Chapter FOUR (2)

We were brought here to a standstill by a smooth wall of rock about ten feet high. In order to get round it, we had to crawl some yards to our right, that is nearer to the scene of conflict. There were voices, trampling of feet, and the report of fire-arms, close by, as it seemed, but really on the shoulder of the hill, a quarter of a mile off. "More foes climbing the hill!" Basil muttered; "I know their tread. Why do not our men come down, and give them the meeting? Ah, they _are_ coming! praise to Saint Basil! I hear them--I see them;" and he lifted his head cautiously, and fixed his lynx eyes on a point where the hillside met the pale blue sky. "They are pouring down--twenty, thirty of them! Not one would stay behind, I warrant! Ah, why must I?"

"Why must you, husband?" responded Spira, but in a submissive tone. "Go, and trust me to guide our lady to her husband. I will die sooner than any harm should befall her."

It was a tempting offer, but the noble fellow resisted it. "Go to," he said, still in the same low voice. "What! leave our Nilo's preserver to the care of a woman, and of a prating boy that knows not how to take care of himself? Peace, woman! not another word!"

We climbed the rock at the first practicable place, Basil mounting first, and lowering one end of his "strucca" for me to hold by. Mr Popham followed, saying, playfully, in my ear, "Ticklish work, ain't it; this holding on by one's nails and eyebrows?"

Poor, poor John! yet why should I say so? No doubt, Providence ordered all that should befall him, and ordered it in mercy. He was of too yielding a nature, perhaps, to fight the battle of life, yet too tender-hearted and right-minded to err without anguish of spirit. Yes, I see now, and Laurie sees, that all was ordered for the best! But to proceed.

We now crept towards the left, on a narrow ledge surmounted by a natural wall, similar to that we had scaled. This wall and the shelf beneath it, jutted out at one point so as to conceal all beyond it; when Basil reached the spot, he looked stealthily round the angle of the rock, drew back sharply, shouldered his gun, and signed to Mr Popham to do the same. At that instant, two shots were fired by the unseen foes, but fell harmless. Basil advanced, partially screened by the rock, took aim and fired; then I heard branches crashing. Certainly the enemy had been struck or fled; but there were more behind,--three, four, turbaned Turks pressing round the corner! Basil, seeing them, flung down his gun and threw himself upon the foremost. The Turk seemed not much behind him in strength, and for several terrible minutes they wrestled together, John Popham's threatening attitude as he stood ready to fire, keeping the others at bay. The struggle ended by Basil's enemy slipping his foot, and being flung down the steep. I know not whether he was badly hurt or not, but he gave us no more trouble, vanishing amid the brushwood with magic speed. His three comrades now showed some disposition to do the same, but Basil would not let them; he snatched, with a fierce smile, the gun I had reloaded (yes, I _could_ load a gun, your uncle had taught me to do that early in our married life), and fired it at the foremost man, but to my infinite relief, with no deadly effect. The poor fellow, though slightly wounded, summoned strength to dash over the precipice and make his escape. The third followed unhurt; only one remained, an elderly wrinkled man, who, it seemed, knew something of Christian and civilised usages; he threw down his gun, cast himself at John Popham's feet, and in an abject, yet piteous tone, exclaimed, "Quarter, quarter, noble sir; you are no Montenegrin to slay a helpless old man."

Poor John could not make out a word of this appeal, but the cry for mercy could not be mistaken, and it found an instant response in his gentle heart. He gave the suppliant a re-assuring nod, and signed to the astounded Basil that he would not permit him to be touched. Alas, what availed his kind intentions? I have been told there is no instance on record of a Black Mountaineer giving quarter to a Mussulman, to such lengths have ages of oppression goaded a generous people! Seeing the deadly fire in Basil's eye, I flew to him and plied him with prayers and angry expostulations. All in vain; he beckoned Spira to lead me away as one should give over a petted but troublesome child to its nurse, and deliberately put a pistol to the old man's head. "Now, if this is not butchery, I don't know what is!" I heard John exclaim; and without a moment's hesitation, he snatched at the pistol and tried to wrest it from Basil's grasp. I could not see exactly what passed, but there was a moment's struggle, then a report, and the ball lodged in John's breast. Oh, the agony of that moment! words cannot paint, nor thought realise it! With a loud cry, Basil rushed forward to support Mr Popham, but I bade him stand back, and he at once obeyed. I contrived to catch poor John as he fell, and laying his head on my left arm tried my utmost with the other hand to stanch the blood that flowed from the wound. It was right to try, but I knew all the while it was perfectly useless. He sighed once or twice, then opened his large blue eyes, and looked fixedly on me; oh, with such a beautiful soft expression. I am sure he felt no pain, he seemed perfectly easy in body and mind; it was a comfort even then, to be sure of this. "It's no use, Mrs Englefield," he murmured, bringing out each word very slowly; "No use, thank you; I'm going--best I should go--I should have done no credit to the house--tell Laurie, with my love--now farewell--God bless you--and me too--and I think He will." His head dropped on my arm at that last word, and he added no more; I believe the angels were coming for him then.

