A FRENCH PRISON
Julian Wyatt had expected that there would be some formalities on his
arrival at Nantes--that he should probably be taken before a court of
some sort,--and he determined to make a protest, and to declare that he
had been forcibly brought over from England. At the same time he felt
that to do so would make little difference in his position. When Holland
was overrun with the French, all English residents were thrown into
prison, and the same thing had happened after the short peace; still he
determined to make the effort, for he thought that as a civilian he
might not be placed in a military prison, and might, therefore, have a
better chance of making his escape. He had, however, no opportunity for
protest or remonstrance. The captain of the lugger and two of his men
went ashore as soon as the craft was moored alongside the quay.
A quarter of an hour later they returned with a sergeant and two
soldiers. The captain pointed him out to the sergeant. The latter
crossed the plank on to the deck, put his hand on Julian's shoulder, and
motioned to him to follow him ashore.
"Good-bye, young fellow!" Markham said, as, feeling the uselessness of
protest or resistance, Julian moved towards the plank. "I am very sorry
for you, but there is nothing else to do, and you will be as well there
as anywhere, for you couldn't show your face in Weymouth. I will keep my
promise, never fear; and some day or other everyone shall know that you
had nothing to do with giving that fellow the end he deserved."
Julian was marched along the quay for some distance, and then through
the streets till they came to a large building. The sergeant rang the
bell at the gate. When it was opened he entered with Julian, leaving the
two soldiers without. A sub-officer of the prison came up, and the
sergeant handed to him a paper, which was an order signed by the mayor
for the governor of the prison to receive an English sailor, name
unknown, age twenty-one, who had been picked up at sea by the master of
the French lugger _Lucille_. The official gave a receipt to the sergeant
for the prisoner, and a warder then led Julian away to a vaulted hall,
where some forty or fifty men were either lying on some straw or were
walking up and down in the endeavour to warm themselves. Julian saw at
once that they were English sailors, although their clothes were for the
most part ragged and torn.
"Hulloa, mate!" one of them said as the door closed behind him. "Have
you come all alone? For the most part we arrive in batches. Where do you
hail from, and what was your ship?"
"I hail from Weymouth," Julian replied cheerfully, his habit of making
the best of things at once asserting itself. "I don't know that I can be
said to belong to any ship, but I made the passage across in a French
smuggling lugger, the _Lucille_. I suppose I ought to feel indebted to
them, for they brought me across without asking for any passage-money;
but they have played me a dirty trick here, for they have handed me over
to the authorities, as far as I can understand the matter, as a
man-of-war sailor they have picked up."
"What were you doing on board?" another sailor asked. "Did you have to
leave England in a hurry?"
"I left in a hurry because I could not help it. Going across the hills I
came quite accidentally upon one of the smugglers' hiding-places, and
was seized before I had time to say a word. There was a little
discussion among themselves as to what they would do with me, and I
should have had my throat cut if an Englishman among them had not known
that I was friends with most of the fishermen there, and had been
present once or twice when a cargo was run. So they finally made up
their minds to bring me over here, and as they feared I might, if I
returned, peach as to their hiding-place, they trumped up this story
about me, and handed me over to the French to take care of."
"Well, that story will do just as well as another," one of the sailors
laughed. "As to their taking care of you, beyond looking sharp that you
don't get away, the care they give you ain't worth speaking of. We are
pretty nigh starved, and pretty nigh frozen. Well, there is one thing,
we shall get out of it in two or three days, for we hear that we are all
to be marched off somewhere. A batch generally goes off once a
fortnight."
"Are you mostly men-of-war's men?"
"None of us, at least not when we were taken, though I reckon most of us
have had a spell at it one time or other. No; we all belong to two ships
that were captured by a couple of their confounded privateers. The one I
belonged to was bound for Sicily with stores for some of the troops
stationed there; the other lot were on their way to the Tagus. They
caught us off Finisterre within a couple of days of each other. We both
made a fight of it, and if we had been together when they came up, we
might have beaten them off; but we had not any chance single-handed
against two of them, for they both carried much heavier metal than we
did. I don't think we should have resisted if we had not thought that
the noise of the guns might have brought one of our cruisers up. But we
had no such luck, and so here we are."
"I suppose, lad, you haven't got anything to pay your footing with? They
did not leave us a _sou_ in our pockets, and I don't suppose the
smugglers were much more generous to you."
