Is not that your law?"
Darcy nodded, and the other resumed.
"Well, in some fit of spleen at not being born a year or two earlier, or for some love affair with one of your blond insensibles, or from weariness of your gloomy climate, or from any other true British cause of despair, our youth became a soldier. _Parbleu!_ your English chivalry has its own queer notions, when it regards the service as a last resource of the desperate! No matter, he enlisted, came out here, fought bravely, and was taken prisoner in the very same attack with yourself; but while Fortune dealt heavily with one hand, she was caressing with the other, for, the same week she condemned him to a French prison, she made him a peer of England, having taken off the elder brother, an amba.s.sador at some court, I believe, by a fever. So goes the world; good and ill luck battling against each, and one never getting uppermost without the other recruiting strength for a victory in turn."
"These are strange tidings, indeed," said the Knight, musing, "and would interest me deeply, if I knew the individual."
"That I am unfortunate enough to have forgotten," said the Frenchman, carelessly; "but I conclude he must be a person of some importance, for we heard that the vessel which was to sail with despatches was delayed several hours in the bay, to take him back to England."
Although the whole recital contained many circ.u.mstances which the Knight attributed to French misrepresentation of English habitudes, he was profoundly struck by it, and dwelt fondly on the hope that if the young peer should have served under his command, he would not neglect, on arriving in England, to inform his friends of his safety.
These thoughts, mingling with others of his home and of his son Lionel, far away in a distant quarter of the globe, filled his mind as he went, and made him ponder deeply over the strange accidents of a life that, opening with every promise, seemed about to close in sorrow and uncertainty. Full of movement and interest as was the scene around, he seldom bestowed on it even a pa.s.sing glance; it was an hour of gloomy reverie, and he neither marked the long train of wagons with their wounded, the broken and shattered gun-carriages, or the miserable aspect of the cavalry, whose starved and galled animals could scarcely crawl.
The Knight"s momentary indifference was interpreted in a very different sense by the officer who commanded the escort, and who seemed to suspect that this apathy concealed a shrewd insight into the real condition of the troops and the signs of distress and discomfiture so palpable on every side. As, impressed with this conviction, he watched the old man with prying curiosity, a smile, faint and fleeting enough, once crossed Darcy"s features. The Frenchman"s face flushed as he beheld it, and he quickly said,--
"They are the same troops that landed at the Arabs" Tower, and who carry such inscriptions on their standards as these." He s.n.a.t.c.hed a flag from the sergeant beside him as he spoke, and pointed to the proud words embroidered there: "Le Pa.s.sage de la Scrivia," "Le Pa.s.sage de Tisonzo,"
"Le Pont de Lodi." Then, in a low, muttering voice, he added, "But Buonaparte was with us then."
Had he spoken for hours, the confession of their discontent with their generals could not have been more manifest; and a sudden gleam of hope shot through Darcy"s breast, to think his captivity might soon be over.
There was every reason to indulge in this pleasing belief; disorganization had extended to every branch of the service. An angry correspondence, in which even personal chastis.e.m.e.nt was broadly hinted at, pa.s.sed between the two officers highest in command; and this not secretly, but publicly known to the entire army. Peculation of the most gross and open kind was practised by the commissaries; and as the troops became distressed by want, they retaliated by daring breaches of discipline, so that at every parade men stood out from the ranks, boldly demanding their rations, and answering the orders of the officers by insulting cries of "Bread! bread!"
All this while the British were advancing steadily, overcoming each obstacle in turn, and with a force whose privations had made no inroad upon the strictest discipline; they felt confident of success. The few prisoners who occasionally fell into the hands of the French wore all the a.s.surance of men who felt that their misfortunes could not be lasting, and in good-humored raillery bantered their captors on the British beef and pudding they would receive, instead of horseflesh, so soon as the capitulation was signed.
The French soldiers were, indeed, heartily tired of the war; they were tired of the country, of the leaders, whose incompetency, whether real or not, they believed; tired, above all, of absence from France, from which they felt exiled. Each step they retired from the coast seemed to them another day"s journey from their native land, and they did not hesitate to avow to their prisoners that they had no wish or care save to return to their country.
Such was the spirit of the French army as it drew near Cairo, than which no greater contrast could exist than that presented by the advancing enemy. Let us now return to the more immediate interests of our story; and while we beg to corroborate the brief narrative of the French officer, we hope it is unnecessary to add that the individual whose suddenly changed fortune had elevated him from the ranks of a simple volunteer to that of a peer of England was our old acquaintance d.i.c.k Forester.
From the moment when the tidings reached him, to that in which he lay, still suffering from his wounds, in the richly furnished chamber of a London hotel, the whole train of events through which he had so lately pa.s.sed seemed like the incoherent fancies of a dream. The excited frame of mind in which he became a volunteer with the army had not time to subside ere came the spirit-stirring hour of the landing at Aboukir. The fight, in all its terrible but glorious vicissitudes; the struggle in which he perilled his own life to save his leader"s; the moments that seemed those of ebbing life in which he lay upon a litter before Darcy"s eyes, and yet unable to speak his name; and then the sudden news of his brother"s death, overwhelming him at once with sorrow for his loss, and all the thousand fleeting thoughts of his own future, should life be spared him,--these were enough, and more than enough, to disturb and overbalance a mind already weakened by severe illness.
