Chapter XXII
Grave consequences of gravitation--O'Brien enlists himself as agendarme, and takes charge of me--We are discovered, and obliged to runfor it--The pleasures of a winter bivouac.
It was not until noon that I awoke, when I found that O'Brien hadcovered me more than a foot deep with leaves to protect me from theweather. I felt quite warm and comfortable; my clothes had dried on me,but without giving me cold. "How very kind of you, O'Brien!" said I.
"Not a bit, Peter: you have hard work to go through yet, and I must takecare of you. You're but a bud, and I'm a full-blown rose." So saying, heput the spirit-flask to his mouth, and then handed it to me. "Now,Peter, we must make a start, for depend upon it they will scour thecountry for us; but this is a large wood, and they may as well attemptto find a needle in a bundle of hay, if we once get into the heart ofit."
"I think," said I, "that this forest is mentioned by Shakespeare, in oneof his plays."
"Very likely, Peter," replied O'Brien; "but we are at no playwork now;and what reads amazing prettily, is no joke in reality. I've oftenobserved, that your writers never take the weather into consideration."
"I beg your pardon, O'Brien; in King Lear the weather was tremendous."
"Very likely; but who was the king that went out in such weather?"
"King Lear did, when he was mad."
"So he was, that's certain, Peter; but runaway prisoners have someexcuse; so now for a start."
We set off, forcing our way through the thicket, for about three hours,O'Brien looking occasionally at his pocket compass; it then was againnearly dark, and O'Brien proposed a halt. We made up a bed of leaves forthe night, and slept much more comfortably than we had the night before.All our bread was wet, but as we had no water, it was rather a relief;the meat we had with us was sufficient for a week. Once more we laiddown and fell fast asleep. About five o'clock in the morning I wasroused by O'Brien, who at the same time put his hand gently over mymouth. I sat up, and perceived a large fire not far from us. "ThePhilistines are upon us, Peter," said he; "I have reconnoitred, and theyare the gendarmes. I'm fearful of going away, as we may stumble uponsome more of them. I've been thinking what's best before I waked you;and it appears to me, that we had better get up the tree, and liethere."
At that time we were hidden in a copse of underwood, with a large oak inthe centre, covered with ivy. "I think so too, O'Brien; shall we go upnow, or wait a little?"
"Now, to be sure, that they're eating their prog. Mount you, Peter, andI'll help you."
O'Brien shoved me up the tree, and then waiting a little while to buryour haversacks among the leaves, he followed me. He desired me to remainin a very snug position, on the first fork of the tree, while he tookanother, amongst a bunch of ivy, on the largest bough. There we remainedfor about an hour, when day dawned. We observed the gendarmes musteredat the break of day, by the corporal, and then they all separated indifferent directions, to scour the wood. We were delighted to perceivethis, as we hoped soon to be able to get away; but there was onegendarme who remained. He walked to and fro, looking everywhere, untilhe came directly under the tree in which we were concealed. He pokedabout, until at last he came to the bed of leaves upon which we hadslept; these he turned over and over with his bayonet, until he routedout our haversacks. "Pardi!" exclaimed he, "where the nest and eggs are,the birds are near." He then walked round the tree, looking up intoevery part, but we were well concealed, and he did not discover us forsome time. At last he saw me, and ordered me to come down. I paid noattention to him, as I had no signal from O'Brien. He walked round alittle farther, until he was directly under the branch on which O'Brienlay. Taking up this position, he had a fairer aim at me, and levelledhis musket, saying, "_Descendez, ou je tire_." Still I continuedimmoveable, for I knew not what to do. I shut my eyes, however; themusket shortly afterwards was discharged, and, whether from fear or notI can hardly tell, I lost my hold of a sudden, and down I came. I wasstunned with the fall, and thought that I must have been wounded, andwas very much surprised, when, instead of the gendarme, O'Brien came upto me, and asked whether I was hurt. I answered, I believed not, and gotupon my legs, when I found the gendarme lying on the ground, breathingheavily, but insensible. When O'Brien perceived the gendarme level hismusket at me, he immediately