The Soldier's Wife — page 194: what you’re looking at

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

¥ THE SOLDIER'S WIFE. * What has he done?” asked Lucy, the words eoming hoarse between her chattering teeth: and she was shivering with direst apprehension from head to foot. “T say I have no doubt he was provoked to do it—or else he never would have lifted his hand against his officer , A hollow groan came from Lucy’s throat ; and she sank down in appalled dismay and black despair upon a seat that was near. The baker summoned his wife to bring a glass of water; but when it was proffered to our un- A: . . shappy heroine, she only shook her head with a sadness so deep, so drear, so dismal, that the baker and his wife were much affected. They invited her to step into their little parlor and compose Herself: but though she heard that they were speaking, she caught not the sense of what they said: it was a mere droning in her ars, as if she was experiencing the sensations of drowning. But all ina moment. she started up, as if galvanized by a sudden access of frenzy ; and flying precip tately from the shop, rushed along the street like one demented. In an incredibly short space of time, she gained the barracks. ‘There she made enquiries of the sentinel at the gate; and the tale she had already heard was not merely confirmed, but now received additions so fearful, that the un- fortunate wife felt as if she must scream out in ber wiid affliction, and thus pss into a state of raving madness; for not only had her husband struck Gerald Redburn, but be had drawn his bayonet against Sergeant Langley; he had. wounded him m th arm—he had defied the military authorities to arrest him-—-in short, he had been guélty of a complication of offences, the penalty for which was something whose bare contemplation made her brain reel, filling it with frenzy, and her soul with awful horror. She besought leave to see her unfortunate hus band; but the seniimel assured her that it were useless to apply for such permission that even- ing; and Lucy dragged herself away from the barrack-gate, feeling that the cup of her mis- eries Was now, not merely filled to the brim, but was running over. CHAPTER XXXVIII. A SCENE AT THE MANOR-HOUSE. Txw days had elapsed since the events re- corded in the preceding chapter; and Captain Redburn rode over one morning—as indeed he was frequently accustomed to do—to the Manor House. Sir Archibald, Lady Redburn, and Aunt Jane were sitting together in the drawing-room, when Gerald made his ap- pearance. “ Well.” said the baronet, after some obser- vations on indifferent matters had been ex- changed, “what about the court-martial and that fellow Lonsdale ?” “Oh! it came off yesterday,” responded 173 You see, he had no real defenee .6 make: for when he began quarrelling with Langley, he positively declared and took heaven itself to witness that he had not been drinking “And if he had,” observed the baronet, “ it would only have been an aggravation of hig offence. Whenever culprits are brought before me, and plead drunkenness _ for anything they may have done, I always tell them that———” “Never mind what you tell them,” inter- rupted Aunt Jane, who, instead of her wonted cold sneering bitterness, spoke with a strange petulance. “I dare say you don’t offer the poor wretches any consolation: you seem to have a delivht for the stocks and the treadmill.” ‘The stocks,” remarked the Baronet, shaking his head mm evident regret at the mereasing | desuetude of what he considered to be a time. honored institution, “have nearly gone out of vogue, and [ must confess Iam sorry for it. It was a most salutary punishment; and if my ad- vice had been taken in certain quarters——” “ But Gerald hasn’t finished telling us about the court martial, my dear,” said Lady Red- burn; “and of course we are all interested in it: for that wicked fellow Lonsdale always had a spite against our Gerald—and for that very reason [I have ever been convinced that he would come to no good. Well, Gerald—and se he had no shadow of a defence to make ?” “Ob! he tried to say a great many things, and bring a great many charges against me; and he wanted to talk a great deal about the tyrannies, as he called them, to which he had been subjected, But of course all those things were extraneous, and had nothing to do with the subject of the courtmartial. In respect to the accusations themselves, there was really no defence. Yousee Langley deposed that as he was walking along the street, Lonsdale hustled him on purpose; and when Langley gently and kindly remonstrated with him upon the 1mpro- priety of his behavior, the scoundrel became terribly abusive. Of conrse Langley concluded at once that he must be tipsy, or he would never act in that manner: so he said to him in a con- ciliatory tone, ‘Come now, Lonsdale, I don’t wish to get you into any trouble: but you are mn liquor, and the best thing you can do is to go straight to your quarters and keep yourself guiet’—-Now this was kind enough, wasn’t it ?” “ Ves—if Sergeant Langley may be believed on his oath,” interjected Aunt Jane: and her pale countenance appeared to be more ghastly pale than ever at this moment, “ Believed on his oath?” ejaculated Gerald: “and why the deuce shouldn’t be be? Besides, there was a great deal of what he alleged that I was able to corroborate: for coming up at the moment, I heard Lonsdale aobusmy Langley like a pickpocket,—calling him all the scoun- drels he could possibly lay his tongue. to— scoundrel ¢hzs-—scoundrel that—scoundrel the other———” “ And perhaps if he had distributed the same compliments elsewhere, he wouldn’t have been wrong,” again interjected Miss Redburn, witha Gerald in a careless manner, as he ran his fin-, degree of bitterness that had something actually gers through his hair; “ and a3 a matter of course fiendish in its rancor as she bent her eyes on the rascal’s days in this world are numbered.! Gerald: and even these egeswern not yt the. im