Fortune's Bride (19 page)

A slight color rose in Esmeralda’s cheeks when she heard Dom
Aleixo’s question. She was not new to a flatly stated lie and had, over the
years, told more than one to her father, but she discovered that it was not so
easy to be untruthful to a stranger who had been kind. The fact that Dom Aleixo
had asked so few questions about the British army after he had said he was
hungry for news indicated that he had sensed her reluctance to give him
information. He could easily have taken offense, but he had, instead,
considerately abandoned the topic.

Nonetheless, she did not dare tell the truth. If she did,
she was certain he would refuse to lend her the telescope. Perhaps that would
be best, but she had the crazy feeling that if she were watching the coming
battle, nothing could happen to Robert. And, as soon as she had heard there
was
a glass available, that feeling had grown even stronger.

“Birds,” Esmeralda said desperately, her blush growing
deeper. “I do not know whether you are aware that the English are…are very fond
of birds. We…we like to watch them, to see where they nest, and how they feed
their young, and…and such things.”

“You will not find many nests at this time of the year,” the
old man pointed out very gravely, his dark eyes shining with amusement as he
wondered what she would now say.

“No…no, of course not,” Esmeralda admitted, scrabbling about
in her mind for scraps of information she had picked up from birdwatchers in
India, “but they…they fly about. Their…their patterns of flight are important,
and…and they feed. Some eat seeds, and others…er…eat other things.”

Naturally in a time of emergency one’s mind failed,
Esmeralda thought despairingly. All she could think of were the most
inappropriate bits of information, like the tales she had heard of birds that
picked fleas or some such insect off cattle, and those she herself had watched
picking over feces. Those were not items one could relate to an elderly and
elegant Portuguese gentleman.

That “er…eat other things” was too much for Dom Aleixo. His
gravity departed, and he began to chuckle. “My dear…oh, I beg your pardon,
Senhora
Moreton, but you are young enough to be my granddaughter. I am most ungenerous
and unkind to tease you. I will not only lend you a glass but show you how to
use it, for it is not so simple as just looking through it. And we will say no
more about your purpose, but, my child, I must tell you that a seaman’s glass
is not at all appropriate for watching birds.”

By now Esmeralda’s cheeks were flaming red. “I am so sorry,”
she murmured. “I did not wish to lie, but I was certain that you would refuse
to lend me the glass if I told you my real purpose.”

He shook his head. “I knew your intention from the
beginning, child, as soon as you asked for the glass.” He reached out and
pulled the bell cord conveniently near his chair. “I will ask you no
questions,” he went on while they waited for the servant to answer the bell,
“but I have lived all my life—at those times when I was not at sea, of
course—in this part of my country. It seems to me that the only easily
defensible area near Caldas are the heights of Columbeira. This, I imagine, is
where the battle is most likely to take place. To see them, and not come too
close, one could watch from the tower of the Church of San Mahmed. It is not
very high, but the land is flat there, except for the hill on which Roliça
stands. Also, there is Amiais, a tiny hamlet about one-half league to the west.
There is no church, but the village lies on rising ground.”

As the door opened, he paused and turned his head to order
his manservant to bring him the four-draw Dollond glass. The one-legged man
looked a little surprised, but he bowed and went out without speaking. Dom
Aleixo smiled.

“It is a powerful instrument,” he said. “You will have to
rest it on something if you wish to watch any particular place, for the
smallest shaking of your hand will move your view a good distance.”

Then, while they waited for Sebastiano to bring the
telescope so that Dom Aleixo could show Esmeralda how to use it, he explained
more fully how to reach the village and tiny hamlet he had named.

“You are very kind,” Esmeralda said at last. She had been
listening in stunned amazement, hardly able to believe her ears, but finally
coming to the conclusion that Dom Aleixo’s desire to help her was a quixotic
impulse of a bored old man.

When Dom Aleixo was satisfied that Esmeralda was reasonably
proficient in using the telescope, he asked most politely if she would like
some refreshment. She had eaten no luncheon because of her fright, but that was
only a minor part in her eager acceptance of his offer. Talking to Dom Aleixo
would keep her mind occupied and prevent her from thinking about the events of
the next day. In the end, she dined with the old man, enjoying their comparison
of their memories of Goa and Bombay. It was soothing to see how much pleasure
he took in her company.

