Chapter XV A Challenge
On leaving the palace Arthur went to his room, where he found supper awaiting him, Roper having confiscated to his use the contents of the royal hamper.
“I thought you would want something before you went to bed, and I was sure that I did. I have already eaten mine, but here is a fowl, sir, and two bottles of wine.”
“Well, I am not sorry to have them, though it is three o’clock in the morning; however, we can sleep as late as we like.”
At twelve o’clock, however, Arthur was awakened by Leon entering his room.
“We have been quite uneasy about you, Arthur. Where have you been? What have you been doing with yourself? I came round here four days ago; the concierge said you were out. I called again in the evening, and next morning I learned that, when you left, you had said nothing about any intention of going away; that you had certainly taken no clothes with you, but had gone out with Roper in attendance, just as if you were going for an ordinary ride.”
“That was just the intention with which I did go out, but circumstances were too much for me. Now, what I am going to tell you is a complete secret, and before I say anything about it you must give me your promise that it shall not, on any account whatever, go beyond yourself and your sisters.”
Leon looked at Arthur in surprise, but, seeing that he was quite in earnest, gave the required pledge.
“Well, you will be surprised to hear that in the four days I have been away I have ridden over three hundred miles.”
“Over three hundred miles!”
“Yes. That is not bad for what was really three and a half days’ work, for I arrived here at three o’clock this morning.”
“You stupefy me,” the young count said. “Why, no horse could have done it.”
“No, and no horse did it; I had relays about every fifteen miles.”
“You travelled post? What did you carry? A despatch for Espartero, or a cartel to Cabrera?”
“Prepare yourself for a surprise, Leon. I carried in my hand the safety of the queen and the regent.”
“The safety of the queen and regent! You are not joking, are you? How could you have to ride three hundred miles on such an errand?”
“Well, briefly, Leon, the queen and the queen regent were carried away a hundred and fifty miles, and I brought them back again.”
Leon looked seriously at his friend.
“You are not quite well, are you?” he said; “you are a little upset, my dear fellow, about something. You are talking nonsense, you know; the queen has not been out of Madrid. She has been unwell, and her mother has been nursing her.”
“So you were led to believe, but the facts are as I have stated. The queen and her mother were seized when driving through the streets of Madrid four days ago. They were placed in a carriage with closed blinds, and were carried to a place some twenty-five miles beyond the Ebro and some thirty miles from Tudela. I followed them with Roper. I had the luck to obtain an interview with her majesty, rode to Tudela, and brought back a squadron of horse, surrounded the house where they were imprisoned, captured all the conspirators, and brought the queen and her mother back to Madrid at one o’clock this morning.”
“You seem to be talking sensibly,” Leon said, “but I really cannot take in what you say. It’s a hundred and thirty miles good to the Ebro, and you say it was twenty-five miles farther; then you rode from there to Tudela and back, a distance of sixty miles, so that you have, in fact, covered some four hundred miles. Where have you slept?”
“I think I slept a little on horseback on the way to Tudela and back, and I have slept since three o’clock this morning, as I was some time at the palace. I have no doubt that in addition I dozed occasionally for some minutes in succession in the saddle during the return journey, and I had a sleep of eight hours in the daytime the day before yesterday; and if you had not come in I dare say I should have had as many more before I woke to-day.”
Leon looked so serious that Arthur burst into a hearty laugh.
“That is good,” he said, “and will wake me up. Now, Leon, if you will wait for five minutes I will get up and dress. Did you see Roper when you came in?”
“Yes; he opened the door to me as usual.”
“Well, if you will tell him that I shall be out in ten minutes, and want some coffee and something to eat, he will make it for me; but mind, don’t ask him any questions. I am not going to have the story spoilt by anyone else telling you about it; not that I think you would get anything out of him, for he is absolutely trustworthy, and I told him last night that no whisper must pass his lips of what has taken place.”
In ten minutes Arthur went into the sitting-room, and as he entered, Leon said: “If you are going to eat your breakfast before you tell me anything, I will go away. I cannot repress my curiosity, and I will take a ride or do something to keep my brain steady until you are ready to unburden yourself.”
“I will begin at once, and tell you while I am eating.
