If the guide who is to lead us on a long and devious track stops at
every byway, following out each path that seems to invite a ramble or
suggest a halt, we naturally might feel distrustful of his safe conduct,
and uneasy at the prospect of the road before us. In the same way
may the reader be disposed to fear that he who descends to slight and
trivial circumstances will scarcely have time for events which ought
to occupy a wider space in his reminiscences; and for this reason I am
bound to apologise for the seeming transgression of my last chapter.
Most true it is, that were I to relate the entire of my life with a
similar diffuseness, my memoir would extend to a length far beyond what
I intend it to occupy. Such, however, is very remote from my thoughts.
I have dwelt with, perhaps, something of prolixity upon the soldier-life
and characteristics of a past day, because I shall yet have to speak of
changes, without which the contrast would be inappreciable; but I have
also laid stress upon an incident trivial in itself, because it formed
an event in my own fortunes. It was thus, in fact, that I became a
soldier.
Now, the man who carries a musket in the ranks may very reasonably be
deemed but a small ingredient of the mass that forms an army; and in our
day his thoughts, hopes, fears, and ambitions are probably as unknown
and uncared for as the precise spot of earth that yielded the ore from
which his own weapon was smelted. This is not only reasonable, but it is
right in the time of which I am now speaking it was far otherwise. The
Republic, in extinguishing a class, had elevated the individual; and
now each, in whatever station he occupied, felt himself qualified to
entertain opinions and express sentiments which, because they were his
own, he presumed them to be national The idlers of the streets discussed
the deepest questions of politics; the soldiers talked of war with all
the presumption of consummate generalship. The great operations of a
campaign, and the various qualities of different commanders, were the
daily subjects of dispute in the camp. Upon one topic only were
all agreed; and there, indeed, our unanimity repaid all previous
discordance. We deemed France the only civilised nation of the globe,
and reckoned that people thrice happy who, by any contingency of
fortune, engaged our sympathy, or procured the distinction of our
presence in arms. We were the heaven-born disseminators of freedom
throughout Europe, the sworn enemies of kingly domination, and the
missionaries of a political creed, which was not alone to ennoble
mankind, but to render its condition eminently happy and prosperous.
There could not be an easier lesson to learn than this, and particularly
when dinned into your ears all day, and from every rank and grade around
you. It was the programme of every message from the Directory; it
was the opening of every general order from the general; it was the
table-talk of your mess. The burthen of every song, the title of every
military march performed by the regimental band, recalled it; even the
riding-master, as he followed the recruit around the weary circle,
whip in hand, mingled the orders he uttered with apposite axioms upon
republican grandeur. How I think I hear it still! as the grim old
quartermaster-sergeant, with his Alsatian accent and deep-toned voice,
would call out--
‘Elbows back!--wrist lower and free from the side--free, I say, as every
citizen of a great Republic!--head erect, as a Frenchman has a right to
carry it!--chest full out, like one who can breathe the air of heaven,
and ask no leave from king or despot!--down with your heel, sir; think
that you crush a tyrant beneath it!’
Such and such like were the running commentaries on equitation, till
often I forgot whether the lesson had more concern with a seat on
horseback or the great cause of monarchy throughout Europe. I suppose,
to use a popular phrase of our own day, ‘the system worked well’;
certainly the spirit of the army was unquestionable. From the grim old
veteran, with snow-white moustache, to the beardless, boy, there was but
one hope and wish--the glory of France. How they understood that glory,
or in what it essentially consisted, is another and very different
question.
Enrolled as a soldier in the ninth regiment of Hussars, I accompanied
that corps to Nancy, where, at that time, a large cavalry school was
formed, and where the recruits from the different regiments were trained
and managed before being sent forward to their destination.
A taste for equitation, and a certain aptitude for catching up the
peculiar character of the different horses, at once distinguished me in
the riding-school, and I was at last adopted by the riding-master of the
regiment as a kind of aide to him in his walk. When I thus became a bold
and skilful horseman, my proficiency interfered with my promotion,
for instead of accompanying my regiment I was detained at Nancy, and
attached to the permanent staff of the cavalry school there.
At first I asked for nothing better. It was a life of continued pleasure
and excitement, and while I daily acquired knowledge of a subject which
interested me deeply, I grew tall and strong of limb, and with
that readiness in danger, and that cool collectedness in moments of
difficulty, that are so admirably taught by the accidents and mischances
of a cavalry riding-school.
The most vicious and unmanageable beasts from the Limousin were often
sent to us, and when any one of these was deemed peculiarly untractable,
‘Give him to Tiernay’ was the last appeal, before abandoning him as
hopeless. I’m certain I owe much of the formation of my character to
my life at this period, and that my love of adventure, my taste
for excitement, my obstinate resolution to conquer a difficulty, my
inflexible perseverance when thwarted, and my eager anxiety for praise,
were all picked up amid the sawdust and tan of the riding-school. How
long I might have continued satisfied with such triumphs, and content
to be the wonder of the freshly joined conscripts, I know not, when
accident, or something very like it, decided the question.
It was a calm, delicious evening in April, in the year after I had
entered the school, that I was strolling alone on the old fortified
wall, which, once a strong redoubt, was the favourite walk of the good
citizens of Nancy. I was somewhat tired with the fatigues of the day,
and sat down to rest under one of the acacia-trees, whose delicious
blossom was already scenting the air. The night was still and noiseless;
not a man moved along the wall; the hum of the city was gradually
subsiding, and the lights in the cottages over the plain told that the
labourer was turning homeward from his toil. It was an hour to invite
calm thoughts, and so I fell a-dreaming over the tranquil pleasures of
a peasant’s life, and the unruffled peace of an existence passed amid
scenes that were endeared by years of intimacy. ‘How happily,’ thought
I, ‘time must steal on in these quiet spots, where the strife and
struggle of war are unknown, and even the sounds of conflict never
reach!’ Suddenly my musings were broken in upon by hearing the measured
tramp of cavalry, as at a walk; a long column wound their way along
the zigzag approaches, which by many a redoubt and fosse, over many a
drawbridge, and beneath many a strong arch, led to the gates of Nancy.
