CHAPTER XX
CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN
Marie had made good her retreat till she halted within a few hundredyards of the little fort where Wat and Scarlett kept their watch.Here she lay crouched behind a bush of broom which had escaped thegeneral destruction as the shifting sand advanced, and which had madegood its position by associating itself with stubborn clumps of pinkand sea-holly. For these are both brave, self-helpful plants, and canbind the sand together with their own proper roots without the aid ofbent-grass. Behind this ambuscade Marie crouched, and Wat would havedescended to her assistance but that Scarlett forcibly withheld him.
"Lie still, man; can ye not bide and watch? It is as bonny as a paintedpicture. Think you that our muckle clumsy bodies could run and hideas featly? I trow not! Let the lass do her own ways. She has, indeed,a very pretty notion of war--aye, far better than many of our boastedgenerals, and nigh hand as good as the prince himself. For, to mythinking, there is more generalship in delaying and harassing theadvance of a superior force than in defeating an equal number withtrumpets, drums, and all the paraphernalia of war."
So, in obedience to Scarlett, and also because the girl's quickmanoeuvres at once astonished and fascinated him, Wat abode stillwhere he was. But his eyes were chained to the slight form of theLittle Marie, who lay behind the broom perfectly plain to them fromtheir fortress eminence, but wholly hidden from the line of theenemy's advance. It seemed an unconscionable time before the pursuerscame near, because on this occasion they took the utmost precautionsto avoid surprise; and it was not till Haxo himself had ascended theknoll within thirty feet of where the girl lay that the foremost of theapproaching skirmishers came within range.
But Marie was either so careless of her life or so sure of the line ofher retreat that she appeared to pick and choose deliberately among herenemies. The persons of many of them were doubtless well known to her,and it is possible that she had private scores to pay off while thusfighting the battles of Wat and Scarlett.
Presently one of her pistols spoke again and a third man fell wounded.Haxo stood up to mark the spot from which the reek of the powderfloated lazily into the air, and as he did so, Marie, wheeling abouton her elbows, steadied her weapon on the edge of the sand between thebroom-bush and the sea-holly. It cracked, and Haxo, with a cry of angerand pain, clapped his hand upon his ankle, for all the world like a boythat runs barefoot and whose toe meets a stone unexpectedly.
But this time it was impossible for Marie to conceal the line of herflight. She had to make a considerable detour to the right; for, inorder to pick her men, she had allowed some of the enemy to pass herby, and these now bent hastily round to intercept her. The rest,following Haxo's frenzied directions as he leaped and swore with thepain of his hurt, pursued with might and main, getting glimpses of heras she ran. For on this occasion Marie took no care whatever to keep tothe bottoms, but on the contrary chose the hardest surface and the mostdirect road for the shore, as though she had been fleeing to a boatwhich lay in waiting at the sea edge.
It was soon obvious that this was the idea of the pursuers, for thoseon the left who had passed her place of ambush exerted themselves toreach the shingle of the beach by the narrow and deep defile in frontof the wall of the fort. They paused occasionally to fire, and cheeredand shouted all the time in order to encourage one another--whichdoubtless they were much in need of, for it must have been mostdiscomfortable to see their comrades dropping here and there about themwithout so much as the pleasure of getting a shot at the assailant.
Then for the first time Wat and Scarlett perceived whither Marie wasleading the enemy. Ever as she came nearer she raised her arm and wavedthem to be ready. But with what they were to be ready did not appear,unless with their pistols, to have a chance at the rascals as theypassed under the wall. Yet it was not a place favorable for pistolpractice, because at that point the wall was broken down and fullythirty feet of it completely undermined and tottering to its fall.
"The wall, the wall! Push down the wall!" cried Marie, as she camealmost underneath it.
It was Scarlett who first grasped her idea. Wat on his part was toomuch astonished at the daring and address of this girl to be capable ofmore than a vague, gaping wonderment.
"Quick, Wat!" cried Scarlett; "it must be the overhanging wall shemeans. See you not that these fellows, being ignorant of our presence,it is a thousand chances to one that for ease of road and haste to getbefore the lass to keep her away from the sea, they will take the paththrough the ravine and pass immediately underneath the wall?"
"And what of that?" asked Wat.
"What of that? Why, man, what is come of your ancient contrivance, yourwise shifts, your forethought? How will you ever find your love if yourwits are so moidered, before ever ye leave this dull Dutch country?"
"Faith, and I see it not yet," cried Wat, looking over at the chasemore bewildered than ever.
"Why, she means that we are to push the wall over upon them when theycome, I'll wager," said Scarlett.
"And so destroy our only defences; it is, indeed, a wise ploy!" criedWat, scornfully.
"Hush, man, and come help. We may annihilate the whole crew at a blow,"said the old soldier, who had no petty scruples about ways and means;"an enemy dead is a friend the more, however he come by his end."
Scarlett and Wat stole to the wall and peeped cautiously over. Theill-laid and mouldered stones tottered even as they leaned againstthem; one or two rattled into the defile as they looked down. The headsof the pursuers were just appearing at the entrance of the dell. Oneof them was training his piece to shoot it off at the girl, who ranlightly as at a frolic a hundred yards in front.
Without a suspicion of danger the assailants came posting along.
"Now, with all your might!" cried Scarlett, when he saw the villainsexactly underneath. He could plainly descry the same four men who hadsat about the table in the Hostel of the Coronation, and some of theothers also who had flocked in thither to join the fray.
