I beganto understand the queerness that lies in a woman, and that a man mustnot reason about one, but just watch and try to learn. 

We found our level after a time, when she saw that she had just to dowhat she liked and how she liked, and that I was as much at her beck andcall as old Rob was at mine. You'll think I was a fool to have had myhead so turned, and maybe I was; but then you must think how little Iwas used to women, and how much we were thrown together. Besides shewas a woman in a million, and I can tell you that it was a strong headthat would not be turned by her. 

Why, there was Major Elliott, a man that had buried three wives, and hadtwelve pitched battles to his name, Edie could have turned him round herfinger like a damp rag--she, only new from the boarding school. I methim hobbling from West Inch the first time after she came, with pink inhis cheeks and a shine in his eye that took ten years from him. He wascocking up his grey moustaches at either end and curling them into hiseyes, and strutting out with his sound leg as proud as a piper. Whatshe had said to him the Lord knows, but it was like old wine in hisveins. 

"I've been up to see you, laddie, " said he, "but I must home again now. My visit has not been wasted, however, as I had an opportunity of seeing_la belle cousine_. A most charming and engaging young lady, laddie. "

He had a formal stiff way of talking, and was fond of jerking in a bitof the French, for he had picked some up in the Peninsula. He wouldhave gone on talking of Cousin Edie, but I saw the corner of a newspaperthrusting out of his pocket, and I knew that he had come over, as washis way, to give me some news, for we heard little enough at West Inch. 

"What is fresh, Major?" I asked. He pulled the paper out with aflourish. 

"The allies have won a great battle, my lad, " says he. "I don't thinkNap can stand up long against this. The Saxons have thrown him over, and he's been badly beat at Leipzig. Wellington is past the Pyrenees, and Graham's folk will be at Bayonne before long. "

I chucked up my hat. 

"Then the war will come to an end at last, " I cried. 

"Aye, and time too, " said he, shaking his head gravely. "It's been abloody business. But it is hardly worth while for me to say now whatwas in my mind about you. "

"What was that?"

"Well, laddie, you are doing no good here, and now that my knee isgetting more limber I was hoping that I might get on active serviceagain. I wondered whether maybe you might like to do a littlesoldiering under me. "

My heart jumped at the thought. 

"Aye, would I!" I cried. 

"But it'll be clear six months before I'll be fit to pass a board, andit's long odds that Boney will be under lock and key before that. "

"And there's my mother, " said I, "I doubt she'd never let me go. "

"Ah! well, she'll never be asked to now, " he answered, and hobbled onupon his way. 

I sat down among the heather with my chin on my hand, turning the thingover in my mind, and watching him in his old brown clothes, with the endof a grey plaid flapping over his shoulder, as he picked his way up theswell of the hill. It was a poor life this, at West Inch, waiting tofill my father's shoes, with the same heath, and the same burn, and thesame sheep, and the same grey house for ever before me. But overthere, over the blue sea, ah! there was a life fit for a man. There wasthe Major, a man past his prime, wounded and spent, and yet planning toget to work again, whilst I, with all the strength of my youth, waswasting it upon these hillsides. A hot wave of shame flushed over me, and I sprang up all in a tingle to be off and playing a man's part inthe world. 

For two days I turned it over in my mind, and on the third there camesomething which first brought all my resolutions to a head, and thenblew them all to nothing like a puff of smoke in the wind. 

I had strolled out in 'the afternoon with Cousin Edie and Rob, until wefound ourselves upon the brow of the slope which dips away down to thebeach. It was late in the fall, and the links were all bronzed andfaded; but the sun still shone warmly, and a south breeze came in littlehot pants, rippling the broad blue sea with white curling lines. I pulled an armful of bracken to make a couch for Edie, and there shelay in her listless fashion, happy and contented; for of all folk that Ihave ever met, she had the most joy from warmth and light. I leaned ona tussock of grass, with Rob's head upon my knee, and there as we satalone in peace in the wilderness, even there we saw suddenly thrown uponthe waters in front of us the shadow of that great man over yonder, whohad scrawled his name in red letters across the map of Europe. There was a ship coming up with the wind, a black sedate oldmerchant-man, bound for Leith as likely as not. Her yards were squareand she was running with all sail set. On the other tack, coming fromthe north-east, were two great ugly lugger-like craft, with one highmast each, and a big square brown sail. A prettier sight one would notwish than to see the three craft dipping along upon so fair a day. But of a sudden there came a spurt of flame and a whirl of blue smokefrom one lugger, then the same from the second, and a rap, rap, rap, from the ship. In a twinkling hell had elbowed out heaven, and there onthe waters was hatred and savagery and the lust for blood. 

We had sprung to our feet at the outburst, and Edie put her hand all ina tremble upon my arm. 

"They are fighting, Jack!" she cried. "What are they? Who are they?"

My heart was thudding with the guns, and it was all that I could do toanswer her for the catch of my breath. 

"It's two French privateers, Edie, " said I, "Chasse-marries, they callthem, and yon's one of our merchant ships, and they'll take her as sureas death; for the Major says they've always got heavy guns, and are asfull of men as an egg is full of meat. Why doesn't the fool make backfor Tweedmouth bar?"

But not an inch of canvas did she lower, but floundered on in her stolidfashion, while a little black ball ran up to her peak, and the rare oldflag streamed suddenly out from the halliard. Then again came the rap, rap, rap, of her little guns, and the boom, boom of the big carronadesin the bows of the lugger. An instant later the three ships met, andthe merchant-man staggered on like a stag with two wolves hanging to itshaunches. The three became but a dark blurr amid the smoke, with thetop spars thrusting out in a bristle, and from the heart of that cloudcame the quick red flashes of flame, and such a devils' racket of bigguns and small, cheering and screaming, as was to din in my head formany a week. For a stricken hour the hell-cloud moved slowly across theface of the water, and still with our hearts in our mouths we watchedthe flap of the flag, straining to see if it were yet there. And thensuddenly, the ship, as proud and black and high as ever, shot on uponher way; and as the smoke cleared we saw one of the luggers squatteringlike a broken winged duck upon the water, and the other working hard toget the crew from her before she sank. 

For all that hour I had lived for nothing but the fight. My cap hadbeen whisked away by the wind, but I had never given it a thought. Now with my heart full I turned upon my Cousin Edie, and the sight ofher took me back six years. There was the vacant staring eye and theparted lips, just as I had seen them in her girlhood, and her littlehands were clenched until the knuckles gleamed like ivory. 

"Ah, that captain!" said she, talking to the heath and thewhin-bushes. "There is a man so strong, so resolute! What woman wouldnot be proud of a man like that?"

"Aye, he did well!" I cried with enthusiasm. 

She looked at me as if she had forgotten my existence. 

"I would give a year of my life to meet such a man, " said she. "But that is what living in the country means. One never sees anybodybut just those who are fit for nothing better. "

I do not know that she meant to hurt me, though she was never verybackward at that; but whatever her intention, her words seemed to strikestraight upon a naked nerve. 

"Very well, Cousin Edie, " I said, trying to speak calmly, "that puts thecap on it. I'll take the bounty in Berwick to-night. "

"What, Jack! you be a soldier!"

"Yes, if you think that every man that bides in the country must be acoward. "

"Oh, you'd look so handsome in a red coat, Jack, and it improves youvastly when you are in a temper. I wish your eyes would always flashlike that, for it looks so nice and manly. But I am sure that you arejoking about the soldiering. "

"I'll let you see if I am joking. "

Then and there I set off running over the moor, until I burst into thekitchen where my mother and father were sitting on either side of theingle. 

"Mother, " I cried, "I'm off for a soldier!"

Had I said I was off for a burglar they could not have looked worse overit, for in those days among the decent canny country folks it was mostlythe black sheep that were herded by the sergeant. But, my word, thosesame black sheep did their country some rare service too. My mother putup her mittens to her eyes, and my father looked as black as a peathole. 

"Hoots, Jock, you're daft, " says he. 

"Daft or no, I'm going. "

"Then you'll have no blessing from me. "

"Then I'll go without. "

At this my mother gives a screech and throws her arms about my neck. I saw her hand, all hard and worn and knuckly with the work she had donefor my up-bringing, and it pleaded with me as words could not have done. My heart was soft for her, but my will was as hard as a flint-edge. I put her back in her chair with a kiss, and then ran to my room to packmy bundle. It was already growing dark, and I had a long walk beforeme, so I thrust a few things together and hastened out. As I camethrough the side door someone touched my shoulder, and there was Edie inthe gloaming. 

"Silly boy, " said she, "you are not really going. "

"Am I not? You'll see. "

"But your father does not wish it, nor your mother. "

"I know that. "

"Then why go?"

"You ought to know. "

"Why, then?"

"Because you make me!"

"I don't want you to go, Jack. "

"You said it. You said that the folk in the country were fit fornothing better. You always speak like that. You think no more of methan of those doos in the cot. You think I am nobody at all. I'll showyou different. "

All my troubles came out in hot little spurts of speech. She colouredup as I spoke, and looked at me in her queer half-mocking, half-pettingfashion. 

"Oh, I think so little of you as that?" said she. "And that is thereason why you are going away? Well then, Jack, will you stay if Iam--if I am kind to you?"

We were face to face and close together, and in an instant the thing wasdone. My arms were round her, and I was kissing her, and kissing her, and kissing her, on her mouth, her cheeks, her eyes, and pressing her tomy heart, and whispering to her that she was all, all, to me, and that Icould not be without her. She said nothing, but it was long before sheturned her face aside, and when she pushed me back it was not very hard. 

"Why, you are quite your rude, old, impudent self!" said she, pattingher hair with her two hands. "You have tossed me, Jack; I had no ideathat you would be so forward!"

But all my fear of her was gone, and a love tenfold hotter than ever wasboiling in my veins. I took her up again, and kissed her as if it weremy right. 

"You are my very own now!" I cried. "I shall not go to Berwick, butI'll stay and marry you. "

But she laughed when I spoke of marriage. 

"Silly boy! Silly boy!" said she, with her forefinger up; and then whenI tried to lay hands on her again, she gave a little dainty curtsy, andwas off into the house. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE CHOOSING OF JIM. 

And then there came those ten weeks which were like a dream, and are sonow to look back upon. I would weary you were I to tell you what passedbetween us; but oh, how earnest and fateful and all-important it was atthe time! Her waywardness; her ever-varying moods, now bright, nowdark, like a meadow under drifting clouds; her causeless angers; hersudden repentances, each in turn filling me with joy or sorrow: thesewere my life, and all the rest was but emptiness. But ever deep downbehind all my other feelings was a vague disquiet, a fear that I waslike the man who set forth to lay hands upon the rainbow, and that thereal Edie Calder, however near she might seem, was in truth for everbeyond my reach. 

For she was so hard to understand, or, at least, she was so for adull-witted country lad like me. For if I would talk to her of my realprospects, and how by taking in the whole of Corriemuir we might earn ahundred good pounds over the extra rent, and maybe be able to build outthe parlour at West Inch, so as to make it fine for her when we married, she would pout her lips and droop her eyes, as though she scarce hadpatience to listen to me. But if I would let her build up dreams aboutwhat I might become, how I might find a paper which proved me to be thetrue heir of the laird, or how, without joining the army, which shewould by no means hear of, I showed myself to be a great warrior untilmy name was in all folks' mouths, then she would be as blithe as theMay. I would keep up the play as well as I could, but soon someluckless word would show that I was only plain Jock Calder of West Inch, and out would come her lip again in scorn of me. So we moved on, she inthe air and I on the ground; and if the rift had not come in one way, itmust in another. 

It was after Christmas, but the winter had been mild, with just frostenough to make it safe walking over the peat bogs. One fresh morningEdie had been out early, and she came back to breakfast with a fleck ofcolour on her cheeks. 

"Has your friend the doctor's son come home, Jack?" says she. 

"I heard that it was expected. "

"Ah! then it must have been him that I met on the muir. "

"What! you met Jim Horscroft?"

"I am sure it must be he. A splendid-looking man--a hero, with curlyblack hair, a short, straight nose, and grey eyes. He had shoulderslike a statue, and as to height, why, I suppose that your head, Jack, would come up to his scarf-pin. "

"Up to his ear, Edie!" said I indignantly. "That is, if it was Jim. But tell me. Had he a brown wooden pipe stuck in the corner of hismouth?"

"Yes, he was smoking. He was dressed in grey, and he has a grand deepstrong voice. "

"Ho, ho! you spoke to him!" said I. 

She coloured a little, as if she had said more than she meant. 

"I was going where the ground was a little soft, and he warned me ofit, " she said. 

"Ah! it must have been dear old Jim, " said I. "He should have been adoctor years back, if his brains had been as strong as his arm. Why, heart alive, here is the very man himself!"

I had seen him through the kitchen window, and now I rushed out with myhalf-eaten bannock in my hand to greet him. He ran forward too, withhis great hand out and his eyes shining. 

"Ah! Jock, " he cried, "it's good to see you again. There are no friendslike the old ones. "

Then suddenly he stuck in his speech, and stared with his mouth openover my shoulder. I turned, and there was Edie, with such a merry, roguish smile, standing in the door. How proud I felt of her, and ofmyself too, as I looked at her!

"This is my cousin, Miss Edie Calder, Jim, " said I. 

"Do you often take walks before breakfast, Mr. Horscroft?" she asked, still with that roguish smile. 

"Yes, " said he, staring at her with all his eyes. 

"So do I, and generally over yonder, " said she. "But you are not veryhospitable to your friend, Jack. If you do not do the honours, I shallhave to take your place for the credit of West Inch. "

Well, in another minute we were in with the old folk, and Jim had hisplate of porridge ladled out for him; but hardly a word would he speak, but sat with his spoon in his hand staring at Cousin Edie. She shotlittle twinkling glances across at him all the time, and it seemed to methat she was amused at his backwardness, and that she tried by what shesaid to give him heart. 

"Jack was telling me that you were studying to be a doctor, " said she. "But oh, how hard it must be, and how long it must take before one cangather so much learning as that!"

"It takes me long enough, " Jim answered ruefully; "but I'll beat ityet. "

"Ah! but you are brave. You are resolute. You fix your eyes on a pointand you move on towards it, and nothing can stop you. "

"Indeed, I've little to boast of, " said he. "Many a one who began withme has put up his plate years ago, and here am I but a student still. "

"That is your modesty, Mr. Horscroft. They say that the bravest arealways humble. But then, when you have gained your end, what a gloriouscareer--to carry healing in your hands, to raise up the suffering, tohave for one's sole end the good of humanity!"

Honest Jim wriggled in his chair at this. 

"I'm afraid I have no such very high motives, Miss Calder, " said he. "It's to earn a living, and to take over my father's business, that I doit. If I carry healing in one hand, I have the other out for acrown-piece. "

"How candid and truthful you are!" she cried; and so they went on, shedecking him with every virtue, and twisting his words to make him playthe part, in the way that I knew so well. Before he was done I couldsee that his head was buzzing with her beauty and her kindly words. I thrilled with pride to think that he should think so well of my kin. 

"Isn't she fine, Jim?" I could not help saying when we stood outsidethe door, he lighting his pipe before he set off home. 

"Fine!" he cried; "I never saw her match!"

"We're going to be married, " said I. 

The pipe fell out of his mouth, and he stood staring at me. Then hepicked it up and walked off without a word. I thought that he wouldlikely come back, but he never did; and I saw him far off up the brae, with his chin on his chest. 

But I was not to forget him, for Cousin Edie had a hundred questions toask me about his boyhood, about his strength, about the women that hewas likely to know; there was no satisfying her. And then again, laterin the day, I heard of him, but in a less pleasant fashion. 

It was my father who came home in the evening with his mouth full ofpoor Jim. He had been deadly drunk since midday, had been down toWesthouse Links to fight the gipsy champion, and it was not certain thatthe man would live through the night. My father had met Jim on thehighroad, dour as a thunder-cloud, and with an insult in his eye forevery man that passed him. "Guid sakes!" said the old man. "He'll makea fine practice for himsel', if breaking banes will do it. "

Cousin Edie laughed at all this, and I laughed because she did; but Iwas not so sure that it was funny. 

On the third day afterwards, I was going up Corriemuir by thesheep-track, when who should I see striding down but Jim himself. But he was a different man from the big, kindly fellow who had suppedhis porridge with us the other morning. He had no collar nor tie, hisvest was open, his hair matted, and his face mottled, like a man who hasdrunk heavily overnight. He carried an ash stick, and he slashed at thewhin-bushes on either side of the path. 

"Why, Jim!" said I. 

But he looked at me in the way that I had often seen at school when thedevil was strong in him, and when he knew that he was in the wrong, andyet set his will to brazen it out. Not a word did he say, but hebrushed past me on the narrow path and swaggered on, still brandishinghis ash-plant and cutting at the bushes. 

Ah well, I was not angry with him. I was sorry, very sorry, and thatwas all. Of course I was not so blind but that I could see how thematter stood. He was in love with Edie, and he could not bear to thinkthat I should have her. Poor devil, how could he help it? Maybe Ishould have been the same. There was a time when I should have wonderedthat a girl could have turned a strong man's head like that, but I knewmore about it now. 

For a fortnight I saw nothing of Jim Horscroft, and then came theThursday which was to change the whole current of my life. 

I had woke early that day, and with a little thrill of joy which is arare thing to feel when a man first opens his eyes. Edie had beenkinder than usual the night before, and I had fallen asleep with thethought that maybe at last I had caught the rainbow, and that withoutany imaginings or make-believes she was learning to love plain, roughJock Calder of West Inch. It was this thought, still at my heart, whichhad given me that little morning chirrup of joy. And then I rememberedthat if I hastened I might be in time for her, for it was her custom togo out with the sunrise. 

But I was too late. When I came to her door it was half-open and theroom empty. Well, thought I, at least I may meet her and have thehomeward walk with her. From the top of Corriemuir hill you may see allthe country round; so, catching up my stick, I swung off in thatdirection. It was bright, but cold, and the surf, I remember, wasbooming loudly, though there had been no wind in our parts for days. I zigzagged up the steep pathway, breathing in the thin, keen morningair, and humming a lilt as I went, until I came out, a little short ofbreath, among the whins upon the top. Looking down the long slope ofthe farther side, I saw Cousin Edie, as I had expected; and I saw JimHorscroft walking by her side. 

They were not far away, but too taken up with each other to see me. Shewas walking slowly, with the little petulant cock of her dainty headwhich I knew so well, casting her eyes away from him, and shooting out aword from time to time. He paced along beside her, looking down at herand bending his head in the eagerness of his talk. Then as he saidsomething, she placed her hand with a caress upon his arm, and he, carried off his feet, plucked her up and kissed her again and again. At the sight I could neither cry out nor move, but stood, with a heartof lead and the face of a dead man, staring down at them. I saw herhand passed over his shoulder, and that his kisses were as welcome toher as ever mine had been. 

Then he set her down again, and I found that this had been theirparting; for, indeed, in another hundred paces they would have come inview of the upper windows of the house. She walked slowly away, with awave back once or twice, and he stood looking after her. I waited untilshe was some way off, and then down I came, but so taken up was he, that I was within a hand's-touch of him before he whisked round upon me. He tried to smile as is eye met mine. 

"Ah, Jock, " says he, "early afoot!"

"I saw you!" I gasped; and my throat had turned so dry that I spoke likea man with a quinsy. 

"Did you so?" said he, and gave a little whistle. "Well, on my life, Jock, I'm not sorry. I was thinking of coming up to West Inch this veryday, and having it out with you. Maybe it's better as it is. "

"You've been a fine friend!" said I. 

"Well now, be reasonable, Jock, " said he, sticking his hands into hispockets and rocking to and fro as he stood. "Let me show you how itstands. Look me in the eye, and you'll see that I don't lie. It's thisWay. I had met Edi--Miss Calder that is--before I came that morning, and there were things which made me look upon her as free; and, thinkingthat, I let my mind dwell on her. Then you said she wasn't free, butwas promised to you, and that was the worst knock I've had for a time. It clean put me off, and I made a fool of myself for some days, and it'sa mercy I'm not in Berwick gaol. Then by chance I met her again--on mysoul, Jock, it was chance for me--and when I spoke of you she laughed atthe thought. It was cousin and cousin, she said; but as for her notbeing free, or you being more to her than a friend, it was fool's talk. So you see, Jock, I was not so much to blame, after all: the more so asshe promised that she would let you see by her conduct that you weremistaken in thinking that you had any claim upon her. You must havenoticed that she has hardly had a word for you for these last twoweeks. "

I laughed bitterly. 

"It was only last night, " said I, "that she told me that I was the onlyman in all this earth that she could ever bring herself to love. "

Jim Horscroft put out a shaking hand and laid it on my shoulder, whilehe pushed his face forward to look into my eyes. 

"Jock Calder, " said he, "I never knew you tell a lie. You are nottrying to score trick against trick, are you? Honest now, between manand man. "

"It's God's truth, " said I. 

He stood looking at me, and his face had set like that of a man who ishaving a hard fight with himself. It was a long two minutes before hespoke. 

"See here, Jock!" said he. "This woman is fooling us both. D'you hear, man? she's fooling us both! She loves you at West Inch, and she lovesme on the braeside; and in her devil's heart she cares a whin-blossomfor neither of us. Let's join hands, man, and send the hellfire hussyto the right-about!"

But this was too much. I could not curse her in my own heart, and stillless could I stand by and hear another man do it; not though it was myoldest friend. 

"Don't you call names!" I cried. 

"Ach! you sicken me with your soft talk! I'll call her what she shouldbe called!"

"Will you, though?" said I, lugging off my coat. "Look you here, JimHorscroft, if you say another word against her, I'll lick it down yourthroat, if you were as big as Berwick Castle! Try me and see!"

He peeled off his coat down to the elbows, and then he slowly put it onagain. 

"Don't be such a fool, Jock!" said he. "Four stone and five inches ismore than mortal man can give. Two old friends mustn't fall out oversuch a--well, there, I won't say it. Well, by the Lord, if she hasn'tnerve for ten!"

I looked round, and there she was, not twenty yards from us, looking ascool and easy and placid as we were hot and fevered. 

"I was nearly home, " said she, "when I saw you two boys very busytalking, so I came all the way back to know what it was about. "

Horscroft took a run forward and caught her by the wrist. She gave alittle squeal at the sight of his face, but he pulled her towards whereI was standing. 

