Nature and Human Nature Part 23

Just as the fog began to rise, I saw a henormous wolf, about a hundred yards or so from me, busy tearing a body to pieces; and taking a good steady haim at him, I fired, when he called out:

"'Blood and ounds! you cowardly furrin rascal, haven't you had your belly-full of fighting yet, that you must be after murthering a wounded man that way? By the powers of Moll Kelly, but you won't serve Pat Kallahan that dirty trick again anyhow.'

"As he levelled at me, I fell back, and the ball pa.s.sed right over me and struck a wounded orse that was broke down behind, and a sittin' up on his fore-legs like a dog. Oh, the scream of that are hanimal, Sir, was just like a Christian's. It was hawful. I have the sound of it in my ears now halmost. It pierced through me, and you might have eard it that still morning over the whole field. He sprung up and then fell over, and kicked and struggled furious for a minute or two before he died, and every time he lashed out, you could a eard a elpless wounded wretch a groanin' bitterly, as he battered away at him. The truth is, Sir, what I took for a wolf that hazy morning, was poor Pat, who was sitting up, and trying to bandage his hankle, that was shattered by a bullet, and the way he bobbed his head up and down, as he stooped forward, looked exactly as a wolf does when he is tearing the flesh off a dead body.

"Well, the scream of that are orse, and the two shots the dragoon and I exchanged, saved my life, for I saw a man and a woman making right straight for us. It was Betty, Sir, G.o.d bless her, and Sergeant M'Clure. The owling she sot up, when she saw me, was dreadful to ear, Sir.

"'Betty,' said I, 'dear, for eaven's sake see if you can find a drop of brandy in any of these poor fellows' canteens, for I am peris.h.i.+ng of thirst, and amost chilled to death.'

"'Oh, Tom, dear,' said she, 'I have thought of that,' and unslinging one from her shoulders put it to my lips, and I believe I would have drained it at a draft, but she s.n.a.t.c.hed it away directly, and said:

"'Oh, do 'ee think of that dreadful stroke of the sun, Tom. It will set you crazy if you drink any more.'

"'The stroke of the sun be anged!' said I; 'it's not in my ead this time--it's in the other end of me.'

"'Oh dear, dear!' said Betty; 'two such marks as them, and you so handsome too! Oh dear, dear!'

"Poor old soul! it's a way she had of trying to come round me.

"'Where is it?' said M'Clure.

"'In the calf of my leg,' said I.

"Well, he was a handy man, for he had been a hospital-sargeant, on account of being able to read doctors' pot-hooks and inscriptions. So he cut my boot, and stript down my stocking and looked at it. Says he, 'I must make a turn-and-quit.'

"'Oh, Rory,' said I, 'don't turn and quit your old comrade that way.'

"'Oh, Rory, dear,' said Betty, 'don't 'ee leave Tom now--don't 'ee, that's a good soul.'

"'Pooh!' said he, 'nonsense! How your early training has been neglected, Jackson!'

"'Rory,' said I, 'if I was well you wouldn't dare to pa.s.s that slur upon me. I am as well-trained a soldier and as brave a man as ever you was.'

"'Tut, tut, man,' said he, 'I meant your learning.'

"'Well,' says I, 'I can't brag much of that, and I am not sorry for it. Many a better scholar nor you, and better-looking man too, has been anged afore now, for all his schoolin'.'

"Says he, 'I'll soon set you up, Tom. Let me see if I can find anything here that will do for a turn-and-quit.'

"Close to where I lay there, was a furrin officer who had his head nearly amputated with a sabre cut. Well, he took a beautiful gold repeater out of his fob, and a great roll of dubloons out of one pocket, and a little case of diamond rings out of the other.

"'The thieving Italian rascal?' said he, 'he has robbed a jeweller's shop before he left the town,' and he gave the body a kick and pa.s.sed on. Well, close to him was an English officer.

