The Span o' Life Part 10

CHAPTER IX

"JOY AND SORROW ARE NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOURS"

As I had not been in the habit of asking favours of my superiors, permission was readily given that the English lad should be allowed to share my quarters with me.

I set my servant to work arranging for his comfort, and we sate in my little garden, I dying with curiosity to hear what lucky chance had blown him hither.

"Where is your mother, Kit?" I asked.

At this his eyes filled and his lips trembled, and for some moments he could not reply, during which I was unable to suppress a selfish hope that perchance my time of probation had ended.

"Mother is lost," he answered, at last. "But let me start fair."

I was pleased to mark the boy spake with an easy address, for I hate the taint of servility above all things. "Ever since I had grown up I have been begging her to let me get to sea, and at length she yielded, in part to my entreaties, and in part to the wishes of some members of The Society who had settled in Boston, in the Province of Ma.s.sachusetts, and agreed to come out to them. For me, anything answered that would give me my wish, and I did not see that it mattered whether she was among Methodists in England, or among Methodists in America."

"You are right, my lad; I imagine they would make the world much of a likeness wherever they might be."

He answered nothing to my observation, but went on:

"At length all our preparations were complete, and we left in June last in a wretched old craft, called the _African Chief_, so ill found that she was dismasted and disabled in the first gale we met with.

"We were captured, or rather rescued, three days later by this very s.h.i.+p I have just come in, and the hulk was rerigged and sent back to France a prize, with her unfortunate crew and pa.s.sengers as prisoners. From this fate my mother and I were preserved through the kindness of a French lady, who took compa.s.sion on mother as the only woman on board, and offered to take her as her waiting-woman, and I was allowed to accompany her. Anything was better than the certainty of a prison in France."

"What was the lady's name, Kit? I may know her."

"'Pon my word, sir, I am ashamed to say I don't know myself. There were no others of her condition on board, and she was addressed by every one simply as 'Madame.' and I never thought of asking my mother."

"Never mind; go on."

"We were treated with every kindness, and Madame showed every conceivable consideration for my poor mother, while I made friends with all on board, and soon learned enough French to find my way about s.h.i.+p. Madame and my poor mother found the length of the voyage tedious to a degree, but I loved every hour of it. We unfortunately ran short of water, as our casks had so strained during a heavy gale we encountered they lost all or most of their contents. Besides this mischief, the gale drove us so far out of our course to the north, that our captain determined to run into the Baie des Chaleurs for a fresh supply of water.

"This we did, and there found it in abundance; and after the boats had begun to pa.s.s backward and forward, and we were convinced there was no danger, Madame and mother were allowed to have their wish and leave the s.h.i.+p for a ramble on sh.o.r.e. At first they stayed within sight, but gradually gaining courage, they strayed away unnoticed by any of us for some time. When they were missed, an instant search was made, and we started through the woods hallooing and firing our pieces, but without result; at length some of the sailors, who had been in those parts before, discovered a place where they said Indians had lately camped. We soon found further traces that confirmed this, and at last a small gray tippet which I knew to be mother's, and we were no longer in doubt.

"I was wild to keep at the search, but the others persuaded me it was useless to do so, that these savages wandered over the whole country, and would certainly carry their prisoners to some post where they would claim a reward, especially if they thought they were English, which might well be the case; and in any event there was no danger of their lives, as these savages never illtreat white women, except in attack. Anxious as I was, I could not but agree that they were right, and so said no more; but now I am content to remain here, as I have a better chance of hearing news than if exchanged for some French prisoner, as we were hoping all the way out."

Although I had not the same confidence as the boy, I encouraged him in his hopefulness, and in turn told him of my own doings since I had left their roof in London.

My whole existence now took on a different aspect; my duties were in no degree onerous; and Kit, the dear boy, so won every heart that he was looked upon as a guest of the whole garrison, rather than a prisoner. No restrictions were placed upon his movements, and we roamed over the whole country with our fowling-pieces or angles, and many a fine string of trout did we present to Madame de Drucour and other friends.

We explored the country from Louisbourg to Mire, and there we fell in with Sarennes and his following, with whom Kit was delighted beyond measure; and indeed there was much in the Canadian to attract those who did not look beyond the externals. He fairly enchanted the boy with his tales of savage life, his exhibition of his wild followers, and his skill in woodcraft and the chase, and I soon felt that Kit was revolving some plan for discovering the whereabouts of his mother through his aid.

This was the one flaw in my happiness. If I had not wished for her death, I had at least hoped never to hear of her again, and indeed there seemed but little likelihood of it in this remote quarter, but every inquiry on the part of Kit gave me fresh uneasiness. This he was quick to perceive, but as I had never given him an inkling of the reason, he put my holding to him down to the liking of a solitary exile for one of his own kind.

Sarennes, too, saw my fondness for the lad, and took a pleasure in attracting him from me on every possible excuse; but it was not until a dinner given by M. de Drucour at the New Year that I saw how far his petty cruelty could go.

With an air of a.s.sumed geniality he said to the Commandant: "M.

de Drucour, before I start on my expedition to-morrow, I am tempted to ask for a volunteer in the English lad Christopher. He is anxious to go, and I shall be pleased to have him."

"But, monsieur, you can hardly have him without me, for I am responsible to M. de Drucour for his safe-keeping," I broke in, with a chilling fear at my heart that my one treasure in the world would be imperilled in such treacherous hands.

