第46章 I MEET TWO OF MY COUNTRYMEN(3)

'The Major and I had a very arduous march last night, and I positively thought I should have eaten nothing, but your fortunate idea of the brandy has made quite a new man of me - quite a new man.' And he would fall to with a great air of heartiness, cut himself a mouthful, and, before he had swallowed it, would have forgotten his dinner, his company, the place where he then was, and the escape he was engaged on, and become absorbed in the vision of a sick-room and a dying girl in France.The pathos of this continual preoccupation, in a man so old, sick, and over-weary, and whom I looked upon as a mere bundle of dying bones and death-pains, put me wholly from my victuals: it seemed there was an element of sin, a kind of rude bravado of youth, in the mere relishing of food at the same table with this tragic father; and though I was well enough used to the coarse, plain diet of the English, I ate scarce more than himself.Dinner was hardly over before he succumbed to a lethargic sleep; lying on one of the mattresses with his limbs relaxed, and his breath seemingly suspended - the very image of dissolution.

This left the Major and myself alone at the table.You must not suppose our TETE-A-TETE was long, but it was a lively period while it lasted.He drank like a fish or an Englishman; shouted, beat the table, roared out songs, quarrelled, made it up again, and at last tried to throw the dinner-plates through the window, a feat of which he was at that time quite incapable.For a party of fugitives, condemned to the most rigorous discretion, there was never seen so noisy a carnival; and through it all the Colonel continued to sleep like a child.Seeing the Major so well advanced, and no retreat possible, I made a fair wind of a foul one, keeping his glass full, pushing him with toasts; and sooner than I could have dared to hope, he became drowsy and incoherent.

With the wrong-headedness of all such sots, he would not be persuaded to lie down upon one of the mattresses until I had stretched myself upon another.But the comedy was soon over; soon he slept the sleep of the just, and snored like a military music;

and I might get up again and face (as best I could) the excessive tedium of the afternoon.

I had passed the night before in a good bed; I was denied the resource of slumber; and there was nothing open for me but to pace the apartment, maintain the fire, and brood on my position.I compared yesterday and to-day - the safety, comfort, jollity, open-

air exercise and pleasant roadside inns of the one, with the tedium, anxiety, and discomfort of the other.I remembered that I was in the hands of Fenn, who could not be more false - though he might be more vindictive - than I fancied him.I looked forward to nights of pitching in the covered cart, and days of monotony in I knew not what hiding-places; and my heart failed me, and I was in two minds whether to slink off ere it was too late, and return to my former solitary way of travel.But the Colonel stood in the path.I had not seen much of him; but already I judged him a man of a childlike nature - with that sort of innocence and courtesy that, I think, is only to be found in old soldiers or old priests -

and broken with years and sorrow.I could not turn my back on his distress; could not leave him alone with the selfish trooper who snored on the next mattress.'Champdivers, my lad, your health!'

said a voice in my ear, and stopped me - and there are few things I am more glad of in the retrospect than that it did.

It must have been about four in the afternoon - at least the rain had taken off, and the sun was setting with some wintry pomp - when the current of my reflections was effectually changed by the arrival of two visitors in a gig.They were farmers of the neighbourhood, I suppose - big, burly fellows in great-coats and top-boots, mightily flushed with liquor when they arrived, and, before they left, inimitably drunk.They stayed long in the kitchen with Burchell, drinking, shouting, singing, and keeping it up; and the sound of their merry minstrelsy kept me a kind of company.The night fell, and the shine of the fire brightened and blinked on the panelled wall.Our illuminated windows must have been visible not only from the back lane of which Fenn had spoken, but from the court where the farmers' gig awaited them.In the far end of the firelit room lay my companions, the one silent, the other clamorously noisy, the images of death and drunkenness.

Little wonder if I were tempted to join in the choruses below, and sometimes could hardly refrain from laughter, and sometimes, I believe, from tears - so unmitigated was the tedium, so cruel the suspense, of this period.

At last, about six at night, I should fancy, the noisy minstrels appeared in the court, headed by Fenn with a lantern, and knocking together as they came.The visitors clambered noisily into the gig, one of them shook the reins, and they were snatched out of sight and hearing with a suddenness that partook of the nature of prodigy.I am well aware there is a Providence for drunken men, that holds the reins for them and presides over their troubles;

doubtless he had his work cut out for him with this particular gigful! Fenn rescued his toes with an ejaculation from under the departing wheels, and turned at once with uncertain steps and devious lantern to the far end of the court.There, through the open doors of a coach-house, the shock-headed lad was already to be seen drawing forth the covered cart.If I wished any private talk with our host, it must be now or never.

Accordingly I groped my way downstairs, and came to him as he looked on at and lighted the harnessing of the horses.

'The hour approaches when we have to part,' said I; 'and I shall be obliged if you will tell your servant to drop me at the nearest point for Dunstable.I am determined to go so far with our friends, Colonel X and Major Y, but my business is peremptory, and it takes me to the neighbourhood of Dunstable.'

Orders were given to my satisfaction, with an obsequiousness that seemed only inflamed by his potations.