"Now, Jock, we've had tomfoolery enough, " said he. "Here she is. Shallwe take her word as to which she likes? She can't trick us now thatwe're both together. "

"I am willing, " said I. 

"And so am I. If she goes for you, I swear I'll never so much as turnan eye on her again. Will you do as much for me?"

"Yes, I will. "

"Well then, look here, you! We're both honest men, and friends, and wetell each other no lies; and so we know your double ways. I know whatyou said last night. Jock knows what you said to-day. D'you see?Now then, fair and square! Here we are before you; once and have done. Which is it to be, Jock or me?"

You would have thought that the woman would have been overwhelmed withshame, but instead of that her eyes were shining with delight; and Idare wager that it was the proudest moment of her life. As she lookedfrom one to the other of us, with the cold morning sun glittering on herface, I had never seen her look so lovely. Jim felt it also, I am sure;for he dropped her wrist, and the harsh lines were softened upon hisface. 

"Come, Edie! which is it to be?" he asked. 

"Naughty boys, to fall out like this!" she cried. "Cousin Jack, youknow how fond I am of you. "

"Oh, then go to him!" said Horscroft. 

"But I love nobody but Jim. There is nobody that I love like Jim. "

She snuggled up to him, and laid her cheek against his breast. 

"You see, Jock!" said he, looking over her shoulder. 

I did see; and away I went for West Inch, another man from the time thatI left it. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE MAN FROM THE SEA. 

Well, I was never one to sit groaning over a cracked pot. If it couldnot be mended, then it is the part of a man to say no more of it. For weeks I had an aching heart; indeed, it is a little sore now, afterall these years and a happy marriage, when I think of it. But I kept abrave face on me; and, above all, I did as I had promised that day onthe hillside. I was as a brother to her, and no more: though there weretimes when I had to put a hard curb upon myself; for even now she wouldcome to me with her coaxing ways, and with tales about how rough Jimwas, and how happy she had been when I was kind to her; for it was inher blood to speak like that, and she could not help it. 

But for the most part Jim and she were happy enough. It was all overthe countryside that they were to be married when he had passed hisdegree, and he would come up to West Inch four nights a week to sit withus. My folk were pleased about it, and I tried to be pleased too. 

Maybe at first there was a little coolness between him and me: there wasnot quite the old schoolboy trust between us. But then, when the firstsmart was passed, it seemed to me that he had acted openly, and that Ihad no just cause for complaint against him. So we were friendly, in away; and as for her, he had forgotten all his anger, and would havekissed the print of her shoe in the mud. We used to take long ramblestogether, he and I; and it is about one of these that I now want to tellyou. 

We had passed over Bramston Heath and round the clump of firs whichscreens the house of Major Elliott from the sea wind. It was springnow, and the year was a forward one, so that the trees were well leavedby the end of April. It was as warm as a summer day, and we were themore surprised when we saw a huge fire roaring upon the grass-plotbefore the Major's door. There was half a fir-tree in it, and theflames were spouting up as high as the bedroom windows. Jim and I stoodstaring, but we stared the more when out came the Major, with a greatquart pot in his hand, and at his heels his old sister who kept housefor him, and two of the maids, and all four began capering about roundthe fire. He was a douce, quiet man, as all the country knew, and herehe was like old Nick at the carlin's dance, hobbling around and wavinghis drink above his head. We both set off running, and he waved themore when he saw us coming. 

"Peace!" he roared. "Huzza, boys! Peace!"

And at that we both fell to dancing and shouting too; for it had beensuch a weary war as far back as we could remember, and the shadow hadlain so long over us, that it was wondrous to feel that it was lifted. Indeed it was too much to believe, but the Major laughed our doubts toscorn. 

"Aye, aye, it is true, " he cried, stopping with his hand to his side. "The Allies have got Paris, Boney has thrown up the sponge, and hispeople are all swearing allegiance to Louis XVIII. "

"And the Emperor?" I asked. "Will they spare him?"

"There's talk of sending him to Elba, where he'll be out of mischief'sway. But his officers, there are some of them who will not get off solightly. Deeds have been done during these last twenty years that havenot been forgotten. There are a few old scores to be settled. But it'sPeace! Peace!"

And away he went once more with his great tankard hopping round hisbonfire. 

Well, we stayed some time with the Major, and then away we went down tothe beach, Jim and I, talking about this great news, and all that wouldcome of it. He knew a little, and I knew less, but we pieced it alltogether and talked about how the prices would come down, how ourbrave fellows would return home, how the ships could go where they wouldin peace, and how we could pull all the coast beacons down, for therewas no enemy now to fear. So we chatted as we walked along the clean, hard sand, and looked out at the old North Sea. How little did Jim knowat that moment, as he strode along by my side so full of health and ofspirits, that he had reached the extreme summit of his life, and thatfrom that hour all would, in truth, be upon the downward slope!

There was a little haze out to sea; for it had been very misty in theearly morning, though the sun had thinned it. As we looked seawards wesuddenly saw the sail of a small boat break out through the fog, andcome bobbing along towards the land. A single man was seated in thesheets, and she yawed about as she ran, as though he were of two mindswhether to beach her or no. At last, determined it may be by ourpresence, he made straight for us, and her keel grated upon the shingleat our very feet. He dropped his sail, sprang out, and pulled her bowsup on the beach. 

"Great Britain, I believe?" said he, turning briskly round and facingus. 

He was a man somewhat above middle height, but exceedingly thin. His eyes were piercing and set close together, a long sharp nose juttedout from between them, and beneath them was a bristle of brown moustacheas wiry and stiff as a cat's whiskers. He was well dressed in a suit ofbrown with brass buttons, and he wore high boots which were allroughened and dulled by the sea water. His face and hands were so darkthat he might have been a Spaniard, but as he raised his hat to us wesaw that the upper part of his brow was quite white and that it was fromwithout that he had his swarthiness. He looked from one to the other ofus, and his grey eyes had something in them which I had never seenbefore. You could read the question; but there seemed to be a menace atthe back of it, as if the answer were a right and not a favour. 

"Great Britain?" he asked again, with a quick tap of his foot on theshingle. 

"Yes, " said I, while Jim burst out laughing. 

"England? Scotland?"

"Scotland. But it's England past yonder trees. "

"_Bon!_ I know where I am now. I've been in a fog without a compass fornearly three days, and I didn't thought I was ever to see land again. "

He spoke English glibly enough, but with some strange turn of speechfrom time to time. 

"Where did you come from then?" asked Jim. 

"I was in a ship that was wrecked, " said he shortly. "What is the towndown yonder?"

"It is Berwick. "

"Ah! well, I must get stronger before I can go further. "

He turned towards the boat, and as he did so he gave a lurch, and wouldhave fallen had he not caught the prow. On this he seated himself andlooked round with a face that was flushed, and two eyes that blazed likea wild beast's. 

"_Voltigeurs de la Garde_, " he roared in a voice like a trumpet call, and then again "_Voltigeurs de la Garde!_"

He waved his hat above is head, and suddenly pitching forwards upon hisface on the sand, he lay all huddled into a little brown heap. 

Jim Horscroft and I stood and stared at each other. The coming of theman had been so strange, and his questions, and now this sudden turn. We took him by a shoulder each and turned him upon his back. There helay with his jutting nose and his cat's whiskers, but his lips werebloodless, and his breath would scarce shake a feather. 

"He's dying, Jim!" I cried. 

"Aye, for want of food and water. There's not a drop or crumb in theboat. Maybe there's something in the bag. "

He sprang and brought out a black leather bag, which with a large bluecoat was the only thing in the boat. It was locked, but Jim had it openin an instant. It was half full of gold pieces. 

Neither of us had ever seen so much before--no, nor a tenth part of it. There must have been hundreds of them, all bright new Britishsovereigns. Indeed, so taken up were we that we had forgotten all abouttheir owner until a groan took our thoughts back to him. His lips werebluer than ever, and his jaw had dropped. I can see his open mouth now, with its row of white wolfish teeth. 

"My God, he's off!" cried Jim. "Here, run to the burn. Jock, for ahatful of water. Quick, man, or he's gone! I'll loosen his things thewhile. " Away I tore, and was back in a minute with as much water aswould Stay in my Glengarry. Jim had pulled open the man's coat andshirt, and we doused the water over him, and forced some between hislips. It had a good effect; for after a gasp or two he sat up andrubbed his eyes slowly, like a man who is waking from a deep sleep. But neither Jim nor I were looking at his face now, for our eyes werefixed upon his uncovered chest. 

There were two deep red puckers in it, one just below the collar bone, and the other about half-way down on the right side. The skin of hisbody was extremely white up to the brown line of his neck, and the angrycrinkled spots looked the more vivid against it. From above I could seethat there was a corresponding pucker in the back at one place, but notat the other. Inexperienced as I was, I could tell what that meant. Two bullets had pierced his chest; one had passed through it, and theother had remained inside. 

But suddenly he staggered up to his feet, and pulled his shirt to, witha quick suspicious glance at us. 

"What have I been doing?" he asked. "I've been off my head. Take nonotice of anything I may have said. Have I been shouting?"

"You shouted just before you fell. "

"What did I shout?"

I told him, though it bore little meaning to my mind. He lookedsharply at us, and then he shrugged his shoulders. 

"It's the words of a song, " said he. "Well, the question is, What am Ito do now? I didn't thought I was so weak. Where did you get thewater?"

I pointed towards the burn, and he staggered off to the bank. There helay down upon his face, and he drank until I thought he would never havedone. His long skinny neck was outstretched like a horse's, and he madea loud supping noise with his lips. At last he got up with a long sigh, and wiped his moustache with his sleeve. 

"That's better, " said he. "Have you any food?"

I had crammed two bits of oat-cake into my pocket when I left home, andthese he crushed into his mouth and swallowed. Then he squared hisshoulders, puffed out his chest, and patted his ribs with the flat ofhis hands. 

"I am sure that I owe you exceedingly well, " said he. "You have beenvery kind to a stranger. But I see that you have had occasion to openmy bag. "

"We hoped that we might find wine or brandy there when you fainted. "

"Ah! I have nothing there but just a little--how do you say it?--mysavings. They are not much, but I must live quietly upon them until Ifind something to do. Now one could live quietly here, I should say. I could not have come upon a more peaceful place, without perhaps somuch as a _gendarme_ nearer than that town. "

"You haven't told us yet who you are, where you come from, nor what youhave been, " said Jim bluntly. 

The stranger looked him up and down with a critical eye:

"My word, but you would make a grenadier for a flank company, " said he. "As to what you ask, I might take offence at it from other lips; but youhave a right to know, since you have received me with so great courtesy. My name is Bonaventure de Lapp. I am a soldier and a wanderer by trade, and I have come from Dunkirk, as you may see printed upon the boat. "

"I thought that you had been shipwrecked!" said I. 

But he looked at me with the straight gaze of an honest man. 

"That is right, " said he, "but the ship went from Dunkirk, and this isone of her boats. The crew got away in the long boat, and she went downso quickly that I had no time to put anything into her. That was onMonday. "

"And to-day's Thursday. You have been three days without bite or sup. "

"It is too long, " said he. "Twice before I have been for two days, butnever quite so long as this. Well, I shall leave my boat here, and seewhether I can get lodgings in any of these little grey houses upon thehillsides. Why is that great fire burning over yonder?"

"It is one of our neighbours who has served against the French. He isrejoicing because peace has been declared. "

"Oh, you have a neighbour who has served then! I am glad; for I, too, have seen a little soldiering here and there. "

He did not look glad, but he drew his brows down over his keen eyes. 

"You are French, are you not?" I asked, as we all walked up the hilltogether, he with his black bag in his hand and his long blue cloakslung over his shoulder. 

"Well, I am of Alsace, " said he; "and, you know, they are moreGerman than French. For myself, I have been in so many lands that Ifeel at home in all. I have been a great traveller; and where do youthink that I might find a lodging?"

I can scarcely tell now, on looking back with the great gap offive-and-thirty years between, what impression this singular man hadmade upon me. I distrusted him, I think, and yet I was fascinated byhim also; for there was something in his bearing, in his look, and hiswhole fashion of speech which was entirely unlike anything that I hadever seen. Jim Horscroft was a fine man, and Major Elliott was a braveone, but they both lacked something that this wanderer had. It was thequick alert look, the flash of the eye, the nameless distinction whichis so hard to fix. And then we had saved him when he lay gasping uponthe shingle, and one's heart always softens towards what one has oncehelped. 

"If you will come with me, " said I, "I have little doubt that I can findyou a bed for a night or two, and by that time you will be better ableto make your own arrangements. "

He pulled off his hat, and bowed with all the grace imaginable. But Jim Horscroft pulled me by the sleeve, and led me aside. 

"You're mad, Jock, " he whispered. "The fellow's a common adventurer. What do you want to get mixed up with him for?"

But I was as obstinate a man as ever laced his boots, and if you jerkedme back it was the finest way of sending me to the front. 

"He's a stranger, and it's our part to look after him, " said I. 

"You'll be sorry for it, " Said he. 

"Maybe so. "

"If you don't think of yourself, you might think of your cousin. "

"Edie can take very good care of herself. "

"Well, then, the devil take you, and you may do what you like!" hecried, in one of his sudden flushes of anger. Without a word offarewell to either of us, he turned off upon the track that led uptowards his father's house. Bonaventure de Lapp smiled at me as wewalked on together. 

"I didn't thought he liked me very much, " said he. "I can see very wellthat he has made a quarrel with you because you are taking me to yourhome. What does he think of me then? Does he think perhaps that I havestole the gold in my bag, or what is it that he fears?"

"Tut, I neither know nor care, " said I. "No stranger shall pass ourdoor without a crust and a bed. "

With my head cocked and feeling as if I was doing something very fine, instead of being the most egregious fool south of Edinburgh, I marchedon down the path with my new acquaintance at my elbow. 

CHAPTER VI. 

A WANDERING EAGLE. 

My father seemed to be much of Jim Horscroft's opinion; for he was notover warm to this new guest and looked him up and down with a veryquestioning eye. He set a dish of vinegared herrings before him, however, and I noticed that he looked more askance than ever when mycompanion ate nine of them, for two were always our portion. When atlast he had finished Bonaventure de Lapp's lids were drooping over hiseyes, for I doubt that he had been sleepless as well as foodless forthese three days. It was but a poor room to which I had led him, but hethrew himself down upon the couch, wrapped his big blue cloak aroundhim, and was asleep in an instant. He was a very high and strongsnorer, and, as my room was next to his, I had reason to remember thatwe had a stranger within our gates. 

When I came down in the morning, I found that he had been beforehandwith me; for he was seated opposite my father at the window-table in thekitchen, their heads almost touching, and a little roll of gold piecesbetween them. As I came in my father looked up at me, and I saw a lightof greed in his eyes such as I had never seen before. He caught up themoney with an eager clutch and swept it into his pocket. 

"Very good, mister, " said he; "the room's yours, and you pay always onthe third of the month. "

"Ah! and here is my first friend, " cried de Lapp, holding out his handto me with a smile which was kindly enough, and yet had that touch ofpatronage which a man uses when he smiles to his dog. "I am myselfagain now, thanks to my excellent supper and good night's rest. Ah! itis hunger that takes the courage from a man. That most, and cold next. "

"Aye, that's right, " said my father; "I've been out on the moors in asnow-drift for six-and-thirty hours, and ken what it's like. "

"I once saw three thousand men starve to death, " remarked de Lapp, putting out his hands to the fire. "Day by day they got thinner andmore like apes, and they did come down to the edge of the pontoons wherewe did keep them, and they howled with rage and pain. The first fewdays their howls went over the whole city, but after a week our sentrieson the bank could not hear them, so weak they had fallen. "

"And they died!" I exclaimed. 

"They held out a very long time. Austrian Grenadiers they were, of thecorps of Starowitz, fine stout men as big as your friend of yesterday;but when the town fell there were but four hundred alive, and a mancould lift them three at a time as if they were little monkeys. It wasa pity. Ah! my friend, you will do me the honours with madame and withmademoiselle. "

It was my mother and Edie who had come into the kitchen. He had notseen them the night before, but now it was all I could do to keep myface as I watched him; for instead of our homely Scottish nod, he bentup his back like a louping trout, and slid his foot, and clapped hishand over his heart in the queerest way. My mother stared, for shethought he was making fun of her; but Cousin Edie fell into it in aninstant, as though it had been a game, and away she went in a greatcurtsy until I thought she would have had to give it up, and sit downright there in the middle of the kitchen floor. But no, she up again aslight as a piece of fluff, and we all drew up our stools and started onthe scones and milk and porridge. 

He had a wonderful way with women, that man. Now if I were to do it, or Jim Horscroft, it would look as if we were playing the fool, and thegirls would have laughed at us; but with him it seemed to go with hisstyle of face and fashion of speech, so that one came at last to lookfor it: for when he spoke to my mother or Cousin Edie--and he was neverbackward in speaking--it would always be with a bow and a look as if itwould hardly be worth their while to listen to what he had to say, andwhen they answered he would put on a face as though every word they saidwas to be treasured up and remembered for ever. And yet, even while hehumbled himself to a woman, there was always a proud sort of look at theback of his eye as if he meant to say that it was only to them that hewas so meek, and that he could be stiff enough upon occasion. As to mymother, it was wonderful the way she softened to him, and inhalf-an-hour she had told him all about her uncle, who was a surgeon inCarlisle, and the highest of any upon her side of the house. She spoketo him about my brother Rob's death, which I had never heard her mentionto a soul before, and he looked as if the tears were in his eyes overit--he, who had just told us how he had seen three thousand men starvedto death! As to Edie, she did not say much, but she kept shootinglittle glances at our visitor, and once or twice he looked very hard ather. 

When he had gone to his room after breakfast, my father pulled outeight golden pounds and laid them on the table. "What think ye ofthat, Martha?" said he. 

"You've sold the twa black tups after all. "

"No, but it's a month's pay for board and lodging from Jock's friend, and as much to come every four weeks. "

But my mother shook her head when she heard it. 

"Two pounds a week is over much, " said she; "and it is not when thepoor gentleman is in distress that we should put such a price on his bitfood. "

"Tut!" cried my father, "he can very well afford it, and he with a bagfull of gold. Besides, it's his own proposing. "

"No blessing will come from that money, " said she. 

"Why, woman, he's turned your head wi' his foreign ways of speech!"cried my father. 

"Aye, and it would be a good thing if Scottish men had a little more ofthat kindly way, " she said, and that was the first time in all my lifethat I had heard her answer him back. 

He came down soon and asked me whether I would come out with him. When we were in the sunshine he held out a little cross made of redstones, one of the bonniest things that ever I had set eyes upon. 

"These are rubies, " said he, "and I got it at Tudela, in Spain. There were two of them, but I gave the other to a Lithuanian girl. I pray that you will take this as a memory of your exceedingly kindnessto me yesterday. It will fashion into a pin for your cravat. "

I could but thank him for the present, which was of more value thananything I had ever owned in my life. 

"I am off to the upper muir to count the lambs, " said I; "maybe youwould care to come up with me and see something of the country?"

He hesitated for a moment, and then he shook his head. 

"I have some letters, " he said, "which I ought to write as soon aspossible. I think that I will stay at quiet this morning and get themwritten. "

All forenoon I was wandering over the links, and you may imagine that mymind was turning all the time upon this strange man whom chance haddrifted to our doors. Where did he gain that style of his, that mannerof command, that haughty menacing glint of the eye? And his experiencesto which he referred so lightly, how wonderful the life must have beenwhich had put him in the way of them! He had been kind to us, andgracious of speech, but still I could not quite shake myself clear ofthe distrust with which I had regarded him. Perhaps, after all, JimHorscroft had been right and I had been wrong about taking him to WestInch. 

When I got back he looked as though he had been born and bred in thesteading. He sat in the big wooden-armed ingle-chair, with the blackcat on his knee. His arms were out, and he held a skein of worsted fromhand to hand which my mother was busily rolling into a ball. CousinEdie was sitting near, and I could see by her eyes that she had beencrying. 

"Hullo, Edie!" said I, "what's the trouble?"

"Ah! mademoiselle, like all good and true women, has a soft heart, " saidhe. "I didn't thought it would have moved her, or I should have beensilent. I have been talking of the suffering of some troops of which Iknew something when they were crossing the Guadarama mountains in thewinter of 1808. Ah! yes, it was very bad, for they were fine men andfine horses. It is strange to see men blown by the wind over theprecipices, but the ground was so slippery and there was nothing towhich they could hold. So companies all linked arms, and they didbetter in that fashion; but one artilleryman's hand came off as I heldit, for he had had the frost-bite for three days. "

I stood staring with my mouth open. 

"And the old Grenadiers, too, who were not so active as they used to be, they could not keep up; and yet if they lingered the peasants wouldcatch them and crucify them to the barn doors with their feet up and afire under their heads, which was a pity for these fine old soldiers. So when they could go no further, it was interesting to see what theywould do; for they would sit down and say their prayers, sitting on anold saddle, or their knapsacks, maybe, and then take off their boots andtheir stockings, and lean their chin on the barrel of their musket. Then they would put their toe on the trigger, and _pouf!_ it was allover, and there was no more marching for those fine old Grenadiers. Oh, it was very rough work up there on these Guadarama mountains!"

"And what army was this?" I asked. 

"Oh, I have served in so many armies that I mix them up sometimes. Yes, I have seen much of war. Apropos I have seen your Scotchmen fight, and very stout fantassins they make, but I thought from them, that thefolk over here all wore--how do you say it?--petticoats. "

"Those are the kilts, and they wear them only in the Highlands. "

"Ah! on the mountains. But there is a man out yonder. Maybe he is theone who your father said would carry my letters to the post. "

"Yes, he is Farmer Whitehead's man. Shall I give them to him?"

"Well, he would be more careful of them if he had them from your hand. "

He took them from his pocket and gave them over to me. I hurried outwith them, and as I did so my eyes fell upon the address of the topmostone. It was written very large and clear:

 A SON MAJESTE, LE ROI DE SUEDE, STOCKHOLM. 

I did not know very much French, but I had enough to make that out. What sort of eagle was this which had flown into our humble little nest?

CHAPTER VII. 

THE CORRIEMUIR PEEL TOWER. 

