A HALT.
As a natural sequel to events so exciting, I became low-spirited for
some time, and the tiger-like eyes of the dying Angolian seemed ever
glaring into mine. Jack Joyce the marine endeavoured to console,
while congratulating me on promotion, by saying that the man I had
killed "was scarcely a man at all, but only a nigger, and was not to
be considered much more than if he had been a Johnnie Crapaud--and
all the world valued _his_ life at the worth of a rope's end, or a
piece of old junk."
As we had come ostensibly to free the oppressed colonists alike from
rebel troops and insurgent blacks, we were not allowed to plunder,
and were scant enough of provisions. I was greatly in want of money;
but here an odd event occurred. Tom Telfer, when breaking a ration
biscuit, found a guinea baked in the middle of it, and shared it with
me.
On the morning of the 12th we were to advance again. I was not yet
gazetted an officer, and on this morning Tom and I were cooking our
breakfast in a camp-kettle, at a fire which we had kindled in gipsy
fashion, between two stones. Around, our comrades were busy, some
cleaning their arms, others cooking or packing their kits; and all
were singing, whistling, or engaged in thoughtless frolic, for the
beauty of the scene and of the morning proved charming. On one side
the blue sea was seen spreading far away, till lost and blent with
the cloudless sky. In the distance were the towering Pitons, covered
with foliage to their steep summits, which were lost in a shroud of
vapour. Far down below us, we saw our fleet at anchor, with canvas
loose and gun-ports open for any emergency. On our left were a
succession of green ridges that lay between us and Fort Royal.
Close to where Tom and I were stirring our cocoa, Dr. Splints and his
two assistants were operating with true medical _sang-froid_ on a
poor Frenchman, whose leg had been shattered by a musket-shot, and
each time they probed the wound he shuddered from head to foot, or
uttered a shriek and tore the blue sleeve of his uniform with his
teeth, while his dark eyes flashed with agony and fear.
At last his leg was fairly cut off, and an orderly bore it away and
tossed it into a trench, wherein a few dead who had been shot in a
recent skirmish were lying. The unfortunate Gaul gazed after it
wistfully, and then closed his eyes in despair, for with it vanished
all his hopes of glory. He pined and died soon after, and I was one
of those who buried him.
After a long and careful reconnoissance, the column was formed, and
we advanced again.
The breathless heat of noon was past now. There was a delicious
coolness in the breeze and a voluptuous tranquillity in the air. The
leafy solitudes through which we had to march--the chastened light of
the purple and golden sky, which shed its reflected hues upon the
land and water, made lighter still the hearts even of the most
unthinking. The broad fan-like branches of the palms were hanging
stilly and solemnly down, and their long blade-formed leaves were
scarcely vibrating.
On debouching from a dense thicket, we found that the foe had
abandoned the battery and works at St. Catharine; so, while we--the
Scots Fusiliers--advanced double-quick and took quiet possession of
them, Colonel Myers, with the 43rd and five companies of Grenadiers,
crossed four ravines higher up, storming at the bayonet's point all
the batteries which defended them, and opening thus a clear avenue to
Fort Royal, the capital of the island.
I cannot close this chapter better than by a quotation from the
despatch of General Sir Charles Grey:--
"Sir Charles Gordon then occupied the posts of Gentilly and La Coste.
The good abilities and conduct of Sir Charles Gordon and of Colonel
Myers were eminently manifest throughout this arduous service, and
all the troops of my division have performed their duty with merit
and bravery. I have the honour to enclose the casualty lists,
together with Lieutenant-Colonel the Right Honourable the Earl of
Kildonan's recommendation of Sergeant Oliver Ellis for a commission,
he having saved a colour of the Scots Fusiliers by an act of signal
bravery."