Murat was undoubtedly an excellent cavalry officer, but he had too much
swagger, which spoils many a good soldier. Lasalle, too, was a very
dashing leader, but he ruined himself with wine and folly. Now I,
Etienne Gerard, was always totally devoid of swagger, and at the same
time I was very abstemious, except, maybe, at the end of a campaign, or
when I met an old comrade-in-arms. For these reasons I might, perhaps,
had it not been for a certain diffidence, have claimed to be the most
valuable officer in my own branch of the Service. It is true that I
never rose to be more than a chief of brigade, but then, as everyone
knows, no one had a chance of rising to the top unless he had the good
fortune to be with the Emperor in his early campaigns. Except Lasalle,
and Labau, and Drouet, I can hardly remember any one of the generals who
had not already made his name before the Egyptian business. Even I, with
all my brilliant qualities, could only attain the head of my brigade,
and also the special medal of honour, which I received from the Emperor
himself, and which I keep at home in a leathern pouch.
But though I never rose higher than this, my qualities were very well
known to those who had served with me, and also to the English. After
they had captured me in the way which I described to you the other
night, they kept a very good guard over me at Oporto, and I promise you
that they did not give such a formidable opponent a chance of slipping
through their fingers. It was on the 10th of August that I was escorted
on board the transport which was to take us to England, and behold me
before the end of the month in the great prison which had been built for
us at Dartmoor!
'L'hôtel Français, et Pension,' we used to call it, for you understand
that we were all brave men there, and that we did not lose our spirits
because we were in adversity.
It was only those officers who refused to give their parole who were
confined at Dartmoor, and most of the prisoners were seamen, or from the
ranks. You ask me, perhaps, why it was that I did not give this parole,
and so enjoy the same good treatment as most of my brother officers.
Well, I had two reasons, and both of them were sufficiently strong.
In the first place, I had so much confidence in myself, that I was quite
convinced that I could escape. In the second, my family, though of good
repute, has never been wealthy, and I could not bring myself to take
anything from the small income of my mother. On the other hand, it would
never do for a man like me to be outshone by the bourgeois society of an
English country town, or to be without the means of showing courtesies
and attentions to those ladies whom I should attract. It was for these
reasons that I preferred to be buried in the dreadful prison of
Dartmoor. I wish now to tell you of my adventures in England, and how
far Milor Wellington's words were true when he said that his King would
hold me.
And first of all I may say that if it were not that I have set off to
tell you about what befell myself, I could keep you here until morning
with my stories about Dartmoor itself, and about the singular things
which occurred there. It was one of the very strangest places in the
whole world, for there, in the middle of that great desolate waste, were
herded together seven or eight thousand men--warriors, you understand,
men of experience and courage. Around there were a double wall and a
ditch, and warders and soldiers; but, my faith! you could not coop men
like that up like rabbits in a hutch! They would escape by twos and tens
and twenties, and then the cannon would boom, and the search parties
run, and we, who were left behind, would laugh and dance and shout
'Vive l'Empereur' until the warders would turn their muskets upon us in
their passion. And then we would have our little mutinies, too, and up
would come the infantry and the guns from Plymouth, and that would set
us yelling 'Vive l'Empereur' once more, as though we wished them to hear
us in Paris. We had lively moments at Dartmoor, and we contrived that
those who were about us should be lively also.
You must know that the prisoners there had their own Courts of Justice,
in which they tried their own cases, and inflicted their own
punishments. Stealing and quarrelling were punished--but most of all
treachery. When I came there first there was a man, Meunier, from
Rheims, who had given information of some plot to escape. Well, that
night, owing to some form or other which had to be gone through, they
did not take him out from among the other prisoners, and though he wept
and screamed, and grovelled upon the ground, they left him there amongst
the comrades whom he had betrayed. That night there was a trial with a
whispered accusation and a whispered defence, a gagged prisoner, and a
judge whom none could see. In the morning, when they came for their man
with papers for his release, there was not as much of him left as you
could put upon your thumb-nail. They were ingenious people, these
prisoners, and they had their own way of managing.
We officers, however, lived in a separate wing, and a very singular
group of people we were. They had left us our uniforms, so that there
was hardly a corps which had served under Victor, or Massena, or Ney,
which was not represented there, and some had been there from the time
when Junot was beaten at Vimiera. We had chasseurs in their green
tunics, and hussars, like myself, and blue-coated dragoons, and
white-fronted lancers, and voltigeurs, and grenadiers, and the men of
the artillery and engineers. But the greater part were naval officers,
for the English had had the better of us upon the seas. I could never
understand this until I journeyed myself from Oporto to Plymouth, when
I lay for seven days upon my back, and could not have stirred had I seen
the eagle of the regiment carried off before my eyes. It was in
perfidious weather like this that Nelson took advantage of us.
I had no sooner got into Dartmoor than I began to plan to get out again,
and you can readily believe that, with wits sharpened by twelve years of
warfare, it was not very long before I saw my way.
