THE PASS OF OLDENBURG.
Here again, as at Boitzenburg and elsewhere, the desperate duty of
keeping Tilly in check until Duke Bernard's Danish forces were
re-embarked, was reserved for the Highlanders of the regiment of
Strathnaver. Well did the duke know, that if they failed, no other
troops could perform this all but hopeless and most arduous duty.
Bent on cutting off the retreat of our able and valiant leader, Tilly
was marching all his force against that little peninsula, the neck of
which is occupied by the venerable Oldenburg.
In the pass or hollow way through which the high-road wound, we threw
up a strong barricade or redoubt of earth and turf, embrasured for
six pieces of cannon, with the talus sloped for musketry; a ditch lay
in front, and in the angle a small sallyport, by which our troop of
pistoliers could pass out and retire again. We had this small troop
of horse to assist us if compelled to retire; for it was then
becoming customary to post squadrons of cavalry between platoons of
infantry--a tactique first adopted by the Swedes after their great
defeat in 1614.
We made the place very strong, flanked it out to give a cross fire,
and availed ourselves of some ruinous walls, the fragments of an
ancient fort--old perhaps as the days of Dan, the supposed founder of
the Danish monarchy. The whole day we toiled, and with evening saw
our barricade completed, then we rested for a time from our labours,
which included the demolition of several houses for materials to
construct the work, and the usual appropriation of their furniture
for fuel to make ourselves comfortable.
On this evening--the last which many were doomed to see--the sun set
gloriously. Sinking behind crimson bars, like an orb of burning
gold, it lingered long in the shining west, for the scenery was
level, or gently undulated, and interspersed by clumps of pale green
birch and darker beech, and little marshy lakes, where the wild-goose
and the snow-white swan were floating as yet undisturbed. Towards
the pass where we were posted, the sunlight stole along the verdant
hollows, tinging with a deep purple flush the little stream which
last night had saved us, and was now gliding on without obstruction,
and stealing imperceptibly towards the Baltic. The horizon was all
of a violet hue; the spire of Oldenburg seemed a cone of flame, and
the ocean a mirror of blue and gold. The corn was waving in yellow
ear; the heather moss was in purple flower, just as we might see it
in our own dear mountain home; the honey-bee was floating over the
wild-flowers that grew by the wayside; while the woodlark and
goldfinch sang in the scattered coppice, and the brown sparrow and
the robin redbreast twittered on the green hedges. I remember that
Ernestine told me a beautiful old German legend about that honest
bird the robin, and how its breast first became reddened by flying
against the side of our wounded Saviour, when bleeding upon the
cross. It is an ancient and pretty legend, and, like others, will
soon be forgotten.
In the warm sunshine, I lay on the grassy sward reflecting on the
deadly struggle which was about to ensue, and had inevitably to be
encountered before I could have the least chance of again seeing
Ernestine.
I might be carried on board, wounded perhaps, to be again under her
tender care; or I might perhaps be placed on board another vessel;
or, more likely than, either, I might be left behind, shot in the
pass, to lie there--left unburied by the Imperialists; left, like too
many of our brave men, to gorge the maws of the wolf and the raven.
Amid this gloomy reverie, I heard the drums beat and the pipes sound
the gathering; all my dark thoughts were forgotten in a moment; I
fastened my plaid, drew my sword, and sprang up to lead my company to
its duty.
The Imperialists were coming on, and now were less than half a mile
distant; the head of the first column was marching straight towards
us, as we could distinctly perceive by the cloud of dust which rolled
along the roadway, and the brightness of their arms, which, as they
were advancing, reflected the sun's rays steadily and
perpendicularly, for it is necessary to march with arms shouldered
when the matches are lighted. If the glitter of arms is varied and
uncertain, outposts may always be assured that the enemy are retiring.
Galled by our six pieces of cannon, which every moment ploughed
frightful lanes through their deep formation, three heavy columns
came on, leaving a long train of killed and wounded behind them. The
din of this cannonade brought out the other wing of our regiment from
Heilinghafen to support us.
Loud and long blew Torquil Gorm, our piper-major and his companions;
and, as the wild pibroch of Mackay floated over the level country, we
heard the drums of the Imperialists beating in defiance and reply.
By the aid of his Galileo glass, Sir Donald, our colonel, discovered
that the attacking column was the ferocious regiment of Merodé, with
the red cross and black eagle on its colours.
