THE BURNING OF THE MILL-HOUSE
Cabrera bit his lip for a moment, frowned still more darkly, and then
burst into a roar of laughter. For the moment the _gamin_ in him was
uppermost--the same curly-pated rascal who had climbed walls and stolen
apples from the market-women's stalls of Tortosa thirty years ago.
"You are a brave fellow," cried the general, "and I would to Heaven that
your royal cousin had more of your spirit. Are all of your company of
the same warlike kidney?"
"I trust I am afraid of no man on the field of honour," answered the
loyal little Frenchman, throwing out his chest. "Yet I speak but the
truth when I aver that there is not one of my companions who could not
say grace and eat me up afterwards!"
Among the letters which had formed part of Rollo's credentials there was
one superscribed "_To be opened in the camp of General Cabrera_."
Cabrera now dismissed the firing party with a wave of his hand, the
officer in command exchanging an encouraging nod with Rollo. Then he
summoned that young man to approach. Rollo threw away the last inch of
his cigarette, and going up easily, saluted the general with his usual
self-possession.
"Well, colonel," said the latter, "I little thought to exchange
civilities with you again; but for that you have to thank this young
lady. The fortune of war once more! But if young men will entrust
precious papers to pretty girls, they must have a fund of gratitude upon
which to draw--that is, when the ladies arrive in time. On this occasion
it was most exactly done. Yet you must have lived through some very
crowded moments while you faced the muzzles of yonder rifles!"
And he pointed to the lane down which the firing party was defiling.
Rollo bowed, but did not reply, awaiting the general's pleasure.
Presently Cabrera, recollecting the sealed letter in his hand, gave it
unopened to the youth.
"There," he said, "that, I see, is to be opened in the camp of General
Cabrera. Well--where Cabrera is, there is his camp. Open it, and let us
see what it contains."
"I will, general," said the young Scot, "in so far, that is, as it
concerns your Excellency."
The Carlist general sat watching Rollo keenly as he broke the seal and
discovered a couple of enclosures. One was sealed and the other open.
The first he presented to Cabrera, who, observing the handwriting of the
superscription, changed colour. Meanwhile, without paying any attention
to him, Rollo read his own communication from beginning to end. It had
evidently been passed on to him from a higher authority than the Abbot,
for only the address was in the handwriting of that learned ecclesiast.
It ran as follows:
"To the Man who shall be chosen by our trusted Councillor for
the Mission Extraordinary in the service of Carlos
Quinto--These:
"You will receive from General Cabrera such succour and
assistance as may seem to you needful in pursuance of the
project you have in hand, namely the capturing of the young
Princess Isabel together with her mother, the so-called Regent
Cristina. Thereafter you will bring them with diligence within
our lines, observing all the respect and courtesy due to their
exalted rank and to the sex to which they belong.
"At the same time you are held indemnified for all killings of
such persons as may stand in your way in the execution of the
duty laid upon you, and by order of the King himself you hereby
take rank as a full Colonel in his service."
Meanwhile Cabrera had been bending his brows over the note which had
been directed to him personally. He rose and paced the length of the
garden-wall with the letter in his hand, while Rollo stood his ground
with an unmoved countenance. Presently he stopped opposite the young man
and stood regarding him intently.
"I am, I understand, to furnish you with men for this venture," he said;
"good--but I am at liberty to prove you first. That you are cool and
brave I know. We must find out whether you are loyal as well."
"I am as loyal as any Spaniard who ever drew breath," retorted Rollo,
hotly, "and in this matter I will answer for my companions as well."
"And pray in what way, Sir Spitfire?" said Cabrera, smiling.
"Why, as a man should," said Rollo, "with his sword or his pistol,
or--as is our island custom--with his fists--it is all the same to me;
yes, even with your abominable Spanish knife, which is no true
gentleman's weapon!"
"I am no unfriend to plainness, sir, either in speech or action," said
Cabrera; "I see you are indeed a brave fellow, and will not lessen the
king's chances of coming to his own by letting you loose on the men
under my command. Still for one day you will not object to ride with
us!"
Rollo coloured high.
"General," he said, "I will not conceal it from you that I have wasted
too much time already; but if you wish for our assistance in your
designs for twenty-four hours, I am not the man to deny you."
"I thought not," cried Cabrera, much pleased. "And now have you any
business to despatch before we leave this place? If so, let it be seen
to at once!"
"None, Excellency," said Rollo, "save that if you are satisfied of our
good faith I should like to see Luis Fernandez the miller dealt with
according to his deserts!"
"I will have him shot instantly," cried Cabrera; "he hath given false
tidings to his Majesty's generals. He hath belied his honest servants.
Guard, bring Luis Fernandez hither!"
This was rather more than Rollo had bargained for. He was not yet
accustomed to the summary methods of Cabrera, even though the butcher's
hand had hardly yet unclosed from himself. He was already meditating an
appeal in favour of milder measures, when the guard returned with the
news that Luis Fernandez was nowhere to be found. Dwelling-house,
strong-room, mill, garden, and gorge beneath--all had been searched. In
vain--they were empty and void. The tumbled beds where the general and
his staff had slept, the granary with its trampled heaps of corn ready
for grinding, the mill-wheel with the pool beneath where the lights and
shadows played at bo-peep, where the trout lurked and the water-boxes
seemed to descend into an infinity of blackness--all were deserted and
lonesome as if no man had been near them for a hundred years.
