The Fishguard Invasion by the French in 1797 Part 8

At the foot of these hills came a marsh, bounded by a road on the other side of which were the famous sands-where were stationed in a compact body the Castle Martin Yeomanry Cavalry. Ere long these men were drawn out of their trim ranks for a difficult and dangerous duty; but of that anon.

The infantry was drawn up in a field on the east side of the bay, just under Windy Hill, to which farm the field belonged. The force consisted of the Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire Volunteers-about three hundred strong: together with the Fishguard Fencibles. Numerically weak we were indeed, but on our own ground and with right on our side. Added to which we had had the pleasing news of the enemy's faint-heartedness: so that altogether we felt ourselves animated by the courage of lions.

Major Ackland had had his promised interview with General Tate in the early morning at the French headquarters in the old house of Trehowel.

The interview had been a short one, and much to the point; he declined altogether to parley, or parlez-vous. He insisted on instant and unconditional surrender; then sticking spurs in his horse he galloped away without any compliments.

Lord Cawdor and his staff were riding up and down the sands when the gallant Major appeared bringing the glorious news that the French were coming, and at once, and that they were prepared to surrender at discretion. But the Colonel still continued his work of inspecting the whole of the British troops. He still thought, perhaps hoped, that there might be a pa.s.sage of arms.

Then came a time of deep silence when each individual among us concentrated his senses in his ears. I, being but a boy, allowed my eyes a little freedom; most other eyes were concentrated on the road where the French would first appear, but I permitted mine to gaze around me, when I at once made a discovery. The cart against which Nancy had leant contained a man, the outline of the back of whose head seemed strangely familiar to me. I could only see the back of his head for he was leaning out of the cart with his face turned away from me, but towards another person who was standing on the other side of the cart. Some bushes, behind which the cart had been drawn up, prevented a clear view, so I shifted my position a little-in fact, went straight up to the group, who seemed to be placing rather a blind confidence in their retired situation, and in the magnetic attraction of the enemy. I rounded the cart; the young man was, as I had imagined, Davy Jones, wounded foot and all; the young woman was, as I had guessed, Nancy George. Their heads were very near together, perhaps they were talking about splints.

"Why, Nancy!" I exclaimed, "is that you?"

"Yes, of course it is, Master Dan-and why shouldn't it be?" cried Nancy, as red as a turkey-c.o.c.k, and as inclined to show fight.

"Oh, all right. I only thought you must be somebody else," I returned, politely.

Davy broke into a roar of laughter, and Ann, in spite of her indignation, showed her row of white teeth.

"Go away, you tiresome boy, and look out for the French," was her recommendation.

"And not for the-" but my sentence was cut short by a shove from Nan's vigorous arm which sent me flying for some paces.

"Take care of the spoons, Ann!" was my parting shot, as I made my way a little further down the hill.

We all sat down on the ferny slopes and waited and listened. As a general rule n.o.body talked, which showed how grave was the occasion. In front of us was the sea dark grey to-day as was the sky; the sands sometimes almost golden, were, on this dull February day, only another shade of grey; and the great boulders of rock which cropped up everywhere were of the same colour. And this greyness seemed to suit this scene better than the brightness of Wednesday would have done; for though it was a day of triumph to us we could not forget that it was a day of humiliation and bitterness to these hundreds of men who were approaching us on the other side of the hill. The tide was coming in, but without any sparkle and dash, sullenly; and the south-west wind blew in gusts the strength of which told plainly of power in reserve: one could feel that it was capable of violence.

So were the people who sat waiting-apparently quietly-for their enemies, on the hill-slope, which rose into a natural amphitheatre on all sides (save one) of the scene: whereof the flat sands formed the arena or floor. What a place this would have been for one of the old Roman shows; for a moment I seemed to see the gladiators struggling for life or death, to hear the cruel roar of the lions, to watch the fighting, tearing, and rending in the arena, and to witness what struck me most with awe-the fierce l.u.s.t for blood which filled the spectators, one and all, as they shouted and craved for more-more blood. I woke up suddenly with a start to find I had been dozing on the hillside, where the people were sitting quietly enough, Britons not Romans, perhaps some of them descendants of these very gladiators who had been

"Butchered to make a Roman holiday."

