BRUSSELS.
Once more I would entreat my reader’s indulgence for the prolixity of
a narrative which has grown beneath my hands to a length I had never
intended. This shall, however, be the last time for either the offence or
the apology. My story is now soon concluded.
After wandering about for some time, uncertain which way to take, I at
length reached the Charleroi road, now blocked by carriages and wagons
conveying the wounded towards Brussels. Here I learned, for the first time,
that we had gained the battle, and heard of the total annihilation of the
French army, and the downfall of the Emperor. On arriving at the farm-house
of Mont St. Jean, I found a number of officers, whose wounds prevented
their accompanying the army in its forward movement. One of them, with whom
I was slightly acquainted, informed me that General Dashwood had spent
the greater part of the night upon the field in search of me and that my
servant Mike was in a state of distraction at my absence that bordered on
insanity. While he was speaking, a burst of laughter and the tones of a
well-remembered voice behind attracted my attention.
“Made a very good thing of it, upon my life. A dressing-case,--not gold,
you know, but silver-gilt,--a dozen knives with blood-stone handles, and a
little coffee-pot, with the imperial arms,--not to speak of three hundred
Naps in a green silk purse--Lord! it reminds me of the Peninsula. Do you
know those Prussians are mere barbarians, haven’t a notion of civilized
war. Bless your heart, my fellows in the Legion would have ransacked the
whole coach, from the boot to the sword-case, in half the time they took to
cut down the coachman.”
“The major, as I live!” said I. “How goes it, Major?”
“Eh, Charley! when did you turn up? Delighted see you. They told me you
were badly wounded or killed or something of that kind. But I should have
paid the little debt to your executors all the same.”
“All the same, no doubt, Major; but where, in Heaven’s name, did you fall
upon that mine of pillage you have just been talking of?”
“In the Emperor’s carriage, to be sure, boy. While the duke was watching
all day the advance of Ney’s column and keeping an anxious look-out for the
Prussians, I sat in a window in this old farm-house, and never took my eye
off the garden at Planchenoit. I saw the imperial carriage there in the
morning; it was there also at noon; and they never put the horses to it
till past seven in the evening. The roads were very heavy, and the crowd
was great. I judged the pace couldn’t be a fast one; and with four of the
Enniskilleners I charged it like a man. The Prussians, however, had the
start of us; and if they hadn’t thought, from my seat on horseback and
my general appearance, that I was Lord Uxbridge, I should have got but a
younger son’s portion. However, I got in first, filled my pockets with a
few little _souvenirs_ of the Emperor, and then laying my hands upon what
was readiest, got out in time to escape being shot; for two of Blucher’s
hussars, thinking I must be the Emperor, fired at me through the window.”
“What an escape you had!”
“Hadn’t I though? Fortunate, too, my Enniskilleners saw the whole thing;
for I intend to make the circumstance the ground of an application for a
pension. Hark ye, Charley, don’t say anything about the coffee-pot and
the knives. The duke, you know, has strange notions of his own on these
matters. But isn’t that your fellow fighting his way yonder?”
“Tear and ages! don’t howld me--that’s himself,--devil a one else!”
This exclamation came from Mickey Free, who, with his dress torn and
dishevelled, his eyes bloodshot and strained, was upsetting and elbowing
all before him, as he made his way towards me through the crowd.
“Take that fellow to the guard-house! Lay hold of him, Sergeant! Knock him
down! Who is the scoundrel?”
Such were the greetings he met with on every side. Regardless of everything
and everybody, he burst his way through the dense mass.
“Oh, murther! oh, Mary! oh, Moses! Is he safe here after all?”
The poor fellow could say no more, but burst into a torrent of tears.
A roar of laughter around him soon, however, turned the current of his
emotions; when, dashing the scalding drops from his eyelids, he glared
fiercely like a tiger on every side.
“Ye’re laughing at me, are ye,” cried he, “bekase I love the hand that fed
me, and the master that stood to me? But let us see now which of us two has
the stoutest heart,--you with your grin on you, or myself with the salt
tears on my face.”