dropped from the bough, right upon hishead; this occasioned the musket to go off, without hitting me, and atthe same time, the weight of O'Brien's body from such a height killedthe gendarme, for he expired before we left him. "Now, Peter," saidO'Brien, "this is the most fortunate thing in the world, and will takeus half through the country; but we have no time to lose." He thenstripped the gendarme, who still breathed heavily, and dragging him toour bed of leaves, covered him up, threw off his own clothes, which hetied in a bundle, and gave to me to carry, and put on those of thegendarme. I could not help laughing at the metamorphosis, and askedO'Brien what he intended. "Sure, I'm a gendarme, bringing with me aprisoner, who has escaped." He then tied my hands with a cord,shouldered his musket, and off we set. We now quitted the wood as soonas we could; for O'Brien said that he had no fear for the next ten days;and so it proved. We had one difficulty, which was, that we were goingthe wrong way; but that was obviated by travelling mostly at night, whenno questions were asked, except at the cabarets, where we lodged, andthey did not know which way we came. When we stopped at night, my youthexcited a great deal of commiseration, especially from the females; andin one instance I was offered assistance to escape. I consented to it,but at the same time informed O'Brien of the plan proposed. O'Brien keptwatch--I dressed myself, and was at the open window, when he rushed in,seizing me, and declaring that he would inform the Government of theconduct of the parties. Their confusion and distress were very great.They offered O'Brien twenty, thirty, forty Napoleons, if he would hushit up, for they were aware of the penalty and imprisonment. O'Brienreplied that he would not accept of any money in compromise of his duty;that after he had given me into the charge of the gendarme of the nextpost, his business was at an end, and he must return to Flushing, wherehe was stationed.
"I have a sister there," replied the hostess, "who keeps an inn. You'llwant good quarters, and a friendly cup; do not denounce us, and I'llgive you a letter to her, which, if it does not prove of service, youcan then return and give the information."
O'Brien consented; the letter was delivered, and read to him, in whichthe sister was requested, by the love she bore to the writer, to do allshe could for the bearer, who had the power of making the whole familymiserable, but had refused so to do. O'Brien pocketed the letter, filledhis brandy-flask, and saluting all the women, left the cabaret, draggingme after him with a cord. The only difference, as O'Brien observed afterhe went out, was, that he (O'Brien) kissed all the women, and all thewomen kissed me. In this way, we had proceeded by Charleroy and Louvain,and were within a few miles of Malines, when a circumstance occurredwhich embarrassed us not a little. We were following our route, avoidingMalines, which was a fortified town, and at the time were in a narrowlane, with wide ditches, full of water, on each side. At the turning ofa sharp corner, we met the gendarme who had supplied O'Brien with a mapof the town of Givet. "Good morning, comrade," said he to O'Brien,looking earnestly at him, "whom have we here?"
"A young Englishman, whom I picked up close by, escaped from prison."
"Where from?"
"He will not say; but I suspect from Givet."
"There are two who have escaped from Givet," replied he: "how theyescaped no one can imagine; but," continued he, again looking atO'Brien, "_avec les braves, il n'y a rien d'impossible_."
"That is true," replied O'Brien; "I have taken one, the other cannot befar off. You had better look for him."
"I should like to find him," replied the gendarme, "for you know that toretake a runaway prisoner is certain promotion. You will be made acorporal."
"So much the better," replied O'Brien; "_adieu, mon ami_."
"Nay, I merely came for a walk, and will return with you to Mal
ines,where of course you are bound."
"We shall not get there to-night," said O'Brien, "my prisoner is toomuch fatigued."
"Well, then, we will go as far as we can; and I will assist you. Perhapswe may find the second, who, I understand, obtained a map of thefortress by some means or other."
We at once perceived that we were discovered. He afterwards told us thatthe body of a gendarme had been found in the wood, no doubt murdered bythe prisoners, and that the body was stripped naked. "I wonder,"continued he, "whether one of the prisoners put on his clothes, andpassed as a gendarme."
