stupidity, the robbers were completely sobered, and remained on their
knees, crying for mercy,--mercy in the name of the Holy Virgin, of her
Son, of the Saints, and in the name of Heaven; but stern looks and
charged bayonets were the only, and certainly fitting reply, and one by
one they were stripped of their poniards and pistols, which were broken
and destroyed by the soldiers. Narvaez alone scorned to kneel, but he
stood scowling around him with a dogged, sullen, and pale visage, while
his knees quaked and trembled violently.
"Alvaro," said Stuart, "look upon this sulky ruffian, who is too proud,
or perhaps too frightened, to kneel."
"Cifuentes of Albuquerque!" cried the stern cavalier, in a tone almost
rising into a shriek. "_Dios mio!_ the destroyer of Catalina, of my
poor sister! Ah, master-fiend! most daring of villains! Heaven has at
last delivered you to me, that you may receive the reward of your long
life of crime. At last you shall die by my hand!" He was about to run
him through the heart, but checked the half-given thrust.
"No!" he continued, "you shall _not_ die thus. To fall by my sword is a
death fit for a hidalgo or cavalier. Thou shalt pass otherwise from
this earth to hell, and die like a dog as thou art!"
Taking his heavy Toledo sabre by the blade, he aimed a blow at Narvaez,
which demolished his lower jaw, and laid him on the floor. Upon the
throat of the writhing robber he placed the heel of his heavy jack-boot,
and watched, without the slightest feeling of compunction or remorse,
the horrible distortions and death-agonies exhibited in his visage, and
from his compressed throat withdrew not his foot till he had completely
strangled him, and he lay a blackened, bloated, and disfigured corse on
the floor.
"At length Catalina is avenged!" exclaimed the cavalier, turning with
fierce exultation to Stuart, who had witnessed without regret or
interference the retribution which had so suddenly hurled the
once-formidable Narvaez to the shades.
The fears of the banditti were renewed on beholding this terrible scene,
and again they implored piteously to be spared, offering to become
Alvaro's slaves, imploring that they might be sent to dig in his mines
in Estremadura, or sent to the galleys, or any where,--but, oh! to spare
their wretched lives, and they would offend against God and man no more.
The stern cavalier listened as if he heard them not. He ordered them to
be pinioned; and Lazaro Gomez appearing with a huge bundle of the cords
with which he bound his mules' packages, tied the ladrones in pairs,
binding them hard and fast back to back.
Meanwhile some of the soldiers were ransacking the tower "from turret to
foundation-stone," expecting to find vaults and strong rooms piled with
vast heaps of treasure. But the _soldados_ were wofully disappointed;
not a cross or coin fell into their hands, save what they obtained in
the pouches of the thieves, whom they pricked remorselessly with their
bayonets and otherwise maltreated, to force them to reveal where their
plunder was deposited.
Whether the wretches were obstinate, or had nothing to conceal, I know
not; but the exasperation of the soldiers was greatly increased when
they discovered that they should return without the gold, the jewellery,
and the consecrated images, with which they hoped to have stuffed their
havresacks.
"This is well," said Alvaro, watching with grim satisfaction the adroit
manner in which Lazaro linked the rogues together. "On my honour,
Lazaro, you should have been a general instead of a mule-driver. But
what is wisdom in the former, the world stigmatizes as mere cunning in
the latter. Believe me, Senor Stuart, the entire success of this
expedition is principally owing to this sturdy rogue of Merida, on whom
I would bestow a cherry-cheeked bride and a thousand hard ducats, if he
would only quit mule-driving, and settle quietly down within the sound
of the bells of San Juan. He was our guide to-night during the whole of
the tempest, and notwithstanding its fury and the darkness, which was so
intense that I could scarcely see my horse's ears, he conducted us up
the mountains, by some chasm or gorge, safely and surely, horse and
foot, as only the devil--"
"Or a muleteer of Merida, senor."
"Ay, Lazaro, or a muleteer of Merida, could have done. He provided
planks for us to cross the chasm here, which otherwise must have brought
us to a dead halt; and it was entirely owing to his tact and observation
that we were enabled to surprise the villains at so critical a time. A
sore penance you must have endured, my friend, in spending so many
months in such company; but it might be the less regretted, as it will
probably go to your account of time in purgatory. You shall have most
ample satisfaction, however, before the night is much older, for all the
injuries you have suffered from them."