You must know, in the first place, that I had a very great advantage in
having some knowledge of the English language. I learned it during the
months that I spent before Danzig, from Adjutant Obriant, of the
Regiment Irlandais, who was sprung from the ancient kings of the
country. I was quickly able to speak it with some facility, for I do not
take long to master anything to which I set my mind. In three months I
could not only express my meaning, but I could use the idioms of the
people. It was Obriant who taught me to say 'Be jabers,' just as we
might say 'Ma foi'; and also 'The curse of Crummle!' which means 'Ventre
bleu!' Many a time I have seen the English smile with pleasure when they
have heard me speak so much like one of themselves.
We officers were put two in a cell, which was very little to my taste,
for my room-mate was a tall, silent man named Beaumont, of the Flying
Artillery, who had been taken by the English cavalry at Astorga.
It is seldom I meet a man of whom I cannot make a friend, for my
disposition and manners are--as you know them. But this fellow had never
a smile for my jests, nor an ear for my sorrows, but would sit looking
at me with his sullen eyes, until sometimes I thought that his two years
of captivity had driven him crazy. Ah, how I longed that old Bouvet, or
any of my comrades of the hussars, was there, instead of this mummy of a
man. But such as he was I had to make the best of him, and it was very
evident that no escape could be made unless he were my partner in it,
for what could I possibly do without him observing me? I hinted at it,
therefore, and then by degrees I spoke more plainly, until it seemed to
me that I had prevailed upon him to share my lot.
I tried the walls, and I tried the floor, and I tried the ceiling, but
though I tapped and probed, they all appeared to be very thick and
solid. The door was of iron, shutting with a spring lock, and provided
with a small grating, through which a warder looked twice in every
night. Within there were two beds, two stools, two washstands--nothing
more. It was enough for my wants, for when had I had as much during
those twelve years spent in camps? But how was I to get out? Night after
night I thought of my five hundred hussars, and had dreadful nightmares,
in which I fancied that the whole regiment needed shoeing, or that my
horses were all bloated with green fodder, or that they were foundered
from bogland, or that six squadrons were clubbed in the presence of the
Emperor. Then I would awake in a cold sweat, and set to work picking and
tapping at the walls once more; for I knew very well that there is no
difficulty which cannot be overcome by a ready brain and a pair of
cunning hands.
There was a single window in our cell, which was too small to admit a
child. It was further defended by a thick iron bar in the centre. It was
not a very promising point of escape, as you will allow, but I became
more and more convinced that our efforts must be directed towards it. To
make matters worse, it only led out into the exercise yard, which was
surrounded by two high walls. Still, as I said to my sullen comrade, it
is time to talk of the Vistula when you are over the Rhine. I got a
small piece of iron, therefore, from the fittings of my bed, and I set
to work to loosen the plaster at the top and the bottom of the bar.
Three hours I would work, and then leap into my bed upon the sound of
the warder's step. Then another three hours, and then very often another
yet, for I found that Beaumont was so slow and clumsy at it that it was
on myself only that I could rely.
I pictured to myself my Third of Hussars waiting just outside that
window, with kettle-drums and standards and leopard-skin schabraques all
complete. Then I would work like a madman, until my iron was crusted
with blood, as if with rust. And so, night by night, I loosened that
stony plaster, and hid it away in the stuffing of my pillow, until the
hour came when the iron shook; and then with one good wrench it came off
in my hand, and my first step had been made towards freedom.
You will ask me what better off I was, since, as I have said, a child
could not have fitted through the opening. I will tell you. I had gained
two things--a tool and a weapon. With the one I might loosen the stone
which flanked the window. With the other I might defend myself when I
had scrambled through. So now I turned my attention to that stone, and I
picked and picked with the sharpened end of my bar until I had worked
out the mortar all round. You understand, of course, that during the day
I replaced everything in its position, and that the warder was never
permitted to see a speck upon the floor. At the end of three weeks I had
separated the stone, and had the rapture of drawing it through, and
seeing a hole left with ten stars shining through it, where there had
been but four before. All was ready for us now, and I had replaced the
stone, smearing the edges of it round with a little fat and soot, so as
to hide the cracks where the mortar should have been. In three nights
the moon would be gone, and that seemed the best time for our attempt.
I had now no doubt at all about getting into the yards, but I had very
considerable misgivings as to how I was to get out again. It would be
too humiliating, after trying here, and trying there, to have to go back
to my hole again in despair, or to be arrested by the guards outside,
and thrown into those damp underground cells which are reserved for
prisoners who are caught in escaping. I set to work, therefore, to plan
what I should do. I have never, as you know, had the chance of showing
what I could do as a general. Sometimes, after a glass or two of wine, I
have found myself capable of thinking out surprising combinations, and
have felt that if Napoleon had intrusted me with an army corps, things
might have gone differently with him. But however that may be, there is
no doubt that in the small stratagems of war, and in that quickness of
invention which is so necessary for an officer of light cavalry, I could
hold my own against anyone. It was now that I had need of it, and I felt
sure that it would not fail me.