Don't cry, my dear children; perhaps had John lived to grow grey, there might have been greater and truer cause to weep for him.

I did not speak or move for some time, for life seemed still flickering about the parted lips. At length the stillness could not be mistaken, and I laid his head softly on a mossy stone, and closed his eyes; then I looked round and saw Basil leaning against the rock, watching me with an expression of sullen misery in his face. My heart smote me, for after all he had never intended to hurt John, and it had been partly the poor fellow's reckless way of snatching his weapon that had caused this calamity; still, I felt too much revolted by the cold-blooded attempt on the Turk's life, to speak to him with calmness, so we remained aloof and silent.

A great stir now arose on the hillside, and I saw a large party of the mountaineers returning from their raid against the Turks with every mark of triumph. Presently, a number of them turned in our direction. Many glittering dark eyes rested on our mournful group with curiosity, wonder, or pity. I felt abashed at first, and was considering how I could enlist their help in carrying the body to a place of shelter near Laurie's hut, when I saw the crowd open. To my great joy, an officer in European dress came forward, exclaiming "Is it possible? you, Mrs Englefield, here?" then, seeing my bloodstained hands and cloak, he added, "and hurt, I fear?" and he was at my side in a moment. With unspeakable comfort, I recognised Captain Blundel, an Englishman, in the Austrian engineer service, who had dined with us several times at Cattaro. My husband liked him particularly, and their acquaintance seemed in the way to become a friendship, when Captain Blundel had been ordered up the country in order to survey some part of it for a government map. I soon relieved his mind of the fear that I was wounded, and told my story in the fewest words possible. Oh, the relief of having a strong mind to lean upon once more! Not till then did I know how utterly exhausted I was. Captain Blundel seemed quite at home with the mountaineers, selected some to carry the body up the hill, sent a couple to guard the door of Mr Englefield's hut, lest the tidings should be carried to him hastily, and, lastly, to my great delight, took measures to procure surgical help for him as quickly as possible.

"That is a blessing I dared not hope for," I exclaimed; "they told me there was no surgeon to be found in Montenegro."

"And they told you right;" he answered, "but happily at this moment, it is otherwise. The Prince-bishop, who was brought up, you know, in Russia, has a clever medical man from Saint Petersburgh on a visit to him just now; his highness is about to pass this way, on his march from the Lake of Scutari back to Cetigna; he knows me well, and is besides too kind-hearted not readily to lend us Dr Goloff's services for a short time."

We walked slowly up the hill, Captain Blundel and myself keeping near the party that bore poor John's body. The other mountaineers hurried forward with such shouts of glee and exultation that I could not help asking what it all meant. "It means," replied my companion, "that the gallant fellows have made a successful raid over the Turkish border, and surprised an underling of the Pasha of Scutari, laden with money and jewels of his master's and his own. I was surveying near the spot where he was captured. I never saw a fellow so terrified, and not without reason, for they would have beheaded him there and then, had he not declared himself a British subject and no Turk; they carried him to their Prince, in whose custody he remains."

It flashed at once across my mind that this description agreed, in many points, with that of Orlando Jones. I determined, without delay, to hint these suspicions to Captain Blundel, and gave him, in the strictest confidence, an outline of that villain's history. He listened gravely, asked several questions much to the point, and ended by begging me to trust the matter in his hands.

We were now at our journey's end, and I begged for some water, and hastily washed my bloodstained hands and cloak, lest they should frighten your uncle. Captain Blundel, meanwhile, saw the body laid in a sheltered place, and appointed two mountaineers to watch by it. But Basil, he afterwards told me, now came forward, and insisted on that duty being left to him; he would take no refusal, and more than once, when Captain Blundel looked in, he found him on his knees at the head of the rude bier, praying devoutly. "No people," added Captain Blundel, "make longer prayers than the Black Mountaineers, nor, I believe, more devout ones."