Their cannon slew many of our men; the first struck was my ensign,
Hugh Rose of Kilravock, whose leg was torn off immediately below the
kilt, by the ball of a spirole, or serpentine gun, and he was carried
to the rear across the Lochaber axes of Phadrig Mhor and Sergeant
M'Gillvray; but the brave boy's spirit never quailed, and he
frequently cried,
"Stand by the white banner--the _brattach bane_! Stand by the
Scottish cross, my brave comrades! I shall march with you on a
wooden stump yet."
"Children of the Gael," cried our colonel in Gaëlic; "keep shoulder
to shoulder; here is the white banner of Clan Aoidh--blow your
matches--guard your pans--give fire!"
Like a stream of red light, the rapid musketry poured death over the
summit of the dark earthen bank, and we saw the Imperialists falling
over each other, like fish shaken out of a net; while the thirsty
soil literally smoked with their Austrian blood. There was a
momentary pause! But the ranks were closed up; the colours were bent
forward, and their officers with brandished pikes and rapiers led
them on. A lurid streak of fire ran along their ranks; closely and
simultaneously it flashed from all the levelled muzzles, and a
hail-storm of bullets was poured against us, but they generally sank
thick and fast into the breastwork, or swept harmlessly over our
heads. A few rattled among our helmets, and I heard a heavy
clattering on my right and left, as a few of our soldiers fell prone
with all their accoutrements on the ground.
On pressed the undaunted foe with tumultuous shouts; with standards
waving and hoarse drums beating rapidly, they spread before us like a
glittering mass, and our men fired point-blank into it, being sure,
as the colonel said, that "every bullet would kill more than its man."
"To your duty! to your duty! my brave hearts of Strathnaver! level
low, and level surely!" exclaimed our colonel, waving his sword over
the parapet, his scarlet plaid and rich Spanish doublet making him
the aim of a hundred muskets. "They break, but they do not recoil;
they are again advancing. Well done, men of Lochnaver-side--my
father's people! To your duty, clan Aoidh, clan Vurich, and clan
Chattan!" he added, to compliment and encourage the men of the
various tribes who composed the regiment.
Ian, M'Coll of that Ilk, Munro of Culcraigie, M'Kenzie of Kildon, and
others, imitated his example; and a wild Highland cheer responded to
the bold chieftain of Mackay, the hero of a hundred feudal conflicts
and daring creaghs; while the rattle of brass buts and ramrods, the
casting about of muskets, with the incessant and rapid fire volleyed
over the breastwork, evinced how arduously our soldiers fought; and
every time the smoke cleared away, we saw the brave pikemen of
Camargo, and the hardy musketeers of Merodé writhing on the ground,
and rolling over each other in their agony. In many places there
were others who lay still enough indeed.
Led by officers of the most heroic courage and devoted zeal,--among
whom I recognised the Count of Carlstein, conspicuous by his
brilliant armour, red plume, and beautiful horse, brandishing
_Ironhewer_--again the first column flung themselves like a living
sea against the redoubt, and leaped into the rough trench, officers
and musketeers, pikemen and halberdiers, pell-mell, with standards,
scaling-ladders, axes, and sledge-hammers.
"Pikes against stormers," cried Sir Donald; "pikemen to the
front--shoulder to shoulder, my children! Fire, musketeers!--fire
low, and push with your pikes, my gallant pikemen! The bullet
misses, but the pike never. To your duty, my brave duinewassals--my
true Scottish cavaliers! Claymore--claymore and biodag!"
Loaded to their muzzles with musket-shot and grape, our cannon, swept
the ditch, and cleared it of all but the dead and the dying, who lay
there in frightful heaps, with their maimed bodies and torn armour
drenched in that red current which the thirsty soil imbibed. Again
and again they came on, and again and again we repelled
them--maintaining the pass against them for two hours with the most
desperate valour.
Thrice I saw the count--the brave father of Ernestine--fall, when,
struck by successive shots, his horse sank under him; but he seemed
to have a charmed life, and thrice his noble horse was again dragged
to its feet by the assistance of Count Kœningheim, his
aide-de-camp, whose sword-arm was tied up by a blood-stained scarf.
Thus was the contest continued until our men became exhausted by
casting about their muskets, and their bandoleers were emptied.
