Richard Cantwell’s death

Richard Cantwell’s death is presented as a final act of composure: as his heart fails on the road, he recognizes that he cannot survive, yet gives Ronald Jackson practical instructions and makes sure the objects in his car will be returned to their rightful owner. The scene moves from bodily crisis to remembered words, then to a carefully shut car door and a written instruction that outlasts him.

The Onset and Recognition

The attack begins just after Cantwell has been assured that he shot well and that Alvarito understands. The narration says the first blow comes as he had known it would since they picked up the decoys. The timing binds the end of the drive to the earlier hunting outing: the warning has been present, but now the anticipated crisis becomes physical. Cantwell thinks, “Three strikes is out, and they gave me four.” He follows the count with the thought that he has always been lucky, a grimly compressed account of a life that has repeatedly escaped its expected ending.

The attack returns, this time badly. When the third blow comes, Cantwell is starting to speak; it grips him so that he knows he cannot live. The passage gives no medical explanation or extended description of pain. Instead, its repeated phrasing makes the onset legible through recurrence: first the blow he expected, then a worse one, then the third that converts apprehension into certainty. The change is not that he learns he is vulnerable, but that he recognizes the immediate limit of his life.

A Soldier’s Last Words

Before the final blow interrupts him, Cantwell begins to tell Ronald Jackson about the death of General Thomas J. Jackson. He recalls having memorized the reported words, while qualifying that he cannot vouch for their accuracy. In his account, the general first orders A. P. Hill to prepare for action, passes through further delirious speech, and then says, “No, no, let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.” Ronald Jackson identifies the general as Stonewall Jackson and answers that the story is interesting.

The exchange makes Cantwell’s own death present without turning his speech into a direct announcement. He chooses a remembered deathbed utterance and gives it to his subordinate as a story whose accuracy he cannot guarantee. Its final image of crossing a river and resting thus arrives with two meanings available in the scene: it belongs to the account of another soldier, and it echoes the departure Cantwell is confronting himself. The text does not state that Cantwell explains this parallel; its force comes from the placement of the recollection just before the final attack.

Orders on the Road

During the third attack, Cantwell stops speaking and grips himself as he understands that he cannot live. He then addresses the practical situation. He tells Ronald Jackson to pull over and switch to parking lights, and asks whether he knows the way to Trieste. Ronald Jackson says that he has his map. Cantwell’s brief questions and instructions shift the scene from the certainty of death to what must still be done: the car must be stopped, the route must be known, and his companion must be able to continue without him.

Cantwell next announces that he is going to get into the large back seat of the oversized luxurious automobile. The phrasing retains his irritation with the car even as the situation becomes terminal. This is the last thing he says. He reaches the back seat and shuts the door carefully and well. That deliberate closing is the final action attributed to him: the passage gives him no further speech, but it shows him completing the movement he has announced rather than leaving it unfinished.

The Instructions That Remain

After a while, Ronald Jackson drives along the ditch- and willow-lined road with the car’s big lights on, looking for a place to turn. He eventually turns carefully and faces south toward the junction for the highway to Trieste, a route he knows. With the map light on, he takes out an order blank and reads Cantwell’s written instruction: if Cantwell dies, the wrapped painting and two shotguns in the car are to be returned to the Gritti Palace Hotel, where their rightful owner will claim them. The order is signed with Cantwell’s name, rank, and military affiliation.

The written order makes the death unmistakable while giving the scene a final practical consequence. The painting and guns are not simply abandoned in the car; Cantwell has specified what should happen to them and where they should go. Ronald Jackson thinks that they will indeed return them, “through channels,” then puts the car in gear. His thought places Cantwell’s personal instruction inside the military process he knows, while the car’s renewed movement carries the narrative beyond its last spoken words. Cantwell’s end is therefore marked not by a farewell to Ronald Jackson, but by a closed door, a signed order, and a journey continuing toward Trieste.