My old friend, save in the deeper brown upon his cheek and some scars
from French sabres, was nothing altered from the hour in which we
parted; the same bold, generous temperament, the same blending of
recklessness and deep feeling, the wild spirit of adventure, and the
gentle tenderness of a child were all mixed up in his complex nature,
for he was every inch an Irishman. While the breast of his uniform
glittered with many a cross and decoration, he scarcely ever alluded to
his own feats in the campaign; nor did he more than passingly mention
the actions where his own conduct had been most conspicuous. Indeed,
there was a reserve in his whole manner while speaking of the Peninsular
battles which I soon discovered proceeded from delicacy towards me,
knowing how little I had seen of service owing to my imprisonment, and
fearing lest in the detail of the glorious career of our armies he might
be inflicting fresh wounds on one whose fortune forbade him to share
in it. He often asked me about my father, and seemed to feel deeply the
kindness he had received from him when in London. Of my mother, too, he
sometimes spoke, but never even alluded to Lady Julia; and when once I
spoke of her as the protector of Corny, he fidgeted for a second or two,
seemed uneasy and uncomfortable, and gave me the impression that he felt
sorry to be reduced to accept a favour for his servant, where he himself
had been treated with coldness and distance.
Apart from this--and it was a topic we mutually avoided--O'Grady's
spirits were as high as ever. Mixing much with the officers of his
corps, he was actually beloved by them. He joined in all their schemes
of pleasure and amusement with the zest of his own buoyant nature; and
the youngest cornet in the regiment felt himself the Colonel's inferior
in the gaiety of the mess as much as at the head of the squadrons.
At the end of a few days I received from Paris the papers necessary
to relieve me from the restraint of my parole, and was concerting
with O'Grady the steps necessary to be taken to resume my rank in the
service, when an incident occurred which altered all our plans for the
moment, and, by one of those strange casualties which so often occur in
life, gave a new current to my own fate for ever.
I should mention here, that, amid all the rejoicings which ushered in
the restoration, amid all the flattery by which the allied armies were
received, one portion of the royalists maintained a dogged, ungenial
spirit towards the men by whom their cause was rendered victorious,
and never forgave them the honour of reviving a dynasty to which they
themselves had contributed nothing. These were the old _militaires_ of
Louis xviii.--the men who, too proud or too good-for-nothing to accept
service under the Emperor, had lain dormant during the glorious
career of the French armies, and who now, in their hour of defeat and
adversity, started into life as the representatives of the military
genius of the country. These men, I say, hated the English with a
vindictive animosity which the old Napoleonists could not equal. Without
the generous rivalry of an open foe, they felt themselves humbled by
comparison with the soldiers whose weather-beaten faces and shattered
limbs bore token of a hundred battles, and for the very cause, too, for
which they themselves were the most interested. This ungenerous spirit
found vent for itself in a thousand petty annoyances, which were
practised upon our troops in every town and village of the north of
France; and every officer whose billet consigned him to the house of
a royalist soldier would gladly have exchanged his quarters for the
companionship of the most inveterate follower of Napoleon. To an
instance of what I have mentioned was owing the incident which I am
about to relate.
To relieve the ennui of a French village, the officers of the Eighteenth
had, with wonderful expenditure of skill and labour, succeeded in
getting up a four-in-hand drag, which, to the astonishment and wonder
of the natives, was seen daily wending its course through the devious
alleys and narrow streets of the little town, the roof covered with
dashing dragoons, whose laughing faces and loud-sounding bugles were
all deemed so many direct insults by the ill-conditioned section I have
mentioned. The unequivocal evidences of dislike they exhibited to this
dashing 'turn-out' formed, I believe, one of its great attractions to
the Eighteenth, who never omitted an occasion, whatever the state of the
weather, to issue forth every day, with all the noise and uproar they
could muster.
At last, however, the old _commissaire de police_, whose indignation
at the proceeding knew no bounds, devised an admirable expedient for
annoying our fellows--one which, supported as it was by the law of the
country, there was no possibility of evading. This was to demand the
passport of every officer who passed the _barrière_, thus necessitating
him to get down from the roof of the coach, present his papers, and have
them carefully conned and scrutinised, their _visés_ looked into, and
all sorts of questions propounded.
When it is understood that the only drive led through one or other of
these barriers, it may be imagined how provoking and vexatious such a
course of proceeding became. Representations were made to the mayor
ever and anon, explaining that the passports once produced no further
inconvenience should be incurred; but all to no purpose. Any one who
knows France will acknowledge how totally inadequate a common-sense
argument is in the decision of a question before a government
functionary. The mayor, too, was a royalist, and the matter was decided
against us.
