The Soldier's Wife — page 163: what you’re looking at

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

144 THE SOLDIER’S WIFE. mechanized and embruted slaves: it ought to be | visiting him at the barracks. She was thus be composed of freemen, as much brothers of the} wildered how to act—till at length she felt 1t te Civilians as civilians amongst themselves ought|be her duty to go and ascertain how matters vw be brothers, Well then, let every regiment actually stood: for she even feared that they elect its own officers—commissioned and non-|might be worse than her husband had chosen to commissioned Ah! aad have these elections,|represent. She put into a basket some articleg too, periodically, so that we should be sure not|of food to administer to his comfort: but there- only of having good officers, but should likewise| with no intoxicating liquors found a place—and hold a check upon their conduct. But then, we|taking little Frederick with her—for the eom- should be told that there would be no disei- panlonship of a child, no matter how tender its pline? What nonsense! there would be better |age, is ever held as a kind of safeguard by a discipline where all the links and ties that respectable woman—she bent her way to the bound us to each otber would be of a human! barracks. On arriving there, she obtained access and Christian character, In France the Na-|to her husband ; and he could not hide a feeling tional Guards elect their officers every year—uor | of annoyance at her presence. This was be- two years, I forget which; and there’s as good|cause he knew that be should have to tell her discipline amongst them as there is in the regu-|the whole truth, which he did not like to dos Jar army. In the United States, too, the militia}She wept at his manuer when he received her : elect their own officers; and the American mili-|for she could not repel the thought that some tia is Just as good as any regular army in the|time back he would have regarded her visit as world. Now, these are facts that I know: sola proof of her devoted affection. He understood there is no nonsense about them. I have got a| what was passing in ber mind; and stricken by brother i Paris—he is naturalized, as they call) remorse, did his best to atone for that apparent it there, and obliged to serve in the National)demonstration of ill-humor, Guard: so he has wrote and told me all about} “The fact is,” he said, mustering up all his it. Then I have an uncle in the United States ;/ courage to speak with frankness, “I felt so dull and he also has let me know how the thing!and niiserable, I took a glass or two of ale, My works there. Ah! America is the country for! dear wife, pray don’t look so forlorn and discon- true freedom. With all our talk, and bluster, |solate all of a sudden: I really could not heip and braggadocio, we are only a set of slaves injit. You dou’'t know what I suffer at times, or comparison with the people of the great Ameri-|} you would pity me :’--and his countenance was ean Union. And as for floggmg—why, the) convulsed with a writhing expression of an- British army is almost the only one in the! guish, world where it exists now, So I suppose we| “Pity you, dearest Frederick?” responded English soldiers are considered a set of brutes|the weeping Lucy, “Oh! you know that I aud barbarians, that can’t ke kept in order with-|more than pity you—I enter into all you feel— out the lash!” I idenufy myself with all your sufferings—be- The conversation in the guard-room was con-|cause | love you—heaven alone can tell how tinued in this strain for some time longer: but)much I love you! I will not reproach you for it is not our purpose to chronicle any more of | having taken that liquor, Frederick: but surely, the discourse thus held. ‘Throughout that night | surely your own natural strength of mind does Lonsdale’s perturbed spirit grew into a more/not need such artificial stimulant to sustain it ¥” morbid condition: the sense of his wrongs ac-| “ Lucy,” he responded, with a sudden par- quired a keener edge; the thirst for vengeance |oxym of violence, “ there are moments when I against those whom he regarded as his sworn feel as if 1 should go mad. That villain levelled enemies became stronger, aud craved the more} the most diabolical abuse at me: he talled me deeply to be quenched. beggar ! Just heavens, how did I master my Early in the moruving he penned a hasty note! feelings ? And yet I did—for your sake, and to Lucy, to tell her that he was under arrest,/that of our dear boy there. 1 was not tipsy: and should be unable to visit the lodging, not| perhaps 1 was a little excited—I adenit that 1 merely for that day, but probably for several] was: but mvre by the state of my feelings days to come. He begged of her not to call) than by the liquor | had drunk. At all events, upon him at the barracks, as he was so fearful) my appearance was not more inebriated thaa ‘hat she might be subjected to insult at the|that of my comrades on guard: but I was aands of that individual whom he bitterly de-|singled out for punishment—I alone have to nounced as “ an incarnate fiend”—thereby mean-| endure that reptile’s vengeance. Ah! think you mg Gerald Redburn. Fredefick did not enter |that it is not enough to drive one wild? And into any details relative to the cause of the pun-|now I will tell you something that I have not ishment Which he was enduring :“Ne had too! mentioned to you before, but which will prove much remorse for his own conduct, to confess-to|to you that this misereant Redburn is the enemy Lucy that he had been drinking; and he had) of every one belonging to you or me. When at still too high a sense of honor to deny the cir-| home some weeks back, he seduced your mo- cumstauce with a bold effromery. She herself,| ther-in law # full well understanding even the minutest trait) “Oh! my poor father,” murmured Lucy with in her husband’s disposition, at once saw by thea deep groan: “ what will he do? what will manner in which the note was worded, that! become of him ?” there was something wrong. She could not} “ Yes—it is a fact that Redburn did this,” re- weibly endure the suspense into which it threw | plied Lonsdale, accentuating the words; “it te oy and yet she hesitated to disubey the in-| the talk of the whole barrack—and he is hea puction be gave, that she should alystain from for it at the mess-table. ve) father has throwa — O OMIGDOOCKS.CcO