The Daltons Volume I Part 2

"Very true," sighed the other. "You must make the journey on foot."

"And why not, father? Of what use all this good blood, of which I have been told so often and so much, if it will not enable a man to compete with the low-born peasant. And see how well this knapsack sits," cried he, as he threw it on his shoulder. "I doubt if the Emperor's pack will be as pleasant to carry."

"So long as you haven't to carry a heavy heart, boy," said Dalton, with deep emotion, "I believe no load is too much."

"If it were not for leaving you and the girls, I never could be happier, never more full of hope, father. Why should not _I_ win my way upward as Count Stephen has done? Loyalty and courage are not the birthright of only one of our name!"

"Bad luck was all the birthright ever I inherited," said the old man, pa.s.sionately; "bad luck in everything I touched through life! Where others grew rich, I became a beggar; where they found happiness, _I_ met misery and ruin! But it's not of this I ought to be thinking now," cried he, changing his tone. "Let us see, where are the girls?" And so saying, he entered a little kitchen which adjoined the room, and where, engaged in the task of preparing the dinner, was a girl, who, though several years older, bore a striking resemblance to the boy. Over features that must once have been the very type of buoyant gayety, years of sorrow and suffering had left their deep traces, and the dark circles around the eyes betrayed how deeply she had known affliction. Ellen Dalton's figure was faulty for want of height in proportion to her size, but had another and more grievous defect in a lameness, which made her walk with the greatest difficulty. This was the consequence of an accident when riding, a horse having fallen upon her and fractured the hip-bone. It was said, too, that she had been engaged to be married at the time, but that her lover, shocked by the disfigurement, had broken off the match, and thus made this calamity the sorrow of a life long.

"Where's Kate?" said the father, as he cast a glance around the chamber.

Ellen drew near, and whispered a few words in his ear.

"Not in this dreadful weather; surely, Ellen, you didn't let her go out in such a night as this?"

"Hus.h.!.+" murmured she, "Frank will hear you; and remember, father, it is his last night with us."

"Could n't old Andy have found the place?" asked Daiton; and as he spoke, he turned his eyes to a corner of the kitchen, where a little old man sat in a straw chair peeling turnips, while he croned a ditty to himself in a low singsong tone; his thin, wizened features, browned by years and smoke, his small scratch wig, and the remains of an old scarlet hunting-coat that he wore, giving him the strongest resemblance to one of the monkeys one sees in a street exhibition.

"Poor Andy!" cried Ellen, "he'd have lost his way twenty times before he got to the bridge."

"Faith, then, he must be greatly altered," said Dalton, "for I 've seen him track a fox for twenty miles of ground, when not a dog of the pack could come on the trace. Eh, Andy!" cried he, aloud, and stooping down so as to be heard by the old man, "do you remember the cover at Corralin?"

"Don't ask him, father," said Ellen, eagerly; "he cannot sleep for the whole night after his old memories have been awakened."

The spell, however, had begun to work; and the old man, letting fall both knife and turnip, placed his hands on his knees, and in a weak, reedy treble began a strange, monotonous kind of air, as if to remind himself of the words, which, after a minute or two, he remembered thus.

"There was old Tom Whaley, And Anthony Baillie, And Fitzgerald, the Knight of Glynn, And Father Clare, On his big brown mare, That moruin' at Corralin!"

"Well done, Andy! well done!" exclaimed Dalton. "You 're as fresh as a four-year-old."

"Iss!" said Andy, and went on with his song.

"And Miles O'Shea, On his cropped tail bay, Was soon seen ridin' in.

He was vexed and crossed At the light h.o.a.r frost, That mornin' at Corralin."

"Go on, Andy! go on, my boy!" exclaimed Dalton, in a rapture at the words that reminded him of many a day in the field and many a night's carouse. "What comes next?"

"Ay!" cried Andy.

"Says he, 'When the wind Laves no scent behind, To keep the dogs out 's a sin; I 'll be d--d if I stay, To lose my day, This mornin' at Corralin.'"

But ye see he was out in his reck'nin'!" cried Andy; "for, as if

"To give him the lie, There rose a cry, As the hounds came yelpin' in; And from every throat There swelled one note, That moruin' at Corralin."

A fit of coughing, brought on by a vigorous attempt to imitate the cry of a pack, here closed Andy's minstrelsy; and Ellen, who seemed to have antic.i.p.ated some such catastrophe, now induced her father to return to the sitting-room, while she proceeded to use those principles of domestic medicine clapping on the back and cold water usually deemed of efficacy in like cases.

