The Daltons Volume II Part 20

"You know well, dearest Frank, that in your service the highest in the land must pa.s.s the ordeal of cadets.h.i.+p."

"Which means half an hour for an archduke, and a forenoon for a serene highness. Even Walstein took but a week to spring from the ranks to a lieutenancy; a month later saw him a rittmeister; and already he commands a regiment."

"What a young soldier to have caught up the complaining cant about slow promotion!" said Kate, laughing.

"Ten months a cadet, and not even made corporal yet!" sighed Frank. "To be sure, I might have been, had it not been for the 'stockhaus.'"

"And what may that be, dear Frank?"

"The prison; neither more nor less. When I came here, Kate, the nephew or grand-nephew of the Feld-Marschall von Auersberg, I thought it became me to a.s.sume something like style in my mode of life. My comrades told me as much, too; and as I had no difficulty in obtaining credit, I ran in debt everywhere. I lent to all who asked me, and gave away to many more. Every one said the Feld would pay one day or other, and I never confessed how poor we were at home. I know I was wrong there, dearest Kate; I feel that acutely now; but somehow the deception I began with others gained even more rapidly on myself. From continually talking of our Dalton blood, and our high position in our own country, I grew to believe it all, and fancied that some, at least, of these imaginings must be real. But, above all, I cherished the hope that promotion would come at last, and that I should live to be an honored soldier of the Kaiser.

"In the very midst of all this self-deception, the Feld returns to Vienna from a tour of inspection, and, instead of sending to see me, orders my Colonel to his presence. I know not, of course, what pa.s.sed, but report alleges that for an hour the old General harangued him in terms the most bitter and insulting. Now, my dear sister, the wrath poured out upon a commanding officer does not become diminished as it descends through the successive grades of rank, and falls at last on the private. For _my_ misdemeanor the regiment was ordered away from Vienna, and sent to Laybach, in the very depth of winter too. This could not help my popularity much among my comrades; and as I was now as dest.i.tute of credit as of means, you may fancy the alteration of my position,--the black bread of the commissary instead of the refined cookery of the 'Schwan;' the midnight patrol, in rain or snow-drift, in place of the Joyous carouse of the supper-table; the rude tyranny of a vulgar sergeant, in lieu of the friendly counsels of an equal; all that is menial and servile,--and there is enough of both in the service,--heaped upon me day after day; till, at last, my only hope was in the chance that I might ultimately imbibe the rude feelings of the peasant-soldier, and drag out my existence without a wish or a care for better.

"As if to make life less endurable to me, the officers were forbidden to hold intercourse with me; even such of the cadets as were above the humbler cla.s.s were ordered not to a.s.sociate with me; my turns of duty were doubled; my punishments for each trifling offence increased; and there I was, a soldier in dress, a convict in duty, left to think over all the flattering illusions I had once conceived of the service, its chivalry, and its fame.

"I wrote to Walstein, telling him that if I could not obtain my freedom otherwise, I would desert. A copy of my letter, I know not how obtained, was sent to my Colonel, and I was sentenced to a month's arrest, a week of which I was to pa.s.s in irons. They now made me a rebel in earnest, and I came out of the 'stockbaus' more insubordinate than I went in. It would weary, and it would fret you, dearest sister, were I to tell all the petty schemes I formed of resistance, and all the petty tyrannies they brought down upon my head; the taunt of my 'gentle blood,' my 'n.o.ble origin,' my 'high descent,' being added to every cruelty they practised, till I was ready to curse the very name that a.s.sociated me with this bitterness. They told me that a second desertion was always punished with death, and that even the attempt was accounted as the act.

I resolved, then, to finish with this dreary existence, and I wrote a farewell letter to poor Nelly, telling her that, as I was certain of being taken, these were the last lines I should ever write. In this I repeated all I have now told you, and a vast deal more, of the hards.h.i.+ps and indignities I had endured; and this, like my former letter, was sent back to me. Then came three months more of durance, after which I came out what they deemed a good soldier."

"Subdued at last!" sighed Kate.

"Not a bit of it. Like a Banat charger I had a kick in me, after all their teaching and training. I found out the lance-corporal of our company was the man who had discovered my letters. I sent him a challenge, fought, and wounded him. Here was another offence; and now the Minister of War was to deal with me himself; and I half fancied they would be glad to get rid of me. Far from it The 'stockhaus' again, and short fetters, my wrist to my ankle, were the sovereign remedies for all misdeeds. In this plight I made my entrance into Vienna."

