Part 51 (1/2)
Grahame drove the terrified horses along the line of wagons for a few paces, then, wheeling, let them gallop straight out into the pasture on the left of the road, where a double line of trees in the distance marked the course of a parallel road.
The chaise lurched and jolted; Rickerl, unconscious still, fell in a limp heap, but Jack and Lorraine held him up and watched the horses, now galloping under slackened reins.
”There are houses there! Look!” cried Grahame. ”By Jove, there's a Luxembourg gendarme, too. I--I believe we're in Luxembourg, Marche! Upon my soul, we are! See! There is a frontier post!”
He tried to stop the horses; two strange-looking soldiers, wearing glossy shakos and white-and-blue aiguillettes, began to bawl at him; a group of peasants before the cottages fled, screaming.
Grahame threw all his strength into his arms and dragged the horses to a stand-still.
”Are we in Luxembourg?” he called to the gendarmes, who ran up, gesticulating violently. ”Are we? Good! Hold those horses, if you please, gentlemen. There's a wounded man here. Carry him to one of those houses. Marche, lift him, if you can. h.e.l.lo! his arm is broken at the wrist. Go easy--you, I mean--Now!”
Lorraine, aided by Jack, stepped from the post-chaise and stood s.h.i.+vering as two peasants came forward and lifted Rickerl. When they had taken him away to one of the stone houses she turned quietly to a gendarme and said: ”Monsieur, can you tell me where the Emperor is?”
”The Emperor?” repeated the gendarme. ”The Emperor is with his army, below there along the Meuse. They are fighting--since four this morning--at Sedan.”
He pointed to the southeast.
She looked out across the wide plain.
”That convoy is going to Sedan,” said the gendarme. ”The army is near Sedan; there is a battle there.”
”Thank you,” said Lorraine, quietly. ”Jack, the Emperor is near Sedan.”
”Yes,” he nodded; ”we will go when you can stand it.”
”I am ready. Oh, we must not wait, Jack; did you not see how they even attacked the wounded?”
He turned and looked into her eyes.
”It is the first French cheer I have heard,” she continued, feverishly. ”They beat back those Prussians and cheered for France! Oh, Jack, there is time yet! France is rising now--France is resisting. We must do our part; we must not wait. Jack, I am ready!”
”We can't walk,” he muttered.
”We will go with the convoy. They are on the way to Sedan, where the Emperor is. Jack, they are fighting at Sedan! Do you understand?”
She came closer, looking up into his troubled eyes.
”Show me the box,” she whispered.
He drew the flat steel box from his coat.
After a moment she said, ”Nothing must stop us now. I am ready!”
”You are not ready,” he replied, sullenly; ”you need rest.”
”'Tiens ta Foy,' Jack.”
The colour dyed his pale cheeks and he straightened up. ”Always, Lorraine.”
Grahame called to them from the cottage: ”You can get a horse and wagon here! Come and eat something at once!”