If the natural perils of the expedition were sufficient to suggest grave thoughts, the sight of the troops that were to form it was even a stronger incentive to fear. I could not believe my eyes, as I watched the battalions which now deployed before me. Always accustomed, whatever the hardships they were opposed to, to see French soldiers light-hearted, gay, and agile, performing their duties in a spirit of sportive pleasure, as if soldiering were but fun, what was the shock I received at sight of these careworn, downcast, hollow-cheeked fellows, dragging their legs wearily along, and scarcely seeming to hear the words of command; their clothes, patched and mended, sometimes too big, sometimes too little, showing that they had changed wearers without being altered; their tattered shoes, tied on with strings round the ankles; their very weapons dirty and uncared for; they resembled rather a horde of bandits than the troops of the first army of Europe. There was, besides, an expression of stealthy, treacherous ferocity in their faces, such as I never saw before. To this pitiable condition had they been brought by starvation. Not alone the horses had been eaten, but dogs and cats; even the vermin of the cellars and sewers was consumed as food. Leather and skins were all eagerly devoured; and there is but too terrible reason to believe that human flesh itself was used to prolong for a few hours this existence of misery.
As they defiled into the ‘Piazza,’ there seemed a kind of effort to assume the port and bearing of their craft; and although many stumbled, and some actually fell, from weakness, there was an evident attempt to put on a military appearance. The manner of the adjutant, as he passed down the line, revealed at once the exact position of affairs. No longer inspecting every little detail of equipment, criticising this, or remarking on that, his whole attention was given to the condition of the musket, whose lock he closely scrutinised, and then turned to the cartouch-box. The ragged uniforms, the uncouth shakos, the belts dirty and awry, never called forth a word of rebuke. Too glad, as it seemed, to recognise even the remnants of discipline, he came back from his inspection apparently well satisfied and content.
‘These fellows turn out well,’ said Colonel de Barre, as he looked along the line; and I started to see if the speech were an unfeeling jest. Far from it; he spoke in all seriousness. The terrible scenes he had for months been witnessing; the men dropping from hunger at their posts; the sentries fainting as they carried arms, and borne away to the hospital to die; the bursts of madness that would now and then break forth from men whose agony became unendurable, had so steeled him to horrors, that even this poor shadow of military display seemed orderly and imposing.
‘They are the 22nd, colonel,’ replied the adjutant, proudly, ‘a corps that always have maintained their character, whether on parade or under fire!’
‘Ah! the 22nd, are they? They have come up from Ronco, then?’
‘Yes, sir; they were all that General Soult could spare us.’
‘Fine-looking fellows they are,’ said De Barre, scanning them through his glass. ‘The third company is a little, a very little to the rear—don’t you perceive it?—and the flank is a thought or so restless and unsteady.’
‘A sergeant has just been carried to the rear ill, sir,’ said a young officer, in a low voice.
‘The heat, I have no douht; a colpo di sole, as they tell us everything is,’ said De Barre. ‘By the way, is not this the regiment that boasts the pretty vivandière? What’s this her name is?’
‘Lela, sir.’
‘Yes, to be sure, Lela. I’m sure I’ve heard her toasted often enough at cafés and restaurants.’
‘There she is, sir, yonder, sitting on the steps of the fountain’; and the officer made a sign with his sword for the girl to come over. She made an effort to arise at the order, but tottered back, and would have fallen if a soldier had not caught her. Then suddenly collecting her strength, she arranged the folds of her short scarlet jupe, and smoothing down the braids of her fair hair, came forward, at that sliding, half-skipping pace that is the wont of her craft.
The exertion, and possibly the excitement, had flushed her cheek, so that as she came forward her look was brilliantly handsome; but as the colour died away, and a livid pallor spread over her jaws, lank and drawn in by famine, her expression was dreadful. The large eyes, lustrous and wild-looking, gleaming with the fire of fever, while her thin nostrils quivered at each respiration.
Poor girl, even then, with famine and fever eating within her, the traits of womanly vanity still survived, and as she carried her hand to her cap in salute, she made a faint attempt at a smile.
‘The 22nd may indeed be proud of their vivandière,* said De Barre gallantly.
‘What hast in the tonnslet, Lela?’ continued he, tapping the little silver-hooped barrel she carried at her back.
‘Ah, que voulez-vous? cried she laughing, with a low, husky sound, the laugh of famine.
‘I must have a glass of it to your health, ma belle Lela, if it cost me a crown-piece’; and he drew forth the coin as he spoke.
‘For such a toast, the liquor is quite good enough,’ said Lela, drawing back at the offer of money; while slinging the little cask in front, she unhooked a small silver cup, and filled it with water.
‘No brandy, Lela?’
‘None, colonel,’ said she, shaking her head; ‘and if I had, those poor fellows yonder would not like it so well.’
‘I understand,’ said he significantly; ‘theirs is the thirst of fever.’
A short, dry cough, and a barely perceptible nod of the head, was all her reply; but their eyes met, and any so sad an expression as they interchanged I never beheld! it was a confession in full of all each had seen of sorrow, of suffering, and of death—the terrible events three months of famine had revealed, and all the agonies of pestilence and madness.
‘That is delicious water, Tiernay,’ said the colonel, as he passed me the cup, and thus trying to get away from the sad theme of his thoughts.
‘I fetch it from a well outside the walls every morning,’ said Lela; ‘ay, and within gunshot of the Austrian sentries, too.’
‘There’s coolness for you, Tiernay,’ said the colonel; ‘think what the 22nd are made of when their vivandière dares to do this!’
‘They’ll not astonish him,’ said Lela, looking steadily at me
‘And why not, ma belle?’ cried De Barre. ‘He was a Tapageur, one of the “Naughty Ninth,” as they called them.’
‘How do you know that, Lela? Have we ever met before?’ cried I eagerly.
‘I’ve seen you, sir,’ said she slyly. ‘They used to call you the corporal that won the battle of Kehl. I know my father always said so.’
