was the last of an old, old Welsh line. 'Poor fellow said he; 'Phil was a man of whom we may say that which was averred of Colonel Mountain, of the Cameronians, "that though he were cut into twenty pieces, yet every piece would be a gentleman"! Over our cigars, I told Sir Madoc all that had passed between Winifred and me, and begged his approbation; and I have no words to express how enthusiastic the largehearted and jolly old man became; how rejoiced, and how often he shook my hand, assuring me that he had ever loved me quite as much as if I had been a son of his own; that his Winny was one of the best girls in all Wales-true as steel, and one who, when she loved, did so for ever. 'I thank Heaven,' he added, 'you didn't get that slippery eel, my Lady Aberconway!' 'So do I now, Sir Madoc,' was my earnest response. But I had not yet seen quite the last of Estelle Cressingham. Of her Winifred must, at times, have been keenly and bitterly jeal ous, yet she was too gentle, too lady-like and enduring, to permit such an emotion to be visible to others. CHAPTER LX. A HONEYMOON. AND SO it came to pass, as per in the long, long coat, 'assisted' by another (as if aid in such cases were necessary); and amid the summer sounds that came floating through the open porch and pointed windows, with the yellow flakes of hazy sunshine, when I heard the voice of the pastor uniting us, I remembered the Sunday we were all last in the same place, and the daydreams in which I had indulged during the prosy sermon, when I fancied the same solemn service being said, and when, by some magic, the image of Winifred would ever come in the place of another. haps Sir Madoc had foreseen, by the doctrine of chances, and without any romance or sensationalism, that in the bright season of summer, Winifred and I-after a short engagement, and many a delicious ramble by the Elwey and Llyn Aled, in the Martens' dingle and by the old rocking-stone-were married in Craigaderyn Church, by her secret admirer, the tall pale curate Sir Watkins Vaughan, a purposelike and gentlemanly young fellow, a prime bat and bowler, a good shot and good horseman, a thorough Englishman and lover of all field sports, and who acted as my groomsman, was so intent on look ing at Dora-radiant in white crape and tulle as one of her sister's bridesmaids-that he made, as he said, a regular mull' of drawing. off my glove, an office which I could not have done for myself. At last the whole was over; the golden hoop had been slid on the slender finger of a tremulous little hand; we were made one 'till death do us part; and after the usual kisses and congratulations, came forth into the glorious sunshine, while overhead the marriage chimes rang merrily in the old square tower which Jorwerth ap Davydd Lloyd had founded in honour of St. David five hundred in the churchyard years ago. Then came the cheers cheers that might wake the dead below the green turf; the guttural Celtic voices of the tenants and peasantry, the general jollity, with much twangle-dangling of harps borne by certain itinerant and tipsy bards, at tracted thither by the coin and the well-known Cymric proclivities of Sir Madoc; and loud on all hands were praises of the beauty of the Briodasferch (Welsh euphony for bride), with prayers for her future happiness, as we drove away to luncheon. All the household held high festival. Owen Gwyllim wept in his glee, and drank our healths in mulled port with Mrs. Davis (for whom he had a tenderness) in her room; and Bob Spurrit and Morgan Roots, and all the valets and gamekeepers, Idid ditto with mulled ale in the 'servants' 'all,' while we, leaving all to feast and speechify at Craigaderyn, were speeding, as fast as four horses could take us, to hide our blushes at Brighton. After the stormy life I had led, how sweet and blessed was homerest with Winifred! No tempests of thought, of pique or jealousy, of disappointment or bitterness, agitated me now. It was all like first love, and as calmly as the summer gloaming among the mountains, the joyous time glided away with us. I felt how truly she had clung to me, and loved me as only those who have long been loved in secret, and whose value, to the heart at least, has been ascertained, by having been to all appearance lost in life, and lost in death too,-for had I not been so to her ?-and been mourned for as only the dead, who can return no more, are mourned. Yet I had survived all the perils of war, and her arms were round me now. How strange it seemed that I should once have been so indifferent to all the graces of her mind and person; that I had been wont to quiz poor Caradoc about her, and had more than once actually suggested that he should propose;' and so, when I looked into her tender and loving eyes, I recalled her words on that day when, on a time that seemed so long ago, we had a ramble by the rockingstone, and when she said, 'the eye may be pleased, the vanity flattered, and ambition excited by a woman of beauty, especially if she is one of rank; yet the heart may be won by one her inferior.' But I considered my little wife inferior to none and second to none. After all my wild work in the field and trenches, there was something wonderfully refreshing, bewitching, and attractive in having her hovering and gliding about me, and all her sweet companionship; and it was so delightful and novel to have those quick and white and fairy-like fingers to adjust one's necktie, to settle one's collar, and