Well, it would weary me, and I am very sure that it would weary youalso, if I were to attempt to tell you how life went with us after thisman came under our roof, or the way in which he gradually came to winthe affections of every one of us. With the women it was quick workenough; but soon he had thawed my father too, which was no such easymatter, and had gained Jim Horscroft's goodwill as well as my own. Indeed, we were but two great boys beside him, for he had beeneverywhere and seen everything; and of an evening he would chatter awayin his limping English until he took us clean from the plain kitchen andthe little farm steading, to plunge us into courts and camps andbattlefields and all the wonders of the world. Horscroft had been sulkyenough with him at first; but de Lapp, with his tact and his easy ways, soon drew him round, until he had quite won his heart, and Jim would sitwith Cousin Edie's hand in his, and the two be quite lost in listeningto all that he had to tell us. I will not tell you all this; but evennow, after so long an interval, I can trace how, week by week and monthby month, by this word and that deed, he moulded us all as he wished. 

One of his first acts was to give my father the boat in which he hadcome, reserving only the right to have it back in case he should haveneed of it. The herring were down on the coast that autumn, and myuncle before he died had given us a fine set of nets, so the gift wasworth many a pound to us. Sometimes de Lapp would go out in the boatalone, and I have seen him for a whole summer day rowing slowly alongand stopping every half-dozen strokes to throw over a stone at the endof a string. I could not think what he was doing until he told me ofhis own freewill. 

"I am fond of studying all that has to do with the military, " said he, "and I never lose a chance. I was wondering if it would be a difficultmatter for the commander of an army corps to throw his men ashore here. "

"If the wind were not from the east, " said I. 

"Ah! quite so, if the wind were not from the east. Have you takensoundings here?"

"No. "

"Your line of battleships would have to lie outside; but there is waterenough for a forty-gun frigate right up within musket range. Cram yourboats with tirailleurs, deploy them behind these sandhills, then backwith the launches for more, and a stream of grape over their heads fromthe frigates. It could be done! it could be done!"

His moustaches bristled out more like a cat's than ever, and I could seeby the flash of his eyes that he was carried away by his dream. 

"You forget that our soldiers would be upon the beach, " said Iindignantly. 

"Ta, ta, ta!" he cried. "Of course it takes two sides to make a battle. Let us see now; let us work it out. What could you get together?Shall we say twenty, thirty thousand. A few regiments of good troops:the rest, _pouf!_--conscripts, bourgeois with arms. How do you callthem--volunteers?"

"Brave men!" I shouted. 

"Oh yes, very brave men, but imbecile. Ah, _mon Dieu_, it is incrediblehow imbecile they would be! Not they alone, I mean, but all youngtroops. They are so afraid of being afraid that they would take noprecaution. Ah, I have seen it! In Spain I have seen a battalion ofconscripts attack a battery of ten pieces. Up they went, ah, sogallantly! and presently the hillside looked, from where I stood, like--how do you say it in English?--a raspberry tart. And where was our finebattalion of conscripts? Then another battalion of young troops triedit, all together in a rush, shouting and yelling; but what will shoutingdo against a mitraille of grape? And there was our second battalionlaid out on the hillside. And then the foot chasseurs of the Guard, oldsoldiers, were told to take the battery; and there was nothing fineabout their advance--no column, no shouting, nobody killed--just a fewscattered lines of tirailleurs and pelotons of support; but in tenminutes the guns were silenced, and the Spanish gunners cut to pieces. War must be learned, my young friend, just the same as the farming ofsheep. "

"Pooh!" said I, not to be out-crowed by a foreigner. "If we had thirtythousand men on the line of the hill yonder, you would come to be veryglad that you had your boats behind you. "

"On the line of the hill?" said he, with a flash of his eyes along theridge. "Yes, if your man knew his business he would have his left aboutyour house, his centre on Corriemuir, and his right over near thedoctor's house, with his tirailleurs pushed out thickly in front. His horse, of course, would try to cut us up as we deployed on thebeach. But once let us form, and we should soon know what to do. There's the weak point, there at the gap. I would sweep it with myguns, then roll in my cavalry, push the infantry on in grand columns, and that wing would find itself up in the air. Eh, Jack, where wouldyour volunteers be?"

"Close at the heels of your hindmost man, " said I; and we both burst outinto the hearty laugh with which such discussions usually ended. 

Sometimes when he talked I thought he was joking, and at other times itwas not quite so easy to say. I well remember one evening that summer, when he was sitting in the kitchen with my father, Jim, and me, afterthe women had gone to bed, he began about Scotland and its relation toEngland. 

"You used to have your own king and your own laws made at Edinburgh, "said he. "Does it not fill you with rage and despair when you thinkthat it all comes to you from London now?"

Jim took his pipe out of his mouth. 

"It was we who put our king over the English; so if there's any rage, itshould have been over yonder, " said he. 

This was clearly news to the stranger, and it silenced him for themoment. 

"Well, but your laws are made down there, and surely that is not good, "he said at last. 

"No, it would be well to have a Parliament back in Edinburgh, " said myfather; "but I am kept so busy with the sheep that I have little enoughtime to think of such things. "

"It is for fine young men like you two to think of it, " said de Lapp. "When a country is injured, it is to its young men that it looks toavenge it. "

"Aye! the English take too much upon themselves sometimes, " said Jim. 

"Well, if there are many of that way of thinking about, why should wenot form them into battalions and march them upon London?" cried deLapp. 

"That would be a rare little picnic, " said I, laughing. "And who wouldlead us?"

He jumped up, bowing, with his hand on his heart, in his queer fashion. 

"If you will allow me to have the honour!" he cried; and then seeingthat we were all laughing, he began to laugh also, but I am sure thatthere was really no thought of a joke in his mind. 

I could never make out what his age could be, nor could Jim Horscrofteither. Sometimes we thought that he was an oldish man that lookedyoung, and at others that he was a youngish man who looked old. Hisbrown, stiff, close-cropped hair needed no cropping at the top, where itthinned away to a shining curve. His skin too was intersected by athousand fine wrinkles, lacing and interlacing, and was all burned, as Ihave already said, by the sun. Yet he was as lithe as a boy, and he wasas tough as whalebone, walking all day over the hills or rowing on thesea without turning a hair. On the whole we thought that he might beabout forty or forty-five, though it was hard to see how he could haveseen so much of life in the time. But one day we got talking of ages, and then he surprised us. 

I had been saying that I was just twenty, and Jim said that he wastwenty-seven. 

"Then I am the most old of the three, " said de Lapp. 

We laughed at this, for by our reckoning he might almost have beenour father. 

"But not by so much, " said he, arching his brows. "I wasnine-and-twenty in December. "

And it was this even more than his talk which made us understand what anextraordinary life it must have been that he had led. He saw ourastonishment, and laughed at it. 

"I have lived! I have lived!" he cried. "I have spent my days and mynights. I led a company in a battle where five nations were engagedwhen I was but fourteen. I made a king turn pale at the words Iwhispered in his ear when I was twenty. I had a hand in remaking akingdom and putting a fresh king upon a great throne the very year thatI came of age. _Mon Dieu_, I have lived my life!"

That was the most that I ever heard him confess of his past life, and heonly shook his head and laughed when we tried to get something more outof him. There were times when we thought that he was but a cleverimpostor; for what could a man of such influence and talents beloitering here in Berwickshire for? But one day there came an incidentwhich showed us that he had indeed a history in the past. 

You will remember that there was an old officer of the Peninsula wholived no great way from us, the same who danced round the bonfire withhis sister and the two maids. He had gone up to London on some businessabout his pension and his wound money, and the chance of having somework given him, so that he did not come back until late in the autumn. One of the first days after his return he came down to see us, and therefor the first time he clapped eyes upon de Lapp. Never in my life did Ilook upon so astonished a face, and he stared at our friend for a longminute without so much as a word. De Lapp looked back at him equallyhard, but there was no recognition in his eyes. 

"I do not know who you are, sir, " he said at last; "but you look at meas if you had seen me before. "

"So I have, " answered the Major. 

"Never to my knowledge. "

"But I'll swear it!"

"Where then?"

"At the village of Astorga, in the year '8. "

De Lapp started, and stared again at our neighbour. 

"_Mon Dieu_, what a chance!" he cried. "And you were the Englishparlementaire? I remember you very well indeed, sir. Let me have awhisper in your ear. "

He took him aside and talked very earnestly with him in French for aquarter of an hour, gesticulating with his hands, and explainingsomething, while the Major nodded his old grizzled head from time totime. At last they seemed to come to some agreement, and I heard theMajor say "_Parole a'honneur_" several times, and afterwards "_Fortunede la guerre_, " which I could very well understand, for they gave you afine upbringing at Birtwhistle's. But after that I always noticed thatthe Major never used the same free fashion of speech that we did towardsour lodger, but bowed when he addressed him, and treated him with awonderful deal of respect. I asked the Major more than once what heknew about him, but he always put it off, and I could get no answer outof him. 

Jim Horscroft was at home all that summer, but late in the autumn hewent back to Edinburgh again for the winter session, and as he intendedto work very hard and get his degree next spring if he could, he saidthat he would bide up there for the Christmas. So there was a greatleave-taking between him and Cousin Edie; and he was to put up his plateand to marry her as soon as he had the right to practise. I never knewa man love a woman more fondly than he did her, and she liked him wellenough in a way--for, indeed, in the whole of Scotland she would notfind a finer looking man--but when it came to marriage, I think shewinced a little at the thought that all her wonderful dreams should endin nothing more than in being the wife of a country surgeon. Stillthere was only me and Jim to choose out of, and she took the best of us. 

Of course there was de Lapp also; but we always felt that he was of analtogether different class to us, and so he didn't count. I was neververy sure at that time whether Edie cared for him or not. When Jim wasat home they took little notice of each other. After he was gone theywere thrown more together, which was natural enough, as he had taken upso much of her time before. Once or twice she spoke to me about de Lappas though she did not like him, and yet she was uneasy if he were not inin the evening; and there was no one so fond of his talk, or with somany questions to ask him, as she. She made him describe what queenswore, and what sort of carpets they walked on, and whether they hadhairpins in their hair, and how many feathers they had in their hats, until it was a wonder to me how he could find an answer to it all. And yet an answer he always had; and was so ready and quick with histongue, and so anxious to amuse her, that I wondered how it was that shedid not like him better. 

Well, the summer and the autumn and the best part of the winter passedaway, and we were still all very happy together. We got well into theyear 1815, and the great Emperor was still eating his heart out at Elba;and all the ambassadors were wrangling together at Vienna as to whatthey should do with the lion's skin, now that they had so fairly huntedhim down. And we in our little corner of Europe went on with our pettypeaceful business, looking after the sheep, attending the Berwick cattlefairs, and chatting at night round the blazing peat fire. We neverthought that what all these high and mighty people were doing could haveany bearing upon us; and as to war, why everybody was agreed that thegreat shadow was lifted from us for ever, and that, unless the Alliesquarrelled among themselves, there would not be a shot fired in Europefor another fifty years. 

There was one incident, however, that stands out very clearly in mymemory. I think that it must have happened about the February of thisyear, and I will tell it to you before I go any further. 

You know what the border peel castles are like, I have no doubt. They were just square heaps built every here and there along the line, so that the folk might have some place of protection against raiders andmosstroopers. When Percy and his men were over the Marches, then thepeople would drive some of their cattle into the yard of the tower, shutup the big gate, and light a fire in the brazier at the top, which wouldbe answered by all the other Peel towers, until the lights would gotwinkling up to the Lammermuir Hills, and so carry the news on to thePentlands and to Edinburgh. But now, of course, all these old keepswere warped and crumbling, and made fine nesting places for the wildbirds. Many a good egg have I had for my collection out of theCorriemuir Peel Tower. 

One day I had been a very long walk, away over to leave a message at theLaidlaw Armstrongs, who live two miles on this side of Ayton. About five o'clock, just before the sun set, I found myself on the braepath with the gable end of West Inch peeping up in front of me and theold Peel tower lying on my left. I turned my eyes on the keep, for itlooked so fine with the flush of the level sun beating full upon it andthe blue sea stretching out behind; and as I stared, I suddenly saw theface of a man twinkle for a moment in one of the holes in the wall. 

Well I stood and wondered over this, for what could anybody be doing insuch a place now that it was too early for the nesting season? It wasso queer that I was determined to come to the bottom of it; so, tired asI was, I turned my shoulder on home, and walked swiftly towards thetower. The grass stretches right up to the very base of the wall, andmy feet made little noise until I reached the crumbling arch where theold gate used to be. I peeped through, and there was Bonaventure deLapp standing inside the keep, and peeping out through the very hole atwhich I had seen his face. He was turned half away from me, and it wasclear that he had not seen me at all, for he was staring with all hiseyes over in the direction of West Inch. As I advanced my foot rattledthe rubble that lay in the gateway, and he turned round with a start andfaced me. 

He was not a man whom you could put out of countenance, and his facechanged no more than if he had been expecting me there for atwelvemonth; but there was something in his eyes which let me know thathe would have paid a good price to have me back on the brae path again. 

"Hullo!" said I, "what are you doing here?"

"I may ask you that, " said he. 

"I came up because I saw your face at the window. "

"And I because, as you may well have observed, I have very much interestfor all that has to do with the military, and, of course, castles areamong them. You will excuse me for one moment, my dear Jack. "

And he stepped out suddenly through the hole in the wall, so as to beout of my sight. 

But I was very much too curious to excuse him so easily. I shifted myground swiftly to see what it was that he was after. He was standingoutside, and waving his hand frantically, as in a signal. 

"What are you doing?" I cried; and then, running out to his side, Ilooked across the moors to see whom he was beckoning to. 

"You go too far, sir, " said he, angrily; "I didn't thought you wouldhave gone so far. A gentleman has the freedom to act as he choosewithout your being the spy upon him. If we are to be friends, you mustnot interfere in my affairs. "

"I don't like these secret doings, " said I, "and my father would notlike them either. "

"Your father can speak for himself, and there is no secret, " said he, curtly. "It is you with your imaginings that make a secret. Ta, ta, ta! I have no patience with such foolishness. "

And without as much as a nod, he turned his back upon me, and startedwalking swiftly to West Inch. 

Well, I followed him, and in the worst of tempers; for I had a feelingthat there was some mischief in the wind, and yet I could not for thelife of me think what it all meant. Again I found myself puzzling overthe whole mystery of this man's coming, and of his long residence amongus. And whom could he have expected to meet at the Peel Tower? Was thefellow a spy, and was it some brother spy who came to speak with himthere? But that was absurd. What could there be to spy about inBerwickshire? And besides, Major Elliott knew all about him, and hewould not show him such respect if there were anything amiss. 

I had just got as far as this in my thoughts when I heard a cheery hail, and there was the Major himself coming down the hill from his house, with his big bulldog Bounder held in leash. This dog was a savagecreature, and had caused more than one accident on the countryside; butthe Major was very fond of it, and would never go out without it, thoughhe kept it tied with a good thick thong of leather. Well, just as I waslooking at the Major, waiting for him to come up, he stumbled with hislame leg over a branch of gorse, and in recovering himself he let go hishold of the leash, and in an instant there was the beast of a dog flyingdown the hillside in my direction. 

I did not like it, I can tell you; for there was neither stick nor stoneabout, and I knew that the brute was dangerous. The Major was shriekingto it from behind, and I think that the creature thought that he washallooing it on, so furiously did it rush. But I knew its name, and Ithought that maybe that might give me the privileges ofacquaintanceship; so as it came at me with bristling hair and its nosescrewed back between its two red eyes, I cried out "Bounder! Bounder!"at the pitch of my lungs. It had its effect, for the beast passed mewith a snarl, and flew along the path on the traces of Bonaventure deLapp. 

He turned at the shouting, and seemed to take in the whole thing at aglance; but he strolled along as slowly as ever. My heart was in mymouth for him, for the dog had never seen him before; and I ran as fastas my feet would carry me to drag it away from him. But somehow, as itbounded up and saw the twittering finger and thumb which de Lapp heldout behind him, its fury died suddenly away, and we saw it wagging itsthumb of a tail and clawing at his knee. 

"Your dog then, Major?" said he, as its owner came hobbling up. "Ah, itis a fine beast--a fine, pretty thing!"

The Major was blowing hard, for he had covered the ground nearly as fastas I. 

"I was afraid lest he might have hurt you, " he panted. 

"Ta, ta, ta!" cried de Lapp. "He is a pretty, gentle thing; I alwayslove the dogs. But I am glad that I have met you, Major; for here isthis young gentleman, to whom I owe very much, who has begun to thinkthat I am a spy. Is it not so, Jack?"

I was so taken aback by his words that I could not lay my tongue to ananswer, but coloured up and looked askance, like the awkward country ladthat I was. 

"You know me, Major, " said de Lapp, "and I am sure that you will tellhim that this could not be. "

"No, no, Jack! Certainly not! certainly not!" cried the Major. 

"Thank you, " said de Lapp. "You know me, and you do me justice. Andyourself, I hope that your knee is better, and that you will soon haveyour regiment given you. "

"I am well enough, " answered the Major; "but they will never give me aplace unless there is war, and there will be no more war in my time. "

"Oh, you think that!" said de Lapp with a smile. "Well, _nousverrons!_ We shall see, my friend!"

He whisked off his hat, and turning briskly he walked off in thedirection of West Inch. The Major stood looking after him withthoughtful eyes, and then asked me what it was that had made me thinkthat he was a spy. When I told him he said nothing, but he shook hishead, and looked like a man who was ill at ease in his mind. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE COMING OF THE CUTTER. 

I never felt quite the same to our lodger after that little business atthe Peel Castle. It was always in my mind that he was holding a secretfrom me--indeed, that he was all a secret together, seeing that healways hung a veil over his past. And when by chance that veil was foran instant whisked away, we always caught just a glimpse of somethingbloody and violent and dreadful upon the other side. The very look ofhis body was terrible. I bathed with him once in the summer, and I sawthen that he was haggled with wounds all over. Besides seven or eightscars and slashes, his ribs on one side were all twisted out of shape, and a part of one of his calves had been torn away. He laughed in hismerry way when he saw my face of wonder. 

"Cossacks! Cossacks!" said he, running his hand over his scars. "And the ribs were broke by an artillery tumbril. It is very bad tohave the guns pass over one. Now with cavalry it is nothing. A horsewill pick its steps however fast it may go. I have been ridden over byfifteen hundred cuirassiers A and by the Russian hussars of Grodno, andI had no harm from that. But guns are very bad. "

"And the calf?" I asked. 

"_Pouf!_ It is only a wolf bite, " said he. "You would not think how Icame by it! You will understand that my horse and I had been struck, the horse killed, and I with my ribs broken by the tumbril. Well, itwas cold--oh, bitter, bitter!--the ground like iron, and no one to helpthe wounded, so that they froze into such shapes as would make yousmile. I too felt that I was freezing, so what did I do? I took mysword, and I opened my dead horse, so well as I could, and I made spacein him for me to lie, with one little hole for my mouth. _Sapristi!_ Itwas warm enough there. But there was not room for the entire of me, somy feet and part of my legs stuck out. Then in the night, when I slept, there came the wolves to eat the horse, and they had a little pinch ofme also, as you can see; but after that I was on guard with my pistols, and they had no more of me. There I lived, very warm and nice, for tendays. "

"Ten days!" I cried. "What did you eat?"

"Why, I ate the horse. It was what you call board and lodging to me. But of course I have sense to eat the legs, and live in the body. Therewere many dead about who had all their water bottles, so I had all Icould wish. And on the eleventh day there came a patrol of lightcavalry, and all was well. "

It was by such chance chats as these--hardly worth repeating inthemselves--that there came light upon himself and his past. But theday was coming when we should know all; and how it came I shall try nowto tell you. 

The winter had been a dreary one, but with March came the first signs ofspring, and for a week on end we had sunshine and winds from the south. On the 7th Jim Horscroft was to come back from Edinburgh; for though thesession ended with the 1st, his examination would take him a week. Edie and I were out walking on the sea beach on the 6th, and I couldtalk of nothing but my old friend--for, indeed, he was the only friendof my own age that I had at that time. Edie was very silent, which wasa rare thing with her; but she listened smiling to all that I had tosay. 

"Poor old Jim!" said she once or twice under her breath. "Poor oldJim!"

"And if he has passed, " said I, "why, then of course he will put up hisplate and have his own house, and we shall be losing our Edie. "

I tried to make a jest of it and to speak lightly, but the words stillstuck in my throat. 

"Poor old Jim!" said she again, and there were tears in her eyes as shesaid it. "And poor old Jock!" she added, slipping her hand into mine aswe walked. "You cared for me a little bit once also, didn't you, Jock?Oh, is not that a sweet little ship out yonder!"

It was a dainty cutter of about thirty tons, very swift by the rake ofher masts and the lines of her bow. She was coming up from the southunder jib, foresail, and mainsail; but even as we watched her all herwhite canvas shut suddenly in, like a kittiwake closing her wings, andwe saw the splash of her anchor just under her bowsprit. She may havebeen rather less than a quarter of a mile from the shore--so near that Icould see a tall man with a peaked cap, who stood at the quarter with atelescope to his eye, sweeping it backwards and forwards along thecoast. 

"What can they want here?" asked Edie. 

"They are rich English from London, " said I; for that was how weexplained everything that was above our comprehension in the bordercounties. We stood for the best part of an hour watching the bonnycraft, and then, as the sun was lying low on a cloudbank and there was anip in the evening air, we turned back to West Inch. 

As you come to the farmhouse from the front, you pass up a garden, withlittle enough in it, which leads out by a wicket-gate to the road; thesame gate at which we stood on the night when the beacons were lit, thenight that we saw Walter Scott ride past on his way to Edinburgh. On the right of this gate, on the garden side, was a bit of a rockerywhich was said to have been made by my father's mother many yearsbefore. She had fashioned it out of water-worn stones and sea shells, with mosses and ferns in the chinks. Well, as we came in through thegates my eyes fell upon this stone heap, and there was a letter stuck ina cleft stick upon the top of it. I took a step forward to see what itwas, but Edie sprang in front of me, and plucking it off she thrust itinto her pocket. 

"That's for me, " said she, laughing. But I stood looking at her with aface which drove the laugh from her lips. 

"Who is it from, Edie?" I asked. 

She pouted, but made no answer. 

"Who is it from, woman?" I cried. "Is it possible that you have been asfalse to Jim as you were to me?"

"How rude you are, Jock!" she cried. "I do wish that you would mindyour own business. "

"There is only one person that it could be from, " I cried. "It is fromthis man de Lapp!"

"And suppose that you are right, Jock?"

The coolness of the woman amazed and enraged me. 

"You confess it!" I cried. "Have you, then, no shame left?"

