Tom Burke Of "Ours" Volume I Part 13

"I should not like to desert one who has been so kind to me as Darby; and if he wishes--"

Before I could finish my sentence, the door was opened by a key from without, and Dalton, as he was called, stood amongst us.

"What, Darby!" said he, in a voice of something like emotion; "not gone yet! You know I forbid you coming up here; I suspected what you would be at. Come, lose no more time; we 'll take care of Mr. Burke for you."

Darby hung his head sorrowfully, and left the room without speaking, followed by Dalton, whose voice I heard in a tone of anger as he descended the stairs.

There was a certain openness, an easy air of careless freedom, in the young Frenchman, which made me feel at home in his company almost the very moment of our acquaintance; and when he asked some questions about myself and my family, I hesitated not to tell him my entire history, with the causes which had first brought me into Darby's society, and led me to imbibe his doctrines and opinions. He paused when I finished, and after reflecting for some minutes, he looked me gravely in the face, and said,--

"But you are aware of the place you are now in?"

"No," said I; "further than the fact of my having enjoyed a capital night's rest and eaten an excellent breakfast, I know nothing about it."

A hearty burst of laughter from my companion followed this very candid acknowledgment on my part.

"Then, may I ask, what are your intentions for the future? Have you any?"

"At least one hundred," said I, smiling; "but every one of them has about as many objections against it. I should like much, for instance, to be a soldier,--not in the English service though. I should like to belong to an army where neither birth nor fortune can make nor mar a man's career. I should like, too, to be engaged in some great war of liberty, where with each victory we gained the voices of a liberated people would fall in blessings upon us. And then I should like to raise myself to high command by some great achievement."

"And then," said the Frenchman, interrupting, "to come back to Ireland, and cut off the head of this terrible Monsieur Ba.s.set. N'est-ce pas, Tom?"

I could not help joining in his laugh against myself; although in good truth I had felt better pleased if he had taken up my enthusiasm in a different mood.

"So much for mere dreaming!" said I, with half a sigh, as our laughter subsided.

"Not so," said he, quickly,--"not so; all you said is far more attainable than you suspect. I have been in such a service myself. I won my 'grade' as officer at the point of my sword, when scarcely your age; and before I was fifteen, received this."

He took down the sword that hung over the chimney as he said these words, and drawing it from the scabbard, pointed to the inscription, which in letters of gold adorned the blade,--"Rivoli," "Arcole;" then turning the reverse, I read,--"Au Lieutenant Charles Gustave de Meudon, Troisime Cuira.s.siers."

"This, then, is your name?" said I, repeating it half aloud.

"Yes," replied he, as he drew himself up, and seemed struggling to repress a feeling of pride that sent the blood rus.h.i.+ng to his cheek and brow.

"How I should like to be you!" was the wish that burst from me at that moment, and which I could not help uttering in words.

"Hlas, non!" said the Frenchman, sorrowfully, and turning away to conceal his agitation; "I have broken with fortune many a day since."

The tone of bitter disappointment in which these words were spoken left no room for reply, and we were both silent.

Charles--for so I must now call him to my reader, as he compelled me to do so with himself--Charles was the first to speak.

"Not many months ago my thoughts were very like your own; but since then how many disappointments! how many reverses!"

He walked hurriedly up and down the room as he said this; then stopping suddenly before me, laid his hand on my shoulder, and with a voice of impressive earnestness said:--

"Be advised by me: join not with these people; do not embark with them in their enterprise. Their enterprise!" repeated he, scornfully: "they have none. The only men of action here are they with whom no man of honor, no soldier, could a.s.sociate; their only daring, some deed of rapine and murder. No! liberty is not to be achieved by such hands as these. And the other,--the men of political wisdom, who prate about reform and the people's rights, who would gladly see such as me adventure in the cause they do not care themselves to advocate,--they are all false alike. Give me," cried he, with energy, and stamping his foot upon the ground,--"give me a demibrigade of ours, some squadrons of Milhaud's cavalry, and trois bouches a feu to open the way before us.

But why do I speak of this? Some midnight burning, some savage murder, some cowardly attack on unarmed and defenceless people,--these are our campaigns here. And shall I stain this blade in such a conflict?"

"But you will go back to France?" said I, endeavoring to say something that might rally him from his gloom.