"Yes, they were," Julian said. "I have a guinea and some odd silver. I
will keep the odd silver for the present, for it may come in handy later
on; but here is the guinea, and if there are any means of getting
anything with it, order what you like."
There was a shout of satisfaction, followed by an animated debate as to
how the money should be spent. Julian learnt that there was no
difficulty in obtaining liquor in the prison, as one of the warders had
permission to sell it in quantities not exceeding one glass, for which
the charge was four _sous_, and also that prisoners with money could
send out for food. After much discussion, it was finally settled that
forty-five pints of soup and the same number of rations of rum should be
obtained. The soup was but three _sous_ a pint, which would leave them
enough for a tot of grog all round next day. One of them, who had been
first mate on board--for Julian found that only the masters had separate
treatment as officers--went across to the man who supplied liquor. The
warder soon returned with him, carrying four bottles, a large stone jar
of water, and two or three small tin cups. The mate, who spoke French
pretty fluently, had a sharp argument with him as to the amount in
French money that he should receive as change out of the guinea; and as
he had learnt from one of the last batch that had been sent away, the
proper rate of exchange in the town, he finally got the best of it, and
the work of serving out the liquor then began.
A few of the sailors tossed off their allowance without water, but most
of them took it half and half, so as to make it go further. Undoubtedly
if the warder would have sold more than one allowance to each man the
whole of the guinea would at once have been laid out, but he was firm on
this point. Soon afterwards the prisoners' dinner was brought in. It
consisted of a slice of black bread to each man and a basin of very thin
broth, and Julian was not surprised at the hungry look that he had
noticed on the men's faces.
"Pretty poor fare, isn't it, mate?" one of them said as he observed the
air of disfavour with which Julian regarded his rations. "It has been a
matter of deep calculation with these French fellows as to how little
would do just to keep a man alive, and I reckon they have got it to a
nicety. This is what we have three times a day, and I don't know whether
one is most hungry when one turns in at night, or when one turns out in
the morning. However, we shall be better off to-night. We get our supper
at six, and at eight we shall get in that stuff you paid for. It is a
precious deal better than this, I can tell you; for one of our chums
managed to hide two or three shillings when they searched us, and got
some in, and it was good, and no mistake; and they give half a slice of
bread with each pint. It is better bread than this black stuff they give
us in prison. Though an English dog would turn up his nose at it, still
it helps to fill up."
The second supper was voted a great success, and after it was eaten, the
men, cheered by its warmth, and freed for a time from the annoying
feeling of hunger they generally experienced, became quite merry.
Several songs were sung, but at the conclusion of a grand chorus an
armed warder came in and ordered them to be silent.
"If the governor hears you making that row," he said, "you will have one
of your meals cut off to-morrow."
The threat was effectual, and the men lay down in the straw as close as
they could get to each other for warmth, as by this means the thin rug
each had served out to him sufficed to spread over two bodies, and their
covering was thus doubled. Julian had really another guinea besides the
silver in his pocket, but he had thought it better to make no mention of
this, as in case of his ever being able to make his escape, it would be
of vital service to him. The following day there was another council
over the ten francs still remaining. A few would have spent it in
another allowance of rum all round, but finally, by an almost unanimous
vote, it was determined that fifteen clay pipes should be obtained, and
the rest laid out in tobacco. The forty-five were solemnly divided into
three watches. Each member of a watch was to have a pipe, which was to
be filled with tobacco. This he could smoke fast or slow as he chose,
or, if he liked, could use the tobacco for chewing. At the end of half
an hour the pipes were to be handed over to the next watch, and so on in
regular order until evening.
This plan was carried out, and afforded unbounded satisfaction, and many
loudly regretted that it had not been thought of at first, as the money
spent on grog would have largely extended the time the tobacco would
hold out. So jealous did the men become of their store of tobacco that
the mate was requested to fill all the pipes, as some of the men in
helping themselves rammed their pipes so closely that they held double
the proper allowance of tobacco. This treat at once established Julian
as a popular character, and upon his lamenting, when talking to the
mate, his inability to speak French, the latter offered to teach him as
much as he could. Directly he began three or four of the younger sailors
asked to be allowed to listen, a school was established in one corner of
the room, and for several hours a day work went on, both master and
pupils finding that it greatly shortened the long weary hours of
idleness.
