Cornwall (England : County) -- Fiction; Short stories
"'The 38th is a good regiment,' answered the old Hussar, still in his
dull voice. 'I went back with them from Sahagun to Corunna.
At Corunna they stood in General Fraser's division, on the right.
They behaved well.'
"'But I'd fain see the Marines again,' says the drummer, handing him
the trumpet; 'and you--you shall call once more for the Queen's Own.
Matthew,' he says, suddenly, turning on my father--and when he
turned, my father saw for the first time that his scarlet jacket had
a round hole by the breast-bone, and that the blood was welling
there--'Matthew, we shall want your boat.'
"Then my father rose on his legs like a man in a dream, while they
two slung on, the one his drum, and t'other his trumpet. He took the
lantern, and went quaking before them down to the shore, and they
breathed heavily behind him; and they stepped into his boat, and my
father pushed off.
"'Row you first for Dolor Point,' says the drummer. So my father
rowed them out past the white houses of Coverack to Dolor Point, and
there, at a word, lay on his oars. And the trumpeter, William
Tallifer, put his trumpet to his mouth and sounded the _Revelly_.
The music of it was like rivers running.
"'They will follow,' said the drummer. 'Matthew, pull you now for
the Manacles.'
"So my father pulled for the Manacles, and came to an easy close
outside Carn du. And the drummer took his sticks and beat a tattoo,
there by the edge of the reef; and the music of it was like a rolling
chariot.
"'That will do,' says he, breaking off; 'they will follow. Pull now
for the shore under Gunner's Meadow.'
"Then my father pulled for the shore, and ran his boat in under
Gunner's Meadow. And they stepped out, all three, and walked up to
the meadow. By the gate the drummer halted and began his tattoo
again, looking out towards the darkness over the sea.
"And while the drum beat, and my father held his breath, there came
up out of the sea and the darkness a troop of many men, horse and
foot, and formed up among the graves; and others rose out of the
graves and formed up--drowned Marines with bleached faces, and pale
Hussars riding their horses, all lean and shadowy. There was no
clatter of hoofs or accoutrements, my father said, but a soft sound
all the while, like the beating of a bird's wing, and a black shadow
lying like a pool about the feet of all. The drummer stood upon a
little knoll just inside the gate, and beside him the tall trumpeter,
with hand on hip, watching them gather; and behind them both my
father, clinging to the gate. When no more came, the drummer stopped
playing, and said, 'Call the roll.'
"Then the trumpeter stepped towards the end man of the rank and
called, 'Troop-Sergeant-Major Thomas Irons!' and the man in a thin
voice answered 'Here!'
"'Troop-Sergeant-Major Thomas Irons, how is it with you?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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