Ronald was so much overjoyed at his deliverance, that he could scarcely
find words to express his feelings, and the obligations which he owed to
Don Alvaro; but, with a spirit of forgiveness highly honourable, he
began to intercede for the lives of some of the banditti, who had not
made themselves quite so obnoxious as the rest while he was kept in
durance among them: but Alvaro replied, that the commands of Don Diego
de Avallo, the Spanish minister, expressly enjoined that no quarter
should be given, as it was the intention of government to strike a
general terror into the banditti which infested every part of the
country, and that they must be cut off, root and branch. Ronald then
proposed that they should be marched down the mountains to Vittoria, or
any other town, and there delivered over to the civil authorities; but
Villa Franca said that he had no time to spare, and the horde of the
Torre de los Frayles must be instantly disposed of.
"We settle these matters quicker in Spain than you do in Britain, where
the military are so simple as to permit themselves to be ruled by
alcaldes and lawyers," said the cavalier, smiling and waving his hand
with a decided air. "So we will leave these humbled bravoes to the
tender care of Don Pedro Gomez, and then take our departure for the town
of Maya, to which our horses will convey us in a few hours. Thank
Heaven, the storm has completely passed away, and the appearance of the
moon gives promise of a glorious night. Without her assistance we
should assuredly break our necks in descending from this cursed eagle's
nest."
The soldiers fell back respectfully, as Ronald and Alvaro left the
crowded hall. Ronald's heart was dancing with delight as they descended
the worn and dilapidated stair, upon the steps of which he had not
trodden for five months since the unhappy night on which he first
entered this Pyrenean prison-house. Pausing a moment, to direct that
the head of Cifuentes should be struck off, according to the Spanish
custom, and placed upon a pole in the Pass of Maya, the cavalier
descended after Stuart. But the despairing cries and fervent
supplications of the prisoners followed them; and some, on finding that
their last moment was come, began to shriek for a priest in the most
heart-rending accents of superstitious terror and despair: but no priest
was there, to hear their horrible confessions.
"_A padre, a padre, O noble senores! A padre, por amor de Santa Maria,
el Madre de Dios!_" howled the despairing Gorgorza de la Puente, as the
soldiers dragged him forth. "Noble cavalier! valiant soldiers! destroy
me not, body and soul! I am a holy priest, senores! Oh! I was one
once. Hear me, for the love of Heaven! I have much to repent of, and
terrible things to confess. I poniarded a monk in San Sebastian, and
stole the holy vessels from his altar. I--I--"
"Quick with the rope!" cried Pedro. "Twist it about his neck, and stop
his mouth before he raises his master the devil, by speaking thus."
"Mercy! mercy!" shrieked the other, struggling furiously, as three stout
soldiers dragged him to the summit of the tower. "Mercy yet a little
while! I carried off a lady of Subijana de Alava, and robbed her of life
and honour among the mountains. I robbed--holy saints! good soldiers!
will no one hear my confession? Can no one hear me?--can no man forgive
me? Accursed may ye be! bloody wolves and pitiless-- _O misericordia,
mio Dios! O Santissima Maria!_" and he was launched into eternity.
Nearly twenty men were pouring forth rhapsodies like the above, and the
tower became filled with sounds of lamentation, shrieks, and
cries,--groans, prayers, and the wildest blasphemy mingled with the most
pious ejaculations; but it was a just retribution which had fallen upon
these wicked men.
Ronald's heart beat lightly as he crossed the terrible chasm, where so
many unfortunates had found a tomb. He had been a captive--on the very
verge of death, and now he was free, and "himself again."
The bright moon was shining aloft like a globe of silver, and the dewy
sides of the hills, the rivulets which trickled from the rocks, the
sleepy stream at the bottom of the valley, and every violet-cup and
blade of grass were gleaming in its radiant light.
