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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:33:51 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:33:51 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10062-0.txt b/10062-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..978c41a --- /dev/null +++ b/10062-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15218 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10062 *** + +[Transcriber's Note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original have +been retained in this etext.] + + + The Iron Game + + A TALE OF THE WAR + + BY + + HENRY F. KEENAN + + + "Heavy and solemn the cloudy column + Over the green fields marching came, + Measureless spread like a table bread + For the cold grim dice of the iron game." + + + + + 1898 + + + + + + TO + + BERNARD JOHN McGRANN + + WHOSE LIFE AND CONDUCT EMBODY AND ILLUSTRATE + + THE MANLINESS, MODESTY, AND WORTH + + THAT FANCY DELIGHTS TO EMBALM IN FICTION + + THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED + + BY ONE AMONG THE MANY WITNESSES OF HIS NOBLE CAREER + + HENRY F. KEENAN + + NEW YORK, _25th March, 1891_. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + + BOOK I. + + _THE CARIBEES_. + + + CHAPTER + + I.--THE BOY IN BLUE + II.--FLAG AND FAITH + III.--MALBROOK S'EN VA-T-EN GUERRE + IV.--GUELPH AND GHIBELLINE + V.--A NAPOLEONIC EPIGRAM + VI.--ON THE POTOMAC + VII.--THE STEP THAT COSTS + VIII.--AN ARMY WITH BANNERS + IX.--"THE ASSYRIAN CAME DOWN LIKE THE WOLF ON THE FOLD" + X.--BLOOD AND IRON + XI.--THE LEGIONS OF VARUS + + + + BOOK II. + + _THE HOSTAGES_. + + + XII.--THE AFTERMATH + XIII.--A COMEDY OF TERRORS + XIV.--UNDER TWO FLAGS + XV.--ROSEDALE + XVI.--A MASQUE IN ARCADY + XVII.--TREASON AND STRATAGEMS + XVIII.--A CAMPAIGN OF PLOTS + XIX.--"HE EITHER FEARS HIS FATE TOO MUCH" + XX.--A CATASTROPHE + XXI.--THE STORY OF THE NIGHT + XXII.--A CARPET-KNIGHT + XXIII.--ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR + + + + BOOK III. + + _THE DESERTERS._ + + + XXIV.--BETWEEN THE LINES + XXV.--PHANTASMAGORIA + XXVI.--IN THE UNION LINES + XXVII.--"THE ABSENT ARE ALWAYS IN THE WRONG" +XXVIII.--THE WORLD WENT VERY ILL THEN + XXIX.--A WOMAN'S REASON + XXX.--A GAME OF CHANCE + XXXI.--TWO BLADES OF THE SAME STEEL + XXXII.--THE LOST CARIBEES +XXXIII.--FATHER ABRAHAM'S JOKE + + + + +BOOK I. + +_THE CARIBEES_. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE BOY IN BLUE. + + +When expulsion from college, in his junior years, was visited upon Jack +Sprague, he straightway became the hero of Acredale. And, though the +grave faculty had felt constrained to vindicate college authority, it +was well known that they sympathized with the infraction of decorum that +obliged them to put this mark of disgrace upon one of the most promising +of their students. + +All his young life Jack had dreamed of West Point and the years of +training that were to fit him for the glories of war. He knew the +battles of the Revolution as other boys knew the child-lore of the +nursery. He had the campaigns of Marlborough, the strategy of Turenne, +the inspirations of the great Frederick, and the prodigies of Napoleon, +as readily on the end of his tongue as his comrades had the struggles of +the Giant Killer or the tactics of Robinson Crusoe. When, inspired by +the promise of West Point, he had mastered the repugnant rubrics of the +village academy, the statesman of his district conferred the promised +nomination upon his school rival, Wesley Boone, Jack passionately +refused to pursue the arid paths of learning, and declared his purpose +of becoming a pirate, a scout, or some other equally fascinating child +of nature delightful to the boyish mind. + +When Jack Sprague entered Warchester College, he carried with him the +light baggage of learning picked up at the Acredale Academy. At his +entrance to the sequestered quadrangles of Dessau Hall, Jack's frame of +mind was very much like the passionate discontent of the younger son of +a feudal lord whose discrepant birthright doomed him to the gown instead +of the sword. + +Long before the senior year he had allured a chosen band about him who +shared his eager aspiration for war, and when the other fellows dawdled +in society or wrangled in debate, these young Alexanders set their tents +in the college campus and fought the campaigns of Frederick or Napoleon +over again. Jack did not give much heed to the menacing signs of civil +war that came day by day from the tempestuous spirits North and South. A +Democrat, as his fathers had been before him, he saw no probability of +the pomp and circumstance of glorious war in the noisy wrangling of +politicians. The defeat of Douglas, the Navarre of the young Democracy +of the North, amazed him: but all thought of Lincoln asserting the +national authority, and reviving the splendor of Jackson and Madison, +was looked upon as the step between the sublime and the ridiculous that +reasoning men refuse to consider. + +When, however, the stupefying news came that a national garrison had +been fired upon by the South Carolinians, in Charleston Harbor, the +college boys took sides strongly. There were many in the classes from +Maryland and Virginia. These were as ardent in admiration of their +Southern compatriots as the Northern boys were for the insulted Union. +Months passed, and, although the forces of war were arraying themselves +behind the thin veil of compromise and negotiation, the public mind only +languidly convinced itself that actual war would come. + +The college was divided into hostile camps. The "Secessionists," led by +Vincent Atterbury, Jack's old-time chief crony, went so far as to hoist +the flag of the Montgomery (Jeff Davis's) government on the campus pole, +one morning in April. A fierce fight followed, in which Jack's ardent +partisans made painful havoc with the limbs of the enemy--Atterbury, +their leader, being carted from the campus, under the horrified eyes of +the faculty, dying, as it was thought. Then followed expulsion. When the +solemn words were spoken in chapel, the culprit bore up with great +serenity. But when he announced that he had enlisted in the army, then +such an uproar, such an outburst, that the session was at an end. Even +the grave president looked sympathetic. The like of it was never seen in +a sober college since Antony with Cleopatra invaded the Academy at +Alexandria. The boys flung themselves upon the abashed Jack. They hugged +him, raised him on their shoulders, carried him out on the campus, and, +forming a ring round him, swore, in the classic form dear to collegians, +that they would follow him; that they would be his soldiers, and fight +for the _patria_ in danger. + +"I have nothing to offer you, boys. I'm only sergeant; but if you will +join now, I'm authorized to swear you in provisionally," Jack said, +shrewdly, seizing the flood at high tide. + +So soon as the names could be written the whole senior class +(forty-three) were enrolled. Jack refused the prayerful urgings of the +juniors, who pleaded tearfully to join him. But the president coming out +confirmed Jack's decision until the juniors could get the written +consent of their parents. + +The recitations were sadly disjointed that day, and the excited +professors were glad when rest came. The humanities had received +disjointed exposition during that session. Jack had been summoned to the +president's sanctuary, where he had been received with a parental +tenderness that brought the tears to his big brown eyes. + +"Ah, ha! soldiers mustn't know tears. You must be made of sterner stuff +now, sergeant," the doctor cried, cheerily, as the culprit stood +confusedly before him. "O Jack, Jack, why did you put this hard task +upon me? Why make me drive from Dessau the brightest fellow in the +classes? What will your mother say? I would as soon have lost my own +child as be forced to put this mark on you? But you know I am bound by +the laws of the college. You know I have time and again overlooked your +wild pranks. We have already suffered a good deal from the press for +winking at the sympathy the college has shown in this political quarrel." + +"Yes, professor, I haven't a word to say. You did your duty. Now I want +you to bear witness how I do mine. I do not complain that I am condemned +rather through the form than the fact. I was carried out of my senses by +the sight of that rebel flag." + +The Warchester press, known for many years as the most sprightly and +enterprising of the country, was too much taken up with the direful news +from Baltimore to even make a note of Jack Sprague's expulsion, and the +soldier boy was spared that mortification. Nor did he meet the tearful +lament and heart-broken remonstrance at home, to which he had looked +forward with lively dread. His friends in the village of Acredale were +so astonished by his blue regimentals that he reached the homestead door +unquestioned. His mother, at the dining-room window, caught sight of the +uniform, and did not recognize her son until she was almost smothered in +his hearty embrace. + +"Why, John! What does this mean? What--what have you on?" + +"Mother, I am twenty-two years old. A man who won't fight for his +country isn't a good son. He has no right to stay in a country that he +isn't willing to fight for!" and with this specious dictum he drew +himself up and met the astonished eyes of his sister Olympia, who had +been apprised of his coming. But the maternal fears clouded patriotic +conceptions where her darling was involved, and his mother sobbed: + +"O Jack, Jack! what shall we do? How can we live without you! And oh, my +son, you are too young to go to the war. You will break down. You can't +manage a--a musket, and the--the heavy load the soldiers carry. My son, +don't break your mother's heart. Don't go--don't, Jack, Jack! What shall +I do?--O Polly, what shall we do?" + +"What shall we do? Why, we'll just show Jack that all of war isn't in +soldiering; that the women who stay at home help the heroes, though they +may not take part in the battle. As to you and me, mamma, we shall be +the proudest women in Acredale, for our Jack's the first--" she was +going to say "boy," but, catching the coming protest in the warrior's +glowing eye, substituted "man" with timely magnanimity--"the first man +that volunteered from Acredale. And how shamed you would have been--we +would have been--if Jack hadn't kept up the tradition of the family! He +comes naturally by his sense of duty. Your father's father was the first +to join Gates at Saratoga. My father's father was the right hand of +Warren, at Bunker Hill! If ever blood ran like water in our Jack's +veins, I should put on--trousers and go to the war myself. I'm not sure +that I sha'n't as it is," and, affecting Spartan fortitude, Olympia +pretended to be deeply absorbed in adjusting a disarranged furbelow in +her attire to conceal the quavering in her voice and the dewy something +in her dark eyes. The mother, disconcerted by this defection where she +had counted on the blindest adhesion, sank back in the cane rocker, +helpless, speechless. + +"Yes, mother, Polly is right. How could you ever lift up your head if it +were said that son of John Sprague's--Governor, Senator, minister +abroad--was the last to fly to his country's call? Why, Jackson would +turn in his grave if a son of John Sprague were not the first to take up +arms when the Union that he loved, as he loved his life, was in peril!" + +Mrs. Sprague listened with woe-begone perplexity to these sounding +periods, conscious only that her darling, her adored scapegrace, had +suddenly turned serious, and was using the weapons she had so often +employed to justify his conduct. For it was using one of the standing +arms in the maternal arsenal, to remind the wild and headstrong lad that +his father had been Jackson's confidant, that he had been Governor of +Imperia, that he had enforced the demands of the United States upon +European statesmen, that after a life spent in the public service he had +died, reverenced by his party and by his neighbors. Jack, as an infant, +had been fondled by Webster, by Clay, and, one never-to-be-forgotten +day, Jackson, the Scipio of the republic, had placed his brawny hand +upon the infant's head and declared that he would be "worthy of Jack +Sprague, who was man enough to make two Kentuckians." + +"But you--you, ought to be a colonel. Your father was a major-general in +the Mexican War at twenty-five. A Sprague can't be a private soldier!" +she cried, seizing on this as the only tenable ground where she could +begin the contest against the two children confederated against her. + +"I don't want to owe everything to my father. This is a republic, mamma, +and a man is, or ought to be, what he makes himself. I saw in a paper, +the other day, that the Government has more brigadiers and colonels +and--and--officers than it knows what to do with. I saw it stated that a +stone thrown from Willard's Hotel in Washington hit a dozen brigadiers. +I want to earn a commission before I assume it. I'll be an officer soon +enough, no fear. I could have had a lieutenant's commission if I had +gone in Blandon's regiment. But I hate Blandon. He is one of those +canting sneaks father detested, and I won't serve under such cattle." + +Mrs. Sprague, like millions of mothers in those days, was cruelly +divided in mind. When the neighbors felicitated her on the valor and +patriotism of Mr. Jack she was elated and fitfully reconciled. When, in +the long watches of the night, she reflected on the hardships, +temptations, the dreadful companions her darling must be thrown with, +country, lineage, everything faded into the dreadful reality that her +darling was in peril, body and soul. He was so like his father--gay, +impressionable, easily influenced--he would be saint or sinner, just as +his surroundings incited him. This was the woe that ate the mother's +heart; this was the sorrow that clouded millions of homes when mothers +saw their boys pranked out in the trappings of war. + +Our jaunty Jack enjoyed the worship that came to him. He was the first +boy in blue that appeared in the sandy streets of Acredale. Never had +the rascal been so petted, so feted, so adored. He might have been a +pasha, had he been a Turk. The promising down on his upper lip--the +object of his own secret solicitude and Olympia's gibes during the +junior year--was quite worn away by the kissing he underwent among the +impulsive Jeannettes of the village, who had a vague notion that +soldiers, like sailors, were indurated for battle by adosculation. Jack +may have believed this himself, for he took no pains to disabuse the +maidens as to the inefficacy of the rite, and bore with galliard +fortitude the wear and tear of the nascent mustache, without which, to +his mind, a soldier would figure very much as a monk without a shaven +crown or a mandarin without a queue. And though presently big Tom +Tooker, chief of the rival faction in Acredale, gave his name to the +recruiting officer in Warchester, and a score more of Jack's rivals and +cronies, he was the soldier of the village. For hadn't he given up the +glory of graduation and the delights of "commencement" to take up his +musket for the Union? And then the fife was heard in the village +street--delicious airs from Arcady--and a great flag was flung out from +the post-office, and Master Jack was installed recruiting sergeant for +Colonel Ulrich Oswald's regiment, that was to be raised in Warchester +County. For Colonel Oswald, having failed in a third nomination for +Congress, had gallantly proffered his services to the Governor of the +State, and, in consideration of his influence with his German +compatriots, had been granted a commission, though with reluctance, as +he had supported the Democratic party and was not yet trusted in the +Republican councils. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +FLAG AND FAITH. + + +If Acredale had not been for a century the ancestral seat of the +Spragues, and in its widest sense typical of the suburban Northern town, +there would be merely an objective and extrinsic interest in portraying +its sequestered life, its monotonous activities. But Acredale was not +only a very complete reflex of Northern local sentiment; its war epoch +represented the normal conduct of every hamlet in the land during the +conflict with the South. Now that the war is becoming a memory, even to +those who were actors in it, the facts distorted and the incidents +warped to serve partisan ends or personal pique, the photograph of the +time may have its value. + +Made up of thriving farmers and semi-retired city men, Acredale mingled +the simple conditions of a country village and the easy refinement of +city life. The houses were large, the grounds ornate and ample, the +society decorously convivial. People could be fine--at least they were +thought very fine--without going to the British isles to recast their +home manners or take hints for the fashioning of their grounds and +mansions. There was what would be called to-day the English air about +the place and some of the people; but it was an inheritance, not an +imitation. Save in the bustling business segment, abutting the four +corners, where the old United States road bore off westward to Bucephalo +and the lakes, the few score houses were set far back from the highway +in a wilderness of shrubbery, secluded by hedges and shaded by an almost +primeval growth of elms or maples. The whole hamlet might be mistaken +for a lordly park or an old-fashioned German Spa. Family marketing was +mostly done in Warchester; hence the village shops were like Arabian +bazaars, few but all-supplying. The most pregnant evidence of the +approach of modern ways that tinged the primitive color of the village +life, was the then new railway skirting furtively through the meadows on +the northern limits, as if decently ashamed of intruding upon such +idyllic tranquillity. The little Gothic station, cunningly hidden behind +a clustering grove of oaks at a respectful distance from the Corners, +like the lodge of a great estate, reconciled those who had at first +fought the iron mischief-maker. + +The public edifices of the town--the Episcopal church, the free academy, +the bank, the young ladies' seminary--were very unlike such institutions +in the bustling, treeless towns of to-day. Corinthian columns and Greek +friezes adorned these architectural evidences of Acredale's affluence +and taste. The village had grown up on private grounds, conceded to the +public year by year as the children and dependents of the founders +increased. The Spragues were the founders, and they had never been +anxious to alienate their patrimony. Acredale is not now the sylvan +sanctuary of rural simplicity it was thirty years ago--before the war. +The febrile tentacles of Warchester had not yet reached out to make its +vernal recesses the court quarter for the "new rich." In Jack Sprague's +young warrior days the village was three miles from the most suburban +limits of the city. There was not even a horse-car, or, as fashionable +Warchesterians have it, a "tram," to remind the tranquil villagers that +life had any need more pressing than a jaunt to the post twice a day. +Some "city folks" did hold villas on the outskirts, but they used them +only for short seasons in the late summer, when the air at the lake +began to grow too sharp for outdoor pleasures. + +Society in the place was patriarchal as an English shire town. The large +Sprague mansion, about which the village clustered at a respectful +distance, was the "Castle" of local phrase. Much of the glory of early +days had departed, however, when the Senator--Jack's papa--died. The +widow found herself unable to maintain the affluent state her lord had +loved. His legal practice, rather than the wide acres of his domain, had +supported a hospitality famous from Bucephalo to Washington. But with +prudent management the family had abundance, and, as Jack often said, he +was a fortune in himself. When the time came he would revive the +splendors his father loved to associate with the home of his ancestors. + +"But where are we to get this splendor now, Jack?" Olympia inquired, as +the youth was dilating to his mother on the wonders to come. "Private +soldiers get just thirteen dollars a month; and if you continue +smoking--as I am informed all men do in the army--I expect to have to +stint my pin-money expenses to eke out your tobacco bills." + +"Oh, I'll bring home glory. Napoleon said that every soldier carried a +marshal's _bâton_ in his knapsack." + +"I'm afraid you won't have room for it if you carry all the things that +I know of intended for you in this and other families." + +"Yes; but, Polly, you know, or perhaps you don't know, a _bâton_ is like +a college love--no matter how full your heart is, you can always find +room for another!" + +"John," Mistress Sprague reproves mildly; "how can you? I don't like to +hear my son talk like that even in jest. Don't get the idea that it is +soldierly to treat sacred things with levity. Love is a very sacred +thing; it ought to be part of a man's religion; it was of your +father's." + +"Then Jack must be a high priest, for there are a dozen girls here and +in the city who believe themselves enshrined in that elastic heart." + +"Olympia, you are a baleful influence on your brother. If anything could +reconcile me to his going it is the thought that he will escape the +extraordinary speech and manners you have brought back from New York. Do +the Misses Pomfret graduate all their young ladies with such a tone and +laxity of speech as you have lately shown? Strangers would naturally +think that you had no training at home." + +"Don't fear, mamma; strangers are not favored with my lighter vein; I +assume that for you and Jack, to keep your minds from graver things. I +preserve the senatorial suavity of speech and the Sprague austerity of +manner 'before folks,' as Aunt Merry would say. Which reminds me, Jack, +Kitty Moore declares that you are responsible for Barney's enlisting. +The family look to you to bring him home safe--a colonel at least." + +"Well, by George, I like that! Why, the beggar was bent on going long +ago. He was the first to ask me to run away and enlist. The other day he +wanted me to have him sworn in, and I told him to wait until--until I +got a commission." Jack was going to say until he was older, but he +suddenly recollected that Barney was his own age, and that, in view of +his mother's argument, struck him as unfortunate. He saw Olympia smiling +mischievously and turned the subject abruptly. "I suppose you know, +Polly, that Vincent is going home to join the rebels?" + +"Is he?" She had turned swiftly to gather a ball of worsted, and when it +was secured began to rummage in her work-basket for something that +seemed from her intentness to be vitally necessary to her at the moment. + +"Yes, he wrote to President Grandison that he should go as soon as his +passports and remittances came. He's promised a captain's commission. +I'm very, very sorry. Vint is the noblest of fellows. I hate to think of +him in the rebel army." + +"That's the reason you half killed him the other day, I suppose," +Olympia said, sweetly, still investigating the contents of the basket. + +"What, John, you've not been in a broil--fighting?" and Mistress Sprague +could not, even in imagination, go further in such an odious direction, +and let her eyes finish the interrogatory. + +Jack, a good deal subdued by what Olympia had left unsaid, rather than +what she had said, blurted out: "It was a campus shindy: Vint led the +rebel side and they got licked, that's all." + +"Oh, was that all?" Olympia had ended her search in the basket and +fastened a glance of satiric good humor upon the culprit, which did not +tend to relieve the awkwardness of the moment. Jack blushed under the +glance and began to hum an air from Figaro, as if the conversation had +ebbed into an impass from which it could only be rescued by a +lively air. + +Mrs. Sprague looked at the uneasy warrior, then at her daughter, darting +the crochet-needles placidly through the wool. + +"Well," she said, "never mind what's past; we must have Vincent out here +for a visit before he goes. I must send Mrs. Atterbury a number of +things. I hope she won't think that we intend to let the war make any +difference in our feeling toward the family." + +Jack was very glad to set out at once for his quondam foe, and in ten +minutes was driving down the road to Warchester. Vincent's bruises were +nearly healed, and he saluted Jack as a "chum" rather than as the agent +of his late discomfiture. + +"I'm mighty glad you've come to day. I didn't know whether you meant to +break off or not. I don't cherish any rancor. I don't see any use in +carrying the war into friendships. We made the best fight we could. We +did better than your side. You had the most men and the biggest fellows. +We showed good pluck, if we did get licked. If you hadn't come to-day I +should have been gone without seeing you, for I began to think that you +were as narrow as these prating abolitionists. My commission is ready +for me now at Richmond, and I'm just aching to get my regimentals on. +I'm to be with Johnston in the Shenandoah, you know, and--" + +"You mustn't tell me your army plans, Vint. I'm a soldier," and Jack +drew himself up with martial pomposity, "and--and--perhaps I ought to +arrest you now as an enemy, you know. I will look in the articles of war +and find out my duty in such cases." Jack waved his arm reassuringly, as +if to bid the rebel take heart for the moment--he would not hurry in the +matter. Vincent eyed his comrade with such a woe-begone mingling of +alarm and comic indignation that Jack forgot his possible part as agent +of his country's laws, and said, soothingly: "Never mind, Vint, I'm not +really a full soldier in the technical sense until the regiment is +mustered in at Washington. After that, of course, you know very well it +would he treason to give aid or comfort to the country's enemies." + +Vincent didn't leave next day, nor for a good many days. He seemed to +get a good deal of "aid and comfort" from those who should have been his +enemies. Mistress Sprague found that he was not in a fit state to +travel; that he needed nursing to prepare him for his journey, and that +no place was so fit as the great guest-chamber in the baronial Sprague +mansion, near his friend Jack. Strange to say, Vincent's eagerness to +get to Richmond and his shoulder-straps were forgotten in the agreeable +pastimes of the big house, where he spent hours enlightening Olympia on +the wonders the Southern soldiers were to perform and the glory that he +(Vincent) was to win. He went of a morning to the post-office, where +Jack was installed recruiting-agent for Acredale township, and made very +merry over the homespun stuff enrolled in defense of the Union. + +"Our strapping cavaliers will make short work of your gawky bumpkins;" +he remarked to Jack as the recruits loitered about the wide, shaded +streets, waiting to be forwarded to the rendezvous. + +"Don't be too sure of that. These young, boyish-looking fellows are just +the sort of men that met the British at Bunker Hill. They laughed too, +when they saw them; but they didn't laugh after they met them, nor will +your cavaliers," Jack cried, loftily. + +"But there's not a full-grown man among all these I've seen. How do you +suppose they are to endure march and battle? None of them can ride. All +our young men ride, and cavalry is the main thing in modern armies." + +In the Sprague parlors conversation of this risky sort was eschewed. +Mistress Sprague was anxious that the son of her oldest friend should +return to his mother with only the memory of amiable hospitality in his +heart to show that, although war raged between the people, families were +still friends. Vincent's mother had been one of Mistress Sprague's +bridesmaids, and it was her wish that the children might grow up in the +old kindly ties. So Vincent was made much of. There were companies every +night, and drives and boating in the afternoons, and such merry-making +as it was thought a lad of his years would enjoy. He was a very +entertaining guest; that all Acredale had known in the old vacations +when, with his sister, the pretty Rosa, he spent a summer with +the Spragues. + +But, now that there was to be a separation involving the unknown in its +vaguest form, the lad was treated with a tenderness that made the swift +days very sweet to the young rebel. It was from Olympia that he met the +only distinct formality in the manners of his hosts. He had known and +adored her in a boyish way for years, and now, as he contemplated going, +he thought that she ought to exhibit something of the old-time warmth. +In other days she had ridden, walked, and flirted to his heart's desire. +Now she avoided him when Jack was not at hand, and when she talked it +was in a flippant vein that drove him wild with baffled hope. The day +before he was to bid the kind house adieu he had his wish. She was +riding with him over the shaded roadway that curves in bewildering +beauty toward the lake. She seemed in a gentler mood than he had lately +seen her. They rode slowly side by side, but Vincent had a dismal +awkwardness of speech in whimsical contrast to his habitual fluency. + +"There's only one thing hateful to me in this war," he said, caressing +the arching neck of his horse, "and that is, the better we do our duty +as soldiers the more sorrow we must bring upon our own friends." + +"That's a rather solemn view to take of what Jack regards as the path of +glory." + +"Oh, you know what I mean: under the flag there can or ought to be no +friendships--the bullet sent from the musket, the sword drawn in light, +must be aimed blindly. It might be my fate, for example, to meet +Jack, to--to--" + +"Yes," Olympia laughed demurely, ignoring the sentimental aspect of +Vincent's remark. "Yes, that might paralyze the arm of valor; but, then, +you and Jack have met before, when duty demanded one thing and affection +another: I don't see that the dilemma softened the blows, or that either +of you are any the worse for them." + +Vincent was the real Southerner of his epoch--impulsive, sentimental, +ardent in all that he espoused, without the slightest notion of humor, +though imaginative as a dreamer; love, war, and his State, Virginia, +were passions that he thought it a duty to uphold at any and all times. +He colored under the girl's satiric sally. If she had been a man he +would have bid her to battle on the spot. Her sly fun and gentle malice +he resented as insulting, coarse, and unwomanly. He flashed a look of +piteous, surprised reproach at her as she flecked the flies from the +neck of her horse. He rode along moodily--too angry, too wretched to +trust himself to speak, for he felt sure he must say something bitter. +But, as she gave no sign of resuming the discourse, he was forced to +take up the burden again. Venturing nearer her side, he said in a +conciliating, argumentative tone, as if he had not heard the +foregoing speech: + +"Do you know, it seems to me, Olympia, that you of the North do not seem +to realize the seriousness of the war, the determination of our side to +make the South free? Here you go about the common business of life, +parties, balls, dress, and all the follies of peace, as if war could not +affect you at all. Your newspapers are full of coarse jokes at the +expense of your own soldiers, your own President. There seems no +devotion to your own cause, such as we feel in the South. I believe that +if put to a vote more than half the North would side with us to-day." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MALBROOK S'EN VA-T-EN GUERRE. + + +Olympia had been jogging along, apparently oblivious to everything but +the blazing vision of sun and cloud above the lake, purpling shapes of +mirage, reflecting the smooth surface of the glowing water. But as the +young man's voice--fallen into a melodious murmur--ceased, she took up +the theme with unexpected earnestness. + +"That's the error the South has made from the first. You know my father +was a public man. I have been educated more at our dinner-table and in +his talks with guests than at school. That is, the things that have +taken strongest hold of my mind young girls rarely hear or understand. +Now I think I can tell you something that may be of value to you in +official places where you are going. The North is not only in +earnest--it is religiously in earnest. If you know Puritan history you +know what that means. For example: if Jack had hesitated a moment or +made delay to get rank in the army, I should have abhorred him. So would +our mother, though she seems to be dismayed at his serving as a common +soldier. I adore Jack; I think him the finest, the most perfect nature +after my father's--that lives. But I give him up gladly, because to keep +him would be to degrade him. We know that he may fall; that he may come +back to us a cripple or worse. But, as you see, we make no sign. Not a +line of routine has been changed in the house. Jack will march away and +never see a tear in my eye or feel my pulse tremble. It is not in our +Northern blood to give much expression to sentiment, but we feel none +the less deeply--much more deeply, I think, than you exuberant +Southerners; you are impulsive, mercurial, and fickle." + +"Oh, don't say that: I can't bear to hear you say it; we have deep +feelings, we are constant, true as steel, chivalrous--" + +"Yes, you are delightful people; but you are always living in the past. +Shall I say it? You are womanlike; you can't reason. What you want at +the moment is right, and only that; with us nothing is real until we +have tried and proved it. If you count on Northern apathy you will soon +see your mistake. When Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter the North was of +one mind, and will stay so until all is again as it was." + +"Pray don't let us talk on this subject. I'm free to own that it does +not interest me. Then," he added adroitly, "you are readier in argument +than I, because you were brought up in it. But what I want to say is, +that it seems base for me to turn upon the goodness I have met in this +house, and--and--" + +"But you need not turn. In battle do your duty like a man. If it should +fall to you to do a kindness to the wounded, do it in memory of the +friends you have here. War is less savage now than it was when your +ancestors and mine tortured each other in the name of God and the king." + +"All murder is done for love of one sort or another: war is love of +country; revenge is love of some one else--men rarely kill from hate," +Vincent stammered, his heart beating at the nearness of what he was +dying to say. + +"In that case I hope I shall he hated. I shall shun people who love me," +and with that she struck the horse a lively tap and soon was far ahead +of her tongue-tied wooer. Was this a challenge? Vincent asked himself, +as he sped after her. When he reached her side the tender words were +chilled on his lips, for Olympia had in her laughing eye the, to him, +odious expression he saw there when she made the irritating speech about +himself and Jack a few minutes before. Fearing a teasing retort, he +bridled the tender outburst and rode along pensively, revolving pretexts +for another day's stay in Acredale. But when they reached home he found +an imperative mandate to set out at once, as his lingering in the North +was subjecting himself and kinsmen to doubt among the zealous partisans +of the Davis party. Olympia was alone in the library when he ran down to +tell Jack that he must start at once. He took it as an omen, and said, +confusedly: + +"It is decided; I must go in the morning." + +As this had been the plan all along, she looked up at him in surprise, +not knowing, of course, that he had been thinking of putting off the +fixed time. + +"Yes, everything has been made ready; Jack will take you to Warchester, +and we shall drive over to see you _en route_." + +"It is fortunate the letter from my mother came to-night." He stood +quite, over her chair, his eyes glittering strangely, his +manner excited. + +"Do you know what they think at home? They say that I--I am not true to +my cause; that my heart is with the North--that I want to stay here." + +"They won't think that when they hear you, as we have, breathing fury +and wrath against the Lincolnites," Olympia briskly replied, as if to +proffer her services as witness to his misguided loyalty to the South. + +"Ah, don't be so ungenerous, now--at this time. I never talk like that +now--here--never before you." He hesitated, and his voice dropped. "Why +will you put a fellow in a ridiculous light? Your sneers almost make me +ashamed of my honest pride in my State--my enthusiasm for our +sacred cause." + +"Deep feeling isn't so easily shaken; true love should brave all +things--even sneers and blows." + +"If I should tell you that I loved somebody, I am sure you would make me +seem ridiculous or ignorant of my own mind." + +"Then pray be wise and don't tell me. It's bad enough to be in love, +without being photographed in the agony." + +He looked at her in angry perplexity. Could she ever be serious? Was all +the tenderness of the past only heedless coquetry? Had she danced with +him, drove with him, sailed with him, walked in the moonlight and made +much of him in mere wanton mischief? What right had she to be so pretty +and so--without heart or sensibility? A Southern girl with the word love +on a young man's lips would have become a Circe of seductive wooing +until the tale were told, even though she could not give her heart +in return. + +"I--I am going to-morrow, you know, and--" Then he almost laughed +himself, for the droll inconsequence of this intelligence, after what +had passed, touched even his small sense of humor. "O Olympia, I mean +that I shall be far away: that I shall not see you after to-morrow. +Won't you say something to encourage me--to give me heart for +the future?" + +"Let me see," and she leaned on her elbow musingly, as if construing his +words literally, and quite unaware of the tender intent of his prayer. +"It ought to be a line to go on your sword--there's where you have the +advantage of poor Jack, he has only a musket. But, no, you being a +Southerner, have a coat of arms, and the line must go on that. I used to +know plenty of stirring phrases suitable to young men setting out for +the wars. Perhaps you know them, too; they are to be found in the +copy-books. 'The pen is mightier than the sword' wouldn't do, would it? +Pens are only fit for poets and men of peace? We should have something +brief and epigrammatic. 'That hour is regal when the sentinel mounts on +guard.' There is sublimity in that, but you won't go on guard, being +an officer. + + 'No blood-stained woes in mankind's story + Should daunt the heart that's set on glory.' + +"That's too trivial--the sort of doggerel for newspaper poets' corners +rather than a warrior's shield. + + 'Think on the perils that environ + The man that meddles with cold iron!' + +"That's too much like a caution, and a soldier's motto should urge to +daring. So we'll none of that. What do you say to the distich in honor +of your great ancestor, Pocahontas's husband, John Smith: + + 'I never yet knew a warrior but thee, + From wine, tobacco, debt, and vice so free.' + +"Perhaps, however, that might be regarded as vaunting over your +comrades, who, I've no doubt, relax the tedium of war in temperate +indulgence of some of these vices. 'Put up thy sword; states may be +saved without it,' would sound out of keeping for a warrior whose States +drew the sword when the olive-branch was offered them. You see, I can +not select any text quite suitable to your case?" + +"O Olympia, I did not believe you could be so heartless! Be serious." + +"Well, Mr. Soldier, if you insist, I know nothing better for a warrior +to bear in mind in war than these simple lines: + + 'The bravest are the tenderest, + The loving are the daring.'" + +"You are right, Olympia--those are noble lines. It gives me courage; the +loving are the daring! I love you; I dare to tell you that I love you! +Ah, Olympia, I love you so well that I have been traitor to my +fatherland! I have loitered here in the hope that you would give me some +sign--some word to take with me in the dark path Fate has set for me +to follow." + +He came back to her side now, passion and zeal in his shining eyes, +ardent, elate, expectant. But she put the hand behind her that he +reached out to seize as he fell upon one knee by her chair. Her voice +softened and a warm light shone in her eye when she spoke: + +"I beg you to get up; we cold-blooded people up here don't understand +that old-fashioned way." As he started back with something like a groan, +she gave him a quick glance that electrified him. He seized her hand +before she could snatch it away and pressed it to his lips. + +"Pray be serious. You are too young to talk of love." + +"I am twenty-two; my father was married at nineteen." + +"No, dear Vincent, don't talk of this now. You don't know your own mind +yet. I am sure that when you go home and think over the matter you will +see that it would be impossible, but, even if you were sure of yourself, +I never could think of it. You are going to take up arms against all I +hold dear and sacred. If I were your affianced, with the love for you +that you deserve, I would break the pledge when you joined in arms +against my family and country." + +"You have known for years, Olympia, that I loved you; that I was only +waiting to finish college to tell you of my love. Why didn't you +tell me--" + +"Tell you what?" + +"I say, Polly," Jack cried, bursting in, radiant and eager. "I have the +last man of the one hundred--" Observing Vincent he stopped. It seemed +to him a sort of treason to talk of his regiment before the man who was +so soon to be in the ranks against them. "Oh, I can't tell our secrets +before the enemy," he ended, jocosely. The word went to Vincent's heart +like the prod of sharp steel. He gave Olympia one pathetic glance, and, +without a word, hastened from the room. In spite of a great many adroit +efforts, Vincent could get no further speech with Olympia alone that +night. Early in the morning he was driven, with Mrs. Sprague and Jack to +the station. Olympia sent down excuses and adieus, alleging some not +incredible ailing of the sort that is always gallantly at the disposal +of damsels not minded to do things people expect. + +Presently, when the lorn lover had been gone three days, a letter came +from Washington to Olympia, and, though it was handed to her by her +mother, the maiden made no proffer to confide its contents to the +naturally curious parent. But we, who can look over the reader's +shoulder, need not be kept in the dark. + + "Dear Olympia" (the letter said), "it was hard to leave + without a last word. All the way here I have been thinking + of our little talk--if that can be called a talk where one + side has lost his senses and the other is trifling or mystifying. + I told you that I loved you. I thrill even yet with + the joy of that. You are so wayward and capricious, so + coy, that I began to fear that I never could get your car long + enough to tell you what I felt you must have long known. You + didn't say that you loved me; but, dear Olympia, neither did + you say that you did not. The rose has fallen on the hem + of your robe. When its fragrance steals into your senses, + you will stoop and put the blossom in your bosom. It is the + war that divides us, you say. It will soon pass. And who + knows what may happen to make you glad that, since there + must be strife, I am one of the enemy rather than a stranger? + I feel that we shall be brought together in danger, when it + may be my happiness to serve you or yours. But, even if I + am not so favored, I shall still ask your love. You know + our Southern ways. Whom I love my mother loves. But + my mother and sister Rosa have loved you long and dearly. + They have known you as long as I have, and when you consent + to come to us you will take no stranger's place in the + heart and home of the family. Remember the motto you + gave me. You are a woman, therefore tender; I am daring, + Heaven knows, in aspiring to such a reward as your love. + But I dare to love you; if you cast that love from you, love + will lose its tenderness, bravery its daring. One of the high + mountains of hope whereon I sun my fainting soul is the + knowledge that you love no one else. I won't say that you + should in love hold to the ride 'first come first served,' but I + do say, 'first dare, first win.' And when you reflect on what + you said about the accident of war separating us, just put + Jack in my place. What would you think of a Southern + girl who should refuse him because he fought on the side of + his family and his State? What is the old line? 'I could + not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honor more.' I'm + sure I couldn't ask your love if there were not honor in my + own. The war will be over and forgotten in six months, + but you and I are young; we have long years before us. + The right will win in the contest, and, right or wrong, I am + yours, and only yours, while there are life in my body and + hope in my soul. VINCENT." + +In a little glow of what was plainly not displeasure, the young woman +"filed" this "writ of pre-emption," as Jack afterward called it, in +careful hiding, and resumed meditation of the writer. It could not now +be answered, for letters between the lines were subject to censorship, +and Olympia perhaps shrank from adding to her lover's misery by exposing +his rejection to the unfeeling eyes of the postal agents. There was pity +in the resolve as well as prudence. Had Vincent been able to read the +workings of the lady's mind, he would have donned his rebel gray with +more buoyant joy that day in Richmond. Another ally of the absent came +in the course of the day. Miss Boone, the daughter of the opulent +contractor and chief local magnate, called to plan work for the +soldiers. Vincent's name being mentioned, Miss Boone said, in the +apparent effusion of girlish intimacy: + +"I like Mr. Atterbury very much. He is a charming fellow. But, for your +family's sake, I am glad he is away from this house." At Olympia's +surprised start she nodded as if to emphasize this, continuing: "Yes, +and for good reasons. You know our house is the high court of +abolitionism? Well, papa's cronies have made Mr. Atterbury's visit cause +of suspicion." + +"Suspicion? What do you mean?" + +Miss Boone was paling and blushing painfully. "Dear Olympia, I hate to +say it; but you should know it. You will hear it elsewhere. Cruel things +like this always come out. You know that feeling has been very bitter +here since the dreadful attack on the Massachusetts soldiers in +Baltimore? Radicals make no distinction between Democrats and rebels, +and--I'm to say it--but Mr. Atterbury is charged with being a spy +here--and--and your family, being Democrats, are thought to sympathize +with the rebels. Of course, your friends know better. I and many more +know that the Atterburys and Spragues have been intimate for thirty +years. But in war-time people seem to lose their senses and change their +opinions like lake breezes; prejudices grow like gourds, and the people +who do least and talk loudest make public sentiment." + +"What an outrageous state of things!" Olympia cried, hotly. "Our family +sympathize with traitors indeed! Why, it was my father who, in the +Senate, upheld Jackson when he stamped out South Carolina in its +rebellion. Oh! it is monstrous, such a calumny. Why, just think of it! +The only man in the family is a private soldier, when he might have been +high in rank, with such influences as we could bring to bear. O Kate! it +almost makes one pray for a defeat to punish such ingrates!" + +"Yes; but for Heaven's sake don't let any one hear you say such a +thing--for your brother's sake! He is already the victim of the feeling +I have spoken about. He was to have had the captaincy of the first one +hundred men he raised. But the Governor has been made to change the +usual rule, and the colonel is to appoint the officers." + +"And Jack isn't to have a commission?" + +"No, not now; only men of the war party are to be made officers." + +"Good heavens! Nobody could be more eager for the war than Jack. It is +his passion. His delight in it shocks my mother, who hates war. What +stronger evidence of sympathy for the cause could he show than joining +the army before finishing college?" + +"But he is a Democrat--and--and--only Republicans are to be trusted at +first." Miss Boone blushed as she stammered this, for it was her own +father, in his function as chairman of the war committee, who had +insisted upon this discrimination. Worse still, but this Kate did not +mention--it was Boone's own work that kept Jack from his expected +epaulets. There had long been a feud between Boone and the late Senator +Sprague, and Olympia conjectured most of what the daughter reserved. + +"Your brother has done wonders, everybody says; he has the finest +fellows in the township, and he ought to be colonel, at least," Miss +Boone said, rising to go. + +"Oh, I have no fear that he will not win his way," Olympia replied, +cheerfully. "The brave in battle are captains, no matter what rank +they hold." + +The odious partisanship and ready calumny of her own compatriots gave a +strange bent to her mind in dealing with another problem. Vincent, too, +had suffered from the wretched battle of his family's enemies. After +all, might he not be right? Might the war not be a mere game of havoc +played by the base and unscrupulous? Country, right or wrong, had been +her family watchword since her ancestor flew to fight the British +invaders. It was Jack's watchword, too, and his conduct in battle should +put these wretches to shame. She thought more kindly of the rebel in +this vengeful mood, and straightway ran up-stairs, where, sitting by the +open window and lulled by the piping of the robins, she took the letter +from its pretty covert, read it again with heightened color, and, +smiling rosily at the face she saw in the mirror, raised it to her lips +and sighed softly. + +When a whole people have but one thought in mind that thought becomes +mania. Acredale had but this one thought, "Beat rebellion and punish +rebels." "On to Richmond!" was the cry, and forming ranks to go there +the business that everybody took in hand. These had been great days to +Jack. He began to feel something of the burden that a feudal chief must +have borne at the summoning of the clans. So soon as it spread in the +country-side that "young Sprague had 'listed," all the "ageable" sons of +the soil were fired with a burning zeal to take up arms and bear him +company. Boys from sixteen to twenty these were for the most part, and +there was bitter grumbling when Jack firmly refused to take the names of +any under twenty. Some he solaced with a gun, a pistol, or such object +as he knew was dear to the country boy's heart. They returned to the +relieved hearthstone loud in Jack's praise, having his promise to enlist +them when they were twenty, if the war lasted so long; and if the wise +smiled at this, wasn't it well known that the great army now gathering +was to set out at latest by the 4th of July? And didn't everybody know +that it was going to march direct to Richmond? There were trying scenes +too, in the _rôle_ Jack had assumed so gayly. He began to see that war +had ministers of pain and sorrow hardly less cruel than those dealing +death and wounds. Tearful parents came to him day by day to beg his help +in restoring sons who had fled to the wars. Others came to warn him that +if their boys applied to him he must refuse them, as they were +under age. + +In this list the Perley sisters, Dick's three maiden aunts, came on a +respectful embassy to implore Jack to discourage their nephew, who had +quite deserted school and gave all his time to drilling with the +"college squad." Jack pledged himself that he would hand Dick over to +the justice of the peace, to be detained at the house of refuge, if he +didn't give up his evil designs. But, when that young aspirant appeared, +so soon as his aunts had gone, and reminded Jack of years of intimate +companionship in dare-deviltry, the elder saw that his own safety would +be in flight, and that night, his company was removed to Warchester. +There in the great camp, surrounded by sentinels, his Acredale cronies +were shut out, and Jack began in earnest his soldier life. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +GUELPH AND GHIBELLINE. + + +The shifting of Jack's company to the regimental camp in Warchester left +a broad gap in the lines of the social life of Acredale. Jack's going +alone, to say nothing of the others, would have eclipsed the gayety of +many home groups besides his own, in which the Sprague primacy in a +social sense was acknowledged. Since the influx of the new-made rich, +under the stimulus of the war and Acredale's advantages as a resort, +there were a good many who disputed the Sprague leadership--tacitly +conceded rather than asserted. Chief of the dissidents was Elisha Boone, +who, by virtue of longer tenure, vast wealth, and political precedence, +divided not unequally the homage paid the patrician family. Boone was +fond of speaking of himself as a "self-made man," and the satirical were +not slow to add that he had no other worship than his "creator." This +was a gibe made rather for the antithesis than its accuracy, for even +Boone's enemies owned that he was a good neighbor, and, where his +prejudices were not in question, a man with few distinctly repellent +traits. He delighted in showing his affluence--not always in good taste. +He filled his fine house with bizarre crowds, and made no stint to his +friends who needed his purse or his influence. He had in the early days +when he came to Acredale aspired to political leadership in the +Democratic party. + +But Senator Sprague was too firmly enshrined in the loyalty of the +district to be overcome by the parvenu's manoeuvres or his money. His +ambition in time turned to rancor as he marked the patrician's +disdainful disregard of his (Boone's) efforts to supplant him. Hatred of +the Spragues became something like a passion in Boone. Sarcasms and +disparagement leveled at his social and political pretensions he +attributed to the Senator and his family. All sorts of slurs and gossip +were reported to him by busybodies, until it became a settled purpose +with Boone to make the Sprague family feel heavy heart-burnings for the +sum of the affronts he had endured. It was to them he attributed the +whispered gibes about his illiteracy; his shady business methods; the +awful story of his handiwork in the ruin of Richard Perley, the +spendthrift brother of the Misses Perley. Once, too, when he had so well +manipulated the district delegates that he was sure of nomination in the +convention, Senator Sprague had hurried home from Washington and +defeated him just as the prize was in his grasp. The Senator made a +speech to the delegates, in which he pointedly declared that it was men +of honor and brains, not men of money, that should be chosen to make +the laws. + +"The time will come, Senator, that you'll be sorry for this hour's +work," Boone said, joining Sprague at the door as he was leaving +the hall. + +"How's that?" the other asked, with just the shade of superciliousness +in the tone admired in the Senate for suavity. "I hope I am always sorry +when I do wrong, in speech or act; I teach my children to be." + +"Well, if you think it right to run the party for a few lordly idlers +too proud to mix with the people--men who think they are better born and +better bred than the rest of us--I don't want to have anything more to +do with it. I will go elsewhere." + +"That's your privilege, sir. The Whigs have plenty of room for self-made +men. Though I do think you are taking too personal a view of to-day's +contest, your defeat was purely a matter of duty. Moore, whom we have +chosen, was a poor Irish settler here before you came. He was promised +the nomination two years ago." With a lofty bow the Senator turned and +stalked in another direction as if he did not care for the other's +further company. Even this small and wholly unintended affront worked in +the poor, misjudging victim of morbid self-esteem, as a cinder in the +eye will torture and blind the sufferer to all the landscape. Boone +mingled no more with the Democrats. He threw himself with the fervor of +the convert into the radical wing of the Whigs, and was brought into +close relation with some of the most admired of the band of great men +who created the young Republican party. If Douglas, Dickinson, Cass, Van +Buren, Seymour, or any eminent Democrat passing through Warchester +stopped to break bread with their colleague Sprague in his Acredale +retreat, straightway the splendid Sumner, the Ciceronian Phillips, or +the Walpole-Seward, or some other of the shining galaxy of agitators, +whose light so shone before men that the whole land was presently +brought out of darkness, met at Boone's table to maintain the balance in +distinction. + +It was Boone's liberal purse that paid the expenses of the memorable +campaign in the Warchester district, wherein the Democrats were first +shaken in their hold. It was his money that finally secured the seat in +Congress for Oswald, who was his tenant and debtor. It was therefore no +surprise when Oswald--who had been greatly aided in business affairs by +Senator Sprague--passed over the prior claims of his old patron's son, +and gave the cadetship to Wesley Boone, the son of his new liege. It was +looked upon as another step in the ladder of gratitude when Wesley +carried off the captaincy in the Acredale company, though everybody knew +that young Boone was not in any way so well fitted for the "straps" as +Jack. When one day an item appeared in the local paper to the effect +that President Lincoln had shown the "sagacity for which he was so well +known, in honoring our distinguished townsman, Elisha Boone, Esq., with +the appointment of ambassador to Russia," everybody thought the +statement only natural. There were many congratulations. But when, +having declined this splendid proffer, the authorities pressed the place +of "Assistant Secretary of the Treasury" upon their townsman, the whole +village awoke to the fact that all its greatness had not gone when +Senator Sprague was gathered to his fathers. + +The event was potent as the cross Constantine saw, or dreamed he saw, in +the sky, in the conversion of party workers to the new Administration. +Everybody looked forward to an eminent future for the potent partisan +and millionaire, the first of that--now not uncommon--hierarchy that +replace the feudal barons in modern social forces. Had he listened to +the eager urging of Kate, his daughter and prime minister, Boone would +have accepted the foreign mission; but he stubbornly refused to listen +to her in this. + +Kate Boone was like her father only in strong will, vehement purpose, +and a certain humorous independence that made her a great delight among +even the anti-Boone partisans in both Acredale and Warchester. Since the +death of her mother, Kate had been head of her father's household--an +imperious, capricious, kind-hearted tyrant, who ruled mostly by jokes +and persuasions of the gentler sort. It was her father's one lament that +Kate was not "the boy of the family, for she had more of the stuff that +makes the man in her little finger than Wes had in his whole body." She +kept him in a perpetual unrest of delight and dismay. She espoused none +of his piques or prejudices; she was as apt to bring people he disliked +to his dinner-table as those he liked. She was forever making him +forgive wrongs, or what he fancied to be wrongs, and causing him seem at +fault in all his squabbles, so that he was often heard to say, when +things went as he didn't want them: + +"I don't know whether I am to blame or the other fellow until Kate hears +the story." + +His illiteracy and lack of polish were the secret grief of the rich +man's life. Kate was quick in detecting this. Much of it she saw was due +to the shyness that unschooled men feel in the presence of college men, +or those who have been trained. On returning from her seminary life, the +young girl set about remedying the single break in her father's +perfections. She was far too clever to let him know her ambitious +purpose. With a patience almost maternal and an exquisite adroitness, +she interested him in her own reading, which was comprehensive, if not +very well ordered. But she won the main point. During the long winter +evenings her father found no pleasure like that Kate had always ready +for him in the cheery library. He was soon amazed at his keen interest +in the world of mind unrolled to his understanding; more than all, he +retained with the receptivity of a boy all that was read to him. Kate +made believe that she needed his help in reviewing her own studies, and +so carried him through all she had gone over in the seminary classes. +Boone began presently to see that education is not the result of mere +attendance in schools and the parroting of the classics in a few +semesters in college. Without suspecting it, his varied business +enterprises and his wide experience of men had grounded him as well in +the ordinary forms of knowledge as nine in ten college men attain. + +"Education, after all, papa, is like a trade. A man may be able to +handle all the tools and not know their names. Now, you are a +well-informed man, but, because you didn't know logic, grammar, +scientific terms, and the like, you thought yourself ignorant." + +In the new confidence in himself he was surprised at his own ability in +launching a subject in the presence of his eminent friends when +especially Kate was on hand to support the conversation. She got him not +only to buy fine pictures, as most rich men do, but she made him see +wherein their value lay, so that when artists and amateurs came to +admire his treasures, he could talk to them without gross solecisms. + +"I'm not a liberal education to you, papa, as Steele said of the Duchess +of Devonshire. That implies too much, but I am an index. You can find +out what you need to know by keeping track of my ignorance." + +Elisha Boone's domestic circle was a termagancy--as Kate often told his +guests--tempered by wit and good-humor. He was prouder of his daughter +than of his self-made rank or his revered million. In moments of +expansive good-nature he invited business or political associates to +"Acre Villa," as his place was called, to enjoy the surprise Kate's +graces wrought in the guests. But these were not always times of delight +to the doting parent. Kate was a shrewd judge of the amenities; and if +the personages who came, at the father's bidding, gave the least sign of +a not unnatural surprise to find a girl so well bred and self-contained +in the daughter of such a man as Boone, she became very frigid and left +the father to do the honors of the evening visit. No entreaty could move +her to reappear on the scene. In time, the prodigal papa was careful to +submit a list of the names of his proposed guests, as chamberlains give +royalty a descriptive list of those to be bidden to court. + +Kate was on terms that, if not cordial, were not constrained, with the +Spragues. She had gone to the same seminary with Olympia, had danced +with Jack, and, in the cadetship affair, had plainly given her opinion +that her brother Wesley, having no taste or fitness for military life, +Jack, who had, should have the prize. But two motives entered into the +father's determination: one was to annoy and humiliate the Spragues; the +other, the sleepless craving of the parvenu to get for his son what had +not been his, in spite of all the adulation paid him--the conceded +equality of social condition. The army was then, as I believe it is +considered now, the surest sign of higher caste in a democracy. Wesley, +by the mere right to epaulets, would be of the acknowledged gentility. +Nobody could sneer at him; no doors could be opened grudgingly when he +called. He would, in virtue of his West Point insignia, be a knighted +member of the blood royal of the republic. Some of this mysterious +unction would distill itself into the unconsecrated ichor of the rest of +the family, and Kate, as well as himself, would be part of the patrician +caste. The daughter looked upon all this good-humoredly; she shared none +of her father's morbid delusions on the subject. She rallied the cadet a +good deal on his mission. When Wesley, after the June examinations, +which he passed by the narrowest squeeze--'twas said by outside +influence--came home to display his cadet buttons and his neat gray +uniform in Acredale, Kate bantered the complacent young +warrior jocosely. + +"We shall all have to live up to your shoulder-straps and brass buttons +after this, Wesley," she cried, as the proud young dandy strutted over +the arabesques of the library, where the delighted papa marched him, the +better to survey the boy's splendor. "And think of the fate that awaits +you if, in the esteem of Acredale, you should turn out less than a +Napoleon." + +"Be serious, Kate, and don't tease the boy. Wesley knows what's expected +of him; he has an opportunity to show what is in his stock. Thank God, +men in the North can now come to their own without going down on their +knees to the South!" + +Wesley grinned. He was no match for his sister in the humorous bouts +waged over his head against his father's prejudices and cherished social +schemes. During the vacation she put a heavy penalty of raillery upon +his swelling pride and vanity, sarcasm that tried the paternal patience +as well as his own. Wesley, however, had a large fund of the philosophy +that comes from a high estimate of one's self. He was well favored in +looks and build, though somewhat effeminate, with his small hands and +carefully shod feet. He would have been called a "dude" had the word +been known in its present significance; as it was, he was regarded as a +coxcomb by the derisive group hostile to the father's social +pretensions. He was the first of the golden youth of his set to adopt +the then reviving mode of parting the hair on the middle of the head. In +the teeth of the village derision, he persisted in this with a tenacity +that Kate declared gave promise of a "Wellington." For many who had at +first adopted the foreign freak had been ridiculed out of it, +discouraged by the obstinate refusal of the generality to follow the +lead. In those sturdily primitive days the rich youth of the land had +not so universally gone abroad as they do now, and "the proper thing" +among the "well born" was not so distinctly laid down in the code of the +_élite_. The accent and manners that now mark "good form" seemed queer, +not to say _bouffe_, to even the first circles of home society, and the +first disciples of "Anglomania" had a very hard time polishing the raw +material. The home life of the Boones was something better and sincerer +than the impression made upon their neighbors by the father's invincible +push and high-handed ways. His daughter and son had been born to him in +middle age. They had the reverence for the parent marked in the conduct +of children who associate gray hairs with the venerable. With all her +strong sense and self-assertion, Kate was proud of the fact that she was +her father's daughter. It was a distinction to bear his name. His +solidity, his masterful will, his well-defined, if narrow, convictions, +were to her the sanctities one is apt to associate with lineage or +magistracy. Wesley, though less impressionable than his sister, shared +these secret devotions to the parent's parts, and bowed before his +father's behests, in the filial reverence of the sons of the patriarchs. +When Elisha Boone denounced the outbreak of John Brown at Harper's Ferry +as more criminal than Aaron Burr's treason, his children made his +prepossessions their own; when, three years later, the father proudly +eulogized the uprising he had so luridly condemned, his children saw no +tergiversation in the swift conversion. When to this full measure of lay +perfection the complexion of Levite godliness was superadded by election +to the deaconate in the Baptist Church, it will readily be seen that two +young people, in whom the hard worldliness of wealth and easy conditions +had not bred home agnosticism, were material for all the credulities of +parent worship. Kate, a year older than Wesley, soon encountered the +influences which gave the first shock to her faith and gradually +tinctured her sentiments with a clearer insight into her father's +character. Oddly enough, it was through the rival house this came. +Olympia, a sort of ablegate in the social hierarchy of the village, had +been thrown much with Kate, and was greatly amused with her point of +view in many of the snarls arising in a provincial society. The intimacy +had been begun in the New York school, where both had been in the same +classes, and, though the families saw nothing of each other, the girls +did. Kate was soon led to see that the Spragues had none of the +patrician pretension her father attributed to them. Jack, too, had made +much of her, and seemed to delight in her sharp retorts to the inanities +of would-be wits. The episode in Elisha Boone's life, that all his +success, wealth, and after exemplary conduct had not condoned in the +village mind, was his handiwork in the ruin of Richard Perley, I set +this down with something of the delight Carlyle expresses when in the +rubbish of history he found, among the shams called kings and nobles, +anything like a man. + +It is worth the noting, this trait of Acredale, at a time when riches +and success are looked upon as condoning every breach of the decalogue. +Just how the intimacy between the two men came about was not known. It, +however, was known that when Boone first came to Acredale he had been +helped in his affairs by Dick Perley's lavish means. In a few years +Boone was the patron and Perley the client. As Boone grew rich Perley +grew poor, until finally all was gone. Then the fairest lands of the +Perley inheritance passed to Boone. It was the fireside history of the +whole Caribee Valley that the rich contractor had encouraged the ruined +gentleman in the excesses that ended the profligate's career; that the +two men had staked large sums at play in Bucephalo, and that inability +to meet his losses to Boone had caused Dick Perley's flight. He had been +seen by one of the village people a year or two before the war in +Richmond, and had been heard of in California later, but no word had +ever reached his family, not even when his wife died, two years after +his exile. There were those who said that Boone was in correspondence +with his victim, and it was known that drafts, made by Dick Perley, had +been paid by Boone at the bank in Warchester. Between Boone and the +Perley ladies, whose house was separated from "Acre Villa" by a wide +lawn and hedge, there had always been the tacit enmity that wrong on one +side and meek unreproach on the other breeds. The rancor that manifested +itself in Boone's treatment of the Misses Perley was not imitated by +them. They never alluded to their affluent neighbor, never suffered +gossip concerning the Boones in what Olympia humorously called the +"Orphic adytum," the "tabby-shop," as Wesley named the Perley parlors. +Young Dick, however, had none of the scruples that kept his aunts +silent. One dreadful day, when he had been nagged to fisticuffs with +Wesley, whose dudish dignity exacted a certain restraint with the +hot-headed youngster, Elisha Boone, behind the thick hedge, heard on the +highway outside his grounds this outrageous anathema: + +"You're no more than a thief, Wes Boone; your father stole all he's got. +Some day I'll make him give it back, or send him to jail, where he ought +to be now." + +Schoolboy though the railer was, Boone staggered against the hedge, the +words brought a dreadful flush and then a livid pallor to the miserable +parent's cheek. He dared not trust himself to speak then. Nor was the +antipathy the outbreak caused mitigated by the savage thrashing that +Wesley, throwing aside his dignity, proceeded to administer to the +unbridled accuser. After that, by the father's sternest command, neither +of his children was to return the courteous salutation the Perley ladies +had never ceased to bestow in meeting the Boones walking or in company. +Now, Dick was the kind of boy that those who know boy nature would call +adorable. To the Philistine, without humor or sympathy, I'm afraid he +was a very bad boy. He was until late in his teens painfully shy with +grown people and strangers; even under the eyes of his aunts and with +youths of his own age, diffident to awkwardness. He had the face of a +well-fed cherub and the gentle, dreamy, and wistful eye of a girl in +love. With his elders he had the halting, confused speech of a new boy +in a big school. But in the woods or on the playground he was the +merriest, most daring, and winningly obstreperous lad that ever filled +three maiden aunts with terror and delight. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A NAPOLEONIC EPIGRAM. + + +For weeks the regiment expected every day the order to march. The guns +had been distributed and all their fascinating secrets mastered. In +evolution and manual the men regarded themselves as quite equal to the +regulars. The strict orders forbidding absence overnight were hardly +needed, as no one ventured far, fearing that the regiment would be +whirled away to Washington during the night. Had the men been older or +more experienced in war, the weeks of waiting would have been delightful +rather than dreary. The regiment was the object of universal interest in +the town. Base-ball and the alluring outdoor pastimes that now divert +the dawdlers of cities were unknown. Hence the camp-ground of the +Caribees was the matinee, ball-match, tennis, boating, all in one of the +idle afternoon world of Warchester. At parade and battalion drill the +scene was like the race-ground on gala days. + +All the fine equipages of the town drew up in the roads and lanes +flanking the camp, where with leveled glasses the mothers, sisters, and +sweethearts watched the columns as they skirmished, formed squares, or +"passed the defile," quite sure that the rebels would fly in confusion +before such surprising manoeuvres. This daily audience stimulated such a +fierce rivalry among the companies that the men turned out at all hours +of the day to drill and practice in squads, rather than loiter about the +camp. One day great news aroused the camp: the Governor was to review +the regiment and send it to the front. All Warchester poured out to the +Holly Hills, and when at five o'clock the companies filed out on the +shining green there was such a cheer that the men felt repaid for the +tiresome wait of months. The civic commander-in-chief watched the +movements with affable scrutiny, surrounded by a profusely uniformed +staff, to whom he expressed the most politic approval. He was heard to +remark that no such soldiers had been seen on this continent since Scott +had marched to Lundy's Lane. + +There was a throb of passionate joy in the ranks when this eulogium +reached the men, for the words were hardly spoken when they were known +in every company by that mysterious telegraphy which makes the human +body a conductor swift as an electric wire among large masses of men. +Nor were the words less relished that the eulogist was as ignorant of +military excellence as a Malay of the uses of a patent mower. The men, +it was easy to see, were much more efficient in movement than the +officers in handling them. Colonel Oswald had wasted weeks in the study +of the occult evolutions of the battalion; they were still a maddening +mystery to him that fatal day. For six weeks his dreams had been haunted +by airy battalions filing over impossible defiles. The commands he gave +that day would have thrown the companies into hopeless confusion had the +junior officers not boldly substituted the right ones for the colonel's +blunders. This, however, passed unnoted, for the crowds, and even the +men, were not the sharp critics they afterward became when mistakes by +an incompetent officer were saluted by shouts of ridicule, and the men +contemptuously disregarded them. When Colonel Oswald ordered them to +"present arms" from a "place rest" there was more perplexity than +merriment, and the admiring crowd saw nothing peculiar in one company +snatching up bayonets to present while others remained perfectly still. + +Jack, to whom the manual was a very sacred thing, broke into fierce +ridicule of the commander, declaring that he was better fitted for +sutler than colonel. When the savage speech was reported to headquarters +that young fellow's prospects for the straps--never the best--were by no +means improved. The review brought bitter disappointment to the +regiment. The inspector-general, who was present, informed the colonel +that no more than a thousand men could be accepted in one body; that +five hundred of the Caribees would have to be divided among other troops +in the State. The order aroused wild excitement. Half the men looked +upon the edict as a scheme to give the politicians more places for their +feudatories. Indeed, though that was not the origin of the order, that +was the use made of it. Some of the junior officers, who disliked Oswald +and distrusted his capacity to command, drew out very willingly, and of +course carried many of their men with them. + +But in the end the matter had to be decided by lot. Now this chance +threw Wesley Boone out, and there was great rejoicing in the Acredale +group, who hoped that this stroke of luck would make place for their +favorite, Jack Sprague. But, to everybody's astonishment, a day or two +after the event, Wesley resumed his place in Company K, and gave out +that it was by order of the Governor. Jack was urged by the major of the +regiment, who had gone with the five hundred, to cast his fortunes with +the new body, promising a speedy lieutenancy. But Jack would not desert +the Caribees. All of Company K, and many in the others, had enlisted on +his word, and he could not in honor leave them. The opposition journals +had from the first denounced the division of the Caribees as a trick of +the partisans, and, sure enough, the men were given to understand that +there would be no move to Washington until after the election, then +pending. This was a municipal contest, and the Administration party made +good use of the incipient soldiery to obtain a majority in the town. + +Promotion was quite openly held out as a reward for those who could +influence most votes for the Administration candidates. At night the +various companies were sent into the city to take part in the political +propaganda; to march in processions or occupy conspicuous places at the +party meetings. The private soldiers were almost to a man Democrats, but +the chance to escape the long and irksome evenings of the camp and join +the frolic and adventure of the street made most of them willing enough +to play the part of claque or figurantes. Jack, of course, refused to +take part in these scenic rallies, making known his sentiments in +vehement disdain. He detested Oswald, who had quit his party, not on a +question of principle, but merely for place, and Jack did not spare him +in his satirical allusions to the new uses invented for the military. + +A still more trying injustice befell the luckless Jack. For a long time +he had, as senior, acted as orderly sergeant of Company K. This officer +is virtually the executive functionary in the company. It is his place +to form the men in rank, make out details, and prepare everything for +the captain. The orderly sergeant is to the company what the adjutant is +to the regiment. He carries a musket and marches with the ranks, but in +responsibility is not inferior to an officer. One evening when it was +known that orders had come for the regiment to march, Jack, having +formed the company for parade, received a paper from the captain's +orderly to read. He opened it without suspicion, and, among other +changes in the corps, read, "Thomas Trask to be first sergeant of +Company K, and he will be obeyed and respected accordingly." Jack read +the monstrous wrong without a tremor. The men flung down their arms and +broke into a fierce clamor of rage and grief. Many of them were Jack's +classmates. These swarmed about him. One, assuming the part of +spokesman, cried out: + +"It's an infamous outrage. They cheated you out of your captaincy; they +have put every slight they could upon you. But we have some rights. We +won't stand this. There are thirty of your classmates who will do +whatever you say to show these people that they can't act like this." + +There were mutiny and desperation in the air. It needed but a spark to +destroy the usefulness of the company. But, as is often the case with +impetuous, hot-headed spirits, Jack cooled as his friends grew hot. He +was the more patient that the injustice was his injury alone. He +remained in his place at the right of the company, and confronted the +rebellious group with amazing self-control. Then loud above the +murmuring his voice rang out: + +"Company, attention! fall in, fall in! Any man out of the ranks will be +sent to the guard-house. Eight dress, steady on the left." + +Many a time afterward these angry mutineers heard that sonorous, clear, +boyish treble in stern and determined command; but they never heard it +signalize a more heroic temper than at that moment, when, himself deeply +wronged, he forced them to go back in the ranks to receive the +interloper. They "dressed up" sullenly as Jack called the roll for the +last time, and received Trask, the new orderly, at a "present," which, +though not in the tactics, Jack exacted as a penitence for the momentary +revolt. Poor Trask looked very unhappy indeed as his displaced rival +stepped back to the rear and left the new orderly to march the company +out from the narrow way to take its place in the parade. It was easy to +see that he would have been very glad to postpone or evade his new +honors, on any pretext, for the time. He was so confused that Jack, from +the flank, was obliged to repeat the few commands needed to get the +company to the field. + +Fortunately for the efficiency of the raw army, as this public +discontent reached its most acute stage orders came to march the troops +to Washington. The Caribees were the first body of soldiers sent from +Warchester, and there was a memorable scene when the jaunty ranks filed +through the streets to the station. By the time the men reached the +train they discovered that they could never make war laden down as they +were by knapsacks filled with the preposterous impedimenta feminine +foresight had provided. + +The men's backs bulged out with such a pack of supplies that when the +regiment halted each man was forced to kneel and let a comrade take off +or put on his knapsack. And then the march through the streets--every +man known to scores in the throng! The brisk, high-stepping drum corps +rat-a-tatting at intervals; then tempests of cheers, flashing banners +and patriotic symbols at every window; tears, laughter, humorous cries, +jokes, sobbing outbreaks. The whole city was in march as the Caribees +reached the thronged main thoroughfare. Ready hands relieved the +soldiers of their burden as the line filed in sight of the Governor, who +had come to speed the parting braves. + +Lads and lasses made merry with the elated warriors. The muskets were +turned into bouquet-holders, and the first move toward real war took on +the air of a floral _fête_. There were popping corks and sounds of +convivial revelry that made the scene anything but warlike. Jack, in a +cluster of his town cronies, caught sight of his mother at one of the +windows of the Parthenon Hotel. He wafted her a joyous kiss, pretending +not to see the tears falling down her cheeks. Olympia was not apparently +very deeply affected. She made her way through the crowd to her +brother's side, and with an air of the liveliest interest demanded: + +"Jack, what have you in your knapsack? Let me see." + +"O Polly, it's such a job to close it! What do you want? It is harder to +manage than a Saratoga trunk. I can't really stuff another pin or needle +in, so pray keep what you have for my furlough." + +"No, I am not going to put anything in." She bent over while Barney +Moore, one of Jack's Acredale comrades, gallantly loosed the straps. She +searched carefully through the divers articles, taking everything out, +Jack looking on ruefully while his companions gathered about in vague +curiosity. When she had removed and restored everything she arose, +saying: "I feel easier now. I merely looked to see if that marshal's +_bâton_ I have heard so much about was there. I shall feel easy in my +mind now, because a _bâton_ in your baggage would have made you too +adventurous." + +There was a great shout of laughter as the fun of the incident flashed +upon the listeners, many of whom had heard the ingenuous Jack often in +other days sighing for war, and the chance that Napoleon said every man +had of finding a marshal's _bâton_ in his knapsack. Jack bore the banter +very equably, knowing that Olympia was rather striving to keep his +spirits up and divert him from the tears in his mother's eyes than +indulge her own humor. Indeed, most of the gayety at this moment was +contributed by those whose hearts were heaviest. The consecrated +priesthood of patriotism must see no weakness in those left behind. The +only son, now brought face to face with the meaning and consequence of +his rashly seized chance for glory, must not be reminded that perhaps a +grave lay beyond the thin veil of the near future; must not be reminded +that heavy hearts and dim eyes were left behind, feeding day by day, +hour by hour, on terror and dread, unsupported by the changing scenes, +the wild excitement, and the joyous vicissitudes of the soldier's life, +it was a cruel comedy acted every day between 1861 and 1865. They +laughed who were not gay, and they seemed indifferent who were fainting +with despair. The courage of battle is mere brutish insensibility +compared with the abnegation of the million mothers who gave their boys +to the bestial maw of war. + +The harrowing ceremonial of parting is ended. The train moves slowly out +of the station, and a murmur of sobs and cheers echoes until it is far +beyond the easternmost limits of the city. After a journey of two days +and a night the train readied Philadelphia. Jack was all eyes and ears +for the spectacle the country presented. In every station through which +the regiment passed crowds welcomed the blue-coats. Women fed them, or +those who seemed in need, thinking, perhaps, of their own distant +darlings receiving like tenderness from the stranger. + +In Philadelphia, the regiment marched across the city to resume its +journey. It was a cold spring night, and the regimental quartermaster +and commissary had made no provision for the men. Indeed, as the +observant Jack afterward learned, it was part of the plan of the groups +that first began to create great fortunes during the war to make the +soldiers pay for their rations _en route_ to the seat of war, or depend +upon the charity of citizens along the railway lines. The Government +paid for the supplies just the same, while the money went into the +pockets of contractors and quartermasters. After a weary tramp through +what seemed to the soldiers the biggest city in the world, the regiment, +with blistered feet, hungry and cross, were halted before a long, low +wooden building, through whose rough glass windows cheerful lights could +be seen. A rumor spread that they were to have a hot supper, and, sure +enough, they were marched in, dividing on each side of four long tables +that stretched into spectral distance, in the feeble glimmer of the +oil-lamps hanging from the ceiling. Most of the men in Jack's company, +at least, were gently nurtured, but the steaming oysters, cold beef, and +generous "chunks" of bread, filled their eyes with a magnificence and +their stomachs with a gentle repletion no banquet before or after ever +equaled. The feast was set in the same place during four years, by the +Sanitary Society, I think, but the memory of that homely board, +plenteously spread, is in the mind of many a veteran who faced warward +during the conflict. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +ON THE POTOMAC. + + +The next morning, when the men debarked to march through Baltimore, +every one was on the _qui vive_ to fasten in his memory the scene of the +shameful attack upon the soldiers of Massachusetts on the 19th of April. +But, as the line marched proudly down Pratt Street, there were no signs +of the hostile spirit that made Baltimore a center of doubt and +suspicion in the North for many a day afterward. It was, however, when +the train dashed out from among the hills to the northwest of the sheet +of water behind the capitol that the Caribees glued their eyes to the +panes in awe not unmingled with delight. No American will ever look upon +that imperial dome again with the sensations that filled the breasts of +those who first saw its rounded outlines in the war epoch. What the ark +of the covenant was to the armies that marched in the wilderness, or the +cross of St. Peter to the pilgrims approaching Rome, that the great +dome, towering cloud ward in the perpetual blue, was to the wondering +eye of the soldier as his glance first fell upon it; that it was for +months--yes, ever after--on the plains of Arlington and in the deadly +exhalations of the Chickahominy. Every one looked anxiously to see signs +of war--indeed, since leaving Baltimore, there was a delicious feeling +of suspense--as the train shot over embankments or skirted the deep pine +woods. Perhaps an adventurous rebel vanguard might attack them. Perhaps +they might have the glory of fighting their way to the beleaguered +capital. Perhaps Father Abraham might come out and smile benignantly at +them for a brave deed well done. Faces flushed and eyes sparkled in the +delightful anticipation: and some of the ardent spirits, more eager than +the others, loaded their muskets to be ready! But, beyond the Federal +picket-post at the stations, no sign of war was soon, nor much sign of +hostilities, such as the vivid fancies of the raw young +warriors conjured. + +But now the train was at rest, and the officers--who had not been seen +during the journey--turned out in resplendent plumery. The station--in +those days a tumble-down barrack--was already crowded with soldiery. The +Caribees were aligned along the track, the officers so bewildered by the +confusion that it was by a miracle some of the groups of moving men were +not run over by the backing engines. After an interminable delay, the +band set up "We're coming down to Washington to fight for Abraham's +daughter!" and with exuberant joy a thousand pairs of legs kept brisk +step and elastic movement to the inspiriting strain. Now the longing +eyes see the circumstance and even some of the pomp of war. The regiment +debouches into Pennsylvania Avenue, under the very shadow of the +Capitol, which looks sadly shabby and disproportioned to the eyes that +had an hour or two before opened in such admiration at the first view. +But there is no time for architectural criticism. They are moving down +the avenue toward the White House, toward the home of that patient, +kindly, sorely-tried ruler--the Democritus of his grisly epoch. The +Caribees excite none of the sensation here they have been accustomed to. +The streets are not crowded, and the few civilians passing hardly turn +their heads. Mounted orderlies dash hurriedly, with hideous clatter of +sabre and equipments, across the line of march, through the very +regiment's ranks, answering with a disdainful oath or mocking gibe when +an outraged shoulder-strap raised a remonstrating voice. At Fourteenth +Street the Caribees were halted until the colonel could take his +bearings from headquarters, just around the corner. The wide sidewalks +were dense with bestarred and epauleted personages in various keys of +discussion. Jack and his crony, Barney Moore, studied the scene in +wonder. Their company was halted exactly at the corner of Fourteenth +Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, and the two were standing at +Willard's corner. + +"I wonder if the President just stands and throws the stars down from +that balcony?" Jack said, as the crowd of brigadiers thickened before +the hotel door. "What on earth are they all doing here?" + +"Oh, they come to make requisition on General Bacchus; he's the +commissary-general of the brigadiers--don't you know?" Barney said, +innocently. + +"General Bacchus? Barney, you're crazy--there's no such officer in the +army--I know all the names--you mean General Banks, don't you?" + +"Oh, no, I'm not mistaken--General Bacchus has been selected to deal out +the _esprit de corps!_" + +"_L'esprit de corps_? Barney, you're certainly tipsy. I'm ashamed of +you!" + +"Yes, the spirit of that corps, as you can tell from the whiffs that +come this way, is the whisky-bottle. Bacchus presides over that spirit. +One would think you'd never read an eclogue of Virgil--you're duller +than a doctor of divinity's after-dinner speech! A tutor's joke is the +utmost wit you ought to bear." + +"And so you call that a joke?" + +"Well, it isn't a cough, a song, an oath, or--or anything old Oswald +would say, so it must be a joke." + +"Well, in that sense it may pass, like a tipsy soldier without the +countersign." + +"Oh, come now, Jack, these stars are really dazzling you!" + +"Not but I'll make you see some that will dazzle you, if you don't treat +your superior more respectfully." + +"Oh, the punch you think of giving me wouldn't solve this star problem; +it requires to be made in the old--the milky way." + +But Barney's astral jokes were brought to a period by the sharp note of +the bugle, as Colonel Oswald, very important under the eye of so many +big-wigs, magnificently ordered the march. The regiment passed up the +steep hill, out Fourteenth Street--then a red clay thoroughfare of +sticky mire with only here and there a negro's shanty where the palaces +of the rich rise to-day. The men learned something of their future +enemy, Virginia mud, as they climbed the red gorge and debouched on +Meridian Hill, where, presently, an aide-de-camp marked the ground +assigned the regiment, and the real life of the soldier began. How tame +to tell, but how "imperial the hour" when these one thousand lads first +went, on guard! Yes, the fact was now before them. They were no longer +segregated atoms, inert, ineffective, eccentric. They were part of that +mighty bulwark of blood and iron that stood between law and rebellion, +between the nation's heart and the assassin dagger of disunion. + +How proud and glad and manly they felt, these bright-eyed boys--for boys +they mostly were; not a hundred in the regiment had seen their +five-and-twentieth year. One razor would have been ample for the beards +of the whole battalion. And oh, the nameless, the intoxicating sense of +solidarity as they swept the vast reach of hillsides, and saw the white +tents in brooding immensity on either hand! Yes, yonder, far across the +wondrous belt of water, touching loyalty and rebellion in its mighty +rush seaward, they could distinguish the cities of canvas on the distant +Virginia shore. + +"It makes a fellow feel as Godfrey's hosts felt when they came in sight +of the Bosporus, and the hordes of the Saracens on the plains of the +Hellespont," Jack said, exultingly, as Barney stood on a pile of camp +equipages above him, surveying the quickening spectacle. + +"I don't know how Godfrey's fellows felt, Jack, but it _do_ make a man +feel kinder able to do something with so many near by to lend a hand. +But, stars and garters! what a head it must take to manage all these! +Fair and square, now, Jack, you feel the fires of military genius in +your big head--do you think that you could disentangle this enormous +coil--put each corps, division, and regiment, in its proper place--at a +day's notice?" + +"Oh, I couldn't perhaps do it just to-day; but give me time!" + +"Yes, I'll give you to the age of Methuselah, and then if you can manage +it I shall not lose faith in you." + +"Come, men, the tents must be up before dark. Sergeant Sprague, your +squad has five tents for its detail. You'll find axes and tools at the +quartermaster's wagon on the hill yonder!" It was the captain who spoke, +and, an instant later, the plot of ground, perhaps an acre and a half in +area, was a scene of rollicking labor. Each company had a street, the +tents--calculated to hold four each, but the number varied, going up +often as high as six--faced each other, leaving room enough for the +company to march in column or in line between the white walls. As the +regiment would be presumably some time on the ground, the canvas tents +rested on the top of a palisade of logs cut in the neighboring woods. +These were five feet or more in length, and when driven into the ground +a foot, and banked by the sticky clay, served excellently as walls upon +which to rest the A tents. Two berths, sometimes four, were fastened +laterally on these walls, frames running up to the center of the A held +the guns, while lines stretched across from above served as wardrobes +for such garments as could be hung up. + +All this manoeuvring for space in such close quarters was great fun for +lads accustomed to roomy houses, and careless, almost to slovenliness, +in the matter of keeping things in place. Absurd as these details may +seem, they were all parts, and very important parts, in the life and +training of that mighty host that carried the destiny of the country in +its discipline during four years. There was rigid inspection of quarters +every Sunday morning, and during the week the non-commissioned officers +were expected to see that cleanliness was not intermitted. The company +"street" was "policed" every morning after breakfast, swept and +garnished, that is, with the care of a Dutch housewife. Order is the +first law of the soldier as well as of Heaven, and many a careless lad +brought from his four years' drill method and painstaking that made him +of more value to himself and his neighbors. + +Personal traits, too, could be divined in these toy-like interiors. The +regulations prescribed the arrangement of the "bunks," blankets folded, +knapsacks laid at the head of the bed, accoutrements burnished until, at +first sight, the four guns in the rack seemed to be a mirror for the +orderly spirit of this thrifty grot. The shining plates, cups, and +spoons, would have done no discredit to the most energetic, housewife, +as they hung from pegs either above the bunks or along the wall. If +running water were not accessible, every tent had a tin basin for the +morning ablution, each soldier taking turn good humoredly. The household +duties were scrupulously observed, each man assuming his _rôle_ in the +complicated _ménage_. + +It was fully a week before the Caribees were installed ready for Sunday +inspection, as no exigency was permitted to interfere with morning and +afternoon drill, guard-mount, and parade. Battalion and brigade drill, +too, were new diversions for the Caribees, as now, camped near other +troops, these more complicated movements were part of the regiment's +allotted duty. After they were sufficiently trained in this they were to +take part in a grand review by the general-in-chief, when the President, +the Secretary of War, and all the great folks in Washington rode out to +witness the spectacle. + +There was no time for dullness. Every hour had its duty, and these soon +became second nature to the zealous young warriors. Such rivalry to best +master the manual, to hold the most soldierly stature in the ranks, to +detect the drill-sergeant when, to test their attention, he gave a false +command! And then the coronal joy of a reward of merit for efficiency +and alertness on guard! The rapture the bit of paper brought, and the +exultation with which the hero thus signalized went off to town for the +day, wandered through the waste of streets, stood before Willard's and +admired in awe and wonder the indolent groups from whose shoulders +gleamed one and sometimes two stars! One day Jack and Barney, walking in +Fifteenth Street, saw a stout man, with no insignia to indicate rank or +station, coming out of the headquarters hurriedly. He walked to the edge +of the pavement, and, looking up and down, seemed disconcerted. Noticing +the two lads, he came to where Jack was standing in a preoccupied way, +and the two saluted decorously. He returned the salute and asked: + +"Sergeant, are you on duty?" + +"No, sir; I'm on leave for the day." + +"Ah, good; my orderly was here a moment ago, but I don't see him +anywhere. Would you mind taking this telegram to the War Department, +through the park yonder?" + +He gave Jack an envelope and hurried back into the building as the two +lads started with alacrity across the street. + +"I've seen that chap before, somewhere," Barney said, panting with the +rapid pace. + +"He's a staff officer, I suppose, not very high rank, for he only had a +blouse on. General officers always wear double-button frocks even if +they don't carry the insignia." + +The War Department was easy of access, an old building not unlike Jack's +own home in Acredale. He asked the sentry at the door where his envelope +was to be delivered. The man looked at it, pointed to a closed door, and +Jack, receiving no response to his knock, entered. Three men were in the +room. One was seated at a vast desk with papers, maps, dispatches, and +books piled in disheartening confusion, within reach of his hand. Behind +him a young captain in uniform sat writing. But the figure that fixed +Jack's reverential attention was half sprawling, half lying over the +heaped-up impediments of the big desk. The young soldier caught sight of +the serious, sad face, the wistful humorous eyes, and he knew, with a +thrill through all his body and an adoring throb in his breast, that it +was the President--hapless heritor of generations of disjointed time. +All thought of his errand, all thought of place and person, faded as he +realized this presence. How long he would have remained in this mute +adoration there is no telling. The restless, keen eyes looked up sharply +and a dissonant, imperious, repellent voice jerked out: + +"Well, my man, what is it?" + +Without a word Jack handed him the envelope, and with a sort of +reverence to the tall figure whose face was turned kindly toward him he +backed to the door. + +"O Barney, I've seen the President!" + +"Seen the President! No? Oh! Why could not I have gone in with you? It's +always my luck." + +"No: it was my luck. But take heart. He will come out pretty soon, and +we'll loaf about here. Perhaps we can see him as he goes back to the +White House yonder." + +But though they waited far into the afternoon, forgetting their dinner +in the impulse of homage, they did not catch sight of the well-known +figure, for the President's way to the Secretary's room was a private +one, and when he went away the boys of course could not see him. But +Jack's good fortune was the talk of the regiment for many a day, and for +months when the fellows of the Caribee got leave they lingered +expectantly about the modest headquarters, hoping that a missing orderly +might bring them Jack Sprague's proud distinction of seeing the +President face to face. On the grand review, a few days later, Jack and +his crony were reminded of the encounter at headquarters, for the man +who had given the envelope to carry to the war office was riding a +splendid horse next to the President. Two stars glittered on his +shoulder now, and as he answered the cheers that saluted the group, the +young men saw that it was General McDowell, the commander of the forces. +The President rode along the lines, with a kindly wistfulness in the +honest eyes that studied with no superficial glance the long line of +shouting soldiery. He was not an imposing figure in the sense of +cavalier bravery, but no man that watched as he moved in the glittering +group, conspicuous by his somber black and high hat, ever forgot the +melancholy, rapt regard he gave the ranks, as at an easy canter he +passed the fronts of the squares or sat solemnly at the march past that +concluded the review. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE STEP THAT COSTS. + + +What between the doings of the camp and the daily visit to Washington, +"soldiering" grew into an enchanting existence for the young warriors of +the Caribee. Their quarters were on the high plateaus north and west of +the city--which were in those days shaded slopes, that made suburban +Washington a vale of Tempe. In the streets they saw bedizened officers, +from commanders of armies down to presidential orderlies. In the Senate +and House they heard the voices of men afterward potent in +public councils. + +What an exuberant, vagrant life it was! The blood warms and the nerves +tingle after the tensions and heats of a quarter of a century as those +days of sublime vagabondage come back. The melodious morning calls that +waked the sleepy, lusty young bodies; the echoing bugle and the abrupt +drum! And then the roll-call, in the misty morning when the sun, blear +and very red, rose as if blushing, or apoplectic after the night's +carouse! It was an army of poets--of Homers--that began the never +monotonous routine of these memorable days, for the incense of national +sympathy came faint but intoxicating to the soldier's nostrils in the +visits of great statesmen, the picnics of civilians, the copious +descriptive letters of correspondents and the daily scrawls from +far-away valleys, where fond eyes watched the sun rise, noted the stars, +to mark the special duties their darlings were doing in the watches of +the night. And then the mad music of cheers when the news came that the +young McClellan in West Virginia had scattered the adventurous columns +of Lee, capturing guns, men, and arms, and forever saving the great +Kanawha country to the Union! And in Kentucky the rebels had been +outmanoeuvred; while in Missouri the glorious Lyon and the crafty Blair +had, one in the Cabinet, the other in the camp, routed the secret, +black, and Janus-like rabble of treason and anarchy. + +To feel that he was part of all this; that, at rest in the iron ring +girdling the capital, he was might in leash; that to-morrow he would be +vengeance let loose--this was the sustaining, exulting thought that made +the volunteer the best of soldiers. His heart was all in the glorious +ardor for action. Night and morning he looked proudly at the sacred +ensign waving lightly in the summer breeze, and he remembered that the +eyes of Washington had rested on the same standard at Valley Forge; that +the sullen battalions of Cornwallis had saluted it at Yorktown. + +It was a beautiful ardor that filled the young hosts that waited in +leash on the green hills of the Potomac those months of turmoil, when +Scott and McDowell were straining the crude machinery of war to get +ready for the vital lunge. Jack and his Acredale squad, as the college +fellows were called, lived in a perpetual dream, from which the hard +realities of drill, now six hours a day, could not waken them. In days +of release they scoured the Maryland hills, secretly hoping that an +adventurous rebel picket might appear and give them occasion to return +to camp decked with preluding laurels. Mile after mile of the charming +woodland country they scoured, their hearts beating at the appearance of +any animate thing that for a brief, intoxicating moment they could +conjure into a rebel advance post. But, beyond wan and reticent yokels, +engaged in the primitive husbandry of this slave section, they never +encountered any one that could be counted overt enemies of the cause. +Money was plenty among these excursive groups, and they were welcomed in +Company K with effusive outbreaks by their less restive comrades. + +As July wore on, the signs of movement grew. Regiments were moved away +mysteriously, and soon the Caribees were almost alone on Meridian Hill. +Jack was filled with dire fears that the commanding officer, having +discovered the incompetency of Oswald, feared to take the Caribees to +the front. Something of the rumor spread through the regiment, and if, +as reputed, "Old Sauerkraut" (this was the name he got behind his back) +had spies in all the companies, the adage about listeners was abundantly +confirmed. In the secrecy of Jack's tent, however, the subject was +freely discussed. Nick Marsh, the poet of the class, as became the +mystic tendencies of his tribe, was for poisoning the detested +Pomeranian--Oswald was a compatriot of Bismarck, often boasting, as the +then slowly emerging statesman became more widely known, that he lived +in his near neighborhood. Marsh's suggestion fell upon fruitful +perceptions. Bernard Moore--Barney, for short--was to be a physician, +and had already passed an apprenticeship in a pharmacy, coincident with +his college term in Jack's class. + +"By the powers of mud and blood, Nick, dear, I have it!" + +"Have what, Barney, me b'y?" Nick asked, mimicking Barney's quaintly +displaced vowels. + +"Why, the way to get rid of Old Schnapps and Blitzen--more power to +me!" + +"All the power you want, if you'll only do that; and your voice will be +as sweet as 'the harp that once in Tara's halls--'" + +"Never moind the harp--Sassenach--here's what we can do. Tim Hussey is +Oswald's orderly; he and I are good friends. I know a preparation that +will turn the sauerkraut and sausages, that Oswald eats so much of, into +degluted fire and brimstone, warranted to keep him on the broad of his +back for ten days or a fortnight. Will ye all swear secrecy?" + +"We will! We will!" + +"On what?" + +"On the double crown on your head," Jack answered, solemnly, "which you +have often told us was considered a sign that an angel had touched +you--I'm sure nothing could be more solemn than that. It isn't every +fellow that can get an angel to touch the top of his head." + +"No; most fellows can consider themselves lucky if an angel touches +their lips--or heart," Barney cried, naïvely. + +"Well, never mind that sort of angel now, Barney," Nick said, pettishly; +"I notice that you always bring up with something about the girls, no +matter what the subject we set off on. It's the jalap--isn't that what +it's called?--we want to hear about." + +"There isn't enough poetry or sentiment in the two o' ye to fill a +wind-blown buttercup. No wonder ye don't care to talk of the +gurls--they'll have none of ye." + +"We'll be satisfied if they'll have you, Barney. I'm sure that's +magnanimous. But if your jalap takes as much time in working Old +Schnapps as you take in explaining it, the war will be over, and we +shall have seen none of it." + +"It's too great a conception to be hastily set forth. Give me time. I'll +lay a guinea that Oswald goes to the hospital before this day week. Let +us see. This is the 14th; before the 20th--" and Barney gave the barrel +of his gun, near him, a furtive wipe with his coat-sleeve. + +"Barney, if you'll do that, I'll gather every four-leaved clover between +here and Richmond to give you; and, what's more, if I die I'll leave you +my bones to operate." + +"Ah, Nick, dear, I'd rather have your little finger living than all the +possessions of your father's bank. If you were dead--" And honest Barney +seized the poet's hand sentimentally. + +"Come, come, fellows, what sort of soldiering do you call this? You +remind me of two school-girls," Jack remonstrated, as in duty bound to +keep up the warrior spirit. + +"Yer acquaintances among females being chiefly of the silly sort, it's +no wonder we remind you of the only things you can look back on without +blushing," Barney retorted; and a neighbor poking his head in the door +to learn the cause of the hilarity, the conspirators sallied out for a +jaunt until parade-time. Now, what means Barney employed, or whether he +had any handiwork in what befell, it does not fall to me to say, but +this is what happened: A market hawker came into camp the next morning +and went straight to the big marquee tent where Colonel Oswald stood, in +all the bravery of a new broadcloth uniform with spreading eagles on the +shoulders. The savory fumes of hot sauerkraut aroused the warrior from +his reveries, and he asked, in vociferous delight: + +_"Was haben sie? Kohlen, nicht wahr--sauerkraut--das is aber schon?"_ + +"Yes, mein golonel, I hof cabbage und sauerkraut und"--looking about +circumspectly--"_etwas schnapps aus Antwerpen gebracht?"_ + +The "golonel's" eyes glistened and he made a motion for the vender to go +to the rear of the marquee. Passing through from the front, he met him +at the rear, and the bargain was hastily concluded, Marsh secreting +three portly bottles in his chest, and turning the edibles over to +Hussey to store in the larder. There had been a good deal of uneasiness +in camp over rumors of cholera, yellow fever, and other dismal +epidemics. When, therefore, the evening after the colonel's purchase the +regimental surgeon was summoned in alarm, it was instantly believed in +the regiment that "Old Sauerkraut" was stricken with cholera. He at +first suffered hideous pains in the stomachic regions. This was followed +by a raging thirst, and, unknown to the physician, the three bottles of +schnapps were quite emptied. On the fourth day the poor man, very +woe-begone, but now suffering no pain, was carried to the hospital, and +the next day, as the campaign was about to begin, he was sent North, to +leave room near the field for those who should be wounded in the coming +engagement. + +Company K was drilling on the wide plateau between the camp and the +highway when the ambulance bearing the afflicted officer came slowly +over the road worn through the greensward. Hussey sat solemnly on the +seat with the driver, and as the vehicle reached the company, standing +at rest, Barney Moore in the rear rank spoke up: + +"Tim, is the poor colonel no better?" + +"Divil a betther; it's worse he's intirely. God be good till 'im!" + +Neither Jack nor Nick Marsh dared trust himself to meet the other's eyes +as the helpless chief disappeared down the hillside, while Barney +entered into an exhaustive treatise on the symptoms of cholera and the +liability of the most robust to meet sudden disaster in this malarious +upland, circumvailated by ages of decaying matter in the damp swamps on +every hand. But when, an hour later, Company K's whole street was +aroused by peal on peal of Abderian laughter, Jack and Nick were found +helpless in their bunks, and Barney was engaged in presenting a potion +to settle their collapsed nerves! + +"Well, haven't I won the guinea, now? It cost me just twice that. If +ye's have a spark of honor ye'll pay your just dues, so ye will," Barney +said, in the evening, returning from parade, where Lieutenant-Colonel +Grandison officiated as commander, to the unconcealed delight of all but +the Oswald parasites among the officers. + +"Don't say a word, Barney--to whom the medicos of mythology and all the +wizards of antique story are clowns and mountebanks--you shall have the +guinea or its equivalent." + +"Twenty-one shillings gold, bear in mind. Yer father's a banker, ye +ought to know that!" + +"I do. You shall have the twenty-one shillings in the shinplasters of +the republic." + +The colonel had been routed none too soon. The very next morning, when +the Caribees "fell in" for roll-call, the orderly received a paper from +the commander's orderly which read, "Tents to be struck at twelve +o'clock and the men ready to march, with ten days' rations." + +At last! All the future, glowing with heroism, exciting with the march, +the attack, the battle--ah! what after? With something of joy and regret +the comely tents, that had given them home and harbor, were taken down, +folded in precise line, and carried away for storage--for in the field +the ranks were to bivouac in the open air. Such gayety; such jokes; such +bravado; and augury of the to be! And the rumors! Telephones, had they +been invented; stenographers, had they been present in legion, could not +have kept track of the momentous tales that were instantly bruited +about. General Scott was going to lead the army in person. His charger +had been seen before the headquarters. The rebels were going to be +swooped up by another such famous dash as the flank march from Vera Cruz +to the plateau of Mexico! Then came a numbing fear that Beauregard's +bragging host had fled, and that the movement would turn out a tedious +stern chase to Richmond. In the agony of all this Jack, returning from a +"detail" to the quartermaster's tent, heard his name shouted where his +tent had been. He hurried to the spot and Nick saluted him with +the cry-- + +"Here, Jack, are two recruits who declare they must enter Company K." + +His gun was on his arm and his knapsack on his back, but only the +realization that a score of eyes were upon him saved Jack from dropping +limply on the ground, as, looking in the group, he saw Dick Perley and +Tom Twigg grinning ingratiatingly at him. + +"Where--how in the name of all that's sacred did you get here?" he +gasped. + +"Why, we enlisted for drummers in the Caribees, but the recruiting +officer told us as we were eighteen we could carry muskets if we wanted +to. We do want to, and we're going to come into Company K." + +They looked him confidently in the face as Dick repeated this evidently +long-practiced explanation. It would not do to take them to task before +the company. Jack waited until the rest were scattered, and then, +leading the boys aside, said, sternly: + +"Don't you know you can be put in prison for this? You have run away +from your parents and guardians. No one had a lawful right to enlist +you. I shall send for the provost marshal and have you put in prison +until your parents can come and get your enlistment annulled." + +Appalled by Jack's stern manner as much as by his words, the two lads +began to whimper and expostulate tearfully. They had trusted to his +ancient friendship. They could have gone into any other regiment, but +they had enlisted to be with him. Whatever happened, they were soldiers, +and, if Tom Twigg wasn't eighteen until September, it was perfectly +lawful for him to enlist as a drummer. Perley was eighteen in April +last, and he was a soldier in spite of all that Jack could do. Jack was +deeply perplexed. What could be done? If he attempted to put the +machinery of reclamation in order, the boys would be subjected to all +sorts of vicissitudes, prisons, everything distressing and demoralizing +to tender youth. + +"Do they know at home what you have done?" Jack asked, doubtingly. + +"Yes," Dick said, noting with boyish quickness the indecision in Jack's +troubled face. "I sent a letter to Aunt Pliny, from New York, telling +her we were soldiers, and that we were happy and well." + +"You impudent young scamp--to write that to your best friend! Don't you +know it will kill her?" + +Dick had no answer for this, and looked perplexedly at Tom, who was lost +in admiration of a neighboring group engaged in athletic exercises. He +felt rather than heard the question put by the Mentor, and observing +Dick's discomfiture, stammered: + +"It didn't kill your mother when you went for a soldier, I guess." + +The astute young rascal had hit upon the weak place, and Jack stood in +anxious doubt wondering what to do. An aide that he recognized from +division headquarters rode past at the moment and Jack turned to watch +him. He leaped from his horse at the colonel's tent. Jack again looked +at the boys. They were lost in delight at the scene and oblivious of the +debate going on in their guardian's mind. + +"Stay here till I come back," he said, authoritatively, and strode off +to Grandison's tent. As he reached it the major, McGoyle, was entering, +and Jack waited until that officer should come out. He came presently, +and Colonel Grandison with him. Jack saluted, and stated his dilemma to +the commander, who listened with amused interest. + +"I don't see that anything can be done now, Jack. I'm just about leaving +the regiment. I have been assigned to General Tyler's staff during the +campaign. McGoyle takes command of the regiment. He will need orderlies, +and the boys can serve with him until we can get time to look into the +business. I will settle the matter with him, and if you will write a +telegram to the lad's family I will have it sent as I go to +headquarters." + +Jack's relief and gratitude were best seen in the brightening eye and +the more buoyant movement that succeeded the heaviness and agitation of +his first impression. The boys' coming would weigh upon him every minute +until he was in some sort relieved of even passive complicity. He would +feel that the kind-hearted "Pearls," as the aunts were often called, +would look upon him as having led the truants into the army. But +Grandison's interposition had shifted from him a weighty anxiety. The +boys would not be left friendless and irresponsible in the turbulent +streets of Washington. Nor would they, as orderlies, be in continuous or +inextricable danger in battle--for whereas the soldier in the line must +keep in ranks even when not in actual battle, with the enemy's missiles +as destructive as in the charge or combat, the orderlies may take +advantage of the inequalities of ground and natural objects. Jack +explained something of this to the young Marlboroughs, and was fairly +irritated at the crest-fallen look that came into their eager, shining +faces when they comprehended that they were not to be with their hero. + +"But you couldn't be in the company in any event. You look more like +rebels than soldiers, with your gray jackets and trousers"--for the boys +still wore their Acredale uniform, an imitation of the West Point +cadet's costume. "We shall be on the march in a few minutes, and there +is only one of two things to be done. Remain here in the 'unassigned' +camp, where you may be transferred into any regiment in the service that +needs recruits; or go, as Colonel Grandison has very kindly consented to +have you, as orderlies or clerks." + +The very possibility of being sent into some unknown regiment was a +terror so great that the other alternative became less odious to the +boys, and they trotted after Jack, as he stalked moody and distracted to +Major Mike McGoyle's tent, now the only habitable spot left where a few +hours before a symmetrical little city had stood. + +"And so ye want to be solgers, me foine b'yes? Well, well, 'tis litter +for yer mothers' knees ye are, with yer rosy cheeks and curling locks. +It's a poor place here for yer bright oies and soft hands, me lads; but +I'm not the wan to throw the dish after th' milk when it's spilt!" + +He stroked the bared heads of the blushing lads, and, turning to their +unhappy sponsor, he added with official brevity: "I will put Twiggs's +son at me papers in the adjutant's office. Young Pearley can remain with +your company until I make out a detail for him." + +It was impossible for Jack to sustain the _rôle_ of frowning displeasure +as Dick skipped back with him to the company. He remembered his own +delight three months before, even with the haunting thoughts of his +mother's reproaches to dampen his ardor, and he was soon dazzling the +neophyte with the wonders that were just about to begin. + +It was the afternoon of the 16th of July, and the hillsides, which the +day before were covered with tents as far as the eye could see on every +hand, were now blue with masses of men, while other masses had been +passing on the red highways since early morning, taking the direction of +the Potomac bridges. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +AN ARMY WITH BANNERS. + + +It has always seemed to me that the life, the routine, the many small +haps in the daily function of a soldier, which in sum made up to him all +that there was in the _devoir_ of death, ought to be read with interest +by the millions whose kin were part of the civil war, as well as by +those who knew of it only as we know Napoleon's wars or Washington's. +For my part, I would find a livelier pleasure in the diary of a common +soldier, in any of the great wars, than I do in the confusing pamphlets, +bound in volumes called history. I like to read of war as our Uncle Toby +related it. I like to know what two observing eyes saw and the feelings +that sometimes made the timidest heroes--sometimes cravens. + +For a month--yes, months--the burden of the press, the prayers of the +North, had been, "On to Richmond!" Jack, through Colonel Grandison, knew +that General McDowell and the commander-in-chief, the venerable soldier +Scott, had pleaded and protested against a move until the new levies +under the three-months' call could be drilled and disciplined. But on +the Fourth of July Congress had assembled, and the raw statesmen--with +an eye to future elections--took up the public clamor. They gave the +Cabinet, the President, no peace until General Scott and McDowell had +given way and promised the pending movement. + +"Our soldiers are so green that I shall move with fear," McDowell said +to the President. + +"Well, they" (meaning the rebels) "are green too, and one greenness will +offset the other," Lincoln responded with kindly malice. It was useless +to argue further; useless to point out that the rebels were not so +"green," for the young men of the semi-aristocratic society of the South +were trained to arms, whereas it was a mark of lawlessness and vulgarity +to carry arms in the Puritan ranks of the North. Something of the +unreadiness of the army, every reflecting soldier in the ranks +comprehended, when he saw within the precincts of his own brigades the +hap hazard conduct of the quartermaster's and staff departments. Some +regiments had raw flour dealt them for rations and no bake-ovens to turn +it into bread; some regiments had abundance of bread, but no coffee or +meat rations. As to vegetables--beans, or anything of the sort--if the +pockets of the soldiers had not been well supplied from home, the army +that set out for Manassas would have been eaten with scurvy and the skin +diseases that come from unseasoned food. + +Now, at the very moment the legions were stripped for the march, many of +them were without proper ammunition. Various arms were in use, and the +same cartridge did not lit them all. Eager groups could be seen all +through the brigades filing down the leaden end of the cartridge to make +their weapons effective, until a proper supply could be obtained. This +was promised at Fairfax Station, or Centreville, where the army's +supplies were to be sent. So, in spite of the high hopes and feverish +unrest for the forward movement, there was a good deal of sober +foreboding among the men, who held to the American right to criticise as +the Briton maintains his right to grumble. For the soldier in camp or on +the march is as garrulous as a tea gossip, and no problem in war or +statecraft is too complex or sacred for him to attempt the solution. Of +the thirty thousand men leaving the banks of the Potomac that 16th of +July there were, at a low estimate, ten thousand who believed themselves +as fitted to command as the chieftains who led them. + +By two o'clock the Caribees were in the line that had been passing +city-ward since daylight. The sun had baked the sticky clay into +brick-like hardness, and the hours of trampling, the tread of heavy +teams, and the still heavier artillery, had filled the air with an +opaque atmosphere of reddish powder, through which the masses passed in +almost spectral vagueness. The city crowds, usually alert, when great +masses of men moved, were discouraged by heat and dust, and the streets +were quite given over to the military. Eager as Jack and his friends +were to note the impression the march made upon the civilians, most of +whom were thought to be secretly in sympathy with the rebellion, it was +impossible to even catch sight of any but soldiers. Pennsylvania Avenue, +when they reached it, was a billowy channel of impalpable powder. But at +the Long Bridge the breeze from the wide channel of the river cleared +the clouds of dust, and the men, catching glimpses of each other, broke +into jocose banter. On the bridge they looked eagerly down the river, +where the low roofs of Alexandria were visible, and upward on the +Virginia shore where the gleaming walls of Arlington recalled to Jack +far different times and scenes. + +"Now we're in Jeff Davis's land," Barney called out from one of the rear +files, as the company reached midway in the bridge. + +"Not by a long shot," Nick Marsh cried. "Davis's land begins and ends +within cannon-shot of himself. He is like the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen--he +has to beg his neighbor's permission to hold battalion drill." + +"He isn't so polite as the duke; he takes it without asking," Barney +retorts. + +"But now we are on the 'sacred soil,'" Jack cries, as the company +debouched from the bridge up the steep, narrow road that seemed to be +taking them to Arlington. In spite of the burning heat and the +exhaustion of the three hours' march, the scene was, or rather the +imagination of the men, invested each step with a sort of awe. They were +at last in the enemy's territory. It had been held by the Union forces, +only by dint of large numbers and strong fortifications. There wasn't a +man in the company that didn't resent the fact, constantly obtruding +itself on the ranks as they marched eagerly onward by every knoll, every +bush in the landscape, that Union soldiers had been there before them! +that their devouring eyes were not the first to mark these +historic spots. + +Tired as they were and burdensome as the heavy knapsacks and still +heavier ammunition had become, they heard an aide give the order to +bivouac with chagrin! They so longed to put undebatable ground behind +them and really be where the distant coppice might be a curtain to the +enemy! The Caribees marked with indignant surprise that, when they had +turned into a field about seven o'clock, the long line following them +pushed onward until far into the night, and they envied the contiguity +this would give the lucky laggards to first see and engage the enemy! +But they turned-to very merrily, in this first night of real soldiering. +They were "in the field." All the parade part of military life was now +relaxed. The hot little dress coats were left behind; there was no +display. Even guard-mount was reduced to the simplest possible form. + +With one impulse all the men--that is, all who had been alert enough to +provide pen and paper--bestowed themselves about the candles allotted +each group, and began letters "home," dated magniloquently "Headquarters +in the Field. Tyler's Division, Sherman's Brigade, 16th July, 1861." The +imperial impulse manifested itself in these curt epistles. I can't +resist giving Jack's: + +"Dear Mother: How I wish you and Polly could see us now! We are really +on the march at last. The battle can't be far off. We are not many miles +from the enemy, and, if he stands, what glorious news you will hear very +soon! I wish you could have seen us to-day. Colonel Sherman, who is the +sternest looking man I ever saw, a regular army officer, once a +professor, told the major--you know McGoyle is commanding us now--he is +a brick--Sherman told him that the Caribees did as good marching as the +regulars, who came behind us. Dear old Mick, with his brogue and his +blarney, has won every heart in the regiment, and you may be sure we +shall see the whites of the enemy's eyes under him, which we never +should have done under that odious Hessian, Oswald--in hospital now, +thank Heaven--though some time, when I tell you the story, you will see +that in this, as in most other things, Heaven helps those who help +themselves. Taps will sound in five minutes, and I can only add that I +am in good health, glorious spirits, and unshaken confidence that we +shall return to Acredale before your longing to see your son overcomes +your love of glory. We shall return victors, if not heroes--at least I +know that you and Polly will believe this of your affectionate and +dutiful son + +"JACK." + +Barney read one or two phrases of his composition to the indulgent ear +of Jack and the poet, over which they laughed a good deal. "We are," he +said, "before the enemy. I feel as our great ancestor, Baron Moore, felt +at Fontenoy when the Sassenachs were over against the French lines--as +if all the blood in Munster was in my veins and I wanted to spill it on +the villains ferninst us." + +The poet declined to quote from his epistle, and the three friends sat +in the dim light until midnight, wondering over what the morrow had in +store. Dick Perley listened in awe to Jack's wonderful ratiocinations on +what was to come--secretly believing him much more learned in war than +this General McDowell who was commanding the army. The first bugle +sounded at three in the morning in the Caribees' camp, and when the +coffee had been hastily dispatched, the men began to understand the +cause of their being shunted into the field so early the evening before +while the rear of the column marched ahead of them. The Caribees passed +a mile or more of encampments, the men not yet aroused, and when at +daylight the whole body was in motion they were in advance, with nothing +before them but a few hundred cavalry. + +A delirious expectation, a rapturous sense of holding the post of +danger, kept every sense in such a thrill of anticipation that the hours +passed like minutes. The dusty roads, the intolerable thirst, and the +nauseous, tepid water, the blistered feet, the abraded hips, where the +cartridge-box began to wear the flesh--all these woes of the march were +ignored in the one impulse to see the ground ahead, to note the first +sight of the enemy. It was not until four o'clock in the afternoon that +the column was halted, and two companies, K and H, were marched out of +the column and formed in platoons across the line of march, that the +regiment learned with mortification that hitherto the route had been +inside the Union lines! They soon saw the difference in the tactics of +the march. The company was spread out in groups of four; these again +were separated by a few yards, and in this order, sweeping like a +drag-net, they advanced over the dry fields, through the clustering +pines or into cultivated acres, and through great farm-yards. + +Back of them the long column came, slowly winding over the sandy highway +which curved through the undulating land. Here and there the +skirmishers--for that was the office the two companies were now +filling--came upon signs of picket-posts; and once, as Jack hurried +beyond his group to the thicket, near a wretched cabin, a horse and +rider were visible tearing through the foliage of a winding lane. He +drew up his musket in prompt recognition of his duty, but he saw with +mortification that the horse and rider continued unharmed. Other shots +from the skirmish-line followed, but Jack's rebel was the only enemy +seen, when, in the early dusk, an orderly from the main column brought +the command to set pickets and bivouac for the night. Jack would have +written with better grounds for his solemnity if he had waited until +this evening; but now there was no chance. + +The companies were the extreme advance of the army; nothing between them +and the enemy but detached pickets of cavalry, at long distances apart, +to fly back with the report of the least signs made by the rebels. These +meager groups were forbidden fires, or any evidence of their presence +that might guide hostile movement, and the infantry outposts felt that +they were really the guardians of the sleeping thousands a mile or so +behind them. No one minded the cold water and hard bread which for the +first time formed the company's fare that night. Like the cavalry, fire +was forbidden them. They formed little groups in the rear of the outer +line of pickets, discussing with animation--even levity--the likelihood +of an engagement the next day. It was the general opinion that if +Beauregard meant to fight he would have made a stand at some of the +excellent points of vantage that had been encountered in the day's +march. Jack smiled wisely over these amateur guesses, and quite abashed +the rest when he said: + +"Beauregard is no fool. His army is massed near the point that he is +guarding--Manassas Junction. You seem to think that war is a game of +chance, armies fighting just where they happen to meet each other. Not +at all. Our business is to march to Richmond; Beauregard's business is +to prevent us. To do this he must, first of all, keep his lines of +supply safe. An army without that is like a ship at sea without +food--the more of a crew, the worse the situation. Of course, Beauregard +had his skirmishers spread out in front of us, but, as there is no use +in killing until some end is to be gained, they have got out of our way. +If the spies that are in our ranks should send information that promised +to give the rebels a chance to get at a big body of our men, before the +whole army came up, you'd see a change of things very quick. We've got +fifty thousand men, or thereabout" (Jack was wrong; there were but +thirty thousand). "Now, these men are stretched back of us to +Washington, fifteen miles or more, because the artillery must be +guarded, and infantry only can do that. Now, suppose Beauregard finds +that there is a gap somewhere between the forces stretching back, and he +happens to have ten or fifteen thousand men handy? Why, he just swoops +down upon us, and, if we can't defend ourselves until the rest of the +army comes up, he has won what is called a tactical victory, and +endangered our strategy." + +"Goodness, Jack, you ought to have been commander-in-chief! You talk war +like a book!" Barney cried, in mock admiration. + +The war-talk went on late into the night, for the company, detached from +camp, was not obliged to follow the signals of the bugles that came in +melodious echoes over the fragrant fields. It was a thrilling sight as +the lone watchers peered backward. The June fields for miles were dotted +with blazing spires, as if the earth had opened to pour out columns of +flame, guiding the wanderers on their trying way. The sleep of the night +was desultory and fitful, excitement stimulating everybody to +wakefulness. