"There they are!" said the corporal and I at the same moment, when we had been but a few minutes on the Plank-road. Two men were ahead of us riding abreast1, and a few rods in front of them was a third horseman, apparently2 alone. Two others had pushed on, one to the house, the other for surgical3 aid. The two in the rear knew us and let us come up unchallenged; the corporal stayed with them, and I rode on to my leader's side.
Charlotte lay in his double clasp balanced so lightly on the horse's crest4 as hardly to feel the jar of his motion, though her head lay as nearly level with it as Ferry's bending shoulders and the hollow of his lowered right arm would allow; from under his other arm her relaxed figure, in its long riding-skirt, trailed down over his knee and stirrup; her broad limp hat, as if it had been so placed in sport, hung at his back with its tie-ribbons round his throat, while the black masses of her hair spread in ravishing desolation over and under his supporting arm. Her face was fearfully pale, the brows glistened6 with the damp of nervous shock, and every few moments she feebly brought a handkerchief to her lips to wipe away the blood that rose to them with every sigh. Steadfastly7, except when her eyes closed now and then in deathly exhaustion8, her gaze melted into his like a suffering babe's into its mother's. From time to time a brief word passed between them, and with joy I noticed that it was always in French; I hoped with my whole heart and soul that they had already said things, and were saying things yet, which no one else ought to hear. I waited some time for his notice, and when he gave it it was only by saying to her in a full voice and in English "Dick Smith is here, alongside of us."
Her response was a question, which he repeated: "Is he hurt? no, Richard never gets hurt. Shall he tell us whatever he knows?"
He bent9 low for the faint reply, and when it came he sparkled with pride. "'It matters little,' she says, 'to either of us, now.' Give your report; but I tell you"--there came a tiger look in his eyes--"there is now no turning back; we shall go on." I answered with soft elation10: "My news needn't turn you back: Oliver is dead."
He drew a long breath, murmured "My God!" and then suddenly asked "You found him so, or--?"
"We found him so; had to leave him so; head laid wide open; we were about to be captured--thought the news would be better than nothing--"
"Certainly, yes, certainly. Now I want you to ride to the brigade camp and telegraph Miss Harper this: 'She needs you. Come instantly. Durand.'"--I repeated it to him.--"Right," he said. "Send that first; and after that--here is a military secret for you to tell to General Austin; I think you like that kind, eh? Tell him I would not send it verbally if I had my hands free. You know that regiment11 at whose headquarters we saw them singing; well, tell him they are to make a move to-day, a bad mistake, and I think if he will stay right there where he is till they make it, we can catch the whole lot of them. As soon as they move I shall report to him."
Two gasping12 words from Charlotte brought his ear down, and with a worshipping light in his eyes he said to her "Yes,--yes!" and then to me, "Yes, I shall report to him in person. Now, Smith, the top of your speed!"
Reveillé was sounding as I entered the camp. In the middle of my story to the General--"Saddle my horse," he said to an attendant, "and send Mr. Gholson to me. Yes, Smith, well, what then?"--I resumed, but in a minute--"Mr. Gholson, good-morning. My compliments to Major Harper, Mr. Gholson, and ask him if he wouldn't like to take a ride with me; and let me have about four couriers; and send word to Colonel Dismukes that I shall call at his headquarters to see him a moment, on my way out of camp. Now, Smith, you've given me the gist13 of the matter, haven't you? Oh, I think you have; good-morning."
Gholson had helped me get the despatch14 off to Miss Harper, whose coming no one could be more eager to hasten. Before leaving camp I saw him again. He was strangely reticent15; my news seemed to benumb and sicken him. But as I remounted he began without connection--"You see, she'll be absolutely alone until Miss Harper gets there; not a friend within call! He won't be there, she won't let him stay; she dislikes him too much; I know that, Smith. Why, Smith, she wouldn't ever 'a' let him carry her off the field if she'd been conscious; she'd sooner 'a' gone to Ship Island, or to death!" He looked as though he would rather she had. His tongue, now it had started, could not stop. "Ned Ferry can't stay by her; he mustn't! he hadn't ought to use around anywheres near her."
I gave a sort of assent--attended with nausea--and turned to my saddle, but he clung. "Why, how can he hang around that way, Smith, and he a suitor who's just killed her husband? Of course, now, he'd ought to know he can't ever be one henceforth. I'm sorry for him, but--"
"Good-morning," I interrupted, quite in the General's manner, and made a spirited exit, but it proved a false one; one thing had to be said, and I returned. "Gholson, if she should be worse hurt than--" "Ah! you're thinking of the chaplain; I've already sent him. Yonder he goes, now; you can show him the way."
"Understand," I said as I wheeled, "I fully5 expect her to recover."
"Yes, oh, yes!" replied my co-religionist, with feverish16 zest17; "we must have faith--for her sake! But o--oh! Smith, what a chastening judgment18 this is against dancing!"
I moved away, looking back at him, and seeing by his starved look how he was racking his jaded19 brain for some excuse to go with me, I honestly believe I was sorry for him. The chaplain was a thick-set, clean-shaven, politic20 little fellow whose "Good-mawning, brothah?" had the heavy sweetness of perfumed lard. We conversed21 fluently on spiritual matters and also on Ned Ferry. He asked me if the Lieutenant22 was "a believer."
"Why," said I, "as to that, Lieutenant Ferry believes there's something right about everything that's beautiful, and something wrong about everything that isn't. Now, of course that's a very dangerous idea, and yet--" So I went on; ah me! the nightmare of it hangs over me yet, "religionist" though I am, after a fashion, unto this day. In Ferry's defence I maintained that only so much of any man's religion as fitted him, and fitted him not as his saddle or his clothes, but as his nervous system fitted him, was really his, or was really religion. I said I knew a man whose ready-made religion, small as it was, bagged all over him and made him as grotesque23 as a child in his father's trousers. The chaplain tittered so approvingly that I straightened to spout24 again, but just then we saw three distant figures that I knew at a glance.
"There he is, now!--Excuse me, sir--" I clapped in the spurs, but the chaplain clattered25 stoutly26 after me. The two horsemen moving from us were the General and Major Harper, and the one meeting them was Ned Ferry. Between the three and us rose out of a hollow the squad27 of couriers. And yonder came the sun.
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1
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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2
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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3
surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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4
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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5
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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6
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
steadfastly
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| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
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8
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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9
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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10
elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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11
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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12
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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13
gist
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| n.要旨；梗概 | |
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14
despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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15
reticent
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| adj.沉默寡言的；言不如意的 | |
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16
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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17
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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18
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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19
jaded
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| adj.精疲力竭的；厌倦的；（因过饱或过多而）腻烦的；迟钝的 | |
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20
politic
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| adj.有智虑的；精明的；v.从政 | |
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21
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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22
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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23
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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24
spout
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| v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱 | |
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25
clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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26
stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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27
squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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