As he spoke, he sprang upon them like a madman, striking right and left at
everything before him. Down they went beneath his blows, levelled with the
united strength of energy and passion, till at length, rushing upon him
in numbers, he was overpowered and thrown to the ground. It was with some
difficulty I accomplished his rescue; for his enemies felt by no means
assured how far his amicable propensities for the future could be relied
upon; and, indeed, Mike himself had a most constitutional antipathy to
binding himself by any pledge. With some persuasion, however, I reconciled
all parties; and having, by the kindness of a brother officer, provided
myself with a couple of troop horses, I mounted, and set out for Brussels,
followed by Mickey, who had effectually cured his auditory of any tendency
to laughter at his cost.
As I rode up to the Belle Vue, I saw Sir George Dashwood in the window. He
was speaking to the ambassador, Lord Clancarty, but the moment he caught my
eye, he hurried down to meet me.
“Charley, safe,--safe, my boy! Now am I really happy. The glorious day had
been one of sorrow to me for the rest of my life had anything happened to
you. Come up with me at once; I have more than one friend here who longs to
thank you.”
So saying, he hurried me along; and before I could well remember where I
was, introduced me to a number of persons in the saloon.
“Ah, very happy to know you, sir,” said Lord Clancarty. “Perhaps we had
better walk this way. My friend Dashwood has explained to me the very
pressing reasons there are for this step; and I, for my part, see no
objection.”
“What, in Heaven’s name, can he mean?” thought I, as he stopped short,
expecting me to say something, while, in utter confusion, I smiled,
simpered, and muttered some common-places.
“Love and war, sir,” resumed the ambassador, “very admirable associates,
and you certainly have contrived to couple them most closely together. A
long attachment, I believe?”
“Yes, sir, a very long attachment,” stammered I, not knowing which of us
was about to become insane.
“A very charming person, indeed; I have seen the lady,” replied his
lordship, as he opened the door of a small room, and beckoned me to follow.
The table was covered with paper and materials for writing; but before
I had time to ask for any explanation of this unaccountable mystery, he
added, “Oh, I was forgetting; this must be witnessed. Wait one moment.”
With these words he left the room, while I, amazed and thunderstruck,
vacillating between fear and hope, trembling lest the delusive glimmering
of happiness should give way at every moment, and yet totally unable to
explain by any possible supposition how fortune could so far have favored
me.
While yet I stood hesitating and uncertain, the door opened, and the
senhora entered. She looked a little pale though not less beautiful than
ever; and her features wore a slight trace of seriousness, which rather
heightened than took from the character of her loveliness.
“I heard you had come, Chevalier,” said she, “and so I ran down to shake
hands with you. We may not meet again for some time.”
“How so, Senhora? You are not going to leave us, I trust?”
“Then you have not seen Fred. Oh, I forgot; you know nothing of our plans.”
“Here we are at last,” said the ambassador, as he came in followed by Sir
George, Power, and two other officers. “Ah, _ma belle_, how fortunate to
find you here! I assure you, it is a matter of no small difficulty to get
people together at such a time as this.”
“Charley, my dear friend,” cried Power, “I scarcely hoped to have had a
shake hands with you ere I left.”
“Do, Fred, tell me what all this means? I am in a perfect maze of doubt and
difficulty, and cannot comprehend a word I hear about me.”
“Faith, my boy, I have little time for explanation. The man who was at
Waterloo yesterday, is to be married to-morrow, and to sail for India in a
week, has quite enough upon his hands.”
“Colonel Power, you will please to put your signature here,” said Lord
Clancarty, addressing himself to me.
“If you will allow me,” said Fred, “I had rather represent myself.”
“Is not this the colonel, then? Why, confound it, I have been wishing him
joy the last quarter of an hour!”
A burst of laughter from the whole party, in which it was pretty evident I
took no part, followed this announcement.
“And so you are not Colonel Power? Nor going to be married, either?”
I stammered out something, while, overwhelmed with confusion, I stooped
down to sign the paper. Scarcely had I done so, when a renewed burst of
laughter broke from the party.