I would have given worlds to have interrogated her further; so fascinating is selfishness, that already at least a hundred questions were presenting themselves to my mind. Who could Lela be? and who was her father? and what were these reports about me? Had I really won fame without knowing it? and did my comrades indeed speak of me with honour? All these, and many more inquiries, were pressing for utterance, as General Masséna walked up with his staff. The general fully corroborated De Barre’s opinion of the ‘22nd.’ They were, as he expressed it, a ‘magnificent body.’ It was a perfect pleasure to see such troops under arms.’ ‘Those fellows certainly exhibited few traces of a starved-out garrison.’
Such and such like were the observations bandied from one to the other, in all the earnest seriousness of truth What more terrible evidence of the scenes they had passed through, than these convictions! What more stunning proof of the condition to which long suffering had reduced them!
‘Where is our pleasant friend, who talked to us of the Black Forest last night? Ah, there he is; well, Monsieur Tiernay, do you think General Moreau’s people turned out better than that after the retreat from Donau-eschingen?’
There was no need for any reply, since the scornful burst of laughter of the staff already gave the answer he wanted; and now he walked forward to the centre of the piazza, while the troops proceeded to march past.
The band, a miserable group, reduced from fifty to thirteen in number, struck up a quick step, and the troops, animated by the sounds, and more still, perhaps, by Masséna’s presence, made an effort to step out in quick time; but the rocking, wavering motion, the clinking muskets and uncertain gait, were indescribably painful to a soldier’s eye. Their colonel, De Vallence, however, evidently did not regard them thus, for as he joined the staff, he received the general’s compliments with all the good faith and composure in the world.
The battalions were marched off to barracks, and the group of officers broke up to repair to their several quarters. It was the hour of dinner, but it had been many a day since that meal had been heard of amongst them. A stray café here and there was open in the city, but a cup of coffee, without milk, and a small roll of black bread, a horrid compound of rye and cocoa, was all the refreshment obtainable; and yet, I am bold to say that a murmur or a complaint was unheard against the general or the Government. The heaviest reverses, the gloomiest hours of ill fortune, never extinguished the hope that Genoa was to be relieved at last, and that all we had to do was to hold out for the arrival of Bonaparte. To the extent of this conviction is to be attributed the wide disparity between the feeling displayed by the military and the townsfolk.
The latter, unsustained by hope, without one spark of speculation to cheer their gloomy destiny, starved, and sickened, and died in masses. The very requirements of discipline were useful in averting the despondent vacuity which comes of hunger. Of the sanguine confidence of the soldiery in the coming of their comrades, I was to witness a strong illustration on the very day of which I have been speaking.
It was about four o’clock in the afternoon, the weather had been heavy and overcast, and the heat excessive, so that all who were free from duty had either lain down to sleep, or were quietly resting within doors, when a certain stir and movement in the streets, a rare event during the hours of the siesta, drew many a head to the windows. The report ran, and like wildfire it spread through the city, that the advanced guard of Bonaparte had reached Ronco that morning, and were already in march on Genoa. Although nobody could trace this story to any direct source, each believed and repeated it; the tale growing more consistent and fuller at every repetition. I need not weary my reader with all the additions and corrections the narrative received, nor recount how now it was Moreau with the right wing of the army of the Rhine; now it was Kellermann’s brigade; now it was Macdonald, who had passed the Ticino; and last of all, Bonaparte. The controversy was often even an angry one, when, finally, all speculation was met by the official report, that all that was known lay in the simple fact, that heavy guns had been heard that morning, near Ronco, and as the Austrians held no position with artillery there, the firing must needs be French.
This very bare announcement was, of course, a great ‘come down’ for all the circumstantial detail with which we had been amusing ourselves and each other, but yet it nourished hope, and the hope that was nearest to all our hearts, too! The streets were soon filled; officers and soldiers hastily dressed, and with many a fault of costume were all commingled, exchanging opinions, resolving doubts, and even bandying congratulations. The starved and hungry faces were lighted up with an expression of savage glee. It was like the last flickering gleam of passion in men whose whole vitality was the energy of fever! The heavy debt they owed their enemy was at last to be paid, and all the insulting injury of a besieged and famine-stricken garrison to be avenged. A surging movement in the crowd told that some event had occurred; it was Masséna and his staff, who were proceeding to a watch-tower in the bastion, from whence a wide range of country could be seen. This was reassuring. The general himself entertained the story, and here was proof that there was ‘something in it.’ All the population now made for the walls; every spot from which the view towards Ronco could be obtained was speedily crowded, every window filled, and all the housetops crammed. A dark mass of inky cloud covered the tops of the Apennines, and even descended to some distance down the sides. With what shapes and forms of military splendour did our imaginations people the space behind that sombre curtain! What columns of stern warriors, what prancing squadrons, what earth-shaking masses of heavy artillery! How longingly each eye grew weary watching—waiting for the veil to be rent, and the glancing steel to be seen glistening bright in the sun-rays!
As if to torture our anxieties, the lowering mass grew darker and heavier, and, rolling lazily adown the mountain, it filled up the valley, wrapping earth and sky in one murky mantle.
‘There, did you hear that?’ cried one; ‘that was artillery.’
A pause followed, each ear was bent to listen, and not a word was uttered for full a minute or more; the immense host, as if swayed by the one impulse, strained to catch the sounds, when suddenly, from the direction of the mountain top, there came a rattling, crashing noise, followed by the dull, deep booming that every soldier’s heart responds to What a cheer then burst forth! never did I hear—never may I hear—such a cry as that was; it was like the wild yell of a shipwrecked crew, as some distant sail hove in sight; and yet, through its cadence, there rang the mad lust for vengeance! Yes, in all the agonies of sinking strength, with fever in their hearts, and the death sweat on their cheeks, their cry was Blood! The puny shout, for such it seemed now, was drowned in the deafening crash that now was heard; peal after peal shook the air, the same rattling, peppering noise of musketry continuing through all.
