The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales Read online

  CHAPTER VI.

  A WANDERING EAGLE.

  My father seemed to be much of Jim Horscroft's opinion; for he was notover warm to this new guest and looked him up and down with a veryquestioning eye. He set a dish of vinegared herrings before him,however, and I noticed that he looked more askance than ever when mycompanion ate nine of them, for two were always our portion. When atlast he had finished Bonaventure de Lapp's lids were drooping over hiseyes, for I doubt that he had been sleepless as well as foodless forthese three days. It was but a poor room to which I had led him, but hethrew himself down upon the couch, wrapped his big blue cloak aroundhim, and was asleep in an instant. He was a very high and strongsnorer, and, as my room was next to his, I had reason to remember thatwe had a stranger within our gates.

  When I came down in the morning, I found that he had been beforehandwith me; for he was seated opposite my father at the window-table in thekitchen, their heads almost touching, and a little roll of gold piecesbetween them. As I came in my father looked up at me, and I saw a lightof greed in his eyes such as I had never seen before. He caught up themoney with an eager clutch and swept it into his pocket.

  "Very good, mister," said he; "the room's yours, and you pay always onthe third of the month."

  "Ah! and here is my first friend," cried de Lapp, holding out his handto me with a smile which was kindly enough, and yet had that touch ofpatronage which a man uses when he smiles to his dog. "I am myselfagain now, thanks to my excellent supper and good night's rest. Ah! itis hunger that takes the courage from a man. That most, and cold next."

  "Aye, that's right," said my father; "I've been out on the moors in asnow-drift for six-and-thirty hours, and ken what it's like."

  "I once saw three thousand men starve to death," remarked de Lapp,putting out his hands to the fire. "Day by day they got thinner andmore like apes, and they did come down to the edge of the pontoons wherewe did keep them, and they howled with rage and pain. The first fewdays their howls went over the whole city, but after a week our sentrieson the bank could not hear them, so weak they had fallen."

  "And they died!" I exclaimed.

  "They held out a very long time. Austrian Grenadiers they were, of thecorps of Starowitz, fine stout men as big as your friend of yesterday;but when the town fell there were but four hundred alive, and a mancould lift them three at a time as if they were little monkeys. It wasa pity. Ah! my friend, you will do me the honours with madame and withmademoiselle."

  It was my mother and Edie who had come into the kitchen. He had notseen them the night before, but now it was all I could do to keep myface as I watched him; for instead of our homely Scottish nod, he bentup his back like a louping trout, and slid his foot, and clapped hishand over his heart in the queerest way. My mother stared, for shethought he was making fun of her; but Cousin Edie fell into it in aninstant, as though it had been a game, and away she went in a greatcurtsy until I thought she would have had to give it up, and sit downright there in the middle of the kitchen floor. But no, she up again aslight as a piece of fluff, and we all drew up our stools and started onthe scones and milk and porridge.

  He had a wonderful way with women, that man. Now if I were to do it,or Jim Horscroft, it would look as if we were playing the fool, and thegirls would have laughed at us; but with him it seemed to go with hisstyle of face and fashion of speech, so that one came at last to lookfor it: for when he spoke to my mother or Cousin Edie--and he was neverbackward in speaking--it would always be with a bow and a look as if itwould hardly be worth their while to listen to what he had to say, andwhen they answered he would put on a face as though every word they saidwas to be treasured up and remembered for ever. And yet, even while hehumbled himself to a woman, there was always a proud sort of look at theback of his eye as if he meant to say that it was only to them that hewas so meek, and that he could be stiff enough upon occasion. As to mymother, it was wonderful the way she softened to him, and inhalf-an-hour she had told him all about her uncle, who was a surgeon inCarlisle, and the highest of any upon her side of the house. She spoketo him about my brother Rob's death, which I had never heard her mentionto a soul before, and he looked as if the tears were in his eyes overit--he, who had just told us how he had seen three thousand men starvedto death! As to Edie, she did not say much, but she kept shootinglittle glances at our visitor, and once or twice he looked very hard ather.

  When he had gone to his room after breakfast, my father pulled outeight golden pounds and laid them on the table. "What think ye ofthat, Martha?" said he.

  "You've sold the twa black tups after all."

  "No, but it's a month's pay for board and lodging from Jock's friend,and as much to come every four weeks."

