CHAPTER XVIII.

SPIRITED AWAY!

All unaware of the evil tidings that were awaiting him, Denzil, stiff and well-nigh frozen, aching in every limb, staggered like a tipsy man to his feet, so sore and cramped were every joint and limb. As the dawn came slowly in, he gazed around him. Waller was already awake, and had been to look after his men. He proffered his cigar-case, saying:

"Have a weed, Devereaux--it's all the breakfast you are likely to get. We are as ill off here as Mother Hubbard's ill-used cur."

"Are the ladies stirring yet?" asked Denzil with chattering teeth.

"No--and Lady Sale has not had the bullet extracted from her arm yet."

Once or twice during the dark hours that were passed, a little hand cased in lavender kid and drawn from a warm fur-lined riding gauntlet, had come out from under the wall of the tent, and Waller's lips had touched it, for it was Mabel's, and gloved though it was, the touch of that little hand, especially under circumstances so terrible, made big Bob Waller's honest heart to vibrate with emotion. Once Rose, in her old spirit of waggery, had put out her hand in the same way and laughed when Waller, who was just dosing off to sleep in the wretched cold without, kissed it with great _empressement_, for she too wore pale lavender kids under her riding gloves.

"Look round, Waller," said Denzil, as he lit the cigar; "did you ever behold such a scene?"

"Never--and hope never to see such again!"

The lofty mountains and impending rocks that overhung the Pass, and that fatal route back to the hills of Siah Sung, being covered with snow, looked singularly close and nigh. The sky was clear now; and far as the eye could reach the way was studded by the dead bodies of human beings, camels, horses, baggage yaboos, artillery bullocks, cannon and waggons, drums, weapons and abandoned dhoolies, the inmates of which might be either living or dead; the latter most probably, for everything there lay half buried in the white winding-sheet of winter, with the black vultures settling in flights over them.

In the immediate vicinity of where Denzil stood, many men who in the night had perished of cold and exhaustion lay frozen hard and firmly to the earth, with their muskets beside them. The corpses of the Hindoos and dusky Bengal sepoys seemed like pale Venetian bronze in the frosty air. In the eyes of the survivors, by over tension of the nerves, and the fierce wild excitement they had undergone for some time past, but more particularly during the preceding day and night, a keen and unearthly glare or glitter was visible. Each was aware of this hunted-expression as he looked in the worn face of his comrade. General Trecarrel seemed to be sorely changed by the sharp anxiety he suffered for his daughters' safety. Thus the usually bluff and florid looking old soldier had become pale, wan and haggard in face, and wild and defiant in eye, like the rest.

Sergeant Treherne, a powerful and hardy Cornishman, had tumbled a dead Hindoo out of a wooden litter, and breaking it to pieces, made with them a fire near the tent of the ladies, for whom, with all a campaigner's readiness, he was quickly preparing some hot coffee in a camp-kettle, while the old General, his countryman, sought to warm himself by the blaze, when the voice of Mabel startled all who were near, as she hurried from the tent, exclaiming,

"Papa--papa--where is Rose--is not she with you?"

Denzil started forward, but paused, for at the same instant Audley Trevelyan, who had been fraternally sharing some _dhal_ (or split-peas) with his horse, and of whose interference he felt nervously jealous, sprang towards Mabel enquiringly. General Trecarrel stared at her with an air of utter bewilderment, as he had not seen Rose since the tent was pitched for the use of her and others on the troops halting, when she came as usual to be kissed by him before retiring, just as she had been wont to do, ever since childhood. Then he said hoarsely:

"Speak at once, Mabel--what has happened--speak?"

But Mabel could only clasp her hands. She thought Rose had been with him, and terror now tied her tongue; she dared not speak or question him, for "any suspense is better than some certainties;" and one fact was here certain and palpable; that Rose had left the tent unseen, and none knew why, wherefore or with whom!

When so many were perishing hourly by the most terrible deaths, we are shocked to admit that, such is the selfishness of human nature, the fate of one girl, even though a pure European, did not create much excitement for any length of time, save among those more immediately interested in it; and as the retreat was to recommence in an hour, there was not much time for the unrefreshed and starving troops investigating it. Moreover, the rear-guard of yesterday was to be the advanced one of to-day, as the army, if that disorganised multitude could so be called, was to move off in inverted order--the left in front.