“Nothing but blunders, upon my soul,” said the ambassador, as he handed the
paper from one to another.
What was my confusion to discover that instead of Charles O’Malley, I had
written the name of Lucy Dashwood. I could bear no more. The laughing and
raillery of my friends came upon my wounded and irritated feelings like the
most poignant sarcasm. I seized my cap and rushed from the room. Desirous
of escaping from all that knew me, anxious to bury my agitated and
distracted thoughts in solitude and quiet, I opened the first door before
me, and seeing it an empty and unoccupied room, throw myself upon a sofa,
and buried my head within my hands. Oh, how often had the phantom of
happiness passed within my reach, but still glided from my grasp! How often
had I beheld the goal I aimed at, as it were before me, and the next moment
all the bleak reality of my evil fortune was lowering around me!
“Oh, Lucy, Lucy!” I exclaimed aloud, “but for you and a few words
carelessly spoken, I had never trod that path of ambition whose end has
been the wreck of all my happiness. But for you, I had never loved so
fondly; I had never filled my mind with one image which, excluding every
other thought, leaves no pleasure but in it alone. Yes, Lucy, but for you I
should have gone tranquilly down the stream of life with naught of grief or
care, save such as are inseparable from the passing chances of mortality;
loved, perhaps, and cared for by some one who would have deemed it no
disgrace to have linked her fortune to my own. But for you, and I had never
been--”
“A soldier, you would say,” whispered a soft voice, as a light hand gently
touched my shoulder. “I had come,” continued she, “to thank you for a gift
no gratitude can repay,--my father’s life; but truly, I did not think to
hear the words you have spoken; nor having heard them, can I feel their
justice. No, Mr. O’Malley, deeply grateful as I am to you for the service
you once rendered myself, bound as I am by every tie of thankfulness, by
the greater one to my father, yet do I feel that in the impulse I had given
to your life, if so be that to me you owe it, I have done more to repay
my debt to you, than by all the friendship, all the esteem I owe you; if,
indeed, by my means, you became a soldier, if my few and random words
raised within your breast that fire of ambition which has been your
beacon-light to honor and to glory, then am I indeed proud.”
“Alas, alas, Lucy!--Miss Dashwood, I would say,--forgive me, if I know not
the very words I utter. How has my career fulfilled the promise that gave
it birth? For you, and you only, to gain your affection, to win your heart,
I became a soldier; hardship, danger, even death itself were courted by me,
supported by the one thought that you had cared for or had pitied me; and
now, and now--”
“And now,” said she, while her eyes beamed upon me with a very flood of
tenderness, “is it nothing that in my woman’s heart I have glowed with
pride at triumphs I could read of, but dared not share in? Is it nothing
that you have lent to my hours of solitude and of musing the fervor of that
career, the maddening enthusiasm of that glorious path my sex denied me?
I have followed you in my thoughts across the burning plains of the
Peninsula, through the long hours of the march in the dreary nights, even
to the battle-field. I have thought of you; I have dreamed of you; I have
prayed for you.”
“Alas, Lucy, but not loved me!”
The very words, as I spoke them, sank with a despairing cadence upon my
heart. Her hand, which had fallen upon mine, trembled violently; I pressed
my lips upon it, but she moved it not. I dared to look up; her head was
turned away, but her heaving bosom betrayed her emotion.
“No, no, Lucy,” cried I, passionately, “I will not deceive myself; I ask
for more than you can give me. Farewell!”
Now, and for the last time, I pressed her hand once more to my lips; my hot
tears fell fast upon it. I turned to go, and threw one last look upon her.
Our eyes met; I cannot say what it was, but in a moment the whole current
of my thoughts was changed; her look was bent upon me beaming with softness
and affection, her hand gently pressed my own, and her lips murmured my
name.
The door burst open at this moment, and Sir George Dashwood appeared. Lucy
turned one fleeting look upon her father, and fell fainting into my arms.
“God bless you, my boy!” said the old general, as he hurriedly wiped a tear
from his eye; “I am now, indeed, a happy father.”
[Illustration: THE WELCOME HOME.]