The loud, sharp call of a trumpet was soon heard, and, after a brief
parley, the massive gates of the fortress were opened for the troops to
enter. From the position I occupied exactly over the gate, I could not
only see the long, dark line of armed men as they passed, but also hear
the colloquy which took place as they entered--
‘What regiment?*
‘Detachments of the 12th Dragoons and the 22nd Chasseurs à cheval.’
‘Where from?’
‘Valence.’
‘Whereto?’
‘The army of the Rhine.’
‘Pass on!’
And with the words the ringing sound of the iron-shod horses was heard
beneath the vaulted entrance. As they issued from beneath the long deep
arch, the men were formed in line along two sides of a wide ‘Place’
inside the walls, where, with that despatch that habit teaches, the
billets were speedily distributed, and the parties ‘told off’ in squads
for different parts of the city. The force seemed a considerable one,
and with all the celerity they could employ, the billeting occupied a
long time. As I watched the groups moving off, I heard the direction
given to one party, ‘Cavalry School--Rue de Lorraine.’ The young officer
who commanded the group took a direction exactly the reverse of the
right one; and hastening down from the rampart, I at once overtook them,
and explained the mistake. I offered them my guidance to the place,
which being willingly accepted, I walked along at their side.
Chatting as we went, I heard that the dragoons were hastily withdrawn
from La Vendee to form part of the force under General Hoche. The young
sous-lieutenant, a mere boy of my own age, had already served in two
campaigns in Holland and the south of France; had been wounded in the
Loire, and received his grade of officer at the hands of Hoche himself
on the field of battle.
He could speak of no other name--Hoche was the hero of all his thoughts;
his gallantry, his daring, his military knowledge, his coolness in
danger, his impetuosity in attack, his personal amiability, the mild
gentleness of his manner, were themes the young soldier loved to
dwell on; and however pressed by me to talk of war and its chances, he
inevitably came back to the one loved theme--his general.
When the men were safely housed for the night, I invited my new friend
to my own quarters, where, having provided the best entertainment I
could afford, we passed more than half the night in chatting. There
was nothing above mediocrity in the look or manner of the youth; his
descriptions of what he had seen were unmarked by anything glowing
or picturesque; his observations did not evince either a quick or a
reflective mind, and yet, over this mass of commonplace, enthusiasm
for his leader had shed a rich glow, like a gorgeous sunlight on a
landscape, that made all beneath it seem brilliant and splendid.
‘And now,’ said he, after an account of the last action he had seen,
‘and now, enough of myself; let’s talk of thee. Where hast thou been?’
‘Here!’ said I, with a sigh, and in a voice that shame had almost made
inaudible. ‘Here, here, at Nancy.’
‘Not always here?’
‘Just so. Always here.’
‘And what doing, _mon cher_? Thou art not one of the Municipal Guard,
surely?’
‘No,’ said I, smiling sadly, ‘I belong to the “École d’Équitation.’”
‘Ah, that’s it,’ said he, in somewhat of confusion; ‘I always thought
they selected old Serjeants _en retraite_, worn-out veterans, and
wounded fellows, for riding-school duty.’
‘Most of ours are such,’ said I, my shame increasing at every word--‘but
somehow they chose me also, and I had no will in the matter----’
‘No will in the matter, _parbleu!_ and why not? Every man in France has
a right to meet the enemy in the field. Thou art a soldier, a hussar of
the 9th, a brave and gallant corps, and art to be told that thy comrades
have the road to fame and honour open to them, whilst thou art to mope
away life like an invalided drummer? It is too gross an indignity, my
boy, and must not be borne. Away with you to-morrow at daybreak to the
état-major; ask to see the Commandant. You’re in luck, too, for our
colonel is with him now, and he is sure to back your request. Say that
you served in the school to oblige your superiors, but that you cannot
see all chances of distinction lost to you for ever by remaining there.
They’ve given you no grade yet, I see,’ continued he, looking at my arm.
‘None; I am still a private.’
‘And I a sous-lieutenant, just because I have been where powder was
flashing! You can ride well, of course?’
‘I defy the wildest Limousin to shake me in my saddle.’
‘And, as a swordsman, what are you?’
‘Gros Jean calls me his best pupil.’
‘Ah, true! you have Gros Jean here, the best _sabreur_ in France! And
here you are--a horseman, and one of Gros Jean’s _élèves_--rotting away
life in Nancy! Have you any friends in the service?’
‘Not one.’
‘Not one! Nor relations, nor connections?’
‘None. I am Irish by descent. My family are only French by one
generation.’
‘Irish! Ah! that’s lucky too,’ said he. ‘Our colonel is an Irishman. His
name is Mahon. You’re certain of getting your leave now. I’ll present
you to him to-morrow. We are to halt two days here, and before that is
over, I hope you’ll have made your last caracole in the riding-school of
Nancy.’
‘But remember,’ cried I, ‘that although Irish by family, I have never
been there. I know nothing of either the people or the language--and do
not present me to the general as his countryman.’
‘I’ll call you by your name, as a soldier of the 9th Hussars, and leave
you to make out your claim as countrymen, if you please, together.’
This course was now agreed upon, and after some further talking, my
friend, refusing all my offers of a bed, coolly wrapped his cloak about
him, and, with his head on the table, fell fast asleep, long before
I had ceased thinking over his stories and his adventures in camp and
battlefield.