“Now,” he began, as he sat down and poured out some coffee, “the thing in a nut-shell is precisely what I told you. And now as to particulars:—I was riding with Roper, and had gone about seven miles out. As we returned I met a party of gentlemen on horseback. At some little distance behind them was a carriage with the blinds down. Again, at a distance behind the carriage was another party of gentlemen. Altogether there were twelve men. It struck me as rather curious; still, they might have been going down to spend the day at some château, and carrying provisions or something of that sort in the carriage. I should not have thought much more about the matter, if it had not been for one thing: as the carriage passed me, it struck me that I knew one of the horses by a rather curious white mark on its forehead.
“As I rode on, it suddenly occurred to me where I had seen a horse similarly marked: it was in the carriage in which the queen was driving when I saw her in the street, just as we were starting. Naturally this led me to review the position. Who was in the carriage? Why were the blinds down? How was it that six men were riding in front of it and other six behind it? It struck me that possibly they were carrying off the queen, and I resolved to follow and see where they went. They rode much farther than I expected, changing horses at quiet places every twelve miles or so, and going very fast, till, as I told you, they crossed the Ebro between Saragossa and Tudela, and went some twenty-five miles farther to a mansion, which I had no difficulty in learning belonged to Count Juan de Monterey.
“Having found that out, we stopped at an inn in a village two miles from it, and had that sleep I mentioned, as it was ten o’clock in the day, and I could do nothing till dark. Then I went to the mansion and found, by looking through the curtains, that the party were at dinner. I found also that the windows of another room on the ground floor had closed shutters. The two rooms lay on opposite sides of the grand entrance. The door was open. I peeped in, and could see no one about; so I took heart, walked boldly in, and turned along the corridor to the room with the closed shutters.
“Two men were standing on guard at the door, but of course they took me for one of their master’s guests, and I walked coolly past them, and found in the room the queen and her mother. I got the regent to sign an order that I had written out, for the officer commanding at Tudela to place himself under my orders. Then I rode over there and fetched a squadron of cavalry, which arrived at daybreak. We surrounded the house, took the twelve men there prisoners, started an hour later with the queens, and arrived here at one o’clock this morning.”
Leon gazed at him in open-eyed astonishment.
“You are certainly a most surprising fellow, a most astonishing fellow! I don’t know what to say to you. Here, single-handed, you have thwarted a plot that might have brought ruin to the country; you have saved a couple of queens; you have captured, too, the leaders of the plot; you have ridden, what with your journey to Tudela and back, four hundred miles at least, in the course of three days and a half; and here you are, telling me all this as if it had been a natural and everyday occurrence.”
“It certainly was not an everyday occurrence, Leon, but it was an affair that might have happened to anyone who kept his eyes open and possessed a certain amount of endurance.”
“So this is the real history of the young queen’s indisposition?”
“Yes. I think the ministers acted very wisely in keeping the thing a secret.”
“It is the first wise thing they have done,” Leon said. “I don’t see that they are a bit better than the last ministry. However, never mind that now. And about yourself? you must be fearfully stiff.”
“I am very stiff, but that will wear off by to-morrow.”
“And did your man perform this marvellous journey in spite of his broken leg?”
“He rode there with me, and when I went to fetch the troops, but he came back on the box of the queen’s carriage. His leg hurt him a good deal last night, but I hope no real harm is done, though no doubt he will have to keep quiet for a few days.”
“Well, they ought to make a duke and grandee of Spain of you for it.”
“I sincerely hope they won’t think of anything of the sort,” Arthur laughed. “Fancy my going back to England with such a title as the Duc de Miraflores! The thing would be absolutely ludicrous!”
“Well, they will have to do something big anyhow,” Leon said. “Now, tell me the story more fully. You have got nothing to do, and may as well gratify my curiosity.”
“There is really very little to tell, but I will give it to you;” and he then told the story in detail.
“Well, it is really remarkable that you should have been able to keep them under your observation during all that long journey without letting them know that they were followed.”