"The rascal has escaped!" cried Cabrera, full of rage; "have I not told
you a thousand times you keep no watch? I have a great mind to stand
half a dozen of you up against that wall. Escaped with my entire command
about the rogue's home-nest! Well, set a torch to it and see if he is
lurking anywhere about the crevices like a centipede in a crack!"
Cabrera felt that he had wasted a great deal of time on a fine morning
without shooting somebody, and it would certainly have gone ill with Don
Luis or his brother if either of them had been compelled by the flames
to issue forth from the burning mill-house of Sarria.
But they were not there. The cur dogs of the village and a few
half-starved mongrels that followed the troops had great sport worrying
the rats which darted continually from the burning granaries. But of the
more important human rats, no sign.
All the inhabitants of the village were there likewise, held back from
plundering by the bayonets of the Carlist troops. They stood recounting
to each other, wistfully, the stores of clothes, the silk curtains, the
uncut pieces of broadcloth, the household linen, the great eight-day
clocks in their gilt ormolu cases. Every woman had something to add to
the catalogue. Every householder felt keenly the injustice of
permitting so much wealth to be given to the crackling flames.
"Yes, it was very well," they said; "doubtless the Fernandez family were
vermin to be burned up--smoked out. But they possessed much good gear,
the gathering of many years. These things have committed no treason
against either Don Carlos or the Regent Cristina. Why then are we not
permitted to enter and remove the valuables? It is monstrous. We will
represent the matter to General Cabrera--to Don Carlos himself!"
But one glance at the former, as he sat his horse, nervously twisting
the reins and watching the destruction from under his black brows, made
their hearts as water within them. Their pet Valiant, old Gaspar Perico,
too, had judiciously hidden himself. Esteban the supple had accompanied
him, and the venta of Sarria was in the hands of the silent,
swift-footed, but exceedingly capable maid-servant who had played the
trick upon Etienne.
The Sarrians therefore watched the mill-house blaze up, and thanked God
that it stood some way from the other dwellings of the place.
Suddenly Cabrera turned upon them.
"Hearken ye, villagers of Sarria," he cried, "I have burned the home of
a traitor. If I hear of any shelter being granted to Luis Fernandez or
his brother within your bounds, I swear by the martyred honour of my
mother that on my return I will burn every house within your walls and
shoot every man of you capable of bearing arms. You have heard of Ramon
Cabrera. Let that be enough."
The villagers got apprehensively behind each other, and none answered,
each waiting for the other, till with mighty bass thunder the voice rang
out again:
"Have you no answer?" he cried, "no promise? Must I set a dozen of you
with your backs against the wall, as I did at Espluga in Francoli, to
stimulate those dull country wits of yours?"
Then a young man gaily dressed was thrust to the front. Very unwilling
he was to show himself, and at his appearance, with his knees knocking
together, a merry laugh rang out from behind Cabrera.
That chieftain turned quickly with wrath in his eye. For it was a sound
of a woman's mirth that was heard, and all such were strictly forbidden
within his lines.
But at the sight of little Concha, her dark eyes full of light, her
hands clapping together in innocent delight, her white teeth disclosed
in gay and dainty laughter, a certain _maja_ note of daring unconvention
in her costume, she was so exactly all that would have sent him into
raptures twenty years before when he was an apprentice in Tortosa, that
the grim man only smiled and turned again to the unwilling spokesman of
the municipality of Sarria.
A voice from the press before the burning house announced the delegate's
quality.
"Don Raphael de Flores, son of our _alcalde_."
"Speak on, Don Raphael," cried Cabrera; "I will not shoot you unless it
should be necessary."
Thus encouraged the trembling youth began.
"Your Excellency," he quavered, "we of Sarria have nothing to do with
the family of Fernandez. We would not give any one of them a handful of
maize or a plate of lentil broth if he were starving. We are loyal men
and women--well-wishers to the cause of the only true and absolute King
Carlos Quinto."
"I am credibly informed that it is otherwise," said Cabrera, "and that
you are a den of red-hot nationals. I therefore impose a fine of two
thousand _duros_ on the municipality, and as you are the alcalde's son,
we will keep you in durance till they be paid."
Don Raphael fell on his knees. His pale face was reddened by the flames
from the mill-house, the fate of which must have afforded a striking
object-lesson to a costive magistracy in trouble about a forced loan.
"We are undone," he cried; "I am a married man, your Excellency, and
have not a _maravedi_ to call my own. You had better shoot me out of
hand, and be done with it. Indeed, we cannot possibly pay."
"Go and find your father," cried Cabrera; "he pocketed half of the price
of Don Ramon Garcia's house. I cannot see my namesake suffer. Tell him
that two thousand _duros_ is the price up till noon. After that it will
have risen to four thousand, and by three of the afternoon, if the money
be not paid into the treasury of the only absolute and Catholic
sovereign (in the present instance my breeches pocket), I shall be
reluctantly compelled to shoot one dozen of the leading citizens of the
township of Sarria. Let a strong guard accompany this young man till he
returns from carrying his message."
In this way did Cabrera replenish the treasury of his master Don Carlos,
and with such pleasant argument did he induce reluctant _alcaldes_ to
discover the whereabouts of their strong boxes.
For a remarkably shrewd man was General Ramon Cabrera, the butcher of
Tortosa.