Maurice Tiernay, Soldier of Fortune

by Charles James Lever

  CHAPTER XXXIV. GENOA IN THE SIEGE

  Up a straight street, so steep and so narrow that it seemed a stair,with hundreds of men crowding around me, I was borne along. Now, theywere sailors who carried me; now, white-bearded grenadiers, with theirbronzed, bold faces; now, they were the wild-looking Faquini of theMole, with long-tasselled red caps, and gaudy sashes around theirwaists. Windows were opened on either side as we went, and eager facesprotruded to stare at me; and then there were shouts and cries oftriumphant joy bursting forth at every moment, amidst which I could hearthe ever-recurring words--'Escaped from the English fleet.'

  By what means, or when, I had exchanged my dripping trousers of coarsesailcloth for the striped gear of our republican mode--how one had givenme his jacket, another a cap, and a third a shirt--I knew not; but thereI was, carried along in triumph, half fainting from exhaustion, andalmost maddened by excitement. That I must have told something of myhistory--Heaven knows how incoherently and unconnectedly--is plainenough, for I could hear them repeating one to the other--'Had servedwith Moreau's corps in the Black Forest;' 'A hussar of the Ninth;' 'Oneof Humbert's fellows'; and so on.

  As we turned into a species of 'Place,' a discussion arose as to whitherthey should convey me. Some were for the 'Cavalry Barracks,' that Imight be once more with those who resembled my old comrades. Others,more considerate, were for the hospital; but a staff-officer decided thequestion by stating that the general was at that very moment receivingthe report in the church of the Annunziata, and that he ought to see meat once.

  'Let the poor fellow have some refreshment,' cried one. 'Here, takethis, it's coffee.' 'No, no, the _petite goutte_ is hotter--try thatflask.' 'He shall have my chocolate,' said an old major, from the doorof a cafe; and thus they pressed and solicited me with a generosity thatI had yet to learn how dear it cost.

  'He ought to be dressed'; 'He should be in uniform'; 'Is better as heis'; 'The general will not speak to him thus'; 'He will'; 'He must.'

  Such, and such like, kept buzzing around me, as with reeling brain andconfused vision they bore me up the great steps, and carried me intoa gorgeous church, the most splendidly ornamented building I had everbeheld. Except, however, in the decorations of the ceiling, and theimages of saints which figured in niches high up, every trace of areligious edifice had disappeared. The pulpit had gone--the chairs andseats for the choir, the confessionals, the shrines, altars--all hadbeen uprooted, and a large table, at which some twenty officers wereseated writing, now occupied the elevated platform of the high altar,while here and there stood groups of officers, with their reports fromtheir various corps or parties in out-stations. Many of these drew nearto me as I entered, and now the buzz of voices in question and rejoinderswelled into a loud noise; and while some were recounting my feat withall the seeming accuracy of eye-witnesses, others were as resolutelyprotesting it all to be impossible. Suddenly the tumult was hushed, thecrowd fell back, and as the clanking muskets proclaimed 'a salute,' awhispered murmur announced the 'general.'

  I could just see the waving plumes of his staff, as they passed up; andthen, as they were disappearing in the distance, they stopped, and onehastily returned to the entrance of the church.

  'Where is this fellow? let me see him,' cried he hurriedly, brushing hisway through the crowd. 'Let him stand down; set him on his legs.'

  'He is too weak, _capitaine_,' said a soldier.

  'Place him in a chair, then,' said the aide-de-camp, for such he was.'You have made your escape from the English fleet, my man?' continuedhe, addressing me.

  'I am an officer, and your comrade,' replied I proudly; for with all mydebility, the tone of his address stung me to the quick.

  'In what service, pray?' asked he, with a sneering look at my motleycostume.

  'Your general shall hear where I have served, and how, whenever he ispleased to ask me,' was my answer.

  'Ay, _parbleu!_, cried three or four _sous-officiers_ in a breath, 'thegeneral shall see him himself.'

  And with a jerk they hoisted me once more on their shoulders, and with arun--the regular storming tramp of the line--they advanced up the aisleof the church, and never halted till within a few feet of where thestaff were gathered around the general. A few words--they sounded like areprimand--followed; a severe voice bade the soldiers 'fall back,' andI found myself standing alone before a tall and very strongly builtman, with a large, red-brown beard; he wore a grey upper coat over hisuniform, and carried a riding-whip in his hand.

  'Get him a seat. Let him have a glass of wine,' cried he quickly, as hesaw the tottering efforts I was making to keep my legs. 'Are you betternow?' asked he, in a voice which, rough as it was, sounded kindly.

  Seeing me so far restored, he desired me to recount my late adventure,which I did in the fewest words, and the most concise fashion, I could.Although never interrupting, I could mark that particular portions ofmy narrative made much impression on him, and he could not repress agesture of impatience when I told him that I was impressed as a seamanto fight against the flag of my own country.