That the French were in strong force, as well as the enemy, there could now be no doubt. Nothing but a serious affair and a stubborn resistance could warrant such a fire. It had every semblance of an attack with all arms. The roar of the heavy guns made the air vibrate, and the clatter of small-arms was incessant. How each of us filled up the picture from the impulses of his own fancy! Some said that the French were still behind the mountain, and storming the heights of the Borghetto; others thought that they had gained the summit, but not en force, and were only contesting their position there; and a few, more sanguine, of whom I was one myself, imagined that they were driving the Austrians down the Apennines, cleaving their ranks, as they went, with their artillery.
Each new crash, every momentary change of direction of the sounds, favoured this opinion or that, and the excitement of partisanship rose to an immense height. What added indescribably to the interest of the scene, was a group of Austrian officers on horseback, who, in their eagerness to obtain tidings, had ridden beyond their lines, and were now standing almost within musket range of us. We could see that their telescopes were turned to the eventful spot, and we gloried to think of the effect the scene must have been producing on them.
‘They’ve seen enough!’ cried one of our fellows, laughing, while he pointed to the horsemen, who, suddenly wheeling about, galloped back to their camp at full speed.
‘You ‘ll have the drums beat to arms now; there’s little time to lose. Our cuirassiers will soon be upon them,’ cried another, in ecstasy.
‘No, but the rain will, and upon us, too,’ said Giorgio, who had now come up; ‘don’t you see that it’s not a battle yonder, it’s a burrasca. There it comes.’ And as if the outstretched finger of the dwarf had been the wand of a magician, the great cloud was suddenly torn open with a crash, and the rain descended like a deluge, swept along by a hurricane wind, and came in vast sheets of water, while high over our heads, and moving onward towards the sea, growled the distant thunder. The great mountain was now visible from base to summit, but not a soldier, not a gun, to be seen! Swollen and yellow, the gushing torrents leaped madly from crag to crag, and crashing trees, and falling rocks, added their wild sounds to the tumult.
There we stood, mute and sorrow-struck, regardless of the seething rain, unconscious of anything save our disappointment. The hope we built upon had left us, and the dreary scene of storm around seemed but a type of our own future! And yet we could not turn away, but with eyes strained and aching, gazed at the spot from where our succour should have come.
I looked up at the watch-tower, and there was Massena still, his arms folded, on a battlement; he seemed to be deep in thought. At last he arose, and, drawing his cloak across his face, descended the winding-stair outside the tower. His step was slow, and more than once he halted, as if to think. When he reached the walls, he walked rapidly on, his suite following him.
‘Ah, Monsieur Tiernay,’ said he, as he passed me, ‘you know what an Apennine storm is now; but it will cool the air and give us delicious weather’; and so he passed on with an easy smile.
The disappointment we had suffered was not the only circumstance adverse to our expedition. The rain had now swollen the smallest rivulets to the size of torrents; in many places the paths would be torn away and obliterated, and everywhere the difficulty of a night march enormously increased. Giorgio, however, who was, perhaps, afraid of forfeiting his reward, assured the general that these mountain streams subside even more rapidly than they rise; that such was the dryness of the soil, no trace of rain would be seen by sunset, and that we should have a calm, starry night; the very thing we wanted for our enterprise.
We did not need persuasion to believe all he said—the opinion chimed in with our own wishes, and, better still, was verified to the very letter by a glorious afternoon. Landward, the spectacle was perfectly enchanting; the varied foliage of the Apennines, refreshed by the rain, glittered and shone in the sun’s rays, while in the bay, the fleet, with sails hung out to dry, presented a grand and an imposing sight. Better than all, Monte Faccio now appeared quite near us; we could, even with the naked eye, perceive all the defences, and were able to detect a party of soldiers at work outside the walls, clearing, as it seemed, some watercourse that had been impeded by the storm. Unimportant as the labour was, we watched it anxiously, for we thought that perhaps before another sunset many a brave fellow’s blood might dye that earth. During the whole of that day, from some cause or other, not a shot had been fired either from the land-batteries or the fleet, and as though a truce had been agreed to, we sat watching each other’s movements peacefully and calmly.
‘The Austrians would seem to have been as much deceived as ourselves, sir,’ said an old artillery sergeant to me, as I strolled along the walls at nightfall. ‘The pickets last night were close to the glacis, but see, now they have fallen back a gunshot or more.’
‘But they had time enough since to have resumed their old position,’ said I, half doubting the accuracy of the surmise.
‘Time enough, parbleu! I should think so too! but when the white-coats manoeuvre, they write to Vienna to ask, “What’s to be done next?”’
This passing remark, in which, with all its exaggeration, there lay a germ of truth, was the universal judgment of our soldiers on those of the Imperial army; and to the prevalence of the notion may be ascribed much of that fearless indifference with which small divisions of ours attacked whole army corps of the enemy. Bonaparte was the first to point out this slowness, and to turn it to the best advantage.
‘If our general ever intended a sortie, this would be the night for it, sir,’ resumed he; ‘the noise of those mountain streams would mask the sounds of a march, and even cavalry, if led with caution, might be in upon them before they were aware.’
This speech pleased me, not only for the judgment it conveyed, but as an assurance that our expedition was still a secret in the garrison.
On questioning the sergeant further, I was struck to find that he had abandoned utterly all hope of ever seeing France again; such, he told me, was the universal feeling of the soldiery. ‘We know well, sir, that Massena is not the man to capitulate, and we cannot expect to be relieved’ And yet with this stern, comfortless conviction on their minds—with hunger, and famine, and pestilence on every side—they never uttered one word of complaint, not even a murmur of remonstrance. What would Moreau’s fellows say of us? What would the army of the Meuse think? These were the ever-present arguments against surrender; and the judgment of their comrades was far more terrible to them than the grapeshot of the enemy.
‘But do you not think, when Bonaparte crosses the Alps, he will hasten to our relief?’