We then fell back and gave place to our left wing under Ian; again
the fury of the Imperialists was severely curbed, and again the
deadly strife was renewed with them, till the encumbered ditch was
almost piled breast-high with dead. For every Highlandman who lay
killed or wounded behind the redoubt, at least ten Austrians lay
before it; for in showers our cannon shot tore through their dense
ranks, which were eight and twelve deep, an ancient order of battle
which Tilly obstinately retained, and which is coeval with the wars
of Julius Caesar.
To me this carnage was nothing then; my blood was fairly roused, and
the poor shattered fragments of humanity that lay in the trench, were
of little more moment than the fallen leaves of a forest. Yet I
could recall the time when I had shuddered at the puncture of a
doctor's lancet; but none save an old soldier can know how (for a
time) such scenes will harden the human heart.
We formed in rear of the left wing, and almost beyond musket-shot;
but our hearts were still on fire, and again we longed to join in
that fierce strife before us. The sun had set; but the moon was
rising from the Baltic to aid the long lingering twilight of the
north, and above the clouds of snow-white smoke which enveloped the
sconce, the pass, and the assailing columns, we saw the black ravens
floating in mid-air; for these dire birds had learned to know the
sound that usually preceded their ghastly banquets.
Our dead and wounded lay around us thickly; and among the former, I
found my poor young ensign, Hugh Rose. He lay within three feet of a
bright brooklet, which gurgled among the long grass and the
wild-flowers. Left to bleed to death, the unhappy sufferer had
evidently expired in a futile attempt to reach the water, and many
others who had crawled so far lay dead within it; thus, crimsoned
with their blood, that flower-bordered rivulet soon became a hideous
puddle; yet therein our wounded and weary would still continue to
slake their thirst, crowding and jostling each other as they drank
out of their helmets and hands.
As I viewed this painful scene by the cold glare of the moon, I
thought of the old Danish ballad of the great battle at Chalons,
where the vassal kings of Attila, the scourge of God, fought against
the warriors of Ætius; for it is related that there a similar
incident occurred.
Meanwhile, the roar of musketry continued in front, and the brave men
of our left wing, under my valiant kinsman the major, kept the foe in
check until the night was fairly set in, when Rittmaster Hume of
Carrolside, colonel of the Scottish pistoliers, arrived from Duke
Bernard with an order for us to retire, as his troops, horses, and
cannon were all re-embarked, but this was afterwards proved to be a
mistake. Immediately upon this our cannon were spiked to render them
useless--a fashion first introduced by Gaspar Vimercalus of Bremen;
the redoubt was abandoned; our left wing fell back double quick, and
formed with the right into one solid square, with the pikes without,
the musketeers and colours within.
We retired as fast as we could, aware that if the Imperial cavalry
and artillery got through the barricade at the pass, all would be
over with us; as the former would inevitably cut us to pieces if we
formed line, and the other might slaughter us by whole companies if
we retreated in square.
With yells of fierce triumph, like a pack of unkennelled
blood-hounds, we could perceive the regiments of Merodé and Camargo
swarming over the deserted breastwork, where their helmets and
weapons flashed and glittered in the moonlight as they formed in some
order and pursued us double quick.
At that decisive moment they received a sudden check; for the gallant
Baron of Klosterfiord, taking advantage of their partial formation,
advanced against them with his troop, which was principally composed
of sturdy Holsteiners.
"Holstein, Holstein!" cried the baron, rising in his stirrups and
brandishing his sword.
"Holstein Glaube! Holstein Glaube!" cried the pistoliers, and with
plumes of white horse-hair waving on their steel helmets, and the
blue blades of their rapiers flashing in the moonlight, they swept
forward; and their heavy horses--the large, dark, glossy bays of
Holstein and Jutland--burst headlong into the Austrian ranks, and
rode right through them. There was a tremendous crash--a yell--a
horrible confusion, and a flashing of swords; then a discharge of
fire-arms was followed by the sound of a trumpet, and the brave
pistoliers rejoined us at a hand gallop, leaving only a few of their
number behind them. It was, indeed, a brilliant charge!
Captains M'Kenzie of Kildon, the Red M'Alpine, Sir Patrick Mackay,
and the laird of Tulloch, with Lieutenant Stuart, and five ensigns,
were severely wounded in this affair; so many officers had been
killed that we had scarcely enough left to command our pikes; and the
colonel's own company, which was almost entirely composed of young
duinewassals, or Highland cavaliers of good family, was literally
reduced to a skeleton.
Between us and the enemy it was now a race for who should first reach
Heilinghafen; but in rapidity of movement they were no match for the
barekneed men of the Scottish mountains.