The lively adventures of Gavin Hamilton

by Molly Elliot Seawell

When they halted for the night, Gavin made good all he had said concerning his knowledge of how to make his men comfortable. His troopers, seeing this intimate knowledge of their wants, and that they were attended to before their young lieutenant looked after his own comfort, conceived an instant respect for him. After he had seen that both men and horses were provided for, Gavin hastened to the tent to be shared in common by St. Arnaud and himself. St. Arnaud had been equally zealous in the performance of his duty, and it was more onerous than Gavin’s. But presently he arrived; their servant had provided them with a good supper, and they spent their first evening of campaigning with the greatest merriment.

Those days of marching toward Marshal Daun were to Gavin very happy. He loved a soldier’s life, and when he had bright spring weather and mild April nights, with the comforts of an officer on the march, he had nothing else to ask for in life except promotion.

They reached the neighbourhood of Leutomischl within a few days, and found an army of fifty thousand men assembled, mostly raw recruits, with the remnants of the men who had made the disastrous autumn campaign. Forty miles off lay Frederick of Prussia, with forty thousand men, besieging Olmutz. If he succeeded in capturing this strongly fortified place the road to Vienna would be open. But it was an undertaking difficult for even the stupendous military genius of Frederick. The town was naturally protected by the numerous branches of the Morawa River, and these sluices, generally kept dammed, could easily be flooded and oppose difficult obstacles to overcome. In addition to this, all of the Prussian supplies—food, ammunition, and money—had to be transported by wagons from Neisse, a hundred and twenty miles off, while the last eighty miles from Troppau were extremely dangerous, and required a protecting force of more than ten thousand men for each of the monthly convoys of from three to four thousand four-horse wagons.

Marshal Daun was proverbial for his slowness and caution, and it was often a source of congratulation to Gavin and St. Arnaud that they were under General Loudon, who was in a state of perpetual activity. There were continual scouting parties almost to the gates of Olmutz, and constant communication with the town and garrison. Both were determined to resist, and being well provided with food and ammunition, there was no thought of surrender. Frederick, who is thought to have shown less ability in sieges than in battles, had allowed his engineers to begin their first parallel too far away from the lines, and the first bombardment, terrific in point of noise, and costing vast amounts of the gunpowder so precious to the Prussians, did not the smallest harm.

The month of May opened, and although Frederick pursued the siege with vigour, Marshal Daun still lay among the hills and mountains, moving a little off from Leutomischl, but still keeping about forty miles from Olmutz. He knew, however, that all was going well for the Austrians and ill for the Prussians at Olmutz. The Pandours, light-armed Hungarian infantry, that in marching could equal the cavalry, infested the neighbourhood of the town and fortress in small parties, and even singly, while Loudon’s corps, chiefly light cavalry, but with four regiments of grenadiers, made it dangerous to all small bodies of Prussian troops who ventured away from their lines. Loudon’s comprehensive and piercing eye did not fail to see the qualifications of all his officers, even the subalterns, whom he knew through the reports he exacted of their superiors, and he soon came to realize that in Captain St. Arnaud he had a man after his own heart. And riding one day with the colonel of St. Arnaud’s regiment, the general said:

“Is not that young Sublieutenant Hamilton, who is always with Captain St. Arnaud, a capable officer?”

“Very, sir; his activity and enterprise, as well as Captain St. Arnaud’s, were shown by their escape from Glatz. As you probably know, Hamilton is of good English and Scotch blood, but, owing to some family troubles, his youth was spent in poverty and obscurity, and he served some time in the French army as a private soldier. The Empress Queen herself gave him his commission, and the young man seems burning to distinguish himself.”

General Loudon, himself a Scotchman, was not less interested in Gavin from knowing his nationality.

May passed into June, and June waned; still Marshal Daun gave no sign of interrupting the siege of Olmutz. He had merely taken up a position a few miles nearer, where he patiently waited for the hour of action. The officers and men of Loudon’s corps were envied by the rest of the army, as they alone were actively employed.

One night, after a week of very active scouting, St. Arnaud and Gavin were sitting in their tent, when a message from General Loudon came for St. Arnaud. He at once left, and it was an hour before he returned. When he entered, his gleaming eyes and smiling face showed that he had something pleasant to tell.