Three weeks passed without change. Then they were told that next morning
they would be marched away to make room for another batch of prisoners
that had been brought into the fort that afternoon. All were glad of the
change, first, because it was a change, and next, because they all
agreed they could not be worse off anywhere than they were at Nantes.
They were mustered at daybreak, formed up in fours, and with a guard of
twenty soldiers with loaded muskets marched out from the prison gates.
The first day's journey was a long one. Keeping along the north bank of
the Loire, they marched to Angers, which they did not reach until night
was falling. Many of the men, wholly unaccustomed to walking, were
completely worn out before they reached their destination, but as a
whole, with the exception of being somewhat footsore, they arrived in
fair condition. Julian marched by the side of the first mate, and the
lesson in French was a long one, and whiled away the hours on the road.
"It would not be difficult for us, if we were to pass the word down, to
fall suddenly on our guards and overpower them," the mate said in one of
the pauses of their talk. "A few of us might be shot, but as soon as we
had knocked some of them over and got their arms, we should easily make
an end of the rest. The difficulty would be what to do afterwards."
"That is a difficulty there is no getting over," Julian said. "With the
exception of yourself, there is not one who speaks French well."
"I don't speak it well," the mate said. "I know enough to get on with,
but the first person that I addressed would see at once that I was a
foreigner. No; we should all be in the same boat, and a very bad boat it
would be. We should all be hunted down in the course of twenty-four
hours, and I expect would be shot twelve hours afterwards. I think that
instead of sending twenty men with us they might safely have sent only
two, for it would be simply madness to try to escape. If one alone could
manage to slip off there would be some chance for him. There is no doubt
that the Bretons are bitterly opposed to the present state of things,
and have not forgotten how they suffered in their rising early in the
days of the Republic. They would probably conceal a runaway, and might
pass him along through their woods to St. Malo or one of the other
seaports, and thence a passage across might be obtained in a smuggler,
but it would be a hazardous job."
"Too hazardous for me to care to undertake, even if I got the chance to
slip away," Julian said.
"You are right, mate; nothing short of a big reward would tempt any of
the smugglers to run the risk of carrying an escaped prisoner out of the
country; and as I have not a penny in my pocket, and nothing to draw on
at home--for there is only my pay due up to the date we were captured
when we were only eight days out--I should not have the slightest chance
of getting away. No; I shall take whatever comes. I expect we are in for
it to the end of the war, though when that will be is more than any man
can tell."
They were marched into the prison at Angers, where they were provided
with a much more bountiful meal than they had been accustomed to, a good
allowance of straw, and two blankets each. To their great satisfaction
they were not called at daybreak, and on questioning one of the warders
who brought in their breakfast, the first mate learnt that after the
march to Angers it was customary to allow a day's rest to the prisoners
going through. They were ready for the start on the following morning,
and stopped for that night at La Flèche. The next march was a long one
to Vendôme, and at this place they again halted for a day. Stopping for
a night at Beaugency, they marched to Orleans, where was a large prison.
Here they remained for a week. The guards who had accompanied them from
Nantes left them here at Orleans and returned by water.
From Orleans they struck more to the north, and after ten days' marching
arrived at Verdun, which was, they learned, their final destination.
Here there were fully a thousand English prisoners, for the most part
sailors. The greater portion of them were lodged in wooden huts erected
in a great courtyard surrounded by a high wall. The food was coarse, but
was much more abundant than it had been at Nantes. The newly arrived
party were quartered together in one of the huts.
Night and day sentries were posted on the wall, along which a wooden
platform, three feet from the top, permitted them to pass freely; on
this sentry-boxes were erected at short intervals. As soon as their
escort had left them, the newcomers were surrounded by sailors eager to
learn the last news from England--how the war was going on, and what
prospect there was of peace. As soon as their curiosity was satisfied,
the crowd speedily dispersed. Julian was struck with the air of listless
indifference that prevailed among the prisoners, but it was not long
before he quite understood it. Cut off from all news, without hope of
escape or exchange, it was difficult for even the most light-hearted to
retain their spirits.
As sailors, the men were somewhat better able to support the dull
hopelessness of their lives than others would have been. Most of them
were handy in some way or other, and as they were permitted by the
authorities to make anything they could, they passed much of their time
in working at something or other. Some cut out and rigged model ships,
others knitted, some made quilts from patches purchased for a trifle by
the warders for them in the town, some made fancy boxes of straw, others
carved walking-sticks, paper-cutters, and other trifles.