"There now, no more singing, but take up your knife and do what I bade you," said she, affecting an air of rebuke; while the old man, whose perceptions did not rise above those of a spaniel, hung down his head in silence. At the same moment the outer door of the kitchen opened, and Kate Dalton entered. Taller and several years younger than her sister, she was in the full pride of that beauty of which blue eyes and dark hair are the chief characteristics, and is deemed by many as peculiarly Irish. Delicately fair, and with features regular as a Grecian model, there was a look of brilliant, almost of haughty, defiance about her, to which her gait and carriage seemed to contribute; nor could the humble character of her dress, where strictest poverty declared itself, disguise the sentiment.

"How soon you're back, dearest!" said Ellen, as she took off the dripping cloak from her sister's shoulders.

"And only think, Ellen, I was obliged to go to Lichtenthal, where little Hans spends all his evenings in the winter season, at the 'Hahn!' And just fancy his gallantry! He would see me home, and would hold up the umbrella, too, over my head, although it kept his own arm at full stretch; while, by the pace we walked, I did as much for his legs. It is very ungrateful to laugh at him, for he said a hundred pretty things to me, about my courage to venture out in such weather, about my accent as I spoke German, and lastly, in praise of my skill as a sculptor. Only fancy, Ellen, what a humiliation for me to confess that these pretty devices were yours, and not mine; and that my craft went no further than seeking for the material which your genius was to fas.h.i.+on."

"Genius, Kate!" exclaimed Ellen, laughing. "Has Master Hans been giving you a lesson in flattery; but tell me of your success which has he taken?"

"All everything!" cried Kate; "for although at the beginning the little fellow would select one figure and then change it for another, it was easy to see that he could not bring himself to part with any of them: now sitting down in rapture before the 'Travelling Student,' now gazing delightedly at the 'Charcoal-Burners,' but all his warmest enthusiasm bursting forth as I produced the 'Forest Maiden at the Well.' He did, indeed, think the 'Pedler' too handsome, but he found no such fault with the Maiden: and here, dearest, here are the proceeds, for I told him that we must have ducats in s.h.i.+ning gold for Frank's new crimson purse; and here they are;" and she held up a purse of gay colors, through whose meshes the bright metal glittered.

"Poor Hans!" said Ellen, feelingly. "It is seldom that so humble an artist meets so generous a patron."

"He's coming to-night," said Kate, as she smoothed down the braids of her glossy hair before a little gla.s.s, "he's coming to say good-bye to Frank."

"He is so fond of Frank."

"And of Frank's sister Nelly; nay, no blus.h.i.+ng, dearest; for myself, I am free to own admiration never comes amiss, even when offered by as humble a creature as the dwarf, Hans Roeckle."

"For shame, Kate, for shame! It is this idle vanity that stifles honest pride, as rank weeds destroy the soil for wholesome plants to live in."

"It is very well for you, Nelly, to talk of pride, but poor things like myself are fain to content themselves with the baser metal, and even put up with vanity! There, now, no sermons, no seriousness; I'll listen to nothing to-day that savors of sadness, and, as I hear pa and Frank laughing, I'll be of the party."

The glance of affection and admiration which Ellen bestowed upon her sister was not unmixed with an expression of painful anxiety, and the sigh that escaped her told with what tender interest she watched over her.

The little dinner, prepared with more than usual care, at length appeared, and the family sat around the humble board with a sense of happiness dashed by one only reflection, that on the morrow Frank's place would be vacant.

Still each exerted himself to overcome the sadness of that thought, or even to dally with it, as one suggestive of pleasure; and when Ellen placed unexpectedly a great flask of Margraer before them to drink the young soldier's health, the zest and merriment rose to the highest. Nor was old Andy forgotten in the general joy. A large b.u.mper of wine was put before him, and the door of the sitting-room left open, as if to let him partic.i.p.ate in the merry noises that prevailed there. How naturally, and instinctively, too, their hopes gave color to all they said, as they told each other that the occasion was a happy one! that dear Frank would soon be an officer, and of course distinguished by the favor of some one high in power; and lastly, they dwelt with such complacency on the affectionate regard and influence of "Count Stephen" as certain to secure the youth's advancement. They had often heard of the Count's great military fame, and the esteem in which he was held by the Court of Vienna; and now they speculated on the delight it would afford the old warrior who had never been married himself to have one like Frank, to a.s.sist by his patronage, and promote by his influence, and with such enthusiasm did they discuss the point, that at last they actually persuaded themselves that Frank's entering the service was a species of devotion to his relative's interest, by affording him an object worthy of his regard and affection.