"Never," replied he, firmly, "never! I alone, of all my countrymen, maintained, that to leave the people here at such a crisis was unfair and unmanly. I alone believed in the representations that were made of extended organization, of high hopes, and ardent expectations. I accepted the command of their army. Their army! what a mockery! When others accepted the amnesty, I refused, and lived in concealment, my life hanging upon the chance of being captured. For fourteen months I have wandered from county to county, endeavoring to rally the spirit I had been taught to think only needed restraint to hold back its impetuous daring. I have spent money largely, for it was largely placed at my disposal; I have distributed places and promises; I have accepted every post where danger offered; and in return, I hoped that the hour was approaching when we should test the courage of our enemies by such an outbreak as would astonish Europe. And what think you has all ended in? But my cheek burns at the very thought! An intended attack on the Government Members of Parliament,--an act of base a.s.sa.s.sination,--a cowardly murder! And for what, too?--to prevent a political union with England I Have they forgotten that our cause was total rupture!

independence! open enmity with England! But, c'est fini, I have given them my last resolve. Yesterday evening I told the delegates the only chance that, in my opinion, existed of their successfully a.s.serting their own independence. I gave them the letters of French officers, high in command and station, concurring with my own views; and I have pledged myself to wait one month longer,--if they deem my plans worthy of acceptance,--to consider all the details, and arrange the mode of proceeding. If they refuse, then I leave Ireland forever within a week.

In America, the cause I glory in is still triumphant; and there, no prestige of failure shall follow me to damp my own efforts, nor discourage the high hopes of such as trust me. But you, my poor boy,--and how have I forgotten you in all this sad history I--I will not suffer you to be misled by false representations and flattering offers.

It may be the only consolation I shall carry with me from this land of anarchy and misfortune. But even that is something,--if I rescue one untried and uncorrupted heart from the misery of such a.s.sociates. You shall be a soldier,--be my companion here while I stay. I 'll arrange everything for your comfort; we 'll read and talk together; and I will endeavor to repay the debt I owe to France, by sending back there one better than myself to guard her eagles."

The tears ran fast down my cheeks as I heard these words; but not one syllable could I utter.

"You do not like my plan. Well--"

Before he could conclude, I seized his hand with rapture within both of mine, and pressed it to my lips.

"It is a bargain, then," said he, gayly. "And now let us lose no more time; let us remove this breakfast-table, and begin at once."

Another table was soon drawn over to the fire, upon which a ma.s.s of books, maps, and plates were heaped by my companion, who seemed to act in the whole affair with all the delight of a schoolboy in some exploit of amus.e.m.e.nt.

"You are aware, Tom, that this place is a prison to me, and therefore I am not altogether disinterested in this proposal. You, however, can go out when you please; but until you understand the precautions necessary to prevent you from being traced here, it is better not to venture into the city."

"I have no wish whatever to leave this," said I, quickly, while I ranged my eye with delight over the pile of books before me, and thought of all the pleasure I was to draw from their perusal.

"You must tell me so three weeks hence, if you wish to flatter me,"

replied Charles, as he drew over his chair, and pointed with his hand to another.

It needed not the pleasing and attractive power of my teacher to make my study the most captivating of all amus.e.m.e.nts. Military science, even in its gravest forms, had an interest for me such as no other pursuit could equal. In its vast range of collateral subjects, it opened an inexhaustible mine to stimulate industry and encourage research. The great wars of the world were the great episodes in history, wherein monarchs and princes were nothing, if not generals. With what delight, then, did I hang over the pages of Carnot and Jomini! With what an anxious heart would I read the narrative of a siege, where, against every disadvantage of numbers and munitions of war, some few resisted all the attacks of the adverse forces, with no other protection save that of consummate skill! With what enthusiasm did I hear of Charles the Twelfth, of Wallenstein, of the Prince Eugene! And how often-times did I ask myself in secret, Why had the world none such as these to boast of now?--till at last the name of Bonaparte burst from my companion's lips, as, with a torrent of long-restrained devotion, he broke forth into an eloquent and impa.s.sioned account of the great general of his age!

That name once heard, I could not bear to think or speak of any other.

How I followed him,--from the siege of Toulon, as he knelt down beside the gun which he pointed with his own hand, to the glorious battlefields of Italy,--and heard, from one who listened to his shout of "Suivez-moi" on the bridge of Lodi, the glorious heroism of that day! I tracked him across the pathless deserts of the East,--beneath the shadow of the Pyramids, whose fame seems somehow to have revived in the history of that great man. And then I listened to the stories--and how numerous were they!--of his personal daring; the devotion and love men bore him; the magic influence of his presence; the command of his look. The very short and broken sentences he addressed to his generals were treasured up in my mind, and repeated over and over to myself. Charles possessed a miniature of the First Consul, which he a.s.sured me was strikingly like him; and for hours long I could sit and gaze upon that cold, unimpa.s.sioned brow, where greatness seemed to sit enthroned. How I longed to look upon that broad and ma.s.sive forehead,--the deep-set, searching eye,--the mouth, where sweetness and severity seemed tempered,--and that finely rounded chin, that gave his head so much the character of antique beauty! His image filled every avenue of my brain; his eye seemed on me in my waking moments, and I thought I heard his voice in my dream. Never did lover dwell more rapturously on the memory of his mistress than did my boyish thoughts on Bonaparte. What would I not have done to serve him? What would I not have dared to win one word, one look of his, in praise? All other names faded away before his;--the halo around him paled every other star; the victories! had thought of before with admiration I now only regarded as trifling successes, compared with the overwhelming torrent of his conquests. Charles saw my enthusiasm, and ministered to it with eager delight. Every trait in his beloved leader that could stimulate admiration or excite affection, he dwelt on with all the fondness of a Frenchman for his idol; till at last the world seemed to my eyes but the theatre of his greatness, and men the mere instruments of that commanding intellect that ruled the destinies and disposed of the fortunes of nations.