CHAPTER IX.

THE CAPITULATION.

Suddenly the listening people caught a far-off sound; it came nearer and nearer rapidly, one's ears seem to go out to meet it.

"Here they come!" came in a hoa.r.s.e growl from hundreds of guttural throats-speaking of course in Welsh.

"Hst," came the return growl from the other portion of the crowd.

The sound became louder and louder; it was plainly the beating of bra.s.s drums. A sort of thrill-sometimes called goose-skin pa.s.sed over me, and I doubt not over most of my neighbours. Enoch Lale's dream was the thought that stirred us; there was something of second-sight about it that awed one even in the morning air and among that crowd of living beings. For a minute I saw again the spectral army of Enoch's vision.

Then, being a boy, the practical aspect of the matter struck me.

"I hope the wife hasn't taken the poor old fellow out of ear-shot," I observed to Mr. Mortimer, near whom I had placed myself. "He heard those drums thirty years ago, sir-and he'd like to know he was right."

"No doubt, most of us do," a.s.sented Mr. Mortimer. "Oh, Enoch's somewhere about, never fear. Hush, my boy, look there!"

All our senses were focussed in our eyes, something shining and moving we saw, and what could that be save the bayonets of the enemy? Still the shrill clanging of the bra.s.s drums went on, broken only by the thud of the sea breaking upon the sand. Every head was turned towards the west (even Nancy's and Davy's for I looked to see) towards the rocky stronghold of Carnunda, past the houses and trees of Goodwick, all along the white road which runs like a riband placed aslant on the hill-side.

The glittering points turned the corner and came into full view; it was at exactly two o'clock that the first of the Frenchmen appeared in sight.

On they came, a moving ma.s.s of dark blue, carrying no colours, neither gay tricolor nor white flag of peace, but beating their drums so as to put a good face on the matter. A moment later this was changed.

As the column rounded the corner of the road, our hills suddenly started into life and their silence was broken by a prolonged yell so fierce and threatening that the French recoiled and then halted. I could not, even at the moment, blame them; there seemed every probability that they would be ma.s.sacred. The Welsh had jumped to their feet as with one bound, and they were making up for their long silence now, the men all brandishing every conceivable kind of weapon, the women shaking their fists at the invaders and screeching at them at the top of their voices. I had only a pocket-knife about me and concluded to keep that for my bread and cheese, of which I was badly in want at this moment.

Jemima Nicholas dashed past me, rushing down the hill at full speed with a pitchfork in her hands, followed by some other war-like women of her stamp-some of them armed with straightened scythes. I got out of their way quickly. "Come on, my daughters!" yelled the fierce cobbler-for that was her trade-"come on and cut them down into the sea!"

There is no doubt that she certainly wished to do it, indeed, there was a manifest disposition on the part of the peasantry, male and female, to come at once to close quarters with the enemy. Then rushed a sudden thunder of hoofs along the sh.o.r.e, as Lord Cawdor and his yeomanry galloped in front of the angry people, ordering them back and impressing their commands with the flat of their drawn swords.

Strong guards were also posted in every path that led from the hills to the sands, while the road on which the French were now meditating a hasty retreat was especially strongly guarded by detachments of the Cardiganshire Militia and the Fishguard Fencibles. At last, seeing these precautions against popular fury and that no sudden violence was now likely to occur, the French once more took heart and resumed their downward march and drums. They were accompanied by Lord Cawdor's aide-de-camp, the Hon. Captain Edwardes, and by Mr. Millingchamp, who bore a large white flag of truce; these had already given the order to "open pans and shed priming" and to march on peaceably: and they were obeyed.