give, perhaps, just a finishing touch with a carved ivory brush to the back-parting of one's hair. It had seemed odd to me, at first, those bracelets, tiny rings, and hairpins at times on my toilet table ; and equally odd to her my collars, ties, studs, and razors sometimes left on hers and we were laughing and chatting merrily of this community in matters one lovely morning at Brighton, when the sun was shining on the sea, that was dotted by a thousand pleasure-boats, and was all rippling in golden light from the snow-white cliffs of Beachy Head to Selsea Bill, and while the merry voices of children came pleasantly on the warm air from the Marine Parade, as we were seated at breakfast with the hotel windows open. Winifred was looking as only a young bride in her first bloom can look. She was more radiant than she had ever seemed even at Craigaderyn; and through the frills of her morning dress, a marvel of white lace and millinery, her slender throat and delicate arms, without necklet or bracelet, were seen to perfection, and I thought she never seemed so charming, as she sat smiling at me over the silver urn. Thus one quite forgot the fragrant coffee, the French rolls that lay cosily hidden in the damask napkin, the dainty fresh eggs, the game-pie, the ham done up in Madeira, and as for the well-aired morning papers, they were never thought of at all! On the morning in question my valet, Lance-corporal Mulligan, entered the room with our letters on a salver. I had picked up the poor fellow by the merest chance one night at the Brighton Theatre, where he had been receiving, as a super and sham soldier in a suit of tin armour, one shilling per night, exactly what he got from her Majesty's most liberal government for risking his life night and day as a real one; and so, minus an eye, had betaken himself, after fighting at Alma and storming the Redan, to figuring at the Battle of Bosworth and marching to Dunsinane. So he came to me gladly, while his Biddy and a chubby Pat, born under canvas among the tents of the Connaught Rangers, were snugly located in one of the gatelodges at Craigaderyn. Erect as a pike he marched up to the table and laid the letters before Winny, all save one, which he handed to me. It was oblong, official, and inscribed 'On her Majesty's Service,' words at the sight of which his solitary eye brightened, while he regarded them with respect, as an Osmanli might the cipher of the Sultan; and then he stood at 'attention,' lingering by, napkin in hand, to hear what the contents were. They were, as usual in such communications from the Horse Guards, very brief, but not the less gratifying. The Military Secretary had the honour to inform me, that her Majesty had been graciously pleased to signify her intention of conferring the new order of merit, entitled the Victoria Cross, on certain officers, seamen, and soldiers, for acts of bravery during the late war; that my name was on the list for it, on the recommendation of Brigadiergeneral Windham, as a reward for volunteering with the ladder party at the storming and capture of the Redan on the 8th September; and that my presence was required at a parade before her Majesty, on a certain day named. "That is all, Mulligan-you may go,' said I, and he wheeled about sharply, as if on a pivot, and stalked out; while Winny kissed me, ran her white fingers caressingly through my hair, her face beaming with delight. 'But, Winny, by Jove I've done nothing to deserve this. I only tumbled into an embrasure of the Redan, to be tumbled out again,' said I; and I got jambed among the dead.' 'Nothing, darling-do you call that nothing?' she exclaimed. 'O, this is indeed delightful-a real decoration! How proud I am of you! and yet and yet I am loth to leave Brighton for town. We are so happy here; we have been so jolly, Harry.' But, Winny, we shall return; we have "done" the pier, the parade, and the pavilion again and again.' 'Have you wearied?' 'And I with you, Harry. But I am so happy that I fear at times such happiness cannot last.' 'Town will be a pleasant change for a time; and then the spectacle in the Park will be most brilliant, and all the world of fashion will be there.' I 'And one perhaps whom don't wish to see,' said she, pouting. 'One-who?' 'Lady Aberconway will be there, no doubt,' she replied, with a little nervous laugh. 'What of that, in the world of London? And what now is Es the Marchioness of Aberconway, or Aber-anything-else, to me, Winny darling?' 'Nothing now, of course-but— but-' 'But what?' 'I cannot forget that she has been something to you.' 'Never what you are now,' said I, clasping her to my breast with one arm, and kissing her on the eyes and hair. 'You pet me too much, Harry, and I fear will quite spoil me,' said she, laughing merrily again. "Who could live with you and not pet you? Would you have me to wrap myself up in a toga, a mantle of marital dignity, and remain solemnly on a pedestal like an armless statue, for my little wife to worship? But there was some thing in one of your letters that made you laugh?" 'It is from Dora.' 