Had Forester known more of his only brother, it is certain that the predominance of the feeling of grief would have subdued the others, and given at least the calm of affliction to his troubled senses. But they were almost strangers to each other; the elder having pa.s.sed his life almost exclusively abroad, and the younger, separated by distance and a long interval of years, being a complete stranger to his qualities and temper.
d.i.c.k Forester"s grief, therefore, was no more than that which ties of so close kindred will ever call up, but unmixed with the tender attachment of a brother"s love. His altered fortunes had not thus the strong alloy of heartfelt sorrow to make them distasteful; but still there was an unreality in everything,--a vague uncertainty in all his endeavors at close reasoning, which hara.s.sed and depressed him. And when he awoke from each short disturbed sleep, it took several minutes before he could bring back his memory to the last thought of his waking hours. The very t.i.tle "my Lord," so scrupulously repeated at each instant, startled him afresh at each moment he heard it; and as he read over the names of the high and t.i.tled personages whose anxieties for his recovery had made them daily visitors at his hotel, his heart faltered between the pleasure of flattery and a deeper feeling of almost scorn for the sympathies of a world that could minister to the caprices of rank what it withheld from the real sufferings of the same man in obscurity. His mother he had not seen yet; for Lady Netherby, much attached to her eldest son, and vain of abilities by which she reckoned on his future distinction, was herself seriously indisposed. Lord Netherby, however, had been a frequent visitor, and had already seen Forester several times, although always very briefly, and only upon the terms of distant politeness.
Although in a state that precluded everything like active exertion, and which, indeed, made the slightest effort a matter of peril, Forester had already exchanged more than one communication with the Horse Guards on the subject of the Knight"s safety, and received the most steady a.s.surances that his exchange was an object on which the authorities were most anxious, and engaged at the very moment in negotiations for its accomplishment. There were two difficulties: one, that no officer of Darcy"s precise rank was then a prisoner with the British; and secondly, that any very pressing desire expressed for his liberation would serve to weaken the force of that conviction they were so eager to impress, that the campaign was nearly ended, and that nothing but capitulation remained for the French.
Forester was not more gratified than surprised at the tone of obliging and almost deferential politeness which pervaded each answer to his applications. He had yet to learn how a vote in the "Lords" can make secretaries civil, and Under-Secretaries most courteous; and while his few uncertain lines were penned with diffidence and distrust, the replies gradually inducted him into that sense of confidence which a few months later he was to feel like a birthright.
How far these thoughts contributed to his recovery it would be difficult to say, nor does it exactly lie in our province to inquire. The likelihood is, that the inducements to live are strong aids to overcome sickness; for, as a witty observer has remarked, "There is no such _manque dre savoir vivre_ as dying at four-and-twenty."
It is very probable Forester experienced all this, and that the dreams of the future in which he indulged were not only his greatest but his pleasantest aid to recovery. A brilliant position, invested with rank, t.i.tle, fortune, and a character for enterprise, are all flattering adjuncts to youth; while in the hope of succeeding where his dearest wishes were concerned, lay a source of far higher happiness. How to approach this subject again most fittingly, was now the constant object of his thoughts. He sometimes resolved to address Lady Eleanor; but so long as he could convey no precise tidings of the Knight, this would be an ungracious task. Then he thought of Miss Daly, but he did not know her address; all these doubts and hesitations invariably ending in the resolve that as soon as his strength permitted he would go over to Ireland, and finding out Bicknell, obtain accurate information as to Lady Eleanor"s present residence, and also learn if, without being discovered, he could in any way be made serviceable to the interests of the family.
Perhaps we cannot better convey the gradually dawning conviction of his altered fortune on his mind than by mentioning that while he canva.s.sed these various chances, and speculated on their course, he never dwelt on the possibility of Lady Netherby"s power to influence his determination.
In the brief note he received from her each morning, the tone of affectionate solicitude for his health was always accompanied by some allusive hint of the "duties" recovery would impose, and each inquiry after his night"s rest was linked with a not less anxious question as to how soon he might feel able to appear in public. Const.i.tutionally susceptible of all attempts to control him, and from his childhood disposed to rebel against dictation, he limited his replies to brief accounts of his progress or inquiries after her own health, resolved in his heart that now that fortune was his own, to use the blessings it bestows according to the dictates of affection and a conscientious sense of right, and be neither the toy of a faction nor the tool of a party.
In Darcy--could he but see him once more--he looked for a friend and adviser; and whatever the fortune of his suit, he felt that the Knight"s counsels should be his guidance as to the future, reposing not even more trust on unswerving rect.i.tude than the vast range of his knowledge of life, and the common-sense views he could take of the most complex as of the very simplest questions.