Each day, two or three of their number had permission to go down into
the town to sell their own and their comrades' manufactures, and to buy
materials. There was a fair sale for most of the articles, for these
were bought not only by the townspeople, but by pedlars, who carried
them through the country. The prices obtained were small, but they
afforded a profit over the money laid out in materials, sufficient to
purchase tobacco and other little luxuries--the introduction of spirits
into the prison being, however, strictly forbidden. Of more importance
than the money they earned, was the relief to the tedium of their life
in the work itself. Julian found a similar relief in studying French.
There were some among the prisoners who spoke the language far better
than did the mate, and after three months' work with the latter, Julian
was advised by him to obtain a better teacher. He found no difficulty in
getting one, who spoke French really well, to talk with him three or
four hours a day on condition of being supplied with tobacco during that
time; and as tobacco was very cheap, and could be always bought from the
soldiers, Julian's store of money was not much diminished by the outlay.
He himself had now regularly taken to smoking; not at first because he
liked it, but because he saw how much it cheered and comforted his
comrades, who, however, generally used it in the sailor fashion of
chewing. Escape was never talked of. The watch kept was extremely
strict, and as on getting outside of the walls of the courtyard, they
would but find themselves in a town girt in by walls and fortifications,
the risk was altogether too great to be encountered. It had been
attempted many times, but in the great majority of cases the fugitives
had been shot, and their bodies had always been brought back to the
prison in order to impress the others with the uselessness of the
attempt. A very few, indeed, had got away; at least, it was supposed
that they had done so, as their bodies had not been brought back; but it
was generally considered that the chances were enormously against their
being able to make their way over the wide extent of country between
Verdun and the sea, and then to succeed in obtaining a passage to some
neutral port, from which they could make their way to England. Several
times offers of freedom were made to such of the prisoners as
volunteered to enter the French army or navy, but very few availed
themselves of them.
At the end of ten months, Julian was able to speak French fluently.
Large bodies of troops were continually marching through the town bound
for the east, and the prisoners learned from the guards that the general
belief was that Napoleon intended to invade Russia.
"I have a good mind to enlist," Julian said one day, to his friend the
mate. "Of course, nothing would persuade me to do so if it were a
question of fighting against the English. But now that I have learnt
French fairly, I begin to find this life horrible, and am longing
intensely to be doing something. There are the reasons that I have
already told you of why, even if I were free, I could not go home. I
might as well be taking part in this campaign as staying in prison.
Besides, I should have infinitely better chances of escape as a soldier
than we have here, and if I find I don't like it, I can at least try to
get off."
"Well, placed as you are, Wyatt, I don't know that I should not be
inclined to do the same. At any rate, you would be seeing something of
life, instead of living like a caged monkey here. Of course, as you say,
no one would dream of such a thing if one would have to go to Spain to
fight our fellows there. Still, if by any chance, after this Russian
business, your regiment was ordered back to France, and then to Spain,
you would at any rate have a fair chance of escaping on such a journey.
I would not do it myself, because I have a wife at home. One hopes,
slight as the chance seems to be, that some day there will be a general
exchange of prisoners. But as you can't go home, I don't know but that
it would be a good plan for you to do what you propose. At any rate,
your life as a soldier would be a thousand times better than this dog's
existence."
"I could put up with that for myself, but it is awful seeing many of the
men walking about with their heads down, never speaking for hours, and
the pictures of hopeless melancholy. See how they die off, not from
hunger or fever, for we have enough to eat, but wasting away and dying
from home-sickness, and because they have nothing to live for. Why, of
the forty-five of us who came up together, ten have gone already; and
there are three or four others who won't last long. It is downright
heartbreaking; and now that I have no longer anything to keep my
thoughts employed a good part of the day, I begin to feel it myself. I
catch myself saying, what is the use of it all, it would be better make
a bolt and have done with it. I can quite understand the feelings of
that man who was shot last week. He ran straight out of the gate; he had
no thought of escape; he simply did it to be shot down by the sentries,
instead of cutting his own throat. I don't believe I could stand it
much longer, Jim; and even if I were certain of being killed by a
Russian ball I think I should go."
"Go then, lad," the man said. "I have always thought that you have borne
up very well; but I know it is even worse for you than it is for us
sailors. We are accustomed to be cooped up for six months at a time on
board a ship, without any news from outside; with nothing to do save to
see that the decks are washed, and the brasses polished, except when
there is a shift of wind or a gale. But to anyone like yourself, I can
understand that it must be terrible; and if you feel getting into that
state, I should say go by all means."
