CHAPTER XLIV
"FOR ROLLO'S SAKE"
Yet for all this brave adventure Concha was as far as ever from meetingwith General Elio. She had not even reached Vera, where it sits proudlyon the northern slopes of the Moncayo--not though El Sarria had quitecorrectly pointed out the path, and though La Perla had served her likethe very pearl and pride of all Andalucian steeds.
For once more, as so often in this history and in all men's lives, thecup had slipped on its way to the lip, the expected unexpected hadhappened--and Concha found herself in the wrong camp.
She rode at full speed (as we have seen) out of sight--that is, thesight of La Perla's owner. And owing to the red _boina_--which MasterAdrian considered to become her so well, she came very near to ridingout of this history. For, through the higher _arroyo_ of Aranda deMoncayo, which (like a slice cut clean out of a bride's cake) dividesthe shoulder of the mountain, she rode directly into the camp of a fieldforce operating against Cabrera under the personal command of GeneralEspartero, the future dictator and present Commander-in-Chief of all thearmies of the Queen-Regent.
At first she was nowise startled, thinking only that Vera and GeneralElio were nearer than had been represented. "Well," she thought, "somuch the better!"
But as she came near she saw the measured tread of sentries to and fro.She observed the spick-and-span tents, the uniforms and the shiningbarrels of the muskets, which in another moment would have arrested herheadlong course.
Concha at once perceived, even without looking at the standard whichdrooped at the tent door of the officer in command, that this could beno mere headquarters of Carlist _partidas_.
As women are said by the Wise Man to be of their lover's religion if hehave one, and if he have none, never to miss it; so Concha was quiteready to be of the politics which were most likely to deliver Rollo fromhis present difficulties. Therefore, taking the red _boina_ from herhead, an act which disturbed still more the severe precision of herlocks, she dashed at full speed into the camp, crying, "_Viva la Reina!Viva Maria Cristina! Viva Isabel Segunda!_"
Checking her steed before the standard, Concha first saluted thesurprised group. Then giving a hand to the nearest (and best-looking)officer, she dismounted with a spring light as the falling of a leaffrom a tree. With great solemnity she advanced to the staff from whichthe heavy standard hung low, and taking the embroidered fringe betweenfinger and thumb, touched it with her lips.
Yet if you had called our little Concha a humbug--which in certainaspects of her character would have been a perfectly properdescription--she would have replied in the utmost simplicity, and with acompletely disarming smile, "But I only did it for Rollo's sake!"
Which was true in its way, but (strangely enough) the thought of anaudience always stirred Mistress Concha to do her best--"for Rollo'ssake!"
"Take me to the General," she said, with a glance round the circle; "Ihave ridden from the camp of the enemy to bring him tidings of theutmost importance. Every moment is precious!"
"But the General is asleep," a staff-officer objected; "he gave ordersthat he was not to be called on any account."
"Tell him that upon his hearing my news depend the lives of theQueen-Regent and her daughter, the young Queen. The Cause itself hangsin the balance!"
And to hear Concha pronounce the last words was enough to have made aconvert of Don Carlos himself. Who could have supposed that till withina few hours she had been heart and soul with the enemies of "The Cause"?Certainly not the smart Madrid officers who stood round, wishing thatthey had shaved more recently, and that their "other" uniforms had notbeen hanging, camphor-scented on account of the moths, in theclose-shuttered lodgings about the Puerta del Sol.
The Commander-in-Chief solved the difficulty, however, at that verymoment, by appearing opportunely at the door of his tent.
General Espartero at this time was a man of forty-five. His services inSouth America had touched his hair with grey. In figure he was heavilybuilt, but, in spite of fever-swamps and battle-wounds, still erect andsoldierly.
"What news does the _Senorita_ bring?" he asked with a pleasant smile.
"That I can only tell to yourself, General," the girl answered; "my nameis Concha Cabezos of Seville. My father had the honour to serve withyou in the War of the Independence!"
"And a good soldier he was, _Senorita_," said Espartero, courteously. "Iremember him well at Salamanca. He fought by my side like a brother!"
Now since Concha was well aware that her father had not even beenpresent at that crowning mercy, she smiled, and was comforted to knowthat even the great General Baldomero Espartero was an Andalucian--and ahumbug.
For which the Commander-in-Chief had the less excuse, since _he_ couldnot urge that it was done "for Rollo's sake!"
Concha knew better than to blurt out her news concerning the presence ofthe Queen and her daughter so near the camp. That wise little woman hadher terms to make, and for so much was prepared to give so much.
Therefore from the first word she kept Rollo in the foreground of hernarrative. He it was who, single-handed, had saved the little Queen. Heit was who had defended La Granja against the gipsies. It was, indeed,somewhat unfortunate that the Queen-Regent should have conceived acertain prejudice against him, but then (here Concha smiled) the Generalknew well what these great ladies were--on mountain-heights one day, indeep sea-abysses the next. Rollo had compelled the party to leave theinfected district of La Granja for the healthy one of the Sierra deMoncayo. What else, indeed, could he do? The road to Madrid was in thehands of roving _partidas_ of the malignant, as his Excellency knew, andit was only in this direction that there was any chance of safety. Thatwas Master Rollo's whole offence.
