Part 23 (1/2)
”We are sure to be back, general.”
And so they set off; taking, as usual, Tim Doyle with them, as orderly and servant.
”Faith, and I am glad enough to be out in the open again, Mister Ralph,” Tim said, as they left Besancon behind. ”After living out in the woods, for six weeks; there does not seem room to breathe, in a crowded town.”
”It's jolly to be out again, Tim; but I don't know that I mind a town again, for a few days.”
”Ah, it's all very well for the likes of yees, Mister Ralph--with your officer's uniform, and your arm in a sling, and the girls all looking at you as a hero--but for me it's different, entirely. Out in the open I feel that--except when there's anything to do for your honors--I am my own master, and can plase myself. Here in the town I am a common hussar; and my arm is just weary with saluting to all the fellows, with a sword by their side, that I meet in the street.
”Then there's no chance of any fighting, as long as we're shut up in the walls of a town; and what's the use of being decked up in uniform, except to fight? Is there any chance of just the least scrimmage in the world, while we are back again with the boys?” he asked, persuasively.
The boys laughed.
”Not much, Tim; but we shall be pretty close to the enemy, and something may turn up, at any moment. But surely you've had enough, in the last six weeks?”
”Pretty well, Mister Percy--pretty well; but you see, the last affair didn't count.”
”Oh, didn't it count!” Ralph said, looking at his arm. ”I think it counted for two or three fights and, if you were not hit, I am sure you were fired at often enough to satisfy the most desperate lover of fighting, Tim.”
”I was fired at often enough, I daresay, Mister Ralph; and I can't say that I liked it, entirely. It isn't so mighty pleasant--sitting like a stiff statue behind the general, with the sh.e.l.ls falling about you like peas, and not allowed the divars.h.i.+n of a single shot back, in return.
”'Shoot away,' says I, 'as hard as you like; but let's shoot back, in return.'”
The boys laughed, and the day pa.s.sed pleasantly as they rode, and talked. The dusk had already fallen when they reached a party of franc tireurs. It was not their own corps, nor could the officer in command tell exactly where they could find them.
”We are scattered over a considerable extent of country,” he said; ”and the colonel, alone, could tell you how we are all placed. I expect that he will be here, tonight; and your best plan will be to stay here, till he comes. We have not much to offer you, but such as it is, it is at your service.”
After a moment's consultation, the boys agreed to accept the offer; as they had palpably more chance of meeting Colonel Tempe, there, than in a journey through the woods, at night; and in another ten minutes their horses were tied to trees, and they were sitting by a blazing fire, with the officers of franc tireurs. The village consisted of only three or four houses and, as there were fifty men in the party upon which they had come, they bivouacked under the trees, hard by.
”How far off are the Germans?” Ralph asked, when dinner was over; and they lay by the fire, smoking cigars.
”Ten miles or so,” the officer answered, carelessly.
”No chance of their coming this way, I hope,” Ralph laughed. ”We were very nearly caught near Saverne, once.”
”So I heard,” the officer said, ”but I am rather skeptical as to these night surprises. In nine cases out of ten--mind, I don't mean for a moment that it was so in your case--but in nine cases out of ten, these rumors of night attacks are all moons.h.i.+ne.”
”Perhaps so,” Ralph said, a little gravely--for he had already noticed that the discipline was very different, among these men, than that to which he had been accustomed among the franc tireurs of Dijon; ”perhaps so, but we can hardly be too careful.
”How do you all like Colonel Tempe?”
”The colonel would be an excellent fellow, were he not our colonel,” the officer laughed. ”He is a most unconscionable man.
For ever marching, and drilling, and disciplining. If he had his way, he would make us like a regiment of line; as if there could be any good in carrying out all that sort of thing, with franc tireurs. He had about half of us together, for three or four days; and I give you my word it was as bad as slavery. Drill, drill, drill, from morning till night. I was heartily glad, I can tell you, when I got away with this detachment.”
Ralph saw that his new acquaintance was one of that innumerable cla.s.s who conceived that drill and discipline were absurdities, and that it was only necessary for a Frenchman to shoulder a gun for him to be a soldier; so he easily avoided argument, by turning the subject. For a couple of hours they chatted; and then, as the fire was burning low, and the men had already laid down to sleep, Ralph suggested that they should do the same.
”I will walk round the sentries first, with you, if you like,” he said.
”Sentries!” the other said, with a laugh; ”there is my sentry,” and he pointed to a man standing, ten paces off, leaning against a tree. ”The men have marched all day--they only came in an hour before you did--and I am not going to waste their strength by putting half of them out to watch the forest.