"'Ah,' said he, 'here is something useful,' and he undid his sash, and then feeling in his breast pocket, he hauled out a tin tobacco-case, and opening of it, says he:

"'Tom, here's a real G.o.d-send for you. This and the sash I will give you as a keepsake. They are mine by the fortune of war, but I will bestow them on you.'"

"Oigh! oigh!" said Peter, "she was no shentleman."

"He warn't then, Sir," said Tom, not understanding him, "for he was only a sargeant like me at that time, but he is now, for he is an officer."

"No, no," said Peter, "the king can make an offisher, but she can't make a shentleman. She took the oyster hern ainsel, and gave you the sh.e.l.l."

"Well," continued Jackson, "he took the sash, and tied it round my leg, and then took a bayonet off a corpse, and with that twisted it round and round so tight it urt more nor the wound, and then he secured the bayonet so that it wouldn't slip. There was a furrin trooper's orse not far off that had lost his rider, and had got his rein hunder his foreleg, so Betty caught him and brought him to where I was a sitting. By the haid of another pull at the canteen, which put new life into me, and by their ha.s.sistance, I was got on the saddle, and he and Betty steadied me on the hanimal, and led me off. I no sooner got on the orse than Betty fell to a crying and a scolding again like anything.

"'What hails you now,' says I, 'Betty? You are like your own town of Plymouth--it's showery weather with you all the year round amost.

What's the matter now?'

"'Oh, Tom, Tom,' said she, 'you will break my eart yet--I know you will.'

"'Why what have I done?' says I. 'I couldn't help getting that little scratch on the leg.'

"'Oh, it tante that,' she said; 'it's that orrid stroke of the sun.

There's your poor ead huncovered again. Where is your elmet?'

"'Oh, bother,' sais I, 'ow do I know? Somewhere on the ground, I suppose.'

"Well, back she ran as ard as she could, but M'Clure wouldn't wait a moment for her and went on, and as she couldn't find mine, she undid the furriner's and brought that, and to pacify her I had to put it on and wear it. It was a good day for M'Clure, and I was glad of it, for he was a great scholar and the best friend I ever had. He sold the orse for twenty pounds afterwards."

"She don't want to say nothin' disrespectable," said Peter, "against her friend, but she was no shentleman for all tat."

"He is now," said Tom again, with an air of triumph. "He is an hofficer, and dines at the mess. I don't suppose he'd be seen with me now, for it's agen the rules of the service, but he is the best friend I have in the world."

"She don't know nothin' about ta mess herself," said Peter, "but she supposes she eats meat and drinks wine every tay, which was more tan she did as a poy. But she'd rather live on oatmeal and drink whiskey, and be a poor shentlemen, than be an officher like M'Clure, and tine with the Queen, Cot bless her."

"And the old pipe, then, was all you got for your share, was it?" says I.

"No, Sir," said Tom, "it warn't. One day, when I was nearly well, Betty came to me--

"'Oh, Tom,' said she, 'I have such good news for you.'

"'What is it?' sais I, 'are we going to have another general engagement?'

"'Oh, dear, I hope not,' she said. 'You have had enough of fighting for one while, and you are always so misfortunate.'

"'Well, what is it?' sais I.

"'Will you promise me not to tell?'

"'Yes,' said I, 'I will.'

"'That's just what you said the first time I kissed you. Do get out,'

she replied, 'and you promise not to lisp a word of it to Rory M'Clure? or he'll claim it, as he did that orse, and, Tom, I caught that orse, and he was mine. It was a orrid, nasty, dirty, mean trick that.'

"'Betty,' said I, 'I won't ear a word hagin him: he is the best friend I ever had, but I won't tell him, if you wish it.'

"'Well,' said Betty, and she bust out crying for joy, for she can cry at nothing, amost. 'Look, Tom, here's twenty Napoleons, I found them quilted in that officer's elmet.' So after all, I got out of that sc.r.a.pe pretty well, didn't I, Sir?"

"Indeed she did," said Peter, "but if she had seen as much of wolves as Peter McDonald has she wouldn't have been much frightened by them.