Tom Burke Of "Ours" Volume I Part 15

"And is it to get share of what 's going, that ye 're come to join us now?" repeated he, in a tone of mockery.

"Be easy, Lanty; 'tis the French officer that behaved so stout up at Ross. It 's little he cares for money, as myself knows. I saw him throw a handful of goold among the boys when they stopped to pillage, and bid them do their work first, and that he 'd give them plenty after."

"Maybe he 'd do the same now," said a voice from the crowd, in a tone of irony; and the words were received by the rest with a roar of laughter.

"Stop laughing," said the first speaker, in a voice of command; "we've small time for joking." As he spoke he threw himself heavily on the bank beside De Meudon, and placing his hand familiarly on his arm, said, in a low but clear voice: "The boys is come up here to-night to draw lots for three men to settle Barton, that 's come down here yesterday, and stopping at the barrack there. We knew you war n't well lately, and we did n't trouble you; but now that you 're come up of yourself among us, it 's only fair and reasonable you 'd take your chance with the rest, and draw your lot with the others."

"Arrah, he 's too weak; the man is dying," said a voice near.

"And if he is," said the other, "who wants his help? sure, is n't it to keep him quiet, and not bethray us?"

"The devil a fear of that," said the former speaker; "he's thrue to the backbone; I know them that knows him well."

By this time De Meudon had risen to his feet, and stood leaning upon a tall headstone beside him; his foraging cap fell off in his effort to stand, and his long thin hair floated in ma.s.ses down his pale cheeks and on his shoulders. The moon was full upon him; and what a contrast did his n.o.ble features present to the ruffian band that sat and stood around him!

"And is it a scheme of murder, of cold, cowardly a.s.sasination, you have dared to propose to me?" said he, darting a look of fiery indignation on him who seemed the leader. "Is it thus you understand my presence in your country and in your cause? Think ye it was for this that I left the glorious army of France,--that I quitted the field of honorable war to mix with such as you? Ay, if it were the last word I were to speak on earth, I 'd denounce you, wretches that stain with blood and ma.s.sacre the sacred cause the best and boldest bleed for!"

The click of a trigger sounded harshly on my ear, and my blood ran cold with horror. De Meudon heard it too, and continued,--"You do but cheat me of an hour or two, and I am ready."

He paused, as if waiting for the shot. A deadly silence followed; it lasted for some minutes, when again he spoke,--"I came here to-night not knowing of your intentions, not expecting you; I came here to choose a grave, where, before another week pa.s.s over, I hoped to rest. If you will it sooner, I shall not gainsay you."

Low murmurs ran through the crowd, and something like a tone of pity could be heard mingling through the voices.

"Let him go home, then, in G.o.d's name!" said one of the number; "that's the best way."

"Ay, take him home," said another, addressing me; "Dan Kelly 's a hard man when he 's roused."

The words were repeated on every side, and I led De Meudon forth leaning on my arm; for already, the excitement over, a stupid indifference crept over him, and he walked on by my side without speaking.

I confess it was not without trepidation, and many a backward glance towards the old ruin, that I turned homeward to our cabin. There was that in their looks at which I trembled for my companion; nor do I yet know why they spared him at that moment.

CHAPTER XI. TOO LATE.

The day which followed the events I have mentioned was a sad one to me.

The fatigue and the excitement together brought on fever with De Meudon.

His head became attacked, and before evening his faculties began to wander. All the strange events of his checkered life were mixed up in his disturbed intellect; and he talked on for hours about Italy, and Egypt, the Tuileries, La Vendee, and Ireland, without ceasing. The entire of the night he never slept, and the next day the symptoms appeared still more aggravated. The features of his insanity were wilder and less controllable. He lost all memory of me; and sometimes the sight of me at his bedside threw him into most terrific paroxysms of pa.s.sion; while at others, he would hold my hand for hours together, and seem to feel my presence as something soothing. His frequent recurrence to the scene in the churchyard showed the deep impression it had made upon his mind, and how fatally it had influenced the worst symptoms of his malady.

Thus pa.s.sed two days and nights. On the third morning, exhaustion seemed to have worn him into a false calm. His wild, staring eye had become heavier, his movements less rapid; the spot of color had left his cheek; the mouth was pinched up and rigid; and a flatness of the muscles of the face betokened complete depression. He spoke seldom, and with a voice hoa.r.s.e and cavernous, but no longer in the tone of wild excitement as before. I sat by his bedside still and in silence, my own sad thoughts my only company. As it grew later, the sleepless days and nights I had pa.s.sed, and the stillness of the sickroom, overcame me, and I slept.

I awoke with a start; some dreamy consciousness of neglect had flashed across me, and I sat up. I peeped into the bed, and started back with amazement. I looked again, and there lay De Meudon, on the outside of the clothes, dressed in his full uniform,--the green coat and white facing, the large gold epaulettes, the brilliant crosses on the breast; his plumed chapeau lay at one side of him, and his sabre at the other.

He lay still and motionless. I held the candle near his face, and could mark a slight smile that curled his cold lip, and gave to his wan and wasted features something of their former expression.