"Did you never think of Uncle Stephen all this while, Frank,----never appeal to him?"

"Ay, Kate, and what was worse, _he_ thought of _me_, for he had my punishment-rolls brought to him; and although from some good-natured interference they did not forward more than a fourth of my misdeeds, there was enough to condemn me in his eyes, and he wrote, 'No favor to this cadet,' on the back of my certificate."

"Poor boy! so friendless and deserted."

"Persecuted by creditors, too," continued Frank, as, excited by the recital of his sorrows, he paced the room in a transport of anger; "fellows that never rested till they got me in their books, and now gave me no peace for payment. Out of three kreutzers a day, Kate,--a penny English,--I was to discharge all the debts of my extravagance, and live in style! A Dalton, well born and nurtured, in a position of ignominious poverty!"

"Not one to aid you?"

"Walstein was away in Bohemia with his regiment; and, perhaps, it were better so, for I had told him such narratives of our family, such high-flown stories of our princely possessions, that I could not have had the courage to face him with an avowal of the opposite. At last I did make a friend, Kate; at least one poor fellow took an interest in me, talked to me of home, of you and Nelly; mostly of her, and of her curious carvings, which he prized almost as much as little Hans used. He sat with me many an hour under the trees of the Prater, or we strolled along in the shady alleys of the 'Augarten;' and his companions.h.i.+p somehow always soothed and comforted me, for he was so stored with book learning that he could ever bring out something from Uhland or Richter or Wieland that suited the moment, just as if the poet had one in his mind when he wrote it. How often have I wished that I was like him, Kate, and had a mind like his, teeming with its own resources against sorrow."

"Tell me more of him, Frank dearest; I feel an interest in him already."

"And yet you would scarcely have liked him, if you saw him," said the boy, with a bashful and hesitating manner.

"Why not, Frank? His appearance might have been little promising, his face and figure commonplace--"

"No, no; not that,--not that Adolf was good-looking, with a fine, clear brow, and a manly, honest face; nor was his manner vulgar,--at least, for his station. He was a pedler."

"A pedler, Frank," cried Kate, growing scarlet as she spoke.

"Ay, I knew well how you would hear the word," said the boy; "I often used to fancy my high-bred sister's scorn if she could but have seen the companion whose arm lay around my neck, and who spoke to me as 'thou.'"

Kate made no answer, but her cheek was crimson, and her lip trembled.

"You and Walstein were never out of my thoughts," continued Frank; "for I could fancy how each of you would look down upon him."

"Not that, Frank," said she, in confusion; "if he were indeed kind to you,--if he were a true friend in that time of dreariness and gloom."

"So was he,----with hand and heart and purse. And yet,--confound that sense of pride, which poisons every generous movement of the heart and will not let it throb in unison with one of humble fortune!--I never could get the Dalton out of my head. There it was, with that lumbering old fabric of an Irish house, our wasteful habits, and our idle dependants, all going down to ruin together; and instead of despising myself for this, I only was ashamed--at what, think you?--of my friends.h.i.+p for a pedler! Many a holiday have I kept my barrack-room rather than be seen with Adolf in the Volks Garten or the Graben. I liked to be along with him in the solitude of the Prater, or in our country walks; but when he asked me to accompany him to the _cafe_ or the theatre, Kate, to some ordinary in the Leopoldstadt, or some wine-cellar on the Danube, I used to feign duty, or actually take a comrade's guard, to avoid it How meanly you think of me for all this, Kate! I see, by the flush upon your cheek, what shame the confession has given you."

Kate's confusion grew almost intolerable; she twice tried to speak, but the effort was above her strength, and Frank, who mistook her silence for rebuke, at last went on,----

"You may guess, Kate, from what I have now told you, how much soldiering has realized all my early hopes and ambitions. I suppose times were different long ago."

"Of course they were, or Uncle Stephen would not now be a field-marshal."

As if in echo to her words, at this moment a servant, throwing wide the door, announced "The Feld" himself. Frank fell back as the old General advanced into the room, bowing with a courtesy that would have done honor to a courtier. He was dressed in the uniform of his rank, and wore all his decorations,--a goodly ma.s.s, that covered one entire side of his coat.

Approaching Kate with a manner of admirably blended affection and respect, he kissed her hand, and then saluted her on either cheek.

