No Surrender! A Tale of the Rising in La Vendee, G. A. Henty [top 10 ebook reader txt] 📗

fill up the cannon with the earth that he has brought up."

Andre would have leapt to his feet, as he uttered an exclamation of rage.

"Keep quiet!" Leigh said, authoritatively. "We have no evidence against him, yet. We must watch him a bit longer, before we interrupt him."

After two or three movements, the man was seen to draw something from the gun. This he laid on the ground, and then inserted the tool again.

"That is the powder," Leigh whispered, as something else was withdrawn from the gun; "there, you see, he is taking handfuls of earth from the sack, and shoving it into the mouth."

This was continued for some time, and then a rammer was inserted, and pushed home several times. Then he moved to the next cannon.

"Now follow very quietly, Andre. Busy as he is, we may get quite close up to him, before he notices us. Mind, you are not to use your knife. We can master him easily enough, and must then take him down to Cathelineau, for his fate to be decided on."

Noiselessly they crept up the hill. When within five or six paces of the gun at which Bruno was at work, Leigh gave the word and, leaping up, they threw themselves on the traitor; who was taken so completely by surprise that they were able to throw him, at once, to the ground. Snatching up a rope that had been used for drawing the guns, Leigh bound his arms securely to his side; and then, putting a pistol to his head, ordered him to rise to his feet.

"Shoot me, if you like,"' the man growled. "I will not move."

"I will not shoot you," Leigh replied. "You must be tried and condemned.

"Now, Andre, we must carry him."

The four boys had no difficulty in carrying the man down. As they passed the officer on sentry, he said:

"Whom have you there, Monsieur Stansfield?"

"It is Bruno, the artilleryman. We have caught him drawing the charges from the guns, and filling them with earth. We must take him to the general."

"The villain!" the officer exclaimed. "Who would have thought of a Vendean turning traitor?"

Cathelineau was still up, talking with some of his officers as to the preparations for the battle. There was no sentry at his door. Leigh entered and, tapping at the door of the room in which he saw a light, went in. Cathelineau looked up in surprise, as the door opened.

"I thought you were asleep hours ago, monsieur," he said.

"It is well that I have not been, sir."

And he related the conversation that he had overheard, and his own suspicions that the man Bruno meditated treachery; the steps they had taken to watch him, and the discovery they had made. Exclamations of indignation and fury broke from the officers.

"Gentlemen," Cathelineau said, "we will at once proceed to try this traitor. He shall be judged by men of his own class.

"Monsieur Pourcet, do you go out and awaken the first twelve peasants you come to."

In a minute or two the officer returned with the peasants, who looked surprised at having been thus roused from their sleep.

"My friends, do you take your places along that side of the room. You are a jury, and are to decide upon the guilt or innocence of a man who is accused of being a traitor."

The word roused them at once, and all repeated indignantly the word "traitor!"

"Monsieur Stansfield," he said to Leigh, "will you order your men to bring in the prisoner?"

The man was brought in and placed at the head of the table, opposite to Cathelineau.

"Now, Monsieur Stansfield, will you tell the jury the story that you have just told me?"

Leigh repeated his tale, interrupted occasionally by exclamations of fury from the peasants. Andre and the other lads stepped forward, one after the other, and confirmed Leigh's statement.

"Before you return a verdict, my friends," Cathelineau said quietly, "it is but right that we should go up to the battery, and examine the cannon ourselves; not, of course, that we doubt the statement of Monsieur Stansfield and the other witnesses, but because it is well that each of you should be able to see for himself, and report to others that you have been eyewitnesses of the traitor's plot."

Accordingly the whole party ascended to the battery. There lay the spade and the sack of earth. The tool with which the work had been done was still in the mouth of the second cannon and, on pulling it out, the powder cartridge came with it. Then Leigh led them to the next gun, and a man who had a bayonet thrust it in, and soon brought some earth and stones to the mouth of the gun.

"We have now had the evidence of Monsieur Stansfield, and those with him, tested by ourselves examining the guns. What do you say, my friends--has this man been proved a traitor, or not?"

"He has!" the peasants exclaimed, in chorus.

"And what is your sentence?"

"Death!" was the unanimous reply.

"I approve of that sentence. March him down to the side of the river, and shoot him."

Three minutes later, four musket shots rang out.

"Thus die all traitors!" Cathelineau said.

Bruno, however, was the sole Vendean who, during the course of the war, turned traitor to his comrades and his country.

Chapter 6: The Assault Of Chemille.

Few words were spoken, as the group of officers returned to the town. When they reached Cathelineau's quarters Leigh would have gone on, but the general said, "Come in, if you please, Monsieur Stansfield," and he followed the party in.

"This has been a trial, gentlemen, a heavy trial," the general said. "When I entered upon this work, I knew that that there were many things that I should have to endure. I knew the trouble of forming soldiers from men who, like ours, prize their freedom and independence above all other things; that we might have to suffer defeat; that we must meet with hardships, and probably death; and that, in the long run, all our efforts might be futile.

