An Adventure of Hardress Fitzgerald, a Royalist Captain Page #7

"An Adventure of Hardress Fitzgerald, a Royalist Captain" is a historical novel by Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu, set during the tumultuous times of the English Civil War. The story follows Hardress Fitzgerald, a valiant Royalist captain, as he navigates a world filled with intrigue, loyalty, and betrayal. The novel explores themes of honor and duty while depicting the struggles between royalists and parliamentarians. Le Fanu weaves a tale rich in atmospheric detail and character development, highlighting the personal and political conflicts of an era defined by its fervent loyalty and passionate disputes.

• Fiction

								

my efforts so hopelessly clumsy, that I was obliged to give them over in
despair.

I turned with a sigh from my last hope, and began to pace my narrow
prison floor, when my eye suddenly encountered an old rusty nail or
holdfast sticking in the wall.

All the gold of Plutus would not have been so welcome as that rusty
piece of iron.

I instantly wrung it from the wall, and inserting the point between the
planks of the door into the bolt, and working it backwards and forwards,
I had at length the unspeakable satisfaction to perceive that the beam
was actually yielding to my efforts, and gradually sliding into its
berth in the wall.

I have often been engaged in struggles where great bodily strength was
required, and every thew and sinew in the system taxed to the uttermost;
but, strange as it may appear, I never was so completely exhausted and
overcome by any labour as by this comparatively trifling task.

Again and again was I obliged to desist, until my cramped finger-joints
recovered their power; but at length my perseverance was rewarded, for,
little by little, I succeeded in removing the bolt so far as to allow
the door to open sufficiently to permit me to pass.

With some squeezing I succeeded in forcing my way into a small passage,
upon which my prison-door opened.

This led into a chamber somewhat more spacious than my cell, but still
containing no furniture, and affording no means of escape to one so
crippled with bonds as I was.

At the far extremity of this room was a door which stood ajar, and,
stealthily passing through it, I found myself in a room containing
nothing but a few raw hides, which rendered the atmosphere nearly
intolerable.

Here I checked myself, for I heard voices in busy conversation in the
next room.

I stole softly to the door which separated the chamber in which I stood
from that from which the voices proceeded.

A moment served to convince me that any attempt upon it would be worse
than fruitless, for it was secured upon the outside by a strong lock,
besides two bars, all which I was enabled to ascertain by means of
the same defect in the joining of the planks which I have mentioned as
belonging to the inner door.

I had approached this door very softly, so that, my proximity being
wholly unsuspected by the speakers within, the conversation continued
without interruption.

Planting myself close to the door, I applied my eye to one of the chinks
which separated the boards, and thus obtained a full view of the chamber
and its occupants.

It was the very apartment into which I had been first conducted. The
outer door, which faced the one at which I stood, was closed, and at a
small table were seated the only tenants of the room--two officers, one
of whom was Captain Oliver. The latter was reading a paper, which I made
no doubt was the document with which I had been entrusted.

'The fellow deserves it, no doubt' said the junior officer. 'But,
methinks, considering our orders from head-quarters, you deal somewhat
too hastily.'

'Nephew, nephew,' said Captain Oliver, 'you mistake the tenor of our
orders. We were directed to conciliate the peasantry by fair and gentle
treatment, but not to suffer spies and traitors to escape. This packet
is of some value, though not, in all its parts, intelligible to me. The
bearer has made his way hither under a disguise, which, along with the
other circumstances of his appearance here, is sufficient to convict him
as a spy.'

There was a pause here, and after a few minutes the younger officer
said:

'Spy is a hard term, no doubt, uncle; but it is possible--nay, likely,
that this poor devil sought merely to carry the parcel with which he was
charged in safety to its destination. Pshaw! he is sufficiently punished
if you duck him, for ten minutes or so, between the bridge and the
mill-dam.'

'Young man,' said Oliver, somewhat sternly, 'do not obtrude your advice
where it is not called for; this man, for whom you plead, murdered your
own father!'

I could not see how this announcement affected the person to whom it was
addressed, for his back was towards me; but I conjectured, easily, that
my last poor chance was gone, for a long silence ensued. Captain Oliver
at length resumed:

'I know the villain well. I know him capable of any crime; but, by ----,
his last card is played, and the game is up. He shall not see the moon
rise to-night.'

There was here another pause.

Oliver rose, and going to the outer door, called:

'Hewson! Hewson!'

A grim-looking corporal entered.

'Hewson, have your guard ready at eight o'clock, with their carbines
clean, and a round of ball-cartridge each. Keep them sober; and,
further, plant two upright posts at the near end of the bridge, with
a cross one at top, in the manner of a gibbet. See to these matters,
Hewson: I shall be with you speedily.'

The corporal made his salutations, and retired.

Oliver deliberately folded up the papers with which I had been
commissioned, and placing them in the pocket of his vest, he said:

'Cunning, cunning Master Hardress Fitzgerald hath made a false step;
the old fox is in the toils. Hardress Fitzgerald, Hardress Fitzgerald, I
will blot you out.'

He repeated these words several times, at the same time rubbing his
finger strongly upon the table, as if he sought to erase a stain:

'I WILL BLOT YOU OUT!'

There was a kind of glee in his manner and expression which chilled my
very heart.

'You shall be first shot like a dog, and then hanged like a dog: shot
to-night, and hung to-morrow; hung at the bridgehead--hung, until your
bones drop asunder!'

It is impossible to describe the exultation with which he seemed to
dwell upon, and to particularise the fate which he intended for me.

I observed, however, that his face was deadly pale, and felt assured
that his conscience and inward convictions were struggling against his
cruel resolve. Without further comment the two officers left the room,
I suppose to oversee the preparations which were being made for the deed
of which I was to be the victim.

A chill, sick horror crept over me as they retired, and I felt, for the
moment, upon the brink of swooning. This feeling, however, speedily
gave place to a sensation still more terrible. A state of excitement so
intense and tremendous as to border upon literal madness, supervened; my
brain reeled and throbbed as if it would burst; thoughts the wildest
and the most hideous flashed through my mind with a spontaneous rapidity
that scared my very soul; while, all the time, I felt a strange and
frightful impulse to burst into uncontrolled laughter.

Gradually this fearful paroxysm passed away. I kneeled and prayed
fervently, and felt comforted and assured; but still I could not view
the slow approaches of certain death without an agitation little short
of agony.

I have stood in battle many a time when the chances of escape were
fearfully small. I have confronted foemen in the deadly breach. I have
marched, with a constant heart, against the cannon's mouth. Again and
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