So without further word Wat and Scarlett set their thews to the wall;and between them, panting with the long chase and grimed with powder,where the touchhole had spat up in her face, the Little Marie threwherself on the parapet to help on the catastrophe with all her feeblestrength.
The wall swayed in a piece and quivered a moment on the verge ere itfell with a prodigious crash upon the straggling file of men in thedeep defile below. A hoarse, confused cry was heard, running up, as thepursuers too late recognized their danger, into a shriek of agony. Thena thick cloud of dust and sand arose, which prevented those in theredoubt from seeing the effect of their stratagem. Presently from thegap they could see a few limping stragglers disentangle their disabledbodies from the ruins, and make haste to put as much space as possiblebetween themselves and the unseen dangers which beset them on everyside on these wide, unwholesome dunes.
The Little Marie stood erect in the breach. She held her pistols in herhand and marked down the survivors as they ran.
"Let them go, Marie," cried Wat; "they are powerless to harm us now!"
Wat's heart was a little turned to pity by the wholesale destructionwrought beneath his eyes by the falling of the wall; but Marie's eyesonly glistened the more brightly with excitement and the light ofbattle.
"But they are _your_ enemies, my captain!" said Marie, evidentlysurprised at his words. Then very coolly she went on loading herpistols.
"Stand down, Marie," cried Wat, "or they will surely do you an injury.I saw a man's head behind yon highest dune."
"I care not so be they kill me outright. I do not want to be onlywounded," answered the Little Marie, laughing recklessly. Nevertheless,she began obediently to descend.
Wat's warning came too late. Haxo himself, full of bitterness andfoaming with the desire for vengeance, had managed to limp near enoughto witness the destruction of his men in the defile. While the girl waspriming her pistols, he had taken careful aim. Now he fired.
Marie gave a low, quick cry and put her han
d to her breast to feelwhere the wound was. Then she steadied herself and attempted to go onwith the preparation of her pistol.
But with a little moan of pain she sank back into Wat's arms, whogently laid her down in the shade of the wall. Scarlett brought herwater in the brim of his broad hat. He sprinkled it on her face. Abrief examination showed that Haxo's bullet had struck the girl an inchabove the left breast. Scarlett and Wat looked squarely at each other.The significance of that single glance was not lost on the Little Marie.
A bright look of manifest joy instantly overspread her face.
"I am glad--very glad," she said, fighting a little with her utterance;"lift me up so that I may tell you. I am glad that I am to die. Yes,I know it. I wished nothing else. I tried so hard to die to-day, mycaptain, fighting your enemies; for I knew that I should never see youagain, that you would sail away without a thought for the Little Mariewho wrought so hard to take you out of prison. I knew that you weregoing to seek one whom you love, and that I could not come with you.But now I can keep you--keep you all, till it is time for me to goaway."
She put an arm up about Wat's neck as he bent over her and drew hishead down.
"Only this once," she said, smiling. "Even _she_ would not be angry,for she has all--I nothing. And it is right--right--oh! so right. Foryou could not love the Little Marie--wife and mother she could not be;her life had been wicked--yet her heart was not all bad. And oh! butshe loved you--yes, she loved you so dear. She could not help that--norcould you, my captain. Forgive Marie for loving you. But, then, youshould not have spoken so graciously to the poor girl to whom none everspoke kindly or gently."
Wat bent over the girl.
"You have, indeed, been brave and good," he said; "we truly love youfor what you have done. Presently we will take you to a kindly housewhere you shall be nursed--"
"Nay, my captain," she whispered, smiling up at him gladly, "it iskind--yes, most sweet to hear you speak thus. But it is better that theLittle Marie should die out here with your arm about her, and beforethe sun of this happy day goes quite down. Ah, if she had stayed in thefields always she might have been better, purer, perhaps--who knows?But then she had never known you, my captain. Maybe it is better as itis. At least, it is good to have known one true man."
She was silent a space. Wat tried hard to remember a prayer. Scarlettwhistled a marching tune under his breath to keep from angry,rebellious weeping. The dying girl spoke again.
"Do not quite forget the Little Marie," she said; "her heart would nothave been all bad--if only you had been there sooner to teach her howto be good."
She smiled up at him with eyes over which a pale, filmy haze wasgathering. She put her hand a little farther about his neck and sobrought her face nearer to his.
"Did I not lead them well?" she said, eagerly and gladly; "tellme--even _she_ could not have done it better! Ah! love, but this ispassing sweet," she went on, more slowly and plaintively; "it is goodto be held up thus, and to watch death coming to me so softly, almostsweetly. Dear, just say once that what I did was well done, and that noone at all could have done it better for you."
"None has ever done so much for me, none so given all for me, as youhave done, Little Marie!" murmured Wat, his tears dropping down on thepale face of the girl--who, if she had sinned greatly, had also greatlyloved.
"It is true, and I am glad," she said again, "even your love of lovesherself could do no more than die for you!"
Her smile fixed itself. Her eyes grew hazier, but their long, stilllook stayed intently and happily upon Wat's face. Murmuring a prayer,he bent and kissed the fair brow that was now growing cold as marble.At the touch of his lips a light, as from a paradise beyond, flamed upfor a moment in the girl's eyes. Her smile grew infinitely sweeter, andthe rigid lines of pain about the mouth relaxed.
"My captain--O my captain!" she whispered, sweetly as a little childthat closes its eyes and nestles into sleep upon a loving shoulder.
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