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"THE ASSYRIAN CAME DOWN LIKE THE WOLF ON THE FOLD." + + +The next morning the march was resumed by daylight, the two companies +remaining on the skirmish-line. The country gradually became more rugged +as the route brought them near Centreville. There were no hills--a bare +but not bleak champaign, mostly without houses or farms, as the North +knows them. Sluggish brooks became more frequent, but none that were not +easily fordable. There were no landmarks to hold the mind to the scene, +nor, in case of battle, give the strategists points of vantage for the +iron game. About noon, the detached groups stalking a little negligently +now over the tedious plains, were startled by the unexpected. + +On the green slope of a hill, a mile or more ahead, a score of little +puffs of white smoke were seen, then a sharp report, and, in some places +near by, the ground was broken as if by a thrust of a spear, and little +scraps of clay scattered over the greensward. Then the bugle sounded a +halt. A few minutes later the horsemen spread in a chain across the line +of march, rode swiftly to a common center, formed in a solid group, +turned to the rear and rode back of the skirmishers to the main body. +Company K watched them as they galloped back, and as they reached the +group at the head of the long line, a half-mile or so distant, a body of +men hastened forward laden with stretchers and hospital appliances. Ah! +at last! It is now real war. The bugle sounds Forward! and with an +elastic spring the groups of four push dauntlessly ahead. Their eyes are +fixed on the brow of the hill, separated from them by a narrow +depression. + +The whole line--perhaps three miles wide--but, of course, not at all +regular, conforming largely to the difficulties encountered, moves down +the sloping bank on a run. Before they reach the bottom they are an +excellent target, and for the first time that most blood curdling of +sounds--the half-singing, half-hissing z-z-z-ip of the minie-ball--numbs +the ardor of the bravest. It is such a malignant, direct, devilish +admonition of murder; it comes so unexpectedly, no matter how well you +are prepared, that Achilles himself would feel a spasm of fear. And when +it strikes it does its work with such a venomous, exultant splutter, +that there seems something animate, demoniac in it. The volley, as I +said, came as the men were hurried down the hill by their own momentum +and by the sharp fall in the ground. The balls passed too high or too +low, but they impressed the fact on enthusiasts, who had longed for +battle, that one might die for one's country and not die gloriously. It +seemed such an ignoble, such a dastardly, outrageous thing, that death +could come to them from unseen hands, for as yet they had not seen a +soul. But now they are at the foot of the hill--though it is not correct +to so call it, for it was a long, winding valley, through which ran a +dancing streamlet, very welcome to the thirsty warriors when they had +succeeded in breaking through the vicious natural _chevaux de frise_ of +blackberry-briers and nettles. But now there wasn't much time to slake +thirst. The bullets had begun to come regularly; and suddenly, as Jack +conducted his squad across the stream, he was startled by the +exclamation, uttered rather in reverence, it seemed to him, than +surprise or pain: + +"My God, I'm hit!" + +Yes, a fair-haired lad--one of his class--tottered a second in a limp, +helpless way, and fell headlong, pitching into the little stream. Jack +ran and lifted him out; but even before the hospital corps came the boy +was dead. The bullet had gone quite through his heart. + +However, now the first numbing terror of the bullet was changed to a +sort of revengeful delight. Relinquishing any return fire for a moment, +the company, with a great shout, that sounded all along its front, +dashed up the hill, through the scrub-oak at the brow, and then they +could see the enemy slowly retiring, a chain of them a mile or more +wide. While one of the rebel ranks fired the other knelt, or lay flat +upon the ground loading, where there were no natural obstacles to take +shelter behind. A vengeful shout ran along the Union lines. + +"Capture them--don't fire!" and with one impulse the groups lied forward +so swiftly that the enemy, believing the rush only momentary, delayed +too long, and in two minutes the Union line was pell-mell among them. + +"Surrender!" Jack shouted to the squad just ahead of him--"surrender, or +we'll blow your heads off!" and along the line for some distance to his +left and right he could hear his own exultant demand echoed. There was +nothing to do for the rebels, who had neglected to keep their enemies at +the proper distance, but throw up their hands. Jack's squad sent back +twenty-three prisoners to Major Mike, who took them in proud triumph to +General Tyler, riding with the head of the column, now that the tenacity +of the rebel skirmishers made it seem probable that there would be +serious work. But though the firing kept up as the Union forces +advanced, no obstacle more, serious than the thin lines of the +skirmishers revealed itself. + +At dusk the bugles, moving with the captains in the rear, sounded the +rally, and then the scattered groups came together in company. They were +to bivouac on the spot to await their regiment when it arrived. +Meanwhile, to the bitter discontent of the Caribee companies, their post +of honor was taken by new troops, and they knew that next day they would +march in line. They had so enjoyed the glory of the first volleys, the +first deaths, and the first prisoners, that, not remembering military +procedure, they resented the change as an aspersion upon their valor. + +When the regiment came up, however, they forgot their mortification in +the eager questioning and envious jocularities of the rest. Companies K +and H were so beset that they forgot to boil their coffee, and would +have gone thirsty to their dewy beds, if the other companies' cooks had +not shared their rations with the gossiping heroes. As darkness fell, +the sky was reddened for miles with pillars of fire, and for a time the +Caribees thought it was the enemy. But Tom Twigg, who had been with the +major at headquarters, explained to Jack that the army was divided into +three bodies of about ten thousand men each, and that Tyler's column, of +which the Caribees were the advance, were the extreme northern body; +that they were now at Vienna, far north of Manassas, where Schenck had +been beset a month before in his never-enough-ridiculed reconnaissance +by train; that in the morning they were to push on to Fairfax +Court-House and thence to Centreville, where the army was to come +together for the blow at the rebels. Jack and his friends were a good +deal chagrined to learn that they were not as near the enemy as the +column to the south of them, whose fires had been mistaken for +Beauregard's. Though the levée came to an end at "taps," no one felt +sleepy, and the excitement banished the pains of fatigue. Major Mike, +sauntering through the dark lines near midnight, heard the tale still +going on in drowsy monotone, but, good-naturedly, made no sign. + +Though not given the skirmish-line next day--the 17th--Jack was +delighted to find that the Caribees led all the rest. With them rode the +commander of the brigade, Colonel Sherman, whom the soldiers thought a +very crabbed and "grumpy" sort of a fellow. His red hair bristled +straight up and out when he took his slouch hat off, as he did very +often, for the heat was intolerable. His eyes had a merry twinkle, +however, that won the hearts of the lads as he rode by, scrupulously +striking into the fields to save the panting and heavily laden line +every extra step he could. Often, in after-days--when Sherman had become +the Turenne of the armies--Jack, who was often heard to brag of his gift +of detecting greatness, used to turn very red in the face when he was +reminded of a saying of his on that hot July day: + +"That chap is too lean and hungry to have much stomach for a fight; he +looks better fitted for wielding the ferule than the sword. Schoolmaster +is written in every line of his face and stamped in his +pedagogue manner." + +The march that day was south by a little west, and about nine o'clock a +cool morning breeze lifted the clouds of dust far enough above the +horizon to reveal the distant blue of the mountains. The whole line +seemed to come to a pause in the enchanting, mirage-like spectacle. "The +Shenandoah," Jack said, mopping the dust, or rather the thin coating of +mud, from his face and brow, for the perspiration, oozing at every pore, +naturally covered the exposed skin with an unpremeditated cosmetic. The +march to Fairfax Court-House, for which judicial temple the curious +soldier looked in vain, was but eight miles from the point of departure +in the morning, but it was two o'clock in the afternoon when the +Caribees passed the hamlet, turning sharply to the right. They marched +up the deep cut of projected railway, where, for a time, they were +shaded from the sun by the high banks. But, emerging presently on the +Warrenton pike, they saw evidences that other columns--whether friends +or foes they couldn't tell--had recently preceded them. Scores of the +raw and overworked were breaking down now every hour. + +The dust and heat were insupportable. Whenever the march came near +water, all thought of discipline was forgotten, and the panting, +miner-like hosts broke for the inviting stream. The officers were +powerless to enforce discipline; when these breaks happened the column +was forced to come to a halt until every man had filled his canteen--and +here is one, among the many trivial causes, that brought about the +reverses of McDowell's masterly campaign. A march that ought to have +been made in twenty-four hours, or thirty at the utmost, took more than +three days! One of those days saved to the army would have enabled +McDowell to finish Beauregard before the ten thousand re-enforcements +from the Shenandoah came upon his flank at Bull Run. But we shall see +that in proper time, for there is nothing more dramatically timely, or +untimely, than this incident in the history of battles, unless it be +Blücher's miraculous appearance at Waterloo, when Napoleon supposed that +Grouchy was pummeling him twenty miles away. + +There was no provost guard to spur on the stragglers; and when, late in +the afternoon, the way-worn columns spread themselves on the western +slope of the hamlet of Centreville, at least a third of each regiment +was far in the rear. Nearly every man had, in the heat and burden of the +march, thrown away the provisions in his haversack, and that night ten +thousand men lay down supperless on the grateful greensward, happy to +rest and sleep. Mother Earth must have ministered to the weary flesh, +for at sunrise, when the music of the bugles aroused them, they started +up with the alert vivacity of old campaigners. Provisions, that should +have been with the column the night before, arrived in the morning. +While the reinvigorated ranks were at coffee, there was a great clatter +in the rear, and presently a _cortége_ of mounted officers appeared, +General McDowell among them. Dick Perley, who was at the brigade +headquarters, with Grandison, came to the Caribees presently with +great news. + +The battle was to begin that very day. General Tyler was to go forward +to a river called Bull Run, where Beauregard was waiting. The whole army +was to spread out like a fan and fight him. He had seen the map on the +table, and the place couldn't be more than four miles away. Yes, they +all looked eagerly to the westward now. The mountains in the distance +rolled themselves down into lower and lower ridges, and just about four +miles ahead could be seen a range that seemed to melt into a wide +plateau fringed deeply with scrub-oak and clusters of pine. Jack had +provided himself with a field-glass. Standing in the middle of the +Warrenton pike, a fine highway, that ran downward as solid as a Roman +causeway, for four or five miles, he could see the break made by the +Bull Run River, and--yes, by the glaive of battle!--he could see the +glistening of bayonets now and then, where the screen of woods +grew thinner. + +The general, too, was examining the distant lines, and Jack took it as a +good omen that Sherman grew jocose and appeared to be making merry with +Tyler, whose face looked troubled, now that the decisive moment seemed +at hand. But the day passed, and there was no advance. It was not until +late in the evening that the cause became known. The army had been +waiting for supplies, ammunition, and what not, that should have been on +the field the day before. The Caribees were made frantic, too, by what +seemed a battle going on to the south of them, a few miles to the left. +The camp that night was a grand debating society, every man propounding +a theory of strategy that would have edified General McDowell, no doubt, +if he could have been given a _précis_ of the whole. How such things +become known it is difficult to guess, but every man in the columns knew +that the general had planned to put forward his thirty thousand men in +the form of a half-moon, covering about ten miles from tip to tip. The +right or northward horn was to be considerably thicker and of more body +than the left or southern. When the time came this right was to curve in +like a hook and cut the ground out from the left wing of the rebel army. + +This is the homely way these unscientific strategists made the movement +known to each other, and it very aptly describes the formulated plan of +battle, save that, of course, there were gaps between the forces here +and there along this human crescent. Long before daylight Sherman's +brigade, with a battery of guns and a squadron of cavalry, set out due +south, leaving the broad Warrenton pike far to their right hand. Such a +country as the march led into, no one had ever seen in the North outside +of mountain regions--deep gullies; wastes of gnarled and aggressive +oaks, that tore clothes and flesh in the passage; sudden hillocks rising +conical and inconsequent every few rods; deep chasms conducting driblets +of water; morasses covered with dark and stagnant pools, where the +pioneers fairly picked their steps among squirming reptiles. A stream, +sometimes large as a river, crawling languidly through deep fissures in +the red shale, protected the left flank of the column. The cavalry was +forced to hold the narrow wood road, as the bush was hardly passable +for men. + +"Hi, Jack!" Barney cries, catching his breath at the edge of a muddy +stream, "what sort of a place must the rebels be in if they let us +promenade through such a jungle as this unopposed?" + +"I have been thinking of that," Jack replies. And so had every man in +the expedition--for to think was one of the drawbacks as well as one of +the excellences of the soldier in the civil war. But presently, after +five hours of laborious work, a halt is called. The men dive into their +haversacks, and even the brackish water in the nearest sedge pond has a +flavor of nectar and the invigoration of a tonic. On they tear again, +the whole body pushing on in skirmish-like dispersion. Suddenly the land +changes. They are climbing a rolling table-land, cleared in some places +as though the axe of the settler had been at work. The march is now +easier and the picket-lines are strengthened. Then a sharp volley comes, +as if from the tree-tops. + +The march is instantly halted. The mass, moving in a column, is +deployed--that is, stretched out to cover a mile or more as it moves +forward; the cavalry divides and rides far to right and left, to see +that no ambush is set to enable the rebels to sneak in behind the vast +human broom, as it sweeps through the solemn aisles of the pines, now +rising in vernal columns thicker and thicker. The firing is going on now +in scattering volleys, and soon the wounded--a dozen or more--are +carried back through the silent ranks. Joking has now ceased. Lips are +compressed; eyes glitter, and the men avoid meeting each other's gaze. +It is the moment of all moments, the most trying to the soldier, when he +is expecting every instant a hurricane of bullets, and yet sees no one +to avenge his anguish on or forestall in the deadly work. But they have +been moving forward all the time, the hurtling bullets sweeping through +the leafy covering, now and then thumping into the soft pine with a +vicious joyousness, as if to say to each man, "The next is for you, see +how well our work is done." For these hideous missiles have a language +of their own, as every man that stood fire can tell. The skirmishers are +now all drawn in. The solid line must do the work at hand. No one but +the commander and his confidants knew the work intended, save that to +kill and be killed was the business to be done. The panting lines are on +high cleared ground now, and they can see absolutely nothing but the +irregular depressions that mark the channel of the Bull Run, as it +rushes down to the Rappahannock. The line is moving along steadily. +Looking to left and right, Jack can see the colors of three regiments, +and his eye rests with pleasure on the bright, shining folds of the +Caribees' dark-blue State flag spread to the breeze beside the stars of +the Union. Are they to cross the river? Evidently, for the command is +still "Forward, bear center, bear right." Then, square in front, where +the thick, broad leaves of the oak glitter in the sun, there is seen a +cylinder of steam-like smoke, with fiery gleams at the end, a crackling +explosion of a hogshead of fire-crackers, then a rushing, screaming +sound in their very faces, then a few rods behind a ringing, vicious +explosion. They are in the very teeth of a masked battery. The Union +skirmishers have been withdrawn too soon. The main line will be torn to +pieces, for retreat is as fatal as advance. + +"Lie down, men!" The command rings out and is echoed along the column. +The guns have the range, and the enemy knows the ground. The Caribees +are directly in the sweep of the artillery, and the command comes to +them by company to crawl backward, exposing themselves as little as may +be. Presently two brass guns are brought up behind the Caribees. The +gunners have noted the point of the enemy's fire. The men point the big +muzzles with intrepid equanimity, firing over the prostrate blue coats. +For twenty minutes, perhaps half an hour, this is kept up; then there is +silence on the hill beyond. The column rises to its feet, and at the +command, "Forward!" they start with a rush and a cheer. Five hundred +yards onward, and a solid mass of gray coats confront them. A volley is +fired and returned; the exulting Caribees, with two lines behind them, +give a loud cheer and, in an instant, the gray mass has disappeared, as +if the earth had opened. The skirmish-line, advancing now, picks up a +half-dozen or more wounded rebels, besides two or three who had become +confused in the hasty retreat and run toward the "Yankees" instead of +their own line. Jack's comrade held this conversation with one of the +prisoners: + +"I say, reb, what place is this?" + +"Mitchell's Ford." + +"Much of your army here?" + +"'Nuff to lick you uns out of your boots, I reckon." + +"What did they run across the ford for, then?" + +"Oh, you'll see soon enough--when our folks get ready." + +"Who's in command here?" + +"General Bonham, of South Carolina." + +"How many men, about?" + +"Well, there's right smart on to a million, I reckon. They had to cut +the trees down, yonder, to get room for 'em.". + +The man's eyes twinkled as he gave this precise approximation; but +Barney, who had brought the humorist in, whispered to the captain to let +him have a moment's speech with the man before he was sent away. The +captain nodded, and Barney said innocently: + +"Had anything to eat to-day?" + +"Not a mouthful. The trains were all taken up with soldiers coming from +Richmond." + +"Have a bit of beef--and here's a cracker or two. You can have some +coffee if the guards will let you make it." + +"Old Longstreet himself would envy me now," the rebel cried, his mouth +stuffed with the cold meat and hard-tack, almost as fresh and crisp as +soda-crackers, for the contractors had not yet learned the trick of +making them out of sawdust, white sand, and other inexpensive +substitutes for flour. + +"Longstreet?" Barney said, carelessly. + +"Yes, that's the commander of the right wing, just below, at Blackburn's +Ford." + +"Blackburn's Ford?" + +"Yes, that's a mile down, and really behind you uns, for the run makes a +big elbow to the east. I tell you what it is, Yank, you'll see snakes +right soon, for our folks are behind you." + +Sure enough, a crackling to the left confirmed this, and the captain, +who had listened to Barney's adroit cross-questioning, sent the man with +a note to Colonel Sherman, a few rods in the rear. Ten minutes later the +column fell into ranks again and moved off swiftly southeastward. A +march of a mile or so brought them to a bold ridge cutting down almost +aslant to the clear water of the run. The skirmishers, for some reason, +had not pushed ahead to explore the ground, and the regiments, marching +in close masses, came out in a rather disorderly multitude on the ridged +crest. A hundred yards nearly below the water-course was fringed with +thick copses of oak, and the gently ascending slopes on the western bank +were completely hidden from the Union lines. A few gaunt, almost +limbless trees rose up spectrally on the ridge, offering the compact +masses neither shelter from the sun nor security from the enemy--if +there were an enemy near. + +Dick came up to Jack out of breath with great news, just as the Caribees +were aligning themselves to move forward. + +"General Tyler just told Richardson"--a brigade commander--"that the +rebels had retreated from Manassas, and he (Tyler) is going to have the +glory of occupying the works: that McDowell thought the army would have +to fight a big battle to get--" + +"Glory!" the group shouted, near enough to hear; and the delightful +story ran up and down the lines by a telephone process that was much +swifter than Edison's electric invention. A roar of gratulatory triumph +broke--a roar so loud and inspiring that for a moment the densely packed +masses did not distinguish an ear-splitting outburst just in front of +them. But on the instant piercing shrieks among the huddled +cheerers--cries of death and agony--changed the paeans of triumph into +wails of anguish and mortal pain. A panic--instant, unreasoning, +irresistible--fell upon the mass, a breath before so confident. A third +of the regiment seemed to wither away. The colors fell in the struggling +group in the center. Hoarse shouts, indistinguishable and ominous, could +be vaguely heard from the staff and line. + +Direr still, hideous clamor of masked cannon, right in their very faces, +added the horror of surprise to the disorder of attack, and the thick +blue lines broke in irrestrainable confusion. The terror of the unknown +seized officers and men alike. In five minutes the crest was cleared, +and the ignoble vanity, ignorance, and self-sufficiency of one man had +undone in an hour the splendid work of the commander-in-chief. A _mêlée_ +of miserable, disgraceful disorder ensued. The rebel sharpshooters, +hurrying to the flank, poured in hurtling, murderous volleys, filling +the minds of the panic-stricken mob with the idea, the most awful that +can enter a soldier's mind, that his line is surrounded. Hundreds threw +away guns and everything that could impede flight. Other hundreds fired +wildly wherever they saw moving men, and thus aided the rebels in +killing their own comrades, for it was into the supporting Union forces +they directed their random shots. The fire grew every instant more +bewildering. Shots came in volleys from every direction, and the +helpless hordes darted wildly together--sometimes toward, instead of +from the enemy. Had the rebels been as numerous as they were crafty, the +brigade could have been seized _en masse_. But now Sherman is at hand +with fresh regiments, others are at his heels, and the contest takes on +some of the order of intelligent action. The rebels, too, are +re-enforced, but the dispositions made by the Union chiefs bring the +combat to equal terms. The clamor of cannon and musketry continues an +hour, though the lines are now among the friendly undergrowth, and the +losses are not serious. But the Caribees, with the regiment supporting +them, have been blotted from the scene as a factor. For hours the +scattering groups fled--fled in ever-increasing panic, and it was long +after dark before the remnants of the regiment came into camp at +Centreville. + +Poor Jack! He gave no heed to supper that dreadful night. He threw +himself on the ground, too exhausted to think and too disheartened to +talk. He couldn't understand the shameful panic. The Caribees were not +cowards; every man in the regiment had longed for the battle. When under +fire at Mitchell's Ford, an hour earlier than the disaster at Blackburn, +all had stood firmly in place, fought with coolness, and gave no sign of +fear. The volume of fire when they broke was not much greater than the +Mitchell's Ford volleys. During the night Grandison came to camp and +assembled the officers. He expressed his sorrow at the sudden shadow +that had fallen on the fair fame of the regiment, but since the panic +had not been followed, as such outbreaks often are, by the total +destruction of the men, there would be abundant chance to redeem the +disgrace of the day. He had himself begged the division commander to +give the men another trial, and he had staked his commission on their +doing such duty as would remove the tarnish of the afternoon from +their banners. + +The officers had been dispirited. Major Mike had raged over the field, +through the woods, a very angry man indeed, belaboring the fleeing men +with his sword and imploring those he couldn't reach to "come to me +here. Dress on me. There's no call to be afeard. We've more men than +they have, and we'll soon wallop them." + +But the resounding blows on the backs of those near the officer did not +give the encouraging emphasis to his appeal that captivates men whose +reasoning faculties are almost gone for the moment. Before daylight on +the next morning--Saturday, the 20th--the companies were called together +and little addresses were made to the men by the officers. The substance +of Colonel Grandison's words was imparted, and the hope expressed that +when, in the course of that or the next day the regiment was again under +fire, they would show that the panic of yesterday had not been +cowardice. The men said nothing, and every one was glad that the light +was so dim that the officers could not look in their faces, though, as a +matter of fact, the shoulder-straps had shown as little fortitude as the +muskets in the dispersion. All that day the forces rested, the Caribees +providing themselves with new arms and equipments, or the two or three +hundred who had flung their own away. During the afternoon an incident +happened in the division that lessened the mortification of the +Caribees. A splendid regiment and a battery of bronze guns came into the +highway from the extreme of the line that was expected to take part in +the battle which all knew would be opened the next morning. Every one +was surprised to see the men moving without muskets and the colors +wrapped in their cases. "Where you bound for?" some one at the roadside +yelled curiously. + +"Our time is out; we're going home." + +Then a derisive howl followed the line as it passed through the masses +of the army, and remarks of an acrid nature were made that were not +gratifying to the departing patriots: + +"Don't you want a guard to protect you?" + +"Does your mamma know you're out alone?" + +"Wait till to-morrow and we'll send Beauregard's forces to see you safe +home." + +The men and officers looked very conscious and uncomfortable under the +gamut of jeers, for word went along the line, and all along the route to +the rear they passed through this clamor of contemptuous outcry. + +"Well, I thought we had reached the eminent deadly pinnacle of +disgrace," Barney said, with a sigh, as a group of Company K watched the +considerable number taken out of McDowell's small army, "but this sight +makes me feel like the man on trial for murder who escapes with a +verdict of manslaughter." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BLOOD AND IRON. + + +Late at night Dick came down to Jack's bivouac with a strange tale. +McDowell had come to Tyler's quarters storming with rage. He had accused +that officer of disobeying orders in forcing a fight on the fords of +Bull Run where he had been told to merely reconnoitre. + +The staff believed that Tyler would be cashiered, for he had not only +wrecked the general's plan of battle, but he had given the rebels the +secret of the movement and demoralized one wing of the army by putting +raw soldiers in front of masked batteries that could have been detected +by proper outpost work. Then one of the staff reported a speech Tyler +had made when his troops rushed over the empty rebel breastworks and +forts around Centreville. His officers were discussing the probable +forces Beauregard had behind the crooked stream beyond. + +"I believe we've got them on the run," Tyler said, exultingly, "from +what we see here. I tell you the great man of this war is the man that +plants the flag at Manassas, and I'm going through to Richmond +to-night." + +"Not much comfort in knowing we've got such a fool for a commander," +Jack cried, thinking of the disgrace of the day before and of the small +chance the regiment had under such a chief to redeem its prestige on the +morrow. All personal griefs, everything but the pending battle, were +driven from the men's minds as the signs of the momentous work of the +morrow accumulated. The hospital corps was up in force. The yellow flag +floated from an immense tent near the roadway. A great _cortége_ of +general officers rode away from McDowell's quarters about ten in the +evening. The haversacks were filled with three days' cooked rations. One +hundred rounds of ammunition to a man were dealt out to each company. +Everything not absolutely necessary was ordered to the company wagons. + +The talk in the camp that night was of home--of anything and everything +but the dreadful to-morrow, so long looked forward to with eager hope, +now regarded with uncertainty that was not so much fear as the memory of +the panic at Blackburn's Ford. Jack was provided with a large atlas map +of Virginia, and with the bits of information given by Dick he was able +to conjecture the probable plan of the next day. The cronies of Company +K listened in delight to his exposition of the action. + +"Here," he said, "is the Bull Run. It makes two big elbows eastward +toward us--one about four miles to the northwest of us, the other about +eight miles to the southeast of that, and about four miles from our +right hand here! The rebel we quizzed yesterday says that there are five +fords between the Warrenton pike bridge--that's just ahead of us yonder +at the end of the road we are on--the last one is McLean's Ford, at the +very knuckle of the elbow that is crooked toward us a mile west of where +we were yesterday. That is near the railway, which it is Beauregard's +business to fight for and our business to get, for then he will have to +fall back near Richmond to feed his army. Now from the railway where it +crosses Bull Run near Mitchell's Ford to the Warrenton road, which +Beauregard must also hold, is about nine miles. He must guard all these +fords, and we must fight for any one or two of them that we need to +cross by. The only problem is, whether our general is going to strike +with his right arm at Mitchell's Ford, his left arm at this very +Warrenton road we are on, or whether he means to butt the middle of the +line of Beauregard's battle to break him into two pieces?" + +"What would Frederick the Great or Napoleon do?" Nick asked, absorbed in +Jack's confident predications. + +"If Frederick had equal forces he would have a reserve just where we +shall be in the morning--there at that point marked 'Stone Ridge,' and +move a heavy mass to the southwest below McLean's Ford there, where you +see the railway runs along the run for a half-mile or more. Or he would +send this body to the northeast, over there where you see Sudley Springs +marked in rather large letters, and he would by either one of these +movements turn the enemy's flank--that is, get in behind him and force +him to change front to fight, something that is rarely done successfully +in battle. Napoleon would, on the contrary, mass all his best troops at +the stone bridge, open the fight with every piece of artillery he could +bring to bear, and in the panic send divisions ten deep across +the bridge." + +"Which would be the better plan?" + +"Ah! that no one can say. The first is sure enough and less dangerous, +if the commander is not certain of his men, because you notice that we +felt excellent and confident all day, so long as we were marching +forward and pushing the enemy from our path. The trial in battle is to +be kept standing under fire, not sure where your enemy is; and then you +noticed that our own guns behind us, sending shot and shells over us, +were just as trying as the rebels'. Only soldiers of the very first +class can be depended on in the Napoleon tactics. We are not soldiers of +the first class; and you may be sure McDowell, who was many years in +Europe, and who is a trained officer, will make use of the manoeuvres +best calculated to bring out whatever there is in his men. As a matter +of opinion, I should say that, in view of the miserable affair on the +right yesterday, he will strike out for Sudley Springs, where we shall +have the rebels just as you would have me if you were at my side, held +my left arm behind me, ready to break my back with your knee planted +in it." + +Jack was sergeant of the guard that night, and it was in the group of +sentries awaiting their relief every two hours, re-enforced by his +tent-mates of Company K, that these learned dissertations on war were +carried on. It was a never to be forgotten Saturday night to millions +yet living. In Washington the President and his Cabinet sat far into the +morning hours receiving the dispatches from the weary and disappointed +chief--for, if Tyler had not made his miserable attempt to reach +Manassas, the battle would have been fought that vital Saturday, and the +result would have been another story in history. As the morning broke, +red and murky, the army was up and in line, but without the usual noisy +signals. The artillery-horses began to move first wherever it was +possible. The heavy guns were pushed forward on the sward, to prevent +the loud metallic clangor that penetrated the still air like clashing +anvils. By half after six, the advance brigade, the Caribees in their +old place, were within gunshot of the stone bridge. + +"Ah ha, Jack! It is the Napoleonic plan!" Barney cried, as the artillery +took places in front of the masses lying on the ground. + +"Wait," Jack cried, owlishly. "The battle isn't fought always where the +guns are loudest." + +But the guns were now loud and quick. The rebels, behind a thick screen +of trees, took up the challenge, and every sound was drowned in the roar +of the artillery. A few far in the rear were wounded--those nearest the +rebels were in the least danger, whether because the guns could not be +sufficiently depressed, or because the gunners were poor hands, couldn't +be determined. A breathless suspense, an insatiate craving to see, to +move, to fly forward, or do anything, devoured the prostrate ranks. The +firing had gone on two hours or more, which seemed only so many minutes, +when to the group near General Tyler a courier, panting and dusty, rode +in great excitement. + +"General Tyler, the major-general has just learned that the enemy have +crossed in force at Blackburn's Ford, below you. You are at once to take +measures to protect your left flank." + +"Ah ha, Jack; Frederick's on the other side, eh?" Barney said, as, +standing near the group, these words reached their ears. + +"Perhaps there are two Fredericks at work. Look yonder!" handing him his +glass as he spoke. + +"Thunder! our whole army is marching over there to the right, and we +sha'n't even see the battle. They are four miles off. Why, what an +immense army we must have! I thought this was the bulk of it, but we're +not a brigade compared to that." + +"Now, Barney, I feel confident that is the grand movement. Look how they +fly along! The fields are as good as roads out there, and if it were not +for the artillery they could make five miles an hour. Now, keep your +ears open, my lad: you'll hear music off there to the northwest, music +that will make Beauregard sick, if that courier's information is exact. +For, don't you see, as we are placed here, with that gully to our left +and the thick woods in front, we could hold this ground against six +times our number." + +Company K were now sent forward to the right to relieve a body of +skirmishers that had been hidden on the margin of Bull Run, some +distance to the westward of the stone bridge. Jack, going forward with +his glass, noticed an officer among the men, but not catching sight of +his face did not recognize him. + +"Is that a rebel or one of our fellows?" one of the men said, pointing +to a horseman disappearing in the woods four hundred yards to the right +and in front of the company, marching in a straggling line two abreast, +"by the flank," as it is called. Jack took his glass to discover, but +the rider had disappeared. An instant after from a knoll, Jack, glass at +eye, was examining eagerly the field on the other side of the river, +when a horseman suddenly shot into view, riding desperately. + +"By George, it is the same man! I wonder how he crossed the stream? +There must be a bridge down there among those thick trees and bushes," +Jack said, excitedly. + +"Are you sure, sergeant, that is the same man that was in the woods to +the right there, five minutes ago?" + +Jack turned; the officer was at his shoulder. He saluted respectfully, +recognizing, with a thrill of joy, old Red Top, as the company +called Sherman. + +"Yes, colonel, it's the same man. He was in his shirtsleeves and had a +blue scarf tied about his arm. There can be no mistake; several of us +saw him quite plainly." + +"If that be true, we've gained a half-day's work in two minutes." He was +looking diligently through the glass as he spoke, and his eye brightened +as he marked the man until he disappeared. He turned to an orderly that +was following at a distance leading a horse. Mounting this lightly the +colonel rode to the head of the company and said in a short, +decisive tone: + +"Come ahead men, at a double-quick, until you strike the stream." He +kept beside the men as they moved. In fifteen minutes they were at the +water's edge. Then the company was deployed as skirmishers, two thirds +halting where they struck the water and the rest keeping on up the bank +of the river for a few hundred yards. Sherman was eying every inch of +the bank until, suddenly reaching a break where fresh tracks of a horse +were visible, he directed his orderly to follow, and plunged into the +water. It was not up to the horses' knees from bank to bank. Riding +back, his face aglow, the colonel ordered the captain to cross half his +men and station them up and down on the bank where they would not be +seen by the rebels on the high ground above. Then, addressing Jack, +he said: + +"Sergeant, select two or three trusty men. Follow the bank of the stream +until you come to General Hunter's division, which may be a mile, +perhaps more, to the right yonder; you can tell by the firing soon. Tell +General Hunter that we have discovered a ford and shall not have to +fight for the stone bridge. We shall be across in no time and take the +enemy in the rear. If you can't find Hunter, give this intelligence to +any officer in command. Stay." + +He scribbled a line on a sheet of his order-book, saying: "This will be +your authority. It's better not to write the rest for fear you should be +captured. In case you are in danger tell each man with you what to say, +so that there will be more chances of getting the information where it +will do good; and remember, sergeant, that this news in Hunter's hands +will be almost equivalent to victory. Ah!" + +He paused again. Reverberating crashes came from the high grounds up the +river. "You will have no trouble in finding him now. Those are Hunter's +guns. Hurry." + +Glowing, grateful, big with the fate of the battle, Jack had Barney, +Nick, and another, whom he charged with the duty of historian, detailed +for this duty of glory. The group set off with a fervent Godspeed from +the company sheltered among the thick pines and oaks. + +"Now, boys," Jack said, every inch the captain, "we must spread out like +skirmishers. Our chief danger will be from the left, as no one will be +likely to be in the water but our own men, and we must look as sharply +for them as for the enemy. I will take the center; you, Barney, the +left, next to me; and you, Nick, four paces farther to the left." Jack +looked at his watch. It was just 9.30, Sunday morning, July 21, 1861. +The crash of musketry ahead now became one unbroken roar, with a +_crescendo_ of artillery that fairly shook the ground the messengers +were darting over, for all were on a dead run. The bushes grew thick on +the hillside and their branches were stubborn as crab thorns. Hell, as +Barney afterward remarked, would have been cool in comparison to the +heat as the adventurers tugged and wrestled forward. Now guns were +roaring on every side save the river. Behind, before, to the left, the +thunders played upon the parched land. At the end of a half-hour the +bullets and shells passed over the group as Jack and his squad pushed +along the hilly way. Twice, commands, and even the clicking, of what +Jack knew must be rebel guns sounded not twenty paces away, but, thanks +to the thick bushes, the scouts passed unseen, and, thanks to the noise +of battle, unheard. But now the danger is from friends, not enemies. +Balls come hurtling through the trees across the stream, and in a low +voice Jack bids Barney summon Nick. Then all slip down to the water's +edge, and make their way painfully through the marshy swamps, the +cane-like rushes that fill the narrow valley. The run has been a fearful +strain upon Nick, and at length he falls, gasping, in a clump of +cat-tails. + +"What is it, old fellow?" Jack cries in alarm. + +"O Jack! I can't go a step farther. You go on and leave me. I shall +follow when I get breath." + +He was white and gasping. Barney filled his canteen from the running +water, and, wetting his handkerchief, laid it on Nick's parboiled head +and temples. + +"Best a few minutes," Jack said, soothingly. "I will reconnoitre a bit." +Stripping off his accoutrements, he clasped a tall sycamore growing at +the crest of the ravine, and when far up brought his glass to bear. A +third of a mile to the left and southward, he could see a regiment with +a flag bearing a single star, surrounding a small stone farm-house on +the brow of a gentle hill. They were firing to the west and toward the +north, where the black clouds obscured his view. But the red gleam in +the smoke told of at least a dozen guns, and he knew that the main +battle was there, though the fury of it reached far to the east, near +the stone bridge which he had quit an hour before. Then through the veil +of smoke long, deep masses of blue emerge and make for the rebel front +on the brow of the hill, fairly at Jack's feet; the enemy redoubles the +fire; two guns at their left pour canister into the advancing wall of +blue. It never wavers, but, as a group falls to the earth, the rest +close together and the mass whirls on. + +Jack feels like flying. Oh, the grandeur of it, the fearlessness, the +intoxication! He almost falls from the tree in his excitement. But he +takes a last sweep of the belching hill. Hark! Loud cheers in the trees +back of the rebels, far to the southeast, perhaps a mile and a half; +then the flaunting Palmetto flag flying forward in the center of deep +masses of gray. Which will reach the hill first? He can not quit the +deadly sight. Ah! the blue lines are pressing on now; the cannon-shots +pass over their heads into the devoted line of gray, desperately +thinned, but clinging to the key of the battle-field. But, great God! +Perhaps his delay is aiding the enemy. He sees the route now +clear--straight to the west--and no rebels near enough to intervene. He +descends so fast that his hands and legs are blistered, but he is down. + +"Look sharp, boys; you must follow me as best you can. I know the +route--there is a forest path directly to our lines, and we shall be +there in twenty minutes--I shall, at least." He doesn't stop to see +whether he is followed or not, but dashes on, and the rest after him. He +is far out of sight in an instant. It is only by the crackling of the +branches that the others keep his course. The way is between steep, +precipitous hills, which explains how they could be so near the battle +and yet not in it, nor harmed by the missiles flying sometimes very near +them. At a deep branch of the stream the three rearmost came in sight of +Jack, up to his armpits in water and pushing for the shore. + +While they are hailing him exultantly he sinks out of sight; an awful +anguish almost stops the others, but Barney, flinging his musket and +impediments off as he runs, leaps far into the stream, and when the rest +reach the spot he has Jack by the hair, dragging him to the bank. He is +fairly worn out by the stress, and the others loosen his coat, stretch +him on the brown sward and rub his hands, his body. It is ten minutes, +it seemed an hour, before he is able to get up, and the rest insist on +carrying his accoutrements. Then the wild race is begun again, every +instant bringing them nearer the pandemonium of battle. Suddenly the +sharp commands of officers are heard in front and to the left. Is it the +enemy, or is it friends? The group halts in an agony of doubt. How can +they find out? Barney takes out his handkerchief and puts it on his gun, +which he was careful to go back and recover when Jack was on the bank. A +ray of bright red suddenly flits above the thick tops of the scrub-oaks. + +Yes, God be praised, there is the flag of stars, and there are blue +uniforms! With a wild hurrah, drowned in the musketry to the left, they +rush forward, are halted by a picket guard, exhibit Sherman's order, and +are directed to the commanding-officer. That personage has no knowledge +of General Hunter's whereabouts, but Colonel Andrew Porter is just +beyond, commanding the brigade. To him Jack makes known Sherman's +message, and is directed farther to the southwest, the Union right now +facing nearly to the east in the execution of McDowell's admirable flank +manoeuvre. + +Now among their own, Sherman's couriers run more peril than when +skirting the edge of the battle, for the shells are directed at the line +they are pursuing. They push to the rear and continue southeastward, +where Hunter's headquarters are supposed to be. But Jack is easy on the +score of his mission, since the general, who is nearest the stone +bridge, has been apprised, and well knows that the fire which has been +coming near his left flank is Sherman's. Until, however, he has executed +his orders literally Jack won't be satisfied, and plunges on, the others +following, nothing loath. But it is a way of pain for the lads now. +Every step they come upon the dead and dying. The air is filled with +moaning men, whinnying horses, the hurried movement of stretchers, the +solemn solicitude of the hospital corps. The line of foremost battle is +less terrifying, less trying than this inner way of Golgotha, and the +four are well-nigh unnerved when they reach a group where the commanding +officer has been pointed out. + +"General Hunter?" Jack says, addressing an officer with a star. + +"My name is Franklin. General Hunter was wounded an hour ago. What's the +matter?" + +Jack gave his message, and Franklin said, cheerfully: "That's good news. +You're a very brave fellow. Go a few yards in the rear yonder and you'll +find General McDowell. He'll enjoy your message." + +On the hill they halt electrified. + +Thick copses of scrub-pine dot the gently sloping sward. Here and there +clumps of tall pines stand in the bare, brown sod as if to guard the +young outshoots clustering about them in wanton dispersion. Cow-paths, +marked only by the worn edges of the bushes, run in zigzags across the +hillside and up to the plateau. The remnants of rail fences strew the +ground here and there. The low roof of the farm-house can be seen far +back even from the depression, where the lines of blue are now resting a +brief, deadly half-hour. + +The sun is now behind the halted line of blue; the bayonets, catching +the light, make a sea of liquid, mirror-like rivulets hovering in the +air, with the bushy branches of pine rising like green isles in the +shimmering tide. The men are filling their cartridge-boxes; new +regiments are gliding into the gaps where death has cut the widest +swath. From the woods, cries, groans, commands, clashing steel as the +men hustle against each other in the rush into line, prelude the Vulcan +clamor soon to begin. Men, bent, sometimes crawling, with stretchers on +their shoulders, glide through the maimed and shrieking fragments of +bodies, picking out here and there those seeming capable of carriage. +Other men, prone on their faces, hold canteens of tepid, muddy +water--but ah! a draught to the feverish lips which seems godlike +nectar. Against the stout bodies of the trees, armless men, legless +trunks, the maimed in every condition of death's fantastic sport, hold +themselves limply erect, to gain succor or save some of the vital stream +pouring from their gaping wounds. + +Couriers dash up to the impassive chief, calm-eyed, keen, alert, +surveying the line, dispatching brief commands, receiving reports. It is +Franklin. With the air of a marshal on a civic pageant, perplexed only +by some geometrical problem denying the possibility of two right lines +on the same plane, he glances upward toward the brow of the plateau. The +four flags had been increased by half a dozen. Ah, they have received +aid! A tremendous crash comes from the left. That must be Sherman. He is +on the rebel rear. One strong pull, and the two bodies will be united, +his left arm reaching Sherman's right. The shining mirage of steel above +the green isle sinks. The clash of hurtling accoutrements comes up +musically, tranquilly from the low ground. The blue mass, first +deliberately, then in a quiet, regular run, passes like a moving +barricade up the sloping hillside. Then from one end of the long wall to +the other white puffs as of some monster breathing spasmodically. + +The air is a blur of sulphurous blackness. The bullets are as thick as +if a swarm of leaden locusts had been routed from the foliage, and taken +wing hillward. Then behind, through the gaps in the trees, big, whining, +screeching swarms of another caliber shells fly over the wall of blue. +In a moment the ground of the plateau is torn, the red clay flying far +into the air. But now the blue wall is girdling the very crest of the +hill; it stops, shrivels. Long gaps are cut in its broken surface. The +hillside is dotted with sprawling figures. The crest is a ragged edge of +writhing bodies and struggling limbs. Forward! The wall is advancing, +but shorter. It is within reach of the shining guns--spouting flame and +iron in the very face of the dauntless wall. Then there is a pause. The +smoke hides everything but the maimed and quivering heaps that strive to +crawl backward, back to the crest, back to the deeps that are not rest +nor security. The hillside is like a field, covered with sheaved +grain--with a thousand mangled bodies that had been men. + +Then to these wrestling specters--for in the dim smoke and Tartarean +atmosphere the actions of loading and aiming take the shape of huge +writhing, convulsing, monstrous, grappling--come quick-moving lines of +help. They rush through them, over them. The thirteen cannon behind the +struggling hydra of gray seem one vortex--sulphurous, flaming, spitting, +as from one vast mouth, scorching fire, huge mouthfuls of granite venom. +Back--back, the gray masses break in sinuous, definite, slow-yielding +disruption. + +Then a sudden inrush from the left of the broken gray, where smoke and +space play fantastic tricks with the sunshine. Miraculously a dark mass +is projected on the shimmering spectrum, and a ringing voice is heard: + +"We are saved; we are re-enforced. We will die here!" Then high above +the din, in the exultant tumult of the deadly won ground, the nearest in +blue hear a stentorian voice--grim, deliberate, exultant: + +"Look where Jackson stands like a stone-wall! At them, men! Let us +determine to die here, and we will conquer." + +Die he did, when the yelling horde in the sudden outrush grazed the edge +of the Union besom sweeping over the plain in a rush of death. Then +behind these spectral shapes came others--thousands--with wild, fierce +shouts. The blue mass is thinned to a single line. Men in command look +anxiously to the rear. Where is Burnside? Where are the twelve thousand +men whom Hunter and Heintzelman deployed in these woods two hours since? +Back, slowly, fiercely, but backward, the slender wall of blue is +forced; not defeated, but not victorious. All this Jack sees, and he +turns heartsick from the sight. + +When the straggling couriers reached the point designated as McDowell's +headquarters, he had gone to the eastward of the line, and, faithful to +the command given him, Jack set out with Barney, leaving the others to +deliver the message in case he missed the general. They emerged +presently on the edge of a plateau, whence nearly the whole battle could +be seen. Jack climbed a tall oak to reconnoitre the ground for McDowell, +but, as his glass revealed the battling lines, he shouted to Barney to +climb for a moment, to impress the frightful yet grandiose spectacle +upon his mind. Far off toward the stone bridge, now a mile or more +northeast of them, they could see the Union flags waving, and mark the +white puffs of smoke that preceded the booming of the cannon. Every +instant the clouds of smoke came southward, where the rebel lines were +concealed by the thick copses. But they were breaking--always breaking +back anew. In twenty minutes more, at the same rate, the hill upon which +the rebel lines nearest the tree held the Union right at bay would be +surrounded on two sides. + +This, for the moment, was a sulphurous crater, the fire-belching demons, +invisible in the smoke. Through the glass Jack could see the lines +clearly--or the smoke arising above them. The enemy had been pushed back +nearly two miles since he had left Colonel Sherman a few rods above the +stone bridge. The Union force, as marked by the veil of smoke, curved, +about the foemen, a vast crescent, seven miles or more from tip to tip. +The bodies opposing were scattered like a gigantic staircase, with the +angles of the steps confronting each other step by step. But now the +Union ranks at Jack's feet rush forward; a group of riders are coming to +the tree, and Jack descends hastily to meet the general. He is again +disappointed. It is not McDowell. At a loss what to do, he salutes one +of the officers and states his case, recognizing, as he turns, +General Franklin. + +"I don't see that you can do better than remain where you are, or, still +better, push to the brow of that hill yonder and act as a picket. In +case you see any force approaching from this side, which is not likely, +give warning. Our cavalry ought to be here, but it isn't. If you are +called to account when the battle is done, give me as your authority. I +take it your brigade will be around here pretty soon, if they make as +rapid work all the way as they have made since eleven o'clock. If the +cavalry come, you can report to the nearest officer for assignment." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE LEGIONS OF VARUS. + + +The two free lances set out now, relieved of all responsibility, and +determined to watch the open fields and woods to see that this part of +the field was not surprised. The hill to which the general had directed +them was farther from the battle than they had yet been, but the work +going on to the northeast showed that this would soon be the western +edge of the combat if Sherman continued advancing. They are soon on the +hill, and Jack posts himself in a tree with his glass. There is a lull +in the quarter they have just quit. The smoke rolls away, and now he can +see streams of gray-coats hurrying to the edge of the plateau, where, +two hours before, he had encountered Porter's brigade. Can it be +possible that Porter's troops do not see these on-rushing hordes? They +are moving on the right point of the crescent, and unless the Union +commander is alert they will break in on the back of the point; for +Jack, without knowing it, was virtually in the rebel lines--that is, he +was nearer the rebel left flank, the foot of the long, bow-shaped +staircase, than he was to the tip of the Union crescent. + +But no! The Stars and Stripes fly forward; they are on the very crest +whence the defiant guns spat upon them. But now the smoke covers +everything. Then there is a calm. The ground is clear again. The gray +masses are pouring up to the crest in still greater numbers; a large +body of them march down the hill in the rear of the Union line concealed +by the woods; they march right up to the ranks where the red-barred flag +is flying! What can it mean? Neither side fires. There must surely be +some mistake. Hark! now the blue line discovers--too late--that the mass +is the enemy, and half the line withers in the point-blank discharge. +They are swept from the ground. Jack is trembling--demoniac. The gray +mass springs forward; they have seized the guns--four of them--and turn +them upon the disappearing blue. Then a hoarse shout of delirious +triumph. The guns are lost; the day is lost, for now there are no +blue-coats in sight. But no! A still wilder shout--electrifying, +stentorian--comes across the plateau. The blue mass reappears; they come +with a wild rush in well-ordered array; they are the regulars, Jack can +tell by their movements. It must be the famous Rickett's battery he saw +at Centreville in the morning. In five minutes the tale was retold, and +the guns, snatched from the worsted gray-coats, are safe in the hands of +their masters. Again the smoke obscures the picture; again it clears +away, and now the gray are in greater force than before, and the +horseless batteries are again the prize of this rapacious grapple. +Swarming in from three sides, the gray again hold the contested pieces. +The blue vanish into the thick bushes. Another irruption, another pall +of smoke, and Jack's heart bounds in exultant joy, for he sees the New +York flag in the van. Sherman has reached the point of dispute. But +alas! the guns are run back, and as the gray lines sway rearward in +billowy, regular measure, they retain the Titanically contested trophies. + +The sun is now far beyond the meridian. The Union lines are closing up +compactly. One more such grapple as the last and the broad plateau where +the rebel artillery is massed, pointing westward, northward, eastward, +will be won. But a palsy seems to have settled on the lines of blue. +They are motionless, while their adversaries are hurrying men from some +secret place, where they seem to be inexhaustible. The whole battle is +now within the compass of a mile. But where can these hordes come from? +Surely, General McDowell has never been mad enough to leave them +disengaged along the fords! No; they do not come from that direction. +They come at the very center of the rebel rear. Can it be that troops +are arriving from Richmond? The Southern lines are longer than the +Northern, but they have been since the first moment Jack got a glimpse +of them. He could see, too, that they were thinner: that on the spur of +the plateau in front of the massed rebel artillery a single brigade was +holding the Union mass at bay. He can almost hear the rebel commands as +the re-enforcements pour in. But now the thunder breaks out anew, rolls +in vengeful fury around the western and northern base of the plateau. +The gray lines stagger; the falling men block the steps of the living. +Surely now McDowell is going to do or die. Yes. The iron game goes on; +the blue lines jostle and crush forward. They are at the last wall of +resistance. But what is the sound at his very feet? As Jack looks down +in the narrow way between the hill he is on and the plateau on the very +edge of the Union line--in fact, behind it now, for it has moved forward +since he took post--a rushing mass of gray-clad soldiery is moving +forward on the dead run. In one instant the head of the column is where +General Franklin rode but an hour or two before. He looks for Barney. He +can see him nowhere. He climbs down in haste and discovers his comrade +soundly sleeping against the base of the tree. + +"Barney, the army is ruined!" + +"Is the battle over?" + +"Oh, no, no, but it will be in a moment. Hark, hear that!" + +A roar of musketry--it seemed at their very feet. Then an outbreak of +yells, so sharp, so piercing, so devilish the sound, that the marrow +froze in their veins, arose, as if from the whole thicket about them. + +"Is it too late to warn General Franklin?" Barney asked, trembling. + +"Ah, Barney, we are as bad as traitors; we ought to have seen these +rebels before they got near. If we had done our duty this would never +have happened. Perhaps it is not too late to get back. Let me go up and +see where we can find a way without running into the enemy." + +Reaching his perch again, Jack cast his despairing eyes toward the fatal +hill. It was now clear of smoke, and there wasn't a regiment left on it. +His heart leaped for an instant, the next it was lead, for the ranks +that had disappeared were down on the brow of the hill--in the valley-- +rushing forward, unresisted, the red and blue of the Union, mixed with +the stars and bars of the rebellion; but, worse than all, the ranks of +gray were sweeping in overwhelming masses quite behind the lines of +blue, cutting them down as a scythe when near the end of the furrow. To +the eastward Sherman still clung desperately to the crests he had won, +but Jack saw with agony that, slipping between him and the river, a +great wedge of gray was hurrying forward. His last despairing glance +caught a body of jet black horses galloping wildly into the dispersing +ranks of blue. He came down from the tree limp, nerveless, unmanned. + +"Well?" Barney asked. + +"It's all over--we are ruined!" + +"The army, you mean?" + +"Ah, yes! the army and we too." + +"But what's going to become of us?" + +"I don't much care what becomes of us--at least I don't care what +becomes of me!" + +"But if we don't get back to our regiment, they'll think we're +deserters." + +"Good God, yes! I forgot that; I think I can find the way back. But +we'll have to be careful, the enemy are all around us. I can hear them +plainly, very near. Follow me, and don't speak above a whisper." + +Then, with swift movement, always as near the thick bushes as they could +push, they fled faster and faster, as fear fell more and more heavily +upon their quickened fancies. The thought of the repute of deserters +lent them endurance, or they must have broken down before the weary +shiftings of that dreadful flight. They are now near the spot where they +had met Porter's pickets in the morning. The sounds of battle had died +out at intervals, renewed now and again by an outcry of cheers, a quick +fusillade, then more cheers, and then an ominous silence. But now there +is a continuous roll of musketry near the knoll, back of the Warrenton +road. The two wanderers, breathless, with torn uniforms, swollen faces, +halt, gasping, to take their bearings. They can see the turnpike far +beyond the stone bridge half-way to Centreville: they see crowds fleeing +in zigzag lines over the open fields, see horses plunging wildly, laden +down by two and even three men on their backs; they see vehicles +overturned at the roadside, whence the horses have been cut or killed by +the rebel shells; they see an army, in every sense a mob, swarming +behind the deserted rebel forts; they see orderly ranks of shining black +horses this side the stone bridge charging the fleeing lines of blue; +they see shells whirling like huge blackbirds in the sky, suddenly +falling among the skurrying thousands; they see a shell finally burst on +the bridge, shiver a caisson to fragments, and then all sign of +organized flight comes to an end. + +But near them, meanwhile, a sullen fire replies with desperate +promptitude to the rebel shots. + +"If we can get over to the men fighting at the edge of the woods, we may +be killed or captured, but we won't be disgraced!" Jack cries. + +Again they make a wide circuit through the woods, and now the firing is +near at hand, coming slowly toward them. They have only to wait and they +will be among the forlorn hope. Ah, with what fervent joy Jack marks the +Union banner, flapping its twin streamers among the hurtling pines! They +are near it; they are under it! Their own guns are no longer available; +hundreds are lying at hand; they seize them. The line is firing in +retreat. It is a sadly depleted battalion of Keyes's regulars, +steadfast, imperturbable, devoted. A handful of them has been forgotten +or misdirected. The rebels, uncertain whether it was not a trap to snare +them, move with caution, while far to the left a turning column is +hurrying to hem the Union group in on every side. There are hardly three +hundred blue-coats in the mass, but their volleys are so swift, so +regular, so steady, that they make the impression of a thousand. The +enemy felt sure, as was afterward learned, that there was at least +a regiment. + +A young captain, soiled, ragged, his sleeves hanging in ribbons, the +whole skirt of his coat gone, moves alertly, composedly in the center, +seizing a gun when one comes handy on the ground, where there are plenty +scattered. + +"Steady, men, steady! We shall be at the water's edge, soon, and then we +can give them hell!" + +Never music sounded sweeter in Jack's car than that jaunty epithet +"hell"! How inspiring! How little of the ordinary association the word +brought up! Now they were traversing slowly the very ground Jack and his +comrades had flown over in the morning. Still firing--still working with +all his heart in the deadly play, Jack sidles to the officer and +cries out: + +"Captain, I know a ford that will take us across above the stone bridge. +We discovered it this morning. Shall I guide that way?" + +"Guide if you can; but fire like seven devils, above all!" the captain +cried, seizing two or three pouches lying in a mass and emptying the +cartridges into his pockets. + +"There, keep to the left sharp, and we shall come to a deep gully where +the water is only knee-deep," Jack cries, also replenishing his +cartridge-box, which had shrunk under the rapid work of the last +half-hour. + +"What regiment are you, sergeant?" the captain cries, looking for a +moment at the tattered recruit. + +"Caribees of New York, Sherman's brigade." + +"And how came you off here? Your brigade was near the right of the line +at the stone budge." The captain asked this with a shade of suspicion in +his voice. + +Jack explained his mission, and the officer, who had been dealing out +the timely windfall of ammunition, nodded. + +"Poor Hunter was shot early in the advance. It would have been victory +to our flag if the poor old follow had been wounded before the action +began. He lost three hours in the attack, and gave the rebels a chance +to come up from Winchester." + +Now Jack understood the mysterious legions that seemed to spring from +the earth. They were Johnston's army from the Shenandoah. + +"Keep up heart, men: Burnside and Schenck are near us somewhere. They +are in reserve, and they'll give these devils a warm welcome, if they +push far enough after us." + +Then the steady volleys grew swifter, if that were possible, the enemy +moving steadily after the slowly retiring group. But now there is a +clear field to cross, so wide that the smallness of the force must be +detected. The captain halts the line, takes his bearings, divides the +little army into two bodies, orders one to move at a double-quick +directly across the open; the rest are stretched out as skirmishers. He +retires with the first squad across the field, directing the skirmishers +to hold the ground until they hear three musket-shots from the wood +behind. The rebels can now be seen closing in very near. But the +skirmish-line, spreading over a wider front, evidently perplexes them, +and they halt. The three shots are presently heard, then the +skirmish-line flees in groups across the bare downs, the vociferating +yells of the gray-coats fairly drowning the hideous clamor of +the muskets. + +"Ah! we're saved," a lieutenant cries, waving his cap like a madman. +"Look! there are men in the wood yonder, to our right; they are coming +this way!" + +Jack turned, he was near the captain; and he marked, with deadly panic, +a look of despair settle down on the heroic, handsome face. What could +it mean? Didn't he believe that there were men there? Jack handed him +his own glass--the captain had none. + +"By Heaven, our flag! But what troops can they be in that quarter? They +must be surrounded, like ourselves.--Sergeant, can you undertake a +dangerous duty?" + +"With all my heart," Jack cried, heartily. + +"What's your name and company?" + +"John Sprague, Caribees, Company K." + +"Slip around the edge of the skirt of bushes. You'll be within an arm's +length of the enemy all the way. Reach the place where we saw those men +a moment since. When you get there, if they are friendly, fire a shot. +Here, take this pistol. Fire that; I shall recognize it from the +musketry. If they are the enemy, fire all the barrels as fast as you can +and retreat. You run great danger; you can only by a miracle escape +capture; but it is our only resource for the next charge. We must +surrender or die," he added, looking wofully at the meager remnant of +his company. Before the words had fairly ended, Jack is off like a shot, +forgetting Barney, forgetting everything but the extrication of this +grand young Roman. As he skurried along, sometimes on hands and knees, +he blames himself for not learning the captain's name. He feels sure +that a day will come when the world will know and admire it. He has +gained the other corner, and in a moment he will be in the thick copse +where the Union flag had been seen, but as he makes a dash through a +clump of laurel he is confronted by two men, muskets in hand. + +"A Yank, by the Lord! Surrender, you damned mudsill!" + +For answer Jack raised the pistol in his hand and fired. The man fell, +with a frightful yell. The other leveled his musket fairly in Jack's +face; but before he could pull the trigger a report at his ear deafened +Jack, and the second man staggered against the tree. + +"Ah, ha! me boy, the rear rank did the best work there," Barney cried, +as Jack turned to see whence the timely aid had come, "A day after the +fair's better than the fair itself, if the rain has kept the girls +away," and Barney laughed good-humoredly. + +"Well, 'pon my soul, Barney, it's a shameful thing to say, but all +thought of you had gone from my mind. I should not have let you come if +you had proposed it, but now we're in for it. Ah--!" + +As he spoke the Union flag he had seen came forward, but it was in the +hands of a rebel bearer, and was upside down in mockery. The sight was +enough. He fired the shots as agreed upon, firing two at the group +marching heedlessly forward, as the skirmish-line was far ahead, or they +supposed it was, for the two men disabled by Jack and Barney were the +advance, as it was not supposed that any but stragglers were near at +hand, and the company were returning to their regiment. In an instant a +fierce volley is returned, and Barney, who is fairly in the bush behind +a huge tree, hears a low groan. He looks where Jack had been and sees +him lying on the ground, stifling an agonized cry by holding his left +arm over his mouth. Barney might have escaped, at least he might have +delayed capture, but coming from behind the tree, he holds up his hands, +and flinging himself on the ground beside his comrade takes his head +upon his knee and awaits the worst. + + + + +BOOK II. + +_THE HOSTAGES_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE AFTERMATH. + + +There were not so many millions of Americans in 1861 as there are +to-day. But they were more American then than they are now. That is, the +Old World had not sent the millions to our shores that now people the +waste places of the West. It was not until after the civil war that +those prodigious hosts came--enough to make the populace of such empires +as fill the largest space in history. That part of the land that loved +the flag cherished it with a fervor deeper than the half-alien race that +first flung it to the breeze under Washington. They loved the republic +with something of that passionate idolatry that made the Greek's ideal +joy--death for the fatherland; some of that burning zeal and godlike +pride that made the earlier Roman esteem his citizenship more precious +than a foreign crown. But until the battle on that awful 21st of July +proved the war real--with the added horror of civil hate--Secretary +Seward's epigram of ninety days clung fast in the public mind. + +Up to Bull Run there was a vague feeling that our army, in proper time, +would march down upon the rebels like the hosts of Joshua, and scatter +them and the rebellion to uttermost destruction in one action. It was +upon this assumption that the journals of the North satirized, abused, +vilified Scott, and clamored day by day for an "advance upon Richmond." +The damnation of public clamor, and not the incompetency of the general, +set the inchoate armies of Scott upon that fatal adventure. But that +humiliating, incredible, and for years misunderstood Sunday, on the +plateaus of Manassas, where, after all, blundering and imbecility +brought disaster, but not shame, upon the devoted soldiery, aroused the +sense of the North to the reality of war, as the overthrow at Jemmapes +in 1793 convinced the Prussian oligarchy that the republic in France +was a fact. + +It was a dreadful Monday in the North when the first hideous bulletins +were sent broadcast through the cities and carried by couriers into +every hamlet. For hours--sickening hours--it was not believed. We have +awakened many a morning since 1861 to hear of thrones overturned, armies +vanquished, dynasties obliterated; to hear of great men gone by sudden +and cruel death: but the anger and despair when Booth's cruel work was +known; the shuddering horror over Garfield's taking off; the amazement +when the hand of Nihilism laid an emperor dead; the overthrow of Austria +in a single day; the extinction of the Bonapartes--these things were +heard and digested with something like repose compared to the +bewildering outbreak that met the destruction of our army at Manassas. + +It was not the dazed, panic-stricken, panic anguish that followed +Fredericksburg or the second Bull Run. It was not the indignant, fretful +wrath that rebuked official culpability for the destruction of the grand +campaign on the Peninsula. It was a startled, incredulous, angry +amazement, in which blame afterward visited upon generals or Cabinet, +was humbly taken on the people's shoulders and echoed in a moaning _mea +culpa_. For days all the people were close kin. In the streets strangers +talked to strangers; the pulpit echoed the inextinguishable wrath of the +streets; the journals, for a moment restrained into solemnity, echoed +for once the real voice of an elevated humanity and not the drivel of +partisanship nor the ulterior purposes of wealth and sham. Even +schoolboys, arrested in the merry-making of youth, looked in wonder at +the sudden reversal of conditions. Boys well remember in the school that +Monday, when the northern heavens were hung in black and grief wrung its +crystal tresses in the air, the master began the work of the day with a +brief, pathetic review of the public agony, and dismissed the classes +that he was too agitated to instruct. There were no games on the +greensward, no swimming in the river, no excursion to the Malvern cherry +groves. The streets were filled with blank faces and whispering crowds +unable to endure the restraint of routine or the ordinary callings of +life. Parties were obliterated, or rather from the flux of this white +heat, came out in solidified unity that compact of parties which for +four years breathed the breath of the nation's life, spoke the purposes +of the republic, and amid stupendous reverses and triumphs held the +public conscience clear in its sublime duty. The woes of bereavement +were not wide-spread; the killed at Manassas were hardly more than we +read of now in a disaster at sea or a catastrophe in the mines. The +whole army engaged hardly outnumbered the slaughtered at Antietam, +Gettysburg, or Burnside's butchery at St. Mary's Hill. + +Hence the marvel of the instant fusion, the swift resolve of the +Northern mind. The battle was the sudden grapple of aggressive +weakness--catching the half-contemptuous strong man unaware and rolling +him in the dust. Brought to earth by this unlooked-for blow, the North +arose with renewed force and the deathless determination that could have +but one issue. The people, when the benumbing force of the surprise was +mastered, flew together with one mind, one voice, one impulse. The +churches, the public halls, the street corners, moving trains, and +rushing steamers, were such hustings as the Athenian improvised in the +porticoes, when her orators inflamed the heart of Greece to repel the +barbarians, to die with Leonidas in the gorges of the Thermopylae. + +Ah, what an imposing spectacle it was! The blood of wrath leaped +fiercely in the chilled veins of age; the ardor of youth became the +delirium of the Crusaders, the lofty zeal of the Puritans, the +chivalrous daring of Rupert's troopers, and the Dutch devotees of +Orange. A half-million men had been called out; a million were waiting +in passionate eagerness within a month; two hundred and fifty millions +of money had been voted--ten times that amount was offered in a day. +Every interest in life became suddenly centered in one duty--war. It +touched the heart of the whole people, and for the time they arose, +purified, contrite, as the armies of Moses under the chastening of +the rod. + +In Acredale there were sore hearts as the dreadful news became more and +more definite. For days the death lists were mere guess-work; but when +the routed forces returned to their camps in Washington the awful gaps +in the ranks were ascertained with certainty. The Caribees were nearly +obliterated. Of the thousand men and over who had marched from Meridian +Hill only four hundred were found ten days after the battle. Elisha +Boone had hurried at once to Washington, charged by all the fathers, +mothers, brothers, and sisters of the regiment to make swift report of +the absent darlings. Kate was besieged in the grand house with tearful +watchers, waiting in agonizing impatience for the fatal finality. +Olympia, to spare her mother the distress of the vague responses her +telegrams brought from Washington, spent most of the time at the +Boones', where, thanks to the father's high standing with the +Administration, the earliest, most accurate information came. Finally he +wrote. He had seen Nick Marsh, who gave the first coherent narrative of +Jack, Barney, and Dick Perley. They had been seen--the first two in the +last desperate conflict. An officer (the hero whom Jack had so much +admired, and who turned out to be Gouverneur K. Warren) had escaped from +the forlorn hope left to dispute the rebel charge upon the flying +columns. He gave particulars that pointed with heart-breaking certainty +to the death of the two boys. Young Perley had been lost sight of since +noon of the battle. He had followed the path taken by Jack and his +comrades across the flank of the enemy. He had been seen at +Heintzelman's headquarters, but after that no one could trace him. +Wesley, too, had been left near the stone bridge with a ball in either +his arm or thigh, the informant was not quite sure which, as he fell in +a charge of the line. Boone telegraphed to Kate that he was going +through the lines with a flag of truce so soon as the affair could be +regulated, and proffered his best offices for the Acredale victims. + +Everything had been prepared by Olympia and her mother for an instant +departure so soon as positive information came. With them Marcia Perley +went, trembling and tearful, and Telemachus Twigg, to extricate his son +from danger, for it was uncertain what his status was in the forces. +Kate, too, joined the melancholy pilgrimage that set out one morning +followed to the station by weeping kinsmen imploring the good offices of +these ambassadors of woe. The sleeping-car gave the miserable company +seclusion, if not rest. They were not the only ones in quest of the +missing, for as yet there was no certainty as to the fate of those left +on the field of battle. Later reports had been more encouraging, for +hundreds who were set down as prisoners or missing began to be heard +from as far northward as the Maryland line. In the station at Washington +Boone met his daughter. Twigg hurried to him and asked: + +"Any further news, Mr. Boone? We're all here--about half Acredale." + +"Yes, I see; but there is no more news of the Caribees. We learn that +the wounded have been sent to Richmond, and I shall set out for there +to-morrow." + +Mrs. Sprague, with Olympia and Merry, drove to the house of a friend +she had known years before, whose husband was a Senator. The Boones--or +rather Kate--bade them a cordial adieu as they drove off to the +National Hotel. + +Then the most trying part of the quest began. The War Department was +besieged with applicants, mostly women. Orders had been issued to forbid +all crossing the lines, and the despairing kinsfolk of the lost were in +a panic of impatient terror. In vain Olympia called upon eminent +Senators who had been friends of her father; in vain she invoked the aid +of the Secretary of State, who had been the family's guest at Acredale. +Once she penetrated, by the aid of strong letters, to the Secretary of +War. He was surrounded by a hurried throng of orderlies, officers, and +clerks, and even after she had been admitted to his office Olympia was +left unnoticed on a settee, waiting some sign to approach the dreaded +presence. His imperious and abrupt manner, his alternation of +deferential concern for some and disdainful impatience for others, gave +her small hope that he would heed her prayer. She waited hours, sitting +in the crowded room, ill from the oppressive air, the fixed stare of the +officers, and the sobbing of others like herself waiting a word with the +autocrat. At length, late in the afternoon, when the crowd had quite +gone, she heard the Secretary say in an undertone: + +"Send an orderly to those women and see what they want." + +Each of the waiting women handed credentials to the young man, and each +in turn arose trembling and stood before the decisive official at the +great, paper-strewn desk. There was no attempt to soften the refusal, as +he turned curtly from the pleaders; and Olympia, shrinking from the +ordeal, was about to step out of the room, when a tall, care-worn man +shambled in, glancing pityingly at her as she arose, half trembling, +recognizing the President. + +She stepped in front of him in a desperate impulse, and, throwing up her +veil, cried piteously: + +"O Mr. Lincoln, you are a father, you have a tender heart; you will +listen to the bereaved!" He stopped, looking at her kindly, and put his +left arm wearily on the desk by his side. + +"Yes, my poor girl, I am a father and have a heart; the more's the pity, +for just now something else is needed in its place. I suppose your +father is over yonder," and he nodded toward the Virginia shore. + +"O Mr. Lincoln, my father is farther away than that. My father was +Senator Sprague--you served with him in Congress--I--I--thought that +perhaps you might take pity on his widow, his daughter, his son, if the +poor boy is still living, and--and--" + +"Send you across the lines?" + +"Oh, if God would put it in your heart!" + +"It's in my heart fast enough, my poor child, but--" + +"Impossible, Mr. President! The enemy, as it is, can open a Sabine +campaign on us, and tie our hands by stretching Northern women out in a +line of battle between the ranks!" + +It was the weary, discouraging voice of the Secretary, imperiously +implying that the Executive must not interpose weakness and mercy where +Draconian rigor sat enthroned. The President smiled sadly. + +"Ah, Mr. Secretary, a sister--a mother--give a great deal for the +country. We can not err much in granting their prayer. Make out an +order--for whom?" + +Olympia, speechless with gratitude reverence could hardly articulate: + +"My mother, myself, and Miss Marcia Perley." + +"Another mother?" + +"Her boy is not of age, and ran away to join my brother's company." She +had a woman's presence of mind to answer with this diplomatic evasion. + +"I'm afraid you will only add to your distress, my poor child; but you +shall go." He inclined his head benignantly and passed into the inner +sanctuary behind the rail, when Olympia heard the Secretary say, grimly: + +"I shall take measures to stop this sort of thing, Mr. President. +Hereafter you shall only come to this department at certain hours. At +all other times the doors shall be guarded." + +A gray-haired man in undress uniform presently appeared, and as he +handed Olympia the large official envelope he said, respectfully: + +"You never heard of me, Miss Sprague? Many years ago the Senator, your +father, did a kind turn for my brother--an employé in the Treasury. If +I can be of any aid to you in this painful business, pray give me a +chance to show a kindness to the family of a great and good man. My name +is Charles Bevan, and it is signed to one of the papers in this letter." + +Within an hour all was ready, but they could not set out until the next +morning, when, by eight o'clock, the three ladies were _en route_. There +was a large company with them, all under a flag of truce. They passed +through the long lines of soldiery that lay intrenched on the Virginia +side of the Potomac, and pushed on to Annandale, where the rebel outpost +received them. Olympia's eyes dwelt on the wide-stretching lands of pine +and oak, remembering the pictures Jack had given in his letters of this +very same route. But there were few signs of war. The cleared places lay +red and baking under the hot August sun; the trees seemed crisp +and sapless. + +At Fairfax Court-House, where the first signs of real warlike tenure +were seen, the visitors were taken into a low frame house, and each in +turn asked to explain the objects of her mission. Then the hospital +reports were searched. In half a dozen or more instances the sad-eyed +mothers were thrown into tremulous hope by the tidings of their +darlings' whereabouts. But for Olympia and Aunt Merry there was no clew. +No such names as Sprague or Perley were recorded in the fateful pages of +the hospital corps. But there were several badly wounded in the hospital +at Manassas, where fuller particulars were accessible. + +They were conducted very politely by a young lieutenant in a shabby gray +uniform to an ambulance and driven four miles southward to Fairfax +Station on the railway, when, after despairing hours of waiting, they +were taken by train to Manassas. An orderly accompanied them, and as the +train passed beyond Union Mills, where the Bull Run River runs along the +railway a mile or more before crossing under it, the young soldier +pointed out the distant plateau, near the famous stone bridge, and, when +the train crossed the river, the high bluffs, a half-mile to the +northward, where the action had begun at Blackburn's Ford. He was very +respectful and gentle in alluding to the battle, and said, ingenuously, +pointing to the plateau jutting out from the Bull Run Mountains: + +"At two o'clock on Sunday we would have cried quits to McDowell to hold +his ground and let us alone. But just as we were on our heel to turn, +Joe Johnston came piling in here, right where you see that gully yonder, +with ten thousand fresh men, and in twenty minutes we were three to one, +and then your folks had the worst of it. President Davis got off the +train at the junction yonder, and as he rode across this field, where we +are now, the woods yonder were full of our men, flying from the Henry +House Hill, where Sherman had cut General Bee's brigade to pieces and +was routing Jackson--'Stonewall,' we call him now, because General +Bonham, when he brought up the reserves, shouted, 'See, there, where +Jackson stands like a stone wall!' He's a college professor and very +pious; he makes his men pray before fighting, and has 'meetings' in the +commissary tent twice a week." + +"Did Mr. Davis join in the battle?" Olympia asked, more to seem +interested in the garrulous warrior's narrative than because she really +had her mind on the story. + +"Oh, dear, no. Old Johnston had finished the job before the President +(Olympia noticed that all Southerners dwelt upon this title with +complacent insistence) could reach the field. He was barely in time to +see the cavalry of 'Jeb' Stuart charge the regulars on the +Warrenton road." + +The train came to a halt, and the young man said, cheerfully: + +"Here we are. The hospital's still right smart over yonder in the +trees." + +"But you will go with us, will you not?" Olympia asked in alarm, for it +was wearing toward night. + +"Oh, yes; I'm detailed to remain with you until you have found out about +your kinsfolk." + +In the mellow sunset the three women followed the orderly across the +fields strewed with armaments, supplies, and the rough depot +paraphernalia of an army at rest. The hospital consisted of a large tent +for the slightly hurt, and a few old buildings and a barn for the more +serious cases. The search was futile. There were two or three of the +Caribees in the place, but they knew nothing of their missing comrades. +Indeed, Jack's detail by Colonel Sherman had effectually cut off all +trace of his movements after the battle began. + +Mrs. Sprague's tears were falling softly as the orderly led them to the +surgeon's office. They were there shown the records of all who had been +buried on the field. Many, he informed them, sympathetically, had been +buried where they fell, in great ditches dug by the sappers. In every +case the garments had been stripped from the bodies before burial, so +that there was absolutely no means of identification. Most of the +wounded had, however, been sent to Richmond with the prisoners. "It +would not do," he added, kindly, "to give up all hope of the lost ones, +until they had seen the roster of the prisoners and the wounded in the +Richmond prisons and hospitals." + +Quarters were given to them in a tent put at their disposal by the +surgeons, and in the long, wakeful hours of the night Olympia heard the +guard pacing monotonously before the door. The music of the bugles +aroused them at sunrise--a wan, haggard group, sad-eyed and silent. The +girl made desperate efforts to cheer the wretched mother, and even +privily took Merry to task for giving way before what was as yet but a +shadow. 'Twould be time enough for tears when they found evidence that +the stout, vigorous boys had been killed. As they finished the very +plain breakfast of half-baked bread, pea-coffee, and eggs, bought by the +orderly at an exorbitant rate, he said, good-naturedly: + +"The train don't come till about ten o'clock. If you'd like to see the +battle-field, I can get the ambulance and take you over." + +Olympia eagerly assented--anything was preferable to this mute misery of +her mother and Merry's sepulchral struggles to be conversational and +tearless. They drove through bewildering numbers of tents, most of them, +Olympia's sharp eyes noted, marked "U.S.A.," and she reflected, almost +angrily, that the chief part of war, after all, was pillage. The men +looked shabby, and the uniforms were as varied as a carnival, though by +no means so gay. Whenever they crossed a stream, which was not seldom, +groups of men were standing in the water to their middle, washing their +clothing, very much as Olympia had seen the washer-women on the +Continent, in Europe. They were very merry, even boisterous in this +unaccustomed work, responding to rough jests by resounding slashes of +the tightly wrung garments upon the heads or backs of the unwary wags. + +"Why, there must be a million men here," Merry cried, as the tents +stretched for miles, as far as she could see. + +"No; not quite a million, I reckon," the orderly said, proudly; "but we +shall have a million when we march on Washington." + +"March on Washington!" Merry gasped, as though it was an official order +she had just heard promulgated. "But--but we aren't ready yet. We--" +Then she halted in dismay. Was she giving information to the enemy? +Would they instantly make use of it? Ah! she must, at any cost, undo +this fatal treason, big with disaster to the republic. "I mean we are +not ready yet to put our many million men on the march." + +The orderly laughed. "I reckon your many million will be ready as soon +as our one million. You know we have a big country to cover with them. +You folks have only Washington to guard and Richmond to take. We have +the Mississippi and fifteen hundred miles of coast to guard. Now, this +corner is Newmarket, where Johnston waited for his troops on Sunday and +led them right along the road we are on--to the pine wood yonder--just +north of us. We won't go through there, because we ain't making a flank +movement," and he laughed pleasantly. They drove on at a rapid rate as +they came upon the southern shelf of the Manassas plateau. + +"This," the orderly said, pointing to a small stone building in a bare +and ragged waste of trees, shrubs, and ruined implements of war, "is the +Henry House--what is left of it--the key of our position when Jackson +formed his stone wall facing toward the northwest, over there where your +folks very cleverly flanked us and waited an hour or two, Heaven only +knows what for, unless it was to give us time to bring up our +re-enforcements. Your officers lay the blame on Burnside and Hunter, +who, they declare, just sat still half the day, while Sherman got in +behind us and would have captured every man Jack of our fellows, if +Johnston hadn't come up, where I showed you, in the very nick of time." + +The women were looking eagerly at the field of death. It was still as on +the day of the battle, save that instead of the thousands of beating +hearts, the flaunting flags, and roaring guns, there were countless +ridges torn in the sod, as if a plow had run through at random, limbs +and trees torn down and whirled across each other, broken wheels, musket +stocks and barrels, twisted and sticking, gaunt and eloquent, in the +tough, grassy fiber of the earth. + +"In this circle of a mile and a half fifty thousand men pelted each +other from two o'clock that Sunday morning until four in the afternoon. +Up to two o'clock we were on the defensive. We were driven from the +broad, smooth road yonder that you see cutting through the trees, +northward a mile from here. Jackson alone made a stand; if it hadn't +been for him we should have been prisoners in Washington now, I reckon. +You see those men at work? They are picking up lead. We reckon that it +takes a ton of lead to kill a man." + +"A ton of lead?" Olympia repeated. + +"Yes. You wouldn't believe that thousands of men can stand in front of +each other a whole day and pour lead into each other's faces, and not +one in fifty is hit?" + +"Ah!" Olympia commented, thinking that, after all, Jack might not have +been hit. + +"These are the trenches of the dead. Our dead are not here. They were +all taken and sent to friends. There are five hundred of your dead here +and near the stone bridge yonder. We lost three hundred killed in +the fight." + +"And are there no other marks than this plain board?" Olympia pointed to +a rough pine plank, sticking loosely in the ground, with the words +painted in lampblack: "85 Yanks. By the Hospital Corps, Bee's Brigade." + +"That's all. They were all stripped--no means of identifying them. The +sun was very hot; the rain next day made the bodies rot, and the men had +to just shovel them in--" "Oh, oh! don't, pray don't!" Olympia cried, as +her mother tottered against the ambulance. + +"I ask your pardon, ladies; I forgot that these are not things for +ladies to hear." He spoke in sincere contrition. + +To relieve him Olympia smiled sadly, saying, "Won't you take us back, +please?" + +The ambulance drove on into the Warrenton pike, and, if Olympia had +known it, within a stone's-throw of Jack's last effort, where the +cavalry picket came upon him. It was noon when they reached the station. +The orderly returned the ambulance to the hospital, brought down the +luggage, and the three women made a luncheon of fruit and dry bread, +declining the orderly's invitation to eat at the hospital. The train +came on three hours late. It was filled with military men, most of them +officers; but so soon as the orderly entered the rear coach, ushering in +his charges, two or three young men with official insignia on their +collars arose with alacrity and begged the ladies to take the vacant +places. At Bristow Station many of the officers got out and a number of +civilians entered from the coach ahead and took their places. Mrs. +Sprague, worn out by the fatigue of the journey and the strain upon her +mind, quite broke down in the hot, ill-ventilated car. There was no +water to be had, and Olympia turned inquiringly to the person opposite +her, asking: + +"Could we possibly get any water--my mother is very much overcome?" + +"Certainly, madam. There must be plenty of canteens on the train. I will +bring you some in a moment." + +An officer who had been sharing the seat with Merry arose on hearing +this and said, kindly: + +"Madam, if you will make use of your seat as a couch, perhaps your +mother will feel more comfortable reclining. I will get a seat +elsewhere." + +Olympia was too much distressed to think of acknowledging this courteous +action, but Merry spoke up timidly: + +"We are most grateful to you, sir." + +"Oh, don't mention it. Are you going far?" "Yes, we're going to +Richmond, to--to find our boys, lost in the battle two weeks ago." + +"Oh, you're from the North." He was a young man, perhaps thirty, +evidently proud of his unsoiled uniform and the glittering insignia of +rank on the sleeve and collar. + +"Yes, sir; we're from Acredale, near Warchester," Merry said, as though +Acredale must be known even in this remote place, and that the knowing +of it would bring a certain consideration to the travelers. + +"Oh, yes, Warchester. I fell in with an officer from there after the +battle, a Captain Boone. Do you know him?" + +"Oh, dear me, yes. He is from Acredale. He is captain of Company K of +the Caribee Regiment--" + +"Caribee? Why, yes. I remember that name. We got their flags and sent +them to Richmond; we--" + +"And, oh, sir, did you take the prisoners? I mean the Caribees--were +there many? Oh, dear sir, it is among them our boys were; they were +mere boys." + +"Yes, ma'am, there were a good smart lot of them, and as you say all +very young. Boone himself can't be twenty-five." + +"And are they treated well? Do they have care? Of course you did not ask +any of their names?" Merry asked eagerly, comforted to be able to talk +with some one who knew of the Caribees, for heretofore, of the scores +they had questioned, no one had ever heard of the regiment. + +"Oh, as to that, ma'am, you know a soldier's life is hard, and a +prisoner's is a good deal harder. Most of your men are in Castle +Thunder--a large tobacco warehouse." He hesitated, and looked furtively +at Olympia administering water to her mother. "Perhaps," he said, +heartily, "if you would put a drop of whisky in the cup it would brace +up your mother's nerves. We find it a good friend down here, when it +isn't an enemy," he added, smiling as Olympia looked at the proffered +flask hesitatingly. + +"I assure you, madam," (Southerners, in the old time at least, imitated +the pleasant continental custom of addressing all women by this +comprehensive term), "you will be the better for a sip yourself. It was +upon that we did most of our fighting the other day, and it is a mighty +good brace-up, I assure you." + +But Olympia shook her head, smiling. Her mother had taken a fair dose, +and was, as she owned, greatly benefited by it. The young man sat on the +arm of the opposite seat, anxious to continue the conversation, but +divided in mind. Merry was trying to hide her tears, and kept her head +obstinately toward the window. Olympia, with her mother's head pillowed +on her lap, strove to fan a current of air into circulation. She gave +the young man a reassuring glance, and he resumed his seat in front of +her, beside the distracted Merry. + +"You are from Richmond?" Olympia asked as he sat puzzling for a pretext +to renew the talk with her. + +"Oh, no; I am from Wilmington, but I have kinsfolk in Richmond, I am on +General Beauregard's staff. My name is Ballman--Captain Ballman." + +She vaguely remembered that Vincent Atterbury was on staff duty. Perhaps +this young man knew him. + +"Do you know a Mr. Atterbury in--in your army?" she asked, blushing +foolishly. + +"Atterbury--Atterbury--why, yes! I know there is such a man. He is in +General Jackson's forces--whether on the staff or not I can't say. Stay. +I saw his name in _The Whig_ this very day." He took out the paper and +glanced down the columns. "Ah, yes; is this the man?" And he read: +"Major Vincent Atterbury, whose wounds were at first pronounced serious, +is now at his mother's country-house on the river. He is doing +excellently, and all fears have been removed." + +"Yes, that is he. We know him quite well." And she turned her head +window-ward, with a feeling of confidence in the mission, heretofore so +blank and wild. Vincent would aid them. He could bring official +intervention to bear, without which Jack might, even though alive and +well, be hidden from them. She whispered this confidence to her mother +as the train jolted along noisily over the rough road, and, a good deal +inspired by it, Mrs. Sprague began to take something like interest in +the melancholy country that flew past the window, as if seeking a place +to hide its bareness in the blue line of uplands that marked the +receding mountain spurs. + +The captain was much more potential in providing a supper at the evening +station than the orderly, who was looked upon with some suspicion when +he told the story of his _protégés_. The zeal of the new Confederates +did not extend to aiding the enemy, even though weak women and within +the Confederate lines. It was nearly morning when the train finally drew +up in the Richmond station, and the captain, with many protestations of +being at their service, gave them his army address, and, relinquishing +them to the orderly, withdrew. It had been decided that the party should +not attempt to find quarters in the hotels, which their escort declared +were crowded by the government and the thousands of curious flocking to +the city since the battle. + +He could, however, he thought, get them plain accommodations with an +aunt, who lived a little from the center of the town. They were forced +to walk thither, no conveyance being obtainable. After a long delay they +were admitted, the widow explaining that she had been a good deal +troubled by marauding volunteers. The orderly explained the situation to +his kinswoman, and without parley the three ladies were shown into two +plain rooms adjoining. They were very prim and clean; the morning air +came through the open windows, bearing an almost stupefying odor. It may +have been the narcotic influence of the flowers that brought sleep to +the three women, for in ten minutes they were at rest as tranquilly as +if in the security of Acredale. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +A COMEDY OF TERRORS. + + +When Jack, the day after the battle, found himself able to take account +of what was going on, he closed his eyes again with a deep groan, +believing in a vague glimpse of peaceful rest that his last confused +sensation was real--that he was dead. But there were no airy aids of +languorous ease to perpetuate or encourage this delusion. Sharp pains +racked his head; his right arm burned and twinged as though he had +thrust it into pricking flames. Loud voices about, but invisible to him, +were swearing and gibing. He was lying on his back, his head on a line +with his body. A regular movement, broken by joltings that sent +torturing darts through his whole frame, told him without much +conjecture that he was in an ambulance. The accent of the voices outside +told him that it was a rebel ambulance and not a Northern one he was in. +He tried to raise his head to see his companions, but he might as well +have been nailed to the cross, so far as pain and helplessness went. +Then he lost the thread of his thought. He heard, in a vague, far-off +voice, men talking: + +"We'll catch old Abe on our next trip ef we go on like this--eh, Ben?" + +"I reckon. I'm jess going to take a furlough now. Hain't seen my girl +fo' foah months." + +"How much did you pick up?" + +"I've got five gold watches and right smart o' shinplasters, I don't +reckon they'll pass in our parts, but I'm going to trade 'em off with +some of these wounded chaps. They'll give gold for 'em fast enough." + +"I got a heap of gold watches, jackknives, and sech. I don't know what +in the land to do with 'em. Suppose we can sell 'em in Richmond?" + +"Yes--but how are we going to get to Richmond? We're ordered to dump +these Yanks at Newmarket and go back. Ef we don't get to Richmond, our +watches ain't worth a red cent. Jess like's not old Bory'll issue an +order to turn everything in. I'm blamed if I will!" + +"Look yere, Ben, do you see that road off there to the right?" + +"Yes, I do, but I don't see that it's different from any other road." + +"Don't you? Well, honey, it's mitey sight different from all the roads +you ever saw. It takes you where you don't want to go." + +"What do you mean, Bob?" + +"I jess mean that ar road goes to Newmarket, where these Yanks are +ordered, but we've lost it and we shall come out in about an hour and a +half at the junction, whar th' train goes on to Richmond. See?" + +"Bob Purvis, you are a general, suah," and then there followed low, +rollicking laughter, mingled with a gurgling as of a liquid swallowed +from a flask. "But how'll we manage at the junction? We can't go right +on the cars? There is some hocus-pocus about everything you do in +the army." + +"Oh, jess you keep your eye on your dad, and you'll see things you never +saw afore. The minit them cavalry sneaks left us back thar, I made up my +mind I'd skip Newmarket. They've gone back to pick up more loot. No one +at the junction knows what our orders was. Besides, it'll be dark when +we get thar. The trains'll be full of our wounded. We'll slip these +Yanks in as if under orders. No one will know but we're hospital guards +on a detail for the wounded. When it is found out we shall be in +Richmond, and, if the provost folk get hold of me afore I've been home +and planted my haul, then I'm a Yank." + +"By mitey, Ben, you are a general, suah." Then suppressed laughter and +the gurgling of the flowing enlivener. Jack blissfully fell into dreams, +wherein home things and warlike doings mingled in grotesque medley. +Relapses into consciousness followed at he knew not what intervals +thereafter. He was conscious of cruel torment and a clumsy transfer into +another vehicle, confused sounds of groans, curses, waving lights, and +the hissing of escaping steam almost in his very ears. Then the anguish +of thundering wheels, until his cracked brain reeled and he was +mercifully unconscious. How long? His eyes opened on a clean white wall, +flowers hung from the windows in plumy festoons, birds sang in the +yellow dazzling sunlight. What could it mean? Was he at home? Surely +there was nothing of war in these comfortable surroundings. His left arm +was free, there was no one lying near to impede its movement. So it +wasn't a hospital. He took vague note of all this before he tried to +lift his arm. He raised his hand to rub his eyes and to assure himself +that it was not a cruel delusion. When he took it away, a kind face--the +face of a woman--was bending over him. + +"You are feeling better, aren't you, lieutenant?" + +"Lieutenant"? Why did she call him lieutenant? Had he been promoted on +the battle-field? Was he in the Union lines? Oh, yes; else he would have +been in a hospital, with moaning men all about him. He tried to speak. +The woman put her finger to her lips, warningly. + +"The doctor says you must not speak or be spoken to until you get +strong." + +Days passed. He couldn't tell how many, for he lay, long hours at a +time, unconscious, the mental faculties mercifully dead while the +wounded ligatures knit themselves anew. His right arm had been cut by a +saber-stroke, and a pistol-ball had entered above the shoulder-blade. +Prompt attention would have given him recovery in a few days, but the +twenty-four hours in a cart and the cars made his condition, for a +time, serious. + +But now he is visibly stronger, and his nurse brings people into the +room to see him. They look at him with wonder and admiration, while the +good lady is all in a flutter of delight. He hears himself spoken of +always as the "lieutenant," and hesitates to ask an explanation. The +physician comes but seldom, the lady explaining that all the doctors in +town are busy in the hospitals. The truth flashed upon him one morning, +when his hostess came bursting in to say: + +"The provost guard has come to take your name. I don't know it, for when +you were brought here my son only heard you called lieutenant." + +"My name is John Sprague"--Jack lifted himself to his elbow in +excitement and disregard of everything--"and my regiment is the--ah!" He +fell back, and the frightened dame hurried to him as she saw his changed +look and deadly pallor. + +"Oh, how careless of me; how unthinking! There, lie perfectly still. I +will send the guard away and come back." + +She was gone before he could recover his speech or enough coherence to +say what was in his mind. She informed the orderly that the ailing man +was John Sprague, a lieutenant in the First Virginia Volunteers, for +that was the regiment the hospital guards had named, when, on the night +of the arrival, the eager citizens swarmed at the station to take the +wounded to their homes, the hospitals being sadly unready. Jack +instantly suspected the situation, the conversation in the ambulance +coming back to him now distinctly. What should he do? He was in honor +bound to undeceive the kind-hearted and unwitting accomplice of the +fraud practiced on herself as well as on him. She came in presently with +an officer. Jack was not familiar with the rebel insignia, and could not +discover his rank or service, but he expected to hear himself denounced +as a spy or anything odious. + +"Our surgeon has been sent to Manassas, and Dr. Van Ness is come to take +care of you in his place," the matron said, as Jack stared silent and +quavering at the new-comer. That gentleman examined the patient, shook +his head dubiously and declared high fever at work, and ordered absolute +quiet for at least twenty-four hours, when, if he could, he would +return. "Continue the prescriptions you have now, Mrs. Raines. All he +needs is quiet. The hospital steward will come to dress his wounds +as usual." + +Mrs. Raines came in with tea and toast in the evening, and as she spread +the napkin on the bed she prattled cheerily. + +"I'm so happy to-night. I've just received a letter from my son. He's at +Manassas. He's been promoted to lieutenant from sergeant. It was read at +the head of the regiment--for gallant service at the Henry House, where +he captured part of a company of Yankees with a squad of cavalry. He's +only twenty-two, and if he lives he may be a general--if those cowardly +Yankees will only fight long enough. But I'm afraid they won't. _The +Whig_ says this morning that that beast Lincoln has to keep himself +guarded by a regiment of negroes, as the Northern people want to kill +him. I hope they won't, for if they did then they might put some one in +his place that has some sense, and then the war would come to an end and +we should be cheated in a settlement, for the Yankees are sharper than +our big-hearted, generous men. No, sir, no; you mustn't talk. I've +promised to keep you quiet, so lie still. I'll read _The Whig_ to you." + +She ran over the meager dispatches made up of hearsay and +speculation--how the North had fallen into a rage with the Washington +authorities; how Lincoln's life wasn't safe; how the Cabinet had all +resigned; how the Democrats had arisen in Congress and in the State +Legislatures and demanded negotiations with "President Davis"; how +England was drawing up a treaty with the new Confederacy. Then she +turned to the local page. She ran over a dozen paragraphs recounting the +deeds of well-known Richmond heroes, but these made no impression upon +the listener, until she read: + +"Major Vincent Atterbury, whose gallantry at the battle of the 21st +Richmond is a subject of pride to his friends, was transferred to his +country home, on the James, yesterday. He is still very low, but the +surgeons declare that home quiet and careful nursing will restore him to +his duties in time for the autumn campaign--if the Yankees do not +surrender before that time." + +Jack's eyes were so bright when Mrs. Raines looked at him, as she +lowered the sheet, that she arose, exclaiming quickly: + +"There, I have brought the fever back! Your eyes are glittering and your +cheeks are flushed. No, do not speak." + +She moved precipitately from the room, and Jack sank back with a groan. +His danger, if not his difficulties, might be overcome now. He would +write to Mrs. Atterbury, and through Vincent arrange for an exchange. +But a still deeper trouble had been on his mind. Where were Barney and +Nick, and, worse than all, young Dick Perley? If any mishap had befallen +that boy, he would shrink from returning to Acredale. And his mother, +what must her state of mind be? How many days had passed since the +battle? He had no means of knowing. Ah, yes! The paper was there on the +stand, where Mrs. Raines had thrown it. He raised himself slowly and +seized it. Heavens! Saturday, August 4th? Two weeks since that fatal +Sunday! And his mother? Oh, he must find means to write, to telegraph. +"Mrs. Raines," he called, hoarsely, "Mrs. Raines!" She came running to +his side in alarm. + +"Oh, what has happened? You are worse!" + +"I am very comfortable; but, my kind friend, I must--I must let my +mother know that I am alive; she will think me dead." + +"That's what I meant to ask you--just as soon as you seemed able to +talk. I would have gladly sent her word and invited her to come here, +but I didn't know the name nor the address. You didn't have a stitch of +clothes when you came except your underwear; the rest had been taken +off, the men said, because they were soiled and bloody, and there wasn't +a clew of any sort to your identity, except that you were a lieutenant +in a Virginia regiment. I thought we should find out when the provost +came, but they have sent to Manassas, and no answer has come back yet." + +"The men who brought me here deceived you, Mrs. Raines. I do not belong +to a Virginia regiment; I belong to a New York regiment, and I am +a--a--Union soldier." + +"Great Father! A Yankee?" The poor woman sank on the nearest chair, as +some one who has been nursing a patient that suddenly turns out to have +small-pox or leprosy. + +"Yes, Mrs. Raines: if you prefer that name, I'm a Yankee--but we call +only New-Englanders Yankees." He waited for her to speak, but as she sat +dumb, helpless, overcome, he continued: "I tried to explain the mistake +before, but your kindness cut me off. I can only say that, though you +have given me a mother's care and a Christian's consideration under a +misunderstanding, I trust you will not blame me for willful deception +nor regret the goodness you have shown the stranger in your hands." + +"And those men that brought you here--were they Yankees, too?" she +asked, her mind dwelling, womanlike, on the least essential factor of +the problem in order to keep the grievous fact as far away as possible. + +"Oh, no! they were your own people. There was no collusion, I assure +you." Jack almost laughed now, as the dialogue in the ambulance recurred +to him, and the adroit use the men had made of their unconscious charges +to secure a furlough. "No; I was more amazed than I can say when I came +to myself in this charming chamber--a paradise it seemed to me, a home +paradise--when your kind face bent over my pillow." + +"It's a cruel disappointment," she said, rising and holding the back of +the chair as she tilted it toward the bed. "We were so proud of you--so +proud to have any one that had fought for our dear State in our own +house to nurse, to bring back to life. Every one on the street has some +one from the battle, and oh, what will be said of us when people know +that we--we--" But here the cruelty of the conclusion came too sharply +to her mind, and she walked to the window, sobbing softly. + +"I can understand, believe me, Mrs. Raines, and I am going to propose a +means to you whereby I shall be taken from here, and your neighbors +shall never know that you entertained an enemy unawares, though God +knows I don't see why we should be enemies when the battle is over. If +your son were in my condition I should think very hard of my mother if +she were not to him what you have been to me." + +"But I can't believe you're a Yankee; you were so gentle, so patient in +all the dreadful times when the surgeon was cutting and hacking. Oh, I +can't believe it! Oh, please say you are joking--that you wanted to give +me a fright. And you have a mother?" She came over near the bed again +and stood looking at him dismally, half in doubt, half in perplexed +wonder; for Yankee, in her mind, suggested some such monster as the +Greeks conjured when the Goths poured into the peninsula, maiming the +men and debauching the women. "I said Sprague wasn't a Virginia name," +she murmered, plaintively, in a last desperate attempt to fortify +herself against the worst; "but there's no telling what names are in +Virginia now, since Norfolk has grown so big and folks come in that way +from all over the world." + +Jack could scarcely keep a serious face, as this humorous lament +displayed the pride of the Dominion and the unconscious Boeotianism of +the provincial. + +"Now, Mrs. Raines, here is what I propose: Major Atterbury, of whom you +read to me, is my nearest friend. We have been college comrades; he has +passed weeks at my home, and I have been asked to his, and meant to come +this autumn vacation, if the war had not broken out. I will write to his +mother, and she will have me removed to her house, and it need never be +known that you gave aid and comfort to the enemy." + +"But the Atterburys will never receive you. They were the first to favor +secession, when all the rest of us opposed it. To tell you the truth, +Mr. Sprague, it is partly because we were abused a good deal for holding +back when the secession excitement was first started, that I am so--so +anxious about the story getting out that we entertained a Yankee +prisoner. My husband is in the service of the government in Norfolk, and +my son is in the army. But you know what neighborhood gossip is." + +So, after a friendly talk in which the poor lady cried a great deal and +besought Jack's good-will for her darling William, if ever he were +luckless enough to be captured, the note was written and dispatched to +the Atterburys, whose city house was near the capital square. The +messenger returned a half-hour later, reporting the family out of town; +that they had taken the major to their country-place near Williamsburg, +on the banks of the James. The messenger had given the letter to the +housekeeper, who said that it would go out an hour later with the mail +sent daily to the family. + +"Williamsburg is two hours' ride on the train," Mrs. Raines explained, +"and we sha'n't hear from them until to-morrow." + +Jack said nothing; his mind was on his mother and the misery she must be +enduring. He turned restlessly on his pillow that night, and woke +feverish in the morning. Mrs. Raines now took as much pains to keep +people who called from seeing her hero as she had before put herself out +to display the invalid. Even the doctor, calling about nine o'clock, was +sent away on some pretext, and the poor lady waited with an anxiety, +almost as poignant as Jack's own, for the response to his note. About +noon it came. Mrs. Raines went to the door herself, not daring to trust +the colored girl, who had lavished untold pains on Jack's linen and the +manual part of his care. Jack heard low voices in the hallway, then on +the stairs, and he knew some one had come. + +"Here is Miss Atterbury sent to fetch you, lieutenant," Mrs. Raines +said, now very much relieved, and impressed, too, by the powerful +friends her dangerous _protégé_ was able to summon so promptly by +a line. + +"You are Rosalind?" Jack said, smiling at a pair of the brownest and +most bewitching eyes fixed soberly on him. "I should have known you if I +had met you in the street, although you were a small girl when I saw +you last." + +"You needn't take much credit for that, sir, since Vincent probably had +my portrait in all his coat-pockets and his room frescoed with +them--it's a trick of his. So you needn't pretend that it was family +likeness--I know better. Vincent has all the good looks of the family, +and I have all the good qualities." + +"That's why you've come to console the afflicted?" + +"Yes, duty--you know how disagreeable that is. Vincent declared he would +come himself, if I didn't, and mamma wouldn't hear of your being moved +by servants alone, so I am here. But I give you fair warning that I am a +rebel of the most ferocious sort. You shall ride under the 'bonnie blue +flag' to Rosedale, and you shall salute our flag every morning when it +is hoisted." + +"I am the most docile of men and the easiest of invalids. I will ride +under Captain Kidd's flag and salute the standard of the Grand Turk, to +be near Vincent just now." + +When Rosalind's colored aids had placed him in the big family carriage, +and he had bidden Mrs. Raines farewell, the young lady resumed: "Ah, I +know you! Vincent has told me about your Yankee ways. Not another word, +sir. I'll act as guide, and tell you all we see of note as we go on. +There where your eyes are resting now is the Confederate Hall of +Independence; that modest house on the corner is President Davis's. We +are going to build him another by and by--after we capture Washington +and get our belongings--no--no--you needn't speak. I know what you want +to say. That's Washington's monument, and there is our dear old +Jefferson. Doesn't it quicken even your slow Yankee blood to pass the +walls that heard Jefferson at his greatest, that held Patrick Henry, +that covered Washington? Ah! if you Northern Pharisees were not +money-grubbers and souless to everything but the almighty dollar, you +would join hands with us in creating our new Confederacy. Yes, sir, +you're my prisoner. We shall see that one Yankee is kept out of +mischief--if the war lasts--which is not likely, as your folks are quite +cowed by the victory at Bull Run. Wasn't it a splendid fight? I shall +never forgive Vin for not letting me know it was coming off. Vin, you +know, is on General Early's staff. He knew two days before that there +was to be a fight, for he started from Winchester to keep the railway +clear and lead the troops to the Henry House when they got off the cars. +He was in the thickest of the fight, near Professor Jackson--Stonewall, +they call him now. He--Vin--had three horses killed, and was made a +major on the field by General Joe Johnston. What?