MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) by FREDERICK MARRYAT (novel books to read txt) 📖

Terrible, We Should Have

Despaired and Left Off An Apparently Useless Struggle For Our Lives.

 

 

 

Away We Dashed, Over Hills And Down Declivities; For Now The Ground Had

Become More Broken. The Fire Was Gaining Fast Upon Us, When We Perceived

That, A Mile Ahead, The Immense Herds Before Us Had Entered a Deep,

Broad Chasm, Into Which They Dashed, Thousands Upon Thousands, Tumbling

Headlong Into The Abyss. But Now, The Fire Rushing Quicker, Blazing

Fiercer Than Before, As If Determined not To Lose Its Prey, Curled its

Waves Above Our Heads, Smothering Us With Its Heat And Lurid Smoke.

 

 

 

A Few Seconds More We Spurred in agony; Speed was Life; The Chasm Was To

Be Our Preservation Or Our Tomb. Down We Darted? Actually Borne Upon The

Backs Of The Descending Mass, And Landed, Without Sense Or Motion, More

Than A Hundred feet Below. As Soon As We Recovered from The Shock, We

Found That We Had Been Most Mercifully Preserved; Strange To Say,

Neither Horse Nor Rider Had Received any Serious Injury. We Heard, Above

Our Heads, The Hissing and Cracking Of The Fire; We Contemplated with

Awe The Flames, Which Were Roaring along The Edge Of The Precipice--Now

Rising, Now Lowering, Just As If They Would Leap Over The Space And

Annihilate All Life In these Western Solitudes.

 

 

 

We Were Preserved; Our Fall Had Been Broken By The Animals, Who Had

Taken A Leap A Second Before Us, And By The Thousands Of Bodies Which

Were Heaped up As A Hecatomb, And Received us As A Cushion Below. With

Difficulty We Extricated ourselves And Horses, And Descending The Mass

Of Carcasses, We At Last Succeeded in reaching a Few Acres Of Clear

Ground. It Was Elevated a Few Feet Above The Water Of The Torrent, Which

Ran Through The Ravine, And Offered to Our Broken-Down Horses A

Magnificent Pasture Of Sweet Blue Grass. But The Poor Things Were Too

Terrified and Exhausted, And They Stretched themselves Down Upon The

Ground, A Painful Spectacle Of Utter Helplessness.

 

 

 

We Perceived that The Crowds Of Flying animals Had Succeeded in finding,

Some Way Further Down An Ascent To The Opposite Prairie; And As The

Earth And Rocks Still Trembled, We Knew That The "Estampede" Had Not

Ceased, And That The Millions Of Fugitives Had Resumed their Mad Career.

Indeed there Was Still Danger, For The Wind Was High, And Carried before

It Large Sheets Of Flames To The Opposite Side, Where The Dried grass

And Bushes Soon Became Ignited, And The Destructive Element Thus Passed

The Chasm And Continued its Pursuit.

 

 

 

We Congratulated ourselves Upon Having Thus Found Security, And Returned

Thanks To Heaven For Our Wonderful Escape; And As We Were Now Safe From

Immediate Danger, We Lighted a Fire And Feasted upon A Young

Buffalo-Calf, Every Bone Of Which We Found Had Been Broken Into

Splinters[25].

Note

[Footnote 25: I Have Said, At A Venture, That We Descended more Than A

Hundred feet Into The Chasm Before We Fairly Landed on The Bodies Of The

Animals. The Chasm Itself Could Not Have Been Less Than Two Hundred and

Fifty To Three Hundred feet Deep At The Part That We Plunged down. This

Will Give The Reader Some Idea Of The Vast Quantity Of Bodies Of

Animals, Chiefly Buffaloes, Which Were There Piled up. I Consider That

This Pile Must Have Been Formed wholly From The Foremost Of The Mass,

And That When Formed, It Broke The Fall Of The Others, Who Followed

Them, As It Did Our Own: Indeed, The Summit Of The Heap Was Pounded into

A Sort Of Jelly.]