I entered alone the hovel where my husband lay; what a place it was! The floor was unpaved, and positively alive with mice and fleas; the walls were of stones loosely heaped together, and little bright flecks of light peeped through the crevices. Wood smoke curled up from the hearth and so dimmed the air that I could not at once distinguish the dear object of my search. Two women were there, kind though rough nurses; one was baking cakes on the hearth for him, the other was holding to his lips a cup of sour milk. He was propped up against a pile of blankets, and his features looked wan and sunk. He caught sight of me at once, and snatched me to his breast with a vehemence so unlike his calm self that it almost startled me. So did his rapid utterance and feverish rather unconnected questions, ending with, "Where's John? isn't he with you?"

"No," I tremblingly answered, neither daring to tell the truth nor to withhold it from him in his critical state.

"Then, my dear, where is he?" he rejoined quickly.

"He is--he has been called home," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"Very extraordinary," I heard him mutter, as he sank back on his pallet, "but they were right; John has no head for business; when did he go home, my dear?"

I could not help bursting into tears at this reiterated inquiry; your uncle raised himself on his elbow and gazed in my face, and as he did so, a sudden light seemed to break in upon him. I knew suspense would be torture, and added, "Yes, dear Laurie, he was called home this morning; his death was by a pistol-shot, purely accidental,--no pain, no distress, conscious to the last, and quite satisfied to go; he desired me to give you his love, Laurie; now you know the truth, and you shall hear every particular as soon as you are strong enough to bear it."

Your uncle heard these tidings in perfect silence; he was calm, but too deeply heart-stricken to speak; next to me, I think he loved John better than any one in the world; often, very often, when I go into his dressing-room, I find him gazing on the sketch of him in crayons, that hangs over his chimney-piece. I will show it you when, you come to stay with us.

It was a sense of thankfulness for my preservation from danger that made your uncle bear up as he did. When I came to examine his wound I was shocked at the state it was in. A sword-cut extended from the neck over the shoulder to the arm, not only unhealed, but to the highest degree inflamed. No wonder his whole frame was fevered, for the suffering must have been severe indeed. The kind but rough treatment of his highland nurses was not calculated to promote a speedy cure; the food they brought him was not such as a sick man could eat; nor could they understand his English prejudice in favour of cleanliness. With great difficulty (he afterwards told me) he had the night of his arrival obtained a poultice, the application of which had given him such relief that he had dropped asleep. Presently, however, he was wakened by two or more rats tugging at it with all their might. He had tried to drive the intruders away, but was fairly obliged to give in, and fling the poultice to the farthest corner of the room.

I was bathing the shoulder with warm water when a stranger in the uniform of a Russian colonel appeared, and introduced himself as Dr Goloff. He went to business at once, inspected the wound, felt the pulse, then said there was no chance of his patient's improving until he was removed from that unwholesome place. The irritative fever which accompanies such a wound had been much aggravated, he said, by bad air and improper dressings. He was commissioned, he added, by his friend Captain Blundel to see Mr Englefield removed at once to Captain Blundel's tent, which was pitched for surveying purposes near the foot of this hill. No sooner said than done. A kind of litter was constructed, and your uncle placed upon it. We were about to set out when I saw Basil eyeing us from afar, sadly and gloomily. The remembrance of a shade of injustice towards him came across me painfully, so I went to him and asked him to be one of Laurie's bearers; poor Basil! he sprang to execute my bidding with a look of impassioned gratitude that was most touching. With his powerful help the short journey was soon accomplished, and the litter safely set down in the large, watertight, and cheerful tent.

A painful process was needed in order to bring the wound into a right state for healing, and when it was over, Dr Goloff administered to your uncle a composing draught, adding, cheerily, "You, monsieur, will do well to sleep, while I give madame instructions for your future treatment." He then drew me aside, and after relieving my mind by giving a favourable opinion of the case added a strong caution against suffering Laurie's mind to dwell on painful subjects. By so doing, he said, not only would the patient's recovery be rendered tedious, but his nerves might be shaken for life. He could see that some anxiety weighed heavily on his mind; it should at all costs be removed.

"It should indeed, but how?" thought I, with a despairing sigh.