Generosity, chivalry, and humanity, inspired Audley Trevelyan like many other officers to be up and doing something; they scarcely knew what. Denzil felt heart-wrung and stupefied, while Waller, in addition to his own emotions, was alarmed for the effect this calamitous event might have on Mabel; but General Trecarrel, together with the horror inspired by great anxiety and love, felt an ardour of intense hatred against the Afghans who had reft from him his youngest born; she, who from childhood had been his pet, and his stricken heart seemed full of unuttered prayers for her.

The entire camp was speedily searched; not a trace could be found of the lost one. She could neither have gone nor been taken to the front, as the snow lay there pure as it had fallen, untrodden and unsullied by footsteps. To the rear then only could she be looked for. Such was the hasty report made to the unhappy father by brigadier Shelton, Audley, and other officers who crowded about him.

The ladies were full of compassion and a terror that was not quite unselfish. What had happened? If she had vanished thus mysteriously, whose fate might be next? They trembled in the frosty morning wind as they gazed at each other; but Mabel's beautiful face, by the terrible and haggard misery of its expression, inspired them all with sympathy, and they grouped about her like a covey of frightened doves.

Like Denzil, she felt as if half her life--half herself, had suddenly passed away. A looker-on might have thought that the death-warrant of all had been written in an instant, for Denzil, Waller, Audley, Mabel, and poor General Trecarrel stared at each other in blank horror and amazement.

Death by the sword, the lance, and bullet; death by cold, starvation, fire, sack, slaughter, and every horror incident to such a retreat, had been, and were even now, close around them; but what unthought-of personal calamity was this? Breathlessly, and almost void of all power of volition, father and child gazed at each other. Their eyes seemed to say "Where is my daughter?" "Where is my sister?" But who was to explain this terrible mystery?

Nine ladies, we have said, had crowded together in that small tent, sleeping closely side by side for warmth; and the eight remaining admitted that they had slept soundly in the heavy slumber that comes of intense weariness and keen anxiety. Denzil, in his half-dreamy doze outside the tent, had been conscious of soldiers hovering near it, but thought they were simply seeking for food or fuel.

Happy, thoughtless, heedless Rose, with all her flirting and pretty coquettish ways--where was she now? Dead, butchered, or dying in misery amid the snow, or a captive; and, if so, in whose hands? A captive kept for worse than death, too probably! It was an episode that was maddening to her sister; to her old father, who loved her so tenderly; to Denzil, who doted on her shadow, and whose heart was full of the memory of that happy day by the Lake of Istaliff; to Waller; and all who had known and liked her, or laughed and danced with her in the happy time that was past.

"Oh, God!" murmured the poor General, half audibly, as he raised his eyes and tremulous hands upwards; "give my child back to me, or take me to her! Lord, Lord, let me not go mad!" he added piteously. "To find her lying dead would be better than to be thus ignorant of her fate--of her sufferings--of her _end_!"

Life seemed to die out of his heart; yet he breathed and lived, and had speech and hearing left.

"Those scoundrels who levanted in the dark, the Shah's Sixth, have something to do with this," said Burgoyne; "they furnished the chain of sentinels towards the rear."

"Right," exclaimed the General hoarsely, "and in the rear must she be sought."

"The enemy are already in motion and in sight," said Brigadier Shelton, who was examining the distant portion of the Pass through his field-glass.

"I care not if all Afghanistan was there," said Trecarrel, mounting; "come with me, Trevelyan! Ladies, I entreat you to look to Mabel while I go in search of my lost one."

"Papa, papa," implored Mabel, "don't leave me."

"You are safe for the time," he replied, checking his horse for an instant; "but I must go in search of my lost darling--to find her, or to die."

And now the old man rode wildly to the rear, followed by Audley, who had to ride with caution among the frozen dead and other _debris_, as the horses were ill-roughed, the _Nalbunds_, or native farriers, having all deserted.

"Captain Waller," cried Brigadier Shelton, "this is mere madness; Trecarrel and Trevelyan are throwing their lives away, for the Afghan skirmishers will soon be close at hand! Take your Company to the rear in extended order, and keep the rascals in check if you can. A Ressallah of the 5th Cavalry will support you if necessary."

