The Complete Brigadier Gerard Stories (35 page)

‘I have ten men sworn to stand by me,’ said he. ‘In a few days I hope to join your army, when I have done my work here. In the meanwhile––.’ A strange change came over his face, and he suddenly slung his musket to the front:
‘Hold up your hands, you French hound!’ he yelled. ‘Up with them, or I blow your head off!’

You start, my friends! You stare! Think, then, how I stared and started at this sudden ending of our talk. There was the black muzzle and there the dark, angry eyes behind it. What could I do? I was helpless. I raised my hands in the air. At the same moment voices sounded from all parts of the wood, there were crying and calling and rushing of many feet. A swarm of dreadful figures broke through the green bushes, a dozen hands seized me, and I, poor, luckless, frenzied I, was a prisoner once more. Thank God, there was no pistol which I could have plucked from my belt and snapped at my own head. Had I been armed at that moment I should not be sitting here in this café and telling you these old-world tales.

With grimy, hairy hands clutching me on every side I was led along the pathway through the wood, the villain De Pombal giving directions to my captors. Four of the brigands carried up the dead body of Duplessis. The shadows of evening were already falling when we cleared the forest and came out upon the mountain-side. Up this I was driven until we reached the headquarters of the guerillas, which lay in a cleft close to the summit of the mountain. There was the beacon which had cost me so much, a square stack of wood, immediately above our heads. Below were two or three huts which had belonged, no doubt, to goatherds, and which were now used to shelter these rascals. Into one of these I was cast, bound and helpless, and the dead body of my poor comrade was laid beside me.

I was lying there with the one thought still consuming me, how to wait a few hours and to get at that pile of fagots above my head, when the door of my prison opened and a man entered. Had my hands been free I should have flown at his throat, for it was none other than De Pombal. A couple of brigands were at his heels, but he ordered them back and closed the door behind him.

‘You villain!’ said I.

‘Hush!’ he cried. ‘Speak low, for I do not know who may be listening, and my life is at stake. I have some
words to say to you, Colonel Gerard; I wish well to you, as I did to your dead companion. As I spoke to you beside his body I saw that we were surrounded, and that your capture was unavoidable. I should have shared your fate had I hesitated. I instantly captured you myself, so as to preserve the confidence of the band. Your own sense will tell you that there was nothing else for me to do. I do not know now whether I can save you, but at least I will try.’

This was a new light upon the situation. I told him that I could not tell how far he spoke the truth, but that I would judge him by his actions.

‘I ask nothing better,’ said he. ‘A word of advice to you! The chief will see you now. Speak him fair, or he will have you sawn between two planks. Contradict nothing he says. Give him such information as he wants. It is your only chance. If you can gain time something may come in our favour. Now, I have no more time. Come at once, or suspicion may be awakened.’ He helped me to rise, and then, opening the door, he dragged me out very roughly, and with the aid of the fellows outside he brutally pushed and thrust me to the place where the guerilla chief was seated, with his rude followers gathered round him.

A remarkable man was Manuelo, ‘The Smiler.’ He was fat and florid and comfortable, with a big, clean-shaven face and a bald head, the very model of a kindly father of a family. As I looked at his honest smile I could scarcely believe that this was, indeed, the infamous ruffian whose name was a horror through the English Army as well as our own. It is well known that Trent, who was a British officer, afterwards had the fellow hanged for his brutalities. He sat upon a boulder and he beamed upon me like one who meets an old acquaintance. I observed, however, that one of his men leaned upon a long saw, and the sight was enough to cure me of all delusions.

‘Good evening, Colonel Gerard,’ said he. ‘We have been highly honoured by General Massena’s staff: Major Cortex one day, Colonel Duplessis the next, and now Colonel Gerard. Possibly the Marshal himself may be
induced to honour us with a visit. You have seen Duplessis, I understand. Cortex you will find nailed to a tree down yonder. It only remains to be decided how we can best dispose of yourself.’

It was not a cheering speech; but all the time his fat face was wreathed in smiles, and he lisped out his words in the most mincing and amiable fashion. Now, however, he suddenly leaned forward, and I read a very real intensity in his eyes.

