“Yes,” I returned after a pause. “Have I been a fool?”
He did not answer that question in direct terms; but he spoke very plainly, and what he said answered it indirectly. We had a brief but very pithy conversation; and at the end of it I got up and shook his hand effusively and “God blessed him,” bade him good-bye, and scampered off to my house more like a school-boy than a man of many cares, and with no longer any thought of the prospect of desolate loneliness which had appeared to threaten me so gloomily only a few minutes before.
As I passed through the streets there were already abundant signs of the popular feeling. Early though the hour was, flags were flying, decorations being hurriedly prepared, men and women were abroad gaily dressed, and everyone getting ready to join in what was clearly to be a public holiday.
Death and terror had had their grim reign in the frowning gloom of the night; but the scene had shifted with the daylight. The Army were hailed as the deliverers of the people; the tragic means were condoned for the sake of the end attained; and on all sides the people were making haste to parade the evidences of satisfaction at the change and gratitude to those who had wrought it.
How much of the demonstration was genuine, how far it was wire-pulled, or to what extent it was dictated by that prudence which impels the crowd to side with the strongest I did not stop to think. It was enough that the city would side with the Army and that its leaders would therefore go on with their work undisturbed by fears of turbulence and resistance. That meant much to me just then.
I found my servants vastly uneasy at my absence during the night. Even the placid Buller was excited.
“Thank God you have come, sir. We dursen’t go to bed. We didn’t know what to think or do.”
“I daresay you didn’t, but get a hustle on you now and pack up. I’m leaving in a couple of hours and want my light baggage with me. Pick out enough for a few days; and express all the heavy trunks to Vienna.”
“Thank God, sir,” he exclaimed, fervently.
“Well, get going then—you’ll have time for thanksgiving on the cars,” I said, as he hesitated. “And tell someone to get me some breakfast.”