When the French army fell back across the Sambre, after the battle of
Mons, a considerable portion of the rear, who covered the retreat,
were cut off by the enemy, for it became their onerous duty to keep the
allied forces in check, while the Republicans took measures to secure
and hold fast the three bridges over the river. In this service many
distinguished French officers fell, and many more were left badly
wounded on the field; among the latter was a young captain of dragoons,
who, with his hand nearly severed by a sabre-cut, yet found strength
enough to crawl under cover of a hedge, and there lie down in the
fierce resolve to die where he was, rather than surrender himself as a
prisoner.
Although the allied forces had gained the battle, they quickly foresaw
that the ground they had won was untenable; and scarcely had night
closed in when they began their preparations to fall back. With strong
pickets of observation to watch the bridges, they slowly withdrew
their columns towards Mons, posting the artillery on the heights around
Grandrengs. From these movements, the ground of the late struggle became
comparatively deserted, and before day began to dawn, not a sound was
heard over its wide expanse, save the faint moan of a dying soldier, or
the low rumble of a cart, as some spoiler of the dead stole stealthily
along. Among the demoralising effects of war, none was more striking
than the number of the peasantry who betook themselves to this infamous
trade, and who, neglecting all thoughts of honest industry, devoted
themselves to robbery and plunder. The lust of gain did not stop with
the spoil of the dead, but the wounded were often found stripped of
everything, and in some cases the traces of fierce struggle, and the
wounds of knives and hatchets, showed that murder had consummated the
iniquity of these wretches.
In part from motives of pure humanity, in part from feelings of a more
interested nature--for the terror to what this demoralisation would
tend was now great and widespread--the nobles and gentry of the land
instituted a species of society to reward those who might succour the
wounded, and who displayed any remarkable zest in their care for the
sufferers after a battle. This generous philanthropy was irrespective of
country, and extended its benevolence to the soldiers of either army. Of
course, personal feeling enjoyed all its liberty of preference, but
it is fair to say that the cases were few where the wounded man could
detect the political leanings of his benefactor.
The immense granaries, so universal in the Low Countries, were usually
fitted up as hospitals, and many rooms of the château itself were often
devoted to the same purpose, the various individuals of the household,
from the ‘seigneur’ to the lowest menial, assuming some office in
the great work of charity. And it was a curious thing to see how the
luxurious indolence of château life became converted into the zealous
activity of useful benevolence; and not less curious to the moralist to
observe how the emergent pressure of great crime so instinctively, as it
were, suggested this display of virtuous humanity.
It was a little before daybreak that a small cart drawn by a mule drew
up beside the spot where the wounded dragoon sat, with his shattered
arm bound up in his sash, calmly waiting for the death that his sinking
strength told could not be far distant. As the peasant approached him,
he grasped his sabre in the left hand, resolved on making a last and
bold resistance; but the courteous salutation, and the kindly look of
the honest countryman, soon showed that he was come on no errand of
plunder, while, in the few words of bad French he could muster, he
explained his purpose.
‘No, no, my kind friend,’ said the officer, ‘your labour would only be
lost on me. It is nearly all over already! A little farther on in the
field, yonder, where that copse stands, you’ll find some poor fellow or
other better worth your care, and more like to benefit by it. Adieu!’
But neither the farewell, nor the abrupt gesture that accompanied it,
could turn the honest peasant from his purpose. There was something
that interested him in this very disregard of life, as well as in the
personal appearance of the sufferer, and, without further colloquy, he
lifted the half-fainting form into the cart, and disposing the straw
comfortably on either side of him, set out homeward. The wounded man was
almost indifferent to what happened, and never spoke a word nor raised
his head as they went along. About three hours’ journey brought them to
a large old-fashioned chateau beside the Sambre, an immense straggling
edifice which, with a facade of nearly a hundred windows, looked out
upon the river. Although now in disrepair and neglect, with ill-trimmed
alleys and grass-grown terraces, it had been once a place of great
pretensions, and associated with some of the palmiest days of Flemish
hospitality. The Chateau d’Overbecque was the property of a certain rich
merchant of Antwerp, named D’ Aerschot, one of the oldest families of
the land, and was, at the time we speak of, the temporary abode of his
only son, who had gone there to pass the honeymoon. Except that they
were both young, neither of them yet twenty, too people could not easily
be found so discrepant in every circumstance and every quality. He
the true descendant of a Flemish house, plodding, commonplace, and
methodical, hating show and detesting expense. She a lively, volatile
girl, bursting with desire to see and be seen, fresh from the restraint
of a convent at Bruges, and anxious to mix in all the pleasures and
dissipations of the world. Like all marriages in their condition, it
had been arranged without their knowledge or consent. Circumstances of
fortune made the alliance suitable; so many hundred thousand florins on
one side were wedded to an equivalent on the other, and the young people
were married to facilitate the ‘transaction.’
