Wandering Heath | Page 9

out of the hole in his breast--and took the trumpet-sling from
around the other's neck, and locked drum and trumpet together again,
choosing the letters on the lock very carefully. While he did this he
said:
"'The word is no more Corunna, but Bayonne. As you left out an 'n' in
Corunna, so must I leave out an 'n' in Bayonne.' And before snapping
the padlock, he spelt out the word slowly--'B-A-Y-O-N-E.' After that,
he used no more speech; but turned and hung the two instruments back
on the hook; and then took the trumpeter by the arm; and the pair
walked out into the darkness, glancing neither to right nor left.
"My father was on the point of following, when he heard a sort of sigh
behind him; and there, sitting in the elbow-chair, was the very
trumpeter he had just seen walk out by the door! If my father's heart
jumped before, you may believe it jumped quicker now. But after a bit,
he went up to the man asleep in the chair, and put a hand upon him. It
was the trumpeter in flesh and blood that he touched; but though the
flesh was warm, the trumpeter was dead.
"Well, sir, they buried him three days after; and at first my father was
minded to say nothing about his dream (as he thought it). But the day
after the funeral, he met Parson Kendall coming from Helston market:

and the parson called out: 'Have 'ee heard the news the coach brought
down this mornin'?' 'What news?' says my father. 'Why, that peace is
agreed upon.' 'None too soon,' says my father. 'Not soon enough for our
poor lads at Bayonne,' the parson answered. 'Bayonne!' cries my father,
with a jump. 'Why, yes'; and the parson told him all about a great sally
the French had made on the night of April 13th. 'Do you happen to
know if the 38th Regiment was engaged?' my father asked. 'Come,
now,' said Parson Kendall, 'I didn't know you was so well up in the
campaign. But, as it happens, I do know that the 38th was engaged, for
'twas they that held a cottage and stopped the French advance.'
"Still my father held his tongue; and when, a week later, he walked into
Helston and bought a Mercury off the Sherborne rider, and got the
landlord of the 'Angel' to spell out the list of killed and wounded, sure
enough, there among the killed was Drummer John Christian, of the
38th Foot.
"After this, there was nothing for a religious man but to make a clean
breast. So my father went up to Parson Kendall and told the whole
story. The parson listened, and put a question or two, and then asked:
"'Have you tried to open the lock since that night?'
"'I han't dared to touch it,' says my father.
"'Then come along and try.' When the parson came to the cottage here,
he took the things off the hook and tried the lock. 'Did he say 'Bayonne'?
The word has seven letters.'
"'Not if you spell it with one 'n' as he did,' says my father.
"The parson spelt it out--B-A-Y-O-N-E. 'Whew!' says he, for the lock
had fallen open in his hand.
"He stood considering it a moment, and then he says,' I tell you what. I
shouldn't blab this all round the parish, if I was you. You won't get no
credit for truth-telling, and a miracle's wasted on a set of fools. But if
you like, I'll shut down the lock again upon a holy word that no one but

me shall know, and neither drummer nor trumpeter, dead nor alive,
shall frighten the secret out of me.'
"'I wish to gracious you would, parson,' said my father.
"The parson chose the holy word there and then, and shut the lock back
upon it, and hung the drum and trumpet back in their place. He is gone
long since, taking the word with him. And till the lock is broken by
force, nobody will ever separate those twain."

THE LOOE DIE-HARDS.
Captain Pond, of the East and West Looe Volunteer Artillery
(familiarly known as the Looe Die-hards), put his air-cushion to his lips
and blew. This gave his face a very choleric and martial expression.
Nevertheless, above his suffused and distended cheeks his eyes
preserved a pensive melancholy as they dwelt upon his Die-hards
gathered in the rain below him on the long-shore, or Church-end, wall.
At this date (November 3, 1809) the company numbered seventy,
besides Captain Pond and his two subalterns; and of this force four
were out in the boat just now, mooring the practice-mark--a barrel with
a small red flag stuck on top; one, the bugler, had been sent up the hill