The Span o' Life Part 32

"You are victors, monsieur, and can command," she said, bitterly.

"We are victors, madame," he returned, gravely, "but we have bought our honours dearly. Our general lies dead on the plain above."

"C'est sur le champ d'honneur, monsieur," she instantly responded, in a tone of much feeling.

"A thousand thanks for your sympathy, madame; we will use every diligence to preserve it. Captain Nairn will take charge here, and will give you a.s.surance of safety and protection from insult. In return, you will kindly offer such shelter to the wounded as is possible, and furnish him with every information as to the number of rooms available, for I must ask for all accommodation in your power."

He introduced Captain Nairn and withdrew at once, followed by the a.s.surances of the Superior that everything would be done for the comfort of the wounded.

It was with a curious feeling that I looked on my brother, for I could not doubt that it was he, though I had not seen him since we were children. Despite the disorder of his dress and his evident fatigue, he was a handsome man, though not much taller than myself.

His address was natural and easy, and certainly his French was perfect; I had but a moment to gather this, for we were at once dismissed from our attendance by the Superior, who remained alone to arrange with our new masters.

"O, ciel! Marguerite! is that your brother?" whispered Angelique, excitedly.

"Yes, cherie, I have no doubt it is," I answered, sadly.

"I should not sigh over such a misfortune," she cried, gayly. "You are cold-blooded creatures, you Scotch! Why, I should have been weeping on his neck long ago, no matter what had happened! He has eyes like yours."

CHAPTER XXIV

RECONCILIATION

We found Mme. de Sarennes awaiting us in her room, with a generous bouillon warming over a lamp. "Hunger and faintness will not add to your courage, my daughters; sit down and eat. We shall have need of all our strength for the morrow," she said, cheerfully. We were eager to discuss the events of the day, but she would not listen to a word. "You must be good soldiers now and obey orders; eat first, and then to bed. Angelique, do you set an example and go at once."

"La ceremonie faite, chacun s'en fut coucher," repeated Angelique, sleepily, as she kissed us and went. Then I turned to her mother.

"Mme. de Sarennes, I am in a difficulty. May I ask your help?"

"Marguerite, ma cherie, I am afraid I am thought a stern woman; but you know how dear those I love are to me, and I have learned to love you. You may speak to me as you would have spoken to your own mother," she said, with a tenderness that went to my heart.

I arose and seated myself beside her, and with my hand in hers I told her of my home, of my life with Lady Jane, and my devotion to the cause of the Prince; of my pride in my only brother, and of what I considered his desertion, which led to my girlish renunciation and my estrangement from him. "He is the Captain Nairn who came with General Townshend to-night. What shall I do, madame?"

"You must go to him on the morrow, my child, without hesitation.

Such a tie is too sacred to be thrown away lightly." Here she paused, and laying her hand on my arm, said, in tones of the deepest feeling, "Marguerite, when you are an old woman like me, I pray you may never have to look back with regret on an opportunity for reconciliation cast aside." She spake with such intense emotion that I could not doubt I had unwittingly stirred some painful memory of her past, but in a moment she recovered, and said, tenderly: "Remember, you both lay on the same breast; you looked into the same mother's eyes. Think of the pain it would cause her to know that there is anything in her children's hearts towards each other, save the love with which she filled them. But I need not say more; I see your intent in your face. Remember, too, we need all the interest we can command with our new guests. Now get some rest, my child; you are worn out."

When I awakened in the morning I found the whole community astir, for all night long the wounded had been brought in, until every bed and corner was occupied, and even the barns, sheds, and outhouses were filled to overflowing.

French and English lay side by side, helpless and patient. As I crossed the hall I noticed a big Highland sergeant lying on a stretcher, waiting until some place was found for him, with the sweat standing in great beads on his forehead. He muttered some kind of a prayer in Gaelic as I pa.s.sed, and at the sound of the once familiar tongue I stopped, and, bending over him, wiped away the perspiration, and spake to him in his own language. He stared at me in the utmost astonishment, and then swore a great oath, and the tears filled his eyes.

