CHAPTER THREE
HE IS INITIATED IN A MILITARY LIFE, AND HAS THE GOOD FORTUNE TO ACQUIRE AGENEROUS PATRON.
While she wearied Heaven with these petitions, the flame of war broke outbetwixt the houses of Ottoman and Austria, and the Emperor sent forth anarmy into Hungary, under the auspices of the renowned Prince Eugene. Onaccount of this expedition, the mother of our hero gave up housekeeping,and cheerfully followed her customers and husband into the field; havingfirst provided herself with store of those commodities in which she hadformerly merchandised. Although the hope of profit might in some measureaffect her determination, one of the chief motives for her visiting thefrontiers of Turkey, was the desire of initiating her son in therudiments of his education, which she now thought high time to inculcate,he being, at this period, in the sixth year of his age; he wasaccordingly conducted to the camp, which she considered as the mostconsummate school of life, and proposed for the scene of his instruction;and in this academy he had not continued many weeks, when he was aneye-witness of that famous victory, which, with sixty thousand men, theImperial general obtained over an army of one hundred and fifty thousandTurks.
His father-in-law was engaged, and his mother would not be idle on thisoccasion. She was a perfect mistress of all the camp qualifications, andthought it a duty incumbent on her to contribute all that lay in herpower towards distressing the enemy. With these sentiments she hoveredabout the skirts of the army, and the troops were no sooner employed inthe pursuit, than she began to traverse the field of battle with apoignard and a bag, in order to consult her own interest, annoy the foe,and exercise her humanity at the same time. In short, she had, withamazing prowess, delivered some fifty or threescore disabled Mussulmen ofthe pain under which they groaned, and made a comfortable booty of thespoils of the slain, when her eyes were attracted by the rich attire ofan Imperial officer, who lay bleeding on the plain, to all appearance inthe agonies of death.
She could not in her heart refuse that favour to a friend and Christianshe had so compassionately bestowed upon so many enemies and infidels,and therefore drew near with the sovereign remedy, which she had alreadyadministered with such success. As she approached this deplorable objectof pity, her ears were surprised with an ejaculation in the Englishtongue, which he fervently pronounced, though with a weak and languidvoice, recommending his soul to God, and his family to the protection ofHeaven. Our Amazon's purpose was staggered by this providentialincident; the sound of her native language, so unexpectedly heard, and sopathetically delivered, had a surprising effect upon her imagination; andthe faculty of reflection did not forsake her in such emergency. Thoughshe could not recollect the features of this unhappy officer, sheconcluded, from his appearance, that he was some person of distinction inthe service, and foresaw greater advantage to herself in attempting topreserve his life, than she could possibly reap from the execution of herfirst resolve. "If," said she to herself, "I can find means of conveyinghim to his tent alive, he cannot but in conscience acknowledge myhumanity with some considerable recompense; and, should he chance tosurvive his wounds, I have everything to expect from his gratitude andpower."
Fraught with these prudential suggestions, she drew near the unfortunatestranger, and, in a softened accent of pity and condolence, questionedhim concerning his name, condition, and the nature of his mischance, atthe same time making a gentle tender of her service. Agreeably surprisedto hear himself accosted in such a manner, by a person whose equipageseemed to promise far other designs, he thanked her in the most gratefulterms for her humanity, with the appellation of kind countrywoman; gaveher to understand that he was colonel of a regiment of horse; that he hadfallen in consequence of a shot he received in his breast at thebeginning of the action; and, finally, entreated her to procure somecarriage on which he might be removed to his tent. Perceiving him faintand exhausted with loss of blood, she raised up his head, and treated himwith that cordial which was her constant companion. At that instant,espying a small body of hussars returning to the camp with the plunderthey had taken, she invoked their assistance, and they forthwith carriedthe officer to his own quarters, where his wound was dressed, and hispreserver carefully tended him until his recovery was completed.
In return for these good offices, this gentleman, who was originally ofScotland, rewarded her for the present with great liberality, assured herof his influence in promoting her husband, and took upon himself thecharge of young Ferdinand's education; the boy was immediately taken intohis protection, and entered as a trooper in his own regiment; but hisgood intentions towards his father-in-law were frustrated by the death ofthe German, who, in a few days after this disposition, was shot in thetrenches before Temiswaer.
This event, over and above the conjugal affliction with which it invadedthe lady's quiet, would have involved her in infinite difficulty anddistress, with regard to her temporal concerns, by leaving herunprotected in the midst of strangers, had not she been thusprovidentially supplied with an effectual patron in the colonel, who wasknown by the appellation of Count Melvil. He no sooner saw her, by thedeath of her husband, detached from all personal connexions with amilitary life, than he proposed that she should quit her occupation inthe camp, and retire to his habitation in the city of Presburg, where shewould be entertained in ease and plenty during the remaining part of hernatural life. With all due acknowledgments of his generosity, she beggedto be excused from embracing his proposal, alleging she was so muchaccustomed to her present way of life, and so much devoted to the serviceof the soldiery, that she should never be happy in retirement, while thetroops of any prince in Christendom kept the field.
The Count, finding her determined to prosecute her scheme, repeated hispromise of befriending her upon all occasions; and in the meantimeadmitted Ferdinand into the number of his domestics, resolving that heshould be brought up in attendance upon his own son, who was a boy of thesame age. He kept him, however, in his tent, until he should have anopportunity of revisiting his family in person; and, before that occasionoffered, two whole years elapsed, during which the illustrious PrinceEugene gained the celebrated battle of Belgrade, and afterwards madehimself master of that important frontier.