spiracy was formed against him. It did not break out at once. Several weeks elapsed after the defeat, before rumours began to fly about, and it was determined to bring him to a court-martial on the charge of cowardice; and if the evidence of several sergeants was to be believed, there would be no doubt that he was guilty. They swore, with singular unanimity, that they had seen Captain Barnes running away down the ravine before Lord Blayney was taken, and before any disorder had commenced from the left of the battalion. Now, their duty was to look to their front, and so, to account for their looking to their rear instead of to their front, each was anxious to give some reason for his being able to see down the ravine. One or two accounted for it in this way: they swore that before Lord Blayney was taken, a mounted officer’s horse was shot in rear of the centre, and in falling knocked them down. In rising, one of them declared that he saw the Captain of Grenadiers half-way down the ravine, and quite alone. On the other hand, two captains of Artillery—Lloyd and Faede—deposed that before Lord Blayney was taken they had seen Captain Barnes at his post, on the extreme right of the regiment, that he had spoken to them, congratulating them on the re-capture of the guns, and that Colonel Warrington,[1] the mounted officer (whose horse had been shot), could corroborate this evidence; but unfortunately Colonel Warrington was absent in England on leave. The weight of positive evidence was thus in favour of the non-commissioned officers. They spoke as to an unmistakeable fact—that they had seen Captain Barnes running down the ravine before Lord Blayney was taken; Captains Lloyd and Faede swore that they had spoken to him afterwards. But without doubting their veracity, the majority of the court formed the opinion that they had been mistaken as to the time; while the witnesses for the prosecution[2] could not have been mistaken as to the fact.
I had assisted Barnes in his defence, and retained a strong opinion that he was not guilty.
In the usual course, the proceedings had to be sent to England for confirmation. A considerable time elapsed, when one morning very early an orderly woke me, and told me that Colonel Sewell, the commanding officer of the 89th, to which I was temporarily attached, wished to see me immediately. “You know, F,” he said, “that the packet came in last night, and has brought the sentence of Barnes’s court-martial. He is cashiered. I cannot bear to tell him. You know him more intimately; I shall be obliged to you if you will break it to him before it appears in orders.” The task was not a pleasant one, but I could hardly decline it.
I did not go direct to his quarters, where his wife had been confined a day or two previously; but I sent him a message to meet me on the South Bastion. This rendezvous somewhat prepared him. After a few words I told him the truth. He never moved, he never spoke;—a fit of catalepsy could not have made him more rigid. I expected every instant to see him fall. At length sounds issued from his motionless lips. “My wife has her first child, and I have not a shilling.”
That night I went to the rooms of the unfortunate couple. It was a melancholy meeting, but it was relieved by an unexpected incident.
A Colonel Wright, of the Artillery, had been a member of the court-martial. He had the reputation of being a hard, harsh man, and I looked to him with some apprehension; nor was I alone in my fear. Of course his opinion of the verdict is a secret to me to this day. I can only guess it.
A servant brought in a little parcel, like a pillbox, and a note from Colonel Wright. I opened the parcel first. It contained five or six doubloons. The note said, that Colonel Wright, having heard that Captain Barnes was in pecuniary difficulties, begged his acceptance of a trifling assistance.
Many days had not elapsed when I heard that Colonel Warrington had returned. I hastened to him, and begged him to write down for me the substance of a conversation we had had immediately after the event, and long before proceedings against Barnes had been contemplated.
He did so, stating that he perfectly well recollected that after Lord Blayney was taken on the left, he proceeded by the rear of the 89th towards the right; that his horse was shot in rear of the centre; that in its struggles it knocked down some men; that he then proceeded on foot to the right of the battalion, and there found Captains Barnes, Lloyd, and Faede. The confusion then ensued, then the general retreat, and he lost sight of those officers.
This I considered so conclusive that I embodied the statement in a deposition, which I annexed to a memorial to the Prince Regent.
Barnes was restored to his rank, and joined the 89th again in Canada, where, in the action at Christler’s Farm, he so distinguished himself as to be noticed in General Orders, and consequently obtained the brevet rank of major.
AN ARTIST’S RAMBLE ALONG THE LINE OF THE PICTS’ WALL.
PART II.
The day succeeding our visit to Borcovilles was that on which the September fair was held at Haltwhistle, and as a heavy rain fell during the greater part of the day, we were much about the inn, although every room was occupied by men attending the fair, the bed-rooms being appropriated by their wives and daughters who accompanied them. At first we found this rather awkward, but in the long run we settled down into fellowship, and heard some Tynedale ditties and “auld warld” stories, which were not sung and said without an enormous consumption of whiskey.
An elderly but hale-looking laird, who was familiarly named Tom-o’-the-Loanin, related an instance of the discomfiture of a London counsel, by the shrewdness of a drunken witness, in an- ↑ Afterwards Consul-General in Morocco.
- ↑ The leading witness and informant for the prosecution was the sergeant of Light Infantry—a smart clever fellow, who had been clerk to an attorney in Ireland. He became so conceited on the result of Barnes’s conviction that he principally employed his time in collecting notes for charges against other officers. Carrying this a little too far, he was himself brought to a court-martial, reduced to the ranks, and flogged.
