THE NARRATIVE OF LORD ST. AMANDE CONTINUED
He who has been stunned by a heavy blow comes to but slowly, and so it was with me and slowly also my understanding and my memory returned, while gradually my dazed senses began to comprehend the meaning of all around me. I remembered at last why the handsome saloon in which my beloved one, my sweet Joice, took ever such pride, should now resemble the deck of a ship after a fierce sea fight more than a gentlewoman's withdrawing-room. It dawned upon me minute by minute why the harpsichord and spinet should both be shattered, the bright carpet drenched and stained with blood, the window-frame windowless, with, by it, a heap of dead, formed of red and white men and the mastiffs, and why my own white silk waistcoat and steinkirk should be stained with the same fluid. Nor was I, ere long, astonished to see the fontange which Miss Mills had worn lying on the spinet, nor to perceive O'Rourke seated by a table near me eating some bread and meat slowly and in a ruminative manner, while he washed the food down with a beaker of rum and water and shook his head sadly and meditatively all the while.
And so, in a moment, there came back to me all that happened but a little time before, as I thought, and with a great shout I called to him and asked him where my dear one was.
The old adventurer sprang to his feet as I did so, and came towards me muttering that he thought for an instant that the red devils were coming back again; and then, kneeling down by me, he asked me how I did and if I thought I had taken any serious hurt.
"Though well I know, my lord," he said, "that 'twas nothing worse than a severe crack o' the skull; yet, being a poor chirurgeon, I could not tell how deep the crack was. But since you can speak and understand, and know me, it cannot be so serious. Try, my lord, if you can rise."
Taking his arm I made the attempt, succeeding fairly. But when on my feet I still felt dizzy, while a great nausea came over me, so that I was obliged to seat myself at the table and to observe O'Rourke's counsel to partake of some of the liquor he had by him, if not some of the bread and meat.
"'Tis fortunate," he said, "that I could induce those squealing negroes to come forth after all the others had gone, or else----"