The Brand of Cowardice

Summary

In the opulent twilight of pre-war Manhattan, Cyril Van Cortlandt Hamilton glides through chandeliers and champagne like a gilt ghost, his tuxedo a second skin stitched from inherited millions. When the bugle’s metallic cry drags his National Guard regiment toward the blistering border, he slips out of history’s noose with a coward’s shrug, believing comfort a birthright. Marcia West—steel magnolia bred on saber-rattle lore—shatters their engagement on the marble floor of her father’s ballroom, trading pearls for puttees to ride south with the colors. Shame ferments in Cyril’s blood; renouncing rank, he enlists as a nameless private among hard-bitten Irishmen who smell of peat, sweat, and contempt. Corporal Mallin, a human grindstone, sharpens every humiliation until Cyril’s pride is a bleeding whetstone. Beyond the picket lines he befriends Idiqui, a laconic Mexican Indian whose gratitude is flint struck when Cyril binds the ankle of Rana, the man’s moon-bright daughter. Enter Navarete—bandit prince Harvard-forged—haunted by Marcia’s refusal, conspiring with Mallin to steal a machine gun, then framing Cyril and Idiqui for the void where steel once stood. When Idiqui bolts toward his dying child, Mallin’s rifle rises; Cyril’s fists answer, turning deserter in the same heartbeat. Across the Río Grande’s silver blade they track Navarete’s kidnapping of Marcia, through rattlesnake dusk and mesquite claws. Idiqui bitten, Cyril cauterizes snake-venom with burning love; the Indian limps to warn the Stars and Stripes while Cyril ghosts into the fiesta-lit pueblo, torching hovels to hollow the plaza, storming the chief’s adobe stronghold to ram steel through Navarete’s lust. Dawn finds the lovers encircled in a sandy amphitheater of death; one cartridge left, Marcia begs for a last kiss and the mercy of that final bullet. He obeys—yet takes the enemy’s lead instead, collapsing as U.S. cavalry and infantry converge like iron tides. Months later, scarred but vertical, he watches the regiment tramp home under autumn bunting—troops cheering the coward who branded himself brave.

Synopsis

Cyril Van Cortlandt Hamilton, one of the wealthiest young bachelors in New York, has led a life of ease. He is engaged to be married to Marcia West, the daughter of an Army Colonel. While Cyril and Marcia are at a house party, news comes that the National Guard has been called into service. Cyril, a member of a militia regiment, not caring to be subjected to discomfort, declines to accompany his regiment to the border and resigns his commission. For this Marcia breaks her engagement, and accompanies her parents to the border, where Col. West is to take command of his regiment. Upon his return home Cyril considers his act and later enlists as a private in an Irish regiment and goes to the border. His society manners annoy the rough-and-ready men among whom he has cast his lot, and they proceed to make life miserable for him. Corporal Mallin especially loses no opportunity to bully him. Cyril wanders about by himself when not on duty, and meets Idiqui, a Mexican Indian, whose gratitude he earns by aiding his daughter, Rana, who has fallen and hurt herself. The Mexican bandit chief Navarete comes into camp. He has been educated in the United States, and has fallen in love with Marcia, who has refused him. He gets Mallin to steal one of the machine guns for him. When the theft is discovered Mallin accuses Cyril and Idiqui of the crime. Cyril and Idiqui are ordered to the guardhouse. The Indian attempts to escape to his daughter, whose condition is critical, and Mallin raises a gun to shoot, but Cyril overcomes him. Then, realizing that he has placed himself in a serious position and can hope for no leniency from Mallin, he deserts, Idiqui going with him. They set out afoot on the Mexican side of the river. Marcia has come across the river on her early morning ride and stumbles upon the bandits taking the automatic away. She is seen and captured, and Cyril and Idiqui, unarmed and helpless, follow in pursuit, to find out where she is being taken. Idiqui is struck by a rattlesnake, and Cyril cauterizes the wound. The Indian goes to warn the American troops, and Cyril goes on to the Mexican village, where the Mexicans are carousing in front of Navarete's house, where Marcia is held prisoner. Cyril draws the villagers away from the chief's house by setting the village on fire, and then enters the house in time to save Marcia from Navarete, killing the bandit. They escape. They are overtaken in the morning, and ensconced in a sand pocket put up a brave fight. When one cartridge alone remains, Marcia. now acknowledging Cyril's bravery, asks him to kiss her and then kill her with the remaining cartridge, to save her from falling into the hands of the Mexicans. He is about to do so when he himself is shot down. The bandits swoop upon the two, but are stopped by Col. West and a number of his men. A squadron of cavalry and a battalion of infantry also come to the rescue from different directions, cutting off the escape of the Mexicans. Cyril is lifted into Col. West's auto in a dying condition. By the blessing of Providence and his own vigorous constitution, Cyril recovers, and two months later, as he watches the return of the regiment with his beloved wife, Marcia, the men recognize him and discipline is forgotten while the marching troops turn to cheer him.