Vanity Fair - Page 268/573

The hotel was large, and the people kind, and all the inmates of the

cart were taken in and placed on various couches. The young ensign was

conveyed upstairs to Osborne's quarters. Amelia and the Major's wife

had rushed down to him, when the latter had recognised him from the

balcony. You may fancy the feelings of these women when they were told

that the day was over, and both their husbands were safe; in what mute

rapture Amelia fell on her good friend's neck, and embraced her; in

what a grateful passion of prayer she fell on her knees, and thanked

the Power which had saved her husband.

Our young lady, in her fevered and nervous condition, could have had no

more salutary medicine prescribed for her by any physician than that

which chance put in her way. She and Mrs. O'Dowd watched incessantly

by the wounded lad, whose pains were very severe, and in the duty thus

forced upon her, Amelia had not time to brood over her personal

anxieties, or to give herself up to her own fears and forebodings after

her wont. The young patient told in his simple fashion the events of

the day, and the actions of our friends of the gallant --th. They had

suffered severely. They had lost very many officers and men. The

Major's horse had been shot under him as the regiment charged, and they

all thought that O'Dowd was gone, and that Dobbin had got his majority,

until on their return from the charge to their old ground, the Major

was discovered seated on Pyramus's carcase, refreshing him-self from a

case-bottle. It was Captain Osborne that cut down the French lancer

who had speared the ensign. Amelia turned so pale at the notion, that

Mrs. O'Dowd stopped the young ensign in this story. And it was Captain

Dobbin who at the end of the day, though wounded himself, took up the

lad in his arms and carried him to the surgeon, and thence to the cart

which was to bring him back to Brussels. And it was he who promised

the driver two louis if he would make his way to Mr. Sedley's hotel in

the city; and tell Mrs. Captain Osborne that the action was over, and

that her husband was unhurt and well.

"Indeed, but he has a good heart that William Dobbin," Mrs. O'Dowd

said, "though he is always laughing at me."

Young Stubble vowed there was not such another officer in the army, and

never ceased his praises of the senior captain, his modesty, his

kindness, and his admirable coolness in the field. To these parts of

the conversation, Amelia lent a very distracted attention: it was only

when George was spoken of that she listened, and when he was not

mentioned, she thought about him.

In tending her patient, and in thinking of the wonderful escapes of the

day before, her second day passed away not too slowly with Amelia.

There was only one man in the army for her: and as long as he was

well, it must be owned that its movements interested her little. All

the reports which Jos brought from the streets fell very vaguely on her

ears; though they were sufficient to give that timorous gentleman, and

many other people then in Brussels, every disquiet. The French had

been repulsed certainly, but it was after a severe and doubtful

struggle, and with only a division of the French army. The Emperor,

with the main body, was away at Ligny, where he had utterly annihilated

the Prussians, and was now free to bring his whole force to bear upon

the allies. The Duke of Wellington was retreating upon the capital, and

a great battle must be fought under its walls probably, of which the

chances were more than doubtful. The Duke of Wellington had but twenty

thousand British troops on whom he could rely, for the Germans were raw

militia, the Belgians disaffected, and with this handful his Grace had

to resist a hundred and fifty thousand men that had broken into Belgium

under Napoleon. Under Napoleon! What warrior was there, however

famous and skilful, that could fight at odds with him?