At a little distance from the chasm were a party of Alvaro's cavalry,
escorting the horses of those who were engaged in the tower, and their
tall lance-heads, bright helmets and cuirasses, were flashing and
glittering in the moonlight. Their caparisoned war-horses were
sleek-skinned and long-tailed Andalusians, and were cropping the grass
with their bridles loose.
"Pedro is a rough dog," said the cavalier, looking complacently back.
"He is stringing a fair chaplet for the devil in the merry moonlight.
In ten minutes he will have the _ladrones_ all dangling over the
battlement. _Santos!_ 'tis not work for soldiers' hands; but the dogs
deserve not to die by military weapons, for they are as arrant cowards
as ever blanched before the eye of a brave man. Look back, just now,
Don Ronald!"
Ronald turned round, and beheld with disgust the Spanish soldiers
forcing the pinioned banditti over the walls, where they hung by the
neck, dangling and writhing in couples. Although he was at some
distance from the tower, he could distinctly perceive their convulsions,
and heard their heels rattling against the walls, from the ruinous
battlement of which the stones were tumbling every instant into the
chasm with a thundering sound, which caused the horses of the lancers to
snort and rear. It was a ghastly sight.
"Now, then, ho for Maya! I believe we shall find our way across the
mountains without the aid of Lazaro, now the bright moon is shining with
such splendour," was the exclamation of Alvaro as they mounted and set
forth. Stuart rode beside him on the horse of an orderly, and four
Spanish lancers followed as an escort. They descended towards the
valley by the steep and perilous path-way, which was so narrow as to
admit but one horseman at a time, and often overhung the abyss, passing
so close to the edge of the beetling craigs, that the eye scarcely dared
to scan the depth below. It was well for the riders that the horses
they rode had been accustomed to stand fire, otherwise some lives might
have been lost as they descended the rocks. Before they were half-way
down, a sudden glare shot across the sky from the mountains above them.
A terrific shock and explosion followed, and the rock of the Torre de
los Frayles was seen enveloped in a cloud of black smoke, which, after
curling upwards, floated away through the clear blue sky.
"Keep your horses tight by the head!" cried Alvaro, as his mettlesome
steed kicked and plunged in the narrow path, whilst Ronald expected to
see him vanish over the rocks every second. "Draw well on the curb,
senors; or, _diavolo!_ some of us will be in the other world presently!"
Their cattle, however, were soon quieted, and Stuart again looked
towards the place where the Torre de los Frayles had stood, but no trace
of the tower was visible. The smoke had dispersed, and the rock was
bare. The sound of a cavalry trumpet, calling 'to mount,' was heard
soon afterwards, and the roll of an infantry drum echoed away among the
mountains.
"Pedro has put powder in the vaults and blown up the place, that it may
never again become a nest for such birds of prey," said Alvaro. "'Tis a
tower of friars or thieves no longer, but in one moment has been dashed
into fifty thousand fragments of stone. Here comes Pedro on our rear;
the troop are descending the hill."
As he spoke, a long line of glittering casques and spears, moving in
single file, appeared descending the rocks, and vanishing in succession
under the shadow of the impending cliff, behind which the moon was
shining, and casting long gigantic shadows across the valley below. The
soldiers brought with them the now crest-fallen and dejected Alosegui,
who, as Ronald's former preserver and defender, was, at his earnest
intercession, alone permitted to escape the terrible retribution so
successfully wrought on his guilty confreres.
On inquiring about Carlos de Avallo, to whose evil influence Ronald
believed his captivity to have been mainly owing, Villa Franca informed
him that a duel had taken place between that violent young cavalier and
Don Alvarado. It had been fought on the _Puerta del Sol_ of Elizondo,
about mid-day four months previously, and ended by Carlos being run
through the body by Alvarado, who, to escape the vengeance of his
victim's uncle, Don Diego, had absconded to South America, and had not
been since heard of.
*CHAPTER VIII.*
*AN ACQUAINTANCE, AND "OLD ENGLAND ON THE LEE."*
"Spain! farewell for ever!
These banished eyes shall view thy courts no more:
A mournful presage tells my heart, that never
Gonsalva's steps again shall press thy shore."
