But here the writer remorselessly shifts the scene to the others.
As soon after the departure of Henry and Stephen as was prudent, the “brave men” who were to be the rescuers—Will, Charles, George, Jim, and the heroic “leader,” Marmaduke—assembled and set out for the rendezvous, armed very much as Stephen had suggested.
Visions of figuring on future battle-fields of Europe as Marshal Marmaduke Fitz-Williams flitted through the hero’s brain, and he strove to deport himself with as martial an air as possible. But such an air hardly ever sits easy on a school-boy’s shoulders.
“Comrades,” he began, using, as far as he knew how, the identical phraseology of a French soldier when addressing his companions in arms, “comrades, we are embarking in a hazardous undertaking, but the nobleness of our work will spur us on to deeds of victory. It is a noble deed that we are called on to perform—the release of a daughter of one of the potentates of earth! Let this thought inspire us with enthusiasm! Let us fly to the rescue, fixed in the resolution to win or die! We shall warrior like the doughty knights of old!”
Poor hero! he had yet to learn that warrior is not used in that way. His eloquence, however, was entirely lost on his hearers, it being too grandiloquent for even the Sage to appreciate; and like many another orator, he but “wasted his sweetness on the desert air.”
“Fellow-soldiers,” he continued, “I will use my influence to procure your promotion, and you will all one day be renowned generals of the empire.”
Alas! about the time the speaker took to singing love-songs and reading love-stories that empire was disrupted!
“That about the emperor’s wanting one more general was a good stroke, eh, Will?” Charles whispered.
It would be foreign from the purpose to record all Marmaduke’s bombastic speeches as he and his fellows marched to the field of battle. Let it be taken for granted that in due time they drew up before the fortress.
Marmaduke reconnoitred the grim old building with its grated windows and formidable door, and soon decided that here was the prison, though it was patent to all that he was disappointed, having expected greater things—having, in short, expected to see a structure bearing more or less resemblance to the Bastile itself.