DEATH OF VICTORIA.
Night was come. Across the December fogs glared the watch-fires of the
republican army. The French troops rested on the field of battle,
establishing headquarters in the ruins of the chateau of Geisberg, half
demolished by cannon-balls. A large barn, one of the outbuildings of the
estate, was turned over to the hospital corps. There the wounded were
stretched upon litters of straw, receiving medical attendance by the
light of torches. Everywhere were heard the moans drawn by the pain of
an amputation, or the extraction of a ball. At one end of the barn, an
enclosure of planks set off the threshing floor from the rest of the
building. Mortally wounded by the Count of Plouernel, Victoria was at
length carried from the field hospital into this retreat, her sex having
been revealed while her wound was receiving its first dressing.
A torch fastened into a post illuminated the scene. John Lebrenn, also
wounded, knelt beside his sister, who lay out-stretched upon her pallet,
half wrapped in a coverlet. His back to the wall, Oliver buried his face
in his hands and with difficulty checked his sobs, while Castillon,
whose manly face was streaming tears, stood a little apart, leaning
against one of the door posts.
Victoria's pallor, and her broken breathing, announced that her sands of
life were run. Tightly clasped in both of his, her brother held her
hand; he felt that hand grow ever colder and colder.
"Adieu, Oliver," said Victoria feebly, as she turned toward the young
fellow. "Love and serve the Republic as you would a mother. Bear in mind
that you are a citizen before you are a soldier. Remember above all that
those who see in war only a field opened to their ambition and their
pride are the worst enemies of the people." Then, addressing her
brother, Victoria continued: "Adieu, brother. Before the battle I had
the presentiment that I would die as did our ancestress Anna Bell--whose
sad life bears so many resemblances to mine." Then, struck by a sudden
idea, Victoria continued on a new train of thought: "The Grand Duke of
Gerolstein is taken prisoner, you told me, brother? St. Just should be
told of the services rendered to our cause by Franz of Gerolstein, and
the Grand Duke informed that he will be kept in durance until his son is
set free. Franz's liberation will mean one soldier the more for the
Revolution."
"Your recommendations will be followed, sister dear," replied John
between his sobs; "and oh, dear sister, I weep at our separation. You
are going on a journey without return. I am young yet, and long years
will pass, perhaps, before I will again be able to behold you."
"Those years will pass for you, brother, as a day--sweetened by the
tenderness of your wife, by the love of your children, by the fulfilment
of your civic duties."
Then, just as a lamp before its dying flicker casts still some bright
beams, the young woman rose to a sitting position. Her great black eyes
shone radiantly from within; her voice, erstwhile choked and gasping,
became sonorous and full; her beautiful features glowed with enthusiasm;
she exclaimed:
"Ah, brother, I feel it--my spirit is shaking off my present body, in
order to inhabit a new envelope beyond. The future unrolls before me--
"Hail to that beautiful day predicted by Victoria the Great! Hail!
Radiant is its dawn! I see shattered irons, crumbled Bastilles, thrones
and altars in dust, and crowning the ruins of the old world a scaffold,
the reckoning of Kings! Hail, holy scaffold, symbol of popular justice!
O, Republic! Radiant is your birthday! Glorious your sun rises over
Europe! Your star, full-orbed, O Republic, pours its torrents of light
upon a regenerate world! It buds--It flowers--It bursts into bloom--It
sheds in peace its treasures, its riches, its glories, its wonders, amid
the joy of its children, free and equal, freed forever from the double
yoke of Church and Misery--and united forever by the brotherly
solidarity of the confederated peoples--"
The witnesses of the scene, carried away by Victoria's words, deceived
by the clearness of her glance and the superexcitation of which she was
capable in a supreme burst of energy, forgot that the young woman was
dying. Her eyes half-closed, her countenance ashy pale and bathed in an
icy sweat, Victoria fell back in her brother's arms; after a moment's
agony she passed out of this life to live again in those worlds whither
we shall all go.