----" + +"Please let the carriage stop a moment. I want to absorb that lovely +view." + +He pointed to the James, debouching from the hills over which the +carriage was slowly rolling. The afternoon sun was behind them; but far, +far to the eastward the noble river wound through masses of dark, deep +green until it was lost in a glow of shimmering mirage in the +low horizon. + +"Isn't it lovely? We shall have a nobler capital city than Washington, +with its horrid red streets, its wilderness of bare squares, its +interminable distances--" + +"Carcassonne," Jack murmured. + +"Carcassonne--what's that?" + +"An exquisite bit of verse and a touching story. I----" + +"There, there--stop. You are talking again. You shall read the poem to +me--that is, if it isn't a glorification of the North." + +"No; Carcassonne was a city of the South." + +"Really--you must not talk. I'm not going to open my lips again until we +get to the boat." + +She settled back in her place and took out a book, looking over the top +at him from time to time. The motion of the vehicle, the warmth of the +day, and the odorous breath of flowers and shrubs gradually dulled his +mischievous spirits, and he slept tranquilly until the carriage drew up +at the wharf at Harrison's Landing, whence, taken on a primitive ferry, +they in an hour or more arrived at a long wooden pier extending into the +river. It was nearly six o'clock when the carriage entered a solemn +aisle of pines ending in a labyrinth of oleanders and the tropic-like +plants of the South. Then an old-fashioned porticoed mansion came into +view, and on signal from the driver a _posse_ of colored servants came +trooping out noisily to carry the invalid in. Mrs. Atterbury was on the +veranda, and stepped down to the carriage to welcome the guest. She +greeted him with the affectionate cordiality of a mother, and asked: + +"How have you borne the fatigue? I hope Rosa hasn't let you talk?" + +"If I may speak now it will be to bear testimony that I have been made a +mummy since noon. I haven't been permitted to ask the local habitation +or name of the scenic delights that have made the journey a panorama of +beauty and my guide a tyrant, to whom, by comparison, Caligula was a +tender master!" + +"Since you slept most of the way you must have dreamed the beauty, as +you certainly have invented the tyrant," Rosa retorted, as the brawny +servants lifted Jack bodily and carried him up the three steps and into +the sitting-room. + +"Your quarters are next to my son's, if you think you can endure the +constant outbreaks of that locality. We are with him in all but his +sleeping hours, so you will do well to reflect before you decide." + +"Oh, I shall insist on being near Vincent. He's too badly hurt to +overcome me in case we are tempted to fight our battles over again." + +"But he has allies here, sir, and you must remember that you are a +prisoner of war," Rosa cried from the landing above, _en route_ to +minister to her hero before the Yankee invaded him. Vincent was propped +up in the bed with a mass of pillows, and the two friends embraced in +college-boy fashion, too much moved for a moment to begin the flood of +questions each was eager to ask and answer. + +"Before I say a word of anything else, Vint, I want you to do me a great +service. It is two weeks since the battle. I am sure my mother can not +have any certain information about me. Can you manage any way to get a +letter or telegram sent her?" + +"Of course I can. Nothing easier. Write your telegram. I will send it +under cover to General Early. He will forward it by flag of truce to +Washington, and it will be sent North from there." + +But Jack's letter was never sent, for when the post came from Richmond +the next day, Vincent read in the morning paper a surprising +personal item: + +"'Among the distinguished arrivals in the city within the week, we have +just learned of the presence of Mrs. Sprague, wife of the famous +Senator, a contemporary with Clay and Webster. Mrs. Sprague has come to +Richmond in search of her son, who was captured or killed on the field +near the Henry House. She comes with her daughter under a safeguard from +General Johnston, who knew the family when he was at West Point. Mrs. +Sprague is stopping with Mrs. Bevan, on Vernon Street, and is under the +escort of Private William Bevan of the general headquarters.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +UNDER TWO FLAGS. + + +That modest paragraph in the morning paper wrought amazing results in +the fortunes of many of the people we are interested in. A regiment of +cavalry encamped near the outskirts of the city on the line of the +Virginia Central had broken camp early in the morning to march +northward. One company detailed to bring up the rear was still loitering +near the station when the newspapers were thrown off the train and +eagerly seized by the men, who bestrewed themselves in groups to hear +the news read aloud. + +"Here, you Towhead, you're company clerk; you read so that we can all +hear." + +In response to this a stripling, in the most extraordinary costume, came +out from the impedimenta of the company with a springy step and +consequential air. You wouldn't have recognized the scapegrace, Dick +Perley, in the carnival figure that came forward, for his curling blond +hair was closely cropped, his face was smeared with the soilure of pots +and pans, and it was evident that the eager warrior had exchanged the +weapons of war for the utensils of the company kitchen. He read in a +high, clear treble the telegraphic dispatches, the sanguinary editorial +ratiocinations, Orphic in their prophetic sententiousness, and then +turned to the local columns. + +Any one listening to the lad would never have suspected that he was not +a Southron. He prolonged the _a's_ and _o's_, as the Southern trick is, +and imitated to such perfection the pleasant localisms of Virginian +pronunciation, that keener critics of speech and accent than these +galliard troops would have been deceived. But suddenly his voice breaks, +he falls into the clear, distinct enunciation of New York--the only +speech in the Union that betrays no sign of locality. He is reading the +lines about the distinguished arrivals. Fortunately at the instant there +is a blast from the bugles--"Fall in!"--and the men rush to their +horses. In twenty minutes the company is clattering out on the +Mechanicsville road, and at noon, when the squadron halted for dinner, +the company cook had to rely on the clumsy ministrations of his colored +aides. "Towhead" had disappeared. + +Olympia, after a night of anguish, began the new day with a heavy burden +on her mind. Mrs. Sprague was delirious. The physician summoned during +the night shook his head gravely. She was suffering from overexertion, +heat, and anxiety. He was unable to do more than mitigate her +sufferings. He recommended country air and absolute repose. Merry, too, +though holding up bravely, gave signs of breaking down. The two +women--Olympia and Merry--under the escort of young Bevan, had gone +through the prisons, the dreadful Castle Winder, and through the +hospitals, with hope dying at every new disappointment. They came across +many of the Caribees, and saw a member of Congress, caught on the +battle-field, who knew the regiment well. + +Jack had been traced to Porter's lines, then far to the left, where Nick +had been told to wait. Nick was among the sweltering mass at Castle +Winder, but he could trace the missing no farther. He told of Jack's +persistent valor to the last, and the dreadful moment, when he, Jack, +had been separated. Dick he had not seen at all. Olympia made +intercession for Nick's release, but was informed that nothing could be +done until a cartel of exchange had been arranged. The Yankee +authorities had in the first five months of the war refused to make any +arrangement, while the Union forces were capturing the Confederate +armies in West Virginia and Missouri. Now that the Confederates held an +equal number, they were going to retaliate upon the overconfident North. +Olympia placed five hundred dollars at Nick's disposal in the hands of +the commandant to supply the lad with better food than the commissary +furnished, and, promising him strenuous aid so soon as she got back to +Washington, she resumed the quest for the lost. She had written out an +advertisement, to be inserted in all the city papers, and was to visit +the offices herself with young Bevan that evening. She had her bonnet +on, and was charging Merry how to minister to the ailing mother, when +the hostess knocked at the door. "A lady is in the parlor who says she +must see Mrs. Sprague immediately." Olympia followed Mrs. Bevan down +tremblingly, far from any anticipation of what was in store for her; +rather in the belief that it was some wretched mother from Acredale who +had learned of their presence and hoped to get aid for an imprisoned +son, husband, or brother. But when she saw the kind, matronly face of +Mrs. Raines beaming with the delight of bearing good news, she sank into +a chair, saying faintly: + +"Did you wish to see me, Mrs.--Mrs.--" + +"You are not Mrs. Sprague?" + +"No; my mother is very ill. I am Mrs. Sprague's daughter. Can I--" + +"Well, Miss Sprague, I think I can cure your mother. I--" + +She arose and walked mysteriously to the door and looked into the +hallway. + +"I know what the disease is your mother is suffering from." + +She couldn't resist prolonging the consequence of her mission. All women +have the dramatic instinct. All love to intensify the unexpected. But +Olympia's listless manner and touching desolation spurred her on. She +put her fingers to her lips warningly, and coming quite near her +whispered, as she had seen people do on the stage: + +"Don't make any disturbance; don't faint. Your brother is alive and +well! There, there--I told you." + +Olympia was hugging the astonished woman, who glanced in terror over her +shoulder to see that feminine curiosity was not dangerously alert. "You +will ruin me," she whispered, "if you don't be calm." Then Olympia +suddenly recovered herself, sobbing behind her handkerchief. "He has +been at my house two weeks. He left yesterday and is now with Major +Atterbury's family on the James River, near Williamsburg. Miss Atterbury +came herself to take him there yesterday morning. I saw your name in +_The Examiner_ only an hour ago, and I came at once to relieve the +distress I knew you must be suffering." + +Then the kind soul told the story, charging the sister never to reveal +the facts. She withdrew very happy and contented, for Olympia had said +many tender things; she almost felt that she had done the Confederacy a +great service, to have laid so many people under an obligation that +might in the future result in something remarkable for the cause. + +Olympia's purpose of breaking the news gradually to the invalid was +frustrated by her tell-tale eyes and buoyant movements. + +"O Olympia, you have seen John!" she screamed, starting up--"where is +he? Oh, where is he? I know you have seen him!" And then there were +subdued laughter and tears, and mamma instantly declared her intention +of flying to the hero. But there was considerable diplomacy still +requisite. Mrs. Raines must not be compromised, and young Bevan must get +transportation for them to the Atterburys. It was past noon when the +carriage came for them. Olympia had come down-stairs to give Mrs. Bevan +final instruction regarding letters and luggage, when a resounding knock +came upon the door. Mrs. Bevan opened it herself, and Olympia, standing +in the hall, heard a well-known voice, quick, eager, joyous: + +"Is Mrs. Sprague, here?" + +"O Richard," Olympia cried, rushing at him--"ah, you darling boy!--Aunt +Merry--Aunt Merry! Come--come quick! He is here." But Aunt Merry at the +head of the stairs had heard the voice, and Dick, tearing himself +ungallantly from the embrace of beauty, was up the stairs in four leaps +and in the arms of the fainting spinster. + +"It is Miss Perley's nephew," Olympia said, joyously, to the amazed lady +of the house, who stood speechless. "We had given up all hope of seeing +him, as his name was not on our army list. He ran away to be with my +brother, and we felt like murderers, as you may imagine, and are almost +as much relieved to find him as our own flesh and blood." + +The subsequent conversation between the matron and the young girl seemed +to put the mistress of the house in excellent humor, and when the +carriage drove off she kissed all the ladies quite as rapturously as if +she had never vowed undying hatred and vengeance upon the Yankee people. +In the carriage the prodigal Dick rattled off the story of his +adventures. He had come to Company K after Jack had been sent out on the +skirmish-line. He had followed in wild despair the direction pointed out +to him. He had lost his way until he met Colonel Sherman's orderlies. +They had told him where the company was halted on the banks of +the stream. + +When he reached the place indicated he learned of Jack's detail to the +extreme right of the army. He dared not set out openly to follow. He ran +back in the bushes, out of sight, and then by a _détour_ struck the +stream far above to the right. The volleys away to the west guided him, +and he tore forward, bruising his flesh and tearing his raiment to +tatters. The stream seemed too deep to cross, for a mile or more, but +finally, finding that the firing seemed to go swiftly to the southward, +he plunged in. The banks on the other side were rugged and precipitous, +and he was obliged to push on in the morass that the stream wound +through. But nature gave out, and on a sunny slope he sat down to rest. +He soon fell into a sound sleep, and when he woke there was noise of men +laughing and shouting about him. He started to his feet. + +"Hello! buster," a voice said near him. "What are you doin' away from +yer mammy? Beckon she'll think the Yanks have got you if you ain't home +for bedtime." + +The man who said this was lying peacefully under a laurel-bush. Others +were sprawled about, feasting on the spoil of Union haversacks. + +"I knew then that I was in a rebel camp," Dick continued, "but I wasn't +afraid, because my clothes were not military; and, even if they had +been, they were so torn and muddy, no one would have thought of them as +a uniform. But, for that matter, a good many of the rebels had blue +trousers; and, as for regimentals, there really were none, as we have +them. I made believe that I lived in the neighborhood, imitated the +Southern twang, and was set to work right away helping the company cook. +The firing was still going on very near us, to the south, west, and +east. But the men didn't seem to mind it much. In about a half-hour +there was a sudden move. + +"A volley was poured into us from the east, and in an instant all the +graybacks were in commotion. I heard the officers shout: 'We are +surrounded! Die at your post, men!' But the men didn't want to die at +their posts, or anywhere else, but made off like frightened rabbits. In +a few minutes we were all marching between two lines of Richardson's +Union brigade. I had no trouble in stepping out, and then I pushed on in +Jack's direction. But I could not find him when I got to Hunter's +headquarters. An orderly remembered seeing him, or rather seeing the men +that brought the good news that Sherman was on the rebel side of the +stone bridge early in the battle. There I found an orderly of +Franklin's, who had seen two men I described, sent off to the right to +picket, until the cavalry could be sent there. I came upon Nick Marsh +near the general's headquarters, and he told me the direction the others +had gone, but urged me to remain with him--as Jack would surely be back +there, horsemen having ridden out in that direction to relieve him. I +don't know how far I went, but it must have been a mile. + +"There I had to lie in the bushes, for two columns of troops were coming +and going, the flying fellows that Sherman had routed near the stone +bridge and the re-enforcements that were tearing up from the Manassas +Railway. The men coming were laughing and singing as they ran. The men +flying were silent, and seemed too frightened to notice the forces +coming to their support. I broke out of the bushes and ran toward the +line of thick trees that seemed to mark the course of the river. As I +came out on a deep sandy road I ran right into troops, halting. There +were great cheering and hurrah; then a cavalcade of civilians came +through the rushing ranks at a gallop. 'Hurrah for President Davis! Hip, +hip, hurrah!' I saw him. He was riding a splendid gray horse, and as the +men broke into shouts he raised his hat and bowed right and left. He was +stopped for a few minutes just in front of where I stood, or, rather, I +ran to where he halted. There were long trains of wounded filing down +the road, and men without guns, knapsacks, or side-arms, breaking +through the bushes on all sides. + +"'They've routed us, Mr. President,' a wounded officer cried, as the +stretcher upon which he was lying passed near Jeff Davis. + +"'What part of the field are you from?' Davis asked, huskily. + +"'Bartow's brigade, stone bridge. They've captured all our guns, and are +pouring down on the fords. You will be in danger Mr. President, if you +continue northward a hundred yards.' + +"Sure enough, there was a mighty cheer, hardly a half-mile to the north +of us, and clouds of dust arose in the air. Davis watched the movement +through his glass, and, turning to a horseman at his side, cried, +exultantly: + +"'The breeze is from the northwest; that dust is going toward the +Warrenton Pike. Johnston has got up in time; we've won the day!' + +"With this he put spurs to his horse, and the squadron halted on the +road set off at a wild gallop. The words of the President were repeated +from man to man, and then a mighty shout broke out. It seemed to clip +the leaves from the trees, as I saw them cut, an hour or two before, by +the swarming volleys of musketry. A horseman suddenly broke from a path +just behind where I was. + +"'Is President Davis here?' he asked, riding close to me, but not +halting. + +"'He has just ridden off yonder.' I pointed toward the cloud of dust +east and north of us. + +"'Split your throats, boys! General Beauregard has just sent me to the +President to welcome him with the news that the Yankees are licked and +flying in all directions! Not a man of them can escape. General +Longstreet is on their rear at Centreville.' + +"There were deafening, crazy shouts; hats, canteens, even muskets, were +flung in the air, and the wounded, lying on the ground, were struck by +some of these things as they fell, in a cloud, about them. The shouts +grew louder and louder, they rose and fell, far, far away right and +left. Everybody embraced everybody else. Men who had been limping and +despondent before broke into wild dances of joy. Everybody wanted to go +toward the field of battle now, but a provost guard filed down the road +presently, and in a few minutes I saw a sight that made tears of rage +and shame blind me. Whole regiments of blue-coats came at a quick-step +through the dusty roadway, the rebel guards prodding them brutally with +their bayonets. The fellows near me, who had been running from the +fight, set up insulting cheers and cat-calls. + +"'Did you'ns leave a lock of your hair with old Mas'r Lincoln?' + +"'Come down to Dixie to marry niggers, have ye?' and scores of taunts +more insulting and obscene. Our men never answered. They were worn and +dusty. They had no weapons, of course, for the first thing the rebels +did was to search every man, take his money, watch, studs, even his coat +and shoes, when they were better than their own. Hundreds of our men +were in their stocking-feet, or, rather, in their bare feet, as they +tramped wearily through the burning sand and twisted roots. I heard one +of the rebels near me, an officer, say that the prisoners were all going +to the junction to take the cars. President Davis had ordered that they +should be marched through the streets of Richmond to show the people of +the capital the extent of the victory. Then the thought flashed into my +head that if our army had been captured, my best chance of finding Jack +would be to follow to Richmond and watch the blue-coats. I easily +slipped among the prisoners, came to the city and saw every man that +went to Castle Winder. But no one that I knew was among them, and I made +up my mind that Jack had escaped. I saw Wesley Boone's father and sister +at the Spottswood House yesterday, but I was too late to catch them, +and, when I asked the clerk at the desk, be said they had taken quarters +in the town--he didn't know where." + +"That's a fact," Olympia exclaimed; "they left Washington before us. I +wonder if they found Wesley?" + +"I don't know," Dick continued, "The officers were brought in a gang by +themselves, and I didn't see them. Well, I hung about the town, visiting +all the places I thought it likely Jack might be, and then I joined a +cavalry company that belonged to Early's brigade, at Manassas. I was +going there with them this morning to get back to our lines and find +Jack, when I saw the paragraph in _The Examiner_, telling of your coming +and whereabouts." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ROSEDALE. + + +"What an intrepid young brave you are, Dick!" Olympia cried, as the +artless narrative came to an end. + +"What a cruel boy, to leave his family and--and--run into such dreadful +danger!" Merry expostulated. + +"What a devoted boy, to risk his life and liberty for our poor Jack!" +Mrs. Sprague said, bending forward to stroke the tow-head. The carriage +passed down the same road that Jack had gone the day before, whistling +sarcasms at his keeper. At Harrison's Landing there was a delay of +several hours, and the impatient party wandered on the shores of the +majestic James--glittering, like a sylvan lake, in its rich border of +woodland. The sun was too hot to permit of the excursion Dick suggested, +and late in the afternoon the wheezy ferry carried them down the +lake-like stream. On every hand there were signs of peace--not a fort, +not a breastwork gave token that this was in a few months to be the +shambles of mighty armies, the anchorage of that new wonder, the iron +battle-ship; the scene of McClellan's miraculous victory at Malvern, of +Grant's slaughtering grapplings with rebellion at bay, of Butler's comic +joustings, and the last desperate onslaughts of Hancock's legions. The +air, tempered by the faint flavor of salt in the water, filled the +travelers with an intoxicating vigor, lent strength to their jaded +forces, which, while tense with expectation, could not wholly resist the +delicious aroma, the lovely outlines of primeval forest, the melody of +strange birds, startled along the shore by the wheezy puffing of the +ferry. There were cries of admiring delight as the carriage ran from the +long wooden pier into the dim arcade of sycamore and pine, through which +the road wound, all the way to Rosedale. Then they emerged into a +gentle, rolling, upland, where cultivated fields spread far into the +horizon, and in the distance a dense grove, which proved to be the park +about the house. The coming of the carriage was a signal to a swarm of +small black urchins to scramble, grinning and delighted, to the wide +lawn. There was no need to sound the great knocker; no need to explain, +when Rosalind, hurrying to the door, saw Olympia emerging from the +vehicle. They had not seen each other in four years, but they were in +each other's arms--laughing, sobbing--exclaiming: + +"How did you know? When did you come?" + +"Jack, Jack! Where is he? How is he?" + +"Jack's able to eat," Rosa cried, darting down to embrace Mrs. Sprague, +and starting with a little cry of wonder as Aunt Merry exclaimed, timidly: + +"We're all here. You've captured the best part of Acredale, though you +haven't got Washington yet." + +"Why, how delightful! We shall think it is Acredale," Rosa cried, +welcoming the blushing lady. "And--I should say, if he were not so much +like--like 'we uns,' that this was my old friend, the naughty Richard," +she said, welcoming the blushing youth cordially. (Dick avowed +afterward, in confidence to Jack, that she would have kissed him if he +hadn't held back, remembering his unkempt condition.) Mamma and Olympia +were shown up to the door of Jack's room, where Rosalind very discreetly +left them, to introduce the other guests to Mrs. Atterbury, attracted to +the place by the unwonted sounds. When presently the visitors were shown +into Vincent's room, Jack called out to them to come and see valor +conquered by love; and, when they entered, mamma was brushing her eyes +furtively, while she still held Jack's unwounded hand under the +counterpane. Master Dick excited the maternal alarm by throwing himself +rapturously on the wounded hero and giving him the kiss he had denied +Rosalind. Indeed, he showered kisses on the abashed hero, whose eyes +were suspiciously sparkling at the evidence of the boy's delight. He +established himself in Jack's room, and no urging, prayer, or reproof +could induce him to quit his hero's sight. + +"I lost him once," he said, doggedly, "and I'm not going to lose him +again. Where he goes, I'm going; where he stays, I'll stay--sha'n't +I, Jack?" + +"You shall, indeed, my dauntless Orestes; you shall share my fortunes, +whatever they be." + +He insisted on a cot in the room, and there, during the convalescence of +his idol, he persisted in sleeping--ruling all who had to do with the +invalid in his own capricious humor, hardly excepting Mrs. Sprague, whom +he tolerated with some impatience. Letters were dispatched northward to +relieve the anxiety of Pliny and Phemie, as well as the Marshes. But it +hung heavily on Jack's heart that no trace of Barney had been found. +Advertisements were sent to the Richmond papers, and he waited in +restless impatience for some sign of the kind lad's well-being. + +"Well, Jack, this isn't much like the pomp and circumstance of glorious +war," Olympia cried, the next morning, coming in from an excursion about +the "plantation," as she insisted on calling the estate, attended by +Merry, Rosa, and Dick. "I never saw such foliage! The roses are as large +as sunflowers, and there are whole fields of them!" + +"Yes; I believe the Atterburys make merchandise of them." + +"But who buys them about here? They seem to grow wild--as fine in form +and color as our hot-house varieties. Surely they are not bought by the +colored people, and there seems to be no one else--no other +inhabitants, I mean." + +"Oh, no; they are shipped North in the season for them; but I don't +think the family has paid much attention to that branch of the business +of late years. Their revenues come from tobacco and cotton. Their +cotton-fields are in South Carolina and along the Atlantic coast." + +"And are these colored people all slaves?" Her voice sank to a whisper, +for Vincent's door was ajar. + +"Yes, every man jack of them. Did you ever see such merry rogues? They +laugh and sing half the night, and sing and work half the day." + +"They don't seem unhappy, that's a fact," Olympia said, reflectively, +"but I should think ownership in flesh and blood would harden people; +and yet the Atterburys are very kind and gentle. I saw tears in Mrs. +Atterbury's eyes, yesterday, when mamma was sitting here with you." + +"Yes," Jack said, unconsciously, "women enjoy crying--" + +"You insufferable braggart, how dare you talk like that? Pray, what do +you know about women's likes and dislikes?" + +"Oh, I beg pardon, Polly; I'm sure I didn't mean anything--I was taking +the minor for the major. All women like babies; babies pass most of +their time crying; therefore women like crying." + +"Well, if that is the sum of your college training, it is a good thing +the war came--" + +"What about the war? No treason in Rosedale, remember!" Vincent shouted +from the next room. "You pledged me that when you talked war you would +talk in open assembly." The voice neared the open doorway as he spoke. +The servant had moved the invalid's cot, where Vincent could look in +on Jack. + +"There was really no war talk, Vint, except such war as women always +raise, contention--" + +"I object, Jack, to your generalization," Olympia retorted. "It is a +habit of boyishness and immaturity.--He said a moment ago" (she turned +to Vincent) "that women loved crying, and then sneaked out by a very +shallow evasion." + +"I'll leave it to Vint: All women love babies; babies do nothing but +cry; therefore, women love crying; there couldn't be a syllogism more +irrefutable." + +"Unless it be that all women love liars," Vincent ventured, jocosely. + +"How do you prove that?" + +"All men are liars; women love men; therefore--" + +"Oh, pshaw! you have to assume in that premise. I don't in mine. It is +notorious that women love babies, while you have only the spiteful +saying of a very uncertain old prophet for your major--" + +"Whose major?" Rosa asked, appearing suddenly. "I'll have you to know, +sir, that this major is mamma's, and no one else can have, hold, or make +eyes at him." + +"It was the major in logic we were making free with," Jack mumbled, +laughing. "I hope logic isn't a heresy in your new Confederacy, as +religion was in the French Constitution of '93?" + +Rosa looked at Olympia, a little perplexed, and, seating herself on the +cot with Vincent, where she could caress him furtively, said, with +piquant deliberation: + +"I don't know about logic, but we've got everything needed to make us +happy in the Montgomery Constitution." + +"Have you read it?" Jack asked, innocently. + +"How insulting! Of course I have. I read it the very first thing when it +appeared in the newspapers." + +"Catch our Northern women doing that!" Jack interjected, loftily. "There +is my learned sister, she doesn't know the Constitution from Plato's +Dialogues." + +"Indeed, I do not; nor do I know Plato's Dialogues," Olympia returned, +quite at ease in this state of ignorance. + +"Wherein does the Montgomery Constitution differ from the old one?" Jack +asked, looking at Vincent. + +"I'm blessed if I know. I've read neither. I did read the Declaration of +Independence once at a Fourth-of-July barbecue. I always thought that +was the Constitution. Indeed, every fellow about here does! You know in +the South the women do all the thinking for the men. Rosa keeps my +political conscience." + +"Well, then, Lord High Chancellor, tell us the vital articles in the +Montgomery document that have inspired you to arm Mars for the conflict, +plunge millions into strife and thousands into hades, as Socrates would +have said, employing his method?" Jack continued derisively. + +"Our Constitution assures us the eternal right to own our own property." + +"Slaves?" + +"Yes." + +"No one denied you that right, so far as the law went, under the old; it +was only the justice, the humanity, that was questioned. The right would +have endured a hundred years, perhaps forever, if you had kept still--" + +"Come, Jack, I won't listen to politics," Olympia cried, with a warning +look. + +"No, the time for talk is past; it is battle, and God defend the right!" +Rosa said, solemnly. + +"And you may be sure he will," Jack added, softly, as though to himself. + +"But we've got far away from the crying and the babies," Vincent began, +when Jack interrupted, fervently: + +"Thank Heaven!" + +"You monster!" the two girls cried in a breath. + +"No, I can't conceive a sillier paradox than 'A babe in the house is a +well-spring of joy.' A woman must have written it first. Now, my idea of +perfect happiness for a house is to have two wounded warriors like +Vincent and me, tractable, amiable, always ready to join in rational +conversation and make love if necessary, providing we're encouraged." + +"Really, Olympia, your Northern men are not what I fancied," Rosa cried, +with a laugh. + +"What did you fancy them?" + +"Oh, ever so different, from this--this saucy fellow--modest, timid, +shy; needing ever so much encouragement to--to--" + +"Claim their due?" Jack added, slyly. + +"Well, there is one that doesn't require much encouragement to claim +everything that comes in his way," Rosa retorts, and Olympia adds: + +"And to spare my feelings you won't name him now." + +"Exactly," said Rosa. + +"How touching!" exclaimed Vincent. + +"I left all my blood to enrich your soil, or I'd blush," replied Jack. + +"Oh, no; it won't enrich the soil; it will bring out a crop of Johnny +Jump-ups, a weed that we don't relish in the South," retorted Rosa. + +"Ah, Jack, you're hit there!--Rosa, I'm proud of you. This odious Yankee +needs combing down; he ran over us so long at college that he is +conceited in his own impudence," and Vincent exploded in shouts +of laughter. + +"I fear you're not a botanist, Miss Rosa. It's 'Jack in the pulpit' that +will spring from Northern blood, and they'll preach such truths that the +very herbage will bring the lesson of liberty and toleration to you." + +"What is this very serious discussion, my children?" Mrs. Atterbury +said, beaming sweetly upon the group. "I couldn't imagine what had +started Vincent in such boisterous laughter; and now, that I come, Mr. +Jack is as serious as we were at school when Madame Clarice told us of +our sins." + +"Jack was telling his, mamma, and that is still more serious than to +hear one's own," Vincent said, grinning at the moralist. + +"But, to be serious a moment, I have written to my old friend General +Robert Lee, of Arlington, about Miss Perley. I know that he will grant +her permission to take Richard home with her, and the question now is +whether it is safe to let them go together alone?" Mrs. Atterbury +addressed the question to Olympia, making no account of Jack. + +"Oh, let us leave the decision until you get General Lee's answer. If +they get the message in Acredale that Dick is safe and sound, I don't +see why they need go back before we do. I shall be able to travel in a +few weeks. If the roads were not so rickety I wouldn't be afraid to set +out now," Jack answered. + +"Impossible! You can't leave for a month yet, if then," Vincent +proclaimed, authoritatively. "I know what gunshot wounds are: you think +they are healed, and begin fooling about, when you find yourself laid up +worse than ever. There's no hurry. The campaign can't begin before +October. I'm as anxious to be back as you are, but I don't mean to stir +before October. Perhaps you think it will be dull here? Just wait until +you are strong enough to knock about a bit; we shall have royal rides. +We'll go to Williamsburg and see the oldest college in the country. +We'll go down the James, and you shall see some of the richest lands in +the world. We'll get a lot of fellows out from Richmond and have our +regular barbecue in September. We wind up the season here every year +with a grand dance, and Olympia shall lead the Queen Anne minuet with +mamma's kinsman, General Lee, who is the President's chief of staff." + +"This doesn't sound much like soldiering," Jack said, dreamily. + +"No. When in the field, let us fight; when at home, let us be merry." + +"A very proper sentiment, young men. We want you to be very merry, for +you must remember the time comes when we can't be anything but sad--when +you are away and the night of doubt settles upon our weak women's +hearts." It was Mrs. Atterbury who spoke, and the sentence seemed to +bring silence upon the group. + +Meanwhile, all the inquiries set on foot through the agency of the +Atterburys failed to bring any tidings of Barney Moore. It suddenly +occurred to Jack that the poor fellow was masquerading as a rebel in the +bosom of some eager patriot like Mrs. Raines and he reluctantly +consented to let Dick go to Richmond to investigate. Perhaps Mrs. Raines +might know where the wounded men were taken that had come with him. Some +of the stragglers could at least be found. The advertisement asking +information concerning a wounded man arriving in Richmond with himself +was kept in all the journals. But Merry wouldn't consent to let Dick go +on the dangerous quest without her. She would never dare face her +sisters if any mishap came to the lad, and though Vincent put him under +the care of an experienced overseer, and ordered the town-house to be +opened for his entertainment, the timorous aunt was immovable. + +"You must go and call on the President, Miss Merry. He receives +Thursdays at the State House. Then you'll see a really great man in +authority, not the backwoods clowns that have brought this country into +ridicule--such a man as Virginia used to give the people for President," +Rosa said in the tone a lady of Louis XVIII's court might have used to +an adherent of the Bonapartes. + +"Ah, Rosa, we saw a gentle, tender-hearted man in Washington--the very +ideal of a people's father. No one else can ever be President to me +while he lives," Olympia said, seriously. + +"Lincoln?" Rosa asked, a little disdainfully. + +"Yes, Abraham Lincoln. We have all misunderstood him. Oh if you could +have seen him as I saw him--so patient, so considerate: the sorrows of +the nation in his heart and its burdens on his shoulders; but confident, +calm, serene, with the benignant humility of a man sent by God," Olympia +added almost reverently. "It was he who came to our aid and ordered the +rules to be broken that our mother might seek Jack." + +Rosa was about to retort, but a warning glance from Vincent checked her, +and she said nothing. + +"I say, Dick, don't try to capture Jeff Davis or blow up the Confederate +Congress, or any other of the casual master strokes that may enter your +wild head. Remember that we have given double hostages to the enemy. We +have accepted their hospitality, and we have made ourselves their +guests," Jack said, half seriously, as the young Hotspur wrung his hand +in a tearful embrace. + +"Above all, remember, Mr. Yankee, that you are in a certain sense a +civilian now; you must not compromise us by free speech in Richmond," +Rosa added. + +"Ah, I know very well there's none of that in the South: you folks +object to free speech; they killed poor old Brown for it; that's what +you made war for, to silence free speech," Dick cried hotly, while Merry +pinched his arm in terror. + +Dick began his campaign in the morning with longheaded address. He +visited the prison under ample powers from General Lee--procured though +Vincent's mediation. There were a score of the Caribees in Castle +Winder, and to these the boy came as a good fairy in the tale. For he +distributed money, tobacco, and other things, which enabled the +unfortunates to beguile the tedious hours of confinement. The prisoners +were crowded like cattle in the immense warehouse in squads of a hundred +or more. They had blankets to stretch on the floor for beds, a general +basin to wash in, and for some time amused themselves watching through +the barred windows the crowds outside that flocked to the place to see +the Yankees, and, when not checked by the guards, to revile and +taunt them. + +Dick was enraged to see how contentedly the men bore the irksome +confinement, the meager food, and harsh peremptoriness of the beardless +boys set over them as guards. Most of the prisoners passed the time in +cards, playing for buttons, trinkets, or what not that formed their +scanty possessions. Dick learned that all the commissioned officers of +the company with Wesley Boone had been wounded or killed in the charge +near the stone bridge. Wesley had been with the prisoners at first. He +had been struck on the head, and was in a raging fever when his father +and sister came to the prison to take him away. No one could tell where +he was now, but Dick knew that he must be in the city, since there were +no exchanges, the Confederates allowing no one to leave the lines except +women with the dead, or those who came from the North on +special permits. + +Then he visited the provost headquarters, and was shown the complete +list of names recorded in the books there; but Barney's was not among +them. At the Spottswood Hotel, the day after his coming, he met Elisha +Boone, haggard, depressed, almost despairing. Dick had no love for the +hard-headed plutocrat, but he couldn't resist making himself known. + +"How d'ye do, Mr. Boone? I hope Wesley is coming on well, sir." + +Boone brought his wandering eyes down to the stripling in dull +amazement. + +"Why, where on earth do you come from? How is it you are free and +allowed in the streets?" + +"Oh, I am a privileged person, sir. I am looking up Company K. You +haven't heard anything of young Moore, Barney, who lives on the Callao +road south of Acredale?" + +"No, my mind has been taken up with my son"; his voice grew softer. "He +is in a very bad way, and the worst is there is no decent doctor to be +got here for love or money; all the capable ones are in the army, and +those that are here refuse to take any interest in a Yankee." + +The father's grief and the unhappy situation of his whilom enemy touched +the lad; forgetting Jack's and Vincent's warning, Dick said, +impulsively: + +"Oh, I can get him a good doctor. We have friends here." He knew, the +moment he had spoken the words, that he had been imprudent--how +imprudent the sudden, suspicious gleam in Boone's eye at once +admonished him. + +"Friends here? Union men have no friends here. There are men here with, +whom I have done business for years, men that owe prosperity to me, but +when I called on them they almost insulted me. If you have friends, you +must have sympathies that they appreciate." + +Dick knew what this meant. To be a Democrat had been, in Acredale, to be +charged with secret leanings to rebellion. He restrained his wrath +manfully, and said, simply: + +"An old college friend of Jack's has been very kind to us." + +"Us? I take it you mean the Spragues. They are stopping with Jeff Davis, +I suppose? It's the least he could do for allies so steadfast." + +"You shouldn't talk that way, sir. Every man in the Caribees, except old +Oswald's gang, is a Democrat, but they are for the country +before party." + +"Yes, yes, it may be so--but, the North don't think that way. Well, I'm +going to Washington to see if I can't get my boy out of this infernal +place, where a man can't even get shaved decently." + +"And Miss Kate, Mr. Boone, where is she?" + +"She is nursing Wesley, poor girl. She is having a harder trial than any +of us; for these devilish women fairly push into the sick-room to abuse +the North and berate the soldiers that fought at Manassas." + +"I should like to call on Wesley--if you don't mind," Dick said, +hesitatingly. + +"I shall be only too glad; and I'll tell you what it is, Richard, if +you'll make use of your friends here, to get Kate and Wesley some +comforts, some consideration, I'll make it worth your while. I'll see +that you do not have to wait long for a commission, and I'll pay you any +reasonable sum so soon as you get back North." + +Dick restrained his anger under this insulting blow, perceiving, even in +the hotness of his wrath, that the other was unconscious of the double +ignominy implied in dealing with soldiers' rewards as personal bribes, +and proffering money for common brotherly offices. It was only when Jack +commended his astuteness, afterward, that Dick realized the adroitness +of his own diplomacy. + +"Thank you, Mr. Boone. I shouldn't care for promotion that I didn't win +in war; and, as for money, I shall have enough when I need it. But any +man in the Caribees shall have my help. Under the flag every man is +a friend." + +"True. Yes; you are quite right. Kate will be very glad to see you." + +They walked along, neither disposed to talk after this narrow shave from +a quarrel. Boone led the way to the northern outskirts of the city, +until they reached a dull-brown frame building, back some distance from +the street. A colored woman, with a flaming turban on her head, opened +the door as she saw them coming up the trim walk lined with shells and +gay with poppies, bergamot, asters, and heliotrope. + +"This woman is a slave. She belongs to the proprietor of the hotel who +refused to receive Wesley. It was a great concession to let him come +here, they told me. But the poor boy might as well be in a Michigan +logging camp, for all the care he can get. But I'm mighty glad I met +you. I know you can help Kate while I am gone. I hated to leave her, but +I can do nothing here, and unless Wesley is removed he will never leave +this cussed town alive. I sha'n't be gone more than ten days." + +Kate had been called by the turbaned mistress, and came into the room +with a little shriek of pleasure. + +"O, Richard, what a delightful surprise! Have you seen your aunt? Ah! I +am so glad; she must be so relieved! And Mr. Sprague--have they +found him?" + +Dick retailed as much of the story as he thought safe, but he had to say +that the Spragues were all with the Atterburys in the country. + +"How providential! Ah, if our poor Wesley could find some such friends! +He is very low. He recognizes no one. Unless papa can get leave to take +him North--I am afraid of the worst. Indeed, I doubt whether he could +stand so long a journey. You must stay the day with us. I am so lonely, +and I dread being more lonely still when papa leaves this evening." + +Dick remained until late in the afternoon, sending word to Merry, who +came promptly to the aid of the afflicted. The next day Dick left his +aunt at the cottage with Kate, and warning them that he should be gone +all day, and perhaps not see them until the next morning, he set off for +Rosedale, where he told Jack Kate's plight. Vincent heard the story, +too, and when it was ended he said, decisively: + +"Jack, we must send for them. It would never do to have the story told +in Acredale that you had found friends in the South--because you are a +Democrat, and Boone was thrust into negro quarters because he is an +abolitionist." + +It was the very thought on Jack's mind, and straightway the carriage was +made ready, with ample pillows and what not. Dick set out in great +state, filled with the importance of his mission and the glory of Jack's +cordial praises. He was to stop on the way through town and carry the +Atterbury's family physician to direct the removal. When he appeared +before Kate, with Mrs. Atterbury's commands that she and her brother +should make Rosedale their home until the invalid could be removed +North, the poor girl broke down in the sudden sense of relief--the +certainty of salvation to the slowly dying brother. The physician spent +many hours redressing the wounds. Gangrene had begun to eat away the +flesh of the head above the temple, and poor Wesley was unrecognizable. +He was quite unconscious of the burning bromine and the clipping of +flesh that the skillful hand of the practitioner carried on. When the +little group started on the long journey, the invalid looked more like +himself than he had since Kate found him. The drive lasted many hours. +Wesley was stretched in an ambulance, Kate sitting on the seat with the +driver, the physician and Dick following in the carriage. Merry went +back to the city house, where her nephew was to return as soon as Wesley +had been delivered at Rosedale. Her charge placed in the hands of the +kind hostess, Mrs. Atterbury, Kate broke down. She had borne up while +her head and heart alone stood between her brother and death; but now, +relieved of the strain, she fell into an alarming fever. A Williamsburg +veteran, who had practiced in that ancient college town, since the early +days of the century, took the Richmond surgeon's place, and the gay +summer house became, for the time, a hospital. + +Meanwhile the rebel provost-marshal had simplified Dick's task a good +deal. An order was issued that all houses where wounded or ailing men +were lying should signalize the fact by a yellow flag or ribbon, +attached to the front in a conspicuous place. Thus directed, Dick walked +street after street, asking to see the wounded; and the fourth day, +coming to a residence, rather handsomer than the others on the street, +not two blocks from Mrs. Raines, Jack's Samaritan, he found a wasted +figure, with bandaged head and unmeaning eyes, that he recognized +as Barney. + +"We haven't been able to get any clew as to his name or regiment. The +guards at the station said he belonged to the Twelfth Virginia, but none +of the members of that body in the city recognize him. You know him?" + +"Yes. He is of my regiment," Dick said, neglecting to mention the +regiment. "I will send word to his friends at once and have +him removed." + +"Oh, we are proud and happy to have him here. Our only anxiety was lest +he should die and his family remain in ignorance. But, now that you +identify him, we hope that we may be permitted to keep him until his +recovery." + +It was a stately matron who spoke with such a manner, as Dick thought, +must be the mark of nobility in other lands. He learned, with surprise, +that the Atterbury physician was ministering to Barney, though there was +nothing strange in that, since the doctor was the favorite practitioner +of the well-to-do in the city. That night he wrote to Jack, asking +instructions, and the next day received a note, written by Olympia, +advising that Barney be left with his present hosts until he recovered +consciousness; that by that time Vincent would be able to come up to +town and explain matters to the deluded family. The better to carry out +this plan, Dick was bidden to return to Rosedale, and thus, six weeks +after the battle and dispersion, all our Acredale personages, by the +strange chances of war, were assembled within sight of the rebel +capital, and, though in the hands of friends, as absolutely cut off from +their home and duties as if they had been captured in a combat with +the Indians. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A MASQUE IN ARCADY. + + +In the latter days of September, the life at Rosedale was but a faint +reminder of the hospital it had seemed in August. The young men were +able to take part in all the simple gayeties devised by Rosa to make the +time pass agreeably. Wesley was still subject to dizziness if exposed to +the sun, but Jack and Vincent were robust as lumbermen. Mrs. Sprague and +Merry sighed wearily in the seclusion of their chambers for the Northern +homeside, but they banished all signs of discontent before their +warm-hearted hosts. There was as yet no exchange arranged between the +hostile Cabinets of Richmond and Washington. Even Boone's potent +influence among the magnates of his party had not served him to effect +Wesley's release nor enabled him to return to watch over the boy's +fortunes. There was no one at Rosedale sorry for the latter calamity +outside of Wesley and Kate. I believe even she was secretly not +heart-broken, for she knew that her father would be antipathetic to the +outspoken ladies of Rosedale. + +There had been an almost total suspension of military movements East and +West. Both sides were straining every resource to bring drilled armies +into the field, when the decisive blow fell. In his drives and walks +about the James and Williamsburg, Jack saw that the country was stripped +of the white male population. The negroes carried on all the domestic +concerns of the land. In these excursions, too, he marked, with a keen +military instinct, the points of defense General Magruder, who commanded +the department, had left untouched. He wondered if the Union arms would +ever get as far down as this. If they did, and he were of the force, he +would like to have a cavalry regiment to lead! Vincent was to rejoin his +command at Manassas in October. Jack looked forward to the event with +the most dismal discontent. To be tied up here, far from his companions; +to seem to enjoy ease, when his regiment was indurating itself by +drills, marches, and the rough life of the soldier for the great work it +was to do, maddened him. + +"I give you fair warning, Vint, if an exchange isn't arranged before you +leave here, I shall cut stick: the best way I can." + +"Good! How will you manage? It's a long pull between here and our front +at Manassas. How will you work it? Just as soon as you quit the shelter +of Rosedale, you are a suspect. Even the negroes will halt you. If you +should make for Fortress Monroe, you have all of Magruder's army to get +through. You would surely be caught in the act, and then I could do +nothing for you. You would be sent to Castle Winder, and that isn't a +very comfortable billet." + +Some hint of Jack's discontent, or rather of his vague dream of flight, +came into Dick's busy head, and when one day they were tramping down by +the James together, he said, owlishly: + +"I say, Jack, when Vincent goes, let us clear out!" + +"I say yes, with all my heart, but how can it be done? We are more than +forty miles from the nearest Union lines. Whole armies are between us. +Any white man found on the highway is questioned, and if he can't give a +clear account of himself is sent to the provost prison. You remember the +other day, when we left the rest to go through the swamp road near +Williamsburg, we were hailed by a patrol, and if Vincent hadn't been +within reach we would have been sent to the provost prison. Even the +negroes act as guards." + +"Don't be too sure of that. I've been talking to some of them. They are +'fraid as sin of the overseers, but you notice they shut up all the +negroes in their own quarters at night, don't you? If they were all +right, why should they do that?" + +"Good heavens! you haven't been trying to make an uprising among the +Rosedale servants, Dick? Don't you know that no end of ours could +justify that? These people have been like brothers--like our own family +to us. It would be infamous--infamous without power in the language for +comparison--if we should requite their humanity by stirring up servile +strife. I should be the first to take arms against the slaves in such +revolt, and give my life rather than be instrumental in bringing misery +upon the Atterburys." + +"Oh, keep your powder dry, Jack! I never dreamed of stirring 'em up. +What I mean is, that they are all restless and uneasy. They have an idea +that 'Massa Linculm' is coming down with a big army to set them free. +Many of them want to fly to meet this army. Many, too, would almost +rather die than leave their mistress. None of them--but the very bad +ones--could be induced under any circumstances to lift their hands +against the family or its property." + +"I should hope not--at least through our instrumentality. The time must +come when they will leave the family, for the one call only and in one +way; that is, by cutting out slavery root and branch. However, that's +for the politicians to manage; all we have to do is to stand by the +colors and fight." + +"I don't see much chance of standing by the colors here," Dick retorted, +wrathfully. "If you'll give me the word, I'll arrange a plan, and, as +soon as Vincent goes--we'll be off." + +"I'm not your master, you young hornet; I can't see what you're doing +all the time. All I can do is to approve or reject such doings of yours +as you bring me to decide on." + +Dick's eyes sparkled. "All right, I'll keep you posted, never fear." + +They were a very jovial group that prattled about the long Rosedale +dining-table daily now, since every one was able to come down. The house +was furnished in the easy unpretentiousness that prevailed in the South +in other days. Cool matting covered all the floors, the hallways, and +bedchambers. The dining-room opened into a drawing-room, where Kate and +Olympia took turns at the big piano. The day was divided, English +fashion, into breakfast, luncheon, dinner, and supper, the latter as +late as nine o'clock in the night. Jack being unprovided with +regimentals, Vincent wore civilian garb, to spare the "prisoner" (as +Jack jocosely called himself) mortification. Gray was the "only wear" +obtainable in Richmond, Mrs. Atterbury enjoying with gentle malice the +rueful perplexities of her prisoner guests, Jack, Wesley, and Richard, +as they surrounded the board in this rebel attire. + +"I shall feel as uncertain of myself when I get back to blue, as I do in +chess, after I have played a long while with the black, changing to +white. I manoeuvre for some time for the discarded color," Jack said, +one evening. + +"Oh, you'll hardly forget in this case," Rosa said, saucily; "it is for +the blacks you are manoeuvring constantly." + +Jack looked up, startled, and glanced swiftly at Dick. Had that +headstrong young marplot been detected in treason with the colored +people? No. Dick met his glance clear-eyed, unconstrained. The shot must +have been a random one. + +"I think you do us injustice, Miss Rosa," Wesley said. "I, for one, am +not interested in the blacks. All I want is the Union; after that I +don't care a rush!" + +"I protest against politics," Mrs. Atterbury intervened, gently. "When I +was a girl the young people found much more interesting subjects than +politics." + +Rosa: "Crops, mamma?" + +Vincent: "A mistress's eyebrow?" + +Dick: "Some other fellow's sister?" + +Olympia: "Some other girl's brother?" + +Mrs. Sprague: "Giddy girls?" + +Merry: "Bad boys?" + +"Well, something about all of these," Mrs. Atterbury resumed, laughing. +"I don't think young people in these times are as attached to each other +as we used to be in our day--do you, Mrs. Sprague?" + +"I don't know how it is with you in the South; but we no longer have +young people in the North. Our children bring us up now--we do not +bring them up." + +"That accounts for the higher average of intelligence among parents +noted in the last census," Olympia interrupts her mother to say. + +"There, do you see?" Mrs. Sprague continues, with a smile, and in a tone +that has none of the asperity the words might imply. "No reverence, no +waiting for the elders, as we were taught." + +"It depends a good deal, does it not, whether the elders are lovers?" +Vincent asked, innocently. + +"Oh, don't look at me, Mrs. Sprague, for support or sympathy. Vincent is +your handiwork; he was formed in the North. He is one of your new school +of youth; he is Southern only in loyalty to his State. For a time I had +painful apprehensions that that, too, had been educated away." + +"It was his reason that kept him faithful there," Rosa ventured, and +catches Vincent dropping his eyes in confusion from the demure glances +of Olympia. + +"Oh, no; pride. A Virginian is like a Roman, he is prouder to be a +citizen in the Dominion than a king in another country," Mrs. Atterbury +says, with stately decision. "No matter where his heart may be," and she +glanced casually at Olympia, "his duty is to his State." + +"Politics, mamma, politics; remember your young days. Talk of kings, +courts, romance, madrigals--but leave out politics," Rosa cried, +remonstratingly. + +"Let's turn to political economy. How do you propose disposing of your +tobacco and cotton this year?" Jack asked, gravely. + +"We are under contract to deliver ten thousand bales at Wilmington to +our agent," Vincent replied. "As for tobacco, we expect to sell all we +can raise to the Yankee generals. We have already begun negotiations +with some of your commanders who are too good Yankees to miss the +main chance." + +"You're not in earnest?" Jack cried, aghast. + +"As earnest as a maid with her first love." + +"But who--who--is the miscreant that degrades his cause by such +traffic?" + +"Oh, if you wait until you learn from me, you'll never be a dangerous +accuser. I learn in letters from friends in the West that all the cotton +crop has been contracted for by men either in the Northern army or high +in the confidence of the Administration. You see, Jack, we are not the +Arcadian simpletons you think us. This war is to be paid for out of +Northern pockets, any way you look at it. We've got cotton and tobacco, +you must have both; you've got money, we must have that. What we don't +sell to you we'll send to England." + +All at the table had listened absorbedly to this strange revelation, and +Jack rose from the table shocked and discouraged. + +Olympia seated herself at the piano, and, slipping out, as he supposed, +unseen, Jack strolled off into the fragrant alleys of oleander and +laurel. Dick, however, was at his heels. The two continued on in +silence, Dick trolling along, switching the bugs from the pink blossoms +that filled the air with an enervating odor. + +"I say. Jack, I've found out something." + +"What have you found out, you young conspirator?" + +"Wesley Boone's trying to get the negroes to help him off." + +"The devil he is!" + +"Yes. Last night I was down in the rose-fields. Young Clem, Aunt +Penelope's boy, was sitting under a bush talking with a crony. I heard +him say, 'De cap'n'll take you, too, ef you doan say noffin'. He guv +Pompey ten gold dollars.' + +"'De Lor'! Will he take ev'ybody 'long, too, Clem?' + +"'Good Lor', no! He's goin' to get his army, and den he'll come an' +fetch all de niggahs.' + +"'De Lor'!' + +"Trying to get closer, I made a rustling of the bushes, and the young +imps shot through them like weasles before I could lay hands on them. +Now, what do you think of that?" + +"If it is only to escape, all right; but if it is an attempt to stir up +insurrection, I will stop Wesley myself, rather than let him carry +it out!" + +"Wouldn't it be the best thing to warn Vincent? It would be a dreadful +thing to let him go and leave his poor mother and sister here +unprotected." + +"Let me think it over. I will hit on some plan to keep Wesley from +making an ingrate of himself without bringing danger on our +benefactors." + +Kate was dawdling on the lawn as the two returned to the house. Jack +challenged her to a jaunt. + +"Where shall it be?" she asked, readily, moving toward him. "The garden +of the gods?" + +"The garden of the goddesses, you mean, if it is the rose-field." + +"That's true; a god's garden would be filled with thorns and warlike +blossoms." + +"I don't know; a rose-garden grew the wars of the houses of York and +Lancaster." + +"Do you remember the scene in Shakespeare where Bolingbroke and Gaunt +pluck the roses?" + +"Quite well. There is always something pathetic to me in the fables +historians invent to excuse or palliate, or, perhaps it would be juster +to say, make tolerable, the stained pages of the past. It is brought +doubly nearer and distinct by this miserable war, and the strange fate +that has fallen upon us--to be the guests of a family whose hopes are +fixed upon what would make us miserable if it ever happened." + +"It never will. That's the reason I listen with pity to the childish +vauntings of these kind people. They have, you see, no conception of the +Northern people--no idea of the deep-seated purpose that moves the +States as one man to stifle this monstrous attempt." + +They walked on in silence a few paces, and Kate continued: "I don't know +how you feel, Mr. Sprague, but I am wretched here. I feel like a +traitor, receiving such kindness, treated with such guileless +confidence, and yet my heart is filled with everything they abhor. It is +not so hard for you, because you and Vincent have been close friends. He +has made your house his home, but I certainly feel that Wesley and I +should go elsewhere, now that he is able to be about." + +"Does Wesley feel this--this embarrassment?" + +"Passionately. He said, last night, he felt like a sneak. He would fly +in an instant, if he could see any possible way to our lines." + +"Pray, Miss Boone, tell him to be very circumspect. I know the Southern +nature. When they give you their heart they give entirely. But the least +sign of--of--distrust will turn them into something worse than +indifference. We may see our way out soon. Caution Wesley against any +act--any act"--he emphasized the words--"that may lead these kind people +to think that he doesn't trust them, or that he would take advantage of +servile insurrection to gain his liberty. Of course, they know that we +are all restive here; that we shall be even more impatient when Vincent +goes--but they could not understand any surreptitious movement on our +part, to enable us to get away." + +He hoped that, if she were in Wesley's confidence, she would understand +his meaning. But she gave no sign. She assented with an affirmative +movement of the head, and they walked through the fragrant paths, +plucking a rose now and then that seemed more tempting than its fellows. +At the end of the field of roses a Cherokee hedge grew so thick and high +that it formed a screen and rampart between the house land and a dense +grove of pines which was itself bordered by a stream that here and there +spread out into tiny lakelets. On the larger of these there were rude +"dug-outs," made by the darkies to cut off the long walk from their +quarters to the tobacco and corn fields. + +"Was there ever an Eden more perfect than this delicious place?" Kate +cried, as the flaming sun sent banners of gold, mingled in a rainbow +baldric with the blooming parterres of roses. + +"I don't know much about Eden, and the little I do know doesn't give me +a sympathetic reminiscence of the place; but I agree with you that +Rosedale is about as near a paradise as one can come to on this earth," +Jack qualifiedly replied. + +"And yet we want to fly from it?" + +"Ah, yes; because the tree of our life, the volume of our knowledge, or, +in plain prose, our hearts, are not here, and scenic beauty is a poor +substitute for that. Duty, I am convinced, is the key of the best life. +There are hearts here, noble ones--duties here, inspiring ones. But they +do not satisfy us: they are become a torment to me. I feel like a +soldier brought from duty; a priest fallen into the ways of the flesh." + +"Your rhapsodies are like most fine-sounding things, more to the hope +than the heart," Kate murmured, gazing dreamily into the purple mass of +color hovering changefully over the opaque water at their feet. "You +mean they do not reach your heart; that your soul is far away as to what +is here. I think Vincent and Rosa would not agree that life has any more +or narrower limitations here than we recognize at Acredale." + +"Let us go on the water." He pulled the rude shallop to her feet and +they got in and went on, Jack not heeding her gibe. "These brackish, +threatening deeps remind me of all sorts of weird and uncanny things; +Stygian pools--Lethe--what not mystic and terrifying. See, the tiny +waves that curl before our boat are like thin ink; a thousand roots and +herbs and who knows what mysterious vegetable mixture colors these dark +deeps? I could fancy myself on an uncanny pilgrimage, seeking some +demon delight." + +There was but one oar in the boat, which the negroes used as a scull. +Jack made a poor fist with this, but there was no need of rowing. Kate, +catching a projecting limb from the thick bushes on the margin, sent the +little, wabbling craft onward in noisless, spasmodic plunges. Deep +fringes of wild columbine fell in fluffy sprays from the higher banks as +the boat drifted along the other side. The thickets were musical with +the chattering cat-birds and whip-poor-wills, mingled with a score of +woodland melodists that Jack's limited woodcraft did not enable him to +recognize. + +"Who would think that we are within a half-mile of a completely +appointed country house? We are as isolated here from all vestiges of +civilization as we should be in a Florida everglade," Kate said, as the +little craft swam along in an eddy. + +"It seems to me typical of the people--this curiously wild transition +from blooming, well-kept gardens, to such still and solemn nature. The +place might be called primeval: look at those gnarled roots, like +prodigious serpents; see the shining bark of the larch--I think it is +larch--I should call it 'slippery' elm if it were at Acredale; but see +the fantastic effects of the little lances of sunlight breaking through! +Isn't it the realization of all you ever read in 'Uncle Tom' or 'Dred'?" + +Kate glanced into the weird deeps of foliage, where a bird, fluttering +on the wing, aroused strange echoes. "Ugh!" she said, in a half-whisper, +"I can imagine it the meeting-place of 'Tam o' Shanter's' eldritches +seeing this--but, all the same, do you know it is fascinating beyond +words to me? Should you mind going in a little farther--I should like +the sensation of awe the place suggests, since there can be no +danger--while you are here?" + +He gave her a quick glance, but her eyes were fastened on the dark +recesses beyond. + +"I should be delighted, but I won't insure your gown, nor--nor half +promise that we shall come out alive." + +"Oh, as to that, I'll take the risk." + +"I don't know the habits of Southern snakes; but if they are as +well-bred as ours, they retire from the ken of wicked men at sundown, so +we needn't fear them, as the sun is too far down for the snake of +tradition to see or molest us." + +They stepped out of the boat at a green, sedgy point, extending from a +labyrinth of flowering vines and creepers. Once inside the delicious +odorous screen, they found themselves in an archipelago of green islets, +connected by monster roots or moss-covered trunks that seemed laid by +elfin hands for the penetration of this leafy jungle. + +"Yes; I was going to say," Jack continued, "this swift transposition +from the cultivation of civilization to the handiwork of Nature is +whimsically illustrative of the people. Did you ever see or hear or read +of such open-handed, honest-hearted hospitality as theirs; such +refinement of manners; such sincerity in speech and act? Contrast this +with their fairly pagan creed as to the slaves; their intolerance of the +Northern people; their clannish reverence for family." + +"But isn't the inequality of the Southern character due to their strange +lack of education? Few of them are cultivated as we understand +education. Do you notice that among the people we met at +Williamsburg--officers as well as civilians--none of them were equal to +even a very limited range of subjects? All who are educated have been in +the North. Ah--good Heavens!" + +Kate's exclamation was due to a sudden sinking in the mossy causeway +until she was almost buried in the tall ferns. Jack helped her out, +shivered a moment, doubtingly, as he exclaimed: + +"The sun is nearly down now, though the air is transparent, or would be +if we were in the free play of daylight. I think it would be better to +go back." But they made no haste. Such trophies of ferns and lace-like +mosses were not to be plucked in every walk, and they dawdled on and on +skirmishing, with delighted hardihood, against the pitfalls of bog that +covered morass and pitch-black mud. When the impulse finally came to +hasten back, they were somewhat chagrined to discover that they had lost +their own trail. The point where they had quit the stream could not be +found. Clambering plants, burdened with blossoms, fragrant as +honeysuckle, grew all along the bank, and the bush that had attracted +them was no longer a landmark. + +"Well," Jack said, confidently, "the sun disappeared over there; that is +southwest. The house is in that direction--northeast. Now, if you will +keep that big sycamore in your eye and follow me, we shall be nearing +the house, as I calculate." + +They pushed on in that direction, but had only gone a few yards when the +ground became a perfect quagmire of black loam, that looked like coal +ground to powder, and was thin as mush. + +"This is a brilliant stroke on my part, I must say," Jack cried, facing +Kate ruefully. "We must go back and examine the ground, as Indians do, +and find our entrance trail in that way. I will watch the ground and you +keep an eye on the shrubs. Wherever you see havoc among them you may be +sure my manly foot has fallen there." + +Suddenly they were conscious of an indescribable change in the place. +Neither knew what it was. It had come on in the excitement of their +march into the morass--or it had come the instant they both became +conscious of it. What was it? Kate turned and looked into Jack's +blank face! + +"I'm blessed if I know what it is, but it seems as if something had +suddenly gone out of the order of things! What is it? Do you feel it; do +you notice it?" + +"Feel it--see it--why, it is as palpable, or, rather to speak +accurately, it is as clearly absent as the color from an oil-painting, +leaving mere black and white outlines." + +"How besotted I am!" Jack cried; "why, I know. The sun has wholly gone, +and the birds and living things have ceased to sing and move." + +"That's it; could you believe that it would make such a change? Why, I +thought, when we came in, the place was a temple of silence, but it was +a mad world compared to this." + +"Yes, and we must hurry and get out while we have daylight to help us. I +take it you wouldn't care to swim the lagoon. Let us call it lagoon, for +this place makes the name appropriate." + +"Call it whatever you like, but don't ask me to swim it," Kate cried, +pushing on. + +"Ah! I have our trail," Jack cries in triumph. "By George, it is wide +enough!" he added, bending over where the thick grasses were crushed and +broken. "See the advantage of large feet. Now, if you had been alone, +'twould have been as hard as to trace a bird's track." + +"Is that an implication that I have Chinese feet?" + +"No, too literal young woman. It was meant to show you that I am very +much relieved, for, 'pon my soul, I was afraid we were in a very +disagreeable scrape." + +"And you are now quite sure we are not?" + +"Quite sure. Don't you want to take my arm?" + +"Oh, no, thank you. I'm not at all tired. I'm used to longer walks than +this." + +"Longer, possibly, but not over such trying ground." + +"Oh, yes. I've gone with Wesley and his friends to the lakes in the +North Woods." + +"Ah! I've never been there. Are they as bad travel as this?" + +"Infinitely worse--Why, what was that?" + +"It sounded very like the report of a pistol." + +Both stopped, Kate coming quite close to the young man, who was bent +over with his hand to his ear, trumpet-fashion. + +"Do you--" He made a warning gesture with his hand, and motioned her to +stoop among the ferns. A halloo was heard in the distance; then a +response just ahead of where the two crouched in the breast-high ferns, +through which the path made by their recent footsteps led. When the +echoing halloo died away, a bird in the distance seemed to catch up the +refrain and dwell upon the note with an exquisite, painful melody. + +"Why, it's the throat interlude in the Magic Flute! How lovely it is!" +Kate whispered. "If you were my knight, I should put on you the task of +caging that lovely sound for me." + +The distant bird-note ceased, and then suddenly, from the bushes just +ahead of them, it was caught up and answered, note for note, in a wild +pibroch strain, harsher but inexpressibly moving. Jack turned to Kate, +his face quite pale, and whispered: + +"It in not a bird. They are negroes. I have read of these sounds. They +are marauding slaves, and we must not let them see us. We must get to +those thick clumps of bushes. Do you think you can remain bent until we +reach them? If not, we will rest every few paces." + +"Go on. I can try." + +The pibroch strains still continued, rising into a mournful wail, then +sinking info the soft cries of the whip-poor-will. In a few minutes the +perplexed fugitives were deep in a clump of wild hawberries, invisible +to any one who should pass. The strains had ceased as suddenly as they +began. Then a faint hallo-o-o sounded, being answered in the bushes, as +it seemed, just in front of where Jack and his companion stood; voices +soon became audible farther along, ten or more paces. Motioning to Kate, +Jack crept along noiselessly, and fancied he could distinguish forms +through the thick screen of bushes. A voice, not a negro's, said: + +"I went to the cove for you--what was the matter?" + +"I had the devil's work to get through the posts. For some reason or +other they're getting mighty sharp. I must be back before twelve; what's +been done?" + +"Well, the mokes consent to go, but they won't touch the ranch. You'll +have to bring up a few hands; the fewer the better. If them damned +feather-bed sojers wasn't there, we could do the job ourselves." + +"When, does the boss get out?" + +"Next week. I don't know what day. They'd pay high for him both ways." + +"No, we can't nibble there. The cap'n'll pay well. That's square. We +can't afford to try the other now, at any rate. Is the skiff here?" + +"Yes; well, get in." + +There was a plash and the-receding sound of voices. Jack darted through +the screen of branches, but he could not distinguish the figures, for it +was growing every instant dimmer twilight. He turned to Kate. She was +at his side. + +"Who were they--what were they planning? Were they soldiers?" she asked. + +"Never mind them now. We must find a way out of this. Our boat can't be +far off. We must follow this line of bushes until we come to the spot we +left. I know I can recognize it, for there was an enormous tree fallen a +few steps from the sedge bank we landed on." + +It was a very toilsome journey now, obliged as they were to hug the +obstinate growth of haws, wild alder, and dog roses, which tore flesh +and garments in the hurried flight. They came to the dead tree finally, +and Jack almost shouted in grateful relief: + +"You were a true prophet, Miss Boone. You gave utterance to some +Druid-like remarks as we crossed the Stygian pool. The worst your fancy +painted couldn't equal what we've seen and heard." + +"I have seen nothing dreadful, and I can't say that I understand very +much of what we heard." + +"There is some 'caper' going on to give these cut-throats a chance to +get booty or something of the sort." + +"They are probably rebel soldiers planning to sack the commissary." + +They were in the boat now, and Jack was sending it forward by lusty +lunges against every protruding object he could get a stroke at; when +these failed he managed to scull after a fashion. They found the +household in consternation when they got back, but Jack gave a +picturesque narrative of their escapade, omitting the encounter with the +negroes which he had charged Kate to say nothing about, as it would only +alarm Mrs. Atterbury. The garments of the explorers told the tale of +their mishaps, and when they had clothed themselves anew supper was +announced. The feast was of the lightest sort: sherbet or tea for those +who liked it; fruit and crackers, honey or marmalade--a triumph in the +cultivation of dyspepsia, Jack said when he first began the eating. But +it was observed that the disease had no terrors for him, for he sat at +the table as long as he could get any one to remain with him, and did +his share in testing all the dishes. He outsat everybody that night +except Dick, who never got tired of any place that brought him near +his idol. + +"I'm going up-stairs in a moment, Towhead. Come up after me." + +Dick nodded, a gleam of delightful expectation in his eyes. He was just +in the ardent period when boys love to make mysteries of very ordinary +things, and Jack's _sotto voce_ command was like the hero's voice in the +play, "Meet me by the ruined well when midnight strikes." He followed +Jack up the wide staircase and into his own room, for greater security, +as no one would think of looking for them there. + +"Now, tell me all you have found out," Jack commanded as he shut the +door. "Have you been among the darkys?" + +"I've found out this much. The old negroes are opposed to going away or +in any shape annoying their masters. The young bucks and the women are +very eager to fly. It seems that some one has spread the story among +them that Lincoln has sent Butler to Fort Monroe to receive all the +negroes on the Peninsula. They have been assured that they are to have +'their freedom, one hundred acres of land, and an ox-team.' Where the +report comes from, I can't find out; but there is some communication +between here and the Union lines, I'm positive." + +"Has Wesley been with the negroes again?" + +"No. I have kept an eye on him all day." + +"Where does he go at night?" + +"The doctor has forbidden him to be in the night air for the present." + +"Well, you keep an eye on Wesley," and then Jack narrated the strange +scene in the swamp, the mysterious calls, and the conversation. + +Dick listened in awe, mingled with rapture. "Oh, why wasn't I there? +Just my blamed luck! I would have followed them, and then we should have +known what they were up to. Did you know that a company of cavalry had +gone into camp just below the grove?" + +"No--when?" + +"This evening. Vincent is down there now." + +"Well, you may be sure they suspect something. I wonder if it wouldn't +be better to speak to Vincent?" + +"Of course not! What have we to tell him? Simply my suspicions and +Clem's chatter. The little moke may have been lying; I can't see that +any of them do much else." + +"The worst of it is, these Southerners are very sensitive about any +allusion to the negroes. They would pooh-pooh anything we might say that +was not backed by proof. It's a mighty uncomfortable fix to be in, Dick, +my boy; though, 'pon my soul, I believe you enjoy it!" + +Dick grinned deprecating. + +"I think you do, you unfledged Guy Fawkes. I know nothing would give you +greater joy than to put on a mask, grasp a dagger in your hand, and go +to Wesley, crying, 'Villain, your secret or your life!' Dick, you're a +stage hero; you're a thing of sawdust and tinsel. Come to the parlor and +hear Kate play the divine songs of Mendelssohn; perhaps, night-eyed +conspirator, to whirl Polly or Miss Rosa in the delirium of the '_Blaue +Donau_.' Come." + +But there was neither dance nor music when they reached the +drawing-room. Everybody was there; Vincent had just come, and the first +words Jack and Dick heard glued them to their places. + +"Yes, all the negroes on the Lawless', Skinner's, and Lomas's +plantations have gone. Butler has declared them contrabands of war, and +a lot of Yankee speculators have been sneaking through the plantations, +filling their ignorant minds with promises of freedom, a farm, and a +share of their masters' property. Their real purpose is to get the +negroes and hold them until the two governments come to terms, and then +they will get rewards for every nigger they hold. Oh, these Yankees can +see ways of making money through a stone-wall," and Vincent laughed +lightly, as though the incident in no way concerned him. "Captain Cram, +who is in camp just below in the oak clearing, is ordered to scour the +river-bank to the enemy's lines near Hampton, so we need have no fear of +these enterprising apostles of freedom interfering with our niggers." + +"I don't think one of them could be induced to leave us if offered all +our farms," Mrs. Atterbury said, a little proudly. + +"There isn't one of them that I haven't brought through sickness or +trouble of one sort or another, and there isn't one that wouldn't take +my command before the gold of a stranger." + +"I don't know, Mrs. Atterbury," Mrs. Sprague ventured, mildly. "Gold is +a mighty weight in an argument. I have known it to change the +convictions of a lifetime in a moment. I have known it to make a man +renounce his father, dishonor his name, belie his whole life, deny +his family." + +"When a fortune beyond reasonable dreams was placed upon the head of +Charles Stuart, for whom our ancestors fought and beggared themselves, +his secret was in the keeping of scores of peasants, and the blood-money +lay idle. I could cite hundreds of similar proofs, that gold is not God +everywhere. I mean no offense, but you will agree with me that you +Northern people are given up to the getting and worship of money. It is +not so with us. Perhaps because we have it, and with it something that +makes it secondary--birth. I have no fear of the infidelity of any of my +people. I would as soon doubt Rosa or Vincent us the smallest black on +my estate." + +She spoke with mild, high-bred dignity, not a particle of assertion or +captious intolerance, but as a prelate might assert the majesty of the +word on the altar, neither looking for dissent nor dreaming that the +spirit of it could exist. + +"I'm glad to hear your mother express such confidence, Vint," Jack said +as they walked out on the veranda to take a good-night smoke; "but just +let me give you a maxim of my own, the lock's not sure unless the key is +in your pocket." + +"Sententious, my boy, but vague. My mother is perfectly right. Our +niggers are fidelity itself. But since we are so near the Butler lines, +where his agents can sneak up on the river and kidnap the new sort of +contraband, I think it better to take some precaution. Hereafter General +Magruder will have a picket post within two miles of us, between here +and the creek, which offers a convenient point for smuggling." + +"I am heartily relieved to hear it," Jack cried, giving something too +much fervor to his relief, for Vincent turned and looked at him in +surprise, but it was too dark in the shadow of the clematis to see his +face, and after a silence Vincent said: + +"Mamma has told you that the President is coming to Williamsburg to +review Magruder's troops?" + +"No; she hadn't mentioned it. Is he?" + +"Yes; he will be there Thursday afternoon, and we shall have the ball +the same evening. He will be here with General Lee, his chief of staff, +and remain all night; so that you will be able to say when you go back +North--something that few Yankees will be able to say during the +war--that you have broken bread with the first President of the +Confederacy." + +"I will strive to bear my honors with humility," Jack said. + +"It befits the conquered to be humble." + +"If I hadn't come in time, you two would have been in a squabble--own +it!" and Rosa drew a chair between them as a peacemaker. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +TREASON AND STRATAGEMS. + + +Rosedale was, indeed, Eden in the most orthodox sense to the group so +strangely billeted in its lovely tranquillity. No sooner was the anguish +concerning the invalids off Kate's, Olympia's, and Rosa's minds, than +new perplexities beset them. Rosa was barely eighteen, Kate and Olympia +older by three or four years, but the younger girl was in many essential +things quite as mature as her Northern comrades. But Jack could not +comprehend this, and quite innocently did and said things to arouse the +young girl's dreams. I think I have said that Jack was a very comely +fellow? He was big and brawny, and tireless in good-humor, and the +attractive little gallantries that women adore. He looked as +sentimentally sincere, uttering a paradox, as another vowing eternal +fidelity. He gave every woman the impression that his mind was lost +wondering how he should exist until she gave him the right to call her +his own. Though, as a matter of fact, it is the man who is the woman's +own--when the final word comes. + +Rosa was not long in discovering Vincent's happy tumult in Olympia's +presence, and she secretly misunderstood Jack the more that he was so +lavish and open in his adulations. If he rode, he exhausted eulogy in +describing her pose, her daring, her skill; if they danced, as they did +nearly every night until poor Merry's fingers ached from drumming the +unholy strains of Faust, Strauss, and what not, in the old-fashioned +waltzes--he pantingly declared that she made the music seem a celestial +choir by her lightness; in long walks in the rose-fields he exhausted a +not very laborious store of botanical conceits, to make her cheeks +resemble the roses. This assurance, this recklessness, this _aplomb_, +quite bewildered the girl, who posed in Richmond for a passed mistress +of flirting. She had, unless rumor was badly at fault, jilted an +appalling list of the striplings who believed that beard-growing and +love-making were conventionally contemporaneous events. But they had +"mooned" about her and made themselves absurd in vain, while this +unconscious Adonis calmly walked, talked, and acted as if she could know +nothing else than love him, and one day she started in delicious misery +to find that she did--that is, she thought she might if--if? But there +her dreams became nebulous--they were rosy in outline, however, and she +was content to rest there. + +The morning after the coming of the cavalry-troop, Wesley was discussing +the never-ending theme of how he was going to get home--with Kate busy +arranging the ferns she had brought from the swamp. + +"Really, Wesley, just now you ought to be content. There is no +likelihood of any movement; besides, philosophy is as much a merit in a +soldier as valor--it is valor, it is endurance. You complain of your +unhappy fate, housed here with a lot of women and idlers. How would you +bear up in Libby Prison? There are as good men as you there, my dear; +shall I say better or older soldiers, Brutus? You may take your choice, +and 'count on a sister's blind partiality to justify you!'" + +"Oh, don't always talk nonsense, Kate. You're worse than Jack Sprague. +He doesn't seem to have a serious thought in his head from daylight +till bedtime." + +"Perhaps he keeps all his sober thoughts for the night, to give them +good company." + +"No, but do say what I ought to do." + +"You ought to study to make yourself tolerable to your sister, dear, and +agreeable to the other fellows' sisters. I have remarked that the young +man who does that, keeps out of despondency and other uncomfortable +conditions that too much brooding on an empty head brings about." + +"I'd like to know what heart I can have to make myself agreeable to +other fellows' sisters when you are always lampooning me; you delight in +making me think I am nobody." + +"Don't fear, my dear; if that were my delight I should die an old maid, +never having known delight, for it would need more force than I can +muster to make Wesley Boone, captain U.S.A., anything else than he +is--his father's pride and his sister's joy. No, dear, my delight is to +see you gay and open and frank and manly, self-dependent, grateful for +the consideration shown you, and recognizant of the constant admonition +of your sagacious sister." + +"You talk exactly like the woman in George Sand's stupid stories; they +always remind me of men in petticoats." + +"That's a weak and strained comparison; not, however, unworthy a +soldier. We always compare, in speech, to strengthen assertion or adorn +it, and when we do we compare what is equivocal or vague, with what is +well known and usual. Now, I do not remember any men in petticoats, +unless you mean the Orientals, who wear a sort of skirt, and the Scots, +who used to wear kilts--but strictly speaking--" + +"Do, Kate, for Heaven's sake, be serious for a moment! I have a chance +to escape, no matter how, but I can make my way to our lines without +running any great risk. Now, is it or is it not dishonorable for me +to do it?" + +"Seriously, Wesley, just now it would be, while Vincent is here, for he +is in a sense pledged for you to his superior. Further, there is no need +to hurry. You are barely recovered. If you were North you would be in +Acredale; if you were, there is no immediate want of your presence in +the army. The articles we see in the Richmond papers every day, copied +from Northern journals, show that this new general, McClellan, means to +bring a trained, drilled, disciplined army down when he moves. It took +six months to prepare McDowell's useless mass. It will certainly take a +year to put the million men now arming in shape to fight. I may be +wrong, but at the earliest there can be no movement before late in +October. By that time we shall probably have the problem solved by the +Government, and you will go North, having made delightful friends of all +this charming family." + +Wesley was even more afraid of Kate's strong sense of honor than of her +biting sarcasm, and he ended the interview without daring to tell her +how far he had compromised himself with the secret agents that were +surrounding the plantation. Dick, running down-stairs in his wake, +encountered Rosa, with her garden hat covering her like the roof of a +disrupted pagoda. She arrested his stride as he was darting toward +the door. + +"Here--you--Richard, just come and be of some use to me. I'm housekeeper +to-day, and I want to go to the quarters. Come along." + +Now Dick had a double grievance against this imperious young person. He +had fallen into the most violent love with her brown eyes and pink +cheeks the moment he saw her; he had assiduously striven both to conceal +and reveal this maddening condition of mind. But he remarked with +ungovernable wrath that, whenever Jack or Wesley came about, the +heartless young jilt, made as if she didn't know him; quite ignored him, +and cared no more for his simple adoration than she did for the frisky +gambols of Pizarro, the mastiff. But she was so adorable; her Southern +accent was so bewitching; she put so much softness in those amusing +idioms "I reckon" and "Seems like," "You others," and the countless +little tricks of the Southern vernacular, that Dick passed sleepless +hours and delicious days dreaming and sighing and groaning and doing all +manner of unreasonable things--that we all do when we meet our first +Rosas and they light the torch for other feet more favored than our own. + +So, when Rosa called him to accompany her, Dick took the round basket +she held out to him, and walked sulkily ahead of her, never opening his +mouth. When he had stalked along through the currant bushes, he half +turned his face; she was walking demurely behind him, and he made a +pretext of picking a currant to give her a chance to come abreast. She +did, and passed him trippingly, saying, as she cast a sympathetic side +glance at him: + +"Toothache?" + +He stood rooted to the spot with indignant amazement. The heartless +little minx! How dare she talk like that to a soldier? + +"Did you call some one, Miss Atterbury?" he said, with chilling dignity. +Usually he called her plain Rosa. + +"I thought may be you had the toothache--you kept so quiet." + +"No; I haven't got the toothache." Poor Dick! He said, to himself, that +he had much worse. But he wouldn't gratify her with the acknowledgment +of her triumph, and he stalked along with the basket over his head, as +he had often seen the darkeys in the sun. There was a faint little +appealing cry from behind. + +"Oh--oh--dear!" + +"What is it; are you hurt?" he cried, rushing to where Rosa stood, +balanced on one foot. + +"There is a crab thorn an inch long in my foot; it's gone through shoe +and all. That wretched Sardanapalus never clears the limbs away when he +cuts the hedge. I'll have him horsewhipped. Oh, dear!" + +"Let me hold you while I look for the thorn." + +Dick cleverly slipped his arm about her waist and set the basket endwise +for her to sit on. Then kneeling, he picked out the thorn, which was a +great deal less than the dimensions Rosa had described. But he said +nothing to her about picking the torment out and slipping it in his vest +pocket. He held the foot, examining the sole critically. Finally, as she +moved impatiently, he asked: + +"Does it hurt yet?" + +"Of course it does, you stupid fellow. Do you suppose I would sit here +like a goose on a gridiron and let you hold my foot if it didn't hurt? +Men never have any sense when they ought to." + +He affected to examine the sole of the thin leather of the upper still +more minutely. As she gave no sign of ending the comedy, he said: + +"I'm sure, Rosa, if it relieves the pain to have me hold your foot, I'll +sit here in the sun all day--if you'll bring the rim of your hat over a +little--but, as for the thorn, it has been out this ten minutes." + +She gave him a sudden push and darted away. He followed laughing, +admonishing her against another thorn. But she deigned no answer. Coming +to the bee-hives, she stopped a moment to watch the busy swarm, and Dick +stole up beside her. She turned pettishly, and he said, insinuatingly: + +"Toothache?" + +"You know, Dick, you're too trying for anything--holding my foot there +like a ninny in the hot sun. You haven't a thimbleful of sense." + +"Well, now we'll test these propositions, as Jack does, by syllogisms. +Let me see. All men are trying. Dick Perley is a man: therefore he +is trying." + +"No; your premise--isn't that what you call it?--is wrong. Dick Perley +is only a boy." + +"I'll be nineteen in January next." + +"Well?" + +"Well, your father was married at nineteen. You've said it yourself, +Rosa, and thought it greatly to his credit--at least Vint does." + +"You can't imitate my father in that, at least." + +"I might." + +"How?" + +"You could help me, Rosa." + +"How?" + +"Would you if you could?" + +"That depends." + +"On what?" + +"On the girl." + +"Ah! she's a perfect girl, but she's very young," and Dick eyed Rosa +with ineffable complacency. + +"That's bad." + +"But she's older than she looks." + +"That's worse; you'd grow tired of her." + +"No, no; I don't mean she's older than she looks; her mind is older than +her looks." + +"Women with minds make troublesome wives. I have refused to let Vincent +marry several of that kind." + +"But, my girl hasn't got that kind of mind; it is all sweetness and wit +and gayety and loveliness and--and--" + +"Your girl? Who gave her to you?" + +"Love gave her to me." + +"Oh, well, since love gave her to you, I don't see how I can be of any +service. Down here the mother always gives the girl, unless she have no +mother; then some other kin gives her. But if your girl has all these +qualities you describe, I advise you to get her into your own keeping +just as soon as you can, for that's the sort of girl all the fellows +about here are seeking." + +"Very well, I'm ready. Will you help me? It comes back where we +started." + +"But you evaded my question." + +"What question did I evade? I answered like an encyclopedia!" Dick +cried, immensely satisfied with his own readiness. + +"That convicts you; an encyclopedia has nothing about living people." + +"Oh, yes; the new ones do." Dick was now very near her as she stood +contemplating the bees, swarming in the comb. "O Rosa--Rosa, you know I +love you, and you know I can never love anybody else. Why will you +pretend not to understand me? I don't want you to marry me now, but by +and by, when I shall have made a name as a soldier, or--or something," +he added in painful turbulence of joy and fear over the great +words--which he had been racking his small wits to fashion for weeks +past, and, now that they were spoken, were not nearly so impressive as +he had intended they should be. + +"My dear Richard, you are a perfect boy--a very delightful boy, too, and +I am extremely fond of you--oh, very, very fond of you--but you really +must not make love to me. It isn't proper," and Rosa glanced into his +eyes with a tender little gleam, that gave more encouragement than +rebuff--for it came into her mind, in a moment, that it was not a time +to hurt the bright, eager love--so winning, if boyish. + +"Nonsense, Rosa, it is perfectly proper; everybody makes love to you; +Jack makes love to you, and he is as good as engaged--" But here it +suddenly flashed in Dick's mad head that he was meddling, and he stopped +short. Rosa had turned upon him with a flash of such scorn, such +indignant pain, that he cried: + +"No, no; I don't mean that; but you know fellows do make love to you, +and why mayn't I?" + +She flirted away from him too angry or mortified to speak. He could not +see her face, for she pulled the ample breadth of the hat-brim down, +which served at once as a veil to shut out her visage and a sweeping +sort of funnel to keep him far from her side, as she tripped +determinedly to the pleasant group of clean, whitewashed cabins, where +the negroes abode. Poor Dick, vexed with himself--angry at her for being +irritated-waited in the hot sun until she had ended her commands, and +when she came out to return he repentantly sidled up, imploring pardon +in every movement. She couldn't resist the big, pleading blue eyes, and +said, quite as if there had been deep discussion on the point: + +"I don't think you mean to be a bad boy." + +"I'm not a boy, I'm a soldier. It isn't fair in you to call me a boy." + +"You're not a girl." + +"If I were I wouldn't be so heartless as some I know." + +"And if I were a boy I wouldn't be so silly as some I know." + +"Yes, I think Southern boys are quite soft." + +"Come, sir, my brother _was_ a Southern boy." + +"Yes, but he always lived North, and is like us." + +"Jackanapes!" + +"Dear Rosa." + +"How dare you, sir?" + +"Oh, just as easy, I dare do all that becomes a man--who dares do more +is none. You are Rosa, and you are dear--" + +"Not to you." + +"You cost me enough to be dear and you are lovely enough to be 'Rosa' in +Latin, Rose in English, and sweetheart in any tongue." + +"You're much too pert. Boys so glib as you never really love. They think +they do and perhaps they do--just a little." + +"Ah! a 'little more than a little,' dear Rosa." + +"You're quoting Shakespeare, I suppose you know? I'll quote more: 'A +little more than a little is much too much.'" + +"A little less than all is much too little for me. So, Rosa, give all or +none." + +"I don't understand you." + +"That's proof you love me. Girls never love fellows they understand." + +"Prove that I love you." + +"Well, you don't hate me. You don't hate Vincent. Therefore you love +him. Ergo, you love me." + +"Simpleton." + +"True love is always simple. Here, take this white rose as a sign that +you don't hate me." He plucked a large half-opened bud from a great +sprouting branch and held it toward her. + +"But the red rose is my favorite." + +"Well, here is a red one. Give me the white. That is my favorite. Now +we've exchanged tokens. The rose always goes before the ring. I'll +get that." + +"If you were a true lover you would wear my colors." + +"These white leaves will grow red resting on my heart." + +"When they do I will listen to you." + +"Will you, though? It is a promise; when this white rose is red you will +love me?" + +"Oh, yes, I can promise that." + +"Dear Rosa!" He was very near her as she disentangled an obtruding vine +from her garments, and before she was aware of his purpose he had +audaciously snatched a kiss from her astonished lips. + +"You odious Yankee! I haven't words to express my disgust--abhorrence!" + +"Don't try, love needs no words: but I'll tell you; let me put this +white rose to your lips; it will turn red at the touch, and in that way +you can take your kiss back, if you really want it; then there'll be a +fair exchange. I--" + +"Hello, there! are you two grafting roses?" + +It was Wesley, coming from the lower garden, where the stream was +narrowest beyond the high wall of hedge. + +"Oh, no, Mr. Boone; Richard here is studying the color in flowers. He +has a theory that eclipses Goethe's 'Farbenlehre.'" + +"Oh, indeed!" Wesley was quite unconscious of what Goethe's doctrine of +colors might be, so he prudently avoided urging fuller particulars +regarding Dick's theory, and said, vaguely; + +"You have color enough here to theorize on, I'm sure." + +"Yes, we have had very satisfactory experiments," Dick assented naïvely, +stealing a glance at Rosa. + +"But quite inconclusive," she rejoined, moving onward, the two young men +following in the penumbra of her wide hat. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A CAMPAIGN OF PLOTS. + + +Meanwhile, there were curious events passing and coming to pass on the +seven hills upon which the proud young capital of the proud young +Confederacy stood. Rome, in her most imperial days, never dreamed of the +scenic glories that Richmond, like a spoiled beauty, was hardly +conscious of holding as her dower. Indeed, such is the necromantic +mastery of the passion of the beautiful that, once standing on the +glorious hill, that commands the James for twenty miles--twenty miles of +such varied loveliness of color, configuration, and _mis en scène_, that +the purple distances of Naples seem common to it--standing there, I say, +one day, when the sword had long been rusting in the scabbard, and the +memory of those who raised it in revolt had faded from all minds save +those who wanted office--this historian thought that, had it been his +lot to be born in that lovely spot, he, too, would have fought for State +caprices--just as a gallant man will take up the quarrel of beauty, +right or wrong! + +Thoughts of this sort filled Barney Moore's mind too, that delicious +September afternoon as he stood gazing dreamily down the river, toward +that vague morning-land of the sun's rising, where his mind saw the long +lines of blue his eyes ached to rest on. Barney had left the kindly roof +where he had been nursed back to vigor. He had quit it in a fashion that +left a rankling sorrow in his grateful heart. Vincent had represented to +Jack the inconvenience it would be, the peril, rather, for him to assume +the guardianship of so many enemies of the Confederacy. Scores of the +old families of the city were under the ban simply because they had +pleaded for deliberation before deciding on the secession ordinance. The +Atterburys had their enemies too. It was pointed out that Vincent and +Rosa had been educated in the North; that Mrs. Atterbury had spent many +of her recent summers there. Their devotion to the Confederacy must be +shown by deeds. It was true they had given twenty thousand dollars to +the cause, but what was that to threefold millionaires? General Lee, +their kinsman, had shaken his Socratic head solemnly when Rosa, at the +War Department, told him, as an excellent joke, the strange chance that +had brought Vincent's college chum and his family under the kind +Rosedale roof. + +Richard Perley was, therefore, deputized to rescue Barney from his false +position and give him a chance for exchange when the time came. He +journeyed up to Richmond, and, one day, laid these facts before Barney, +who instantly saw his friend's dilemma, and at once set about inventing +a _ruse_ that should extricate him, without mortifying the kind people +who had befriended him. When he was able to be about, he feigned a +desire to go to his friends in Arrowfield County, south of the James, +and was bidden hearty Godspeed. Then, with funds supplied by Jack, he +gained admittance to a modest house far out on Main Street, where the +city merges into the country. They were simple people, and his thrilling +tale of being a refugee from Harper's Ferry was plausible enough to be +accepted by more skeptical people than the Gannats. + +Day after day Barney skirted furtively about the uncompromising walls of +Libby and Castle Thunder, where once or twice he had gone with his hosts +to make a mental diagram of the place for future use. Little by little +he became familiar with Richmond, which, like a new bride, gave the +visitor welcome to admire her splendid spouse, the Confederate +government. He learned all the plots of the prison, and became the +confidant of Letitia Lanview, known to every exile in Richmond as the +friend of the suffering--St. Veronica she was called--after a poem +dedicated to her by a young Harvard graduate, rescued by her +perseverance from death in Libby Prison. With this lady he drove all +about the environs of Richmond, and several times far out toward the +meditated route of flight, in order that he might be able to lead the +bewildered refugees. He got the whole landscape by heart, and could have +led a battalion over it in the dark. Then he passed days wandering over +the Libby Hill, down in the bed of the "Rockets," as the bed of the +James was known in those days; he learned the ground to the very beat of +the patrols that guarded the wretched prisoners in the towering +shambles. One whole night, too, he spent in marking the course of the +guards as they changed in two-hour reliefs. With his facts well +collected he visited Mrs. Lanview, and at last he was confronted by +Butler's agent. This agent was a middle-aged man, who had evidently once +been very handsome, but dissipation had left pitiable traces upon his +fine features, and his once large, open eyes, that perplexingly +suggested some one Barney tried in vain to recall--vainly? The man +didn't say much in the lady's presence, but when the two were in the +open air, facing toward the center of the town, he divulged a good deal +that surprised Barney. + +"You are from Acredale, young man. I lived there when I was younger than +I am now. My name? People call me a good many names. I don't mind at +all, so that I have rum enough and a bed and a bite to eat. No man can +have more than that, my boy. I am plain Dick Jones now. It's an easy +name, and plenty of the same in the land; and if I should die suddenly +there would be lots o' folks to feel sorry, eh? But as you are from +Acredale I don't mind telling you that it is Elisha Boone that foots the +bill. Butler is a friend of Boone's, and he has given me authority to +summon all the troops within reach to my aid. My business is to carry +young Wes Boone to Fort Monroe. Butler doesn't know that. He thinks I am +spying Jeff Davis and piping for the prisoners. He didn't say that he +wanted me to kill Davis, but if we could carry him to Fort Monroe, my +boy, there'd be about a million dollars swag to divide! How does that +strike you?" + +"It doesn't strike me at all. I think it is for the interest of the +Union that Davis should be where he is. He is vain, arrogant, silly, and +dull. He will alone wreck the rebel cause if he is given time. There +couldn't be a greater misfortune for the North than to have Davis +displaced by some one of real ability, such as Stephens, Lee, Benjamin, +Mason, Breckenridge, or, in fact, any of the men identified with +secession." + +"You surprise me, my son. Still, admitting all you say, the men who +should surprise the North some fine morning with a present of Jeff Davis +on their breakfast-plates, wouldn't be without honor, to say nothing of +promotion and profit" + +"Oh, if we can carry Jeff off without compromising the safety of the +prisoners, I'll join you heartily. But first of all we must +rescue them." + +"Unquestionably; now, here's the programme: Butler's forces will be +within gunshot of Magruder's lines on Warwick Creek Thursday--that's +three days from now. The prisoners will be out of the sewer Wednesday +after midnight. You know the roads eastward. You will lead them to the +swamps near Williamsburg. There we will have boats to take part down the +river; the rest will make through the swamps under my lead. I have been +spying out the land for a week. At a place called Rosedale we pick up +young Boone, who is really the object of my journey. I couldn't find him +for weeks, and inquired of all the prisoners. Mrs. Lanview finally put +me on the track, and I saw Wes Boone as I came up here. He thought the +chances were better with a big party than alone. I saw him again +yesterday, and he told me that Davis and Lee, his chief of staff, were +to be at a party in the Rosedale house on Thursday next. Now, we can +pick up Davis just as well as Boone. There is the whole plan." + +"Oh, that's a different matter. Davis will not be near the city, and his +keeping will not add to our danger. I see no reason why we shouldn't +grab him. Heavens, what a sensation it will make! We shall be the wonder +of the North--we shall he like the men that discovered André and +Arnold--Paulding and--and"--but here Barney's historical facts came to +an end--"we shall be famous for--forever!" + +"For a week, my son; wonders don't live long in these fast days. For a +week the North will glorify us; then, if they find that we voted for +Douglas, as I did, they will say we had some sinister design in bringing +Davis North, and likely send us to Fort Lafayette." + +Barney stopped dead; they had come under a gas-lamp between Grace and +Franklin Streets. He looked at the man. He was quite sober. His eyes +answered the young man's indignant protesting glance, openly, +unshrinkingly, humorously. + +"I should be sorry to think that, Mr. Jones." + +"Well, wait. When you get North you will see a mighty change in things. +Sentiment, my boy, follows the main chance. It's money, my boy, money. +Enough money would have made Judas respectable; he was fool enough to +put his price too low." + +"Ugh!--you almost make me hate the North! Who can have heart to fight +for such heartless traffickers?" + +"The North doesn't ask your heart. It has counted the cost, and finds +that it can pay a million of men thirteen dollars a month for three +years, and still make a good thing out of it--that's about the breadth +of it. Here's an oasis in the desert of darkness. Come and have +a drink?" + +But Barney--not caring for a drink, the cynic--gave him his address, +and, dreadfully cast down in spirit, the eager partisan moped up the +long hill homeward. The next day Mrs. Lanview gave him the details of +the meditated escape. There were only sixty or a hundred in position to +avail themselves of the subterranean way that had been toilsomely dug, +by a few devoted spirits, with tools casually dropped among them by the +guileless Veronica during her daily visits. The plotters counted on at +least six hours' start before discovery. The guards were not to be +disturbed, and the evasion would not be known until eight o'clock, when +the miserable breakfast ration was distributed. + +Of that amazing-exploit, the digging through twenty solid feet of earth +and stone, I do not propose to tell. It is to be found in the journals +of the day: it is contained in the hundred pathetic narratives of the +men who took part. It has nothing to do with this history beyond the use +made of it to mislead the ingenious Barney, and in the end complicate +the careers of those in whom we are interested. Suffice it, therefore, +to say that in the dim morning mist, as arranged, a shadowy host emerged +on the river-bottom, now dry and footable; that each man, as he crawled +from the pit, was directed into the thick willows bordering the banks; +that when six score or more had clambered out they obeyed a whispered +command, for which Veronica had prepared them, and noiselessly, in +shadowy single file, they followed the bed of the stream, even where the +water flowed deep and dangerous, until they came to the gentle slopes of +Church Hill. Then, under guidance of Barney, those who were wise +followed swiftly down the river-road until daylight, when they hid in +the dim recesses of the white-oak swamps, where they lay concealed many +hours. As night fell they faced hopefully forward down the Williamsburg +road, until a flaming wave in the air admonished them to strike to the +right, and they plunged into the pathless swamps of the Chickahominy. +Here they were secure. No force able to cope with them could enter; no +force at the command of Magruder could surround them. But Barney's +guiding hand was now replaced by another. Jones had appeared, and with +him men bearing Butler's commission. The prisoners of Libby set up a +defiant cheer. They were once more under the flag. Father Abraham was +again their commander. + +There were sedate, fatherly men among these rescued bands. There were +men with gray hairs and sober behavior; men who could bow meekly under +the chastening rod; but the antics of the juvenile group, in which we +are mainly interested, were grave and decorous compared with the +abandoned, delirious joy of these grave men as they reached the recesses +of a swamp that denied admission to all save practiced explorers. Why, +here they could subsist for weeks! The rebels might spy them, might +surround them, but they need not starve--the buds were food, the bushes +refreshment, the pellucid pools drink and life. Barney stared in +speechless amazement at the unseemly gambols of the motley mass. + +Delirium! it was a mild term for the embracing, the prancing, the +Carmagnole-like ecstasy of the half-clad madmen running amuck in the +almost unendurable joy of liberation. Barney knew that this condition of +things would never do. All who bore commissions in the army were +selected from the men. The highest in rank, who proved to be a colonel, +was invested with the command, Barney serving as adjutant, and Jones as +guide. The rabble, having made a good meal from the spoil of a +sweet-potato patch, pushed forward through the fretwork of fern, rank +morass, and verdure, toward security. But the march was a snail's pace, +as may be imagined. The men, worn to skeletons by months of captivity, +insufficient food, and stinted exercise, were forced to halt often for +rest in such toilsome marching as the half-aquatic surface of the +swamp involved. + +By Thursday noon they were still far from the river. Foragers were +detailed to procure food, and pending their return the wearied band sank +to the earth to rest. In less than two hours the predatory platoon +returned with a sybaritic store--chickens, young lamb, green corn, +onions. Only the stern command of the colonel suppressed a mighty cheer. +When the march was resumed the colonel led the main column south by +east. Jones, with Barney and a dozen men, struck due east. In answer to +Barney's surprised question, Jones informed him they were to pick up +"Wes" Boone by taking that route. Difficult as the way had been +heretofore, it now became laborious in the extreme for this smaller +band. The bottom was all under water, and before they had proceeded a +mile half the group were drenched. In many cases an imprudent plunger +was compelled to call a halt to rescue his shoes--that is, those who +were lucky enough to have shoes--from the deep mud, hidden by a fair +green surface of moss or tendrils. It was a wondrous journey to Barney, +The pages of Sindbad alone seemed to have a parallel for the awful +mysteries of that long, long flight through jungles of towering timber, +whose leaves and bark were as unfamiliar as Brazilian growth to the +troops of Pizarro or the Congo vegetation to the French pioneer. Jones +and his comrades saw nothing but the hardships of the march and the +delay of the painful _détours_ in the solemn glades. The direction was +kept by compass, many of the men having been supplied with a miniature +instrument by the prudent foresight of Mrs. Lanview, who was niggard of +neither time nor money in the cause she had at heart. In spite of every +effort a march so swift that it would have exhausted cavalry, Jones's +ranks did not reach the rendezvous until midnight. At about that hour +the exhausted fugitives came suddenly upon a wide, open plain, and far +below them, in the valley, a vision of light and life shone through +the dark. + +"There, boys, we're at the end of our first stage. Unless I'm much +mistaken, that bit of merry-making yonder will cost the Confederacy +a chief." + +"But is it certain that Davis is there?" asked the man Jones called +Moon, who seemed to be his intimate. + +"Ah, that we will learn so soon as Nasmyd reports. We will give the +signal when we reach that fringe of wood yonder. It's back of the +grounds, separated from them by a hard piece of swamp and water.--Men, +you must follow now in single file, and when we get in the swamp, mind, +a single step out of line will cost you your lives, for, sucked into +that morass, wild horses can't pull you out." + +Then, as they plunged anew in the gloomy deeps of swamp and brake, the +friendly lights were lost and the depressed wayfarers struggled on with +something of the feeling of a crew cast away at sea, who, thrown upon +the crest of a rising billow, catch a near glimpse of a great ship, +light and taut, riding serenely havenward to lose it the next in the +dire waste. Presently the melancholy bird-notes that had puzzled Jack in +the same vicinity days before broke out just in front of Barney, who was +clambering along, the third man from the head of the little column. +Again, after a long pause, the sweet, plaintive note was re-echoed from +a distance. + +"Ah, all is well!" he heard Jones ejaculate triumphantly. "We are in +time and we are waited for.--Now, men, put all the heart that's in you +to the next half-hour's work. No danger, but just cool heads and +strong arms." + +This good news was conveyed from man to man, and the toilsome movement +briskly accelerated under the inspiring watchword. Shortly afterward the +larger growth--cypress and oak--diminished, as the band straggled into +the open, starry night at the margin of what they could tell was water +by the croaking of frogs and plashing of night birds and reptiles. Then +the train was halted. Jones left Nasmyd in command and plunged into a +thick skirt of bushes. Now Barney, hot and dirty from the march, had +shot ahead when he heard the ripple of the water. He had taken off his +shoes to bathe his blistered and swollen feet, and sat quite still and +restful under the leafy sprays of an odorous bush that even in the dark +he knew to be honeysuckle. + +"Well," he heard Jones cry in an exultant whisper, "we've done it. The +woman is a trump. There are a hundred nearly of the prisoners gone to +the boats. Now we are ready for Boone. Is Davis here?" + +"Yes; he came over from Williamsburg at eight o'clock; they were +feasting when Clem came away a three or more ago." + +"Any cavalry at the house?" + +"A squadron; but they are ordered to be in saddle for their quarters at +midnight. There's the bugle for boots and saddles now." + +"Yes; by the Eternal, what luck! Davis will sleep there." + +"So Clem says; the state chamber has been prepared for him; all the rest +except Lee go back to Williamsburg." + +"We couldn't have arranged it better if we had been given the ordering +of it. Are all the boats here?" + +"Yes." + +"And the negroes--how many have you?" + +"I can't say. They've been dropping across in twos and threes since ten +o'clock. The curious thing is that the women are more taken with the +idea of fight than the men. We shall have enough--too many, I fear." + +"We'll make them our safety, Jim, my boy; we'll divide them up, and, in +case of pursuit, send them in different directions to confuse +the troops." + +"How many men are you going to take to the house?" + +"Six, with you and me. It will be unsafe to take more, as the boats are +small. I will go back and select the men. You get the boats ready." + +Barney hurried on his shoes, crawled through the bushes, and was in his +place when Jones presently appeared. The men, dead tired, were disposed +about on the ground asleep, not minding the damp grass or the heavy dew +that made the air fairly misty. + +"Wake four of the men," Jones whispered, and when they were aroused he +said to a tall, reeling shadow, idly waiting orders: + +"We'll be back in a half-hour, or an hour at the farthest. Let the men +sleep; they need it. Sleep yourself if you want to. Moon or I will come +to rouse you, and we will bring you plenty of bacon and hominy. Have no +fears if you hear movements just beyond you; there are a couple of +contrabands here who go with us. Here's a ration of tobacco for the men +when they wake, and a gallon of whisky, which you must serve out +gradually." + +Revived by this stimulating news quite as much as by the whisky, Barney +and his three comrades followed Jones to the boats. There were four--the +dug-outs we saw Jack manoeuvring in the same waters a few nights before. +A negro sat silent, shadowy in each, and, when Jones gave the word, "Let +drive!" the barks shot through the waters, propelled by the single +scull, as swiftly as an Indian canoe. In a few moments all debarked on +the grassy knoll behind the black line of hedge. Jones made straight for +the high doorway, and inserting a key it was noiselessly opened. + +"Men," he whispered, "no names must be used in any case. I'm number one, +Jim here is number two, Moore number three, and so on. Each one remember +his number. Clem will remain here with number six to guard the gate. All +the rest follow me." + +Two negroes joined the party that stole forward through the rose-field +to the negro quarters. All was silent. As they reached the great kitchen +behind the house and connected with it by a trellised pavilion, only an +occasional light could be seen in the house. All were apparently there. +The ball had ended. Leaving Barney in charge of the rest, Jones and +Number Two crept along the trellis toward the house and soon disappeared +around the southern corner. Jones presently returned and said, +exultingly: + +"The cavalry is gone; we have nothing to fear.--Plato, you go with +Number Two to the stables and bring the horses out; hold six and send +the rest scattering in the fields, so that in case of anybody's being in +the mind to follow hell have to use his legs, and we can beat them at +that game. Where are the ropes?" he asked the black man left in +the group. + +"In de kitchen, massa." + +"Get them!" + +"Must I go alone, massa?" + +"That's a fact.--There, Moore, you go with the boy--don't be a minute." + +Barney followed the sable marauder through the grounds to the rear of +the trellis, and crept with him through a window which stood open. The +kitchen was dark, but the negro seemed perfectly familiar with the +place. He made directly for a dark panel in the northern wall, opened a +cupboard-door, knelt down and began to grope among bottles, boxes, and +what not that housewives gather in such receptacles. + +"Oh, de lor'! dey ain't no rope! It's done gone!" "Have you a match?" +Barney asked. + +"No, massa, but dey is some yondah." + +"Find them." + +The boy crept cautiously in the direction of the passage leading into +the house; he fumbled about, an age, as it seemed to the impatient +Barney, and at last uttered an exclamation: + +"Got 'em?" + +"No, massa, but Ise suah deys kep dar." + +"Take my hand and lead me." + +"It's molasses, massa, and Ise all stickem," the voice in the dark +whispered, delightedly, and Barney could see a double row of glistening +white ivory in the dim light that came through the window. He came +nearer the clumsy wight, and saw that it was a pan of batter the cook +had left on the table, probably the morning griddle-cakes. The negro was +a mass of white, pasty glue, and knelt on the floor, licking his hands +passively. + +"Where are the matches?" + +"Under de clock, in a tin safe, massa--right da." + +Barney groped angrily about the table, on the clock-shelf, knocking down +a tin dish, that fell with the clatter of a bursting magazine in the +dense stillness of the night. Both drew back in shadow, waiting with +heart-beats that sounded in their ears like tramping horses on thick +sward. The clamor of rushing steeds in the lane suddenly drowned this; a +loud, joyous whinny sounded in the very kitchen it seemed, and there was +a rush houseward past the pantry as of a troop of cavalry. Then a +blood-curdling outcry of voices, then shots. Barney, leaving the negro +writhing in convulsions under the table, darted to the window--to the +rendezvous. It was deserted. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +"HE EITHER FEARS HIS FATE TOO MUCH." + + +When Vincent visited the stables on the morning of that +eagerly-looked-for Thursday, he found three of the horses clammy with +perspiration and giving every sign of having been ridden! The awkward +and evasive answers of the stablemen would not have been enough for any +other than a man preoccupied by love. When Rosa went to the kitchen, if +her head had not been taken up with the love in her heart, she must +certainly have remarked that the stores of food prepared for the +household were curiously diminished and the kitchen girls unwontedly +reserved. Indeed, in any other condition than that in which the family +now found themselves, they must have remarked a singular change in the +black brigade in kitchen and garden. But, preocupied each with a +different interest, as well as the preparation for the President's +_fête_, the Atterburys remarked nothing sinister in the distracted +conduct of their servants, and had only a vague feeling that the great +event had in some sort paralyzed their wonted noisy activities and +repressed their usual chatter. Kate's uneasiness and restless vagaries, +her disjointed talk and half-guilty evasions, would have been remarked +by her prepossessed hosts; while Wesley's shifting and moody silence +would have warned his comrades that he was suffering the pangs of an +evil done or meditated. Precursive signs like these--and much more, +which need not be dwelt on--the kind hosts of Rosedale made no note of. +But when Vincent opened the mail-bag--brought by an orderly from +Williamsburg every morning, the first surprise and shock of the day was +felt--though in varying degrees by all the diverse inmates of the house. + +"Hah! glory to the Lord of hosts!" the exultant reader cried, as he +passed to his mother a large official envelope at the breakfast-table. + +"I'm ordered to the field." he cried, as Jack looked inquiringly; "I'm +to set out to-night and report for duty with General Johnston to-morrow +at Manassas. No more loitering in my lady's bower; Jack, my boy, the +carpet will be clear for your knightly pranks after to-night." + +"If it were Aladdin's magic rug, I should caper nimbly enough. I warrant +you." + +"What would you wish--if it were under your feet, with its slaves at +your command?" + +"I should whisk you all off--North--instanter." + +"Ingrate!