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The Tune Mcgilveray Played
by
As General Wolfe was about to enter the boat which was to convey him to the flag-ship, he saw McGilveray, who was waiting under guard to be taken to Major Hardy’s post at Point Levis. The General knew him well, and looked at him half sadly, half sternly.
“I knew you were free with drink, McGilveray,” he said, “but I did not think you were a traitor to your country too.”
McGilveray saluted, and did not answer.
“You might have waited till after to-morrow, man,” said the General, his eyes flashing. “My soldiers should have good music to-morrow.”
McGilveray saluted again, but made no answer.
As if with a sudden thought the General waved off the officers and men near him, and betkcned McGilveray to him.
“I can understand the drink in a bad soldier,” he said, “but you helped a prisoner to escape. Come, man, we may both be dead to-morrow, and I’d like to feel that no soldier in my army is wilfully a foe of his country.”
“He did the same for me, whin I was taken prisoner, yer Excillincy, an’–an’, yer Excillincy, ’twas a matter of a woman, too.”
The General’s face relaxed a little. “Tell me the whole truth,” said he; and McGilveray told him all. “Ah, yer Excillincy,” he burst out, at last, “I was no traitor at heart, but a fool I always was! Yer Excillincy, court-martial and death’s no matter to me; but I’d like to play wan toon agin, to lead the byes tomorrow. Wan toon, Gineral, an’ I’ll be dacintly shot before the day’s over-ah, yer Excillincy, wan toon more, and to be wid the byes followin’ the Gineral!”
The General’s face relaxed still more.
“I take you at your word,” said he. He gave orders that McGilveray should proceed at once aboard the flag-ship, from whence he should join Anstruther’s regiment at Cap Rouge.
The General entered the boat, and McGilveray followed with some non-com. officers in another. It was now quite dark, and their motions, or the motions of the vessels of war, could not be seen from the French encampment or the citadel. They neared the flag-ship, and the General, followed by his officers, climbed up. Then the men in McGilveray’s boat climbed up also, until only himself and another were left.
At that moment the General, looking down from the side of the ship, said sharply to an officer beside him: “What’s that?”
He pointed to a dark object floating near the ship, from which presently came a small light with a hissing sound.
“It’s a fire-organ, sir,” was the reply.
A fire-organ was a raft, carrying long tubes like the pipes of an organ, and filled with explosives. They were used by the French to send among the vessels of the British fleet to disorganise and destroy them. The little light which the General saw was the burning fuse. The raft had been brought out into the current by French sailors, the fuse had been lighted, and it was headed to drift towards the British ships. The fleet was now in motion, and apart from the havoc which the bursting fire-organ might make, the light from the explosion would reveal the fact that the English men-o’-war were now moving towards Cap Rouge. This knowledge would enable Montcalm to detect Wolfe’s purpose, and he would at once move his army in that direction. The west side of the town had meagre military defenses, the great cliffs being thought impregnable. But at this point Wolfe had discovered a narrow path up a steep cliff.
McGilveray had seen the fire-organ at the same moment as the General. “Get up the side,” he said to the remaining soldier in his boat. The soldier began climbing, and McGilveray caught the oars and was instantly away towards the raft. The General, looking over the ship’s side, understood his daring purpose. In the shadow, they saw him near it, they saw him throw a boat-hook and catch it, and then attach a rope; they saw him sit down, and, taking the oars, laboriously row up-stream toward the opposite shore, the fuse burning softly, somewhere among the great pipes of explosives. McGilveray knew that it might be impossible to reach the fuse–there was no time to spare, and he had set about to row the devilish machine out of range of the vessels which were carrying Wolfe’s army to a forlorn hope.