While Ellen loved to dwell upon the great advantages of one who should be like a father to the boy, aiding him by wise counsel, and guiding him in every difficulty, Kate preferred to fancy the Count introducing Frank into all the brilliant society of the splendid capital, presenting him to those whose acquaintance was distinction, and at once launching him into the world of fas.h.i.+on and enjoyment. The prompt.i.tude with which he acceded to their father's application on Frank's behalf, was constantly referred to as the evidence of his affectionate feeling for the family; and if his one solitary letter was of the very briefest and driest of all epistolary essays, they accounted for this very naturally by the length of time which had elapsed since he had either spoken or written his native language.

In the midst of these self-gratulations and pleasant fancies the door opened, and Hans Roeckle appeared, covered from head to foot by a light h.o.a.r-frost, that made him look like the figure with which an ingenious confectioner sometimes decorates a cake. The dwarf stood staring at the signs of a conviviality so new and unexpected.

"Is this Christmas time, or Holy Monday, or the Three Kings' festival, or what is it, that I see you all feasting?" cried Hans, shaking the snow off his hat, and proceeding to remove a cloak which he had draped over his shoulder in most artistic folds.

"We were drinking Frank's health, Master Hans," said Dalton, "before he leaves us. Come over and pledge him too, and wish him all success, and that he may live to be a good and valued soldier of the Emperor."

Hans had by this time taken off his cloak, which, by mounting on a chair, he contrived to hang up, and now approached the table with great solemnity, a pair of immense boots of Russian leather, that reached to his hips, giving him a peculiarly c.u.mbrous and heavy gait; but these, as well as a long vest of rabbit skins that b.u.t.toned close to the neck, made his invariable costume in the winter.

"I drink," said the dwarf, as, filling a b.u.mper, he turned to each of the company severally "I drink to the venerable father and the fair maidens, and the promising youth of this good family, and I wish them every blessing good Christians ought to ask for; but as for killing and slaying, for burning villages and laying waste cities, I 've no sympathy with these."

"But you are speaking of barbarous times, Master Hans," said Kate, whose cheek mantled into scarlet as she spoke, "when to be strong was to be cruel, and when ill-disciplined hordes tyrannized over good citizens."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 040]

"I am talking of soldiers, such as the world has ever seen them," cried Hans, pa.s.sionately; but of whose military experiences, it is but fair to say, his own little toyshop supplied all the source. "What are they?"

cried he, "but toys that never last, whether he who plays with them be child or kaiser! always getting smashed, heads knocked off here, arms and legs astray there; ay, and strangest of all, thought most of when most disabled! and then at last packed up in a box or a barrack, it matters not which, to be forgotten and seen no more! Hadst thou thought of something useful, boy some good craft, a Jager with a corkscrew inside of him, a tailor that turns into a pair of snuffers, a Dutch lady that makes a pin-cus.h.i.+on, these are toys people don't weary of but a soldier! to stand ever thus" and Hans shouldered the fire-shovel, and stood "at the present." "To wheel about so walk ten steps here ten back there never so much as a glance at the pretty girl who is pa.s.sing close beside you." Here he gave a look of such indescribable tenderness towards Kate, that the whole party burst into a fit of laughter. "They would have drawn me for the conscription," said Hans, proudly, "but I was the only son of a widow, and they could not."

"And are you never grieved to think what glorious opportunities of distinction have been thus lost to you?" said Kate, who, notwithstanding Ellen's imploring looks, could not resist the temptation of amusing herself with the dwarf's vanity.

"I have never suffered that thought to weigh upon me," cried Hans, with the most unsuspecting simplicity. "It is true, I might have risen to rank and honors; but how would they have suited me, or I them? Or how should I have made those dearest to me sharers in a fortune so unbecoming to us? Think of poor Hans's old mother, if her son were to ask her blessing with a coat all glittering with stars and crosses; and then think of her as I have seen her, when I go, as I do every year, to visit her in the Bregentzer Wald, when she comes out to meet me with our whole village, proud of her son, and yet not ashamed of herself. That is glory that is distinction enough for Hans Roeckle."