It was now some seven weeks after his return, and Forester, for we would still desire to call him by the name our reader has known him, was sitting upon a sofa, weak and nervous, as the first day of a convalescent"s appearance in the drawing-room usually is, when his servant, having deposited on the table several visiting-cards of distinguished inquirers, mentioned that the Earl of Netherby wished to pay his respects. Forester moved his head in token of a.s.sent, and his Lordship soon after entered.
CHAPTER XXIX. THE DAWN OF CONVALESCENCE
Stepping noiselessly over the carpet, with an air at once animated and regardful of the sick man, Lord Netherby was at Forester"s side before he could arise to receive him; and pressing him gently down with both hands, said, in a voice of most silvery cadence,--
"My dear Lord--you must not stir for the world--Halford has only permitted me to see you under the strict pledge of prudence; and now, how are you? Ah! I see--weak and low. Come, you must let me speak for you, or at least interpret your answers to my own liking. We have so much to talk over, it is difficult where to begin."
"How is Lady Netherby?" said Forester, with a slight hesitation between the words.
"Still very feeble and very nervous. The shock has been a dreadful one to her. You know that poor Augustus was coming home on leave--when--when this happened."
Here his Lordship sighed, but not too deeply, for he remembered that the law of primogeniture is the sworn enemy to grief.
"There was some talk, too, of his being sent on a special emba.s.sy to Paris,--a very high and important trust,--and so really the affliction is aggravated by thinking what a career was opening to him. But, as the Dean of Walworth beautifully expressed it, "We are cut down like flowers of the field." Ah!"
A sigh and a slight wave with a handkerchief, diffusing an odor of eau-de-Portugal through the chamber, closed this affecting sentiment.
"I trust in a day or two I shall be able to see my mother," said Forester, whose thoughts were following a far more natural channel.
"I can walk a little to-day, and before the end of the week Halford promises me that I shall drive out."
"That "s the very point we are most anxious about," said Lord Netherby, eagerly: "we want you, if possible, to take your seat in "the Lords"
next week. There is a special reason for it. Rumor runs that the Egyptian expedition will be brought on for discussion on Thursday next.
Some malcontents are about to disparage the whole business, and, in particular, the affair at Alexandria. Ministers are strong enough to resist this attack, and even carry the war back into the enemy"s camp; but we all think it would be a most fortunate moment for you, when making your first appearance in the House, to rise and say a few words on the subject of the campaign. The circ.u.mstances under which you joined--your very dangerous wound--have given you a kind of prerogative to speak, and the occasion is most opportune. Come, what say you? Would such an effort be too great?"
"Certainly not for my strength, my Lord, if not for my shame" sake; for really I should feel it somewhat presumptuous in me, a man who carried his musket in the ranks, to venture on a discussion, far more a defence, of the great operations in which he was a mere unit; one of those rank and file who figured, without other designation, in lists of killed and wounded."
"This is very creditable to your modesty, my dear Lord," said the old peer, smiling most blandly; "but pardon me if I say it displays a great forgetfulness of your present position. Remember that you now belong to the Upper House, and that the light of the peerage shines on the past as on the future."
"By which I am to understand," replied Forester, laughing, "that the events which would have met a merited oblivion in d.i.c.k Forester"s life are to be remembered with honor to the Earl of Wallincourt."
"Of course they are," cried Lord Netherby, joining in the laugh. "If an unlikely scion of royalty ascends the throne, we look out for the evidences of his princely tastes in the sports of his boyhood. Nay, if a clever writer or painter wins distinction from the world, do we not "try back" for his triumphs at school, or his chalk sketches on coach-house gates, to warrant the early development of genius?"
"Well, my Lord," said Forester, gayly, "I accept the augury; and as nothing more nearly concerns a man"s life than the fate of those who have shown him friendship, let me inquire after some friends of mine, and some relations of yours,-the Darcys."
"Ah, those poor Darcys!" said Lord Netherby, wiping his eyes, and heaving a very profound sigh, as though to say that the theme was one far too painful to dwell upon, "theirs is a sad story, a very sad story indeed!"
"Anything more gloomy than the loss of fortune, my Lord?" asked Forester, with a trembling lip, and a cheek pale as death. Lord Netherby stared to see whether the patient"s mind was not beginning to wander.
That there could be anything worse than loss of fortune he had yet to learn; a.s.suredly he had never heard of it. Forester repeated his question.
"No, no, perhaps not, if you understand by that phrase what I do," said Lord Netherby, almost pettishly. "If, like me, you take in all the long train of ruin and decay such loss implies,--pecuniary distress, moneyed difficulties, fallen condition in society, inferior a.s.sociation--"
"Nay, my Lord, in the present instance, I can venture to answer for it, such consequences have not ensued. You do your relatives scarcely justice to suppose it."
"It is very good and very graceful, both, in you," said Lord Netherby, with an almost angelic smile, "to say so. Unfortunately, these are not merely speculative opinions on my part. While I make this remark, understand me as by no means imputing any blame to them. What could they do?--that is the question,--what could they do?"
"I would rather ask of your Lordship, what have they done? When I know that, I shall be, perhaps, better enabled to reply to your question."
In all likelihood it was more the manner than the substance of this question which made Lord Netherby hesitate how to reply to it, and at last he said,--