"Peter," said O'Brien, "are we to murder this man or not?"
"I should say not: pretend to trust him, and then we may give him theslip." This was said during the time that the gendarme stopped a momentbehind us.
"Well, we'll try; but first I'll put him off his guard." When thegendarme came up with us, O'Brien observed, that the English prisonerswere very liberal; that he knew that a hundred Napoleons were often paidfor assistance, and he thought that no corporal's rank was equal to asum that would in France make a man happy and independent for life.
"Very true," replied the gendarme; "and let me only look upon that sum,and I will guarantee a positive safety out of France."
"Then we understand each other," replied O'Brien; "this boy will givetwo hundred--one half shall be yours, if you will assist."
"I will think of it," replied the gendarme, who then talked aboutindifferent subjects, until we arrived at a small town, called Acarchot,where we proceeded to a cabaret. The usual curiosity passed over we wereleft alone, O'Brien telling the gendarme that he would expect his replythat night or to-morrow morning. The gendarme said, to-morrow morning.O'Brien requesting him to take charge of me, he called the woman of thecabaret to show him a room; she showed him one or two, which he refused,as not sufficiently safe for the prisoner. The woman laughed at theidea, observing, "What had he to fear from a _pauvre enfant_ like me?"
"Yet this _pauvre enfant_ escaped from Givet," replied O'Brien; "theseEnglishmen are devils from their birth." The last room showed to O'Briensuited him, and he chose it--the woman not presuming to contradict agendarme. As soon as they came down again, O'Brien ordered me to bed,and went up-stairs with me. He bolted the door, and pulling me to thelarge chimney, we put our heads up, and whispered, that our conversationshould not be heard. "This man is not to be trusted," said O'Brien, "andwe must give him the slip. I know my way out of the inn, and we mustreturn the way we came, and then strike off in another direction."
"But will he permit us?"
"Not if he can help it; but I shall soon find out his manoeuvres."
O'Brien then went and stopped the key-hole, by hanging his handkerchiefacross it, and stripping himself of his gendarme uniform, put on his ownclothes; then he stuffed the blankets and pillow into the gendarme'sdress, and laid it down on the outside of the bed, as if it were a mansleeping in his clothes--indeed, it was an admirable deception. He laidhis musket by the side of the image, and then did the same to my bed,making it appear as if there was a person asleep in it, of my size, andputting my cap on the pillow. "Now, Peter, we'll see if he is watchingus. He will wait till he thinks we are asleep." The light still remainedin the room, and about an hour afterwards we heard a noise of onetreading on the stairs, upon which, as agreed, we crept under the bed.The latch of our door was tried, and finding it open, which he did notexpect, the gendarme entered, and looking at both beds, went away."Now," said I, after the gendarme had gone down-stairs, "O'Brien, oughtwe not to escape?"
"I've been thinking of it, Peter, and I have come to a resolution thatwe can manage it better. He is certain to come again in an hour or two.It is only eleven. Now I'll play him a trick." O'Brien then took one ofthe blankets, make it fast to the window, which he left wide open, andat the same time disarranged the images he had made up, so as to let thegendarme perceive that they were counterfeit. We again crept under thebed, and as O'Brien foretold, in about an hour more the gendarmereturned; our lamp was still burning, but he had a light of his own. Helooked at the beds, perceived at once that he had been duped, went tothe open window, and then exclaimed, "_Sacre Dieu! ils m'ont echappes etje ne suis plus caporal. F----tre! a la chasse_!" He rushed out of theroom, and in a minute afterwards we heard him open the street door, andgo away.
