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In Honour's Cause: A Tale of the Days of George the First, a novel by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 15. The Conqueror |
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_ CHAPTER FIFTEEN. THE CONQUEROR The German party blustered, but the officer in command of the Guards had no hesitation in forcing them to submit. They threatened, but the fixed bayonets presented at their breasts, and the disposition shown by the sturdy Englishmen who bore them to use them on the instant that an order was given, ended in a surrender. As the baron fell, the feeling of horror which attacked Frank passed away, and, handkerchief in hand, he sprang to his father's side, binding it tightly round the wound, and following it up by the application of a scarf from his neck. "Ah, Frank lad," said Sir Robert, as if it were quite a matter of course that his son should help him; and he held up his arm, so that the wound could be bound while he spoke to Captain Murray. "It was an accident," he said excitedly. "I swear that I was only on my defence." "We saw," said the captain quietly. "He regularly forced himself on your blade." "How is he, doctor?" said Sir Robert excitedly. "Bad," replied the surgeon, who was kneeling beside the fallen man, while his disarmed companions looked fiercely on. "Don't worry yourself about it, Gowan," said one of Sir Robert's brother-officers; "the brute fought like a savage, and tried his best to kill you." "I'd have given ten years of my life sooner than it should have happened.--That will do, boy." "Bad job, Gowan," said the officer who had arrested them. "The colonel was very wild as soon as he knew that you had broken arrest and come to this meeting, and it will go hard with you, Murray, and you others." "Oh, we were spectators like the boys here," said one of the officers. "Yes, it's a bad job," said Captain Murray; "but a man must stand by his friend. Never mind, Gowan, old fellow; if they cashier us, we must offer our swords elsewhere. I say," he continued, turning to the captain of the guard, "you are not going to arrest these boys?" "The two pages? No; absurd. They found out that there was an affair on, and came to see. Got over the wall, I suppose. I should have done the same. I can't see them. Now, doctor, as soon as you say the word, my men shall carry our German friend on their muskets. How is he?" "As I said before--bad," replied the surgeon sternly. "Better send two men for a litter. He must be taken carefully." "Then I'll leave two men with you while I take my prisoners to the guard-house. Fall in, gentlemen, please. You boys get back to your quarters. Now, messieurs--meinherrs, I mean--you are my prisoners. Vorwarts! March!" "Aren't you faint, father?" whispered Frank, who took Sir Robert's uninjured arm. "Only sick, boy--heartsick more than anything. Frank, your mother must know, and if she waits she will get a garbled account. Go to her as soon as you get to the Palace, and tell her everything--the simple truth. I am not hurt much--only a flesh wound, which will soon heal." "And if she asks me why you fought, father," whispered Frank, "what am I to say?" Sir Robert frowned heavily, and turned sharply to gaze in his son's eyes. "Frank boy," he said, "you are beginning trouble early; but you must try and think and act like a man. When I go, your place is at your mother's side." "When you go, father?" "Yes, I shall have to go, boy. Tell her I fought as a man should for the honour of those I love. Now say no more; I am a bit faint, and I want to think." The strange procession moved in toward the gates, the German officers talking angrily together, and paying little heed to their fellow-prisoners, save that one of them darted a malignant glance at Sir Robert Gowan, which made Andrew turn upon him sharply with an angry scowl, looking the officer up and down so fiercely that he moved menacingly toward the lad; but the Guardsman at his side raised his arm and stepped between them. Just then the boys' eyes met, and Frank, who was still supporting his father, gave his friend a grateful look. When the guard-house was reached, it was just sunrise, upon as lovely a morning as ever broke; and it contrasted strangely with the aspect of the men who had been out for so sinister a design. Frank felt something of the kind as the door was opened to admit his father, one accustomed to command, and now ready to enter as a prisoner; but he had very little time then for private thought, for the colonel suddenly appeared, and without a glance at Sir Robert said sharply: "Well?" "Too late to stop it, sir," reported the officer in command. "Captain Sir Robert Gowan wounded in the arm." "Baron Steinberg?" "The doctor is with him, sir. A litter is to be sent at once." "But--surely not--" "No, not dead, sir; but run through the body." "Tut, tut, tut!" ejaculated the colonel; and he turned now to Sir Robert with words of reproach on his lips, but the fixed look of pain and despair upon his officer's features disarmed him, and he signed to the prisoner to enter. "What shall I do now, father?" said Frank. "Let me fetch another doctor." "Nonsense, boy. Only a flesh wound. Go back to the Park at once; I want to hear what news there is." "Of the baron, father?" "Yes; make haste. I must know how he is." Frank gave a quick, short nod, pressed his father's hand, and hurried out, to find Andrew, whom he had forgotten for the moment, walking up and down in front of a knot of soldiers, looking as fretful as a trapped wolf in a cage. "They wouldn't let me come in," he said impatiently. "I only got in because I was supporting my father," said Frank quickly. "Come along; I'm going to see how the baron is. Has the litter gone?" "No; there are the men