“You see, they could have had no idea that there was anyone after them; if they had, they would no doubt have left a couple of their number to follow at a distance of two or three miles. They no doubt felt quite sure that the absence of the queen was entirely unsuspected, that no search could be made for her for at least six hours, and that assuredly no parties would be sent off in any case to scour the country till next day, by which time they would have crossed the Ebro. If, instead of taking the horses from the queen’s carriage, they had waited five minutes till their own were yoked, their plot would have been successful. Their plan was uncommonly well laid, and they could hardly have conceived it possible that one of the queen’s horses would be recognized in a private carriage; nor would it have been had I not happened to observe that peculiar mark that very morning.”
“Well,” Leon said, “I will be off now to tell my sisters.”
“I shall not stir out to-day, Leon. I really feel that I should enjoy a day’s rest, and it is possible that I may be sent for to the palace.”
“That is almost certain; the ministers must have many things to question you about, as the queen last night can only have given them a general account of the affair.”
Indeed, a court messenger rode up an hour later and requested Arthur’s attendance at the palace. He dressed himself fully and went there. On his arrival he was conducted to the council-chamber.
“The queens have not yet risen, Captain Hallett. I should be glad if you would give us much fuller details than the regent was able to give us last night; perhaps, too, in addition to what you yourself know of it, you may have heard from Queen Christina the particulars of her capture.”
Arthur gave the particulars at full length, both of the queen’s capture and of his own proceedings.
“Thank you, Captain Hallett!” the premier said. “It is the most audacious attempt against the person of a Queen of Spain that I have ever heard of; and the manner in which you thwarted it is no less remarkable. We have already despatched a courier with orders to Colonel Queredo, ordering him to bring the prisoners to Madrid under the escort of the troop of cavalry, and to accomplish this with all possible speed, placing them in three carriages and keeping the most careful guard over them, confining them by day in some suitable apartment where they can communicate with no one, and travelling after dark only. They will be tried privately. I may tell you that although their lives are unquestionably forfeited, we do not intend to carry out the extreme penalty, as this could not be done without the whole affair becoming known—a matter that we are most anxious to avoid. In the first place, the men are all members of good families, and could not be so disposed of without the whole matter being known; and the attempt so nearly succeeded that it might be again tried. Their estates will, of course, be forfeited, and they will be taken to the frontier and forbidden ever to cross it again, under penalty of incurring the death-sentence that will be passed upon them. And now, sir, may we ask you what shape you would like our gratitude to take, for this great service you have rendered?”
“I have no desire for a reward in any shape, sir,” Arthur replied. “I am an English gentleman with an estate in my own country, and am well pleased that I have been able to render a service to the Queen of Spain and her mother. That is ample reward for my efforts, and I can assure you that I shall be best pleased if nothing else is done in the matter. I feel personally thankful to you that you have decided not to execute the men concerned in the matter; it would be a pain for me to know that the lives of twelve men, who were doubtless actuated by what they believed, however mistakenly, to be the good of their country, should be forfeited through me. May I enquire if you have arrested the coachman and footmen? I do not ask that mercy should be extended to them. They were, of course, bribed heavily, and I do not think any punishment too severe for men who could so betray their mistress.”
“The police are in search of them, Captain Hallett. We can hardly expect to find them for some time, for they would naturally leave within an hour after the perpetration of their crime, and as they have four days’ start they will by this time be far away. No efforts, however, will be spared in tracing them. As to what you have said, we shall, of course, inform the regent of your declaration, which doubtless does you the highest credit, but which, as you must see, can hardly be entertained by us, as it would be impossible for the queen to remain under so deep an obligation to a gentleman, however honourable and disinterested.”
“Well, sir, I can only say that I spoke in earnest. I shall always be pleased to look back at having been able to render a service to the Queen of Spain, who had already honoured me by creating me a Knight of the Isabella of the first class and a Companion of the Order of San Fernando the Catholic.”
He was again sent for to the palace by the queen that afternoon.
“I have been for a drive with my daughter,” she said, “and have been acclaimed by the populace, who were evidently pleased that Isabella has recovered from her indisposition; and things will now, I hope, go on as before. I feel that at present I have not thanked you as you deserve for what you did for us. Believe me, that I am not ungrateful. My little daughter is not old enough to understand the service you have rendered us, but in her name I thank you most deeply, and shall ever retain a deep feeling of obligation towards you.”
“The service was one that any gentleman might have performed. The sight of that carriage with the blinds down, and the knowledge that one of the horses that was drawing it belonged to your majesty, might well have excited the suspicion in anyone that something was wrong. That idea once entertained, he would have taken steps to get to the bottom of the mystery.”
