THE NIGHT MARCH.
Scarcely had the night fallen when our retreat commenced. Tired and weary
as our brave fellows felt, but little repose was allowed them; their
bivouac fires were blazing brightly, and they had just thrown themselves
in groups around them, when the word to fall in was passed from troop to
troop, and from battalion to battalion,--no trumpet, no bugle called them
to their ranks. It was necessary that all should be done noiselessly and
speedily; while, therefore, the wounded were marched to the front, and
the heavy artillery with them, a brigade of light four pounders and two
squadrons of cavalry held the heights above the bridge, and the infantry,
forming into three columns, began their march.
My wound, forgotten in the heat and excitement of the conflict, was now
becoming excessively painful, and I gladly availed myself of a place in a
wagon, where, stretched upon some fresh straw, with no other covering save
the starry sky, I soon fell sound asleep, and neither the heavy jolting of
the rough conveyance, nor the deep and rutty road, were able to disturb my
slumbers. Still through my sleep I heard the sounds around me, the heavy
tramp of infantry, the clash of the moving squadrons, and the dull roll of
artillery; and ever and anon the half-stifled cry of pain, mingling with
the reckless carol of some drinking-song, all flitted through my dreams,
lending to my thoughts of home and friends a memory of glorious war.
All the vicissitudes of a soldier’s life passed then in review before me,
elicited in some measure by the things about. The pomp and grandeur, the
misery and meanness, the triumph, the defeat, the moment of victory, and
the hour of death were there, and in that vivid dream I lived a life long.
I awoke at length, the cold and chilling air which follows midnight blew
around me, and my wounded arm felt as though it were frozen. I tried to
cover myself beneath the straw, but in vain; and as my limbs trembled and
my teeth chattered, I thought again of home, where, at that moment, the
poorest menial of my uncle’s house was better lodged than I; and strange to
say, something of pride mingled with the thought, and in my lonely heart a
feeling of elation cheered me.
These reflections were interrupted by the sound of a voice near me, which I
at once knew to be O’Shaughnessy’s; he was on foot, and speaking evidently
in some excitement.
“I tell you, Maurice, some confounded blunder there must be; sure, he was
left in the cottage near the bridge, and no one ever saw him after.”
“The French took it from the Rifles before we crossed the river. By Jove!
I’ll wager my chance of promotion against a pint of sherry, he’ll turn up
somewhere in the morning; those Galway chaps have as many lives as a cat.”
“See, now, Maurice, I wouldn’t for a full colonelcy anything would happen
to him; I like the boy.”
“So do I myself; but I tell you there’s no danger of him. Did you ask
Sparks anything?”
“Ask Sparks! God help you! Sparks would go off in a fit at the sight of me.
No, no, poor creature! it’s little use it would be my speaking to him.”
“Why so, Doctor!” cried I, from my straw couch.
“May I never, if it’s not him! Charley, my son, I’m glad you’re safe.
‘Faith, I thought you were on your way to Verdun by this time.”
“Sure, I told you he’d find his way here--But, O’Mealey, dear, you’re
mighty could,--a rigor, as old M’Lauchlan would call it.”
“E’en sae, Maister Quill,” said a broad Scotch accent behind him; “and I
canna see ony objection to giein’ things their right names.”
“The top of the morning to you,” said Quill, familiarly patting him on the
back; “how goes it, old Brimstone?”
The conversation might not have taken a very amicable turn had M’Lauchlan
heard the latter part of this speech; but, as happily he was engaged
unpacking a small canteen which he had placed in the wagon, it passed
unnoticed.
“You’ll nae dislike a toothfu’ of something warm, Major,” said he,
presenting a glass to O’Shaughnessy; “and if ye’ll permit me, Mr. O’Mealey,
to help you--”
“A thousand thanks, Doctor; but I fear a broken arm--”
“There’s naething in the whiskey to prevent the proper formation of
callus.”
“By the rock of Cashel, it never made any one callous,” said O’Shaughnessy,
mistaking the import of the phrase.
“Ye are nae drinking frae the flask?” said the doctor, turning in some
agitation towards Quill.
“Devil a bit, my darling. I’ve a little horn convaniency here, that holds
half-a-pint, nice measure.”
I don’t imagine that our worthy friend participated in Quill’s admiration
of the “convaniency,” for he added, in a dry tone:--
“Ye may as weel tak your liquor frae a glass, like a Christian, as stick
your nose in a coo’s horn.”
“By my conscience, you’re no small judge of spirits, wherever you learned
it,” said the major; “it’s like Islay malt!”