The inner wall which I had to scale was built of bricks, 12ft. high,
with a row of iron spikes, 3in. apart upon the top. The outer I had only
caught a glimpse of once or twice, when the gate of the exercise yard
was open. It appeared to be about the same height, and was also spiked
at the top. The space between the walls was over twenty feet, and I had
reason to believe that there were no sentries there, except at the
gates. On the other hand, I knew that there was a line of soldiers
outside. Behold the little nut, my friends, which I had to open with no
crackers, save these two hands.
One thing upon which I relied was the height of my comrade Beaumont. I
have already said that he was a very tall man, six feet at least, and it
seemed to me that if I could mount upon his shoulders, and get my hands
upon the spikes, I could easily scale the wall. Could I pull my big
companion up after me? That was the question, for when I set forth with
a comrade, even though it be one for whom I bear no affection, nothing
on earth would make me abandon him. If I climbed the wall and he could
not follow me, I should be compelled to return to him. He did not seem
to concern himself much about it, however, so I hoped that he had
confidence in his own activity.
Then another very important matter was the choice of the sentry who
should be on duty in front of my window at the time of our attempt.
They were changed every two hours to insure their vigilance, but I, who
watched them closely each night out of my window, knew that there was a
great difference between them. There were some who were so keen that a
rat could not cross the yard unseen, while others thought only of their
own ease, and could sleep as soundly leaning upon a musket as if they
were at home upon a feather bed. There was one especially, a fat, heavy
man, who would retire into the shadow of the wall and doze so
comfortably during his two hours, that I have dropped pieces of plaster
from my window at his very feet, without his observing it. By good luck,
this fellow's watch was due from twelve to two upon the night which we
had fixed upon for our enterprise.
As the last day passed, I was so filled with nervous agitation that I
could not control myself, but ran ceaselessly about my cell, like a
mouse in a cage. Every moment I thought that the warder would detect the
looseness of the bar, or that the sentry would observe the unmortared
stone, which I could not conceal outside, as I did within. As for my
companion, he sat brooding upon the end of his bed, looking at me in a
sidelong fashion from time to time, and biting his nails like one who is
deep in thought.
'Courage, my friend!' I cried, slapping him upon the shoulder. 'You will
see your guns before another month be past.'
'That is very well,' said he. 'But whither will you fly when you get
free?'
'To the coast,' I answered. 'All comes right for a brave man, and I
shall make straight for my regiment.'
'You are more likely to make straight for the underground cells, or for
the Portsmouth hulks,' said he.
'A soldier takes his chances,' I remarked. 'It is only the poltroon who
reckons always upon the worst.'
I raised a flush in each of his sallow cheeks at that, and I was glad
of it, for it was the first sign of spirit which I had ever observed in
him. For a moment he put his hand out towards his water-jug, as though
he would have hurled it at me, but then he shrugged his shoulders and
sat in silence once more, biting his nails, and scowling down at the
floor. I could not but think, as I looked at him, that perhaps I was
doing the Flying Artillery a very bad service by bringing him back to
them.
I never in my life have known an evening pass as slowly as that one.
Towards nightfall a wind sprang up, and as the darkness deepened it blew
harder and harder, until a terrible gale was whistling over the moor. As
I looked out of my window I could not catch a glimpse of a star, and the
black clouds were flying low across the heavens. The rain was pouring
down, and what with its hissing and splashing, and the howling and
screaming of the wind, it was impossible for me to hear the steps of the
sentinels. 'If I cannot hear them,' thought I, 'then it is unlikely that
they can hear me'; and I waited with the utmost impatience until the
time when the inspector should have come round for his nightly peep
through our grating. Then having peered through the darkness, and seen
nothing of the sentry, who was doubtless crouching in some corner out of
the rain, I felt that the moment was come. I removed the bar, pulled out
the stone, and motioned to my companion to pass through.
'After you, Colonel,' said he.
'Will you not go first?' I asked.
'I had rather you showed me the way.'
'Come after me, then, but come silently, as you value your life.'
In the darkness I could hear the fellow's teeth chattering, and I
wondered whether a man ever had such a partner in a desperate
enterprise. I seized the bar, however, and mounting upon my stool, I
thrust my head and shoulders into the hole. I had wriggled through as
far as my waist, when my companion seized me suddenly by the knees, and
yelled at the top of his voice: 'Help! Help! A prisoner is escaping!'
Ah, my friends, what did I not feel at that moment! Of course, I saw in
an instant the game of this vile creature. Why should he risk his skin
in climbing walls when he might be sure of a free pardon from the
English for having prevented the escape of one so much more
distinguished than himself? I had recognized him as a poltroon and a
sneak, but I had not understood the depth of baseness to which he could
descend. One who has spent his life among gentlemen and men of honour
does not think of such things until they happen.
The blockhead did not seem to understand that he was lost more certainly
than I. I writhed back in the darkness, and seizing him by the throat, I
struck him twice with my iron bar. At the first blow he yelped as a
little cur does when you tread upon its paw. At the second, down he fell
with a groan upon the floor. Then I seated myself upon my bed, and
waited resignedly for whatever punishment my gaolers might inflict upon
me.
