FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   >>  
e tailors be sent to me." "It will be impossible to find anyone here capable of making anything but a peasant's clothes." "Send someone to Monteleone to fetch them from there." The commander bowed and went out. Murat was in his bath when the Lavaliere Alcala was announced, a General and Governor of the town. He had sent damask coverlets, curtains, and arm-chairs. Murat was touched by this attention, and it gave him fresh composure. At two o'clock the same day General Nunziante arrived from Santa-Tropea with three thousand men. Murat greeted his old acquaintance with pleasure; but at the first word the king perceived that he was before his judge, and that he had not come for the purpose of making a visit, but to make an official inquiry. Murat contented himself with stating that he had been on his way from Corsica to Trieste with a passport from the Emperor of Austria when stormy weather and lack of provisions had forced him to put into Pizzo. All other questions Murat met with a stubborn silence; then at least, wearied by his importunity-- "General," he said, "can you lend me some clothes after my bath?" The general understood that he could expect no more information, and, bowing to the king, he went out. Ten minutes later, a complete uniform was brought to Murat; he put it on immediately, asked for a pen and ink, wrote to the commander-in-chief of the Austrian troops at Naples, to the English ambassador, and to his wife, to tell them of his detention at Pizzo. These letters written, he got up and paced his room for some time in evident agitation; at last, needing fresh air, he opened the window. There was a view of the very beach where he had been captured. Two men were digging a hole in the sand at the foot of the little redoubt. Murat watched them mechanically. When the two men had finished, they went into a neighbouring house and soon came out, bearing a corpse in their arms. The king searched his memory, and indeed it seemed to him that in the midst of that terrible scene he had seen someone fall, but who it was he no longer remembered. The corpse was quite without covering, but by the long black hair and youthful outlines the king recognised Campana, the aide-decamp he had always loved best. This scene, watched from a prison window in the twilight, this solitary burial on the shore, in the sand, moved Murat more deeply than his own fate. Great tears filled his eyes and fell silently down the l
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   >>  



Top keywords:

General

 

watched

 

window

 

commander

 

corpse

 

making

 
clothes
 

redoubt

 

digging

 

captured


mechanically
 

English

 

Naples

 

ambassador

 

troops

 

Austrian

 

detention

 

agitation

 
evident
 

needing


written

 
letters
 

finished

 

opened

 

terrible

 
twilight
 

prison

 
solitary
 

burial

 

Campana


decamp

 

deeply

 

silently

 

filled

 

recognised

 

outlines

 

memory

 
searched
 

neighbouring

 

bearing


immediately
 
covering
 

youthful

 
longer
 
remembered
 
composure
 

chairs

 

touched

 

attention

 

Nunziante