‘Not he, sir! I know him well. I was in the same troop with him, a bombardier at the same gun. Bonaparte will never go after small game where there’s a nobler prey before him. If he does cross the Alps, he’ll be for a great battle under Milan; or, mayhap, march on Venice. He’s not thinking of our starved battalions here; he’s planning some great campaign, depend on it. He never faced the Alps to succour Genoa.’
How true was this appreciation of the great general’s ambition, I need scarcely repeat; but so it was at the time; many were able to guess the bold aspirings of one who, to the nation, seemed merely one among the numerous candidates for fame and honours.
It was about an hour after my conversation with the sergeant, that an orderly came to summon me to Colonel de Barres quarters; and with all my haste to obey, I only arrived as the column was formed. The plan of attack was simple enough. Three Voltigeur companies were to attempt the assault of the Monte Facoio, under De Barre; while, to engage attention, and draw off the enemy’s force, a strong body of infantry and cavalry was to debouch on the Chiavari road, as though to force a passage in that direction. In all that regarded secrecy and despatch our expedition was perfect; and as we moved silently through the streets, the sleeping citizens never knew of our march. Arrived at the gate, the column halted, to give us time to pass along the walls and descend the glen, an operation which, it was estimated, would take forty-five minutes; at the expiration of this they were to issue forth to the feint attack.
At a quick step we now pressed forward towards the angle of the bastion, whence many a path led down the cliff in all directions. Half a dozen of our men, well acquainted with the spot, volunteered as guides, and the muskets being slung on the back, the word was given to ‘move on,’ the rallying-place being the plateau of the orange-trees I have already mentioned.
‘Steep enough this,’ said De Barre to me, as, holding on by briers and brambles, we slowly descended the gorge; ‘but few of us will ever climb it again.’
‘You think so?’ asked I, in some surprise.
‘Of course, I know it,’ said he. ‘Vallence, who commands the battalions below, always condemned the scheme; rely on it, he’s not the man to make himself out a false prophet. I don’t pretend to tell you that in our days of monarchy there were neither jealousies nor party grudges, and that men were above all small and ungenerous rivalry; but, assuredly, we had less of them than now. If the field of competition is more open to every one, so are the arts by which success is won; a preeminence in a republic means always the ruin of a rival If we fail, as fail we must, he’ll be a general.’
‘But why must we fail?’
‘For every reason; we are not in force; we know nothing of what we are about to attack; and, if repulsed, have no retreat behind us.’
‘Then why——?’ I stopped, for already I saw the impropriety of my question.
‘Why did I advise the attack?’ said he mildly, taking up my half-uttered question. ‘Simply because death outside these walls is quicker and more glorious than within them. There’s scarcely a man who follows us has not the same sentiment in his heart. The terrible scenes of the last five weeks have driven our fellows to all but mutiny. Nothing indeed maintained discipline but a kind of tigerish thirst for vengeance—a hope that the day of reckoning would come round, and one fearful lesson teach these same white-coats how dangerous it is to drive a brave enemy to despair.’
De Barre continued to talk in this strain as we descended, every remark he made being uttered with all the coolness of one who talked of a matter indifferent to him. At length the way became too steep for much converse, and slipping and scrambling we now only interchanged a chance word as we went. Although two hundred and fifty men were around and about us, not a voice was heard; and, except the occasional breaking of a branch, or the occasional fall of some heavy stone into the valley, not a sound was heard. At length a long, shrill whistle announced that the first man had reached the bottom, which, to judge from the faintness of the sound, appeared yet a considerable distance off. The excessive darkness increased the difficulty of the way, and De Barre continued to repeat—‘that we had certainly been misinformed, and that even in daylight the descent would take an hour.’
It was full half an hour after this when we came to a small rivulet, the little boundary line between the two steep cliffs. Here our men were all assembled, refreshing themselves with the water, still muddy from recent rain, and endeavouring to arrange equipments and arms, damaged and displaced by many a fall.
‘We ‘ve taken an hour and twenty-eight minutes,’ said De Barre, as he placed a firefly on the glass of his watch, to see the hour. ‘Now, men, let us make up for lost time. En avant!
‘En avant!,’ was quickly passed from mouth to mouth, and never was a word more spirit-stirring to Frenchmen! With all the alacrity of men fresh and ‘eager for the fray,’ they began the ascent, and such was the emulous ardour to be first, that it assumed all the features of a race.
A close pine wood greatly aided us now, and, in less time than we could believe it possible, we reached the plateau appointed for our rendezvous. This being the last spot of meeting before our attack on the fort, the final dispositions were here settled on, and the orders for the assault arranged. With daylight, the view from this terrace, for such it was in reality, would have been magnificent, for even now, in the darkness, we could track out the great thoroughfares of the city, follow the windings of the bay and harbour, and, by the lights on board, detect the fleet as it lay at anchor. To the left, and for many a mile, as it seemed, were seen twinkling the bivouac fires of the Austrian army; while directly above our heads, glittering like a red star, shone the solitary gleam that marked out the ‘Monte Faccio.’
I was standing silently at De Barre’s side, looking on this sombre scene, so full of terrible interest, when he clutched my arm violently, and whispered—‘Look yonder; see, the attack has begun.’
The fire of the artillery had flashed as he spoke, and now, with his very words, the deafening roar of the guns was heard from below.
‘I told you he’d not wait for us, Tiernay. I told you how it would happen!’ cried he; then suddenly recovering his habitual composure of voice and manner, he said, ‘Now for our part, men; forwards!’
And away went the brave fellows, tearing up the steep mountain-side, like an assault party at a breach. Though hidden from our view by the darkness and the dense wood, we could hear the incessant din of large and small arms; the roll of the drums summoning men to their quarters, and what we thought were the cheers of charging squadrons.
Such was the mad feeling of excitement these sounds produced, that I cannot guess what time elapsed before we found ourselves on the crest of the mountain, and not above three hundred paces from the outworks of the fort. The trees had been cut away on either side, so as to offer a species of glacis, and this must be crossed under the fire of the batteries, before an attack could be commenced. Fortunately for us, however, the garrison was too confident of its security to dread a coup de main from the side of the town, and had placed all their guns along the bastion, towards Borghetto, and this De Barre immediately detected. A certain ‘alert’ on the walls, however, and a quick movement of lights here and there, showed that they had become aware of the sortie from the town, and gradually we could see figure after figure ascending the walls, as if to peer down into the valley beneath.