When the light started to fail, Esmeralda said she must go,
and Dom Aleixo agreed at once, apologizing for having kept her so long. She
smiled and shook her head. “I wished to stay. I hope I have not imposed on you
and tired you with my chatter. You have saved me many hours of useless worry. I
do not know what time I will return your glass, but I assure you I will take
the greatest care of it while it is in my possession. I do not mean to offend
you, but would you like me to leave some token with you to guarantee I will
return it? I have only this locket with my mother’s picture, but—”

Dom Aleixo laughed, interrupting her. “I am sure that is far
more precious to you than the glass, however valuable, is to me. No, child. If
I had not been sure from the beginning that you would return it, I never would
have lent it. The time does not matter,” he added wryly after a short pause. “I
will be here.”

The army broke camp and marched for Roliça in the early
morning of August 17. Still earlier, Esmeralda mounted on Boa Viagem, and
Carlos riding Luisa, had left Caldas. They reached the outskirts of Óbidos in
time to watch the last units of the reserve march out of camp. Esmeralda hung
back, fearing that some officer who knew her might recognize her riding dress
even at a distance. When the troops were well clear of the town, Carlos and
Esmeralda rode cautiously forward again.

They reached San Mahmed with only one fright, a belated
ammunition wagon that came rolling down the road behind them so that they had
to ride off into the scraggly brush and hope they would not be noticed. At the
church, which was the most prominent building in the village, Esmeralda
dismounted. She went in quietly, carrying Dom Aleixo’s glass while Carlos took
Luisa and Boa Viagem to the wine shop, where there was a shed to shelter the asses
and mules of the patrons.

Coming out of the narrow walkway provided for servicing the
church bell, Esmeralda gasped and shrank back behind the arch. She felt for a
moment as if she were close enough to the army to be seen herself, because she
could see the soldiers so clearly. Then she realized that was an illusion. She
could see the massed lines of troops because of their bright red coats and the
number of men standing close together in the sunlight. She, a lone figure in
the shadow of the bell tower, would be invisible.

Esmeralda could see nothing of the French, and she had a
single flash of hope that they had run away. But it was too much to expect that
driving away a few pickets would cause panic to sweep through the entire French
army. Then Esmeralda realized that the troops were moving. At first, because of
the distance and the fact that the units all moved together, she had thought
they were standing still. Hastily she pulled the glass from its leather case,
extended it as she had been shown, rested it on the ledge of the arch, and
applied her eye to the eyepiece. Figures leapt into individuality as the
powerful telescope caught them, but they passed out of view almost immediately
as they moved forward. What had seemed barely a crawling pace to the naked eye
was greatly speeded by the magnification of the lens.

In a way, it was most disappointing, for the telescope
narrowed the scene of action to a few individuals. Esmeralda looked out at the
mass of men again, unaided by the glass. She could see three distinct groups,
which formed a crescent with the right and left well forward of the center.
Nothing seemed to be happening at all, just a very slow progress toward the
rising ground. As she swept her eyes from one end of the field to the other she
realized that at the rear of the center there was a mounted group. She had not
noticed them at first despite the horses because they all wore dark coats and
hats, which were not as eye-catching as the red-clad troops.

A moment’s thought told Esmeralda that the group must be
General Wellesley and his staff, and her heart leapt. She might be able to see
Robert. She spent about fifteen minutes maneuvering the instrument into the
correct position until she was at last able to pick out the group she sought.
At first, she was again disappointed because even the powerful telescope did
not provide a clear enough image to make out faces. But she had barely absorbed
that disappointment before it became irrelevant as, with a shock of joy, she
recognized Robert. There was something in the way he carried his body and sat
his horse that identified him quite clearly.

By now, Esmeralda had gained considerable expertise in using
the telescope, and she was able to keep Robert in view with little difficulty
despite the steady forward movement of his horse. Her mood had been unsettled
ever since she had left Dom Aleixo, periodic panics fading into mere anxiety.
She had slept very little, as her desire to follow the army did battle with her
knowledge of how furious Robert would be if he discovered what she had done.