"But I had not reckoned on having to deal with treachery. I had never dreamed that one of my first acts would have been to try and to sentence a Vendean to death, for an act of the grossest treachery. However, let us put that aside; it was, perhaps, in the nature of things. In every community there must be a few scoundrels and, if this turns out to be a solitary instance, we may congratulate ourselves, especially as we have escaped without injury.

"That we have done so, gentlemen, is due solely to Monsieur Stansfield; who thus twice, in the course of a single day, has performed an inestimable service to the cause. There are few indeed who, on hearing the braggadocio of a drunken man, would have given the matter a moment's thought; still less have undertaken a night of watchfulness, after a day of the heaviest work, merely to test the truth of a slightly-founded suspicion that might have occurred to them. It is not too much to say that, had not this act of treachery been discovered, our defeat tomorrow would have been well-nigh certain. You know how much our people think of their guns; and if, when the fight began, the cannon had been silent, instead of pouring their contents into the ranks of the enemy, they would have lost heart at once, and would have been beaten almost before the fight began.

"We have no honours to bestow on you, Monsieur Stansfield, but in the name of La Vendee I thank you, with all my heart. I shall add, to my order respecting your fight of yesterday, a statement of what has taken place tonight; and I shall beg that all officers read it aloud to the parties that follow them."

"I agree most cordially with the general's words," Monsieur Bonchamp said. "Your defence yesterday would have been a credit to any military man, and this discovery has saved us from ruin tomorrow, or rather today. I will venture to say that not one man in five hundred would have taken the trouble to go out of his way to ascertain whether the words of a drunken man rested on any foundation."

There was, then, a short conversation as to the approaching fight. The number of men who had arrived was much smaller than had been anticipated, owing to the fact that the simultaneous invasion, at so many points, had the effect of retaining the peasants of the various localities for the defence of their own homes. Leigh learned that a mounted messenger had been despatched, shortly before he brought the prisoner down, to beg Monsieur d'Elbee to bring the force he commanded, at Chollet, with all speed to aid in the defence of Chemille; for if that town fell, he would be exposed to the attack of the united forces of Generals Berruyer and Leigonyer.

"Now, gentlemen, I think we had better get a few hours' sleep," Cathelineau said. "They will not be here very early, probably not until noon; for they may wait for a time before starting, in hopes of being joined either by Leigonyer or one of the other columns, and it is not likely that any news of the sharp reverse that Leigonyer has met with has reached them."

It was now two o'clock in the morning, and Leigh slept heavily, till roused at eight.

"You should have called me before, Andre," he said reproachfully, when he learnt how late it was.

"I thought it was better that you should have a good sleep, captain. Of course, if there had been any message to say that you were wanted, I should have woke you; but as no one came, and there is still no news of the enemy, I thought that it was better to let you sleep till now."

Pierre had started with his party, at five, to scout on the road by which the enemy was advancing. Leigh first hurried down to the river and had a bath, and then felt ready for any work that he might have to do. He then went to the house where Jean was lodged. The latter, who had not returned from his outpost work till day broke, was just getting up.

"Well, Leigh," he said, "I called in at Cathelineau's quarters to report. I found him already up. He told me the work that you had been doing, and praised you up to the skies. It seems to me that you are getting all the credit of the campaign. Really I feel quite proud of you, and we shall be having you starting as a rival leader to Cathelineau."

Leigh laughed.

"One does not often have two such opportunities in the course of a day, and I don't suppose I am likely to have such luck again, if the war goes on for a year. Where are you going to be today?"

"I am going to act as aide-de-camp to Bonchamp."

"And what shall we do, do you think?"

"Well, I should say you had best keep out of it altogether, Leigh. You and your band did much more than your share of fighting yesterday, and your pistols will be of no use in a fight such as this will be. Seriously, unless Cathelineau assigns you some post, I should keep out of it. Your little corps is specially formed to act as scouts and, as we are so extremely badly off in that respect, it will be far better for you to keep to your proper duties, than to risk your lives."

"How do you think the fight is likely to go, Jean?"

"It depends, in the first place, upon how the Blues fight; if they do well, they ought to beat us. In the next place, it depends on whether d'Elbee comes up in time. If he does, I think that we shall hold the place, but it will be stiff fighting."

It was not until noon that Berruyer's force was seen approaching. As soon as it was in sight the Vendeans poured out, and took up their station by the hill on which the guns were placed. In spite of what Jean had said, Leigh would have placed his band with the rest; had not Cathelineau sent for him, half an hour before, and given him orders which were almost identical with the advice of Jean.

"I wish you and your band to keep out of this battle, Monsieur Stansfield. Your force is so small that it can make no possible difference in the fortunes of the day and, whether we win or lose, your lads may be wanted as messengers, after it is over. They have done extremely well, at present, and need no further credit than they have gained. I beg, therefore, that you will take post with them somewhat in rear of the village, away on the right. I