  'Of course, then,' cried he, 'you were driven to the alternative of thisattempt.'

  'Not so, general,' said I, interrupting; 'I had grown to be veryindifferent about my own fortunes. I had become half fatalist as tomyself. It was on very different grounds, indeed, that I dared thisdanger. It was to tell you, for if I mistake not I am addressing GeneralMassvna, tidings of deep importance.'

  I said these words slowly and deliberately, and giving them all theimpressiveness I was able.

  'Come this way, friend,' said he, and, assisting me to arise, he led mea short distance off, and desired me to sit down on the steps in frontof the altar railing. 'Now, you may speak freely. I am the GeneralMassena, and I have only to say, that if you really have intelligence ofany value for me, you shall be liberally rewarded; but if you have not,and if the pretence be merely an effort to impose on one whose caresand anxieties are already hard to bear, it would be better that you hadperished on sea than tried to attempt it.'

  There was a stern severity in the way he said this, which for a momentor two actually overpowered me. It was quite clear that he looked forsome positive fact, some direct piece of information on which he mightimplicitly rely; and here was I now with nothing save the gossip of someEnglish lieutenants, the idle talk of inexperienced young officers.I was silent. From the bottom of my heart I wished that I had neverreached the shore, to stand in a position of such humiliation as this.

  'So, then, my caution was not unneeded,' said the general, as he benthis heavy brows upon me. 'Now, sir, there is but one amende you can makefor this; tell me frankly, have others sent you on this errand, or isthe scheme entirely of your own devising? Is this an English plot, or isthere a Bourbon element in it?'

  'Neither one nor the other,' said I boldly, for indignation at last gaveme courage. 'I hazarded my life to tell you what I overheard among theofficers of the fleet yonder; you may hold their judgment cheap; you maynot think their counsels worth the pains of listening to; but I couldform no opinion of this, and only thought if these tidings could reachyou, you might profit by them.'

  'And what are they?' asked he bluntly.

  'They said that your force was wasting away by famine and disease; thatyour supplies could not hold out above a fortnight; that your granarieswere empty, and your hospitals filled.'

  'They scarcely wanted the gift of second-sight to see this,' said hebitterly. 'A garrison in close siege for four months may be suspected ofas much.'

  'Yes; but they said that as Soult's force fell back upon the city, yourposition would be rendered worse.'

  'Fell back from where?' asked he, with a searching look at me.

  'As I understood, from the Apennines,' replied I, growing more confidentas I saw that he became more attentive. 'If I understood them aright,Soult held a position called the "Monte Faccio." Is there such a name?'

  'Go on,' said he, with a nod of assent.

  'That this could not long be tenable w
ithout gaining the highestfortified point of the mountain. The "Monte Creto" they named it.'

  'The attempt on which has failed!' said Massena, as if carried away bythe subject; 'and Soult himself is a prisoner! Go on.'

  'They added, that now but one hope remained for this army.'

  'And what was that, sir?' said he fiercely. 'What suggestion of cunningstrategy did these sea-wolves intimate?'

  'To cut your way through the blockade, and join Suchet's corps,attacking the Austrians at the Monte Ratte, and by the sea-road gainingthe heights of Bochetta.'

  'Do these heroic spirits know the strength of the same Austrian corps?did they tell you that it numbered fifty-four thousand bayonets?'

  'They called them below forty thousand; and that now that Bonaparte wason his way through the Alps, perhaps by this over the Mount Cenis----'

  'What! did they say this? Is Bonaparte so near us?' cried he, placing ahand on either shoulder, as he stared me in the face.

  'Yes; there is no doubt of that. The despatch to Lord Keith brought thenews a week ago, and there is no secret made about it in the fleet.'

  'Over Mount Cenis!' repeated he to himself. 'Already in Italy!'

  'Holding straight for Milan, Lord Keith thinks,' added I.

  'No, sir, straight for the Tuileries,' cried Massena sternly; andthen correcting himself suddenly, he burst into a forced laugh. I mustconfess that the speech puzzled me sorely at the time, but I livedto learn its meaning; and many a time have I wondered at the shrewdforesight which even then read the ambitious character of the futureEmperor.

  'Of this fact, then, you are quite certain. Bonaparte is on his marchhither?'

  'I have heard it spoken of every day for the last week,' replied I; 'andit was in consequence of this that the English officers used to remark,if Massena but knew it, he'd make a dash at them, and clear his waythrough at once.'

  'They said this, did they?' said he, in a low voice, and as if ponderingover it.

  'Yes; one and all agreed in thinking there could not be a doubt of theresult.'

  'Where have you served, sir?' asked he, suddenly turning on me, and witha look that showed he was resolved to test the character of the witness.

  'With Moreau, sir, on the Rhine and the Schwarz-wald; in Ireland withHumbert.'

  'Your regiment?'

