Part 43 (1/2)
”I shall soon be better, countess,” he said with a smile, as he held out his hand. ”I am quite a giant in strength, compared with what I was a fortnight ago; but just at present I am a little tired, after the drive.”
”You look dreadfully bad,” the girl said. ”Still, I hope we shall soon bring you round again. My father said you would be back with him about this time, and we shall begin by giving you some soup, at once.”
As they entered the hall, the countess herself came down.
”Welcome back again! I may say, I hope, welcome home again, Major Drummond!”
”Colonel Drummond,” the count corrected. ”He is one of Frederick's colonels now.”
”I congratulate you,” she went on, ”though just at present, you certainly do not look a very formidable colonel. However, we will soon build you up; but don't try to talk now. I see the journey has been almost too much for you.
”In here, please. I thought you had better take something before you climbed the stairs.”
A meal was laid, in a room leading off the hall; and after a basin of soup and a couple of gla.s.ses of Rhine wine, Fergus felt much better.
”That is right,” the count said. ”You have now got a tinge of colour in your cheeks.
”Come, Thirza, you must not look so woebegone, because our knight is pulled down a bit. Invalids want a cheerful face and, unless you brighten up, I shall not intrust any of the nursing duties to you.”
Thirza tried to smile, but the attempt was a very forced one.
”It has been a surprise,” she said quietly, but with an evident effort. ”You see, I have always seen Colonel Drummond looking so strong and bright. Though I knew that he had been very ill, somehow I did not expect to see him like this.”
”But I can a.s.sure you I am better,” Fergus said, laughing. ”I did feel done when we arrived, but I can a.s.sure you that is not my normal state; and being here among you all will very soon effect a transformation. In a very short time you will see that I shall refuse altogether to be treated as an invalid, and my nurse's post will be a sinecure.”
”Now you had better go and lie down, and get a sleep for two or three hours,” the countess said, decidedly. ”You will have your old bedroom, and we have fitted up the next room as a sitting room. We know a good many of the Austrian and Confederate officers, and of an afternoon and evening they often drop in; and although we are not afraid of questions, it will be more pleasant for you to have a place of your own.
”Still, I hope you will be able to be out in the garden behind the house, the best part of the day, under the trees. You would be as safe from interruption, there, as if you were a hundred miles away from Dresden. We have arranged that Thirza shall have chief charge of you, out there; while the count and I will look after you while you are in the house.”
Fergus obediently lay down and slept for some hours. As the countess had arranged, he rang his bell on waking and, hearing from the servant who answered it that there were no visitors downstairs, he went down. The count had gone out, but the countess and Thirza went out into the grounds with him; and he found that, in a quiet and shady corner, a sofa had been placed for his use, with a table and two or three chairs.
The countess remained chatting with him until a servant came out, to say that three Austrian officers had called; and she went in, leaving him to the charge of Thirza. For two or three hours they talked together, and were then joined by the count and countess; when Fergus told them the piece of good fortune that had befallen him, by recovering his father's estates. They were greatly pleased and interested.
”And are they extensive?” the count asked.
”They are extensive,” he said, ”if taken by acreage; but if calculated by the revenue that they bring in, they would seem small to you. But at any rate, they suffice to make one wealthy in Scotland. The large proportion of it is mountain and moorland; but as the head of my clan, I shall hold a position far above what is represented by the income. Two hundred men were ready to draw sword, at my father's orders, and to follow him in battle.
”I don't know that, here in Germany, you can quite understand the ties that bind the members of a clan to their head. They do not regard him as tenants regard a lord; but rather as a protector, a friend, and even a relation. All disputes are carried to him for arbitration. The finest trout from the stream, the fattest buck from the hills, are sent to him as an offering. They draw their swords at his bidding, and will die for him in battle. To them he is a sort of king, and they would obey his orders, were he to tell them to rise in rebellion.
”The feeling is to some extent dying out and, since Culloden, the power of the clans has greatly abated. Nevertheless, some of the Highland regiments in our army were raised by chiefs wholly from their own clansmen.
”In many respects this restoration of my inheritance changes my position altogether. As I told you the last time I was here, I shall stop until this terrible war is over. The king has been most kind and gracious to me, and to leave before the struggle is over I should feel to be an act of desertion. Once the sword is sheathed, I intend to return to Scotland; for I should not care to remain in the service, when there is nought but life in garrison to look forward to. Moreover, the strength of the army would, of course, be largely diminished, at once.
”What I should do afterwards, I know not. Perhaps I might obtain a commission in our own army, for there are always opportunities of seeing service in America, India, or elsewhere, under the British flag. More likely I shall, at any rate for a time, remain at home.
My mother has no other child, and it is a lonely life, indeed, for her.”
”Do you not think of settling here?”
”What is there for me to do, count, outside the army? I could not turn merchant, for I should a.s.suredly be bankrupt, at the end of the first month; nor could I well turn cultivator, when I have no land to dig. Now, however, my future is determined for me; and a point that has, I own, troubled me much, has been decided without an effort on my part.”
The conversation was continued for some little time, the count asking many questions about Fergus's ancestral home, the scenery, and mode of life. Fergus noticed that Thirza took no part in the conversation, but sat still; and looked, he thought, pale.