Colonel Colby marched his men down from Windy Hill, and as he pa.s.sed the spot where I was, I heard him say, "Let us all be ready, my boys, perhaps they may disappoint us still."

But the gallant colonel's hopes of a fight were doomed to be unfulfilled-and so were Jemima's-the French troops were thoroughly demoralised and had no fight in them. They marched on to the sands in columns, halted before Lord Cawdor and his staff backed by a handful of men (for most of our troops were employed in keeping back the excited populace), and then quietly laid down their arms and marched on.

When they had thus deposited their old flint guns some of them looked around them. It is impossible to describe the chagrin depicted on their features when they realised how trifling (numerically speaking) was the force to which they had succ.u.mbed. Still greater was the annoyance they experienced when they discovered that the scarlet flash which had so scared them was produced-not by the red coats of a body of regulars-but by the whittles worn by a parcel of women! These individuals now allowed the fallen foe to have a near view of their tall hats and scarlet mantles, for dashing down the hills on to the sands in spite of the guards (who were indeed too much occupied in looking after the piles of muskets to heed minor matters) these bellicose dames and damsels gathered closely around the Frenchmen, addressing manifold observations to them in their Welsh tongue, in the use of which most of them possess extraordinary fluency.

But their Gallican sisters also can talk and scold. I had by this time got very near to the unlucky commander of the expedition, General Tate; and I was close by when Madame Tate who had accompanied the troops flew at him like a fury. She, too, had discovered the paucity of our numbers, and that Lord Cawdor's "ten thousand men" were-in Spain perhaps-and that the English regulars were-well, very irregular forces attired in scarlet whittles. Her remarks as to the conduct of the campaign were evidently of a most uncomplimentary nature; though I cannot say I understood French, I understood that. In my heart I felt sorry for General Tate.

"Look here, mum," I ventured to remark, "if you want to have it out with somebody, here's a lady of your own weight and age. Tackle Jemima."

Madame Tate, though understanding never a word, turned furiously on Jemima, who returned the shower of epithets. The General, giving me a look of pure grat.i.tude, hastened away, and I followed his example.

The troops were marched away in columns by fours, and, guarded by our men, set off at once for their various destinations-chiefly gaols; our bands now taking up the strain and making the welkin ring with joyous airs, to which we added all our lungs' strength of voice in songs and cheers.

So ended the famous capitulation of the French on Goodwick Sands.

CHAPTER X.

TREHOWEL ONCE MORE.

We could still hear the festive strains of "The Girl I Left Behind Me,"-every road was full of soldiers-guards and guarded, some on their way to Haverfordwest, some to Milford, some to Carmarthen, some, for the present, only as far as Fishguard. Their number (sixteen hundred, without stragglers who dropped in later) taxed the resources of this thinly inhabited country to the uttermost, both as regarded the food and the housing of their prisoners. Vast relief was felt when the greater number of them were shipped off to the place from whence they came.

"Where are you going, master?" asked Ann George, coming up to Mr.

Mortimer as he was moving away, having now beheld the end of this strange scene of the bloodless surrender of sixteen hundred men to a very insignificant force; surely one of the strangest sights ever witnessed on the sh.o.r.es of this happy island.

Nancy had taken no part in the action of her aunt Jemima; she was not the woman to jeer a fallen foe, so she had remained quietly by the cart till all was over, then had turned to her master.

"Where are you going, master?" asked the faithful servant.

"Back to my own house; for I suppose it is mine again now," said he, with a sort of groan as he thought of the manner in which the old home had been desecrated.

"I'll come too," said Nancy, "the place is bound to be topsy-turvy, sir, and a gentleman can't do aught to straighten it. I'll come too."

"Better not, Nancy, there are a lot of drunken vagabonds about still-too drunk to know they've capitulated. And some of the officers who were afraid to trust to the white flag and our word are at Trehowel still."