One of the Six Hundred: A Novel
"The greater pity, say I," continued Beverley.
"And he actually replied to you thus?" said Studhome.
"These were his words, or nearly so."
Beverley's brow knit, and a contemptuous smile curled his proud lip.
"Such cool impudence is delicious," said he, laughing.
"But the matter cannot end thus!" I exclaimed, impetuously.
"Of course not, my dear fellow--of course not. Yet if the affair comes
before the mess or the public, how are we to keep the name of Lady
Loftus out of it? Though he might relish the eclat of having his
trumpery cognomen jingled with that of Lord Chillingham's daughter, and
with yours, it is a very different matter for Lady Louisa. We must be
cautious and circumspect, or we shall land you between the horns of a
dilemma. Women make men's quarrels infernally complicated."
"I shall gladly avail myself of your advice, colonel, and Studhome shall
act as my friend."
Jack summoned his servant by a rapid process peculiar to barracks, and
despatched him to the main guard to inquire whether Mr. Berkeley had
passed in.
The answer came promptly that he was in his quarters.
"How long has he been there?"
"About half an hour, sir."
"Egad, Norcliff, you have come by the same train from Canterbury," said
the colonel, after the servant had withdrawn. "How if you had been in
the same compartment?"
"I might have been tempted to throw him out of the window."
"Studhome, see Berkeley, and arrange this matter; but remember the
honour of the regiment," said the colonel, "as well as that of your
friend, for at all risks and hazards I will have no public scandal about
us--no handle given to the wretched whipsters of the newspaper press,
when we are on the eve of departure for the seat of war."
"Trust me, colonel," said Jack, as he lit a fresh cigar, donned his
gold-laced forage cap very much over the right ear, took up his
riding-whip from force of habit, and hurried away.
The time of his absence passed slowly. I was in a dilemma, out of which
I did not clearly see my way; and the colonel continued to punish Jack's
port, to smoke in silence, and peruse the "Description Book."
Deeply in my heart I cursed alike the amenities of civilized life and
the laws of modern society, which deprived me of the means of swift and
certain retribution, even at the risk of my own life and limbs. Such
trammels, in these days of well-ordered police, luckily, perhaps, compel
us to conceal our hates and animosities; to submit quietly to wrong,
insult, and obloquy, for which the very laws that pretend to protect and
guide us afford no due reparation; trammels that avail greatly the
coarse, the cowardly, and the mean, who may thus sneer or insult with
impunity, when in the old pistol days their lives would have paid the
forfeit; and whatever may have been the folly, error, or wickedness of
duelling as a system, there can be no doubt that, when men had the test
of moral courage as a last resort, the tone of society was higher,
healthier, and better, especially in the army. Then practical jokes,
rudeness, and quizzing were unknown at a mess-table; while an open wrong
or insult bore with it the terrible penalty of a human life.
By the rules of the service I knew that no officer or soldier could send
a challenge to any other officer or soldier to fight a duel, lest, if a
commissioned officer, under the pain of being cashiered; if a
non-commissioned officer or soldier, of suffering corporal punishment,
or such other award as a court-martial might inflict.
The penalties of the civil law I knew to be still more severe; and yet
John Selden, one of England's most able, learned, and patriotic lawyers,
says that "a duel may still be granted by the law of England, and only
then. That the Church allowed it once appears by this: in their public
liturgies there were prayers appointed for the duellists to say; the
judge used to bid them to go to such a church and pray, &c. But whether
this is lawful? If you make war lawful, I make no doubt to convince you
of it. War is lawful because God is the only judge between two that are
supreme. Now, if a difference happen between two subjects, and it
cannot be decided by human testimony, why may they not put it to God to
judge between them, with the permission of the prince? Nay; what if we
should bring it down--for argument's sake--to the sword. One gives me
the lie: it is a great disgrace to take it; the law has made no
provision to give remedy for the injury (if you can suppose anything an
injury for which the law gives no remedy), why am not I, in this case,
supreme, and may, therefore, right myself?"
While Beverley and I began to talk over such things, Studhome was, as he
phrased it, "bringing Berkeley to book" in the affair.
He found that gentleman in rather a perturbed state of mind, soothing
himself with a cigar, as he lounged in his vest and trousers on a
luxurious sofa, in his elegantly-furnished room, the walls of which were
covered with coloured engravings of horses and ballet-girls. A tall
crystal goblet on the table bore evident traces of brandy and
seltzer-water having been recently imbibed therefrom.
"So, after all that has occurred, you won't meet Norcliff, as he
wishes?" asked Jack, after the matter had been thoroughly gone into.
"Aw--decidedly not," said he, emitting his words and a slender volume of
smoke slowly together.
"In Britain, at least, as the law stands now, I can scarcely blame you,
Mr. Berkeley," said Studhome, stiffly; "but as the orders from London
stand, we are soon to leave, and something must be done in the matter;
for, as it is at present, you cannot both remain in the same regiment."
"Aw--doocid good that," replied Berkeley, twirling up his moustache;
"but--aw--who is the muff that is to quit it, now that we have orders of
readiness?"
"You, sir," said Jack, rather perplexed.
"Thank you; but--aw--beg to decline. And this mysterious something
which must be done--aw--eh?"