coming with it now." The two lads set off running, Andrew's ill-humour passing off in action, and he chatted quite cheerily as they made for the Park. "Your father was splendid, Frank!" he cried. "I was proud of him. What a lesson for those haughty sausage-eaters!" "But it is a terrible business, Drew." "Stuff! only an affair of honour. Of course it may be serious for your father if the baron dies: but he won't die. Some of his hot blood let out. Do him good, and let all these Hanoverians see what stuff the English have in them. Don't you fidget. Why, every one in the Guards will be delighted. I know I am. Wouldn't have missed that fight for anything." "You don't ask how my father's wound is." "No, and he would not want me to. Nasty, shallow cut, that's all. Here we are." They trotted into the opening where the greensward was all trampled and stamped by the combatants' feet, and found the doctor kneeling by his patient just as they had left him, and the two Grenadiers with grounded arms standing with their hands resting on the muzzles of their pieces. "Hallo! young men," cried the doctor, rising and stepping to them. "Is that litter going to be all day?" "They're bringing it, sir," said Frank; "we ran on first. How is he now?" Frank looked at the white face before him with its contracted features and ghastly aspect about the pinched-in lips. "About as bad as he can be, my lad. A man can't have a sharp piece of steel run through his chest without feeling a bit uncomfortable. Lesson for you, my boys. You see what duelling really is. You'll neither of you quarrel and go out after this." "Why not?" said Andrew sharply. "I should, and so would Frank Gowan, if we were insulted by a foreigner." "Bah!" cried the doctor testily. "Nice language for a boy like you." "Please tell me, sir," said Frank anxiously. "Will he get better?" "Why do you want to know, you young dog?" said the doctor, turning upon him sharply. "No business here at all, either of you." "My father is so anxious to know. I want to run back and tell him." "Oh, that's it!" said the doctor gruffly. "No business to have broken out to fight; but I suppose I must tell him. Go back and say that the baron has got a hole in his chest and another in his back, and his life is trying to slip out of one of them; but I've got them stopped, and that before his life managed to pop out. Lucky for him that I was here; and I'm very glad, tell your father, that it has turned out as it has, for I stood all through the ugly business, expecting every moment that he would go down wounded to the death." "Yes, I'll tell him," said Frank hurriedly. "Don't rush off like that, boy. How should you like to be a surgeon?" "Not at all, sir." "And quite right," said the doctor, taking out his box, and helping himself to a liberal pinch of snuff. "Nice job for a man like me to have to do all I can to save the life of a savage who did all he could to murder one of my greatest friends. There, run back and tell him to make his mind easy about my lord here. I won't let him die, and as soon as I can I'll come and see to his arm." The boys ran off again, passing the litter directly; but when they reached the guard-house, the sentry refused to let them pass, and summoned another of the Guards, who took in a message to the captain who made the arrest. He came to the door directly, and learned what they wanted. "I can't admit you," he said. "The colonel's orders have been very strict. I'll go and set your father's mind at rest, for of course he'll be glad that he did not kill his adversary." The captain nodded in a friendly way, and went back. "He can't help himself, Frank," said Andrew. "Don't mind about it. And there won't be any punishment. The King and the Prince will storm and shout a bit in Dutch, and then it will all blow over. Your father's too great a favourite with the troops for there to be any bother, and the bigwigs know how pleased every one will be that the Dutchman got the worst of it. I say, look; it's only half-past five now!" "What: not later than that!" cried Frank in astonishment, for he would have been less surprised if he had heard that it was midday. "Here they come," whispered Andrew; and, turning quickly, Frank saw the soldiers bearing in the wounded baron, with the doctor by his side, and they waited till they saw the litter borne in to the guardroom, and the door was shut. "I say, who would have thought of this when we were going over to the messroom yesterday evening? What shall we do now--go back to bed?" "To bed!" said Frank reproachfully. "No. I have the worst to come." "What, are you going to challenge one of the Germans? I'll second you." "Don't be so flippant. There, good-bye for the present." "Good-bye be hanged! You're in trouble, and I'm going to stick to you like a man." "Yes, I know you will, Drew; but let me go alone now." "What for? Where are you going? You're not going to be so stupid as to begin petitioning, and all that sort of nonsense, to get your father off?" "No," said Frank, with his lower lip quivering; "he'll fight his own battle. I've got a message from him for my mother, and I have to break the news to her." Andrew Forbes uttered a low, soft whistle, and nodded his head. "Before she gets some muddled story, not half true. I say, tell her not to be frightened and upset. Sir Robert shan't come to harm. Why, we could raise all London if they were to be queer to him. But take my word for it, they won't be." Frank hardly heard his last words, for they were now in the calm, retired quadrangle of the Palace, one side of which was devoted to the apartments of the ladies in attendance upon the Queen and Princess, and the lad went straight to the door leading to his mother's rooms, and rang. _ |
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