But a minute passed and yet another, with no sound save the heavy,
snoring breathing of the senseless wretch upon the floor. Was it
possible, then, that amid the fury of the storm his warning cries had
passed unheeded? At first it was but a tiny hope, another minute and it
was probable, another and it was certain. There was no sound in the
corridor, none in the courtyard. I wiped the cold sweat from my brow,
and asked myself what I should do next.
One thing seemed certain. The man on the floor must die. If I left him I
could not tell how short a time it might be before he gave the alarm. I
dare not strike a light, so I felt about in the darkness until my hand
came upon something wet, which I knew to be his head. I raised my iron
bar, but there was something, my friends, which prevented me from
bringing it down. In the heat of fight I have slain many men--men of
honour, too, who had done me no injury. Yet here was this wretch, a
creature too foul to live, who had tried to work me so great a mischief,
and yet I could not bring myself to crush his skull in. Such deeds are
very well for a Spanish partida--or for that matter a sansculotte of the
Faubourg St Antoine--but not for a soldier and a gentleman like me.
However, the heavy breathing of the fellow made me hope that it might be
a very long time before he recovered his senses. I gagged him,
therefore, and bound him with strips of blanket to the bed, so that in
his weakened condition there was good reason to think that, in any case,
he might not get free before the next visit of the warder. But now again
I was faced with new difficulties, for you will remember that I had
relied upon his height to help me over the walls. I could have sat down
and shed tears of despair had not the thought of my mother and of the
Emperor come to sustain me. 'Courage!' said I. 'If it were anyone but
Etienne Gerard he would be in a bad fix now; that is a young man who is
not so easily caught.'
I set to work therefore upon Beaumont's sheet as well as my own, and by
tearing them into strips and then plaiting them together, I made a very
excellent rope. This I tied securely to the centre of my iron bar, which
was a little over a foot in length. Then I slipped out into the yard,
where the rain was pouring and the wind screaming louder than ever. I
kept in the shadow of the prison wall, but it was as black as the ace of
spades, and I could not see my own hand in front of me. Unless I walked
into the sentinel I felt that I had nothing to fear from him. When I had
come under the wall I threw up my bar, and to my joy it stuck the very
first time between the spikes at the top. I climbed up my rope, pulled
it after me, and dropped down on the other side. Then I scaled the
second wall, and was sitting astride among the spikes upon the top, when
I saw something twinkle in the darkness beneath me. It was the bayonet
of the sentinel below, and so close was it (the second wall being rather
lower than the first) that I could easily, by leaning over, have
unscrewed it from its socket. There he was, humming a tune to himself,
and cuddling up against the wall to keep himself warm, little thinking
that a desperate man within a few feet of him was within an ace of
stabbing him to the heart with his own weapon. I was already bracing
myself for the spring when the fellow, with an oath, shouldered his
musket, and I heard his steps squelching through the mud as he resumed
his beat. I slipped down my rope, and, leaving it hanging, I ran at the
top of my speed across the moor.
Heavens, how I ran! The wind buffeted my face and buzzed in my nostrils.
The rain pringled upon my skin and hissed past my ears. I stumbled into
holes. I tripped over bushes. I fell among brambles. I was torn and
breathless and bleeding. My tongue was like leather, my feet like lead,
and my heart beating like a kettle-drum. Still I ran, and I ran, and I
ran.
But I had not lost my head, my friends. Everything was done with a
purpose. Our fugitives always made for the coast. I was determined to go
inland, and the more so as I had told Beaumont the opposite. I would fly
to the north, and they would seek me in the south. Perhaps you will ask
me how I could tell which was which on such a night. I answer that it
was by the wind. I had observed in the prison that it came from the
north, and so, as long as I kept my face to it, I was going in the right
direction.
Well, I was rushing along in this fashion when, suddenly, I saw two
yellow lights shining out of the darkness in front of me. I paused for a
moment, uncertain what I should do. I was still in my hussar uniform,
you understand, and it seemed to me that the very first thing that I
should aim at was to get some dress which should not betray me. If these
lights came from a cottage, it was probable enough that I might find
what I wanted there. I approached, therefore, feeling very sorry that I
had left my iron bar behind; for I was determined to fight to the death
before I should be retaken.
But very soon I found that there was no cottage there. The lights were
two lamps hung upon each side of a carriage, and by their glare I saw
that a broad road lay in front of me. Crouching among the bushes, I
observed that there were two horses to the equipage, that a small
post-boy was standing at their heads, and that one of the wheels was
lying in the road beside him. I can see them now, my friends: the
steaming creatures, the stunted lad with his hands to their bits, and
the big, black coach, all shining with the rain, and balanced upon its
three wheels. As I looked, the window was lowered, and a pretty little
face under a bonnet peeped out from it.
'What shall I do?' the lady cried to the post-boy, in a voice of
despair. 'Sir Charles is certainly lost, and I shall have to spend the
night upon the moor.'
'Perhaps I can be of some assistance to madame,' said I, scrambling out
from among the bushes into the glare of the lamps. A woman in distress
is a sacred thing to me, and this one was beautiful. You must not forget
that, although I was a colonel, I was only eight-and-twenty years of
age.