‘You see what Vallence has done for us,’ said De Barre bitterly; ‘but for him we should have taken these fellows, en flagrant délit, and carried their walls before they could turn out a captain’s guard.’
As he spoke a heavy crashing sound was heard, and a wild cheer. Already our pioneers had gained the gate, and were battering away at it; another party had reached the walls, and thrown up their rope-ladders, and the attack was opened. In fact, Giorgio had led one division by a path somewhat shorter than ours, and they had begun the assault before we issued from the pine wood.
We now came up at a run, but under a smart fire from the walls, already fast crowding with men. Defiling close beneath the wall, we gained the gate, just as it had fallen beneath the assaults of our men. A steep covered way led up from it, and along this our fellows rushed madly; but suddenly from the gloom a red glare flashed out, and a terrible discharge of grape swept all before it. ‘Lie down!’ was now shouted from front to rear, but even before the order could be obeyed another and more fatal volley followed.
Twice we attempted to storm the ascent; but wearied by the labour of the mountain pass—worn out by fatigue—and, worse still, weak from actual starvation, our men faltered! It was not fear, nor was there anything akin to it; for even as they fell under the thick fire their shrill cheers breathed stern defiance. They were utterly exhausted, and failing strength could do no more! De Barre took the lead, sword in hand, and with one of those wild appeals that soldiers never hear in vain, addressed them; but the next moment his shattered corpse was carried to the rear. The scaling party, alike repulsed, had now defiled to our support; but the death-dealing artillery swept through us without ceasing. Never was there a spectacle so terrible as to see men, animated by courageous devotion, burning with glorious zeal, and yet powerless from very debility—actually dropping from the weakness of famine! The staggering step—the faint shout—the powerless charge—all showing the ravages of pestilence and want!
Some sentiment of compassion must have engaged our enemies’ sympathy, for twice they relaxed their fire, and only resumed it as we returned to the attack. One fearful discharge of grape, at pistol range, now seemed to have closed the struggle; and as the smoke cleared away, the earth was seen crowded with dead and dying. The broken ranks no longer showed discipline—men gathered in groups around their wounded comrades, and, to all seeming, indifferent to the death that menaced them. Scarcely an officer survived, and, among the dead beside me, I recognised Giorgio, who still knelt in the attitude in which he had received his death-wound.
I was like one in some terrible dream, powerless and terror-stricken, as I stood thus amid the slaughtered and the wounded.
‘You are my prisoner,’ said a gruff-looking old Groat grenadier, as he snatched my sword from my hand by a smart blow on the wrist; and I yielded without a word.
‘Is it over?’ said I; ‘is it over?’
‘Yes, parbleu! I think it is,’ said a comrade, whose cheek was hanging down from a bayonet wound. ‘There are not twenty of us remaining, and they will do very little for the service of the “Great Republic’”
On a hot and sultry day of June I found myself seated in a country cart, and under the guard of two mounted dragoons, wending my way towards Kuffstein, a Tyrol fortress, to which I was sentenced as a prisoner. A weary journey was it; for in addition to my now sad thoughts I had to contend against an attack of ague, which I had just caught, and which was then raging like a plague in the Austrian camp. One solitary reminiscence, and that far from a pleasant one, clings to this period. We had halted on the outskirts of a little village called ‘Broletto,’ for the siesta, and there, in a clump of olives, were quietly dozing away the sultry hours, when the clatter of horsemen awoke us; and on looking up, we saw a cavalry escort sweep past at a gallop. The corporal who commanded our party hurried into the village to learn the news, and soon returned with the tidings that ‘a great victory had been gained over the French, commanded by Bonaparte in person; that the army was in full retreat; and this was the despatch an officer of Melas’ staff was now hastening to lay at the feet of the emperor.’
‘I thought several times this morning,’ said the corporal, ‘that I heard artillery; and so it seems I might, for we are not above twenty miles from where the battle was fought.’
‘And how is the place called?’ asked I, in a tone sceptical enough to be offensive.
‘Marengo,’ replied he; ‘mayhap, the name will not escape your memory.’
How true was the surmise, but in how different a sense from what he uttered it! But so it was; even as late as four o’clock the victory was with the Austrians. Three separate envoys had left the field with tidings of success; and it was only late at night that the general, exhausted by a disastrous day, and almost broken-hearted, could write to tell his master that ‘Italy was lost.’
I have many a temptation here to diverge from a line that I set down for myself in these memoirs, and from which as yet I have not wandered—I mean, not to dwell upon events wherein I was not myself an actor; but I am determined still to adhere to my rule, and, leaving that glorious event behind me, plod wearily along my journey.
Day after day we journeyed through a country teeming with abundance: vast plains of corn and maize, olives and vines, everywhere—on the mountains, the crags, the rocks, festooned over cliffs, and spreading their tangled networks over cottages; and yet everywhere poverty, misery, and debasement, ruined villages, and a half-naked, starving populace, met the eye at every turn. There was the stamp of slavery on all, and still more palpably was there the stamp of despotism in the air of their rulers.
If any spot can impress the notion of impregnability it is Kuffstein. Situated on an eminence of rock over the Inn, three sides of the base are washed by that rapid river. A little village occupies the fourth; and from this the supplies are hoisted up to the garrison above by cranes and pulleys—the only approach being by a path wide enough for a single man, and far too steep and difficult of access to admit of his carrying any burthen, however light. All that science and skill could do is added to the natural strength of the position, and from every surface of the vast rock itself the projecting mouths of guns and mortars show resources of defence it would seem madness to attack.