"Oui, mon cher," said he, in a weak whisper, as he took my hand and kissed it, "c'est bien moi." And then added, "It was another of my strange fancies to put on these once more before I died; and when I found you sleeping, I arose and did so. I have changed something since I wore this last: it was at a ball at Cambacrs."

My joy at hearing him speak once more with full possession of his reason, was damped by the great change a few hours had worked in his appearance. His skin was cold and clammy; a gluey moisture rested on his cheek; and his teeth were dark and discolored. A slimy froth, too, was ever rising to his lips as he spoke; while at every respiration his chest heaved and waved like a stormy sea.

"You are thirsty, Charles," said I, stooping over him to wet his lips.

"No," said he, calmly, "I have but one thing which wants relief; it is here."

He pressed his hand to his heart as he spoke, while such a look of misery as crossed his features I never beheld.

"Your heart--"

"Is broken," said he, with a sigh. For some minutes he said nothing, then whispered: "Take my pocket-book from beneath my pillow; yes, that 's it. There is a letter you 'll give my sister; you 'll promise me that? Well, the other is for Lecharlier, the _chef_ of the Polytechnique at Paris; that is for you,--you must be _un lve_ there. There are some five or six thousand francs,--it 's all I have now: they are yours; Marie is already provided for. Tell her--But no; she has forgiven me long since,--I feel it. You 'll one day win your grade,--high up; yes, you must do so. Perhaps it may be your fortune to speak with General Bonaparte; if so, I beg you say to him, that when Charles de Meudon was dying, in exile, with but one friend left of all the world, he held this portrait to his lips, and with his last breath he kissed it."

The fervor of the action drew the blood to his face and temples, which as suddenly became pale again. A s.h.i.+vering ran through his limbs; a quick heaving of his bosom; a sigh; and all was still. He was dead!

The stunning sense of deep affliction is a mercy from on high. Weak human faculties, long strained by daily communing with grief, would fall into idiocy were their acuteness not blunted and their perception rendered dull. It is for memory to trace back through the mazes of misery the object of our sorrow, as the widow searches for the corpse of him she loved amid the slain upon the battlefield.

I sat benumbed with sorrow, a vague desire for the breaking day my only thought. Already the indistinct glimmerings of morning were visible, when I heard the sounds of men marching along the road towards the house. I could mark, by the clank of their firelocks and their regular step, that they were soldiers. They halted at the door of the cabin, whence a loud knocking now proceeded.

"Halloo, there!" said a voice, whose tones seemed to sink into my very heart; "halloo, Peter! get up and open the door."

"What's the matter?" cried the old man, starting up, and groping his way towards the door.

The sound of several voices and the noise of approaching footsteps drowned the reply; and the same instant the door of the little room in which I sat opened, and a sergeant entered.

"Sorry to disturb ye, sir," said he, civilly; "but duty can't be avoided. I have a warrant to arrest Captain de Meudon, a French officer that is concealed here. May I ask where is he?"

I pointed to the bed. The sergeant approached, and by the half-light could just perceive the glitter of the uniform, as the body lay shaded by the curtain.

"I arrest you, sir, in the King's name," said he. "Halloo, Kelly! this is your prisoner, isn't he?"

A head appeared at the door as he spoke; and as the eyes wandered stealthily round the chamber, I recognized, despite the change of color, the wretch who led the party at the churchyard.

"Come in, d.a.m.n ye," said the sergeant, impatiently; "what are you afraid for? Is this your man? Halloo, sir!" said he, shaking the corpse by the shoulder.

"You must call even louder yet," said I, while something like the fury of a fiend was working within me.

"What!" said the sergeant, s.n.a.t.c.hing up the light and holding it within the bed. He started back in horror as he did so, and called out, "He is dead!"

Kelly sprang forward at the word, and seizing the candle, held it down to the face of the corpse; but the flame rose as steadily before those cold lips as though the breath of life had never warmed them.

"I 'll get the reward, anyhow, sergeant, won't I?" said the ruffian, while the thirst for gain added fresh expression to his savage features.

A look of disgust was the only reply he met with, as the sergeant walked into the outer room, and whispered something to the man of the house. At the same instant the galloping of a horse was heard on the causeway. It came nearer and nearer, and ceased suddenly at the door, as a deep voice shouted out,--

"Well! all right, I hope, sergeant. Is he safe?"

A whispered reply, and a low, muttered sound of two or three voices followed, and Barton--the same man I had seen at the fray in Malone's cabin--entered the room. He approached the bed, and drawing back the curtains, rudely gazed on the dead man, while over his shoulder peered the demoniac countenance of the informer Kelly, his savage features working in anxiety lest his gains should have escaped him.

Barton's eye ranged the little chamber till it fell on me, as I sat still and motionless against the wall. He started slightly, and then advancing close, fixed his piercing glance upon me.

"Ha!" cried he, "you here! Well, that is more than I looked for this morning. I have a short score to settle with you. Sergeant, here 's one prisoner for you, at any rate."