An Infamous Army (Alastair-Audley Tetralogy 4)

He came back a little after eleven, and found that Judith and Barbara were still up. ‘I called at Creevey’s,’ he said. ‘Hamilton had been in during the evening on an errand for General Barnes, and of course dropped in on Creevey, to see Miss Ord. The result was still uncertain when he left the field, but Creevey got the impression from him that it was going in our favour. Charles was safe when he left the field: he saw him trying to rally the Belgians, who had had enough, just as he came away. Hamilton reports them as having done well at the start, but they won’t stand like our own men. The worst, so far, is that the Duke of Brunswick has fallen. He was killed by a ball passing through his hand to his heart. Hamilton did not mention many of the casualties. The Highlanders have suffered most. Fassiefern and Macara have both fallen; young Hay has gone, too; but I heard of no one else whom we know.’

‘Hay!’ Barbara lifted her hand to shade her eyes for a moment. ‘That boy! Ah, how wanton, how damnable! But go on! If Hay was present, Maitland’s brigade must have come up. Could you get no news of Harry?’

‘No; Creevey was positive Hamilton mentioned only Hay, and one other, whose name I forget.’

Judith said: ‘Depend upon it, he would have told Mr Creevey had your brother been killed.’

‘He might not know. But never mind that! What else could you discover, Lord Worth? Shall we hold our ground?’

‘I see no reason why we should not. It appears that reinforcements have been arriving ever since five o’clock. The most serious part of the business is that we have no cavalry there worth mentioning. The infantry has done magnificently, however: Hamilton told Creevey that nothing could equal their endurance. Only their steadiness under the onslaughts of Kellermann’s cuirassiers saved the day for us at one point. The Belgian and Brunswick cavalry were scattered; our whole position was completely turned, and might have been carried but for the Highlanders—I think he said the 92nd, but I might mistake. The Duke directed them in person, charging them not to fire until he gave the word. They obeyed him implicitly, though he allowed the cuirassiers to come within thirty paces before giving the order for a volley. The attack was completely repulsed, Kellermann drawing off in a good deal of disorder. Hamilton seems to have been full of enthusiasm for the Duke’s coolness. It appears he has been everywhere at once, exposing himself in the most reckless fashion.’

‘Surely he should not do so.’

‘So I think, but you will not get his officers to agree. Even those who dislike him will tell you that the sight of his long nose among them does more to steady the troops than the arrival of a division to support them. He seems to bear a charmed life. What do you think of his being nearly taken by a party of Lancers when the Brunswick Hussars broke under the musketry-fire? He was forced to gallop for his life, made for a ditch lined by the Gordon Highlanders, sang out to them to lie still, and cleared the fence, bayonets and all!’

They remained for some time discussing the news, but the clock striking midnight soon recalled them to a sense of the lateness of the hour. All sound of firing had died away at ten o’clock; nothing had been heard of since; and they could not but believe that if a defeat had been suffered news of it must have reached them. Judith and Barbara went up to their rooms, but they had scarcely begun to undress when the noise of heavy carriages rumbling over the cobbles reached their ears. Nothing could be seen from the windows but people running out of doors to find out what was going on. Shouts and cries seemed to come from all parts of the town; and Judith, pausing only to fling a wrap round her shoulders, hurried to find Worth. He had not yet come upstairs, and called to her from the ground-floor to do nothing until he had discovered what was happening. He went out; Barbara joined Judith in the salon, and they sat in a state of apprehension that made it impossible for either to utter anything but a few occasional, disjointed sentences.

They were soon roused from this condition by the necessity of calming the ser

vants, some of whom were hysterical with fright. Barbara went out into the hall among them, and very soon restored order. While Judith occupied herself with reassuring those whose alarm had had the effect of bereaving them of all power of speech or of action, she dealt in a more drastic manner with the rest, swearing at the butler, and emptying jugs of water over any fille de chambre unwise enough to fall into a fit of hysterics.

By the time Worth returned, the household was quiet, and Barbara had gone back into the salon with Judith, who had temporarily forgotten her own fears in amusement at her guest’s ruthless methods.

Worth brought reassuring tidings. The noise they had heard had been caused by a long train of artillery, passing through the town on its way to the battlefield. The panic had arisen from a false notion having got about that the train was in retreat. People had rushed out of their houses in every stage of undress; a rumour that the French were coming had spread like wildfire; and the greatest confusion reigned until it became evident, even to the most foolish in the crowd, that the artillery was moving, not away from the field of action but towards it.

‘Is that all?’ exclaimed Barbara. ‘Well, if there is no immediate need for us to become heroines we may as well go to bed. I, at any rate, shall do so.’

‘Oh,’ said Judith, with a little show of playfulness, ‘you need not think that I shall be behind you in sangfroid: you have put me quite on my mettle!’