It was the thought of continuing in unknowing terror that
drove her from her bed before dawn to follow through with the preparations she
had made. And now, seeing Robert within the quiet group at the rear of the
army, Esmeralda felt a great relief. It was a proof of what Molly had said.
Robert was not in the front lines. The staff was not expected to fight.

At that moment, Carlos came running up the stairs. He cried
out in excitement, and Esmeralda lifted her head, rather startled, asking,
“What is it?”

“There!” the boy cried, pointing. “There! See, the battle
has begun.”

Esmeralda’s heart leapt into her throat as her eyes followed
the line of Carlos’s arm, but what she saw was not at all frightening. Far to
the left just where the ground began to rise, there were intermittent, tiny
puffs of smoke. It took another moment before Carlos’s remark connected with
the minute man-made clouds in Esmeralda’s mind and she realized that what she
was seeing were guns being fired. She hastily reapplied her eye to the
telescope, but she did not move it to cover the area in which the firing was
taking place. It was the mounted group of staff officers she sought.

When she found them, relief flooded her again. Clearly
Wellesley and his staff were aware of the action. Their heads were turned in
that direction and a number of them, including Sir Arthur himself, had
spyglasses to their eyes. However, they were still moving slowly at the rear of
the central group. No evidence of any excitement was apparent among them, and
Esmeralda did not think any member of the staff had left. Robert was certainly
there, she picked him out immediately.

After assuring herself that Robert was in no danger,
Esmeralda tried to find the area where the shooting was taking place with the
telescope. By the time she was able to locate it, there was little to see. She
knew what was happening only because Carlos was jumping up and down, crying out
that the French were running away, Esmeralda abandoned the glass and looked out.
She saw at once that the puffs of smoke on the higher ground were fewer and
were moving backward while those that had come originally from the plain were
more frequent and advancing onto the rising ground.

This condition was maintained for a while longer and then
ceased. After repeatedly confirming that Robert was still with Sir Arthur,
Esmeralda began to grow bored. From her point of view, the battle had not been
very interesting. What was more, after a while the whole force began to move
again and it was apparent that they would soon be hidden from her view by the
bulk of Roliça hill. Esmeralda bit her lip and began to collapse her glass. She
could move west to Amiais, but she had no idea whether she could find a vantage
point there or whether any further action, if there were to be any, would be
visible to her even with the aid of the telescope.

Esmeralda was not the only person dissatisfied. Sir Arthur,
who had hoped that Delaborde would be sufficiently contemptuous of the British
force that he would stand his ground, was even more disappointed than she. The
French general, however, was not a fool. As soon as he was assured that the
attack was determined and that his position was in danger of being enveloped by
the right and left wings of Sir Arthur’s army, he gave the order to abandon the
isolated hill and retreat as quickly as possible to the heights behind
Columbeira.

Had Sir Arthur’s army been less raw or had he twice the
force, he might have tried to prevent such a move by occupying those heights
himself in a night march. As things were, he did not dare permit his army to be
divided or permit the French to come between him and a safe line of retreat to
the coast. The action at Brilos had showed good spirit, but the light companies
were the best in any regiment, seasoned men trained to act independently. How
the regular troops would behave under fire was still questionable, and Sir
Arthur had determined to take no chances in this first real action.

Therefore, when the French retreated, Sir Arthur had little
choice. On the one hand, half the morning had been wasted, on the other,
nothing had been lost. He sent Captain Williams off to tell General Ferguson to
continue along the crest of the hills in a wide flanking movement to the left.
Campbell went off to order Colonel Trant to continue his movement along the
base of the hills and bring his Portuguese regiments in on the right flank. The
center moved in pursuit, Hill’s division heading quickly westward around the
isolated high ground, followed by Nightingale’s, which had held the center.
General Fane’s went round the other side of the hill along the main road.

Sir Arthur’s intention had been to hold back the frontal
storming of the heights until Ferguson and Trant were positioned to attack
simultaneously on the left and right flanks. However, it was soon apparent that
the fate of the too-intrepid light companies at Brilos had not made sufficient
impression on all his field officers. Everything went smoothly enough at first.
Two batteries of guns were established near a windmill on the northern slope of
Roliça hill and began to bombard the new French position while the divisions
redeployed.