My word, how she screamed, and how the post-boy stared! You will
understand that after that long race in the darkness, with my shako
broken in, my face smeared with dirt, and my uniform all stained and
torn with brambles, I was not entirely the sort of gentleman whom one
would choose to meet in the middle of a lonely moor. Still, after the
first surprise, she soon understood that I was her very humble servant,
and I could even read in her pretty eyes that my manner and bearing had
not failed to produce an impression upon her.
'I am sorry to have startled you, madame,' said I. 'I chanced to
overhear your remark, and I could not refrain from offering you my
assistance.' I bowed as I spoke. You know my bow, and can realize what
its effect was upon the lady.
'I am much indebted to you, sir,' said she. 'We have had a terrible
journey since we left Tavistock. Finally, one of our wheels came off,
and here we are helpless in the middle of the moor. My husband, Sir
Charles, has gone on to get help, and I much fear that he must have lost
his way.'
I was about to attempt some consolation, when I saw beside the lady a
black travelling coat, faced with astrakhan, which her companion must
have left behind him. It was exactly what I needed to conceal my
uniform. It is true that I felt very much like a highway robber, but
then, what would you have? Necessity has no law, and I was in an enemy's
country.
'I presume, madame, that this is your husband's coat,' I remarked. 'You
will, I am sure, forgive me, if I am compelled to--' I pulled it through
the window as I spoke.
I could not bear to see the look of surprise and fear and disgust which
came over her face.
'Oh, I have been mistaken in you!' she cried. 'You came to rob me, then,
and not to help me. You have the bearing of a gentleman, and yet you
steal my husband's coat.'
'Madame,' said I, 'I beg that you will not condemn me until you know
everything. It is quite necessary that I should take this coat, but if
you will have the goodness to tell me who it is who is fortunate enough
to be your husband, I shall see that the coat is sent back to him.'
Her face softened a little, though she still tried to look severe. 'My
husband,' she answered, 'is Sir Charles Meredith, and he is travelling
to Dartmoor Prison, upon important Government business. I only ask you,
sir, to go upon your way, and to take nothing which belongs to him.'
'There is only one thing which belongs to him that I covet,' said I.
'And you have taken it from the carriage,' she cried.
'No,' I answered. 'It still remains there.'
She laughed in her frank English way.
'If, instead of paying me compliments, you were to return my husband's
coat--' she began.
'Madame,' I answered, 'what you ask is quite impossible. If you will
allow me to come into the carriage, I will explain to you how necessary
this coat is to me.'
Heaven knows into what foolishness I might have plunged myself had we
not, at this instant, heard a faint halloa in the distance, which was
answered by a shout from the little post-boy. In the rain and the
darkness, I saw a lantern some distance from us, but approaching
rapidly.
'I am sorry, madame, that I am forced to leave you,' said I. 'You can
assure your husband that I shall take every care of his coat.' Hurried
as I was, I ventured to pause a moment to salute the lady's hand, which
she snatched through the window with an admirable pretence of being
offended at my presumption. Then, as the lantern was quite close to me,
and the post-boy seemed inclined to interfere with my flight, I tucked
my precious overcoat under my arm, and dashed off into the darkness.
And now I set myself to the task of putting as broad a stretch of moor
between the prison and myself as the remaining hours of darkness would
allow. Setting my face to the wind once more, I ran until I fell from
exhaustion. Then, after five minutes of panting among the heather, I
made another start, until again my knees gave way beneath me. I was
young and hard, with muscles of steel, and a frame which had been
toughened by twelve years of camp and field. Thus I was able to keep up
this wild flight for another three hours, during which I still guided
myself, you understand, by keeping the wind in my face. At the end of
that time I calculated that I had put nearly twenty miles between the
prison and myself. Day was about to break, so I crouched down among the
heather upon the top of one of those small hills which abound in that
country, with the intention of hiding myself until nightfall. It was no
new thing for me to sleep in the wind and the rain, so, wrapping myself
up in my thick warm cloak, I soon sank into a doze.
But it was not a refreshing slumber. I tossed and tumbled amid a series
of vile dreams, in which everything seemed to go wrong with me. At last,
I remember, I was charging an unshaken square of Hungarian Grenadiers,
with a single squadron upon spent horses, just as I did at Elchingen. I
stood in my stirrups to shout 'Vive l'Empereur!' and as I did so, there
came the answering roar from my hussars, 'Vive l'Empereur!' I sprang
from my rough bed, with the words still ringing in my ears, and then, as
I rubbed my eyes, and wondered if I were mad, the same cry came again,
five thousand voices in one long-drawn yell. I looked out from my screen
of brambles, and saw in the clear light of morning the very last thing
that I should either have expected or chosen.
It was Dartmoor Prison! There it stretched, grim and hideous, within a
furlong of me. Had I run on for a few more minutes in the dark, I should
have butted my shako against the wall. I was so taken aback at the
sight, that I could scarcely realize what had happened. Then it all
became clear to me, and I struck my head with my hands in my despair.