Three thousand men, under the command of General Urleben, held this fortress at the time I speak of, and by their habits of discipline and vigilance showed that no over-security would make them neglect the charge of so important a trust. I was the first French prisoner that had ever been confined within the walls, and to the accident of my uniform was I indebted for this distinction. I have mentioned that in Genoa they gave me a staff-officer’s dress and appointments, and from this casual circumstance it was supposed that I should know a great deal of Masséna’s movements and intentions, and that by judicious management I might be induced to reveal it.
General Urleben, who had been brought up in France, was admirably calculated to have promoted such an object were it practicable. He possessed the most winning address as well as great personal advantages, and although now past the middle of life, was reputed one of the handsomest men in Austria. He at once invited me to his table, and having provided me with a delightful little chamber, from whence the view extended for miles along the Inn, he sent me stores of books, journals, and newspapers, French, English, and German, showing by the very candour of their tidings a most flattering degree of confidence and trust.
If imprisonment could ever be endurable with resignation, mine ought to have been so. My mornings were passed in weeding or gardening a little plot of ground outside my window, giving me ample occupation in that way, and rendering carnations and roses dearer to me, through all my after-life, than without such associations they would ever have been. Then I used to sketch for hours, from the walls, bird’s-eye views, prisoner’s glimpses, of the glorious Tyrol scenery below us. Early in the afternoon came dinner; and then, with the general’s pleasant converse, a cigar, and a chess-board, the time wore smoothly on till nightfall.
An occasional thunderstorm, grander and more sublime than anything I have ever seen elsewhere, would now and then vary a life of calm but not unpleasant monotony; and occasionally, too, some passing escort, on the way to or from Vienna, would give tidings of the war; but except in these, each day was precisely like the other, so that when the almanac told me it was autumn, I could scarcely believe a single month had glided over. I will not attempt to conceal the fact, that the inglorious idleness of my life, this term of inactivity at an age when hope, and vigour, and energy were highest within me, was a grievous privation; but, except in these regrets, I could almost call this time a happy one. The unfortunate position in which I started in life gave me little opportunity, or even inclination for learning. Except the little Père Michel had taught me, I knew nothing. I need not say that this was but a sorry stock of education, even at that period, when, I must say, the sabre was more in vogue than the grammar.
I now set steadily about repairing this deficiency. General Urleben lent me all his aid, directing my studies, supplying me with books, and at times affording me the still greater assistance of his counsel and advice. To history generally, but particularly that of France, he made me pay the deepest attention, and seemed never to weary while impressing upon me the grandeur of our former monarchies, and the happiness of France when ruled by her legitimate sovereigns.
I had told him all that I knew myself of my birth and family, and frequently would he allude to the subject of my reading, by saying, ‘The son of an old “Garde du Corps” needs no commentary when perusing such details as these. Your own instincts tell you how nobly these servants of a monarchy bore themselves—what chivalry lived at that time in men’s hearts, and how generous and self-denying was their loyalty.’
Such and such like were the expressions which dropped from him from time to time; nor was their impression the less deep when supported by the testimony of the memoirs with which he supplied me. Even in deeds of military glory the Monarchy could compete with the Republic, and Urleben took care to insist upon a fact I was never unwilling to concede—that the well born were ever foremost in danger, no matter whether the banner was a white one or a tricolour.
‘Le bon sang ne peut pas mentir’ was an adage I never disputed, although certainly I never expected to hear it employed to the disparagement of those to whom it did not apply.
As the winter set in I saw less of the general. He was usually much occupied in the mornings, and at evenings he was accustomed to go down to the village, where, of late, some French émigré families had settled—unhappy exiles, who had both peril and poverty to contend against! Many such were scattered through the Tyrol at that period, both for the security and the cheapness it afforded. Of these, Urleben rarely spoke; some chance allusion, when borrowing a book or taking away a newspaper, being the extent to which he ever referred to them.
One morning, as I sat sketching on the walls, he came up to me and said, ‘Strange enough, Tiernay, last night I was looking at a view of this very scene, only taken from another point of sight; both were correct, accurate in every detail, and yet most dissimilar—what a singular illustration of many of our prejudices and opinions! The sketch I speak of was made by a young countrywoman of yours—a highly gifted lady, who little thought that the accomplishments of her education were one day to be the resources of her livelihood. Even so,’ said he, sighing, ‘a marquise of the best blood of France is reduced to sell her drawings!’
As I expressed a wish to see the sketches in question, he volunteered to make the request if I would send some of mine in return; and thus accidentally grew up a sort of intercourse between myself and the strangers, which gradually extended to books and music, and, lastly, to civil messages and inquiries of which the general was ever the bearer.
What a boon was all this to me! What a sun-ray through the bars of a prisoner’s cell was this gleam of kindness and sympathy! The very similarity of our pursuits, too, had something inexpressibly pleasing in it, and I bestowed ten times as much pains upon each sketch, now that I knew to whose eyes it would be submitted.
‘Do you know, Tiernay,’ said the general to me, one day, ‘I am about to incur a very heavy penalty in your behalf—I am going to contravene the strict orders of the War Office, and take you along with me this evening down to the village.’
I started with surprise and delight together, and could not utter a word.
‘I know perfectly well,’ continued he, ‘that you will not abuse my confidence. I ask, then, for nothing beyond your word, that you will not make any attempt at escape; for this visit may lead to others, and I desire, so far as possible, that you should feel as little constraint as a prisoner well may.’
I readily gave the pledge required, and he went on—‘I have no cautions to give you, nor any counsels—Madame d’Aigreville is a Royalist.’
‘She is madame, then!’ said I, in a voice of some disappointment.
‘Yes, she is a widow, but her niece is unmarried,’ said he, smiling at my eagerness. I affected to hear the tidings with unconcern, but a burning flush covered my cheek, and I felt as uncomfortable as possible.
I dined that day as usual with the general, adjourning after dinner to the little drawing-room, where we played our chess. Never did he appear to me so tedious in his stories, so intolerably tiresome in his digressions, as that evening. He halted at every move—he had some narrative to recount, or some observation to make, that delayed our game to an enormous time; and at last, on looking out of the window, he fancied there was a thunderstorm brewing, and that we should do well to put off our visit to a more favourable opportunity.