Unfortunately, Colonel Lake of the Twenty-ninth had
misunderstood his orders, thought he saw an opening he could fill with little
loss, or simply suffered a rush of mistaken heroism. Long before there was any
hope of Trant or Ferguson being anywhere close enough to begin flank attacks,
Lake led his regiment up a deep gully just beyond the village of Columbeira.
When he heard the crackle of firing begin, Sir Arthur’s lips tightened. He
combed the area ahead with his spyglass, but the depth of the ravines and the
growth of brush and trees along them obscured the view.

“Go and see what that is, Moreton,” he said quietly after a
few minutes. “If you think the situation can be salvaged, you may request
assistance from General Hill.”

Robert rode off, skirting the eastern edge of Columbeira,
and entered the gorge. Now that he was in the ravine, he was better able to see
what had happened. The high ground protruded to some extent around the dry
streambeds that had cut the gorges, and as the cut slanted left, it exposed the
attacking troops to fire on three sides. Nonetheless, they had forced their way
a considerable distance up.

Just as he realized it would be unwise to push his horse
much farther up, Robert heard voices above him. Most were indistinguishable
shouts, but among those were a few voices crying “Friend.” Apparently Lake and
his men had gained the heights, and the troops facing them were not determined
to hold out. That, however, was no guarantee that other enemy troops in the
vicinity would feel the same. Lake’s one regiment, which must have taken
considerable losses, could not hold the ground alone. They would need General
Hill’s assistance. Robert turned back and made the best speed he could, calling
out for information about General Hill’s position as he rode.

He found the general on the extreme right, where, having
already noted the movement of the Twenty-ninth, he had just directed the light
companies of his brigade and the first battalion of the Fifth Regiment to start
up the most westerly of the ravines. He listened to Robert’s report and Sir
Arthur’s order and nodded calmly.

“You may tell Sir Arthur,” he said to Robert, “that I will
take the Ninth up myself. You may also say that I have begun an assault on the
far right, as it is impossible, in my opinion, to wait for the flanking parties
without losing the Twenty-ninth entirely.”

As he spoke, General Hill urged his horse into motion.
Robert wasted no time himself, knowing that the sooner the entire army was in
motion, the better it would be for all. By the time he reached Sir Arthur,
however, all units except the reserve were already in motion.

“Do you know just where the Twenty-ninth is?” Sir Arthur
asked after he had acknowledged Robert’s report. His voice was raised, for the
general and his staff had closed in as the troops moved forward and the
intermittent boom of the artillery was now only a background to a rising roar
made up of shouts, screams, and the constant explosions of muskets.

“Yes, sir,” Robert shouted in reply.

“Very well, then, follow General Hill up and tell him I am
moving one of Crawfurd’s battalions to cover Columbeira. If the Twenty-ninth is
not able to re-form and Lake needs Hill’s support, he may send down for them.”

Not able to re-form? Obviously Sir Arthur had seen some
action on the heights that had fulfilled Robert’s fears of the regiment’s
inability to hold the position. Robert had seen that the Twenty-ninth had taken
losses, but they were not so severe in his judgment as to make it impossible to
re-form.

Robert made directly for the place he had seen Hill enter
when he rode back earlier with his message to Sir Arthur The gorge wall that
had then looked impassable was now open at an angle, a cannonball having taken
down a small tree and the passage of a number of men having leveled the brush
and beaten down the earth somewhat. Beyond was a small wood in which some
wounded men, who had retreated there for what shelter they could find, were
lying.

After pulling up his horse to let the animal breathe, Robert
looked around for a man capable of answering his questions. Before he could
ask, however, a tremendous noise broke out above and to the left. Robert opened
the saddle holsters of his guns, but he did not draw them, being uncertain
about exactly what the violent eruption of gunfire portended. His movement in
the direction of the noise was almost immediately blocked by a group of men
stumbling down the precipitous hill in retreat.

“Hold up!” Robert bellowed. “Stop.”

To his intense delight, they did stop as soon as they
reached the shelter of the wood, but he could see others coming down. “Move
back,” he ordered. “Make room for your fellows. Now, face about. Reload.” He
drew his saber.