In this way, days and weeks, and even months rolled on, for Charles's interest in my studies had induced him to abandon his former intention of departure; and he now scarcely took any part in the proceedings of the delegates, and devoted himself almost exclusively to me. During the daytime we never left the house; but when night fell we used to walk forth, not into the city, but by some country road, often along the ca.n.a.l-side,--our conversation on the only topic wherein we felt interested. And these rambles still live within my memory with all the vivid freshness of yesterday; and while my heart saddens over the influence they shed upon my after life, I cannot help the train of pleasure with which even yet I dwell upon their recollection. How guarded should he be who converses with a boy, forgetting with what power each word is fraught by the mere force of years,--how the flattery of equality destroys judgment, and saps all power of discrimination,--and, more than all, how dangerous it is to graft upon the tender sapling the ripe fruits of experience, not knowing how, in such, they may grow to very rankness! Few are there who cannot look back to their childhood for the origin of opinions that have had their influence over all their latter years; and when these have owed their birth to those we loved, is it wonderful that we should cling to faults which seemed hallowed by friends.h.i.+p?

Meanwhile I was becoming a man, if not in years, at least in spirit and ambition. The pursuits natural to my age were pa.s.sed over for the studies of more advanced years. Military history had imparted to me a soldier's valor, and I could take no pleasure in anything save as it bore upon the one engrossing topic of my mind. Charles, too, seemed to feel all his own ambition revived in mine, and watched with pride the progress I was making under his guidance.

CHAPTER IX. THE FRENCHMAN'S STORY

While my life slipped thus pleasantly along, the hopes of the insurgent party fell daily and hourly lower; disunion and distrust pervaded all their councils, jealousies and suspicions grew up among their leaders.

Many of those whose credit stood highest in their party became informers to the Government, whose persevering activity increased with every emergency; and finally, they who would have adventured everything but some few months before, grew lukewarm and indifferent. A dogged carelessness seemed to have succeeded to their outbreak of enthusiasm, and they looked on at the execution of their companions and the wreck of their party with a stupid and stolid indifference.

For some time previous the delegates met at rare and irregular intervals, and finally ceased to a.s.semble altogether. The bolder portion of the body, disgusted with the weak and temporizing views of the others, withdrew first: and the less determined formed themselves into a new Society, whose object was merely to get up pet.i.tions and addresses unfavorable to the great project of the Government,--a Legislative Union with England.

From the turn events had taken, my companion, as it may be supposed, took no interest in their proceedings. Affecting to think that all was not lost,--while in his heart he felt bitterly the disappointment of his hopes,--a settled melancholy, unrelieved even by those flashes of buoyancy which a Frenchman rarely loses in any misfortune, now grew upon him. His cheek grew paler, and his frame seemed wasting away, while his impaired strength and tottering step betrayed that something more than sorrow was at work within him. Still he persevered in our course of study, and notwithstanding all my efforts to induce him to relax in his labors, his desire to teach me grew with every day. For some time a short, hacking cough, with pain in his chest, had seized on him, and although it yielded to slight remedies, it returned again and again.

Our night walks were therefore obliged to be discontinued, and the confinement to the house preyed upon his spirits and shook his nerves.

Boy as I was, I could not look upon his altered face and attenuated figure without a thrilling fear at my heart lest he might be seriously ill. He perceived my anxiety quickly, and endeavored, with many a cheering speech, to a.s.sure me that these were attacks to which he had been long accustomed, and which never were either lasting or dangerous; but the very hollow accents in which he spoke robbed these words of all their comfort to me.

The winter, which had been unusually long and severe, at length pa.s.sed away, and the spring, milder and more genial than is customary in our climate, succeeded; the sunlight came slanting down through the narrow court, and fell in one rich yellow patch upon the floor. Charles started; his dark eyes, hollow and sunk, glowed with unwonted brightness, and his haggard and hollow cheek suddenly flushed with a crimson glow.

"Mon cher," said he, in a voice tremulous with emotion, "I think if I were to leave this I might recover."