--plunge us into the chilly blasts of the North, in return for +our glorious Southern sun? Fie, Jack! I'm surprised at such selfish +ingratitude. We expected better things of our prisoners," Mrs. Atterbury +murmured, and affected a reproving frown at the culprit, as she handed +her son back the order, with a stilled sigh. + +"The sun of the South is not the sun of York to us, you know; all the +clouds that lower on our house are doubly darkened by this Southern sun; +even the warmth of Rosedale hearts can not make up for our eclipsed +Northern star," Jack said, sadly, with a wistful look at the rival +warrior reading with sparkling eyes the instructions accompanying the +order to march. + +"Since Vincent is going so far northward, I think it will be a good time +for us to go home," Mrs. Sprague began, tentatively. + +"Oh--no--no! Oh, we could never think of such a thing," Rosa +cried--"could we, mamma?" + +"Why should you go?" Mrs. Atterbury asked. "Until Jack is exchanged, +you've certainly no duty in the North so important as watching over this +headstrong fellow. We can't think of your going--unless you are weary +of us." + +"O Mrs. Atterbury, pray don't put it in that way! You know better. Our +visit here has been perfect. But you can understand my anxiety to be at +home; to be where I can aid my son's release. I have been anxious for +some time to broach the subject, but I saw that our going would be a +trouble to you; now, since fortune offers this chance, we must seize +it--that is, those of us who feel it a duty to go"; and she looked +meaningly at Merry and her daughter. + +"Nonsense! You are hostages for Vincent, in case he is captured, as long +as you are here; I can't let you go--under the laws of war--I can not. +Can I, Vincent?" + +Vincent looked at Jack solemnly, but made no answer. + +"Mamma is quite right. While you are with us no harm can come to +Vincent; for, if he should be taken prisoner, we can threaten the Yankee +Government to put you to torture unless he is well treated," Rosa +interrupted, reassuringly. + +"We should be far more aid and comfort to Vincent if we were in the +North than we could be here. If he were taken prisoner and wounded, we +could return him the kindness we have received here. In any event, we +could lessen the hardships of prison life." + +"Oh, you would have to minister to a mind diseased, if such a fate +should befall me!" Vincent cried, sentimentally; with a glance into +Olympia's eyes, which met his at the moment. Both blushed; and Olympia, +to relieve the embarrassment, said, decisively: + +"Mamma is right. Jack must have his family on the ground, to watch over +his interests. I am sure there is some underhand work responsible for +this long delay in his case, for I saw by _The Whig_, last week, that +exchanges of prisoners had been made; I think that--" But, suddenly +remembering the presence of Kate and Wesley, she did not finish the +thought, which implied a belief in the intervention of the elder +Boone--to Jack's detriment. In the end--when the two mothers talked the +matter over--Mrs. Sprague carried the point. She convinced Mrs. +Atterbury that there was danger to Jack in a longer stay of his family +in the Confederate lines. Vague reports had already reached them from +Acredale of the suspicious hostility in which the Democrats were held +after Bull Run. The Northern papers, which came through the lines quite +regularly, left no doubt that Democratic leanings were universally +interpreted in the North as evidences of rebel sympathy, if not +partisanship. Such a charge, as things stood, would be fatal to Jack; +and the mother's duty was plain. She had friends in Washington, once +powerful, who could stand between her son and calumny--perhaps more +serious danger--when she was present in person to explain his conduct. +If she could not at once secure his exchange, she could save him from +compromise in the present inflammable and capricious state of the public +mind. Understanding this, and the enmity of Boone, Mrs. Atterbury not +only made no further objection, but acknowledged the urgent necessity of +the mother's presence in the North. The idle life of Rosedale had grown +unbearably irksome to Merry, too. + +"I feel as if I were a rebel," she confided to Mrs. Sprague in the +evening talks, when the piano sounded and the young people were making +the hours pass in gayety. "It's a sin for us to laugh and be contented +here, when our friends are bearing the burdens of war. I shall be +ashamed to show my face in Acredale. Oh, I wish I could carry a musket!" + +"You might carry a canteen, my dear. I believe the regiments take out +_vivandières_--there would be an outlet for your warlike emotions," Mrs. +Sprague said, with the purpose of cheering the unhappy spinster. + +"Ah, no; I must not give encouragement to that dreadful Richard. But we +shall go now, thank Heaven, and it will comfort my sisters to have the +boy back on Northern soil, even if he persists in being a soldier." + +She had a long talk with Jack on the subject. That tempest-tossed knight +convinced her that it would only incite the boy to more unruliness to +persist in his quitting the army, or to urge him northward now, before +an exchange was properly arranged. Indeed, he was a prisoner--taken in +battle--though his name did not appear on the lists. So Vincent's sudden +going was welcomed as a stroke of good fortune. The Atterburys, +understanding the natural feelings of the family, made only perfunctory +opposition. Olympia and Kate were to remain until their brothers' fates +were decided. Vincent, who had been for weeks wildly impatient to return +to the field, was divided in mind now--by joy and despair. He had put +off and put off a last appeal to Olympia. He had not had an opportunity, +or rather had too much opportunity--and had, from day to day, deferred +the longed-for yet dreaded decision. When ready to speak, prudence +whispered that it would be better to leave the question open until it +should come up of itself. She would learn every day to know him better +in his own home, where all the artificialities of life are stripped from +a man, by the concurrent abrasions of family love and domestic +_devoirs_. She would see that, however unworthy of her love he might +have seemed in the old boyish days at Acredale, now he could be a man +when manliness was demanded; that he could be patient, reticent, humble +in the trials her caprice or coquetry put upon him. She had, it seemed +to him, deepened and broadened the current of his love during these +blissful weeks of waiting. Her very reserve, under the new conditions +surrounding her, had made more luminous the beauty of her heart and +mind. She was no longer the airy, capricious Olympia of his college +days. The pensive gravity of misfortune and premature responsibility had +ennobled and made more tangible the traits that had won him in her +Northern home. She had not avoided him during these weeks of purifying +probation, as he feared she would. Of late--Jack's state being +secure--she had revived much of the old vivacity, and deepened the +thrall that held him. + +But now the merry-making season which had opened before them was at an +end. The madrigals that welled up in his soft heart must sing themselves +in the silence of the night, in the camp yonder, with no ears to +comprehend, no heart to melt to them. He should probably not get a +chance to see her again during the conflict. How long? Perhaps a +year--for it would take two campaigns, as the rebel leaders reckoned, to +convince the North that the Confederacy was unconquerable! And what +might not happen during those momentous months? Perhaps Jack's +death?--and then they would be divided as by fire--or, if the conflict +resulted victoriously for the South, as he knew it must, he foresaw that +the soldier of the conquering army would not be received as a wooer in +the family of the defeated. He knew her so well! She would, in the very +pride of outraged patriotism, give her love to one of the defeated, +rather than add to the triumphs of the hated South. She had strong +convictions on the war. She hated slavery, and she could not be made to +see that the South was warring for liberty, not to sustain slavery. +These thoughts ran through Vincent's troubled mind as his mother +directed the preparations for the _fête_ of the President. + +Kate, Jack, and Dick were pressed into the service of decorating the +apartments. Olympia left the room with her mother to advise and assist +in making ready for the journey North; and Vincent, aiding his mother +with a sadly divided mind, kept furtive watch on the hallway. She held +him hours in suspense, he thought, almost wrathfully, of deliberate +purpose; for she must have read in his eyes that he wanted to talk with +her. The artless Dick finally gave him a chance. + +"I say, Vint, get Polly to show you the roses needed for the tables; +I'll be with you by-and-by to cut the ferns. Do you think you could make +yourself of that much use? You're not worth a straw here" + +"Send for Miss Polly and I'll do my best," Vincent said, with a gulp, to +conceal his joy. She appeared presently; and, as they were passing out +of the door, Rosa cried, imperiously: + +"Oh, yes, Vint, we need ever so much honeysuckle; you know where it +hangs thickest--in the Owl's Glen. Olympia will like to see that--the +haunt of her favorite bird"; and the busy little maid laughed cheerily, +like a disordered goddess, intoxicated by the exhaling odors of the +floral chaos. + +"_En route_ for Roumelia, then," Vincent cried in military cadence, as +the florists set out. Roumelia was the name Jack had given the +rose-lands near the stream, in fanciful allusion to the Turkish province +of flowers. Halting at the gardener's cottage, Vincent procured an +immense pair of shears, like a double rapier in size, and, bidding the +man follow to gather the blossoms, he pushed into the blooming vineyard. + +"With such an instrument I should say it was the golden fleece you were +after," Olympia cried, as he reached her side, "though I believe Jason +didn't do the shearing." + +"No, the powers of air worked for him, and he found his quest ready to +his hand." + +"I'm sure the powers of air have not denied you; look at those radiant +ranks of blossoms bending to be gathered." + +"Ah, yes, beauty stoops sometimes to welcome the trembling hand of the +suitor." + +"Your hand is rather unsteady--infirm of purpose; give me the blades." +She took them laughingly, and snipped the green stems rapidly and +dexterously. + +"Yes, I believe men are infirm in moral purposes, as compared to women. +It is only in the brutalities of life that men are decisive." + +"Do you mean that women approach the trials of life less thinkingly and +act less rationally than men?" + +"Yes and no. The daring too much is always before a man; the daring too +little is, I think, the only trouble a woman has." + +"Oh, that is a large question, involving too much mental strain in a +garden of roses, where the senses sleep and one is content with mere +breath and the faintest motion." + +"There are enough roses; now we will go for the wild smilax and +honeysuckle; perhaps the cool air of the pools will restore your mental +activities." + +They left the dismembered roses scattered in fragrant heaps on the +shaded path and walked slowly toward the dense hedge. + +"What a perfect fortress this green wall makes of the gardens!" Olympia +said, glancing around the great square, where the solid green wall could +be seen running up much higher than their heads. + +"Yes, as I said the other day, it would take hard work for an invading +force to get at the house unless traitors within gave up the gates. This +one," he added, unlocking a massive oak door, crossed with thick planks +and studded with iron bolts, "alone admits from the creek and swamp. It +is locked all the time; no one has the key except the gardener, who +delivers it to mamma every night." + +"A feudal demesne; it takes one back to the so-called days of chivalry." + +"Why do you say 'so-called'? To me they are the delight of the +past--when men went to battle for the smile of the women they loved, +when knights rode the world over in search of adventure, and my lady, in +her donjon, listened with pleasure to the lover's roundelay. Ah, it was +a perfect life, an enchanting time. We are living in a coarse, brutal +age; chivalry was the creed of civilization, the knights the priesthood +of the higher life." + +"There's the Southerner through and through in that sentimentality. To +me chivalry means all that is narrow, cruel, and rapacious in man. The +philandering knights were sensual boobies, the simpering dames soulless +wantons. Life meant simply the rule of the strong, the slaughter of the +weak. Servitude was its law and robbery its methods. Have you ever +traveled in out-of-the-way places in Germany, Austria, or Italy?" + +"No, I've never been abroad." + +"You would know better what I mean if you had seen the monstrous relics +of the age you admire. The few ruled the many; the knights were simply a +brotherhood of blood and rapine; men were slaves, women were worse. The +bravest were as unlettered as your body-servant, the most beautiful +dames as termagant as Penelope the cook. At the table men and women ate +from a common dish, without forks or spoons. Men guzzled gallons of +unfermented wine. A bath was unknown. Cleanliness was as unpracticed as +Islamism in New York. Ugh! anything but chivalry for me." + +"But surely the great lords were not what you represent. They were +gentle born, gentle bred. They could not be robbers; they lived from +great estates." + +"They were the 'Knights of St. Nicholas,' which, in the slang of the +middle ages, meant what they call in the West road agents; indeed, plain +highwaymen they were called in England in Bacon's day." + +Vincent bent over discomfited, and held the little shallop until Olympia +was seated, and then pushed off into the murky stream. + +"Do you see those streamers of loveliness waving welcome to you, fair +damsel--Nature knows its kind?" + +"That's one word for me and one for yourself," she cried, seizing the +dainty pink sprays that now trailed over her head and shoulders as the +boat glided along the fringe of hushes supporting the clinging vines. + +"Oh, no, Olympia; I can't speak even one word for myself. I have been +trembling to do it this six weeks, but your eye had none of the +invitation these starry blossoms offer us. I am going to say now, +Olympia, what I have to say--for after to-day there will be no chance; +what has been on my mind you have long known. You know that I love you; +how much I love you, how impossible it is to think of life without you, +I dare not venture to say to you, for you distrust our Southern +exaggeration. But I do love you; ah, my God! all the world else--my +mother, my sister, my duty seem nothing compared to the one passionate +hope in my breast. Do you believe me, Olympia--do you doubt me?" + +"Far from it, Vincent--dear Vincent--no--no--sit where you are and +listen to me--" She was deeply moved, and the lover in his heart cursed +the luckless veils of blossom that she apparently, without design, drew +before her face. "I do believe all you say; I knew it before you said +it. But you remember we went over this very same ground before. Since +then, it is true, you have been the means of saving us much misery; how +much I hardly dare think of when I look back to that dreadful day, when +mamma lay in the fever of coming disease and the hopelessness of +despair. All I can say, dear, dear Vincent, is what I said before. Wait +until thine and mine are no longer at war. Wait until one flag +covers us--" + +"But that can never be!" + +"Wait! I have faith that it will be!" + +"If one flag should cover us--my flag--would you--would you--?" + +"Ah, Vincent! don't ask me; don't force me to say something thing that +will make you unhappy, since I don't know my own mind well enough yet to +answer as you wish me to answer--" + +"But you can tell me now whether you love me, or, at least, whether +there is any one you love more?" + +"I don't think I love you. I know, however, that I think no more of any +one else than I think of you; pray, let that suffice." + +"But how cruel that is, Olympia! It is as much, as to say that you won't +wait and see whether you may meet some one that you can be surer of than +you are of me?" + +"I must distress you whatever I say, Vincent! Frankly, I don't think you +can decide just now whether your heart is really engaged. I think you do +not know me as a man should knows the woman he makes his wife. I am +certain I do not know you. If you had been born and bred in the North, I +should have no difficulty in deciding; but your ways are so different +here: women are accorded so much before marriage, and made so little of +a man's life after marriage, that I shrink from a promise which, if +lightly or inconsiderately given, would bring the last misery a woman +can confront." + +"What, Olympia! you think Southern men do not hold marriage to be +sacred?" + +"I think that the Southern man has a good deal of the knight you spoke +of in him, and, like the Frenchman, marries inconsiderately, and does +penance in infidelity, at least to the form, if not the fact, of the +relation." + +"O Olympia! where do you get such repulsive ideas of us; who has been +traducing us to you?" + +"I judge from the Southern men I have seen North; pardon me, Vincent, I +do not see how it can be otherwise in a society based upon human +servitude. To live on the labors of a helot people blunts the finer +sensibilities of men and women alike; when you can look unshrinkingly at +the separation of husband and wife on the auction-block, when you can +see innocent children taken from their mothers and sold into eternal +separation, I think it is not unnatural in me to fear that a woman with +my convictions would not be happy mated with a Southerner. All this is +cruel, I fear you will think, but it would be crueller for me to +encourage a love that, under present circumstances, would bring misery +to both of us." + +"You are an abolitionist?" + +"Yes; every right-thinking person in the North is an abolitionist to +this extent; we want the South to take the remedy into its own hands, to +free its slaves voluntarily; the radical abolitionists prefer a violent +means. That I do not seek or did not; but now, Vincent, it is bound +to come." + +"And, if it should come, what would you answer to my question?" + +"Here is a white rose: I picked it with my hand, and, you see, a drop of +my blood is on it; when you can give me a rose with a drop of your blood +on it as free from taint as the stain mine makes, I shall have an answer +that will not be unworthy your waiting for!" + +"Unworthy! I don't understand you. Surely, you don't think me a +profligate?" + +"When the time comes that no human being acknowledges your ownership, +perhaps you may receive a voluntary bond-maid, bound to you by stronger +ties than the chattel of the slave." + +"But you love me, then, Olympia?" + +"I can not love where I do not reverence." + +"But it is not my fault that slaves are my inheritance!" + +"It will be your fault if they are your support when you are your own +master." + +"You love an idea better than you love a man who would die for you!" + +"I love manliness and the sense of right, which is called duty, better +than I love a man who is blind to the first impulse of real manhood--" + +"Would you ask a Jew to give up his synagogue to gain your hand?" + +"The synagogue is the temple of a creed as divine as my own, and the +faith of the man I loved would never swerve me in accepting or +refusing him." + +"We of the South believe slavery a divine institution--that is, first +established by the fathers!" + +"The tribes in the Fiji Islands believe man-eating an ordinance of the +gods!" + +"Well, this sort of discussion leads to nothing," Vincent said, +ruefully. "The world is well lost for the woman one loves, when I come +to you shorn of my world!" + +"Ah! then, Vincent, you will find another!" + +He drew her hand from the clinging vines and kissed it. + +"I am very happy. I shall lose my world with a very light heart." + +"The world is a very tough brier; we sometimes bring it closer, when its +thorns prick us more painfully in the struggles to cast it off." + +"Then I'll cut the brambles, and not risk tearing my flesh!" + +"That's the soldier's way--the heroic way; but wait for the future; I am +young and you are not old." + +Vincent's gayety when they returned to the drawing-room attracted the +observant Dick, and he slyly whispered to the warrior, "Been practicing +the Roman strategy with the Sabines?" + +"No, I've been at the Temple of Minerva and taken a pledge to hold my +tongue." + +"Ah! the goddess of the owls; but, as they see light only in darkness, I +fear you groped in blackness." + +The whole household were to meet President Davis and his party in +Williamsburg, assist at the review, and get back with the distinguished +guests in time for a state dinner. Merry and Mrs. Sprague were reluctant +to go, but they feared a refusal would be misunderstood. Poor Merry was +very tearful and disconsolate at the thought of leaving Dick, but she +strove heroically to hide her grief when the cavalcade set out, the +elder ladies driving, the young people mounted. The ancient capital of +Virginia was aflame with the new rebel bunting. President Davis, with +Generals Lee and Magruder, were in place on the pretty green before the +old colonial college edifice when the Rosedale people came up. Davis +saluted Mrs. Atterbury with cordial urbanity; but, as the troops were +already in column, there was only time for hasty presentation of the +strangers. + +Jack watched the rather piebald pageant with absorbed interest. The +infantry marched wretchedly. The arms were as varied as the uniforms, +and the artillery seemed a relic of Jackson's time. But the cavalry was +superb. Never had he seen such splendid ranks, such noble horses. At +sight of the tall, elegant figure of the President, the troops broke +into the peculiar shrill cheer that afterward became a sound of wonder, +almost terror, to unaccustomed Northern ears. It was a mingling of the +boyish treble of college cries and the menacing shriek of the wild-cat. +Jack was secretly very much delighted with the review. More than half +the rank and file were mere boys; and he could see that they were +unruly, almost to point-blank disregard of their officers commands, or +the prescriptions of the manual. It would take short work for the +disciplined hosts the new Northern general was training, to sweep such +chaff from the field of war. Vincent saw something of this in his +comrade's eye, and a good deal nettled himself by the slovenly march and +humorous abandon of the men, he said: + +"You must remember, Jack, our army is made up of gentlemen's sons; the +gentry of the South are all in arms, and we can't at once reduce them to +the mere machines a more heterogeneous soldiery can be made. The men who +won Manassas passed in review a day or two before the battle, and they +made the same impression upon me--upon Beauregard himself--that I see +these men have made on you. Depend upon it, in a fight they will be good +soldiers." + +"Let me have the poor comfort of underrating my enemy, the thing above +all others that a wise man shuns and a fool indulges." + +"Oh, on that theory revile them if you like." + +"No, indeed; I'm far from reviling them. The cavalry is magnificent. I +don't think we have a regiment in our army that can compare with that +brigade. Who commands it?" + +"Jeb Stuart--the Murat of the South," Vincent said, proudly. "I'm going +to tell the President what you said of the brigade; you know he is +passionately fond of the army, and really wanted to be the +commander-in-chief, when they made him President at Montgomery." + +At sunset the President and General Lee entered the carriage with Mrs. +Atterbury and Mrs. Sprague, Merry driving in a phaeton with Kate, who +didn't enjoy so long a ride on the horse. + +"I'm glad we've got such important hostages as yourself and son," Davis +said gallantly to Mrs. Sprague, as the carriage passed out of the clamor +of acclamation the crowd set up. "I knew the Senator, your husband, +intimately. If he had lived, I doubt whether we should have been driven +out of the Union. He was, in my mind, one of the most prudent statesmen +that came from the North to Congress." + +"He certainly never would have consented to break up the Union," Mrs. +Sprague said, in embarrassment. + +"Nor should I, madam, if there had been any further security in it. The +truth is, there was nothing left for us but to go out or be kicked out. +The leaders of the Abolition party long ago proclaimed that. However, +war settles all such problems. When it is settled by the sword we shall +be satisfied." + +Mrs. Atterbury changed the conversation by asking how Mrs. Davis liked +Richmond. + +"Oh, she has been treated royally by the people there. I declare +Richmond is as Southern a city as Charleston. I have been agreeably +surprised by the absolute unanimity of gentle and simple in the cause. +My wife receives a clothes-basketful of letters every morning from the +mothers of the Confederacy proffering time, money, and service wherever +she can suggest anything for them to do. I propose later on establishing +an order something like the Golden Fleece, which shall confer a certain +social precedence upon the wearers. I have thousands of letters on the +subject, and as the society of the South is, as a matter of fact, a +society of gentle-folk--for the most part lineally descended from the +nobility of older countries--I think it proper and right that lineage +should have certain acknowledged advantages in the new commonwealth. But +I propose to go further, and institute an order of something like +nobility for women--who have thus far given us great help and +encouragement. Indeed, there are many in the Congress--a dozen Senators +I could name--who think that we ought to make our regime entirely +different from the North, and that we should adopt a monarchical form--" + +"I'm sure, I think we should," Mrs. Atterbury exclaimed, delightedly. +"We are really as unlike the Northern people as the French or +the Germans." + +"The strongest argument for declaring the Confederacy an empire is the +one that weighed with Napoleon I. We should at one stroke secure the +alliance of all the monarchies. They have never looked with favor on the +experiment of a powerful republic over here, and it is almost certain +they would befriend us for transforming this mighty infant state into an +empire. However, that is for future action. Our agents abroad have sent +us full reports on the matter." + +"I doubt the wisdom of ever hinting such a thing," General Lee said, +gravely. "We must show that we are able to act independently in +selecting our form of government. I doubt very much whether the masses +would listen favorably to an empire established by foreign aid." + +"Possibly, general, possibly. As I said before, there will be time +enough for that when, like Napoleon, we have made our armies the masters +of this continent. Then, with boundaries embracing Mexico, Canada, and +the Western States--for they can never exist independent of us--we can +choose empire, republic, or a Venetian oligarchy." + +As they came in sight of Rosedale, Davis stood up in the carriage to get +a better view of the landscape, which showed swift alternations of dense +thickets and wood and rolling acres of rich crops. + +"What a State Virginia is!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm. "It has the +climate and soil to support half of Europe. Mother of Presidents in the +past, it will be the granary and magazine of the Confederacy in ten +years. My own State, Mississippi, is rich in land, but the climate is +hard for the stranger. It enervates the European at first. But we are an +agricultural people, or rather we give our energies to our staple, +cotton; that is to be the chief treasure of the Confederacy." + +Dinner was ready for the table when the guests came from their rooms. +Davis excused his lack of ceremonial dress, saying pleasantly: + +"I am something of a soldier, you know, and travel with a light train. +Lee, there, has the advantage of me. A soldier's uniform is court +costume the world over." + +"But you are the commander-in-chief, Mr. President. Don't you have a +uniform?" + +"No. I am commander-in-chief only in law. Congress is really the +commander-in-chief. The man that assumes those duties can attend to them +alone. He is, of course, subject to the executive; but only in general +plans, rarely in details." + +Davis was placed at Mrs. Atterbury's right, Mrs. Sprague at her left, +General Lee sat at Vincent's right, _vis-à -vis_ to Jack, who was lost in +prodigious admiration of the Socratic-like chieftain--Lee was as yet +unknown to all but a discriminating few in the Confederacy. He was as +tall as Davis fully six feet--but more rounded and symmetrical. He spoke +with great gravity, but seemed to enjoy the jests that the young people +found opportunities to indulge in, when it was seen that the President +devoted his talk exclusively to the hostess or Mrs. Sprague. Davis was a +good talker, and charmed the company with reminiscences of old times +in Congress. + +"I don't remember Lincoln distinctly," he said, concluding a +reminiscence, "but I think he's the man that used to be so popular in +the House cloak-room, telling stories which were said to be +extremely droll." + +"Mrs. Lincoln is in some sort kin to Mrs. Davis, isn't she?" Mrs. +Atterbury asked. "I have read it somewhere." + +"Very distant. Mrs. Lincoln is of the Kentucky Tods, and they were in +some way kin of my wife's family, the Howells. Not enough to put on +mourning, if Mrs. Lincoln should become a widow." + +"Is it true, Mr. President, that a society in the North has offered a +million dollars for your capture--abduction? I heard it in Williamsburg, +and saw an allusion to it in _The Examiner_ the other day." + +"Oh, I'm sure I can't say. If the offer were authenticated, I should be +tempted to go and get the reward myself. With a million dollars I could +do a good deal more for the cause in the North than I can here, making +brigadiers and settling questions of precedence between Cabinet +ministers, judges, and Senators." + +"Mr. President, give me an exchange North, and I will ascertain the +facts in the million-dollar offer and write you faithfully how to set +about getting the money," Jack said, very soberly, from his end of +the table. + +"Ah! the Yankee spoke there--nothing if not a bargain. Sir, you deserve +your clearance papers, but I'm too good a friend of Mrs. Atterbury and +her daughter to bring about the loss of company that I am sure must be +agreeable. Then, too, there's no telling the miracles of conversion that +may be brought about by such ministers as Miss Rosa there." + +Rosa blushed, Jack felt foolish, and everybody laughed except Dick, who +looked unutterable things at his adored, and boldly entered the lists +against the great personage by asking, in a quivering treble: + +"Doesn't the Bible say that the wife shall cleave to the husband; that +his people shall be her people, his God her God, where he goes +she goes?" + +"It is so said in the Bible, sir; but it was a woman that uttered it, +and she was in love. When you know more of the sex, you will understand +that women in love are like poets; they say much that they don't mean, +and more that they don't understand." + +"But, Mr. President, what the one woman said in the Bible all women +practice. You never knew a woman that didn't believe her husband's +beliefs, hate his hates, love his loves." + +Davis smiled, and his eyes twinkled kindly on his boyish inquisitor. + +"I know only one woman. That is as much as a man can speak for. She +doesn't hate my hates, love my loves, or enter unprotestingly into all +my ways. Indeed, I may say that, being a peaceful man, I wanted to +remain in Washington, for I believed that Seward was sincere in pleading +for a compromise; but the woman I speak of had her own opinion convinced +me that she was right, and I came to my own people." + +At this moment there was a diversion. A soldier, booted and spurred, +entered the room, walked to the head of the table, and bending +deferentially to the President, said; + +"I am ordered to deliver this message wherever you may be found." He +handed Davis a large envelope and retreated respectfully two or three +paces backward. Everybody affected to resume conversation as the +President, breaking the seal, said; + +"Pardon me a moment, madam." But he had no sooner ran over the lines +than he turned to the courier, crying, in visible discomfiture: + +"When did you leave the war office?" + +"At five o'clock, sir." + +"General, we must return instantly to Richmond; a hundred or more of the +prisoners have broken out of Libby! It is reported that a column of the +enemy with gunboats have passed up the James.--Madam, this is one of the +exigencies of a time of war. I needn't say to an Atterbury that +everything must give way to public business!" He called Lee aside, spoke +rapidly to him, and the latter, beckoning Vincent, left the room. He +returned in ten minutes, announcing that everything was in readiness to +set out. The carriage with Mrs. Sprague's and Merry's small luggage was +ready when the cavalcade set out, Davis riding with them and the cavalry +company from below, divided into squadrons before and behind the +carriage. It was eleven o'clock as the last dark line of the troop +disappeared. Olympia and Jack stood at the great gate in mournful +silence. The swiftness of the parting had lessened the pain, but their +minds were full of the sorrow that follows the inevitable. Mrs. Sprague +had herself declined to postpone the ordeal when Mrs. Atterbury pointed +out the untimely hour. No, it was better to suffer this slight +inconvenience to have Vincent's protecting presence all the way to the +Union lines; and Jack, acknowledging this, didn't say a word to dissuade +her. Vincent's last act was to call Jack to his room. + +"I wanted to tell you, Jack, what a great joy it has been to me--it has +been to all of us--to have you in our home at this trying time. I can +not tell you how much comfort it has been to me now, but some time you +shall know," Vincent stammered, and began to open a drawer in the +bureau. "Here is something I want you to accept as a keepsake from me." +He drew forth a pistol-case and opened it. "It will be a melancholy +pleasure for me to feel, in the dark days to come, that these weapons +may prove your friend in battle, where I must be your enemy." + +"By George, they're beauties!" Jack cried, taking the weapons out. + +"Yes; they were bought last year, and I have had J.S. cut on one, and +V.A. on the other. I meant them for your Christmas last year, but they +were mislaid." + +"What a kind fellow you are, Vint! I don't think I ought to take these." + +"Why not? I have others! I shall feel easier, knowing that you have +them. You can stow them about you easily, they are so small." + +"But it's against the laws of war for a prisoner to be armed." + +"That's just the reason I haven't asked you to take them before. You can +leave them here in my room until you are exchanged, and then you can +carry them with impunity." + +The household assembled at the gate leading into the roadway as the +cavalcade took up the march. There were sad, sobbing farewells +spoken--the kindly night covering the tears, and the loud neighing of +the horses drowning the sobs. + +The Northern group remained in the roadway, straining their eyes to +catch the last glimpse of the wanderers as they disappeared in the misty +foliage, far up the roadway. + +The horizon to the zenith was full of shimmering star-points, Olympia, +with Jack, turned slowly toward the house, silent and not wholly sad. +Dick, in a low treble, could be heard just behind them, quoting +melancholy verses to Rosa; and the brother and sister returned slowly up +the dewy, odorous path. At the porch Rosa exclaimed, in surprise: + +"I wonder where Pizarro is? I haven't seen him while we have been out. +It can't be possible he has followed Vincent! What shall we do if +he has?" + +"Make Dick take his place. A terrier is sometimes as faithful as a +mastiff," Jack said, quickly. + +"Oh! Miss Atterbury wants something with a bite, rather than a bark, and +a terrier wouldn't do," the boy answered. + +"I want Pizarro. I shall never sleep a wink all night if he isn't here," +Rosa said, in consternation; "he is better than a regiment of soldiers, +for he won't let a human being come near the house after the doors are +closed, not even the servants." + +An expedition, calling upon Pizarro in many keys, set out and wandered +through the grounds, back to the quarters, to the gates leading to the +rose-fields, to the stable, but Pizarro was not to be found. Lights were +burning in the hall only when the four re-entered, and with a very grave +face Rosa bade the rest good-night. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +A CATASTROPHE. + + +Rosedale had been a bed of thorns to Wesley Boone since his recovery. He +felt that he was an incongruous visitor among the rest, as a hawk might +feel in a dove-cote. He would have willingly returned to Richmond--even +at the risk of re-entering the prison--if Kate had not been on his +hands. The life of the place, the constant necessity of masking his +aversion to the Spragues, his detestation of Dick, the simple +merry-making and intimate amenities of such close quarters, tasked his +small art of dissimulation beyond even the most practiced powers. The +garment of duplicity was gossamer, he felt, after all, in such +atmosphere of loyalty and trust as surrounded him at Rosedale. + +He knew that in the daily attrition and conventional intimacies of the +table, the drawing-room, or the promenade, the cloak covering his +resentful antipathy, his moral perversities, his thinly veiled +impatience, was worn to such thin shreds that eyes keen as Jack's must +see and know him as he was. What was hatefulest and most unendurable of +all was the bondage of truce in which the Atterburys held him. Wesley +was no coward, and he ached to meet Jack face to face, arm to arm, and +settle with that thoughtless insubordinate a rankling list of griefs +heaped up in moments of over-vivacious frankness. He would make Jack +smart for his arrogance, his insolence, his cursed condescension so soon +as they were back among the Caribees. + +But meanwhile, here, daily tortured by harmless things--tortured by his +soul's imaginings--Wesley was becoming a burden to Kate, who saw too +plainly that he was in misery, and realized that it was largely through +his own inherent weakness and insincerity. He had all the coarse fiber +of his father without the same force in its texture. With merely +superficial good manners, he was never certain whether the punctilious +niceties observed toward him by the Spragues and Atterburys were not a +species of studied satire. Vincent, who had never shown him the +slightest consideration in Acredale, treated him here with the +chivalrous decorum that the code of the South demanded in those days to +a guest. Wesley ground his teeth under the burden, not quite sure +whether it was mockery or malevolence. He watched with malignant +attentiveness the imperceptible change of tone and manner that marked +the family's treatment of the Spragues. There was none of the grave +ceremoniousness he resented in the Atterburys' behavior with them. + +Jack was a hobbledehoy son of the house, almost as much as Vincent. +Kate, too, was, he felt certain, treated with a reserve not shown to +Mrs. Sprague or Merry. Brooding on this, brooding on the unhappiness of +his own disposition, which denied him the privilege of enjoying the best +at the moment, indifferent to what might be behind, Wesley had come to +hate the Atterburys for the burden of an obligation that he could never +lift. He hated Mrs. Atterbury for her high-bred, easy ignoring of all +conditions save those that she exacted. He hated Rosa for her gayety, +her absorption in the young scamp Dick. He hated Vincent because he +seemed to think there was no one in the North but the Spragues worthy of +a moment's consideration. It is in hate as in love--what we seek we +find. Every innocent word and sign that passed in the group, in which he +did not seek to make himself one, Wesley construed as a gird at him or +his family. Constantly on the watch for slights or disparagements, the +most thoughtless acts of the two groups were taken by the tormented +egotist as in some sense a disparagement to his own good repute or his +family standing. + +Nor were the marked affection and confidence shown Kate by everybody in +the house a mitigation of this malign fabric of humiliation. Jack's +fondness for Kate had not escaped the observant eyes of Dick, who had +confided the secret to Rosa, who had likewise unraveled it to mamma, +and, as she kept nothing from Vincent, the Atterburys had that sort of +interest in Kate that intimate spectators always show in love affairs, +where there are no clashing interests involved. It was a moot question, +however, between the three, when, after weeks of observation, Mrs. +Atterbury declared that Jack was not in love with Miss Boone. "He can't +be," she declared. "He doesn't seek her alone; he doesn't make up to her +in the evening. Half the time when they come together it is by Dick's +arrangement. _He_ seems to be in love with Kate." + +"How absurd!" Rosa cried, with a laugh; "a boy like him! Why, he would +be in school, if there were no war." + +"Well, Rosa, I fancy that Dick hasn't found war very much different from +school, so far. He seems to recite a good deal to the mistress, and +occupies the dunce's block quite regularly," Vincent retorted, with a +provoking significance that set mamma in a brown study and suspended the +comments on Kate's and Jack's probable sentiments. + +Mrs. Sprague and Wesley were the only people in the house who had no +suspicion of a deeper feeling than mere passing goodfellowship between +Jack and Kate. Both were blinded by the same confidence. The mother +could never conceive a son of the house of Sprague making such a breach +on the family traditions as a union with a Boone. Wesley could not +conceive a sister of his giving her heart to the son of a family that +had insolently refused to concede social equality to her father. +Something of Wesley's miserable inner unrest could not fail to be +visible to the Atterburys, but the less congenial he became the more +watchfully considerate they made their treatment of him. He was their +guest, with all the sacred rights and immunities that quality implies, +in the exaggerated code of the Southern host. Kate was the single power +that Wesley had bent his headstrong will before, ever since he was a +boy. His father he obeyed, while in his presence, trusting to wheedling +to make his peace in the event of disobedience. But Kate he +couldn't wheedle. + +She was relentless in her scorn for his meannesses and follies, and, +though he did not always heed her counsels, he proved their justness by +finding his own course wrong. Kate, however, hesitated about +remonstrating with him on his deepening moodiness, for she was not quite +sure whether it was mad jealousy of Dick's favor in Rosa's eyes, or a +secret purpose to attempt to fly from the gentle bondage of Rosedale. +Wesley with Rosa it was remarked by Kate, was, or seemed to be, his +better self, or rather better than the self with which others identified +him. It was, however, she feared, more to torment Dick, than because she +found Wesley to her liking, that the little maid often carried the moody +captain off into the garden, pretending to teach him the varied flora of +that blooming domain. Dick remarked these excursions with growing +impatience, and visited his anger upon Rosa in protests so pungent and +woe-begone that she was forced to own to him that she only pretended an +interest in the captain, so that he might not think he was shut out of +the confidence of the circle. + +"And who cares if he does think he is shut out, I should like to know? +He is a sneak, and I don't like to have you talking with him alone," +Dick cries, quite in the tone of the Benedict who has passed the +marriage-portal and feels safe to make his will known. + +"I should like to know what right you have to order what I shall or +shall not do?" Rosa protests, half angry, half laughing. "Why, you talk +like a grown man--like a husband. How dare you?" + +Dick pauses confused, and looks guiltily about at this. + +"Ah, if you put it that way I have no right except this: My whole heart +is yours. You know that. You may not have given me all yours." +(Protesting shrug from Rosa's shoulders.) "Well, all the same; if my +heart is all your own you have a duty in the case. You ought to spare +your own property from pain." (Rosa laughs softly.) "Of course you are +right. You are always right. How could such a beautiful being be wrong!" +The artful rogue slips his arm about her waist at this, and, after a +feeble struggle, he is permitted to hold this outwork unprotested. + +"And, Rosa, if I speak like a man, it is because I am a man. Wasn't it +the part of maids in the old times to inspire the arm of their +sweethearts; to make them constant in danger, brave in battle, and +patient in defeat? Are you less than any of the damsels we read of in +chivalry? Am I not a man when I look in your dear eyes and see nothing +worldlier than love, nothing earthlier than truth there?" + +"What a blarney you are! I must really get Vint to send you away, or he +will have a Yankee brother-in-law." + +"And the Perleys will have a rebel at the head of the house." + +Now, this silly prattle had been carried on in the arbor near the +library, and Wesley, sitting under the curtain, had heard every word of +it. Neither the words nor the unmistakable sounds that lips meeting lips +make, which followed, served to soothe his angry discontent. This was +early on the great Davis gala day, and thereafter he disappeared from +the scene. He made one of the party to Williamsburg, and, though +distraught in the conversation, was keenly alert to all he saw. + +Rallied upon his reticence, he had snubbed Kate and turned disdainfully +from Jack's polite proffers to guide him through the review. He had +studied Davis all through the manoeuvres with a furtive, fascinated +attention, which Mrs. Atterbury remarked with complacency, attributing +it to awe. At the dinner-table, seated between Kate and Merry, he had +never taken his eye from the chief of the Confederacy. Twice the +President, courteously addressing him, he had blushed guiltily and +dropped his gaze. Before the dinner was half over he pleaded a severe +headache, and, bidding his hostess good-night, hurried from the room. +The wide hall was deserted; the moon threw broad swaths of light on the +cool matting, and he halted for an instant, breathing rapidly. Something +lying on the rug at the door moved languidly. Wesley, looking carefully +about, moved swiftly to the spot and stopped. Pizarro raised his head, +whining amicably, and, as Wesley bent over to pat him, wagged his tail +with a spasmodic thud against the floor, in sign of goodfellowship. + +"Come, Pizarro, come with me," Wesley said, coaxingly. But the dog, +redoubling the tattoo with his tail, remained obstinately at his post. +Wesley stole to the end of the hall and listened, then, hearing the busy +clamor of the servants moving from the kitchen to the dining-room, he +retraced his steps to the stairs, bounded lightly up and in three +minutes reappeared, and, keeping his eyes on the half-closed doors, +slipped softly to Pizarro. The dog sniffed excitedly, and as Wesley took +a thick parcel from his coat-pocket the beast leaped up and attempted +to seize it. + +"Follow me, Pizarro, and you shall have it." He held up the packet, a +red, glistening slice of raw beef. The dog whined ecstatically and +Wesley, holding a morsel of it just out of his reach, retreated up the +stairs. Pizarro bounded after him as if construing the by-play into a +challenge, and frisking in all sorts of fantastic shapes to win the +savory prize. The door of Wesley's room was open, and as the dog came +abreast of it he flung a piece into the apartment. Pizarro, lowering his +sniffing nose, looked at the tempting bit sidewise, and then wagging his +tail in modest deprecation of his boldness, made a start inward. It was +swallowed in an instant, and then, as Wesley entered, the door was +closed. Pizarro, by the humility of his manner, the lowered head and +sidelong glance, asked pardon for intruding upon the privacy of a guest, +but argued with his ears and by short yelps, in extenuation, that such a +feast as a bit of meat--after an active day, when the servants had +forgotten to feed him--no dog with a healthy appetite could resist, no +matter how perfect his breeding. He was ready for the larger ration +Wesley held in his hand. + +Wesley held the temptation in his hand until he had lured the dog into a +large closet communicating with the bedroom by a locked door. Once in, +the door was shut, and the young man sank on a seat in a thrill of +grateful relief. + +"That danger's over," he muttered. "Now to see who is in the upper +rooms." + +Perfect silence on the upper floor; only the solemn shadows of the +night, as the moon rises higher and higher, and the plaintive cries of +the night-birds alone betoken life. Through the windows the +white-jacketed house-servants are rushing gayly to and from the +dining-room. All the rooms are dimly lighted. The President's apartment +is fragrant with blossoms, and the lace counterpane turned down. +Retracing his steps, Wesley enters Vincent's room on the corridor with +his own. The candle is burning dimly on the mantel. He seems to know his +whereabouts very well for he makes straight for a bureau between the bed +and the window. He takes from the top drawer a pistol-case, which he has +evidently handled before, as he touches the spring at once. He takes out +one pistol, and, rapidly extracting the loads, puts it back. He has +taken four out of the five barrels of the second when a sound of +footsteps in the hall startles him. He has barely time to replace the +weapons, close the case, put it in the drawer and crawl under the bed, +when Vincent and Jack enter. + +His suspense and terror are so overmastering that he can only hear an +occasional word. His own heart-beats sound in his ears like the thumping +of a paddle. Is Vincent going to bed? Are Jack and he going to sit and +smoke, as they often do? No, relief beyond words, they are going out! +Perhaps to Jack's room? They often sit there until very late, and then +Vincent slips in stocking-feet to his own room. But they are gone, and +he must fly. He dares not return to extract the last charge. But one +ball can't do much hurt in the dark, and, if his plans are carried out +with care, there will be no chance for any one to use the weapons on the +rescuing party, even if he were disposed to. In a moment Wesley is back +in his room, marking, with surprise, that there is no sound from Jack's +or Dick's room. But all is well. He is in his own room and secure +from surprise. + +He sat down to think. He must keep everything in mind. One whippoorwill +cry from outside would mean that all was well; two that he must hurry to +the rendezvous. It seemed like a dream. Davis, the arch-rebel, the chief +architect of the Confederacy, under the same roof; in an hour, if no +hitch come, the traitor would be bound and flying in trusty Union hands. +And when they got North?--when he, Wesley Boone, handed over to the +authorities in Washington this hateful chief of a hateful cause, what +fame would be his! No one could dispute it. He had informed Butler's +agent; he had watched day and night; had given the Unionists plans of +the grounds; was now periling his own rescue to bring the arch-traitor +to his doom. Ah! what in all history would compare with this glorious +daring? He sat glowing in dreams of such delicious, roseate delight, +that he took no heed of time, and was startled when he heard Dick and +Jack bidding each other good-night. Then in a few minutes be heard +Jack's door open and a tap at Dick's door. + +"Come to my room. I want to show you a present I got to-night." Then +silence. Wesley had no watch. The rebels had relieved him of that at +Bull Run. But it must be quite midnight. He opened one of the windows +softly. Oh, the glory of the night, harbinger of his high emprise, his +deathless glory! The wondrous, wondrous stillness of the scene--and to +think that over yonder, in the dark depths of the forest, fifty, perhaps +a hundred, men were waiting for him--for him? Yes, the mighty arms of +the Union were about him; the trump of a fame, such as no song had ever +sung, was poised to blow to the world his daring. Hark! Heavens, yes; +the long, tender plaint of the whippoorwill. Ah! now, now there was no +doubt. In swooning delight he waits. Good Heaven! What's that sound? +Angels and ministers of grace, the dead in wailing woe over the deed +about to be done? Ah! he breathes. + +Pizarro has grown tired of imprisonment and has set up an expostulatory +wail, facetiously impatient at first, but now breaking into sharp yelps. +This will never do. He must stop that ear-splitting outcry, or the +househould will be awakened. That sharp-eyed, razor tongued young devil, +Dick, is just across the hall. Wesley opens the closet door, and Pizarro +bounds out, licking his jailer's hands in grateful acknowledgment. He +frisks, appealing to the room door, inviting the further favor of being +permitted to go to his post, his wagging tail explaining how necessary +it is that a dog intrusted with such important duties as the +guardianship of the household can not suffer the casual claims of +friendlessness or the comity of surreptitious feeding to lure him into +infidelity. The tail proving ineffectual in argument, Pizarro +supplemented its eloquence by sharp admonitory yelps, tempered by a +sharp _crescendo_ whining, of which he seemed rather proud as an +accomplishment. + +"Damn the brute! He will ruin everything. I must kill him." But how? He +had no weapon. He looked about the room in gasping terror--the dog +accepting the move as a sign that the eloquence of the tail argument had +proved overpowering, supplemented this by an explosion of ecstatic yelps +of a deep, bass volume, that murdered the deep silence of the night, +like salvos of pistols. The curtains to the windows were held in place +by stout dimity bands. Whispering soothingly to the dog, Wesley knotted +four of these together, and, making as if to open the door, slipped the +bands like a lasso over the head of the unsuspecting brute. In an +instant his howls were silenced. The dog, with protruding tongue and +eyes--that had the piteous pleading and reproach of the human, looked up +at him, bloodshot and failing. But now the second signal must be near! +He may have missed it in the infernal howling of the brute. Yes, that +was it. He looks out of the window; his room is in view of the covered +way to the kitchen. He sees moving figures; he hears voices. They are +there. He has missed the signal; he must hasten to them. He puts out the +lights and opens the door cautiously. All is invitingly, reassuringly +still. He is at the hall door in a minute, in another he is with the +shadows in the rear of the house. + +"Jones, is it you?" + +"Ah, captain, we are waiting for ropes to secure the prize." + +"There is no time to wait. The dog has made such a noise that I didn't +hear your signal. I saw you from my window. Come, we must not lose a +minute, for I couldn't fasten the brute very well. Davis is here, and we +have only to take him from his room. The cavalry went about eleven; I +heard them march away an hour ago." + +"Now, give me the exact situation here, that there may be no surprise. +How many men are we likely to encounter in the event of a fracas?" + +"Counting Davis and Lee, four in the house. How near the orderlies and +guards are you know better than I. Besides Davis, there's Jack Sprague, +young Atterbury, and Dick--but he don't count." + +"No! Why?" + +"He is not over his wound, and besides he's but a boy. They had two +pistols loaded, but I managed to draw all the charges except one. So +that if Jack and Atterbury should come to the rescue they could do +no damage." + +"They sleep at this end of the house?" + +"Yes, and our work is at the other." + +"Well, then, in that case I will get ladders I saw near the +carriage-house and put them up to Davis's window as a means of escape in +case these young men get after us before we finish the job. Even with +their unloaded pistols, two full grown men and the boy could +make trouble." + +He called Number Two and gave him orders to place a ladder at each of +the two windows of Davis's room, and to have a man at the top of +each--armed. When the men had hurried away, Jones continued: + +"Here's a pistol for you. It is a six-shooter bull-dog, and will do sure +work. Now move on to the stairway; others will join us in a moment. +You're sure you know Davis's room? It would be mighty awkward to poke +into any of the others." + +"Yes; everybody in the house was taken to see it. It is the old lady's +room, occupied by mother and daughter, generally; but given up to the +President for the night." + +They are in the hall, stealing softly over the thick matting; they are +in the broad corridor--running the whole length of the house--Jack's, +Olympiads, Dick's, and Kate's rooms all behind them--southward. Wesley, +with Jones touching his right arm and Number Two at his left, is moving +slowly, silently northward to the left of the stairs. + +"Great God! What was that?" + +A sound as of a clattering troop of cavalry, the neighing of horses in +the grounds! Wesley halted, trembling, dismayed. + +"That's all right," Jones whispered, "I ordered the stables opened so +that the horses wouldn't be handy, if any one should happen to be at +hand who felt like pursuing us, or going for the cavalry." + +"It was a mistake; the horses will arouse the house. We must hurry." + +In a moment they were before the door of the Davis room. Wesley raised +the latch. It was an old-fashioned fastening. Number Two was directed to +stand at the threshold while Wesley and Jones secured Davis. + +Now they are in the room. There is no sound; but from the open window, +looking upon the carriage-road, there is the tramping of horses, +drowning all sounds in the room. They are nearly to the large canopied +bed between the open windows, when Jones, who is nearest, discovers a +startled apparition half rising from the bed. He is discovered by the +figure at the same instant, and a piercing scream, so loud, prolonged, +and ear-splitting that it echoes over the house, ends the wild dream of +the marauders. Wesley reels in panic. But Jones is an old campaigner. If +he can't have victory, there must be no recapture. He rushes at the +white figure, and snatches--Rosa, limp, nerveless, and swooning! + +"See who's in the bed!--I'm damned if you haven't brought us to the +wrong room--see, quick!" + +But there was no necessity for seeing. Mrs. Atterbury uttered a stifled +cry: "Help! help! murder!" + +"You, Boone, know the place; stand by me and I'll see that we are not +nabbed; but you've made a nice mess of the affair." + +But the comments of the indignant Jones were suddenly drowned in a +blood-curdling sound in the doorway: the savage, suppressed growl of a +dog, and the responsive imprecations of Number Two. With this came the +apparition of two figures, at sight of which Jones darted to the window, +the two figures, Jack and Dick, following to his right and left. + +"Save your powder, whoever you are. Fire at me, and you hit the young +woman. I don't know who she is, but her body is my protection." Saying +this, Jones coolly, determinedly retreated backward to the window; but +Dick, hardly hearing, and certainly not comprehending, had come within +arm's length of the two, somewhat to the left of Jones. + +"Don't fear, Rosa," Dick exclaimed, between his teeth. "I can see you. +Ah, ah!" Then four reports, that sounded as one, split the air. + +Rosa broke from the thick cloud of smoke as a fifth report rang out, and +a scream of death went up between the bed and the door where Jack stood. + +At the instant Dick spoke, Jack, in the doorway, heard an exclamation at +his side. He half turned, and as he did so his eye caught the outlines +of a man, with a shining something raised in the air, coming toward him +from the bedside. He pointed his own pistol at the figure, there were +three simultaneous reports, and the oncoming figure fell with a hoarse +cry of pain. The man at Jack's back now cried: + +"Get through the window; they're coming through the house!" + +"It's only a dog; come on." + +Then there was a sound of flying feet in the wide passage. + +"Are you hurt, Rosa? Tell me--did they hit you? Speak, oh, speak!" It +was Dick's voice, in a convulsive sob. Now, the boy again, that +danger was gone. + +Jack meanwhile had struck a match, and soon found the candles on the +night-table near the bed. There was, at the same instant, the audible +sound of scurrying along the passage. He ran out. The man assailed by +the dog had reached the head of the stairs. As Jack got half-way down +the corridor, man and dog disappeared over the balustrade. When he +reached the hall the dog was inside, growling furiously, the door was +closed and the man gone. Jack opened the door. Pizarro bounded out, and +Jack followed. The dog stopped a moment, sniffed the ground, and made +for the kitchen. A loud bark, followed by a ferocious growl, and a +scream of mortal pain broke on the air; then a pistol-shot, and a long, +pitiful gasp, and silence. + +"Well, that dog won't trouble any one now," Jack heard, and the voice +made his hair rise into bristling quills. + +"Barney!" he cried; "Barney Moore, is that you?" + +"It is; no one else. If I'm not drunk or dreaming, that's my own Jack. +God be praised!" + +"How in Heaven's name did you get here?" + +"I might ask you the same question, but you have priority of query, as +they say in court. I came here first to help rescue Captain Wesley +Boone, and second to capture his rebel Excellency Jeff Davis." + +"O my God! my God! Barney, Barney, tell me all, and tell me quickly!" + +Barney told all he knew, and told it rapidly, Jack catching his arm +almost fiercely, as the miserable truth began to define itself in his +whirling senses. Then the meaning of the two marauders in the ladies' +apartments became plain. Jack and Barney were hurrying toward the +chamber as the latter talked, Jack filled with an awful fear. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE STORY OF THE NIGHT. + + +Now, the timely--or untimely--appearance of Jack and Dick in the crisis +of the plot came about in this way: Dick, on returning from Jack's room, +had remarked, with quickening suspicion, a gleam of light under Wesley's +door. Perhaps he is ill, the boy thought, compunctiously; if he were, he +(Dick) ought to offer his services. He started to carry this kind +thought into effect, when he heard suspicious sounds in the room. Some +one was moving. He waited, now in alert anticipation. The plaintive +signal of the whippoorwill--bringing passionate energy to +Wesley--reached Dick's ears; he heard the opening of the window; then +silence. Could Wesley be descending thence to the ground? He blew out +his candle, drew the curtain, and cautiously raised the window. No; +Wesley was not getting out. Then the sound of the Pizarro episode came +dimly through the walls. He thought the dog's expostulatory growls a +voice. There was someone in the room with Wesley. Perhaps it was Kate. +It wouldn't do to act until he was sure that his suspicions were a +certainty. Besides, Jack had warned him not to interfere, with a mere +escape on Wesley's part, unless it seemed to involve depredations upon +the Atterburys. Then he heard the faint sound of the scuffle, when +Wesley throttled the compromising mastiff. Should he slip over and warn +Jack? He was moving toward the door, when, through the stillness of the +night, a sound came up from the direction of the quarters. He ran +lightly to the window again. His eyes, now accustomed to the darkness in +his room, distinguished clearly in the pale starlight. He thrilled with +a sudden sensation of choking. Yonder, stealing houseward from the +rose-gardens, he could plainly discern two--four--six--moving figures. +Heavens, the slaves were out! There was to be a servile uprising. Now he +must go and warn Jack; but he must note first whither the assassins were +directing their attack. Perhaps, with the aid of Jack's pistols, they +could be frightened away by a few shots from the windows. He ran +noiselessly to Jack's room, to his bed, and whispered in his +sleeping ear: + +"Jack, make no noise; dress yourself and come. The negroes are +surrounding the house, and Wesley is in mischief." + +Jack was awake and in his clothes in a few seconds. He handed Dick one +of the pistols, and, armed with the other, hastened toward Wesley's +room. The door was open and all was silent. Dick looked in hastily, +marked the open window, and exclaimed: + +"He is gone! Come to my room. I know exactly where to locate them from +my window; it is nearer the point they halted at than Wesley's." + +Yes; figures were moving swiftly against the trellised walls that led to +the kitchen. They moved, too, with the precision of people thoroughly +acquainted with the place. Then some one appeared swiftly from under the +shadow of the house; then three came toward it and passed under the +veranda near Wesley's window. Jack leaned far out to discover what this +diversion meant. At the same instant the sounding gallopade of hoofs +came from the tranquil roadway leading to the stables. The shrill whinny +of horses broke on the air. + +"They are mounted. There are a score of them!" Jack cried, desperately. +"We can at least keep them out of the house." + +"We can, if Wesley hasn't opened the doors to them," Dick said, +shrewdly. + +"That's a fact. But is it sure Wesley is not in his room? Bring matches +and let us examine it." + +There was no sign of Wesley in the room. The cool night air poured in +from the open window. + +"Draw the curtain before you strike the match," Jack whispered. "We must +not let a light be seen from the outside." + +"But the curtains are thin, the light will shine through." + +"Sh! Come here. By Heaven, it is Wesley, and he is dead! No--the +devil!--it is Pizarro--dead! Kneel down and strike a match, keeping +between the light and the window. One glance will be enough." + +One glimpse revealed the dog with distended tongue and half-glazed eyes, +but still alive. Jack loosed the band from the neck. The dog gave a +convulsive thrill and uttered a plaintive moan. + +"Set a basin of water down here. He may recover. Poor fellow! This was a +cruel return for his kindness to Wesley," Jack said, forcing the dog's +nose into the basin. He began to lap the cool water greedily. But now +Dick, in the doorway, littered a cry. + +"They are in the house. I hear them moving in the vestibule. Come, for +God's sake, Jack! They are making for Mrs. Atterbury's apartment. +Evidently some one who knows that the family jewels are there, for what +else can they want?" + +The dog staggered to his feet as the two stole softly from the room. +They followed with high-wrought, loudly-beating hearts and tingling +nerves. The marauders in front of them moved on like men accustomed to +the house. They made, as the light footfalls indicated, straight for +Mrs. Atterbury's door, which, unlike the others, fronted the length of +the hall in a small vestibule sunk into the lateral wall. The invaders +were thus screened from Jack and Dick when they had turned the corner, +and the latter were forced to move with painful caution to get the +advantage of surprise to offset superior numbers. But now a new peril +menaces them. A shuffling in the long corridor behind them freezes the +current of their blood. They have been caught in a trap. There are two +forces in the house. They both turn and halt, silent and trembling, +against the south wall and wait. The steps still advance, the scraping +of the nailed boots tears the light matting. + +"We will wait until the new-comer or new-comers are abreast," Jack +breathes in Dick's ear, "and then fire a volley into them point blank." + +At the instant Rosa's shriek, blood-curdling and electric, breaks from +the corner. Dick is over the intervening steps in two mighty bounds, +Jack at his heels and the foe in the rear following. Against the open +window Dick catches the outlines of his darling in the brawny arms of +Tarquin. He has the advantage of the light, and, as the ruffian retreats +to the window, Dick is at his side, and in an instant deals him a +stunning blow on the head. Jack, in the dim light, sees the dark figure +dashing at him with the gleam of steel in his hand. He levels his +weapon, three reports ring out at once, and the miserable Wesley falls +with a dreadful gurgling gasp on the floor. + +But there are interlopers in the rear as well! Jack turned to confront +them. He realized vaguely hearing a struggle as he confronted the +robbers. Ah! yes, the dog; the dog has come upon the scene. There is +sound of low, fierce, growling, flying footsteps on the floor, and Jack, +assuring himself by a quick glance that there were no more marauders in +the room, hurried to see that the front door was closed before +re-enforcements could come to the invaders. But Pizarro's lusty growls, +denoting recovered strength, attracted him kitchenward, and he +encountered Barney, and with Barney something of a clew to the hideous +attempt. One prayer was in his heart--one hope--that Wesley had escaped; +but with shuddering horror he hastened with Barney back to the scene of +blood and death. The great candelabra on the mantel had been lighted, +and the room was visible as in daylight. Jack halted, transfixed, +horror-stricken, in the doorway. The women in hastily snatched robes +were all there, and on the floor, wailing over the dead body of Wesley, +Kate sat, prone and disheveled, calling to him to look at her, to speak +to her, as she kissed the cold lips in incredulous despair. She paid no +heed to Mrs. Atterbury, to Olympia, kneeling beside her--all her heart, +all her senses benumbed in the agony of the cruel blow. Jack moved to +the piteous group, and, dropping on his knees, felt the lifeless pulse, +and sank back, pale and shrinking, with the feeling that he was a +murderer. Mrs. Atterbury turned to him, crying convulsively: + +"Oh, what does it mean, Mr. Sprague? what does it mean?" + +"It is a dreadful game of cross-purposes. These unhappy men believed Mr. +Davis to be in this room when they entered. They meant to capture him +and carry him North." + +"Ah, thank God! thank God! who carried our President away in time," and +the matron clasped her hands fervently as she sank in a chair. But the +sight of Kate, woe-begone, feverishly caressing the dead brother, +brought the tenderer instincts back. She rose again, and, clasping her +arms about the poor girl, said pleadingly: + +"Let him be carried to his room; you are covered with blood." + +"Ah, it is his blood, his innocent blood! Murdered, when he should have +found merry." + +Jack found tongue now. He was hideously calm--the frightful calm of +great-hearted men, who use mirth, levity, and indolency to hide emotion. + +"Miss Boone--Kate it was perhaps the shot from my pistol that killed +Wesley. I did it in defense of women in peril, in defense of my own +life. It was an accident in one sense. Had I known the circumstances I +certainly shouldn't have fired, but you must put the blame on me, not +upon this guiltless household." + +She looked up at him--looked with a wild, despairing, unbelieving gaze, +pressing the handsome dead face to her bosom, and then, with a wild, +wailing sob, bent her head until the shining dark mass of hair fell like +a funeral veil over her own and the dead face. Rosa, who had disappeared +in the dressing-room, now entered the chamber. Turning from the woful +group on the floor, she glanced hastily about, as if in search of some +one. Her eyes fell upon Dick, dazed and bleeding, on the couch. She ran +to him with a tender cry. + +"O Richard! are you hurt? Great heavens! your face is all blood. You are +wounded. O mamma, come--come--Richard is dying!" + +The boy tried his best to smile, holding his hand over his left side, as +if stifling pain. He smiled--a bright, contented happy smile--as Rosa +knelt, sobbing, by his side, and, opening his jacket, baring the +blood-stained shirt, plucked a purplish rose from the bleeding bosom. + +"The white rose is red now, Rosa." + +"Oh, my darling! my darling!" Rosa sobbed; and the boy, smiling in the +joy of it, tried to raise himself to fold her in his arms. But the long +tension had been too much--he fell back unconscious. + +Olympia saw that Mrs. Atterbury, the natural head of the house, was +unequal to the dismal burden of control. She took the painful duty of +order upon herself, sent Jack to summon the servants, called Barney to +her aid in removing Dick to his room, and, when the terrified housemaids +came, distributed the rest to the nearest apartments. Morning had dawned +when the work was done, and then Jack set out to investigate the +condition of the quarters. Twenty or more of the negroes had +disappeared. It was easy to trace them to the swamp, but Jack made no +attempt to organize a pursuit. Blood could be traced on the white shell +path leading to the rose-fields, and the pond gate was wide open. He +reported the state of affairs to Mrs. Atterbury. She begged him to take +horse to Williamsburg, bring the surgeon, and deliver a note to the +commanding officer. He returned in two hours with the surgeon, and a +half-hour later a cavalry troop clattered into the grounds. + +Dick's wound was first examined. The ball had entered the fleshy part of +his chest, just under the armpit. It was readily extracted, and, if so +much blood had not been lost, the boy would not be in serious danger. +Wesley had died almost instantly. The ball entered his breast just above +the heart. He had passed away painlessly. Jones was shot through the +right shoulder, the ball passing clear across the breast, grazing the +upper ribs, and lodging just above the left lung. He was, by Mrs. +Atterbury's command, removed to the quarters and delivered to the +commander of the cavalry troop as a spy, an inciter of servile +insurrection. By order of the department commander, civilians were +refused all communication with him, as the Davis cabinet meant to make a +stern example so soon as he was able to bear trial. Mrs. Atterbury +announced to Jack and Olympia that so soon as Dick could bear removal +the house would be closed and the family return to Richmond. They heard +this with relief, for the place had become hideous to all now. To Jack +it was a reminder of his misfortune, and to every one of the group it +was associated with crime, treason, and blood. The hardest part of poor +Jack's burden was the seizure of Barney, who was marched off by the +cavalry commander. Vincent gone, Jack had no one to reach the ear of +authority, and he shrank from asking the intervention of the mistress +whose home had been invaded by the guiltless culprit. The case was +stated with all the eloquence Jack was master of to the captain +in command. + +"You are a soldier, sir," the officer replied. "You know I have no +latitude in the matter. This Moore has no status as a regular prisoner +of war; he is found on the premises of a non-combatant aiding servile +insurrection. Even President Davis himself could not intervene. The +Southern people are deeply agitated by Butler's attempts to arouse the +negroes. We have been weakened, robbed by the abduction of hundreds +right here on the Peninsula. The gang that Moore came here with was led +by this scoundrel Jones, who is Butler's agent. A very vigorous example +must be made of these wretches, or the country-side will be deserted and +the government will be without produce. We must inspire confidence in +the owners of plantations, or the soldiers in the army will have to come +back to guard their homes." + +Jack saw the futility of further pleading. The officer was +unquestionably right. Such scenes as Rosedale had witnessed would end in +the desertion of the rural regions of the Confederacy. At Mrs. +Atterbury's urgent intercession Kate was permitted to leave the lines +with her dead. She was conducted to the rebel outposts in the Atterbury +carriage, and under a flag of truce entered the Union lines near +Hampton. Olympia accompanied her in the carriage, Jack riding with the +escort. Kate refused every suggestion to see Jack; refused his own +prayerful message, and sternly, solemnly with her dead passed from the +scene of her sorrows. + +Youth and something else stronger than medicine, more tenacious than any +other motive that keeps the life-current brisk and vigorous, made Dick's +recovery swift and sure. Rosa had no torments for him now. The blood-red +rose had proved a magician's amulet to confirm her mind in the sweet +teachings of her heart. But the patrician mother was with difficulty +brought to listen to the tying of this love-knot. She had looked forward +to a grand alliance for the heiress of Rosedale--an alliance that should +bring the family high up in the dominant hierarchy of the South. She +listened silently to the young girl's pleading prattle of the boy's +bravery, his wit, his manliness. She did not say no, but she hoped to +find a way to distract her daughter from a _mésalliance_, which would +not only diminish her child's rank, but compromise the family +politically. Such a sacrifice could not be. Fortunately, both were mere +children, and the knot would unravel itself without perplexities that +maturer love would have involved. So the mother smiled on the happy +girl, kissed Dick tenderly morning and night, for he had been a hero in +their defense, and she was too kindly of heart, too loyal to obligation, +to permit Dick's attitude of suitor to lessen her fondness and +admiration for the bright, handsome lad. Olympia was the confidante of +both the lovers, listened with her usual good-humor to the boy's +raptures and the girl's panegyrics, and soon came to share Jack's high +place in the happy lovers' devotion. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A CARPET-KNIGHT. + + +Jack meanwhile sank into incurable gloom. The memory of Kate's mute, +reproachful look, her heart-broken outcry, never quitted him. He woke at +times with the dead eyes of Wesley staring into the night at him, the +convicting gaze of Kate fastened upon him. He must fly, or he must die +in this abhorred, guilt-haunted atmosphere. Olympia saw this, Mrs. +Atterbury saw it, and the first week in November Rosedale was turned +over to the military and the household re-established in the stately +house in the official quarter of Richmond, where the bustle and movement +of new conditions gave Jack's mind another direction, or, rather, took +it from the bitter brooding that threatened madness. + +When the sun accepted the wind's challenge to contest for the traveler's +cloak, I dare say all the spectators of the novel highway robbery--the +moon, the stars, the trees, birds and beasts, and others that the fable +does not mention--took odds that the wind would snatch off the +wayfarer's garment in triumph. However, the wind whipped and thrashed +the poor man in vain. The stronger it blew and the more it walloped the +cloak's folds, the tighter and more determinedly the traveler held on to +it, as he plodded wearily over the hillside. But when the sun came +caressingly, inspiring gentle confidence, bathing the body in warm +moisture, the tenacious hold was relaxed, then the disputed coat was +thrown over his arm, and as the vista spread far away in golden light, +the victim cast the garment by the wayside and the sun came off victor. +Youth is despoiled of the garment of grief in this sort. Congenial +warmth, the sunshine of friendliness, soon relax the mantle of woe, and +the path that looks wintry and hard becomes a way of light and gayety. + +It was by mingling--at first perfunctorily--in the gayety of the +Confederate capital that Jack lost the melancholy in which the tragedy +at Rosedale had clothed his spirits. At worst, the calamity was over; he +had been a guiltless vengeance in the punishment of Wesley's treason. So +he took bond in hope of better things to come. With a stout heart, +strong limbs, a plowman's appetite, and a natural bent to joyousness, a +youth of twenty-two or three is not apt to mistake his memories for his +hopes and hang the horizon in black when the sun is shining in his eyes! + +Richmond, always the center of a fascinating society, was at that time +exuberant in her young metropolitan glories. It was the gayest capital +in the Western hemisphere. To resist its seductions would have tasked +the self-denial of a more constant anchorite than our dashing Jack ever +aspired to be, in the lowest stage of his martial vicissitudes. There +was nothing of the garishness of the parvenu in the capital's display. +The patrician caste ruled in camp and court. The walls that had echoed +to the oratory of Jefferson, Henry, Washington, Randolph, now housed the +young Congress of the new Confederacy. An hundred years of political, +military, legal, and social precedence were the inheritance of the men +chief in the cabinet, the council, and the camp. Stirring traditions +clung about every quarter of the town, now devoted to the offices of +administration, from the Mayo wharves to the lodgings of Washington and +Lafayette. On the stately square yonder, where the musing eye of the +rebel chief might study its history, stood the suggestive mansion where +Burr's treason was brought home to that first great rebel. + +Not far distant the disdainful pointed out the tenement where Fremont +had instructed the Richmond youth in far other doctrines than those +which made him the abolitionist choice for President in after-times. +Royalist and republican glories mingled in the reliquary edifices that +met the wondering eyes of the provincial Confederates drawn to the +capital in the generous enthusiasm of that first prodigious achievement +at Bull Run. Here a royal Governor had dwelt, yonder a Bonaparte had +sojourned and beguiled the famous beauties of Powhatan, as the +patriarchs loved to call the city. A Lee was the chief of the military +staff, a Randolph ruled the war office; scions of the Washingtons family +filled a dozen subordinate places; the kin of Patrick Henry revived +their ancestor's glory by as zealous a devotion to the new revolution. +With personages like these in every office the society of the new +capital revived the brilliancy of the French Directory and also the +character of the States-General, while Holland held the Spains at bay. +The blockade had not yet pinched the affluent, nor beggared the +industries of the well-to-do. Always famous for a brilliant bar, a +learned judiciary, and a cultivated taste among its women, Richmond in +1861 was the ideal of a political, military, and social rendezvous of a +young nation. + +The raw legions had been victorious in the first pitched battle of the +war on the plains of Manassas, and what might not be reasonably hoped +from them under the training of such muster-minds as Johnston, +Beauregard, Jackson, and Lee? Wasn't it the common talk among diplomats, +the concurrent opinion of the French and English press, the despairing +admission of the half-hearted and panic-stricken North, that one more +such decisive victory would bring the South peace and independence? +Wasn't it, indeed, well known among the favored juntas that those +sagacious diplomats, Senators Mason and Slidell, had delayed their +journey to Europe in order to aid the President in the treaty of peace +that the victorious legions of Johnston were to exact in Washington? + +Jack was amazed and disheartened at what he saw and heard. The activity, +resources, gayety, and confidence of the authorities and people, +recalled to his mind, Oxford, the jocund capital of Charles II and the +royalists, while the Commonwealth leaders were drilling their armies. +But instead of the chaos of rapine, the wanton excesses, the pillage of +churches and colleges that marked the tenure of the miserable Charles, +Richmond was as orderly, serene, the Congress as deliberate, and the +people as content, as the Rome of the conquest of Persia or France after +Jemmapes. The army was hot for battle, and as confident of the result as +the Guard at Austerlitz or McClellan at Malvern. The work done and the +way of its doing showed that the populace, as well as the rulers, were +convinced of the destiny of the city to be henceforth mistress of +herself, the preordained metropolis of half the continent--perhaps the +whole continent--for, would the North be able to resist joining States +with a destiny so glorious--a regal republic where birth and rank were +tacitly enthroned? The city's greatness was taken by the mass, as a +matter of course--like an heir in chancery who has won all but the final +decree in the suit, or like a great nobleman who has come to his +inheritance. + +Though it was the first week of November when the Atterburys found home +affairs going on smoothly in the town-house, summer still disputed with +winter the short lovely days of fall, as Jack described the lingering +May-day mildness of this seductive Southern autumn. It was the first +season he had ever spent south of New York, and, like most Americans, he +realized, with wonder, that the wind which brought ice and snow to New +York, visited lower Virginia with only a sharp evening and morning +reminder that summer was gone. The balm and beauty of the climate came +with something of healing to the hurt his heart and hope had suffered at +Rosedale. If anything could have mitigated the pangs of a young warrior +perplexed in love and held in leash in war, it was such an existence as +the Atterburys inveigled him into leading. The part of carpet-knight is +not difficult to learn, and the awkwardness of it is to some extent +atoned for when the service is constrained. At least Jack took this +philosophical view of it, and soon gave himself up to the merry social +life of his surroundings with an animation that led his hosts to hope +that he might be won over to the Confederate cause. Very young men do +not sorrow long or deeply, and Jack was young. He was neither reckless +nor trifling, but I am sure that none of the adulating groups that made +much of the handsome Yankee in Richmond that season would have suspected +that the young man looked in his mirror night and morning, frowned +darkly at the reflected image he saw there, and said, solemnly, "You are +a murderer!" It was by no means a tragic accent in which this thrilling +apostrophe was spoken. It was very much in the tone that a woman employs +when she looks hastily in the mirror and utters a soft "What a fright I +am!" apparently receiving comforting contradiction enough from the +mirror to make the remark worth frequent repetition. + +As a matter of fact, however, Jack was not insensible to the awkward +complication of his predicament. Grief as a mantle is difficult to +adjust to the shoulders of the young. It is melted by the ardor of +companionship as swiftly as it is spun by the loom of adversity. His +interest in the strange scenes that the war brought to pass, his +association with people--intimate in a sense with the leading forces of +rebellion, the airs of incipient grandeur, these raw instruments of +government gave themselves--all these things engrossed the observant +faculties of the young man, who looked out upon the serio-comic +harlequinade playing about him as a hostage of the Roundheads might have +taken part in the showy festivities of the Cavaliers, in the years when +the chances of battle had not gone over wholly to the Puritans. Not that +the figure illustrates the contrasting conditions adequately. For, if +the South prided itself at all--and the South did pride itself +vauntingly, clamorously, and incessantly--it made its chief boast the +point that its people were the gentry of the land, and that under the +rebel banner the hosts of chivalry had assembled anew to make all manner +of fine things the rule of life. Jack, writing and talking of his few +months' experience, dwelt with wonder upon the curious ignorance of the +two peoples respecting each other. Mason and Dixon's line separated two +civilizations as markedly unlike as the peoples that confront each other +on either side the Vistula or the Baltic Sea. The hierarchy not only +seemed to love war for war's sake; they possessed that feudal facalty, +so incomprehensible in the middle ages, the power of making those who +suffered most by it believe in it too, and sacrifice themselves for it. + +The people--Jack sagaciously remarked, in discussing the topic with +Olympia--seemed made for such a climate, rather than made by it. They +would have been out of place in the bleak autumn blasts, and wan, +colorless seasons of Acredale, where the sun, bleary and dim, furtively +skirted the low horizon from November until April, as if ashamed to be +identified with the glorious courser that rode the radiant summer sky. +Here the sun came up of a morning--a little tardy, 'tis true, but quite +in the manner of the people--warm and engaging, and when he went down in +the afternoon he covered the western sky with a roseate mantle that +fairly kept out the chill of the Northern night. "No wonder," Jack said +to his sister, watching this daily spectacle--"no wonder these people +are warm, impulsive, and even energetic; here is an Italian climate +without the enervating languor of that sensuous sunshine." + +The Atterbury house was the gayest in Richmond. Mrs. Atterbury, though +the mother of a son in the army and a daughter with a coterie of her own +in society, insisted on maintaining the leadership she had long held +among the social forces of the capital. "All Richmond," and that meant a +good deal in a city whose women had been adored for beauty and wit on +two continents, received Mrs. Atterbury's bidding to her drawing-room +with proud alacrity. Never had her "teas," her _musicales_, her +receptions, and _fêtes_ been merrier or more convivial than during this +memorable autumn that Jack and Olympia passed as prisoners of war. It +was generally believed that the brother and sister were occult agents of +the Federal power, negotiating with the Davis Cabinet, and Jack's +whimsical sobriety of speech and manner, contrasting with his former +high animal spirits, carried out the notion of his being a secret +ambassador. + +It was at a reception given to the Cabinet by Mrs. Atterbury that the +rumor of this accredited function came to Jack's ears. "All Richmond" +was among the guests. Olympia, in spite of her abhorrence of the cause, +couldn't resist a glow of sympathetic admiration of the women who, in +dress, in speech, in tact, in all the artifices which make feminine +diplomacy so potent an agency in statecraft, bent every faculty to +inspire confidence in the new Administration. Mrs. Davis herself was not +the least of the factors that made the President's policy the creed of +the land. There was no elaboration of costume--no obtrusive jewels. The +most richly dressed dame in the company was a Madame Gannat, the deity +of the most charming drawing-room at the capital. At her house society +was always sure to meet the European noblemen traveling in the country, +the _quasi_ official agents of France, England, and Austria, accredited +to the new Confederacy, the generals of the Southern armies on leave in +the city, and the political leaders able to snatch an evening's +relaxation. For some reason this potential personage let Olympia and +Jack see that she was deeply interested in them. She took the young +man's arm late in the evening, and whispering, "Find a place where we +can have a little talk," accompanied him to a small apartment joining a +conservatory, where Mrs. Atterbury transacted business with her agents. + +"You must take down a book, so that, in case the curious remark us, our +_tête-à -tête_ may not be regarded as conspiracy." + +"No one would be apt to associate you with such a thing," Jack said, +vaguely. + +"I don't know. Like all conspiracies, this Confederate comedy is +suspicious." + +"Comedy, Mrs. Gannat? Why, I never saw people so earnest! I can't +imagine the surroundings of Cromwell more methodic." + +"Ah, yes; those who have all to lose by the crash when it comes, are +bending every energy to impress the North that we are all of one mind +down here; we are not. I am talking frankly with you, because my friend +Mrs. Lanview has made me fully acquainted with your circumstances. I +have asked you for a talk here because I dare not have you at my house. +No one suspects my loyalty to this Davis masquerade; but there are many +of us who are doing, and shall do, all the better work for the Union +cause. You are just the man needed for a great work here; you are +believed to be secretly in favor of the Confederate cause--an +ambassador, in short. Now, the special purpose of this talk is this: The +men caught at Rosedale three weeks ago are to be tried before a military +court. If you and this young man Perley could escape before the event, +it would be impossible to convict them. Mrs. Lanview tells me that you +are very closely allied to the younger prisoner, Moore, and that for his +sake you will do all in your power to avoid testifying." + +"I will cut out my tongue before a syllable from me shall bring danger +to that noble fellow!" + +"Exactly. I expected as much. Now, can you not manage to inspire Perley +with the same sentiment? If you can, we feel confident that the court +will be unable to secure evidence sufficient to convict. I leave the +details to your own ingenuity. Your absence would deprive the +judge-advocate of the vital witnesses, but your refusal to testify would +only bring you into danger, and prolong the proceedings; and with time +we hope to effect an escape. Sh! As I say, Mr. Sprague, the heart of the +South beats with one impulse, the triumph of the noblest inspiration of +a great people." + +The warning and sudden change in topic were caused by the apparition of +a dame who came rustling in, a vision of youthful charms and +vivaciousness. + +"Mrs. Didier Rodney--Mr. Sprague," Mrs. Gannat said, cordially. "You are +sent by inspiration, for I am doing my poor best to convince this +obdurate Yankee to turn from evil courses and do a duty by the country +that will in future make his name illustrious." + +"And I have no doubt you have shaken his obstinacy, if there be any +left," Mrs. Rodney murmured, studying Jack attentively. "I have just +been dining at the Executive Mansion, and Mr. Davis, hearing your name, +lamented that women were not eligible to office. If they were, he +declared that Mistress Gannat should be appointed ambassadress to +France, and that, within ten days of her reception at the Tuileries, +there would be a treaty of alliance signed between France and the +Confederacy!" + +"I take that as rather an admission of weakness on your President's +part," Jack said, as the lady glanced inquiringly at him, "since it is a +poor cause that requires the strongest advocates." + +"Ah! a Southern man would never have said a thing so uncivil as that," +Mrs. Rodney cried, reproachfully. "You pay Mrs. Gannat a compliment at +the cost of the Confederacy." + +"And Mr. Davis paid me a compliment at the expense of the truth, so the +account is squared," the elder lady said, serenely. + +"Well, Mr. Davis is here himself by this time, and you shall talk it out +with him," Mrs. Rodney retorted, as a rustle at the door announced +new-comers. A half-dozen ladies came trooping in, among them Mrs. Davis +and several of the Cabinet ladies. + +"We heard you were here, Madame Gannat," the President's wife murmured, +graciously. "And since you wouldn't come to us, we have come to you." + +Mrs. Gannat arose to receive the great lady, and when she had exchanged +salutations with the rest she presented Jack. + +"Ah! the hero of the Rosedale affair," and as Mrs. Davis said this she +looked keenly at the young man. She was, he owned, an extremely graceful +woman, of a mature beauty, admirable manner, and, as she talked, he +remarked keen intelligence, with an occasional evidence of reading, if +not high education. She was dressed in simpler taste than her "court," +as it was the fashion then to style the Cabinet group. A few jewels were +half hidden in the rare lace that covered her bodice, but she was +ungloved, and in no sense in the full-dress understood in the North, at +a gathering of the sort. The talk became general. Jack, not knowing the +personages, simply listened. There was animated discussion as to whether +Mistress Judge this, and Mistress General that, or Mistress Senator the +other, would be in the capital in time for the opening of the new +Congress in December. + +"Mr. Davis is very anxious to have the occasion made a grand one, and I +reckon that every one of account in the Confederacy will he here." Mrs. +Davis said, with conviction. + +"The scene will be worthy of a great painting, like the Long Parliament, +or the meeting of the Three Estates, at Versailles," Mrs. Rodney added, +in a glow of anticipation. + +This amusing pedantry rather taxed the historical knowledge of most of +the ladies, and to divert the talk Mrs. Monteith, a Cabinet lady, said: + +"Who has read the account in the Yankee papers of Lincoln and his wife +at a reception of the diplomatic corps? It is too funny. The Lincoln +woman was a Southerner. She has some good blood, and ought to know +better. She was dressed like a dowdy, and when the ministers bowed she +gave them her hand and said, 'How d'ye do?'" + +"It will really be a liberal education, to the North to have a capital +like ours near them, where their public men can learn manners, and where +Northern ladies can see how to conduct themselves in public," Mrs. +Rodney broke in, laughing. "It is not often a great people go to war for +an idea, but we are taking up the gage of battle to teach our +inferiors manners." + +"We taught them how to run at Manassas," Mrs. Starlow, a Senator's dame, +remarked. + +"I'm afraid they have learned the lesson so well that we shall never +teach them how to stand," Mrs. Davis added, gayly. + +"Ah! friends, we are teaching each other how to die--let us not forget +that," Mrs. Gannat murmured, gently, and there was a sudden hush in the +exchange of vivacities. Before the strain could he renewed, Mrs. +Atterbury entered hastily, crying: + +"The gentlemen are all distracted. We are going to have an old-time +minuet, such as my mother used to dance with Justice Marshall and Tom +Mayo. The President is going to lead with Mistress Wendolph, and all the +rest of you are assigned, by command of the Executive." + +"Humph! a military despotism?" asked Mrs. Renfrew, a young bride of the +Executive Mansion, whose husband was confidential adviser of the +President. "I don't think I shall obey. I shall show the honesty of my +rebel blood by selecting my own partner, unless some one asks me +very humbly." + +"Shall I go on my knees, Mrs. Renfrew?--I know no humbler attitude," +Jack said, hastily presenting himself. + +"Oh, yes, sir; there is something humbler than the knees." + +"Yes? What, pray?" + +"Repentance. Deny your name; no longer be a Montague--that is, a Yankee. +Give me the hand of a rebel. Then I shall believe you." + +"I am a rebel." + +"Ah! you have been converted?" + +"I never was perverted." + +"You have been with us all the time?" + +"I have been here a long time!" + +"And you are a rebel. Oh, I must tell Mr. Davis!" + +"He knows it, I think." + +"Oh, no, he can not; for it was only a few moments since that he said to +Mrs. Atterbury that the son of Senator Sprague, the friend of Calhoun +and the comrade of Hayne, should be in the ranks of the young nobility +upholding our sacred cause." + +"I am, however, a rebel--a rebel to all these fascinations I see about +me, a rebel to your beauty, a rebel to all you desire." + +"Pah! you odious Yankee; I felt certain that you had not come to your +senses." + +"I don't think I ever lost them--though I never had enough to make such +a spirit as yours lament their loss." The rest of the ladies had passed +out; and, as this repartee went on. Jack led his petulant companion into +the large drawing-room, where he instantly recognized the President with +Mrs. Wendolph on his arm. He towered above the mass of the dancers, +eying the admiring groups with attentive scrutiny. He was in evening +dress, but, unlike the larger number of the eminent partisans in the +rooms, had no insignia, military or otherwise, to denote exalted rank. + +As the President was to lead off, to keep up the character of a court +minuet, the middle of the large room was left uncrowded. The music began +what Jack thought at first was a funeral march, but with the first bars +the tall, slender figure of the President bent almost double, while the +lady seemed fairly seated on the floor, she bent down and back so far. +She had adjusted a prodigious silken train, which swept and swirled in +many bewildering folds as she slowly turned, courtesied, tripped forward +and retreated, with such bending and twisting as would turn a +ballet-master mad with envy. In all the movement of the overture the two +dancers merely touched the tips of each other's fingers, and when the +solemn measure came to a close the President slid across the floor in +one graceful, immense pirouette, handing the lady who confronted him, +bent nearly to the ground, into her seat. There was an outburst of +applause, and then the assembly took places, repeating, in as far as the +mass would permit, the stately evolutions of the leader. + +Later, a Virginia reel followed, danced with old-time _verve_, some of +the more accomplished dancers bounding over the floor in pigeon-wings, +such as were cut by the nimble a hundred years ago, when Richmond danced +in honor of Washington and Lafayette. There was no end of drinking among +the men, and as soon as the dancing seemed at its height the matrons +began to gather into groups and send out signals to the younger ladies. +The feast ended in drinking-bouts between dispersed bodies, who seemed +to know the names of all the servants, and ordered as liberally as if in +their own houses. In the _mêlée_ of separation, Jack felt a hand on +his shoulder. + +"Remember, every moment is precious. Many lives, perhaps a great +campaign, depend upon your discretion, promptitude, and loyalty. Be +ready when the signal reaches you, and remember you do not know me +beyond the civility of a presentation, and do not like me." + +Jack had hardly turned as these words were whispered in his ear, and he +gave the kind lady's hand a warm pressure, as she moved away unremarked +in the throng. + +Jack, confiding Mrs. Gannat's disclosures to Olympia, was elated by his +sister's enthusiasm, and was strengthened in his conviction that he was +doing right by her approval. + +"But you know, Polly, that--I--I, too, must be of the party? I must fly +to the Union lines." + +"Of course you will! I should be ashamed of you were you to let such a +chance pass. It is the only thing to do; it is your duty as a soldier to +be with your flag; any means to get to it is justified. The Atterburys +will feel hurt, perhaps outraged, but I can soon convince them that you +have only done what Vincent would do, and whatever he would do they will +soon see is right for you to do, even though it may bring them into +temporary disgrace with the authorities. Of late I have begun to suspect +that the Atterburys are to blame for your detention." + +"What do you mean to blame? Surely they can not hasten the slow business +of negotiation?" + +"No; but I'm convinced that they have given out hopes that you can be +seduced into a soldier of secession. It is common talk in the +drawing-rooms I have visited, where I was not always recognized as your +sister. The silly tale has angered me, but for prudence sake I kept +silent. I have heard in a score of places that the Atterburys were +detaining you until another reverse to the Union arms should convince +you of the uselessness of remaining in the service of the +abolitionists." + +"O Polly, it must be a joke! They little know me, who could suspect me +of such dishonor! Surely the Atterburys can't think me so base as that. +What have I ever done to justify such a stigma?" + +"You wrong them there. They hold that you are wanting in loyalty to our +father's memory in espousing the cause of men who were his enemies--men +who strove to ruin his political life. It is in being a soldier of the +Union that they look upon you as recreant to the traditions of your +family and your party." + +"Well, I shall make a hard struggle for escape. If I fail, they will at +least see that I am in earnest--that I put country before family or +party, or anything else that men hold dear. Heavens! to think of being +held in such bondage! I could stand it with more patience if I were in +prison sharing the hard lines of the fellows. But to be here; to be hand +in glove with these boasting, audacious coxcombs, and forced to listen +to their callow banter of us and our army, it makes me feel like a sneak +and a traitor, and I'm glad that I see the end." + +"But do you see the end? Prudence is one of the wisest counselors in +war. You are very rash, and you must take all your measures carefully. +It won't do to rush into a trap, as you did at Manassas; and, O Jack, +what is to become of Dick? He is not in the lists. He has no standing +here, and is at the mercy of any one who chooses to accuse him of +being a spy." + +"By George, you're right! I hadn't thought of that. He must go with me. +I had thought it better to leave him. He is so happy with Rosa that I +fancied he would remain contentedly until the war ends. But he is in +constant danger. He is forever tantalizing the people that visit the +house, who make slighting allusions to the Northern armies, and very +likely some rebel patriot will take the trouble to inquire about him." + +"But even if this were not a peril, he would never consent to remain +here if you were gone. I think he would give up Rosa rather than be +separated from you." + +"Yes, the impulsive little beggar, I believe he would," Jack said, his +eyes glistening. "That will compel us to take him into the secret. In +fact, I don't see how it can be managed without him; and then his +testimony would convict the prisoners. I hadn't thought of that. But +now, Polly, about yourself. What's to become of you?" + +"I have my plans laid. Mrs. Myrason, the wife of one of Johnston's +generals, is going to the front next week. I shall insist to-night on +accompanying her, as some of our physicians are going to be sent through +the lines at the same time. There is really no reason for my remaining +here, now that you are well. I have already broached the subject to Mrs. +Atterbury, and I shall inform her at once that I am decided. She will +not suspect anything, as she knew I was half-tempted to go North when +mamma went. The important thing for you, now, is to give your whole mind +to the rescue, and have no fears for me. If you can convince Dick to go +with you, all will be well. If he proves obstinate, hand him over to +me." Jack laughed. + +"Polly, you should have been the first-born of the house of Sprague; you +have twice the sense that I have." + +"It isn't sense that wins in war; it is daring and resolution, and you +have all that." + +When Jack had cautiously laid the situation before his young Patroclus, +that precocious warrior at once justified the confidence reposed in him. + +"Rosa has promised to marry me as soon as the war is over. She can't +expect me to hang around here like a peg-top on a string. Besides, I +wouldn't stay where you are not, Jacko, even if I lost my sweetheart for +good and all." + +There was a piteous quaver in the treble voice, and, forgetting that he +was no longer a school-boy, he brushed his eyes furtively with his +coat-sleeve, as Jack pretended preoccupation with his shoe-string. + +"You're a brick, Dick. I think I have confided that to you before--but +you are a brick, made of the best straw in the field of life, and you +shall be a general one of these days--your shrill voice shall let slip +the dogs of war and cry havoc to the enemy. You shall return to +Acredale--proud Acredale--your brows bound with victorious wreaths, and +all the small boys perched on the spreading oaks to salute you." + +"I think I have heard something like that before, my blarneying +Plantagenet. You shall be the Percy of the North, and command the great +battle. You shall meet and vanquish fifty Harrys, and cry, 'God for +Union, liberty, and the laws.'" + +"Bravo! You know your Shakespeare if you don't know prudence. However, +we're plotters now, and you must take on your wisest humor. You must not +breathe a word to Rosa. Love is a freebooter in confidences. It has no +conscience, as it has no law. It is an immense friction on the sober +relations of life. It is cousin to the god of lies--Mercury. So be +warned that while your heart is Rosa's your reason's your country's, +your friends', and you have a chance now to employ it to the profit of +both! You must be ready to evade Rosa's infinite questioning with +innocent plausibilities, for you must bear in mind that, however much +she may love you, she, like you, loves her cause, her people--more, in +fact, for you have seen that these passionate Southerners have made a +religion of the war, and, like all enthusiasts, they will go any +lengths, deny all ties; glory, faith, in personal sacrifices and +heart-wrenchings, to make the South triumph. So, without being false to +your love, you must deceive, to be true to your country; for to lull +love's suspicions a man must regulate the two currents of his life, the +heart and brain. Keep the heart in check and let the brain rule in such +affairs as we have on hand." + +"Phew Jack! you talk like a college professor. You're deeper than a +well; and what was the other thing Mercutio said?" + +"Ah! Mercutio said so much that Shakespeare got frightened and let +Tybalt kill him. So beware of saying too much. That's your great danger, +Dick; your tongue is terrible--mostly to your friends." + +"Is it, indeed? I have a friend who doesn't think so." + +"No, because she considers your tongue part of herself now." + +"I don't see why she should; she has enough of her own." + +"In wooing-time no woman ever had enough tongue." + +"How changed you are from what you were at Acredale, Jack! I never heard +you talk so deep and bookish." + +"I had no need at Acredale, Dick. There I was a boy--lived as a boy, +romped as a boy, and loved boyish things. But a man ripens swiftly in +war--you yourself have. You are no longer the mischief-maker and tom-boy +that terrified your family and set the gossips agog in the dear old +village. Mind broadens swiftly in war. That one dreadful day at Bull Run +enlarged my faculties, or trained them rather, as much as a course in +college. Something very serious came into my life that day. It had its +effect on you too. It fairly revolutionized Vint; we may not have +exactly put away boyishness and boyish things--please God, I hope to be +a boy many a year yet--but we have been made to think as men, act as +men, and realize that there are consequences and responsibilities in +life such as we could not have realized in ten years in time of peace." + +Dick listened during this solemn comedy of immature doctrinal induction, +his eyes dilating with wonder and admiration. Jack, in the _rôle_ of +sage, delighted him, and he straightway confided to Rosa that he +couldn't understand how any girl could love another man while Jack was +to be had. + +"He's so clever, so brave, so manly. He knows so much, and yet never +takes the trouble to let any one see it. Ah, Rosa, I wish I were +like Jack!" + +"I think Jack's very nice, but I know somebody that's much nicer," Rosa +replied, busy with a rough material that was plainly intended for the +Southern warriors. + +"Ah! but if you really knew all about Jack, you wouldn't look at anybody +else," Dick cried, pensively, tangling his long legs in the young +girl's work. + +"There, you clumsy fellow; you've ruined this seam, and I must get this +work done before noon. We're all going to the provost prison to take +garments to the recruits. You may come if you'll be very good and help +me with these supplies." + +"May I? I will sew on the buttons. Oh, you think I can't? Just give me a +needle." And sure enough Dick, gravely arming himself from the store in +Rosa's "catch-all," set to fastening the big buttons as composedly as if +he had been brought up in a tailor's shop. It was in this sartorial +industry that Jack, coming in, presently discovered the pair. + +"You've turned Dick into a seamstress, have you, Rosalind? You're an +amazing little magician. Dick's sewing heretofore has been of the common +boy-sort--wild oats." + +"No, Mr. Jack, I'm no magician. Dick is a very sensible fellow, and, +like Richelieu in the play, he ekes out the lion's skin with the fox's." + +"I didn't come to add to the stores of your wisdom. This is the day set, +as I understand it, for us to go to the prison and relieve the distress +of the victims of war. Do I understand that we, Dick and I, are to go +and have our patriotic hearts torn by the sight of woes that fortune, in +the shape of the Atterburys, keeps us from?" + +"Of course you are. We couldn't think of going without you. There, my +work is done. We'll have lunch and then start," Rosa said, rising and +directing Dick to fill the large wicker basket with the garments. + +Fashion and idleness make strange pastimes. The recreation to which Jack +and Dick were bidden was a visit to the melancholy shambles where the +heterogeneous mass of unclassified prisoners were detained. It was a +long, gabled building on the brink of the river, from whose low, grated +windows the culprits could catch glimpses of the James, tumbling over +its sedgy, sometimes rocky bed. A few yards from it arose the grim walls +of what had been a tobacco-factory, now the never-to-be forgotten +Libby Prison. + +It was an animated and curious group that made up Jack's party. They +were piloted by a young aide on the staff of General Lee, and, as his +entire mind was engrossed in making his court to Rosa, the pilgrims were +given the widest latitude for investigation. On the lower tier he +pointed out the cells of the Rosedale prisoners, where, as you may +imagine, Jack and Dick, without giving a sign, kept their wits alert. +Jones--the "most desperate of the conspirators against the President, +the special agent of Butler"--was in a cell by himself, constantly +guarded by a sentinel. + +"This, Sprague," said the young aide, lowering his voice as he came +abreast of Jones's cell, "is the man the Government has the strongest +proof against. He is proved to have come into our lines from the Warwick +River, to have managed to escape from Castle Thunder, and to have led +the miscreants to Rosedale. Your own and young Perley's testimony after +that will swing him higher than a spy was ever swung before." + +These words, begun in a low tone, were made clearer and louder by the +sudden cessation of chatter among the visiting group. Jones, who seemed +to have come to his grating when the suppressed laughter sounded in the +dark corridor, heard every word of the official's speech. He was no +longer the bearded desperado Jack had seen in the _mêlée_ at +Rosedale--there was a certain distinction in the poise of the head, an +inborn gentility in the impassive contemplation with which he met the +furtive scrutiny of the curious visitors. Jack he eyed with something of +surprise, but when Dick pushed suddenly in front of the timorous group +of young women, he started, changed color, and averted his face; then, +as if suddenly recalling himself, turned and devoured the lad with a +strange, yearning tenderness. Dick met the gaze with his habitual easy +gayety, and, turning to Jack, said, impulsively: + +"I should never recognize this man as the bandit who fired the shot that +night--are you really the Jones that choked and wounded me at Rosedale?" +Dick advanced quite close to the wicked as he asked this. + +"And who may you be, if I am permitted to ask a question?" the prisoner +replied vaguely, all the time devouring the boy with his dilating eyes. + +"I am Richard Perley, of Acredale, a soldier of the Union and a friend +of all who suffer in its cause." Dick murmured the last words so low +that the group of visitors did not catch them, and, adding to them an +emphasis of the eye that the prisoner seemed too agitated to notice, he +continued, as Jack pushed nearer; "This is certainly not the man we saw +at Rosedale. But I have seen you somewhere. Tell me, have I not?" + +"I can tell you nothing--I--I" As he said this Jones backed against the +wall. The guard sprang forward in alarm. The women, of course, cried out +in many keys, most of them skurrying away toward the staircase. + +"Water!" Jack cried. "Guard, have you no water handy?" + +"No, sir; the canteen was broken, and there is none nearer than the +guard-room." + +"Run and get some. I will see that the prisoner does not get out. Run!" + +The aide had gallantly gone forward in the passage to reassure the +ladies, and Jack, seizing the chance, for which the prisoner seemed to +be prepared, whispered: + +"Here is an auger, a chisel, and a knife. Secrete them. Work straight +out under your window. We shall be ready for you by Wednesday night. +Don't fail to give a signal if anything happens that prevents your +cutting through. There is only an old stone wall between you and the +river. You must take precautions against the water, if it is high enough +to reach your cut." + +Jones played his part admirably. He remained limp and stolid in the +supporting arms of Jack, while Dick, hovering in the doorway, kept the +prying remnant of the visitors, eager to witness the scene, at a safe +distance. When the water came Jack yielded his place to the guard and +the party moved on. + +"Here we have a real Yankee, a regular nutmeg," the young aide cried, as +the party came to a room not far from Jones's. "This youngster was one +of the chief devils in the attack on Rosedale. The judge-advocate has +tried every means to coax a confession from him, but without result. He +is as gay as a bridegroom, and answers all threats with a joke." + +"Ah! the old Barney under all," Jack said, half sadly. + +"Do you know him, Mr. Sprague?" + +"Like a brother. He is from my town." + +"Ah, perhaps you can convince him that his best course is open +confession?" + +"No, I fear not. He is very headstrong, and would rather have his joke +on the gibbet than own himself in the wrong." + +"But, Mr. Jack, if you should talk to him, show him the wickedness of +conspiring against a peaceful family, inciting a servile race to murder, +I'm sure you could move him, and it would be such a comfort to have the +criminals themselves expose the atrocious plot." + +This was said by Miss Delmayne, a niece of Mrs. Gannat. Jack caught her +eye as she spoke, and instantly realized the covert meaning. How stupid +he had been! Of course, Barney must be apprised of the rescue, and what +time more propitious than the present? But, unfortunately, he had not +provided himself with the tools for the emergency. What could be done? +He suddenly remembered a bayonet he had seen near the guard-room. It was +lying unnoticed on the bench. + +"I must have a drink before I answer a plea so urgent. Amuse the +prisoner while I slake my thirst." + +Barney was lying at the far end of the narrow, boarded cage. He raised +his head as the group halted before his door, but gave no sign of +interest as this dialogue was carried on: + +"Prisoner," said the aide, magisterially, "come to the door." + +"Jailer, what shall I come to the door for?" Barney mimicked indolently. + +"Because I hid you, sir." + +"Not a reason in law, sir." + +"I'll have the guard haul you here." + +"Then he'll have a mighty poor haul, as King James said when he caught +the Orange troopers in the Boyne." + +"I'll teach you, sir, to defy a commissioned officer!" + +"I've learned that already; but if you're a school-teacher I'll decline +the verb 'will' for you." + +"Guard, hustle that beast forward." + +"Guard, don't give yourself the trouble." And Barney arose nimbly and +came to the grating. "O captain, dear, why didn't ye tell me there were +ladies here? You could have spared your eloquence and your authority if +you had told me that the star of beauty, the smile of angels, the--" + +"Never mind, sir; be respectful, and wait till you're spoken to." + +"Then, captain, dear, do you profit by your own advice; let the ladies +talk. I'm all ears, as the rabbit said to the weasel." + +But at this interesting point of the combat Jack returned, and, +pushing-to the door, cried, as if in surprise, "Hello, Barney, boy, what +are you doing here?" + +"Diverting the ladies, Jack, dear, and giving the captain a chance to +practice command, for fear he'll not get a show in battle." The roar +that saluted this retort subdued the bumptious cavalier, and he affected +deep interest in the whispered questions of one of the young women in +the rear of the group. + +"You're the same old Barney. Marc Anthony gave up the world for a kiss, +you'd capitulate a kingdom for a joke," Jack said, striving to catch +Barney's eye and warn him to be prudent. + +"Well, Jack, dear, between the joke and the kiss, I think I'd go out of +the world better satisfied with the kiss; at all events, it wouldn't be +dacent to say less with so many red lips forninst me," and Barney winked +untold admiration at the laughing group before him, all plainly +delighted with his conquest of the captain. + +"But, Barney, you should be thinking of more serious things." + +"Sure I've thought of nothing else for three months. The trees can't go +naked all the year; the brook can't keep ice on it in summer; the swan +sings before it dies; the grasshopper whirrs loudest when its grave is +ready. Why shouldn't I have me joke when I've had nothing but hard +knocks, loneliness, and the company of the prison for half the year?" + +"Poor fellow!" Rosa murmured in Dick's ear, who had not trusted himself +in sight of his old comrade. "I don't believe he's a bad man; I don't +believe he came to our house. Oh! pray, Mr. Jack, do talk with him. +Encourage him to be frank, and we will get Mr. Davis to pardon him." + +"Pardon, is it, me dear? Sure there's no pardon could be as sweet as +your honest e'en--God be good to ye!--an' if I were Peter after the +third denial of me Maker, your sweet lips would drag the truth from me! +What is it you would have me tell?" + +"The captain, here, desires me to talk with you. He thinks that perhaps +I can convince you of the wiser course to follow," Jack said, with a +meaning light in his eye. + +"Oh, if that's what's wanted, I will listen to you 'till yer arms give +out, as Judy McMoyne said, when Teddy tould his love, I promise, in +advance, to do what you advise." + +"I knew you would," Jack said, approvingly.--"Now, captain, if you can +give me five minutes--" + +The captain beckoned the guard, whispered a moment, and then said, +exultingly: + +"The guard will stand in the passage until you have finished with the +prisoner. We shall await you in the porch." + +"Now, Barney, I must be brief, and you must not lose a syllable I say. +Here, sit on the cot, so that I may slip this bayonet under the blanket. +You can work through this wall with that. You must do it to-night and +to-morrow. Be ready Thursday at daylight. You will be met on the outside +either by Dick or myself. We have the route all arranged, and friends in +many places to lull suspicion." + +"But I won't stir a foot without Jones. Do you know who he is?" Barney +whispered, eying Jack curiously. + +"No other than that he seems a very desperate devil-may-care fellow. Who +is he?" + +"An agent and crony of Boone's." + +"Good God!" + +"It's a long story I can't tell it now, but if your plan takes him in, +I'm ready, and will be on hand." + +"I have seen him, and have given him better tools than I have brought +you for the work." + +"That's all right. I ask nothing better than the bayonet. The other +fellows that got out of Libby didn't have nearly so good." + +"You know how I am fixed here. I have grown tired of this sort of +hostage life, and I am going North with you. So, Barney, I beg of you to +be careful, for other lives than your own are at stake. I should be +specially hateful to the authorities if I were retaken--for the whole +Southern people clamor to have an example made of the assassins of the +President, as they call you." + +"Don't fear, Jack; I'll be quiet as a sucking pig in star light. I'll be +yer shadow and never open me mouth, even if a jug, big as Teddy Fin's +praty-patch, stud furninst me!" + +"It isn't your tongue I'm so much afraid of as your propensity to +combat. You must resist that delight of yours--whacking stray heads and +flourishing your big fists." + +"My fists, is it? Then I'll engage to keep them still as O'Connell's +legs in Phoenix Square." + +"Now, I shall report that you are considering my advice. You must be +very gentle and placating to the guard, and let on that you have +something on your mind." + +"Indeed, I needn't let on at all. I have as much on me mind as Biddy +McGinniss had on her back when she carried Mick home from the gallows." + +"O Barney, Barney, you would joke if the halter were about your neck!" + +"An' why wouldn't I, me bye? What chance would I have if I didn't? I +couldn't joke when I was dead, could I?" + +"Well, well, think over what I've said, and remember that penitence half +absolves guilt." + +This was said for the benefit of the guard, who had approached as Jack +arose to take his leave. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR. + + +Opportunity is an instinct to the man who dares. To him the law of the +impossible has no meaning. To him there is no such thing as the +unexpected. What he wants comes to pass, because he can not see danger, +difficulty, nor any of the obstacles that daunt the prudent and the +temporizing. It is, therefore, the impossible that is fulfilled in many +of the crises of life. By the same token it is the foolhardy and +preposterous thing that is most readily done in determinate +conjunctures. We guard against the possible, but we take little note of +the enterprises that involve foolhardiness or desperation. Daring has +safeguards of its own that are understood only when mad ventures have +come to successful issue. Helpless and hopeless as Jack's situation +seemed, the very poverty of his resources, helped the daring scheme of +escape that filled his mind night and day during these apparently +indolent weeks of pleasuring in the ranks of his enemies. Then, too, the +arrogant self-confidence of his captors was an inestimable aid. Military +discipline and provost vigilance were at their slackest stage in the +rebel lines at this triumphant epoch in the fortunes of the Confederacy. +The easily won combat at Bull Run had filled the authorities--as well as +the rank and file--with overweening contempt for the resources of the +North, or the enterprise of its soldiers. It was not until long after +the time I am now writing about, that the prisoners were closely guarded +and access refused to the idle and curious. But, as a matter of fact, +nothing in the fortunes of our friends equals the truth of the thrilling +and desperate chances taken by Northern captives to escape the lingering +death of prison in the South. Since the war, volumes have been written +of personal experience, amply attested, that would in romance receive +the derisive mark of the critics. Danger daily met becomes a commonplace +to men of resolution. Things which appall us when we read them become a +simple part of our purpose when we live in an atmosphere of peril and +put our hope only in ending the ordeal. + +The incident I am narrating were the work of many hands. Mrs. Gannat had +from the first given her heart to the Union cause. A woman of high +standing in society, well known throughout the State for her mind, her +manners, and her benevolence, it was not difficult for her, by adroit +management, to aid such prisoners as fell into rebel hands during the +early years of the war. Before Richmond became a mart in the modern +sense, the Gannat mansion, set far back among the trees of a noble +grove, was a shrine to the tradition loving citizens, for, beyond any +Southern city, save perhaps New Orleans, Richmond folk cherished the +memory of aristocratic and semi-regal ancestors. There were those still +living when the war began, who had heard their fathers and mothers talk +of the last royal Governor and the splendid state of the great noblemen +who had flocked to the city of Powhatan when Virginia was the gem of +England's colonial coronet. The patrician caste of the city still held +its own, aided by the helot hand of slavery. Among the most reverently +considered in this sanctified group, Mrs. Gannat was, if not first, the +conceded equal. She was the dowager of the ancient noblesse. The young +Virginian received in her drawing-rooms carried away a distinction which +was recognized throughout the State. The dame admitted to Mrs. Gannat's +semi-literary _leveés_ was accepted as all that society demanded of +its votaries. + +In other years this great lady had been the admired center of the court +circle in Washington. There she had known very intimately Senator--then +Congressman--Sprague. Jack remembered vaguely the gossip of an +engagement between his father and a famous Southern beauty; and when the +lady in the course of the conspiring said, as they talked, "My son, I +might have been your mother," he knew that this gentle-voiced, +kindly-eyed matron was the woman his father had loved and lost. I don't +propose to rehearse the ingenuities of the complicated plans whereby the +group we are interested in were to be delivered. Mrs. Gannat's perfect +knowledge of the city, her intimacy with the President, Cabinet, and +leading men, her vogue with the officials, all tended to make very +simple and easy that which would seem in the telling hare-brained and +impossible. Jack's unique position, and Dick's attitude of the +half-acknowledged _fiancé_ of an Atterbury, broke down bars that even +Mrs. Gannat's far-reaching sagacity might not have been able to cope +with in certainty. The night chosen for the escape was fatefully +propitious. The President was entertaining the newly arrived French +delegate and the ministers Mason and Slidell, just appointed to the +courts of St. James and the Tuileries. Everybody that was anybody was of +the splendid company. + +Jack, however, was tortured by a doubt of Dick's constancy when it came +to an abrupt quitting of his sweetheart. Poor lad, he fought the battle +bravely, making no sign; and when Rosa, the picture of demure +loveliness, in her girlish finery, asked him maliciously as the carriage +drove toward the Executive Mansion-- + +"Don't you feel like a traitor, you sly Yankee?" Dick gave a great groan +and said: + +"O Rosa, Rosa, I can't go! I do feel like a traitor. I am a traitor." + +Jack, luckily, was sitting beside him, and brought his heel down on the +lad's toes with such emphasis that he uttered a cry of pain. Rosa was +all solicitude at this. + +"What is it, Richard; have I wounded you? Don't mind my chatter; I only +do it to tease you. He shall be a Yankee; he shall make nutmegs; he +shall abuse the chivalrous South; he shall be what he likes; he sha'n't +be teased--" and she wound her bare arms about his neck, quite +indifferent to the reproving nudges of mamma and the sad mirthfulness +of Jack. + +Dick found means in the noise of the chariot, and the crush they +presently came into, for saying something that seemed to lessen the +self-reproachful tone of the penitent, and, when they entered the modest +portals of the presidency, Rosa was radiant and Dick equable, but not in +his usual chattering volubility. + +"You are sure you do not repent? You can stay if you choose," Jack said, +as they entered the dressing-room. + +"Where you go, I go; what you say is right I know is right, and I will +do it." Dick looked away confusedly as he said this. They were +surrounded by young officers, all of whom the two young men knew. + +"Ah, ha, Mr. Perley! I have stolen a march on you; I have secured the +first waltz from Miss Rosa," a young man at the mirror cried, as Dick +adjusted his gloves. + +"Then, Captain Warrick, I'm likely to be a wall-flower, for the second, +third, and fourth were promised yesterday." + +"Fortunes of war, my dear fellow--fortunes of war. You must lay siege to +another fortress." + +"Dick," Jack whispered, "it's an omen. It will give us time to slip out +and change our garments without the danger of excuses, for, though +nothing is suspected, any incautious phrase may destroy us." + +"Don't fear for me. I shall be prudent as a confessor. We can't go, +however, just yet. I must have a little talk with Rosa. I may never see +her again. If you were in love and going from the light of her eye, +perhaps never to see her again, you wouldn't be so cool. We must, +anyway, take the ladies to the host and hostess for presentation; then a +few words and I am ready." Dick was trembling visibly and blushing like +a school-girl at first facing a class-day crowd. Jack's heart went out +to the lad, and he thought the chances about even that when the moment +of trial came the boy's resolution would give way. The ladies were +waiting for them when they emerged into the corridors--Rosa began, +prettily, to rally Dick on his tardiness. It took time to thread the +constantly increasing crowd in the hallways, the corridors, and on the +stairs, but they finally reached the group in which Mrs. Davis was +receiving the confused salutations of the throng at the drawing-room +door. As soon as this formality was ended, Rosa whisked Dick in one +direction while Mrs. Atterbury asked Jack to take her to the library. +Here, by a happy chance, she came upon a group of dowagers--friends of +her youth from other towns--brought to the capital by the event, or +their husbands' official duties in the new government. Jack bowed low as +he relinquished the good lady's arm, feeling as if he were embarking on +some odious treason, in view of her persistent and generous treatment of +him and his. + +"Now that you are among the friends of your youth, I will leave you; who +knows whether I shall see you again?" he faltered, as she turned an +affectionate glance upon him. + +"Oh, you needn't think that you can take _congé_ for good, Jack. I may +want to dance during the night. If I do I shall certainly lay my +commands upon you. You may devote yourself to the young people now, but +I warn you I am not to be thrown over so easily. Besides, I want to +present you to a dozen friends that you have not yet met at my house." + +"You will always know where to find me; but I am not so sure that I +shall be as able, as I am willing, to come to you," Jack said, trembling +at the double meaning of his words. + +"Oh, I know you're dying to get to the dancers." + +"I can go to no one that it will give me more happiness to please than +you. Indeed, I'm going into danger when I quit you. Give me your +blessing, as if it were Vincent going to the wars." + +She had turned from the throng of ladies, who were discussing a +political secret, and her eyes melted tenderly as Vincent's name passed +Jack's lips. She touched his bowed head gently, saying: + +"Why, how serious you are! One would think beauty a battery, and you on +the way to charge." + +"You are right. It is a murderous ambush." + +"Well, if you regard it so seriously--God bless you in it." + +Her gentle eyes rested tenderly on him; he seized the kind hand, and, +raising it to his lips in the gallant Southern fashion, turned and +hurried away among the guests. + +"Ah, Mrs. Atterbury, conquests at your age, from hand to lip, there's +but short interval," and the President held up a warning finger as he +came closer to the lady. + +"Oh, no, age makes a long route between hand and lip--thirty years ago +you kissed my hand, and you never reached the lip." + +"It wasn't my fault that I didn't." + +"Nor your misfortune either," and Mrs. Atterbury glanced archly at her +rival, Mrs. Davis, the mature beauty of the scene. + +Dick, meanwhile, not so dexterous in expedients or ready in speech as +his mentor, became wedged in an eddy, just outside the main stream, +pouring drawing-room ward, so that, returning to the spot where they had +separated, Jack did not, for the moment, discover him. + +Rosa's gayety and delight deepened the depression that made Dick so +unlike himself. At first, in the exuberance of the scene, the girl did +not heed this. She knew everybody, and, though in daily contact with +most of them, there were no end of whispered confidences to exchange and +tender reassurances in ratification of some new compact. Then there were +solemn notes of comparison as to the fit and form of gowns, or the fit +of a furbelow, exhaustively discussed, perhaps that very afternoon. Keen +eyes, merry and tantalizing, were lifted to Dick's sulky face during +this pretty by-play, but all the gayety of the comedy was lost to him. +When he could contain himself no longer, with another bevy of cronies in +sight coming down the stairs, he cried out, desperately: + +"For Heaven's sake, Rosa, don't wait here like the statue in St. +Peter's, to be kissed by everybody on the way to the pope; it's simply +sickening to stand here like a shrine to be slopped by girls that you +see every day. Come away; I want to say something to you." + +Rosa turned her astonished eyes upon the railer, and, with a comic +movement of immense dignity, drew her arm from his sheltering elbow, +and, in tones of freezing _hauteur_ retorted: + +"And since when, sir, are you master of my conduct? I am my own +mistress, I believe. I shall kiss whom I please." + +"O Rosa, Rosa, I didn't mean that; I don't know what I meant. I--O Rosa, +don't be fretful with me now! I can't bear it. I am ill--I mean I am +tired. Come and sit with me." + +Several on the outer edge of the flowing current turned curiously as +this sharp cry of boyish pleading rose above the noisy clamor. It was +impossible, however, to push backward, but in an instant the lovers were +sheltered in an alcove near the doorway. Rosa had taken his rejected arm +again in a panic of guilty repentance, and, looking at his half-suffused +eyes, cried, piteously: + +"Oh, forgive me, Richard, forgive me--I did not mean it! I forgot you +were ill. Ah, please, please forgive me! You know--I--I--" + +But Dick, now conscious that inquiring eyes were fastened upon them, +curious ears listening, seized her arm, and, by main force, reached the +hall doorway, now nearly deserted. + +"Rosa, I am not well--that is, I have a headache, or heartache--it's the +same thing. I didn't mean to tell you, for I didn't want to destroy your +pleasure, and you have looked forward so long to this; but I--I--can not +dance. Jack and I are going to walk a little while, and then we--we +shall be more ourselves." + +Poor Dick had only the slightest idea what he was saying, and Rosa +listened with wide-open eyes and little appealing caresses, not quite +certain what the distracted lover did mean. + +"All your dances are taken up. Young Warrick just told me he had the +first. You gave Gayo Brotherton two yesterday, so you will have no need +of me for hours yet." + +"But I will cut them if you say so. Only you know that it is our way +here to give the first who ask." + +"Yes, yes; that's right. I--I couldn't dance now. I shall be all right, +presently if--if I see you happy. Ah, Rosa, if--if I should die--if I +should be carried away, would you always love me, would you always +believe in me?" + +"Why, Dick, you are really ill; let me feel your wrist." Rosa seized +Dick's hand and began a convulsive squeezing. "Yes, you certainly have a +fever. You must go home. I shall go with you. It is your wound. It has +broken out again--I know it has. You shall go home this instant. I will +send for the carriage. Come straight up-stairs, you wicked boy! To let +me come here when you are so ill! I shall never forgive myself--never!" + +"A large vow for a small maid." + +"Mr. Jack!"