"Why should I not receive letters from this gentleman?"

"Because it is infamous. "

"And why?"

"Because he is a stranger. "

"On the contrary, " said she, "he is my husband!"

CHAPTER IX. 

THE DOINGS AT WEST INCH. 

I can remember that moment so well. I have heard from others that agreat, sudden blow has dulled their senses. It was not so with me. On the contrary, I saw and heard and thought more clearly than I hadever done before. I can remember that my eyes caught a little knob ofmarble as broad as my palm, which was imbedded in one of the grey stonesof the rockery, and I found time to admire its delicate mottling. And yet the look upon my face must have been strange, for Cousin Ediescreamed, and leaving me she ran off to the house. I followed her andtapped at the window of her room, for I could see that she was there. 

"Go away, Jock, go away!" she cried. "You are going to scold me!I won't be scolded! I won't open the window! Go away!"

But I continued to tap. 

"I must have a word with you!"

"What is it, then?" she cried, raising the sash about three inches. "The moment you begin to scold I shall close it. "

"Are you really married, Edie?"

"Yes, I am married. "

"Who married you?"

"Father Brennan, at the Roman Catholic Chapel at Berwick. "

"And you a Presbyterian?"

"He wished it to be in a Catholic Church. "

"When was it?"

"On Wednesday week. "

I remembered then that on that day she had driven over to Berwick, whilede Lapp had been away on a long walk, as he said, among the hills. 

"What about Jim?" I asked. 

"Oh, Jim will forgive me!"

"You will break his heart and ruin his life. "

"No, no; he will forgive me. "

"He will murder de Lapp! Oh, Edie, how could you bring such disgraceand misery upon us?"

"Ah, now you are scolding!" she cried, and down came the window. 

I waited some little time, and tapped, for I had much still to ask her;but she would return no answer, and I thought that I could hear hersobbing. At last I gave it up; and I was about to go into the house, for it was nearly dark now, when I heard the click of the garden gate. It was de Lapp himself. 

But as he came up the path he seemed to me to be either mad or drunk. He danced as he walked, cracked his fingers in the air, and his eyesblazed like two will-o'-the-wisps. "_Voltigeurs!_" he shouted;"_Voltigeurs de la Garde!_" just as he had done when he was off hishead; and then suddenly, "_En avant! en avant!_" and up he came, wavinghis walking-cane over his head. He stopped short when he saw me lookingat him, and I daresay he felt a bit ashamed of himself. 

"Hola, Jock!" he cried. "I didn't thought anybody was there. I am inwhat you call the high spirits to-night. "

"So it seems!" said I, in my blunt fashion. "You may not feel so merrywhen my friend Jim Horscroft comes back to-morrow. "

"Ah! he comes back to-morrow, does he? And why should I not feel merry?

"Because, if I know the man, he will kill you. "

"Ta, ta, ta!" cried de Lapp. "I see that you know of our marriage. Edie has told you. Jim may do what he likes. "

"You have given us a nice return for having taken you in. "

"My good fellow, " said he, "I have, as you say, given you a very nicereturn. I have taken Edie from a life which is unworthy of her, and Ihave connected you by marriage with a noble family. However, I havesome letters which I must write to-night, and the rest we can talk overto-morrow, when your friend Jim is here to help us. "

He stepped towards the door. 

"And this was whom you were awaiting at the peel tower!" I cried, seeinglight suddenly. 

"Why, Jock, you are becoming quite sharp, " said he, in a mocking tone;and an instant later I heard the door of his room close and the key turnin the lock. 

I thought that I should see him no more that night; but a few minuteslater he came into the kitchen, where I was sitting with the old folk. 

"Madame, " said he, bowing down with his hand over his heart, in his ownqueer fashion, "I have met with much kindness in your hands, and itshall always be in my heart. I didn't thought I could have been sohappy in the quiet country as you have made me. You will accept thissmall souvenir; and you also, sir, you will take this little gift, which I have the honour to make to you. "

He put two little paper packets down upon the table at their elbows, andthen, with three more bows to my mother, he walked from the room. 

Her present was a brooch, with a green stone set in the middle and adozen little shining white ones all round it. We had never seen suchthings before, and did not know how to set a name to them; but they toldus afterwards at Berwick that the big one was an emerald and the otherswere diamonds, and that they were worth much more than all the lambs wehad that spring. My dear old mother has been gone now this many a year, but that bonny brooch sparkles at the neck of my eldest daughter whenshe goes out into company; and I never look at it that I do not see thekeen eyes and the long thin nose and the cat's whiskers of our lodger atWest Inch. As to my father, he had a fine gold watch with a doublecase; and a proud man was he as he sat with it in the palm of his hand, his ear stooping to hearken to the tick. I do not know which was bestpleased, and they would talk of nothing but what de Lapp had given them. 

"He's given you something more, " said I at last. 

"What then, Jock?" asked father. 

"A husband for Cousin Edie, " said I. 

They thought I was daffing when I said that; but when they came tounderstand that it was the real truth, they were as proud and as pleasedas if I had told them that she had married the laird. Indeed, poor Jim, with his hard drinking and his fighting, had not a very bright name onthe country-side, and my mother had often said that no good could comeof such a match. Now, de Lapp was, for all we knew, steady and quietand well-to-do. And as to the secrecy of it, secret marriages were verycommon in Scotland at that time, when only a few words were needed tomake man and wife, so nobody thought much of that. The old folk were aspleased, then, as if their rent had been lowered; but I was still soreat heart, for it seemed to me that my friend had been cruelly dealtwith, and I knew well that he was not a man who would easily put up withit. 

CHAPTER X. 

THE RETURN OF THE SHADOW. 

I woke with a heavy heart the next morning, for I knew that Jim would behome before long, and that it would be a day of trouble. But how muchtrouble that day was to bring, or how far it would alter the lives ofus, was more than I had ever thought in my darkest moments. But let metell you it all, just in the order that it happened. 

I had to get up early that morning; for it was just the first flush ofthe lambing, and my father and I were out on the moors as soon as it wasfairly light. As I came out into the passage a wind struck upon myface, and there was the house door wide open, and the grey light drawinganother door upon the inner wall. And when I looked again there wasEdie's room open also, and de Lapp's too; and I saw in a flash what thatgiving of presents meant upon the evening before. It was aleave-taking, and they were gone. 

My heart was bitter against Cousin Edie as I stood looking into herroom. To think that for the sake of a newcomer she could leave us allwithout one kindly word, or as much as a hand-shake. And he, too!I had been afraid of what would happen when Jim met him; but now thereseemed to be something cowardly in this avoidance of him. I was angryand hurt and sore, and I went out into the open without a word to myfather, and climbed up on to the moors to cool my flushed face. 

When I got up to Corriemuir I caught my last glimpse of Cousin Edie. The little cutter still lay where she had anchored, but a rowboat waspulling out to her from the shore. In the stern I saw a flutter of red, and I knew that it came from her shawl. I watched the boat reach theyacht and the folk climb on to her deck. Then the anchor came up, thewhite wings spread once more, and away she dipped right out to sea. I still saw that little red spot on the deck, and de Lapp standingbeside her. They could see me also, for I was outlined against the sky, and they both waved their hands for a long time, but gave it up at lastwhen they found that I would give them no answer. 

I stood with my arms folded, feeling as glum as ever I did in my life, until their cutter was only a square hickering patch of white among themists of the morning. It was breakfast time and the porridge upon thetable before I got back, but I had no heart for the food. The old folkhad taken the matter coolly enough, though my mother had no word toohard for Edie; for the two had never had much love for each other, andless of late than ever. 

"There's a letter here from him, " said my father, pointing to a notefolded up on the table; "it was in his room. Maybe you would read it tous. "

They had not even opened it; for, truth to tell, neither of the goodfolk were very clever at reading ink, though they could do well with afine large print. 

It was addressed in big letters to "The good people of West Inch;" andthis was the note, which lies before me all stained and faded as Iwrite:

 "My friends, -- I didn't thought to have left you so suddenly, but the matter was in other hands than mine. Duty and honour have called me back to my old comrades. This you will doubtless understand before many days are past. I take your Edie with me as my wife; and it may be that in some more peaceful time you will see us again at West Inch. Meanwhile, accept the assurance of my affection, and believe me that I shall never forget the quiet months which I spent with you, at the time when my life would have been worth a week at the utmost had I been taken by the Allies. But the reason of this you may also learn some day. "

 "Yours, " "BONAVENTURE DE LISSAC" "(Colonel des Voltigeurs de la Garde, et aide-de-camp de S. M. I. L'Empereur Napoleon. ")

I whistled when I came to those words written under his name; for thoughI had long made up my mind that our lodger could be none other than oneof those wonderful soldiers of whom we had heard so much, who had forcedtheir way into every capital of Europe, save only our own, still I hadlittle thought that our roof covered Napoleon's own aide-de-camp and acolonel of his Guard. 

"So, " said I, "de Lissac is his name, and not de Lapp. Well, colonel orno, it is as well for him that he got away from here before Jim laidhands upon him. And time enough, too, " I added, peeping out at thekitchen window, "for here is the man himself coming through the garden. "

I ran to the door to meet him, feeling that I would have given a deal tohave him back in Edinburgh again. He came running, waving a paper overhis head; and I thought that maybe he had a note from Edie, and that itwas all known to him. But as he came up I saw that it was a big, stiff, yellow paper which crackled as he waved it, and that his eyes weredancing with happiness. 

"Hurrah, Jock!" he shouted. "Where is Edie? Where is Edie?"

"What is it, man?" I asked. 

"Where is Edie?"

"What have you there?"

"It's my diploma, Jock. I can practise when I like. It's all right. I want to show it to Edie. "

"The best you can do is to forget all about Edie, " said I. 

Never have I seen a man's face change as his did when I said thosewords. 

"What! What d'ye mean, Jock Calder?" he stammered. 

He let go his hold of the precious diploma as he spoke, and away it wentover the hedge and across the moor, where it stuck flapping on awhin-bush; but he never so much as glanced at it. His eyes were bentupon me, and I saw the devil's spark glimmer up in the depths of them. 

"She is not worthy of you, " said I. 

He gripped me by the shoulder. 

"What have you done?" he whispered. "This is some of yourhanky-panky! Where is she?"

"She's off with that Frenchman who lodged here. "

I had been casting about in my mind how I could break it gently to him;but I was always backward in speech, and I could think of nothing betterthan this. 

"Oh!" said he, and stood nodding his head and looking at me, though Iknew very well that he could neither see me, nor the steading, noranything else. So he stood for a minute or more, with his handsclenched and his head still nodding. Then he gave a gulp in his throat, and spoke in a queer dry, rasping voice. 

"When was this?" said he. 

"This morning. "

"Were they married?"

"Yes. "

He put his hand against the door-post to steady himself. 

"Any message for me?"

"She said that you would forgive her. "

"May God blast my soul on the day I do! Where have they gone to?"

"To France, I should judge. "

"His name was de Lapp, I think?"

"His real name is de Lissac; and he is no less than a colonel in Boney'sGuards. "

"Ah! he would be in Paris, likely. That is well! That is well!"

"Hold up!" I shouted. "Father! Father! Bring the brandy!"

His knees had given way for an instant, but he was himself again beforethe old man came running with the bottle. 

"Take it away!" said he. 

"Have a soop, Mister Horscroft, " cried my father, pressing it upon him. "It will give you fresh heart!"

He caught hold of the bottle and sent it flying over the garden hedge. 

"It's very good for those who wish to forget, " said he; "I am going toremember!"

"May God forgive you for sinfu' waste!" cried my father aloud. 

"And for well-nigh braining an officer of his Majesty's infantry!" saidold Major Elliott, putting his head over the hedge. "I could have donewith a nip after a morning's walk, but it is something new to have awhole bottle whizz past my ear. But what is amiss, that you all standround like mutes at a burying?"

In a few words I told him our trouble, while Jim, with a grey face andhis brows drawn down, stood leaning against the door-post. The Majorwas as glum as we by the time I had finished, for he was fond both ofJim and of Edie. 

"Tut, tut!" said he. "I feared something of the kind ever since thatbusiness of the peel tower. It's the way with the French. They can'tleave the women alone. But, at least, de Lissac has married her, andthat's a comfort. But it's no time now to think of our own littletroubles, with all Europe in a roar again, and another twenty years' warbefore us, as like as not. "

"What d'ye mean?" I asked. 

"Why, man, Napoleon's back from Elba, his troops have flocked to him, and Louis has run for his life. The news was in Berwick this morning. "

"Great Lord!" cried my father. "Then the weary business is all to doover again!"

"Aye, we thought we were out from the shadow, but it's still there. Wellington is ordered from Vienna to the Low Countries, and it isthought that the Emperor will break out first on that side. Well, it'sa bad wind that blows nobody any good. I've just had news that I am tojoin the 71st as senior major. "

I shook hands with our good neighbour on this, for I knew how it hadlain upon his mind that he should be a cripple, with no part to play inthe world. 

"I am to join my regiment as soon as I can; and we shall be over yonderin a month, and in Paris, maybe, before another one is over. "

"By the Lord, then, I'm with you, Major!" cried Jim Horscroft. "I'm nottoo proud to carry a musket, if you will put me in front of thisFrenchman. "

"My lad, I'd be proud to have you serve under me, " said the Major. "Andas to de Lissac, where the Emperor is he will be. "

"You know the man, " said I. "What can you tell us of him?"

"There is no better officer in the French army, and that is a big wordto say. They say that he would have been a marshal, but he preferred tostay at the Emperor's elbow. I met him two days before Corunna, when Iwas sent with a flag to speak about our wounded. He was with Soultthen. I knew him again when I saw him. "

"And I will know him again when I see him!" said Horscroft, with the olddour look on his face. 

And then at that instant, as I stood there, it was suddenly driven hometo me how poor and purposeless a life I should lead while this crippledfriend of ours and the companion of my boyhood were away in theforefront of the storm. Quick as a flash my resolution was taken. 

"I'll come with you too, Major, " I cried. 

"Jock! Jock!" said my father, wringing his hands. 

Jim said nothing, but put his arm half round me and hugged me. The Major's eyes shone and he flourished his cane in the air. 

"My word, but I shall have two good recruits at my heels, " said he. "Well, there's no time to be lost, so you must both be ready for theevening coach. "

And this was what a single day brought about; and yet years pass away sooften without a change. Just think of the alteration in thatfour-and-twenty hours. De Lissac was gone. Edie was gone. Napoleonhad escaped. War had broken out. Jim Horscroft had lost everything, and he and I were setting out to fight against the French. It was alllike a dream, until I tramped off to the coach that evening, and lookedback at the grey farm steading and at the two little dark figures: mymother with her face sunk in her Shetland shawl, and my father wavinghis drover's stick to hearten me upon my way. 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE GATHERING OF THE NATIONS. 

And now I come to a bit of my story that clean takes my breath away as Ithink of it, and makes me wish that I had never taken the job of tellingit in hand. For when I write I like things to come slow and orderly andin their turn, like sheep coming out of a paddock. So it was at WestInch. But now that we were drawn into a larger life, like wee bits ofstraw that float slowly down some lazy ditch, until they suddenly findthemselves in the dash and swirl of a great river; then it is very hardfor me with my simple words to keep pace with it all. But you can findthe cause and reason of everything in the books about history, and so Ishall just leave that alone and talk about what I saw with my own eyesand heard with my own ears. 

The regiment to which our friend had been appointed was the 71stHighland Light Infantry, which wore the red coat and the trews, and hadits depot in Glasgow town. There we went, all three, by coach: theMajor in great spirits and full of stories about the Duke and thePeninsula, while Jim sat in the corner with his lips set and his armsfolded, and I knew that he killed de Lissac three times an hour in hisheart. I could tell it by the sudden glint of his eyes and grip of hishand. As to me, I did not know whether to be glad or sorry; for home ishome, and it is a weary thing, however you may brazen it out, to feelthat half Scotland is between you and your mother. 

We were in Glasgow next day, and the Major took us down to the depot, where a soldier with three stripes on his arm and a fistful of ribbonsfrom his cap, showed every tooth he had in his head at the sight of Jim, and walked three times round him to have the view of him, as if he hadbeen Carlisle Castle. Then he came over to me and punched me in theribs and felt my muscle, and was nigh as pleased as with Jim. 

"These are the sort, Major, these are the sort, " he kept saying. "With a thousand of these we could stand up to Boney's best. "

"How do they run?" asked the Major. 

"A poor show, " said he, "but they may lick into shape. The best menhave been drafted to America, and we are full of Militiamen andrecruities. "

"Tut, tut!" said the Major. "We'll have old soldiers and good onesagainst us. Come to me if you need any help, you two. "

And so with a nod he left us, and we began to understand that a Majorwho is your officer is a very different person from a Major who happensto be your neighbour in the country. 

Well, well, why should I trouble you with these things? I could wearout a good quill-pen just writing about what we did, Jim and I, at thedepot in Glasgow; and how we came to know our officers and our comrades, and how they came to know us. Soon came the news that the folk ofVienna, who had been cutting up Europe as if it had been a jigget ofmutton, had flown back, each to his own country, and that every man andhorse in their armies had their faces towards France. We heard of greatreviews and musterings in Paris too, and then that Wellington was in theLow Countries, and that on us and on the Prussians would fall the firstblow. The Government was shipping men over to him as fast as theycould, and every port along the east coast was choked with guns andhorses and stores. On the third of June we had our marching ordersalso, and on the same night we took ship from Leith, reaching Ostend thenight after. It was my first sight of a foreign land, and indeed mostof my comrades were the same, for we were very young in the ranks. Ican see the blue waters now, and the curling surf line, and the longyellow beach, and queer windmills twisting and turning--a thing that aman would not see from one end of Scotland to the other. It was aclean, well-kept town, but the folk were undersized, and there wasneither ale nor oatmeal cakes to be bought amongst them. 

From there we went on to a place called Bruges; and from there to Ghent, where we picked up with the 52nd and the 95th, which were the tworegiments that we were brigaded with. It's a wonderful place forchurches and stonework is Ghent, and indeed of all the towns we were inthere was scarce one but had a finer kirk than any in Glasgow. From there we pushed on to Ath, which is a little village on a river, ora burn rather, called the Dender. There we were quartered--in tentsmostly, for it was fine sunny weather--and the whole brigade set to workat its drill from morning till evening. General Adams was our chief, and Reynell was our colonel, and they were both fine old soldiers; butwhat put heart into us most was to think that we were under the Duke, for his name was like a bugle call. He was at Brussels with the bulk ofthe army, but we knew that we should see him quick enough if he wereneeded. 

I had never seen so many English together, and indeed I had a kind ofcontempt for them, as folk always have if they live near a border. But the two regiments that were with us now were as good comrades ascould be wished. The 52nd had a thousand men in the ranks, and therewere many old soldiers of the Peninsula among them. They came fromOxfordshire for the most part. The 95th were a rifle regiment, and haddark green coats instead of red. It was strange to see them loading, for they would put the ball into a greasy rag and then hammer it downwith a mallet, but they could fire both further and straighter than we. All that part of Belgium was covered with British troops at that time;for the Guards were over near Enghien, and there were cavalry regimentson the further side of us. You see, it was very necessary thatWellington should spread out all his force, for Boney was behind thescreen of his fortresses, and of course we had no means of saying onwhat side he might pop out, except that he was pretty sure to come theway that we least expected him. On the one side he might get between usand the sea, and so cut us off from England; and on the other he mightshove in between the Prussians and ourselves. But the Duke was asclever as he, for he had his horse and his light troops all round him, like a great spider's web, so that the moment a French foot steppedacross the border he could close up all his men at the right place. 

For myself, I was very happy at Ath, and I found the folk very kindlyand homely. There was a farmer of the name of Bois, in whose fields wewere quartered, and who was a real good friend to many of us. We builthim a wooden barn among us in our spare time, and many a time I and JebSeaton, my rear-rank man, have hung out his washing, for the smell ofthe wet linen seemed to take us both straight home as nothing else coulddo. I have often wondered whether that good man and his wife are stillliving, though I think it hardly likely, for they were of a halemiddle-age at the time. Jim would come with us too, sometimes, andwould sit with us smoking in the big Flemish kitchen, but he was adifferent Jim now to the old one. He had always had a hard touch inhim, but now his trouble seemed to have turned him to flint, and I neversaw a smile upon his face, and seldom heard a word from his lips. His whole mind was set on revenging himself upon de Lissac for havingtaken Edie from him, and he would sit for hours with his chin upon hishands glaring and frowning, all wrapped in the one idea. This made hima bit of a butt among the men at first, and they laughed at him for it;but when they came to know him better they found that he was not a goodman to laugh at, and then they dropped it. 

We were early risers at that time, and the whole brigade was usuallyunder arms at the flush of dawn. One morning--it was the sixteenth ofJune--we had just formed up, and General Adams had ridden up to givesome order to Colonel Reynell within a musket-length of where I stood, when suddenly they both stood staring along the Brussels road. None ofus dared move our heads, but every eye in the regiment whisked round, and there we saw an officer with the cockade of a general's aide-de-campthundering down the road as hard as a great dapple-grey horse couldcarry him. He bent his face over its mane and flogged at its neck withthe slack of the bridle, as though he rode for very life. 

"Hullo, Reynell!" says the general. "This begins to look like business. What do you make of it?"

They both cantered their horses forward, and Adams tore open thedispatch which the messenger handed to him. The wrapper had not touchedthe ground before he turned, waving the letter over his head as if ithad been a sabre. 

"Dismiss!" he cried. "General parade and march in half-an-hour. "

Then in an instant all was buzz and bustle, and the news on every lip. Napoleon had crossed the frontier the day before, had pushed thePrussians before him, and was already deep in the country to the east ofus with a hundred and fifty thousand men. Away we scuttled to gatherour things together and have our breakfast, and in an hour we hadmarched off and left Ath and the Dender behind us for ever. There wasgood need for haste, for the Prussians had sent no news to Wellington ofwhat was doing, and though he had rushed from Brussels at the firstwhisper of it, like a good old mastiff from its kennel, it was hard tosee how he could come up in time to help the Prussians. 

