Arthur Blane; or, The Hundred CuirassiersGrant, James
History
Arthur Blane; or, The Hundred Cuirassiers
Grant, James
France -- History -- Louis XIII, 1610-1643 -- Fiction
'Alas! he fell with it. A shot killed him yesterday; but his death
filled the troops with fury, so we carried the place by assault this
morning. The King of France has lost a faithful soldier, and old
Scotland a gallant son. Rest him, heaven!' said Gordon, looking
upward, with tears in his eyes; 'for there, in his bloody harness at
Zaberne, lies cold and still a heart that never knew fear!'
'But the fear of God?' added Livingstone.
'Right, chevalier; Hepburn was pious as he was brave. He was the
first soldier in Christendom, and we may never see his like again.'
Hepburn's fall shocked and grieved me, the more that he had died
before I could announce to him that Louis XIII. had raised him to
that rank so coveted by every chevalier in his army--marechal of
France; and conversing of his worth and bravery, rather than of my
more recent adventures, which lay, perhaps, nearer my heart, we rode
sadly and thoughtfully towards Zaberne.
I found the town breached and battered by cannon-shot; the houses
riddled, the streets in ruin; encumbered by fallen masonry and
unburied bodies. The soldiers were sullen and full of fury,
especially the Scottish regiments, for the fall of their beloved
commander, who was solemnly interred in the cathedral of Toul, where
a magnificent monument was erected to his memory.*
* Demolished by the revolutionists in 1793, his tomb was restored by
order of the Emperor Napoleon III. in 1851, as a letter from the curé
of the cathedral informed the author.--See Note at end.
We buried the other dead in one huge grave--friend and foe--and threw
in their weapons with them. Still enough they lay in that ghastly
trench, as we heaped the earth over them; though their uniforms were
on and their weapons at hand, the strife of their gallant hearts was
over; but if ever men went to heaven, they will be the brave fellows
who died with Hepburn at Zaberne.
CHAPTER LXI.
ISABEL DOUGLAS.
The brave general of the Scots being thus slain by those citizens of
Zaberne, who, as Cardinal de la Valette said, 'had been keeping him
at bay for the last six months by playing at soldiers,' the colonelcy
of his celebrated Scottish regiment devolved upon his cousin, the
Laird of Waughton, and the command of the army upon the Duke of
Saxe-Weimar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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