--for the voice was Jack's--"Dick is very ill, and he must go +home at once. Will you not get the carriage and take us?" + +"I will not take you. I am very experienced in Dick's ailments, and I +have already summoned a physician, who is waiting for us. But he can not +attend his patient if you are present." + +"Yes, Rosa, Jack is right. I will leave you now, and when you see me +again you will see that I am not ill--that I--I--" + +"I will stop for you at the door, Dick. You know the physician can not +be kept waiting, so make your parting brief. Short shrift is the easiest +in love and war." + +"A doctor is as dreadful to me as a battle, Rosa. Kiss me as if I were +going to the field," Dick whispered as Jack's back was turned. A minute +later he had joined his mentor, and the two hurried through the square +and down toward the river. + +"I can't do it, Jack," Dick suddenly broke out, as they hurried through +the dark street. "I must leave Rosa a line telling her my motive. What +will she think of me sneaking away like this without a word? Now, you go +on to Blake's cabin and change your clothes. I will get an old suit of +Vint's. It will really make no difference in the time, and it will be +safer for us to reach the prison separately than together." + +"No, Dick, be a man. Every line you write will add to our peril. She +will, of course, show it to her mother. Our night will be known in the +morning. Mrs. Atterbury is too loyal to the Confederacy to conceal +anything. You will thus give the authorities the very clew they need. +No, Dick, you must be guided by me in this; besides, you can send Rosa +letters through Vincent at headquarters as soon as we reach Washington." + +"I can't help it. I know you are right, but I must do it. I will be with +you in less than an hour. I'm off." + +"Listen!--Good God, he's gone!" Jack ejaculated as Dick, taking +advantage of a cross-street, shot off into the darkness. Jack halted. To +call would be dangerous; to run after him excite comment, perhaps +pursuit and discovery. There was nothing to be done but wait at the +rendezvous. He would come back--Jack tried to make himself believe that +he could depend on that. When, after a circuitous walk of half an hour, +he reached the cabin of Blake, the colored agent of Mrs. Gannat, he +found a note from his patroness warning him that the prison authorities +had become alert. A rumor of a plot to escape had penetrated the War +Department, and orders had been given to increase the precaution of the +guards. The reception at the President's was a stroke of good fortune +for the prisoners, as all the higher officials would be detained there +until morning. Perhaps, in view of the chance, it would be better to +anticipate the hour of flight, as, unfortunately, the horses that had +been got together for the fugitives were in use for the Davis guests, +and on such short notice others could not be provided without exciting +suspicion or pointing to the agency by which the liberation had been +brought about. + +"Ah, if Dick were only here," Jack groaned, "we could go to the square +and lead away enough staff or orderly horses to serve the purpose. The +little wretch! It would serve him properly to leave him here mooning +over his sweetheart." Then his heart took up a little tremor of protest. +He sighed gently. He, too, had loitered when his heart pleaded. Why +should Dick be firmer than he? It was after midnight when he reached the +sheltering, broken, ground along the river. The provost prison fronted +the water. It had been a tobacco warehouse, built long before, and +hastily transformed into its present military purpose. It was set in +what was called a "cut" in the heavy clay bank, thus bringing the lower +windows below the level of the surrounding land. There were sentries +stationed in front and rear, who walked at regular intervals from corner +to corner. The sentinel on the high level to the rear could not see the +ground along the wall, and it was this fact which Jack calculated upon +to enable him to help the prisoners to remove the _débris_ of the wall +through which they were to presently emerge. The night was pitchy dark. +This had been taken into consideration long before. Heavy clouds hung +over the river, throwing the prison and its environs into still more +security for Jack's purpose. He reconnoitred every available point, +searched every corner of possible danger, and as the time passed he +began to rage with impatience against Dick, whose delay was now periling +the success of the enterprise. + +It was twelve o'clock and after. He dared wait no longer. Dick must +shift for himself. Perhaps he had lost his way. In any event it was +safer to set the general prisoners free, as they were only carelessly +guarded. Lamps glimmered fitfully in the guard-room, throwing fantastic +banners of light almost to the water's edge. He made a final tour about +the broken ground, but there was no sound or suspicion of Dick. He knew +every inch of the ground. Dick and he had surveyed and resurveyed it for +days. The coast was clear. No one was on guard at the vital point, but +still he lingered, his breath coming and going painfully, as a break in +the clouds cast a moving shape over the undulating ground. Should he +give the boy another half-hour's grace? He makes a circuit in the +direction Dick must approach by and waits. He will count a hundred very +slowly, then wait no longer. He counts up to fifty, hears a coming step, +and waits alertly. No--it passes on. He begins again--counts one +hundred, two hundred. No sign. "Pah! it is madness to delay for him. The +young poltroon has lost his resolution in his lovesick fever. Very +likely he has been unable to run the risk of Rosa's anger--her mother's +indignation--the possibility of never seeing the girl again." Well, he +had given him ample grace. He had endangered his own and other lives to +humor a boyish whim. Now he must act, and swiftly. + +The plan was too far gone in execution to be changed. He must carry out +the final measures alone. Now, one of these details required some one to +slip down on the ground and crawl to the point between the windows where +the prisoners were working and aid them to remove the thin, shell of +brick. If it fell outward, the guard at the corner would hear the noise, +and might come down to see what it was that made it. The removal of this +wall released all confined in the main prison. These he saw stealing out +in groups of ten or more. They had guides waiting on the bank of the +river. Jack gave them final orders. The most difficult work was the +getting out Jones and Barney, for they had special cells. Jack was to +guard Jones's exit and Dick Barney's, but now all the work would devolve +upon him. It was two o'clock, and he dared wait no longer. Raising +himself from the low wall where he had been crouching, he started toward +the corner of the prison farthest from the guard-room. At the wall of +the building he dropped flat on his face and began to crawl forward, +sheltered by the low ground that formed a sort of dry ditch about the +basement of the prison. He had barely stretched himself at full length +when a bright light was flashed on him from a deep doorway just beyond +him, and a voice, mocking and triumphant, exclaimed. + +"This is a bad place to swim, my friend! There ain't enough water to +drown you, but if you stir you'll run against a bullet." + +Jack lay quite still and raised his eyes. Above him stood a trooper, +with a revolver leveled at and within ten feet of him. Figure to +yourself any predicament in life in which vital stakes hang on the +issue; figure to yourself the shipwrecked seizing ice where he had hoped +for timber; the condemned criminal walking into the jailer's toils where +he had laboriously dug through solid walls; the captain of an army +leaving the field victor, to find his legions rushing upon him in rout; +figure any monstrous overturn in well-laid schemes, and you have but a +faint reflex of poor Jack's heart-breaking anguish when this jocular +fate stood above him, with the five gaping barrels pointed at his +miserable head. Oh, if Dick had only been there! His quick eye and keen +activity would have discovered this lurking devil; perhaps, between +them, they would have averted the disaster. Where could Dick be? + + + + +BOOK III + +_THE DESERTERS_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +BETWEEN THE LINES. + + +On quitting Jack, Dick had but one thought in mind--to make his +departure less abrupt for Rosa. If he left her without a word, what +would she think? Then, with an officer's uniform, he could be of much +more help to Jack and the party than in the rough civilian homespun +furnished at the cabin. Besides, he knew of certain blank headquarter +passes lying on Vincent's desk. He would get a few of these; they might +extricate the party in the event of a surprise. + +He tore over the solemn roadway, under the spectral foliage, and in +twenty minutes he was in his room in the Atterburys'. Vincent's old +uniform he had often noticed in a spare closet adjoining his own +sleeping-room. In an instant he was in it, and, though it was not a fit, +he soon put it in order to pass casual inspection. The line for Rosa was +the next delay. What should he say? He had had his mind full for days of +the most tender sentiments and prettily turned phrases, but the turmoil +of the last hour, the vital value of every moment to Jack's plans, left +him no time to compose the poem he had meditated so long. Rosa's own +pretty desk was open, and on a sheet of her own paper he wrote, in a +scrawling, school-boy hand: + +"DARLING ROSA: You've often said that you would disown Vincent if he +were not true to the South. Think of Vincent in my place--dawdling in +Acredale or Washington while battles were going on. You would not hold +him less contemptible that he was in love; that he let his love, or his +life, for you are both to me, stand as a barrier to his duty. You can't +love where you can't honor, and you can't hate where you know conscience +rules. I go to my duty, that in the end I may come to you without shame. +I ask no pledge other than comes to your heart when you read this; but +whatever you may say, whatever you may decide, I am now and always shall +be your devoted + +"RICHARD" + +He sighed, casting a woe-begone glance into the mirror, dimly conscious +that he was a very heroic young person. He kissed various objects dear +to the little maid, and then, in lugubrious unrest, sallied out +and mounted. + +Again under the calm sky--again the fleet limbs of the horse almost +keeping time to his own inward impatience. He holds to the soft, +unpaved, outlying streets, that his pace may not attract remark. He +passes horsemen, like himself spurring fleetly in the darkness. He is +near the river at last--dismounts and reconnoitres. He easily finds a +place to tie the horse, and, familiar with every inch of the outlying +ground about the prison, crawls close to the wall, listening intently. +He can hear no sound save the weary clank of the sentry on the wooden +walk. He reaches the wall where the prisoners Jones and Barney were to +emerge. There is no sign of a break! Where can Jack be? Some disaster +must have overtaken him, for it is past the hour set and soon it will be +dawn, and then all action will be impossible. Perhaps Jack has been +caught reconnoitring? Perhaps he has gone with the main body, not +venturing to try for Jones and Dick without help? No, that was not like +Jack. This was his special part in the plan--if it were not done, Jack +was still about. He can find out readily--thanks to the countersign. He +steals back over the low hillock, mounts the horse, and by a _détour_ +reaches the sentry guarding the river front of the prison. He is +challenged, but, possessed of the countersign, finds no difficulty in +riding up to the guard-room doorway. + +"Has Lieutenant Hawkins been here within an hour, sentry?" he asks, in +apparent haste. + +"No, sir. I think he has been sent for--leastwise, the sergeant went +away about an hour ago to report the taking of a deserter, found +prowling about the side of the prison." + +"A deserter?" + +"Yes, sir. He had a brand-new uniform on and no company mark, nor no +equipments." + +"What has been done with him?" Dick asked, breathlessly, dismounting. "I +wonder if he isn't one of my company from Fort Lee? He went off on a +drunk yesterday, though he was sent here on a commissary errand." + +"I dunno, sir. He's in the lockup there. He was very violent, and the +sergeant bound him with straps." + +"I will go in and examine him; he may be one of my men, and, as our +brigade moves in the morning, I should like to know." + +"Very well, sir; the officer of the day is asleep in the room beyond the +first door. One of the men will call him." + +"Oh, no need to disturb him until I have seen the prisoner.--Here, my +man"--addressing a soldier asleep on a settee--"show me to the deserter +brought in to-night." + +"Yes, sir," the man cried, starting up with confused alacrity; then, +noticing the insignia of major on Dick's gray collar, he saluted +respectfully, and, pointing to a double doorway, waited for his superior +to lead the way. Dick, who had been in the prison before, knew his +whereabouts very well, and it was not until the soldier reached the room +in which the deserter was detained that he seemed to remember that there +were no lights. + +"Here are the man's quarters, sir; but I'm out of matches. If you'll +wait a minute I'll bring a candle." + +"All right," Dick responded, in a loud voice; "I'll stand here until you +come back." + +The quest of the candle would take the guide to the closet in the +guard-room, and, risking little to learn much, Dick struck a match and +peered into the stuffy little room, more like a corn-crib than a +prison-cell. + +"Hist, Jack! is it you?" he called. + +There was an exclamation from the farther end of the room, and then a +fervent-- + +"Heavens, Dick! is it really you?" + +"Sh--sh--!" + +The soldier's returning footfalls sounded in the passage-way; but, as he +re-entered the hall where Dick stood shading the flickering light, he +could not see the hastily extinguished match in Dick's hand. As the man +came slowly along the winding passage-way, Dick whispered: + +"You are a recruit in Rickett's legion; you were drunk and lost your +way, and I am your major; you are stationed at Fort Lee near +Mechanicsville, and you belong to Company G." + +Jack pretended to be sound asleep when the soldier and Dick entered. He +rubbed his eyes sleepily, and looked up in a vacant, tipsy way, leering +knowingly at the soldier, who had caught him by the shoulder. + +"What are you doing here, Tarpey? Why aren't you with your company? +You'll get ball and chain for this lark, or my name's not James Braine." + +"But, major, it--it wasn't my fault. My cousin, Joe Tarpey, came down +from Staunton with a barrel of so'gum whisky, and--and--" + +"You drank too much and was caught where you had no business to be. +However," Dick added, sternly, "the regiment marches in the morning--you +must get out of here. Soldier, show me to Captain Payne's quarters. Say +to him that Major Braine, of Rickett's Legion, desires to speak with him +a moment." But he had no sooner said this than he realized the danger he +was running. + +The captain might know Braine, and then how could he extricate himself +from the dilemma? Luckily the captain was not in his quarters, and Dick, +with calm effrontery, sat down and wrote out a statement of the case, +where he was to be found, and his reasons for carrying the +prisoner away. + +The sergeant, having read this, made no objection to releasing the +alleged deserter, since there had been no orders concerning him, and, +without more ado, Jack walked away with his captain, the picture of +abashed valor and repentant tipsiness. + +"Now, Dick, there's no time to ask the meaning of your miraculous +doings. We've still time to let our friends out and get away before +daylight; but we mustn't lose a second. Sh! stand still, what's that? +Troopers! Good heavens, they can't have found out your trick so soon! +Ah, no! They are floundering about looking for quarters," he added, in +immeasurable relief, as the voices of the riders sounded through the +darkness, cursing luck, the road, and everything else. "O Dick, if we +only had the countersign I could play a brilliant trick on these +greenhorns! Perhaps I can as it is." + +"I have the countersign. How do you suppose I could have managed to get +to you if I hadn't? It is 'Lafayette.'" + +"Glory! Now make all the clatter you can after I challenge." + +They had by this time reached a row of tumble-down stables directly in +the rear of the prison, and shut out from the open ground by a decrepit +fence, broken here and there by negroes too lazy to pass out into the +street to reach the river. The horsemen had turned into this lane-like +highway--evidently misdirected. When within a few feet, Jack gave a +sudden whack on the board and cried, sternly: + +"Halt! Who comes there?" + +There was a sudden clash of steel as the group halted in a heap, and +then a weary voice replied: + +"We have no countersign. We should have been at our destination long +before sundown, but were misdirected ten miles out of our course on the +Manchester pike." + +"Very well. Dismount and come forward one man at a time," Jack answered, +briefly. This the spokesman did with some alacrity. As he came up, Dick +took the precaution of getting between him and his three companions, and +then Jack said: "I suppose you are all right; but my orders are to +arrest all mounted men, detain their horses here in these, the provost +stables," and Jack pointed to Dick's horse dimly outlined against the +sky. "I will give you a receipt for him, and you can get him back in the +morning when you state your case to the provost marshal.--Stephen," he +turned to Dick, "take that horse and put him with the others." He then +made out a receipt, handed it to the astonished trooper, and, directing +him where to go, carried out the same short shrift with the other three. +The troopers were glad enough to be relieved of their beasts. This they +did not attempt to deny, for they had seen a public-house in the street +below, where they could procure much-needed refreshment, relieved as +they now were from the necessity of reporting to their commander, whose +whereabouts were far down the Rocett road. + +"By George, Jack, what a, crafty plotter you are! Now we have a mount +for the party, and I needn't take poor Warick's crack stallion." + +"Yes; we've doubled the chances of escape by this little stratagem; but +we have lost time. Come. Have you tied the horses?" + +"Yes. Lead on." + +Over the turfy hillside, now moist and sticky with the heavy dew, they +stole, half crouching, half crawling, until they were on a level with +the prison basement. The sentry in front was no longer pacing his beat, +and there was no sign of the man in the rear. In a few minutes the two +crawling figures were at the preconcerted places in the wall. In +response to their light taps, a square of brick-work large enough to +leave a space for a man to crawl through crumbled upon Jack and Dick, +who held their bodies closely pressed against the _débris_ to prevent +too loud a noise. There was no time to wait probabilities of discovery, +and an instant later Barney and Jones emerged, panting and half +smothered. + +"I thought it was all up with me hopes, as Glory McNab said when her +sweetheart ran away with the cobbler's daughter." Barney whispered, +hugging Jack rapturously. + +"Sh--! Down on your stomachs. Move that way until you see me rise. +Come." And Jack squirmed ahead as if he had been accustomed to the +locomotion of snakes all his life. In ten minutes they were in the +improvised stables. Dick had taken the precaution to place the horses +where they could feed on a heap of fodder stacked in the yard, and when +they mounted the beasts appeared refreshed as well as rested. Dick +loosing Warick's horse so that he might make his way back to his master, +the fugitives rode cautiously out of the lane, into the open fields, +and, though it was not their shortest way, pushed along the river road +to mislead pursuit. Jack's stratagem had resulted in better luck even +than the possession of the horses. It not only secured a mount for the +four, but, what was equally and perhaps, in view of unforeseen +contingencies, more important disguises for the two prisoners. + +They found an extra coat strapped to each saddle, and with these Barney +and Jones were easily transformed into something like Confederate +soldiers. Both Jack and Jones knew every inch of the suburbs, having +made the topography a study. They struck for the less traveled +thoroughfares until they reached the northeastern limits, then following +the old Cold Harbor road they pushed decisively toward the Williamsburg +pike. But, instead of following it, they traversed on by lanes and +bridle-paths during the day. This was to divide pursuit, as the larger +party had taken the river route where Butler's troops were waiting in +boats for them. The saddle-bags proved a windfall, for in them were +orders to proceed to Yorktown and report to General Magruder. With these +Jack felt no difficulty in passing several awkward points, where there +was no escaping the cavalry patrols, owing to miles of swamp and +impenetrable forest. + +They kept clear, however, of such places as the telegraph reached, +though at one point they found a post in a great state of excitement +over news brought from a neighboring wire, announcing the escape of two +prisoners who had been traced to the York road. But with such papers as +Jack presented and the number of the party double that described in the +dispatch, the adventurers easily evaded suspicion. The great danger, +however, was in quitting the Confederate lines to pass into Butler's. +They chose the night for this, as the camp-fires would warn them of the +vicinity of outposts, Union or rebel. They had purposely avoided +highways and habitations, and, as a result, were limited in food to such +corn-cribs as they found far from human abodes, or the autumn aftermath +of vegetables sometimes found in the shadow of the woods. All were good +shots, however, and a fat rabbit and partridge were cooked by Dick with +such address, that the party were eager to take more time in halting +since they need not starve, no matter how long the journey lasted. + +Jack, by tacit consent, was considered commander of the squad, Barney +remarking humorously that they would not ask to see his commission until +they were in a country where a title meant authority. The commander +ordered his small army very judiciously. They were to ride as far apart +as the roads or woods or natural obstructions would admit. They thus +moved forward in the shape of a triangle, the apex to the rear. +Exchanges of position were made every six hours. They were at the end of +the second day, toward sunset, approaching what they supposed was +Warrick Creek, nearly half-way to Fort Monroe, when they suddenly +emerged on an open plateau from which they could see a mile or two +before them a tranquil waste of crimson water. + +"Why, this can't be the creek!" exclaimed Jones, excitedly. "The creek +isn't half a mile at its broadest." + +"What can it be?" Jack asked, who had been the right wing to Jones's +left. "It's certainly not the James, for the sun is setting at +our back!" + +"Blest if I can tell. It looks very much like the Chesapeake, only the +Chesapeake is wider." + +By this time Barney and Dick had ridden up, and began to admire the +expanse of water spreading from the land before them to a green +wilderness in the distance. + +"I'm afraid we are in a fix," Jones said, resignedly. "If I'm not very +much mistaken, the red line yonder, that looks like a roadway, is a +breastwork, and behind that what looks like a plowed field is +earthworks. My boys, we are before Yorktown and farther from our lines +than we were yesterday. The nigger that showed us the way in the woods +was either ignorant or deceiving us. We are now inside the outposts of +the rebels, and we shall have to crawl on our hands and knees to +escape them." + +"I don't see what better off we'll be on our hands and knees than we are +in our saddles," Barney cried, guilelessly. "Sure we can go faster on +the bastes than we can on our hands, and, as for me knees, 'tis only in +prayer that I ever use them." + +"Not in love, Barney?" Dick asked, innocently. + +"No, me darlin'. The gurls I love think more of me arms than me knees, +and I do all of me pleadin' with me lips." + +"I should think they could hold their own," Jones remarked, dryly. + +"Indeed, they can that, and a good deal more, as me best gurl'll tell +you if she'll tell the truth, and no fear of her doing that, I'll +go bail." + +"Fie! Barney, if she won't tell the truth you should have none of her," +Dick cried in stage tones. + +"Indeed, it's little I have of her, for she's that set on Teddy Redmund +that she leaves me to her mother, when Teddy comes to the porch of +an evening." + +"Well, friends, your loves are, no doubt, adorable, and it is a pleasant +thing to talk over, but just now what we want is a way out of this +trap"; and Jack, saying this, slipped from his horse and led him into +the shelter of a thick growth of scrub-pines. The rest followed his +example. They tied their animals and held a council of war. It was +resolved that Jack and Jones should make a reconnaissance to find out +the route toward the Warrick; that Dick and Barney should secrete and +guard the horses and do what they could to obtain some food. This +decision was barely agreed upon, when the shrill call of a bugle sounded +almost among the refugees, and they sprang to their horses, waiting in +silence the next demonstration. Other bugles sounded farther away; a +great cloud of dust arose in the direction of the water, and then Jack +whispered: + +"Remain here. I will climb one of these trees and see what it means." + +He was in the leafy boughs of a spreading pine in a few minutes, and +could descry a broad plain, with tents scattered here and there; still +farther on the broad uplands frame buildings with a red and white flag +floating to the wind could be seen. Back of all this he could make out a +broad expanse of water and a few ungainly craft, lazily moving to the +current in the Yorktown roadstead. + +"Yes. this certainly must be Yorktown. Why have they such a force here? +No one is threatening it," Jack murmured, his eyes arrested by a long +line of cavalry in undress, leading their horses up a circuitous and +hitherto concealed road to the plateau. "Ha! they go down there for +water. Let me see. That is to the southeastward; that is our point of +direction. I think we may venture to push on now." He hastily descended +from his survey, and making known what he had seen, added: "We must +proceed with the greatest caution. There is no time to think of food +until we get away from this dangerous neighborhood. We must keep well +spread out, and move only over turfy ground or in the deep shade of the +wood. In case of disaster, the cry of the night owl, as agreed upon, +will be a warning." + +The four had practiced the melancholy cry of the owl, as heard in the +Southern woods both day and night, and they could all imitate it +sufficiently well to pass muster if the hearer were not on guard against +the trick, and yet so clever an imitation that none of the four could +mistake it. So soon as they quit the plateau, seeking a way east by +south, they plunged immediately into a dreary swamp, where progress was +slow and difficult. The mosquitoes beset them in swarms, plaguing even +the poor animals with their lusty sting. Hour after hour, until the +woods became a hideous chaos of darkness and unseemly sounds, the four +panting fugitives pushed on, fainting with hunger, worn out by the +incessant battle with the corded foliage, the dense marshes, and +quagmires through which their path to safety lay. But at midnight Jones +gasped and gave up the fight. + +"Go on; leave me here. I am of no use at best. I should only be a drag +on you. Perhaps you may find some darkey and send him back to give me a +mouthful to eat. That would pick me up; nothing else can." + +The four gathered together for counsel. The horses, faring better than +their masters, for they found abundance to allay hunger in the lush, +dank grass of the morass, were corralled in a clump of white ash, and +the jaded men, groping about, clambered upon the gnarled roots of the +trees to catch breath. They had been battling steadily for five hours +against all the forces of Nature. Their clothes were torn, their flesh +abraded, their strength exhausted. They could have slept, but the ground +offered no place, for wherever the foot rested an instant the weight of +the body pushed it down into the oozy soil until water gushed in over +the shoe-tops. Jones had found the struggle hardest because he had not +the youth of the others nor their light frames. The striplings were +spared many of his hardships and were still able to endure the ordeal, +if the end were sure relief. Jack struck a match, and with this lighted +a pine knot. He surveyed the gloomy brake carefully, and at last, +finding a mound where a thick growth of underbrush gave assurance of +less treacherous soil, he called to Barney to aid him. The little +hillock was made into a couch by means of the saddles, and the groaning +veteran carefully laid upon the by no means uncomfortable refuge. As +Jack held the light above him, Jones's eyes closed and he sank into a +lethargic sleep. + +"He will be in a high fever when he awakes," Jack said, looking at +Barney. "We must see that he has food, or the fever will be his death. +Here is what I propose: you and I shall sally out from here, blazing the +path as we go. We must find some sign of life within a circuit of five +miles. That will take us say till daylight to go and come. We will leave +Dick here to guard Jones, and if we do not return by noon to-morrow Dick +will know that he must shift for himself." + +"You command, Jack dear. What you say I'll do, as Molly Meginniss said +to the priest when he told her to repent of her sins." + +"Dick, my boy, do you think you are equal to a vigil? You must stay here +with Jones. If he wakes and wants water, press the moisture of these +leaves to his lips, it's sassafras; and, stay--here is a sort of +plantain, filled with little globules of dew; pour these into his mouth, +and at a pinch give him a handful from the pool. In case of great danger +fire two shots, but if any one should come toward you or discover you it +will be better to surrender. In that event, you can make up a story to +suit the case, which may enable you to finally escape. This man's life +is in your hands. Remember that it is as glorious a deed as fighting in +line. Keep up a stout heart. We will soon be back, or you may take it +for granted all is up with us." + +"Ah! Jack! Jack! To start so well and end so miserably, I can't bear +it--I can't stay here. You stay and let me go." + +"No, Dick, it can't be; you are already so worn out that we should have +been obliged to halt for you if Jones hadn't broken down. It can't be +that you would think of leaving a fellow-soldier in such extremity as +this, Dick? I know you better." + +"But I don't know him. I have no interest in him. With you I'll face any +danger--I'll die without a word; but to stay here in this awful place, +with the black pools of water, like great dead eyes, glaring in their +hideous light" (the pine-torch flaring in the wind filled the glade with +vast ogreish shadows, as the clustering bushes were swayed in the night +air) "and these hideous night-cries--O Jack, I can't--I can't--I +must go!" + +"But the horses and the need of some one that can come back in case +anything befalls me. I am disappointed in you, Dick. I am shocked; you +are not the man of courage and honor I thought you." + +"O my God, go--go--I will stay; but, Jack, if you find me dead, +tell--tell--Rosa--that--that--" He gasped and sank down sobbing against +the gnarled tree that crossed the mound above Jones's head. + +"I will tell Rosa that you were the man she believed you were when the +trial came," and with this Jack and Barney, with a flaming torch, set +forward hastily through the fantastic curtain of foliage and night, +which shut in the glimmering vista of specters, dark, sinister, +and menacing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +PHANTASMAGORIA. + + +To say that night is a time of terror is a commonplace. Night is not +terrible of itself. It is like the ocean--peace and repose if there be +no storm. But of all terrors there are none, outside a guilty mind, so +benumbing as night in the unknown. It does not lessen the horror of +darkness that fear makes use of the imagination for its agencies. Fancy, +intuition, and the train that follows the inner vision, these make of +night a phantasmagoria, compared to which Milton's inferno is a place of +comparative repose. + +If you would realize the wondrous necromancy of the sun, pass a night in +some primeval forest, untouched by the hand of man. Until he stands in +the awful silence of the midnight wood, or upon some vast waste of +nature, no man can figure to himself the varied shapes the mind can give +to terrors based upon the mysterious noises of nature, and the goblin +motions of inanimate things. The lover thinking of his lass welcomes the +night and the rapturous walks among well-known scenes and kindly +objects. With glimmering lamps in the foliage and the not distant sounds +of daily life, even the woods have nothing fearful to the meditative or +the distraught. But in flight, with fear as a garment that can not be +laid aside, the somber forms of the forest are more terrible than an +army with banners, as a haunted house is a more unnerving dread than +burglars or any form of night marauders. It was at night that the +mutinous sailors of Columbus broke into decisive revolt; it was at night +that the iron band of Cortes lost heart, and were routed on the lakes of +Mexico; it was at night that the resolution of Brutus failed before the +disaster at Philippi. + +That two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage, which is the secret of +soldierly success, comes only from companionship. The night-wood is a +world by itself, filled with its own atmosphere, as oppressive to valor +as the electric reefs that drew the nails from the ships of Sindbad. +Among familiar scenes and well-known shapes, it is all the delight the +poets sing--so tranquillizing, inspiring, fecund, that in comparison the +thought of day brings up garish hues, flaunting figures--the hardness, +harshness and unlovely in life. But night in the goblin-land, where Dick +found himself suddenly deserted, with fantastic forms swaying in the +lazy wind, would have had terrors for the most constant mind; terrors +such as filled the soul of MacBeth, when Birnam wood came marching to +Dunsinane. In an instant, as it seemed to Dick's exalted and painfully +impressionable sense, every separate leaf, branch, brier, copse, and +jungle, was endowed with a voice of its own--hateful, irritating, +mocking. Swarms of peering eyes hovered in the air, glowering uncanny +menace into the boy's wild, dilating vision. + +Brave, even to recklessness, Dick was, as you have seen; but no sooner +had the glimmer of Jack's torch flickered and fluttered into the black +distance, making place for the monstrous shapes, the luring shadows, and +threatening forms encompassing him, than Dick threw himself, with a +wailing shriek, into the morass in a wild attempt to follow. + +In an instant he was up to his middle in mud and water. He seized the +prickly branches coiling about and above him; he gasped in prayerful +pleading, the home teaching still strong in him; but there was no +answer, save the crooning night-birds and the croaking frogs. Slimy +things touched his torn flesh; whirring birds shot past him, disturbed +in their night perches. The deadly odor, pungent and nauseous, of a +thousand exhaling herbs, filled his nostrils. The darkness grew, +instinct with threatening forms. He gasped, struggled, and in a fervent +outburst of thanksgiving regained the dank mound. Ah, there was life on +that! human life. Jones slept, the stertorous sleep of delirium. He +murmured brokenly. Dick was too terrified to distinguish what he said. +The blaze of the pine knot flared from side to side as the sighing +breeze arose from the brackish pools, protesting the vitality of even +this moribund hades. Ah! if he could but lie down and bury his face. The +horses? They were feeding tranquilly yonder, standing up to their knees +in mosses and water. The lines that tied them were long. They could move +about. This was some comfort. They were more human than the dreadful +specters that filled the place. + +Ah! the blessed, blessed light that flamed out from the merry +pine-torch; he didn't wonder that half the Eastern world worshiped fire. +He adored it--blessed, blessed fire--the sign of God, the beacon of the +human. Hark! What half-human--or rather wholly inhuman--sounds are these +that alternate in unearthly measure? Surely animal nature has no voice +so strident, vengeful, odious. Can it be animals of prey? No. The +Virginia forests are dangerous only in snakes. Snakes? Ah, yes! He +shrinks into shadow against the oak at this suggestion; snakes? the +deadly moccasin, that prowls as well by night as day. Ugh! what's this +at his feet--soft, clammy, shining in the flaring light? He leaps upon +the smooth tree-trunk, growing slantwise instead of perpendicular. What +if the torch and the odor of flesh should draw the snakes to the +sleeper? The flame flares in wide, lurid curves, revealing the outlines +of the sleeping man. Heavens, what a terrible face! He moves in +spasmodic contortions. He is smothering. The veins of his neck will +break if he is not awakened. + +"O my God! my God! have mercy!" Dick buries his face in his hands, as he +clings desperately to the smooth white-oak trunk. A strange, wild +strain, like a detached chord of a vesper melody, sounds above him! It +is the whippoorwill--steadily, continuously, entrancingly the dulcet +measure is taken up and echoed, until the slough of despond seems +transformed into a varying diapason of melancholy minstrelsy. He dares +not raise his head. It will vanish if he moves. He crouches, panting, +almost exultant, in the sense of recovered faculties, or rather the +suspension of numbing fear. How long will it last? He must move; his +limbs are cramped and aching. He raises his head. Mortal powers! the +torch is flickering into ashes! Another instant and he will be in the +dark. Dare he move? Dare he seek the distant pine, between him and which +the black surface of the murky sheet shines, dotted with uncanny growth +and reptilian things? Yes; anything is better than the hideous darkness +of this hideous place. + +The horse he rode has broken his leash and comes to him with a gentle +whinny, as if asking why the delay in such a place. "Blessed, blessed +God, that made a beast so human!" He caresses it, he clings to its neck +and calls to it piteously. Ah, yes; the dying light. He must renew it. +He slips down upon the bare back and urges the patient beast across the +brackish morass. Ah, this is life again! He is not alone. This noble +beast is human. It crops the tender leaves confidingly, and swings its +head as much as to say: "Don't fear, Dick; Fin here. I'll stand by you; +I don't forget the pains you took to get me water, and that particularly +toothsome measure of oats you cribbed in the rebel barn near +Williamsburg!" + +But the pine knot that will burn is not so easily found. Dick was forced +to go a long way before he came upon the resinous sort. He brought back +a supply, having taken the precaution to provide matches in order to +secure his way back. The quest had to some extent lessened the morbid or +supernatural forms of his terrors. They all returned, however, when, +having dismounted, he forgot to tie the horse, and it wandered off in +search of herbage. He called, but the beast made no sign of returning. +Alone again. Alone in the night; spectral forms about him; the sleeping +man adding to the ghostliness of the scene by his incoherent mutterings, +his hideous, gulping breath, his ghastly, blood-curdling outcries. Then +through the gloom the shining outlines of the white oak, like shreds of +shrouds hung on funeral foliage. Ah! he would go mad--he must break the +brutish sleep of the sick man. + +"Mr. Jones," he wails--and his own voice--the comically commonplace +name, "Mr. Jones," even in the agony of his terror, the humor of the +conjuncture glimmered in the boy's crazed intelligence, and he laughed a +wild, maniacal laugh. But the laugh died out in a pulseless horror. The +sick man uprose on his elbow. Dick, above him on the white-oak trunk, +could see his very eyes bloodshot and wandering. He uprose, almost +sitting. He passed his hand over his staring eyes, and began to murmur: + +"Did you bring me here to do murder, Elisha Boone? You have bought my +body, but you never bought my soul. No, no! I will not. I say I will +not. Do you hear? I will not!" + +He glared wildly; then, his eyes meeting the full flame of the torch, he +laughed, a dreadful, marrow-freezing laugh, and broke out again in +clearer tones: "I am yours, Elisha Boone, but my boy is not yours. He +was born in my shape, but he has his mother's soul. He will be a man; he +will be your vengeance; he will undo all his father has done. You've +robbed me; you've made me rob others. But if you touch, if you look at +my boy, my first-born, you might as well hold a pistol at your head. I'm +no longer mad. You must treat with him. Ah! yes; I'll do your bidding +with the others. I'll make young Jack as much trouble as you ask, but +you must make a path of gold for my boy. You must give him what you have +robbed from me. Felon? I'm no felon. It was you who plotted it. It was +you that put the means in mad hands. I can face my family. I have no +shame but that I was a coward. My son! He is no coward. He is a soldier. +He is the pride of the Caribees. He is the beloved of--of--" + +The gibbering maniac, exhausted in body, still incoherently raving, sank +back in piteous collapse, a terrifying gurgle breaking from his throat, +while his tongue absolutely protruded from his jaws. + +Dick, his terrors all forgotten in a new and overmastering horror, +bethought him of Jack's admonition about the water. He slipped down from +the tree, gathered the large moist leaves that clustered near the pool +and held them to the burning lips, Jones swallowed the drops with a +hideous gurgling avidity, clutching the boy's hand ravenously to secure +a more copious flow. There was a tin cup in the holster under the +invalid's head. Taking this, Dick dipped up water from the black pool +between the green leaves; the hot lips sucked it in at one +dreadful gulp. + +"More, more; for God's sake, more!" + +Dick filled it again, and again it was emptied. + +"More--more--I'm burning--more!" + +The boy was cruelly perplexed. He remembered vaguely hearing that fever +should be starved; that the thing craved was the dangerous thing; and he +moved away in a sort of compunctious terror. + +"More--more! Oh, in the name of God, more!" + +The words came gaspingly. Dick thought of the death-rattle he had heard +in Acredale when old man Nagle, the madman, died. He dared not give more +water, but he gathered leaves from the aromatic bushes and pressed them +to the fevered lips. Before he could withdraw them, the eager jaws +closed upon the balsamic shrub. They answered the purpose better than +the most scientific remedy in the pharmacopoeia, for the patient called +for no further drink, and presently fell into profound and undisturbed +sleep. Again the boy was alone with the daunting forces of the dark in +its grimmest and most terrifying mood. Alone! No; his mind was now taken +from all thought of self. He was with a fellow-townsman. The man had +mentioned Boone; had referred to deeds that he had heard all his life +associated with the father he had never seen. A wild thought flashed +upon him. Was the collapsed body at his feet his father's? He could not +see any resemblance in the dark, handsome face to the portrait at home, +though all through the flight from Richmond something in the man's +manner had seemed like a memory. He strove to recall the image his young +mind had cherished, the personality he had heard whispered about in the +gossiping groups of Acredale. This was not the gay, the brilliant, the +fascinating _bon viveur_ who had been the life of society from +Warchester to Bucephalo, from Pentica to New York. Ah! what were the +mystic terrors of the night, what the oppressive surroundings of this +charnel-house of Nature, to the awful spectacle of this unmanned mind, +this delirious echo of past guilt, past cowardice, past shame? + +To lessen the somber gloom, Dick had lighted many torches and set them +about the high mound where the sleeper lay in a huddle. Taking little +heed of where he set them, some of them, as the wind arose, flared out +until their flames licked the decayed branches of the fallen white oak. +As the boy crouched, pensive and distraught, he was suddenly aroused by +a vivacious cracking. He looked up. Lines of fire were darting thither +and yon, where dry wood, the _débris_ of years of decay, had been caught +in the thick clumps of underbrush and among the limbs of the trees. The +fire had pushed briskly, and the uncanny glade was now an amphitheatre +of crawling flames, stretching in many-colored banners in a vast circle +about the point of refuge. Dick gazed fascinated, with no thought of +danger. His spirits rose. It was something like life--this gorgeous +decoration of fire. How beautiful it was! How it brought out the shining +lines of the white oak, the glistening green of the cypress! Why hadn't +he thought of this before? Then, as the curling waves of fire pushed +farther and farther up the steins of the trees, and farther and farther +endlessly into the undergrowth, an unearthly outcry and stir began. +Birds, blinded by the light, whirred and fluttered into the open space +above the water, falling helplessly so near Dick that he could have +caught and killed a score to surprise Jack with a game breakfast, when +he returned. Then--ugh!--horror!--great, coiling masses detached +themselves from the tufts of sward, and splashed noisily into the putrid +water, wriggling and convulsed. The invalid still slept--but, dreadful +sight! the coiling monsters, upheaving themselves from the water, +glided, dull eyed and sluggish, upon the mossy island, about the +unconscious figure. + +Dick, fascinated and inert, watched the snaky mass, squirming in hideous +folds almost on the recumbent body. Then, aroused to the horror of their +nearness, he seized a torch and made at the slimy heap. The fire +conquered them. They slid off the ground, with forked tongues darting +out in impotent malice. But others, squirming through the water, +wriggled up; and the boy, maddened by the danger, stood his ground, +torch in hand, defending the sleeper. + +But now the fire had widened its path, and is enveloping the tiny +island. The serpents, hedged in from the outer line, uproar in +blood-curdling masses, their dull eyes gleaming, and their tongues +phosphorescent, darting out in their agony. Dick doesn't mind them now, +for he has, for the first time, begun to realize that his illumination +has destruction as the sequel of its delight. Great clouds of smoke +settle a moment on the water and then rise, impelled by the cold +surface. Even the green verdure begins to roll back where the crackling +flames play into the more compact wall of incombustible timber. The +sleeper murmurs in his dreams. Dick casts about despairingly. He hears +the horses--they have broken their tethers--he can hear them whinnying, +upbraidingly, far off. Wherever he casts his eye, volumes of fire dart +and sway, always coming inward, first scorching the green limbs, then +fastening on the tender stems and turning them to glowing lines of +cordage; only the great sheet of water, inky, terrible, and threatening +a few hours before, protects him and his charge. The hissing snakes have +sunk into it. + +Bevies of birds, supernaturally keen of sight, have dropped upon the +twigs that lie on the glittering bosom of the water. Dick, in all the +agonized uncertainty of that night of peril, thinks with wonder on the +mysterious resources Nature provides its helpless outcasts. The hideous +shallows, black, glistening, are now a belt of safety, not only for +himself and the sleeper, but a refuge for all manner of whirring birds +and crawling things, intimidated and harmless in the stifling breath of +the fire. The flame, leaping from sedge to sedge, from trunk to trunk, +seems to seek, with a human instinct, and more than human pertinacity, +food for its ravening hunger; far upward, where festoons of moss hung +from the sycamores in the day, airy banners of starry sparks, swayed, +coiled, and flamed among the branches. But Dick was soon reminded that +the scene was not for enjoyment, however fantastically fascinating. + +The smoke, at first rising from the burning brakes, lodged among the +tree-tops; then, meeting the humid night-air in the matted leaves, +descended slowly. Dick found himself nearly smothered when he had partly +recovered from the spell-bound wonder of the demoniac _fête_. The ground +under his feet felt gratefully cool. He bent down, and shudderingly +laved his burning face in the inky water. The sick man had slept more +peacefully during the last half-hour. He no longer breathed in gasping +efforts; his sleep was unbroken by muttering or outcry. But now he must +be aroused. He must be taken out of the circle of fire, for, sooner or +later, the curling waves would lick downward from the dry vines above +and scorch the mound. How to get away? The horses were long since gone. +They might be miles from the spot! Dick touched the sleeping man, filled +with a new suspense. He breathed so softly, or did he breathe at all? + +"For God's sake, Mr. Jones, wake up! We must go from here; the swamp is +burning!" + +"Eh--who is it? Where am I? Was--I dreaming? I thought my boy was with +me, and we were in the old home at Acredale." + +He lay quite still, staring upward with unseeing eyes. Dick's heart gave +a great throb of grateful, devout thanksgiving. The madness and fever +were gone. + +"You remember you were too worn out to go on, and Jack has gone to get +food. But the swamp has caught fire, and we must move away." + +Jones had risen to his elbow; then, with an exclamation that sounded +like an oath, to his feet, gazing on the flaming specters rising and +falling, enlarging and shrinking, among the black tracery of limbs +and trunks. + +"You ought to have waked me before," Jones said, when he had swept the +scene, with sane realization in his eye. "I'm afraid we can never break +through the fire. It reaches a mile or more all about us, and I--I am in +no condition to move. I feel as if I had been down months with illness." + +"But if you could eat something you would be able to move," Dick +ventured, cruelly hurt at the implied delinquency. + +"Eat!" Jones held up one of the luckless torches that Dirk had lighted +in a circle about the mound, and began to examine the ground. "What is +there to eat? Stay! By Heaven, I have it! The bushes are filled with +fluttering game. There, see that! and that, and that!" As he spoke he +had thrust the burning torch into a thick clump of bushes, dense and +glistening as laurels, that looked like wild huckleberry. The branches +were laden with birds, and in a moment be had seized three or four +partridges. + +"What better do we need? We have salt, water, and fire. I'll prepare +them. Do you keep your face well bathed, and heap up embers at the foot +of that ash." + +Sure enough, sometimes hidden by billows of smoke, rising lazily among +the burning bushes, Jones stripped the birds, spitted them on his +bayonet, and, holding them in the hot coals, soon presented a +well-browned portion to his companion. + +"I have had a good deal worse fare than this, my young friend. I have +been in the West, when fire, Indians, and hunger besieged us at the same +time. But we should have a poor chance here if it were not for the wet +grass and the everlasting water. If we can manage to keep clear of the +smoke, we shall be all right, but the smoke seems to grow denser. Where +can it come from?" + +"Great Heavens! do you hear that? Shots--one--two! That's Jack's signal. +He--he is near. He is in danger. I must go to him." Dick cried. "Listen; +more shots. No, that can't be the signal. There, do you hear that? A +volley. The rebels are after them, or we are near the outposts, and the +two armies are skirmishing." + +Yes; the shots now sounded more frequently, but they seemed to be fired +not far away. + +"It is Jack. I know it is Jack, and he is in peril. I must go to him. I +can not stay here. Surely there is no danger in pushing toward +the firing?" + +"There is every danger. In the first place, the smoke will smother us. +Then suppose we reached the spot? We might be nearer the rebels than our +friends. They know where we are. If they are not taken, they will come +back for us. If they are taken, we must do our best to get to our lines +and send out a scouting party. Be guided by me, youngster. I am an older +hand in business of this sort than you are." + +The boy stood irresolute. Both listened intently. The firing had +stopped. A great sough of rising storm came from the northwest, carrying +a hot, blinding mass of smoke and flame into the little retreat. They +flung themselves on the damp ferns to keep their breath. Still the +breeze rose, until it became a wind--a spasm of hurricane. It was +madness to linger, for the flames now licked the ground, driven down +anew by the blast. Then Jones spoke decisively: "Strap a pine torch to +your body. I will do the same. Take all you can carry and follow in my +wake." Jones, as he spoke, seized a torch, extinguished it, and handed +it to Dick. Equipped as he had directed, they set out, half crawling, +half swimming, to avoid the volumes of smoke hovering in the thick, +cactus-like leaves of the wild laurel. Presently they emerged, after +toil and misery, that excitement alone enabled the boy to support, into +what seemed a cleared space. But as soon as their eyes could distinguish +clearly, they found themselves on the edge of a wide pond. The fire was +now behind them. They could stand erect and breathe the pure, cool air. + +"Ah, now we are in luck!" Jones whispered. "We will walk to the right, +on the edge of this lake, and keep it between us and the fire. We have +got out of that purgatory; now if we could only signal our friends." + +"Hist!" whispered Dick, "I hear some one moving behind us." + +They crouched down in the thick reeds and waited. The sky above was +darkly overcast; an occasional burst of lightning revealed the +dimensions of the pond, and they could see high ground on the eastern +shore, covered by enormous pines. + +"If we can only reach the pines we shall be all right. There the ground +will be dry and soft and you can get some rest. I'm afraid, my boy, it +will go hard with you if you don't." + +"I don't mind what happens if we can only come up with Jack. There, do +you hear that?" + +Yes, both could plainly hear voices ahead of them on the margin of the +pond. They were talking in low tones, and the words were +undistinguishable. + +"We must crawl back toward the bush, and get as near those folks as we +can," Jones whispered. They made their way easily into the high bushes +and stole forward in the direction of the voices. But as they had to +guard against breaking twigs or hurtling branches, which would have +betrayed them, their advance was slow. When they reached the vicinity +where they had fancied the voices to be, all was silent. + +"Sound the call; perhaps that will lead to something," Jones whispered +in Dick's ear. + +But, unnerved by the trying experience of the night, or worn out by +fatigue, Dick's call was far from the significant signal he had +practiced with Jack. He repeated it several times, but there was no +response. There was, however, something more startling. A few rods +beyond them a flame suddenly shot up, lighting a group of cavalry +patrols standing beside a fire just kindled. + +"Rebels!" Jones whispered. "Now we must be slippery as snakes. If they +have no dogs, we are all right. If you hear the whimper of a hound, +follow me like lightning and plunge into the water. That'll break the +trail. Stay here and let me reconnoitre a bit. Have no fear. I'll go in +no danger." + +Jones crept away, leaving Dick by no means easy in his mind, but he no +longer felt the terror that numbed him in the deep wood. Here there was +companionship. By pushing the branches aside he could see the figures +lounging about the fire; he could see the dark vault of the sky, and was +not oppressed by the hideous shapes and shadows of the dense jungle. +Jones meanwhile had pushed within earshot of the group. He flattened his +body against a friendly pine and listened. + +"I reckon they ain't the Westover niggers, for they were traced to the +Pamunkey; these rascals are most likely from the south side--" + +"If Jim gets here with the dogs in an hour, we can be back to the +barracks for breakfast." + +"Ef it hadn't been for that blamed fire in the swamp, we should have had +them before this. The rascal that fired at Tom wasn't a musket-shot from +me when the smoke poured out and hid him." + +"They've gone into the swamp. The dogs'll soon tree them. I'm going to +turn in till the dogs come. One of you stay awake and keep a sharp eye +toward the creek." + +"All right, sergeant. You won't have more'n a cat-nap. Bilcox's dogs are +over at the ford, I know, for they were brought there's soon as the news +of the Yankee escape came." + +"I hope they are; but I'm afraid they are not. If they are, we shall +soon hear them." + +Jones had heard enough. Hastening back to Dick, he asked: + +"Can you swim?" + +"Yes, I'm a good swimmer." + +"Very well; throw away everything--no, stay--that would betray us. When +we reach the water bury all you can't carry in the sand and then +follow me." + +They were forced to retrace their painful way through the bushes to +reach a place as distant from the point of pursuit as possible. A +half-mile or more from their starting-place they found themselves in a +running stream. Jones examined it in both directions, and bade Dick +enter it and follow in the water, pushing upward in the bed, waist-deep, +a hundred yards. Then, climbing to the bank, he groped about until he +found a slender white oak. Climbing this as high as he could get, he +slowly swung off, and, the tree bending down to the very stream, he +dropped back into the water and rejoined Dick. Both waded in the middle +of the stream until they reached the pond, and then struck out toward +the pine clump the lightning had revealed a little while before. There +was no need of swimming, and, finding it possible to wade, Jones decided +to retain the pistols and ammunition which he had at first resolved to +bury as impeding the flight. The bottom appeared to be hard sand, a +condition often found in Southern ponds near the inflow of the sea. They +had gone a mile or more, keeping just far enough from the bank to remain +undistinguishable, when the appalling baying of a hound sounded from the +farther end of the pond, where the patrol fire gleamed faintly among +the trees. + +"Now, youngster, we must keep all our wits at work. The dogs will push +on to where we hid. They will follow to the stream, and I think I have +given them the slip there. Then they will beat about and follow our +trail into the cypress swamp. There the horses will mislead them, and if +you can only hold out, so soon as daylight comes we can strike into the +pines and make for the Union lines." + +"I--I--think I can--ah!--" + +Dick reeled helplessly and would have sunk under the water, if Jones had +not caught him. + +"Courage, my boy, courage! Don't give up now, just as we are near +rescue!" + +But Dick was unconscious, the strain of the early part of the night, the +desperate fight through the brakes, all had told on the slight frame, +and Jones stood up to his middle in the dark water, holding the +fainting boy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +IN THE UNION LINES. + + +If there is reason as well as rhyme in the old song that danger's a +soldier's delight and a storm the sailor's joy, Jack and his comrade +were in for all the delights that ever gladdened soldier or sailor boy. +When they left Dick and Jones, the eager couriers tore through the +marshy lowlands, the stubbly thickets and treacherous quagmires, poor +Barney, panting and groaning in his docile desire to keep up with his +leader, as he had done often in boyish bravado. + +"There'll not be a rag on me body nor a whole bone in me skin when we +get out of this!" he gasped, as they reached high ground between two +spreading deeps of mingled weeds and water. "The sight of us'd frighten +the whole rebel army, if we don't come on them aisy loike, as the fox +said when he whisked into the hen-house." + +"He was a very considerate fox, Barney. Most of the personages you +select to illustrate your notions seem to me to be gifted with little +touches of thoughtfulness. Barney, you ought to write a sequel to Aesop. +There never was out of his list of animal friends such wise beasts, +birds, and what not as you seem to have known." + +"Jack, dear, if a man lived on roses would the bees feed on him? If he +ate honeysuckle instead of hard-tack would he be squeezed for his scents +to fill ladies' smelling-bottles?" + +"I don't know that sense is always a recommendation to women," Jack +shifts his burden to say tentatively, as Barney, involved in a more than +commonly obstinate brier, loses the thread of this jocose induction. + +"Ah, Jack, dear, ye're weak in ye're mind when you fall to play on words +like that." + +"You mean my sense is small?" + +"Not that at all. Sure, it's a hero's mind ye show when you can find +heart to make merry at a time like this!" + +"Yes--'he jests at love who never felt a throb.'" + +"Then you've a hard heart--and I know I lie when I say it, as Father +Mike McCune said to himself when he tuk the oath to King George in +'98--if ye're heart never throbbed in Acredale beyant, for there's many +a merry one cast down entirely that handsome Jack's gone." + +"Come, come, Barney; it's dark, and I can't see the grin that saves this +from fulsome blarney." + +"Indeed, then--" + +"Hark!" + +Through the monotonous noises of the night the clanking of steel and the +neighing of horses could be heard just ahead. + +"We must move cautiously now, Barney. Try to put a curb on your tongue, +and let your reflections mature in your busy brain." + +"Put me tongue in bonds to keep the peace, as Lawyer Donigan cautioned +Biddy Gavan when the doctor said she was driving the parish mad with +her prate." + +"Sh!--sh!--you noisy brawl; we shall have a platoon of cavalry upon us. +Even the birds have stopped crooning to catch your delicate brogue!" + +"'Tis only the ill-mannered owl that makes game of me--if--" + +"Sh! Come on. Bend low. Do as I do--if you can see me. If not, keep +touch on my arm." + +"As the wolf said to the lamb when he bid him take a walk in the +wather." + +They had now emerged on the reedy margin of the dark pool discovered by +Dick and Jones later. All was silent. The sky was full of stars--so full +that, even in the absence of the moon, there was a transparent clarity +in the air that enabled Jack to take definite bearings. + +"This must be an outlet of the York River, the stream we saw this +afternoon. If it be, then we are not far from our own outposts. The +troopers we heard just now may be Union soldiers. We must wait patiently +to let them discover themselves. Keep abreast of me, and don't, as you +value your life, speak above a whisper--better not to speak at all." + +"That's what the priest said to Randy Maloney's third wife when she +complained that he bate her." + +"Barney, I'll throttle you if you don't keep that mill you call your +tongue still." + +"Ah, I'll hold it in me fist, as Mag Gleason held her jaw, for fear her +tooth would lep out to get more room to ache." + +Jack laughed. "If we're caught it will be through your jokes, for bad as +they are I must laugh at some of them." + +"Dear, oh dear no; you may save the laugh till a convenient time, as +Hugh McGowen kept his penances, until his head was clear, and there was +no whisky in the jar." + +They had been pushing on rapidly--noiselessly, during this whispered +dispute, and now found themselves at the reedy margin of a wide inlet, +where, from the swift motion of the water and the musical gurgling, they +could tell they were by the side of a main channel. + +"We must push on southward, and see if there is a crossing. If we come +to one, that will tell us where we are, for it will be guarded, you may +be sure," said Jack, buoyantly. + +"Yes, but I'd rather find a hill of potatoes and a drop than all the +soldiers in the two armies." + +"You are not logical, Barney. If we find soldiers, we'll find rations; +though I have my doubts about the sort of 'drop' you'll be apt to find +down here." + +"There was enough corn in the field beyant to keep a still at work for a +winter," Barney lamented with a sigh, recalling fields of grain they had +passed near Williamsburg, which he vaguely alluded to as "beyant." + +"I wish some of the 'still' were on the end of your tongue at this +moment." + +"With all me heart--'twould do yer sowl good to see the work it'd give +me tongue to do to hould itself," Barney gasped, trying to keep abreast +of his reviler. "Be the dark eyes of Pharaoh's daughter there's a field +beyant--yes, and a shebeen; d'ye see that?" + +They had suddenly emerged in a cleared place. Against the horizon they +could distinctly distinguish the outlines of a cabin, the "shebeen" +Barney alluded to. + +"Yes, we're in luck. It's a negro shanty. We shall find friends there, +if we find anybody. Now, do be silent." + +"If the field was full of girruls, with ears as big as sunflowers, they +wouldn't hear me breathe, so have no fear. A hill of potatoes all eyes +couldn't see us in such darkness as this." + +For dense clouds had swiftly come up from the west, covering the +horizon. After careful reconnoitring, requiring a circuit of the +clearing, Jack ventured to make directly for the dark outlines of the +cabin. War had obviously not visited the place, for as they passed a low +outhouse the startled cackle of chickens sounded toothsomely, and Barney +came to a delighted halt. + +"Sure we'd better get a bite to ate while we may, as th' ass said when +he passed th' market car, for who knows what'll happen if we stop to ask +by your lave?" + +For answer Jack gave him a sharp push, and the discomfited plunderer +hurried on with a good-humored grunt. All was silent in the cabin. The +windows were slatted, without glass, and the door was unfastened. Jack +pushed in boldly, leaving Barney to guard the rear. Peaceful snoring +came from one corner, and Jack, shading a lighted match with his hand, +looked about him. In the hurried glimpse he caught sight of an old negro +on a husk mattress, and the heads of young boys just beyond. They were +sleeping so soundly that the striking of the match never aroused them. +Jack had to shake the man violently before the profound sleep +was broken. + +"I say, wake up! or can you wake?" + +"What dat? Who's dar--you, Gabe? What you 'bout?" + +The old man shuffled to a sitting posture, and Jack, renewing his match, +held it in the negro's blinking eyes. + +"Have you any food? We are Yankees, and want something for companions in +the swamp. Are we in danger here? We heard cavalry-men on the other side +of the pond; are they rebel or Yankee?" + +At this volley of questions the bewildered man turned piteously to the +sleepers, and then stared at Jack in perplexity. + +"'Deed, marsa captain, I don no noffin 'tall, I--I hain't been to de +crick fo' a monf. I'se fo'bid to go da--I--" + +"Well, well, have you any food? Get that first, and then talk," Jack +cried, impatiently. + +But now the boys were awake, and Jack had to give them warning to make +no noise. Yes, there was food, plenty. Cooked bacon, hoe-cake, and cold +chicken, boiled eggs, and, to Barney's immeasurable joy, sorghum whisky. +The hunger of the invaders satisfied, each provided himself with a sack +to feed the waiting comrades; and while this was going on they extracted +from the now reassured negroes that the spot was just behind Warick +Creek, near Lee's Mills; that parties of rebels from the fort at +Yorktown had been at work building lines of earthworks, and that every +now and then Yankees came across and skirmished in the woods a mile or +two up in the direction whence Jack had come. The cabin was only a step +from the main road, upon which the rebels were encamped--a regiment or +more. Some Yankee prisoners had been captured early in the morning, and +were in the block-house, a short distance up the road. + +"Can you lead us near the block-house?" Jack asked. + +"I reckon I can; but ef I do they'll shu' ah' find it out, and den I'se +don, 'cos Marsa Hinton--he's in de cavalry--he'll guess dat it was me +dat tuk you 'uns dar." + +"Do you want to be free? Do you want to go into the Union lines?" + +"Free! oh, de Lor', free! O marsa captain, don't fool a ole man. Free! +I'd rudder be free dan--dan go to Jesus--almost." + +"Have you a wife--are these your children?" + +"My ole woman is up at Marsa Hinton's; she's de nuss gal. Dese is my +boys; yes, sah." + +"Very well; we're going into the Union lines. You know the country +hereabouts. Help us to find our friends in the swamp, and we will take +you all with us," Jack said; but feeling a good deal of compunction, as +he was not so sure that the freedom bestowed upon these guileless +friends might not, for a time at least, be more of a hardship than their +happy-go-lucky servitude. Meanwhile, in the expansion of renewed hopes +and full stomachs, no watch had been kept on the outside; a tallow dip +had been lighted, and the whole party busied in getting together such +necessaries as could be carried. One of the boys, passing the door, +uttered a stifled cry: + +"Somebody comin' from de road." + +"Where can we hide? Don't put out the light; that will look suspicions!" +Jack whispered, making for the window in the rear, "Is there a cellar, +or can we get on the roof?" But the dark group were too terrified to +speak. They ran in a mob to the doorway, luckily the most adroit +manoeuvre they could hit upon, for with the dip flaring in the current +of air, the room was left in darkness. Jack and Barney slipped through +the low lattice, and by means of a narrow shed reached the low roof. +They could hear the tramp of horses, how many they could not judge, and +then a gruff voice demanding: + +"You, Rafe, what ye up to? What ye got a light burnin' this time o' +night fo'?" + +"'Deed, marsa, it's nuffin'--fo' God, marsa! I was gittin' de stomach +bottle fo' Gabe--he eat some jelly root fo' supper and he's been +powerful sick--frow his insides out--I--" + +"Leave your horses, boys. Rafe's got some of Hinton's best sorghum +whisky--you, there, nigger, get us a jug and some cups." + +How many dismounted Jack couldn't make out, but presently there was a +heavy tramping in the cabin and then a ferocious oath. + +"What does this mean; why have you got all these traps packed? Going to +cut to the Yankees! Don't lie, now--you'll get more lashes for it." + +Jack listened breathlessly. Would the quavering slaves have presence of +mind to divert suspicion? There was a pause, and then the old man cried, +pleadingly: + +"We'se gwine to lebe dis place; we's gwine up to de house in de mornin'. +My ole woman can't come down heah now, case de sojers is always firm', +and Mars' Hinton told us to come to de quarters, sah." + +"I don't believe a word of it, you old rascal. I'll see whether Hinton +has ordered you to leave here. Likely story, indeed; leave one of his +best fields with no one to care for it. Git the whisky and stop your +mumbling. You, there, you young imps, step about lively--do you heah?" + +There was the sound of a sharp stroke, then a howl of pain and a +boisterous laugh. + +"You keep an eye on the rear and I will see how many horses there are," +Jack's lips murmured in Barney's ear. He slid cautiously down the +slanting roof until he came to the corner where he saw the dark group of +horses. There were three--tied to the peach-trees. He made his way back +to Barney and whispered: + +"There are but three horses. If you are up to an adventure I think we +can make this turn to our profit." + +"I'm up to anything, as the cat said when Biddy Hiks's plug ran her up +the crab-tree." + +"Very well. Come after me." + +The sorghum, meanwhile, had been handed to the raiders in the cabin, and +the men could be heard making merry. + +"You, Gabe, go out and mind the horses; see that they don't twist the +bridles about their legs." + +Gabe sallied out and one of his brothers with him. As they neared the +horses Jack came upon them, and taking the elder, Gabe, in the shadow of +the house, he whispered: + +"Have the soldiers' pistols?" + +"Yes, sah." + +"Where are they?" + +"De put dem on de stool, neah de doah." + +"Good. How many?" + +"Free." + +"Have they swords?" + +"Yes, sah." + +"Where are they?" + +"On de stool, too." + +"That will do; keep with the horses, and don't be frightened if you hear +anything. We'll give you freedom yet, if you'll be prudent." + +He could hear the men grumbling because the food was not enough to go +around. The liquor had begun to work in their systems, drinking so +lavishly, and without nourishment to absorb its fiery quality. Jack let +enough time pass to give this ally full play in disabling the troopers, +then taking Barney to the rear of the cabin, whispered: + +"I will dash in at the door, seize the weapons, and demand surrender. +You make a great ado here; give command, as if there were a squad. The +boys will make a loud clatter with the horses, and we shall bag the game +without a blow. Now, be prudent. Barney, and we will go into the Union +lines in triumph." + +Inside the men were laughing uproariously, mingling accounts of love and +war in a confused medley--how a sweetheart in Petersburg was only +waiting for the stars on her lover's collar to make him happy; how the +Yankees would be wiped out of the Peninsula as soon as Jack Magruder got +his nails pared for fight; how three Yankees had been gobbled that day, +and how others were in the net to be taken in the morning. The bacchanal +was at its highest when Jack, dashing into the open doorway, placed +himself between the drinkers and their arms, and cried, sternly, as he +pointed his pistol at the group: + +"Surrender, men! You are surrounded!" + +"Close up, there! Keep your guns on a line with the windows; don't fire +till I give the order!" Barney could be heard at the window in +suppressed tones, as he, too, covered the maudlin company. Gabe and his +brother added to the effect of numbers by clattering the stirrups of the +horses, so that the clearing seemed alive with armed men. + +The troopers, sobered and astonished, half rose, and then as these +sounds of superior force emphasized the menace of Jack's pistol in front +and Barney's in the rear, they sank back in their seats, the spokesman +saying, tipsily: + +"I don't see as we've much choice." + +"No, you have no choice.--Sergeant, bring in the cords," Jack ordered. + +Barney at this came in with a clothes-line Jack had prepared from the +negroes' posts. The arms of the three men were bound behind them, and +then Jack retired with his aide to hold a council of war. Without the +negro they could never retrace their way to Dick. But how could they +carry the prisoners with them? Manifestly it could not be done. It was +then agreed that Barney should take the prisoners, the horses, and the +old man, with the younger boys, and make for the Union lines, not a mile +distant. Jack, meanwhile, with little Gabe, would go to the rescue of +Dick. If firing were heard later, Barney would understand that his +friends were in peril, and, if the Union outposts were in sufficient +strength, they could come to the rescue, and, perhaps, add to the +captures of the night. Barney was now serious enough. He was reminded of +no joke by the present dilemma, and remained very solemn, as Jack +enlarged on the glories of the proposed campaign. How all Acredale would +applaud the intrepidity of its townsmen snatching glory from peril! +Barney consented to leave him with reluctance, suggesting that the "ould +nagur" could take the prisoners "beyant." + +"Gabe has shown sense and courage, and I shall be much more likely to +reach Dick and extricate him and Jones, alone, than if I had this +cavalcade at my heels." + +Jack and Barney were forced to laugh at the big-eyed wonder in old +Rafe's eyes when he was informed of the imposing part he was to play in +the warlike comedy. To be guard over "white folks," to dare to look them +in the face without fear of a blow, in all his sixty years Rafael Hinton +had never dreamed such a mission for a man of color. The troopers, too +tipsy and subdued to remark the sudden paucity of the force that had +overcome them, were tied upon their own steeds, Barney in front of the +leader, and Rafe and his son in charge of the two others. + +Rafe led the way in trembling triumph. He knew the ford, indeed, every +foot of the country, and had no misgivings about reaching the Union +lines. Jack watched the squad until it disappeared in the fringe of +trees, and then, turning to the tearful Gabe, said, encouragingly: + +"Now, we must do as well when we go among the Union soldiers. You know +the point in the swamp I have told about. How long will it take us to +reach that the shortest way?" + +"Ef we had dad's dugout we could save right smart." + +"You mean we could get there by water?" + +"Yes, sah. We ken go all froo de swamp in a boat." + +"Then I'm afraid it is not the place I mean, for we found as much land +as water." + +"Dey ain't no odder swamp neah heah, sah." + +"Well, we'll try my route first. If that misleads us, we shall try the +boat. Can you find it?" + +"Suah." + +"Where is it?" + +"Ober neah the blockhouse. De sogers done tuk it to fish." + +"Ah, yes, the blockhouse! I must look into that! Now, we must hurry. +Skirt the edge of the water and make no noise." + +This was a needless warning to the boy, who, barefooted and scantily +clad, gave Jack as much as he could do to keep up with him. They had +left the cabin a mile or more behind them to the southeastward, and were +somewhere near the spot Jack had emerged from the cypress swamp, when +both were brought to a halt by shifting clouds of smoke pouring out from +the underwood. + +"Where does that come from?" Jack asked, throwing himself flat to catch +his breath. + +"Dunno, sah. Most likely de sojers sot de brush on fiah." + +When Jack was able to look again he saw far in among the trees a moving +wave of light now and then, as the heavy curtain of smoke was lifted +by the wind. + +"Good heavens!" he ejaculated; "it was in there I left my friends. Can +we get to them?" + +"No, sah; der ain't no crick dah." + +"Then!" Jack thought, "have I sacrificed Dick and Jones in my zeal to be +adventurous? Ten minutes sooner, and we could have gone in and brought +them out. But I will find a way in, if I have to clamber over the +tree-tops." + +The noise of whirring wings, the rush of startled animals, now drowned +all other sounds, until, through the tumult from the copse far in front +of them, they heard the clatter of swords, and then gigantic figures +breaking toward them, along the edge of the pond. + +"Down, down; hug the ground!" Jack cried, pushing the boy down into the +reeds. Almost as they sank, a group of troopers dashed by, talking +excitedly. + +"Fire at random, men; that will force them into cover! If we can keep +them in ambush till daylight, the dogs will be here, and we shall nab +them," Jack heard a voice say as the men rode past. + +How could they have heard of the affair so quickly, for Jack took it for +granted that it was his exploit that the troopers were afoot to balk? +Still another group passed, and they were talking of the dogs that +were expected. + +"You may depend upon it, they are in the swamp. They are making off that +way and hope to mislead us by firing the place. We must keep our eyes +peeled on the swamp. The creek will stop them down yonder, and we must +watch this break in the brush. As soon as the dogs come we shall have no +trouble. They'll run 'em down in no time." + +Jack had heard enough to warn him that it was useless to try to +penetrate the swamp. With half of his usual wit, Dick would have been +_en route_ long before this, for the fiery glow in the woods showed that +the flames had been raging some time. Unless Jones's illness had +handicapped him, Dick would be on his way, following Jack's route as +closely as the darkness would permit. But now he must seek means to +evade the dogs. This could be done only by reaching the water and +getting into it far from the point where they proposed to leave it. + +"Can you find the boat?" he asked Gabe, who chattered between his teeth. + +"I think so, sah." + +"Very well; we must find a small stream running into the pond, and then +lead me to the boat." + +"Moccasin Brook is close yonder, sah. Shall I go dah?" + +"Yes, like lightning." + +In a few minutes they were in a sluggish current, running between masses +of reeds and spreading lily-leaves, into the pond. Here Jack repeated +Jones's manoeuvre, except that he was not wise enough in woodcraft to +make use of a tree to get into the water, and thus leave the dogs at the +end of the trail at a point far removed from his real entrance into it. +When they had reached the pond, Jack bade the boy head to the boat. This +they found moored under a bluff, and Gabe, pointing upward, said the +blockhouse was there. + +"Very well, you stay here in the boat and wait for me. Don't stir, don't +speak, no matter what you see or hear. Will you do this?" + +"Oh, yes, sah; 'deed, 'deed I will, sah!" + +Jack crawled up the bank, keeping in the shadow of the uneven ground, +until he reached a point whence he could make out the blockhouse. It was +a half-finished structure of rough logs, and, from the stakes and other +signs of engineering preliminaries, he saw that it was intended as the +guard-house of a fortification. He could hear the drawl of languid, +half-sleepy voices, and, as he pushed farther to the eastward, saw a +group of troopers lounging about a dying fire. A sentry sat before the +doorway, which had no door. He was dozing on his post, though, now and +then he aroused himself to listen to the comments of the men at the +fire. While Jack waited, irresolute what to do, a volley sounded across +the pond, evidently the fellows whom he had seen, keeping up the +fusilade to distract the fugitives. + +"They've wasted enough lead to fight a battle," he heard one of the men +say, scornfully. + +"Well, that's what lead's for," a philosopher remarked, stirring the +embers. "So it don't get under my skin, I don't care a cuss what they +do with it." + +"Oh, your skin's safe enough, Ned. You may adorn a gallows yet." + +"If I do, you'll be at one end of the string--and I ain't a-saying which +end, neither," the other retorted, taking a square segment of what +looked like bark, but was really tobacco, and worrying out a circle with +his teeth, until he had detached a large mouthful. This affording his +jaws all the present occupation they seemed capable of undertaking, the +other resumed when the haw-haw that met the sally had subsided: + +"Yes, it takes two to make a hangin', just like it takes two to make a +weddin', and you can't allus say just sartin which one has the +lucky end." + +This facetious epigram was duly relished, and the sage was turning his +toasted side from the fire to present the other, when the clatter of a +horse coming up the hillside sent the group scouring toward their guns, +stacked near the unfinished walls. + +"Sergeant Bland, the captain orders you to take four men and station +them along the north shore of the pond. The rascals are in the cypress +swamp, and are making their way out toward Moccasin Creek. One man can +watch the block-house, and the rest come with me.--Guard, we shall be +within a hundred yards of you. A shot will bring a dozen men to your +assistance; but it isn't likely an enemy can reach this point. The whole +regiment is deployed in the woods." + +This was said to the sentry as the group, detailed for Moccasin Creek, +filed off at a double-quick down the hill. In a few moments the +blockhouse was deserted, save by the sentry, who had now risen and was +vigorously pacing before the doorway. Now was Jack's time, if ever. If +he could only whisper to one of the prisoners to call the sentry. But +how? He had nothing to fear in approaching the rear, and in a few +moments he had examined the walls. There was no opening where he could +get speech with those inside. What could he do? To boldly fall upon the +sentry was risky, for the slightest noise would bring rescue from the +front of the bluff. At the base of the wall, where the log-joists rested +upon a huge bowlder, his quick eye detected an air-hole. He examined it +hurriedly. It was evidently below the flooring. So much the better. +Putting his mouth to this, he called out in a piteous tone: + +"For God's sake, sentry, give me some water! I'm choking--oh--oh water! +water!" + +He waited to see if the sentry would heed the call. He knew that the men +inside could not betray him, for, if they were not asleep, they could +not be sure that the voice was not from among themselves. Sure enough, +the sentry's step ceased. Was he near the door? Jack crept to the +corner. Yes, he had halted at the aperture. Would he enter? Jack stepped +back to his post, as the guard called out: + +"Where are you? Which of you wants water? Sing out!" + +"Here!" Jack cried, "Here!" Then darting back to the corner, he was just +in time to see the man lean his gun against the door-post, and disappear +in the hut. In an instant the gun was in Jack's possession, and he was +behind the Samaritan in quest of the suffering victim. It was dark as a +tunnel. Jack's victim still gave him the aid he needed, for, as he +groped along the wall, he said, good-humoredly: + +"Sing out again, my friend; I haven't got cat's eyes." + +Jack's grasp was on his throat and Jack's mouth was at his ear. + +"One sound, one word, and this knife goes to the hilt in your heart!" + +The astounded man half reeled at this awful apparition in the black +darkness, and he limply yielded to his captor under the impression that +the prisoners were loose and upon him. Jack tied the man's unresisting +hands with his own canteen-straps; then seated him near the wall and +lighted a match. Four men, undisturbed by this swift and noiseless coup, +were stretched on the board floor, breathing the heavy, deep sleep of +exhaustion. Jack aroused them with the greatest difficulty, and found it +still harder to make them understand that, with courage and resolution, +they would be back in their own lines by daylight. When this became +clear to them they were as eager and energetic as their rescuer. The men +were to remain near the blockhouse, but not in it, until Jack returned +for the negro, and then under the lad's guidance they could find their +way to the Union outposts. Just as this was decided, a blood-curdling +baying of bloodhounds echoed across the pond from the distant cabin. +Jack trembled, his mind at once on Dick, so near and yet so far from him +now, in this new danger. There was not a moment to be lost. Perhaps even +now all the night's hard-won victories were to be turned to worse than +defeat--prison, death; for the liberation of slaves was at that time +punishable by hanging in the rebel military code. + +"Courage," he said to himself, grimly; "courage, a dog's no worse than a +man. We've overcome them to-night, we ought to be able to tackle the +dogs." This new danger changed his plan slightly. Instead of leaving all +the men, he took one of the rescued four, Tom Denby by name, with him, +and set out for the water. But here another check met him. He suddenly +recalled that the guard at the blockhouse had been scattered along the +shore to watch the debouch from the swamp. This enforced a wide +_détour_, bringing him out in the rear of the boat and nearer the point +where Moccasin Creek emptied into the pond. They reached it finally, and +skirting along the shore kept a keen eye on the water for the boat. They +had skurried along half-way back toward the bluff, listening for a sound +on the water and peering into the black surface, when Denby suddenly +touched Jack's arm. + +"There's a horse or cow standing in the water yonder. I've seen it move; +there, look!" + +Yes, outlined against the low horizon, a monstrous shape could be +plainly seen. The yelp of the hounds suddenly broke through the air back +of them toward the creek. The monstrous figure started, moved heavily +forward, then seemed as if coming toward them. Both waited, wondering, +curious, terrified. It was within a rod of them, staggering, gasping. + +"Oh, God help us! I can go no farther; better be taken than both drown +together." + +Jack could hardly repress a cry: + +"Jones--Dick! Is it you?" + +But whoever it was or whatever it was had no speech to answer this eager +inquiry. They would have sunk in the shallow water if Jack and Denby had +not caught them. Jack had food with him, and, better than all, the +bottle of sorghum whisky. With this restorative, both were soon able to +sit upon the ground and eat. Jack left Denby to feed them, while he went +in search of the boat. He found it just where he had left it, and in a +few minutes, at the head of his little band, he was back at the +blockhouse. The food and Jack's hastily told news had restored Dick to +something like his old friskiness. + +"Jericho!" he cried, as the released prisoners, having held back warily +until the color of the new-comers was known, ran forward. "The whole +army is here. I feel as if I were in the Union lines." + +"Well, you ain't, by a long shot," Denby cried. "We've got a good hour's +march, and if you're wise, Captain Sprague, you won't waste time for +any frills." + +"No time shall be wasted.--Jones, you and Dick take the rear. I, with +Denby, will skirmish; and you, Corporal Kane, shall command the center. +No firing, remember, unless superior force assails us.--Gabe, stick to +the waterside as closely as you can, but make the shortest cut to +the bridge." + +Gabe was the most delighted darkey in all Virginia for the next hour. He +led them swiftly and surely, and why shouldn't he? He had passed all his +life in the vicinity, and with the first beams of the sun he pointed to +a narrow wooden bridge. + +"Dar's whar de pickets fire across." + +As they passed the bridge a loud sound of rushing horses could be heard +in the distance. + +"Dick, you take two men and hurry down the road to assure our pickets +that we are friends. We'll take up the planks to give them time!" Jack +shouted, and Dick, with two of the rescued prisoners, dashed away. Many +hands and high hope made short work of the light timbers. As the +pursuing cavalry turned the bend in the road, in sight of the bridge. +Jack's squad gave them a volley and then dashed into cover. The fire was +returned. Dick, coming back at a run, with a dozen dismounted men, heard +the bullets whistling over his head and saw Jack's _posse_ dispersing to +the right and left in the bushes. All were forced into the woods, as the +rebels commanded the highway. + +"Where is Jack?" Dick asked, rushing among the men. No one had noticed +him in the panic. He was not in the huddle that cowered in the reeds to +escape the balls, still hurtling viciously over the open. With a cry of +rage and despair, Dick flew into the road, and there, not a hundred +yards from the bridge, he saw the well-known figure prone on the red +earth motionless--dead? Heedless of the warning cries of the others, +Dick tore madly to the body, and with a wild cry fell upon the lifeless +figure, weltering in blood. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +"THE ABSENT ARE ALWAYS IN THE WRONG." + + +Under Vincent's ardent escort Mrs. Sprague and Merry traveled from +Richmond northward in something like haste and with as much comfort as +was possible to the limited means of transportation at the command of +the Confederate commissary. Even in those early days of the war, the +railway system of the South was worn out and inadequate. Such a luxury +as a parlor car was unknown. The trains were filled with military +personages on their way to the field. Mrs. Sprague and Merry were the +only women in the car in which they passed from Richmond to +Fredericksburg. The route brought them through a land covered with +hamlets of camps, drilling squadrons, and the panoply of war. While the +elder lady gave a divided mind to the strange panorama, Merry watched +everything eagerly, amused and interested by this spectacle of +preparation. Such soldiers as she could see distinctly looked like +farmers in holiday homespun; the cavalry like nondescript companies of +backwoods hunters. There seemed to be no uniformity in infantry +equipment or cavalry accoutrements, and the discipline struck her as in +keeping with this diversity of dress and ornament. The men could be seen +hurrying in boyish glee toward the train as it drew near the temporary +station, where mail-bags were thrown out and sometimes supplies of food +or munitions of war. Jocular remarks were passed between the soldiery at +the windows when the wistful groups gathered along the railway line. + +"I say, North Cal'ina, you'n's goin' straight through to Yankee land?" a +man in the throng shouts to some one on the train. + +"Straight." + +"Send us a lock o' Lincoln's hair to poison blind adders, will you?" + +"No--promised his scalp to my sweetheart to cover the rocking-chair." + +Then, as the laugh that met this sally died away, another humorist +piped, out: + +"Tell Uncle Joe Johnston we're just rustin' down here for a fight; ef he +don't hurry up we'll go ahead ourselves. We're drilled down so fine now +that we can't think 'cept by the rule o' tactics." + +"Jest you never mind, boys. Uncle Joe'll do enough thinkin' fur ye when +he gets ready to tackle the Yanks." + +"Hurrah for Uncle Joe!" And as the cheery cry swelled farther and +farther, the train drew out, everybody looking from the windows as the +patient soldiery straggled back campward. + +"Your soldiers seem very gay, Vincent. One would think that war, the +dreadful uncertainty of their movements, absence of friends, and lack of +good food would sadden them," Mrs. Sprague said wistfully at one of the +stations when raillery like this had been even more pointed and +boisterous. + +"A wise commander will do all he can to keep his men gay; if they were +not jovial they'd go mad. Think of it! Day after day, week after week, +who knows but year after year, the wearisome monotony of camp and march! +Where the men are educated, or at least readers, they make better +soldiers, because they brood less. Brooding saps the best fiber of the +army. Your Northern men ought to have an advantage there, for education +is more general with you than it is with us. It is not bravery that +makes a man eager for the campaign, it is unrest. As a rule, the best +soldiers in action are those who have a mortal dread of battle." + +"That surprises me." + +"It is true. I always distrust men that clamor to be led on; they are +the first to break when the brush comes. Jack will tell you that, for we +are agreed on it." + +"Jack himself was eager for battle," Mrs. Sprague said, sighing. + +"No, Jack was eager for the field. When the battle comes he meets it +coolly, but he has no hunger for it, nor have I. General Johnston is as +brave a man as ever headed an army, yet he has often told us that his +blood freezes when the guns open. I'm sure no one would ever suspect it, +for he is as calm and confident as if he were in a quadrille when he +rides to the field." + +"We in the North have heard more of Beauregard than Johnston, yet I +never hear you mention him. Wasn't it he who commanded at Bull Run?" + +"Yes and no. General Beauregard is a superb soldier. He is, it has been +agreed among us, better for a desperate charge, or some sudden +inspiration in an emergency, than the complicated strategy that half +wins a battle before it is begun. For example, at Manassas he would have +been defeated, our whole army captured, if fortune had not exposed +General McDowell's plans before they were completed. As it was, we +should have been driven from the field if General Johnston had not come +up in time and rearranged the Confederate lilies." + +"Yes, Jack has described that. Battles, after all, are decided by luck." + +"And genius." + +"Luck won Waterloo." + +"Partly, but genius, too, for Wellington and Blücher practiced one of +Napoleon's most perfect maxims, and won because he despised them both so +much that he didn't dream them capable of even imitating him. Nor, left +to themselves, would they have been equal to it. But renegade Frenchmen, +taught under Napoleon's eye, prompted them." + +"General Johnston was very considerate to us when we came down. I wish +you would make him know how grateful we are." + +"Oh, he couldn't be anything else; he is the ideal of a chivalrous +knight." + +"Yes, I believe you claim chivalry as your strong point in the South, +and accuse us of being a race of sordid money-getters." + +"I don't, for I know better, but our people do. They will learn better +in time. Men who fought as your army fought at Manassas must be more +than mere sordid hucksters." + +"And yet it is curious," Mrs. Sprague continued, musingly, "it is we who +are warring for an idea and you are warring for property." + +"How do you mean?" Vincent said, quickly. + +"You are fighting to continue slavery, to extend it; we to abolish it or +limit it. But even I can see that slavery is doomed. No Northern party +would ever venture to give it toleration after this." + +"But if we succeed, it will exist in our union at least." + +"Ah, Vincent, can't you see that such a people as ours may be checked, +beaten even, but they will never give up the Union? Why, much as I love +Jack, I would never let him leave the colors while there was an army in +the field. Don't you know every Northern mother has the same feeling?" + +"And every Southern mother, too." + +"Yes, I believe that, but there's this difference: Your Southern mothers +are counting on what doesn't exist--a higher physical courage--a prowess +in battle, I may call it, that you must know the Southern soldier has +not, as distinguished from the Northern. As time goes on and the war +does not end; as our armies become disciplined, the confidence that +supports your side will die, and then the struggle, though it may be +prolonged, will end in our triumph." + +"I don't think it. I can't think it. But don't let us talk about it. We, +at least, are as much friends as though Jack and I were under one flag, +and if it depends on me it shall be always so." + +"If it depends on us, it shall never be otherwise." She gave the young +man a kind, scrutinizing glance, which made his heart beat joyously and +his handsome cheeks mount color. At Fairfax Court-House they said +farewell, the ladies continuing the journey in an ambulance under +Federal guard. + +They passed over the long bridge three days after the famous night at +Rosedale, of whose exciting sequel they were profoundly ignorant. In her +husband's time Mrs. Sprague had lived in hotels in the capital, as the +sessions were short; she had never remained in the city when the warm +weather set in, no matter how long the term lasted. But on her arrival +at the old hotel now, she was a good deal disturbed to learn that she +could not be accommodated in her former quarters. The military crowded +not only this but every hotel in the city, and it was only after long +search that a habitable apartment was found in Georgetown. On the whole, +the necessity that drove her thither was not an unmitigated adversity, +for Georgetown then was far more desirable for residence than +Washington. Nothing could be more depressing than the city at that +epoch. Every visible object in the vast circumference of its spreading +limits was then naked unkempt. Even the trees, that ranged themselves +irregularly in the straggling squares and wide street areas, stretched +out a draggled and piebald plumage, as if uncertain whether beauty or +ugliness were their function in the _ensemble_. + +The photographic realism of the later newspaper correspondent had not +come into play in these earlier years of the war, and, as a consequence, +the thousands who poured down to the Army of the Potomac beheld the city +with something of the incredulous scorn with which the effeminate +Byzantines regarded the capital of the Goths, when the corrupt +descendant of Constantine made the savage Dacians his allies, rather +than fight them. Patriotism, however, not pride, marked the common mold +of the men of the civil war. It may have been that many an honest +plowman, marching through the muddy quagmires of Pennsylvania Avenue, +bethought himself that such a capital was hardly worth while marching so +far to protect--more emphatically so when the enemy was really to be +found on lines far north of it! Sentiment is the heart and soul of war; +if it were not, there would be no war, for war never gained as much as +it loses; never settled as much as it unsettles; never left victor or +vanquished better when the last gun was fired! In old times the capture +of a nation's capital meant the end of the war, but we have seen +capitals captured and the war not modified a bit by it. Washington was +seized and burned by the British in 1814, and the war went on; Paris was +held by the Germans for half a year, and the war went on. + +Our civil war would have been three campaigns shorter--Burnside's, +Hooker's, and the stupid massacre of Pope--to say nothing of the saving +of untold treasure, had the political authorities abandoned a capital +which must be defended for a secure seat like New York or Philadelphia. +The sagacious Lincoln, whose action in army matters was paralyzed by +cliques, in the end saw through sham with an inspired clarity of vision, +and proposed the measure, but the backwoods Mazarin, Seward, prepared +such voluminous "considerations" in opposition that the good-natured +President withdrew his suggestion, and, as a consequence, the dismal +Ilium on the Potomac became the bone of a four years' contention, whose +vicissitudes exceed the incidents of the Iliad. Great armies, created by +an inspired commander, were wasted upon the defense of a capital that no +one would have lamented had it been again burned, and of which to-day +there is scarcely a remnant, save in the public buildings and the +topographical charts. A new race entered the sleepy city. The astute, +far-seeing Yankee divined the possibilities of the future, where the +indolent, sentimental Southerner had never taken thought of a nation's +growth and a people's pride! The thrifty and shifty patriots sent from +the North at once took a stake in the city, and thenceforward there was +growth, if not grace, in the capital. + +Lincoln's Washington was to the capital of to-day what the Rome of Numa +was to the imperial city of Augustus. Never, in its best days, more +imposing than a wild Western metropolis of to-day, the sudden inrush of +armies and the wherewithal to supply and house them, soon gave the vast +spaces laid out for the capital the uncouthness and incompleteness of an +exaggerated mining town or series of towns. Contrasted even with its +rival on the James, Washington was raw, chaotic, squalid. + +Long tenure of estates and little change in the people had given +Richmond the venerableness we associate with age. Many of her +picturesque seven hills were transformed into blooming fields or +umbrageous groves, under which vast villa-like edifices clustered in +Grecian repose. Save in the bustling main streets none of the edifices +were new or raw, or wholly unlovely in design or fabric. In Washington +nothing of this could be seen. Staring brick walls, buildings of unequal +height and fatiguingly ugly designs, uprose here and there in morasses +of mud that were meant for streets. Disproportionate outline, sharp +conjunctures of affluence and squalor, accented the disheartening +hideousness of the scene. + +But upon this uncouth stage a great drama was going on; great figures +were in action; momentous events were hourly taking form and +consequence; men, and women at their best and worst were working out the +awful ends of Fate. In the large mansion yonder, the wisest, greatest, +simplest of mankind--by times Diogenes and Cromwell, Lafayette and +Robespierre was, in jest and joke, mirth and sadness, working out his +own and a people's sublime destiny. It was to this curiously unequal +personage that Mrs. Sprague, after fruitless pleading with her husband's +friends, came finally to secure action on behalf of her son. There was +little of the ceremonial needed to gain access to the Chief Magistrate +which is now the fashion. + +She found a care-worn man, deeply harassed, standing in the low-ceiled +room, in which the Cabinet had met a few moments before. A sweet, wan +smile--the instinctive, inborn sensitiveness of a noble nature-flickered +over the rugged lines of the face as the usher, retiring, said: + +"Mr. President, this is Mrs. Sprague, whom you ordered to be admitted." + +"I am both glad and sorry to meet you, madam. I knew your husband, the +Senator, in other and happier times. I wish that it were in my power to +do for him or his what he was always doing for the unhappy or +distressed." + +"Ah! how kind you are! How--" + +She was going to say different from what she expected, but bethought +herself of the ungraciousness of this form, since at that time Mr. +Lincoln was the object of almost universal misreport and caricature. + +"How can I say what a mother should say?" + +While she spoke he began pacing the apartment, each time, as he came to +the double window near which she sat, peering out with a yearning, +far-away look toward the river and the red lines of the hills beyond it. +Then turning back, he strode the length of the long baize-covered table, +sometimes absently picking up a document, until, facing her again as she +narrated the story of Jack's misfortunes, he would fling it hastily on +the scattered heaps and fix his mild eye upon her. + +"I know all this already, dear madam. It has come to me from the boy's +friends, and"--he hesitated a second--"and from his--or from those who +are not his friends." + +"Not his friends?" the mother cried, half rising. "Why, Mr. President, +Jack hasn't an enemy in the world!" + +"You came through from Richmond last week? Have you heard nothing from +your son since you saw him?" + +"Nothing. Oh, is there anything about him?" + +"You have not even read the newspapers, I see." + +"No, no; I have been so uncertain, so agitated, so constantly in +attendance upon our members, that I have had no time to read or even +talk. But, pray tell me! Your manner indicates that something has +happened. O Mr. President, think of my anxiety! My only son!" + +"Ah, Mrs. Sprague! It is I that should be pitied here. You came to me +for comfort. You came in reliance on my power to restore your son, and +I--I have the burden of telling you very grievous news. No, no, your son +is not dead, have no fear of that, if in the end it prove a comfort. +Last night your townsman, Elisha Boone, came to me with his heart-broken +daughter, demanding vengeance for his son's death, whom your boy had +slain the very night you left him on the James. He shot Captain Boone in +the house you visited, and defeated a well-arranged plan to capture the +rebel chief, Davis. Not only this, but he endangered the escape of a +number of sorely-worn prisoners who had succeeded in reaching the +Rosedale place and halted only to make Davis's capture certain." + +"My son shot Wesley! oh no, no; it can not be; or, if he did, it was +because his own life was in peril. Ah! no, no, Mr. President, do not +believe this. I know my son. I know the misery he endured in Wesley's +company; endured like a hero; endured like a Sprague. He must have been +in peril of his life." + +"Dear madam, I feel for you. I feel with you, but these facts are all in +the possession of the Secretary of War. Mr. Boone will no doubt give you +all the details. If it can be made to seem as you say, have no fear that +I will wink at mere revenge, or make the machinery of justice an +instrument of family feuds. Get your lawyer; have the matter +investigated, and rely upon me for every proper clemency and aid in your +hard lot." + +She had arisen long before, and, recognizing this as a dismissal, she +bowed, unable to speak, and, with blinded eyes, staggered toward the two +steps leading upward from the room. She would have fallen had the ready +arm of the President not been near to support her. In the anteroom he +said, huskily: + +"Captain, send an orderly to accompany this lady to her carriage." + +Merry was in the carriage. One glance at Mrs. Sprague's face told that +dire news had been heard. She did not ask a question, but, embracing and +supporting the sobbing mother, awaited patiently for the dreaded +revelation. When at length the miserable story came in gaspings and +sobs, the spinster exhibited an unexpected firmness. + +"I don't believe a word of it. If Jack shot Wesley, it was because he +was in some sort of treacherous business. You may depend upon it, that, +when we get the true story, Jack's part will prove him in the right. I +am going this instant to Boone to learn his source of information. He +can have nothing but rumors." + +"I will go. It is better for me to see Mr. Boone. He will not venture to +misrepresent to me." + +At Willards, where Boone was stopping, the ladies were obliged to wait a +long time, and, in the end, it was Kate who appeared before them in deep +black, with a half-yearning, half-defiant expression in the sadly worn +face. They would never have recognized her, and, as it was, Merry +started with a slight scream as the dark figure stopped before them. + +"Papa begs to be excused. He supposes that you want to hear the +particulars of the--the affair at Rosedale, and bids me tell you." + +"O Kate, Kate, it is not true! it can not be true. Oh, you who knew Jack +so well, you know that he never could have--have--" + +Kate had seized a chair and drawn it before the two who sat on one of +the long sofas that filled without adorning the vast hotel parlor, dim +even at noonday in its semi-subterranean light. + +"Yes, Mrs. Sprague, your son shot Wesley deliberately; shot him as +deliberately as if I should draw a pistol and take your life now +and here." + +"And--and killed him?" + +"He never spoke again. He--he--ah! I can not, I can not! We brought him +here. His body is in the cemetery, waiting the military formalities." + +"But tell us how it happened, Kate," Merry sobbed, entreatingly. "We +know nothing but what you have told us. Tell us all. It is so startling, +so awful, that we can not comprehend such a thing happening where we +left everybody in the most friendly spirit." + +Kate, struggling with her tears, told the story so far as she knew it, +but of course she knew little beyond the mere fact that Wesley had come +to his death in Mrs. Atterbury's room; that Jack stood over him with the +smoking pistol, and owned that he had fired in the darkness. She told +the tale as gently as might be, her own heart secretly pleading for +everything of extenuation that might lessen Jack's guilt, but she had +insensibly taken the darker view her father had instantly adopted, that +Jack's enmity had led him to seize the chance to rid himself of a rival +and enemy under cover of defending the Atterburys. She did not hint this +to the mother, but Merry, knowing Boone, at once saw what the +President's words meant. Boone had charged Jack with deliberate murder. +Dreading the realization of this by Mrs. Sprague at this time, Merry +made a sign to Kate, who, comprehending at once, arose and begged to go +back to her father, who was in need of her. + +"Oh, if Olympia were here! she has so much self-control! she would +advise so well what should he done!" the mother moaned, as she passed +down through the long, barrack-like parlor. + +"But, dear Mrs. Sprague, Olympia is just where her good sense is most +needed. She is near Jack. He needs comfort and counsel. You can have +your lawyer, and you shall see the case isn't so bad as we have heard. +You must remember that the Boones are not likely to take an impartial +view. It is only human nature that they should think the worst of +the--the death of son and brother. Wait till we hear Jack's story, and +you will see that it puts a different face on the matter." + +"But it's Jack's disgrace and death they want. That was what the +President meant. I didn't understand it then: I do understand it now. +They shall not murder him! I shall command him to remain in Richmond. I +shall command him to join Vincent. The North is unworthy of such men as +my son. He is too pure, too innocent, too high-minded to be understood +by the coarse natures that have come to power in the country. I shall +not let this odious Boone destroy him as he ruined your brother." + +"O Mrs. Sprague, think what you are saying! Think how fatal such words +would be, if Jack were brought to trial. You see every day in the press +how all are suspected of treason who were Democrats in the old days. I +know very well that you do not mean this. Much as I love Jack, I would +rather see him in his grave with the Union flag over him than in the +rebel lines, a soldier of that bad cause. As to my poor brother, Boone +was only an accident in his ruin. If it had not been Boone, it would +have been some one else. Put the whole matter in the hands of Simon +Brodie. He is almost a Sprague. He will see that the son of his old +patron has justice." + +Simon Brodie, of Warchester, was the chief advocate of the three +counties. He had studied law with the late Senator Sprague, and, at his +death, from partner succeeded to his lucrative law practice. He came at +once to Washington at Mrs. Sprague's summons, and set about learning the +status of the case. The affair was no easy matter to trace, but, after +inconceivable delays and persistent misleading, he found that Jack was +in the military archives charged with desertion, murder, and treason: +desertion in quitting his company and regiment without orders, treason +in consorting with armed rebels, and murder in joining with the enemies +of the country to take the life of his commanding officer. Meanwhile, +Mrs. Sprague and Merry had returned to Acredale, and the lawyer sent +letters to Richmond setting forth the case to Jack--letters which, by +some mysterious jugglery, never reached their address, as we have seen. +Nothing could be done until Jack was either exchanged or until his +advocate had made out a documentary case that could be presented to the +military authorities. As he surmised, every one in authority had been +prejudiced against Jack. The Congressman from Warchester dared not work +against Boone, who was potent as a Cabinet minister in the councils of +the Government. One of Senator Sprague's old friends, still in the +Senate, advised Brodie to let Jack remain at Richmond till the peace +came, "for," said he, "no Democrat nor any one identified with that +party can hope for impartial justice here." + +"But what am I to do? I can get no assistance here. Every bureau +containing documents bearing on the poor boy's case is either closed to +me, or the officials so hostile that I can not work with or +through them." + +"You must go about the affair as if it were a State matter. You must go +to McClellan. He is a young man of the most spotless honor, the most +generous sympathies. He is as rigid as a Prussian in discipline, but his +methods are enlightened and above board. He is the only man in authority +that has any real conception of the magnitude of the struggle the North +has entered upon. He is, however, miserably hampered. The new rulers +have come down to Washington very much in the spirit of the Goths when +they captured Rome. Every one is on the make. The contract system is +something beyond the wildest excesses I ever read of in pillage and +chicanery. Shoes by the million have been accepted that melt as soon as +they are wet; garments are stacked mountain-high in the storehouses that +blow into rags so soon as the air goes through them. Food, moldy, +filthy, is accumulated on the wharves of Washington, Baltimore, and +Alexandria that would be forbidden as infectious in any carefully +guarded port in the world. Contracts for vessels have been signed where +steamships are called for, and the contractor sends canal-boats. Lines +of ships are paid for to run to ports not known in navigation; and the +chief men in the great departments share the money with the rings--" + +"But why don't you expose it?" + +"Expose it? A word in the Senate against these villainies is set down as +disloyalty. All that a rascal needs to gain any scope he pleases, is to +say 'rebel sympathizer,' and Fort Warren or Lafayette is held up as +a menace." + +Among the confidential aides of McClellan Brodie knew intimately a young +officer, the son of a distinguished lady, whose writings delighted +cultivated people fifty years ago. This young man, Captain Churchland, +had often been a guest at the Spragues, and to him Brodie went for +advice. Inheriting a great deal of his mother's intellect, with a droll +sense of humor, not then so well understood as the lighter school of +writers have since made it, Churchland was the delight of the +headquarters. He listened to the melancholy story of Jack's +compromising plight. + +"It's a bad fix--no mistake," he said, gravely; "but I suggest that your +fiery young friend come home and shoot the father, marry the daughter, +and, as a wife can't testify against the husband, your client +is secure." + +"Ah, captain, it's not a matter for joking. Think of his wretched +mother." + +"That's just what I do think of--murder's no joke, though it's more of a +fine art than it was when De Quincey wrote. I'm perfectly serious. I +would shoot the scoundrel Boone. Why, do you know the man has cleared a +million dollars on rotten blankets since he came here? McClellan ordered +a report made out showing his rascalities a few weeks ago. It was +disapproved at the War Office, and the condemned blankets have gone to +Halleck's army. Doesn't that deserve shooting? Napoleon directed all the +army contractors to be hanged. I say shoot them. For every one put out +of the way a thousand soldiers' lives will be saved." + +"Well, well, let Boone go. It's Sprague I'm interested in." + +"So am I. It is Sprague that Boone seems to be interested in, too, for +he has filled the new Secretary with, what he himself would call, +righteous wrath against the poor boy and his friends. But make your mind +easy. The exchange of prisoners will soon begin. Sprague's turn will +come among the first, and then I will keep track of the affair. Beyond +that I can promise nothing. You may be sure, so far as purely military +men have to do with the business, there will be impartial justice. When +the politicians take hold, I can give no assurance." + +And with this cold comfort the disheartened lawyer betook himself to +Acredale, where his report, guardedly given, brought no very strong hope +to the anxious mother. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE WORLD WENT VERY ILL THEN. + + +Acredale was not the sleepy, sylvan scene we first saw it, when Mrs. +Sprague and Merry drove through the wide main street from the station, +four months after they had quitted it in search of their soldier boys. +The stately elms still arched the highway to Warchester, but here and +there rough gaps were seen in the trim hedge-rows. Staring new edifices +jutted through these breaks upon the grassy walks, and building material +lay heaped in confusion all along the graveled walks. Merry railed at +these evidences of commercial invasion, wondering who had come to the +village to transform it into city hideousness. Mrs. Sprague did not give +much heed to her companion's speculations. Her mind was far away on the +James, wondering where her boy was. It was very hard to settle down to +the commonplaces of home life; but, even in all her distraction, Mrs. +Sprague saw that a change had come upon the people as well as the place. +With the war and its desolating sights fresh in her memory, she saw, +with sorrow and aversion, that social life was gayer than it had ever +been, that the rush for wealth had become a fever, and that the simple +ways and homely joys of the past were now remitted to the very elderly. +The story of Dick's mad pursuit of Jack and the Caribees, after the +disaster at Bull Run, was soon known in every home in the county. +Friends came from far and near to hear the exciting adventure; and the +younger boys, who had been the lad's classmates in the academy, at once +made up a company of youngsters, adorned by the name of the "Perley +Rangers," to be in readiness for the hero's command when he +should return. + +The feud between the adherents of the houses of Sprague and Boone had +become acrimoniously embittered by the point of view from which each +side saw the conduct of Jack. Among the Boone feudatories he was set +down as a traitor, a spy, a murderer. The first malignant rumors that +reached the village after the battle were still maintained stoutly by +the Boone lictors. Jack had ingloriously shirked his part in the battle +with the Caribees; he had skulked in the bushes until the issue was +decided, and then had followed the sympathies of his secession family; +he had gone to the Atterburys, well known for their hatred to the North. +It was to prove his sincerity in the Southern cause that he had wormed +himself into the confidence of Wesley Boone's comrades, and in order +that he might be chief agent in the frustration of the plan of escape. + +He had won high regard in the Confederacy by saving Davis from capture. +He had, with his own hand, shot Wesley Boone when the plan of capture +was on the verge of success. Could anything be clearer than his odious +treason? Hadn't he, of all the unfortunates of the battle, found favor +and luxurious quarters in Richmond? Hadn't he cunningly cajoled the +Boones into the visit to the rebel household, in order to wrest the +secrets of the Union rescue from them? It was in vain that the Perleys +and others set forth the real case. "Very likely, indeed," the Boone +side cried, "that rebels like the Atterburys would receive true +Unionists into their house, and treat them as friends! A real Unionist +would have refused hospitality from the enemies of his country." There +was talk among the more zealous patriots of having the Sprague family +expelled from Acredale. Loyal zealots looked up the law on expatriation +and attainder, and complained bitterly that no applicable provisions +were found in the statutes. Stirring addresses were sent to the member +from Warchester, imploring him to have laws enacted that would enable +the patriots to deal summarily with covert treason. It was true that the +Spragues had contributed many thousand dollars toward the equipment of +the Caribees, had endowed twenty beds in one of the city hospitals for +the wounded--but this was when Jack expected high command in the +regiment. Failing in that ignoble self-seeking, he had gone where his +heart was, while the family, to retain their property, remained among +the loyal, to insult their woe and gloat over their misfortunes. + +At a great "war meeting" in the town-hall, over which Boone presided, +one thrilling orator hinted that fire, if not the law, could "relieve a +loyal community of the Copperhead's nest!" "It was an insult, as well as +a menace, to have the patrician palace of disloyalty flaunting its +grandeurs among a people loyal and devoted, whose sons and brothers were +battling for the Union. Every rebel sympathizer driven from the North +would strengthen the Union cause; ashes and salt sowed on the ground +their insolent homes had desecrated, would be a holy reminder to the +loyal, a warning to the secret foes of the Union." + +There were loud expressions of approval, and a solemn "Amen" to this +intrepid plan of campaign. Lawyer Brodie, who was present, arose under a +thunder of discordant notes--"Copperhead!" "Traitor!" "Dough-face!" "We +don't want to hear from rebel sympathizers! Out with him!" and other +more opprobrious taunts. Now, Brodie was Boone's counsel, and had been +identified with him in some very difficult litigation. It would not do +to have him discredited. The chairman rapped loudly for order. + +"I can vouch, my friends, for Mr. Brodie's patriotism. He is a Democrat, +it is true; but he loves the Union. I know that to be a fact. You can do +the Union no better service than listening to what he has to say." + +Brodie, who had held his place, calmly smiled as Boone sat down, and, +surveying the audience from side to side, began: + +"Free speech was one of the cries that aroused the North in the late +campaign, I believe in free speech. I have done my share toward securing +it, but I never was refused it before. I look among the men here and see +among you neighbors whom I have known since boyhood, neighbors who have +known me since boyhood, and when I arise here to take a citizen's part, +in a meeting called to aid and comfort the cause of the Union, I am +permitted to speak only by the personal request of one man. If that is +your idea of free speech, if that is your notion of aiding the Union +cause, and strengthening the hands of the Administration, I don't need +to be in the confidence of the rebel authorities to tell you that they +could ask no more powerful allies than you! [Sensation.] + +"There are three hundred men in this hall. The light is good, and my +eyesight is not impaired; but I can not see a man among you who was not +a Democrat a year or two ago. There are not fifty men among you that +voted for Abraham Lincoln. [Murmurs.] Are the two hundred and fifty, +then, traitors? Are they rebel sympathizers? Are they Copperheads? One +thousand men marched under the Caribee flag; not a man of them voted for +Lincoln. Are they Copperheads? This township, by its vote at the last +election, was five to one Democratic. Is this a Copperhead community? +Nearly a half million dollars have been subscribed for bounties and war +measures; the tax-payers, almost to a man, are Democrats. Is it +possible, then, that the Copperheads are supplying the money to carry on +the war? You propose to burn the mansion of my old partner, Senator +Sprague! Why? Because his estate has given more to the Union cause than +any other family in the township?" + +"The son has gone over to the rebels," a voice cried. + +"Thank you. There--I'm glad you have given me the chance to crush that +cowardly calumny--the invention of some envious malefactor. Jack Sprague +has gone over to the rebels, just as Anderson and his men went over at +Sumter; just as fifteen hundred of his comrades went over at Bull Run; +just as some of our sons and brothers here in Acredale went over; just +as my friend, Boone's son, went over--because he was surrounded +and wounded." + +"Stop a moment, if you please, friend Brodie; I protest against your +making anything in common between my son and this young man. The matter +is to be investigated, and then we can tell better." + +Boone spoke in great excitement, and the audience, now feverishly +wrought up, urged the lawyer to say his say out. He continued in the +trained, impassive tones of the advocate: + +"Every one in this room knows the two young men. It would be waste of +time for me to strive to make anything in common between John Sprague +and Wesley Boone. Here, where they both grew up, that is quite +unnecessary." + +"I--I--referred to their conduct as soldiers," Boone cried, hoarsely. +"My son lost his life in the service of his country. I can't have his +name coupled with a--murderer's--with a traitor's." + +"Ah, my friend, when hate draws your portrait it is bound to be black. +When prejudice holds the pen, your virtues stand in the shade of vice. I +will tell John Sprague's story from the day he quit Acredale to the +unhappy hour his comrade was killed in the dark, in the sleeping-room of +the mother and daughter who had nursed him from the very jaws of death. +He was in that house by his father's urgent request, though it would +have needed none to open its doors to any one in want of succor. Nor," +he added, significantly, "can it be told who killed Wesley Boone until +all the shots fired in Mrs. Atterbury's chamber are accounted for." + +Then he narrated rapidly, but tellingly, the substance of what has been +already set down in this history--the facts taken from Jack's letters +and attested by the corroboration of Barney, Dick, and the company's +officers. There was a visible revulsion in the larger part of the +audience as the tale went on; and when the lawyer wound up with the +story of Mrs. Sprague's baffled efforts in Washington to have her boy +brought North, there was an outburst of applause and a faint cheer from +the younger men for "glorious old Jack." + +The factions shifted a good deal after this official rendering of the +affair. There was no longer any talk of burning the Sprague property, +and opinion was about evenly divided as to Jack's conduct. December had +come, and the township was busy packing boxes to send to the army. No +news had come North from Richmond. Active movements were looked for +every day, and in the momentous expectation such lesser incidents as +exchange were forgotten or ignored. The daily journals were filled with +details of contemplated expeditions, and one morning Mrs. Sprague read +with beating heart this paragraph in the _Herald_: + +"A score or more of the men who escaped from the Richmond prison a few +weeks ago, arrived at Washington to-day from Fort Monroe. The party +endured untold privations in the swamps between Williamsburg and our +line on the Warwick, but all came in safely, except two men who died +from the results of their wounds. The expedition was planned and carried +out by an agent of General Butler, who has been in Virginia since the +unfortunate attempt to rescue Captain Boone of the 'Caribee' regiment. +At the moment the party reached the Union outpost, one of the most +daring of the Union men, Sergeant Jacques of the Caribees, was, it is +thought, mortally wounded." + +Merry, too, had seen the story, and came over to show it to Mrs. +Sprague. + +"I have seen it, I have seen it. Who of the Caribees can these be? Who +is Jacques? I never heard that name here." + +"Ah! he must be one of the town recruits. It's a French name." + +"Yes, it is part of a rather famous French name," Mrs. Sprague replied, +half smiling at Merry's innocence. "Something must be done to get into +communication with these escaped men. Some of them must have seen Jack. +If there are Caribees among them, you may be sure they have messages +from our boys. I think I shall set out for Washington, or ask Mr. +Brodie to go." + +"That's better. Mr. Brodie can get at the men and you couldn't. I shall +be in a fever until we have heard from them." + +Brodie agreed with the ladies when, later, they discussed the matter +with him, and that evening he set out for Washington. Mrs. Sprague at +the tea-table with Merry, who made it a point to give the lonely mother +as much of her time as she could spare, was still pondering the +paragraph when the sound of carriage-wheels came in through the closed +curtains. Then the front door opened without knocking, and there was a +rustle in the hallway, and then, with a simultaneous scream, three +agitated females, to wit, Mrs. Sprague, Merry, and Olympia, in a +confused mass. + +"O my child! my child!" + +"Mamma!" + +"Dearest, dearest Olympia," Merry splutters, wildly embracing both. + +"Oh, how delightful to be here, to see you, mamma as peaceful and serene +as in the old days! I thought I should never get home. I left Richmond +three weeks ago. I was held at Fredericksburg for ten days. Then I had +to turn back when we got to Manassas, through some red tape lacking +there. But here I am. Here I am at home--ugh!