It was a bright warm morning, and as the brigade tramped down the broadBelgian road the dust rolled up from it like the smoke of a battery. I tell you that we blessed the man that planted the poplars along thesides, for their shadow was better than drink to us. Over across thefields, both to the right and the left, were other roads, one quiteclose, and the other a mile or more from us. A column of infantry wasmarching down the near one, and it was a fair race between us, for wewere each walking for all we were worth. There was such a wreath ofdust round them that we could only see the gun-barrels and the bearskinsbreaking out here and there, with the head and shoulders of a mountedofficer coming out above the cloud, and the flutter of the colours. It was a brigade of the Guards, but we could not tell which, for we hadtwo of them with us in the campaign. On the far road there was alsodust and to spare, but through it there flashed every now and then along twinkle of brightness, like a hundred silver beads threaded in aline; and the breeze brought down such a snarling, clanging, clashingkind of music as I had never listened to. If I had been left to myselfit would have been long before I knew what it was; but our corporals andsergeants were all old soldiers, and I had one trudging along with hishalbert at my elbow, who was full of precept and advice. 

"That's heavy horse, " said he. "You see that double twinkle?That means they have helmet as well as cuirass. It's the Royals, or theEnniskillens, or the Household. You can hear their cymbals and kettles. The French heavies are too good for us. They have ten to our one, andgood men too. You've got to shoot at their faces or else at theirhorses. Mind you that when you see them coming, or else you'll find afour-foot sword stuck through your liver to teach you better. Hark!Hark! Hark! There's the old music again!"

And as he spoke there came the low grumbling of a cannonade awaysomewhere to the east of us, deep and hoarse, like the roar of someblood-daubed beast that thrives on the lives of men. At the sameinstant there was a shouting of "Heh! heh! heh!" from behind, andsomebody roared, "Let the guns get through!" Looking back, I saw therear companies split suddenly in two and hurl themselves down on eitherside into the ditch, while six cream-coloured horses, galloping two andtwo with their bellies to the ground, came thundering through the gapwith a fine twelve-pound gun whirling and creaking behind them. Behind were another, and another, four-and-twenty in all, flying past uswith such a din and clatter, the blue-coated men clinging on to the gunand the tumbrils, the drivers cursing and cracking their whips, themanes flying, the mops and buckets clanking, and the whole air filledwith the heavy rumble and the jingling of chains. There was a roar fromthe ditches, and a shout from the gunners, and we saw a rolling greycloud before us, with a score of busbies breaking through the shadow. Then we closed up again, while the growling ahead of us grew louder anddeeper than ever. 

"There's three batteries there, " said the sergeant. "There's Bull's andWebber Smith's, but the other is new. There's some more on ahead of us, for here is the track of a nine-pounder, and the others were alltwelves. Choose a twelve if you want to get hit; for a nine mashes youup, but a twelve snaps you like a carrot. " And then he went on to tellabout the dreadful wounds that he had seen, until my blood ran like icedwater in my veins, and you might have rubbed all our faces in pipeclayand we should have been no whiter. "Aye, you'll look sicklier yet, whenyou get a hatful of grape into your tripes, " said he. 

And then, as I saw some of the old soldiers laughing, I began tounderstand that this man was trying to frighten us; so I began to laughalso, and the others as well, but it was not a very hearty laugh either. 

The sun was almost above us when we stopped at a little place calledHal, where there is an old pump from which I drew and drank a shakofull of water--and never did a mug of Scotch ale taste as sweet. More guns passed us here, and Vivian's Hussars, three regiments ofthem, smart men with bonny brown horses, a treat to the eye. The noiseof the cannons was louder than ever now, and it tingled through mynerves just as it had done years before, when, with Edie by my side, Ihad seen the merchant-ship fight with the privateers. It was so loudnow that it seemed to me that the battle must be going on just beyondthe nearest wood, but my friend the sergeant knew better. 

"It's twelve to fifteen mile off, " said he. "You may be sure thegeneral knows we are not wanted, or we should not be resting here atHal. "

What he said proved to be true, for a minute later down came the colonelwith orders that we should pile arms and bivouac where we were; andthere we stayed all day, while horse and foot and guns, English, Dutch, and Hanoverians, were streaming through. The devil's music went on tillevening, sometimes rising into a roar, sometimes sinking into a grumble, until about eight o'clock in the evening it stopped altogether. We wereeating our hearts out, as you may think, to know what it all meant, butwe knew that what the Duke did would be for the best, so we just waitedin patience. 

Next day the brigade remained at Hal in the morning, but about mid-daycame an orderly from the Duke, and we pushed on once more until we cameto a little village called Braine something, and there we stopped; andtime too, for a sudden thunderstorm broke over us, and a plump of rainthat turned all the roads and the fields into bog and mire. We got intothe barns at this village for shelter, and there we found twostragglers--one from a kilted regiment, and the other a man of theGerman Legion, who had a tale to tell that was as dreary as the weather. 

Boney had thrashed the Prussians the day before, and our fellows hadbeen sore put to it to hold their own against Ney, but had beaten himoff at last. It seems an old stale story to you now, but you cannotthink how we scrambled round those two men in the barn, and pushed andfought, just to catch a word of what they said, and how those who hadheard were in turn mobbed by those who had not. We laughed and cheeredand groaned all in turn as we heard how the 44th had received cavalry inline, how the Dutch-Belgians had fled, and how the Black Watch had takenthe Lancers into their square, and then had killed them at theirleisure. But the Lancers had had the laugh on their side when theycrumpled up the 69th and carried off one of the colours. To wind it allup, the Duke was in retreat in order to keep in touch with thePrussians, and it was rumoured that he would take up his ground andfight a big battle just at the very place where we had been halted. 

And soon we saw that this rumour was true; for the weather clearedtowards evening, and we were all out on the ridge to see what we couldsee. It was such a bonny stretch of corn and grazing land, with thecrops just half green and half yellow, and fine rye as high as a man'sshoulder. A scene more full of peace you could not think of, and lookwhere you would over the low curving corn-covered hills, you could seethe little village steeples pricking up their spires among the poplars. But slashed right across this pretty picture was a long trail ofmarching men--some red, some green, some blue, some black--zigzaggingover the plain and choking the roads, one end so close that we couldshout to them, as they stacked their muskets on the ridge at our left, and the other end lost among the woods as far as we could see. And thenon other roads we saw the teams of horses toiling and the dull gleam ofthe guns, and the men straining and swaying as they helped to turn thespokes in the deep, deep mud. As we stood there, regiment afterregiment and brigade after brigade took position on the ridge, and erethe sun had set we lay in a line of over sixty thousand men, blockingNapoleon's way to Brussels. But the rain had come swishing down again, and we of the 71st rushed off to our barn once more, where we had betterquarters than the greater part of our comrades, who lay stretched in themud with the storm beating upon them until the first peep of day. 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE SHADOW ON THE LAND. 

It was still drizzling in the morning, with brown drifting clouds and adamp chilly wind. It was a queer thing for me as I opened my eyes tothink that I should be in a battle that day, though none of us everthought it would be such a one as it proved to be. We were up andready, however, with the first light, and as we threw open the doors ofour barn we heard the most lovely music that I had ever listened toplaying somewhere in the distance. We all stood in clusters hearkeningto it, it was so sweet and innocent and sad-like. But our sergeantlaughed when he saw how it pleased us all. 

"Them are the French bands, " said he; "and if you come out here you'llsee what some of you may not live to see again. "

Out we went, the beautiful music still sounding in our ears, and stoodon a rise just outside the barn. Down below at the bottom of the slope, about half a musket-shot from us, was a snug tiled farm with a hedge anda bit of an apple orchard. All round it a line of men in red coats andhigh fur hats were working like bees, knocking holes in the wall andbarring up the doors. 

"Them's the light companies of the Guards, " said the sergeant. "They'llhold that farm while one of them can wag a finger. But look over yonderand you'll see the camp fires of the French. "

We looked across the valley at the low ridge upon the further side, andsaw a thousand little yellow points of flame with the dark smokewreathing up in the heavy air. There was another farm-house on thefurther side of the valley, and as we looked we suddenly saw a littlegroup of horsemen appear on a knoll beside it and stare across at us. There were a dozen Hussars behind, and in front five men, three withhelmets, one with a long straight red feather in his hat, and the lastwith a low cap. 

"By God!" cried the sergeant, "that's him! That's Boney, the one withthe grey horse. Aye, I'll lay a month's pay on it. "

I strained my eyes to see him, this man who had cast that great shadowover Europe, which darkened the nations for five-and-twenty years, andwhich had even fallen across our out-of-the-world little sheep-farm, andhad dragged us all--myself, Edie, and Jim--out of the lives that ourfolk had lived before us. As far as I could see, he was a dumpysquare-shouldered kind of man, and he held his double glasses to hiseyes with his elbows spread very wide out on each side. I was stillstaring when I heard the catch of a man's breath by my side, and therewas Jim with his eyes glowing like two coals, and his face thrust overmy shoulder. 

"That's he, Jock, " he whispered. 

"Yes, that's Boney, " said I. 

"No, no, it's he. This de Lapp or de Lissac, or whatever his devil'sname is. It is he. "

Then I saw him at once. It was the horseman with the high red featherin his hat. Even at that distance I could have sworn to the slope ofhis shoulders and the way he carried his head. I clapped my hands uponJim's sleeve, for I could see that his blood was boiling at the sight ofthe man, and that he was ready for any madness. But at that momentBonaparte seemed to lean over and say something to de Lissac, and theparty wheeled and dashed away, while there came the bang of a gun and awhite spray of smoke from a battery along the ridge. At the sameinstant the assembly was blown in our village, and we rushed for ourarms and fell in. There was a burst of firing all along the line, andwe thought that the battle had begun; but it came really from ourfellows cleaning their pieces, for their priming was in some danger ofbeing wet from the damp night. 

From where we stood it was a sight now that was worth coming over theseas to see. On our own ridge was the chequer of red and bluestretching right away to a village over two miles from us. It waswhispered from man to man in the ranks, however, that there was too muchof the blue and too little of the red; for the Belgians had shown on theday before that their hearts were too soft for the work, and we hadtwenty thousand of them for comrades. Then, even our British troopswere half made up of militiamen and recruits; for the pick of the oldPeninsular regiments were on the ocean in transports, coming back fromsome fool's quarrel with our kinsfolk of America. But for all that wecould see the bearskins of the Guards, two strong brigades of them, andthe bonnets of the Highlanders, and the blue of the old German Legion, and the red lines of Pack's brigade, and Kempt's brigade and the greendotted riflemen in front, and we knew that come what might these weremen who would bide where they were placed, and that they had a man tolead them who would place them where they should bide. 

Of the French we had seen little save the twinkle of their fires, and afew horsemen here and there upon the curves of the ridge; but as westood and waited there came suddenly a grand blare from their bands, andtheir whole army came flooding over the low hill which had hid them, brigade after brigade and division after division, until the broad slopein its whole length and depth was blue with their uniforms and brightwith the glint of their weapons. It seemed that they would never havedone, still pouring over and pouring over, while our men leaned on theirmuskets and smoked their pipes looking down at this grand gathering andlistening to what the old soldiers who had fought the French before hadto say about them. Then when the infantry had formed in long deepmasses their guns came whirling and bounding down the slope, and it waspretty to see how smartly they unlimbered and were ready for action. And then at a stately trot down came the cavalry, thirty regiments atthe least, with plume and breastplate, twinkling sword and flutteringlance, forming up at the flanks and rear, in long shifting, glimmeringlines. 

"Them's the chaps!" cried our old sergeant. "They're gluttons to fight, they are. And you see them regiments with the great high hats in themiddle, a bit behind the farm? That's the Guard, twenty thousand ofthem, my sons, and all picked men--grey-headed devils that have donenothing but fight since they were as high as my gaiters. They've threemen to our two, and two guns to our one, and, by God! they'll make yourecruities wish you were back in Argyle Street before they have finishedwith you. "

He was not a cheering man, our sergeant; but then he had been in everyfight since Corunna, and had a medal with seven clasps upon his breast, so that he had a right to talk in his own fashion. 

When the Frenchmen had all arranged themselves just out of cannon-shotwe saw a small group of horsemen, all in a blaze with silver and scarletand gold, ride swiftly between the divisions, and as they went a roar ofcheering burst out from either side of them, and we could see armsoutstretched to them and hands waving. An instant later the noise haddied away, and the two armies stood facing each other in absolute deadlysilence--a sight which often comes back to me in my dreams. Then, of asudden, there was a lurch among the men just in front of us; a thincolumn wheeled off from the dense blue clump, and came swinging uptowards the farm-house which lay below us. It had not taken fifty pacesbefore a gun banged out from an English battery on our left, and thebattle of Waterloo had begun. 

It is not for me to try to tell you the story of that battle, and, indeed, I should have kept far enough away from such a thing had it nothappened that our own fates, those of the three simple folk who camefrom the border country, were all just as much mixed up in it as thoseof any king or emperor of them all. To tell the honest truth, I havelearned more about that battle from what I have read than from what Isaw, for how much could I see with a comrade on either side, and a greatwhite cloud-bank at the very end of my firelock? It was from books andthe talk of others that I learned how the heavy cavalry charged, howthey rode over the famous cuirassiers, and how they were cut to piecesbefore they could get back. From them, too, I learned all about thesuccessive assaults, and how the Belgians fled, and how Pack and Kemptstood firm. But of my own knowledge I can only speak of what we sawduring that long day in the rifts of the smoke and the lulls of thefiring, and it is just of that that I will tell you. 

We were on the right of the line and in reserve, for the Duke was afraidthat Boney might work round on that side and get at him from behind; soour three regiments, with another British brigade and the Hanoverians, were placed there to be ready for anything. There were two brigades oflight cavalry, too; but the French attack was all from the front, so itwas late in the day before we were really wanted. 

The English battery which fired the first gun was still banging away onour left, and a German one was hard at work upon our right, so that wewere wrapped round with the smoke; but we were not so hidden as toscreen us from a line of French guns opposite, for a score of round shotcame piping through the air and plumped right into the heart of us. As I heard the scream of them past my ear my head went down like adiver, but our sergeant gave me a prod in the back with the handle ofhis halbert. 

"Don't be so blasted polite, " said he; "when you're hit, you can bowonce and for all. "

There was one of those balls that knocked five men into a bloody mash, and I saw it lying on the ground afterwards like a crimson football. Another went through the adjutant's horse with a plop like a stone inthe mud, broke its back and left it lying like a burst gooseberry. Three more fell further to the right, and by the stir and cries we couldtell that they had all told. 

"Ah! James, you've lost a good mount, " says Major Reed, just in front ofme, looking down at the adjutant, whose boots and breeches were allrunning with blood. 

"I gave a cool fifty for him in Glasgow, " said the other. "Don't youthink, major, that the men had better lie down now that the guns havegot our range?"

"Tut!" said the other; "they are young, James, and it will do themgood. "

"They'll get enough of it before the day's done, " grumbled the other;but at that moment Colonel Reynell saw that the Rifles and the 52nd weredown on either side of us, so we had the order to stretch ourselves outtoo. Precious glad we were when we could hear the shot whining likehungry dogs within a few feet of our backs. Even now a thud and asplash every minute or so, with a yelp of pain and a drumming of bootsupon the ground, told us that we were still losing heavily. 

A thin rain was falling and the damp air held the smoke low, so that wecould only catch glimpses of what was doing just in front of us, thoughthe roar of the guns told us that the battle was general all along thelines. Four hundred of them were all crashing at once now, and thenoise was enough to split the drum of your ear. Indeed, there was notone of us but had a singing in his head for many a long day afterwards. Just opposite us on the slope of the hill was a French gun, and we couldsee the men serving her quite plainly. They were small active men, withvery tight breeches and high hats with great straight plumes sticking upfrom them; but they worked like sheep-shearers, ramming and sponging andtraining. There were fourteen when I saw them first, and only four leftstanding at the last, but they were working away just as hard as ever. 

The farm that they called Hougoumont was down in front of us, and allthe morning we could see that a terrible fight was going on there, forthe walls and the windows and the orchard hedges were all flame andsmoke, and there rose such shrieking and crying from it as I never heardbefore. It was half burned down, and shattered with balls, and tenthousand men were hammering at the gates; but four hundred guardsmenheld it in the morning and two hundred held it in the evening, and noFrench foot was ever set within its threshold. But how they fought, those Frenchmen! Their lives were no more to them than the mud undertheir feet. There was one--I can see him now--a stoutish ruddy man on acrutch. He hobbled up alone in a lull of the firing to the side gate ofHougoumont and he beat upon it, screaming to his men to come after him. For five minutes he stood there, strolling about in front of thegun-barrels which spared him, but at last a Brunswick skirmisher in theorchard flicked out his brains with a rifle shot. And he was only oneof many, for all day when they did not come in masses they came in twosand threes with as brave a face as if the whole army were at theirheels. 

So we lay all morning, looking down at the fight at Hougoumont; but soonthe Duke saw that there was nothing to fear upon his right, and so hebegan to use us in another way. 

The French had pushed their skirmishers past the farm, and they layamong the young corn in front of us popping at the gunners, so thatthree pieces out of six on our left were lying with their men strewed inthe mud all round them. But the Duke had his eyes everywhere, and up hegalloped at that moment--a thin, dark, wiry man with very bright eyes, ahooked nose, and big cockade on his cap. There were a dozen officers athis heels, all as merry as if it were a foxhunt, but of the dozen therewas not one left in the evening. 

"Warm work, Adams, " said he as he rode up. 

"Very warm, your grace, " said our general. 

"But we can outstay them at it, I think. Tut, tut, we cannot letskirmishers silence a battery! Just drive those fellows out of that, Adams. "

Then first I knew what a devil's thrill runs through a man when he isgiven a bit of fighting to do. Up to now we had just lain and beenkilled, which is the weariest kind of work. Now it was our turn, and, my word, we were ready for it. Up we jumped, the whole brigade, in afour-deep line, and rushed at the cornfield as hard as we could tear. The skirmishers snapped at us as we came, and then away they bolted likecorncrakes, their heads down, their backs rounded, and their muskets atthe trail. Half of them got away; but we caught up the others, theofficer first, for he was a very fat man who could not run fast. It gave me quite a turn when I saw Rob Stewart, on my right, stick hisbayonet into the man's broad back and heard him howl like a damned soul. There was no quarter in that field, and it was butt or point for all ofthem. The men's blood was aflame, and little wonder, for these waspshad been stinging all morning without our being able so much as to seethem. 

And now, as we broke through the further edge of the cornfield, we gotin front of the smoke, and there was the whole French army in positionbefore us, with only two meadows and a narrow lane between us. We setup a yell as we saw them, and away we should have gone slap at them ifwe had been left to ourselves; for silly young soldiers never think thatharm can come to them until it is there in their midst. But the Dukehad cantered his horse beside us as we advanced, and now he roaredsomething to the general, and the officers all rode in front of our lineholding out their arms for us to stop. There was a blowing of bugles, apushing and a shoving, with the sergeants cursing and digging us withtheir halberts; and in less time than it takes me to write it, there wasthe brigade in three neat little squares, all bristling with bayonetsand in echelon, as they call it, so that each could fire across the faceof the other. 

It was the saving of us, as even so young a soldier as I was could veryeasily see; and we had none too much time either. There was a lowrolling hill on our right flank, and from behind this there came a soundlike nothing on this earth so much as the beat of the waves on theBerwick coast when the wind blows from the east. The earth was allshaking with that dull roaring sound, and the air was full of it. 

"Steady, 71st! for God's sake, steady!" shrieked the voice of ourcolonel behind us; but in front was nothing but the green gentle slopeof the grassland, all mottled with daisies and dandelions. 

And then suddenly over the curve we saw eight hundred brass helmets riseup, all in a moment, each with a long tag of horsehair flying from itscrest; and then eight hundred fierce brown faces all pushed forward, andglaring out from between the ears of as many horses. There was aninstant of gleaming breastplates, waving swords, tossing manes, fiercered nostrils opening and shutting, and hoofs pawing the air before us;and then down came the line of muskets, and our bullets smacked upagainst their armour like the clatter of a hailstorm upon a window. Ifired with the rest, and then rammed down another charge as fast as Icould, staring out through the smoke in front of me, where I could seesome long, thin thing which napped slowly backwards and forwards. Abugle sounded for us to cease firing, and a whiff of wind came to clearthe curtain from in front of us, and then we could see what hadhappened. 

I had expected to see half that regiment of horse lying on the ground;but whether it was that their breastplates had shielded them, orwhether, being young and a little shaken at their coming, we had firedhigh, our volley had done no very great harm. About thirty horses layabout, three of them together within ten yards of me, the middle oneright on its back with its four legs in the air, and it was one of thesethat I had seen flapping through the smoke. Then there were eight or tendead men and about as many wounded, sitting dazed on the grass for themost part, though one was shouting "_Vive l'Empereur!_" at the top ofhis voice. Another fellow who had been shot in the thigh--a greatblack-moustached chap he was too--leaned his back against his dead horseand, picking up his carbine, fired as coolly as if he had been shootingfor a prize, and hit Angus Myres, who was only two from me, rightthrough the forehead. Then he out with his hand to get another carbinethat lay near, but before he could reach it big Hodgson, who was thepivot man of the Grenadier company, ran out and passed his bayonetthrough his throat, which was a pity, for he seemed to be a very fineman. 

At first I thought that the cuirassiers had run away in the smoke; butthey were not men who did that very easily. Their horses had swerved atour volley, and they had raced past our square and taken the fire of thetwo other ones beyond. Then they broke through a hedge, and coming on aregiment of Hanoverians who were in line, they treated them as theywould have treated us if we had not been so quick, and cut them topieces in an instant. It was dreadful to see the big Germans runningand screaming while the cuirassiers stood up in their stirrups to have abetter sweep for their long, heavy swords, and cut and stabbed withoutmercy. I do not believe that a hundred men of that regiment were leftalive; and the Frenchmen came back across our front, shouting at us andwaving their weapons, which were crimson down to the hilts. This theydid to draw our fire, but the colonel was too old a soldier; for wecould have done little harm at the distance, and they would have beenamong us before we could reload. 

These horsemen got behind the ridge on our right again, and we knew verywell that if we opened up from the squares they would be down upon us ina twinkle. On the other hand, it was hard to bide as we were; for theyhad passed the word to a battery of twelve guns, which formed up a fewhundred yards away from us, but out of our sight, sending their ballsjust over the brow and down into the midst of us, which is called aplunging fire. And one of their gunners ran up on to the top of theslope and stuck a handspike into the wet earth to give them a guide, under the very muzzles of the whole brigade, none of whom fired a shotat him, each leaving him to the other. Ensign Samson, who was theyoungest subaltern in the regiment, ran out from the square and pulleddown the hand-spike; but quick as a jack after a minnow, a lancer cameflying over the ridge, and he made such a thrust from behind that notonly his point but his pennon too came out between the second and thirdbuttons of the lad's tunic. "Helen! Helen!" he shouted, and fell deadon his face, while the lancer, blown half to pieces with musket balls, toppled over beside him, still holding on to his weapon, so that theylay together with that dreadful bond still connecting them. 