That he was not a little shocked at the gay frivolity of his beautiful
bride, and she as much disappointed at the staid demureness of her
stolid-looking husband, is not to be wondered at; but their friends knew
well that time would smooth down greater discrepancies than even these.
And if ever there was a country, the monotony of whose life could subdue
all to its own leaden tone, it was Holland in old days. Whether engaged
in the active pursuit of gain in the great cities, or enjoying the
luxurious repose of château life, a dull, dreary uniformity pervaded
everything--the same topics, the same people, the same landscape,
recurred day after day; and save what the season induced, there was
nothing of change in the whole round of their existence. And what a dull
honeymoon was it for that young bride at the old Château of Overbecque!
To toil along the deep sandy roads in a lumbering old coach with two
long-tailed black horses--to halt at some little eminence, and strain
the eyes over a long unbroken flat, where a windmill, miles off, was an
object of interest--to loiter beside the bank of a sluggish canal, and
gaze on some tasteless excrescence of a summer-house, whose owner could
not be distinguished from the wooden effigy that sat, pipe in mouth,
beside him--to dine in the unbroken silence of a funeral feast, and doze
away the afternoon over the _Handelsblatt_, while her husband smoked
himself into the seventh heaven of a Dutch Elysium--poor Caroline! this
was a sorry realisation of all her bright dreamings! It ought to be
borne in mind, that many descendants of high French families, who were
either too proud or too poor to emigrate to England or America, had
sought refuge from the Revolution in the convents of the Low Countries;
where, without entering an order, they lived in all the discipline of a
religious community. These ladies, many of whom had themselves mixed in
all the elegant dissipations of the Court, carried with them the most
fascinating reminiscences of a life of pleasure, and could not readily
forget the voluptuous enjoyments of Versailles, and the graceful
caprices of ‘Le Petit Trianon.’ From such sources as these the young
pupils drew all their ideas of the world, and assuredly it could have
scarcely worn colours more likely to fascinate such imaginations.
What a shortcoming was the wearisome routine of Overbecque to a mind
full of all the refined follies of Marie Antoinette’s Court! Even war
and its chances offered a pleasurable contrast to such dull monotony,
and the young bride hailed with eagerness the excitement and bustle of
the moving armies--the long columns which poured along the highroad, and
the clanking artillery heard for miles off! Monsieur d’Aerschot, like
all his countrymen who held property near the frontier, was too prudent
to have any political bias. Madame was, however, violently French. The
people who had such admirable taste in toilet could scarcely be wrong in
the theories of government; and a nation so invariably correct in dress,
could hardly be astray in morals. Besides this, all their notions of
mortality were as pliant and as easy to wear as their own well-fitting
garments. Nothing was wrong but what looked ungracefully; everything
was right that sat becomingly on her who did it--a short code, and
wonderfully easy to learn. If I have dealt somewhat tediously on these
tendencies of the time, it is that I may pass the more glibly over the
consequences, and not pause upon the details by which the young French
captain’s residence at Overbecque gradually grew, from the intercourse
of kindness and good offices, to be a close friendship with his host,
and as much of regard and respectful devotion as consisted with the
position of his young and charming hostess.
He thought her, as she certainly was, very beautiful; she rode to
perfection, she sang delightfully; she had all the volatile gaiety of
a happy child, with the graceful ease of coming womanhood. Her very
passion for excitement gave a kind of life and energy to the dull old
château, and made her momentary absence felt as a dreary blank.
It is not my wish to speak of the feelings suggested by the contrast
between her husband and the gay and chivalrous young soldier, nor how
little such comparisons tended to allay the repinings at her lot.
