Part 8 (1/2)
The army of Windy Standard, then, when fully mustered, consisted of General-Field-Marshal Napoleon Smith, Commander-in-Chief and regimental Sergeant-Major (also, on occasions of parade, Big Big-Drummer); Adjutant-General Cissy Carter, promoted to her present high position for always agreeing with her superior officer--a safe rule in military politics; Commissariat-Sergeant Sir Toady Lion, who declined any other post than the care of the provisions, and had to be conciliated; together with Privates Sammy Carter and Prissy Smith.
Sammy Carter had formerly been Adjutant, because he had a pony, but gallantly resigned in order to be of the same rank as Prissy, who was the sole member of the force wholly without military ambition.
At the imposing review which was held on the plains of Windy Standard, the Commander-in-Chief insisted on carrying the blue banner himself, as well as the big-big drum, till Sammy Carter, who had not yet resigned, offered him his pony to ride upon. This he did with guile and malice aforethought, for on the drum being elevated in front of the mounted officer, Polo promptly ran away, and deposited General-Field-Marshal Smith in the horse pond.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”DEPOSITED GENERAL-FIELD-MARSHAL SMITH IN THE HORSE POND.”]
But this force, though officered with consummate ability, was manifestly insufficient for the attack upon the Black Sheds. This was well shown by Sammy Carter, who also pointed out that the armies of all ages had never been exclusively composed of those of n.o.ble birth.
There were, for example, at Bannockburn, the knights, the esquires, the st.u.r.dy yeomanry, the spearmen, the bowmen, and the camp-followers.
He advised that the stable boys, Mike and Peter, should be approached.
Now the head stable boy, Mike O'Donelly by name, was a scion of the n.o.blest Bourbon race. His father was an exile, who spoke the language with a strong foreign accent, and drove a fish cart--which also had a p.r.o.nounced accent, reputed deadly up to fifty yards with a favourable wind.
”Foine frish hirrings--foive for sixpince!” was the way he said it.
This proved to demonstration that he came from a far land, and was the descendant of kings. When taxed directly with being the heir to a crown, he did not deny it, but said, ”Yus, Masther Smith, wanst I had a crown, but I lost it. 'Twas the Red Lion, bad scran to ut, that did the deed!”
Now this was evidently only a picturesque and regal way of referring to the b.l.o.o.d.y revolution by which King Michael O'Donowitch had been dethroned and reduced to driving a fish-cart--the old, old story, doubtless, of royal license and popular ingrat.i.tude. But there was no such romantic mystery about Peter Greg. He was simply junior stable boy, and his father was general utility man--or, as it was more generally called, ”odd man,” about the estate of Windy Standard. Peter occupied most of his time in keeping one eye on his work and the other on his father, who, on general utility principles, ”welted” him every time that he caught him. This exercise, and his other occupation of perpetual fisticuffs with Prince Mike O'Donelly, had so developed his muscles and trained his mind, that he could lick any other two boys of his size in the parish. He said so himself, and he usually had at least one black eye to show for it. So no one contradicted him, and, indeed, who had a better right to know?
Prince Michael O'Donowitch (the improvement in style was Sammy Carter's) put the matter differently. He said, ”I can lick Peter Greg till he can't stand” (”shtand” was how the royal exile p.r.o.nounced it), ”but Peter an' me can knock the stuffin' out of any half-dozen spalpeens in this dirthy counthry.”
Both Mike and Peter received commissions in the army at the same moment. The ceremony took place at the foot of the great hay mow at the back of the stable yard. In view of his n.o.ble ancestry, Prince Michael O'Donowitch was made a major-general, and Peter a lieutenant of marines. The newly appointed officers instantly clinched, fell headlong, rolled over and over one another, pommelled each other's heads, bit, scratched, and kicked till the hay and straw flew in all directions.
When the dust finally cleared away, Peter was found sitting astride of Prince Michael, and shouting, ”Are you the general-major, or am I?”
Then when they had risen to their feet and dusted themselves, it was found that the distinguished officers had exchanged commissions, and that Peter Greg had become major-general, while Prince Michael O'Donowitch was lieutenant of marines, with a new and promising black eye!
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”GENERALS OF DIVISION, EQUAL IN RANK.”]
But at the first drill, upon General Peter issuing some complicated order, such as ”Attention! eyes right!” Lieutenant O'Donowitch remarked, ”Me eyes is as roight as yours, ye dirthy baste av a Scotchy!” Whereupon, as the result of another appeal to arms, the former judgment was reversed, and Prince Michael regained his commission at the price of another black eye. Indeed he would have had three, but for the fact that the number of his eyes was somewhat strictly limited to two.
Now it was felt by all parties that in a well-disciplined army such transitions were altogether too sudden, and so a compromise was suggested--as usual by Sammy Carter. Prince Michael and Peter Greg were both made generals of division, equal in rank, under Field-Marshal Smith. The division commanded by General Peter was composed of Cissy and Sir Toady Lion. The command of this first division proved, however, to be purely nominal, for Cissy was much too intimate with the Commander-in-Chief to be ordered about, and as for Toady Lion he was so high minded and irresponsible that he quite declined to obey anybody whatsoever. Still, the t.i.tle was the thing, and ”the division of General Peter Greg” sounded very well.
The other division was much more subordinate. Prissy and Sammy Carter were the only genuine privates, and they were quite ready to be commanded by General Mike, Prissy upon conscientious non-resistance principles, and Sammy with a somewhat humorous aside to his fellow-soldier that it wouldn't be very bad, because Mike's father (the royal fish-hawker) lived on Sammy's ancestral domain, and owed money to Mr. Davenant Carter.
Thus even the iron discipline of a British army is tempered to the sacred property holder.
The immediate advance of the army of Windy Standard upon the Black Sheds was only hindered by a somewhat serious indisposition which suddenly attacked the Commander-in-Chief. The facts were these.
Attached to the castle, but lying between it and the stepping-stones on the steep side of the hill, was an ancient enclosed orchard. It had doubtless been the original garden of the fortress, but the trees had gone back to their primitive ”crabbiness” (as Hugh John put it), and in consequence the children were forbidden to eat any of the fruit--an order which might just as well not have been issued. But on a day it was reported to Janet Sheepshanks that Prissy and Hugh John were in the crab orchard. On tip-toe she stole down to catch them. She caught Hugh John. Prissy was up in one of the oldest and leafiest trees, and Hugh John, as in honour bound, persistently made signals in another direction to distract attention, as he was being hauled off to condign punishment.
He had an hour to wait in the study for his father, who was away at the county town. During this time Hugh John suffered strange qualms, not of apprehension, which presently issued in yet keener and more definitely located agony. At last Mr. Picton Smith entered.
”Well, sir, and what is this I hear?” he said severely, throwing down his riding-whip on the couch as if he meant to pick it up again soon.
Hugh John was silent. He saw that his father knew all there was to know about his evil doings from Janet Sheepshanks, and he was far too wise to plead guilty.
”Did I not tell you not to go to the orchard?”