  'The Ninth Hussar.'

  'The "Tapageurs"' said he, laughing. 'I know them, and glad I am not tohave their company here at this moment; you were a lieutenant?'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'Well, supposing that, on the faith of what you have told me, I wasto follow the wise counsel of these gentlemen, would you like thealternative of gaining your promotion in the event of success, or beingshot by a _peloton_ if we fail.'

  'They seem sharp terms, sir,' said I, smiling, 'when it is rememberedthat no individual efforts of mine can either promote one result or theother.'

  'Ay, but they can, sir,' cried he quickly. 'If you should turn out tobe an Austro-English spy; if these tidings be of a character to leadmy troops into danger; if, in reliance on you, I should be led tocompromise the honour and safety of a French army--your life, were itworth ten thousand times over your own value of it, would be a sorryrecompense. Is this intelligible?'

  'Far more intelligible than flattering,' said I, laughing; for I sawthat the best mode to treat him was by an imitation of his own frank andcareless humour. 'I have already risked that life you hold so cheaply toconvey this information, but I am still ready to accept the conditionsyou offer me, if, in the event of success, my name appear in thedespatch.'

  He again stared at me with his dark and piercing eyes; but I stoodthe glance with a calm conscience, and he seemed so to read it, for hesaid--

  'Be it so. I will, meanwhile, test your prudence. Let nothing of thisinterview transpire--not a word of it among the officers and comradesyou shall make acquaintance with. You shall serve on my own staff. Gonow, and recruit your strength for a couple of days, and then reportyourself at headquarters when ready for duty.--Latrobe, look to theLieutenant Tiernay; see that he wants for nothing, and let him have ahorse and a uniform as soon as may be.'

  Captain Latrobe, the future General of Division, was then a young gayofficer of about five-and-twenty, very good-looking, and full of lifeand spirits--a buoyancy which the terrible uncertainties of the siegecould not repress.

  'Our general talks nobly, Tiernay,' said he, as he gave me his arm toassist me; 'but you 'll stare when I tell you that "wanting for nothing"means, having four ounces of black bread, and ditto of blue cheese, perdiem; and as to a horse, if I possessed such an animal, I'd have givena dinner-party yesterday and eaten him. You look surprised, but when yousee a little more of us here, you'll begin to think that prison rationsin the fleet yonder were luxuries compared to what we have. No matter,you shall take share of my superabundance; and if I have little else tooffer, I'll show you a view from my window, finer than anything you everlooked on in your life, and with a sea-breeze that would be glorious ifit didn't make one hungry.'

  While he thus rattled on, we reached the street, and there, calling acouple of soldiers forward, he directed them to carry me along to hisquarters, which lay in the upper town, on an elevated plateau thatoverlooked the city and the bay together.

  From the narrow lanes, flanked with tall, gloomy houses, and steep,ill-paved streets, exhibiting poverty and privation of every kind, wesuddenly emerged into an open space of grass, at one side of which ahandsome iron railing stood, with a richly ornamented gate, gorgeouslygilded. Within this was a garden and a fish-pond, surrounded withstatues, and farther on, a long, low villa, whose windows reached tothe ground, and were shaded by a deep awning of striped blue and whitecanvas.

  Camellias, orange-trees, cactuses, and magnolias abounded everywhere;tulips and hyacinths seemed to grow wild; and there was in thehalf-neglected look of the spot something of savage luxuriance thatheightened the effect immensely.

  'This is my Paradise, Tiernay, only wanting an Eve to be perfect,' saidLatrobe, as he set me down beneath a spreading lime-tree. 'Yonder areyour English friends; there they stretch away for miles beyond thatpoint. That's the Monte Creto, you may have heard of; and there'sthe Bochetta. In that valley, to the left, the Austrian outposts arestationed; and from those two heights closer to the shore, they aregracious enough to salute us every evening after sunset, and evenprolong the attention sometimes the whole night through. Turn your eyesin this direction, and you'll see the "cornice" road, that leads to labelle France, but of which we see as much from this spot as we are everlike to do. So much for the geography of our position; and now to lookafter your breakfast. You have, of course, heard that we do not revel insuperfluities. Never was the boasted excellence of our national cookerymore severely tested, for we have successively descended from cows andsheep to goats, horses, donkeys, dogs, occasionally experimenting onhides and shoe-leather, till we ended by regarding a rat as a rarity,and deeming a mouse a delicacy of the season. As for vegetables,there would not have been a flowering plant in all Genoa, if tulipand ranunculus roots had not been bitter as aloes. These seem veryinhospitable confessions, but I make them the more freely since I amabout to treat you _en gourmet_. Come in now, and acknowledge thatjuniper bark isn't bad coffee, and that commissary bread is not to bethought of "lightly."'

  In this fashion did my comrade invite me to a meal, which, even withthis preface, was far more miserable and scanty than I looked for.