The wind had veered from north to south during the night, and I, keeping
my face always towards it, had run ten miles out and ten miles in,
winding up where I had started. When I thought of my hurry, my falls, my
mad rushing and jumping, all ending in this, it seemed so absurd, that
my grief changed suddenly to amusement, and I fell among the brambles,
and laughed, and laughed, until my sides were sore. Then I rolled myself
up in my cloak and considered seriously what I should do.
One lesson which I have learned in my roaming life, my friends, is
never to call anything a misfortune until you have seen the end of it.
Is not every hour a fresh point of view? In this case I soon perceived
that accident had done for me as much as the most profound cunning. My
guards naturally commenced their search from the place where I had taken
Sir Charles Meredith's coat, and from my hiding-place I could see them
hurrying along the road to that point. Not one of them ever dreamed that
I could have doubled back from there, and I lay quite undisturbed in the
little bush-covered cup at the summit of my knoll. The prisoners had, of
course, learned of my escape, and all day exultant yells, like that
which had aroused me in the morning, resounded over the moor, bearing a
welcome message of sympathy and companionship to my ears. How little did
they dream that on the top of that very mound, which they could see from
their windows, was lying the comrade whose escape they were celebrating?
As for me--I could look down upon this poor herd of idle warriors, as
they paced about the great exercise yard, or gathered in little groups,
gesticulating joyfully over my success. Once I heard a howl of
execration, and I saw Beaumont, his head all covered with bandages,
being led across the yard by two of the warders. I cannot tell you the
pleasure which this sight gave me, for it proved that I had not killed
him, and also that the others knew the true story of what had passed.
They had all known me too well to think that I could have abandoned him.
All that long day I lay behind my screen of bushes, listening to the
bells which struck the hours below.
My pockets were filled with bread which I had saved out of my allowance,
and on searching my borrowed overcoat I came upon a silver flask, full
of excellent brandy and water, so that I was able to get through the day
without hardship. The only other things in the pockets were a red silk
handkerchief, a tortoise-shell snuff-box, and a blue envelope, with a
red seal, addressed to the Governor of Dartmoor Prison. As to the first
two, I determined to send them back when I should return the coat
itself.
The letter caused me more perplexity, for the Governor had always shown
me every courtesy, and it offended my sense of honour that I should
interfere with his correspondence. I had almost made up my mind to leave
it under a stone upon the roadway within musket-shot of the gate. This
would guide them in their search for me, however, and so, on the whole,
I saw no better way than just to carry the letter with me in the hope
that I might find some means of sending it back to him. Meanwhile I
packed it safely away in my inner-most pocket.
There was a warm sun to dry my clothes, and when night fell I was ready
for my journey. I promise you that there were no mistakes this time. I
took the stars for my guides, as every hussar should be taught to do,
and I put eight good leagues between myself and the prison. My plan now
was to obtain a complete suit of clothes from the first person whom I
could waylay, and I should then find my way to the north coast, where
there were many smugglers and fishermen who would be ready to earn the
reward which was paid by the Emperor to those who brought escaping
prisoners across the Channel. I had taken the panache from my shako so
that it might escape notice, but even with my fine overcoat I feared
that sooner or later my uniform would betray me. My first care must be
to provide myself with a complete disguise.
When day broke, I saw a river upon my right and a small town upon my
left--the blue smoke reeking up above the moor. I should have liked well
to have entered it, because it would have interested me to see something
of the customs of the English, which differ very much from those of
other nations. Much as I should have wished, however, to have seen them
eat their raw meat and sell their wives, it would have been dangerous
until I had got rid of my uniform. My cap, my moustache, and my speech
would all help to betray me. I continued to travel towards the north
therefore, looking about me continually, but never catching a glimpse of
my pursuers.
About midday I came to where, in a secluded valley, there stood a single
small cottage without any other building in sight. It was a neat little
house, with a rustic porch and a small garden in front of it, with a
swarm of cocks and hens. I lay down among the ferns and watched it, for
it seemed to be exactly the kind of place where I might obtain what I
wanted. My bread was finished, and I was exceedingly hungry after my
long journey; I determined, therefore, to make a short reconnaissance,
and then to march up to this cottage, summon it to surrender, and help
myself to all that I needed. It could at least provide me with a chicken
and with an omelette. My mouth watered at the thought.
As I lay there, wondering who could live in this lonely place, a brisk
little fellow came out through the porch, accompanied by another older
man, who carried two large clubs in his hands. These he handed to his
young companion, who swung them up and down, and round and round, with
extraordinary swiftness. The other, standing beside him, appeared to
watch him with great attention, and occasionally to advise him. Finally
he took a rope, and began skipping like a girl, the other still gravely
observing him. As you may think, I was utterly puzzled as to what these
people could be, and could only surmise that the one was a doctor, and
the other a patient who had submitted himself to some singular method of
treatment.
