A WANDERING EAGLE.
My father seemed to be much of Jim Horscroft's opinion; for he was not
over warm to this new guest and looked him up and down with a very
questioning eye. He set a dish of vinegared herrings before him,
however, and I noticed that he looked more askance than ever when my
companion ate nine of them, for two were always our portion. When at
last he had finished Bonaventure de Lapp's lids were drooping over his
eyes, for I doubt that he had been sleepless as well as foodless for
these three days. It was but a poor room to which I had led him, but he
threw himself down upon the couch, wrapped his big blue cloak around
him, and was asleep in an instant. He was a very high and strong
snorer, and, as my room was next to his, I had reason to remember that
we had a stranger within our gates.
When I came down in the morning, I found that he had been beforehand
with me; for he was seated opposite my father at the window-table in the
kitchen, their heads almost touching, and a little roll of gold pieces
between them. As I came in my father looked up at me, and I saw a light
of greed in his eyes such as I had never seen before. He caught up the
money with an eager clutch and swept it into his pocket.
"Very good, mister," said he; "the room's yours, and you pay always on
the third of the month."
"Ah! and here is my first friend," cried de Lapp, holding out his hand
to me with a smile which was kindly enough, and yet had that touch of
patronage which a man uses when he smiles to his dog. "I am myself
again now, thanks to my excellent supper and good night's rest. Ah! it
is 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 a
snow-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 and
more like apes, and they did come down to the edge of the pontoons where
we did keep them, and they howled with rage and pain. The first few
days their howls went over the whole city, but after a week our sentries
on 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 the
corps 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 man
could lift them three at a time as if they were little monkeys. It was
a pity. Ah! my friend, you will do me the honours with madame and with
mademoiselle."
It was my mother and Edie who had come into the kitchen. He had not
seen them the night before, but now it was all I could do to keep my
face as I watched him; for instead of our homely Scottish nod, he bent
up his back like a louping trout, and slid his foot, and clapped his
hand over his heart in the queerest way. My mother stared, for she
thought he was making fun of her; but Cousin Edie fell into it in an
instant, as though it had been a game, and away she went in a great
curtsy until I thought she would have had to give it up, and sit down
right there in the middle of the kitchen floor. But no, she up again as
light as a piece of fluff, and we all drew up our stools and started on
the 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 the
girls would have laughed at us; but with him it seemed to go with his
style of face and fashion of speech, so that one came at last to look
for it: for when he spoke to my mother or Cousin Edie--and he was never
backward in speaking--it would always be with a bow and a look as if it
would hardly be worth their while to listen to what he had to say, and
when they answered he would put on a face as though every word they said
was to be treasured up and remembered for ever. And yet, even while he
humbled himself to a woman, there was always a proud sort of look at the
back of his eye as if he meant to say that it was only to them that he
was so meek, and that he could be stiff enough upon occasion. As to my
mother, it was wonderful the way she softened to him, and in
half-an-hour she had told him all about her uncle, who was a surgeon in
Carlisle, and the highest of any upon her side of the house. She spoke
to him about my brother Rob's death, which I had never heard her mention
to a soul before, and he looked as if the tears were in his eyes over
it--he, who had just told us how he had seen three thousand men starved
to death! As to Edie, she did not say much, but she kept shooting
little glances at our visitor, and once or twice he looked very hard at
her.
When he had gone to his room after breakfast, my father pulled out
eight golden pounds and laid them on the table. "What think ye of
that, 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 the
poor gentleman is in distress that we should put such a price on his bit
food."
"Tut!" cried my father, "he can very well afford it, and he with a bag
full 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 of
that kindly way," she said, and that was the first time in all my life
that 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 red
stones, 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 kindness
to me yesterday. It will fashion into a pin for your cravat."
I could but thank him for the present, which was of more value than
anything I had ever owned in my life.
"I am off to the upper muir to count the lambs," said I; "maybe you
would 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 as
possible. I think that I will stay at quiet this morning and get them
written."
All forenoon I was wandering over the links, and you may imagine that my
mind was turning all the time upon this strange man whom chance had
drifted to our doors. Where did he gain that style of his, that manner
of command, that haughty menacing glint of the eye? And his experiences
to which he referred so lightly, how wonderful the life must have been
which had put him in the way of them! He had been kind to us, and
gracious of speech, but still I could not quite shake myself clear of
the distrust with which I had regarded him. Perhaps, after all, Jim
Horscroft had been right and I had been wrong about taking him to West
Inch.
When I got back he looked as though he had been born and bred in the
steading. He sat in the big wooden-armed ingle-chair, with the black
cat on his knee. His arms were out, and he held a skein of worsted from
hand to hand which my mother was busily rolling into a ball. Cousin
Edie was sitting near, and I could see by her eyes that she had been
crying.
"Hullo, Edie!" said I, "what's the trouble?"
"Ah! mademoiselle, like all good and true women, has a soft heart," said
he. "I didn't thought it would have moved her, or I should have been
silent. I have been talking of the suffering of some troops of which I
knew something when they were crossing the Guadarama mountains in the
winter of 1808. Ah! yes, it was very bad, for they were fine men and
fine horses. It is strange to see men blown by the wind over the
precipices, but the ground was so slippery and there was nothing to
which they could hold. So companies all linked arms, and they did
better in that fashion; but one artilleryman's hand came off as I held
it, 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 would
catch them and crucify them to the barn doors with their feet up and a
fire 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 they
would do; for they would sit down and say their prayers, sitting on an
old saddle, or their knapsacks, maybe, and then take off their boots and
their stockings, and lean their chin on the barrel of their musket.
Then they would put their toe on the trigger, and _pouf!_ it was all
over, 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 the
folk 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 the
one 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 out
with them, and as I did so my eyes fell upon the address of the topmost
one. 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?