  But my mother shook her head when she heard it.

  "Two pounds a week is over much," said she; "and it is not when thepoor gentleman is in distress that we should put such a price on his bitfood."

  "Tut!" cried my father, "he can very well afford it, and he with a bagfull of gold. Besides, it's his own proposing."

  "No blessing will come from that money," said she.

  "Why, woman, he's turned your head wi' his foreign ways of speech!"cried my father.

  "Aye, and it would be a good thing if Scottish men had a little more ofthat kindly way," she said, and that was the first time in all my lifethat I had heard her answer him back.

  He came down soon and asked me whether I would come out with him.When we were in the sunshine he held out a little cross made of redstones, one of the bonniest things that ever I had set eyes upon.

  "These are rubies," said he, "and I got it at Tudela, in Spain.There were two of them, but I gave the other to a Lithuanian girl.I pray that you will take this as a memory of your exceedingly kindnessto me yesterday. It will fashion into a pin for your cravat."

  I could but thank him for the present, which was of more value thananything I had ever owned in my life.

  "I am off to the upper muir to count the lambs," said I; "maybe youwould care to come up with me and see something of the country?"

  He hesitated for a moment, and then he shook his head.

  "I have some letters," he said, "which I ought to write as soon aspossible. I think that I will stay at quiet this morning and get themwritten."

  All forenoon I was wandering over the links, and you may imagine that mymind was turning all the time upon this strange man whom chance haddrifted to our doors. Where did he gain that style of his, that mannerof command, that haughty menacing glint of the eye? And his experiencesto which he referred so lightly, how wonderful the life must have beenwhich had put him in the way of them! He had been kind to us, andgracious of speech, but still I could not quite shake myself clear ofthe distrust with which I had regarded him. Perhaps, after all, JimHorscroft had been right and I had been wrong about taking him to WestInch.

  When I got back he looked as though he had been born and bred in thesteading. He sat in the big wooden-armed ingle-chair, with the blackcat on his knee. His arms were out, and he held a skein of worsted fromhand to hand which my mother was busily rolling into a ball. CousinEdie was sitting near, and I could see by her eyes that she had beencrying.

  "Hullo, Edie!" said I, "what's the trouble?"

  "Ah! mademoiselle, like all good and true women, has a soft heart," saidhe. "I didn't thought it would have moved her, or I should have beensilent. I have been talking of the suffering of some troops of which Iknew something when they were crossing the Guadarama mountains in thewinter of 1808. Ah! yes, it was very bad, for they were fine men andfine horses. It is strange to see men blown by the wind over theprecipices, but the ground was so slippery and there was nothing towhich they could hold. So companies all linked arms, and they didbetter in that fashion; but one artilleryman's hand came off as I heldit, for he had had the frost-bite for three days."

  I stood staring with my mouth open.

  "And the old Grenadiers, too, who were not so active as they used
to be,they could not keep up; and yet if they lingered the peasants wouldcatch them and crucify them to the barn doors with their feet up and afire under their heads, which was a pity for these fine old soldiers.So when they could go no further, it was interesting to see what theywould do; for they would sit down and say their prayers, sitting on anold saddle, or their knapsacks, maybe, and then take off their boots andtheir stockings, and lean their chin on the barrel of their musket.Then they would put their toe on the trigger, and _pouf!_ it was allover, and there was no more marching for those fine old Grenadiers. Oh,it was very rough work up there on these Guadarama mountains!"

  "And what army was this?" I asked.

  "Oh, I have served in so many armies that I mix them up sometimes.Yes, I have seen much of war. Apropos I have seen your Scotchmen fight,and very stout fantassins they make, but I thought from them, that thefolk over here all wore--how do you say it?--petticoats."

  "Those are the kilts, and they wear them only in the Highlands."

  "Ah! on the mountains. But there is a man out yonder. Maybe he is theone who your father said would carry my letters to the post."

  "Yes, he is Farmer Whitehead's man. Shall I give them to him?"

  "Well, he would be more careful of them if he had them from your hand."

  He took them from his pocket and gave them over to me. I hurried outwith them, and as I did so my eyes fell upon the address of the topmostone. It was written very large and clear:

  A SON MAJESTE,

  LE ROI DE SUEDE,

  STOCKHOLM.

  I did not know very much French, but I had enough to make that out.What sort of eagle was this which had flown into our humble little nest?