The Adventures of Harry Rochester: A Tale of the Days of Marlborough and Eugene

by Herbert Strang

  *CHAPTER XI*

  *The Battle of Lindendaal*

  A Hitch--A Charge in Flank--Irregular Warfare--Called Off--ASuggestion--Compliments--Thanks--Adieux--Luck--After the Fair--A Triumph

  To his credit, Colonel the Baron von Schummelpincken did his best to puta good face on the predicament in which he found himself. He rode backto his men to inform them of the arrangement. The moment he had gone,Adele de Vaudrey came out, her face aglow with excitement.

  "Monsieur," she said, "General van Santen asks what the uproar, thefiring, means; shall I tell him?"

  "As you please, Mademoiselle."

  "It is as you please, Monsieur."

  "The day is not ended yet, Mademoiselle."

  "I will say nothing, Monsieur." She went into the house.

  The sergeant had spurred across the meadow behind, through a gate in thewall, into the orchard and wood. In a few minutes he reappeared with hiscomrades, who came at a trot towards the house. Their pace wasleisurely, but a keener observer than the colonel, who at this momentwas half-way up the avenue at the head of his troops, might have noticedthat the horses' flanks were heaving violently. The men had in factgalloped at full speed from the horns of the position in obedience tothe sergeant's signals, and only checked the pace in response to asuggestion of Sherebiah, who had made the best of his way after them.Harry ordered the ten dragoons to draw up in line at right angles to thehouse.

  "Sherry," he said, as the man came up puffing, "bring me one of thedragoons' horses."

  He mounted just as the colonel emerged from the avenue. Sherry stood byhis side at the nearer end of the line of dragoons.

  The colonel, some dozen yards ahead of his men, came to Harry and handedhim his sword. Harry politely returned it, a compliment which theofficer courteously acknowledged.

  "Monsieur," said Harry, "we understand the arrangement? Your men willpile arms in front of the house, file off to right and left, tie theirhorses to the palings, then pass round on foot to the rear of thehouse."

  "Certainly, Monsieur."

  Harry watched eagerly as the troopers came two by two up the drive anddid his bidding with the precision of automata. Events had crowded sothickly that he had scarcely had time to think; but now he could hardlysit still on his horse, so intense was his anxiety to get the wholescene over. Everything appeared to be answering to his wishes; hisarrangement for the French dragoons to file off in opposite directionswas a precaution to divide the force; they began to pass behind thehouse one by one. About half of the troop had thus piled their arms andfastened their horses; the clock in the belfry-tower struck the firstnote of noon, and Harry was already congratulating himself that almostby the time the last of the leisurely Dutch chimes was ended his rusewould have been completely successful, when a loud voice was heard fromthe road.

  "Mon Colonel! mon Colonel! they are only peasants and burghers. It is atrick, a trick!"

  There was an instant halt. Harry's heart was in his mouth; Sherebiahmuttered, "Zooks! 'tis hot 'taties now!" The colonel, his face aflame,spurred his horse from the pillar at the end of the avenue, and, drawinghis sword, vociferated:

  "A moi! a moi!"

  For a moment Harry felt that all was lost. But only for a moment, forin that instant he saw that with his handful of men in line he had theadvantage of the troopers debouching two by two from the balustradeddrive. Turning to the dragoons at his side he shouted "Charge!" anddashed straight at the enemy. It was in the nick of time. A fewseconds later they would have been ready; at this precise moment theywere awkwardly placed. Half a dozen men of the nearer file were leadingtheir horses towards the palings; beyond them the armed and mounted menwere approaching from the drive, and eight files presented their flankto Harry's little force of ten. As he charged, the dismounted menscattered like hares before him, and the sixteen armed troopers hadbarely time to wheel round to meet the onslaught before Harry and hisDutchmen were upon them. All the advantage of impetus and direct attackwas with the Dutch. Harry, grasping his sword, came full tilt upon aburly Alsatian. Almost before he had realized it he had passed over thedragoon and his horse, and, parrying a swinging cut from the man behind,had shortened his arm and thrust him through the shoulder. The mandropped his sabre and fell from his horse, which wheeled round andplunged madly through the dismounted men on the farther side.

  In a trice Harry was through the mellay, and bringing his horse up onits haunches, wrenched it round so that he might take stock of the newsituation. He found that the majority of his Dutch troopers had stuckclose to him, and with the readiness of old campaigners were alreadywheeling round to face the discomfited enemy. A dozen men were on theground, including the portly colonel; several horses were careeringwildly through the small open space, impeding the movements of thedismounted men who had made a dash for the piles of arms in front of theporch. The French troopers were still filing up the drive, but thesudden uproar had startled the horses. The riders were too muchoccupied with their steeds and too closely packed to make effective useof their pistols; the one or two who fired aimed erratically, and no onewas hurt. But Harry saw that the only course open to him was to chargeagain and again until the peasants, summoned by the noise of the fray,could come to his assistance. It was fortunate that the remainder ofthe enemy's troop could only debouch two by two from the drive; thestone balustrade on each side of it prevented them from deploying untilthey entered the open space in front of the house. Two horses that hadbeen rolled over near the entrance to the drive were plunging andkicking, hindering the advance of the leading troopers, who were nowbeing pressed by the men behind. Once more the little band of Dutchmenhurled themselves at the head of the enemy's force, and with the sameresult, though Harry was instinctively aware, when he again emerged fromthe mellay, that his followers were fewer in number. Among them,however, he noticed Sherebiah, who had possessed himself of a sword andpistol from the stand of arms and a horse from the palings, and wascomporting himself as though, so far from being a man of peace, he hadas much experience of warfare as any trooper present. Two of Madame deVaudrey's gardeners also had appropriated weapons, and were holding atbay a group of the disarmed enemy who hovered round, trying to dash inand recover their arms.