Well, as I lay watching and wondering, the older man brought out a
great-coat, and held it while the other put it on and buttoned it to his
chin. The day was a warmish one, so that this proceeding amazed me even
more than the other. 'At least,' thought I, 'it is evident that his
exercise is over'; but, far from this being so, the man began to run, in
spite of his heavy coat, and as it chanced, he came right over the moor
in my direction. His companion had re-entered the house, so that this
arrangement suited me admirably. I would take the small man's clothing,
and hurry on to some village where I could buy provisions. The chickens
were certainly tempting, but still there were at least two men in the
house, so perhaps it would be wiser for me, since I had no arms, to keep
away from it.
I lay quietly then among the ferns. Presently I heard the steps of the
runner, and there he was quite close to me, with his huge coat, and the
perspiration running down his face. He seemed to be a very solid
man--but small--so small that I feared that his clothes might be of
little use to me. When I jumped out upon him he stopped running, and
looked at me in the greatest astonishment.
'Blow my dickey,' said he, 'give it a name, guv'nor! Is it a circus, or
what?'
That was how he talked, though I cannot pretend to tell you what he
meant by it.
'You will excuse me, sir,' said I, 'but I am under the necessity of
asking you to give me your clothes.'
'Give you what?' he cried.
'Your clothes.'
'Well, if this don't lick cock-fighting!' said he. 'What am I to give
you my clothes for?'
'Because I need them.'
'And suppose I won't?'
'Be jabers,' said I, 'I shall have no choice but to take them.'
He stood with his hands in the pockets of his great-coat, and a most
amused smile upon his square-jawed, clean-shaven face.
'You'll take them, will you?' said he. 'You're a very leery cove, by the
look of you, but I can tell you that you've got the wrong sow by the ear
this time. I know who you are. You're a runaway Frenchy, from the prison
yonder, as anyone could tell with half an eye. But you don't know who I
am, else you wouldn't try such a plant as that. Why, man, I'm the
Bristol Bustler, nine stone champion, and them's my training quarters
down yonder.'
He stared at me as if this announcement of his would have crushed me to
the earth, but I smiled at him in my turn, and looked him up and down,
with a twirl of my moustache.
'You may be a very brave man, sir,' said I, 'but when I tell you that
you are opposed to Colonel Etienne Gerard, of the Hussars of Conflans,
you will see the necessity of giving up your clothes without further
parley.'
'Look here, mounseer, drop it!' he cried; 'this'll end by your getting
pepper.'
'Your clothes, sir, this instant!' I shouted, advancing fiercely upon
him.
For answer he threw off his heavy great-coat, and stood in a singular
attitude, with one arm out, and the other across his chest, looking at
me with a curious smile. For myself, I knew nothing of the methods of
fighting which these people have, but on horse or on foot, with arms or
without them, I am always ready to take my own part. You understand that
a soldier cannot always choose his own methods, and that it is time to
howl when you are living among wolves. I rushed at him, therefore, with
a warlike shout, and kicked him with both my feet. At the same moment my
heels flew into the air, I saw as many flashes as at Austerlitz, and the
back of my head came down with a crash upon a stone. After that I can
remember nothing more.
When I came to myself I was lying upon a truckle-bed, in a bare,
half-furnished room. My head was ringing like a bell, and when I put up
my hand, there was a lump like a walnut over one of my eyes. My nose was
full of a pungent smell, and I soon found that a strip of paper soaked
in vinegar was fastened across my brow. At the other end of the room
this terrible little man was sitting with his knee bare, and his
elderly companion was rubbing it with some liniment. The latter seemed
to be in the worst of tempers, and he kept up a continual scolding,
which the other listened to with a gloomy face.
'Never heard tell of such a thing in my life,' he was saying. 'In
training for a month with all the weight of it on my shoulders, and then
when I get you as fit as a trout, and within two days of fighting the
likeliest man on the list, you let yourself into a by-battle with a
foreigner.'
'There, there! Stow your gab!' said the other, sulkily. 'You're a very
good trainer, Jim, but you'd be better with less jaw.'
'I should think it was time to jaw,' the elderly man answered. 'If this
knee don't get well before next Wednesday, they'll have it that you
fought a cross, and a pretty job you'll have next time you look for a
backer.'
'Fought a cross!' growled the other. 'I've won nineteen battles, and no
man ever so much as dared to say the word "cross" in my hearin'. How the
deuce was I to get out of it when the cove wanted the very clothes off
my back?'
'Tut, man; you knew that the beak and the guards were within a mile of
you. You could have set them on to him as well then as now. You'd have
got your clothes back again all right.'
'Well, strike me!' said the Bustler. 'I don't often break my trainin',
but when it comes to givin' up my clothes to a Frenchy who couldn't hit
a dint in a pat o' butter, why, it's more than I can swaller.'
'Pooh, man, what are the clothes worth? D'you know that Lord Rufton
alone has five thousand pounds on you? When you jump the ropes on
Wednesday, you'll carry every penny of fifty thousand into the ring. A
pretty thing to turn up with a swollen knee and a story about a
Frenchman!'
'I never thought he'd ha' kicked,' said the Bustler.
'I suppose you expected he'd fight Broughton's rules, and strict P.R.?
Why, you silly, they don't know what fighting is in France.'