_M. G. Lewis._
"Pho!" said the count, as they rode into Maya, "amid all the things of
which we have been talking, I had quite forgotten to say that there is a
countryman of yours here in this town, one who takes the utmost interest
in your concerns--why, I know not; he said he was no relative. We
became acquainted at Madrid, and, on hearing of your story, he proposed
at once to accompany me in this expedition against the robbers in the
Pyrenees and other places. He is a spirited, but rather impetuous old
cavalier. He has seen service, too, in the Low Countries and other
parts, but appears of late to have become somewhat addicted to ease and
good living, which has enlarged the circumference of his stomach more
than he wishes, and has rendered him subject to a disease we know little
of in Spain,--the gout. A sudden fit of it seized him when we were
marching en route to your rescue, and the worthy old hidalgo was
compelled, much against his will, to quarter himself in Maya till our
return. He awaits us yonder in the _Posada de los Caballeros_, opposite
to the convent of Saint Francis."
This being nearly the whole of the information respecting "his
countryman," with which Alvaro was able to furnish his companion, Ronald
was not a little surprised, on alighting at the miserable posada, to
find reclining, in dressing-gown and slippers, in an easy chair, with
one leg, swollen and swathed in flannel, resting on a foot-stool, and
with a heap of newspapers, guide-books, decanters, cigars, a brace of
pistols, and a light-dragoon sabre displayed upon a table before him, no
less a person than his noble competitor the Earl of Hyndford. The earl
received his young rival kindly, displayed much generous feeling towards
him as a brother soldier, laughed heartily at his scarecrow
appearance,--for his long residence in the tower had told immensely upon
Ronald's rather scanty wardrobe,--and finally, after having heard his
story, and repeatedly and energetically d--d the banditti, the
Horse-Guards, the gout, and the Peninsula, and having assured his young
friend that though there might have been a little weeping, and so forth,
on his account at home, there were no broken hearts nor any symptoms of
forgetfulness, he promised him--on behalf of his friend 'York,' with
whom he had formerly served as aide-de-camp, and his friend Hal Torrens,
who, though a war-office man and a staff officer, was a good fellow
enough--the immediate restoration of his forfeited commission, and
letters to the parties named that should put all right with respect to
it.
While a prisoner in the Torre de los Frayles, Ronald had remained in
total ignorance of several events of some importance; and, though he was
by no means astonished to learn from the earl that his name had
disappeared from the army list, and that he was superseded, it did
occasion him some slight surprise to learn that Buonaparte had escaped
from Elba, that he had entered Paris in triumph, and was once more at
the head of the French army, surrounded by many of his old marshals, and
supported by the old enthusiasm of his devoted soldiers. His own
regiment, Ronald heard, had been ordered to Flanders, where some sharp
fighting was expected to occur forthwith.
Three days afterwards he found himself on board the packet at Passages,
bound for London.
On his parting with Alvaro, that cavalier presented him with his own
gold cross of St. Jago, begging him to wear it as a token of
remembrance. It was not without feelings of the deepest regret that he
bade adieu to this noble and chivalric Spaniard; and he felt all that
depression of spirit which a frank and honest heart unavoidably suffers
after a leave-taking. Hyndford he expected to meet again, but the
cavalier of Merida never. However, such sensations of regret were
transitory; he had followed the drum too long to find parting with a
brave or merry companion a new matter.
The vessel cast anchor in the Downs at night. It had "come to blow a
sodger's wind," as the skipper said,--that is, a foul one; and there was
no getting up the river at that time, when the goodly invention of
steam-tugs was as yet unknown.
Next morning he landed with his baggage at Deal, and started in a
post-chaise for London. Immediately on his arrival there, he despatched
letters to Colonel Cameron, to Inchavon, and Lochisla, giving an account
of the perils attendant on his detention in Spain, and safe arrival in
England. In the fulness of his joy he also wrote to Sir Colquhoun
Menteith of Cairntowis, a near relation, with whom his family had ever
been at variance, and maintained a petty personal feud. But the old
baronet never acknowledged the receipt of his letter, which caused
Ronald to regret deeply that he had ever written to him or his son, who
was then serving with the army in Flanders. The letter addressed to the
old laird lay long at the post-house of Strathfillan, and turned from
white to saffron in the window, among tape and needles, pins and
thread-reels, until at last it was torn up and destroyed.
