The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., a Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen AnneThackeray, William Makepeace
History
The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., a Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Queen Anne
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Great Britain -- History -- Anne, 1702-1714 -- Fiction; Historical fiction
The Gazette did not come to us till a month afterwards; when my General
and his officers had the honor to dine with Prince Eugene in Lille; his
Highness being good enough to say that we had brought the provisions,
and ought to share in the banquet. 'Twas a great banquet. His Grace of
Marlborough was on his Highness's right, and on his left the Mareschal
de Boufflers, who had so bravely defended the place. The chief officers
of either army were present; and you may be sure Esmond's General was
splendid this day: his tall noble person, and manly beauty of face, made
him remarkable anywhere; he wore, for the first time, the star of the
Order of Generosity, that his Prussian Majesty had sent to him for
his victory. His Highness the Prince of Savoy called a toast to the
conqueror of Wynendael. My Lord Duke drank it with rather a sickly
smile. The aides-de-camp were present: and Harry Esmond and his dear
young lord were together, as they always strove to be when duty would
permit: they were over against the table where the generals were, and
could see all that passed pretty well. Frank laughed at my Lord Duke's
glum face: the affair of Wynendael, and the Captain-General's conduct to
Webb, had been the talk of the whole army. When his Highness spoke, and
gave--“Le vainqueur de Wynendael; son armee et sa victoire,” adding,
“qui nous font diner a Lille aujourd'huy”--there was a great cheer
through the hall; for Mr. Webb's bravery, generosity, and very
weaknesses of character caused him to be beloved in the army.
“Like Hector, handsome, and like Paris, brave!” whispers Frank
Castlewood. “A Venus, an elderly Venus, couldn't refuse him a pippin.
Stand up, Harry. See, we are drinking the army of Wynendael. Ramillies
is nothing to it. Huzzay! huzzay!”
At this very time, and just after our General had made his
acknowledgment, some one brought in an English Gazette--and was passing
it from hand to hand down the table. Officers were eager enough to read
it; mothers and sisters at home must have sickened over it. There scarce
came out a Gazette for six years that did not tell of some heroic death
or some brilliant achievement.
“Here it is--Action of Wynendael--here you are, General,” says Frank,
seizing hold of the little dingy paper that soldiers love to read so;
and, scrambling over from our bench, he went to where the General
sat, who knew him, and had seen many a time at his table his laughing,
handsome face, which everybody loved who saw. The generals in their
great perukes made way for him. He handed the paper over General Dohna's
buff-coat to our General on the opposite side.
He came hobbling back, and blushing at his feat: “I thought he'd like
it, Harry,” the young fellow whispered. “Didn't I like to read my name
after Ramillies, in the London Gazette?--Viscount Castlewood serving a
volunteer--I say, what's yonder?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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