‘It is little short of half a league,’ said he, ‘to the village, and in bad weather is worse than double the distance.’
I did not dare to controvert his opinion, but, fortunately, a gleam of sunshine shot, the same moment, through the window, and proclaimed a fair evening.
Heaven knows I had suffered little of a prisoner’s durance—my life had been one of comparative freedom and ease; and yet, I cannot tell the swelling emotion of my heart with which I emerged from the deep archway of the fortress, and heard the bang of the heavy gate as it closed behind me. Steep as was the path, I felt as if I could have bounded down it without a fear! The sudden sense of liberty was maddening in its excitement, and I half suspect that had I been on horseback in that moment of wild delight, I should have forgotten all my plighted word and parole, though I sincerely trust that the madness would not have endured beyond a few minutes. If there be among my readers one who has known imprisonment, he will forgive this confession of a weakness, which to others of less experience will seem unworthy, perhaps dishonourable.
Dorf Kuffstein was a fair specimen of the picturesque simplicity of a Tyrol village. There were the usual number of houses, with carved galleries and quaint images in wood, the shrines and altars, the little ‘platz,’ for Sunday recreation, and the shady alley for rifle practice.
There were also the trellised walks of vines, and the orchards; in the midst of one of which we now approached a long, low farmhouse, whose galleries projected over the river. This was the abode of Madame d’Aigreville.
A peasant was cleaning a little mountain pony, from which a side-saddle had just been removed as we came up, and he, leaving his work, proceeded to ask us into the house, informing us, as he went, that the ladies had just returned from a long ramble, and would be with us presently.
The drawing-room into which we were shown was a perfect picture of cottage elegance; all the furniture was of polished walnut-wood, and kept in the very best condition. It opened by three spacious windows upon the terrace above the river, and afforded a view of mountain and valley for miles on every side. An easel was placed on this gallery, and a small sketch in oils of Kuffstein was already nigh completed on it. There were books, too, in different languages, and, to my inexpressible delight, a piano!
The reader will smile, perhaps, at the degree of pleasure objects so familiar and everyday called forth; but let him remember how removed were all the passages of my life from such civilising influences—how little of the world had I seen beyond camps and barrack-rooms, and how ignorant I was of the charm which a female presence can diffuse over even the very humblest abode.
Before I had well ceased to wonder, and admire these objects, the marquise entered.
A tall and stately old lady, with an air at once haughty and gracious, received me with a profound curtsy, while she extended her hand to the salute of the general She was dressed in deep mourning, and wore her white hair in two braids along her face. The sound of my native language, with its native accent, made me forget the almost profound reserve of her manner, and I was fast recovering from the constraint her coldness imposed, when her niece entered the room. Mademoiselle, who was at that time about seventeen, but looked older by a year or two, was the very ideal of brunette beauty; she was dark-eyed and black-haired, with a mouth the most beautifully formed; her figure was light, and her foot a model of shape and symmetry. All this I saw in an instant, as she came, half-sliding, half-bounding, to meet the general; and then turning to me, welcomed me with a cordial warmth, very different from the reception of Madame la Marquise.
Whether it was the influence of her presence, whether it was a partial concession of the old lady’s own, or whether my own awkwardness was wearing off by time, I cannot say—but gradually the stiffness of the interview began to diminish. From the scenery around us we grew to talk of the Tyrol generally, then of Switzerland, and lastly of France. The marquise came from Auvergne, and was justly proud of the lovely scenery of her birthplace.
Calmly and tranquilly as the conversation had been carried on up to this period, the mention of France seemed to break down the barrier of reserve within the old lady’s mind, and she burst out in a wild flood of reminiscences of the last time she had seen her native village. ‘The Blues,’ as the revolutionary soldiers were called, had come down upon the quiet valley, carrying fire and carnage into a once peaceful district. The château of her family was razed to the ground; her husband was shot upon his own terrace; the whole village was put to the sword; her own escape was owing to the compassion of the gardener’s wife, who dressed her like a peasant boy, and employed her in a menial station, a condition she was forced to continue so long as the troops remained in the neighbourhood. ‘Yes,’ said she, drawing off her silk mittens, ‘these hands still witness the hardships I speak of. These are the marks of my servitude.’
It was in vain the general tried at first to sympathise, and then withdraw her from the theme; in vain her niece endeavoured to suggest another topic, or convey a hint that the subject might be unpleasing to me. It was the old lady’s one absorbing idea, and she could not relinquish it. Whole volumes of the atrocities perpetrated by the revolutionary soldiery came to her recollection; each moment as she talked, memory would recall this fact or the other, and so she continued rattling on with the fervour of a heated imagination, and the wild impetuosity of a half-crazed intellect. As for myself, I suffered far more from witnessing the pain others felt for me, than from any offence the topic occasioned me directly. These events were all ‘before my time.’ I was neither a Blue by birth nor by adoption; a child during the period of revolution, I had only taken a man’s part when the country, emerging from its term of anarchy and blood, stood at bay against the whole of Europe. These consolations were, however, not known to the others, and it was at last, in a moment of unendurable agony, that mademoiselle rose and left the room.
The general’s eyes followed her as she went, and then sought mine with an expression full of deep meaning. If I read his look aright, it spoke patience and submission; and the lesson was an easier one than he thought.
