Volume I Part 5 (2/2)
I feared that I should leave this without the occasion of saying how grateful I feel for the remnant of life your care has been the means of preserving.”
Alfred tried to answer: but a dread of his disobedience and its consequences, and a strange sense of admiration for the stranger, whose manner and appearance had deeply impressed him, made him silent.
”I see,” said the lieutenant smiling, ”that you are indisposed to receive an acknowledgment for what you set such small store by--a kindness to a mere 'soldier of the Republic;' but when you wear a sword yourself, Mons. le Comte, as you will doubtless one of these days----”
”No,” said Alfred, hastily interrupting him, ”never! I shall never wear one.”
”How, never! What can you mean?”
”That I shall never be a soldier,” said Alfred. ”I am to be a priest.”
”A priest! You, Mons. le Comte de Vitry, of the best blood of Auvergne--you, a monk!”
”I did not say a monk,” said Alfred, proudly; ”there are other ranks among churchmen. I have heard tell of Prince-bishops and Cardinals.”
”And if one were to begin life at the age they usually take leave of it, such a career might not be held so cheaply; but for a young man of good birth and blood, with a heart to feel proudly, and a hand to wield a weapon--no, no, this were a shame not to be thought of.”
Stung alike by the severity of the sarcasm, and animated by the old spirit of the Pere's teaching, Alfred hastily answered:--
”And if men of rank and station no longer carry arms as their forefathers did, with whom lies the blame? Why do they now bend to adopt a path that in former days was only trodden by the weak-hearted and the timid? Because they would not draw the sword in a cause they abhor, and for a faction they despised; neither would they shed their blood to a.s.sure the triumph of a rabble.”
”Nor would I,” interposed the lieutenant, while a slight flush coloured his cheek. ”The cause in which I perilled life was that of France, my country. You may safely trust, that the nation capable of such conquests will neither be disgraced by bad rulers, nor dishonoured by cowardly ones.”
”I have no faith in Republicans,” said Alfred, scornfully.
”Because they were not born to a t.i.tle, perhaps! But do you know how many of those who now carry victory into foreign lands belong to this same cla.s.s that includes all your sympathy?--prouder, far prouder, that they sustain the honour of France against her enemies than that they carry the blazon of a marquis or the coronet of a duke on their escutcheon? You look incredulous! Nay, I speak no more than what I well know: for instance, the humble lieutenant who now addresses you can claim rank as high and ancient as your own. You have heard of the Liancourts?”
”Le Duc de Liancourt?”
”Yes; I am, or rather I was, the Duc de Liancourt,” said the lieutenant, with an almost imperceptible struggle: ”my present rank is Sous-Lieutenant of the Third Lancers. Now listen to me calmly for a few moments, and I hope to shew you, that in a country where a dreadful social earthquake has uprooted every foundation of rank, and strewed the ground with the ruins of every thing like prescription, it is n.o.bler and better to shew that n.o.bility could enter the lists, unaided by its prestige, and win the palm, among those who vainly boasted themselves better and braver. This we have done, not by a.s.suming the monk's cowl and the friar's cord, but by carrying the knapsack and the musket; not by s.h.i.+rking the struggle, but by confronting it. Where is the taunt now against the n.o.bility of France? whose names figure oftenest in the lists of killed and wounded? whose lot is it most frequently to mount first to the a.s.sault or the breach? No, no, take to the alb and the surplice if your vocation prompt it, but do not a.s.sume to say that no other road is open to a Frenchman because his heart is warmed by n.o.ble blood.”
If Alfred was at first shocked by hearing a.s.sertions so opposed to all the precepts of his venerated tutor, he was soon ashamed of offering opposition to one so far more capable than himself of forming a just judgment on the question, while he felt, inwardly, the inequality of the cause for which he would do battle against--that glorious and triumphant one of which the young officer a.s.sumed the champions.h.i.+p.
Besides, De Liancourt's history was his own; he had been bred up with convictions precisely like his, and might, had he followed out the path intended for him, been a priest at the very hour that he led a charge at Lodi.
”I was saved by an accident,” said he. ”In the march of Berthault's division through Chalons, a little drummer-boy fell off a waggon when asleep, and was wounded by a wheel pa.s.sing over him: they brought him to our chateau, where we nursed and tended him till he grew well. The Cure, wis.h.i.+ng to s.n.a.t.c.h him as a brand saved from the burning, adopted him, and made him an acolyte; and so he remained till one Sunday morning, when the 'Cha.s.seurs gris' marched through the town during ma.s.s. Pierre stole out to see the soldiers; he heard a march he had often listened to before; he saw the little drummers stepping out gaily in front; worse, too, _they_ saw him, and one called out to his comrades, 'Regarde donc le Pretre; ce pet.i.t drole la--c'est un Pretre.'
”'Du tout,' cried he; tearing off his white robe, and throwing it behind him, 'Je suis tambour comme toi,' and s.n.a.t.c.hing the drum, he beat his 'Ran tap-plan' so vigorously and so well, that the drum-major patted him on the head and cheek, and away marched Pierre at the head of the troop, leaving Chalons, and Cure, and all behind him, without a thought or a pang.
”I saw it all from the window of the church; and suddenly, as my eyes turned from the grand spectacle of the moving column, with its banners flying and bayonets glistening, to the dim, half-lighted aisles of the old church, with smoky tapers burning faintly, amid which an old decrepid priest was moving slowly, a voice within me cried,--'Better a _tambour_, than this!' I stole out, and reached the street just as the last files were pa.s.sing: I mingled with the crowd that followed, my heart beating time to the quick march. I tracked them out of the town, further and further, till we reached the wide open country.
”'Will you not come back, Pierre?' said I, pulling him by the sleeve, as, at last, I reached the leading files, where the little fellow marched, proud as the tambour-major.
”'_I_ go back, and the regiment marching against the enemy!' exclaimed he, indignantly; and a roar of laughter and applause from the soldiers greeted his words.
”'Nor I either!' cried I. And thus I became a soldier, never to regret the day I belted on the knapsack. But here comes the Pere Duclos: I hope he may not be displeased at your having kept me company. I know well he loves not such companions.h.i.+p for his pupil--perhaps he has reason.”
Alfred did not wait for the priest's arrival, but darted from the spot and hastened to his room, where, bolting the door, he threw himself upon his bed and wept bitterly. Who knows if these tears decided not all his path in life?
<script>