Crown and Sceptre Part 78

After a time the hurry and excitement quieted down, for after scouts and patrols had done their work, the whole alarm was traced to one of the sentinels, who had heard whispering in the wood near which he was stationed, and had fired at once, his nearest fellow having taken up the signal, fired, and slowly fallen back.

"Better too much on the _qui vive_ than too drowsy," said the general, at last, good-humouredly. "I was afraid, Forrester, it was an attempt on the part of the enemy to escape."

"And we could clear it all up with a word, Samson," said Fred, who was full of self-reproach.

"But don't you speak it, Master Fred," whispered Samson, who had contrived to get another jerkin. "If you tell, they'll go down to the wood, and find that brother of mine, and bring him in, and here he'll be lying in clover, and doctored up, and enjoying himself, while poor we are slaving about in sunshine and rain, and often not getting anything to eat, or a rag to cover us."

"I shall not speak, Samson, for there was no harm done," said Fred, quietly; "but I wonder at your covering your enemy from the cold."

"Needn't wonder, sir. Didn't I always cover my tender plants from the cold? It wasn't because I liked them, but so as they'd be useful by-and-by. My brother Nat will be useful by-and-by. I want him. I shall give him such a lesson one of these days as shall make him ashamed of himself."

A trumpet rang out again on the night air, and men dismounted, picketed their horses once more, and some lay down to s.n.a.t.c.h a few hours' rest, while others sat together talking and asking one another questions about the attack they foresaw would most probably take place that day, for the night was waning, and they knew that before long the dawn would be showing in the east, and that it would be morn; while, in spite of plenty of st.u.r.dy courage and indifference to danger, there were men there who could not refrain from asking themselves whether they would live to see the next day.

It was somewhere about sunrise when Fred fell asleep, to dream of being in the dense thicket, carrying Nat, the Hall gardener, on his back to the hole broken through into the secret pa.s.sage, where he threw him down, and covered him up with bushes to be out of the way till he got better; but, as fast as he threw him down, he came back again, rebounding like a bladder, till Samson came to his help, drew his sword, and p.r.i.c.ked him, when he sank down to the bottom and lay still. Then Scarlett seemed to come out of the hole and reproach him for being a coward and a rebel, seizing him at last and shaking him severely, and all the while, though he struggled hard, he could not free himself from his grasp. So tight was his hold that he felt helpless and half strangled, the painful sensation of inability to move increasing till he seemed to make one terrible effort, seized the hands which held him, looked fiercely in his a.s.sailant's eyes, and exclaimed, "Coward, yourself!"

"Well, sir, dare say I am," was the reply; "but what can you expect of a man when you take him out of his garden and make a soldier of him all at once."

"Samson!"

"Yes, sir. Breakfast's ready, sir, such as it is. What's the matter with you? I never had such a job to waken you before."

"I--I was very sound asleep," stammered Fred, rising hastily. "Did--did I say anything?"

"Pitched an ugly word at my head about not being so brave as you thought I ought to be, that's all."

"Don't take any notice of what I said, I must have been dreaming."

"That's what I often wake up and feel I've been doing," said Samson. "I often don't know whether I'm on my head or my heels; it seems so strange. Wonder how that Nat is. He always gets the best of it. Lying there with nothing to do. Just his way, sir, curling himself up snug, and letting other people do his work. There you are, sir, bucket of clean water from the lake. Have a good wash, and you'll feel like a new man. What a difference it must make to you, sir, dressing yourself out here, after having your comfortable room at home, and you so near it, too. Why, sir, the colonel might have told you to go home to sleep.

Say, sir!"

"Well?" said Fred, taking his head out of the bucket of clear cold water, and feeling afterwards, as he rubbed himself dry, that new life was running through his veins.

"Wouldn't it be nice for you to run down to the Manor to breakfast, sir, and bring back a few decent things to eat? I wouldn't mind coming with you and carrying the basket."

Fred looked hard at Samson, whose face was perfectly stolid for a few moments; but a little ripple gradually spread over his left cheek, and increased till it was a broad grin.

"Well, sir, you see it is so tempting. I'd give anything for a bowl of new warm milk. When are we going to have a good forage again, so as we might catch some chickens and ducks or a young pig?"

"I'm afraid there'll be other work on hand to-day, Samson," replied Fred, sadly, as he glanced in the direction of the Hall. "There, take away that bucket."

"Yes, sir. Done you good, hasn't it? and you can dry your head. Puzzle some of them long-haired chaps to get theirs dry."

Samson went off with his young master's simple toilet arrangements, and Fred joined his brother-officers in their frugal meal, after which he spent the morning in a state of indecision.

"I will do it," he said, when afternoon had come; and, giving his sword-belt a hitch, and thrusting his morion a little on one side, he began striding forward, planting his boots down heavily on the soft heather, in which his great spurs kept catching till he at last nearly fell headlong.

Recovering himself, he went on, hand upon hip, and beating his gloves upon his thigh, till he came to where Colonel Forrester was slowly pacing up and down, with his hands clasped behind his back.

As Fred drew nearer, an orderly came up to the colonel, and presented a letter, which brought the lad to a standstill. He had been having a long struggle with self, and had mastered his shrinking, but he was so near the balance of vacillation still, that he felt glad of the excuse to hang back, and walked aside, feeling like one who has been reprieved.

"How do I know what he will say?" thought Fred, glancing back at his father's stern, wrinkled countenance as he read his despatch. "It isn't like the old days, though I used sometimes to feel shrinking enough then. It is not between father and son, but between colonel and one of his followers."

Fred felt as if he would like to walk right off; but there were those at the Hall occupying his thoughts, and he made an effort over his moral cowardice and stopped short, meaning to go to his father as soon as the messenger had left.

He had not long to wait, for the orderly saluted and rode off, but there was something else now to check him. His father looked so very severe, and as if there was something very important on his mind.

"I have chosen a bad time," thought Fred. "I'll go away and wait."

"No, no," he said, half aloud; "how can I be so foolish? I will go up and speak to him like a man. It is mean and cowardly to hang back."

He stepped toward the colonel again, but there was another reprieve for him, the general riding up; and for the next quarter of an hour the two officers were in earnest converse.

"Yes," said Fred; "I have chosen a bad time. I'll go."

But he did not stir, for at the same moment he felt that the general might be planning with his father that which he sought to prevent.

"I'll go and speak now they are together," he said to himself, desperately. "General Hedley likes me, I think, and he could not be very cross."

"No, I dare not," he muttered; and he paced to and fro again till the general touched his horse's flanks, and rode slowly away, Colonel Forrester following him thoughtfully for some distance, till in a fit of desperation Fred hurried to his side.

"Want me, my boy?" said the colonel, gravely.

"Yes, father. I want to ask you something."

"Yes; go on. I am very much occupied just now."

Fred looked at him piteously, his words upon his lips, but refusing to be spoken.

"Well, my boy, what is it? Are you in some great trouble?"

The words came in so much more kindly a tone, that Fred made a step toward his father, and the barrier of discipline gave way, and it seemed to be no longer the stern officer but the father of the old Manor house days he was longing to address.

"Well, my boy, what is the trouble?" said Colonel Forrester, kindly.

"It is about--"

Fred did not finish his sentence, but pointed across the lake.

"Ah, yes, about the Hall!" said the colonel, with a sigh. "Well, my boy, what do you wish to say?"

"Are they keeping to what was in Sir G.o.dfrey's message, father?"

"Yes, my boy," sternly.

"But don't you think they could be persuaded to surrender?"

"Yes, Fred."