"M. de Maxwell seems over-fond of this prisoner," sneered M. Prevost, who was an unwelcome guest, but could not well be left out on an official occasion. "A too-lenient jailer may be even more dangerous than his prisoner at times," he went on; and I saw that further discussion might only precipitate matters, when I stood in so delicate a position; for a soldier in foreign service, no matter what his merit, is ever a ready object of suspicion.

However, M. de Drucour turned matters by addressing me in his usual courteous and friendly manner: "With these rumours of war in the spring, have you had no inspiration for your Muse, Chevalier?"

"I have a song, if you will not hold the end a reflection on our surroundings," I replied. "However, remember that it is not I, but my sword, that sings, and, I am afraid, only strikes a note common to us all."

I regret I cannot give the graceful French couplets into which Madame de Drucour had obligingly turned my verses, and so cleverly preserved all the fire and strength of my original, which must now serve as it was written.

"In Spanish hands I've bent and swung With Spanish grace and skill; I've scoured Lepanto of the Turk, And Spain of Boabdil; I've clanged throughout the Low Countrie; I've held the Spanish Main;-- Ferrara made and fas.h.i.+oned me, In Cordova, In Spain.

"In Scottish hands I've saved the pride That else had starved at home, When under Bourbon's banner wide We swept through Holy Rome; In private fight I've cleared the slight That Beauty's brow would stain;-- Ferrara made and fas.h.i.+oned me, In Cordova, in Spain.

"At Killiecrankie with Dundee I've struck for James the King; The blood-red waters of the Boyne Have heard my metal ring; Again with Mar at Sherriff-muir I've raised the olden strain;-- Ferrara made and fas.h.i.+oned me, In Cordova, in Spain.

"Along the line at Fontenoy I've flashed in wild parade, When on the English columns fell The strength of Clare's Brigade; I've stood for Bonnie Charles until Culloden's fatal plain;-- Ferrara made and fas.h.i.+oned me, In Cordova, in Spain.

"But now in exiled hands I rust Beside the salt sea's marge, And though I dream of trumpet call, Of rally, and of charge, Of screaming fife, and throbbing drum, As troops defile in train,-- I wake to hear the wailing moan Of the imprisoning Main-- Dead is all Glory!

Dead all Fame!

Will never sound that song again-- That great, world-wakening refrain?-- Ferrara made and fas.h.i.+oned me, In Cordova, in Spain."

There was a spontaneous outburst of applause as I ended, for I had seldom made a better effort, and my closing lines but echoed a sentiment common to us all--that is, of all of us who were soldiers.

Such a creature as Prevost could never have a generous impulse stir the weighing-machine which served him in lieu of a soul; and Sarennes was spoiled for n.o.bler aims by the debasing influence of la pet.i.te guerre, dear to all Canadians. So M. Prevost saw fit to refrain from all applause; and Sarennes, foolish boy, for boy he was, in spite of his thirty years, was ill-bred enough to follow his example.

"M. Prevost, surely you are over-critical when you do not applaud,"

said M. de St. Julhien, banteringly. "Remember we are not in the rue St. Honore, though I would trust this voice even there."

"You have more faith in that, then, than he has in his sword. He puts it in Spanish and Scotch hands. Why not in French?" snapped out the little centipede, virulently.

"Possibly there are some French hands in which he would not trust it," retorted M. de Julhien, to our great delight.

"Do your words bear that construction?" asked the nettled Commissary, turning on me.

"Possibly, too, M. de Maxwell may think it is not to be trusted in some Canadian hands," broke in Sarennes, with a hectoring air.

"Now, gentlemen," I returned, "you are coming too fast with your questions. As for you, M. de Sarennes, I once offered you some good advice which you did not see fit to follow, and now, even at the risk of having it similarly disregarded, I will proffer more; which is, not to expose yourself to punishment for the impertinences of others. As for your question, when I have had some more satisfactory experience of Canadians, I shall know better how to answer it."

"And has not your experience of me been satisfactory, monsieur?"

said he, pluming up again.

"You are perfectly qualified to answer that question, yourself,"

I replied, looking "blank requisitions" at him so pointedly that he simply reddened to the roots of his black hair and held his tongue, to the amazement of all who had hoped for some further amus.e.m.e.nt.

"As for your question, M. Prevost," I continued, rounding on him, "I made no reflection on Frenchmen in general. They are my comrades, my brothers-in-arms!" I said, playing to the company at large, by whom my sentiment was greeted with a burst of applause. "As to Frenchmen in particular, I have known some who were so dangerous with the pen that I would indeed hesitate to trust them with the sword." Now, as Prevost was hated and dreaded for nothing more than his lying reports to the Minister at home, and as no man in any position at the table had escaped his venom, my sally was again greeted not only with applause, but also with a roar of stentorian laughter.

The whole affair ended in nothing more serious than the hot words and laughter, for Sarennes, though a braggart, was not evil-tempered, at least towards me. For Prevost I cared not a maravedi, and would have spitted him liked a smoked herring at any time with the greatest pleasure. My chief disappointment was that I had not succeeded in my attempt to obtain a refusal of Sarennes's request for Kit's company, an attempt I dared not renew, and was forced to give a reluctant consent when it was referred to me.