'And her news?' London, was appropriate enough, by its local and historical associations; and Hyde Park seemed beautiful and stirring when viewed through the mellow haze of the midsummer morning, with its long rows of trees and far expanse of green grass, on which the masses of cavalry and infantry, chiefly of the Household Brigade, were ranged, their arms and gay appointments flashing and glittering in the sun, and the mighty assemblage of fashionables, in splendid carriages, on horseback, or on foot-such an assemblage as London alone can produce with the bronze Achilles, the trophy of another and far more glorious war, towering over all. There were present not less than a hundred thousand of the sightloving Londoners, full of generous enthusiasm. A grand review formed a portion of the programme; but as such displays are all alike, I shall skip that part of the day's proceed 'Is that she has accepted ings; though there were present the Vaughan.' 'I am so glad to hear it! Then we shall have another marriage, and more feasting and harping at Craigaderyn ?' 'Yes; about the middle of August, or after the grouse-shooting begins, as dear papa would date it.' CHAPTER LXI. 'FOR VALOUR.' It was in the height of the gay London season that this interesting ceremony, which formed the last scene connected with the Crimean War-the last chapter in its glorious yet melancholy history-was to be closed under the auspices of Royalty on a day in June, when the air was clear, bright, and sunny, the sky without a cloud. The place selected for the celebration, though perhaps not the most suitable in and 79th Highlanders, whom I had last seen in the trenches before the Redan, preparing for the final assault at daybreak; the 19th, that with the 23rd went side by side in the up-hill charge at Alma; the showy 11th Hussars in blue with scarlet pelisses, who had ridden in the terrible death-ride at Balaclava; with glittering brass helmets the gallant Enniskillens, who, with the Greys, had followed Scarlett in the task of avenging them. And there too, commanding the whole, in his plumed bonnet and tartan trews, was old Colin Campbell, riding as quietly and as grimly, amid the youth, rank, and beauty of London, as when he brought his Highland Brigade in stately échelon of regiments along the green slopes of the Kourgané Hill, and heard the gray Kazan columns, ere they fled, send up their terrible wail to heaven, that the angel of Death had come! This veteran soldier, who had 6 carried the colours of the 9th Regiment under Moore at Corunna, looked old now, worn, and servicestricken, yet he had the wars of the Indian Mutiny before him still. By his side rode the hero of Kars in artillery uniform, and that brilliant Hussar officer, the Earl of Cardigan, mounted on the same horse he had ridden at Balaclava. The royal stand, as yet empty, was elaborately decorated; gilded chairs of state were placed within it; and in front, covered with scarlet cloth, was a table whereon lay sixty-two of those black crosses, cast from Russian cannon, rude in design, but named after her Majesty, and inscribed 'For Valour' -sixty-two being the number who, on that day, were to receive them. We, 'the observed of all observers,' had not as yet fallen in, so I lingered near the stand, where Winifred, Dora, and Gwenny Vaughan, and many other ladies were seated, and seeking, by the aid of parasol and fan, to shield themselves from the heat of the sun, and using their lorgnettes freely in looking for friends among the crowd, and in watching the proceedings, chatting and laughing gaily the while, with all the freedom of happy and heedless girls; for the troops were standing at ease,' and her Majesty had not yet come. something sad in the conviction that it was so, I never felt so proud. of it, or of my looped-up sleeve, as on that day in Hyde Park. I felt that my occupation was gone, and that any other was unsuited to me, for 'it is the specialty of a soldier's career, that it unfits most men for any other life. They cannot throw off the old habitudes. They cannot turn from the noisy stir of war to the tame quiet of every-day life; and even when they fancy themselves wearied and worn-out, and willing to retire from the service, their souls are stirred by every sound of the distant contest, as the war-steed is roused by the blast of a trumpet.' Winifred was looking charming in her bridal bonnet charming amid the loveliest women in the world, and they were there by thousands; for she had the beauty of perfect goodness, and of the purest and gentlest attributes of womankind; for she was an artless and generous creature, too simple-minded at times, even in this cold blooded and well-bred age, to have the power of concealing her emo tions. I wore my old and faded red coat of the Welsh Fusileers for the last time; and though there was Often in fancy before this-for I was ever addicted to day-dreams -I had pictured some such fête, some such ceremony, some such dured in Bulgaria, and done by the reward, for all our army had enreality far exceeded all I had ever shores of the Black Sea; but the imagined. longed, with all a boy's ardour, to In my school-days, how I had fight for my country and Queen! Well, I had fought-not for either, certainly, but for the lazy, wretched, and contemptible Turks-and her me, by placing an order on my royal hand was about to reward breast. achieve, to do something great, or The longing, the wild desire to grand, or dashing, had ever since those school-boy days been mine; now that mysterious 'something' was achieved, and I was about to be made a V.C. before that vast multitude, and, more than all, beneath the soft kind eyes of one who loved me more than all the world. 'Who the dooce is that handsome woman, on whom' (I failed to catch the name)' of ours is so devilish spooney?' I heard one tall Plunger, in a marvellously 972838 |