I at last found a soldier who was not on duty, and by him sent a message to Captain Nairn that a lady desired speech with him when he was at liberty.

He returned with word that the Captain fixed eleven o'clock, and at that hour I awaited in the parlour. As I waited I wondered that I had ever made any question of meeting him; I could even see that his choice of life had its defence, from a man's point of view. A soldier is first of all a soldier, and waiting the heaviest of his duties; though he is ready to suffer incredibly for his cause when it is active, it is the women who keep the personal attachments alive through the weary days when everything but hope is dead.

I spake at once on his entrance.

"Archie, I am your sister Margaret."

"My dearest Peggy!" was all he said, but he caught me in his strong arms and nearly crushed the breath out of me. He petted and fondled me, calling me by every dear name of childhood, until my heart was nigh to bursting with this treasure of love lavished upon me when I least expected it.

I was brought back to the present when he questioned me on the reason of my being in Canada, and though it cost me a bitter struggle with my pride, I told him the whole story of my folly. I could not spare myself when he took me so on trust.

"And you say that Maxwell was married all this time?" he asked, sternly.

"Yes, but--"

"There are no 'buts'!" he interrupted, fiercely. "I will kill him on sight!"

"Archie, my brother, think what you say! I do not know that he deceived me, and I do know I deceived myself.

"I can't help that! If he had not been there, you never would have made the mistake. The only pity is I was not on the ground at the time."

"But, Archie, think of me. Think what an open scandal will mean.

No one but you and me, and one other," I added--remembering le pere Jean--"knows anything of this now."

"And what do we care about other people, Peggy? We Nairns are not used to asking leave for our actions; and so long as you yourself are not ashamed, I do not give a rotten nut for the rest of the world. It is no question of the personal feeling at all; it is the principle! I have no personal quarrel with Maxwell; on the contrary, I like him. He was a brother to me in Louisbourg; but, thank G.o.d!

I can sink my likings and dislikings, when it comes to a case such as this. No, no, Peggy; you'd best leave things in my hands."

"No, Archie, I will not! There has been heart-break and misery enough over this as it is, without adding more."

"But this will wipe it all out. Cannot you understand?" he said, with a touch of impatience.

"Archie, cannot you understand that, however clearly I regret my own folly, I cannot in a moment stamp out the feeling in which I have lived all these years?"

"You don't tell me you care for the fellow yet, Peggy?" he cried, in a tone of genuine astonishment.

"I am afraid I do."

"G.o.d bless my soul! That is beyond me."

"You are not a woman, Archie."

"No, thank G.o.d I am not," he answered, without the vestige of a smile. "Of all the wearisome things in the world, I can imagine nothing worse than being a woman."

"And yet there are a good many who have to put up with this weariness."

"The Lord help them! But we must not fall to quarrelling at our first meeting; that would be altogether too much like boy and girl again. Peggy, do you remember how we used to fight over the plovers'

nests?" and he laughed merrily at the thought. "Don't be put out by a little thing like this. I'll not kill the gentleman behind a hedge or in the dark; he shall have nothing to complain of, rest a.s.sured. But I have sad news for your friends, Margaret. M. de Montcalm died at daybreak this morning."

"Oh, Archie! We did not even know that he was wounded."

"Nor did we until late last night, for he was seen on his horse during the retreat. He was a fine soldier."

"He was more than that, Archie. He was a man of honour and the soul of his army--and he was very good to me," I sobbed, breaking down at the remembrance of his chivalrous protection.

To my surprise, Archie put his arm about me. "Cry on, Peggy, my lamb," he said, in the soft endearment of the Gaelic. And the soldier who had so readily decided on the death of a man a moment since, now melted at the sight of a woman's grief, and offered her that best of all consolation, sympathy. Nothing else could so quickly have revealed to me the wrong I had been guilty of in holding aloof from this strong affection that had held fast in simple, unwavering loyalty to the love of childhood. To him I had always remained the Peggy of the old home; in his generous heart the thought of any necessity for reconciliation had no place, for he held himself as the head of the family, from whom protection for the weaker must necessarily flow.