The regent smiled. “I can assure you, Captain Hallett, that few of my countrymen would have troubled their heads about such a matter one way or another, or have put themselves out of the way to investigate it. The premier tells me that he has informed you of the course they intend to take as to these traitors. Has it your approval?”
“Entirely so. I am very little qualified to judge such matters, but it certainly seems to me in the highest degree desirable that this attempt on your person should not be generally known. People may guess as they choose when they hear that these men have been banished for life, but they may merely suppose that they have been concerned in some plot or other. Anything would be better than to let it be known that you had been actually carried off.”
That evening Arthur paid a visit to Leon’s, and was received with enthusiasm by the three girls. “Leon has been telling us all about your doings, Señor Arthur,” Inez exclaimed. “So you have saved the two queens and brought them safely back from Madrid? It was splendid! You can’t tell how proud we feel of you, as we flatter ourselves that we are your greatest friends here.”
“That you certainly are, Donna Inez. I have no very intimate friends here except yourselves.”
“As for Mercedes, she regularly cried,” the girl went on.
“You should not tell such things, Inez,” Mercedes said, colouring hotly. “I know that it was silly of me, but it did seem so brave and so wonderful.”
“There was no bravery in it. The only time when there was ever real danger was when I entered the house and discovered the queens; otherwise, the question was only one of sitting so many hours in the saddle.”
“I won’t have you belittle yourself,” Mercedes said, with an attempt at playfulness. “It was just the same thing when you rescued me: you tried to make out that anyone could have done it. It was altogether a splendid deed.”
In a short time guests began to arrive, for it was the evening on which they entertained. Arthur could not help being amused at the talk, which turned partly on the young queen’s illness, her rapid recovery, and what would have happened had her illness been a serious one.
A week later Arthur appeared at the trial of the traitors, and gave evidence as to their proceedings. Christina’s account of her capture was read aloud. The prisoners attempted no defence, as the complicity of the whole of them in the affair was too evident to dispute. They were all sentenced to death, with the confiscation of their estates. The death-sentence, however, was commuted by the queen regent into banishment for life, and they were taken to the frontier and there released.
On the day after the trial the estates of Count de Monteroy were bestowed upon Arthur by decree signed by the queen regent and the queen. He went at once to the palace to receive the document, and implored the regent to take back the gift. “I have no intention, your majesty, of remaining in Spain after the conclusion of the war, and the gift would be a burden to me. I could not look after the estates, nor see to the welfare of my tenants. I hope that in time, when all these matters are settled, your majesty will be able to recall these unhappy men and replace them on their estates. Doubtless an amnesty will be granted at the end of the war, and I trust that your majesty will be able to include even these malefactors, who will, we may be sure, be moved by your clemency to become faithful servants of yours.”
“But a queen cannot be ungrateful, cavalero.”
“Your majesty, it is sufficient for me to know that I have your gratitude, and I shall always be proud to know that I have been able to do you and your daughter service, therefore I implore you to take back this gift.”
“I cannot refuse any petition from you,” the regent said, and, taking the deed of gift in her hands, she tore it in two; “but in some way, at least, we must manifest our gratitude.”
Three days later Arthur received a business notification from a banker in the city stating that the sum of a hundred thousand crowns had been paid by royal order to his account, and five thousand crowns to that of the soldier, John Roper. He felt that he could not refuse this gift, and called at the palace and sincerely thanked the two queens for it.
“We feel, and shall always feel, that we are under the deepest obligation to you, señor; and we have been permitted to show you but a very small portion of it.”
Roper was in the highest degree delighted. He had now thrown away his stick, and was able to walk fairly well.
“Well, Captain Hallett,” he said, “I never thought, when I sailed on that expedition from Liverpool, that I should come home at the end of a few years with fifteen hundred pounds in my pocket; nor, when we sat down to dinner on board that hulk, that through you I was to have such good fortune.”
“You must not put it in that way, Roper. It has come to you through the friendship that led you to give up your stripes in order to follow me, and for the service you did in both the affairs in which we were engaged together.”
“It is mighty little I did beyond following your orders. Now, sir, I don’t care how soon we go back to England.”