‘Colonel Gerard,’ said he, ‘I cannot promise you your life, for it is not our custom, but I can give you an easy death or I can give you a terrible one. Which shall it be?’

‘What do you wish me to do in exchange?’

‘If you would die easy I ask you to give me truthful answers to the questions which I ask.’

A sudden thought flashed through my mind.

‘You wish to kill me,’ said I; ‘it cannot matter to you how I die. If I answer your questions, will you let me choose the manner of my own death?’

‘Yes, I will,’ said he, ‘so long as it is before midnight to-night.’

‘Swear it!’ I cried.

‘The word of a Portuguese gentleman is sufficient,’ said he.

‘Not a word will I say until you have sworn it.’

He flushed with anger and his eyes swept round towards the saw. But he understood from my tone that I meant what I said, and that I was not a man to be bullied into submission. He pulled a cross from under his zammara or jacket of black sheepskin.

‘I swear it,’ said he.

Oh, my joy as I heard the words! What an end––what an end for the first swordsman of France! I could have laughed with delight at the thought.

‘Now, your questions!’ said I.

‘You swear in turn to answer them truly?’

‘I do, upon the honour of a gentleman and a soldier.’ It was, as you perceive, a terrible thing that I promised, but what was it compared to what I might gain by compliance?

‘This is a very fair and a very interesting bargain,’ said he, taking a note-book from his pocket. ‘Would you kindly turn your gaze towards the French camp?’

Following the direction of his gesture, I turned and looked down upon the camp in the plain beneath us. In spite of the fifteen miles, one could in that clear atmosphere see every detail with the utmost distinctness. There were the long squares of our tents and our huts, with the cavalry lines and the dark patches which marked the ten batteries of artillery. How sad to think of my magnificent regiment waiting down yonder, and to know that they would never see their colonel again! With one squadron of them I could have swept all these cut-throats off the face of the earth. My eager eyes filled with tears as I looked at the corner of the camp where I knew that there were eight hundred men, any one of whom would have died for his colonel. But my sadness vanished when I saw beyond the tents the plumes of smoke which marked the head-quarters at Torres Novas. There was Massena, and, please God, at the cost of my life his mission would that night be done. A spasm of pride and exultation filled my breast. I should have liked to have had a voice of thunder that I might call to them, ‘Behold it is I, Etienne Gerard, who will die in order to save the army of Clausel’ It was, indeed, sad to think that so noble a deed should be done, and that no one should be there to tell the tale.

‘Now,’ said the brigand chief, ‘you see the camp and you see also the road which leads to Coimbra. It is crowded with your fourgons and your ambulances. Does this mean that Massena is about to retreat?’

One could see the dark moving lines of waggons with an occasional flash of steel from the escort. There could, apart from my promise, be no indiscretion in admitting that which was already obvious.

‘He will retreat,’ said I.

‘By Coimbra?’

‘I believe so.’

‘But the army of Clausel?’

I shrugged my shoulders.

‘Every path to the south is blocked. No message can
reach them. If Massena falls back the army of Clausel is doomed.’

‘It must take its chance,’ said I.

‘How many men has he?’

‘I should say about fourteen thousand.’

‘How much cavalry?’

‘One brigade of Montbrun’s Division.’

‘What regiments?’

‘The 4th Chasseurs, the 9th Hussars, and a regiment of Cuirassiers.’

‘Quite right,’ said he, looking at his note-book. ‘I can tell you speak the truth, and Heaven help you if you don’t.’ Then, division by division, he went over the whole army, asking the composition of each brigade. Need I tell you that I would have had my tongue torn out before I would have told him such things had I not a greater end in view? I would let him know all if I could but save the army of Clausel.

At last he closed his note-book and replaced it in his pocket. ‘I am obliged to you for this information, which shall reach Lord Wellington to-morrow,’ said he. ‘You have done your share of the bargain; it is for me now to perform mine. How would you wish to die? As a soldier you would, no doubt, prefer to be shot, but some think that a jump over the Merodal precipice is really an easier death. A good few have taken it, but we were, unfortunately, never able to get an opinion from them afterwards. There is the saw, too, which does not appear to be popular. We could hang you, no doubt, but it would involve the inconvenience of going down to the wood. However, a promise is a promise, and you seem to be an excellent fellow, so we will spare no pains to meet your wishes.’