Chapter XXIX

Two Days Did We Remain In our Shelter, To Regain Our Strength And To

Rest Our Horses. Thus Deeply Buried in the Bosom Of The Earth, We Were

Safe From The Devastating Elements. On The Second Day We Heard

Tremendous Claps Of Thunder; We Knew That A Storm Was Raging Which Would

Quench The Fire, But We Cared little About What Was Going On Above.

 

 

 

We Had Plenty To Eat And To Drink, Our Steeds Were Recovering Fast, And,

In Spite Of The Horrors We Had Just Undergone, We Were Not A Little

Amused by The Lamentations Of The Parson, Who, Recollecting The

Destruction Of His Shirts, Forgot His Professional Duty, And Swore

Against Texas And The Texans, Against The Prairies, The Buffaloes, And

The Fire: The Last Event Had Produced so Deep An Impression Upon His

Mind, That He Preferred shivering all Night By The Banks Of The Torrent

To Sleeping Near Our Comfortable Fire; And As To Eating Of The Delicate

Food Before Him, It Was Out Of The Question; He Would Suck It, But Not

Masticate Nor Swallow It; His Stomach And His Teeth Refused to

Accomplish Their Functions Upon The Abhorred meat; And He Solemnly

Declared that Never Again Would He Taste Beef--Cow Or Calf--- Tame Or

Wild--Even If He Were Starving.

 

 

 

One Of The Lawyers, Too, Was Loud In his Complaints, For Although Born

In The States, He Had In his Veins No Few Drops Of Irish Blood, And

Could Not Forget The Sacrifice Gabriel Had Made Of The Whisky. "Such

Stuff!" He Would Exclaim, "The Best That Ever Came Into This Land Of

Abomination, To Be Thrown In the Face Of Dirty Buffaloes: The Devil Take

Them! Eh! Monsheer Owato Wanisha,--Queer Outlandish Name,

By-The-Bye,--Please To Pass Me Another Slice Of The Varmint (Meaning The

Buffalo-Calf). Bless My Soul, If I Did Not Think, At One Time, It Was

After The Liquor The Brutes Were Running!"

 

 

 

Upon The Morning Of The Third Day, We Resumed our Journey, Following The

Stream Down For A Few Miles, Over Thousands Of Dead Animals, Which The

Now Foaming Torrent Could Not Wash Away. We Struck The Winding Path

Which The "Estampedados" Had Taken; And As It Had Been Worked by The

Millions Of Fugitives Into A Gentle Ascent, We Found Ourselves Long

Before Noon, Once More Upon The Level Of The Prairie. What A Spectacle

Of Gloom And Death! As Far As The Eye Could Reach, The Earth Was Naked

And Blackened. Not A Stem Of Grass, Not A Bush, Had Escaped the Awful

Conflagration; And Thousands Of Half-Burnt Bodies Of Deer, Buffaloes,

And Mustangs Covered the Prairie In every Direction.

 

 

 

The Horizon Before Us Was Concealed by A High And Rugged ridge Of The

Rolling Prairie, Towards Which We Proceeded but Slowly, So Completely

Was The Track Made By The Buffaloes Choked by Burnt Bodies Of All

Descriptions Of Animals. At Last We Reached the Summit Of The Swell, And

Perceived that We Were Upon One Of The Head Branches Of The Trinity

River, Forming a Kind Of Oblong Lake, A Mile Broad, But Exceedingly

Shallow; The Bottom Was Of A Hard White Sandy Formation, And As We

Crossed this Beautiful Sheet Of Clear Water, The Bottom Appeared to Be

Studded with Grains Of Gold And Crystals.

 

 

 

This Brought Round The Characteristic Elasticity Of Temper Belonging To

The Americans, And Caused the Doctor To Give Way To His Mental

Speculations:--He Would Not Go To Edinburgh; It Was Nonsense; Here Was A

Fortune Made. He Would Form A Company In new York, Capital One Million

Of Dollars--The Gold, Emerald, Topaz, Sapphire, And Amethyst

Association, In ten Thousand Shares, One Hundred dollars A-Piece. In

Five Years He Would Be The Richest Man In the World; He Would Build Ten

Cities On The Mississippi, And Would Give Powder And Lead To The

Comanches For Nothing, So That They Could At Once Clear The World Of

Texans And Buffaloes. He Had Scarcely Finished, When We Reached the

Other Side Of The Lake; There We Had To Pass Over A Narrow Ridge,

Covered with Green Bushes, But Now Torn And Trampled down; The Herds Had

Passed over There, And The Fire Had Been Extinguished by The Waters Of

This "Fairy Lake," For So We Had Baptized it. Half An Hour More Brought

Us Clear Out From The Cover, And A Most Strange And Unusual Sight Was

Presented to Our Eyes.