Most unfortunately, however, when on the very threshold of safety, hisparty had been ambushed and taken by Cabrera. But the captor's force wasa small one, and with boldness and caution the whole band of themalignants, together with their prisoners, might be secured. The CarlistGeneral had threatened to murder the two Queens and the Duke ofRianzares at sunrise, as was his butcherly wont. And if Espartero woulddeliver the royal party, not only was his own future assured, but thefortunes of all who had taken any part in the affair.
The General listened carefully, looking all the while, not at Concha,but down at the little folding table of iron which held a map ofNorthern Spain. He continued to draw figures of eight upon it with hisforefinger till Concha's eyes wearied of watching him, as she nervouslywaited his decision.
"How came you here?" he asked at last.
"I borrowed a mare and a Carlist _boina_, and rode hither as fast ashorseflesh could carry me. I heard from a friend of the Cause that yourcommand was in the neighbourhood!"
"And from whom did you receive that intelligence? I thought the fact waspretty well concealed? Indeed, we only arrived an hour ago!"
Concha cast about for a name. The necessary fiction was also, of course,"for Rollo's sake." A thought struck her. She would serve anothercomrade, as it were, _en passant_.
"From a good friend in the Carlist ranks," she said, "one SergeantCardono!"
The General looked a little nonplussed, for, like many generals of allnationalities, he had no slight _penchant_ for omniscience.
"I never heard of him," he said sharply. "Who may he be?"
Concha leaned yet closer and laid a small, soft, brown hand gently uponthe General's gold-embroidered cuff. The General, not being so simple ashe looked, drew back his arm a little so that the hand rested a momenton his wrist ("for Rollo's sake") before it was gently withdrawn.
"You have heard of Jose Maria of Ronda?" she whispered.
The General's face lighted up, and as swiftly dulled down.
"Certainly; what Andalucian has not?" he said. "But Jose Maria is dead.He was executed at Salamanca!"
"Ah," said Concha, "that tale was for the consumption of Don Carlos andhis friends! In fact, he is the best spy we Nationals ever had--aye, orever will have!"
"Ah!" said Espartero, lost in tho
ught. There were some matters whichseemed to need clearing up, but on the whole the thing looked probable.
Espartero had but recently been appointed to the district, and, being anAndalucian, he was naturally still imperfectly acquainted with much thathad been done by his many incapable predecessors. Now, it is true thaton this occasion our Concha was inventing or rather (for the word is ahard one to use of so charming a personality) restating as facts certainhints which had fallen from the lips of La Giralda. But she was alsospeaking from a profound knowledge of gipsy nature, which, as in thecase of Ezquerra and La Giralda herself, never attaches itselfpermanently or from conviction to any cause, but uses all equallyaccording to whim, liking, or self-interest.
Concha, in a whirlwind of excitement, would have liked the General toattack the Carlist camp immediately, but the more cautious Don Baldomeroonly shook his head.
"That is all very well when a small force is to be rushed at any cost,"he said, "or a strong position taken along lines previously studied bydaylight or opened up by artillery. But when our object is to preservethe lives of persons so important to the world as the royal family ofSpain, lying at the mercy of ruffians who would not hesitate to murderevery one of them in cold blood--it is best to wait for the attack tillthe morning. So I will push forward my forces on all sides, and, if allgoes well, surprise Cabrera at the earliest glimmering of dawn."
"And my friends who have suffered so much to bring this about?" urgedConcha, anxiously. "What of them?"
"I promise you, on my honour, that they shall be protected andrewarded!" said Espartero.
"And Don Rollo, the brave Scot--even if the Queen continues to dislikehim?" persisted Concha.
"_Senorita_," smiled the General, "it will be a vastly greater peril tothe young man, I fear, if _you_ like him! He will have so many jealousrivals on his hand!"
For Baldomero Espartero also was an Andalucian, and the men of thatprovince, high and low, never permit themselves to get out of practicewhen there is opportunity for a compliment.
Concha looked the General full in the face with her deep, magnificenteyes, which were aquamarine, violet, or dark-grey, according to thelight upon them. They were (as she would sometimes own) fallacious eyes,and upon occasion were wont to express far more than their owner meantto stand by. But, the latent love power behind them once fixed, thesesame eyes could convince the most sceptical of the unalterable nature ofthe affection which they professed. So it was in the present instance.Concha merely looked at the General squarely for a moment, and said,without flinching, "_I love him!_"
Espartero stooped and touched her brow lightly with his lips, graciouslyand tenderly as a father might upon a solemn occasion. Then he gatheredup her little brown hands in his. They were trembling now, notrock-steady as when they held the musket on the balcony at La Granja.
"My daughter," he said, "do not fear for your young Scot. Queens andconsorts and premiers are not the most powerful folk in Spain--not, atleast, so long as Baldomero Espartero, the Andalucian, commands thosegood lads out there!"
Then the future Dictator stepped to his tent door, summoned a staffofficer, and ordered him to put a tent at the disposal of the young_Senorita_. "And request the commandants of the several columns to comeimmediately to me at headquarters, as also the gipsy-spy Ezquerra, ourlate headsman of Salamanca!"
Thus did Mistress Concha, "for Rollo's sake!"
The Firebrand Page 44