  Harry saw little of this, however. He wheeled his horse once more torepeat the charge. He was followed now by only six men; at least adozen fresh troopers had debouched from the drive, but, like theircomrades, they had not time to form before the dauntless seven were uponthem. The odds were heavier now; only two succeeded in getting through;the rest were checked. Then ensued a series of fierce duels, the littlegroup of Dutch being broken up and driven back by the weight of thefiles pressing through as rapidly as they might into the open space.Harry, engaged with a stout trooper, felt with a sinking heart that thegame was up; his arm was wrung with hacking and thrusting; his opponent,fresh to the fight, closed with him, leant over his saddle, and tried togrip him by the throat. At this moment there was a fierce shout,followed by a perfect babel of cries. The trooper fell from his horse,transfixed in the nick of time by Sherebiah's sword; and when Harryafter a few seconds was able once more to take in what was happening, hesaw the place thick with burghers and peasants who were falling upon theenemy from both balustrades. Some had leapt on to the coping and weredealing heavy blows at the dragoons and their horses with sticks, hooks,scythes, and all kinds of strange implements; others were jabbingthrough the interstices of the balustrades; all were shouting, smiting,felling with a fierce vehemence that brooked no resistance. A panicseized upon the enemy; the unarmed men bolted to the stables behind thehouse and barricaded themselves there; the last files of the dragoonsthrew down their arms and begged for quarter; and, turning to Sherebiah,Harry bade him cry to the peasants, with the full force of his lungs, tohold their hands.

  A lull succeeded the turmoil. A crowd of the Dutch were hasteningtowards the stables to burst open the doors and make short work of them
en sheltered there. To them Harry galloped up.

  "Men," he said, "halt! in the name of General van Santen. The victoryis ours. We must await the general's orders."

  The mob hesitated, then, with obedience compelled by their youngleader's mien, stood in sullen silence. Harry rode back to the openingof the drive, stationed two of the Dutch dragoons there, and addressedthe colonel, who, with a lacerated cheek and contused shoulder, leantagainst the palings, a picture of chagrin, pain, and baffled rage.

  "Monsieur, 'twas not well done. Your parole was given. But you arehurt; go to the house--you will find tendance there."

  At this moment another horseman suddenly appeared on the scene,galloping up from behind the house. Wheeling his horse in somesurprise, Harry found himself face to face with Madame de Vaudrey'sneighbour, Monsieur de Polignac. He looked greatly perturbed; his mouthwas twitching; the air of cynical detachment he had worn in Madame deVaudrey's drawing-room had quite disappeared.

  "Monsieur, what is this, what is this?" he cried.

  "As you see, Monsieur--a skirmish," replied Harry. "We have captured araiding-party--and doubtless saved your house from the flames."

  "But--but--do you not see your peril? You are not a soldier; these menare not soldiers, the most of them; to wage war is for you quiteirregular; if caught by the French--and I hear, Monsieur, rumours of ageneral advance in this direction--you will all be hanged."

  "I will take my chance of that," said Harry. "I thank you,nevertheless, for your warning, Monsieur."

  "Bah! I counsel you to release your prisoners--without arms, it isunderstood--and send them back to their lines."

  "That is a matter for General van Santen, Monsieur. Would you care torepeat your advice to him?"

  Polignac gave him a savage look, opened his mouth to speak, thoughtbetter of it, and, setting spurs to his horse, galloped away.

  The scene of this tempestuous little fight differed greatly from itsappearance a short half-hour before. Thirty men, of whom twenty-fourwere French, lay killed or wounded, with a few horses. The stonebalustrades were broken in several places; the flower-beds weretrampled; the gravel was ploughed up; shattered muskets, swords,scabbards, pistols, hats, cloaks, strewed the ground.

  "Carry the dead to the garden," said Harry. "Take the wounded to theoutbuildings and attend to them; there is a doctor in the house. Adozen of you take arms from the pile there and guard the prisoners; lockthem up in the stables. Sherebiah, I leave you in charge."

  Then, hot, weary, hatless, his coat showing several rents, Harryfollowed the wounded colonel into the house.

  "Monsieur," said Adele, meeting him, "the general insists on seeing you.He was with difficulty restrained from rising and taking part in thefray. You are weary; a cup of wine will refresh you."

  Harry gladly quaffed at the cup she presented to him. Then he followedher into the dining-room. The general frowned when he saw him.

  "I want to see the leader," he exclaimed testily.

  "This is he, Monsieur," said Ad