"I will give you a letter before I enlist, Jim; and I will get you, when
you are exchanged, to go down with it yourself to Weymouth, and tell
them what became of me, and why I went into the French army. Don't let
them think that I turned traitor. I would shoot myself rather than run
the risk of having to fight Englishmen. But when it is a choice between
fighting Russians and going out of my mind, I prefer shouldering a
French musket. I will write the letter to-day. There is no saying when
they may next call for volunteers; for, as you know, those who step
forward are taken away at once, so as to prevent their being persuaded
by the others into drawing back."
The next day Julian wrote his letter. He recapitulated the arguments he
had used to the mate, and bade Frank and his aunt a final farewell. "I
may, of course, get through the campaign," he said. "The French soldiers
here seem to think that they will sweep the Russians before them, but
that is their way. They talked of sweeping us out of the Peninsula, and
they haven't done it yet; and there is no doubt that the Russians are
good soldiers, and will make a big fight of it. I hope you won't feel
cut up about this, and really I care little whether I leave my bones in
Russia or not. It may be twenty years or even longer before that fellow
Markham's letter arrives to clear me. And until then I cannot return to
England, or at any rate to Weymouth; indeed, wherever I was, I should
live with the knowledge that I might at any moment be recognized and
arrested. Therefore while others here have some hope of a return home,
either by an exchange of prisoners or by the war coming to an end, I
have nothing to look forward to. So you see, old fellow, that it is as
well as it is.
"I have to earn my own living somehow, and this way will suit me better
than most. Only, of one thing be sure, that if at the end of the Russian
war I return alive, and my regiment is sent where there is a chance of
fighting our people, I shall take an opportunity of deserting. As I have
told you, I can speak French fairly well now, and after a few months in
a French regiment I shall be able to pass as a native, and should have a
good chance of making my way somehow through the country to the
frontier. My idea at present is that I should make for Genoa and ship
there as a sailor on board an Italian vessel, or, better still, if we
happen to be masters of the place, or our fleet near, should either
enlist in one of our regiments, or ship on board one of our men-of-war.
I should, of course, take another name, and merely say that I had been
captured by the French at sea, had been a prisoner at Verdun, and had
managed to get free, and make my way across the country. Probably in any
case I shall do this when the regiment returns from Russia. Two or three
years' absence, and a fair share of the hardships of a soldier's life,
and a disguise, might enable me without detection to travel down to
Weymouth and see Aunt, and learn if there had been any news from
Markham.
"Whether I shall find you there or not I can't tell. I have but little
hope that you will be able to get a commission. This affair of mine
will be, I fear, an absolute bar to that. But, wherever you may be, I
shall do my best to find you out, after I have seen Aunt. This will be
given you by a good fellow named Jim Thompson. He has been a first mate,
and has been a good friend to me ever since I have been over here. If he
is exchanged, he will bring it to you; if not, he will give it to one of
the men who is exchanged to post it on his arrival in England. I shall
direct it both to you and Aunt, so that if you are away from Weymouth
she will open it. God bless you both."
Three days later a notice was posted in the prison saying that any of
the prisoners who chose to volunteer for service in Germany were at
liberty to do so. They would not be called upon at any future time for
service against British troops, but would have the liberty to exchange
into regiments destined for other service. Eight men, including Julian,
came forward, when, an hour later, a French officer entered and called
for volunteers. Julian had already announced his intention of doing so
to his comrades in the hut, and to his other acquaintances.
"You see," he said, "we shall not be called upon for service against the
English, and I would rather fight the Russians than stay in this place
for years."
Hitherto the men who had volunteered had been hooted by their
fellow-prisoners as they went out, but the promise that they should not
be called upon for service against British troops made a great
difference in the feeling with which the offer was regarded, and had it
not been for the hope that everyone felt that he should ere long be
exchanged, the number who stepped forward would have been greatly
increased. A strong French division had marched into Verdun that
morning, and the new volunteers were all divided among different corps.
Julian, who now stood over six feet, was told off to a Grenadier
regiment. A uniform was at once given to him from those carried with
the baggage of the regiment, and the sergeant of the company in which he
had been placed took him to its barrack-room.