“Nor do I, Roper; but we must see this business out. From what I hear, Maroto, Don Carlos’ commander-in-chief in the north, who appears to be an unmixed scoundrel, is negotiating with Espartero for surrender. He has already seized and murdered six of the Carlists’ best generals, who would, he knew, be opposed to his projects. If the negotiations do not fall through, there is an end to the Carlist cause in the north, and Espartero will be able to move with his whole force into Aragon, in which case he will speedily bring the contest to an end.”
A week later Arthur was at a reception at Leon’s, when he observed a man scowling at him, and, asking his name from a friend, learned that he was Count Silvio de Mora. He thought no more of the matter at the time, but on the following morning a card, with the name of Don Pedro de Verderas, was brought in to him. He at once ordered Roper to show him up. A young man entered and bowed courteously, but waved his hand aside when Arthur offered him a chair.
“I have come to you, señor, on the part of my friend Count Silvio de Mora, who conceives himself to be seriously aggrieved by you.”
“Indeed, sir! in what way? I have never exchanged a word with him that I am aware of, though I certainly observed that he was looking unpleasantly at me last night.”
“The count’s grievance is a very clear and distinct one, señor. He was, as you are doubtless aware, betrothed to Donna Mercedes de Balen. That young lady, as a consequence, he tells me, of her being captured by the Carlists, wrote by the hand of her brother to say that the shock had been so great that she was determined never to marry, but to spend her life in good works. The count, my friend, assented, though deeply troubled by the decision. The count now finds that by common report Donna Mercedes—”
“Stay, sir,” Arthur said sternly, “don’t let the name of Donna Mercedes de Balen be brought into this matter. The Count Silvio de Mora conceives that he has a quarrel with me and demands satisfaction. That is quite enough as between two gentlemen. I shall be perfectly prepared to give him that satisfaction. A friend of mine will wait upon you to arrange the preliminaries.”
“Nothing can be more satisfactory,” the Spaniard said. He and Arthur exchanged deep bows, and he went out.
Arthur sat down to think deeply. He was now twenty, with an experience that made him feel years older. Donna Mercedes was a year younger, and gradually for a long time past he had been aware of the fact that it was more than the friendship brought about by their close intimacy that he felt towards her. She was in all respects a charming girl. She was bright, pleasant, and natural, one of the acknowledged beauties of Madrid. He had often told himself that it would be wrong of him to presume, on the friendship of Count Leon, to raise his eyes to his sister, who was co-heiress with her sisters to large estates which had been the property of her mother. The queen’s remark about her blushes when she mentioned him had often recurred to him, and had suggested to him that possibly it was not mere gratitude she felt for him. The queen’s gift had placed him in a better position than before, so that it would not be necessary to ask her to wait five years before he would be able to support her in the style of life to which she had been accustomed. He had been intimate with the family in a manner altogether contrary to Spanish customs, and it might well be that she had come to care for him.
“Well, I will speak to her brother about it after this affair is over,” he concluded; “and now I will send word to Don Lopez Parona. I have seen a good deal of him, and no doubt he will act for me.”
He sent Roper off with a note, and an hour later the young man came in.
“Don Lopez,” he said, “Count Silvio de Mora has forced a quarrel upon me, and it is necessary that I should fight him. I have sent for you to ask if you will be my second in the affair.
“With pleasure, Captain Hallett. What arrangements do you wish made?”
“Well, I have been thinking it over. I don’t pretend to be a really good shot with the pistol, though I have practised a bit. Do you know whether the count is a good swordsman?”
“He has the reputation of being an excellent one.”
“Well, I took lessons with the sword four years ago when I was at Vittoria, but I have never used a straight sword since. I don’t suppose he is a better shot with the pistol than I am. I wish you to say that I have not touched a sword for years, but that if he will give me a fortnight to practise I will choose that weapon; if he objects to that, I will take pistols. I fenced for nearly six months at Vittoria and worked very hard, and my master said that I was really a good swordsman, and had learned as much as a Spaniard would in two years. I think with hard work that I can get it back again in a fortnight.”
Three hours later Don Lopez returned. “I have arranged it as you desired. It seems the count knows nothing of pistols, and he is quite willing to give you a fortnight to prepare for the encounter.”
