There never was a finer morning in the world than that appointed for the
review. It was just the end of May, and all the scenery, even in the
very suburbs of the great city, was brilliant with all the
characteristic beauty of an English landscape.
The fine horse-chestnut trees and the thick hawthorn hedges were all in
full bloom, and the air was perfectly scented with perfumes from the
innumerable nursery grounds which hedge in that side of London with a
belt of flowers.
The parks, and the suburban roads were crowded with neatly-dressed,
modest-looking nurses and nursery-maids, leading whole troops of
rosy-cheeked, brown-curled, merry boys and girls to enjoy the fresh
morning air; and Auguste was never tired, as we drove along, of admiring
everything that met his eyes in quick succession.
The trees, the flowery hedges, the gay parterres, the glimpses of the
noble Thames white with the sails of innumerable craft, the beautiful
villas with their small highly cultivated pleasure-grounds, the pretty
nursery-maids, and happy English children, all came in for a share of
his rapturous admiration; and so vivacious and original were his
comments on all that he saw, that he in some sort communicated the
infection of his merry humour to us also, and we were all as gay and
joyous as the season and the scene.
When we came to the ground destined for the review, my brother was
silent, and I saw his cheek turn pale for a moment; but his eye
brightened and flashed as it ran over the splendid lines of the cavalry,
which, at the moment we came upon the ground, were parading past the
royal personage in honour of whom the review was given, and who was on
horseback, by the side of a somewhat slender elderly gentleman, dressed
in the uniform of a _field-marshal_, whose eagle eye and aquiline nose
announced him, at a glance, the _vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre_.
"_Magnifique, mais c'est vraiment magnifique_," muttered my brother to
himself, as the superb life-guards swept along with their polished steel
helmets and breast-plates glittering like silver in the sunshine, and
their plumes and guidons flashing and twinkling in the breeze. "_Dieu
de dieu! qu'ils sont geants les cavaliers, qu'ils sont colossaux les
chevaux. Et les allures si lestes, si gracieuses, comme s'ils n'etaient
que des juments. Mais c'est un spectacle magnifique_!"
A moment afterwards, a regiment of lancers passed at a trot, with their
pennons fluttering in the breeze, and their lance-heads glimmering like
stars above the clouds of dust which rose from under their horses'
hoofs; and these were followed by several squadrons of hussars, with
their crimson trousers and their gaily furred pelisses, and then troop
after troop of horse-artillery clattering along, the high-bred horses
whirling the heavy guns and caissons behind them as if they had been
mere playthings.
It certainly was a beautiful and brilliant pageant, and the splendid
military music of the cavalry-bands, the clash and clang of the silver
cymbals, the ringing roll of the kettle-drums, and the symphonious
cadences of the cornets, horns, and trumpets at the same time, delighted
and excited me to the utmost.
But, I confess, that to me the calm old veteran, sitting unmoved amidst
all that pomp and clangour, and evidently marking only every smallest
minutiae of the men, the accoutrements, the movements, was a more
interesting, a more moving sight, than all the pageantry of uniform,
than all the thrill of music.
I thought how he had sat as cool and impassive under the iron hail of
battle, with thousands and thousands of the best and bravest falling
around him, the fate of nations hanging on a balanced scale in those
fights of giants--I thought how he, alone of men, had faced undaunted
and self-confident, that greater than Hannibal, or Alexander, that
world-conqueror Napoleon--I thought how he had quelled the might of my
own gallant land, and my blood seemed to thrill coldly in my veins, as
it will at the recital of great deeds and noble daring--and I knew not
altogether whether it was the shudder of dislike, or the thrill of
admiration that so shook me.
Had he looked proud, or self-elate, or triumphant, I felt that I could
have hated him; but so impassive, and withal now so frail and feeble,
yet with an eye so calmly firm, an expression of rectitude so conscious,
I could not but perceive that if an enemy of my _belle France_ was
before me, it was an enemy who had been made such by duty, not by
choice--an enemy who had done nought in hatred, all in honour.