The sorrowful question was about to be answered through the mercy of that good Providence which helps even the faithless and undeserving. I was musing dolefully at the tent door when a large party appeared in the distance, and one of them spurred forward, and came up to me at full gallop. It was Captain Blundel. He dismounted, and with a beaming face said--"Good news, Mrs Englefield; I think I have brought your patient a tonic more effectual than even Dr Goloff could prescribe. When I left you an hour and a half ago, I went to the Prince-Bishop, and imparted to him our suspicions as to the true name and history of his prisoner, begging his permission to sift the matter. With his usual gentlemanlike feeling he at once granted it. I then hastened to the hut where the prisoner lay guarded by unfriendly Montenegrins. Without preamble, I said, `I have the honour of speaking to Mr Orlando Jones, I believe?' `Who told you my name, sir?' he exclaimed, starting to his feet in great alarm: then, perceiving the mistake he had made in thus proving his own identity, he tried to retract, but stammered and broke down. I proceeded quietly to demand the restoration of the papers and jewels, fraudulently carried off by him from Mr Popham's office at Ragusa. He tried to shuffle off the charge. `Very well,' said I, `do as you please, but mark me, I am empowered by his highness to say that only by full restitution can you hope for a continuance of his protection; if that is withdrawn, your life is scarcely worth a pin's purchase.' The poor wretch turned pale and shook in every joint. Feeling, doubtless, the truth of this last remark he surrendered at discretion, entreating me to stand his friend, and confessing the whole extent of his frauds. His property, he said, was all in the hands of his captors, but it was possible they might not have discovered the jewels as they were cunningly secreted within his saddle. To be brief, I got the Vladika's leave to examine the saddle, and found within it this packet, which I have every reason to believe is the object of your husband's search."

Tremblingly I carried the precious packet to your dear uncle. Never shall I forget his look of relief on opening it, and finding the lost jewels safe. Some important papers were also there--everything, in fact, that was missing; for the most valuable documents of all, Laurie had had the precaution to transfer to his office at Cattaro when his suspicions of Jones had ripened into certainty.

After warmly thanking Captain Blundel for his invaluable help, your uncle said, "Let me ask of you, my dear friend, two more proofs of kindness. In the first place, will you undertake the safe transport of this precious packet to Cattaro, whither you say you are shortly to return; in the next, will you convey the expressions of my sincere gratitude to the Prince-Bishop in the fittest terms?"

"Your first request is easily granted," replied Captain Blundel; "your last it would be superfluous in me to undertake, as the Vladika has expressed his intention of inquiring after you in person, and here he comes."

I turned and saw Basil, holding up the tent curtain while his highness entered. The prince did indeed appear a Saul amongst his people. Taller than the tallest Black Highlander from the shoulders upwards, his figure was finely modelled, his movements were free and active, his eyes dark and brilliant. Nothing about him except his long beard, which was black and glossy, reminded one of his sacred office; he wore a scarlet pelisse, fur cap, blue wide trousers, and in his belt a pair of plain pistols. He advanced towards Laurie's bed, replying with peculiar grace to my silent courtesy, then in a voice of almost languid gentleness inquiring of me after my husband's wound. He spoke in French. I took courage to reply in the same language, offering our heartfelt thanks for his intervention in our favour, and for Dr Goloff's timely aid. Laurie raised himself on one arm and joined in these acknowledgments, but the Vladika kindly bade him lie down. He remained but a few minutes with us, being in haste to resume his journey, and at his departure he frankly and cordially invited us to return his visit at Cetigna. Basil attended him back to his charger, then returned full of pride and delight to congratulate us on this honour.

We saw the kind and noble Prince-Prelate no more, as a Turkish invasion of his northern frontier hurried him away from his little capital before Laurie was well enough to be moved there. We remained ten days under Captain Blundel's canvas roof, he most kindly undertaking to superintend the removal of poor John's body to Cattaro, and its respectful interment there. Meanwhile Basil was my unwearied helper in the task of nursing Laurie--a happy task, as the beloved invalid gained strength each day. The faithful fellow escorted us to cetigna, then flow back to his prince's side for some weeks, but managed to return to Cetigna in time to be our guide to Cattaro. How thankful I felt when I saw your dear uncle once more installed in his home! and to complete my satisfaction, his dear and early friend, Francis Popham, joined us there almost immediately, having left England on receiving from Captain Blundel the mournful tidings of his brother's death. Under his able management, affairs were soon restored to perfect order. I scarcely need to tell _you_ how it has pleased Heaven to prosper your uncle's and his joint exertions since that time, and how a few months ago your uncle became a partner in that house and we returned to live in dear old England.

Basil and Spira are still alive. "Little Nilo" is grown a noble-looking youth as gallant as his father, and far better taught, having received a good education in one of the excellent schools founded by our friend Bishop Danilo.

Thus ends our adventure on the Black Mountain; so now to bed, all of you, and I wish you a good night and happy dreams.