"That will do, Peter," said O'Brien, laughing; "now we'll be off also,although there's no great hurry." O'Brien then resumed his dress of agendarme; and about an hour afterwards we went down, and wishing thehostess all happiness, quitted the cabaret, returning the same road bywhich we had come. "Now, Peter," said O'Brien, "we're in a bit of apuzzle. This dress won't do any more, still there's a respectabilityabout it, which will not allow me to put it off till the last moment."We walked on till daylight, when we hid ourselves in a copse of trees.At night we again started for the forest of Ardennes, for O'Brien saidour best chance was to return, until they supposed that we had had timeto effect our escape; but we never reached the forest, for on the nextday a violent snowstorm came on; it continued without intermission forfour days, during which we suffered much. Our money was not exhausted,as I had drawn upon my father for L60, which, with the disadvantageousexchange, had given me fifty Napoleons. Occasionally O'Brien crept intoa cabaret, and obtained provisions; but, as we dared not be seentogether as before, we were always obliged to sleep in the open air, theground being covered more than three feet with snow. On the fifth day,being then six days from the forest of Ardennes, we hid ourselves in asmall wood, about a quarter of a mile from the road. I remained therewhile O'Brien, as a gendarme, went to obtain provisions. As usual, Ilooked out for the best shelter during his absence, and what was myhorror at falling in with a man and woman who lay dead in the snow,having evidently perished from the weather. Just as I discovered them,O'Brien returned, and I told him; he went with me to view the bodies.They were dressed in a strange attire, ribands pinned upon theirclothes, and two pairs of very high stilts lying by their sides. O'Briensurveyed them, and then said, "Peter, this is the very best thing thatcould have happened to us. We may now walk through France withoutsoiling our feet with the cursed country."
"How do you mean?"
"I mean," said he, "that these are the people that we met nearMontpelier, who come from the Landes, walking about on their stilts forthe amusement of others, to obtain money. In their own country they areobliged to walk so. Now, Peter, it appears to me that the man's clotheswill fit me, and the girl's (poor creature, how pretty she looks, coldin death!) will fit you. All we have to do is to practise a little, andthen away we start."
O'Brien then, with some difficulty, pulled off the man's jacket andtrowsers, and having so done, buried him in the snow. The poor girl wasdespoiled of her gown and upper petticoat, with every decency, and alsoburied. We collected the clothes and stilts, and removed to anotherquarter of the wood, where we found a well-sheltered spot, and took ourmeal. As we did not travel that night as usual, we had to prepare ourown bed. We scraped away the snow, and made ourselves as comfortable aswe could without a fire, but the weather was dreadful.
"Peter," said O'Brien, "I'm melancholy. Here, drink plenty;" and hehanded me the flask of spirits, which had never been empty.
"Drink more, Peter."
"I cannot, O'Brien, without being tipsy."
"Never mind that, drink more; see how these two poor devils lost theirlives by falling asleep in the snow. Peter," said O'Brien, starting up,"you sha'n't sleep here--follow me."
I expostulated in vain. It was almost dark, and he led me to thevillage, near which he pitched upon a hovel (a sort of out-house)."Peter, here is shelter; lie down and sleep, and I'll keep the watch.Not a word, I will have it--down at once."
I did so, and in a very few minutes was fast asleep, for I was worn outwith cold and fatigue. For several days we had walked all night, and therest we gained by day was trifling. Oh how I longed for a warm bed withfour or five blankets! Just as the day broke, O'Brien roused me; he hadstood sentry all
night, and looked very haggard.
"O'Brien, you are ill," said I.
"Not a bit; but I've emptied the brandy-flask; and that's a bad job.However, it is to be remedied."
We then returned to the wood in a mizzling rain and fog, for the weatherhad changed, and the frost had broken up. The thaw was even worse thanthe frost, and we felt the cold more. O'Brien again insisted upon mysleeping in the out-house, but this time I positively refused without hewould also sleep there, pointing out to him, that we ran no more risk,and perhaps not so much, as if he stayed outside. Finding I waspositive, he at last consented, and we both gained it unperceived. Welay down, but I did not go to sleep for some time, I was so anxious tosee O'Brien fast asleep. He went in and out several times, during whichI pretended to be fast asleep; at last it rained in torrents, and thenhe lay down again, and in a few minutes, overpowered by nature, he fellfast asleep, snoring so loudly, that I was afraid some one would hearus. I then got up and watched, occasionally lying down and slumberingawhile, and then going to the door.
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