Goodnights were exchanged; both ladies retired again to their rooms, each with a much better opinion of the other than she had had at the beginning of what, in retrospect, seemed to have been the longest day of her life.

Nineteen

The night was disturbed. Many of the Bruxellois seemed to be afraid to go to bed, and spent the hours sitting in their houses with ears on the prick, ready to run out into the streets at the smallest alarm. Just before dawn a melancholy cortège entered the town, bearing the Duke of Brunswick’s body. Numbers of spectators saw it pass through the streets. The sable uniforms of the Black Brunswickers, the grim skull-and-crossbones device upon their caps and the grief in their faces, awed the thin crowds into silence. A feeling of dismay was created; when the sad procession had passed, people dispersed slowly, some to wander about in an aimless fashion till daylight, others returning to their houses to lie down fully clothed upon their beds or to drop uneasily asleep in chairs.

Between five and six in the morning, after an interval of quiet, commotion broke out again. A troop of Belgian cavalry, entering by the Namur Gate, galloped through the town in the wildest disorder, overturning market-carts, thundering over the cobbles, their smart green uniforms white with dust and their horses foaming. They had all the appearance of men hotly pursued, and scarcely drew rein in their race through the town to the Ninove Gate. All was panic; they were shouting: ‘Les Français sont ici!’ and the words were immediately taken up by the terrified crowds who saw them pass. The French were said to be only a few miles outside the town, the Allied Army in full retreat before them. Distracted Belgians ran to collect their more precious belongings, and then wandered about, carrying the oddest collection of goods, not knowing where to go, or what to do. Women became hysterical, filles de chambre rushing into hotel bedrooms to rouse sleepy visitors with the news that the French were at the gates; mothers clasping their children in their arms and screaming at their husbands to transport them instantly to safety. The drivers of the carts and the wagons drawn up in the Place Royale caught the infection; no sooner had the cavalry flashed through the great square than they set off down every street, rocking and lurching over the pavé in their gallop for the Ninove Gate. In a few minutes the Place was deserted, except for the people who still drifted about, spreading the dreadful news, or begging complete strangers for the hire of a pair of horses; and for a few market-carts driven into the town by stolid peasants in sabots and red night-caps, who seemed scarcely to understand what all the pandemonium was about.

Many of the English visitors behaved little better. Some of those who, on the night of the 15th, had stoutly declared their intention of remaining in Brussels, now ordered their carriages, or, if they possessed none, hurried about the town trying to engage horses to procure passages on the canal track-boats. For the most part, however, the flight of a troop of Belgic cavalry did not rouse much feeling of alarm in British breasts. Ladies busied themselves, as they had done the previous day, with preparations for the wounded, and if there were some who thought the cessation of all gun-fire ominous, there were others who considered it to be a sure sign that all must be well.

Judith and Barbara again went to the Comtesse de Ribaucourt’s. On entering the house Judith encountered Georgiana Lennox, who came up to her with a white face and trembling lips, trying to speak calmly on some matter of a consignment of blankets. She was scarcely able to control her voice, and broke off to say: ‘Forgive me, this is foolish! Only it is so dreadful—I don’t seem able to stop crying.’

Judith took her hand, saying with a good deal of concern: ‘Oh, my poor child! Your brothers—?’

‘Oh no, no!’ Georgiana replied quickly. ‘But Hay has been killed!’ She made an effort to control herself. ‘He was almost like one of my brothers. It is stupid—I know he would not care for that, but I can’t get it out of my head how cross I was with him for being so glad to be going into action.’ She tried to smile. ‘I scolded him. I wouldn’t dance with him any more, and then I never saw him again. He went away so excited, and now he’s been killed, and I didn’t even say goodbye to him.’

Judith could only press her hand. Georgiana said rather tightly: ‘I can’t believe he’s dead, you know. He said: “Georgy! We’re going to war! Was there ever anything so splendid?” And I was cross.’

‘Dearest Georgy, you mustn’t think of that. I am sure he did not.’

‘Oh no! I know I’m being silly. Only I wish I had not scolded him.’ She brushed her hand across her eyes. ‘He was General Maitland’s aide-de-camp, you know. Now that he has been killed William feels that he must rejoin Maitland, and he is not fit to do so.’

‘Your brother! Oh, he cannot do so. His arm is still in a sling, and he looks so ill!’

‘That is what Mama feels, but my father agrees that it is William’s duty to go to General Maitland. I do not know what will come of it.’ Her lips quivered again; she said inconsequently: ‘Do you remember how beautifully the Highlanders danced at our ball? They are all dead.’

‘Oh, hush, my dear, don’t think of such things! Not all!’

‘Most of them. They were cut to pieces by the cuirassiers. They say the losses in the Highland brigade are terrible.’