Their first effect was, however, to estrange her more and more from
D’Aerschot, a change which he accepted with the most Dutch indifference.
Possibly, piqued by this, or desirous of awakening his jealousy, she
made more advances towards the other, selecting him as the companion
of her walks, and passing the greater part of each day in his society.
Nothing could be more honourable than the young soldier’s conduct
in this trying position. The qualities of agreeability which he had
previously displayed to requite, in some sort, the hospitality of his
hosts, he now gradually restrained, avoiding as far as he could,
without remark, the society of the young countess, and even feigning
indisposition to escape from the peril of her intimacy.
He did more--he exerted himself to draw D’Aerschot more out, to make
him exhibit the shrewd intelligence which lay buried beneath his native
apathy, and display powers of thought and reflection of no mean order.
Alas! these very efforts on his part only increased the mischief, by
adding generosity to his other virtues! He now saw all the danger in
which he was standing, and, although still weak and suffering, resolved
to take his departure. There was none of the concealed vanity of a
coxcomb in this knowledge. He heartily deplored the injury he had
unwittingly done, and the sorry return he had made for all their
generous hospitality.
There was not a moment to be lost; but the very evening before, as they
walked together in the garden, she had confessed to him the misery in
which she lived by recounting the story of her ill-sorted marriage. What
it cost him to listen to that sad tale with seeming coldness--to hear
her afflictions without offering one word of kindness; nay, to proffer
merely some dry, harsh counsels of patience and submission, while
he added something very like rebuke for her want of that assiduous
affection which should have been given to her husband!
Unaccustomed to even the slightest censure, she could scarcely trust her
ears as she heard him. Had she humiliated herself, by such a confession,
to be met by advice like this? And was it he that should reproach her
for the very faults his own intimacy had engendered? She could not
endure the thought, and she felt that she could hate, just at the very
moment when she knew she loved him!
They parted in anger--reproaches, the most cutting and bitter, on her
part; coldness, far more wounding, on his! Sarcastic compliments upon
his generosity, replied to by as sincere expressions of respectful
friendship. What hypocrisy and self-deceit together! And yet deep
beneath all, lay the firm resolve for future victory. Her wounded
self-love was irritated, and she was not one to turn from an unfinished
purpose. As for him, he waited till all was still and silent in the
house, and then seeking out D’Aerschot’s chamber, thanked him most
sincerely for all his kindness, and, affecting a hurried order to join
his service, departed. While in her morning dreams she was fancying
conquest, he was already miles away on the road to France.
*****
It was about three years after this, that a number of French officers
were seated one evening in front of a little café in Freyburg. The town
was then crammed with troops moving down to occupy the passes of the
Rhine, near the Lake of Constance, and every hour saw fresh arrivals
pouring in, dusty and wayworn from the march. The necessity for a sudden
massing of the troops in a particular spot compelled the generals to
employ every possible means of conveyance to forward the men to their
destination, and from the lumbering old diligence with ten horses, to
the light charrette with one, all were engaged in this pressing service.
When men were weary, and unable to march forward, they were taken up
for twelve or fourteen miles, after which they proceeded on their
way, making room for others, and thus forty and even fifty miles were
frequently accomplished in the same day.
The group before the café were amusing themselves criticising the
strange appearance of the new arrivals, many of whom certainly made
their entry in the least military fashion possible. Here came a great
country waggon, with forty infantry soldiers all sleeping on the straw.
Here followed a staff-officer trying to look quite at his ease in a
donkey-cart. Unwieldy old bullock-carts were filled with men, and a
half-starved mule tottered along with a drummer-boy in one pannier, and
camp-kettles in the other.
He who was fortunate enough to secure a horse for himself was obliged
to carry the swords and weapons of his companions, which were all hung
around and about him on every side, together with helmets and shakos of
all shapes and sizes, whose owners were fain to cover their head with
the less soldierlike appendages of a nightcap or a handkerchief. Nearly
all who marched carried their caps on their muskets, for in such times
as these all discipline is relaxed, save such as is indispensable to the
maintenance of order; and so far was freedom conceded, that some were to
be seen walking barefoot in the ranks, while their shoes were suspended
by a string on their backs. The rule seemed to be ‘Get forward--it
matters not how--only get forward!’