--I shall never quit it +again--never." + +"But, my child. Tell us--Jack!" + +"Jack? Haven't you heard from him? He escaped three weeks ago. It was he +who got the men out of the prison. Dick was with him. Surely you have +heard of that?" and Olympia sank into the nearest chair, all the gayety +gone from her face, her eyes questioning the two wretched women. Neither +could for the moment control her agitation; neither was capable of +thinking. All that was in their minds was this dire specter of a month's +silence. Alive, Jack or Dick would have found means to relieve +their anxiety. + +"Surely you heard that a party had escaped from Libby and made their way +to Fort Monroe?" Olympia cried, desperately. + +"Fort Monroe?" Mrs. Sprague echoed mechanically. "Yes, ah, yes. Merry, +where's the paper?" + +Olympia devoured the meager scrap and then dropped the journal on her +knees. Her mind was in a whirl. In Richmond the escape had been +announced, then the news that the party had been surrounded in the +swamp, then day by day details of the taking of straggling negroes and +one or two soldiers, but no name that even resembled Jack's. The +Atterburys, after the first painful sensation, had given their approval +of Jack's going, and used all means in their power to get such facts as +would comfort Olympia. They assured her that Jack had reached the Union +lines, and then she had set out northward, expecting to find him at home +or in communication with his family. No word from Dick? No word from +Jack? They were dead, and she--she had urged them to the mad adventure! +She had given Jack no peace, had fired Dick to the fatal enterprise. She +dared not look in the tearless eyes of her mother. She dared not face +the ghastly questioning in Merry's meek eye. Brodie had gone down to see +the escaped men. Perhaps he would discover something. This was the small +comfort left the three when, near midnight, they ended the woful +conference. + +The next day Olympia was visited by a representative of the _Crossbow_, +the chief journal of Warchester, and urged to write a narrative of her +adventures in the rebel capital. Until her friends made her see how much +effect it would have in clearing Jack's reputation she shrank from the +publicity, but with that end in view--Jack's honor--she wrote, and wrote +with strength and clearness, the moving incidents of her brother's +capture, captivity, and escape--or his bold effort to escape. This she +told so simply, so directly, so vividly, that the truth of it at once, +struck the most prejudiced reader, who had no cause to continue in his +prepossession. After the publication in the Warchester paper scores who +had sided with the Boone faction either called or wrote to confess their +error. Even the Acredale _Monitor_, a weekly sheet notoriously in the +interest of Boone, felt constrained to copy parts of the account and +publish with it a shambling retraction of previous criticism, based on +imperfect knowledge, that it had printed concerning Sergeant Sprague. +"Death," it declared, "has obliterated all feeling that existed against +our young townsman, whose conduct, though open to grievous doubt in the +early part of his military career has been amply atoned for in the +intrepid enterprise in which he seems to have lost his life." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +A WOMAN'S REASON. + + +The still, small voice that makes itself a force in the heart, which the +poets call our mentor and the moralists conscience, had been painfully +garrulous in Kate Boone's breast since the angry parting with Jack at +Rosedale. At first, in the wild grief of Wesley's death, she had hugged +hatred of Jack to her heart as a sublime revenge for the murder. But +with the hot partisanship allayed in the long weeks of reflection +preceding the rumor of Jack's own death, she began dimly to admit of +palliation in her lover's fatal act. Her father, the Boone faction, all +who had access to her, held the shooting to be a craftily planned +murder, calculated to bring advantage to the assassin. To check the +sacrilegious love she felt in her heart, she too had been forced to +believe, to admit the worst. But when the image of Jack came to her +mind, as it did day and night, it was as the gay, frank, chivalrous +Hotspur, as unlike a murderer as Golgotha to Hesperides. She had never +dared to confide to her father that vows had been exchanged between, +them--that they were, in fact, affianced lovers. He, never suspecting, +talked with her day after day of the signal vengeance in store for the +miscreant; how he had enlisted the aid of the most powerful in +Washington; how he had instructed the emissaries sent to Richmond to +effect Wesley's release, to direct all their energies to entrapping the +murderer into the ranks of the escaping prisoners. + +She had often been startled by her father's far-seeing, malignantly +planned vengeances, and, now that the rumor of Jack's death began to +settle into belief, she was appalled by a sudden sense of complicity in +a murderous plot. Not that she believed her father capable of murder or +its procuration, but, knowing his potency with the authorities, she saw +that there were many ways in which Jack might be sacrificed in the +natural course of military duties. She had heard things of the sort +discussed--how inconvenient men had been sent into pitfalls and never +heard of again. + +She began dimly to see that, at worst, Jack's act was not the calculated +murder her father held it to be. In her own tortured mind there had been +at first but one clear process of reasoning. That process, whenever she +began to gather the shreds, had led her mind straight to the conviction +that Jack's shot had been premeditated, that the chance had been +prearranged with the enemies of her brother. At first her only distinct +thought was that the hapless Wesley had been lured to his death. The +hand of the man she loved had sent the fatal shot into the poor boy's +body. Had it been in self-defense--even in the heat of uncontrollable +anger--she could have found mitigation for Jack; but there was neither +the justification of self-defense nor the plausible pretext of anger. +One word of warning, which Jack could have spoken, would have saved +Wesley from the rash, the dastardly attempt upon the Rosedale household. +The plot, in all its details, must have been known to Jack or Dick, else +how explain their presence in the chamber, armed and ready for +the murder? + +It had been a conspiracy of delusive kindness from the day Wesley +entered Rosedale. The frankness and kindliness of the Atterburys had +been assumed to lure him to his fatal adventure. Boone himself believed +that Jack's ignoble ambition and envy had been the main motives in the +murder. To this Kate, from the first, opposed a resolute incredulity. + +"You don't know the fellow, I tell you," Boone doggedly argued. "He's as +like his father as two snakes in a hole. Old man Sprague never let a man +stand in his way. Jack's the same. He thought Wes' kept him from the +shoulder-straps, and he got him out of the way. Wasn't he always +snooping 'round in the regiment trying to undermine your brother? Wasn't +he always trying to be popular? Ah, I know the Spragues. But I'll give +them a wrench that'll twist their damned pride out of them. I'll have +that cold-blooded young villain shot in a hollow square, and I'll have +it done in this very district, that the whole county may know the +disgrace of the high and mighty Spragues." + +"No, father." Kate had heard all this before, but she, for the first +time, resolved upon setting her father right. "No, Jack hasn't a +particle of the feeling you ascribe to him. I don't think he liked poor +Wesley. They were totally unlike in nature, and I think that Jack felt +deeply that he had been wronged by Wesley's appointment. But it was not +in his nature to seek revenge. He would have fought Wesley openly, but +he would never be one of a gang of murderers. I think I can see how Jack +was led into the part he played. It does not lessen the guilt, but it +relieves him of the odious suspicions I first felt." + +Then Boone, in irritable impatience, reminded her of her own earlier +utterances; how from his first coming Wesley had been treated with +studied distrust; how he had been denied the boyish intimacy that +existed between Jack and Dick; how he was insensibly made to feel that +he was in the house under a different cartel from that of Jack and Dick; +that he was a prisoner on parole, and his word was doubted. Nothing +could make him believe, he declared, getting up moodily, but that the +whole lot of them had set out to drive Wesley into a corner and then +kill him, as they had done. + +Kate sighed wearily as her father left the room. If she could only be as +well assured as her strong words implied! Ah! if she could fetch back +her lover by getting at the truth, how willingly she would fly to +Rosedale and learn all! But she dared not question, lest questioning +should confirm, where she now at least had the miserable solace of +doubt. Could it be true? Could Jack be the base schemer her father +depicted him? Then her mind ran back to Rosedale. She lived again all +the enchanting days of that earthly paradise. She saw Wesley's furtive +starts, his strange disappearances, his growing melancholy, his moody +reticence when she questioned him. Ah! if he had but confided to her! If +she had but dreamed of the desperate purpose born of the loneliness he +lived in! If Jack had been loyal to him, loyal to her, Wesley would have +been warned that eager eyes were upon him, ready wits reading his +purposes, and revengeful hatred ready to slaughter him. + +When the news came that Jack had lost his life in the very enterprise +Wesley had contemplated, Kate collapsed under the shock. Now, when it +was too late, she convinced herself that he was innocent. If she could +have recalled him to life, she cried in self-reproach, she would not ask +whether he was all her first impulse had painted him. She had borne up +with something like composure when Wesley's death came upon her; but +now, tortured by a sense of responsibility in Jack's fate, she gave way +to the grief she had so long repressed. If she had not upbraided him, if +she had not accused him, in so many words, of murder, he would never +have embarked on the mad plot of escape. + +She had driven him to his death. She had sat silent while Acredale rang +with calumnies against him. It was not too late yet to make reparation. +She would proclaim publicly that her brother had rashly courted his own +death; that Jack had unknowingly shot him down, as many a man does, in +battle, shoot his best friend. She resolved on the instant to go to the +stricken family and make such expiation there as was in her power. But +was there any certainty that the report of Jack's death was true? +Grievous mistakes of the same sort had been made repeatedly in the +public journals. She was not able to formulate any plan at first. Her +father was more morose than ever. He seemed in his way to deplore the +young man's death, but not in pity, as she soon learned. Death had +robbed him of a cruelly meditated revenge. She wisely made no comment +when this brutal feeling betrayed itself; but for the first time in her +life the girl shuddered at the sight of her father. The vague rumors of +years, that had been whispered about him--rumors which of old had fired +her soul with hot indignation, came back insidiously. She shuddered. Was +she to lose all--brother, lover, father--in this unnatural strife? She +had been so loyal to her father. She had been so proud of him when +others reviled. She had felt so serenely confident of the nobleness of +his heart, the generosity of his impulses. She had always been able to +mold him, as she thought. Could it be possible that he was human to her, +inhuman to the rest of the world? Then her mind, tortured by newly +awakened doubts, ran back over the events leading to the rupture with +the Spragues. She groaned at the retrospect. It was injustice that had +displaced Jack in the command of the company. It was injustice that had +marked her father's conduct in the Perley feud. + +Grief is a logician of very direct methods. Its clarifying processes +work like light in darkness. Kate saw the past in her father's conduct +with terrifying vividness. She realized that it was her father's harsh +purpose that had arrayed Acredale against him. It was his pride and +arrogant obstinacy that had brought about the loss of all she loved. The +fates had immolated the helpless; were the fates preparing a still +bitterer expiation? Life had very little left for her now, but she +resolved that she would no longer be isolated by her father's enmities. +The great house had been gloomy enough for father and daughter during +the last miserable months, but he still fled to her for comfort. It was +one evening when he came in, apparently in better spirits than he had +shown since Wesley's death, that she told him what had been filling her +mind since Jack's death. + +"O father, I think I see that our lives have been unworthy, if not +altogether wrong. Surely such neighbors as ours could not all take sides +against you, if you were in the right in all the feuds that have divided +us as a family from the people of Acredale." + +Then, in an almost imploring tone of reproach, she retraced the harsh +episodes in the father's dealings with the Perleys, with the community, +and, finally, the quarrel with the Spragues, involving in it the lives +of Wesley and Jack. Her voice softened into tremulousness. She arose, +and in her old pleading way pulled the shaggy head down on her breast, +pressing her lips on the high, bare forehead. + +"Dear father, all this is unchristian; you have in reality been waging +war against women and children. Jack was a mere boy, Richard is a boy. I +don't go into other enmities, where you have used the enormous power of +wealth to crush the helpless. If you had not alienated the Spragues and +encouraged Wesley in overbearing Jack, my brother would be alive to-day. +My sweetheart--yes, Jack was dearer than all the world to me--he would +not be dead to-day. Ah! father, father, what good comes of anger--what +joy of revenge? You have brought about the death of these two boys. Is +it not time to look at life with a new heart--with clear-seeing eyes?" + +Elisha Boone sat quite still. He had listened at first with a flush of +anger, which deepened as the girl pleaded, until it died away and left +his face very pale. He pushed himself away from the clinging figure, as +if the better to see her face. Then his head drooped. He sighed heavily, +rose and without a word left the room. Kate heard him ascending the +stairs, then the sound of his room door softly closing. Had the hateful +fires of vengeance been quenched? It was her father's way, when +resolutely opposed, to quit the scene and without confessing himself in +the wrong, do as Kate urged. The next morning he was gone before she +reached the breakfast-table. There was a note on her plate in his +handwriting. She read with a sinking heart: + +"MY DAUGHTER: If what you said last night is true, you +can not be the daughter to me that you have been. I am +going to Washington, and when I come back you will know +that your brother was deliberately murdered, and that his +murderer, even in the grave, is held guilty before all men +of the crime." + +The servant confirmed the tidings. Her father had arisen early and +departed on the first train. What could it mean? Had he some evidence +that she had not heard? Had Jack left papers incriminating him? Ah! why +carry the hideous feud further? Why blast the melancholy repose of the +living, by fastening this stain upon the dead? But they could not. She +knew it. She could herself refute any proof brought forward. She would +tell all. She would reveal their tender relationship, and surely then +any one, knowing the young man's nature, would scout the assertion of +his willfully shooting Wesley. But surely Olympia and Mrs. Sprague must +be able to tell, and tell decisively, the circumstances in the tragedy. +She would go to them. She owed this to the living; she owed it still +more imperatively to the dead. She had not seen Olympia since her +return. Mrs. Sprague had been too infirm to see her when she called. But +she would not heed rebuffs now. In such a cause, on such a mission, she +would have stood at the Sprague door a suppliant until even the +obstinacy of her father would have relented. On her way across the +square she saw Merry coming from the post. She turned out of her way, +and hurrying to the near-sighted spinster held out her hand, +saying, softly: + +"Ah, Miss Merry, I'm so glad to see you! I have been meaning to call on +you ever since I heard of your return, but, what with sorrow and +illness, I have put it off, and now I want you to take me home with you. +Will you not?" + +The pleading tone, the caressing clasp of the hand, the sadly changed +face, the somber black weeds, made the voice and figure so much unlike +the old Kate, that Merry stood for an instant confused and blushing as +she stammered: + +"Bless me, Miss Kate, I--I--shouldn't have known you. Ah, I am very glad +to see you; sisters will be very glad to see you, too. Do, do come right +along with me. I'm afraid the parlor won't be very sightly, but you +won't mind, will you?" + +Kate squeezed the hand still resting in her own, and drawing the long +veil back over face, she walked silently with the puzzled spinster, +unable to broach the theme she had at heart. Merry spared her the +torture of going at it obliquely. + +"I have just been at the Spragues. Poor dears, they are in dreadful +distress. Mrs. Sprague is preparing to go in search of the body, but +Olympia won't give in that Jack is killed. She says that if he had been +she certainly would have known it in Richmond, for there are couriers +twice a day from the rebel outposts to the capital; that the Atterburys +had taken special measures to learn the fate of the escaped prisoners; +that, besides this, several young men in Richmond, who knew Jack well, +had been sent down the peninsula with the prisoners, to befriend him in +case he were retaken." + +"And Olympia believes that Jack is alive?" + +"Yes, firmly." + +"Where does she think he is?" + +"She believes that he is among a squad separated from the rest of the +prisoners, near the Union lines. It was asserted in Richmond that many +had crossed the James River, and were making for the Dismal Swamp, or +into Burnside's lines in North Carolina." + +"Dear Miss Merry, I--I--think I won't go in now," Kate said, +tremblingly. "I must see Olympia. Perhaps I can help them in the search +for Jack, and you know there is no time to lose. I shall come and see +you all soon." + +She squeezed the astonished Merry's hand, convulsively, and shot off, +leaving the bewildered lady quite speechless, so speechless that, when +she reached the stately presence of Aunt Pliny, she forgot the +commissions she had been sent to execute, and was at once reviled by the +parrot as "a no-account dawdler." + +Meanwhile, Kate, with wild, throbbing hope in her heart that kindled +color in her pale cheeks and light in her weary eyes, sped away to the +Spragues. There was no tremor in the hand that raised the dragon-headed +knocker, nor hesitancy in the voice that bade the servant say that "Miss +Boone requested a few moments' conversation with Miss Sprague." + +Olympia came presently into the reception-room, and the girls met with a +warm embrace. + +"Ah, Olympia, I have been made so--so--glad by what Merry tells me! +You--do--not believe that your brother is dead?" Her voice faltered, and +Olympia, gazing at her fixedly, said: + +"No, I shall not believe Jack is dead until I see his body. Poor mother, +who believes the worst whenever we are out of her sight, has given up +all but the faintest hope. I shall not. I know Jack so well. I know that +it would take a good deal to kill him, young and strong as he is. +Besides that, I know that the Atterburys would find means to let us +know, if there were any certainty as to his fate. Poor Jack! It would be +an unendurable calamity if he were to die before the monstrous calumnies +that have been published about him are proved lies." + +"Dear Olympia, that is one reason of my coming. In my horror at +Rosedale, I, too, believed that John had been in a plot to entrap +Wesley; but I--I--know better now, and I have come to tell you that it +is no less my duty than my right to see that your brother's memory is +made as spotless as his life." + +"I knew it; I knew you would, do it; I told Jack so in Richmond, almost +the last words I said before he set out on this miserable adventure. I +told him you were not the girl I took you for if you could believe him +to be such a dastard, when you had time to get over the shock of poor +Wesley's death. You never heard the whole story of that dreadful night. +I must tell it to you--as he would if he were here, and I know you would +believe him." The two girls sat down, hand in hand, and Olympia told +the tale as it has been set down in these pages. + +Kate was sobbing when the story ended. She flung her arms about +Olympia's neck, and for a time the two sat silent, tearful. + +"Oh, why didn't he tell me this at the time? It was not Jack's bullet +that entered poor Wesley's body. Jack was at his right, at the side of +the bed. Wesley's wound was on the left side, and the shot must have +come from Jones's pistol!" + +"I remember that; but Jack's remorse put all thought of everything else +out of my head. I recall, perfectly, that the wound was in Wesley's left +side. Oh, if I could only get that word to Jack! I If--" + +"I'll get it to him if he's alive. I, or mine, have been his undoing! I +shall make amends. Ah, Olympia, I--I am ashamed to feel so full of +joy--forgive me." + +"It isn't your fault, dear, that you didn't know Jack as we do," Olympia +said, tenderly. + +"What are your plans?" Kate asked, presently. + +"Mother insists upon going to the peninsula and examining the ground, +questioning all who took part in the pursuit, and seeing with her own +eyes every wounded man in the neighborhood. I don't know whether we can +get passes, but we shall set out at once and do our best." + +"O Olympia. I must--I must go with you! I shall die if I remain here +doing nothing--helpless! Let me go. I can aid you much. I can surely get +all the passports required. I can do many things that you couldn't do, +for my father--" + +She stopped and colored. Her father! What was she rashly promising for +him? Dead, he was bent on Jack's dishonor; living, he would never rest +until Jack's life was condemned. + +"Ah, yes--that's true. Your father is potent at headquarters. I can +answer for mamma. We shall be delighted and comforted to have you. I +shall need you as much as mamma needs me. We are only waiting for Mr. +Brodie's report. I don't expect much from his researches. It is only a +woman's heart that upholds one in such trials as this search means." + +The plans were agreed upon at once and the two girls separated, knit +together by the same bond in more senses than one, for, while Olympia +set out to rescue her brother, she secretly hoped that the search would +bring her near some one else; and so, as soon as Kate had gone, she sat +down and wrote Vincent of Jack's disappearance, asking his aid in +finding such traces as might be in the rebel lines. She merely alluded +to their projected plan, adding, in a postscript, that she would write +him as soon as the party approached the outposts. Kate wrote at once to +her father, at his Washington address, narrating her visit to the +Spragues, telling him of the new hope that had come to her, and +beseeching him to lend his whole heart to the distressed mother and +sister. He should see her in Washington within a few days, and she +counted on his sympathy with her to help to restore the lost son and +brother if alive, to co-operate in giving the body honorable burial if +he were dead. These letters dispatched, the party waited only to hear +from Brodie. He came a day or two later, but he could give them no hope. +He had been repelled from all sources of information, insulted in the +War Office, and denied access to the President. He was convinced that +there were secret influences at work to obscure the true facts in the +case of the escaped prisoners, but what the agencies were he could not +guess. When Olympia told this to Kate, she was surprised at her look +and response. + +"I know the influences, I think, and I can discover the agencies. Take +comfort. I believe Jack is alive. I promise you that I shall never rest +until he is found, alive or dead." + +"O Kate, what an impulsive ally we have gained! I wish Jack could have +heard that speech; it would have put power in his arm, as poor Barney +used to say." + +Twenty-four hours later the three women were in Washington, Kate +remaining with her friends, instead of joining her father at Willard's. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +A GAME OF CHANCE. + + +It was the end of January, 1862, when Olympia and her mother found +themselves in Washington for the second time in quest of the missing +soldier. They took lodgings in the same quiet house, not far from +Lafayette Square--Kate with them. Kate counted upon her father's aid, +active or passive; but when her messenger returned from Willard's with +word that Mr. Boone had gone from the hotel several days before, she was +numb with a dreadful foreboding. He was avoiding her deliberately. She +drove at once to the hotel. The clerk summoned to her aid could only +inform her that her father had given up his room and had left the hotel +late at night. She could get no further clew. She telegraphed at once to +Acredale and returned to the Spragues, not daring to breathe her +apprehensions. Yes, her father was plainly keeping away from her. He +meant to persist in his savage vengeance. What had he learned? Was Jack +indeed dead, and was his good name the object of her father's hatred? +Whither should she turn? Why had she not thought of this--her fathers +passivity or even opposition? How could she reveal her terrors to the +mother and sister? How make known to them the unworthy side of her +father's character? If in the morning no telegram came from Acredale, it +would be proof that her father was bent, implacably in his purpose to +undo Jack, living or dead. When she reached the lodging, Olympia was +dressed for the street. + +"You are just in time. I have matured my plans. First, we must find out +at the proper quarter the names of all the wounded brought here from +Fort Monroe. Then we must trace the report in the _Herald_ down to its +origin. Then we must visit every hospital in and near Washington to find +out from actual sight of each man whether Jack or Dick, or any one we +know, is in the city. As we go on, we shall learn a good deal which may +modify this plan, or perhaps make the search less difficult." + +Olympia said this with composure and a certain confidence in herself +that struck Kate with admiration. She felt ashamed of herself. Here was +Olympia, unconscious of Jack's real peril if living, the menace to his +reputation if dead, planning as composedly as if it were an every-day +thing to have a brother lost in the appalling mazes of war; and she had +been weakly depending upon her father, Jack's most persevering enemy! +She recoiled from herself in a shiver of self-reproach as she said: + +"Olympia, you have the good sense of a man in an emergency. I am ashamed +of myself. I, who ought to do the thinking for you, am as helpless as a +kitchen-maid set to playing lady in the parlor. I can at least help you; +I can make my body follow you, if I haven't sense enough to suggest." + +"Dear Kate, it isn't sense, or insight, or any fine quality of mind that +is needed here. All I ask is, that you won't get dispirited, or, if you +do, don't let mamma see you are. Poor mamma! She is as easily influenced +as a baby. Jack is her darling, remember. All the world is a small +affair to her compared with our poor boy. I fancy, if we were as much +wrapped up in him as she is, we should make poor pioneers in the +wilderness before us." + +But Kate could stand no more of this. With a choking sob she turned and +fled up the stairway, crying as she disappeared: "Wait--wait a moment; I +must get my purse." + +When she reappeared, the heavy mourning-veil was drawn down, and +Olympia, with a reassured glance, opened the door. + +"You must affect confidence, if you have it not--even gayety. I warn you +not to be shocked at my conduct. I must keep up mamma's spirits, and to +do it I must play indifference or confidence, and you must be careful to +say nothing, to do nothing, to excite her suspicions." + +Kate's cab had driven off, and the two girls walked through Lafayette +Square into Pennsylvania Avenue to get another. The wide streets were +filled, as of old, with skurrying orderlies, groups of lounging +officers, and lumbering army wagons. But even the untrained eyes of +Olympia soon took account of the better discipline, the more +businesslike celerity of the men on duty as well as the flying couriers. +The White House was gay with hunting, and salutes from the distant forts +were signalizing the news that had just come of Union successes at Mill +Spring and Roanoke Island. The girls, procuring a hack, were driven to +the provost-general's office. Here, after an interminable delay they +were admitted to the presence of a complacent young coxcomb in spotless +regimentals, who, so soon as he saw Olympia's face and bearing, threw +off the listlessness of routine, and, rising deferentially, asked her +pleasure. She told her story simply, and asked his advice as to the +course to be followed. When the extract from the _Herald_ was shown to +him, he examined an enormous folio, and then rang a bell. + +"It is more than likely that these names are wrong. This happens +constantly. The operators are raw and some of them can barely read. The +names are given hurriedly, and if not written plainly they make wretched +work of them. The newspapers make many a fool famous, while neglecting +many a hero who deserves fame, simply through the blundering or +carelessness of the writers or operators. Here is an orderly who will +take you to the surgeon-general. You will find in his books the names of +all the wounded in hospital in the Eastern armies. But if your brother +was wounded or brought in wounded at Fort Monroe, his name will be on +the books of the Army of the Potomac or the Department of Eastern +Virginia." + +They were treated with the same deferential gallantry at the +surgeon-general's office; the young doctors, indeed, became almost +obtrusive in their eagerness to spare the young women the drudgery of +scrutinizing the long lists of invalids. But, after two days' careful +search, no names resembling Sprague or Perley could be found. + +"I wonder who this can be?" Kate said, returning to an entry made a +month before: "Jones, Warchester; Caribee Regiment." + +"I know no one of that name," Olympia said, "but perhaps he might know +something of Jack. Let us go to him. It will do no harm to find out +who he is." + +The surgeon's clerk readily gave them Jones's address, reminding them +that the hospital was in Georgetown, and that they would be too late to +obtain entrance to the patient that day. Next morning Mrs. Sprague was +too ill to rise from her bed, and Olympia could not leave her alone. +Kate undertook the investigation into the Jones affair alone. When she +reached the hospital there was some delay before she could see the +personage intrusted with the admission of guests. She was shown into an +office on the ground-floor and given a seat. As she sat, distraught and +eager, she heard her own name in the next room, the door of which +stood open: + +"It's at Boone's risk. He would have him moved, and the surgeon-general +gave him _carte blanche_ with the patient." + +"Well, it will cost the man his life. I'll stake my diploma on that. +Why, the journey to Warchester alone is enough to down the most vigorous +convalescent." + +Kate trembled. What did this mean? What was she hearing? +Boone--Warchester? Whom had her father been taking from the +hospital--Jack? Her heart gave a wild leap. Yes--Jack. Who else did her +father know in the army? She arose trembling, fainting, but resolute. +She reached the open door, but tried for a moment in vain to ask: + +"If you please, tell me, tell me--" But she could say no more. The +occupants of the room, in undress uniform, turned upon her at first in +hostile surprise, but, as she threw her veil farther back in alarm, the +elder of the two said: + +"Pray, madam, what is it; are you ill?" + +"No; may I sit down, please? Thank you. I am come to, to--" What should +she say? How expose the doubt of her father? How find out for certain +who had been removed to Warchester--abducted was the word her agitated +thoughts shaped. Oh, if Olympia, intrepid, self-possessed, were only +with her!--but no, not Olympia; no one must ever know the unutterable +crime she suspected her father of. She must be brave. She must be +resolute. Oh, where were her arts now, when she most needed them? She +tried to speak. A hoarse gasping came in her throat and died there. + +"Ah--ah--some water!--I--I am faint." + +In an instant a goblet of cool water was at her lips. She drank slowly, +deliberating all the time to recover her senses; the surgeons--both +young men, mere lads--waiting respectfully, inferring much from the +melancholy robes. The water cooled her head, and she began to be able to +think coherently. + +"I have the surgeon-general's permit to visit a patient in your fever +ward--Jones, the name is. Can I see him?" + +"Pray, let me see the permit, madam?" He glanced at it, looked +significantly at his comrade, and said: + +"This man was removed three days ago." + +"Whereto?" + +"Warchester." + +"Ah!" Kate's veil, by an imperceptible gesture, fell over part of her +face. A great trembling came upon her again. The young surgeons +exchanged glances. + +"Who--who--did--who asked for his removal?" + +"A Mr. Boone, also of Warchester." + +"Thank you--I am too late--I wanted to--to ask this Mr. Jones some +questions concerning a dear friend in his regiment. But I can write, if +you will kindly give me the address." + +"I am very sorry--beyond Warchester we have no record here of his +whereabouts. If he had been officially transferred to another government +hospital, we should have all the facts. But the removal was a personal +favor to Mr. Boone. He is well known both here and in Warchester, and +you can have no difficulty in communicating with him." + +"Ah, true; I had forgotten that." + +"If we can be of any service to you, Miss Sprague," the young man said, +handing Kate back the permit, made out in Olympia's name, which Kate had +never thought of, "you can always reach us through the surgeon-general's +office." He handed her a card with his own and his comrade's name +in pencil. + +Thanking the young man with as much self-possession as she could summon, +Kate reached the carriage in a whirl of wild imaginings, more terrifying +as she strove to reduce them to definite shape. Who was this Jones? Why +remove him to Warchester? If it were not Jack, what interest could her +father have in his removal? But. first, what could she say to Olympia? +She could say she did not know Jones, but Olympia would surely ask what +questions she had put to him. What should she say? That he had been +taken away from the hospital? She knew Olympia well enough to know that +this vague story would only incite her to further inquiry. She would +find out the father's handiwork in the affair, and she, too, would be +set on the rack of suspicion. + +When the carriage reached the door, Kate dared not enter. She dismissed +the man and set out toward the green fields below the rounded slope of +Meridian Hill. Here she could breathe freely. "I can think clearly now," +she panted, with a gush of warm tears. If she could only remain calm, +she could look Into the black abyss with the eye of reason, rather than +terror. Calmness came soothingly as she walked, and she began at the +beginning, weighing probabilities. All seemed dark and hopeless, until +she came back to the record in the surgeon-general's office. Jones, sent +from Hampton Hospital, December 13th. This was about the time Jack had +reached the Union lines. He had left Richmond late in November. All +Brodie's inquiries at Fort Monroe had been fruitless in finding the +whereabouts of the fugitives that came through the lines at that time. +Dick had been one of them. If Jones were not Jack himself, he must have +been one of the group that escaped with Jack. It all led back to the +first frightful conjecture. Her father was abducting a witness who could +divulge Jack's whereabouts, or he was secreting Jack until be could work +him harm. The walk began to revive Kate's courage as well as her +faculties. She must act with energy. The hardest part of the problem was +to get clear of Olympia, for Kate at once made up her mind to quit +Washington that very night for home. She must evade Olympia's inquiries +as best she could, and make some excuse for journeying thither. + +When she reached home, fortune had intervened to save her conscience +from the falsehoods she feared she would have to employ. The landlady +met her in the hallway with a white face. + +"O Miss Boone, Mrs. Sprague is taken very bad. The doctor's with her +now. I think it is typhoid fever." + +Up-stairs misfortune gave her a further release. Olympia came into +Kate's room, agitated and in tears. + +"All, Kate, mamma is suffering pitiably. The doctor thinks it is +typhoid, and he ordered me to remain away from her. You must leave the +house. It won't do for all of us to be ill together. I may not be able +to see you for days, until the crisis is past. But you must continue the +search, and you must let me know, from day to day, what you learn. There +are letters for you--I hear mamma. I will be back in a moment." + +Kate fairly hated herself for the passing thrill of relief over the +timely illness that had intervened to expedite her mission. She glanced +over the letters. There was one in her father's hand, postmarked +Acredale. It contained no clew to his purposes, but she read +tremblingly: + +"My daughter: You are doing a foolish thing. The search you propose can +lead to nothing. All that can be done has been done by his friends. They +have found no trace of him. Women can not hope to succeed where so keen +a man as Brodie has failed. I have every confidence that in good time +the matter will be cleared up, but you must remember that the Government +and its agents have all they can do to manage and keep track of the +millions of soldiers in the field, and they can not be expected to take +much interest in the fate of the wounded or dead. Always affectionately. + +"Your Father." + +All doubt of her father's sinister intervention in Jack's disappearance +now took the form of certainty in the girl's mind. When Olympia came +back, a few moments later, Kate said, tenderly: + +"I have news from home. I must go back at once. It is less of a grief to +me, since I should be banished from you if I were here. I shall not be +gone long. I shall certainly be back as soon as you can receive me. In +the mean while, don't despair. I have been put on a new trail that I can +not explain to you now. But I can say this much, when you see me again +you shall know whether Jack is alive or dead." + +Olympia, who had been so strong, cheery, and masterful when it had been +a question of reassuring her mother, was now the stricken spirit. She +looked at Kate through swimming eyes, and her voice was lost in sobs as +she tried to speak. The girls held each other in a tearful silence, +neither able to say what was in the minds of both. Even the uncertainty +had a sort of solace compared with the dreadful possibility of +the worst. + +"Remember, dear, you have your mother. What is our poor grief to hers; +what is our loss to hers? It ought to comfort you to know that whatever +human thought, courage, love can do to recover Jack, I shall do, just as +you would in my place. I am very strong and resolute now, and I am +filled with hope--so filled that I can not talk to you. I dare not let +you see how much I hope, lest if it be not fulfilled you will hate me +for inspiring you with it." + +"I will hope. I do believe you will do better than I should. The loving +are the daring--you will find Jack. I know it." + +"Ah, God bless you, Olympia! That removes a curse from me--I--I mean +that fills me with a courage that is not my own, I have learned yours or +stolen it. But you will forgive me, for I mean to use it all in +your behalf." + +Olympia smiled sadly, and the two parted. By the night express Kate left +the city, and, the next afternoon, reached Acredale. As she anticipated, +her father was not at home. He had only been an hour or two in the house +since his return. The servants had no idea where he was. His letters +were forwarded to him under cover of his lawyers in Warchester. If, as +she fearfully surmised, her father were engaged in some cruel scheme to +the hurt of Jack, her best way with him would be perfect frankness. She +had never yet failed in swerving him from his most headstrong impulses +when she could talk with him. She must have him now to herself. Her best +plan, therefore, would be to write. Yet she hardly knew how to frame the +note, reflecting bitterly, as she sat twirling her pen, on the monstrous +state of things that made writing to her own father almost a duplicity. +At length she wrote: + +"DEAREST PAPA: I am come all the way from Washington, leaving poor Mrs. +Sprague very low with fever, and her daughter tormented and ill with +anxiety. I feel, I know, that you can relieve the distress of this +miserable mother and devoted sister. I must see you. I felt sure of +seeing you in Washington, and you can imagine my surprise and grief when +they told me at the hotel that you had gone. Do come to me, or let me +come to you. Your daughter's place is with you or near you now. We have +only each other in this world; pray, dear father, let nothing come +between us; let nothing make you doubt the constant love of +your daughter. + +"KATE." + +The note dispatched, she went immediately to the Perleys. Perhaps they +had news that might be of help. No. The three ladies met her with +agitated volubility. Had she heard from their nephew? Had Dick escaped +with Jack? Olympia had assured them that he had quitted Richmond with +her brother. They had written to the Caribee regiment, and received word +that no trace of him could be found. The regiment, or what was left of +it, was home refilling its ranks. The officers, indeed, knew nothing of +such a person as Richard Perley. McGoyle, who was now colonel, did +vaguely recall the lad at Washington, but had no idea what became of +him. Kate found a new grief in the misery of the helpless ladies. But +she could give them no comfort, and returned home to await her father's +coming. In the evening a messenger brought her a note. It was in the +straight, emphatic hand of her father. He wrote: + +"DEAR DAUGHTER: I am just now engaged in very important matters that +require me to move about considerably. I shall not be home for some +days. I am glad you have come home. That's the place for you. You had +better let the matter you speak of alone. The mother and sister are +enough in the business. I don't see how it concerns you or me. If the +man is dead it will be known as soon as the commissioners of exchange +hand in their lists. If he is not dead, it is certainly no business of +yours or mine to bring him home. I will write you soon again. Love your +father. Keep the house well till I come." + +That was all. More than evasive. Subtly calculated to make her believe +that he had dismissed all thought of Jack and was immersed in his own +affairs. She sat staring and helpless, a cold horror creeping into her +heart and a nameless terror taking outline in her senses. Hideous +alternative. To be coherent she must suspect, nay, accuse, her father of +a dreadful duplicity. He was deceiving her; else why no mention of his +mission to Washington--his abduction of Jones? Jones! Who was he? Oh, +blind and senseless that she had been! Why had she not asked the young +men at Georgetown to describe Jones? That would have revealed all she +needed to know. Was it too late to write them? Yes; but could she throw +suspicion upon her father by writing to strangers, and of necessity +exposing the sinister secrecy of her father's action. But she could +hurry back to Washington, and, without letting the young men know, got a +descriptive list. This she resolved to do. Twenty-four hours later she +was in Washington. The journey was thrown away. The descriptive list had +been sent by the hospital steward with the invalid. He could be found in +the military hospital in Warchester. His name was Leander Elkins. This +was something gained. Two days later she was at the hospital in +Warchester. The steward, Elkins, came to her in the waiting room. He was +a young giant in stature, with light flaxen hair, a merry blue eye, and +so bashful in the presence of a woman that he colored rosily as Kate +asked him if he was the person she had sent for. + +"Yes'm. I'm Lee Elkins," he stammered, very much perplexed to find ease +for his large hands and ample feet. + +"Are you--is Mr. Jones, who came from the Georgetown Hospital, in your +case?" Kate had thought out her course in advance, and had decided that +the direct way was the best. Unless the man had been charged to conceal +facts, an apparent knowledge of Jones's movements would be the surest +way of eliciting his whereabouts. + +"Oh no, miss. Jones wa'nt brought here; he was took to a private place. +I don't rightly know where, but I calculate I ken find eout of ye +want to know." + +"Yes, I should like very much to know. I am deeply interested in him, +Did you have charge of him?" + +"I can't say I did. I was sent from Washington in the same train, but +the old chap that got Jones removed did all the nussing. I only got a +sight of him as he was lifted into the carriage." + +"Should you know him again if you saw him?" + +"Think I should. Yes'm, think I should. His head was about as big as a +pumpkin." + +"He had been wounded?" + +"Well, I should say so." + +"Have you seen the gentleman that brought him on from Washington +lately?" + +"Not here, mum; I did see him in the street the other day. He was in a +wagon--leastwise, it looked mighty like him." + +Kate began to breathe more freely. Her father had, at least, avoided any +collusion with inferiors. His handiwork had been natural, involving no +conspiracy or bribing of menials. + +"Do you think you could find out for me where Mr. Jones is?" + +"Wall, I reckon it could be done. It may take some days, as I must trust +to the luck of running upon old Dofunny again." + +Kate started. "Old Dofunny"--the unsuspecting humorist meant her father +by this jocular _nom de guerre_, and she dared not resent it. How should +she gain her end and yet save herself from the humiliation of seeming to +spy upon her father? It wouldn't do for Elkins to go to him, for he +would at once suspect, inquire, and learn that she had come upon his +tracks. If she could only see him face to face, she would be spared all +this odious complotting. But she dared not reject the means Providence +had put in her hands. And yet, how use them, and avoid throwing +suspicion upon her father in cautioning Elkins not to approach him? She +was not equal to the invention of a plan on the moment, and said in a +doubting, reflective way: + +"Never mind. I may be able to learn from some of his friends where he +is. The gentleman you speak of does not live in this city, and you would +hardly be able to find him. If I could, find him I could find +Mr. Jones." + +"Ah, yes; jes' so. Wall, I think I can find him in another way. I +remember the carriage that took him from the station, I can find out +from the driver. 'T'wan't no mystery, I reckon." + +Kate looked into the innocent blue eyes as the young fellow scratched +his tow head, wondering whether he was as simple-minded as he seemed. He +stood the scrutiny with blushing restiveness, in which there was nothing +of the malign, and she resolved that he was to be trusted. + +"Very well," she said, indifferently, "that does seem the shortest way +to find out the poor fellow's whereabouts. Get the facts, and you shall +be well paid for your trouble." + +"'Tain't no trouble, miss, if it's a service to you. It would make me +powerful glad to do anything for a comrade or his sister." + +Kate smiled at the astute mingling of sly fun and questioning implied in +the gently rising inflection in this query. + +"Yes," she said, "you will be relieving the anxious heart of a sister if +you find what I am seeking." + +"Nuff said, miss. Just as soon as I get my relief I'm off like a shot. +Where shall you be?" + +"Ah, yes; you can come to me at the Alburn House. Here is my card, and +you will doubtless be at some expense. Here is money to pay--spare +no expense." + +The big eyes opened in wonder as Kate handed him three new ten-dollar +greenbacks, just then something of a novelty to soldiers especially, who +got their pay infrequently. It was a bold stroke to intrust her name to +this unconscious agent of her father, for, if he were really playing a +part, his first act would be to reveal her visit and thus set her father +on his guard. But she trusted him implicitly. His wide-open blue eyes, +the artless admiration mingling with his bashful diffidence, all were +proof that he could not be deceiving her. She took rooms at the Alburn +House, which was not the chief hotel, as being better adapted for her +purpose of seclusion. At the big hotel she was known, and if her father +were in town she would be under his espionage without the solace of +writing him. Late in the evening her agent came in radiant. He had +found the man. + +"Easy as rolling off a log." The hackman had taken him to the house +where Jones was lying. It was on the outskirts of the city toward +Acredale. He described the house. Kate knew it very well. It was the +property of her father. + +"Did you see the patient?" + +"No, indeed. You didn't tell me to, and I had nothing, to see him for. +Ef you had told me that you wanted I should see him, I'd have seen him +as easy as greased lightning." + +"Thank you. I am relieved of a great burden through your kindness. You +must permit me to give you something to show my gratitude. Here, use +this money for some one who needs it, if you do not need it yourself." + +"But I don't need it. Here is what you gave me this morning, 'cept a +half-dollar I spent in treating John. I couldn't think of taking so much +money. It's more'n Uncle Sam allows me for five months' pay." + +"No, I shall feel distressed if you do not accept it. You can find use +for it. It will bring you luck, for it is the reward of a very important +service. Perhaps some time we may meet again, and then you shall know +how important." + +The tow hair stood up in wild dismay, and the blue eyes were perfect +saucepans, as Kate gently forced the money into the big palm. + +"Wall, I vum, miss, I feel like I was a-robbing you, but ef yeou deu +want I should take it, why I will, and send it to my old mother, who +will find plenty o' use for it. Good-by, miss. Ef you should want me +again, I'm at the hospital. I shall be mitey tickled to do anything for +yeou or your brother." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +TWO BLADES OF THE SAME STEEL. + + +It was too late to follow up the discovery that night. Kate, after a +feverish rest, set out early in the morning. She went first to Acredale, +where she could get her own equipage and driver. The tenants of the +house did not know her. She rang boldly at the door, and when a maid +answered, quite taken aback by the girlish figure in deep black, Kate +asked, confidently: + +"I want to see the sick man, Mr. Jones." + +"Yes'm, come right in. This way, please, ma'am." The girl led the way up +a flight of stairs, but if she had been part of the balustrade Kate +could not have been more immovable. Whom was she about to see? Jack, +wan, emaciated, on the verge of the grave? They had said in Washington +that the journey would kill him; was it to that end her relentless +father had persisted in the removal? Was she about to see the dying +brought to death's door by her own flesh and blood? She reeled against +the stair-post and brought her veil over her face. The girl had turned +above and was waiting in wonder. With a desperate gathering together of +her relaxed forces, she mounted the stairway. In the corridor the girl +turned to a closed doorway and knocked lightly. There was no sound +within; but the door swung open, and Elisha Boone stood on the +threshold. He did not in the dim light observe the figure in black, but, +looking at the maid, said, softly: + +"What's wanted, Sarah?" + +"A young lady to see Mr. Jones, sir," and, stepping slightly aside for +Kate to enter, the father recognized the visitor. + +"You here, Kate? What does this mean?" + +With a great throb of joy she flung herself into his arms; too happy, +too relieved to take into consideration the defeat of her purpose +involved in the meeting. For an instant she lost all thought of anything +but that her estranged parent was in her arms, that she would not let +him quit her sight again, that her pleading would keep him from any act +that could cause her or any one else unhappiness. + +"Ah, father, I'm so relieved, so glad! I was miserable, and did not know +where you were. I--I will not let you leave me again." + +"But my child, you must not be here; this is a house of sickness; there +is dangerous illness here." + +"It's no more dangerous for me than for you. I know who is here." She +looked archly at him, as he started in surprise. "I will help nurse Mr. +Jones." She said this with immense knowingness in her manner as she +squeezed the astonished man to her heart. The maid meanwhile had +retreated to a safe distance, where she lurked in covert to make report +of the extraordinary goings on. + +"Impossible, Kate; you must not be here. I will not have it; you must +go." His voice grew stern. "You must go, I say, Kate; you must go +down-stairs this instant." + +"Come, Boone, I say, this isn't fair; let the lady come in if she wants +to see valor laid low." Boone, who had been insensibly moving Kate from +the open doorway, caught her eye fixed on the room, and looking over his +shoulder at these jocular words he saw Jones leaning against the post, a +wan smile on his face. Boone turned, almost flinging Kate from him, and, +fairly lifting the invalid, carried him back into the room. + +"This is madness; you are in no condition to rise. I won't be +responsible for your life if you persist in this course." + +"So much trouble off your hands, old man. I'll be more use to you dead +than living. Better let me blow my own flame out. It won't burn long at +best or worst." + +In the overwhelming revulsion of feeling brought about by the actual +sight of Jones, Kate stood, interdicted, in the corridor, uncertain what +to do. She heard the man's words and shuddered at the bantering levity +with which he spoke of his own death. Who could it be? It was not Jack, +as she had feared and hoped. But he must know something of Jack. She +must speak with him. How? It would not do to irritate her father. She +caught Boone's almost whispered words: + +"I tell you, Jones, you shall be brought about, but you know the danger +of seeing any Acredale people. My daughter knows you--knows the Perleys. +I should think that would be reason enough why you should not be seen +by her." + +"Oh, I don't mind; the sight of a pretty girl is the best medicine I +know of. I'd risk all Acredale for that." + +Kate turned softly and waited at the foot of the stairs for her father. +He came presently, looking worried and embarrassed. + +"Now don't go to imagining mysteries here. This is a man who has been on +my hands a good many years. He is an irreclaimable spendthrift. He was +in other days a man of repute and station. I am interested in him, +through old ties, since the days we were boys." + +"The carriage is here, papa; won't you come home with me?" + +"Yes; you get into the carriage." + +He reappeared presently, the face of a strange woman, that Kate had not +seen, peering over his shoulder into the carriage as he came down the +steps. Kate instantly divined that he had been warning the landlady +against admitting strangers to the sick man's room. During the drive +home Kate strove to reassert her old dominion over the moody figure at +her side. It was useless. As the carriage stopped at the door he turned +toward her and said, not unkindly: + +"Daughter, there are some things I know better how to manage than you +do. You have been spying on your father. This is another count in the +long score of grudges I owe the Sprague tribe and their scoundrel son. +Understand me clearly, my child; you must not speak of this matter +again. The whole business will soon be at an end; that end is in my +hands, and no power this side the grave can alter a fact in the outcome. +You are very dear to me; you are all I have left in the world; you must +trust me, and you must believe that I am doing everything for the best. +Try to think that the world is not coming to an end because I insist on +having my own way for once." + +Nothing but the sense of having giving hostages to good behavior rather +than honor upheld Kate in the line she had marked out for herself. She +was not, in the modern sense of the word, a strong-minded young woman, +this sorely beset champion of the overborne. She hadn't even the +perversity of the sex in love. Chivalrously as she loved the lost +soldier, she loved her father with that old-fashioned veneration which +made her see all that he did with the moral indistinctness, without +which there could not be the perfect filial devotion that makes the +family a union in good report and evil. She had not even that, by no +means repellent, secondary egoism which upholds us in doing ungrateful +things that abstract good may follow. Opposition, which becomes +delightful when we can call it persecution, had no charm for her. If her +father had suddenly adopted the _rôle_ of the stern parent in novels and +ordered her to her chamber, Kate would have regarded it as a joke, and +felt rather relieved that she could thus escape the pledge given to the +Spragues. But, as it was, she felt morally bound by her promise to +Olympia; and, though she realized dimly that her instrumentality was +slowly involving her father in a coil of unloveliness, she resolutely +braced herself for the worst. In spite of herself she had believed in +conquering her father's severity and changing his mind. She had rescued +him from revenges quite as dear to him as this, at least so far as she +understood it, forgetting that her father believed himself to be +pursuing the deliberate murderer of his son. When we have achieved a +victory over our own less noble impulses and put the sophistries that +misled us behind us, it is impossible to realize that others have not +the same vision, the same mind as our own. Kate had accused Jack of +cold-blooded murder. She had reasoned herself out of that hateful +spirit, and, forgetting that her father had not the vital force of love +to act as a fulcrum, she could not quite comprehend how difficult it was +to shift the wrathful burden in his mind. She had gone too far to recede +now with honor. Olympia had trusted her, had indeed given over into her +hands the active work of finding the strangely lost clew of Jack's +whereabouts. Perhaps for her father's sake it was better that she should +be the instrument. She might be able to dissemble his intervention, +shield him from obloquy--if, as she feared, he was responsible for +anything doubtful. + +She knew her father too well to suppose that he would flinch from any +measure he had proposed to himself. She knew that she need not count any +further upon her accustomed powers of persuasion. His own words were +final on that score. If she could only learn his intentions! If she +could be sure that he was ulteriorly shaping events against Jack--was +acquainted with his whereabouts--she would have known exactly what to +do. But, pilloried in doubt, shackled by the dread of exposing him in +some hateful malevolence which would forever disgrace him in the +community, she hardly dared stir, though she felt that every hour's +delay was a new peril to Jack in some way. The more she thought of the +scene of the morning, the surer she felt that Jones--or Mr. Dick, as her +father sometimes called him--was in some way an instrument in the +paternal scheme. If she could but see Jones ten minutes! Her father, she +well knew, had guarded against that. Whom could she send in her place? +Ah! there was the double check. She couldn't expose her father to a +stranger; yet if her apprehensions were grounded on anything more +substantial than fear, strangers must in time know all. Could Merry be +made use of? No--that would not do. The libertine tone of the invalid, +his impudent allusion to herself, convinced Kate that a man must be her +agent, if any one were to be. But what man did she know? If she sent any +of the servants, her father would recognize them, and the attempt fail. +She had trusted Elkins. He seemed an honest, incurious lad, just the one +to be trusted in the business. She could invent a fable which would +satisfy his ready credulity without compromising her father. It was +plain that he was the only resource. She dressed at once and returned to +the Alburn. Thence she dispatched a note to Elkins, begging him to call +at his earliest leisure. While waiting his return, she wrote a letter to +be handed to Jones. This was a work of no little ingenuity, forced as +she was to avoid all allusion to her father and the scene of the +morning. When completed, this stroke of the conspiracy ran: + + "DEAR SIR: A mother and sister who have exhausted all + official sources in vain to get trace of a lost son and brother, + John Sprague of the Caribees, have reason to believe that + you can give them a clew to his whereabouts. Will you + therefore kindly confide in the bearer of this letter, giving + him by word of mouth such facts as will enable John + Sprague's relatives to work intelligently in the search for + him, living or dead? + + "Very truly yours, + + "KATHERINE BOONE." + +It was hardly written when Elkins himself appeared, radiant with +satisfaction and blushing like a peony under lamplight. + +"Yeour note came just in th' nick o' time. I have leave of absence for +twenty-four hours, and was just goin' inter teown." + +"If you can spare me the day, I have a very important matter I think you +can attend to for me. I want you to go to the sick man Jones. You must +see before entering whether he is alone or not. I don't know how you can +find out, but you can invent some way. If you see the man who brought +him from Washington, you are not to enter. But if you find that he is +not in the house, ask boldly for Jones, and when you reach him hand him +this note. He will give you an answer, and you must be careful not to +lose a word, for life depends on the accuracy of your report. I fancy +that your regimentals and hospital badge can gain you admission, if, as +I have reason to believe, there are orders to refuse strangers +admission. I depend on you to overcome any difficulty you may meet. If +you knew how much depends upon it, I'm sure you would not be baffled by +anything less than force." + +The big blue eyes were fairly bulging, like two monster morning-glories, +as Elkins, putting the note carefully in his jacket pocket, +said, softly: + +"Ef I don't get thet 'ere letter into Jones's hands, you may have me +drummed out o' camp by the mule-drivers." + +"I believe you, and trust you. I shall be here to-morrow morning early, +and shall hope to hear something from you. Good-by." + +"Good-by, miss. Just you make up your mind I am goin' to do what you +command." + +When she reached home she found her father in the library. He looked at +her inquiringly as she came over and kissed him. + +"I have been in town all day, and am run out." + +"Still plotting?" + +"Yes, still plotting." + +"You're wasting your time, my dear. You'll know all you care to soon +enough, if you'll just keep quiet." + +"Yes; but I can't. I want to know all you know, and I want to know it +now." + +"All I know wouldn't be much, according to the Spragues, who gave me my +status in this town, long ago, as an ignoramus." + +"Perhaps you were then, papa." + +"Yes; I hadn't been schooled fifteen years by my accomplished daughter." + +"A lie is truth to those who only tell the truth." + +"What does that mean?" + +"It's simple enough--a home-made epigram. People who tell nothing but +the truth are easiest made to believe a lie. The Spragues had heard of +you as ignorant, and believed it. You can't blame them for that." + +"I don't blame them because it was a lie. I blame them because it was +the truth. I don't care a straw how many lies are told about me--it's +the ill-natured truth I object to." + +"I'm afraid that you will have a hard time in life if you like lies +better than the truth." + +"I didn't say that." + +"Then I don't understand English." + +"You don't understand me." + +"Ah, yes I do, papa. I do understand you. I know that at this moment you +are doing something that you are ashamed of--something that later you +will bitterly repent. You are carrying on now through pride what you +began in wrath. Stop where you are. The dead can not be avenged. That's +a barbarous code. Remember, in all the petty irritations of the past, +when you have been hurt by your neighbors, you were never so triumphant +as when you surprised those who injured you by a magnanimous return--" + +"There, I made an agreement with you that we should not speak of these +things. I mean it. I find that you take advantage of me. I shall be +banished from the house if you do not keep to your bargain." + +Kate sighed. She had hoped that the early banter was paving the way for +a reconciliation. She took up some work and tried to busy her hands. + +"Suppose you read me something? You haven't read in an age." + +"What shall it be?" + +"Oh, something from Dickens--anything you like." + +"Very well, I shall show you a counterfeit presentment of yourself," +and, with an arch-smile, she began to read from The Chimes. + +He listened soberly until the last page was turned, and then, rising, +said abstractedly: + +"I sha'n't see you for a few days. I wish you would remain at home as +much as possible. Get some of the neighbors' girls to keep you company, +if you're lonesome." + +"Oh, I shall not be lonesome. I shall have too much to do--too much to +think about." + +He laughed. "You are enough like your father, my girl, to pass for him. +Very well, you'll be penitent enough when I come back." + +He was gone in the morning, as he had said, and she was free to keep her +appointment with Elkins. He was waiting for her when she readied +the hotel. + +"Well?" she cried, breathlessly. + +"I saw him." + +She seized the blushing lad's two hands. "Ah, you splendid follow! And +then?--" + +"He wrote this note for you," and he handed her an envelope with her own +name written on it in an uneven, uncertain scrawl. She tore it open +and read: + +"DEAR MADAM: I can not understand why there should +be any difficulty in finding what became of Sprague and his +party. We all reached the lines together, but, as I was hit +by a bullet in the head at the moment of rescue, I knew +nothing of their movements after reaching the Union lines. +I, too, am interested in the young man. I should like to see +you or some of his friends at once, as I suspect foul play of +some sort. + +"Obediently yours, + +"JONES." + +"Did you get to him without trouble?" Kate asked, keenly, disappointed +by the result of all this strategy. + +"I made them believe I was on hospital business. I showed them a large +official envelope, and they let me go up. Jones told me to tell you that +he would see you there in the parlor if you would come; that he is +unable to leave the house, or he would come to see you." + +"Can you take me there now?" + +"I have four hours of my leave still. It does not expire until two +o'clock." + +"Then we will go at once. Will you call a carriage?" + +While he was gone, Kate read the note again. She was more puzzled than +ever. The man wrote as if he had no idea that Jack was not easily +traceable, yet all the Spragues' money and influence had been spent in +vain. He expected her. Where could her father be? He wrote as though he +had no idea that he had been virtually a prisoner. When she reached the +house, the servant made no difficulty in admitting her. Elkins remained +outside in the vehicle, with an admonition from Kate to remain unseen +unless she called him. Jones, the shadow of the burly soldier we saw in +the famous escape, was seated in a deep, reclining chair, and, as Kate +entered, rose feebly. + +"Pray, don't rise, don't disturb yourself in the least. I will sit here +near you, and we can talk, if it won't make you ill." + +"No. It isn't talking that troubles me--but never mind that. Your note +has pulled me down a good deal. I was given to understand that the boys +were home and all right." + +"The boys?" + +"Jack and young Perley." + +"Who gave you--who told you that?" + +"Your father. He is the only person I have talked with since I got my +wits back." + +Kate drew back with a shuddering horror. + +"Are you quite sure, Mr.--Mr. Jones that my father told you that?" + +"Perfectly certain. Do you suppose that I would not have taken measures +to find out where my own--I mean where friends were? These boys saved me +from prison once and from a death nearly as dreadful as Libby. Could I +be indifferent to them?" + +"But why should papa tell you they were safe, when--when our hearts have +been tortured? Ah! I see. He wanted to spare you the anxiety. Ah! yes. +He knew that you would fret and worry, and that you could not recover +under the strain." Kate's heart swelled with a triumphant revulsion. She +had vilely suspected without cause. She must now do justice. Jones eyed +her pensively, holding his head with both his hands. + +"Nothing has been heard of the boys since when?" + +"Nothing directly since the escape from Richmond. Miss Sprague brought +that news, and about the same time a paragraph in the _Herald_ announced +that prisoners from Richmond had reached the Union lines on +the Warrick." + +"When was that?" + +"Late in November." + +"Yes, I was one of them. I escaped from Richmond. Jack and young Perley +got me out of the tobacco warehouse. We reached the Warrick after a hard +week of marching and hiding, and the boys were alive and well when we +reached the Union outpost. I was last to cross the bridge, and as I +plunged into the thick bushes a bullet struck me, I knew no more until I +found myself here. I had agents at Fort Monroe waiting for me. They +probably forwarded me at once. But I don't understand how there can be +any difficulty in tracing the two boys. Haven't they written?" + +"Not a line, not a word concerning them has been heard. Mrs. Sprague +sent agents so soon as the _Herald_ paragraph was shown to Olympia. They +are in Washington now on the quest. It was there we got track of +you--before you were sent here,"' + +"Why was I sent here?" + +Kate was about to speak. Again the shadow of her first fear--again the +dread of some malevolent purpose on her father's part--choked +her speech. + +"I--I--don't know," she faltered. + +"Who came with me?" + +"My father." + +"Ah!" Jones's eyes were penetrating her now. She felt the questioning in +them, and turned her face to the clinging folds of the veil. + +"Miss Boone, you seem to be deeply interested in these boys. Are you +really their friend?" + +"Ah, believe me, I am heart and soul their friend!" + +"Does your father know it?" + +"Yes: he knows that I am seeking them." + +"Does he approve your search?" + +"No, he does not." + +"Good. Now listen. We have short time to work in. You have a carriage +outside. Your father will be here any moment. I could never keep from +him my indignation and even distrust. I shall get into that carriage +with you, and you must conceal me somewhere and give me time to set the +proper machinery in motion to find these boys. There is no other way. +Your father has some reason for keeping their whereabouts concealed. I +may know the purpose and I may not. The boys may have been killed in the +volley that struck me. It will require a mere telegram to find out. I +know whom to address, but I must be where I can use trusted agents. I +have no money. You can, I hope, provide me with that, or the Spragues if +you can't." + +He spoke with a flush deepening on his face, and arose with something +like vigor. + +"Ample means--you shall have any sum you need," Kate said, handing him a +well-filled purse. + +"Good--I have one or two articles in my room. I will fetch them and +follow you to the carriage." + +Ten minutes later the carriage was whirling over the broad road to +Warchester. By Jones's advice it was stopped at the hospital. Here he +proposed remaining for the night, to mislead suspicion if any one had +taken the precaution to follow. + +"I will remain with our friend Elkins to-night, as you suggest," Jones +said; "to-morrow I will send you word of my whereabouts, and you may +expect to have news of the boys within the week." + +"My address will be in Washington," Kate said. "I shall go at once to +the Spragues. They have been there, as I told you, to seek every +possible source of information. I left them to follow you, hoping that +through you I should find the missing." + +"You made no mistake. I shall find them. You can tell your friends +that," and he added, with a gleam of savage malice, "God help the man +that has raised the weight of a feather against them, for he has put a +heavy hurt on me if he has harmed them!" + +Kate shuddered. Was she never to emerge from this hideous circle of +vengeful hatred--this condition of passionate vendetta--where men were +seeking each other's harm? On reaching home she addressed a note to her +father explaining frankly that she had entered into communication with +Jones; that who had been pained by all that she had heard; that the +inquiry had now passed out of her hands and was in that of the +authorities, and begging him to drop any participation he might have +meditated In a late letter Olympia had given good news of her mother, +saying that Kate could return with safety, and, informing her father of +this, Kate bade him good-by for a time. + +When Kate reached Washington she found Mrs. Sprague convalescent, but +painfully feeble. The poor mother reproached herself for the +interruption of the search, and implored the two girls to begin again +without a moment's delay. Kate gave her as much hope as she dared. She +hinted something of the outlines of what she had done and the new agent +in the field. With this Mrs. Sprague was greatly comforted, but begged +then to remit no efforts of their own. It was after three days' +fruitless searching among the records of the department and among the +men of the Caribee regiment, now returned to Washington _en route_ to +the front, that Kate bethought herself of her father's probable presence +in the city. She got out of the carriage and entered the long reception +room of Willard's to make inquiry. The boy who came at her call said, as +soon as she asked for Mr. Boone: + +"Why, I jast saw him at the desk, paying his bill. He is probably there +still. Wait here until I see." + +But Kate, fearing that he might be gone before she could reach him, +followed the boy. There was no sign of her father at the desk, and, +turning hastily out of the main corridor, filled with officers and the +clank of swords almost stunning her, she reached the porch just as a cab +set out toward the station. She might a glimpse of her father's face in +it. He was leaving the city. She must see him. The inspiration of the +instant suggested by a cabman was followed. She hastily entered the +vehicle and bade the driver keep in sight of the one her father was in +until it came to a stop. The driver whipped up his horses, but there +wasn't much speed in them. Kate dared not look out of the window, and +sat in feverish anxiety while she was whirled along Pennsylvania Avenue, +almost to the Baltimore Station, then the only one in the city +connecting with the North. To her surprise, the driver stopped near the +curb a block or more short of the railway. She looked out, and as she +did so the driver pointed to her father's carriage halted just ahead. +She took out her purse, but was delayed a moment in getting the fare, +keeping her eye, however, on her father as he hurried from the cab to a +building before which a sentry was lazily pacing. She was not two +minutes in reaching the doorway, but he had disappeared. + +The soldier asked her no questions, and of course she could ask none, as +probably her father was unknown to the military filling the place. She +must follow on until she overtook him. There were clerks busy at long +desks, military officials moving about with files of documents. The +presence of a few women in widow's weeds reassured Kate, and as no one +molested her she persisted in her design. He was not on the lower floor, +and, coming back, she ascended a broad stairway. The hall was wide, and +filled with people all in uniform. She could hear a monotonous voice +reading in front, where the crowd clustered thickest. She looked about +helplessly, and tried to push forward. Suddenly she heard the words: +"Guilty of taking the life of the same Wesley Boone. Specification +third: And that the said John Sprague is guilty of the crime of spying +inside the lines of the armies of the United States." For a moment Kate +stood stupefied--rooted to the floor. Jack was undergoing an ignominious +trial for murder--for desertion! All fear, all timidity, all sense of +the unfitness of feminine evidence in such a place fled from her. She +pushed her way through the astonished throng which fell aside as they +saw her black dress and flowing drapery. She reached the last range of +benches, where men were seated, some writing, some consulting documents, +while the clerk read the charges. Her eye fell upon her father seated +near the place of the presiding officer. She grew confident and +confirmed by the sight: it was a signal to the daring that fired her. +"Stop!" she said, in a clear voice. "I don't know what this place is; I +don't know what meaning these proceedings have. I heard a charge that is +not true. It is false that John Sprague murdered Wesley Boone. Wesley +Boone was my brother, and he was killed in the dark by one of several +shots fired at the same instant. Furthermore, my brother was armed and +in the sleeping-room of the mistress of the house at the dead of night. +If John Sprague's bullet killed him it was shot in self-defense and in +the safeguarding of two terrified women. He had no more idea of whom he +was struggling with than--than the soldier who fires in battle. +Furthermore, he is no spy. He risked his life to rescue prisoners. He +saved the life of one of them who can be brought here to testify. He--" + +But here Kale broke down. She had spoken with a passionate, resentful +vehemence, her mind all the time seething with the fear and shame of her +father's responsibility for this hideous attack upon the absent. She +stretched out her hand exhaustedly for support. A young officer near her +pushed up a chair and helped her into it. Boone had turned in speechless +amazement as the first words of the voice sounded in his ears. His back +was toward the door, and he had not seen Kate. He turned as she broke +into this fervid apostrophe. Whether from surprise, prudence, or anger +he sat silent, uninterrupting till she tottered into the seat placed for +her by a stranger. Then he arose and went to her side, in nowise angry +or discomposed so far as his outward demeanor betrayed him. The +presiding officer of the court-martial had attempted to silence Kate by +a gesture, but with eyes fixed steadily upon him she had disregarded his +command. Now, however, he spoke: + +"Madame, you must know this is highly disorderly and indecorous. The +court can take no cognizance of this sort of testimony. Do you desire to +be heard by counsel? If you do, the judge-advocate will give you all +lawful assistance." + +"If the court please, this lady is my daughter. She is somewhat excited. +I will take the necessary measures in the matter," Boone began. + +Kate pushed her father from before her and again addressed the +president. + +"I refuse my father's aid in this case. I don't know what is necessary, +but I ask this court, if it has anything to do with John Sprague, to +give his friends an opportunity to present his story truthfully and +without prejudice." + +"The judge-advocate will give you all necessary information. Meanwhile, +the case will be adjourned until to-morrow." + +Elisha Boone stood beside his daughter, a figure of perplexity and +chagrin. He dared not remonstrate openly. He was forced to hear the +judge-advocate question this extraordinary witness, and instruct her on +the steps necessary to be taken; worse than all, hear him inform Kate +that the citations to John Sprague had been regularly issued, and that +the evidence of his desertion rested wholly on the fact that he had put +in no answer to the charges promulgated against him by his commanding +officer; that the trial was proceeding on the ground that Sprague had +deserted to the enemy, and refused to answer within the time allowed +by law. + +"But he has never heard of the charges," Kate cried, indignantly. "He +has not been heard of since he escaped from Richmond." + +"As we understand it, he reached the Union lines merely to ambuscade our +outposts, and then returned to Richmond." + +"His sister left Richmond ten days after his flight, and he had then +passed into our lines, as she had the surest means of knowing." + +"There is some extraordinary error in all this. If Sprague can be +produced before the term fixed by the regulations, he can vindicate +himself by establishing the facts you have told me. If not, we have no +alternative but to condemn him to death as a spy and deserter. The +testimony on these specifications is uncontradicted. The murder we may +not be able to establish, though we have witnesses of the shooting." + +It was arranged that Sprague's counsel should see the judge-advocate at +once, Kate giving him the address in case by any accident she should be +prevented from seeing the Spragues. As she left the room, under a +fusillade of admiring glances, she leaned on her father's arm, trembling +but resolute. She now knew the worst, and she had no further terror. As +they reached the door, her father asked: + +"Where are you going? I suppose I need not tell you that I was on my way +home when I came here, for I suppose you have been spying on my +movements." + +"Never. I feared you were acting unwisely, but I never dreamed of +watching you. Providence has put your plans in my hands at nearly every +step, but I was so ignorant that, of myself, the information would have +done but little service to poor Jack. I came into the court by the +merest chance. I saw you get into the cab at Willard's, and as I had +only reached Washington, I wanted to see you before you went away. I +drove after you--followed without the slightest suspicion of the place +or your purpose in it." + +"Well, all your running about is useless. He will be sentenced to death +and the family disgraced. Nothing can now prevent that." + +"Yes, Jack can prevent it! I can prevent it!" + +"How?" + +"Jack will be found. Surely they dare not commit such a monstrous crime +against the absent, the undefended!" + +"Well, we won't talk of it. I suppose you are with the Spragues?" + +"Yes; I shall remain with them until this is ended." + +"What if I should tell you to come home with me?" + +"I should, of course, obey you if you commanded me. But before doing so +I should have to put my statement in legal shape--that is, swear to it, +and give my address to the court that I might be regularly summoned." + +"You know something of law, too, I see. I sha'n't ask you to go home, +nor shall I go myself. I shall remain to see how this affair turns out." + +They were driving down Pennsylvania Avenue now. Kate, recalling her +departure, asked, "You did not get the letter I left for you at home?" + +"No, I did not know you were gone." + +"I left a few lines to tell you that I had seen Jones." She watched him +as she said this. He did not start, as she expected. His lips were +suddenly compressed and his eye grew dark; then he smiled grimly. + +"I hope you felt repaid for your trouble." + +"Yes. I felt amply repaid. Jones has undertaken to find out what became +of Jack after his arrival at the Union outposts." + +"Did you discuss the whole affair with him?" + +"Yes. I was greatly relieved by what I learned. I was afraid you had +some sinister purpose in secreting him as the only link between Jack and +his friends. It gave me new life to find that you had been so tender and +thoughtful to Jones, for, as the event proved, he no sooner learned that +there were apprehensions as to Jack's safety, than he set about his +discovery." + +"Did Jones share your grateful sentiment?" + +"I think he did. To spare you agitation, he set out at once alone, in +order that you might be relieved of all responsibility." + +"Ah!" And Elisha Boone sank far back in the cushion. The carriage +stopped in front of Willard's; then he said: "I shall remain here now. I +will order the driver to take you home. Come to me as often as you can." +He kissed her in the old friendly way and hurried into the hotel. + +On reaching her lodgings she found a telegram waiting her. It read: +"Jones gone South. He will advise you of his movements. ELKINS." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE LOST CARIBEES. + + +Meanwhile war, in one of its grim humors, had prepared a comedy when the +stage was set in tragic trappings. In the withdrawal of Johnston's army +from Manassas--signalized in history as the Quaker campaign, because our +army found wooden guns in the deserted works--that ardent young Hotspur, +Vincent Atterbury, ran upon a disagreeable end to a very charming +adventure. In chivalric bravado, to emphasize the fact that the +withdrawal of the Confederates was merely strategic, not forced, the +young man, with a lively company of horsemen, hungering for excitement, +formed themselves into a defiant rear-guard. The Union outposts, never +suspecting that Johnston's army was not behind the enterprising cavalry, +withdrew prudently to the main forces. + +Then, when they were convinced that the little band was merely on an +audacious lark, forces were sent out on either flank, while the main +body feigned the disorder of retreat. The result was, that Vincent's +squadron was handsomely entrapped, and in the savage contest that ensued +the intrepid major was hustled from his horse with a dislocated shoulder +and broken wrist. He was brought, with a half-dozen more of his +dare-devil comrades, into the Union lines, and in the course of time +found himself in the hideous shambles allotted rebel prisoners at Point +Lookout, Maryland. Too weak at first, or too confused, to bethink +himself of his Northern friends, Vincent shared the hard usage of his +companions and resigned himself patiently to the slow procedure of +exchange, which was now going on regularly, since the Union victories in +the West and South had given the Northern authorities ten prisoners to +the Southerners' one. The prospect of his own release was, under these +circumstances, rather distant, as without special intervention he would +have to await his turn, the rule being that those first captured were +first exchanged. He knew that his family's influence and his own +intimacy with General Johnston would probably hasten the release, but he +could not count upon an immediate return to his duties, and in view of +this he was not very reluctant to undergo convalescence in the North. + +Jack's influence, he counted, would soon relieve him from the hardships +of confinement, and then he should see Olympia--that, at least, was +recompense for his misfortune. His mother and Rosa would immediately +learn of his capture, and he might count upon hearing from them, as very +generous latitude was allowed in such cases by the authorities on both +sides. He caused a letter to be written to Jack, addressing it to his +regiment, in care of the War Department, and waited patiently the +response. His disappointment and anxiety, as days passed and he got no +answer, began to tell on his health, already weakened by his wounds. +Thus, one day, when a young lady was shown to his bedside--who fell upon +him with a glad cry, and held his head to her breast--he was too far +gone in delirium to distinguish his sister. + +"My darling! O Olympia, I knew you would come," he murmured, and Rosa, +terrified, but composed, soothed the fevered lover as best she might. He +grew worse in spite of all her devotion. The physicians, burdened with +patients far in excess of their powers, assured her that her brother +would require the most patient care and enlightened nursing; that +medicine would do him but slight good, and that she must make up her +mind to a prolonged illness. Rosa was alone in the vast hospital, save +for the presence of her maid Linda, who had come through the lines with +her and was, of course, under the Northern laws, free. Worse than all, +she was poorly provided with money, and this need, rather than Vincent's +love-lorn babbling about Olympia, reminded Rosa to call upon the +Spragues for help. She wrote at once to Olympia, telling the distressing +story, and then set about bettering Vincent's surroundings. + +Point Lookout had been selected for its natural prison-like safeguards. +A rank bog surrounded the place on three sides, and thus but few troops +were needed to guard the great mass of rebel prisoners lodged in wooden +barracks and long lines of tents. Vincent's case seemed to have grown +stationary after her coming. He slept a fitful, troubled sleep half the +day. At night he grew delirious and restless. Rosa and Linda divided the +hours into watches, and administered the draughts prepared by the +stewards. Through the humanity of the physician in charge, the invalid +had been transferred to an A tent, where Rosa could remain day and night +unmolested with her maid. Vincent thus cared for, Rosa began to think of +the other poor fellows in her brother's squadron, and set about a +systematic search for them. Many of them she found in the general wards +of the hospital. It was on this kindly mission one day that she heard +her brother's name mentioned by a civilian, who was talking with an +official in uniform. + +"Major Atterbury? Oh, yes; he was removed to division D. You will find +him in a separate tent. He has a woman nurse. I will send an orderly +with you." + +Rosa did not recognize the civilian at first, but as he turned to +accompany the soldier she remembered where she had seen him before. He +was the prisoner Jack had spoken with in Richmond the day the party +visited the tobacco warehouse. She hastened her step, and, as she came +up with the men, she said, tremulously: + +"I am Major Atterbury's sister. My brother is unconscious. Can I attend +to the business you have with him?" + +Jones turned and stopped, glancing in surprise at the girl. + +"I'm sorry to learn that your brother's so low. But you can do all that +I hoped from him. Here is a letter addressed to John Sprague. It was +received at his regiment three days ago. I happened to be there making +inquiries for him, and the colonel handed it to me. Under the +circumstances I felt justified in reading it, and it turns out that I +did well." + +"John Sprague is missing?" Rosa cried, her mind instantly at work in +alarm for some one else. + +Jones, dismissing the orderly, told her the facts as we have already +followed them. Leaving out all mention of Kate, he told her how he had +hurried down to Newport News, and thence to the outposts on the Warrick. + +There he had learned that Jack and Dick had been wounded, fatally the +story went, in the final volley fired by the pursuers. They had been +carried to the hospital at Hampton. But there all trace had been lost. +The steward who received them and the surgeon who had taken their +descriptive list had been transferred to St. Louis. There was, however, +no record of their deaths, and upon that he based the hope that they +were either in hospital, or had been, through some strange confusion, +assigned among rebel wounded, a thing that had frequently happened in +the hurry of transporting large numbers of wounded men. + +"And does Mrs. Sprague know all this?" Rosa cried, understanding now why +Vincent's letter and her own had not brought a response. + +"Partly, I think. Mrs. Sprague and her daughter are in Washington, in +the state of mind you may imagine, and exhausting bales of red tape to +reach the lost boys." + +Poor Rosa! She had thought her grief and terror too much to endure +before. Now how trivial Vincent's fever in comparison with this +appalling disappearance of Dick and Jack! She walked on over the sparse +herbage, over her shoes in the soft sand, when Linda came running from +the tent in joyous excitement. + +"De good Lord, Miss Rosa, she's here; she's done come!" + +"Who is here--who is come?" Rosa cried, impatiently; "not mamma?" + +"'Deed no, Miss Rosa; Miss Limpy." + +"What?" + +"Yes, indeedy; and, oh, bress de Lord, Massa Vint knows her, and is +talkin' like a sweet dove!" + +It was true. Miss "Limpy," blushing very red, was surprised by Rosa in a +very motherly attitude by the patient's cot. The two girls melted in a +delirious hug, mingled with spasmodic smacks of the lips and a soft, +gurgling _crescendo_ of exclamation, not very intelligible to Jones and +Linda, who discreetly remained near the door on the outside. + +Vincent's eyes were fixed on Olympia. For the first time in ten days +they shone with the light of reason. He smiled softly at the scene and +murmured lightly to himself. Warned not to tax the feeble powers of the +invalid, Rosa and Jones withdrew, leaving Olympia to recover from the +fatigues of her journey in the tent with Vincent. + +"Now, you're not to talk, you know," Olympia said, with matronly +decision, "I shall remain here to mesmerize you into repose. You know I +am a magnetic person. Be perfectly quiet, and keep your eyes off me. +They make me nervous." + +"I can only keep my eyes away on condition you put your hand in mine, +Then the magnetic current can have full play." + +"My impression is that you have not been ill at all. I believe you have +been shamming, to escape the harder lines of the prison. Very well, you +needn't answer. I'll take that shake of the head as denial and proof for +want of better. Now, I will give you the history of our doings since I +saw you at Fairfax Court-House in January. I got home safe. I found +mamma in painful excitement." + +He moved impatiently, and said, beseechingly: + +"But tell me how you got here so soon. How did you learn I was here? +Jack told you when he got my letter?" + +"O Vincent, that was what I was coming to! Jack has never been seen or +heard from since he escaped from your troops near the Warrick. I did not +know you had written. I got a letter from Rosa yesterday morning and +went at once to the War Department, where we have a good friend--" + +"I can't understand it. All these things are done with system in an army +like yours. Men can't disappear like this, leaving no record. I'll stake +my head there's foul play, if the boys can't be found. Have you made +inquiry in the company on duty where Jack and his companions got into +your lines?" + +She explained all the efforts that had been made--how Brodie had been +baffled, and how letters had been sent to the commanding officer at +Fort Monroe. + +"We had begun to think that Jack had been recaptured; but surely, if he +were, you would have known of it." + +"Of course I should." + +"Then that confines the search to our own lines. I can not make myself +believe that Jack is dead, though mamma has nearly made up her mind to +it. The mysterious part of the affair is, that we can not find one of +the men who escaped with Jack, though it was announced in the papers +weeks ago that a party of them had arrived at Fort Monroe." + +"And young 'Perley'?" + +"He, too, we can get no trace of." + +"Good heavens! I'm glad Rosa doesn't know that; she'd be in every camp +and hospital in the North until she had found her sweetheart." + +"That sounds something like a reflection on us--mamma and me." + +"Ah! never. What I mean is, that Rosa is such an impulsive, silly child, +she would do all sorts of imprudent things. How could you do such a +thing? Preposterous!" + +"Well, I began it yesterday morning. As I said, so soon as I read Rosa's +letter, I went to headquarters, where we have a good friend and gave my +word for your safe keeping. You are to be our prisoner; but if you +escape you will get us into trouble, for we are none too well considered +by the folks in power." + +"God forgive me, Olympia! escape is the last thing I think of now, when +I am near you. I was going to say I should never care to go back, but I +know you wouldn't think the better of me for that." + +"I don't know. Why should you go back? The South is sure to be beaten. +We are conquering territory every day, from the armies at Donelson to +the forts at New Orleans. We shall beat you in Virginia so soon as +General McClellan gives the word." + +"Even if that were the case, my duty and my honor would point to but one +course--to return to the natural course of exchange." + +"Honor? Vincent, it is a vague term under such circumstances--" + +"I could not love you, dear, so much, loved I not honor more. You know +you gave me that for a motto." + +"Poetic rubbish, Mr. Soldier; but I must leave you now. You will insist +on talking, and, as I shall be held responsible to your mother and Rosa, +I must be firm--not another syllable! Besides, the imprudence will keep +you here longer, and if you are to be carried away you must get well at +once. I can't leave mamma alone in Washington with such grief preying +upon her." + +He answered with a glance of pitying pleading. He looked so helpless--so +woe-begone--that she bent over near his face to smooth his disordered +bandages. When she withdrew she was blushing very prettily, and Vincent +was smiling in triumph. "On these terms," the smile seemed to say, "I +will be mute for an age." + +What an adroit ally war is to love! Here was the self-contained +Olympia--so confident of herself--fond and yielding as Rosa; when war +rushed in, infirmity came to the rescue of Vincent's despairing passion. + +Meanwhile, Jones began a systematic search among the prisoners for the +missing Caribees. Rosa joined with impatient ardor. There were three +thousand inmates of the improvised city, but no one resembling Jack or +Dick could be found. Linda, ministering to some of Vincent's comrades, +was piteously besought to ask her mistress's good offices for an orderly +in the small-pox ward. This was a tent far off from the main barracks on +the beach, attended only by a single surgeon and a corps of rather +indifferent nurses. Two of Vincent's men were in this lazar, shut off +from the world, for the soldier, reckless in battle, has a shuddering +horror of this loathsome disease. Rosa instantly resolved that she would +herself nurse the plague-smitten rebels. She had no fear of the disease, +the truth being that she had only the vaguest idea of what it was. With +great difficulty she obtained permission to visit the outcast colony. +She was forced to enter the noisome purlieu alone, even the maid's +devotion rebelling against the nameless horror small-pox has for +the African. + +Once within the long marqueé, however, Rosa was relieved to find that +the casual spectacle was not different from that of the other seriously +sick-wards. A melancholy silence seemed to signalize the despair of the +twoscore patients, each occupying a cot screened from the rest by thin +canvas curtains. Double lines of sentries guarded each opening of the +marqueé, so that no one could pass in or out without the rigidly _viséd_ +order of the surgeon-in-chief. Braziers of charcoal burned at the foot +of each bed, while the atmosphere was heavy with a strong solution of +carbolic acid, then just beginning to be recognized as a sovereign +preventive of malarious vapors, and an antiseptic against the germs of +disease. Rosa inquired for the _protégés_ she was seeking. They were +pointed out, on one side of the tent, the steward accompanying her +to each cot. + +"All have the small-pox?" she inquired, shuddering, as she glanced at +the white screens, behind which an occasional plaintive groan could +be heard. + +"Oh, no! there are some here that have no more small-pox than I have." + +"Then why do you keep them here?" Rosa asked, indignantly. + +"Oh, red tape, miss. There's two men that were brought here three months +ago. They'd no more small-pox than you have, miss; but they were +assigned here, and I have given up trying to get them taken to the +convalescent camp. The truth, is the surgeon in charge is afraid to show +up here. The others make by the number they have in charge, for we are +allowed extra pay and an extra ration for every case on hand." + +"Why, this is infamous!" Rosa cried. "It is murder. Why don't you write +to the--the--head man?" + +"And get myself in the guard-house for my trouble? No, thank you, miss. +I wouldn't have spoken to you if it hadn't been for the sympathy you +showed coming in, and to sort o' show you that you are not running so +much danger as folks try to make you believe." + +Rosa had a basket on her arm filled with such comforting delicacies as +the surgeon had advised. She set about administering them to her +brother's orderly, when a feeble voice in a cot a few feet away fell +upon her ear. She started. Though almost a whisper, there was a strange +familiarity in the low tone. She turned to the steward-- + +"Who is in the third cot from here?" + +"Let me see. Oh, yes, number seven; that's a man named Paling." + +"And the next?" + +"Number eight; that's a man named Jake, or Jakes, I'm blessed if I am +certain. They've been out of their head since they come. They're the two +I spoke of who ain't no more small-pox than I have." + +"May I see them?" + +"Certainly. I'll see that they're in shape for inspection, and call +you." + +He disappeared behind the curtain and could be heard in a kindly, jovial +tone: + +"There, sonny, keep kivered; the lady is coming to bring you something +better than the doctor's gruel, so lie still." + +Beckoning to Rosa, he made way for her to enter the narrow aisle of +number seven, but he nearly fell over the man across the bed, when Rosa, +with a shriek, fell upon the body of number seven, crying: + +"O, my darling, my darling, I have found you!" + +It would have required the eyes of maternal love of Rosa's to recognize +our jaunty Dick in the emaciated, fleshless face that lay imbedded in +the disarray of the cot. Dick's blue eyes were sunken and dim, his lips +chalky and parched. He made no sign of recognition when Rosa drew back +with her arm under his head to scrutinize the disease-worn face. + +"Sometimes, miss, he is in his right mind--but he goes off again like +this. Is the other man his brother? They seem to understand each other +when they are at the worst. Once when we separated them they fought like +maniacs until we were forced to let them be near again." + +"Oh, yes--the other." Rosa started and hastened to the next cot. Yes, it +was Jack--or a piteous ghost of him. He was sleeping, and she +withdrew gently. + +"Please distribute the contents of the basket to the men I named. I will +be back presently." + +With this she darted out, running at the top of her speed, heedless even +of the peremptory challenge of the sentries, who thought her mad or +stricken with the plague, and made no attempt to molest her. She ran +straight to Jones's quarters. He was writing, and started in surprise as +she entered panting and breathless. + +"Ah! I have found them; I have found them!" She could say no more. Jones +helped her to a seat and held a glass of water to her lips. Then she +regained breath. + +"They are in the small-pox ward, but they haven't the disease. Ah! they +are there, they are there. Come at once and take them away. Ah! take +them away this minute." + +"By 'they' do you mean Perley and Sprague?" Jones asked, breathlessly. + +"Yes, ah, yes. Thank God! thank God! Ah! I could say prayers from now +until my dying day. But, oh, Mr. Jones, do, do hurry; because they may +die if we do not get them away from that dreadful pest-house." + +"It will take some time to get the order for the removal. Meanwhile, +they will need good nursing. If you hope to help them you must be calm; +you must keep well. Now go to your brother. It is just as well that Miss +Sprague went away this morning. Before she comes back, her brother will +be in a place she can visit with safety. You can not go back there. You +must remain patient now until I get them away from that +dangerous place." + +It was not until the next day that the red tape of the establishment was +so far cut as to warrant the surgeon in charge in making a personal +inspection of the two invalids. He at once, and in indignant +astonishment, pronounced the two untouched by the disease set against +their names in their papers of admission. Early in the afternoon they +were carried on a stretcher to a clean, fresh tent on the sandy beach, +where the laurel bushes almost ran into the water. Letters had been +dispatched to Olympia in forming her that Jack was found, and urging her +to come on at once. The next evening the three ladies arrived--Mrs. +Sprague, Olympia, and Kate. With them they brought a renowned physician +who had been uniformly successful in treating maladies of the sort the +lads were described as suffering. + +Days of painful anxiety followed. Once, all hope of Dick was abandoned, +and his aunts were telegraphed for. But, in the end, he opened his big +blue eyes, sane and convalescent. There was rapid mending after this, +you may be sure. Kate had, through Olympia's unobtrusive manoeuvring, +been forced to bear the burden of Jack's nursing, and, somehow, when +that impatient warrior mingled amorous pleadings with his early +consciousness, she forgot upon which side the burden of repentance and +forgiving lay. She listened with gentle serenity to his protestations, +checking him only by the threat to quit the place and return to +her father. + +During all this, Rosa was divided in her mind. She resented the +assiduity of Jones in the recovery of Dick. That reticent person had +installed himself in Dick's tent and never quitted the lad, day or +night, unless to relinquish him to Rosa's arbitrary hand. When, one day, +Pliny and Merry Perley entered the tent, Jones changed color. The two +ladies, not heeding the stranger, fell upon the convalescent on the cot, +and Jones slipped away. Thereafter Rosa had her invalid to herself, +Jones only reappearing at night, to keep the vigils of the dark. A month +later, the invalids were strong enough to be removed. An inquiry had +been set on foot to account for the presence of the two Union soldiers +among the rebel prisoners. The result was confusing, however. The facts +seemed to point out design in the original entry of the young men's +names at Hampton, where they had been taken when brought in by +the outposts. + +The dispersion of the rest of their companions from Richmond was +accounted for by furloughs granted them so soon as they reached the +provost-marshal's office. Just before leaving Point Lookout Jack +received a much-directed letter that gave signs of having been in every +mail-bag in the Army of the Potomac. It was from Barney Moore, bristling +with wonder and turgid with woful lamentation at Jack's coldness in not +writing him. He had been sent by mistake to Ship Island, near New +Orleans, to join his regiment, and had only at the writing of the letter +reached Washington, where the Caribees were expected every day to move +to the Peninsula in McClellan's new campaign. + +So soon as he was sufficiently recovered to write, Jack reported by +letter to the regiment. He had received no reply. The explanation was +awaiting him so soon as he reached Washington. While seated with his +mother in Willard's, a heavy knock came on the door. It was thrown open +before the maid could reach it. A provost corporal stood on the +threshold, a file of men behind him: + +"I have an order for the arrest of Sergeant John Sprague." + +"I am John Sprague. Of what am I accused?" + +"I have no orders to tell you. My orders are to deliver you at the +provost prison. You will hear the charges there." + +"But I am still under the doctor's charge. I am on the hospital list." + +"I don't know what condition you are in. My orders are to arrest you, +and you know I have no option. All can be remedied at the +provost's office." + +"I will go with you, my son," Mrs. Sprague said, trying to look +untroubled. "It is some error which can be explained." + +"No, mamma, you can't come. Send word to the counsel you engaged in the +search. I fancy it is some mistake; but I wish it hadn't occurred just +now. I wouldn't write Olympia about it." Olympia had gone on to Acredale +with Kate, to set the house in order for a season of festivity. Jack, +Vincent, Dick, and the rest, were to join them so soon as the invalid +had taken rest in Washington. + +The guard indulged Jack in a carriage to headquarters. Here he was +handed over to a lieutenant in charge, and conducted to a prison-like +apartment in the rear. + +"What is the charge against me?" Jack asked, as the officer touched a +bell. + +"I am not acquainted with the papers in your case. My instructions are +to hold you until called for.--Sergeant," he added, as a soldier in +uniform entered, "the prisoner is to be confined in close quarters, and +is not to be lost sight of night or day." + +The soldier saluted and motioned Jack to follow him, two other soldiers +closing in behind him as he set out. At the end of a short hallway the +sergeant stopped, took a key from a bunch at his belt, unlocked a +heavily-barred door and motioned Jack to enter. It was useless to +protest, useless to parley. He knew military procedure too well to think +of it, but his heart swelled with bitter rage. This was the reward of an +almost idolatrous patriotism--this was the _patrie's_ way of cherishing +her defenders. He flung himself on the cot in a wild passion of tears +and rebellious scorn. But his humiliation was not yet ended; while he +sat with his face covered by his bands, he felt hands upon his legs, and +the sharp click of a lock. He moved his left leg. Great God! it was +chained to an enormous iron bolt. He started to rise; the sharp links of +the chain cut his ankle as the great ball rolled away from him. With a +cry of madness he flung himself on the harsh pine pallet, groaning his +heart out in bitter anguish and maledictions. In time food was brought +him, but he sat supine, staring ghastly at the dull-eyed orderly, +silent, unquestioning. Dim banners of light fell across the corridor. +They were broken at regular intervals by the passing figure of a sentry. +The night wore on. There was a lull in the monotonous tramp. Steps came +toward Jack's cell--stopped; the key grated in the lock; some one +touched him on the shoulder. He never stirred. + +"Cheer up, Sprague; it's all a mistake." It was the voice of the lawyer. + +At this Jack started, his eyes gleaming wildly. "Ah, I thought so. I +knew I could never have been disgraced like this in earnest. They have +discovered the wrong done me?" + +"No, no; not exactly that, Jack, but we shall show them the mistake, I +make no doubt." + +"Why am I dishonored? Of what am I accused? Why am I here?" Jack cried, +shivering under the revulsion from despair to hope, and from hope back +to horror. + +"You are dishonored, my poor young friend, because a court-martial has +found you guilty of murder, desertion, and treason against the articles +of war, and you are here because you are sentenced to be shot one week +from Friday, in the center of a hollow square, seated on your +own coffin." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +FATHER ABRAHAM'S JOKE. + + +In her own mind, as the train rolled toward Acredale from Washington, +Kate was enjoying in anticipation the victory she had to announce to her +father. He had written her regularly from Warchester, where he was +engaged in an important suit. She had written more frequently than he, +but she had made no allusion to the happy ending of her troubles. It was +partly dread that the knowledge of Jack's restoration might bring on +more active hostility, as well as a whimsical feminine caprice to spring +the great event upon him when all danger was over. She watched Dick and +Rosa in the seat near her, for they, too, were of the advance guard to +Acredale, where, when Olympia had arranged the house, Vincent and Jack +were to come for final restoration to health. When the party arrived at +the little Acredale Station there was a great crowd gathered. + +A company of the Caribees was just setting out for the front. Some of +the old members recognized Dick, and then straightway went up a cheer +that brought all the corner loiterers to the spot to learn the goings +on. It was in consequence rather a triumphal procession that followed +the carriage to the Sprague gateway, and even followed up the sanded +road to the broad piazza. Rosa remained with Olympia, while Kate carried +Dick off to commit him to the aunts waiting on the porch to welcome the +prodigal. Kate had telegraphed her coming, and her father was at the +door to meet her. He was plainly relieved and delighted to have her with +him again, for he held her long and close in his arms. "Then all's +forgiven; we're friends again," she said, laughing and crying together. + +"There is nothing to forgive. It may be a matter of regret that you are +a Boone in blood rather than an Ovid, and that you imitate the Boones in +obstinacy. But justice has been done, and there's no need to quarrel +about strangers." + +She didn't understand in the least what he meant about justice being +done. Remembering that all was well, she smiled as they entered the +library, and when she had removed her wraps, said, in repressed triumph: +"You need never attempt the role of Shylock again. I play Portia better +than you play the Jew. You have lost your pound of flesh." + +"Well, be magnanimous. Don't abuse your victory. I shouldn't, in your +place; but women are never merciful to the fallen." + +"I am to you. For, see, I kiss you as gayly as when I believed you all +heart and goodness." + +"Now you believe me no heart and badness?" + +"I didn't say that, I say you are given over to sinful hates, and I must +correct you." + +"Well, I'm willing now to be corrected." + +"But the correction will be a severe one; you must prepare for a very +grievous penance." + +"Knowing you, I can foresee that you won't spare the rod. Very well, +I'll try to get used to it." + +At this moment a servant came to the door. + +"A note for Miss Kate," she said. Kate tore it open and read: + +"Come to me at once. I have frightful news from +Washington. As it concerns Jack you ought to know it. + +"OLYMPIA." + +She read the lines twice before she could seize the meaning. Frightful +news concerning Jack! Had he suffered a relapse? Had he been +accidentally hurt? No; if it had been news of that sort, Olympia would +have come herself. A gleam of prescience shot through her brain. The +court--the charges against Jack! That was it. That was the secret of her +father's equanimity under her raillery. She turned with a rush into the +library. The bad blood of the Boones was all up in her soul now. She +walked straight at, not to her father, and, holding Olympia's note +before him, said in bitter scorn: + +"Tell me what this means. I know that you know." + +He took the paper with leisurely unconcern, affecting not to remark +Kate's flashing wrath; he read the lines, handed the paper back, or held +it toward Kate, who put her hands behind her. + +"Since it concerns you, my child, suppose you go over and ask Miss +Sprague. How should I know the affairs of such superior people?" + +"Could nothing soften you?--humanize you, I was going to say. Could +nothing satisfy you but the death of this injured family?--for this blow +will kill them. Kill them? Why should they care to live when that noble +fellow has been dishonored by your cruel acts? Ah, I know what you have +done! You have brought the court to disgrace Jack--to make him appear a +deserter. You it was who, in some mysterious way, caused him to be +abducted into the small-pox ward among the rebel prisoners. But it shall +all be made known. I shall myself go on the stand and testify to your +handiwork. Yes, I am a Boone in this. I will follow the lesson you have +set me. I will avenge the innocent and save him by exposing the guilty." + +"On second thought, daughter, you are not in a frame of mind to see +strangers to-night. You will remain home this evening. To-morrow you can +see your friend and advise her in her sorrow, whatever it is." He went +to the door and called the servant. "Go to Miss Sprague with my +compliments, and tell her my daughter is not able to leave the house +this evening." As the man closed the outer door, Kate made a step +forward, crying: + +"You never mean to say that I am a prisoner in my own father's house?" + +"Certainly not. We're not play-actors. I think it best that you should +not go to the neighbors to-night, and you, as a dutiful daughter, obey +without murmur, because I have always been an indulgent parent and +gratified every whim of yours, even to letting you consort with my +bitterest enemies for months." As he spoke, there was a ring at the +doorbell. Presently the servant entered the room and announced "Mr. +Jones." Before Boone could direct him to be shown into another room +Jones entered the library, fairly pushing the astonished menial aside. +Boone held up his hand with a warning gesture, and nodded toward Kate; +but, without halting, Jones advanced to Boone's chair, and, seizing him +by the shoulder, held up a copy of the afternoon paper. + +"Read that? What does it mean?" + +Boone's eyes rested a moment on the paragraphs pointed out. Then, +throwing the paper aside, he asked, coldly: + +"Why should you ask me what it means? If you are interested in the +affair, you might find out by writing to the court." + +At this, Jones, looking around the room, marked the two doors, one +leading to the hall, the other to the drawing-room. He deliberately went +to each, and, locking it, slipped the key in his pocket. He glanced +reassuringly at Kate, as she sat dumfounded waiting the issue of this +singular scene. He confronted Boone, leaning against the mantel. + +"It's just as well that we have a witness to this final settlement, +Elisha Boone.--Twenty years ago, Miss Boone, I was a citizen of this +town. I was the owner of these acres. I am Richard Perley. In those days +I was a wild fellow--I thought then, a wicked one; but I have learned +since that I was not, for folly is not crime. In those days--I was +barely twenty-five--your father had a hard ground to till in his way of +life. I became his patron, and from that I became his slave. I never +exactly knew how it came about, but within a few years most of my +property was mortgaged to Elisha Boone. I won't accuse him, as the world +does, of inciting me to drink and gambling. God knows he has enough to +answer for without that! In the end I was driven to a deed that +imperiled my liberty, and Elisha Boone put the temptation and the means +to do it within my reach. Detection followed, and the detection came +about through Elisha Boone. All my property in his hands, my name a +scorn, and my person subject to the law, Elisha Boone had no further +fear of me, and thenceforth doled me out an income sufficient to supply +my modest wants. I strove to turn the new leaf that recommends itself to +men who have exhausted the so-called pleasures of life. I was living in +honesty and seclusion in Richmond, when Boone, who had never lost sight +of me, came with a mission for me to perform. I was engaged as an agent +of the detective force of the United States, with the special duty of +rescuing Wesley Boone from captivity. + +"I was further commissioned to get evidence against John Sprague, fixing +upon him the crime of betraying his colors and aiding the Confederacy. +In the attempt to rescue Captain Boone at Bosedale circumstances pointed +to the guilt of young Sprague, but that was all dissipated a few weeks +after, when, at the peril of his own life, not once, but a score of +times, he rashly liberated a score or two of prisoners, and personally +led them through an entire rebel army to the Union lines. I, who would +have been abandoned by a less noble nature, for I was weakened by +captivity and bad fare, broke down, but Sprague and--and--young Dick--my +son, clung to me with such devotion as few sons would exhibit under such +trials, and brought me safe to the outposts. Here, by some mysterious +means, we were all dispersed. When I found my senses I was under Elisha +Boone's Samaritan care in the house where you saw me at first. The two +boys, Sprague and Perley, spirited away from the hospital at Hampton, +where they had been entered under assumed names, Jacques and Paling, +were by some curious instrumentality hidden in the small-pox ward of the +rebel prison at Point Lookout. While they lay there, and while some one +in Washington knew that they were there, a court martial in that city +hurriedly convened, found John Sprague guilty of murder, desertion, and +treason, and the evening dispatches from Washington state that John +Sprague is to be shot a week from Friday in a hollow square, in which a +company of the Caribees is to do the shooting. + +"Miss Boone, you worked faithfully to rescue the life of this young man, +but your father has brought that work to ruin. Worse, the death you +dreaded when you gave heart and soul to the rescue of the lost was a +mercy compared to that in store for him. He is to be shot by a file of +his own company, seated upon a rough board coffin, ready to receive his +mangled remains. You will--" + +But Kate, at this hideous detail, fell with a low, wailing cry to the +floor, happily dead to the woful consciousness of the scene and its +meaning. Jones ran to the door, and, unlocking it, shouted for the +servants. When they came, she was carried to her room and the physician +summoned. Almost at the same time Olympia, in her traveling-dress, drove +up. She was informed by the servants of Kate's state, and, without +stopping to ask permission, ran up to the sick-room. Kate was now +conscious, but at sight of Olympia she covered her face, shuddering. + +"Ah, Kate! Kate! what is it? Have you learned the dreadful news? I am +going to take the train back this evening." + +"I, too, will go with you. Stay with me; don't leave me!" + +She stopped, put out her hand, as if to make sure of Olympia, then broke +into low but convulsive sobs. Her father, with the doctor, entered the +room; but at the sight Kate turned her head to the wall, crying, +piteously: + +"No, no--not here, not here! I can't see him now! Oh, spare me! I--I--" + +"Do your duty, doctor," Boone said, in a quick, gasping tone, and with +an uncertain step quit the chamber. Olympia explained to the physician +that Kate had heard painful news from an unexpected quarter, and that +her illness was more nervous than physical. + +"I don't know about that," the doctor said, decisively. He felt her +pulse, then with a quick start of surprise raised her head and examined +the tongue and lining of the palate. A still graver look settled on his +face as he tested the breath and action of the heart. When he had +apparently satisfied himself he turned to Olympia with a perturbed air, +and, beckoning her into the dressing-room, said: + +"Miss Sprague, this is no place for you. Miss Boone has every symptom of +typhoid fever. She has evidently been exposed to a malarial air. Her +complaint may be even worse than typhoid--I can't quite make out certain +whitish blotches on her skin. I should suspect small-pox or varioloid, +but that there has not been a case reported here for years. Where has +she been of late?" + +Olympia turned ghastly white with horror. + +"O doctor, she has been nursing Jack, who was for weeks in the small-pox +ward at Point Lookout!" + +"Good God! Fly, fly the house at once! I wondered if I could be deceived +in the symptoms. I must insist on your leaving at once." + +"But the poor girl must have some one of her own sex with her. Whom can +she get if not a friend?" + +"She can get a professional nurse, and that is worth a dozen friends. +Indeed, friends will be only a drawback for the next ten days." + +He took her gently by the shoulders and pushed her out of the room. He +was an old friend of the family, and she was accustomed to his +tyrannical ways. He held her sternly under way until the front door +closed and shut her out. Then, turning into the library, he saw that the +host was alone. Closing the door, he said: + +"Mr. Boone, your daughter has been exposed to a great danger. We may be +able to save her, but it will require great patience." + +"Danger, doctor! What do you mean?" + +"Your daughter has caught the most hideous of all diseases--small-pox!" + +Elisha Boone started to his feet. "Great God! where could she catch +small-pox?" + +"She caught it nursing young Sprague. I thought you knew of that;" and +the doctor regarded the incredulous, terror-stricken face of the father +with bewildered fixity. Well he might. The first rod of the moral law +had just struck him. The vengeance he had so subtly planned had turned +into retributive justice. He had refused Kate's prayer; he had driven +her to this mad search and the contagion now periling her life, or, if +it were spared, leaving her a hideous specter of herself. This passed +through his shattered mind as the doctor stood regarding him. + +"What do you propose doing?" he finally asked, to get his thoughts from +the torturing grip of conscience. + +"I propose to install two trained nurses in the house. You are not to +let a soul know what your daughter is suffering from. I hope to be able +to check the evil in the blood, but I must be secure against any form of +meddling. You must avoid your daughter's chamber--indeed, it would be +better if you could quit Acredale for a few days. You would be less +embarrassed by intrusive neighbors and keep your conscience clear of +evasions." + +So it was settled that Boone should take up his quarters in Warchester, +coming out late every night for news. + +Meanwhile, Acredale had read with amazement, first, of the finding of +Jack Sprague among the rebels at Point Lookout, then, the extraordinary +story of the court-martial and death-sentence. Every one called at the +Sprague mansion, but it was in the hands of the servants, Olympia and +her guest having returned to Washington so soon as the story of her +brother's peril reached her. Dick, too, had flown to his adored Jack, +and Acredale, confounded by the swift alternations in the young +soldier's fortunes, settled down to wait the outcome with a tender +sorrow for the bright young life eclipsed in disgrace so awful, death so +ignominious. + +We have looked on while most of the people in this history worked +through night to light in the moral perplexities besetting them. We have +seen warriors in love and danger gallantly extricating themselves and +plucking the bloom of safety from the dragon path of danger. We have +seen a moral combat in the minds of most of the people who have had to +do with our luckless Jack. But all herein set down has been the merest +November melancholy compared to the charnel-house of dead hopes and +baffled purposes that tortured Elisha Boone. Unlovely as Boone has +seemed to us, he had one of the prime conditions of human goodness--he +loved. He had loved very fondly his son Wesley. He loved very tenderly +his daughter Kate. + +With this love came the sanctification that must abide where love is. I +don't think he had much of what may be called the second condition of +human goodness--reverence. If he had, we should never have seen him push +revenge to the verge of crime. Richard Perley, it is true, accuses him +of a turpitude that makes a man shudder and abhor; but allowances must +be made for the exaggeration of a careless spendthrift--a "good fellow," +than whom I can conceive of nothing so useless and mischievous in the +human economy. For my part, I think I could endure the frank +heartlessness of a man like Boone more philosophically than the false +good-nature of the creature men call a good fellow. + +Obviously, Boone did not take Dick Perley's estimate of him very +seriously. He, too, could have told a tale not without its strong +features of a shiftless set, constantly borrowing, constantly +squandering, constantly provoking the thrifty to accumulate unguarded +properties. All this, however, had faded from the old man's mind now. He +had avenged himself upon the life-long scorners of his name and fame; +but the blow that shattered their pride had sent a dart to his own +heart. His beautiful Kate, his big-hearted, high-spirited, man-witted +girl!