'My friends,' said I, sitting up on my bed, 'I do not understand very
much of what you say, but when you speak like that it is foolishness. We
know so much about fighting in France, that we have paid our little
visit to nearly every capital in Europe, and very soon we are coming to
London. But we fight like soldiers, you understand, and not like gamins
in the gutter. You strike me on the head. I kick you on the knee. It is
child's play. But if you will give me a sword, and take another one, I
will show you how we fight over the water.'
They both stared at me in their solid, English way.
'Well, I'm glad you're not dead, mounseer,' said the elder one at last.
'There wasn't much sign of life in you when the Bustler and me carried
you down. That head of yours ain't thick enough to stop the crook of the
hardest hitter in Bristol.'
'He's a game cove, too, and he came for me like a bantam,' said the
other, still rubbing his knee. 'I got my old left-right in, and he went
over as if he had been pole-axed. It wasn't my fault, mounseer. I told
you you'd get pepper if you went on.'
'Well, it's something to say all your life, that you've been handled by
the finest light-weight in England,' said the older man, looking at me
with an expression of congratulation upon his face. 'You've had him at
his best, too--in the pink of condition, and trained by Jim Hunter.'
'I am used to hard knocks,' said I, unbuttoning my tunic, and showing my
two musket wounds. Then I bared my ankle also, and showed the place in
my eye where the guerilla had stabbed me.
'He can take his gruel,' said the Bustler.
'What a glutton he'd have made for the middle-weights,' remarked the
trainer; 'with six months' coaching he'd astonish the fancy. It's a pity
he's got to go back to prison.'
I did not like that last remark at all. I buttoned up my coat and rose
from the bed.
'I must ask you to let me continue my journey,' said I.
'There's no help for it, mounseer,' the trainer answered. 'It's a hard
thing to send such a man as you back to such a place, but business is
business, and there's a twenty pound reward. They were here this
morning, looking for you, and I expect they'll be round again.'
His words turned my heart to lead.
'Surely, you would not betray me!' I cried. 'I will send you twice
twenty pounds on the day that I set foot upon France. I swear it upon
the honour of a French gentleman.'
But I only got head-shakes for a reply. I pleaded, I argued, I spoke of
the English hospitality and the fellowship of brave men, but I might as
well have been addressing the two great wooden clubs which stood
balanced upon the floor in front of me. There was no sign of sympathy
upon their bull-faces.
'Business is business, mounseer,' the old trainer repeated. 'Besides,
how am I to put the Bustler into the ring on Wednesday if he's jugged by
the beak for aidin' and abettin' a prisoner of war? I've got to look
after the Bustler, and I take no risks.'
This, then, was the end of all my struggles and strivings. I was to be
led back again like a poor silly sheep who has broken through the
hurdles. They little knew me who could fancy that I should submit to
such a fate. I had heard enough to tell me where the weak point of these
two men was, and I showed, as I have often showed before, that Etienne
Gerard is never so terrible as when all hope seems to have deserted him.
With a single spring I seized one of the clubs and swung it over the
head of the Bustler.
'Come what may,' I cried, '_you_ shall be spoiled for Wednesday.'
The fellow growled out an oath, and would have sprung at me, but the
other flung his arms round him and pinned him to the chair.
'Not if I know it, Bustler,' he screamed. 'None of your games while I am
by. Get away out of this, Frenchy. We only want to see your back. Run
away, run away, or he'll get loose!'
It was good advice, I thought, and I ran to the door, but as I came out
into the open air my head swam round and I had to lean against the porch
to save myself from falling. Consider all that I had been through, the
anxiety of my escape, the long, useless flight in the storm, the day
spent amid wet ferns, with only bread for food, the second journey by
night, and now the injuries which I had received in attempting to
deprive the little man of his clothes. Was it wonderful that even I
should reach the limits of my endurance?
I stood there in my heavy coat and my poor battered shako, my chin upon
my chest, and my eyelids over my eyes. I had done my best, and I could
do no more. It was the sound of horses' hoofs which made me at last
raise my head, and there was the grey-moustached Governor of Dartmoor
Prison not ten paces in front of me, with six mounted warders behind
him!
'So, Colonel,' said he, with a bitter smile, 'we have found you once
more.'
When a brave man has done his utmost, and has failed, he shows his
breeding by the manner in which he accepts his defeat. For me, I took
the letter which I had in my pocket, and stepping forward, I handed it
with such grace of manner as I could summon to the Governor.
'It has been my misfortune, sir, to detain one of your letters,' said I.
He looked at me in amazement, and beckoned to the warders to arrest me.
Then he broke the seal of the letter. I saw a curious expression come
over his face as he read it.
'This must be the letter which Sir Charles Meredith lost,' said he.
'It was in the pocket of his coat.'
'You have carried it for two days?'
'Since the night before last.'
'And never looked at the contents?'
I showed him by my manner that he had committed an indiscretion in
asking a question which one gentleman should not have put to another.
To my surprise he burst out into a roar of laughter.
'Colonel,' said he, wiping the tears from his eyes, 'you have really
given both yourself and us a great deal of unnecessary trouble. Allow me
to read the letter which you carried with you in your flight.'