Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

A DOVBLE SACRI1
upon our heels. Despite ev. :
ntiuue
ryili
our route, but wo luul hai. a few ]>:uvs when we found
ourselves taken between two iii-ex. All resistance was r
ble. What could a weak handful of combatants, oppose
1 to nil
entire army, attempt. We closed up our ranks, then, behind
the General, and, abandoning the road, iled to tho mountains.
to time. At that moment our situation seemed desperate.
Our retreat was obstructed by the enemy's troops; it might be
that Ancona, the only port of safety that then remained to us,
was likewise blockaded from the laud. Still, forward! forward
! Such was the word of command of our illustrious captain.
Our enthusiasm revived, and success crowned our
efforts; we arrived without any impediment."
Meanwhile, the second division of the Pontifical army. that
which began to march later, and had no occasion to take part
in the fight had retired under the walls of Loreto; and the
pious edifice dedicated to Mary was, at that hour, encumbered
with the wounded and dying. That very morning those heroes
had come there to seek divine grace, succor, strength to meet
their bloody martyrdom; they had now returned thither,
bleeding and mutilated, to ask the Heavenly Consolatrix to
procure them grace to remain patient and faithful to the end.
Noble and courageous soldiers, chosen combatants of Christ,
who had united the strength of the lion to the meekness of the
dove !
For their heroic courage had excited the admiration of their
enemies themselves. "Those troops," wrote General Cialdini,
in a report to General Cacchiari, "attacked us with superb enthusiasm
and real fury. The fight, it is true, was short, but
CHAPTEB Xin.
THE CABBONABO'S REVENGE ANI> THE CHRISTIAN'S VENGEANCE.
Victor and his two companions distinguished themselves by
their coolness and courage during their entire action. They
were in the same company and fought side by side.
The robust Fleming, Martin, made many an enemy bite the
dust, not with his sabre, but simple with his enormous fist,
while using his gun to cast destruction and death in the ranks
of his adversaries. Victor and Joseph took aim and fired with
a precision so exact and a self-possession so remarkable, that
each of their shots brought down an enemy.
The three friends at that moment seemed endowed with supernatural
strength. In vain the balls and bullets whizzed
over their heads ; they appeared to see nothing, hear nothing,
and applied all their strength, attention and ardor to repulsing
the enemy. Often, isolated groups, small detachments of Piedmontese
tirrailleus, attacked the three valiant companions,
over whom they hoped to gain a very easy victory, but tho.; e
assailants were always received with a murderous fire, which
forced them to retreat.
And yet our three friends were at last compelled to yield to
uubers and join their companions, who were begin-
u.s if
i beat a rotrt-at. Martin wit luhvw slowly, step b>
lie could n,t make up his mind to abandon the ath
post he had valiantly conquered. But when at length lie iv-
But at that place the route became totally impracticable no
road, no pathway. We were obliged to dismount and load our
horses by the bridle through thickets and gorges, slopes aud
joined them, ho was suddenly astonished and startled at not seeing
his two friends.
ravines. Nevertheless, after about an hour's march, wo reached
the Convent of the Camaldolese, where the dull and distant
booming of the bombardment of Ancona reached us from time
"Joseph! Victor !" he cried out, in his distress, bitterly
reproaching himself, "I've broken my promise, I've abandoned
! you Oh, mother, mother, mother, shall I no longer
be allowed to watch over them, to keep my word to you ?"
And the unhappy Martin, in his excessive grief, wandered
hither and thither over the battlefield, forgetful of danger u:;d
exposing his life twenty times, seeking to fulfil the duty his
mother's will had imposed upon him.
Joseph and Victor were indeed separated from their companion
in the confusion and tumult of the retreat. At length- i
they reached the borders of the wood in whose shade they were
out of the reach of the enemy's fire, when Joseph, stopping to
take breath, saw two Piedmontese soldiers following, and, at
that moment on the point of reaching them. Thenceforward,
flight was impossible and had been shameful. Why, more-
over, decline the combat ? Their numbers were equal.
" To arms, Victor !" said Joseph, " we are ptrsued !"
But before they could assume the defensive, the two Piedmontese
rushed upon them, sword in hand.
"Ah! cowards! bigots!" they cried on their fury, '"we
have you at last the hour of vengeance !"
At the same instant blades leaped to light out of their scabbards
and sabres crossed. The profouudest silence reigned in
the wood around them; only one might hear from to time in
the distance a solitary shot from the Piedmoutese camp.
Gennaro had attacked Victor ; Orazio, struggling vigorously,
sought to disarm Joseph. But the two young Zouaves defended
themselves well, like good and brave soldiers. Joseph,
on his guard, parried with marvellous dexterity all the strokes
of Orazio's sword, which, formidable as it was, could not draw
a drop of blood from his courageous adversary.
But it was a furious, desperate combat between Gennaro and
bloody and desperate."
And besides, the generosity, the tender compassion of those
valiant soldiers has been attested by numerous testimonies.
" Alas !" said one of them to his companion, in the heat of the
battle, " I'd never have the courage to aim at that Victor. All the ruses, all the efforts of the Carbonaro < w
poor young vain. His eyeballs, swollen with fury, became bloodshot, his
Piedmontese I saw yonder. Look; he's so young; no doubt he face livid, his lips pale, firmly compressed, only parted pain-
has a mother a mother who will wear mourning for him. No, fully
no; I'd not have the strength to kill him."
And yet victory had been denied to such magnanimous
efforts, such pure devotion ! The storm was over now, it is
true; but the poor flowers, crushed and bent down, strewed the
soil.
from time to time to emit a hollow groan.
However, the courageous Victor, who continued fighting,
began to gradually lose both his vigor and energy. He was
ready to succumb to fatigue and heat, alter the arduous trials
of that day of combat, and the indomitable ardor that had animated
him on the field of honor, as long as he was fighti:
the holy cause of the Church, seemed to abandon him little by
little when the young Zouave was only fighting in his own de-
fence, and, if fate favored him, to plunge his adversary's soul
into eternal torments. Alas ! was his life so dear, so S-H i
precious to him, that he should seek to preserve it by e.\
ing that misguided, that impious, that miserable enemy to eternal
damnation.
Suddenly, the Carbonaro, having thoughtlessly sprung forward,
lost his equilibrium and fell heavily upon the ground.
In an instant Victor's arm was raised, and Victor's sabre,
gleamed over his head. All at once he stopped.
" Oh, Stefano, Nunziata !" he murmured, " could I assassin-
ate your brother ?"
But the enraged Carbonaro had already arisen, 1<
heard the exclamation of his gauerous vanquisher, and those
noble words only redoubled his hate and rage.
" One of us two must die, and die here !" he cried.
And in a paroxysm of rage he rushed at his noble adversary,
who, exhausted, irresolute, overpowered by fatigue, defended
himself with difficulty. The hour so longed for the hour of
had come nt last !
vengeance
The other two combatants seemed to redouble their efforts.
Orazio had received a large, deep wound, bat the sight of his
blood only aroused his mettle and redoubled his li; rci
The point of his sword darted hither aud thither, like i;
of lightning, menacing the young Van Dael on all sides. Sud-