"I would recommend a candid confession on your part; such an
explanation, in writing, as my friend, Captain Norcliff, may show to
Lady Loftus and then commit to the flames, or return it to you."
"The deuce!" drawled Berkeley, holding his cigar at arm's length, and
wheeling the sofa half round, to have a better view of our adjutant.
"Is there any other little thing you would like?"
"I think not, sir."
"My good friend, Studhome, you are, I have not a doubt, a very excellent
adjutant, well up in lance, sword, and pistol exercise--knowing how to
'set a squadron in the field,' like the amiable Othello; but
you--aw--aw--must really permit me to be the best judge of my own
affairs."
Studhome bowed haughtily, and then stood, cap and whip in hand, erect;
so Berkeley resumed--
"You are aware of the whispers concerning Norcliff and that girl, Agnes
Auriol--isn't that her name?"
"Yes, sir; I am aware there have been malicious whispers, and I have my
eyes now on the circulator of them."
"Very good," said Berkeley, colouring slightly; "they are very current
among the 16th Lancers and 8th Hussars. I have known a little of the
girl; but have--aw--tired of her now. We all tire, my dear fellow, of
such affairs in time. Take a cigar--aw--you won't--what a bore! well, so
my advice to your irritated Scotch friend would be that, as she is at
perfect liberty to leave my protection, she may enter quietly upon his;
so there is an end to the doocid affair."
"So you may affect to think," said Studhome, eyeing the lounger with
angry scorn.
"What could be more equivocal, as Lady Loftus admitted, than the
circumstances under which we found them? He was supporting--actually
caressing her; and then there was his proffered fifty-pound note. My
dear fellow, people are not such devilish fools as--aw--to give fifty
pounds to such girls for--aw--nothing!"
"Whatever you may pretend to think, or affect to say, of that affair, of
my friend's ultimate intentions, as a man of spirit, you cannot be
unaware."
"Aw--I don't choose to speculate upon them."
"This trifling, sir, is insufferable! He may lash you in the face with
his whip before the whole regiment, when Beverley wheels it into line
to-morrow, and so make you a scandal to us, to Maidstone, and the entire
British Army, from the Life Guards to the Cape Rifles."
"Lash me?"
"Yes; and soundly too!"
"I don't think he will."
"Why?"
"For then the whole story would come out, there would be an
arrest--aw--and court of inquiry, and my Lady Louisa Loftus would have
her august name paragraphed in every paper, from the _Morning Post_
downwards."
"And under this belief in his forbearance, which pays my friend a high
compliment, you actually shelter yourself?" said worthy Jack Studhome,
with intense scorn.
"I shall take my chance."
"Then, sir, cunning as you are, and though believing that my friend must
submit to lie under a vile imputation, and, if it so happen, be ruined
with Lady Louisa Loftus and his friends, you cannot expect to get off
scot free. The devil! we live in strange times. Are we sunk so low
that officers and gentlemen, that honourable and gallant members, that
noble lords, that counsellors learned in the law, and even jolly
students, are to settle their disputes in pothouse fashion, by womanly
vituperation or vulgar fisticuffs, without ever dreaming of a recourse
to the pistol? Men of all ranks, from the premier peer down to the
anonymous scribblers of the daily press--
Those grovelling, trodden, whipt, stript, turncoat things,
Made up of volumes, venom, stains, and stings,--
may now brand each other as liars, cowards, and ruffians, with perfect
impunity. Do you understand me, sir?"
"Not quite."
"How so? I speak plain enough!"
"Such fellows are--aw--out of my way."
"Then you will understand this, sir," said Studhome, grasping him
fiercely by the shoulder, and with an expression in his eye which made
even the insouciance of Berkeley to evaporate, "a few weeks must see us
in the Levant, on the shores of Turkey, and before the enemy. A duel
shall come off there, and to evade alike the laws of Britain and the
rules of the service, the seconds shall bind themselves by a solemn
promise to declare that he who may be wounded, or he who may be killed,
was struck by a chance shot from the enemy. You comprehend this
arrangement, sir?"
"Perfectly."
"And your friend--who is he to be?"
"Captain Scriven, of ours."
"Good--I shall see him instantly."
"So that was your arrangement, Studhome?" asked Beverley.
"Yes; there was no other way. Scriven promises and agrees, and has
passed his word for secrecy. Do you approve, colonel?"
"Why, I suppose that I must; and you, Norcliff?" he inquired.
"Wish to Heaven that I saw Malta, or even Gibraltar, sinking into the
sea upon our lee quarter!" said I, with fierce fervour, as I shook
Studhome's hand, and for that night, at least, was obliged to content
me, and return to my troop at Canterbury.
"If one in our ranks shows the white feather before the Russians, I
believe Berkeley will be the man," said Beverley, as he and Studhome
smoked a last cigar with me on the platform before the down-train
started.
*CHAPTER XXIII.*
Since there's no help, come let us kisse and part.
Nay, I have done; you get no more of me;
And I am glad--yea, glad with all my heart--
That thus so clearly I myself can free;
Shake hands for ever. DRAYTON, 1612.
Unslept and unrefreshed, after returning to Canterbury, I found myself
next day at morning parade, and undergoing all the routine of regimental
drill, by troop and squadron, with the hussar corps to which we were
attached, while my thoughts and wishes were apparently a thousand miles