And blackened hands waved rags of caps, and even gory bandages; and the woman he had called Laura rushed to Lord Cardillon, as the Brigadier stood—center of the deep half-circle of well-known men and women assembled on the steam yacht’s after-deck—and a gallantly conspicuous figure by reason of his height and bearing, and the brilliant tatters of his Hussar uniform—and clutched him wildly by the arm, and shrieked:
“Oh, Arthur! stop them!—stop them! Oh, for God’s sake, don’t let them moan like that! Oh! will no one have pity and stop them?”
And he thrust her from him, crying:
“You idiot! Can’t you understand they’re cheering? They’ve seen us!... They’ve recognized their officers!... Mildare! Leighbury! Southgrave!” he shouted to the other wearers of soiled and tattered uniforms: “What the devil has come over you that you don’t know your own Guards and the fellows of the 555th and 442nd? Briddwater! Gauntless! there are your plungers of the Heavies! And the rest are my own!—my men of the Light Brigade!”
And he ran forwards, forgetful of his wound, and leaped upon the bulwarks; and so stood; holding to the ratlines with the hand that was uninjured—and gave back the cheer in his clear, hard, ringing tones:
“Hurrah, my men! hurrah!”
And as though a spell had been broken, a mighty shout of acclamation went up from every British throat in all that vast assemblage, drowning out the vivas of the French, and the Hochs of the German Legion, massed upon the crowded slopes of Scutari:
“Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!”
XCV
“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad” is a hackneyed adage, undeniably true in the case hereunder quoted. For when young Mortimer’s not very shining repartee to the False Retreat in the dandy red forage-cap was mentioned in Dispatches, by request of the Duke of Bambridge, and reproduced, with additions and embellishment, in all the daily papers, headed “Amusing Incident During The Action Of Alma,” or “Good For The Guards,” or “Smart Retort Of A Young Ensign,” the joy of Thompson Jowell almost turned his brain.