‘You said,’ I answered, ‘that I must die before midnight. I will choose, therefore, just one minute before that hour.’

‘Very good,’ said he. ‘Such clinging to life is rather childish, but your wishes shall be met.’

‘As to the method,’ I added, ‘I love a death which all the world can see. Put me on yonder pile of fagots and
burn me alive, as saints and martyrs have been burned before me. That is no common end, but one which an Emperor might envy.’

The idea seemed to amuse him very much. ‘Why not?’ said he. ‘If Massena has sent you to spy upon us, he may guess what the fire upon the mountains means.’

‘Exactly,’ said I. ‘You have hit upon my very reason. He will guess, and all will know, that I have died a soldier’s death.’

‘I see no objection whatever,’ said the brigand, with his abominable smile. ‘I will send some goat’s flesh and wine into your hut. The sun is sinking, and it is nearly eight o’clock. In four hours be ready for your end.’

It was a beautiful world to be leaving. I looked at the golden haze below, where the last rays of the sinking sun shone upon the blue waters of the winding Tagus and gleamed upon the white sails of the English transports. Very beautiful it was, and very sad to leave; but there are things more beautiful than that. The death that is died for the sake of others, honour, and duty, and loyalty, and love––these are the beauties far brighter than any which the eye can see. My breast was filled with admiration for my own most noble conduct, and with wonder whether any soul would ever come to know how I had placed myself in the heart of the beacon which saved the army of Clausel. I hoped so and I prayed so, for what a consolation it would be to my mother, what an example to the army, what a pride to my Hussars! When De Pombal came at last into my hut with the food and the wine, the first request I made him was that he would write an account of my death and send it to the French camp. He answered not a word, but I ate my supper with a better appetite from the thought that my glorious fate would not be altogether unknown.

I had been there about two hours when the door opened again, and the chief stood looking in. I was in darkness, but a brigand with a torch stood beside him, and I saw his eyes and his teeth gleaming as he peered at me.

‘Ready?’ he asked.

‘It is not yet time.’

‘You stand out for the last minute?’

‘A promise is a promise.’

‘Very good. Be it so. We have a little justice to do among ourselves, for one of my fellows has been misbehaving. We have a strict rule of our own which is no respecter of persons, as De Pombal here could tell you. Do you truss him and lay him on the fagots, De Pombal, and I will return to see him die.’

De Pombal and the man with the torch entered, while I heard the steps of the chief passing away. De Pombal closed the door.

‘Colonel Gerard,’ said he, ‘you must trust this man, for he is one of my party. It is neck or nothing. We may save you yet. But I take a great risk, and I want a definite promise. If we save you, will you guarantee that we have a friendly reception in the French camp and that all the past will be forgotten?’

‘I do guarantee it.’

‘And I trust your honour. Now, quick, quick, there is not an instant to lose! If this monster returns we shall die horribly, all three.’

I stared in amazement at what he did. Catching up a long rope he wound it round the body of my dead comrade, and he tied a cloth round his mouth so as to almost cover his face.

‘Do you lie there!’ he cried, and he laid me in the place of the dead body. ‘I have four of my men waiting, and they will place this upon the beacon.’ He opened the door and gave an order. Several of the brigands entered and bore out Duplessis. For myself I remained upon the floor, with my mind in a turmoil of hope and wonder.

Five minutes later De Pombal and his men were back.

‘You are laid upon the beacon,’ said he; ‘I defy anyone in the world to say it is not you, and you are so gagged and bound that no one can expect you to speak or move. Now, it only remains to carry forth the body of Duplessis and to toss it over the Merodal precipice.’

Two of them seized me by the head and two by the heels and carried me, stiff and inert, from the hut. As I came into the open air I could have cried out in my amazement. The moon had risen above the beacon, and there, clear outlined
against its silver light, was the figure of the man stretched upon the top. The brigands were either in their camp or standing round the beacon, for none of them stopped or questioned our little party. De Pombal led them in the direction of the precipice. At the brow we were out of sight, and there I was allowed to use my feet once more. De Pombal pointed to a narrow, winding track.