‘They talk of heroism,’ cried she frantically—‘it was massacre! And when they speak of chivalry they mean the slaughter of women and children!’ She looked round, and seeing that her niece had left the room, suddenly dropped her voice to a whisper, and said, ‘Think of her mother’s fate, dragged from her home, her widowed, desolate home, and thrown into the Temple, outraged and insulted, condemned on a mock trial, and then carried away to the guillotine! Ay, and even then, on that spot which coming death might have sanctified, in that moment when even fiendish vengeance can turn away and leave its victim at liberty to utter a last prayer in peace, even then, these wretches devised an anguish greater than all death could compass. You will scarcely believe me,’ said she, drawing in her breath, and talking with an almost convulsive effort, ‘you will scarcely believe me in what I am now about to tell you, but it is the truth—the simple but horrible truth. When my sister mounted the scaffold there was no priest to administer the last rites. It was a time, indeed, when few were left; their hallowed heads had fallen in thousands before that. She waited for a few minutes, hoping that one would appear; and when the mob learned the meaning of her delay, they set up a cry of fiendish laughter, and with a blasphemy that makes one shudder to think of, they pushed forward a boy, one of those blood-stained gamins of the streets, and made him gabble a mock litany! Yes, it is true—a horrible mockery of our service, in the ears and before the eyes of that dying saint.’
‘When? in what year? in what place was that?’ cried I, in an agony of eagerness.
‘I can give you both time and place, sir,’ said the marquise, drawing herself proudly up, for she construed my question into a doubt of her veracity. ‘It was in the year 1703, in the month of August; and as for the place, it was one well seasoned to blood—the Place de Grève at Paris.’
A fainting sickness came over me as I heard these words; the dreadful truth flashed across me that the victim was the Marquise d’Estelles, and the boy on whose infamy she dwelt so strongly, no other than myself. For the moment, it was nothing to me that she had not identified me with this atrocity; I felt no consolation in the thought that I was unknown and unsuspected. The heavy weight of the indignant accusation almost crushed me. Its falsehood I knew, and yet could I dare to disprove it? Could I hazard the consequences of an avowal, which all my subsequent pleadings could never obliterate. Even were my innocence established in one point, what a position did it reduce me to in every other!
These struggles must have manifested themselves strongly in my looks, for the marquise, with all her self-occupation, remarked how ill I seemed. ‘I see sir,’ cried she, ‘that all the ravages of war have not steeled your heart against true piety; my tale has moved you strongly.’ I muttered something in concurrence, and she went on. ‘Happily for you, you were but a child when such scenes were happening. Not, indeed, that childhood was always unstained in those days of blood; but you were, as I understand, the son of a “Garde du Corps,” one of those loyal men who sealed their devotion with their life. Were you in Paris then?’
‘Yes, madam,’ said I briefly.
‘With your mother, perhaps?’
‘I was quite alone, madam—an orphan on both sides.’
‘What was your mother’s family name?’
Here was a puzzle; but at a hazard I resolved to claim her who should sound best to the ears of La Marquise. ‘La Lasterie, madam,’ said I.
‘La Lasterie de la Vignoble—a most distinguished house, sir. Provencal, and of the purest blood. Auguste de la Lasterie married the daughter of the Duke de Miriancourt, a cousin of my husband’s, and there was another of them who went as ambassador to Madrid.’
I knew none of them, and I suppose I looked as much.
‘Your mother was, probably, of the elder branch, sir?’ asked she.
I had to stammer out a most lamentable confession of my ignorance.
‘Not know your own kinsfolk, sir—not your nearest of blood!’ cried she, in amazement. ‘General, have you heard this strange avowal? or is it possible that my ears have deceived me?’
‘Please to remember, madam,’ said I submissively, ‘the circumstances in which I passed my infancy. My father fell by the guillotine.’
‘And his son wears the uniform of those who slew him!’
‘Of a French soldier, madam, proud of the service he belongs to; glorying to be one of the first army in Europe.’
‘An army without a cause is a banditti, sir. Your soldiers, without loyalty, are without a banner.’
‘We have a country, madam.’
‘I must protest against this discussion going further,’ said the general blandly, while in a lower tone he whispered something in her ear.
‘Very true, very true,’ said she; ‘I had forgotten all that. Monsieur de Tiernay, you will forgive me this warmth. An old woman, who has lost nearly everything in the world, may have the privilege of bad temper accorded her. We are friends now, I hope,’ added she, extending her hand, and, with a smile of most gracious meaning, beckoning to me to sit beside her on the sofa.
Once away from the terrible theme of the Revolution, she conversed with much agreeability; and her niece having reappeared, the conversation became animated and pleasing. Need I say with what interest I now regarded mademoiselle—the object of all my boyish devotion, the same whose pale features I had watched for many an hour in the dim half-light of the little chapel, her whose image was never absent from my thoughts waking or sleeping, and now again appearing before me in all the grace of coming womanhood!
Perhaps to obliterate any impression of her aunt’s severity—perhaps it was mere manner—but I thought there was a degree of anxiety to please in her bearing towards me. She spoke, too, as though our acquaintance was to be continued by frequent meetings, and dropped hints of plans that implied constant intercourse. Even excursions into the neighbourhood she spoke of; when, suddenly stopping, she said, ‘But these are for the season of spring, and before that time Monsieur de Tiernay will be far away.’
‘Who can tell that?’ said I. ‘I would seem to be forgotten by my comrades.’
‘Then you must take care to do that which may refresh their memory,’ said she pointedly; and before I could question her more closely as to her meaning, the general had risen to take his leave.
‘Madame la Marquise was somewhat more tart than usual,’ said he to me, as we ascended the cliff; ‘but you have passed the ordeal now, and the chances are, she will never offend you in the same way again. Great allowances must be made for those who have suffered as she has. Family—fortune—station—even country—all lost to her; and even hope now dashed by many a disappointment.’
Though puzzled by the last few words, I made no remark on them, and he resumed—
‘She has invited you to come and see her as often as you are at liberty; and, for my part, you shall not be restricted in that way. Go and come as you please, only do not infringe the hours of the fortress; and if you can concede a little now and then to the prejudices of the old lady, your intercourse will be all the more agreeable to both parties.’
‘I believe, general, that I have little of the Jacobin to recant,’ said I, laughing.
‘I should go further, my dear friend, and say, none,’ added he. ‘Your uniform is the only tint of “blue” about you.’ And thus chatting, we reached the fortress, and said good-night.
I have been particular, perhaps tiresomely so, in retelling these broken phrases and snatches of conversation; but they were the first matches applied to a train that was long and artfully laid.