But when the battery opened there was no time for us to think ofanything else. A square is a very good way of meeting a horseman, butthere is no worse one of taking a cannon ball, as we soon learned whenthey began to cut red seams through us, until our ears were weary of theslosh and splash when hard iron met living flesh and blood. After tenminutes of it we moved our square a hundred paces to the right; but weleft another square behind us, for a hundred and twenty men and sevenofficers showed where we had been standing. Then the guns found us outagain, and we tried to open out into line; but in an instant thehorsemen--lancers they were this time--were upon us from over the brae. 

I tell you we were glad to hear the thud of their hoofs, for we knewthat that must stop the cannon for a minute and give us a chance ofhitting back. And we hit back pretty hard too that time, for we werecold and vicious and savage, and I for one felt that I cared no more forthe horsemen than if they had been so many sheep on Corriemuir. Onegets past being afraid or thinking of one's own skin after a while, andyou just feel that you want to make some one pay for all you have gonethrough. We took our change out of the lancers that time; for they hadno breastplates to shield them, and we cleared seventy of them out oftheir saddles at a volley. Maybe, if we could have seen seventy mothersweeping for their lads, we should not have felt so pleased over it; butthen, men are just brutes when they are fighting, and have as muchthought as two bull pups when they've got one another by the throttle. 

Then the colonel did a wise stroke; for he reckoned that this wouldstave off the cavalry for five minutes, so he wheeled us into line, andgot us back into a deeper hollow out of reach of the guns before theycould open again. This gave us time to breathe, and we wanted it too, for the regiment had been melting away like an icicle in the sun. But bad as it was for us, it was a deal worse for some of the others. The whole of the Dutch Belgians were off by this time helter-skelter, fifteen thousand of them, and there were great gaps left in our linethrough which the French cavalry rode as pleased them best. Then theFrench guns had been too many and too good for ours, and our heavy horsehad been cut to bits, so that things were none too merry with us. On the other hand, Hougoumont, a blood-soaked ruin, was still ours, andevery British regiment was firm; though, to tell the honest truth, as aman is bound to do, there were a sprinkling of red coats among the blueones who made for the rear. But these were lads and stragglers, thefaint hearts that are found everywhere, and I say again that no regimentflinched. It was little we could see of the battle; but a man would beblind not to know that all the fields behind us were covered with flyingmen. But then, though we on the right wing knew nothing of it, thePrussians had begun to show, and Napoleon had set 20, 000 of his men toface them, which made up for ours that had bolted, and left us much aswe began. That was all dark to us, however; and there was a time, whenthe French horsemen had flooded in between us and the rest of the army, that we thought we were the only brigade left standing, and had set ourteeth with the intention of selling our lives as dearly as we could. 

At that time it was between four and five in the afternoon, and we hadhad nothing to eat, the most of us, since the night before, and weresoaked with rain into the bargain. It had drizzled off and on all day, but for the last few hours we had not had a thought to spare either uponthe weather or our hunger. Now we began to look round and tighten ourwaist-belts, and ask who was hit and who was spared. I was glad to seeJim, with his face all blackened with powder, standing on my right rear, leaning on his firelock. He saw me looking at him, and shouted out toknow if I were hurt. 

"All right, Jim, " I answered. 

"I fear I'm here on a wild-goose chase, " said he gloomily, "but it's notover yet. By God, I'll have him, or he'll have me!"

He had brooded so much on his wrong, had poor Jim, that I really believethat it had turned his head; for he had a glare in his eyes as he spokethat was hardly human. He was always a man that took even a littlething to heart, and since Edie had left him I am sure that he was nolonger his own master. 

It was at this time of the fight that we saw two single fights, whichthey tell me were common enough in the battles of old, before men weretrained in masses. As we lay in the hollow two horsemen came spurringalong the ridge right in front of us, riding as hard as hoof couldrattle. The first was an English dragoon, his face right down on hishorse's mane, with a French cuirassier, an old, grey-headed fellow, thundering behind him, on a big black mare. Our chaps set up a hootingas they came flying on, for it seemed shame to see an Englishman runlike that; but as they swept across our front we saw where the troublelay. The dragoon had dropped his sword, and was unarmed, while theother was pressing him so close that he could not get a weapon. At last, stung maybe by our hooting, he made up his mind to chance it. His eye fell on a lance beside a dead Frenchman, so he swerved his horseto let the other pass, and hopping off cleverly enough, he gripped holdof it. But the other was too tricky for him, and was on him like ashot. The dragoon thrust up with the lance, but the other turned it, and sliced him through the shoulder-blade. It was all done in aninstant, and the Frenchman cantering his horse up the brae, showing histeeth at us over his shoulder like a snarling dog. 

That was one to them, but we scored one for us presently. They hadpushed forward a skirmish line, whose fire was towards the batteries onour right and left rather than on us; but we sent out two companies ofthe 95th to keep them in check. It was strange to hear the cracklingkind of noise that they made, for both sides were using the rifle. An officer stood among the French skirmishers--a tall, lean man with amantle over his shoulders--and as our fellows came forward he ran outmidway between the two parties and stood as a fencer would, with hissword up and his head back. I can see him now, with his lowered eyelidsand the kind of sneer that he had upon his face. On this the subalternof the Rifles, who was a fine well-grown lad, ran forward and drove fulltilt at him with one of the queer crooked swords that the rifle-mencarry. They came together like two rams--for each ran for the other--and down they tumbled at the shock, but the Frenchman was below. Our man broke his sword short off, and took the other's blade throughhis left arm; but he was the stronger man, and he managed to let thelife out of his enemy with the jagged stump of his blade. I thoughtthat the French skirmishers would have shot him down, but not a triggerwas drawn, and he got back to his company with one sword through his armand half of another in his hand. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE END OF THE STORM. 

Of all the things that seem strange in that battle, now that I look backupon it, there is nothing that was queerer than the way in which itacted on my comrades; for some took it as though it had been their dailymeat without question or change, and others pattered out prayers fromthe first gunfire to the last, and others again cursed and swore in away that was creepy to listen to. There was one, my own left-hand man, Mike Threadingham, who kept telling about his maiden aunt, Sarah, andhow she had left the money which had been promised to him to a home forthe children of drowned sailors. Again and again he told me this story, and yet when the battle was over he took his oath that he had neveropened his lips all day. As to me, I cannot say whether I spoke or not, but I know that my mind and my memory were clearer than I can everremember them, and I was thinking all the time about the old folk athome, and about Cousin Edie with her saucy, dancing eyes, and de Lissacwith his cat's whiskers, and all the doings at West Inch, which hadended by bringing us here on the plains of Belgium as a cockshot for twohundred and fifty cannons. 

During all this time the roaring of those guns had been somethingdreadful to listen to, but now they suddenly died away, though it waslike the lull in a thunderstorm when one feels that a worse crash iscoming hard at the fringe of it. There was still a mighty noise on thedistant wing, where the Prussians were pushing their way onwards, butthat was two miles away. The other batteries, both French and English, were silent, and the smoke cleared so that the armies could see a littleof each other. It was a dreary sight along our ridge, for there seemedto be just a few scattered knots of red and the lines of green where theGerman Legion stood, while the masses of the French appeared to be asthick as ever, though of course we knew that they must have lost manythousands in these attacks. We heard a great cheering and shouting fromamong them, and then suddenly all their batteries opened together with aroar which made the din of the earlier part seem nothing in comparison. It might well be twice as loud, for every battery was twice as near, being moved right up to point blank range, with huge masses of horsebetween and behind them to guard them from attack. 

When that devil's roar burst upon our ears there was not a man, down tothe drummer boys, who did not understand what it meant. It wasNapoleon's last great effort to crush us. There were but two more hoursof light, and if we could hold our own for those all would be well. Starved and weary and spent, we prayed that we might have strength toload and stab and fire while one of us stood upon his feet. 

His cannon could do us no great hurt now, for we were on our faces, andin an instant we could turn into a huddle of bayonets if his horse camedown again. But behind the thunder of the guns there rose a sharper, shriller noise, whirring and rattling, the wildest, jauntiest, moststirring kind of sound. 

"It's the _pas-de-charge!_" cried an officer. "They mean business thistime!"

And as he spoke we saw a strange thing. A Frenchman, dressed as anofficer of hussars, came galloping towards us on a little bay horse. He was screeching "_Vive le roi! Vive le roi!_" at the pitch of hislungs, which was as much as to say that he was a deserter, since we werefor the king and they for the emperor. As he passed us he roared out inEnglish, "The Guard is coming! The Guard is coming!" and so vanishedaway to the rear like a leaf blown before a storm. At the same instantup there rode an aide-de-camp, with the reddest face that ever I sawupon mortal man. 

"You must stop 'em, or we are done!" he cried to General Adams, so thatall our company could hear him. 

"How is it going?" asked the general. 

"Two weak squadrons left out of six regiments of heavies, " said he, andbegan to laugh like a man whose nerves are overstrung. 

"Perhaps you would care to join in our advance? Pray consider yourselfquite one of us, " said the general, bowing and smiling as if he wereasking him to a dish of tea. 

"I shall have much pleasure, " said the other, taking off his hat; and amoment afterwards our three regiments closed up, and the brigadeadvanced in four lines over the hollow where we had lain in square, andout beyond to the point whence we had seen the French army. 

There was little of it to be seen now, only the red belching of the gunsflashing quickly out of the cloudbank, and the black figures--stooping, straining, mopping, sponging--working like devils, and at devilish work. But through the cloud that rattle and whirr rose ever louder and louder, with a deep-mouthed shouting and the stamping of thousands of feet. Then there came a broad black blurr through the haze, which darkened andhardened until we could see that it was a hundred men abreast, marchingswiftly towards us, with high fur hats upon their heads and a gleam ofbrasswork over their brows. And behind that hundred came anotherhundred, and behind that another, and on and on, coiling and writhingout of the cannon-smoke like a monstrous snake, until there seemed to beno end to the mighty column. In front ran a spray of skirmishers, andbehind them the drummers, and up they all came together at a kind oftripping step, with the officers clustering thickly at the sides andwaving their swords and cheering. There were a dozen mounted men too attheir front, all shouting together, and one with his hat held aloft uponhis swordpoint. I say again, that no men upon this earth could havefought more manfully than the French did upon that day. 

It was wonderful to see them; for as they came onwards they got ahead oftheir own guns, so that they had no longer any help from them, whilethey got in front of the two batteries which had been on either side ofus all day. Every gun had their range to a foot, and we saw long redlines scored right down the dark column as it advanced. So near werethey, and so closely did they march, that every shot ploughed throughten files of them, and yet they closed up and came on with a swing anddash that was fine to see. Their head was turned straight forourselves, while the 95th overlapped them on one side and the 52nd onthe other. 

I shall always think that if we had waited so the Guard would havebroken us; for how could a four-deep line stand against such a column?But at that moment Colburne, the colonel of the 52nd, swung his rightflank round so as to bring it on the side of the column, which broughtthe Frenchmen to a halt. Their front line was forty paces from us atthe moment, and we had a good look at them. It was funny to me toremember that I had always thought of Frenchmen as small men; for therewas not one of that first company who could not have picked me up as ifI had been a child, and their great hats made them look taller yet. They were hard, wizened, wiry fellows too, with fierce puckered eyes andbristling moustaches, old soldiers who had fought and fought, week in, week out, for many a year. And then, as I stood with my finger upon thetrigger waiting for the word to fire, my eye fell full upon the mountedofficer with his hat upon his sword, and I saw that it was de Lissac. 

I saw it, and Jim did too. I heard a shout, and saw him rush forwardmadly at the French column; and, as quick as thought, the whole brigadetook their cue from him, officers and all, and flung themselves upon theGuard in front, while our comrades charged them on the flanks. We hadbeen waiting for the order, and they all thought now that it had beengiven; but you may take my word for it, that Jim Horscroft was the realleader of the brigade when we charged the Old Guard. 

God knows what happened during that mad five minutes. I rememberputting my musket against a blue coat and pulling the trigger, and thatthe man could not fall because he was so wedged in the crowd; but I sawa horrid blotch upon the cloth, and a thin curl of smoke from it as ifit had taken fire. Then I found myself thrown up against two bigFrenchmen, and so squeezed together, the three of us, that we could notraise a weapon. One of them, a fellow with a very large nose, got hishand up to my throat, and I felt that I was a chicken in his grasp. "_Rendez-vous, coqin; rendez-vous!_" said he, and then suddenly doubledup with a scream, for someone had stabbed him in the bowels with abayonet. There was very little firing after the first sputter; butthere was the crash of butt against barrel, the short cries of strickenmen, and the roaring of the officers. And then, suddenly, they began togive ground--slowly, sullenly, step by step, but still to give ground. Ah! it was worth all that we had gone through, the thrill of thatmoment, when we felt that they were going to break. There was oneFrenchman before me, a sharp-faced, dark-eyed man, who was loading andfiring as quietly as if he were at practice, dwelling upon his aim, andlooking round first to try and pick off an officer. I remember that itstruck me that to kill so cool a man as that would be a good service, and I rushed at him and drove my bayonet into him. He turned as Istruck him and fired full into my face, and the bullet left a wealacross my cheek which will mark me to my dying day. I tripped over himas he fell, and two others tumbling over me I was half smothered in theheap. When at last I struggled out, and cleared my eyes, which werehalf full of powder, I saw that the column had fairly broken, and wasshredding into groups of men, who were either running for their lives orwere fighting back to back in a vain attempt to check the brigade, whichwas still sweeping onwards. My face felt as if a red-hot iron had beenlaid across it; but I had the use of my limbs, so jumping over thelitter of dead and mangled men, I scampered after my regiment, and fellin upon the right flank. 

Old Major Elliott was there, limping along, for his horse had been shot, but none the worse in himself. He saw me come up, and nodded, but itwas too busy a time for words. The brigade was still advancing, but thegeneral rode in front of me with his chin upon his shoulder, lookingback at the British position. 

"There is no general advance, " said he; "but I'm not going back. "

"The Duke of Wellington has won a great victory, " cried theaide-de-camp, in a solemn voice; and then, his feelings getting thebetter of him, he added, "if the damned fool would only push on!"--whichset us all laughing in the flank company. 

But now anyone could see that the French army was breaking up. The columns and squadrons which had stood so squarely all day were nowall ragged at the edges; and where there had been thick fringes ofskirmishers in front, there were now a spray of stragglers in the rear. The Guard thinned out in front of us as we pushed on, and we foundtwelve guns looking us in the face, but we were over them in a moment;and I saw our youngest subaltern, next to him who had been killed by thelancer, scribbling great 71's with a lump of chalk upon them, like theschoolboy that he was. It was at that moment that we heard a roar ofcheering behind us, and saw the whole British army flood over the crestof the ridge, and come pouring down upon the remains of their enemies. The guns, too, came bounding and rattling forward, and our lightcavalry--as much as was left of it--kept pace with our brigade upon theright. There was no battle after that. The advance went on without acheck, until our army stood lined upon the very ground which the Frenchhad held in the morning. Their guns were ours, their foot were a rabblespread over the face of the country, and their gallant cavalry alone wasable to preserve some sort of order and to draw off unbroken from thefield. Then at last, just as the night began to gather, our weary andstarving men were able to let the Prussians take the job over, and topile their arms upon the ground that they had won. That was as much asI saw or can tell you about the Battle of Waterloo, except that I ate atwo-pound rye loaf for my supper that night, with as much salt meat asthey would let me have, and a good pitcher of red wine, until I had tobore a new hole at the end of my belt, and then it fitted me as tight asa hoop to a barrel. After that I lay down in the straw where the restof the company were sprawling, and in less than a minute I was in a deadsleep. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE TALLY OF DEATH. 

Day was breaking, and the first grey light had just begun to stealthrough the long thin slits in the walls of our barn, when someone shookme hard by the shoulder, and up I jumped. I had the thought in mystupid, sleepy brain that the cuirassiers were upon us, and I grippedhold of a halbert that was leaning against the wall; but then, as I sawthe long lines of sleepers, I remembered where I was. But I can tellyou that I stared when I saw that it was none other than Major Elliottthat had roused me up. His face was very grave, and behind him stoodtwo sergeants, with long slips of paper and pencils in their hands. 

"Wake up, laddie, " said the Major, quite in his old easy fashion, as ifwe were back on Corriemuir again. 

"Yes, Major?" I stammered. 

"I want you to come with me. I feel that I owe something to you twolads, for it was I that took you from your homes. Jim Horscroft ismissing. "

I gave a start at that, for what with the rush and the hunger and theweariness I had never given a thought to my friend since the time thathe had rushed at the French Guards with the whole regiment at his heels. 

"I am going out now to take a tally of our losses, " said the Major;"and if you cared to come with me, I should be very glad to have you. "

So off we set, the Major, the two sergeants, and I; and oh! but it was adreadful, dreadful sight!--so much so, that even now, after so manyyears, I had rather say as little of it as possible. It was bad to seein the heat of fight; but now in the cold morning, with no cheer ordrum-tap or bugle blare, all the glory had gone out of it, and it wasjust one huge butcher's shop, where poor devils had been ripped andburst and smashed, as though we had tried to make a mock of God's image. There on the ground one could read every stage of yesterday's fight--thedead footmen that lay in squares and the fringe of dead horsemen thathad charged them, and above on the slope the dead gunners, who lay roundtheir broken piece. The Guards' column had left a streak right up thefield like the trail of a snail, and at the head of it the blue coatswere lying heaped upon the red ones where that fierce tug had beenbefore they took their backward step. 

And the very first thing that I saw when I got there was Jim himself. He was lying on the broad of his back, his face turned up towards thesky, and all the passion and the trouble seemed to have passed cleanaway from him, so that he looked just like the old Jim as I had seen himin his cot a hundred times when we were schoolmates together. I hadgiven a cry of grief at the sight of him; but when I came to look uponhis face, and to see how much happier he looked in death than I couldever have hoped to see him in life, it was hard to mourn for him. Two French bayonets had passed through his chest, and he had died in aninstant, and without pain, if one could believe the smile upon his lips. 

The Major and I were raising his head in the hope that some flutter oflife might remain, when I heard a well-remembered voice at my side, andthere was de Lissac leaning upon his elbow among a litter of deadguardsmen. He had a great blue coat muffled round him, and the hat withthe high red plume was lying on the ground beside him. He was verypale, and had dark blotches under his eyes, but otherwise he was as hehad ever been, with the keen, hungry nose, the wiry moustache, and theclose-cropped head thinning away to baldness upon the top. His eyelidshad always drooped, but now one could hardly see the glint of his eyesfrom beneath them. 

"Hola, Jock!" he cried. "I didn't thought to have seen you here, andyet I might have known it, too, when I saw friend Jim. "

"It is you that has brought all this trouble, " said I. 

"Ta, ta, ta!" he cried, in his old impatient fashion. "It is allarranged for us. When I was in Spain I learned to believe in Fate. It is Fate which has sent you here this morning. "

"This man's blood lies at your door, " said I, with my hand on poor Jim'sshoulder. 

"And mine on his, so we have paid our debts. "

He flung open his mantle as he spoke, and I saw with horror that a greatblack lump of clotted blood was hanging out of his side. 

"This is my thirteenth and last, " said he, with a smile. "They say thatthirteen is an unlucky number. Could you spare me a drink from yourflask?"

The Major had some brandy and water. De Lissac supped it up eagerly. His eyes brightened, and a little fleck of colour came back in each ofhis haggard cheeks. 

"It was Jim did this, " said he. "I heard someone calling my name, andthere he was with his gun against my tunic. Two of my men cut him downjust as he fired. Well, well, Edie was worth it all! You will be inParis in less than a month, Jock, and you will see her. You will findher at No. 11 of the Rue Miromesnil, which is near to the Madeleine. Break it very gently to her, Jock, for you cannot think how she lovedme. Tell her that all I have are in the two black trunks, and thatAntoine has the keys. You will not forget?"

"I will remember. "

"And madame, your mother? I trust that you have left her very well. And monsieur, too, your father? Bear them my distinguished regards!"

Even now as death closed in upon him, he gave the old bow and wave as hesent his greetings to my mother. 

"Surely, " said I, "your wound may not be so serious as you think. I could bring the surgeon of our regiment to you. "

"My dear Jock, I have not been giving and taking wounds this fifteenyears without knowing when one has come home. But it is as well, for Iknow that all is ended for my little man, and I had rather go with myVoltigeurs than remain to be an exile and a beggar. Besides, it isquite certain that the Allies would have shot me, so I have saved myselffrom that humiliation. "

"The Allies, sir, " said the Major, with some heat, "would be guilty ofno such barbarous action. "

But de Lissac shook his head, with the same sad smile. 

"You do not know, Major, " said he. "Do you suppose that I should havefled to Scotland and changed my name if I had not more to fear than mycomrades who remained in Paris? I was anxious to live, for I was surethat my little man would come back. Now I had rather die, for he willnever lead an army again. But I have done things that could not beforgiven. It was I that led the party which took and shot the Ducd'Enghien. It was I--Ah, _mon Dieu!_ Edie, Edie, _ma cherie!_"

He threw out both his hands, with all the fingers feeling and quiveringin the air. Then he let them drop heavily in front of him, and his chinfell forward upon his chest. One of our sergeants laid him gently down, and the other stretched the big blue mantle over him; and so we leftthose two whom Fate had so strangely brought together, the Scotchman andthe Frenchman, lying silently and peacefully within hand's touch of eachother, upon the blood-soaked hillside near Hougoumont. 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE END OF IT. 

And now I have very nearly come to the end of it all, and precious gladI shall be to find myself there; for I began this old memory with alight heart, thinking that it would give me some work for the longsummer evenings, but as I went on I wakened a thousand sleeping sorrowsand half-forgotten griefs, and now my soul is all as raw as the hide ofan ill-sheared sheep. If I come safely out of it I will swear never toset pen to paper again, for it is so easy at first, like walking into ashelving stream, and then before you can look round you are off yourfeet and down in a hole, and can struggle out as best you may. 