"Forgive me, my dear niece," said be, "if I have not been earlier to pay my respects, and say welcome to Vienna; but my note will have told you that I was on duty yesterday with the Emperor."

Kate blushed and bowed, for unhappily she had not read the note through.

Frank's presence had made her forget all but himself. With all the gallantry of his bygone school, the old Feld proceeded to compliment Kate on her beauty and grace, expressing in proper phrase his pride at the possession of such a relative.

"The Empress was the first to tell me of your arrival," said he; "and nothing could be more gracious than the terms in which she spoke of you."

With a thrill of pleasure Kate heard these words, and greedily drank in every syllable he uttered. Not alone her betrothal to the Prince, but all the circ.u.mstances of her future destiny, seemed to be matters of deep interest to the Court, and poor Kate listened with wonder to the Feld as he recounted the various speculations her marriage had given rise to. She little knew within what a narrow circle the sympathies of royalty are forced to revolve, and how glad they are of anything to relieve the tedious monotony of existence. One most important question had already arisen, since the Empress had expressed a wish that the young Princess should be presented to her; but Madame de Heidendorf refused her permission, on the ground that she had not yet been presented at the Court of the Czar. All the difficulties of the two cases, the arguments for either course, the old General deployed with an earnestness that if it at first amused, at last deeply interested Kate; the flattering sense of self-importance giving a consequence to trifles which, if told of another, she would have smiled at.

"I was desirous of gratifying the Empress before I saw you, my dear niece," said he, taking her hand; "but you may guess how much greater is my anxiety now that I have learned to know you. It will be, indeed, a proud day for the old Field-Marshal when he shall present one of his own name and family, so gifted and so beautiful. A thorough Dalton!" added he, gazing on her with rapture.

"How glad am I, sir, to see that all the distinctions your great career has won have not effaced the memory of our old name and house."

"I have but added to it another as n.o.ble as itself," replied he, haughtily. "Others have given their energies to degrade our ancient lineage. It is to be your task and mine, Madame la Princesse, to replace us in our rightful station."

Kate instinctively sought out Frank with her eyes, but could barely catch a glimpse of his figure within a recess of a window. More than once the poor cadet had meditated an escape; but as the door was on the opposite side of the room, he saw discovery would be inevitable. With a graceful courtesy the old Feld asked after Father and Nelly, expressing his wish to see and know them, in terms which plainly conveyed to Kate his utter ignorance of their station and habits.

"As a younger son myself, without the ties of fortune, I may be permitted to doubt how far the head of a distinguished house has a right, from any considerations of personal gratification, to reside away from his country, Madame. I must own that my nephew's conduct in this respect has not met my approval. I have not felt free to tell him so, our intercourse being for so many years interrupted; but you will say as much for me. Let him know that the great names of a nation ought not to die out in people's memories."

"You are aware, sir," said Kate, timidly, "that papa's means are not as they once were; circ.u.mstances of economy first suggested his coming abroad."

"A reason that always has appeared to me insufficient," said the other, sternly. "He could have reduced his establishment at home--fewer hunters--less splendid banquets."

"Hunters and banquets!" sighed Kate; "how little he knows of us!"

"Here I see nothing but the best fruits of his system," said he, kissing her hand with gallantry; "no cost could be accounted too much that aided the attainment of such perfection. I am too old a courtier not to distinguish between mere native gracefulness and that more polished elegance which comes of refined intercourse. My niece is worthy to be a princess! But your brother--"

"Oh! what of dear Frank?" cried she, eagerly.

"Simply this, Madame: habits of wasteful expenditure have unsuited him to the stern realities of a soldier's life. With his fortune and his tastes, he should have sought service among those popinjays that English tailors make lancers or hussars of. He might have won the laurels that are gathered on Honnslow or St. James's Park; he might have been distinguished in that barbaric warfare you call an Indian campaign; but here, in this empire, where soldiering means discipline, self-denial, hards.h.i.+p, endurance!--I was eight years a cadet, Madame, twelve a sous-lieutenant. I saw the decoration I should have received given to another. The Dienst Kreutz I had won was refused me, because I had not served twenty years; and yet, by accepting these and hundreds like them as the inevitable necessities of the service, I am what now you see me."

"And if Frank will be but patient--"

"He may be a corporal within a year, Madame," said the Feld, gravely, and with the air of a man who had advanced a somewhat bold pledge.