“I was aye reckoned a gude ane,” said the doctor, “and my mither’s brither
Caimbogie had na his like in the north country. Ye may be heerd tell what
he aince said to the Duchess of Argyle, when she sent for him to taste her
claret.”
“Never heard of it,” quoth Quill; “let’s have it by all means. I’d like to
hear what the duchess said to him.”
“It was na what the duchess said to him, but what he said to the duchess,
ye ken. The way of it was this: My uncle Caimbogie was aye up at the
castle, for besides his knowledge of liquor, there was nae his match for
deer-stalking, or spearing a salmon, in those parts. He was a great, rough
carle, it’s true; but ane ye’d rather crack wi’ than fight wi’.
“Weel, ae day they had a grand dinner at the duke’s, and there were plenty
o’ great southern lords and braw leddies in velvets and satin; and vara
muckle surprised they were at my uncle, when he came in wi’ his tartan
kilt, in full Highland dress, as the head of a clan ought to do. Caimbogie,
however, pe’d nae attention to them; but he eat his dinner, and drank his
wine, and talked away about fallow and red deer, and at last the duchess,
for she was aye fond o’ him, addressed him frae the head o’ the table:--
“‘Cambogie,’ quoth she, ‘I’d like to hae your opinion about that wine. It’s
some the duke has just received, and we should like to hear what you think
of it.’
“‘It’s nae sae bad, my leddy,’ said my uncle; for ye see he was a man of
few words, and never flattered onybody.
“‘Then you don’t approve much of it?’ said the duchess.
“‘I’ve drank better, and I’ve drank waur,’ quo’ he.
“‘I’m sorry you don’t like it, Caimbogie,’ said the duchess, ‘for it can
never be popular now,--we have such a dependence upon your taste.’
“‘I cauna say ower muckle for my _taste_, my leddy, but ae thing I _will_
say,--I’ve a most damnable _smell!_’
“I hear that never since the auld walls stood was there ever the like o’
the laughing that followed; the puir duke himsel’ was carried away, and
nearly had a fit, and a’ the grand lords and leddies a’most died of it. But
see here, the earle has nae left a drap o’ whiskey in the flask.”
“The last glass I drained to your respectable uncle’s health,” said Quill,
with a most professional gravity. “Now, Charlie, make a little room for me
in the straw.”
The doctor soon mounted beside me, and giving me a share of his ample
cloak, considerably ameliorated my situation.
“So you knew Sparks, Doctor?” said I, with a strong curiosity to hear
something of his early acquaintance.
“That I did: I knew him when he was an ensign in the 10th Foot; and, to say
the truth, he is not much changed since that time,--the same lively look of
a sick cod-fish about his gray eyes; the same disorderly wave of his yellow
hair; the same whining voice, and that confounded apothecary’s laugh.”
“Come, come, Doctor, Sparks is a good fellow at heart; I won’t have him
abused. I never knew he had been in the infantry; I should think it must
have been another of the same name.”
“Not at all; there’s only one like him in the service, and that’s himself.
Confound it, man, I’d know his skin upon a bush; he was only three weeks
in the Tenth, and, indeed, your humble servant has the whole merit of his
leaving it so soon.”
“Do let us hear how that happened.”
“Simply thus: The jolly Tenth were some four years ago the pleasantest
corps in the army; from the lieutenant-colonel down to the last joined
sub., all were out-and-outers,--real gay fellows. The mess was, in fact,
like a pleasant club, and if you did not suit it, the best thing you could
do was to sell out or exchange into a slower regiment; and, indeed, this
very wholesome truth was not very long in reaching your ears some way or
other, and a man that could remain after being given this hint, was likely
to go afterwards without one.”
Just as Dr. Quill reached this part of his story, an orderly dragoon
galloped furiously past, and the next moment an aide-de-camp rode by,
calling as he passed us,--
“Close up, there! Close up! Get forward, my lads! get forward!”
It was evident, from the stir and bustle about, that some movement was
being made; and soon after, a dropping, irregular fire from the rear showed
that our cavalry were engaged with the enemy. The affair was scarcely of
five minutes’ duration, and our march resumed all its former regularity
immediately after.
I now turned to the doctor to resume his story, but he was gone; at what
moment he left I could not say, but O’Shaughnessy was also absent, nor did
I again meet with them for a considerable time after.
Towards daybreak we halted at Bonares, when, my wound demanding rest and
attention, I was billeted in the village, and consigned to all the miseries
of a sick bed.