And with French troops, such relaxation of strict discipline is always
practicable; the instincts of obedience return at the first call of the
bugle or the first roll of the drum; and at the word to ‘fall in!’ every
symptom of disorder vanishes, and the mass of seeming confusion becomes
the steady and silent phalanx.
Many were the strange sights that passed before the eyes of the party at
the café, who, having arrived early in the day, gave themselves all the
airs of ease and indolence before their wayworn comrades. Now laughing
heartily at the absurdity of this one, now exchanging some good-humoured
jest with that, they were in the very full current of their criticism,
when the sharp, shrill crack of a postillion’s whip informed them that
a traveller of some note was approaching. A mounted courier, all slashed
with gold lace, came riding up the street at the same moment, and a
short distance behind followed a handsome equipage, drawn by six horses,
after which came a heavy fourgon, with four.
One glance showed that the whole equipage betokened a wealthy owner.
There was all that cumbrous machinery of comfort about it that tells
of people who will not trust to the chances of the road for their daily
wants. Every appliance of ease was there; and even in the self-satisfied
air of the servants who lounged in the rumble might be read habits of
affluent prosperity. A few short years back, and none would have dared
to use such an equipage. The sight of so much indulgence would have
awakened the fiercest rage of popular fury; but already the high fever
of democracy was gradually subsiding, and, bit by bit, men were found
reverting to old habits and old usages. Still each new indication of
these tastes met a certain amount of reprobation. Some blamed openly,
some condemned in secret; but all felt that there was at least impolicy
in a display which would serve as pretext for the terrible excesses that
were committed under the banner of ‘Equality.’
‘If we lived in the days of princes,’ said one of the officers, ‘I
should say there goes one now. Just look at all the dust they are
kicking up yonder; while, as if to point a moral upon greatness, they
are actually stuck fast in the narrow street, and unable, from their own
unwieldiness, to get farther.’
‘Just so,’ cried another; ‘they want to turn down towards the “Swan,”
and there isn’t space enough to wheel the leaders.’
‘Who or what are they?’ asked a third.
‘Some commissary-general, I’ll be sworn,’ said the first. ‘They are the
most shameless thieves going; for they are never satisfied with robbery,
if they do not exhibit the spoils in public.’
‘I see a bonnet and a lace veil,’ said another, rising suddenly, and
pushing through the crowd. ‘I’ll wager it’s a danseuse of the Grand
Opéra.’
‘Look at Mérode!’ remarked the former, as he pointed to the last
speaker. ‘See how he thrusts himself forward there. ‘Watch, and you’ll
see him bow and smile to her, as if they had been old acquaintances.’
The guess was so far unlucky, that Mérode had no sooner come within
sight of the carriage-window, than he was seen to bring his hand to
the salute, and remain in an attitude of respectful attention till the
equipage moved on.
‘Well, Mérode, who is it?--who are they?’ cried several together, as he
fell back among his comrades.
‘It’s our new adjutant-general, _parbleu!_’ said he, ‘and he caught me
staring in at his pretty wife.’
‘Colonel Mahon!’ said another, laughing. ‘I wish you joy of your
gallantry, Mérode.’ ‘And, worse still,’ broke in a third, ‘she is not
his wife. She never could obtain the divorce to allow her to marry
again. Some said it was the husband--a Dutchman, I believe--refused it;
but the simple truth is, she never wished it herself.’
‘How not wish it?’ remarked three or four in a breath.
‘Why should she? Has she not every advantage the position could give
her, and her liberty into the bargain? If we were back again in the old
days of the Monarchy, I agree with you she could not go to Court; she
would receive no invitations to the _petits soupers_ of the Trianon, nor
be asked to join the discreet hunting-parties at Fontainebleau; but we
live in less polished days; and if we have little virtue, we have less
hypocrisy.’
‘_Voilà!_’ cried another; ‘only I, for one, would never believe that we
are a jot more wicked or more dissolute than those powdered and perfumed
scoundrels that played courtier in the king’s bedchamber.’
‘There, they are getting out, at the “Tour d’Argent!”’ cried another.