We buried Jim and de Lissac with four hundred and thirty-one others ofthe French Guards and our own Light Infantry in a single trench. Ah! ifyou could sow a brave man as you sow a seed, there should be a fine cropof heroes coming up there some day! Then we left that bloodybattle-field behind us for ever, and with our brigade we marched on overthe French border on our way to Paris. 

I had always been brought up during all these years to look upon theFrench as very evil folk, and as we only heard of them in connectionwith fightings and slaughterings, by land and by sea, it was naturalenough to think that they were vicious by nature and ill to meet with. But then, after all, they had only heard of us in the same fashion, andso, no doubt, they had just the same idea of us. But when we came to gothrough their country, and to see their bonny little steadings, and thedouce quiet folk at work in the fields, and the women knitting by theroadside, and the old granny with a big white mutch smacking the baby toteach it manners, it was all so home-like that I could not think why itwas that we had been hating and fearing these good people for so long. But I suppose that in truth it was really the man who was over them thatwe hated, and now that he was gone and his great shadow cleared from theland, all was brightness once more. 

We jogged along happily enough through the loveliest country that ever Iset my eyes on, until we came to the great city, where we thought thatmaybe there would be a battle, for there are so many folk in it that ifonly one in twenty comes out it would make a fine army. But by thattime they had seen that it was a pity to spoil the whole country justfor the sake of one man, and so they had told him that he must shift forhimself in the future. The next we heard was that he had surrendered tothe British, and that the gates of Paris were opened to us, which wasvery good news to me, for I could get along very well just on the onebattle that I had had. 

But there were plenty of folk in Paris now who loved Boney; and that wasnatural when you think of the glory that he had brought them, and how hehad never asked his army to go where he would not go himself. They hadstern enough faces for us, I can tell you, when we marched in, and we ofAdams' brigade were the very first who set foot in the city. We passedover a bridge which they call Neuilly, which is easier to write than tosay, and through a fine park--the Bois de Boulogne, and so into theChamps d'Elysees. There we bivouacked, and pretty soon the streets wereso full of Prussians and English that it became more like a camp than acity. 

The very first time that I could get away I went with Rob Stewart, of mycompany--for we were only allowed to go about in couples--to the RueMiromesnil. Rob waited in the hall, and I was shown upstairs; and as Iput my foot over the mat, there was Cousin Edie, just the same as ever, staring at me with those wild eyes of hers. For a moment she did notrecognise me, but when she did she just took three steps forward andsprang at me, with her two arms round my neck. 

"Oh, my dear old Jock, " she cried, "how fine you look in a red coat!"

"Yes, I am a soldier now, Edie, " said I, very stiffly; for as I lookedat her pretty face, I seemed to see behind it that other face which hadlooked up to the morning sky on the Belgium battle-field. 

"Fancy that!" she cried. "What are you, then, Jock? A general?A captain?"

"No, I am a private. "

"What! Not one of the common people who carry guns?"

"Yes, I carry a gun. "

"Oh, that is not nearly so interesting, " said she. And she went back tothe sofa from which she had risen. It was a wonderful room, all silkand velvet and shiny things, and I felt inclined to go back to give myboots another rub. As Edie sat down again, I saw that she was all inblack, and so I knew that she had heard of de Lissac's death. 

"I am glad to see that you know all, " said I, for I am a clumsy hand atbreaking things. "He said that you were to keep whatever was in theboxes, and that Antoine had the keys. "

"Thank you, Jock, thank you, " said she. "It was like your kindness tobring the message. I heard of it nearly a week ago. I was mad for thetime--quite mad. I shall wear mourning all my days, although you cansee what a fright it makes me look. Ah! I shall never get over it. I shall take the veil and die in a convent. "

"If you please, madame, " said a maid, looking in, "the Count de Betonwishes to see you. "

"My dear Jock, " said Edie, jumping up, "this is very important. I amsorry to cut our chat short, but I am sure that you will come to see meagain, will you not, when I am less desolate? And would you mind goingout by the side door instead of the main one? Thank you, you dear oldJock; you were always such a good boy, and did exactly what you weretold. "

And that was the last that I was ever to see of Cousin Edie. She stoodin the sunlight with the old challenge in her eyes, and flash of herteeth; and so I shall always remember her, shining and unstable, like adrop of quicksilver. As I joined my comrade in the street below, I sawa grand carriage and pair at the door, and I knew that she had asked meto slip out so that her grand new friends might never know what commonpeople she had been associated with in her childhood. She had neverasked for Jim, nor for my father and mother who had been so kind to her. Well, it was just her way, and she could no more help it than a rabbitcan help wagging its scut, and yet it made me heavy-hearted to think ofit. Two months later I heard that she had married this same Count deBeton, and she died in child-bed a year or two later. 

And as for us, our work was done, for the great shadow had been clearedaway from Europe, and should no longer be thrown across the breadth ofthe lands, over peaceful farms and little villages, darkening the liveswhich should have been so happy. I came back to Corriemuir after I hadbought my discharge, and there, when my father died, I took over thesheep-farm, and married Lucy Deane, of Berwick, and have brought upseven children, who are all taller than their father, and take mightygood care that he shall not forget it. But in the quiet, peaceful daysthat pass now, each as like the other as so many Scotch tups, I canhardly get the young folks to believe that even here we have had ourromance, when Jim and I went a-wooing, and the man with the cat'swhiskers came up from the sea. 

THE CRIME OF THE BRIGADIER. 

In all the great hosts of France there was only one officer towards whomthe English of Wellington's army retained a deep, steady, andunchangeable hatred. There were plunderers among the French, and men ofviolence, gamblers, duellists, and _roues_. All these could beforgiven, for others of their kidney were to be found among the ranks ofthe English. But one officer of Massena's force had committed a crimewhich was unspeakable, unheard of, abominable; only to be alluded towith curses late in the evening, when a second bottle had loosened thetongues of men. The news of it was carried back to England, and countrygentlemen who knew little of the details of the war grew crimson withpassion when they heard of it, and yeomen of the shires raised freckledfists to Heaven and swore. And yet who should be the doer of thisdreadful deed but our friend the Brigadier, Etienne Gerard, of theHussars of Conflans, gay-riding, plume-tossing, debonnaire, the darlingof the ladies and of the six brigades of light cavalry. 

But the strange part of it is that this gallant gentleman did thishateful thing, and made himself the most unpopular man in the Peninsula, without ever knowing that he had done a crime for which there is hardlya name amid all the resources of our language. He died of old age, andnever once in that imperturbable self-confidence which adorned ordisfigured his character knew that so many thousand Englishmen wouldgladly have hanged him with their own hands. On the contrary, henumbered this adventure among those other exploits which he has given tothe world, and many a time he chuckled and hugged himself as he narratedit to the eager circle who gathered round him in that humble cafe where, between his dinner and his dominoes, he would tell, amid tears andlaughter, of that inconceivable Napoleonic past when France, like anangel of wrath, rose up, splendid and terrible, before a coweringcontinent. Let us listen to him as he tells the story in his own wayand from his own point of view. 

You must know, my friends, said he, that it was towards the end of theyear eighteen hundred and ten that I and Massena and the others pushedWellington backwards until we had hoped to drive him and his army intothe Tagus. But when we were still twenty-five miles from Lisbon wefound that we were betrayed, for what had this Englishman done but buildan enormous line of works and forts at a place called Torres Vedras, sothat even we were unable to get through them! They lay across the wholePeninsula, and our army was so far from home that we did not dare torisk a reverse, and we had already learned at Busaco that it was nochild's play to fight against these people. What could we do, then, butsit down in front of these lines and blockade them to the best of ourpower? There we remained for six months, amid such anxieties thatMassena said afterwards that he had not one hair which was not whiteupon his body. For my own part, I did not worry much about oursituation, but I looked after our horses, who were in great need of restand green fodder. For the rest, we drank the wine of the country andpassed the time as best we might. There was a lady at Santarem--but mylips are sealed. It is the part of a gallant man to say nothing, thoughhe may indicate that he could say a great deal. 

One day Massena sent for me, and I found him in his tent with a greatplan pinned upon the table. He looked at me in silence with that singlepiercing eye of his, and I felt by his expression that the matter wasserious. He was nervous and ill at ease, but my bearing seemed toreassure him. It is good to be in contact with brave men. 

"Colonel Etienne Gerard, " said he, "I have always heard that you are avery gallant and enterprising officer. "

It was not for me to confirm such a report, and yet it would be folly todeny it, so I clinked my spurs together and saluted. 

"You are also an excellent rider. "

I admitted it. 

"And the best swordsman in the six brigades of light cavalry. "

Massena was famous for the accuracy of his information. 

"Now, " said he, "if you will look at this plan you will have nodifficulty in understanding what it is that I wish you to do. These are the lines of Torres Vedras. You will perceive that they covera vast space, and you will realize that the English can only hold aposition here and there. Once through the lines you have twenty-fivemiles of open country which lie between them and Lisbon. It is veryimportant to me to learn how Wellington's troops are distributedthroughout that space, and it is my wish that you should go andascertain. "

His words turned me cold. 

"Sir, " said I, "it is impossible that a colonel of light cavalry shouldcondescend to act as a spy. "

He laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. 

"You would not be a Hussar if you were not a hothead, " said he. "If youwill listen you will understand that I have not asked you to act as aspy. What do you think of that horse?"

He had conducted me to the opening of his tent, and there was a Chasseurwho led up and down a most admirable creature. He was a dapple grey, not very tall--a little over fifteen hands perhaps--but with the shorthead and splendid arch of the neck which comes with the Arab blood. His shoulders and haunches were so muscular, and yet his legs so fine, that it thrilled me with joy just to gaze upon him. A fine horse or abeautiful woman, I cannot look at them unmoved, even now when seventywinters have chilled my blood. You can think how it was in the year'10. 

"This, " said Massena, "is Voltigeur, the swiftest horse in our army. What I desire is that you should start to-night, ride round the linesupon the flank, make your way across the enemy's rear, and return uponthe other flank, bringing me news of his dispositions. You will wear auniform, and will, therefore, if captured, be safe from the death of aspy. It is probable that you will get through the lines unchallenged, for the posts are very scattered. Once through, in daylight you canoutride anything which you meet, and if you keep off the roads you mayescape entirely unnoticed. If you have not reported yourself bytomorrow night, I will understand that you are taken, and I will offerthem Colonel Petrie in exchange. "

Ah, how my heart swelled with pride and joy as I sprang into the saddleand galloped this grand horse up and down to show the Marshal themastery which I had of him! He was magnificent--we were bothmagnificent, for Massena clapped his hands and cried out in his delight. It was not I, but he, who said that a gallant beast deserves a gallantrider. Then, when for the third time, with my panache flying and mydolman streaming behind me, I thundered past him, I saw upon his hardold face that he had no longer any doubt that he had chosen the man forhis purpose. I drew my sabre, raised the hilt to my lips in salute, andgalloped on to my own quarters. Already the news had spread that I hadbeen chosen for a mission, and my little rascals came swarming out oftheir tents to cheer me. Ah! it brings the tears to my old eyes when Ithink how proud they were of their Colonel. And I was proud of themalso. They deserved a dashing leader. 

The night promised to be a stormy one, which was very much to my liking. It was my desire to keep my departure most secret, for it was evidentthat if the English heard that I had been detached from the army theywould naturally conclude that something important was about to happen. My horse was taken, therefore, beyond the picket line, as if forwatering, and I followed and mounted him there. I had a map, a compass, and a paper of instructions from the Marshal, and with these in thebosom of my tunic and my sabre at my side, I set out upon my adventure. 

A thin rain was falling and there was no moon, so you may imagine thatit was not very cheerful. But my heart was light at the thought of thehonour which had been done me and the glory which awaited me. This exploit should be one more in that brilliant series which was tochange my sabre into a baton. Ah, how we dreamed, we foolish fellows, young, and drunk with success! Could I have foreseen that night as Irode, the chosen man of sixty thousand, that I should spend my lifeplanting cabbages on a hundred francs a month! Oh, my youth, my hopes, my comrades! But the wheel turns and never stops. Forgive me, myfriends, for an old man has his weakness. 

My route, then, lay across the face of the high ground of Torres Vedras, then over a streamlet, past a farmhouse which had been burned down andwas now only a landmark, then through a forest of young cork oaks, andso to the monastery of San Antonio, which marked the left of the Englishposition. Here I turned south and rode quietly over the downs, for itwas at this point that Massena thought that it would be most easy for meto find my way unobserved through the position. I went very slowly, forit was so dark that I could not see my hand in front of me. In suchcases I leave my bridle loose and let my horse pick its own way. Voltigeur went confidently forward, and I was very content to sit uponhis back and to peer about me, avoiding every light. For three hours weadvanced in this cautious way, until it seemed to me that I must haveleft all danger behind me. I then pushed on more briskly, for I wishedto be in the rear of the whole army by daybreak. There are manyvineyards in these parts which in winter become open plains, and ahorseman finds few difficulties in his way. 

But Massena had underrated the cunning of these English, for it appearsthat there was not one line of defence, but three, and it was the third, which was the most formidable, through which I was at that instantpassing. As I rode, elated at my own success, a lantern flashedsuddenly before me, and I saw the glint of polished gun-barrels and thegleam of a red coat. 

"Who goes there?" cried a voice--such a voice! I swerved to the rightand rode like a madman, but a dozen squirts of fire came out of thedarkness, and the bullets whizzed all round my ears. That was no newsound to me, my friends, though I will not talk like a foolish conscriptand say that I have ever liked it. But at least it had never kept mefrom thinking clearly, and so I knew that there was nothing for it butto gallop hard and try my luck elsewhere. I rode round the Englishpicket, and then, as I heard nothing more of them, I concluded rightlythat I had at last come through their defences. For five miles I rodesouth, striking a tinder from time to time to look at my pocket compass. And then in an instant--I feel the pang once more as my memory bringsback the moment--my horse, without a sob or stagger, fell stone deadbeneath me!

I had not known it, but one of the bullets from that infernal picket hadpassed through his body. The gallant creature had never winced norweakened, but had gone while life was in him. One instant I was secureon the swiftest, most graceful horse in Massena's army. The next he layupon his side, worth only the price of his hide, and I stood there thatmost helpless, most ungainly of creatures, a dismounted Hussar. What could I do with my boots, my spurs, my trailing sabre? I was farinside the enemy's lines. How could I hope to get back again? I am notashamed to say that I, Etienne Gerard, sat upon my dead horse and sankmy face in my hands in my despair. Already the first streaks werewhitening the east. In half an hour it would be light. That I shouldhave won my way past every obstacle and then at this last instant beleft at the mercy of my enemies, my mission ruined, and myself aprisoner--was it not enough to break a soldier's heart?

But courage, my friends! We have these moments of weakness, the bravestof us; but I have a spirit like a slip of steel, for the more you bendit the higher it springs. One spasm of despair, and then a brain of iceand a heart of fire. All was not yet lost. I who had come through somany hazards would come through this one also. I rose from my horse andconsidered what had best be done. 

And first of all it was certain that I could not get back. Long beforeI could pass the lines it would be broad daylight. I must hide myselffor the day, and then devote the next night to my escape. I took thesaddle, holsters, and bridle from poor Voltigeur, and I concealed themamong some bushes, so that no one finding him could know that he was aFrench horse. Then, leaving him lying there, I wandered on in search ofsome place where I might be safe for the day. In every direction Icould see camp fires upon the sides of the hills, and already figureshad begun to move around them. I must hide quickly, or I was lost. 

But where was I to hide? It was a vineyard in which I found myself, thepoles of the vines still standing, but the plants gone. There was nocover there. Besides, I should want some food and water before anothernight had come. I hurried wildly onwards through the waning darkness, trusting that chance would be my friend. And I was not disappointed. Chance is a woman, my friends, and she has her eye always upon a gallantHussar. 

Well, then, as I stumbled through the vineyard, something loomed infront of me, and I came upon a great square house with another long, lowbuilding upon one side of it. Three roads met there, and it was easy tosee that this was the posada, or wine-shop. There was no light in thewindows, and everything was dark and silent, but, of course, I knew thatsuch comfortable quarters were certainly occupied, and probably by someone of importance. I have learned, however, that the nearer the dangermay really be the safer the place, and so I was by no means inclined totrust myself away from this shelter. The low building was evidently thestable, and into this I crept, for the door was unlatched. The placewas full of bullocks and sheep, gathered there, no doubt, to be out ofthe clutches of marauders. A ladder led to a loft, and up this Iclimbed, and concealed myself very snugly among some bales of hay uponthe top. This loft had a small open window, and I was able to look downupon the front of the inn and also upon the road. There I crouched andwaited to see what would happen. 

It was soon evident that I had not been mistaken when I had thought thatthis might be the quarters of some person of importance. Shortly afterdaybreak an English light dragoon arrived with a despatch, and from thenonwards the place was in a turmoil, officers continually riding up andaway. Always the same name was upon their lips: "Sir Stapleton--SirStapleton. " It was hard for me to lie there with a dry moustache andwatch the great flagons which were brought out by the landlord to theseEnglish officers. But it amused me to look at their fresh-coloured, clean-shaven, careless faces, and to wonder what they would think ifthey knew that so celebrated a person was lying so near to them. Andthen, as I lay and watched, I saw a sight which filled me with surprise. 

It is incredible the insolence of these English! What do you supposeMilord Wellington had done when he found that Massena had blockaded himand that he could not move his army? I might give you many guesses. You might say that he had raged, that he had despaired, that he hadbrought his troops together and spoken to them about glory and thefatherland before leading them to one last battle. No, Milord did noneof these things. But he sent a fleet ship to England to bring him anumber of fox-dogs, and he with his officers settled himself down tochase the fox. It is true what I tell you. Behind the lines of TorresVedras these mad Englishmen made the fox-chase three days in the week. We had heard of it in the camp, and now I was myself to see that it wastrue. 

For, along the road which I have described, there came these very dogs, thirty or forty of them, white and brown, each with its tail at the sameangle, like the bayonets of the Old Guard. My faith, but it was apretty sight! And behind and amidst them there rode three men withpeaked caps and red coats, whom I understood to be the hunters. Afterthem came many horsemen with uniforms of various kinds, stringing alongthe roads in twos and threes, talking together and laughing. They didnot seem to be going above a trot, and it appeared to me that it mustindeed be a slow fox which they hoped to catch. However, it was theiraffair, not mine, and soon they had all passed my window and were out ofsight. I waited and I watched, ready for any chance which might offer. 

Presently an officer, in a blue uniform not unlike that of our flyingartillery, came cantering down the road--an elderly, stout man he was, with grey side-whiskers. He stopped and began to talk with an orderlyofficer of dragoons, who waited outside the inn, and it was then that Ilearned the advantage of the English which had been taught me. I couldhear and understand all that was said. 

"Where is the meet?" said the officer, and I thought that he washungering for his bifstek. But the other answered him that it was nearAltara, so I saw that it was a place of which he spoke. 

"You are late, Sir George, " said the orderly. 

"Yes, I had a court-martial. Has Sir Stapleton Cotton gone?"

At this moment a window opened, and a handsome young man in a verysplendid uniform looked out of it. 

"Halloa, Murray!" said he. "These cursed papers keep me, but I will beat your heels. "

"Very good, Cotton. I am late already, so I will ride on. "

"You might order my groom to bring round my horse, " said the younggeneral at the window to the orderly below, while the other went on downthe road. The orderly rode away to some outlying stable, and then in afew minutes there came a smart English groom with a cockade in his hat, leading by the bridle a horse--and, oh, my friends, you have never knownthe perfection to which a horse can attain until you have seen afirst-class English hunter. He was superb: tall, broad, strong, and yetas graceful and agile as a deer. Coal black he was in colour, and hisneck, and his shoulder, and his quarters, and his fetlocks--how can Idescribe him all to you? The sun shone upon him as on polished ebony, and he raised his hoofs in a little, playful dance so lightly andprettily, while he tossed his mane and whinnied with impatience. Neverhave I seen such a mixture of strength and beauty and grace. I hadoften wondered how the English Hussars had managed to ride over theChasseurs of the Guards in the affair at Astorga, but I wondered nolonger when I saw the English horses. 

There was a ring for fastening bridles at the door of the inn, and thegroom tied the horse there while he entered the house. In an instant Ihad seen the chance which Fate had brought to me. Were I in that saddleI should be better off than when I started. Even Voltigeur could notcompare with this magnificent creature. To think is to act with me. In one instant I was down the ladder and at the door of the stable. The next I was out and the bridle was in my hand. I bounded into thesaddle. Somebody, the master or the man, shouted wildly behind me. What cared I for his shouts! I touched the horse with my spurs, and hebounded forward with such a spring that only a rider like myself couldhave sat him. I gave him his head and let him go--it did not matter tome where, so long as we left this inn far behind us. He thundered awayacross the vineyards, and in a very few minutes I had placed milesbetween myself and my pursuers. They could no longer tell, in that wildcountry, in which direction I had gone. I knew that I was safe, and so, riding to the top of a small hill, I drew my pencil and note-book frommy pocket and proceeded to make plans of those camps which I could see, and to draw the outline of the country. 

He was a dear creature upon whom I sat, but it was not easy to draw uponhis back, for every now and then his two ears would cock, and he wouldstart and quiver with impatience. At first I could not understand thistrick of his, but soon I observed that he only did it when a peculiarnoise--"yoy, yoy, yoy"--came from somewhere among the oak woods beneathus. And then suddenly this strange cry changed into a most terriblescreaming, with the frantic blowing of a horn. Instantly he went mad--this horse. His eyes blazed. His mane bristled. He bounded from theearth and bounded again, twisting and turning in a frenzy. My pencilflew one way and my notebook another. And then, as I looked down intothe valley, an extraordinary sight met my eyes. The hunt was streamingdown it. The fox I could not see, but the dogs were in full cry, theirnoses down, their tails up, so close together that they might have beenone great yellow and white moving carpet. And behind them rode thehorsemen--my faith, what a sight! Consider every type which a great armycould show: some in hunting dress, but the most in uniforms; bluedragoons, red dragoons, red-trousered hussars, green riflemen, artillerymen, gold-slashed lancers, and most of all red, red, red, forthe infantry officers ride as hard as the cavalry. Such a crowd, somewell mounted, some ill, but all flying along as best they might, thesubaltern as good as the general, jostling and pushing, spurring anddriving, with every thought thrown to the winds save that they shouldhave the blood of this absurd fox! Truly, they are an extraordinarypeople, the English!