 

 

 

On A Rich And Beautiful Prairie, Green And Red, The Wild Clover And The

Roses, And Occasionally A Plum-Tree, Varying The Hues Were Lying

Prostrate, As Far As The Eye Could Reach, Hundreds Of Thousands Of

Animals Of All Species, Some Quietly Licking Their Tired limbs, And

Others Extending Their Necks, Without Rising, To Graze Upon The Soft

Grass Around Them. The Sight Was Beautiful Above All Description, And

Recalled to Mind The Engravings Of The Creation Affixed to The Old

Bibles. Wolves And Panthers Were Lying But A Few Paces From A Small

Flock Of Antelopes; Buffaloes, Bears, And Horses Were Mixed together,

Every One Of Them Incapable Of Moving From The Spot On Which They Had

Dropped from Exhaustion And Fatigue.

 

 

 

We Passed a Large Jaguar, Glaring Fiercely At A Calf Ten Feet From Him;

On Seeing Us, He Attempted to Rise, But, Utterly Helpless, He Bent His

Body So As To Form A Circle, Concealing His Head Upon His Breast Under

His Huge Paws, And Uttered a Low Growl, Half Menacing, Half Plaintive.

Had We Had Powder To Waste, We Would Certainly Have Rid The Gramnivorous

From Many Of Their Carnivorous Neighbours, But We Were Now Entering a

Tract Of Country Celebrated for The Depredations Of The Texans And

Buggles Free Bands, And Every Charge Of Powder Thrown Away Was A Chance

The Less, In case Of A Fight.

 

 

 

As By This Time Our Horses Were In want Of Rest, We Took Off Their

Saddles, And The Poor Things Feasted better Than They Had Done For A

Long While. As For Us, We Had Fortunately Still A Good Supply Of The

Cold Calf, For We Felt A Repugnance To Cut The Throats Of Any Of The

Poor Broken-Down Creatures Before Us. Close To Us There Was A Fine

Noble Stag, For Which I Immediately Took A Fancy. He Was So Worn Out

That He Could Not Even Move A Few Inches To Get At The Grass, And His

Dried, Parched tongue Showed plainly How Much He Suffered from The Want

Of Water. I Pulled up Two Or Three Handfuls Of Clover, Which I Presented

To Him; But Though He Tried to Swallow It, He Could Not.

 

 

 

As There Was A Water-Hole Some Twenty Yards Off, I Took The Doctor'S Fur

Cap, And Filling It With Water, Returned to The Stag. What An Expressive

Glance! What Beautiful Eyes! I Sprinkled at First Some Drops Upon His

Tongue, And Then, Putting The Water Under His Nose, He Soon Drained it

Up. My Companions Became So Much Interested with The Sufferings Of The

Poor Animals, That They Took As Many Of The Young Fawns As They Could,

Carrying Them To The Edge Of The Water-Hole, That They Might Regain

Their Strength And Fly Away Before The Wolves Could Attack Them.

 

 

 

Upon My Presenting a Second Capful Of Water To The Stag, The Grateful

Animal Licked my Hands, And, After Having Drunk, Tried to Rise To Follow

Me, But Its Strength Failing, Its Glances Followed me As I Was Walking

To And Fro; They Spoke Volumes; I Could Understand Their Meaning. I Hate

To Hear Of The Superiority Of Man! Man Is Ungrateful As A Viper, While A

Horse, A Dog, And Many Others Of The "Soulless Brutes," Will Never

Forget A Kindness.

 

 

 

I Wondered what Had Become Of Our Three Lawyers, Who Had Wandered away

Without Their Rifles, And Had