Argument and reason having failed, the gallant Eighteenth came to
the resolution to try force; and accordingly it was decided that next
morning we should charge the _barrière_ in full gallop, as it was
rightly conjectured that no French employé would feel disposed to
encounter the rush of a four-in-hand, even with the law on his side. To
render the _coup de main_ more brilliant, and perhaps, too, to give an
air of plausibility to the infraction, four dashing thoroughbred
light chestnuts--two of the number having never felt a collar in their
lives--were harnessed for the occasion. A strong force of the wildest
spirits of the regiment took their places on the roof; and amid a cheer
that actually made the street ring, and a tantarara from the trumpets,
the equipage dashed through the town, the leaders bounding with the
swingle-bars every moment over their backs. Away we went, the populace
flying in terror on every side, and every eye turned towards the
_barrière_, where the dignified official stood, in the calm repose of
his station, as if daring us to transgress his frontier. Already had he
stepped forward with his accustomed question. The words, 'Messieurs,
je vous demande,' had just escaped his lips, when he had barely time
to spring into his den as the furious leaders tore past, the pavement
crashing beneath their hoofs, and shouts of laughter mingling with the
uproar.
[Illustration: 3-132]
Having driven for a league or so at a slow pace, to breathe our cattle,
we turned homewards, rejoicing in the success of our scheme, which had
fully satisfied our expectations. What was our chagrin, however, as
we neared the _barrière_, to discover that a strong force of mounted
gendarmes stopped the way, their drawn sabres giving us plainly to
understand the fate that awaited our horses if we persisted in our plan!
What was to be done? To force a passage under the circumstances was only
to give an opportunity to the gendarmerie they were long anxious for, to
cut our whole equipage in pieces. To yield was the only alternative; but
what an alternative!--to be laughed at by the whole town on the very day
of our victory!
'I have it!' said O'Grady, who sat on the box beside the driver--'I have
it, lads! Pull up when they tell you, and do as they direct.'
With some difficulty the four dashing nags were reined in as we came up
to the _barrière_; and the commissaire, bursting with passion, appeared
at the door of the lodge, and directed us to get down.
'Your passports will avail little on the present occasion,' said he
insolently, as we produced our papers. 'Your carriage and horses
are confiscated. St. Omer has now privilege as a fortified town. The
fortresses of France enforce a penalty of forty thousand francs----'
A burst of laughter from the bystanders at our rueful faces prevented us
hearing the remainder of the explanation. Meanwhile, to our horror
and disgust, some half-dozen gendarmes, with their long caps and heavy
boots, were crawling up the sides of the drag, and taking their seats
upon the top. Some crept into the interior, and showed their grinning
faces at the windows; others mounted into the rumble; and two more
aspiring spirits ascended to the box, by one of whom O'Grady was rudely
ordered to get down, a summons enforced by the commissaire himself in
a tone of considerable insolence. O'Grady's face for a minute or two
seemed working with a secret impulse of fun and devilment which I
could not account for at such a moment, as he asked, in a voice of much
humility--
'Does Monsieur the Commissaire require me to come down?'
'Instantly,' roared the Frenchman, whose passion was now boiling over.
'In that case, gentlemen, take charge of the team.' So saying, he handed
the reins to the passive gendarmes, who took them, without well knowing
why. 'I have only a piece of advice,' continued Phil, as he slowly
descended the side--'keep a steady hand on the near-side leader, and
don't let the bar strike her; and now, good-bye.'
He flourished his four-in-hand whip as he spoke, and with one tremendous
cut came down on the team, from leader to wheeler, accompanying the
stroke with a yell there was no mistaking. The heavy carriage bounded
from the earth as the infuriated cattle broke away at full gallop. A
narrow street and a sharp angle lay straight in front; but few of those
on the drag waited for the turn, as at every step some bearskin shako
shot into the air, followed by a tall figure, whose heavy boots seemed
ill-adapted for flying in. The corporal himself had abandoned the reins,
and held on manfully by the rail of the box. On every side they fell,
in every attitude of distress. But already the leaders had reached the
corner; round went the swingle-bars, the wheelers followed, the coach
rocked to one side, sprang clean off the pavement, came down with a
crash, and then fell right over, while the maddened horses, breaking
away, dashed through the town, the harness in fragments behind them, and
the pavement flying at every step.
The immediate consequences of this affair were some severe bruises,
and no small discouragement to the gendarmerie of St. Omer; the
remoter ones, an appeal from the municipal authorities to the
Commander-in-chief, by whom the matter was referred for examination
to the Adjutant-General. O'Grady was accordingly summoned to Paris
to explain, if he could, his conduct in the matter. The order for his
appearance there came down at once, and I, having nothing to detain me
at St. Omer, resolved to accompany my friend for a few days at least,
before I returned to England. Our arrangements were easily made; and the
same night we received the Adjutant-General's letter we started by post
for Paris.