The Soldier's Wife — page 162: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE SOLDIER'S WIFE. namce and flashing ey2s venoted an unusual de- gree of excitement. “Come, Sergeant Major,” said Gerald, en- deavoring to look exeeedingly stern—and we have already remarked that he was in a parti- cularly bad humor,—* are any of these men tipsy?) Examine them well Hah! Private What’s-your-name— Lonsdale, isn’t it ? —just as if Gerald did not know the name as well as his own: - “I think you have a drop too much. Doe n't he look terribly excited, Langley ?” “ Terrible, sir,” responded the Serjeant-Major, who, being on this oecasion quite sober himself, was enabled to draw his form pompously up to its full height and assume a deprecating tone of voice. “Stand forward, you fellow,” said Gerald, thus addressing Lonsdale, with much greater brutality than he would have used in speaking to one of the dogs at his father’s man-ion. « Now, then—be quick about it,” he added, in- asmuch as our hero, with the hot biood boiling furiously in his veins, fur a moment felt inclined to resent the manner in which he was thus treated. “There now—take the candle, Lang- ley—hold it before his face, and let me have a good look at him. What do you think, Lang- ley ! tsi’t he tipsy ?” “ Quite, sir,” responded the sergeant. “T deny it!" ejaculated Frederick, flinging the negative with an indignant fierceness at the Sergeant-Major. “Hold your tongue, fellow!” cried Redburn. “No insubordination here! You have been drinking ale 4 “JT have, sir—I confess it,” answered Frede- tck “but I deny that I am inebriated.” “ Tnebriateu, None of your fine words here,” rejoined Gerald contemptuously. “ What bu- giness has a beggar like you to study the diction- ary !” “ Beggar!” echoed Londsdale, a galvanic thriil of rage sweeping through his entire form. “ What, sir! do you mean to give me any of your insolence ?” exclaimed Gerald, but step- ping back two or three paces at the same mo- ment, for fear lest the outraged private soldier should dash him to the ground. “TI meant no insolence, Captain Redburn,” answered .Lonsdale, now mastering his emo- tions, although with considerabie difficulty. “I am accused of being drunk—since you do not like the other term ‘ “This is fresh insolence,” interrupted Red- burn: then all in a moment it flashed to his mind that the plot of the man Smith might be considerably aided if Lonsdale were kept out of the way from his wife’s lodgings for a few days; and here was an vpportunity of accomplishing this particular object. “ Yes: I repeat—you have been guilty of the greatest insolence, not only to the Sergeant-Major, but also to myself. Consider yourself under arrest; and it depends upon how you behave yourself for the next three or four days, whether I dowt have you Erought to a court-martial. He has been pun- ished before, I think—hasn’t he, Langley ?’?— and Gerald put the question with a contemptu- ous manner of indifference, as if he did not trouble himself to recollect such circumstances, 146 “ Yes, sir—flogged,” reydied Langley. “Oh, flogged—eh ” “ Yes, sir—flogged twicé :—and the Sergeante Major accentuated the word with bitter spitee fulness, “ Twice—eh ?” “Yes, sir—and branded too.” “Oh the incorrigible scoundrel!” ejaculated Redburn. “ Well, he is to consider himself under arrest:”—and thus speaking, he turned away and quitted the guard-house, followed by Sergeant Langley, who, ere he crossed the threshold, threw back a look of demoniac mae lignity and fiendish triumph upon the unfortue nate Lonsdale. A low moan had) come forth from his lips at those words which so cruelly and terribly reminded him that he was a branded deserter,—reminded, too, with such unfeeling barbarity in the presence of his comrades! A dead silence prevailed in the guard-room for sume minutes afier Captain Redburn and the Serjeant-Major had takeu their departure. Lons- dale, with folded arms, paced to and fro—his fine form drawn up to its full height—his shoulders thrown back—thus, unpremeditatedly on his part displaying the graceful curve at the Waist in its symmetrical proportions: but his head was bent forward, and his looks were cast down in moody thoughtfulness. He felt him- self cruelly outraged—brutally treated. Was he a dog to be thus kicked by a wretch like Gerald Redburn? was hea reptile to be thus trampled upon by the foot of a bully like Ser- geant Langley? Despair was writhing about his heart: he felt that if he were to give way to his passion, he could start off from that guards house like a maniac, and with his bayonet im- wnolate both his enemies to the vengeance that was barning within him, “Tt’s a deuced deal too bad,” observed one of the soldiers, at length breaking the long ine terval of silence which had prevailed: and as he spoke in a somewhat subdued tone, he looked towards the door to assure himself that there were no eavesdroppers. “ Yes—too bad,” said another. “ Lonsdale didn’t deserve it. For what he has done before, he suffered, and oughtu’t to have it thrown in his teeth.” “And by such a whipper-snapper as that Redburn!” interjected a third. “And that great hulking bully Langley,” re marked a fourth. “ Well, we are all liable to it,” said a fifth— an elderly man with a thoughtful countenance “T tell you what it is, comrades—there will never be any justice in the army, till the off- cers rise from the ranks, as the non-commis- sioned officer8 do.” “What nonsense!” cried another soldier. “The non-commissioned officers are as great bullies as they can well be; and the officers would be the same, just as they are now, if they also rose from the ranks.” “Softly, softly, my good fellow,” responded the elderly soldier. “ You know very weli that | have reflected on these matters. What I say is this—if it is necessary to have an army at all, it is for the general good, as a safeguard for the whole country. It oughint tata a scot of (SO)