‘She is a splendid figure, and what magnificence in her dress!’
‘Mahon waits on her like a lackey,’ muttered a grim old lieutenant of
infantry.
‘Rather like a well-born cavalier, I should say,’ interposed a young
hussar. ‘His manner is all that it ought to be--full of devotion and
respect.’
‘Bah!’ said the former; ‘a soldier’s wife, or a soldier’s mistress--for
it’s all one--should know how to climb up to her place on the
baggage-waggon, without three lazy rascals to catch her sleeve or her
petticoats for her.’
‘Mahon is as gallant a soldier as any in this army,’ said the hussar;
‘and I’d not be in the man’s coat who disparaged him in anything.’
‘By St. Denis!’ broke in another, ‘he’s not more brave than he is
fortunate. Let me tell you, it’s no slight luck to chance upon so lovely
a woman as that, with such an immense fortune, too.’
‘Is she rich?’
‘Enormously rich. He has nothing. An _émigré_ of good family, I believe,
but without a sou; and see how he travels yonder!’
While this conversation was going forward, the new arrivals had alighted
at the chief inn of the town, and were being installed in the principal
suite of rooms, which opened on a balcony over the ‘Place.’ The active
preparations of the host to receive such distinguished guests--the
hurrying of servants here and there--the blaze of wax-lights that shone
half-way across the street beneath--and, lastly, the appearance of a
regimental band to play under the windows--were all circumstances well
calculated to sustain and stimulate that spirit of sharp criticism which
the group around the café were engaged in.
The discussion was, however, suddenly interrupted by the entrance of an
officer, at whose appearance every one arose and stood in attitudes
of respectful attention. Scarcely above the middle size, and more
remarkable for the calm and intellectual cast of his features, than for
that, air of military pride then so much in vogue amongst the French
troops, he took his place at a small table near the door, and called for
his coffee. It was only when he was seated, and that by a slight gesture
he intimated his wishes to that effect, that the others resumed their
places, and continued the conversation, but in a lower, more subdued
tone.
‘What distinguished company have we got yonder?’ said he, after about
half an hour’s quiet contemplation of the crowd before the inn, and the
glaring illumination from the windows.
‘Colonel Mahon, of the Fifth Cuirassiers, general,’ replied an officer.
‘Our Republican simplicity is not so self-denying a system, after all,
gentlemen,’ said the general, smiling half sarcastically. ‘Is he very
rich?’
‘His mistress is, general,’ was the prompt reply.
‘Bah!’ said the general, as he threw his cigar away, and, with a
contemptuous expression of look, arose and walked away.
‘_Parbleu!_ he’s going to the inn!’ cried an officer, who peered out
after him. ‘I’ll be sworn Mahon will get a heavy reprimand for all this
display and ostentation.’
‘And why not?’ said another. ‘Is it when men are arriving half dead with
fatigue, without rations, without billets, glad to snatch a few hours’
rest on the stones of the “Place,” that the colonel of a regiment should
travel with all the state of an eastern despot?’
‘We might as well have the Monarchy back again,’ said an old
weather-beaten captain; ‘I say far better, for their vices sat
gracefully and becomingly on those essenced scoundrels, whereas they but
disfigure the plainness of our daily habits.’
‘All this is sheer envy, comrades,’ broke in a young major of
hussars--‘sheer envy; or what is worse, downright hypocrisy. Not one of
us is a whit better or more moral than if he wore the livery of a king,
and carried a crown on his shako instead of that naked damsel that
represents French Liberty. Mahon is the luckiest fellow going, and, I
heartily believe, the most deserving of his fortune! And see if General
Moreau be not of my opinion.
There he is on the balcony, and she is leaning on his arm.’
‘_Parbleu!_ the major is right!’ said another; ‘but, for certain, it was
not in that humour he left us just now; his lips were closely puckered
up, and his fingers were twisted into his sword-knot--two signs of anger
and displeasure there’s no mistaking.’
‘If he’s in a better temper, then,’ said another, ‘it was never the
smiles of a pretty woman worked the change. There’s not a man in France
so thoroughly indifferent to such blandishments.’
‘_Tant pis pour lui,_’ said the major; ‘but they’re closing the
window-shutters, and we may as well go home.’