“Very well, then. I will go this evening to a fencing school, and will put in six hours’ work a day, divided into three lessons of two hours each.”
“But that would be prodigious, señor!”
“If you feel my muscles you will, I think, admit that they can stand pretty hard work.”
Arthur went to the man who was considered to be the first teacher of fencing in Madrid, and arranged to go to him three times a day—at eight in the morning, at two in the afternoon, and at seven in the evening. The master at first said that it would be impossible for him to practise for so long a time.
“Well, at any rate, professor, I will try. It is quite possible that for the first three or four days I shall have to rest a bit sometimes, but I think at the end of the fortnight I shall be able to work the six hours a day without difficulty.”
Arthur took off his coat and waistcoat, and turned up his shirt-sleeves.
“By San Martin, you have a wonderful arm!” the professor said.
“We play hard at school in England. All our games demand strength and activity, and it is not wonderful that our muscles are vastly harder and stronger than those of your gentlemen, who would consider it infra dig., when boys, to engage in any sport that would make them warm.”
The professor felt the muscles of his right arm. “Well, señor, if you fence, as your muscles would seem to show, you need only a little teaching to be one of the best swordsmen in Spain. Then, too, your height and age give you great advantage. Well, señor, take the foil and let me see what you know.”
“Very good,” he said, after a bout of two or three minutes. “You have been well taught. I can see that you are out of practice, and your returns are not as quick as might be. However, if you work as you say, that will soon be put right.”
After the lesson, Arthur found his wrist recovering its suppleness, but he was glad to stop before the second bout was finished.
“You will do, señor,” the professor said, when he acknowledged that he had had enough. “I suppose you are working in this way for a purpose, and I can tell you that I should be sorry to be your opponent.”
Arthur’s wrist and arm were stiff the next morning, and he was not sorry to follow his teacher’s advice and content himself with an hour and a half at each lesson.
The first week Leon in vain endeavoured to find out from him where he had spent his time. “I used almost always to find you in,” he said, “but now, whether it is the morning or the afternoon, I find you away. Of an evening you have often dropped in, but later than usual.”
“I am rather busy just now, Leon, and of course go in every morning from ten to one to Colonel Wylde’s office, and generally for an hour in the afternoon; but things are so quiet, both up in the north and the east, that he does not consider it necessary for me to start again at present.”
“Well, the girls are always saying, ‘What has come over Captain Hallett the last few days?’”
“Tell them, please, that nothing has come over me, but that I have some work that keeps me particularly busy. In another ten days I shall have brought it to a conclusion.”
Arthur had no doubt that his antagonist had not altogether thrown away his time, and that he too had been practising; but he thought that in all probability this was confined to a little dilettante work lasting perhaps for an hour a day.
At the end of the fortnight the professor announced that never in his experience had he seen so strong an arm and so supple a wrist, and that he believed Arthur could easily hold his own against even the strongest antagonist.
“I myself am considered a good blade,” he said, “but during the past two or three days I have with difficulty held my own with you, and indeed you have hit me oftener than I have hit you; so now you have done with me.”
“Yes, professor; and I am greatly indebted to you for the time you have spent upon me, and the trouble you have taken.”
The professor shrugged his shoulders. “You have paid me well for it, señor; but it has been a real pleasure to me. A teacher is always interested in his pupil, and when he is fortunate enough to have a pupil like you, he does not care what trouble he bestows upon him. Your fencing has been a revelation to me of what your countrymen can do. I speak not of the skill, but of the power to sustain fatigue. When I compare, señor, your earnestness, strength of muscle, and quickness of wrist with the work of the young nobles and cavaliers who come to me and flatter themselves that they are learning to fence, I can well understand why you Englishmen are such great soldiers, and why you spread yourselves over the world and conquer it. Three centuries ago the men of my race were great soldiers. They were strong and hardy, and they conquered well-nigh all Europe, till, unfortunately for themselves, they fell across you, and from that time their downfall began. You fought against us in Holland, you fought with the Huguenot King of Navarre at Ivry, you fought with us on the seas, destroyed our Armada, captured Cadiz, and demolished our mercantile marine, and, as it would seem, broke the spirit of our people; for from that time we have steadily gone down. It makes one sad to think of it.”