"Comrades," he said, "here is a new recruit. He is an Englishman who has
the good sense to prefer fighting the Russians to rotting in prison. He
is a brave fellow, and speaks our language well, and I think you will
find him a good comrade. He has handed over twenty francs to pay his
footing in the company. You must not regard him as a traitor to his
country, my friends, for he has received from the colonel a paper
authorizing him to exchange into a regiment destined for other service,
in case, after we have done with the Russians, we should be sent to some
place where we should have to fight against his countrymen."
In half an hour Julian felt at home with his new comrades. They differed
greatly in age: some among them had grown grizzly in the service, and
had fought in all the wars of the Republic and Empire; others were lads
not older than himself, taken but a month or two before from the plough.
After they had drunk the liquor purchased with his twenty francs, they
patted him on the back and drank to the health of Jules Wyatt, for
Julian had entered under his own surname, and his Christian name was at
once converted to its French equivalent. With his usual knack of making
friends, he was soon on excellent terms with them all, joined in their
choruses, and sang some English songs whose words he had as an exercise
translated into French, and when the men lay down for the night on their
straw pallets it was generally agreed that the new comrade was a fine
fellow and an acquisition to the company.
The division was to halt for two days at Verdun, and the time was spent,
as far as Julian was concerned, in the hands of a sergeant, who kept him
hard at work all day acquiring the elements of drill. On the third
morning the regiment marched off at daybreak, Julian taking his place
in the ranks, with his knapsack and firelock. After the long confinement
in the prison he found his life thoroughly enjoyable. Sometimes they
stopped in towns, where they were either quartered in barracks or
billeted on the inhabitants; sometimes they slept under canvas or in the
open air, and this Julian preferred, as they built great fires and
gathered round them in merry groups. The conscripts had by this time got
over their home-sickness, and had caught the martial enthusiasm of their
older comrades. All believed that the Grande Armée would be invincible,
and fears were even expressed that the Russians would not venture to
stand against them. Some of the older men, however, assured them that
there was little chance of this.
"The Russians are hardy fighters, comrades," one of the veterans said.
"_Parbleu!_ I who tell you, have fought against them, and they are not
to be despised. They are slow at manuoevring, but put them in a place
and tell them to hold it, and they will do it to the last. I fought at
Austerlitz against the Austrians, and at Jena against the Prussians, and
in a score of other battles in Germany and Italy, and I tell you that
the Russians are the toughest enemies I have met, save only your
Islanders, Jules. I was at Talavera, and the way your people held that
hill after the cowardly Spaniards had bolted and left them, and at last
rolled us down it, was a thing I don't want to see again. I was wounded
and sent home to be patched up, and that is how I come to be here
marching against Russia instead of being under Soult in Spain. No,
comrades, you take my word for it, big as our army will be, we shall
have some tough fighting to do before we get to Moscow or St.
Petersburg, whichever the Little Corporal intends to dictate terms in."
"It is as you say, Victor," one of the other veterans said, "and it is
all the better. It would be too bad if we had to march right across
Europe and back without firing a shot, but I, who know the Russians
too, feel sure that that will never be."
Many a merry martial song was sung at the bivouac fires, many a story of
campaigns and battles told, and no thought of failure entered the minds
of anyone, from the oldest veteran to the youngest drummer-boy. Of an
evening, after halting, Julian generally had half an hour's drill,
until, three weeks after leaving Verdun, he was pronounced fit to take
part in a review under the eyes of the Emperor himself. His readiness to
oblige, even to undertaking sentry duty for a comrade who had grown
footsore on the march, or was suffering from some temporary ailment, his
cheeriness and good temper, had by this time rendered him a general
favourite in the company, and when he was dismissed from drill the
veterans were always ready to give him lessons with the sabre or rapier
in addition to those he received from the _maître d'armes_ of the
regiment. Julian entered into these exercises with great earnestness.
Quarrels between the men were not infrequent, and these were always
settled by the sabre or straight sword, the officers' permission being
necessary before these duels took place. It was seldom that their
consequences were very serious. The _maître d'armes_ was always present,
and put a stop to the fight as soon as blood was drawn. At present
Julian was on the best terms with all his comrades, but he felt that, if
he should become involved in a quarrel, he of all men must be ready to
vindicate his honour and to show that, Englishman as he was, he was not
a whit behind his comrades in his readiness to prove his courage. Thus,
then, he worked with ardour, and ere long became able to hold his own
even with the veterans of the regiment.