I acknowledged to myself that I was in the presence of the greatest
living man; and though I could neither love nor worship, I felt subdued
and awed into a sort of breathless horror, as one might fancy humanity
to be in the presence of some superior intelligence, some being of
another world.
The girls observed my riveted and almost fascinated eye, as it dwelt on
that mighty soldier, and began to whisper to one another with a sort of
very natural pride at the evident interest which we took in their
favourite hero.
Their tittering attracted my brother's attention, and following their
eyes he was not long in discovering what it was that had excited their
mirth, and he looked at me for a moment with something like a frown on
his forehead. But it cleared away in a moment, and he smiled at his own
vehemence, perhaps injustice.
At that moment, the different regiments began wheeling to and fro in
long lines, and open columns of troops, and performing an infinity of
manoeuvres, which, though I of course did not in the least degree
comprehend them, were very fine and beautiful to look at, from the
rapidity of the movements, the high spirit of the horses, and the gleam
and glitter of the arms, half seen among the dust-clouds. My brother,
however, began, as I could see, to be vehemently excited, and his
constant comments and exclamations of surprise and admiration, bore
testimony to the correctness with which every movement was executed.
Then came the roar of the artillery, as the guns retreated before the
charging horse, and even I could comprehend and appreciate the
marvellous celerity with which flash followed flash, and roar echoed
roar, from the same piece, so speedily that it was scarcely possible to
comprehend how the gun should have been loaded and re-loaded while the
horses were at full gallop.
By this time all the gentlemen had become so much interested and excited
by the scene, that, Lionel having got upon his horse which had been led
down to the ground by his servant, they asked our permission to leave us
for a short time, and ride nearer to the spot where the artillery were
manoeuvring.
As we had several servants about us in the first place, and as in the
second there is not the slightest danger of ladies being treated with
incivility by an English crowd, unless through their own fault or
indiscretion, of course no objection was made, and our cavaliers
galloped away, promising to return within a quarter of an hour.
Scarcely were they out of sight, before I observed a tall, handsome,
soldierly man, though in plain clothes, ride past the carriage on a very
fine horse, followed by a groom in a plain dark frock, with a cockade in
his hat.
It seemed to me on the instant that I had seen his face somewhere
before, and that I ought to know him; for the features all seemed
familiar, although had it been to save my life, I could not have said
where I had met him.
I was torturing my memory on this head in vain--for he was evidently an
Englishman, and I had no acquaintance with any English officer--when he
rode past a second time, and seemed to be engaged in endeavouring to
decipher the arms on our carriage, and his object appeared to be the
discovery of who _I_ was; at least, I could not but observe that he
looked at me from time to time with a furtive glance from under the brim
of his hat, as if he, too, fancied that he knew or remembered me. The
same thing happened yet a third time; and then he called his servant to
his side, and I saw the man ride up a second afterwards to Judge
Selwyn's footman, who was standing at a few yards' distance from the
carriage, and ask him some question, which he answered by a word or two,
when the groom rode away.
The gentleman, on receiving the reply, nodded his head quietly, as if he
would have said, "I thought so," and then he looked at me steadily till
he caught my eye, when he raised his hat, made a half military bow, and
trotted slowly away.
Caroline's quick eye caught this action in an instant, and, turning to
me suddenly, she cried quickly--
"Ah! Valerie, who is that? that handsome man who bowed to you?--Where
have I seen him before?"
"The very question which I was asking myself, Caroline. I am quite sure
that I have seen his face, and yet I cannot remember where. It is very
strange."
"Very!" replied a strange, sneering voice, close to my ear, with a
slightly foreign accent. "Can you say where you have seen mine,
_Ingrate_?"
I turned my head as quick as lightning; for in answering Caroline, who
sat on the side of the carriage next to the military spectacle, I had
leaned a little inward; and there, with his effeminate features actually
livid with rage, and writhing with impotent malignity, stood Monsieur
G--, the infamous divorced husband of Madame d'Albret, and the first
cause of almost all my misfortunes.