For The Admiral Part 16

"The Admiral! The Admiral! For the Cause! Remember Jarnac!" we shouted hoa.r.s.ely, as our straining animals flew over the intervening s.p.a.ce.

Faster and faster grew the mad gallop, until, like a living whirlwind, we flung ourselves on a line of bristling pikes.

"For the Admiral!" cried our leader joyously.

"Anjou! Anjou!" came back the defiant answer, and then we were in the midst of them. We had made a gap, but at terrible expense.

Hotter and hotter waxed the strife; swords flashed, pikes ran red, shouts of triumph mingled with groans of despair; men went down and were trampled underfoot in the horrible press; we were tossed and buffeted from side to side, but we fought on with savage desperation, and the cry, "For the Admiral!" still rose in triumph. Truly it could not be said that we grudged our lives that day!

And presently an answering cry of "For the Admiral!" sounded on our ears. Our charge had not been made in vain! Back went the enemy, slowly and stubbornly at first, fighting every inch of the ground, but still retreating.

"They give way!" cried De Courcy, who was bare-headed and wounded, "they give way! Charge, my brave lads!"

The words decided the fortunes of the day. With a rush and a roar we swept forward, and Anjou's stubborn troops scattered in flight. Forward we went in hot pursuit, but suddenly everything became dark to me; the stricken field with its mob of flying men vanished from sight, and I sank forward helplessly across my horse's neck.

CHAPTER X

I Rejoin the Advance

"Do you know me, monsieur? It is I--Jacques."

"Jacques?" I repeated dreamily. "Where are we? What are we doing here?

My head aches; I feel stiff all over. Where is the letter? Ah, I remember now. We won the battle, Jacques?"

"Yes, monsieur. It was a great victory. Monseigneur's troops were completely routed."

I closed my eyes and lay thinking. By degrees it all came back to me; the Admiral's message, De Courcy's wild charge, the terrible conflict, the flight of the royalists, and then--! I had a strange half-consciousness of having been raised from the ground and carried some distance, but of what had really happened I had no definite knowledge.

But how came Jacques into the picture? Surely he was not at Roche Abeille! I opened my eyes and saw him bending over me and looking eagerly into my face.

"Jacques," I said, "what are you doing here?"

"Nursing you, monsieur," he answered cheerfully. "I got to Roch.e.l.le just after you had started, and followed the army; but the battle was over when I reached Roche Abeille."

"How did you find me?"

"I went to the Admiral's gentlemen. They said you were killed, and that your friend Monsieur Bellievre was distracted, and there was another gentleman, an Englishman, who looked very unhappy. But we fetched a surgeon, who patched you up, and we carried you here."

"Where, Jacques?"

"The city of Limoges, monsieur. You are lodged at a comfortable inn, and now you have talked enough."

"One more question, my good Jacques; how long have I been here?"

"Three days, monsieur. Now I will get you some nourishing food, and afterwards you must sleep."

The next morning, finding I was much stronger, Jacques was willing to answer further questions. Felix had come through the fray unscathed, and Roger Braund was only slightly wounded. Anjou, he said, had been thoroughly defeated, and there was already talk of the end of the war.

"And where are the troops now?" I asked.

"They marched in the direction of Poictiers. It is rumoured that the Admiral intends to besiege the town."

"It may be so," I observed doubtfully, "but it is hardly likely. That is the mistake Monseigneur made after Jarnac."

"Well," replied Jacques with a smile, "it cannot interest monsieur very much for the next three or four weeks."

He had quite recovered from his own wounds, and was full of praise of the Count St. Cyr, who had treated him with the greatest kindness.

"The count is a n.o.ble gentleman," he remarked, "and full of zeal for the Cause. He is bringing his retainers to aid the Admiral."

"He is an old man, too," I said musingly.

"But with all the fire of a boy, monsieur."

"Have you heard that a price has been set on my father's head?" I asked presently.

"Yes," and the worthy fellow's face clouded over with pa.s.sion, "that is Etienne Cordel's handiwork."

"But we have done the man no harm!"

"He hates your father, monsieur; and, besides, Le Blanc is a fine property. Monseigneur and the Italian woman are deeply in his debt, and that would be a simple mode of payment. 'Tis easy to give away what does not belong to one. Many Huguenot estates have changed hands in that way."

I thought Jacques was exaggerating the case, but not caring to argue the matter I said no more, and turning round dropped off into a refreshing sleep.

For a fortnight longer I lay in bed, and then the surgeon, who came every day, allowed me to get up. My head was still dizzy, and my legs tottered under me, but, leaning on Jacques' arm, I walked slowly up and down the room. The next morning, still attended by my faithful servant, I went downstairs and out into the street, and from that day I fast began to recover my strength.

There was not much news of the war, beyond the fact that the Huguenots were besieging Poictiers, a piece of information that I was sorry to hear, since it seemed to me they would fritter away their strength for nothing. The Admiral, however, doubtless possessed good reasons for his actions, and in any case it was not for me to question his wisdom.

I was able now to walk without a.s.sistance, and even to sit in the saddle, though not very firmly, and I felt eager to rejoin my comrades.

But to this neither Jacques nor the surgeon would consent, so I continued to while away the time in the quaint old town as patiently as possible. But, as the weeks pa.s.sed and my strength returned more fully, life in Limoges became more and more insupportable, and I finally resolved to travel by easy stages to Poictiers.

The news we gathered on the journey was by no means rea.s.suring. Coligny had failed to capture the town; he had lost several thousand good troops, and had raised the siege. Equally discomforting was the information that Anjou was in the field again with a strong and well-equipped army.

"We seem to have gained little by our victory," I said disconsolately.

"We shall do better after our next one," said Jacques cheerily. "We learn by our mistakes, monsieur."

The rival armies had apparently vanished. From time to time we obtained news of Coligny, but it was very vague, and left us little the wiser.

One day he was said to be at Moncontour, another at Loudun; on a third we were told he was retreating pell-mell to La Roch.e.l.le, with Anjou hot on his heels.

Within a few hours' ride of Loudun we put up for the night at a small inn. Jacques attended to the animals--one of us generally saw them properly fed--while I gave instructions to the landlord concerning our supper. He was an old man, almost as old as Pierre, and he had such a peculiar trick of jerking his head in answer to my remarks that I almost feared it would come right off.

"I am sorry, monsieur, I will do my best; but the larder is empty. I will kill a fowl; there is one left; but monsieur will be under the disagreeable necessity of waiting."

"We are sharp set," I said. "Is there no cold meat in the house?"