Life's Little Ironies: A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted CharactersHardy, Thomas
General
Life's Little Ironies: A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters
Hardy, Thomas
Short stories, English; Wessex (England) -- Fiction
A firing-party of twenty-four men stood ready with levelled carbines.
The commanding officer, who had his sword drawn, waved it through some
cuts of the sword-exercise till he reached the downward stroke, whereat
the firing-party discharged their volley. The two victims fell, one
upon his face across his coffin, the other backwards.
As the volley resounded there arose a shriek from the wall of Dr.
Grove’s garden, and some one fell down inside; but nobody among the
spectators without noticed it at the time. The two executed Hussars
were Matthäus Tina and his friend Christoph. The soldiers on guard
placed the bodies in the coffins almost instantly; but the colonel of
the regiment, an Englishman, rode up and exclaimed in a stern voice:
‘Turn them out—as an example to the men!’
The coffins were lifted endwise, and the dead Germans flung out upon
their faces on the grass. Then all the regiments wheeled in sections,
and marched past the spot in slow time. When the survey was over the
corpses were again coffined, and borne away.
Meanwhile Dr. Grove, attracted by the noise of the volley, had rushed
out into his garden, where he saw his wretched daughter lying
motionless against the wall. She was taken indoors, but it was long
before she recovered consciousness; and for weeks they despaired of her
reason.
It transpired that the luckless deserters from the York Hussars had cut
the boat from her moorings in the adjacent harbour, according to their
plan, and, with two other comrades who were smarting under
ill-treatment from their colonel, had sailed in safety across the
Channel. But mistaking their bearings they steered into Jersey,
thinking that island the French coast. Here they were perceived to be
deserters, and delivered up to the authorities. Matthäus and Christoph
interceded for the other two at the court-martial, saying that it was
entirely by the former’s representations that these were induced to go.
Their sentence was accordingly commuted to flogging, the death
punishment being reserved for their leaders.
The visitor to the well-known old Georgian watering-place, who may care
to ramble to the neighbouring village under the hills, and examine the
register of burials, will there find two entries in these words:—
‘Matth:—Tina (Corpl.) in His Majesty’s Regmt. of York Hussars, and Shot
for Desertion, was Buried June 30th, 1801, aged 22 years. Born in the
town of Sarrbruk, Germany.
‘Christoph Bless, belonging to His Majesty’s Regmt. of York Hussars,
who was Shot for Desertion, was Buried June 30th, 1801, aged 22 years.
Born at Lothaargen, Alsatia.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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