"Very good, sir," replied Waller, mechanically and coolly, as if on parade, lowering his drawn sword in salute, and obeying with alacrity, in the desire and hope to overtake and protect the father of his Mabel. "Company, forward, double quick;" and forward his men went briskly, with their arms at the trail, and in line, till clear of the bivouac, when he extended them from the centre, and they loaded while advancing.

In active and dangerous military duty like this, there is always some relief from mental torture. A man in grief may sit at his desk, toil with the spade, the shuttle, or the hammer, enduring a sickness of the heart that nothing can allay, and time alone may cure; but in the fierce excitement of mortal strife, the ills of life seem lessened, and a great sorrow may be half forgotten. Hence, to grapple with the enemy, and especially such an enemy as those Afghans, was as a balm to the excited hearts of Denzil and Waller, and forth they went with a will over ground that was singularly repulsive and horrible in aspect. In his keen sense of the terrible event of last night, the former forgot even his jealousy of Audley; they could have but one common cause now--vengeance on the abductors.

Corpses lay thick everywhere, and half covered by the snow.

How terrible seemed the last rest of all those dead people, who, since only yesterday, had learned the great secret of Time and Eternity, and more that mere mortal can never know; their jaws relaxed; their eyes, unclosed by friendly or loving hands, were staring stonily and sightlessly to Heaven, as they slept the sleep from which the thunder of all the cannon in the world would never waken them. The ashes of the Christian would receive no Christian burial; and those of the Hindoo would never mingle with the waters of the Jumna, or his holier river, the Ganges. For the remains of all would ere long become the prey of the wolf and hyæna, and already the vultures were there in sable flights, settling over all the fallen.

In some places under the soldiers' feet, the snow was crimsoned by large patches of frozen blood.

A long line of abandoned dhooleys, full of women, children, and wounded men, were passed. All the occupants of these were dead; and to their ghastly banquet thereon, the scared vultures returned with angry croak and flapping wings, when Waller's men went further from them.

On a little knoll the General and Audley Trevelyan were overtaken. They had reined up their horses, and were looking about them sadly and hopelessly, for no trace of the lost one could be discerned; but the shouts of some exulting Afghans were borne towards them on the morning wind.

A body of cavalry, divided into two parties, were coming along the steep rocks of the Pass on both sides, for the mountain horses of that wild region can climb like cats or goats. A green silk banner floated from a glittering lance, announcing that they formed the Resallah, or troop of Amen Oollah Khan; and each horseman had a juzailchee, or rifleman, mounted, _en croupe_, behind him, after the fashion of the French Voltigeurs.

These they dropped fresh, unwearied, and ready for action; and the firing began at once from behind the rocks or stones, over which they discharged their long barrelled rifles in perfect security.

The Afghans are excellent skirmishers, and their native juzails carry much farther than our regulation muskets; thus, before Waller's men could return their fire, one of his corporals uttered a yell of agony, bounded a yard from the ground, and then fell flat on his face, dead. A bullet had pierced a mortal part.

"Close up--close up, forward," cried Waller, leading them on, sword in hand; "those devils have got our range exactly now."

While he spoke the bullets were sowing thick the snow about General Trecarrel and Audley, who, being mounted men, were prominent figures. Meanwhile the horsemen had disappeared; but the wily Amen Oollah was merely making a _detour_ to turn the flank of a group of pines that grew upon the steep slope, intending thereby to get into the rear of Waller's skirmishers and cut them off.

"Get under cover, lads, as best you may!" cried he, as his bugler sounded to "commence firing;" and with a dark, stern, and desperate expression in their hungry faces, his soldiers knelt behind rocks and stones, dead horses and camels, dhooleys and abandoned baggage-boxes, and proceeded to return the fire of the Afghans (about a hundred in number), who were taking quiet pot-shots at any head that appeared above the snow-clad rocks, behind which they were lurking.

Now and then a fiend-like yell, and pair of brown booted feet, or swarthy dark hands appearing wildly in the air, announced when an English bullet found its billet in a Mussulman body; and then the soldiers smiled grimly to each other, as they thought "there is one the less in the world, at all events."

This serious musketry practice, and the wailing of women and children, were the only morning _reveillé_ in that melancholy halting place on the bank of the Loghur.