The Red, White, and Green Part 37

One evening he was holding forth to Rakoczy, myself, and several others in a restaurant, when Count Beula entered with some friends.

The count nodded to us all very politely, and, seating himself at the next table, ordered wine for his company.

Whether the man really meant to create a disturbance or not I cannot say, but, filling his gla.s.s, he cried, "Here's to the Hungarian republic!"

His friends drank their wine and applauded boisterously, while Stephen, springing to his feet, exclaimed in ringing tones,--

"Gentlemen, this is a free country. Let us drink our own toast, 'Hungary and the const.i.tution of '48!'"

"Bravo!" I said, feeling compelled to back him up, though not desiring a quarrel. "That is what we are fighting for."

"And more than we shall get," added the colonel good-humouredly.

"Thanks to Kossuth's meddling!" said Stephen. "If he had left the general alone, we should be over the frontier by now."

"The young man carries messages for Gorgei," the count explained to his a.s.sociates in a tone of amus.e.m.e.nt. "That is how he comes to know so much about fighting."

"Even that gives more training than talking rubbish in a back room," I put in hotly, thinking of the scene at Vienna.

"Perhaps the count has come out of his sh.e.l.l since then," said Rakoczy, with a merry twinkle.

"It must have been to get into a safer one," exclaimed Stephen contemptuously.

The quarrel, like a fire, once started, blazed furiously, and but for a s.h.a.ggy-haired German, we should speedily have come to blows.

He was puffing vigorously at a tremendous pipe, and, coming through the dense volume of smoke, his voice sounded like a fog-horn.

"Ach!" he grunted, "the quarrel is stupid; let it rest. The count has made his reputation with General Bern; he can afford to laugh. As for the boys, they seem very nice boys--ach!" and the oracle faded behind a cloud of smoke of his own construction. This was like a douche of cold water on the fire; but though the flames were put out, the embers smouldered, and presently sprang into a fresh blaze.

I hardly know how it happened, but the conversation once more turned upon the siege of Buda, and Stephen maintained, quite rightly, as after events proved, that even a successful a.s.sault must be attended by immense slaughter.

"The boy speaks sense there!" growled the smoke-hidden Teuton. "I know Hentzi well; he's just the man to strike hard and to strike often."

"Well, well. Our young friend need not be afraid," broke in the count sneeringly. "We shall find men stout-hearted enough to storm the breach when it's made."

"I do not fear for myself," Stephen answered proudly.

"No, no," said the count, laughing insolently. "It isn't likely, since you won't be there till the danger's over. Most men are brave enough when they haven't to do the fighting."

"Perhaps," said I quickly, stopping an angry outburst from Stephen, "that accounts for your coolness."

"A good thrust, my boy," said the benevolent Teuton.--"Count, he had you there."

Count Beula laughed again, showing his white teeth, refilled his gla.s.s, and answered brightly, "The thrust was parried before it was delivered.

I have already been named as the leader of one of the storming parties whenever a breach is practicable. Kossuth's friends fight as well as talk."

"They do more than their leader then," said Dobozy, who formed one of our party.

The count's statement fell on me like a thunderbolt. I had thought him an arrogant, conceited fellow, having nothing of the soldier about him but his uniform and his swagger, yet here he spoke calmly of leading a forlorn hope.

He saw his triumph, and glanced at us, but particularly at Stephen, with an insolent patronage for which I could have kicked him.

"Oh no," he said loftily, in answer to a remark from a companion; "I take no merit for it. The opportunity offered, and I accepted--nothing more. Of course our young friend has his fixed duties, otherwise we might have seen him at the breach."

The words were simple and harmless, but the sneer was so open that it could not be mistaken, and my brother's face flushed crimson. "And so you shall," he cried hotly. "I cannot claim so high an honour as Count Beula, but I can and will enter the fortress as soon as he."

The count smiled, drained his gla.s.s, rose to go, and then, looking round at the company, said pleasantly, "A challenge before so many witnesses must be accepted; but"--maliciously--"perhaps before Gorgei's guns have made the breach our young friend will have had time to repent his hasty words."

Then he and his friends went out, and left us looking at one another gloomily.

"What's the matter, George?" my brother asked gaily. "One would think I had been condemned to death."

"Not at all," I answered, shaking off my gloom. "I was only thinking how we were deceived in that fellow. Fancy Beula at the head of a body of stormers!"

"It will be a night attack, so perhaps he'll lose his way in the dark,"

my brother answered, and later on the words acquired a strange significance.

"How you youngsters chatter!" exclaimed Rakoczy cheerfully. "The place hasn't been summoned yet, and Hentzi may surrender."

This, of course, was possible, though not probable, and the very next day the idea had to be put aside altogether.

"The emperor, my august master, has entrusted to me the keys of Buda; I will return them to him alone. Meanwhile my honour and my duty command me to defend the fortress, and I will do so to the last man. Should the twin cities perish in the conflict, I declare you responsible for their ruin. I appeal to G.o.d, my right, and my sword."

That was Hentzi's reply to the summons to surrender, and I could not but admire the writer of it.

"Brave words these," said Rakoczy, "and he's a brave man if he makes them good, though I don't exactly see why he should bombard Pesth, when our guns will be on the Blocksberg."

It was the fourth of May when the answer came, and Gorgei, who had established his headquarters at Schwabenberg, immediately gave orders for the beginning of the siege operations.

For the next week the fighting was mainly confined to outpost engagements, in which our regiment had little share; then the batteries were opened between the Stuhl-Weissenberg and Vienna gates.

This being the weakest part of the defence, Hentzi had strengthened it with twenty-five guns, which thundered away at our artillery day and night.

For the greater part of another week the terrible cannonade continued, and as we lay on the hillside we saw with intense grief the beautiful twin cities wrapped in flames.

During the second week we had much more of Stephen's company than usual, and I heard with regret that the general had given him leave to volunteer for the attack.

He rallied me on my sober looks, saying it was no more dangerous for him than for me, as the 9th Honveds were to form one of the a.s.saulting columns.

It was the evening of May 17, and several officers, including Stephen, were watching the heavy guns at work, when Count Beula came up.

The story of the quarrel in the restaurant had spread widely, and the officers waited with much curiosity to see how the meeting would go off.

"Well," said the count, bowing all round in his finicking way, "I hear that the breach is nearly practicable."

"We shall most likely start in a few hours."

"Then you have not drawn back?"