But I had little time to watch the hunt or to marvel at these islanders, for of all these mad creatures the very horse upon which I sat was themaddest. You understand that he was himself a hunter, and that thecrying of these dogs was to him what the call of a cavalry trumpet inthe street yonder would be to me. It thrilled him. It drove him wild. Again and again he bounded into the air, and then, seizing the bitbetween his teeth, he plunged down the slope and galloped after thedogs. I swore, and tugged, and pulled, but I was powerless. This English General rode his horse with a snaffle only, and the beasthad a mouth of iron. It was useless to pull him back. One might aswell try to keep a Grenadier from a wine bottle. I gave it up indespair, and, settling down in the saddle, I prepared for the worstwhich could befall. 

What a creature he was! Never have I felt such a horse between myknees. His great haunches gathered under him with every stride, and heshot forward ever faster and faster, stretched like a greyhound, whilethe wind beat in my face and whistled past my ears. I was wearing ourundress jacket, a uniform simple and dark in itself--though some figuresgive distinction to any uniform--and I had taken the precaution toremove the long panache from my busby. The result was that, amidst themixture of costumes in the hunt, there was no reason why mine shouldattract attention, or why these men, whose thoughts were all with thechase, should give any heed to me. The idea that a French officer mightbe riding with them was too absurd to enter their minds. I laughed as Irode, for, indeed, amid all the danger, there was something of comic inthe situation. 

I have said that the hunters were very unequally mounted, and so, at theend of a few miles, instead of being one body of men, like a chargingregiment, they were scattered over a considerable space, the betterriders well up to the dogs and the others trailing away behind. Now, Iwas as good a rider as any, and my horse was the best of them all, andso you can imagine that it was not long before he carried me to thefront. And when I saw the dogs streaming over the open, and thered-coated huntsman behind them, and only seven or eight horsemenbetween us, then it was that the strangest thing of all happened, for I, too, went mad--I, Etienne Gerard! In a moment it came upon me, thisspirit of sport, this desire to excel, this hatred of the fox. Accursed animal, should he then defy us? Vile robber, his hour wascome! Ah, it is a great feeling, this feeling of sport, my friends, this desire to trample the fox under the hoofs of your horse. I havemade the fox-chase with the English. I have also, as I may tell yousome day, fought the box-fight with the Bustler, of Bristol. And I sayto you that this sport is a wonderful thing--full of interest as well asmadness. 

The farther we went the faster galloped my horse, and soon there werebut three men as near the dogs as I was. All thought of fear ofdiscovery had vanished. My brain throbbed, my blood ran hot--only onething upon earth seemed worth living for, and that was to overtake thisinfernal fox. I passed one of the horsemen--a Hussar like myself. There were only two in front of me now: the one in a black coat, theother the blue artilleryman whom I had seen at the inn. His greywhiskers streamed in the wind, but he rode magnificently. For a mile ormore we kept in this order, and then, as we galloped up a steep slope, my lighter weight brought me to the front. I passed them both, and whenI reached the crown I was riding level with the little, hard-facedEnglish huntsman. In front of us were the dogs, and then, a hundredpaces beyond them, was a brown wisp of a thing, the fox itself, stretched to the uttermost. The sight of him fired my blood. "Aha, wehave you then, assassin!" I cried, and shouted my encouragement to thehuntsman. I waved my hand to show him that there was one upon whom hecould rely. 

And now there were only the dogs between me and my prey. These dogs, whose duty it is to point out the game, were now rather a hindrance thana help to us, for it was hard to know how to pass them. The huntsmanfelt the difficulty as much as I, for he rode behind them, and couldmake no progress towards the fox. He was a swift rider, but wanting inenterprise. For my part, I felt that it would be unworthy of theHussars of Conflans if I could not overcome such a difficulty as this. Was Etienne Gerard to be stopped by a herd of fox-dogs? It was absurd. I gave a shout and spurred my horse. 

"Hold hard, sir! Hold hard!" cried the huntsman. 

He was uneasy for me, this good old man, but I reassured him by a waveand a smile. The dogs opened in front of me. One or two may have beenhurt, but what would you have? The egg must be broken for the omelette. I could hear the huntsman shouting his congratulations behind me. One more effort, and the dogs were all behind me. Only the fox was infront. 

Ah, the joy and pride of that moment! To know that I had beaten theEnglish at their own sport. Here were three hundred all thirsting forthe life of this animal, and yet it was I who was about to take it. I thought of my comrades of the light cavalry brigade, of my mother, ofthe Emperor, of France. I had brought honour to each and all. Every instant brought me nearer to the fox. The moment for action hadarrived, so I unsheathed my sabre. I waved it in the air, and the braveEnglish all shouted behind me. 

Only then did I understand how difficult is this fox-chase, for one maycut again and again at the creature and never strike him once. He issmall, and turns quickly from a blow. At every cut I heard those shoutsof encouragement from behind me, and they spurred me to yet anothereffort. And then, at last, the supreme moment of my triumph arrived. In the very act of turning I caught him fair with such anotherback-handed cut as that with which I killed the aide-de-camp of theEmperor of Russia. He flew into two pieces, his head one way and histail another. I looked back and waved the blood-stained sabre in theair. For the moment I was exalted--superb. 

Ah! how I should have loved to have waited to have received thecongratulations of these generous enemies. There were fifty of them insight, and not one who was not waving his hand and shouting. They arenot really such a phlegmatic race, the English. A gallant deed in waror in sport will always warm their hearts. As to the old huntsman, hewas the nearest to me, and I could see with my own eyes how overcome hewas by what he had seen. He was like a man paralyzed--his mouth open, his hand, with outspread fingers, raised in the air. For a moment myinclination was to return and to embrace him. But already the call ofduty was sounding in my ears, and these English, in spite of all thefraternity which exists among sportsmen, would certainly have made meprisoner. There was no hope for my mission now, and I had done all thatI could do. I could see the lines of Massena's camp no very greatdistance off, for, by a lucky chance, the chase had taken us in thatdirection. I turned from the dead fox, saluted with my sabre, andgalloped away. 

But they would not leave me so easily, these gallant huntsmen. I wasthe fox now, and the chase swept bravely over the plain. It was only atthe moment when I started for the camp that they could have known that Iwas a Frenchman, and now the whole swarm of them were at my heels. We were within gunshot of our pickets before they would halt, and thenthey stood in knots and would not go away, but shouted and waved theirhands at me. No, I will not think that it was in enmity. Rather wouldI fancy that a glow of admiration filled their breasts, and that theirone desire was to embrace the stranger who had carried himself sogallantly and well. 

THE "SLAPPING SAL. "

It was in the days when France's power was already broken upon the seas, and when more of her three-deckers lay rotting in the Medway than wereto be found in Brest harbour. But her frigates and corvettes stillscoured the ocean, closely followed ever by those of her rival. At theuttermost ends of the earth these dainty vessels, with sweet names ofgirls or of flowers, mangled and shattered each other for the honour ofthe four yards of bunting which flapped from the end of their gaffs. 

It had blown hard in the night, but the wind had dropped with thedawning, and now the rising sun tinted the fringe of the storm-wrack asit dwindled into the west and glinted on the endless crests of the long, green waves. To north and south and west lay a skyline which wasunbroken save by the spout of foam when two of the great Atlantic seasdashed each other into spray. To the east was a rocky island, juttingout into craggy points, with a few scattered clumps of palm trees and apennant of mist streaming out from the bare, conical hill which cappedit. A heavy surf beat upon the shore, and, at a safe distance from it, the British 32-gun frigate _Leda_, Captain A. P. Johnson, raised herblack, glistening side upon the crest of a wave, or swooped down into anemerald valley, dipping away to the nor'ard under easy sail. On hersnow-white quarter-deck stood a stiff little brown-faced man, who sweptthe horizon with his glass. 

"Mr. Wharton!" he cried, with a voice like a rusty hinge. 

A thin, knock-kneed officer shambled across the poop to him. 

"Yes, sir. "

"I've opened the sealed orders, Mr. Wharton. "

A glimmer of curiosity shone upon the meagre features of the firstlieutenant. The _Leda_ had sailed with her consort, the _Dido_, fromAntigua the week before, and the admiral's orders had been contained ina sealed envelope. 

"We were to open them on reaching the deserted island of Sombriero, lying in north latitude eighteen, thirty-six, west longitudesixty-three, twenty-eight. Sombriero bore four miles to the north-eastfrom our port-bow when the gale cleared, Mr. Wharton. "

The lieutenant bowed stiffly. He and the captain had been bosom friendsfrom childhood. They had gone to school together, joined the navytogether, fought again and again together, and married into each other'sfamilies, but so long as their feet were on the poop the iron disciplineof the service struck all that was human out of them and left only thesuperior and the subordinate. Captain Johnson took from his pocket ablue paper, which crackled as he unfolded it. 

 "The 32-gun frigates _Leda_ and _Dido_ (Captains A. P. Johnson and James Munro) are to cruise from the point at which these instructions are read to the mouth of the Caribbean Sea, in the hope of encountering the French frigate _La Gloire_ (48), which has recently harassed our merchant ships in that quarter. H. M. Frigates are also directed to hunt down the piratical craft known sometimes as the _Slapping Sal_ and sometimes as the _Hairy Hudson_, which has plundered the British ships as per margin, inflicting barbarities upon their crews. She is a small brig, carrying ten light guns, with one twenty-four pound carronade forward. She was last seen upon the 23rd ult. To the north-east of the island of Sombriero. "

 "(Signed) JAMES MONTGOMERY, "

 "(_Rear-Admiral_). H. M. S. _Colossus_, Antigua. "

"We appear to have lost our consort, " said Captain Johnson, folding uphis instructions and again sweeping the horizon with his glass. "She drew away after we reefed down. It would be a pity if we met thisheavy Frenchman without the _Dido_, Mr. Wharton. Eh?"

The lieutenant twinkled and smiled. 

"She has eighteen-pounders on the main and twelves on the poop, sir, "said the captain. "She carries four hundred to our two hundred andthirty-one. Captain de Milon is the smartest man in the French service. Oh, Bobby boy, I'd give my hopes of my flag to rub my side up againsther!" He turned on his heel, ashamed of his momentary lapse. "Mr. Wharton, " said he, looking back sternly over his shoulder, "getthose square sails shaken out and bear away a point more to the west. "

"A brig on the port-bow, " came a voice from the forecastle. 

"A brig on the port-bow, " said the lieutenant. 

The captain sprang upon the bulwarks and held on by the mizzen-shrouds, a strange little figure with flying skirts and puckered eyes. The leanlieutenant craned his neck and whispered to Smeaton, the second, whileofficers and men came popping up from below and clustered along theweather-rail, shading their eyes with their hands--for the tropical sunwas already clear of the palm trees. The strange brig lay at anchor inthe throat of a curving estuary, and it was already obvious that shecould not get out without passing under the guns of the frigate. A long, rocky point to the north of her held her in. 

"Keep her as she goes, Mr. Wharton, " said the captain. "Hardly worthwhile our clearing for action, Mr. Smeaton, but the men can stand by theguns in case she tries to pass us. Cast loose the bow-chasers and sendthe small-arm men to the forecastle. "

A British crew went to its quarters in those days with the quietserenity of men on their daily routine. In a few minutes, without fussor sound, the sailors were knotted round their guns, the marines weredrawn up and leaning on their muskets, and the frigate's bowspritpointed straight for her little victim. 

"Is it the _Slapping Sal_, sir?"

"I have no doubt of it, Mr. Wharton. "

"They don't seem to like the look of us, sir. They've cut their cableand are clapping on sail. "

It was evident that the brig meant struggling for her freedom. One little patch of canvas fluttered out above another, and her peoplecould be seen working like madmen in the rigging. She made no attemptto pass her antagonist, but headed up the estuary. The captain rubbedhis hands. 

"She's making for shoal water, Mr. Wharton, and we shall have to cut herout, sir. She's a footy little brig, but I should have thought afore-and-after would have been more handy. "

"It was a mutiny, sir. "

"Ah, indeed!"

"Yes, sir, I heard of it at Manilla: a bad business, sir. Captain andtwo mates murdered. This Hudson, or Hairy Hudson as they call him, ledthe mutiny. He's a Londoner, sir, and a cruel villain as ever walked. "

"His next walk will be to Execution Dock, Mr. Wharton. She seemsheavily manned. I wish I could take twenty topmen out of her, but theywould be enough to corrupt the crew of the ark, Mr. Wharton. "

Both officers were looking through their glasses at the brig. Suddenlythe lieutenant showed his teeth in a grin, while the captain flushed adeeper red. 

"That's Hairy Hudson on the after-rail, sir. "

"The low, impertinent blackguard! He'll play some other antics beforewe are done with him. Could you reach him with the long eighteen, Mr. Smeaton?"

"Another cable length will do it, sir. "

The brig yawed as they spoke, and as she came round a spurt of smokewhiffed out from her quarter. It was a pure piece of bravado, for thegun could scarce carry halfway. Then with a jaunty swing the littleship came into the wind again, and shot round a fresh curve in thewinding channel. 

"The water's shoaling rapidly, sir, " repeated the second lieutenant. 

"There's six fathoms by the chart. "

"Four by the lead, sir. "

"When we clear this point we shall see how we lie. Ha! I thought asmuch! Lay her to, Mr. Wharton. Now we have got her at our mercy!"

The frigate was quite out of sight of the sea now at the head of thisriver-like estuary. As she came round the curve the two shores wereseen to converge at a point about a mile distant. In the angle, as nearshore as she could get, the brig was lying with her broadside towardsher pursuer and a wisp of black cloth streaming from her mizzen. The lean lieutenant, who had reappeared upon deck with a cutlassstrapped to his side and two pistols rammed into his belt, peeredcuriously at the ensign. 

"Is it the Jolly Rodger, sir?" he asked. 

But the captain was furious. 

"He may hang where his breeches are hanging before I have done withhim!" said he. "What boats will you want, Mr. Wharton?"

"We should do it with the launch and the jolly-boat. "

"Take four and make a clean job of it. Pipe away the crews at once, andI'll work her in and help you with the long eighteens. "

With a rattle of ropes and a creaking of blocks the four boats splashedinto the water. Their crews clustered thickly into them: bare-footedsailors, stolid marines, laughing middies, and in the sheets of each thesenior officers with their stern schoolmaster faces. The captain, hiselbows on the binnacle, still watched the distant brig. Her crew weretricing up the boarding-netting, dragging round the starboard guns, knocking new portholes for them, and making every preparation for adesperate resistance. In the thick of it all a huge man, bearded to theeyes, with a red nightcap upon his head, was straining and stooping andhauling. The captain watched him with a sour smile, and then snappingup his glass he turned upon his heel. For an instant he stood staring. 

"Call back the boats!" he cried in his thin, creaking voice. "Clear away for action there! Cast loose those main-deck guns. Brace back the yards, Mr. Smeaton, and stand by to go about when she hasweigh enough. "

Round the curve of the estuary was coming a huge vessel. Her greatyellow bowsprit and white-winged figure-head were jutting out from thecluster of palm trees, while high above them towered three immense mastswith the tricolour flag floating superbly from the mizzen. Round shecame, the deep-blue water creaming under her fore foot, until her long, curving, black side, her line of shining copper beneath and ofsnow-white hammocks above, and the thick clusters of men who peered overher bulwarks were all in full view. Her lower yards were slung, herports triced up, and her guns run out all ready for action. Lying behind one of the promontories of the island, the lookout men ofthe _Gloire_ upon the shore had seen the _cul de sac_ into which theBritish frigate was headed, so that Captain de Milon had served the_Leda_ as Captain Johnson had the _Slapping Sal_. 

But the splendid discipline of the British service was at its best insuch a crisis. The boats flew back; their crews clustered aboard; theywere swung up at the davits and the fall-ropes made fast. Hammocks werebrought up and stowed, bulkheads sent down, ports and magazines opened, the fires put out in the galley, and the drums beat to quarters. Swarms of men set the head-sails and brought the frigate round, whilethe gun-crews threw off their jackets and shirts, tightened their belts, and ran out their eighteen-pounders, peering through the open portholesat the stately French man. The wind was very light. Hardly a rippleshowed itself upon the clear blue water, but the sails blew gently outas the breeze came over the wooded banks. The Frenchman had gone aboutalso, and both ships were now heading slowly for the sea underfore-and-aft canvas, the _Gloire_ a hundred yards in advance. She luffed up to cross the _Leda's_ bows, but the British ship cameround also, and the two rippled slowly on in such a silence that theringing of the ramrods as the French marines drove home their chargesclanged quite loudly upon the ear. 

"Not much sea-room, Mr. Wharton, " remarked the captain. 

"I have fought actions in less, sir. "

"We must keep our distance and trust to our gunnery. She is veryheavily manned, and if she got alongside we might find ourselves introuble. "

"I see the shakoes of soldiers aboard other. "

"Two companies of light infantry from Martinique. Now we have her!Hard-a-port, and let her have it as we cross her stern!"

The keen eye of the little commander had seen the surface ripple, whichtold of a passing breeze. He had used it to dart across the bigFrenchman and to rake her with every gun as he passed. But, once pasther, the _Leda_ had to come back into the wind to keep out of shoalwater. The manoeuvre brought her on to the starboard side of theFrenchman, and the trim little frigate seemed to heel right over underthe crashing broadside which burst from the gaping ports. A momentlater her topmen were swarming aloft to set her top-sails and royals, and she strove to cross the _Gloire's_ bows and rake her again. TheFrench captain, however, brought his frigate's head round, and the tworode side by side within easy pistol-shot, pouring broadsides into eachother in one of those murderous duels which, could they all be recorded, would mottle our charts with blood. 

In that heavy tropical air, with so faint a breeze, the smoke formed athick bank round the two vessels, from which the topmasts onlyprotruded. Neither could see anything of its enemy save the throbs offire in the darkness, and the guns were sponged and trained and firedinto a dense wall of vapour. On the poop and the forecastle themarines, in two little red lines, were pouring in their volleys, butneither they nor the seamen-gunners could see what effect their fire washaving. Nor, indeed, could they tell how far they were sufferingthemselves, for, standing at a gun, one could but hazily see that uponthe right and the left. But above the roar of the cannon came thesharper sound of the piping shot, the crashing of riven planks, and theoccasional heavy thud as spar or block came hurtling on to the deck. The lieutenants paced up and down the line of guns, while CaptainJohnson fanned the smoke away with his cocked-hat and peered eagerlyout. 

"This is rare, Bobby!" said he, as the lieutenant joined him. Then, suddenly restraining himself, "What have we lost, Mr. Wharton?"

"Our maintopsail yard and our gaff, sir. "

"Where's the flag?"

"Gone overboard, sir. "

"They'll think we've struck! Lash a boat's ensign on the starboard armof the mizzen cross-jack-yard. "

"Yes, sir. "

A round-shot dashed the binnacle to pieces between them. A secondknocked two marines into a bloody palpitating mash. For a moment thesmoke rose, and the English captain saw that his adversary's heaviermetal was producing a horrible effect. The _Leda_ was a shatteredwreck. Her deck was strewed with corpses. Several of her portholeswere knocked into one, and one of her eighteen-pounder guns had beenthrown right back on to her breech, and pointed straight up to the sky. The thin line of marines still loaded and fired, but half the guns weresilent, and their crews were piled thickly round them. 

"Stand by to repel boarders!" yelled the captain. 

"Cutlasses, lads, cutlasses!" roared Wharton. 

"Hold your volley till they touch!" cried the captain of marines. 

The huge loom of the Frenchman was seen bursting through the smoke. Thick clusters of boarders hung upon her sides and shrouds. A finalbroad-side leapt from her ports, and the main-mast of the _Leda_, snapping short off a few feet above the deck, spun into the air andcrashed down upon the port guns, killing ten men and putting the wholebattery out of action. An instant later the two ships scraped together, and the starboard bower anchor of the _Gloire_ caught the mizzen-chainsof the _Leda_ upon the port side. With a yell the black swarm ofboarders steadied themselves for a spring. 

But their feet were never to reach that blood-stained deck. From somewhere there came a well-aimed whiff of grape, and another, and another. The English marines and seamen, waiting with cutlass and musket behindthe silent guns, saw with amazement the dark masses thinning andshredding away. At the same time the port broadside of the Frenchmanburst into a roar. 

"Clear away the wreck!" roared the captain. "What the devil are theyfiring at?"

"Get the guns clear!" panted the lieutenant. "We'll do them yet, boys!"

The wreckage was torn and hacked and splintered until first one gun andthen another roared into action again. The Frenchman's anchor had beencut away, and the _Leda_ had worked herself free from that fatal hug. But now, suddenly, there was a scurry up the shrouds of the _Gloire_, and a hundred Englishmen were shouting themselves hoarse: "They'rerunning! They're running! They're running!"

And it was true. The Frenchman had ceased to fire, and was intent onlyupon clapping on every sail that he could carry. But that shoutinghundred could not claim it all as their own. As the smoke cleared itwas not difficult to see the reason. The ships had gained the mouth ofthe estuary during the fight, and there, about four miles out to sea, was the _Leda's_ consort bearing down under full sail to the sound ofthe guns. Captain de Milon had done his part for one day, and presentlythe _Gloire_ was drawing off swiftly to the north, while the _Dido_ wasbowling along at her skirts, rattling away with her bow-chasers, until aheadland hid them both from view. 

But the Leda lay sorely stricken, with her mainmast gone, her bulwarksshattered, her mizzen-topmast and gaff shot away, her sails like abeggar's rags, and a hundred of her crew dead and wounded. Close besideher a mass of wreckage floated upon the waves. It was the stern-post ofa mangled vessel, and across it, in white letters on a black ground, wasprinted, "_The Slapping Sal_. "

"By the Lord! it was the brig that saved us!" cried Mr. Wharton. "Hudson brought her into action with the Frenchman, and was blown out ofthe water by a broadside!"

The little captain turned on his heel and paced up and down the deck. 

Already his crew were plugging the shot-holes, knotting and splicing andmending. When he came back, the lieutenant saw a softening of the sternlines about his eyes and mouth. 

"Are they all gone?"

"Every man. They must have sunk with the wreck. "

The two officers looked down at the sinister name, and at the stump ofwreckage which floated in the discoloured water. Something black washedto and fro beside a splintered gaff and a tangle of halliards. It wasthe outrageous ensign, and near it a scarlet cap was floating. 

"He was a villain, but he was a Briton!" said the captain at last. "He lived like a dog, but, by God, he died like a man!"

THE END.