The others were received in due course by those to whom they were
addressed, and all, save that to Sir Colquhoun, caused joy and
congratulation; and so long did the mess continue discussing his
adventures, in all their various lights and shades, through the medium
of the sixth, seventh, and eighth allowances, that it is credibly
reported that only a third of the officers appeared on parade in the
Park of Brussels next morning.
On the day after his arrival Stuart repaired to the Horse-Guards, to
wait on the Duke of York, the commander-in-chief. He had no doubt that
his case would be heard favourably by the good duke, whose well-known
kindness and fellow-feeling for his brothers of the sword gained him the
appropriate sobriquet of the "soldier's friend;" and he was one to whom
the wife, the widow, or the child of a soldier, in their sorrow or
destitution, never made an appeal in vain. His Royal Highness was not
at the Horse-Guards that day, and Ronald was received by Sir Henry
Torrens, a plump little man, whom he imagined at first to be the very
personification of staff-office hauteur; but found, on further
acquaintance, to be all that Hyndford painted him, and a deuced good
fellow besides.
He received Stuart kindly, inquired after many of his old friends,
opened his eyes widely at what he called the audacity of the brigands in
detaining a British officer, read attentively the letters of Alvaro and
Hyndford, appeared to take great interest in the affair, and gave the
ominous official promise 'to see what could be done.'
Three days afterwards, however, an orderly of the Life Guards brought
Ronald an official packet from Sir Henry, notifying his re-appointment,
and containing two orders,--one to proceed forthwith to join in
Flanders, "where his services were much required;" and the other on the
Paymaster-general for all his arrears of pay, and other sums due to him
by Government, L400 "blood money" for wounds, and eighty guineas as
compensation for the loss of his baggage when the Pass of Maya was
forced by Marshal Soult two years before.
Ronald blessed the liberality of John Bull, who had not forgotten the
fright of Napoleon's threatened invasion, and was more inclined to be
grateful to his sons then, than now. The money-orders were very
acceptable things, as they relieved Ronald from the necessity of drawing
upon his father, whose involvements and expenses he supposed to be
sufficient already.
"This is excellent," thought he. "I can now repay Hyndford, and travel
comfortably post to Brussels. But yet, 'tis vexatious to proceed
forthwith. I held out hopes to Alice, and the people in Perthshire, of
seeing them all soon. Well, 'tis the fortune of war, and repining is
worse than useless."
So he thought, as he elbowed his way along the crowded Strand towards
the office of Mr. Bruce, the regimental agent, humming gaily as he went
the old song--
"Oh, the Lowlands of Holland
Have parted my love and me," &c.
Most willingly, however, would he have applied for a short leave of
absence, now so eminently his due, to enable him to pay a brief visit to
his Perthshire friends, and see once again his beloved Alice before
encountering anew the perils and hardships of war; but the exigencies of
the service were pressing, his orders peremptory, and the fear of
missing the glory of a new campaign reconciled him to the necessity of a
speedy departure. He applied himself diligently to the business of
instant preparation, and found relief for his excited feelings in the
bustle attendant on acquiring a new outfit. A short time sufficed to
procure him the necessary equipage for camp and field, and he was soon
ready to resume active military duties.
*CHAPTER IX.*
*FLANDERS.*
"At length I made my option to take service
In that same legion of Auxiliaries,
In which we lately served the Belgian."
_The Ayrshire Tragedy._
A few days afterwards he was on his way, hastening to join the army in
Belgium. His orders were to travel with speed, as hostilities were
expected daily. All Europe was alarmed, great events were expected, and
mail and telegraph arrivals were watched with the most feverish anxiety.
On landing at Ostend, Stuart heard that Buonaparte had joined the French
army, and had issued a proclamation calling to mind their former
victories, and telling them that fresh dangers were to be dared and
battles won; but he felt assured their familiarity with hardship and
death, their steadiness, discipline, and inherent bravery, would make
them, in every encounter, most signally victorious.
"Time will prove all this," thought Ronald, as, seated on an inverted
keg, he was deciphering this proclamation in a French paper, while
travelling on the canal of Ostend in a flat-bottomed boat for Bruges.