--she would bear a leper-taint for life, and his hand had put the +virus on her perfect flesh! + +In a few days the black in his hair withered to an ashen white. His +flesh fell away. He could neither eat nor sleep. He shambled through the +obscure streets of Warchester, or lingered wistfully in the beech woods +behind his own palatial home in Acredale, staring at the window of his +daughter's chamber. The week passed in such mental torture as tries the +strong when confronted by the major force of conscience. Then the doctor +told him that he had balked the plague; that Kate was recovering from +varioloid; that beyond a transparency of skin, which would add to her +beauty rather than impair it, there would be no sign of the attack. + +Elisha Boone slept in his own home that night, and, for the first time +in forty years, he fell upon his knees--upon his knees! Indeed, the +doctor found him so at midnight, when he came with a request from his +daughter to come to her room. The doctor, with a word of warning against +agitating the sufferer, wisely retired from the solemn reconciliation +which, without knowing the circumstances, he knew was to take place +between father and child. She was propped up upon pillows whose texture +her flesh rivaled in whiteness. She opened her arms as the specter of +what had been her father flew to her with a stifled cry. + +"O father, we have both been wicked! we have both been punished! Help me +to do my part; help me to bear my burden." + +It was hope, mercy, and peace the meeting brought. The next day Elisha +Boone bade Kate a tender farewell. She did not ask him where he was +going. She knew, and the light in her eye shone brighter as he rode in +the darkness over the bare fields and through the sleeping towns to the +capital, where Jack's fate was hanging in the balance. With Boone's +influence to aid them, Jack's friends found a surprising change in the +demeanor of the officials, hitherto captious and indifferent. Boone +himself laid the case before the President, omitting certain details not +essential to the showing of the monstrous injustice done a brave +soldier. The President listened attentively, and with the expression, +half sad and half droll, with which he softened the asperities of +official life, said, humorously: + +"I wish by such simple means as courts-martial we could find out more +such soldiers as this; we need all of that sort we can get." He touched +a bell, and, when a clerk appeared in response, he said, "Ask General +McClellan to come in for a moment before he leaves." + +What need to go into the details? The court reconvened, and traversed +the charges, which were disproved or withdrawn. John Sprague was +pronounced guiltless on every specification, and, on General McClellan's +recommendation, was promoted to a captaincy and assigned to the +headquarters staff. I might go on and tell of Jack's daring on the +Peninsula and his immeasurable usefulness to McClellan in the +Williamsburg contest and the final wondrous change of base from the +Chickahominy to the James; how his services were recognized by promotion +to a colonelcy on the battle-field of Malvern; and how, when McClellan +was wronged by Stanton, and removed from the army, Jack broke his sword +and swore that he would never serve again. But, thinking better of it, +he applied for a place in Hancock's corps, and was by his side from +Fredericksburg to Gettysburg. You have seen from the very first what was +going to happen. The marriages all took place, just as you have guessed +from the beginning. Young Dick was too impatient and too skeptical to +wait until the end of the war, and, to the amazement of his aunts and +the amusement of Acredale, he carried Rosa off, one day, and was +secretly married in the rector's study at Warchester, so that his first +son was born under the Stars and Bars in Richmond, while Dick was +beleaguering the walls at Fort Walthall, four miles away. The other +young people waited rationally until a month or two after the peace, and +while they were still entitled to wear the blue, and then they were +wedded. It was said that Kate made the most beautiful bride ever seen in +Warchester, for it was there they were married. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Game, by Henry Francis Keenan + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10062 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68a6710 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10062 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10062) diff --git a/old/10062-8.txt b/old/10062-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1cc2c55 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10062-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15639 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Game, by Henry Francis Keenan + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Iron Game + A Tale of the War + +Author: Henry Francis Keenan + +Release Date: November 12, 2003 [EBook #10062] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON GAME *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Virginia Paque +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original have +been retained in this etext.] + + + The Iron Game + + A TALE OF THE WAR + + BY + + HENRY F. KEENAN + + + "Heavy and solemn the cloudy column + Over the green fields marching came, + Measureless spread like a table bread + For the cold grim dice of the iron game." + + + + + 1898 + + + + + + TO + + BERNARD JOHN McGRANN + + WHOSE LIFE AND CONDUCT EMBODY AND ILLUSTRATE + + THE MANLINESS, MODESTY, AND WORTH + + THAT FANCY DELIGHTS TO EMBALM IN FICTION + + THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED + + BY ONE AMONG THE MANY WITNESSES OF HIS NOBLE CAREER + + HENRY F. KEENAN + + NEW YORK, _25th March, 1891_. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + + BOOK I. + + _THE CARIBEES_. + + + CHAPTER + + I.--THE BOY IN BLUE + II.--FLAG AND FAITH + III.--MALBROOK S'EN VA-T-EN GUERRE + IV.--GUELPH AND GHIBELLINE + V.--A NAPOLEONIC EPIGRAM + VI.--ON THE POTOMAC + VII.--THE STEP THAT COSTS + VIII.--AN ARMY WITH BANNERS + IX.--"THE ASSYRIAN CAME DOWN LIKE THE WOLF ON THE FOLD" + X.--BLOOD AND IRON + XI.--THE LEGIONS OF VARUS + + + + BOOK II. + + _THE HOSTAGES_. + + + XII.--THE AFTERMATH + XIII.--A COMEDY OF TERRORS + XIV.--UNDER TWO FLAGS + XV.--ROSEDALE + XVI.--A MASQUE IN ARCADY + XVII.--TREASON AND STRATAGEMS + XVIII.--A CAMPAIGN OF PLOTS + XIX.--"HE EITHER FEARS HIS FATE TOO MUCH" + XX.--A CATASTROPHE + XXI.--THE STORY OF THE NIGHT + XXII.--A CARPET-KNIGHT + XXIII.--ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR + + + + BOOK III. + + _THE DESERTERS._ + + + XXIV.--BETWEEN THE LINES + XXV.--PHANTASMAGORIA + XXVI.--IN THE UNION LINES + XXVII.--"THE ABSENT ARE ALWAYS IN THE WRONG" +XXVIII.--THE WORLD WENT VERY ILL THEN + XXIX.--A WOMAN'S REASON + XXX.--A GAME OF CHANCE + XXXI.--TWO BLADES OF THE SAME STEEL + XXXII.--THE LOST CARIBEES +XXXIII.--FATHER ABRAHAM'S JOKE + + + + +BOOK I. + +_THE CARIBEES_. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE BOY IN BLUE. + + +When expulsion from college, in his junior years, was visited upon Jack +Sprague, he straightway became the hero of Acredale. And, though the +grave faculty had felt constrained to vindicate college authority, it +was well known that they sympathized with the infraction of decorum that +obliged them to put this mark of disgrace upon one of the most promising +of their students. + +All his young life Jack had dreamed of West Point and the years of +training that were to fit him for the glories of war. He knew the +battles of the Revolution as other boys knew the child-lore of the +nursery. He had the campaigns of Marlborough, the strategy of Turenne, +the inspirations of the great Frederick, and the prodigies of Napoleon, +as readily on the end of his tongue as his comrades had the struggles of +the Giant Killer or the tactics of Robinson Crusoe. When, inspired by +the promise of West Point, he had mastered the repugnant rubrics of the +village academy, the statesman of his district conferred the promised +nomination upon his school rival, Wesley Boone, Jack passionately +refused to pursue the arid paths of learning, and declared his purpose +of becoming a pirate, a scout, or some other equally fascinating child +of nature delightful to the boyish mind. + +When Jack Sprague entered Warchester College, he carried with him the +light baggage of learning picked up at the Acredale Academy. At his +entrance to the sequestered quadrangles of Dessau Hall, Jack's frame of +mind was very much like the passionate discontent of the younger son of +a feudal lord whose discrepant birthright doomed him to the gown instead +of the sword. + +Long before the senior year he had allured a chosen band about him who +shared his eager aspiration for war, and when the other fellows dawdled +in society or wrangled in debate, these young Alexanders set their tents +in the college campus and fought the campaigns of Frederick or Napoleon +over again. Jack did not give much heed to the menacing signs of civil +war that came day by day from the tempestuous spirits North and South. A +Democrat, as his fathers had been before him, he saw no probability of +the pomp and circumstance of glorious war in the noisy wrangling of +politicians. The defeat of Douglas, the Navarre of the young Democracy +of the North, amazed him: but all thought of Lincoln asserting the +national authority, and reviving the splendor of Jackson and Madison, +was looked upon as the step between the sublime and the ridiculous that +reasoning men refuse to consider. + +When, however, the stupefying news came that a national garrison had +been fired upon by the South Carolinians, in Charleston Harbor, the +college boys took sides strongly. There were many in the classes from +Maryland and Virginia. These were as ardent in admiration of their +Southern compatriots as the Northern boys were for the insulted Union. +Months passed, and, although the forces of war were arraying themselves +behind the thin veil of compromise and negotiation, the public mind only +languidly convinced itself that actual war would come. + +The college was divided into hostile camps. The "Secessionists," led by +Vincent Atterbury, Jack's old-time chief crony, went so far as to hoist +the flag of the Montgomery (Jeff Davis's) government on the campus pole, +one morning in April. A fierce fight followed, in which Jack's ardent +partisans made painful havoc with the limbs of the enemy--Atterbury, +their leader, being carted from the campus, under the horrified eyes of +the faculty, dying, as it was thought. Then followed expulsion. When the +solemn words were spoken in chapel, the culprit bore up with great +serenity. But when he announced that he had enlisted in the army, then +such an uproar, such an outburst, that the session was at an end. Even +the grave president looked sympathetic. The like of it was never seen in +a sober college since Antony with Cleopatra invaded the Academy at +Alexandria. The boys flung themselves upon the abashed Jack. They hugged +him, raised him on their shoulders, carried him out on the campus, and, +forming a ring round him, swore, in the classic form dear to collegians, +that they would follow him; that they would be his soldiers, and fight +for the _patria_ in danger. + +"I have nothing to offer you, boys. I'm only sergeant; but if you will +join now, I'm authorized to swear you in provisionally," Jack said, +shrewdly, seizing the flood at high tide. + +So soon as the names could be written the whole senior class +(forty-three) were enrolled. Jack refused the prayerful urgings of the +juniors, who pleaded tearfully to join him. But the president coming out +confirmed Jack's decision until the juniors could get the written +consent of their parents. + +The recitations were sadly disjointed that day, and the excited +professors were glad when rest came. The humanities had received +disjointed exposition during that session. Jack had been summoned to the +president's sanctuary, where he had been received with a parental +tenderness that brought the tears to his big brown eyes. + +"Ah, ha! soldiers mustn't know tears. You must be made of sterner stuff +now, sergeant," the doctor cried, cheerily, as the culprit stood +confusedly before him. "O Jack, Jack, why did you put this hard task +upon me? Why make me drive from Dessau the brightest fellow in the +classes? What will your mother say? I would as soon have lost my own +child as be forced to put this mark on you? But you know I am bound by +the laws of the college. You know I have time and again overlooked your +wild pranks. We have already suffered a good deal from the press for +winking at the sympathy the college has shown in this political quarrel." + +"Yes, professor, I haven't a word to say. You did your duty. Now I want +you to bear witness how I do mine. I do not complain that I am condemned +rather through the form than the fact. I was carried out of my senses by +the sight of that rebel flag." + +The Warchester press, known for many years as the most sprightly and +enterprising of the country, was too much taken up with the direful news +from Baltimore to even make a note of Jack Sprague's expulsion, and the +soldier boy was spared that mortification. Nor did he meet the tearful +lament and heart-broken remonstrance at home, to which he had looked +forward with lively dread. His friends in the village of Acredale were +so astonished by his blue regimentals that he reached the homestead door +unquestioned. His mother, at the dining-room window, caught sight of the +uniform, and did not recognize her son until she was almost smothered in +his hearty embrace. + +"Why, John! What does this mean? What--what have you on?" + +"Mother, I am twenty-two years old. A man who won't fight for his +country isn't a good son. He has no right to stay in a country that he +isn't willing to fight for!" and with this specious dictum he drew +himself up and met the astonished eyes of his sister Olympia, who had +been apprised of his coming. But the maternal fears clouded patriotic +conceptions where her darling was involved, and his mother sobbed: + +"O Jack, Jack! what shall we do? How can we live without you! And oh, my +son, you are too young to go to the war. You will break down. You can't +manage a--a musket, and the--the heavy load the soldiers carry. My son, +don't break your mother's heart. Don't go--don't, Jack, Jack! What shall +I do?--O Polly, what shall we do?" + +"What shall we do? Why, we'll just show Jack that all of war isn't in +soldiering; that the women who stay at home help the heroes, though they +may not take part in the battle. As to you and me, mamma, we shall be +the proudest women in Acredale, for our Jack's the first--" she was +going to say "boy," but, catching the coming protest in the warrior's +glowing eye, substituted "man" with timely magnanimity--"the first man +that volunteered from Acredale. And how shamed you would have been--we +would have been--if Jack hadn't kept up the tradition of the family! He +comes naturally by his sense of duty. Your father's father was the first +to join Gates at Saratoga. My father's father was the right hand of +Warren, at Bunker Hill! If ever blood ran like water in our Jack's +veins, I should put on--trousers and go to the war myself. I'm not sure +that I sha'n't as it is," and, affecting Spartan fortitude, Olympia +pretended to be deeply absorbed in adjusting a disarranged furbelow in +her attire to conceal the quavering in her voice and the dewy something +in her dark eyes. The mother, disconcerted by this defection where she +had counted on the blindest adhesion, sank back in the cane rocker, +helpless, speechless. + +"Yes, mother, Polly is right. How could you ever lift up your head if it +were said that son of John Sprague's--Governor, Senator, minister +abroad--was the last to fly to his country's call? Why, Jackson would +turn in his grave if a son of John Sprague were not the first to take up +arms when the Union that he loved, as he loved his life, was in peril!" + +Mrs. Sprague listened with woe-begone perplexity to these sounding +periods, conscious only that her darling, her adored scapegrace, had +suddenly turned serious, and was using the weapons she had so often +employed to justify his conduct. For it was using one of the standing +arms in the maternal arsenal, to remind the wild and headstrong lad that +his father had been Jackson's confidant, that he had been Governor of +Imperia, that he had enforced the demands of the United States upon +European statesmen, that after a life spent in the public service he had +died, reverenced by his party and by his neighbors. Jack, as an infant, +had been fondled by Webster, by Clay, and, one never-to-be-forgotten +day, Jackson, the Scipio of the republic, had placed his brawny hand +upon the infant's head and declared that he would be "worthy of Jack +Sprague, who was man enough to make two Kentuckians." + +"But you--you, ought to be a colonel. Your father was a major-general in +the Mexican War at twenty-five. A Sprague can't be a private soldier!" +she cried, seizing on this as the only tenable ground where she could +begin the contest against the two children confederated against her. + +"I don't want to owe everything to my father. This is a republic, mamma, +and a man is, or ought to be, what he makes himself. I saw in a paper, +the other day, that the Government has more brigadiers and colonels +and--and--officers than it knows what to do with. I saw it stated that a +stone thrown from Willard's Hotel in Washington hit a dozen brigadiers. +I want to earn a commission before I assume it. I'll be an officer soon +enough, no fear. I could have had a lieutenant's commission if I had +gone in Blandon's regiment. But I hate Blandon. He is one of those +canting sneaks father detested, and I won't serve under such cattle." + +Mrs. Sprague, like millions of mothers in those days, was cruelly +divided in mind. When the neighbors felicitated her on the valor and +patriotism of Mr. Jack she was elated and fitfully reconciled. When, in +the long watches of the night, she reflected on the hardships, +temptations, the dreadful companions her darling must be thrown with, +country, lineage, everything faded into the dreadful reality that her +darling was in peril, body and soul. He was so like his father--gay, +impressionable, easily influenced--he would be saint or sinner, just as +his surroundings incited him. This was the woe that ate the mother's +heart; this was the sorrow that clouded millions of homes when mothers +saw their boys pranked out in the trappings of war. + +Our jaunty Jack enjoyed the worship that came to him. He was the first +boy in blue that appeared in the sandy streets of Acredale. Never had +the rascal been so petted, so feted, so adored. He might have been a +pasha, had he been a Turk. The promising down on his upper lip--the +object of his own secret solicitude and Olympia's gibes during the +junior year--was quite worn away by the kissing he underwent among the +impulsive Jeannettes of the village, who had a vague notion that +soldiers, like sailors, were indurated for battle by adosculation. Jack +may have believed this himself, for he took no pains to disabuse the +maidens as to the inefficacy of the rite, and bore with galliard +fortitude the wear and tear of the nascent mustache, without which, to +his mind, a soldier would figure very much as a monk without a shaven +crown or a mandarin without a queue. And though presently big Tom +Tooker, chief of the rival faction in Acredale, gave his name to the +recruiting officer in Warchester, and a score more of Jack's rivals and +cronies, he was the soldier of the village. For hadn't he given up the +glory of graduation and the delights of "commencement" to take up his +musket for the Union? And then the fife was heard in the village +street--delicious airs from Arcady--and a great flag was flung out from +the post-office, and Master Jack was installed recruiting sergeant for +Colonel Ulrich Oswald's regiment, that was to be raised in Warchester +County. For Colonel Oswald, having failed in a third nomination for +Congress, had gallantly proffered his services to the Governor of the +State, and, in consideration of his influence with his German +compatriots, had been granted a commission, though with reluctance, as +he had supported the Democratic party and was not yet trusted in the +Republican councils. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +FLAG AND FAITH. + + +If Acredale had not been for a century the ancestral seat of the +Spragues, and in its widest sense typical of the suburban Northern town, +there would be merely an objective and extrinsic interest in portraying +its sequestered life, its monotonous activities. But Acredale was not +only a very complete reflex of Northern local sentiment; its war epoch +represented the normal conduct of every hamlet in the land during the +conflict with the South. Now that the war is becoming a memory, even to +those who were actors in it, the facts distorted and the incidents +warped to serve partisan ends or personal pique, the photograph of the +time may have its value. + +Made up of thriving farmers and semi-retired city men, Acredale mingled +the simple conditions of a country village and the easy refinement of +city life. The houses were large, the grounds ornate and ample, the +society decorously convivial. People could be fine--at least they were +thought very fine--without going to the British isles to recast their +home manners or take hints for the fashioning of their grounds and +mansions. There was what would be called to-day the English air about +the place and some of the people; but it was an inheritance, not an +imitation. Save in the bustling business segment, abutting the four +corners, where the old United States road bore off westward to Bucephalo +and the lakes, the few score houses were set far back from the highway +in a wilderness of shrubbery, secluded by hedges and shaded by an almost +primeval growth of elms or maples. The whole hamlet might be mistaken +for a lordly park or an old-fashioned German Spa. Family marketing was +mostly done in Warchester; hence the village shops were like Arabian +bazaars, few but all-supplying. The most pregnant evidence of the +approach of modern ways that tinged the primitive color of the village +life, was the then new railway skirting furtively through the meadows on +the northern limits, as if decently ashamed of intruding upon such +idyllic tranquillity. The little Gothic station, cunningly hidden behind +a clustering grove of oaks at a respectful distance from the Corners, +like the lodge of a great estate, reconciled those who had at first +fought the iron mischief-maker. + +The public edifices of the town--the Episcopal church, the free academy, +the bank, the young ladies' seminary--were very unlike such institutions +in the bustling, treeless towns of to-day. Corinthian columns and Greek +friezes adorned these architectural evidences of Acredale's affluence +and taste. The village had grown up on private grounds, conceded to the +public year by year as the children and dependents of the founders +increased. The Spragues were the founders, and they had never been +anxious to alienate their patrimony. Acredale is not now the sylvan +sanctuary of rural simplicity it was thirty years ago--before the war. +The febrile tentacles of Warchester had not yet reached out to make its +vernal recesses the court quarter for the "new rich." In Jack Sprague's +young warrior days the village was three miles from the most suburban +limits of the city. There was not even a horse-car, or, as fashionable +Warchesterians have it, a "tram," to remind the tranquil villagers that +life had any need more pressing than a jaunt to the post twice a day. +Some "city folks" did hold villas on the outskirts, but they used them +only for short seasons in the late summer, when the air at the lake +began to grow too sharp for outdoor pleasures. + +Society in the place was patriarchal as an English shire town. The large +Sprague mansion, about which the village clustered at a respectful +distance, was the "Castle" of local phrase. Much of the glory of early +days had departed, however, when the Senator--Jack's papa--died. The +widow found herself unable to maintain the affluent state her lord had +loved. His legal practice, rather than the wide acres of his domain, had +supported a hospitality famous from Bucephalo to Washington. But with +prudent management the family had abundance, and, as Jack often said, he +was a fortune in himself. When the time came he would revive the +splendors his father loved to associate with the home of his ancestors. + +"But where are we to get this splendor now, Jack?" Olympia inquired, as +the youth was dilating to his mother on the wonders to come. "Private +soldiers get just thirteen dollars a month; and if you continue +smoking--as I am informed all men do in the army--I expect to have to +stint my pin-money expenses to eke out your tobacco bills." + +"Oh, I'll bring home glory. Napoleon said that every soldier carried a +marshal's _bâton_ in his knapsack." + +"I'm afraid you won't have room for it if you carry all the things that +I know of intended for you in this and other families." + +"Yes; but, Polly, you know, or perhaps you don't know, a _bâton_ is like +a college love--no matter how full your heart is, you can always find +room for another!" + +"John," Mistress Sprague reproves mildly; "how can you? I don't like to +hear my son talk like that even in jest. Don't get the idea that it is +soldierly to treat sacred things with levity. Love is a very sacred +thing; it ought to be part of a man's religion; it was of your +father's." + +"Then Jack must be a high priest, for there are a dozen girls here and +in the city who believe themselves enshrined in that elastic heart." + +"Olympia, you are a baleful influence on your brother. If anything could +reconcile me to his going it is the thought that he will escape the +extraordinary speech and manners you have brought back from New York. Do +the Misses Pomfret graduate all their young ladies with such a tone and +laxity of speech as you have lately shown? Strangers would naturally +think that you had no training at home." + +"Don't fear, mamma; strangers are not favored with my lighter vein; I +assume that for you and Jack, to keep your minds from graver things. I +preserve the senatorial suavity of speech and the Sprague austerity of +manner 'before folks,' as Aunt Merry would say. Which reminds me, Jack, +Kitty Moore declares that you are responsible for Barney's enlisting. +The family look to you to bring him home safe--a colonel at least." + +"Well, by George, I like that! Why, the beggar was bent on going long +ago. He was the first to ask me to run away and enlist. The other day he +wanted me to have him sworn in, and I told him to wait until--until I +got a commission." Jack was going to say until he was older, but he +suddenly recollected that Barney was his own age, and that, in view of +his mother's argument, struck him as unfortunate. He saw Olympia smiling +mischievously and turned the subject abruptly. "I suppose you know, +Polly, that Vincent is going home to join the rebels?" + +"Is he?" She had turned swiftly to gather a ball of worsted, and when it +was secured began to rummage in her work-basket for something that +seemed from her intentness to be vitally necessary to her at the moment. + +"Yes, he wrote to President Grandison that he should go as soon as his +passports and remittances came. He's promised a captain's commission. +I'm very, very sorry. Vint is the noblest of fellows. I hate to think of +him in the rebel army." + +"That's the reason you half killed him the other day, I suppose," +Olympia said, sweetly, still investigating the contents of the basket. + +"What, John, you've not been in a broil--fighting?" and Mistress Sprague +could not, even in imagination, go further in such an odious direction, +and let her eyes finish the interrogatory. + +Jack, a good deal subdued by what Olympia had left unsaid, rather than +what she had said, blurted out: "It was a campus shindy: Vint led the +rebel side and they got licked, that's all." + +"Oh, was that all?" Olympia had ended her search in the basket and +fastened a glance of satiric good humor upon the culprit, which did not +tend to relieve the awkwardness of the moment. Jack blushed under the +glance and began to hum an air from Figaro, as if the conversation had +ebbed into an impass from which it could only be rescued by a +lively air. + +Mrs. Sprague looked at the uneasy warrior, then at her daughter, darting +the crochet-needles placidly through the wool. + +"Well," she said, "never mind what's past; we must have Vincent out here +for a visit before he goes. I must send Mrs. Atterbury a number of +things. I hope she won't think that we intend to let the war make any +difference in our feeling toward the family." + +Jack was very glad to set out at once for his quondam foe, and in ten +minutes was driving down the road to Warchester. Vincent's bruises were +nearly healed, and he saluted Jack as a "chum" rather than as the agent +of his late discomfiture. + +"I'm mighty glad you've come to day. I didn't know whether you meant to +break off or not. I don't cherish any rancor. I don't see any use in +carrying the war into friendships. We made the best fight we could. We +did better than your side. You had the most men and the biggest fellows. +We showed good pluck, if we did get licked. If you hadn't come to-day I +should have been gone without seeing you, for I began to think that you +were as narrow as these prating abolitionists. My commission is ready +for me now at Richmond, and I'm just aching to get my regimentals on. +I'm to be with Johnston in the Shenandoah, you know, and--" + +"You mustn't tell me your army plans, Vint. I'm a soldier," and Jack +drew himself up with martial pomposity, "and--and--perhaps I ought to +arrest you now as an enemy, you know. I will look in the articles of war +and find out my duty in such cases." Jack waved his arm reassuringly, as +if to bid the rebel take heart for the moment--he would not hurry in the +matter. Vincent eyed his comrade with such a woe-begone mingling of +alarm and comic indignation that Jack forgot his possible part as agent +of his country's laws, and said, soothingly: "Never mind, Vint, I'm not +really a full soldier in the technical sense until the regiment is +mustered in at Washington. After that, of course, you know very well it +would he treason to give aid or comfort to the country's enemies." + +Vincent didn't leave next day, nor for a good many days. He seemed to +get a good deal of "aid and comfort" from those who should have been his +enemies. Mistress Sprague found that he was not in a fit state to +travel; that he needed nursing to prepare him for his journey, and that +no place was so fit as the great guest-chamber in the baronial Sprague +mansion, near his friend Jack. Strange to say, Vincent's eagerness to +get to Richmond and his shoulder-straps were forgotten in the agreeable +pastimes of the big house, where he spent hours enlightening Olympia on +the wonders the Southern soldiers were to perform and the glory that he +(Vincent) was to win. He went of a morning to the post-office, where +Jack was installed recruiting-agent for Acredale township, and made very +merry over the homespun stuff enrolled in defense of the Union. + +"Our strapping cavaliers will make short work of your gawky bumpkins;" +he remarked to Jack as the recruits loitered about the wide, shaded +streets, waiting to be forwarded to the rendezvous. + +"Don't be too sure of that. These young, boyish-looking fellows are just +the sort of men that met the British at Bunker Hill. They laughed too, +when they saw them; but they didn't laugh after they met them, nor will +your cavaliers," Jack cried, loftily. + +"But there's not a full-grown man among all these I've seen. How do you +suppose they are to endure march and battle? None of them can ride. All +our young men ride, and cavalry is the main thing in modern armies." + +In the Sprague parlors conversation of this risky sort was eschewed. +Mistress Sprague was anxious that the son of her oldest friend should +return to his mother with only the memory of amiable hospitality in his +heart to show that, although war raged between the people, families were +still friends. Vincent's mother had been one of Mistress Sprague's +bridesmaids, and it was her wish that the children might grow up in the +old kindly ties. So Vincent was made much of. There were companies every +night, and drives and boating in the afternoons, and such merry-making +as it was thought a lad of his years would enjoy. He was a very +entertaining guest; that all Acredale had known in the old vacations +when, with his sister, the pretty Rosa, he spent a summer with +the Spragues. + +But, now that there was to be a separation involving the unknown in its +vaguest form, the lad was treated with a tenderness that made the swift +days very sweet to the young rebel. It was from Olympia that he met the +only distinct formality in the manners of his hosts. He had known and +adored her in a boyish way for years, and now, as he contemplated going, +he thought that she ought to exhibit something of the old-time warmth. +In other days she had ridden, walked, and flirted to his heart's desire. +Now she avoided him when Jack was not at hand, and when she talked it +was in a flippant vein that drove him wild with baffled hope. The day +before he was to bid the kind house adieu he had his wish. She was +riding with him over the shaded roadway that curves in bewildering +beauty toward the lake. She seemed in a gentler mood than he had lately +seen her. They rode slowly side by side, but Vincent had a dismal +awkwardness of speech in whimsical contrast to his habitual fluency. + +"There's only one thing hateful to me in this war," he said, caressing +the arching neck of his horse, "and that is, the better we do our duty +as soldiers the more sorrow we must bring upon our own friends." + +"That's a rather solemn view to take of what Jack regards as the path of +glory." + +"Oh, you know what I mean: under the flag there can or ought to be no +friendships--the bullet sent from the musket, the sword drawn in light, +must be aimed blindly. It might be my fate, for example, to meet +Jack, to--to--" + +"Yes," Olympia laughed demurely, ignoring the sentimental aspect of +Vincent's remark. "Yes, that might paralyze the arm of valor; but, then, +you and Jack have met before, when duty demanded one thing and affection +another: I don't see that the dilemma softened the blows, or that either +of you are any the worse for them." + +Vincent was the real Southerner of his epoch--impulsive, sentimental, +ardent in all that he espoused, without the slightest notion of humor, +though imaginative as a dreamer; love, war, and his State, Virginia, +were passions that he thought it a duty to uphold at any and all times. +He colored under the girl's satiric sally. If she had been a man he +would have bid her to battle on the spot. Her sly fun and gentle malice +he resented as insulting, coarse, and unwomanly. He flashed a look of +piteous, surprised reproach at her as she flecked the flies from the +neck of her horse. He rode along moodily--too angry, too wretched to +trust himself to speak, for he felt sure he must say something bitter. +But, as she gave no sign of resuming the discourse, he was forced to +take up the burden again. Venturing nearer her side, he said in a +conciliating, argumentative tone, as if he had not heard the +foregoing speech: + +"Do you know, it seems to me, Olympia, that you of the North do not seem +to realize the seriousness of the war, the determination of our side to +make the South free? Here you go about the common business of life, +parties, balls, dress, and all the follies of peace, as if war could not +affect you at all. Your newspapers are full of coarse jokes at the +expense of your own soldiers, your own President. There seems no +devotion to your own cause, such as we feel in the South. I believe that +if put to a vote more than half the North would side with us to-day." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MALBROOK S'EN VA-T-EN GUERRE. + + +Olympia had been jogging along, apparently oblivious to everything but +the blazing vision of sun and cloud above the lake, purpling shapes of +mirage, reflecting the smooth surface of the glowing water. But as the +young man's voice--fallen into a melodious murmur--ceased, she took up +the theme with unexpected earnestness. + +"That's the error the South has made from the first. You know my father +was a public man. I have been educated more at our dinner-table and in +his talks with guests than at school. That is, the things that have +taken strongest hold of my mind young girls rarely hear or understand. +Now I think I can tell you something that may be of value to you in +official places where you are going. The North is not only in +earnest--it is religiously in earnest. If you know Puritan history you +know what that means. For example: if Jack had hesitated a moment or +made delay to get rank in the army, I should have abhorred him. So would +our mother, though she seems to be dismayed at his serving as a common +soldier. I adore Jack; I think him the finest, the most perfect nature +after my father's--that lives. But I give him up gladly, because to keep +him would be to degrade him. We know that he may fall; that he may come +back to us a cripple or worse. But, as you see, we make no sign. Not a +line of routine has been changed in the house. Jack will march away and +never see a tear in my eye or feel my pulse tremble. It is not in our +Northern blood to give much expression to sentiment, but we feel none +the less deeply--much more deeply, I think, than you exuberant +Southerners; you are impulsive, mercurial, and fickle." + +"Oh, don't say that: I can't bear to hear you say it; we have deep +feelings, we are constant, true as steel, chivalrous--" + +"Yes, you are delightful people; but you are always living in the past. +Shall I say it? You are womanlike; you can't reason. What you want at +the moment is right, and only that; with us nothing is real until we +have tried and proved it. If you count on Northern apathy you will soon +see your mistake. When Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter the North was of +one mind, and will stay so until all is again as it was." + +"Pray don't let us talk on this subject. I'm free to own that it does +not interest me. Then," he added adroitly, "you are readier in argument +than I, because you were brought up in it. But what I want to say is, +that it seems base for me to turn upon the goodness I have met in this +house, and--and--" + +"But you need not turn. In battle do your duty like a man. If it should +fall to you to do a kindness to the wounded, do it in memory of the +friends you have here. War is less savage now than it was when your +ancestors and mine tortured each other in the name of God and the king." + +"All murder is done for love of one sort or another: war is love of +country; revenge is love of some one else--men rarely kill from hate," +Vincent stammered, his heart beating at the nearness of what he was +dying to say. + +"In that case I hope I shall he hated. I shall shun people who love me," +and with that she struck the horse a lively tap and soon was far ahead +of her tongue-tied wooer. Was this a challenge? Vincent asked himself, +as he sped after her. When he reached her side the tender words were +chilled on his lips, for Olympia had in her laughing eye the, to him, +odious expression he saw there when she made the irritating speech about +himself and Jack a few minutes before. Fearing a teasing retort, he +bridled the tender outburst and rode along pensively, revolving pretexts +for another day's stay in Acredale. But when they reached home he found +an imperative mandate to set out at once, as his lingering in the North +was subjecting himself and kinsmen to doubt among the zealous partisans +of the Davis party. Olympia was alone in the library when he ran down to +tell Jack that he must start at once. He took it as an omen, and said, +confusedly: + +"It is decided; I must go in the morning." + +As this had been the plan all along, she looked up at him in surprise, +not knowing, of course, that he had been thinking of putting off the +fixed time. + +"Yes, everything has been made ready; Jack will take you to Warchester, +and we shall drive over to see you _en route_." + +"It is fortunate the letter from my mother came to-night." He stood +quite, over her chair, his eyes glittering strangely, his +manner excited. + +"Do you know what they think at home? They say that I--I am not true to +my cause; that my heart is with the North--that I want to stay here." + +"They won't think that when they hear you, as we have, breathing fury +and wrath against the Lincolnites," Olympia briskly replied, as if to +proffer her services as witness to his misguided loyalty to the South. + +"Ah, don't be so ungenerous, now--at this time. I never talk like that +now--here--never before you." He hesitated, and his voice dropped. "Why +will you put a fellow in a ridiculous light? Your sneers almost make me +ashamed of my honest pride in my State--my enthusiasm for our +sacred cause." + +"Deep feeling isn't so easily shaken; true love should brave all +things--even sneers and blows." + +"If I should tell you that I loved somebody, I am sure you would make me +seem ridiculous or ignorant of my own mind." + +"Then pray be wise and don't tell me. It's bad enough to be in love, +without being photographed in the agony." + +He looked at her in angry perplexity. Could she ever be serious? Was all +the tenderness of the past only heedless coquetry? Had she danced with +him, drove with him, sailed with him, walked in the moonlight and made +much of him in mere wanton mischief? What right had she to be so pretty +and so--without heart or sensibility? A Southern girl with the word love +on a young man's lips would have become a Circe of seductive wooing +until the tale were told, even though she could not give her heart +in return. + +"I--I am going to-morrow, you know, and--" Then he almost laughed +himself, for the droll inconsequence of this intelligence, after what +had passed, touched even his small sense of humor. "O Olympia, I mean +that I shall be far away: that I shall not see you after to-morrow. +Won't you say something to encourage me--to give me heart for +the future?" + +"Let me see," and she leaned on her elbow musingly, as if construing his +words literally, and quite unaware of the tender intent of his prayer. +"It ought to be a line to go on your sword--there's where you have the +advantage of poor Jack, he has only a musket. But, no, you being a +Southerner, have a coat of arms, and the line must go on that. I used to +know plenty of stirring phrases suitable to young men setting out for +the wars. Perhaps you know them, too; they are to be found in the +copy-books. 'The pen is mightier than the sword' wouldn't do, would it? +Pens are only fit for poets and men of peace? We should have something +brief and epigrammatic. 'That hour is regal when the sentinel mounts on +guard.' There is sublimity in that, but you won't go on guard, being +an officer. + + 'No blood-stained woes in mankind's story + Should daunt the heart that's set on glory.' + +"That's too trivial--the sort of doggerel for newspaper poets' corners +rather than a warrior's shield. + + 'Think on the perils that environ + The man that meddles with cold iron!' + +"That's too much like a caution, and a soldier's motto should urge to +daring. So we'll none of that. What do you say to the distich in honor +of your great ancestor, Pocahontas's husband, John Smith: + + 'I never yet knew a warrior but thee, + From wine, tobacco, debt, and vice so free.' + +"Perhaps, however, that might be regarded as vaunting over your +comrades, who, I've no doubt, relax the tedium of war in temperate +indulgence of some of these vices. 'Put up thy sword; states may be +saved without it,' would sound out of keeping for a warrior whose States +drew the sword when the olive-branch was offered them. You see, I can +not select any text quite suitable to your case?" + +"O Olympia, I did not believe you could be so heartless! Be serious." + +"Well, Mr. Soldier, if you insist, I know nothing better for a warrior +to bear in mind in war than these simple lines: + + 'The bravest are the tenderest, + The loving are the daring.'" + +"You are right, Olympia--those are noble lines. It gives me courage; the +loving are the daring! I love you; I dare to tell you that I love you! +Ah, Olympia, I love you so well that I have been traitor to my +fatherland! I have loitered here in the hope that you would give me some +sign--some word to take with me in the dark path Fate has set for me +to follow." + +He came back to her side now, passion and zeal in his shining eyes, +ardent, elate, expectant. But she put the hand behind her that he +reached out to seize as he fell upon one knee by her chair. Her voice +softened and a warm light shone in her eye when she spoke: + +"I beg you to get up; we cold-blooded people up here don't understand +that old-fashioned way." As he started back with something like a groan, +she gave him a quick glance that electrified him. He seized her hand +before she could snatch it away and pressed it to his lips. + +"Pray be serious. You are too young to talk of love." + +"I am twenty-two; my father was married at nineteen." + +"No, dear Vincent, don't talk of this now. You don't know your own mind +yet. I am sure that when you go home and think over the matter you will +see that it would be impossible, but, even if you were sure of yourself, +I never could think of it. You are going to take up arms against all I +hold dear and sacred. If I were your affianced, with the love for you +that you deserve, I would break the pledge when you joined in arms +against my family and country." + +"You have known for years, Olympia, that I loved you; that I was only +waiting to finish college to tell you of my love. Why didn't you +tell me--" + +"Tell you what?" + +"I say, Polly," Jack cried, bursting in, radiant and eager. "I have the +last man of the one hundred--" Observing Vincent he stopped. It seemed +to him a sort of treason to talk of his regiment before the man who was +so soon to be in the ranks against them. "Oh, I can't tell our secrets +before the enemy," he ended, jocosely. The word went to Vincent's heart +like the prod of sharp steel. He gave Olympia one pathetic glance, and, +without a word, hastened from the room. In spite of a great many adroit +efforts, Vincent could get no further speech with Olympia alone that +night. Early in the morning he was driven, with Mrs. Sprague and Jack to +the station. Olympia sent down excuses and adieus, alleging some not +incredible ailing of the sort that is always gallantly at the disposal +of damsels not minded to do things people expect. + +Presently, when the lorn lover had been gone three days, a letter came +from Washington to Olympia, and, though it was handed to her by her +mother, the maiden made no proffer to confide its contents to the +naturally curious parent. But we, who can look over the reader's +shoulder, need not be kept in the dark. + + "Dear Olympia" (the letter said), "it was hard to leave + without a last word. All the way here I have been thinking + of our little talk--if that can be called a talk where one + side has lost his senses and the other is trifling or mystifying. + I told you that I loved you. I thrill even yet with + the joy of that. You are so wayward and capricious, so + coy, that I began to fear that I never could get your car long + enough to tell you what I felt you must have long known. You + didn't say that you loved me; but, dear Olympia, neither did + you say that you did not. The rose has fallen on the hem + of your robe. When its fragrance steals into your senses, + you will stoop and put the blossom in your bosom. It is the + war that divides us, you say. It will soon pass. And who + knows what may happen to make you glad that, since there + must be strife, I am one of the enemy rather than a stranger? + I feel that we shall be brought together in danger, when it + may be my happiness to serve you or yours. But, even if I + am not so favored, I shall still ask your love. You know + our Southern ways. Whom I love my mother loves. But + my mother and sister Rosa have loved you long and dearly. + They have known you as long as I have, and when you consent + to come to us you will take no stranger's place in the + heart and home of the family. Remember the motto you + gave me. You are a woman, therefore tender; I am daring, + Heaven knows, in aspiring to such a reward as your love. + But I dare to love you; if you cast that love from you, love + will lose its tenderness, bravery its daring. One of the high + mountains of hope whereon I sun my fainting soul is the + knowledge that you love no one else. I won't say that you + should in love hold to the ride 'first come first served,' but I + do say, 'first dare, first win.' And when you reflect on what + you said about the accident of war separating us, just put + Jack in my place. What would you think of a Southern + girl who should refuse him because he fought on the side of + his family and his State? What is the old line? 'I could + not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honor more.' I'm + sure I couldn't ask your love if there were not honor in my + own. The war will be over and forgotten in six months, + but you and I are young; we have long years before us. + The right will win in the contest, and, right or wrong, I am + yours, and only yours, while there are life in my body and + hope in my soul. VINCENT." + +In a little glow of what was plainly not displeasure, the young woman +"filed" this "writ of pre-emption," as Jack afterward called it, in +careful hiding, and resumed meditation of the writer. It could not now +be answered, for letters between the lines were subject to censorship, +and Olympia perhaps shrank from adding to her lover's misery by exposing +his rejection to the unfeeling eyes of the postal agents. There was pity +in the resolve as well as prudence. Had Vincent been able to read the +workings of the lady's mind, he would have donned his rebel gray with +more buoyant joy that day in Richmond. Another ally of the absent came +in the course of the day. Miss Boone, the daughter of the opulent +contractor and chief local magnate, called to plan work for the +soldiers. Vincent's name being mentioned, Miss Boone said, in the +apparent effusion of girlish intimacy: + +"I like Mr. Atterbury very much. He is a charming fellow. But, for your +family's sake, I am glad he is away from this house." At Olympia's +surprised start she nodded as if to emphasize this, continuing: "Yes, +and for good reasons. You know our house is the high court of +abolitionism? Well, papa's cronies have made Mr. Atterbury's visit cause +of suspicion." + +"Suspicion? What do you mean?" + +Miss Boone was paling and blushing painfully. "Dear Olympia, I hate to +say it; but you should know it. You will hear it elsewhere. Cruel things +like this always come out. You know that feeling has been very bitter +here since the dreadful attack on the Massachusetts soldiers in +Baltimore? Radicals make no distinction between Democrats and rebels, +and--I'm to say it--but Mr. Atterbury is charged with being a spy +here--and--and your family, being Democrats, are thought to sympathize +with the rebels. Of course, your friends know better. I and many more +know that the Atterburys and Spragues have been intimate for thirty +years. But in war-time people seem to lose their senses and change their +opinions like lake breezes; prejudices grow like gourds, and the people +who do least and talk loudest make public sentiment." + +"What an outrageous state of things!" Olympia cried, hotly. "Our family +sympathize with traitors indeed! Why, it was my father who, in the +Senate, upheld Jackson when he stamped out South Carolina in its +rebellion. Oh! it is monstrous, such a calumny. Why, just think of it! +The only man in the family is a private soldier, when he might have been +high in rank, with such influences as we could bring to bear. O Kate! it +almost makes one pray for a defeat to punish such ingrates!" + +"Yes; but for Heaven's sake don't let any one hear you say such a +thing--for your brother's sake! He is already the victim of the feeling +I have spoken about. He was to have had the captaincy of the first one +hundred men he raised. But the Governor has been made to change the +usual rule, and the colonel is to appoint the officers." + +"And Jack isn't to have a commission?" + +"No, not now; only men of the war party are to be made officers." + +"Good heavens! Nobody could be more eager for the war than Jack. It is +his passion. His delight in it shocks my mother, who hates war. What +stronger evidence of sympathy for the cause could he show than joining +the army before finishing college?" + +"But he is a Democrat--and--and--only Republicans are to be trusted at +first." Miss Boone blushed as she stammered this, for it was her own +father, in his function as chairman of the war committee, who had +insisted upon this discrimination. Worse still, but this Kate did not +mention--it was Boone's own work that kept Jack from his expected +epaulets. There had long been a feud between Boone and the late Senator +Sprague, and Olympia conjectured most of what the daughter reserved. + +"Your brother has done wonders, everybody says; he has the finest +fellows in the township, and he ought to be colonel, at least," Miss +Boone said, rising to go. + +"Oh, I have no fear that he will not win his way," Olympia replied, +cheerfully. "The brave in battle are captains, no matter what rank +they hold." + +The odious partisanship and ready calumny of her own compatriots gave a +strange bent to her mind in dealing with another problem. Vincent, too, +had suffered from the wretched battle of his family's enemies. After +all, might he not be right? Might the war not be a mere game of havoc +played by the base and unscrupulous? Country, right or wrong, had been +her family watchword since her ancestor flew to fight the British +invaders. It was Jack's watchword, too, and his conduct in battle should +put these wretches to shame. She thought more kindly of the rebel in +this vengeful mood, and straightway ran up-stairs, where, sitting by the +open window and lulled by the piping of the robins, she took the letter +from its pretty covert, read it again with heightened color, and, +smiling rosily at the face she saw in the mirror, raised it to her lips +and sighed softly. + +When a whole people have but one thought in mind that thought becomes +mania. Acredale had but this one thought, "Beat rebellion and punish +rebels." "On to Richmond!" was the cry, and forming ranks to go there +the business that everybody took in hand. These had been great days to +Jack. He began to feel something of the burden that a feudal chief must +have borne at the summoning of the clans. So soon as it spread in the +country-side that "young Sprague had 'listed," all the "ageable" sons of +the soil were fired with a burning zeal to take up arms and bear him +company. Boys from sixteen to twenty these were for the most part, and +there was bitter grumbling when Jack firmly refused to take the names of +any under twenty. Some he solaced with a gun, a pistol, or such object +as he knew was dear to the country boy's heart. They returned to the +relieved hearthstone loud in Jack's praise, having his promise to enlist +them when they were twenty, if the war lasted so long; and if the wise +smiled at this, wasn't it well known that the great army now gathering +was to set out at latest by the 4th of July? And didn't everybody know +that it was going to march direct to Richmond? There were trying scenes +too, in the _rôle_ Jack had assumed so gayly. He began to see that war +had ministers of pain and sorrow hardly less cruel than those dealing +death and wounds. Tearful parents came to him day by day to beg his help +in restoring sons who had fled to the wars. Others came to warn him that +if their boys applied to him he must refuse them, as they were +under age. + +In this list the Perley sisters, Dick's three maiden aunts, came on a +respectful embassy to implore Jack to discourage their nephew, who had +quite deserted school and gave all his time to drilling with the +"college squad." Jack pledged himself that he would hand Dick over to +the justice of the peace, to be detained at the house of refuge, if he +didn't give up his evil designs. But, when that young aspirant appeared, +so soon as his aunts had gone, and reminded Jack of years of intimate +companionship in dare-deviltry, the elder saw that his own safety would +be in flight, and that night, his company was removed to Warchester. +There in the great camp, surrounded by sentinels, his Acredale cronies +were shut out, and Jack began in earnest his soldier life. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +GUELPH AND GHIBELLINE. + + +The shifting of Jack's company to the regimental camp in Warchester left +a broad gap in the lines of the social life of Acredale. Jack's going +alone, to say nothing of the others, would have eclipsed the gayety of +many home groups besides his own, in which the Sprague primacy in a +social sense was acknowledged. Since the influx of the new-made rich, +under the stimulus of the war and Acredale's advantages as a resort, +there were a good many who disputed the Sprague leadership--tacitly +conceded rather than asserted. Chief of the dissidents was Elisha Boone, +who, by virtue of longer tenure, vast wealth, and political precedence, +divided not unequally the homage paid the patrician family. Boone was +fond of speaking of himself as a "self-made man," and the satirical were +not slow to add that he had no other worship than his "creator." This +was a gibe made rather for the antithesis than its accuracy, for even +Boone's enemies owned that he was a good neighbor, and, where his +prejudices were not in question, a man with few distinctly repellent +traits. He delighted in showing his affluence--not always in good taste. +He filled his fine house with bizarre crowds, and made no stint to his +friends who needed his purse or his influence. He had in the early days +when he came to Acredale aspired to political leadership in the +Democratic party. + +But Senator Sprague was too firmly enshrined in the loyalty of the +district to be overcome by the parvenu's manoeuvres or his money. His +ambition in time turned to rancor as he marked the patrician's +disdainful disregard of his (Boone's) efforts to supplant him. Hatred of +the Spragues became something like a passion in Boone. Sarcasms and +disparagement leveled at his social and political pretensions he +attributed to the Senator and his family. All sorts of slurs and gossip +were reported to him by busybodies, until it became a settled purpose +with Boone to make the Sprague family feel heavy heart-burnings for the +sum of the affronts he had endured. It was to them he attributed the +whispered gibes about his illiteracy; his shady business methods; the +awful story of his handiwork in the ruin of Richard Perley, the +spendthrift brother of the Misses Perley. Once, too, when he had so well +manipulated the district delegates that he was sure of nomination in the +convention, Senator Sprague had hurried home from Washington and +defeated him just as the prize was in his grasp. The Senator made a +speech to the delegates, in which he pointedly declared that it was men +of honor and brains, not men of money, that should be chosen to make +the laws. + +"The time will come, Senator, that you'll be sorry for this hour's +work," Boone said, joining Sprague at the door as he was leaving +the hall. + +"How's that?" the other asked, with just the shade of superciliousness +in the tone admired in the Senate for suavity. "I hope I am always sorry +when I do wrong, in speech or act; I teach my children to be." + +"Well, if you think it right to run the party for a few lordly idlers +too proud to mix with the people--men who think they are better born and +better bred than the rest of us--I don't want to have anything more to +do with it. I will go elsewhere." + +"That's your privilege, sir. The Whigs have plenty of room for self-made +men. Though I do think you are taking too personal a view of to-day's +contest, your defeat was purely a matter of duty. Moore, whom we have +chosen, was a poor Irish settler here before you came. He was promised +the nomination two years ago." With a lofty bow the Senator turned and +stalked in another direction as if he did not care for the other's +further company. Even this small and wholly unintended affront worked in +the poor, misjudging victim of morbid self-esteem, as a cinder in the +eye will torture and blind the sufferer to all the landscape. Boone +mingled no more with the Democrats. He threw himself with the fervor of +the convert into the radical wing of the Whigs, and was brought into +close relation with some of the most admired of the band of great men +who created the young Republican party. If Douglas, Dickinson, Cass, Van +Buren, Seymour, or any eminent Democrat passing through Warchester +stopped to break bread with their colleague Sprague in his Acredale +retreat, straightway the splendid Sumner, the Ciceronian Phillips, or +the Walpole-Seward, or some other of the shining galaxy of agitators, +whose light so shone before men that the whole land was presently +brought out of darkness, met at Boone's table to maintain the balance in +distinction. + +It was Boone's liberal purse that paid the expenses of the memorable +campaign in the Warchester district, wherein the Democrats were first +shaken in their hold. It was his money that finally secured the seat in +Congress for Oswald, who was his tenant and debtor. It was therefore no +surprise when Oswald--who had been greatly aided in business affairs by +Senator Sprague--passed over the prior claims of his old patron's son, +and gave the cadetship to Wesley Boone, the son of his new liege. It was +looked upon as another step in the ladder of gratitude when Wesley +carried off the captaincy in the Acredale company, though everybody knew +that young Boone was not in any way so well fitted for the "straps" as +Jack. When one day an item appeared in the local paper to the effect +that President Lincoln had shown the "sagacity for which he was so well +known, in honoring our distinguished townsman, Elisha Boone, Esq., with +the appointment of ambassador to Russia," everybody thought the +statement only natural. There were many congratulations. But when, +having declined this splendid proffer, the authorities pressed the place +of "Assistant Secretary of the Treasury" upon their townsman, the whole +village awoke to the fact that all its greatness had not gone when +Senator Sprague was gathered to his fathers. + +The event was potent as the cross Constantine saw, or dreamed he saw, in +the sky, in the conversion of party workers to the new Administration. +Everybody looked forward to an eminent future for the potent partisan +and millionaire, the first of that--now not uncommon--hierarchy that +replace the feudal barons in modern social forces. Had he listened to +the eager urging of Kate, his daughter and prime minister, Boone would +have accepted the foreign mission; but he stubbornly refused to listen +to her in this. + +Kate Boone was like her father only in strong will, vehement purpose, +and a certain humorous independence that made her a great delight among +even the anti-Boone partisans in both Acredale and Warchester. Since the +death of her mother, Kate had been head of her father's household--an +imperious, capricious, kind-hearted tyrant, who ruled mostly by jokes +and persuasions of the gentler sort. It was her father's one lament that +Kate was not "the boy of the family, for she had more of the stuff that +makes the man in her little finger than Wes had in his whole body." She +kept him in a perpetual unrest of delight and dismay. She espoused none +of his piques or prejudices; she was as apt to bring people he disliked +to his dinner-table as those he liked. She was forever making him +forgive wrongs, or what he fancied to be wrongs, and causing him seem at +fault in all his squabbles, so that he was often heard to say, when +things went as he didn't want them: + +"I don't know whether I am to blame or the other fellow until Kate hears +the story." + +His illiteracy and lack of polish were the secret grief of the rich +man's life. Kate was quick in detecting this. Much of it she saw was due +to the shyness that unschooled men feel in the presence of college men, +or those who have been trained. On returning from her seminary life, the +young girl set about remedying the single break in her father's +perfections. She was far too clever to let him know her ambitious +purpose. With a patience almost maternal and an exquisite adroitness, +she interested him in her own reading, which was comprehensive, if not +very well ordered. But she won the main point. During the long winter +evenings her father found no pleasure like that Kate had always ready +for him in the cheery library. He was soon amazed at his keen interest +in the world of mind unrolled to his understanding; more than all, he +retained with the receptivity of a boy all that was read to him. Kate +made believe that she needed his help in reviewing her own studies, and +so carried him through all she had gone over in the seminary classes. +Boone began presently to see that education is not the result of mere +attendance in schools and the parroting of the classics in a few +semesters in college. Without suspecting it, his varied business +enterprises and his wide experience of men had grounded him as well in +the ordinary forms of knowledge as nine in ten college men attain. + +"Education, after all, papa, is like a trade. A man may be able to +handle all the tools and not know their names. Now, you are a +well-informed man, but, because you didn't know logic, grammar, +scientific terms, and the like, you thought yourself ignorant." + +In the new confidence in himself he was surprised at his own ability in +launching a subject in the presence of his eminent friends when +especially Kate was on hand to support the conversation. She got him not +only to buy fine pictures, as most rich men do, but she made him see +wherein their value lay, so that when artists and amateurs came to +admire his treasures, he could talk to them without gross solecisms. + +"I'm not a liberal education to you, papa, as Steele said of the Duchess +of Devonshire. That implies too much, but I am an index. You can find +out what you need to know by keeping track of my ignorance." + +Elisha Boone's domestic circle was a termagancy--as Kate often told his +guests--tempered by wit and good-humor. He was prouder of his daughter +than of his self-made rank or his revered million. In moments of +expansive good-nature he invited business or political associates to +"Acre Villa," as his place was called, to enjoy the surprise Kate's +graces wrought in the guests. But these were not always times of delight +to the doting parent. Kate was a shrewd judge of the amenities; and if +the personages who came, at the father's bidding, gave the least sign of +a not unnatural surprise to find a girl so well bred and self-contained +in the daughter of such a man as Boone, she became very frigid and left +the father to do the honors of the evening visit. No entreaty could move +her to reappear on the scene. In time, the prodigal papa was careful to +submit a list of the names of his proposed guests, as chamberlains give +royalty a descriptive list of those to be bidden to court. + +Kate was on terms that, if not cordial, were not constrained, with the +Spragues. She had gone to the same seminary with Olympia, had danced +with Jack, and, in the cadetship affair, had plainly given her opinion +that her brother Wesley, having no taste or fitness for military life, +Jack, who had, should have the prize. But two motives entered into the +father's determination: one was to annoy and humiliate the Spragues; the +other, the sleepless craving of the parvenu to get for his son what had +not been his, in spite of all the adulation paid him--the conceded +equality of social condition. The army was then, as I believe it is +considered now, the surest sign of higher caste in a democracy. Wesley, +by the mere right to epaulets, would be of the acknowledged gentility. +Nobody could sneer at him; no doors could be opened grudgingly when he +called. He would, in virtue of his West Point insignia, be a knighted +member of the blood royal of the republic. Some of this mysterious +unction would distill itself into the unconsecrated ichor of the rest of +the family, and Kate, as well as himself, would be part of the patrician +caste. The daughter looked upon all this good-humoredly; she shared none +of her father's morbid delusions on the subject. She rallied the cadet a +good deal on his mission. When Wesley, after the June examinations, +which he passed by the narrowest squeeze--'twas said by outside +influence--came home to display his cadet buttons and his neat gray +uniform in Acredale, Kate bantered the complacent young +warrior jocosely. + +"We shall all have to live up to your shoulder-straps and brass buttons +after this, Wesley," she cried, as the proud young dandy strutted over +the arabesques of the library, where the delighted papa marched him, the +better to survey the boy's splendor. "And think of the fate that awaits +you if, in the esteem of Acredale, you should turn out less than a +Napoleon." + +"Be serious, Kate, and don't tease the boy. Wesley knows what's expected +of him; he has an opportunity to show what is in his stock. Thank God, +men in the North can now come to their own without going down on their +knees to the South!" + +Wesley grinned. He was no match for his sister in the humorous bouts +waged over his head against his father's prejudices and cherished social +schemes. During the vacation she put a heavy penalty of raillery upon +his swelling pride and vanity, sarcasm that tried the paternal patience +as well as his own. Wesley, however, had a large fund of the philosophy +that comes from a high estimate of one's self. He was well favored in +looks and build, though somewhat effeminate, with his small hands and +carefully shod feet. He would have been called a "dude" had the word +been known in its present significance; as it was, he was regarded as a +coxcomb by the derisive group hostile to the father's social +pretensions. He was the first of the golden youth of his set to adopt +the then reviving mode of parting the hair on the middle of the head. In +the teeth of the village derision, he persisted in this with a tenacity +that Kate declared gave promise of a "Wellington." For many who had at +first adopted the foreign freak had been ridiculed out of it, +discouraged by the obstinate refusal of the generality to follow the +lead. In those sturdily primitive days the rich youth of the land had +not so universally gone abroad as they do now, and "the proper thing" +among the "well born" was not so distinctly laid down in the code of the +_élite_. The accent and manners that now mark "good form" seemed queer, +not to say _bouffe_, to even the first circles of home society, and the +first disciples of "Anglomania" had a very hard time polishing the raw +material. The home life of the Boones was something better and sincerer +than the impression made upon their neighbors by the father's invincible +push and high-handed ways. His daughter and son had been born to him in +middle age. They had the reverence for the parent marked in the conduct +of children who associate gray hairs with the venerable. With all her +strong sense and self-assertion, Kate was proud of the fact that she was +her father's daughter. It was a distinction to bear his name. His +solidity, his masterful will, his well-defined, if narrow, convictions, +were to her the sanctities one is apt to associate with lineage or +magistracy. Wesley, though less impressionable than his sister, shared +these secret devotions to the parent's parts, and bowed before his +father's behests, in the filial reverence of the sons of the patriarchs. +When Elisha Boone denounced the outbreak of John Brown at Harper's Ferry +as more criminal than Aaron Burr's treason, his children made his +prepossessions their own; when, three years later, the father proudly +eulogized the uprising he had so luridly condemned, his children saw no +tergiversation in the swift conversion. When to this full measure of lay +perfection the complexion of Levite godliness was superadded by election +to the deaconate in the Baptist Church, it will readily be seen that two +young people, in whom the hard worldliness of wealth and easy conditions +had not bred home agnosticism, were material for all the credulities of +parent worship. Kate, a year older than Wesley, soon encountered the +influences which gave the first shock to her faith and gradually +tinctured her sentiments with a clearer insight into her father's +character. Oddly enough, it was through the rival house this came. +Olympia, a sort of ablegate in the social hierarchy of the village, had +been thrown much with Kate, and was greatly amused with her point of +view in many of the snarls arising in a provincial society. The intimacy +had been begun in the New York school, where both had been in the same +classes, and, though the families saw nothing of each other, the girls +did. Kate was soon led to see that the Spragues had none of the +patrician pretension her father attributed to them. Jack, too, had made +much of her, and seemed to delight in her sharp retorts to the inanities +of would-be wits. The episode in Elisha Boone's life, that all his +success, wealth, and after exemplary conduct had not condoned in the +village mind, was his handiwork in the ruin of Richard Perley, I set +this down with something of the delight Carlyle expresses when in the +rubbish of history he found, among the shams called kings and nobles, +anything like a man. + +It is worth the noting, this trait of Acredale, at a time when riches +and success are looked upon as condoning every breach of the decalogue. +Just how the intimacy between the two men came about was not known. It, +however, was known that when Boone first came to Acredale he had been +helped in his affairs by Dick Perley's lavish means. In a few years +Boone was the patron and Perley the client. As Boone grew rich Perley +grew poor, until finally all was gone. Then the fairest lands of the +Perley inheritance passed to Boone. It was the fireside history of the +whole Caribee Valley that the rich contractor had encouraged the ruined +gentleman in the excesses that ended the profligate's career; that the +two men had staked large sums at play in Bucephalo, and that inability +to meet his losses to Boone had caused Dick Perley's flight. He had been +seen by one of the village people a year or two before the war in +Richmond, and had been heard of in California later, but no word had +ever reached his family, not even when his wife died, two years after +his exile. There were those who said that Boone was in correspondence +with his victim, and it was known that drafts, made by Dick Perley, had +been paid by Boone at the bank in Warchester. Between Boone and the +Perley ladies, whose house was separated from "Acre Villa" by a wide +lawn and hedge, there had always been the tacit enmity that wrong on one +side and meek unreproach on the other breeds. The rancor that manifested +itself in Boone's treatment of the Misses Perley was not imitated by +them. They never alluded to their affluent neighbor, never suffered +gossip concerning the Boones in what Olympia humorously called the +"Orphic adytum," the "tabby-shop," as Wesley named the Perley parlors. +Young Dick, however, had none of the scruples that kept his aunts +silent. One dreadful day, when he had been nagged to fisticuffs with +Wesley, whose dudish dignity exacted a certain restraint with the +hot-headed youngster, Elisha Boone, behind the thick hedge, heard on the +highway outside his grounds this outrageous anathema: + +"You're no more than a thief, Wes Boone; your father stole all he's got. +Some day I'll make him give it back, or send him to jail, where he ought +to be now." + +Schoolboy though the railer was, Boone staggered against the hedge, the +words brought a dreadful flush and then a livid pallor to the miserable +parent's cheek. He dared not trust himself to speak then. Nor was the +antipathy the outbreak caused mitigated by the savage thrashing that +Wesley, throwing aside his dignity, proceeded to administer to the +unbridled accuser. After that, by the father's sternest command, neither +of his children was to return the courteous salutation the Perley ladies +had never ceased to bestow in meeting the Boones walking or in company. +Now, Dick was the kind of boy that those who know boy nature would call +adorable. To the Philistine, without humor or sympathy, I'm afraid he +was a very bad boy. He was until late in his teens painfully shy with +grown people and strangers; even under the eyes of his aunts and with +youths of his own age, diffident to awkwardness. He had the face of a +well-fed cherub and the gentle, dreamy, and wistful eye of a girl in +love. With his elders he had the halting, confused speech of a new boy +in a big school. But in the woods or on the playground he was the +merriest, most daring, and winningly obstreperous lad that ever filled +three maiden aunts with terror and delight. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A NAPOLEONIC EPIGRAM. + + +For weeks the regiment expected every day the order to march. The guns +had been distributed and all their fascinating secrets mastered. In +evolution and manual the men regarded themselves as quite equal to the +regulars. The strict orders forbidding absence overnight were hardly +needed, as no one ventured far, fearing that the regiment would be +whirled away to Washington during the night. Had the men been older or +more experienced in war, the weeks of waiting would have been delightful +rather than dreary. The regiment was the object of universal interest in +the town. Base-ball and the alluring outdoor pastimes that now divert +the dawdlers of cities were unknown. Hence the camp-ground of the +Caribees was the matinee, ball-match, tennis, boating, all in one of the +idle afternoon world of Warchester. At parade and battalion drill the +scene was like the race-ground on gala days. + +All the fine equipages of the town drew up in the roads and lanes +flanking the camp, where with leveled glasses the mothers, sisters, and +sweethearts watched the columns as they skirmished, formed squares, or +"passed the defile," quite sure that the rebels would fly in confusion +before such surprising manoeuvres. This daily audience stimulated such a +fierce rivalry among the companies that the men turned out at all hours +of the day to drill and practice in squads, rather than loiter about the +camp. One day great news aroused the camp: the Governor was to review +the regiment and send it to the front. All Warchester poured out to the +Holly Hills, and when at five o'clock the companies filed out on the +shining green there was such a cheer that the men felt repaid for the +tiresome wait of months. The civic commander-in-chief watched the +movements with affable scrutiny, surrounded by a profusely uniformed +staff, to whom he expressed the most politic approval. He was heard to +remark that no such soldiers had been seen on this continent since Scott +had marched to Lundy's Lane. + +There was a throb of passionate joy in the ranks when this eulogium +reached the men, for the words were hardly spoken when they were known +in every company by that mysterious telegraphy which makes the human +body a conductor swift as an electric wire among large masses of men. +Nor were the words less relished that the eulogist was as ignorant of +military excellence as a Malay of the uses of a patent mower. The men, +it was easy to see, were much more efficient in movement than the +officers in handling them. Colonel Oswald had wasted weeks in the study +of the occult evolutions of the battalion; they were still a maddening +mystery to him that fatal day. For six weeks his dreams had been haunted +by airy battalions filing over impossible defiles. The commands he gave +that day would have thrown the companies into hopeless confusion had the +junior officers not boldly substituted the right ones for the colonel's +blunders. This, however, passed unnoted, for the crowds, and even the +men, were not the sharp critics they afterward became when mistakes by +an incompetent officer were saluted by shouts of ridicule, and the men +contemptuously disregarded them. When Colonel Oswald ordered them to +"present arms" from a "place rest" there was more perplexity than +merriment, and the admiring crowd saw nothing peculiar in one company +snatching up bayonets to present while others remained perfectly still. + +Jack, to whom the manual was a very sacred thing, broke into fierce +ridicule of the commander, declaring that he was better fitted for +sutler than colonel. When the savage speech was reported to headquarters +that young fellow's prospects for the straps--never the best--were by no +means improved. The review brought bitter disappointment to the +regiment. The inspector-general, who was present, informed the colonel +that no more than a thousand men could be accepted in one body; that +five hundred of the Caribees would have to be divided among other troops +in the State. The order aroused wild excitement. Half the men looked +upon the edict as a scheme to give the politicians more places for their +feudatories. Indeed, though that was not the origin of the order, that +was the use made of it. Some of the junior officers, who disliked Oswald +and distrusted his capacity to command, drew out very willingly, and of +course carried many of their men with them. + +But in the end the matter had to be decided by lot. Now this chance +threw Wesley Boone out, and there was great rejoicing in the Acredale +group, who hoped that this stroke of luck would make place for their +favorite, Jack Sprague. But, to everybody's astonishment, a day or two +after the event, Wesley resumed his place in Company K, and gave out +that it was by order of the Governor. Jack was urged by the major of the +regiment, who had gone with the five hundred, to cast his fortunes with +the new body, promising a speedy lieutenancy. But Jack would not desert +the Caribees. All of Company K, and many in the others, had enlisted on +his word, and he could not in honor leave them. The opposition journals +had from the first denounced the division of the Caribees as a trick of +the partisans, and, sure enough, the men were given to understand that +there would be no move to Washington until after the election, then +pending. This was a municipal contest, and the Administration party made +good use of the incipient soldiery to obtain a majority in the town. + +Promotion was quite openly held out as a reward for those who could +influence most votes for the Administration candidates. At night the +various companies were sent into the city to take part in the political +propaganda; to march in processions or occupy conspicuous places at the +party meetings. The private soldiers were almost to a man Democrats, but +the chance to escape the long and irksome evenings of the camp and join +the frolic and adventure of the street made most of them willing enough +to play the part of claque or figurantes. Jack, of course, refused to +take part in these scenic rallies, making known his sentiments in +vehement disdain. He detested Oswald, who had quit his party, not on a +question of principle, but merely for place, and Jack did not spare him +in his satirical allusions to the new uses invented for the military. + +A still more trying injustice befell the luckless Jack. For a long time +he had, as senior, acted as orderly sergeant of Company K. This officer +is virtually the executive functionary in the company. It is his place +to form the men in rank, make out details, and prepare everything for +the captain. The orderly sergeant is to the company what the adjutant is +to the regiment. He carries a musket and marches with the ranks, but in +responsibility is not inferior to an officer. One evening when it was +known that orders had come for the regiment to march, Jack, having +formed the company for parade, received a paper from the captain's +orderly to read. He opened it without suspicion, and, among other +changes in the corps, read, "Thomas Trask to be first sergeant of +Company K, and he will be obeyed and respected accordingly." Jack read +the monstrous wrong without a tremor. The men flung down their arms and +broke into a fierce clamor of rage and grief. Many of them were Jack's +classmates. These swarmed about him. One, assuming the part of +spokesman, cried out: + +"It's an infamous outrage. They cheated you out of your captaincy; they +have put every slight they could upon you. But we have some rights. We +won't stand this. There are thirty of your classmates who will do +whatever you say to show these people that they can't act like this." + +There were mutiny and desperation in the air. It needed but a spark to +destroy the usefulness of the company. But, as is often the case with +impetuous, hot-headed spirits, Jack cooled as his friends grew hot. He +was the more patient that the injustice was his injury alone. He +remained in his place at the right of the company, and confronted the +rebellious group with amazing self-control. Then loud above the +murmuring his voice rang out: + +"Company, attention! fall in, fall in! Any man out of the ranks will be +sent to the guard-house. Eight dress, steady on the left." + +Many a time afterward these angry mutineers heard that sonorous, clear, +boyish treble in stern and determined command; but they never heard it +signalize a more heroic temper than at that moment, when, himself deeply +wronged, he forced them to go back in the ranks to receive the +interloper. They "dressed up" sullenly as Jack called the roll for the +last time, and received Trask, the new orderly, at a "present," which, +though not in the tactics, Jack exacted as a penitence for the momentary +revolt. Poor Trask looked very unhappy indeed as his displaced rival +stepped back to the rear and left the new orderly to march the company +out from the narrow way to take its place in the parade. It was easy to +see that he would have been very glad to postpone or evade his new +honors, on any pretext, for the time. He was so confused that Jack, from +the flank, was obliged to repeat the few commands needed to get the +company to the field. + +Fortunately for the efficiency of the raw army, as this public +discontent reached its most acute stage orders came to march the troops +to Washington. The Caribees were the first body of soldiers sent from +Warchester, and there was a memorable scene when the jaunty ranks filed +through the streets to the station. By the time the men reached the +train they discovered that they could never make war laden down as they +were by knapsacks filled with the preposterous impedimenta feminine +foresight had provided. + +The men's backs bulged out with such a pack of supplies that when the +regiment halted each man was forced to kneel and let a comrade take off +or put on his knapsack. And then the march through the streets--every +man known to scores in the throng! The brisk, high-stepping drum corps +rat-a-tatting at intervals; then tempests of cheers, flashing banners +and patriotic symbols at every window; tears, laughter, humorous cries, +jokes, sobbing outbreaks. The whole city was in march as the Caribees +reached the thronged main thoroughfare. Ready hands relieved the +soldiers of their burden as the line filed in sight of the Governor, who +had come to speed the parting braves. + +Lads and lasses made merry with the elated warriors. The muskets were +turned into bouquet-holders, and the first move toward real war took on +the air of a floral _fête_. There were popping corks and sounds of +convivial revelry that made the scene anything but warlike. Jack, in a +cluster of his town cronies, caught sight of his mother at one of the +windows of the Parthenon Hotel. He wafted her a joyous kiss, pretending +not to see the tears falling down her cheeks. Olympia was not apparently +very deeply affected. She made her way through the crowd to her +brother's side, and with an air of the liveliest interest demanded: + +"Jack, what have you in your knapsack? Let me see." + +"O Polly, it's such a job to close it! What do you want? It is harder to +manage than a Saratoga trunk. I can't really stuff another pin or needle +in, so pray keep what you have for my furlough." + +"No, I am not going to put anything in." She bent over while Barney +Moore, one of Jack's Acredale comrades, gallantly loosed the straps. She +searched carefully through the divers articles, taking everything out, +Jack looking on ruefully while his companions gathered about in vague +curiosity. When she had removed and restored everything she arose, +saying: "I feel easier now. I merely looked to see if that marshal's +_bâton_ I have heard so much about was there. I shall feel easy in my +mind now, because a _bâton_ in your baggage would have made you too +adventurous." + +There was a great shout of laughter as the fun of the incident flashed +upon the listeners, many of whom had heard the ingenuous Jack often in +other days sighing for war, and the chance that Napoleon said every man +had of finding a marshal's _bâton_ in his knapsack. Jack bore the banter +very equably, knowing that Olympia was rather striving to keep his +spirits up and divert him from the tears in his mother's eyes than +indulge her own humor. Indeed, most of the gayety at this moment was +contributed by those whose hearts were heaviest. The consecrated +priesthood of patriotism must see no weakness in those left behind. The +only son, now brought face to face with the meaning and consequence of +his rashly seized chance for glory, must not be reminded that perhaps a +grave lay beyond the thin veil of the near future; must not be reminded +that heavy hearts and dim eyes were left behind, feeding day by day, +hour by hour, on terror and dread, unsupported by the changing scenes, +the wild excitement, and the joyous vicissitudes of the soldier's life, +it was a cruel comedy acted every day between 1861 and 1865. They +laughed who were not gay, and they seemed indifferent who were fainting +with despair. The courage of battle is mere brutish insensibility +compared with the abnegation of the million mothers who gave their boys +to the bestial maw of war. + +The harrowing ceremonial of parting is ended. The train moves slowly out +of the station, and a murmur of sobs and cheers echoes until it is far +beyond the easternmost limits of the city. After a journey of two days +and a night the train readied Philadelphia. Jack was all eyes and ears +for the spectacle the country presented. In every station through which +the regiment passed crowds welcomed the blue-coats. Women fed them, or +those who seemed in need, thinking, perhaps, of their own distant +darlings receiving like tenderness from the stranger. + +In Philadelphia, the regiment marched across the city to resume its +journey. It was a cold spring night, and the regimental quartermaster +and commissary had made no provision for the men. Indeed, as the +observant Jack afterward learned, it was part of the plan of the groups +that first began to create great fortunes during the war to make the +soldiers pay for their rations _en route_ to the seat of war, or depend +upon the charity of citizens along the railway lines. The Government +paid for the supplies just the same, while the money went into the +pockets of contractors and quartermasters. After a weary tramp through +what seemed to the soldiers the biggest city in the world, the regiment, +with blistered feet, hungry and cross, were halted before a long, low +wooden building, through whose rough glass windows cheerful lights could +be seen. A rumor spread that they were to have a hot supper, and, sure +enough, they were marched in, dividing on each side of four long tables +that stretched into spectral distance, in the feeble glimmer of the +oil-lamps hanging from the ceiling. Most of the men in Jack's company, +at least, were gently nurtured, but the steaming oysters, cold beef, and +generous "chunks" of bread, filled their eyes with a magnificence and +their stomachs with a gentle repletion no banquet before or after ever +equaled. The feast was set in the same place during four years, by the +Sanitary Society, I think, but the memory of that homely board, +plenteously spread, is in the mind of many a veteran who faced warward +during the conflict. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +ON THE POTOMAC. + + +The next morning, when the men debarked to march through Baltimore, +every one was on the _qui vive_ to fasten in his memory the scene of the +shameful attack upon the soldiers of Massachusetts on the 19th of April. +But, as the line marched proudly down Pratt Street, there were no signs +of the hostile spirit that made Baltimore a center of doubt and +suspicion in the North for many a day afterward. It was, however, when +the train dashed out from among the hills to the northwest of the sheet +of water behind the capitol that the Caribees glued their eyes to the +panes in awe not unmingled with delight. No American will ever look upon +that imperial dome again with the sensations that filled the breasts of +those who first saw its rounded outlines in the war epoch. What the ark +of the covenant was to the armies that marched in the wilderness, or the +cross of St. Peter to the pilgrims approaching Rome, that the great +dome, towering cloud ward in the perpetual blue, was to the wondering +eye of the soldier as his glance first fell upon it; that it was for +months--yes, ever after--on the plains of Arlington and in the deadly +exhalations of the Chickahominy. Every one looked anxiously to see signs +of war--indeed, since leaving Baltimore, there was a delicious feeling +of suspense--as the train shot over embankments or skirted the deep pine +woods. Perhaps an adventurous rebel vanguard might attack them. Perhaps +they might have the glory of fighting their way to the beleaguered +capital. Perhaps Father Abraham might come out and smile benignantly at +them for a brave deed well done. Faces flushed and eyes sparkled in the +delightful anticipation: and some of the ardent spirits, more eager than +the others, loaded their muskets to be ready! But, beyond the Federal +picket-post at the stations, no sign of war was soon, nor much sign of +hostilities, such as the vivid fancies of the raw young +warriors conjured. + +But now the train was at rest, and the officers--who had not been seen +during the journey--turned out in resplendent plumery. The station--in +those days a tumble-down barrack--was already crowded with soldiery. The +Caribees were aligned along the track, the officers so bewildered by the +confusion that it was by a miracle some of the groups of moving men were +not run over by the backing engines. After an interminable delay, the +band set up "We're coming down to Washington to fight for Abraham's +daughter!" and with exuberant joy a thousand pairs of legs kept brisk +step and elastic movement to the inspiriting strain. Now the longing +eyes see the circumstance and even some of the pomp of war. The regiment +debouches into Pennsylvania Avenue, under the very shadow of the +Capitol, which looks sadly shabby and disproportioned to the eyes that +had an hour or two before opened in such admiration at the first view. +But there is no time for architectural criticism. They are moving down +the avenue toward the White House, toward the home of that patient, +kindly, sorely-tried ruler--the Democritus of his grisly epoch. The +Caribees excite none of the sensation here they have been accustomed to. +The streets are not crowded, and the few civilians passing hardly turn +their heads. Mounted orderlies dash hurriedly, with hideous clatter of +sabre and equipments, across the line of march, through the very +regiment's ranks, answering with a disdainful oath or mocking gibe when +an outraged shoulder-strap raised a remonstrating voice. At Fourteenth +Street the Caribees were halted until the colonel could take his +bearings from headquarters, just around the corner. The wide sidewalks +were dense with bestarred and epauleted personages in various keys of +discussion. Jack and his crony, Barney Moore, studied the scene in +wonder. Their company was halted exactly at the corner of Fourteenth +Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, and the two were standing at +Willard's corner. + +"I wonder if the President just stands and throws the stars down from +that balcony?" Jack said, as the crowd of brigadiers thickened before +the hotel door. "What on earth are they all doing here?" + +"Oh, they come to make requisition on General Bacchus; he's the +commissary-general of the brigadiers--don't you know?" Barney said, +innocently. + +"General Bacchus? Barney, you're crazy--there's no such officer in the +army--I know all the names--you mean General Banks, don't you?" + +"Oh, no, I'm not mistaken--General Bacchus has been selected to deal out +the _esprit de corps!_" + +"_L'esprit de corps_? Barney, you're certainly tipsy. I'm ashamed of +you!" + +"Yes, the spirit of that corps, as you can tell from the whiffs that +come this way, is the whisky-bottle. Bacchus presides over that spirit. +One would think you'd never read an eclogue of Virgil--you're duller +than a doctor of divinity's after-dinner speech! A tutor's joke is the +utmost wit you ought to bear." + +"And so you call that a joke?" + +"Well, it isn't a cough, a song, an oath, or--or anything old Oswald +would say, so it must be a joke." + +"Well, in that sense it may pass, like a tipsy soldier without the +countersign." + +"Oh, come now, Jack, these stars are really dazzling you!" + +"Not but I'll make you see some that will dazzle you, if you don't treat +your superior more respectfully." + +"Oh, the punch you think of giving me wouldn't solve this star problem; +it requires to be made in the old--the milky way." + +But Barney's astral jokes were brought to a period by the sharp note of +the bugle, as Colonel Oswald, very important under the eye of so many +big-wigs, magnificently ordered the march. The regiment passed up the +steep hill, out Fourteenth Street--then a red clay thoroughfare of +sticky mire with only here and there a negro's shanty where the palaces +of the rich rise to-day. The men learned something of their future +enemy, Virginia mud, as they climbed the red gorge and debouched on +Meridian Hill, where, presently, an aide-de-camp marked the ground +assigned the regiment, and the real life of the soldier began. How tame +to tell, but how "imperial the hour" when these one thousand lads first +went, on guard! Yes, the fact was now before them. They were no longer +segregated atoms, inert, ineffective, eccentric. They were part of that +mighty bulwark of blood and iron that stood between law and rebellion, +between the nation's heart and the assassin dagger of disunion. + +How proud and glad and manly they felt, these bright-eyed boys--for boys +they mostly were; not a hundred in the regiment had seen their +five-and-twentieth year. One razor would have been ample for the beards +of the whole battalion. And oh, the nameless, the intoxicating sense of +solidarity as they swept the vast reach of hillsides, and saw the white +tents in brooding immensity on either hand! Yes, yonder, far across the +wondrous belt of water, touching loyalty and rebellion in its mighty +rush seaward, they could distinguish the cities of canvas on the distant +Virginia shore. + +"It makes a fellow feel as Godfrey's hosts felt when they came in sight +of the Bosporus, and the hordes of the Saracens on the plains of the +Hellespont," Jack said, exultingly, as Barney stood on a pile of camp +equipages above him, surveying the quickening spectacle. + +"I don't know how Godfrey's fellows felt, Jack, but it _do_ make a man +feel kinder able to do something with so many near by to lend a hand. +But, stars and garters! what a head it must take to manage all these! +Fair and square, now, Jack, you feel the fires of military genius in +your big head--do you think that you could disentangle this enormous +coil--put each corps, division, and regiment, in its proper place--at a +day's notice?" + +"Oh, I couldn't perhaps do it just to-day; but give me time!" + +"Yes, I'll give you to the age of Methuselah, and then if you can manage +it I shall not lose faith in you." + +"Come, men, the tents must be up before dark. Sergeant Sprague, your +squad has five tents for its detail. You'll find axes and tools at the +quartermaster's wagon on the hill yonder!" It was the captain who spoke, +and, an instant later, the plot of ground, perhaps an acre and a half in +area, was a scene of rollicking labor. Each company had a street, the +tents--calculated to hold four each, but the number varied, going up +often as high as six--faced each other, leaving room enough for the +company to march in column or in line between the white walls. As the +regiment would be presumably some time on the ground, the canvas tents +rested on the top of a palisade of logs cut in the neighboring woods. +These were five feet or more in length, and when driven into the ground +a foot, and banked by the sticky clay, served excellently as walls upon +which to rest the A tents. Two berths, sometimes four, were fastened +laterally on these walls, frames running up to the center of the A held +the guns, while lines stretched across from above served as wardrobes +for such garments as could be hung up. + +All this manoeuvring for space in such close quarters was great fun for +lads accustomed to roomy houses, and careless, almost to slovenliness, +in the matter of keeping things in place. Absurd as these details may +seem, they were all parts, and very important parts, in the life and +training of that mighty host that carried the destiny of the country in +its discipline during four years. There was rigid inspection of quarters +every Sunday morning, and during the week the non-commissioned officers +were expected to see that cleanliness was not intermitted. The company +"street" was "policed" every morning after breakfast, swept and +garnished, that is, with the care of a Dutch housewife. Order is the +first law of the soldier as well as of Heaven, and many a careless lad +brought from his four years' drill method and painstaking that made him +of more value to himself and his neighbors. + +Personal traits, too, could be divined in these toy-like interiors. The +regulations prescribed the arrangement of the "bunks," blankets folded, +knapsacks laid at the head of the bed, accoutrements burnished until, at +first sight, the four guns in the rack seemed to be a mirror for the +orderly spirit of this thrifty grot. The shining plates, cups, and +spoons, would have done no discredit to the most energetic, housewife, +as they hung from pegs either above the bunks or along the wall. If +running water were not accessible, every tent had a tin basin for the +morning ablution, each soldier taking turn good humoredly. The household +duties were scrupulously observed, each man assuming his _rôle_ in the +complicated _ménage_. + +It was fully a week before the Caribees were installed ready for Sunday +inspection, as no exigency was permitted to interfere with morning and +afternoon drill, guard-mount, and parade. Battalion and brigade drill, +too, were new diversions for the Caribees, as now, camped near other +troops, these more complicated movements were part of the regiment's +allotted duty. After they were sufficiently trained in this they were to +take part in a grand review by the general-in-chief, when the President, +the Secretary of War, and all the great folks in Washington rode out to +witness the spectacle. + +There was no time for dullness. Every hour had its duty, and these soon +became second nature to the zealous young warriors. Such rivalry to best +master the manual, to hold the most soldierly stature in the ranks, to +detect the drill-sergeant when, to test their attention, he gave a false +command! And then the coronal joy of a reward of merit for efficiency +and alertness on guard! The rapture the bit of paper brought, and the +exultation with which the hero thus signalized went off to town for the +day, wandered through the waste of streets, stood before Willard's and +admired in awe and wonder the indolent groups from whose shoulders +gleamed one and sometimes two stars! One day Jack and Barney, walking in +Fifteenth Street, saw a stout man, with no insignia to indicate rank or +station, coming out of the headquarters hurriedly. He walked to the edge +of the pavement, and, looking up and down, seemed disconcerted. Noticing +the two lads, he came to where Jack was standing in a preoccupied way, +and the two saluted decorously. He returned the salute and asked: + +"Sergeant, are you on duty?" + +"No, sir; I'm on leave for the day." + +"Ah, good; my orderly was here a moment ago, but I don't see him +anywhere. Would you mind taking this telegram to the War Department, +through the park yonder?" + +He gave Jack an envelope and hurried back into the building as the two +lads started with alacrity across the street. + +"I've seen that chap before, somewhere," Barney said, panting with the +rapid pace. + +"He's a staff officer, I suppose, not very high rank, for he only had a +blouse on. General officers always wear double-button frocks even if +they don't carry the insignia." + +The War Department was easy of access, an old building not unlike Jack's +own home in Acredale. He asked the sentry at the door where his envelope +was to be delivered. The man looked at it, pointed to a closed door, and +Jack, receiving no response to his knock, entered. Three men were in the +room. One was seated at a vast desk with papers, maps, dispatches, and +books piled in disheartening confusion, within reach of his hand. Behind +him a young captain in uniform sat writing. But the figure that fixed +Jack's reverential attention was half sprawling, half lying over the +heaped-up impediments of the big desk. The young soldier caught sight of +the serious, sad face, the wistful humorous eyes, and he knew, with a +thrill through all his body and an adoring throb in his breast, that it +was the President--hapless heritor of generations of disjointed time. +All thought of his errand, all thought of place and person, faded as he +realized this presence. How long he would have remained in this mute +adoration there is no telling. The restless, keen eyes looked up sharply +and a dissonant, imperious, repellent voice jerked out: + +"Well, my man, what is it?" + +Without a word Jack handed him the envelope, and with a sort of +reverence to the tall figure whose face was turned kindly toward him he +backed to the door. + +"O Barney, I've seen the President!" + +"Seen the President! No? Oh! Why could not I have gone in with you? It's +always my luck." + +"No: it was my luck. But take heart. He will come out pretty soon, and +we'll loaf about here. Perhaps we can see him as he goes back to the +White House yonder." + +But though they waited far into the afternoon, forgetting their dinner +in the impulse of homage, they did not catch sight of the well-known +figure, for the President's way to the Secretary's room was a private +one, and when he went away the boys of course could not see him. But +Jack's good fortune was the talk of the regiment for many a day, and for +months when the fellows of the Caribee got leave they lingered +expectantly about the modest headquarters, hoping that a missing orderly +might bring them Jack Sprague's proud distinction of seeing the +President face to face. On the grand review, a few days later, Jack and +his crony were reminded of the encounter at headquarters, for the man +who had given the envelope to carry to the war office was riding a +splendid horse next to the President. Two stars glittered on his +shoulder now, and as he answered the cheers that saluted the group, the +young men saw that it was General McDowell, the commander of the forces. +The President rode along the lines, with a kindly wistfulness in the +honest eyes that studied with no superficial glance the long line of +shouting soldiery. He was not an imposing figure in the sense of +cavalier bravery, but no man that watched as he moved in the glittering +group, conspicuous by his somber black and high hat, ever forgot the +melancholy, rapt regard he gave the ranks, as at an easy canter he +passed the fronts of the squares or sat solemnly at the march past that +concluded the review. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE STEP THAT COSTS. + + +What between the doings of the camp and the daily visit to Washington, +"soldiering" grew into an enchanting existence for the young warriors of +the Caribee. Their quarters were on the high plateaus north and west of +the city--which were in those days shaded slopes, that made suburban +Washington a vale of Tempe. In the streets they saw bedizened officers, +from commanders of armies down to presidential orderlies. In the Senate +and House they heard the voices of men afterward potent in +public councils. + +What an exuberant, vagrant life it was! The blood warms and the nerves +tingle after the tensions and heats of a quarter of a century as those +days of sublime vagabondage come back. The melodious morning calls that +waked the sleepy, lusty young bodies; the echoing bugle and the abrupt +drum! And then the roll-call, in the misty morning when the sun, blear +and very red, rose as if blushing, or apoplectic after the night's +carouse! It was an army of poets--of Homers--that began the never +monotonous routine of these memorable days, for the incense of national +sympathy came faint but intoxicating to the soldier's nostrils in the +visits of great statesmen, the picnics of civilians, the copious +descriptive letters of correspondents and the daily scrawls from +far-away valleys, where fond eyes watched the sun rise, noted the stars, +to mark the special duties their darlings were doing in the watches of +the night. And then the mad music of cheers when the news came that the +young McClellan in West Virginia had scattered the adventurous columns +of Lee, capturing guns, men, and arms, and forever saving the great +Kanawha country to the Union! And in Kentucky the rebels had been +outmanoeuvred; while in Missouri the glorious Lyon and the crafty Blair +had, one in the Cabinet, the other in the camp, routed the secret, +black, and Janus-like rabble of treason and anarchy. + +To feel that he was part of all this; that, at rest in the iron ring +girdling the capital, he was might in leash; that to-morrow he would be +vengeance let loose--this was the sustaining, exulting thought that made +the volunteer the best of soldiers. His heart was all in the glorious +ardor for action. Night and morning he looked proudly at the sacred +ensign waving lightly in the summer breeze, and he remembered that the +eyes of Washington had rested on the same standard at Valley Forge; that +the sullen battalions of Cornwallis had saluted it at Yorktown. + +It was a beautiful ardor that filled the young hosts that waited in +leash on the green hills of the Potomac those months of turmoil, when +Scott and McDowell were straining the crude machinery of war to get +ready for the vital lunge. Jack and his Acredale squad, as the college +fellows were called, lived in a perpetual dream, from which the hard +realities of drill, now six hours a day, could not waken them. In days +of release they scoured the Maryland hills, secretly hoping that an +adventurous rebel picket might appear and give them occasion to return +to camp decked with preluding laurels. Mile after mile of the charming +woodland country they scoured, their hearts beating at the appearance of +any animate thing that for a brief, intoxicating moment they could +conjure into a rebel advance post. But, beyond wan and reticent yokels, +engaged in the primitive husbandry of this slave section, they never +encountered any one that could be counted overt enemies of the cause. +Money was plenty among these excursive groups, and they were welcomed in +Company K with effusive outbreaks by their less restive comrades. + +As July wore on, the signs of movement grew. Regiments were moved away +mysteriously, and soon the Caribees were almost alone on Meridian Hill. +Jack was filled with dire fears that the commanding officer, having +discovered the incompetency of Oswald, feared to take the Caribees to +the front. Something of the rumor spread through the regiment, and if, +as reputed, "Old Sauerkraut" (this was the name he got behind his back) +had spies in all the companies, the adage about listeners was abundantly +confirmed. In the secrecy of Jack's tent, however, the subject was +freely discussed. Nick Marsh, the poet of the class, as became the +mystic tendencies of his tribe, was for poisoning the detested +Pomeranian--Oswald was a compatriot of Bismarck, often boasting, as the +then slowly emerging statesman became more widely known, that he lived +in his near neighborhood. Marsh's suggestion fell upon fruitful +perceptions. Bernard Moore--Barney, for short--was to be a physician, +and had already passed an apprenticeship in a pharmacy, coincident with +his college term in Jack's class. + +"By the powers of mud and blood, Nick, dear, I have it!" + +"Have what, Barney, me b'y?" Nick asked, mimicking Barney's quaintly +displaced vowels. + +"Why, the way to get rid of Old Schnapps and Blitzen--more power to +me!" + +"All the power you want, if you'll only do that; and your voice will be +as sweet as 'the harp that once in Tara's halls--'" + +"Never moind the harp--Sassenach--here's what we can do. Tim Hussey is +Oswald's orderly; he and I are good friends. I know a preparation that +will turn the sauerkraut and sausages, that Oswald eats so much of, into +degluted fire and brimstone, warranted to keep him on the broad of his +back for ten days or a fortnight. Will ye all swear secrecy?" + +"We will! We will!" + +"On what?" + +"On the double crown on your head," Jack answered, solemnly, "which you +have often told us was considered a sign that an angel had touched +you--I'm sure nothing could be more solemn than that. It isn't every +fellow that can get an angel to touch the top of his head." + +"No; most fellows can consider themselves lucky if an angel touches +their lips--or heart," Barney cried, naïvely. + +"Well, never mind that sort of angel now, Barney," Nick said, pettishly; +"I notice that you always bring up with something about the girls, no +matter what the subject we set off on. It's the jalap--isn't that what +it's called?--we want to hear about." + +"There isn't enough poetry or sentiment in the two o' ye to fill a +wind-blown buttercup. No wonder ye don't care to talk of the +gurls--they'll have none of ye." + +"We'll be satisfied if they'll have you, Barney. I'm sure that's +magnanimous. But if your jalap takes as much time in working Old +Schnapps as you take in explaining it, the war will be over, and we +shall have seen none of it." + +"It's too great a conception to be hastily set forth. Give me time. I'll +lay a guinea that Oswald goes to the hospital before this day week. Let +us see. This is the 14th; before the 20th--" and Barney gave the barrel +of his gun, near him, a furtive wipe with his coat-sleeve. + +"Barney, if you'll do that, I'll gather every four-leaved clover between +here and Richmond to give you; and, what's more, if I die I'll leave you +my bones to operate." + +"Ah, Nick, dear, I'd rather have your little finger living than all the +possessions of your father's bank. If you were dead--" And honest Barney +seized the poet's hand sentimentally. + +"Come, come, fellows, what sort of soldiering do you call this? You +remind me of two school-girls," Jack remonstrated, as in duty bound to +keep up the warrior spirit. + +"Yer acquaintances among females being chiefly of the silly sort, it's +no wonder we remind you of the only things you can look back on without +blushing," Barney retorted; and a neighbor poking his head in the door +to learn the cause of the hilarity, the conspirators sallied out for a +jaunt until parade-time. Now, what means Barney employed, or whether he +had any handiwork in what befell, it does not fall to me to say, but +this is what happened: A market hawker came into camp the next morning +and went straight to the big marquee tent where Colonel Oswald stood, in +all the bravery of a new broadcloth uniform with spreading eagles on the +shoulders. The savory fumes of hot sauerkraut aroused the warrior from +his reveries, and he asked, in vociferous delight: + +_"Was haben sie? Kohlen, nicht wahr--sauerkraut--das is aber schon?"_ + +"Yes, mein golonel, I hof cabbage und sauerkraut und"--looking about +circumspectly--"_etwas schnapps aus Antwerpen gebracht?"_ + +The "golonel's" eyes glistened and he made a motion for the vender to go +to the rear of the marquee. Passing through from the front, he met him +at the rear, and the bargain was hastily concluded, Marsh secreting +three portly bottles in his chest, and turning the edibles over to +Hussey to store in the larder. There had been a good deal of uneasiness +in camp over rumors of cholera, yellow fever, and other dismal +epidemics. When, therefore, the evening after the colonel's purchase the +regimental surgeon was summoned in alarm, it was instantly believed in +the regiment that "Old Sauerkraut" was stricken with cholera. He at +first suffered hideous pains in the stomachic regions. This was followed +by a raging thirst, and, unknown to the physician, the three bottles of +schnapps were quite emptied. On the fourth day the poor man, very +woe-begone, but now suffering no pain, was carried to the hospital, and +the next day, as the campaign was about to begin, he was sent North, to +leave room near the field for those who should be wounded in the coming +engagement. + +Company K was drilling on the wide plateau between the camp and the +highway when the ambulance bearing the afflicted officer came slowly +over the road worn through the greensward. Hussey sat solemnly on the +seat with the driver, and as the vehicle reached the company, standing +at rest, Barney Moore in the rear rank spoke up: + +"Tim, is the poor colonel no better?" + +"Divil a betther; it's worse he's intirely. God be good till 'im!" + +Neither Jack nor Nick Marsh dared trust himself to meet the other's eyes +as the helpless chief disappeared down the hillside, while Barney +entered into an exhaustive treatise on the symptoms of cholera and the +liability of the most robust to meet sudden disaster in this malarious +upland, circumvailated by ages of decaying matter in the damp swamps on +every hand. But when, an hour later, Company K's whole street was +aroused by peal on peal of Abderian laughter, Jack and Nick were found +helpless in their bunks, and Barney was engaged in presenting a potion +to settle their collapsed nerves! + +"Well, haven't I won the guinea, now? It cost me just twice that. If +ye's have a spark of honor ye'll pay your just dues, so ye will," Barney +said, in the evening, returning from parade, where Lieutenant-Colonel +Grandison officiated as commander, to the unconcealed delight of all but +the Oswald parasites among the officers. + +"Don't say a word, Barney--to whom the medicos of mythology and all the +wizards of antique story are clowns and mountebanks--you shall have the +guinea or its equivalent." + +"Twenty-one shillings gold, bear in mind. Yer father's a banker, ye +ought to know that!" + +"I do. You shall have the twenty-one shillings in the shinplasters of +the republic." + +The colonel had been routed none too soon. The very next morning, when +the Caribees "fell in" for roll-call, the orderly received a paper from +the commander's orderly which read, "Tents to be struck at twelve +o'clock and the men ready to march, with ten days' rations." + +At last! All the future, glowing with heroism, exciting with the march, +the attack, the battle--ah! what after? With something of joy and regret +the comely tents, that had given them home and harbor, were taken down, +folded in precise line, and carried away for storage--for in the field +the ranks were to bivouac in the open air. Such gayety; such jokes; such +bravado; and augury of the to be! And the rumors! Telephones, had they +been invented; stenographers, had they been present in legion, could not +have kept track of the momentous tales that were instantly bruited +about. General Scott was going to lead the army in person. His charger +had been seen before the headquarters. The rebels were going to be +swooped up by another such famous dash as the flank march from Vera Cruz +to the plateau of Mexico! Then came a numbing fear that Beauregard's +bragging host had fled, and that the movement would turn out a tedious +stern chase to Richmond. In the agony of all this Jack, returning from a +"detail" to the quartermaster's tent, heard his name shouted where his +tent had been. He hurried to the spot and Nick saluted him with +the cry-- + +"Here, Jack, are two recruits who declare they must enter Company K." + +His gun was on his arm and his knapsack on his back, but only the +realization that a score of eyes were upon him saved Jack from dropping +limply on the ground, as, looking in the group, he saw Dick Perley and +Tom Twigg grinning ingratiatingly at him. + +"Where--how in the name of all that's sacred did you get here?" he +gasped. + +"Why, we enlisted for drummers in the Caribees, but the recruiting +officer told us as we were eighteen we could carry muskets if we wanted +to. We do want to, and we're going to come into Company K." + +They looked him confidently in the face as Dick repeated this evidently +long-practiced explanation. It would not do to take them to task before +the company. Jack waited until the rest were scattered, and then, +leading the boys aside, said, sternly: + +"Don't you know you can be put in prison for this? You have run away +from your parents and guardians. No one had a lawful right to enlist +you. I shall send for the provost marshal and have you put in prison +until your parents can come and get your enlistment annulled." + +Appalled by Jack's stern manner as much as by his words, the two lads +began to whimper and expostulate tearfully. They had trusted to his +ancient friendship. They could have gone into any other regiment, but +they had enlisted to be with him. Whatever happened, they were soldiers, +and, if Tom Twigg wasn't eighteen until September, it was perfectly +lawful for him to enlist as a drummer. Perley was eighteen in April +last, and he was a soldier in spite of all that Jack could do. Jack was +deeply perplexed. What could be done? If he attempted to put the +machinery of reclamation in order, the boys would be subjected to all +sorts of vicissitudes, prisons, everything distressing and demoralizing +to tender youth. + +"Do they know at home what you have done?" Jack asked, doubtingly. + +"Yes," Dick said, noting with boyish quickness the indecision in Jack's +troubled face. "I sent a letter to Aunt Pliny, from New York, telling +her we were soldiers, and that we were happy and well." + +"You impudent young scamp--to write that to your best friend! Don't you +know it will kill her?" + +Dick had no answer for this, and looked perplexedly at Tom, who was lost +in admiration of a neighboring group engaged in athletic exercises. He +felt rather than heard the question put by the Mentor, and observing +Dick's discomfiture, stammered: + +"It didn't kill your mother when you went for a soldier, I guess." + +The astute young rascal had hit upon the weak place, and Jack stood in +anxious doubt wondering what to do. An aide that he recognized from +division headquarters rode past at the moment and Jack turned to watch +him. He leaped from his horse at the colonel's tent. Jack again looked +at the boys. They were lost in delight at the scene and oblivious of the +debate going on in their guardian's mind. + +"Stay here till I come back," he said, authoritatively, and strode off +to Grandison's tent. As he reached it the major, McGoyle, was entering, +and Jack waited until that officer should come out. He came presently, +and Colonel Grandison with him. Jack saluted, and stated his dilemma to +the commander, who listened with amused interest. + +"I don't see that anything can be done now, Jack. I'm just about leaving +the regiment. I have been assigned to General Tyler's staff during the +campaign. McGoyle takes command of the regiment. He will need orderlies, +and the boys can serve with him until we can get time to look into the +business. I will settle the matter with him, and if you will write a +telegram to the lad's family I will have it sent as I go to +headquarters." + +Jack's relief and gratitude were best seen in the brightening eye and +the more buoyant movement that succeeded the heaviness and agitation of +his first impression. The boys' coming would weigh upon him every minute +until he was in some sort relieved of even passive complicity. He would +feel that the kind-hearted "Pearls," as the aunts were often called, +would look upon him as having led the truants into the army. But +Grandison's interposition had shifted from him a weighty anxiety. The +boys would not be left friendless and irresponsible in the turbulent +streets of Washington. Nor would they, as orderlies, be in continuous or +inextricable danger in battle--for whereas the soldier in the line must +keep in ranks even when not in actual battle, with the enemy's missiles +as destructive as in the charge or combat, the orderlies may take +advantage of the inequalities of ground and natural objects. Jack +explained something of this to the young Marlboroughs, and was fairly +irritated at the crest-fallen look that came into their eager, shining +faces when they comprehended that they were not to be with their hero. + +"But you couldn't be in the company in any event. You look more like +rebels than soldiers, with your gray jackets and trousers"--for the boys +still wore their Acredale uniform, an imitation of the West Point +cadet's costume. "We shall be on the march in a few minutes, and there +is only one of two things to be done. Remain here in the 'unassigned' +camp, where you may be transferred into any regiment in the service that +needs recruits; or go, as Colonel Grandison has very kindly consented to +have you, as orderlies or clerks." + +The very possibility of being sent into some unknown regiment was a +terror so great that the other alternative became less odious to the +boys, and they trotted after Jack, as he stalked moody and distracted to +Major Mike McGoyle's tent, now the only habitable spot left where a few +hours before a symmetrical little city had stood. + +"And so ye want to be solgers, me foine b'yes? Well, well, 'tis litter +for yer mothers' knees ye are, with yer rosy cheeks and curling locks. +It's a poor place here for yer bright oies and soft hands, me lads; but +I'm not the wan to throw the dish after th' milk when it's spilt!" + +He stroked the bared heads of the blushing lads, and, turning to their +unhappy sponsor, he added with official brevity: "I will put Twiggs's +son at me papers in the adjutant's office. Young Pearley can remain with +your company until I make out a detail for him." + +It was impossible for Jack to sustain the _rôle_ of frowning displeasure +as Dick skipped back with him to the company. He remembered his own +delight three months before, even with the haunting thoughts of his +mother's reproaches to dampen his ardor, and he was soon dazzling the +neophyte with the wonders that were just about to begin. + +It was the afternoon of the 16th of July, and the hillsides, which the +day before were covered with tents as far as the eye could see on every +hand, were now blue with masses of men, while other masses had been +passing on the red highways since early morning, taking the direction of +the Potomac bridges. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +AN ARMY WITH BANNERS. + + +It has always seemed to me that the life, the routine, the many small +haps in the daily function of a soldier, which in sum made up to him all +that there was in the _devoir_ of death, ought to be read with interest +by the millions whose kin were part of the civil war, as well as by +those who knew of it only as we know Napoleon's wars or Washington's. +For my part, I would find a livelier pleasure in the diary of a common +soldier, in any of the great wars, than I do in the confusing pamphlets, +bound in volumes called history. I like to read of war as our Uncle Toby +related it. I like to know what two observing eyes saw and the feelings +that sometimes made the timidest heroes--sometimes cravens. + +For a month--yes, months--the burden of the press, the prayers of the +North, had been, "On to Richmond!" Jack, through Colonel Grandison, knew +that General McDowell and the commander-in-chief, the venerable soldier +Scott, had pleaded and protested against a move until the new levies +under the three-months' call could be drilled and disciplined. But on +the Fourth of July Congress had assembled, and the raw statesmen--with +an eye to future elections--took up the public clamor. They gave the +Cabinet, the President, no peace until General Scott and McDowell had +given way and promised the pending movement. + +"Our soldiers are so green that I shall move with fear," McDowell said +to the President. + +"Well, they" (meaning the rebels) "are green too, and one greenness will +offset the other," Lincoln responded with kindly malice. It was useless +to argue further; useless to point out that the rebels were not so +"green," for the young men of the semi-aristocratic society of the South +were trained to arms, whereas it was a mark of lawlessness and vulgarity +to carry arms in the Puritan ranks of the North. Something of the +unreadiness of the army, every reflecting soldier in the ranks +comprehended, when he saw within the precincts of his own brigades the +hap hazard conduct of the quartermaster's and staff departments. Some +regiments had raw flour dealt them for rations and no bake-ovens to turn +it into bread; some regiments had abundance of bread, but no coffee or +meat rations. As to vegetables--beans, or anything of the sort--if the +pockets of the soldiers had not been well supplied from home, the army +that set out for Manassas would have been eaten with scurvy and the skin +diseases that come from unseasoned food. + +Now, at the very moment the legions were stripped for the march, many of +them were without proper ammunition. Various arms were in use, and the +same cartridge did not lit them all. Eager groups could be seen all +through the brigades filing down the leaden end of the cartridge to make +their weapons effective, until a proper supply could be obtained. This +was promised at Fairfax Station, or Centreville, where the army's +supplies were to be sent. So, in spite of the high hopes and feverish +unrest for the forward movement, there was a good deal of sober +foreboding among the men, who held to the American right to criticise as +the Briton maintains his right to grumble. For the soldier in camp or on +the march is as garrulous as a tea gossip, and no problem in war or +statecraft is too complex or sacred for him to attempt the solution. Of +the thirty thousand men leaving the banks of the Potomac that 16th of +July there were, at a low estimate, ten thousand who believed themselves +as fitted to command as the chieftains who led them. + +By two o'clock the Caribees were in the line that had been passing +city-ward since daylight. The sun had baked the sticky clay into +brick-like hardness, and the hours of trampling, the tread of heavy +teams, and the still heavier artillery, had filled the air with an +opaque atmosphere of reddish powder, through which the masses passed in +almost spectral vagueness. The city crowds, usually alert, when great +masses of men moved, were discouraged by heat and dust, and the streets +were quite given over to the military. Eager as Jack and his friends +were to note the impression the march made upon the civilians, most of +whom were thought to be secretly in sympathy with the rebellion, it was +impossible to even catch sight of any but soldiers. Pennsylvania Avenue, +when they reached it, was a billowy channel of impalpable powder. But at +the Long Bridge the breeze from the wide channel of the river cleared +the clouds of dust, and the men, catching glimpses of each other, broke +into jocose banter. On the bridge they looked eagerly down the river, +where the low roofs of Alexandria were visible, and upward on the +Virginia shore where the gleaming walls of Arlington recalled to Jack +far different times and scenes. + +"Now we're in Jeff Davis's land," Barney called out from one of the rear +files, as the company reached midway in the bridge. + +"Not by a long shot," Nick Marsh cried. "Davis's land begins and ends +within cannon-shot of himself. He is like the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen--he +has to beg his neighbor's permission to hold battalion drill." + +"He isn't so polite as the duke; he takes it without asking," Barney +retorts. + +"But now we are on the 'sacred soil,'" Jack cries, as the company +debouched from the bridge up the steep, narrow road that seemed to be +taking them to Arlington. In spite of the burning heat and the +exhaustion of the three hours' march, the scene was, or rather the +imagination of the men, invested each step with a sort of awe. They were +at last in the enemy's territory. It had been held by the Union forces, +only by dint of large numbers and strong fortifications. There wasn't a +man in the company that didn't resent the fact, constantly obtruding +itself on the ranks as they marched eagerly onward by every knoll, every +bush in the landscape, that Union soldiers had been there before them! +that their devouring eyes were not the first to mark these +historic spots. + +Tired as they were and burdensome as the heavy knapsacks and still +heavier ammunition had become, they heard an aide give the order to +bivouac with chagrin! They so longed to put undebatable ground behind +them and really be where the distant coppice might be a curtain to the +enemy! The Caribees marked with indignant surprise that, when they had +turned into a field about seven o'clock, the long line following them +pushed onward until far into the night, and they envied the contiguity +this would give the lucky laggards to first see and engage the enemy! +But they turned-to very merrily, in this first night of real soldiering. +They were "in the field." All the parade part of military life was now +relaxed. The hot little dress coats were left behind; there was no +display. Even guard-mount was reduced to the simplest possible form. + +With one impulse all the men--that is, all who had been alert enough to +provide pen and paper--bestowed themselves about the candles allotted +each group, and began letters "home," dated magniloquently "Headquarters +in the Field. Tyler's Division, Sherman's Brigade, 16th July, 1861." The +imperial impulse manifested itself in these curt epistles. I can't +resist giving Jack's: + +"Dear Mother: How I wish you and Polly could see us now! We are really +on the march at last. The battle can't be far off. We are not many miles +from the enemy, and, if he stands, what glorious news you will hear very +soon! I wish you could have seen us to-day. Colonel Sherman, who is the +sternest looking man I ever saw, a regular army officer, once a +professor, told the major--you know McGoyle is commanding us now--he is +a brick--Sherman told him that the Caribees did as good marching as the +regulars, who came behind us. Dear old Mick, with his brogue and his +blarney, has won every heart in the regiment, and you may be sure we +shall see the whites of the enemy's eyes under him, which we never +should have done under that odious Hessian, Oswald--in hospital now, +thank Heaven--though some time, when I tell you the story, you will see +that in this, as in most other things, Heaven helps those who help +themselves. Taps will sound in five minutes, and I can only add that I +am in good health, glorious spirits, and unshaken confidence that we +shall return to Acredale before your longing to see your son overcomes +your love of glory. We shall return victors, if not heroes--at least I +know that you and Polly will believe this of your affectionate and +dutiful son + +"JACK." + +Barney read one or two phrases of his composition to the indulgent ear +of Jack and the poet, over which they laughed a good deal. "We are," he +said, "before the enemy. I feel as our great ancestor, Baron Moore, felt +at Fontenoy when the Sassenachs were over against the French lines--as +if all the blood in Munster was in my veins and I wanted to spill it on +the villains ferninst us." + +The poet declined to quote from his epistle, and the three friends sat +in the dim light until midnight, wondering over what the morrow had in +store. Dick Perley listened in awe to Jack's wonderful ratiocinations on +what was to come--secretly believing him much more learned in war than +this General McDowell who was commanding the army. The first bugle +sounded at three in the morning in the Caribees' camp, and when the +coffee had been hastily dispatched, the men began to understand the +cause of their being shunted into the field so early the evening before +while the rear of the column marched ahead of them. The Caribees passed +a mile or more of encampments, the men not yet aroused, and when at +daylight the whole body was in motion they were in advance, with nothing +before them but a few hundred cavalry. + +A delirious expectation, a rapturous sense of holding the post of +danger, kept every sense in such a thrill of anticipation that the hours +passed like minutes. The dusty roads, the intolerable thirst, and the +nauseous, tepid water, the blistered feet, the abraded hips, where the +cartridge-box began to wear the flesh--all these woes of the march were +ignored in the one impulse to see the ground ahead, to note the first +sight of the enemy. It was not until four o'clock in the afternoon that +the column was halted, and two companies, K and H, were marched out of +the column and formed in platoons across the line of march, that the +regiment learned with mortification that hitherto the route had been +inside the Union lines! They soon saw the difference in the tactics of +the march. The company was spread out in groups of four; these again +were separated by a few yards, and in this order, sweeping like a +drag-net, they advanced over the dry fields, through the clustering +pines or into cultivated acres, and through great farm-yards. + +Back of them the long column came, slowly winding over the sandy highway +which curved through the undulating land. Here and there the +skirmishers--for that was the office the two companies were now +filling--came upon signs of picket-posts; and once, as Jack hurried +beyond his group to the thicket, near a wretched cabin, a horse and +rider were visible tearing through the foliage of a winding lane. He +drew up his musket in prompt recognition of his duty, but he saw with +mortification that the horse and rider continued unharmed. Other shots +from the skirmish-line followed, but Jack's rebel was the only enemy +seen, when, in the early dusk, an orderly from the main column brought +the command to set pickets and bivouac for the night. Jack would have +written with better grounds for his solemnity if he had waited until +this evening; but now there was no chance. + +The companies were the extreme advance of the army; nothing between them +and the enemy but detached pickets of cavalry, at long distances apart, +to fly back with the report of the least signs made by the rebels. These +meager groups were forbidden fires, or any evidence of their presence +that might guide hostile movement, and the infantry outposts felt that +they were really the guardians of the sleeping thousands a mile or so +behind them. No one minded the cold water and hard bread which for the +first time formed the company's fare that night. Like the cavalry, fire +was forbidden them. They formed little groups in the rear of the outer +line of pickets, discussing with animation--even levity--the likelihood +of an engagement the next day. It was the general opinion that if +Beauregard meant to fight he would have made a stand at some of the +excellent points of vantage that had been encountered in the day's +march. Jack smiled wisely over these amateur guesses, and quite abashed +the rest when he said: + +"Beauregard is no fool. His army is massed near the point that he is +guarding--Manassas Junction. You seem to think that war is a game of +chance, armies fighting just where they happen to meet each other. Not +at all. Our business is to march to Richmond; Beauregard's business is +to prevent us. To do this he must, first of all, keep his lines of +supply safe. An army without that is like a ship at sea without +food--the more of a crew, the worse the situation. Of course, Beauregard +had his skirmishers spread out in front of us, but, as there is no use +in killing until some end is to be gained, they have got out of our way. +If the spies that are in our ranks should send information that promised +to give the rebels a chance to get at a big body of our men, before the +whole army came up, you'd see a change of things very quick. We've got +fifty thousand men, or thereabout" (Jack was wrong; there were but +thirty thousand). "Now, these men are stretched back of us to +Washington, fifteen miles or more, because the artillery must be +guarded, and infantry only can do that. Now, suppose Beauregard finds +that there is a gap somewhere between the forces stretching back, and he +happens to have ten or fifteen thousand men handy? Why, he just swoops +down upon us, and, if we can't defend ourselves until the rest of the +army comes up, he has won what is called a tactical victory, and +endangered our strategy." + +"Goodness, Jack, you ought to have been commander-in-chief! You talk war +like a book!" Barney cried, in mock admiration. + +The war-talk went on late into the night, for the company, detached from +camp, was not obliged to follow the signals of the bugles that came in +melodious echoes over the fragrant fields. It was a thrilling sight as +the lone watchers peered backward. The June fields for miles were dotted +with blazing spires, as if the earth had opened to pour out columns of +flame, guiding the wanderers on their trying way. The sleep of the night +was desultory and fitful, excitement stimulating everybody to +wakefulness. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"THE ASSYRIAN CAME DOWN LIKE THE WOLF ON THE FOLD." + + +The next morning the march was resumed by daylight, the two companies +remaining on the skirmish-line. The country gradually became more rugged +as the route brought them near Centreville. There were no hills--a bare +but not bleak champaign, mostly without houses or farms, as the North +knows them. Sluggish brooks became more frequent, but none that were not +easily fordable. There were no landmarks to hold the mind to the scene, +nor, in case of battle, give the strategists points of vantage for the +iron game. About noon, the detached groups stalking a little negligently +now over the tedious plains, were startled by the unexpected. + +On the green slope of a hill, a mile or more ahead, a score of little +puffs of white smoke were seen, then a sharp report, and, in some places +near by, the ground was broken as if by a thrust of a spear, and little +scraps of clay scattered over the greensward. Then the bugle sounded a +halt. A few minutes later the horsemen spread in a chain across the line +of march, rode swiftly to a common center, formed in a solid group, +turned to the rear and rode back of the skirmishers to the main body. +Company K watched them as they galloped back, and as they reached the +group at the head of the long line, a half-mile or so distant, a body of +men hastened forward laden with stretchers and hospital appliances. Ah! +at last! It is now real war. The bugle sounds Forward! and with an +elastic spring the groups of four push dauntlessly ahead. Their eyes are +fixed on the brow of the hill, separated from them by a narrow +depression. + +The whole line--perhaps three miles wide--but, of course, not at all +regular, conforming largely to the difficulties encountered, moves down +the sloping bank on a run. Before they reach the bottom they are an +excellent target, and for the first time that most blood curdling of +sounds--the half-singing, half-hissing z-z-z-ip of the minie-ball--numbs +the ardor of the bravest. It is such a malignant, direct, devilish +admonition of murder; it comes so unexpectedly, no matter how well you +are prepared, that Achilles himself would feel a spasm of fear. And when +it strikes it does its work with such a venomous, exultant splutter, +that there seems something animate, demoniac in it. The volley, as I +said, came as the men were hurried down the hill by their own momentum +and by the sharp fall in the ground. The balls passed too high or too +low, but they impressed the fact on enthusiasts, who had longed for +battle, that one might die for one's country and not die gloriously. It +seemed such an ignoble, such a dastardly, outrageous thing, that death +could come to them from unseen hands, for as yet they had not seen a +soul. But now they are at the foot of the hill--though it is not correct +to so call it, for it was a long, winding valley, through which ran a +dancing streamlet, very welcome to the thirsty warriors when they had +succeeded in breaking through the vicious natural _chevaux de frise_ of +blackberry-briers and nettles. But now there wasn't much time to slake +thirst. The bullets had begun to come regularly; and suddenly, as Jack +conducted his squad across the stream, he was startled by the +exclamation, uttered rather in reverence, it seemed to him, than +surprise or pain: + +"My God, I'm hit!" + +Yes, a fair-haired lad--one of his class--tottered a second in a limp, +helpless way, and fell headlong, pitching into the little stream. Jack +ran and lifted him out; but even before the hospital corps came the boy +was dead. The bullet had gone quite through his heart. + +However, now the first numbing terror of the bullet was changed to a +sort of revengeful delight. Relinquishing any return fire for a moment, +the company, with a great shout, that sounded all along its front, +dashed up the hill, through the scrub-oak at the brow, and then they +could see the enemy slowly retiring, a chain of them a mile or more +wide. While one of the rebel ranks fired the other knelt, or lay flat +upon the ground loading, where there were no natural obstacles to take +shelter behind. A vengeful shout ran along the Union lines. + +"Capture them--don't fire!" and with one impulse the groups lied forward +so swiftly that the enemy, believing the rush only momentary, delayed +too long, and in two minutes the Union line was pell-mell among them. + +"Surrender!" Jack shouted to the squad just ahead of him--"surrender, or +we'll blow your heads off!" and along the line for some distance to his +left and right he could hear his own exultant demand echoed. There was +nothing to do for the rebels, who had neglected to keep their enemies at +the proper distance, but throw up their hands. Jack's squad sent back +twenty-three prisoners to Major Mike, who took them in proud triumph to +General Tyler, riding with the head of the column, now that the tenacity +of the rebel skirmishers made it seem probable that there would be +serious work. But though the firing kept up as the Union forces +advanced, no obstacle more, serious than the thin lines of the +skirmishers revealed itself. + +At dusk the bugles, moving with the captains in the rear, sounded the +rally, and then the scattered groups came together in company. They were +to bivouac on the spot to await their regiment when it arrived. +Meanwhile, to the bitter discontent of the Caribee companies, their post +of honor was taken by new troops, and they knew that next day they would +march in line. They had so enjoyed the glory of the first volleys, the +first deaths, and the first prisoners, that, not remembering military +procedure, they resented the change as an aspersion upon their valor. + +When the regiment came up, however, they forgot their mortification in +the eager questioning and envious jocularities of the rest. Companies K +and H were so beset that they forgot to boil their coffee, and would +have gone thirsty to their dewy beds, if the other companies' cooks had +not shared their rations with the gossiping heroes. As darkness fell, +the sky was reddened for miles with pillars of fire, and for a time the +Caribees thought it was the enemy. But Tom Twigg, who had been with the +major at headquarters, explained to Jack that the army was divided into +three bodies of about ten thousand men each, and that Tyler's column, of +which the Caribees were the advance, were the extreme northern body; +that they were now at Vienna, far north of Manassas, where Schenck had +been beset a month before in his never-enough-ridiculed reconnaissance +by train; that in the morning they were to push on to Fairfax +Court-House and thence to Centreville, where the army was to come +together for the blow at the rebels. Jack and his friends were a good +deal chagrined to learn that they were not as near the enemy as the +column to the south of them, whose fires had been mistaken for +Beauregard's. Though the levée came to an end at "taps," no one felt +sleepy, and the excitement banished the pains of fatigue. Major Mike, +sauntering through the dark lines near midnight, heard the tale still +going on in drowsy monotone, but, good-naturedly, made no sign. + +Though not given the skirmish-line next day--the 17th--Jack was +delighted to find that the Caribees led all the rest. With them rode the +commander of the brigade, Colonel Sherman, whom the soldiers thought a +very crabbed and "grumpy" sort of a fellow. His red hair bristled +straight up and out when he took his slouch hat off, as he did very +often, for the heat was intolerable. His eyes had a merry twinkle, +however, that won the hearts of the lads as he rode by, scrupulously +striking into the fields to save the panting and heavily laden line +every extra step he could. Often, in after-days--when Sherman had become +the Turenne of the armies--Jack, who was often heard to brag of his gift +of detecting greatness, used to turn very red in the face when he was +reminded of a saying of his on that hot July day: + +"That chap is too lean and hungry to have much stomach for a fight; he +looks better fitted for wielding the ferule than the sword. Schoolmaster +is written in every line of his face and stamped in his +pedagogue manner." + +The march that day was south by a little west, and about nine o'clock a +cool morning breeze lifted the clouds of dust far enough above the +horizon to reveal the distant blue of the mountains. The whole line +seemed to come to a pause in the enchanting, mirage-like spectacle. "The +Shenandoah," Jack said, mopping the dust, or rather the thin coating of +mud, from his face and brow, for the perspiration, oozing at every pore, +naturally covered the exposed skin with an unpremeditated cosmetic. The +march to Fairfax Court-House, for which judicial temple the curious +soldier looked in vain, was but eight miles from the point of departure +in the morning, but it was two o'clock in the afternoon when the +Caribees passed the hamlet, turning sharply to the right. They marched +up the deep cut of projected railway, where, for a time, they were +shaded from the sun by the high banks. But, emerging presently on the +Warrenton pike, they saw evidences that other columns--whether friends +or foes they couldn't tell--had recently preceded them. Scores of the +raw and overworked were breaking down now every hour. + +The dust and heat were insupportable. Whenever the march came near +water, all thought of discipline was forgotten, and the panting, +miner-like hosts broke for the inviting stream. The officers were +powerless to enforce discipline; when these breaks happened the column +was forced to come to a halt until every man had filled his canteen--and +here is one, among the many trivial causes, that brought about the +reverses of McDowell's masterly campaign. A march that ought to have +been made in twenty-four hours, or thirty at the utmost, took more than +three days! One of those days saved to the army would have enabled +McDowell to finish Beauregard before the ten thousand re-enforcements +from the Shenandoah came upon his flank at Bull Run. But we shall see +that in proper time, for there is nothing more dramatically timely, or +untimely, than this incident in the history of battles, unless it be +Blücher's miraculous appearance at Waterloo, when Napoleon supposed that +Grouchy was pummeling him twenty miles away. + +There was no provost guard to spur on the stragglers; and when, late in +the afternoon, the way-worn columns spread themselves on the western +slope of the hamlet of Centreville, at least a third of each regiment +was far in the rear. Nearly every man had, in the heat and burden of the +march, thrown away the provisions in his haversack, and that night ten +thousand men lay down supperless on the grateful greensward, happy to +rest and sleep. Mother Earth must have ministered to the weary flesh, +for at sunrise, when the music of the bugles aroused them, they started +up with the alert vivacity of old campaigners. Provisions, that should +have been with the column the night before, arrived in the morning. +While the reinvigorated ranks were at coffee, there was a great clatter +in the rear, and presently a _cortége_ of mounted officers appeared, +General McDowell among them. Dick Perley, who was at the brigade +headquarters, with Grandison, came to the Caribees presently with +great news. + +The battle was to begin that very day. General Tyler was to go forward +to a river called Bull Run, where Beauregard was waiting. The whole army +was to spread out like a fan and fight him. He had seen the map on the +table, and the place couldn't be more than four miles away. Yes, they +all looked eagerly to the westward now. The mountains in the distance +rolled themselves down into lower and lower ridges, and just about four +miles ahead could be seen a range that seemed to melt into a wide +plateau fringed deeply with scrub-oak and clusters of pine. Jack had +provided himself with a field-glass. Standing in the middle of the +Warrenton pike, a fine highway, that ran downward as solid as a Roman +causeway, for four or five miles, he could see the break made by the +Bull Run River, and--yes, by the glaive of battle!--he could see the +glistening of bayonets now and then, where the screen of woods +grew thinner. + +The general, too, was examining the distant lines, and Jack took it as a +good omen that Sherman grew jocose and appeared to be making merry with +Tyler, whose face looked troubled, now that the decisive moment seemed +at hand. But the day passed, and there was no advance. It was not until +late in the evening that the cause became known. The army had been +waiting for supplies, ammunition, and what not, that should have been on +the field the day before. The Caribees were made frantic, too, by what +seemed a battle going on to the south of them, a few miles to the left. +The camp that night was a grand debating society, every man propounding +a theory of strategy that would have edified General McDowell, no doubt, +if he could have been given a _précis_ of the whole. How such things +become known it is difficult to guess, but every man in the columns knew +that the general had planned to put forward his thirty thousand men in +the form of a half-moon, covering about ten miles from tip to tip. The +right or northward horn was to be considerably thicker and of more body +than the left or southern. When the time came this right was to curve in +like a hook and cut the ground out from the left wing of the rebel army. + +This is the homely way these unscientific strategists made the movement +known to each other, and it very aptly describes the formulated plan of +battle, save that, of course, there were gaps between the forces here +and there along this human crescent. Long before daylight Sherman's +brigade, with a battery of guns and a squadron of cavalry, set out due +south, leaving the broad Warrenton pike far to their right hand. Such a +country as the march led into, no one had ever seen in the North outside +of mountain regions--deep gullies; wastes of gnarled and aggressive +oaks, that tore clothes and flesh in the passage; sudden hillocks rising +conical and inconsequent every few rods; deep chasms conducting driblets +of water; morasses covered with dark and stagnant pools, where the +pioneers fairly picked their steps among squirming reptiles. A stream, +sometimes large as a river, crawling languidly through deep fissures in +the red shale, protected the left flank of the column. The cavalry was +forced to hold the narrow wood road, as the bush was hardly passable +for men. + +"Hi, Jack!" Barney cries, catching his breath at the edge of a muddy +stream, "what sort of a place must the rebels be in if they let us +promenade through such a jungle as this unopposed?" + +"I have been thinking of that," Jack replies. And so had every man in +the expedition--for to think was one of the drawbacks as well as one of +the excellences of the soldier in the civil war. But presently, after +five hours of laborious work, a halt is called. The men dive into their +haversacks, and even the brackish water in the nearest sedge pond has a +flavor of nectar and the invigoration of a tonic. On they tear again, +the whole body pushing on in skirmish-like dispersion. Suddenly the land +changes. They are climbing a rolling table-land, cleared in some places +as though the axe of the settler had been at work. The march is now +easier and the picket-lines are strengthened. Then a sharp volley comes, +as if from the tree-tops. + +The march is instantly halted. The mass, moving in a column, is +deployed--that is, stretched out to cover a mile or more as it moves +forward; the cavalry divides and rides far to right and left, to see +that no ambush is set to enable the rebels to sneak in behind the vast +human broom, as it sweeps through the solemn aisles of the pines, now +rising in vernal columns thicker and thicker. The firing is going on now +in scattering volleys, and soon the wounded--a dozen or more--are +carried back through the silent ranks. Joking has now ceased. Lips are +compressed; eyes glitter, and the men avoid meeting each other's gaze. +It is the moment of all moments, the most trying to the soldier, when he +is expecting every instant a hurricane of bullets, and yet sees no one +to avenge his anguish on or forestall in the deadly work. But they have +been moving forward all the time, the hurtling bullets sweeping through +the leafy covering, now and then thumping into the soft pine with a +vicious joyousness, as if to say to each man, "The next is for you, see +how well our work is done." For these hideous missiles have a language +of their own, as every man that stood fire can tell. The skirmishers are +now all drawn in. The solid line must do the work at hand. No one but +the commander and his confidants knew the work intended, save that to +kill and be killed was the business to be done. The panting lines are on +high cleared ground now, and they can see absolutely nothing but the +irregular depressions that mark the channel of the Bull Run, as it +rushes down to the Rappahannock. The line is moving along steadily. +Looking to left and right, Jack can see the colors of three regiments, +and his eye rests with pleasure on the bright, shining folds of the +Caribees' dark-blue State flag spread to the breeze beside the stars of +the Union. Are they to cross the river? Evidently, for the command is +still "Forward, bear center, bear right." Then, square in front, where +the thick, broad leaves of the oak glitter in the sun, there is seen a +cylinder of steam-like smoke, with fiery gleams at the end, a crackling +explosion of a hogshead of fire-crackers, then a rushing, screaming +sound in their very faces, then a few rods behind a ringing, vicious +explosion. They are in the very teeth of a masked battery. The Union +skirmishers have been withdrawn too soon. The main line will be torn to +pieces, for retreat is as fatal as advance. + +"Lie down, men!" The command rings out and is echoed along the column. +The guns have the range, and the enemy knows the ground. The Caribees +are directly in the sweep of the artillery, and the command comes to +them by company to crawl backward, exposing themselves as little as may +be. Presently two brass guns are brought up behind the Caribees. The +gunners have noted the point of the enemy's fire. The men point the big +muzzles with intrepid equanimity, firing over the prostrate blue coats. +For twenty minutes, perhaps half an hour, this is kept up; then there is +silence on the hill beyond. The column rises to its feet, and at the +command, "Forward!" they start with a rush and a cheer. Five hundred +yards onward, and a solid mass of gray coats confront them. A volley is +fired and returned; the exulting Caribees, with two lines behind them, +give a loud cheer and, in an instant, the gray mass has disappeared, as +if the earth had opened. The skirmish-line, advancing now, picks up a +half-dozen or more wounded rebels, besides two or three who had become +confused in the hasty retreat and run toward the "Yankees" instead of +their own line. Jack's comrade held this conversation with one of the +prisoners: + +"I say, reb, what place is this?" + +"Mitchell's Ford." + +"Much of your army here?" + +"'Nuff to lick you uns out of your boots, I reckon." + +"What did they run across the ford for, then?" + +"Oh, you'll see soon enough--when our folks get ready." + +"Who's in command here?" + +"General Bonham, of South Carolina." + +"How many men, about?" + +"Well, there's right smart on to a million, I reckon. They had to cut +the trees down, yonder, to get room for 'em.". + +The man's eyes twinkled as he gave this precise approximation; but +Barney, who had brought the humorist in, whispered to the captain to let +him have a moment's speech with the man before he was sent away. The +captain nodded, and Barney said innocently: + +"Had anything to eat to-day?" + +"Not a mouthful. The trains were all taken up with soldiers coming from +Richmond." + +"Have a bit of beef--and here's a cracker or two. You can have some +coffee if the guards will let you make it." + +"Old Longstreet himself would envy me now," the rebel cried, his mouth +stuffed with the cold meat and hard-tack, almost as fresh and crisp as +soda-crackers, for the contractors had not yet learned the trick of +making them out of sawdust, white sand, and other inexpensive +substitutes for flour. + +"Longstreet?" Barney said, carelessly. + +"Yes, that's the commander of the right wing, just below, at Blackburn's +Ford." + +"Blackburn's Ford?" + +"Yes, that's a mile down, and really behind you uns, for the run makes a +big elbow to the east. I tell you what it is, Yank, you'll see snakes +right soon, for our folks are behind you." + +Sure enough, a crackling to the left confirmed this, and the captain, +who had listened to Barney's adroit cross-questioning, sent the man with +a note to Colonel Sherman, a few rods in the rear. Ten minutes later the +column fell into ranks again and moved off swiftly southeastward. A +march of a mile or so brought them to a bold ridge cutting down almost +aslant to the clear water of the run. The skirmishers, for some reason, +had not pushed ahead to explore the ground, and the regiments, marching +in close masses, came out in a rather disorderly multitude on the ridged +crest. A hundred yards nearly below the water-course was fringed with +thick copses of oak, and the gently ascending slopes on the western bank +were completely hidden from the Union lines. A few gaunt, almost +limbless trees rose up spectrally on the ridge, offering the compact +masses neither shelter from the sun nor security from the enemy--if +there were an enemy near. + +Dick came up to Jack out of breath with great news, just as the Caribees +were aligning themselves to move forward. + +"General Tyler just told Richardson"--a brigade commander--"that the +rebels had retreated from Manassas, and he (Tyler) is going to have the +glory of occupying the works: that McDowell thought the army would have +to fight a big battle to get--" + +"Glory!" the group shouted, near enough to hear; and the delightful +story ran up and down the lines by a telephone process that was much +swifter than Edison's electric invention. A roar of gratulatory triumph +broke--a roar so loud and inspiring that for a moment the densely packed +masses did not distinguish an ear-splitting outburst just in front of +them. But on the instant piercing shrieks among the huddled +cheerers--cries of death and agony--changed the paeans of triumph into +wails of anguish and mortal pain. A panic--instant, unreasoning, +irresistible--fell upon the mass, a breath before so confident. A third +of the regiment seemed to wither away. The colors fell in the struggling +group in the center. Hoarse shouts, indistinguishable and ominous, could +be vaguely heard from the staff and line. + +Direr still, hideous clamor of masked cannon, right in their very faces, +added the horror of surprise to the disorder of attack, and the thick +blue lines broke in irrestrainable confusion. The terror of the unknown +seized officers and men alike. In five minutes the crest was cleared, +and the ignoble vanity, ignorance, and self-sufficiency of one man had +undone in an hour the splendid work of the commander-in-chief. A _mêlée_ +of miserable, disgraceful disorder ensued. The rebel sharpshooters, +hurrying to the flank, poured in hurtling, murderous volleys, filling +the minds of the panic-stricken mob with the idea, the most awful that +can enter a soldier's mind, that his line is surrounded. Hundreds threw +away guns and everything that could impede flight. Other hundreds fired +wildly wherever they saw moving men, and thus aided the rebels in +killing their own comrades, for it was into the supporting Union forces +they directed their random shots. The fire grew every instant more +bewildering. Shots came in volleys from every direction, and the +helpless hordes darted wildly together--sometimes toward, instead of +from the enemy. Had the rebels been as numerous as they were crafty, the +brigade could have been seized _en masse_. But now Sherman is at hand +with fresh regiments, others are at his heels, and the contest takes on +some of the order of intelligent action. The rebels, too, are +re-enforced, but the dispositions made by the Union chiefs bring the +combat to equal terms. The clamor of cannon and musketry continues an +hour, though the lines are now among the friendly undergrowth, and the +losses are not serious. But the Caribees, with the regiment supporting +them, have been blotted from the scene as a factor. For hours the +scattering groups fled--fled in ever-increasing panic, and it was long +after dark before the remnants of the regiment came into camp at +Centreville. + +Poor Jack! He gave no heed to supper that dreadful night. He threw +himself on the ground, too exhausted to think and too disheartened to +talk. He couldn't understand the shameful panic. The Caribees were not +cowards; every man in the regiment had longed for the battle. When under +fire at Mitchell's Ford, an hour earlier than the disaster at Blackburn, +all had stood firmly in place, fought with coolness, and gave no sign of +fear. The volume of fire when they broke was not much greater than the +Mitchell's Ford volleys. During the night Grandison came to camp and +assembled the officers. He expressed his sorrow at the sudden shadow +that had fallen on the fair fame of the regiment, but since the panic +had not been followed, as such outbreaks often are, by the total +destruction of the men, there would be abundant chance to redeem the +disgrace of the day. He had himself begged the division commander to +give the men another trial, and he had staked his commission on their +doing such duty as would remove the tarnish of the afternoon from +their banners. + +The officers had been dispirited. Major Mike had raged over the field, +through the woods, a very angry man indeed, belaboring the fleeing men +with his sword and imploring those he couldn't reach to "come to me +here. Dress on me. There's no call to be afeard. We've more men than +they have, and we'll soon wallop them." + +But the resounding blows on the backs of those near the officer did not +give the encouraging emphasis to his appeal that captivates men whose +reasoning faculties are almost gone for the moment. Before daylight on +the next morning--Saturday, the 20th--the companies were called together +and little addresses were made to the men by the officers. The substance +of Colonel Grandison's words was imparted, and the hope expressed that +when, in the course of that or the next day the regiment was again under +fire, they would show that the panic of yesterday had not been +cowardice. The men said nothing, and every one was glad that the light +was so dim that the officers could not look in their faces, though, as a +matter of fact, the shoulder-straps had shown as little fortitude as the +muskets in the dispersion. All that day the forces rested, the Caribees +providing themselves with new arms and equipments, or the two or three +hundred who had flung their own away. During the afternoon an incident +happened in the division that lessened the mortification of the +Caribees. A splendid regiment and a battery of bronze guns came into the +highway from the extreme of the line that was expected to take part in +the battle which all knew would be opened the next morning. Every one +was surprised to see the men moving without muskets and the colors +wrapped in their cases. "Where you bound for?" some one at the roadside +yelled curiously. + +"Our time is out; we're going home." + +Then a derisive howl followed the line as it passed through the masses +of the army, and remarks of an acrid nature were made that were not +gratifying to the departing patriots: + +"Don't you want a guard to protect you?" + +"Does your mamma know you're out alone?" + +"Wait till to-morrow and we'll send Beauregard's forces to see you safe +home." + +The men and officers looked very conscious and uncomfortable under the +gamut of jeers, for word went along the line, and all along the route to +the rear they passed through this clamor of contemptuous outcry. + +"Well, I thought we had reached the eminent deadly pinnacle of +disgrace," Barney said, with a sigh, as a group of Company K watched the +considerable number taken out of McDowell's small army, "but this sight +makes me feel like the man on trial for murder who escapes with a +verdict of manslaughter." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BLOOD AND IRON. + + +Late at night Dick came down to Jack's bivouac with a strange tale. +McDowell had come to Tyler's quarters storming with rage. He had accused +that officer of disobeying orders in forcing a fight on the fords of +Bull Run where he had been told to merely reconnoitre. + +The staff believed that Tyler would be cashiered, for he had not only +wrecked the general's plan of battle, but he had given the rebels the +secret of the movement and demoralized one wing of the army by putting +raw soldiers in front of masked batteries that could have been detected +by proper outpost work. Then one of the staff reported a speech Tyler +had made when his troops rushed over the empty rebel breastworks and +forts around Centreville. His officers were discussing the probable +forces Beauregard had behind the crooked stream beyond. + +"I believe we've got them on the run," Tyler said, exultingly, "from +what we see here. I tell you the great man of this war is the man that +plants the flag at Manassas, and I'm going through to Richmond +to-night." + +"Not much comfort in knowing we've got such a fool for a commander," +Jack cried, thinking of the disgrace of the day before and of the small +chance the regiment had under such a chief to redeem its prestige on the +morrow. All personal griefs, everything but the pending battle, were +driven from the men's minds as the signs of the momentous work of the +morrow accumulated. The hospital corps was up in force. The yellow flag +floated from an immense tent near the roadway. A great _cortége_ of +general officers rode away from McDowell's quarters about ten in the +evening. The haversacks were filled with three days' cooked rations. One +hundred rounds of ammunition to a man were dealt out to each company. +Everything not absolutely necessary was ordered to the company wagons. + +The talk in the camp that night was of home--of anything and everything +but the dreadful to-morrow, so long looked forward to with eager hope, +now regarded with uncertainty that was not so much fear as the memory of +the panic at Blackburn's Ford. Jack was provided with a large atlas map +of Virginia, and with the bits of information given by Dick he was able +to conjecture the probable plan of the next day. The cronies of Company +K listened in delight to his exposition of the action. + +"Here," he said, "is the Bull Run. It makes two big elbows eastward +toward us--one about four miles to the northwest of us, the other about +eight miles to the southeast of that, and about four miles from our +right hand here! The rebel we quizzed yesterday says that there are five +fords between the Warrenton pike bridge--that's just ahead of us yonder +at the end of the road we are on--the last one is McLean's Ford, at the +very knuckle of the elbow that is crooked toward us a mile west of where +we were yesterday. That is near the railway, which it is Beauregard's +business to fight for and our business to get, for then he will have to +fall back near Richmond to feed his army. Now from the railway where it +crosses Bull Run near Mitchell's Ford to the Warrenton road, which +Beauregard must also hold, is about nine miles. He must guard all these +fords, and we must fight for any one or two of them that we need to +cross by. The only problem is, whether our general is going to strike +with his right arm at Mitchell's Ford, his left arm at this very +Warrenton road we are on, or whether he means to butt the middle of the +line of Beauregard's battle to break him into two pieces?" + +"What would Frederick the Great or Napoleon do?" Nick asked, absorbed in +Jack's confident predications. + +"If Frederick had equal forces he would have a reserve just where we +shall be in the morning--there at that point marked 'Stone Ridge,' and +move a heavy mass to the southwest below McLean's Ford there, where you +see the railway runs along the run for a half-mile or more. Or he would +send this body to the northeast, over there where you see Sudley Springs +marked in rather large letters, and he would by either one of these +movements turn the enemy's flank--that is, get in behind him and force +him to change front to fight, something that is rarely done successfully +in battle. Napoleon would, on the contrary, mass all his best troops at +the stone bridge, open the fight with every piece of artillery he could +bring to bear, and in the panic send divisions ten deep across +the bridge." + +"Which would be the better plan?" + +"Ah! that no one can say. The first is sure enough and less dangerous, +if the commander is not certain of his men, because you notice that we +felt excellent and confident all day, so long as we were marching +forward and pushing the enemy from our path. The trial in battle is to +be kept standing under fire, not sure where your enemy is; and then you +noticed that our own guns behind us, sending shot and shells over us, +were just as trying as the rebels'. Only soldiers of the very first +class can be depended on in the Napoleon tactics. We are not soldiers of +the first class; and you may be sure McDowell, who was many years in +Europe, and who is a trained officer, will make use of the manoeuvres +best calculated to bring out whatever there is in his men. As a matter +of opinion, I should say that, in view of the miserable affair on the +right yesterday, he will strike out for Sudley Springs, where we shall +have the rebels just as you would have me if you were at my side, held +my left arm behind me, ready to break my back with your knee planted +in it." + +Jack was sergeant of the guard that night, and it was in the group of +sentries awaiting their relief every two hours, re-enforced by his +tent-mates of Company K, that these learned dissertations on war were +carried on. It was a never to be forgotten Saturday night to millions +yet living. In Washington the President and his Cabinet sat far into the +morning hours receiving the dispatches from the weary and disappointed +chief--for, if Tyler had not made his miserable attempt to reach +Manassas, the battle would have been fought that vital Saturday, and the +result would have been another story in history. As the morning broke, +red and murky, the army was up and in line, but without the usual noisy +signals. The artillery-horses began to move first wherever it was +possible. The heavy guns were pushed forward on the sward, to prevent +the loud metallic clangor that penetrated the still air like clashing +anvils. By half after six, the advance brigade, the Caribees in their +old place, were within gunshot of the stone bridge. + +"Ah ha, Jack! It is the Napoleonic plan!" Barney cried, as the artillery +took places in front of the masses lying on the ground. + +"Wait," Jack cried, owlishly. "The battle isn't fought always where the +guns are loudest." + +But the guns were now loud and quick. The rebels, behind a thick screen +of trees, took up the challenge, and every sound was drowned in the roar +of the artillery. A few far in the rear were wounded--those nearest the +rebels were in the least danger, whether because the guns could not be +sufficiently depressed, or because the gunners were poor hands, couldn't +be determined. A breathless suspense, an insatiate craving to see, to +move, to fly forward, or do anything, devoured the prostrate ranks. The +firing had gone on two hours or more, which seemed only so many minutes, +when to the group near General Tyler a courier, panting and dusty, rode +in great excitement. + +"General Tyler, the major-general has just learned that the enemy have +crossed in force at Blackburn's Ford, below you. You are at once to take +measures to protect your left flank." + +"Ah ha, Jack; Frederick's on the other side, eh?" Barney said, as, +standing near the group, these words reached their ears. + +"Perhaps there are two Fredericks at work. Look yonder!" handing him his +glass as he spoke. + +"Thunder! our whole army is marching over there to the right, and we +sha'n't even see the battle. They are four miles off. Why, what an +immense army we must have! I thought this was the bulk of it, but we're +not a brigade compared to that." + +"Now, Barney, I feel confident that is the grand movement. Look how they +fly along! The fields are as good as roads out there, and if it were not +for the artillery they could make five miles an hour. Now, keep your +ears open, my lad: you'll hear music off there to the northwest, music +that will make Beauregard sick, if that courier's information is exact. +For, don't you see, as we are placed here, with that gully to our left +and the thick woods in front, we could hold this ground against six +times our number." + +Company K were now sent forward to the right to relieve a body of +skirmishers that had been hidden on the margin of Bull Run, some +distance to the westward of the stone bridge. Jack, going forward with +his glass, noticed an officer among the men, but not catching sight of +his face did not recognize him. + +"Is that a rebel or one of our fellows?" one of the men said, pointing +to a horseman disappearing in the woods four hundred yards to the right +and in front of the company, marching in a straggling line two abreast, +"by the flank," as it is called. Jack took his glass to discover, but +the rider had disappeared. An instant after from a knoll, Jack, glass at +eye, was examining eagerly the field on the other side of the river, +when a horseman suddenly shot into view, riding desperately. + +"By George, it is the same man! I wonder how he crossed the stream? +There must be a bridge down there among those thick trees and bushes," +Jack said, excitedly. + +"Are you sure, sergeant, that is the same man that was in the woods to +the right there, five minutes ago?" + +Jack turned; the officer was at his shoulder. He saluted respectfully, +recognizing, with a thrill of joy, old Red Top, as the company +called Sherman. + +"Yes, colonel, it's the same man. He was in his shirtsleeves and had a +blue scarf tied about his arm. There can be no mistake; several of us +saw him quite plainly." + +"If that be true, we've gained a half-day's work in two minutes." He was +looking diligently through the glass as he spoke, and his eye brightened +as he marked the man until he disappeared. He turned to an orderly that +was following at a distance leading a horse. Mounting this lightly the +colonel rode to the head of the company and said in a short, +decisive tone: + +"Come ahead men, at a double-quick, until you strike the stream." He +kept beside the men as they moved. In fifteen minutes they were at the +water's edge. Then the company was deployed as skirmishers, two thirds +halting where they struck the water and the rest keeping on up the bank +of the river for a few hundred yards. Sherman was eying every inch of +the bank until, suddenly reaching a break where fresh tracks of a horse +were visible, he directed his orderly to follow, and plunged into the +water. It was not up to the horses' knees from bank to bank. Riding +back, his face aglow, the colonel ordered the captain to cross half his +men and station them up and down on the bank where they would not be +seen by the rebels on the high ground above. Then, addressing Jack, +he said: + +"Sergeant, select two or three trusty men. Follow the bank of the stream +until you come to General Hunter's division, which may be a mile, +perhaps more, to the right yonder; you can tell by the firing soon. Tell +General Hunter that we have discovered a ford and shall not have to +fight for the stone bridge. We shall be across in no time and take the +enemy in the rear. If you can't find Hunter, give this intelligence to +any officer in command. Stay." + +He scribbled a line on a sheet of his order-book, saying: "This will be +your authority. It's better not to write the rest for fear you should be +captured. In case you are in danger tell each man with you what to say, +so that there will be more chances of getting the information where it +will do good; and remember, sergeant, that this news in Hunter's hands +will be almost equivalent to victory. Ah!" + +He paused again. Reverberating crashes came from the high grounds up the +river. "You will have no trouble in finding him now. Those are Hunter's +guns. Hurry." + +Glowing, grateful, big with the fate of the battle, Jack had Barney, +Nick, and another, whom he charged with the duty of historian, detailed +for this duty of glory. The group set off with a fervent Godspeed from +the company sheltered among the thick pines and oaks. + +"Now, boys," Jack said, every inch the captain, "we must spread out like +skirmishers. Our chief danger will be from the left, as no one will be +likely to be in the water but our own men, and we must look as sharply +for them as for the enemy. I will take the center; you, Barney, the +left, next to me; and you, Nick, four paces farther to the left." Jack +looked at his watch. It was just 9.30, Sunday morning, July 21, 1861. +The crash of musketry ahead now became one unbroken roar, with a +_crescendo_ of artillery that fairly shook the ground the messengers +were darting over, for all were on a dead run. The bushes grew thick on +the hillside and their branches were stubborn as crab thorns. Hell, as +Barney afterward remarked, would have been cool in comparison to the +heat as the adventurers tugged and wrestled forward. Now guns were +roaring on every side save the river. Behind, before, to the left, the +thunders played upon the parched land. At the end of a half-hour the +bullets and shells passed over the group as Jack and his squad pushed +along the hilly way. Twice, commands, and even the clicking, of what +Jack knew must be rebel guns sounded not twenty paces away, but, thanks +to the thick bushes, the scouts passed unseen, and, thanks to the noise +of battle, unheard. But now the danger is from friends, not enemies. +Balls come hurtling through the trees across the stream, and in a low +voice Jack bids Barney summon Nick. Then all slip down to the water's +edge, and make their way painfully through the marshy swamps, the +cane-like rushes that fill the narrow valley. The run has been a fearful +strain upon Nick, and at length he falls, gasping, in a clump of +cat-tails. + +"What is it, old fellow?" Jack cries in alarm. + +"O Jack! I can't go a step farther. You go on and leave me. I shall +follow when I get breath." + +He was white and gasping. Barney filled his canteen from the running +water, and, wetting his handkerchief, laid it on Nick's parboiled head +and temples. + +"Best a few minutes," Jack said, soothingly. "I will reconnoitre a bit." +Stripping off his accoutrements, he clasped a tall sycamore growing at +the crest of the ravine, and when far up brought his glass to bear. A +third of a mile to the left and southward, he could see a regiment with +a flag bearing a single star, surrounding a small stone farm-house on +the brow of a gentle hill. They were firing to the west and toward the +north, where the black clouds obscured his view. But the red gleam in +the smoke told of at least a dozen guns, and he knew that the main +battle was there, though the fury of it reached far to the east, near +the stone bridge which he had quit an hour before. Then through the veil +of smoke long, deep masses of blue emerge and make for the rebel front +on the brow of the hill, fairly at Jack's feet; the enemy redoubles the +fire; two guns at their left pour canister into the advancing wall of +blue. It never wavers, but, as a group falls to the earth, the rest +close together and the mass whirls on. + +Jack feels like flying. Oh, the grandeur of it, the fearlessness, the +intoxication! He almost falls from the tree in his excitement. But he +takes a last sweep of the belching hill. Hark! Loud cheers in the trees +back of the rebels, far to the southeast, perhaps a mile and a half; +then the flaunting Palmetto flag flying forward in the center of deep +masses of gray. Which will reach the hill first? He can not quit the +deadly sight. Ah! the blue lines are pressing on now; the cannon-shots +pass over their heads into the devoted line of gray, desperately +thinned, but clinging to the key of the battle-field. But, great God! +Perhaps his delay is aiding the enemy. He sees the route now +clear--straight to the west--and no rebels near enough to intervene. He +descends so fast that his hands and legs are blistered, but he is down. + +"Look sharp, boys; you must follow me as best you can. I know the +route--there is a forest path directly to our lines, and we shall be +there in twenty minutes--I shall, at least." He doesn't stop to see +whether he is followed or not, but dashes on, and the rest after him. He +is far out of sight in an instant. It is only by the crackling of the +branches that the others keep his course. The way is between steep, +precipitous hills, which explains how they could be so near the battle +and yet not in it, nor harmed by the missiles flying sometimes very near +them. At a deep branch of the stream the three rearmost came in sight of +Jack, up to his armpits in water and pushing for the shore. + +While they are hailing him exultantly he sinks out of sight; an awful +anguish almost stops the others, but Barney, flinging his musket and +impediments off as he runs, leaps far into the stream, and when the rest +reach the spot he has Jack by the hair, dragging him to the bank. He is +fairly worn out by the stress, and the others loosen his coat, stretch +him on the brown sward and rub his hands, his body. It is ten minutes, +it seemed an hour, before he is able to get up, and the rest insist on +carrying his accoutrements. Then the wild race is begun again, every +instant bringing them nearer the pandemonium of battle. Suddenly the +sharp commands of officers are heard in front and to the left. Is it the +enemy, or is it friends? The group halts in an agony of doubt. How can +they find out? Barney takes out his handkerchief and puts it on his gun, +which he was careful to go back and recover when Jack was on the bank. A +ray of bright red suddenly flits above the thick tops of the scrub-oaks. + +Yes, God be praised, there is the flag of stars, and there are blue +uniforms! With a wild hurrah, drowned in the musketry to the left, they +rush forward, are halted by a picket guard, exhibit Sherman's order, and +are directed to the commanding-officer. That personage has no knowledge +of General Hunter's whereabouts, but Colonel Andrew Porter is just +beyond, commanding the brigade. To him Jack makes known Sherman's +message, and is directed farther to the southwest, the Union right now +facing nearly to the east in the execution of McDowell's admirable flank +manoeuvre. + +Now among their own, Sherman's couriers run more peril than when +skirting the edge of the battle, for the shells are directed at the line +they are pursuing. They push to the rear and continue southeastward, +where Hunter's headquarters are supposed to be. But Jack is easy on the +score of his mission, since the general, who is nearest the stone +bridge, has been apprised, and well knows that the fire which has been +coming near his left flank is Sherman's. Until, however, he has executed +his orders literally Jack won't be satisfied, and plunges on, the others +following, nothing loath. But it is a way of pain for the lads now. +Every step they come upon the dead and dying. The air is filled with +moaning men, whinnying horses, the hurried movement of stretchers, the +solemn solicitude of the hospital corps. The line of foremost battle is +less terrifying, less trying than this inner way of Golgotha, and the +four are well-nigh unnerved when they reach a group where the commanding +officer has been pointed out. + +"General Hunter?" Jack says, addressing an officer with a star. + +"My name is Franklin. General Hunter was wounded an hour ago. What's the +matter?" + +Jack gave his message, and Franklin said, cheerfully: "That's good news. +You're a very brave fellow. Go a few yards in the rear yonder and you'll +find General McDowell. He'll enjoy your message." + +On the hill they halt electrified. + +Thick copses of scrub-pine dot the gently sloping sward. Here and there +clumps of tall pines stand in the bare, brown sod as if to guard the +young outshoots clustering about them in wanton dispersion. Cow-paths, +marked only by the worn edges of the bushes, run in zigzags across the +hillside and up to the plateau. The remnants of rail fences strew the +ground here and there. The low roof of the farm-house can be seen far +back even from the depression, where the lines of blue are now resting a +brief, deadly half-hour. + +The sun is now behind the halted line of blue; the bayonets, catching +the light, make a sea of liquid, mirror-like rivulets hovering in the +air, with the bushy branches of pine rising like green isles in the +shimmering tide. The men are filling their cartridge-boxes; new +regiments are gliding into the gaps where death has cut the widest +swath. From the woods, cries, groans, commands, clashing steel as the +men hustle against each other in the rush into line, prelude the Vulcan +clamor soon to begin. Men, bent, sometimes crawling, with stretchers on +their shoulders, glide through the maimed and shrieking fragments of +bodies, picking out here and there those seeming capable of carriage. +Other men, prone on their faces, hold canteens of tepid, muddy +water--but ah! a draught to the feverish lips which seems godlike +nectar. Against the stout bodies of the trees, armless men, legless +trunks, the maimed in every condition of death's fantastic sport, hold +themselves limply erect, to gain succor or save some of the vital stream +pouring from their gaping wounds. + +Couriers dash up to the impassive chief, calm-eyed, keen, alert, +surveying the line, dispatching brief commands, receiving reports. It is +Franklin. With the air of a marshal on a civic pageant, perplexed only +by some geometrical problem denying the possibility of two right lines +on the same plane, he glances upward toward the brow of the plateau. The +four flags had been increased by half a dozen. Ah, they have received +aid! A tremendous crash comes from the left. That must be Sherman. He is +on the rebel rear. One strong pull, and the two bodies will be united, +his left arm reaching Sherman's right. The shining mirage of steel above +the green isle sinks. The clash of hurtling accoutrements comes up +musically, tranquilly from the low ground. The blue mass, first +deliberately, then in a quiet, regular run, passes like a moving +barricade up the sloping hillside. Then from one end of the long wall to +the other white puffs as of some monster breathing spasmodically. + +The air is a blur of sulphurous blackness. The bullets are as thick as +if a swarm of leaden locusts had been routed from the foliage, and taken +wing hillward. Then behind, through the gaps in the trees, big, whining, +screeching swarms of another caliber shells fly over the wall of blue. +In a moment the ground of the plateau is torn, the red clay flying far +into the air. But now the blue wall is girdling the very crest of the +hill; it stops, shrivels. Long gaps are cut in its broken surface. The +hillside is dotted with sprawling figures. The crest is a ragged edge of +writhing bodies and struggling limbs. Forward! The wall is advancing, +but shorter. It is within reach of the shining guns--spouting flame and +iron in the very face of the dauntless wall. Then there is a pause. The +smoke hides everything but the maimed and quivering heaps that strive to +crawl backward, back to the crest, back to the deeps that are not rest +nor security. The hillside is like a field, covered with sheaved +grain--with a thousand mangled bodies that had been men. + +Then to these wrestling specters--for in the dim smoke and Tartarean +atmosphere the actions of loading and aiming take the shape of huge +writhing, convulsing, monstrous, grappling--come quick-moving lines of +help. They rush through them, over them. The thirteen cannon behind the +struggling hydra of gray seem one vortex--sulphurous, flaming, spitting, +as from one vast mouth, scorching fire, huge mouthfuls of granite venom. +Back--back, the gray masses break in sinuous, definite, slow-yielding +disruption. + +Then a sudden inrush from the left of the broken gray, where smoke and +space play fantastic tricks with the sunshine. Miraculously a dark mass +is projected on the shimmering spectrum, and a ringing voice is heard: + +"We are saved; we are re-enforced. We will die here!" Then high above +the din, in the exultant tumult of the deadly won ground, the nearest in +blue hear a stentorian voice--grim, deliberate, exultant: + +"Look where Jackson stands like a stone-wall! At them, men! Let us +determine to die here, and we will conquer." + +Die he did, when the yelling horde in the sudden outrush grazed the edge +of the Union besom sweeping over the plain in a rush of death. Then +behind these spectral shapes came others--thousands--with wild, fierce +shouts. The blue mass is thinned to a single line. Men in command look +anxiously to the rear. Where is Burnside? Where are the twelve thousand +men whom Hunter and Heintzelman deployed in these woods two hours since? +Back, slowly, fiercely, but backward, the slender wall of blue is +forced; not defeated, but not victorious. All this Jack sees, and he +turns heartsick from the sight. + +When the straggling couriers reached the point designated as McDowell's +headquarters, he had gone to the eastward of the line, and, faithful to +the command given him, Jack set out with Barney, leaving the others to +deliver the message in case he missed the general. They emerged +presently on the edge of a plateau, whence nearly the whole battle could +be seen. Jack climbed a tall oak to reconnoitre the ground for McDowell, +but, as his glass revealed the battling lines, he shouted to Barney to +climb for a moment, to impress the frightful yet grandiose spectacle +upon his mind. Far off toward the stone bridge, now a mile or more +northeast of them, they could see the Union flags waving, and mark the +white puffs of smoke that preceded the booming of the cannon. Every +instant the clouds of smoke came southward, where the rebel lines were +concealed by the thick copses. But they were breaking--always breaking +back anew. In twenty minutes more, at the same rate, the hill upon which +the rebel lines nearest the tree held the Union right at bay would be +surrounded on two sides. + +This, for the moment, was a sulphurous crater, the fire-belching demons, +invisible in the smoke. Through the glass Jack could see the lines +clearly--or the smoke arising above them. The enemy had been pushed back +nearly two miles since he had left Colonel Sherman a few rods above the +stone bridge. The Union force, as marked by the veil of smoke, curved, +about the foemen, a vast crescent, seven miles or more from tip to tip. +The bodies opposing were scattered like a gigantic staircase, with the +angles of the steps confronting each other step by step. But now the +Union ranks at Jack's feet rush forward; a group of riders are coming to +the tree, and Jack descends hastily to meet the general. He is again +disappointed. It is not McDowell. At a loss what to do, he salutes one +of the officers and states his case, recognizing, as he turns, +General Franklin. + +"I don't see that you can do better than remain where you are, or, still +better, push to the brow of that hill yonder and act as a picket. In +case you see any force approaching from this side, which is not likely, +give warning. Our cavalry ought to be here, but it isn't. If you are +called to account when the battle is done, give me as your authority. I +take it your brigade will be around here pretty soon, if they make as +rapid work all the way as they have made since eleven o'clock. If the +cavalry come, you can report to the nearest officer for assignment." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE LEGIONS OF VARUS. + + +The two free lances set out now, relieved of all responsibility, and +determined to watch the open fields and woods to see that this part of +the field was not surprised. The hill to which the general had directed +them was farther from the battle than they had yet been, but the work +going on to the northeast showed that this would soon be the western +edge of the combat if Sherman continued advancing. They are soon on the +hill, and Jack posts himself in a tree with his glass. There is a lull +in the quarter they have just quit. The smoke rolls away, and now he can +see streams of gray-coats hurrying to the edge of the plateau, where, +two hours before, he had encountered Porter's brigade. Can it be +possible that Porter's troops do not see these on-rushing hordes? They +are moving on the right point of the crescent, and unless the Union +commander is alert they will break in on the back of the point; for +Jack, without knowing it, was virtually in the rebel lines--that is, he +was nearer the rebel left flank, the foot of the long, bow-shaped +staircase, than he was to the tip of the Union crescent. + +But no! The Stars and Stripes fly forward; they are on the very crest +whence the defiant guns spat upon them. But now the smoke covers +everything. Then there is a calm. The ground is clear again. The gray +masses are pouring up to the crest in still greater numbers; a large +body of them march down the hill in the rear of the Union line concealed +by the woods; they march right up to the ranks where the red-barred flag +is flying! What can it mean? Neither side fires. There must surely be +some mistake. Hark! now the blue line discovers--too late--that the mass +is the enemy, and half the line withers in the point-blank discharge. +They are swept from the ground. Jack is trembling--demoniac. The gray +mass springs forward; they have seized the guns--four of them--and turn +them upon the disappearing blue. Then a hoarse shout of delirious +triumph. The guns are lost; the day is lost, for now there are no +blue-coats in sight. But no! A still wilder shout--electrifying, +stentorian--comes across the plateau. The blue mass reappears; they come +with a wild rush in well-ordered array; they are the regulars, Jack can +tell by their movements. It must be the famous Rickett's battery he saw +at Centreville in the morning. In five minutes the tale was retold, and +the guns, snatched from the worsted gray-coats, are safe in the hands of +their masters. Again the smoke obscures the picture; again it clears +away, and now the gray are in greater force than before, and the +horseless batteries are again the prize of this rapacious grapple. +Swarming in from three sides, the gray again hold the contested pieces. +The blue vanish into the thick bushes. Another irruption, another pall +of smoke, and Jack's heart bounds in exultant joy, for he sees the New +York flag in the van. Sherman has reached the point of dispute. But +alas! the guns are run back, and as the gray lines sway rearward in +billowy, regular measure, they retain the Titanically contested trophies. + +The sun is now far beyond the meridian. The Union lines are closing up +compactly. One more such grapple as the last and the broad plateau where +the rebel artillery is massed, pointing westward, northward, eastward, +will be won. But a palsy seems to have settled on the lines of blue. +They are motionless, while their adversaries are hurrying men from some +secret place, where they seem to be inexhaustible. The whole battle is +now within the compass of a mile. But where can these hordes come from? +Surely, General McDowell has never been mad enough to leave them +disengaged along the fords! No; they do not come from that direction. +They come at the very center of the rebel rear. Can it be that troops +are arriving from Richmond? The Southern lines are longer than the +Northern, but they have been since the first moment Jack got a glimpse +of them. He could see, too, that they were thinner: that on the spur of +the plateau in front of the massed rebel artillery a single brigade was +holding the Union mass at bay. He can almost hear the rebel commands as +the re-enforcements pour in. But now the thunder breaks out anew, rolls +in vengeful fury around the western and northern base of the plateau. +The gray lines stagger; the falling men block the steps of the living. +Surely now McDowell is going to do or die. Yes. The iron game goes on; +the blue lines jostle and crush forward. They are at the last wall of +resistance. But what is the sound at his very feet? As Jack looks down +in the narrow way between the hill he is on and the plateau on the very +edge of the Union line--in fact, behind it now, for it has moved forward +since he took post--a rushing mass of gray-clad soldiery is moving +forward on the dead run. In one instant the head of the column is where +General Franklin rode but an hour or two before. He looks for Barney. He +can see him nowhere. He climbs down in haste and discovers his comrade +soundly sleeping against the base of the tree. + +"Barney, the army is ruined!" + +"Is the battle over?" + +"Oh, no, no, but it will be in a moment. Hark, hear that!" + +A roar of musketry--it seemed at their very feet. Then an outbreak of +yells, so sharp, so piercing, so devilish the sound, that the marrow +froze in their veins, arose, as if from the whole thicket about them. + +"Is it too late to warn General Franklin?" Barney asked, trembling. + +"Ah, Barney, we are as bad as traitors; we ought to have seen these +rebels before they got near. If we had done our duty this would never +have happened. Perhaps it is not too late to get back. Let me go up and +see where we can find a way without running into the enemy." + +Reaching his perch again, Jack cast his despairing eyes toward the fatal +hill. It was now clear of smoke, and there wasn't a regiment left on it. +His heart leaped for an instant, the next it was lead, for the ranks +that had disappeared were down on the brow of the hill--in the valley-- +rushing forward, unresisted, the red and blue of the Union, mixed with +the stars and bars of the rebellion; but, worse than all, the ranks of +gray were sweeping in overwhelming masses quite behind the lines of +blue, cutting them down as a scythe when near the end of the furrow. To +the eastward Sherman still clung desperately to the crests he had won, +but Jack saw with agony that, slipping between him and the river, a +great wedge of gray was hurrying forward. His last despairing glance +caught a body of jet black horses galloping wildly into the dispersing +ranks of blue. He came down from the tree limp, nerveless, unmanned. + +"Well?" Barney asked. + +"It's all over--we are ruined!" + +"The army, you mean?" + +"Ah, yes! the army and we too." + +"But what's going to become of us?" + +"I don't much care what becomes of us--at least I don't care what +becomes of me!" + +"But if we don't get back to our regiment, they'll think we're +deserters." + +"Good God, yes! I forgot that; I think I can find the way back. But +we'll have to be careful, the enemy are all around us. I can hear them +plainly, very near. Follow me, and don't speak above a whisper." + +Then, with swift movement, always as near the thick bushes as they could +push, they fled faster and faster, as fear fell more and more heavily +upon their quickened fancies. The thought of the repute of deserters +lent them endurance, or they must have broken down before the weary +shiftings of that dreadful flight. They are now near the spot where they +had met Porter's pickets in the morning. The sounds of battle had died +out at intervals, renewed now and again by an outcry of cheers, a quick +fusillade, then more cheers, and then an ominous silence. But now there +is a continuous roll of musketry near the knoll, back of the Warrenton +road. The two wanderers, breathless, with torn uniforms, swollen faces, +halt, gasping, to take their bearings. They can see the turnpike far +beyond the stone bridge half-way to Centreville: they see crowds fleeing +in zigzag lines over the open fields, see horses plunging wildly, laden +down by two and even three men on their backs; they see vehicles +overturned at the roadside, whence the horses have been cut or killed by +the rebel shells; they see an army, in every sense a mob, swarming +behind the deserted rebel forts; they see orderly ranks of shining black +horses this side the stone bridge charging the fleeing lines of blue; +they see shells whirling like huge blackbirds in the sky, suddenly +falling among the skurrying thousands; they see a shell finally burst on +the bridge, shiver a caisson to fragments, and then all sign of +organized flight comes to an end. + +But near them, meanwhile, a sullen fire replies with desperate +promptitude to the rebel shots. + +"If we can get over to the men fighting at the edge of the woods, we may +be killed or captured, but we won't be disgraced!" Jack cries. + +Again they make a wide circuit through the woods, and now the firing is +near at hand, coming slowly toward them. They have only to wait and they +will be among the forlorn hope. Ah, with what fervent joy Jack marks the +Union banner, flapping its twin streamers among the hurtling pines! They +are near it; they are under it! Their own guns are no longer available; +hundreds are lying at hand; they seize them. The line is firing in +retreat. It is a sadly depleted battalion of Keyes's regulars, +steadfast, imperturbable, devoted. A handful of them has been forgotten +or misdirected. The rebels, uncertain whether it was not a trap to snare +them, move with caution, while far to the left a turning column is +hurrying to hem the Union group in on every side. There are hardly three +hundred blue-coats in the mass, but their volleys are so swift, so +regular, so steady, that they make the impression of a thousand. The +enemy felt sure, as was afterward learned, that there was at least +a regiment. + +A young captain, soiled, ragged, his sleeves hanging in ribbons, the +whole skirt of his coat gone, moves alertly, composedly in the center, +seizing a gun when one comes handy on the ground, where there are plenty +scattered. + +"Steady, men, steady! We shall be at the water's edge, soon, and then we +can give them hell!" + +Never music sounded sweeter in Jack's car than that jaunty epithet +"hell"! How inspiring! How little of the ordinary association the word +brought up! Now they were traversing slowly the very ground Jack and his +comrades had flown over in the morning. Still firing--still working with +all his heart in the deadly play, Jack sidles to the officer and +cries out: + +"Captain, I know a ford that will take us across above the stone bridge. +We discovered it this morning. Shall I guide that way?" + +"Guide if you can; but fire like seven devils, above all!" the captain +cried, seizing two or three pouches lying in a mass and emptying the +cartridges into his pockets. + +"There, keep to the left sharp, and we shall come to a deep gully where +the water is only knee-deep," Jack cries, also replenishing his +cartridge-box, which had shrunk under the rapid work of the last +half-hour. + +"What regiment are you, sergeant?" the captain cries, looking for a +moment at the tattered recruit. + +"Caribees of New York, Sherman's brigade." + +"And how came you off here? Your brigade was near the right of the line +at the stone budge." The captain asked this with a shade of suspicion in +his voice. + +Jack explained his mission, and the officer, who had been dealing out +the timely windfall of ammunition, nodded. + +"Poor Hunter was shot early in the advance. It would have been victory +to our flag if the poor old follow had been wounded before the action +began. He lost three hours in the attack, and gave the rebels a chance +to come up from Winchester." + +Now Jack understood the mysterious legions that seemed to spring from +the earth. They were Johnston's army from the Shenandoah. + +"Keep up heart, men: Burnside and Schenck are near us somewhere. They +are in reserve, and they'll give these devils a warm welcome, if they +push far enough after us." + +Then the steady volleys grew swifter, if that were possible, the enemy +moving steadily after the slowly retiring group. But now there is a +clear field to cross, so wide that the smallness of the force must be +detected. The captain halts the line, takes his bearings, divides the +little army into two bodies, orders one to move at a double-quick +directly across the open; the rest are stretched out as skirmishers. He +retires with the first squad across the field, directing the skirmishers +to hold the ground until they hear three musket-shots from the wood +behind. The rebels can now be seen closing in very near. But the +skirmish-line, spreading over a wider front, evidently perplexes them, +and they halt. The three shots are presently heard, then the +skirmish-line flees in groups across the bare downs, the vociferating +yells of the gray-coats fairly drowning the hideous clamor of +the muskets. + +"Ah! we're saved," a lieutenant cries, waving his cap like a madman. +"Look! there are men in the wood yonder, to our right; they are coming +this way!" + +Jack turned, he was near the captain; and he marked, with deadly panic, +a look of despair settle down on the heroic, handsome face. What could +it mean? Didn't he believe that there were men there? Jack handed him +his own glass--the captain had none. + +"By Heaven, our flag! But what troops can they be in that quarter? They +must be surrounded, like ourselves.--Sergeant, can you undertake a +dangerous duty?" + +"With all my heart," Jack cried, heartily. + +"What's your name and company?" + +"John Sprague, Caribees, Company K." + +"Slip around the edge of the skirt of bushes. You'll be within an arm's +length of the enemy all the way. Reach the place where we saw those men +a moment since. When you get there, if they are friendly, fire a shot. +Here, take this pistol. Fire that; I shall recognize it from the +musketry. If they are the enemy, fire all the barrels as fast as you can +and retreat. You run great danger; you can only by a miracle escape +capture; but it is our only resource for the next charge. We must +surrender or die," he added, looking wofully at the meager remnant of +his company. Before the words had fairly ended, Jack is off like a shot, +forgetting Barney, forgetting everything but the extrication of this +grand young Roman. As he skurried along, sometimes on hands and knees, +he blames himself for not learning the captain's name. He feels sure +that a day will come when the world will know and admire it. He has +gained the other corner, and in a moment he will be in the thick copse +where the Union flag had been seen, but as he makes a dash through a +clump of laurel he is confronted by two men, muskets in hand. + +"A Yank, by the Lord! Surrender, you damned mudsill!" + +For answer Jack raised the pistol in his hand and fired. The man fell, +with a frightful yell. The other leveled his musket fairly in Jack's +face; but before he could pull the trigger a report at his ear deafened +Jack, and the second man staggered against the tree. + +"Ah, ha! me boy, the rear rank did the best work there," Barney cried, +as Jack turned to see whence the timely aid had come, "A day after the +fair's better than the fair itself, if the rain has kept the girls +away," and Barney laughed good-humoredly. + +"Well, 'pon my soul, Barney, it's a shameful thing to say, but all +thought of you had gone from my mind. I should not have let you come if +you had proposed it, but now we're in for it. Ah--!" + +As he spoke the Union flag he had seen came forward, but it was in the +hands of a rebel bearer, and was upside down in mockery. The sight was +enough. He fired the shots as agreed upon, firing two at the group +marching heedlessly forward, as the skirmish-line was far ahead, or they +supposed it was, for the two men disabled by Jack and Barney were the +advance, as it was not supposed that any but stragglers were near at +hand, and the company were returning to their regiment. In an instant a +fierce volley is returned, and Barney, who is fairly in the bush behind +a huge tree, hears a low groan. He looks where Jack had been and sees +him lying on the ground, stifling an agonized cry by holding his left +arm over his mouth. Barney might have escaped, at least he might have +delayed capture, but coming from behind the tree, he holds up his hands, +and flinging himself on the ground beside his comrade takes his head +upon his knee and awaits the worst. + + + + +BOOK II. + +_THE HOSTAGES_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE AFTERMATH. + + +There were not so many millions of Americans in 1861 as there are +to-day. But they were more American then than they are now. That is, the +Old World had not sent the millions to our shores that now people the +waste places of the West. It was not until after the civil war that +those prodigious hosts came--enough to make the populace of such empires +as fill the largest space in history. That part of the land that loved +the flag cherished it with a fervor deeper than the half-alien race that +first flung it to the breeze under Washington. They loved the republic +with something of that passionate idolatry that made the Greek's ideal +joy--death for the fatherland; some of that burning zeal and godlike +pride that made the earlier Roman esteem his citizenship more precious +than a foreign crown. But until the battle on that awful 21st of July +proved the war real--with the added horror of civil hate--Secretary +Seward's epigram of ninety days clung fast in the public mind. + +Up to Bull Run there was a vague feeling that our army, in proper time, +would march down upon the rebels like the hosts of Joshua, and scatter +them and the rebellion to uttermost destruction in one action. It was +upon this assumption that the journals of the North satirized, abused, +vilified Scott, and clamored day by day for an "advance upon Richmond." +The damnation of public clamor, and not the incompetency of the general, +set the inchoate armies of Scott upon that fatal adventure. But that +humiliating, incredible, and for years misunderstood Sunday, on the +plateaus of Manassas, where, after all, blundering and imbecility +brought disaster, but not shame, upon the devoted soldiery, aroused the +sense of the North to the reality of war, as the overthrow at Jemmapes +in 1793 convinced the Prussian oligarchy that the republic in France +was a fact. + +It was a dreadful Monday in the North when the first hideous bulletins +were sent broadcast through the cities and carried by couriers into +every hamlet. For hours--sickening hours--it was not believed. We have +awakened many a morning since 1861 to hear of thrones overturned, armies +vanquished, dynasties obliterated; to hear of great men gone by sudden +and cruel death: but the anger and despair when Booth's cruel work was +known; the shuddering horror over Garfield's taking off; the amazement +when the hand of Nihilism laid an emperor dead; the overthrow of Austria +in a single day; the extinction of the Bonapartes--these things were +heard and digested with something like repose compared to the +bewildering outbreak that met the destruction of our army at Manassas. + +It was not the dazed, panic-stricken, panic anguish that followed +Fredericksburg or the second Bull Run. It was not the indignant, fretful +wrath that rebuked official culpability for the destruction of the grand +campaign on the Peninsula. It was a startled, incredulous, angry +amazement, in which blame afterward visited upon generals or Cabinet, +was humbly taken on the people's shoulders and echoed in a moaning _mea +culpa_. For days all the people were close kin. In the streets strangers +talked to strangers; the pulpit echoed the inextinguishable wrath of the +streets; the journals, for a moment restrained into solemnity, echoed +for once the real voice of an elevated humanity and not the drivel of +partisanship nor the ulterior purposes of wealth and sham. Even +schoolboys, arrested in the merry-making of youth, looked in wonder at +the sudden reversal of conditions. Boys well remember in the school that +Monday, when the northern heavens were hung in black and grief wrung its +crystal tresses in the air, the master began the work of the day with a +brief, pathetic review of the public agony, and dismissed the classes +that he was too agitated to instruct. There were no games on the +greensward, no swimming in the river, no excursion to the Malvern cherry +groves. The streets were filled with blank faces and whispering crowds +unable to endure the restraint of routine or the ordinary callings of +life. Parties were obliterated, or rather from the flux of this white +heat, came out in solidified unity that compact of parties which for +four years breathed the breath of the nation's life, spoke the purposes +of the republic, and amid stupendous reverses and triumphs held the +public conscience clear in its sublime duty. The woes of bereavement +were not wide-spread; the killed at Manassas were hardly more than we +read of now in a disaster at sea or a catastrophe in the mines. The +whole army engaged hardly outnumbered the slaughtered at Antietam, +Gettysburg, or Burnside's butchery at St. Mary's Hill. + +Hence the marvel of the instant fusion, the swift resolve of the +Northern mind. The battle was the sudden grapple of aggressive +weakness--catching the half-contemptuous strong man unaware and rolling +him in the dust. Brought to earth by this unlooked-for blow, the North +arose with renewed force and the deathless determination that could have +but one issue. The people, when the benumbing force of the surprise was +mastered, flew together with one mind, one voice, one impulse. The +churches, the public halls, the street corners, moving trains, and +rushing steamers, were such hustings as the Athenian improvised in the +porticoes, when her orators inflamed the heart of Greece to repel the +barbarians, to die with Leonidas in the gorges of the Thermopylae. + +Ah, what an imposing spectacle it was! The blood of wrath leaped +fiercely in the chilled veins of age; the ardor of youth became the +delirium of the Crusaders, the lofty zeal of the Puritans, the +chivalrous daring of Rupert's troopers, and the Dutch devotees of +Orange. A half-million men had been called out; a million were waiting +in passionate eagerness within a month; two hundred and fifty millions +of money had been voted--ten times that amount was offered in a day. +Every interest in life became suddenly centered in one duty--war. It +touched the heart of the whole people, and for the time they arose, +purified, contrite, as the armies of Moses under the chastening of +the rod. + +In Acredale there were sore hearts as the dreadful news became more and +more definite. For days the death lists were mere guess-work; but when +the routed forces returned to their camps in Washington the awful gaps +in the ranks were ascertained with certainty. The Caribees were nearly +obliterated. Of the thousand men and over who had marched from Meridian +Hill only four hundred were found ten days after the battle. Elisha +Boone had hurried at once to Washington, charged by all the fathers, +mothers, brothers, and sisters of the regiment to make swift report of +the absent darlings. Kate was besieged in the grand house with tearful +watchers, waiting in agonizing impatience for the fatal finality. +Olympia, to spare her mother the distress of the vague responses her +telegrams brought from Washington, spent most of the time at the +Boones', where, thanks to the father's high standing with the +Administration, the earliest, most accurate information came. Finally he +wrote. He had seen Nick Marsh, who gave the first coherent narrative of +Jack, Barney, and Dick Perley. They had been seen--the first two in the +last desperate conflict. An officer (the hero whom Jack had so much +admired, and who turned out to be Gouverneur K. Warren) had escaped from +the forlorn hope left to dispute the rebel charge upon the flying +columns. He gave particulars that pointed with heart-breaking certainty +to the death of the two boys. Young Perley had been lost sight of since +noon of the battle. He had followed the path taken by Jack and his +comrades across the flank of the enemy. He had been seen at +Heintzelman's headquarters, but after that no one could trace him. +Wesley, too, had been left near the stone bridge with a ball in either +his arm or thigh, the informant was not quite sure which, as he fell in +a charge of the line. Boone telegraphed to Kate that he was going +through the lines with a flag of truce so soon as the affair could be +regulated, and proffered his best offices for the Acredale victims. + +Everything had been prepared by Olympia and her mother for an instant +departure so soon as positive information came. With them Marcia Perley +went, trembling and tearful, and Telemachus Twigg, to extricate his son +from danger, for it was uncertain what his status was in the forces. +Kate, too, joined the melancholy pilgrimage that set out one morning +followed to the station by weeping kinsmen imploring the good offices of +these ambassadors of woe. The sleeping-car gave the miserable company +seclusion, if not rest. They were not the only ones in quest of the +missing, for as yet there was no certainty as to the fate of those left +on the field of battle. Later reports had been more encouraging, for +hundreds who were set down as prisoners or missing began to be heard +from as far northward as the Maryland line. In the station at Washington +Boone met his daughter. Twigg hurried to him and asked: + +"Any further news, Mr. Boone? We're all here--about half Acredale." + +"Yes, I see; but there is no more news of the Caribees. We learn that +the wounded have been sent to Richmond, and I shall set out for there +to-morrow." + +Mrs. Sprague, with Olympia and Merry, drove to the house of a friend +she had known years before, whose husband was a Senator. The Boones--or +rather Kate--bade them a cordial adieu as they drove off to the +National Hotel. + +Then the most trying part of the quest began. The War Department was +besieged with applicants, mostly women. Orders had been issued to forbid +all crossing the lines, and the despairing kinsfolk of the lost were in +a panic of impatient terror. In vain Olympia called upon eminent +Senators who had been friends of her father; in vain she invoked the aid +of the Secretary of State, who had been the family's guest at Acredale. +Once she penetrated, by the aid of strong letters, to the Secretary of +War. He was surrounded by a hurried throng of orderlies, officers, and +clerks, and even after she had been admitted to his office Olympia was +left unnoticed on a settee, waiting some sign to approach the dreaded +presence. His imperious and abrupt manner, his alternation of +deferential concern for some and disdainful impatience for others, gave +her small hope that he would heed her prayer. She waited hours, sitting +in the crowded room, ill from the oppressive air, the fixed stare of the +officers, and the sobbing of others like herself waiting a word with the +autocrat. At length, late in the afternoon, when the crowd had quite +gone, she heard the Secretary say in an undertone: + +"Send an orderly to those women and see what they want." + +Each of the waiting women handed credentials to the young man, and each +in turn arose trembling and stood before the decisive official at the +great, paper-strewn desk. There was no attempt to soften the refusal, as +he turned curtly from the pleaders; and Olympia, shrinking from the +ordeal, was about to step out of the room, when a tall, care-worn man +shambled in, glancing pityingly at her as she arose, half trembling, +recognizing the President. + +She stepped in front of him in a desperate impulse, and, throwing up her +veil, cried piteously: + +"O Mr. Lincoln, you are a father, you have a tender heart; you will +listen to the bereaved!" He stopped, looking at her kindly, and put his +left arm wearily on the desk by his side. + +"Yes, my poor girl, I am a father and have a heart; the more's the pity, +for just now something else is needed in its place. I suppose your +father is over yonder," and he nodded toward the Virginia shore. + +"O Mr. Lincoln, my father is farther away than that. My father was +Senator Sprague--you served with him in Congress--I--I--thought that +perhaps you might take pity on his widow, his daughter, his son, if the +poor boy is still living, and--and--" + +"Send you across the lines?" + +"Oh, if God would put it in your heart!" + +"It's in my heart fast enough, my poor child, but--" + +"Impossible, Mr. President! The enemy, as it is, can open a Sabine +campaign on us, and tie our hands by stretching Northern women out in a +line of battle between the ranks!" + +It was the weary, discouraging voice of the Secretary, imperiously +implying that the Executive must not interpose weakness and mercy where +Draconian rigor sat enthroned. The President smiled sadly. + +"Ah, Mr. Secretary, a sister--a mother--give a great deal for the +country. We can not err much in granting their prayer. Make out an +order--for whom?" + +Olympia, speechless with gratitude reverence could hardly articulate: + +"My mother, myself, and Miss Marcia Perley." + +"Another mother?" + +"Her boy is not of age, and ran away to join my brother's company." She +had a woman's presence of mind to answer with this diplomatic evasion. + +"I'm afraid you will only add to your distress, my poor child; but you +shall go." He inclined his head benignantly and passed into the inner +sanctuary behind the rail, when Olympia heard the Secretary say, grimly: + +"I shall take measures to stop this sort of thing, Mr. President. +Hereafter you shall only come to this department at certain hours. At +all other times the doors shall be guarded." + +A gray-haired man in undress uniform presently appeared, and as he +handed Olympia the large official envelope he said, respectfully: + +"You never heard of me, Miss Sprague? Many years ago the Senator, your +father, did a kind turn for my brother--an employé in the Treasury. If +I can be of any aid to you in this painful business, pray give me a +chance to show a kindness to the family of a great and good man. My name +is Charles Bevan, and it is signed to one of the papers in this letter." + +Within an hour all was ready, but they could not set out until the next +morning, when, by eight o'clock, the three ladies were _en route_. There +was a large company with them, all under a flag of truce. They passed +through the long lines of soldiery that lay intrenched on the Virginia +side of the Potomac, and pushed on to Annandale, where the rebel outpost +received them. Olympia's eyes dwelt on the wide-stretching lands of pine +and oak, remembering the pictures Jack had given in his letters of this +very same route. But there were few signs of war. The cleared places lay +red and baking under the hot August sun; the trees seemed crisp +and sapless. + +At Fairfax Court-House, where the first signs of real warlike tenure +were seen, the visitors were taken into a low frame house, and each in +turn asked to explain the objects of her mission. Then the hospital +reports were searched. In half a dozen or more instances the sad-eyed +mothers were thrown into tremulous hope by the tidings of their +darlings' whereabouts. But for Olympia and Aunt Merry there was no clew. +No such names as Sprague or Perley were recorded in the fateful pages of +the hospital corps. But there were several badly wounded in the hospital +at Manassas, where fuller particulars were accessible. + +They were conducted very politely by a young lieutenant in a shabby gray +uniform to an ambulance and driven four miles southward to Fairfax +Station on the railway, when, after despairing hours of waiting, they +were taken by train to Manassas. An orderly accompanied them, and as the +train passed beyond Union Mills, where the Bull Run River runs along the +railway a mile or more before crossing under it, the young soldier +pointed out the distant plateau, near the famous stone bridge, and, when +the train crossed the river, the high bluffs, a half-mile to the +northward, where the action had begun at Blackburn's Ford. He was very +respectful and gentle in alluding to the battle, and said, ingenuously, +pointing to the plateau jutting out from the Bull Run Mountains: + +"At two o'clock on Sunday we would have cried quits to McDowell to hold +his ground and let us alone. But just as we were on our heel to turn, +Joe Johnston came piling in here, right where you see that gully yonder, +with ten thousand fresh men, and in twenty minutes we were three to one, +and then your folks had the worst of it. President Davis got off the +train at the junction yonder, and as he rode across this field, where we +are now, the woods yonder were full of our men, flying from the Henry +House Hill, where Sherman had cut General Bee's brigade to pieces and +was routing Jackson--'Stonewall,' we call him now, because General +Bonham, when he brought up the reserves, shouted, 'See, there, where +Jackson stands like a stone wall!' He's a college professor and very +pious; he makes his men pray before fighting, and has 'meetings' in the +commissary tent twice a week." + +"Did Mr. Davis join in the battle?" Olympia asked, more to seem +interested in the garrulous warrior's narrative than because she really +had her mind on the story. + +"Oh, dear, no. Old Johnston had finished the job before the President +(Olympia noticed that all Southerners dwelt upon this title with +complacent insistence) could reach the field. He was barely in time to +see the cavalry of 'Jeb' Stuart charge the regulars on the +Warrenton road." + +The train came to a halt, and the young man said, cheerfully: + +"Here we are. The hospital's still right smart over yonder in the +trees." + +"But you will go with us, will you not?" Olympia asked in alarm, for it +was wearing toward night. + +"Oh, yes; I'm detailed to remain with you until you have found out about +your kinsfolk." + +In the mellow sunset the three women followed the orderly across the +fields strewed with armaments, supplies, and the rough depot +paraphernalia of an army at rest. The hospital consisted of a large tent +for the slightly hurt, and a few old buildings and a barn for the more +serious cases. The search was futile. There were two or three of the +Caribees in the place, but they knew nothing of their missing comrades. +Indeed, Jack's detail by Colonel Sherman had effectually cut off all +trace of his movements after the battle began. + +Mrs. Sprague's tears were falling softly as the orderly led them to the +surgeon's office. They were there shown the records of all who had been +buried on the field. Many, he informed them, sympathetically, had been +buried where they fell, in great ditches dug by the sappers. In every +case the garments had been stripped from the bodies before burial, so +that there was absolutely no means of identification. Most of the +wounded had, however, been sent to Richmond with the prisoners. "It +would not do," he added, kindly, "to give up all hope of the lost ones, +until they had seen the roster of the prisoners and the wounded in the +Richmond prisons and hospitals." + +Quarters were given to them in a tent put at their disposal by the +surgeons, and in the long, wakeful hours of the night Olympia heard the +guard pacing monotonously before the door. The music of the bugles +aroused them at sunrise--a wan, haggard group, sad-eyed and silent. The +girl made desperate efforts to cheer the wretched mother, and even +privily took Merry to task for giving way before what was as yet but a +shadow. 'Twould be time enough for tears when they found evidence that +the stout, vigorous boys had been killed. As they finished the very +plain breakfast of half-baked bread, pea-coffee, and eggs, bought by the +orderly at an exorbitant rate, he said, good-naturedly: + +"The train don't come till about ten o'clock. If you'd like to see the +battle-field, I can get the ambulance and take you over." + +Olympia eagerly assented--anything was preferable to this mute misery of +her mother and Merry's sepulchral struggles to be conversational and +tearless. They drove through bewildering numbers of tents, most of them, +Olympia's sharp eyes noted, marked "U.S.A.," and she reflected, almost +angrily, that the chief part of war, after all, was pillage. The men +looked shabby, and the uniforms were as varied as a carnival, though by +no means so gay. Whenever they crossed a stream, which was not seldom, +groups of men were standing in the water to their middle, washing their +clothing, very much as Olympia had seen the washer-women on the +Continent, in Europe. They were very merry, even boisterous in this +unaccustomed work, responding to rough jests by resounding slashes of +the tightly wrung garments upon the heads or backs of the unwary wags. + +"Why, there must be a million men here," Merry cried, as the tents +stretched for miles, as far as she could see. + +"No; not quite a million, I reckon," the orderly said, proudly; "but we +shall have a million when we march on Washington." + +"March on Washington!" Merry gasped, as though it was an official order +she had just heard promulgated. "But--but we aren't ready yet. We--" +Then she halted in dismay. Was she giving information to the enemy? +Would they instantly make use of it? Ah! she must, at any cost, undo +this fatal treason, big with disaster to the republic. "I mean we are +not ready yet to put our many million men on the march." + +The orderly laughed. "I reckon your many million will be ready as soon +as our one million. You know we have a big country to cover with them. +You folks have only Washington to guard and Richmond to take. We have +the Mississippi and fifteen hundred miles of coast to guard. Now, this +corner is Newmarket, where Johnston waited for his troops on Sunday and +led them right along the road we are on--to the pine wood yonder--just +north of us. We won't go through there, because we ain't making a flank +movement," and he laughed pleasantly. They drove on at a rapid rate as +they came upon the southern shelf of the Manassas plateau. + +"This," the orderly said, pointing to a small stone building in a bare +and ragged waste of trees, shrubs, and ruined implements of war, "is the +Henry House--what is left of it--the key of our position when Jackson +formed his stone wall facing toward the northwest, over there where your +folks very cleverly flanked us and waited an hour or two, Heaven only +knows what for, unless it was to give us time to bring up our +re-enforcements. Your officers lay the blame on Burnside and Hunter, +who, they declare, just sat still half the day, while Sherman got in +behind us and would have captured every man Jack of our fellows, if +Johnston hadn't come up, where I showed you, in the very nick of time." + +The women were looking eagerly at the field of death. It was still as on +the day of the battle, save that instead of the thousands of beating +hearts, the flaunting flags, and roaring guns, there were countless +ridges torn in the sod, as if a plow had run through at random, limbs +and trees torn down and whirled across each other, broken wheels, musket +stocks and barrels, twisted and sticking, gaunt and eloquent, in the +tough, grassy fiber of the earth. + +"In this circle of a mile and a half fifty thousand men pelted each +other from two o'clock that Sunday morning until four in the afternoon. +Up to two o'clock we were on the defensive. We were driven from the +broad, smooth road yonder that you see cutting through the trees, +northward a mile from here. Jackson alone made a stand; if it hadn't +been for him we should have been prisoners in Washington now, I reckon. +You see those men at work? They are picking up lead. We reckon that it +takes a ton of lead to kill a man." + +"A ton of lead?" Olympia repeated. + +"Yes. You wouldn't believe that thousands of men can stand in front of +each other a whole day and pour lead into each other's faces, and not +one in fifty is hit?" + +"Ah!" Olympia commented, thinking that, after all, Jack might not have +been hit. + +"These are the trenches of the dead. Our dead are not here. They were +all taken and sent to friends. There are five hundred of your dead here +and near the stone bridge yonder. We lost three hundred killed in +the fight." + +"And are there no other marks than this plain board?" Olympia pointed to +a rough pine plank, sticking loosely in the ground, with the words +painted in lampblack: "85 Yanks. By the Hospital Corps, Bee's Brigade." + +"That's all. They were all stripped--no means of identifying them. The +sun was very hot; the rain next day made the bodies rot, and the men had +to just shovel them in--" "Oh, oh! don't, pray don't!" Olympia cried, as +her mother tottered against the ambulance. + +"I ask your pardon, ladies; I forgot that these are not things for +ladies to hear." He spoke in sincere contrition. + +To relieve him Olympia smiled sadly, saying, "Won't you take us back, +please?" + +The ambulance drove on into the Warrenton pike, and, if Olympia had +known it, within a stone's-throw of Jack's last effort, where the +cavalry picket came upon him. It was noon when they reached the station. +The orderly returned the ambulance to the hospital, brought down the +luggage, and the three women made a luncheon of fruit and dry bread, +declining the orderly's invitation to eat at the hospital. The train +came on three hours late. It was filled with military men, most of them +officers; but so soon as the orderly entered the rear coach, ushering in +his charges, two or three young men with official insignia on their +collars arose with alacrity and begged the ladies to take the vacant +places. At Bristow Station many of the officers got out and a number of +civilians entered from the coach ahead and took their places. Mrs. +Sprague, worn out by the fatigue of the journey and the strain upon her +mind, quite broke down in the hot, ill-ventilated car. There was no +water to be had, and Olympia turned inquiringly to the person opposite +her, asking: + +"Could we possibly get any water--my mother is very much overcome?" + +"Certainly, madam. There must be plenty of canteens on the train. I will +bring you some in a moment." + +An officer who had been sharing the seat with Merry arose on hearing +this and said, kindly: + +"Madam, if you will make use of your seat as a couch, perhaps your +mother will feel more comfortable reclining. I will get a seat +elsewhere." + +Olympia was too much distressed to think of acknowledging this courteous +action, but Merry spoke up timidly: + +"We are most grateful to you, sir." + +"Oh, don't mention it. Are you going far?" "Yes, we're going to +Richmond, to--to find our boys, lost in the battle two weeks ago." + +"Oh, you're from the North." He was a young man, perhaps thirty, +evidently proud of his unsoiled uniform and the glittering insignia of +rank on the sleeve and collar. + +"Yes, sir; we're from Acredale, near Warchester," Merry said, as though +Acredale must be known even in this remote place, and that the knowing +of it would bring a certain consideration to the travelers. + +"Oh, yes, Warchester. I fell in with an officer from there after the +battle, a Captain Boone. Do you know him?" + +"Oh, dear me, yes. He is from Acredale. He is captain of Company K of +the Caribee Regiment--" + +"Caribee? Why, yes. I remember that name. We got their flags and sent +them to Richmond; we--" + +"And, oh, sir, did you take the prisoners? I mean the Caribees--were +there many? Oh, dear sir, it is among them our boys were; they were +mere boys." + +"Yes, ma'am, there were a good smart lot of them, and as you say all +very young. Boone himself can't be twenty-five." + +"And are they treated well? Do they have care? Of course you did not ask +any of their names?" Merry asked eagerly, comforted to be able to talk +with some one who knew of the Caribees, for heretofore, of the scores +they had questioned, no one had ever heard of the regiment. + +"Oh, as to that, ma'am, you know a soldier's life is hard, and a +prisoner's is a good deal harder. Most of your men are in Castle +Thunder--a large tobacco warehouse." He hesitated, and looked furtively +at Olympia administering water to her mother. "Perhaps," he said, +heartily, "if you would put a drop of whisky in the cup it would brace +up your mother's nerves. We find it a good friend down here, when it +isn't an enemy," he added, smiling as Olympia looked at the proffered +flask hesitatingly. + +"I assure you, madam," (Southerners, in the old time at least, imitated +the pleasant continental custom of addressing all women by this +comprehensive term), "you will be the better for a sip yourself. It was +upon that we did most of our fighting the other day, and it is a mighty +good brace-up, I assure you." + +But Olympia shook her head, smiling. Her mother had taken a fair dose, +and was, as she owned, greatly benefited by it. The young man sat on the +arm of the opposite seat, anxious to continue the conversation, but +divided in mind. Merry was trying to hide her tears, and kept her head +obstinately toward the window. Olympia, with her mother's head pillowed +on her lap, strove to fan a current of air into circulation. She gave +the young man a reassuring glance, and he resumed his seat in front of +her, beside the distracted Merry. + +"You are from Richmond?" Olympia asked as he sat puzzling for a pretext +to renew the talk with her. + +"Oh, no; I am from Wilmington, but I have kinsfolk in Richmond, I am on +General Beauregard's staff. My name is Ballman--Captain Ballman." + +She vaguely remembered that Vincent Atterbury was on staff duty. Perhaps +this young man knew him. + +"Do you know a Mr. Atterbury in--in your army?" she asked, blushing +foolishly. + +"Atterbury--Atterbury--why, yes! I know there is such a man. He is in +General Jackson's forces--whether on the staff or not I can't say. Stay. +I saw his name in _The Whig_ this very day." He took out the paper and +glanced down the columns. "Ah, yes; is this the man?" And he read: +"Major Vincent Atterbury, whose wounds were at first pronounced serious, +is now at his mother's country-house on the river. He is doing +excellently, and all fears have been removed." + +"Yes, that is he. We know him quite well." And she turned her head +window-ward, with a feeling of confidence in the mission, heretofore so +blank and wild. Vincent would aid them. He could bring official +intervention to bear, without which Jack might, even though alive and +well, be hidden from them. She whispered this confidence to her mother +as the train jolted along noisily over the rough road, and, a good deal +inspired by it, Mrs. Sprague began to take something like interest in +the melancholy country that flew past the window, as if seeking a place +to hide its bareness in the blue line of uplands that marked the +receding mountain spurs. + +The captain was much more potential in providing a supper at the evening +station than the orderly, who was looked upon with some suspicion when +he told the story of his _protégés_. The zeal of the new Confederates +did not extend to aiding the enemy, even though weak women and within +the Confederate lines. It was nearly morning when the train finally drew +up in the Richmond station, and the captain, with many protestations of +being at their service, gave them his army address, and, relinquishing +them to the orderly, withdrew. It had been decided that the party should +not attempt to find quarters in the hotels, which their escort declared +were crowded by the government and the thousands of curious flocking to +the city since the battle. + +He could, however, he thought, get them plain accommodations with an +aunt, who lived a little from the center of the town. They were forced +to walk thither, no conveyance being obtainable. After a long delay they +were admitted, the widow explaining that she had been a good deal +troubled by marauding volunteers. The orderly explained the situation to +his kinswoman, and without parley the three ladies were shown into two +plain rooms adjoining. They were very prim and clean; the morning air +came through the open windows, bearing an almost stupefying odor. It may +have been the narcotic influence of the flowers that brought sleep to +the three women, for in ten minutes they were at rest as tranquilly as +if in the security of Acredale. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +A COMEDY OF TERRORS. + + +When Jack, the day after the battle, found himself able to take account +of what was going on, he closed his eyes again with a deep groan, +believing in a vague glimpse of peaceful rest that his last confused +sensation was real--that he was dead. But there were no airy aids of +languorous ease to perpetuate or encourage this delusion. Sharp pains +racked his head; his right arm burned and twinged as though he had +thrust it into pricking flames. Loud voices about, but invisible to him, +were swearing and gibing. He was lying on his back, his head on a line +with his body. A regular movement, broken by joltings that sent +torturing darts through his whole frame, told him without much +conjecture that he was in an ambulance. The accent of the voices outside +told him that it was a rebel ambulance and not a Northern one he was in. +He tried to raise his head to see his companions, but he might as well +have been nailed to the cross, so far as pain and helplessness went. +Then he lost the thread of his thought. He heard, in a vague, far-off +voice, men talking: + +"We'll catch old Abe on our next trip ef we go on like this--eh, Ben?" + +"I reckon. I'm jess going to take a furlough now. Hain't seen my girl +fo' foah months." + +"How much did you pick up?" + +"I've got five gold watches and right smart o' shinplasters, I don't +reckon they'll pass in our parts, but I'm going to trade 'em off with +some of these wounded chaps. They'll give gold for 'em fast enough." + +"I got a heap of gold watches, jackknives, and sech. I don't know what +in the land to do with 'em. Suppose we can sell 'em in Richmond?" + +"Yes--but how are we going to get to Richmond? We're ordered to dump +these Yanks at Newmarket and go back. Ef we don't get to Richmond, our +watches ain't worth a red cent. Jess like's not old Bory'll issue an +order to turn everything in. I'm blamed if I will!" + +"Look yere, Ben, do you see that road off there to the right?" + +"Yes, I do, but I don't see that it's different from any other road." + +"Don't you? Well, honey, it's mitey sight different from all the roads +you ever saw. It takes you where you don't want to go." + +"What do you mean, Bob?" + +"I jess mean that ar road goes to Newmarket, where these Yanks are +ordered, but we've lost it and we shall come out in about an hour and a +half at the junction, whar th' train goes on to Richmond. See?" + +"Bob Purvis, you are a general, suah," and then there followed low, +rollicking laughter, mingled with a gurgling as of a liquid swallowed +from a flask. "But how'll we manage at the junction? We can't go right +on the cars? There is some hocus-pocus about everything you do in +the army." + +"Oh, jess you keep your eye on your dad, and you'll see things you never +saw afore. The minit them cavalry sneaks left us back thar, I made up my +mind I'd skip Newmarket. They've gone back to pick up more loot. No one +at the junction knows what our orders was. Besides, it'll be dark when +we get thar. The trains'll be full of our wounded. We'll slip these +Yanks in as if under orders. No one will know but we're hospital guards +on a detail for the wounded. When it is found out we shall be in +Richmond, and, if the provost folk get hold of me afore I've been home +and planted my haul, then I'm a Yank." + +"By mitey, Ben, you are a general, suah." Then suppressed laughter and +the gurgling of the flowing enlivener. Jack blissfully fell into dreams, +wherein home things and warlike doings mingled in grotesque medley. +Relapses into consciousness followed at he knew not what intervals +thereafter. He was conscious of cruel torment and a clumsy transfer into +another vehicle, confused sounds of groans, curses, waving lights, and +the hissing of escaping steam almost in his very ears. Then the anguish +of thundering wheels, until his cracked brain reeled and he was +mercifully unconscious. How long? His eyes opened on a clean white wall, +flowers hung from the windows in plumy festoons, birds sang in the +yellow dazzling sunlight. What could it mean? Was he at home? Surely +there was nothing of war in these comfortable surroundings. His left arm +was free, there was no one lying near to impede its movement. So it +wasn't a hospital. He took vague note of all this before he tried to +lift his arm. He raised his hand to rub his eyes and to assure himself +that it was not a cruel delusion. When he took it away, a kind face--the +face of a woman--was bending over him. + +"You are feeling better, aren't you, lieutenant?" + +"Lieutenant"? Why did she call him lieutenant? Had he been promoted on +the battle-field? Was he in the Union lines? Oh, yes; else he would have +been in a hospital, with moaning men all about him. He tried to speak. +The woman put her finger to her lips, warningly. + +"The doctor says you must not speak or be spoken to until you get +strong." + +Days passed. He couldn't tell how many, for he lay, long hours at a +time, unconscious, the mental faculties mercifully dead while the +wounded ligatures knit themselves anew. His right arm had been cut by a +saber-stroke, and a pistol-ball had entered above the shoulder-blade. +Prompt attention would have given him recovery in a few days, but the +twenty-four hours in a cart and the cars made his condition, for a +time, serious. + +But now he is visibly stronger, and his nurse brings people into the +room to see him. They look at him with wonder and admiration, while the +good lady is all in a flutter of delight. He hears himself spoken of +always as the "lieutenant," and hesitates to ask an explanation. The +physician comes but seldom, the lady explaining that all the doctors in +town are busy in the hospitals. The truth flashed upon him one morning, +when his hostess came bursting in to say: + +"The provost guard has come to take your name. I don't know it, for when +you were brought here my son only heard you called lieutenant." + +"My name is John Sprague"--Jack lifted himself to his elbow in +excitement and disregard of everything--"and my regiment is the--ah!" He +fell back, and the frightened dame hurried to him as she saw his changed +look and deadly pallor. + +"Oh, how careless of me; how unthinking! There, lie perfectly still. I +will send the guard away and come back." + +She was gone before he could recover his speech or enough coherence to +say what was in his mind. She informed the orderly that the ailing man +was John Sprague, a lieutenant in the First Virginia Volunteers, for +that was the regiment the hospital guards had named, when, on the night +of the arrival, the eager citizens swarmed at the station to take the +wounded to their homes, the hospitals being sadly unready. Jack +instantly suspected the situation, the conversation in the ambulance +coming back to him now distinctly. What should he do? He was in honor +bound to undeceive the kind-hearted and unwitting accomplice of the +fraud practiced on herself as well as on him. She came in presently with +an officer. Jack was not familiar with the rebel insignia, and could not +discover his rank or service, but he expected to hear himself denounced +as a spy or anything odious. + +"Our surgeon has been sent to Manassas, and Dr. Van Ness is come to take +care of you in his place," the matron said, as Jack stared silent and +quavering at the new-comer. That gentleman examined the patient, shook +his head dubiously and declared high fever at work, and ordered absolute +quiet for at least twenty-four hours, when, if he could, he would +return. "Continue the prescriptions you have now, Mrs. Raines. All he +needs is quiet. The hospital steward will come to dress his wounds +as usual." + +Mrs. Raines came in with tea and toast in the evening, and as she spread +the napkin on the bed she prattled cheerily. + +"I'm so happy to-night. I've just received a letter from my son. He's at +Manassas. He's been promoted to lieutenant from sergeant. It was read at +the head of the regiment--for gallant service at the Henry House, where +he captured part of a company of Yankees with a squad of cavalry. He's +only twenty-two, and if he lives he may be a general--if those cowardly +Yankees will only fight long enough. But I'm afraid they won't. _The +Whig_ says this morning that that beast Lincoln has to keep himself +guarded by a regiment of negroes, as the Northern people want to kill +him. I hope they won't, for if they did then they might put some one in +his place that has some sense, and then the war would come to an end and +we should be cheated in a settlement, for the Yankees are sharper than +our big-hearted, generous men. No, sir, no; you mustn't talk. I've +promised to keep you quiet, so lie still. I'll read _The Whig_ to you." + +She ran over the meager dispatches made up of hearsay and +speculation--how the North had fallen into a rage with the Washington +authorities; how Lincoln's life wasn't safe; how the Cabinet had all +resigned; how the Democrats had arisen in Congress and in the State +Legislatures and demanded negotiations with "President Davis"; how +England was drawing up a treaty with the new Confederacy. Then she +turned to the local page. She ran over a dozen paragraphs recounting the +deeds of well-known Richmond heroes, but these made no impression upon +the listener, until she read: + +"Major Vincent Atterbury, whose gallantry at the battle of the 21st +Richmond is a subject of pride to his friends, was transferred to his +country home, on the James, yesterday. He is still very low, but the +surgeons declare that home quiet and careful nursing will restore him to +his duties in time for the autumn campaign--if the Yankees do not +surrender before that time." + +Jack's eyes were so bright when Mrs. Raines looked at him, as she +lowered the sheet, that she arose, exclaiming quickly: + +"There, I have brought the fever back! Your eyes are glittering and your +cheeks are flushed. No, do not speak." + +She moved precipitately from the room, and Jack sank back with a groan. +His danger, if not his difficulties, might be overcome now. He would +write to Mrs. Atterbury, and through Vincent arrange for an exchange. +But a still deeper trouble had been on his mind. Where were Barney and +Nick, and, worse than all, young Dick Perley? If any mishap had befallen +that boy, he would shrink from returning to Acredale. And his mother, +what must her state of mind be? How many days had passed since the +battle? He had no means of knowing. Ah, yes! The paper was there on the +stand, where Mrs. Raines had thrown it. He raised himself slowly and +seized it. Heavens! Saturday, August 4th? Two weeks since that fatal +Sunday! And his mother? Oh, he must find means to write, to telegraph. +"Mrs. Raines," he called, hoarsely, "Mrs. Raines!" She came running to +his side in alarm. + +"Oh, what has happened? You are worse!" + +"I am very comfortable; but, my kind friend, I must--I must let my +mother know that I am alive; she will think me dead." + +"That's what I meant to ask you--just as soon as you seemed able to +talk. I would have gladly sent her word and invited her to come here, +but I didn't know the name nor the address. You didn't have a stitch of +clothes when you came except your underwear; the rest had been taken +off, the men said, because they were soiled and bloody, and there wasn't +a clew of any sort to your identity, except that you were a lieutenant +in a Virginia regiment. I thought we should find out when the provost +came, but they have sent to Manassas, and no answer has come back yet." + +"The men who brought me here deceived you, Mrs. Raines. I do not belong +to a Virginia regiment; I belong to a New York regiment, and I am +a--a--Union soldier." + +"Great Father! A Yankee?" The poor woman sank on the nearest chair, as +some one who has been nursing a patient that suddenly turns out to have +small-pox or leprosy. + +"Yes, Mrs. Raines: if you prefer that name, I'm a Yankee--but we call +only New-Englanders Yankees." He waited for her to speak, but as she sat +dumb, helpless, overcome, he continued: "I tried to explain the mistake +before, but your kindness cut me off. I can only say that, though you +have given me a mother's care and a Christian's consideration under a +misunderstanding, I trust you will not blame me for willful deception +nor regret the goodness you have shown the stranger in your hands." + +"And those men that brought you here--were they Yankees, too?" she +asked, her mind dwelling, womanlike, on the least essential factor of +the problem in order to keep the grievous fact as far away as possible. + +"Oh, no! they were your own people. There was no collusion, I assure +you." Jack almost laughed now, as the dialogue in the ambulance recurred +to him, and the adroit use the men had made of their unconscious charges +to secure a furlough. "No; I was more amazed than I can say when I came +to myself in this charming chamber--a paradise it seemed to me, a home +paradise--when your kind face bent over my pillow." + +"It's a cruel disappointment," she said, rising and holding the back of +the chair as she tilted it toward the bed. "We were so proud of you--so +proud to have any one that had fought for our dear State in our own +house to nurse, to bring back to life. Every one on the street has some +one from the battle, and oh, what will be said of us when people know +that we--we--" But here the cruelty of the conclusion came too sharply +to her mind, and she walked to the window, sobbing softly. + +"I can understand, believe me, Mrs. Raines, and I am going to propose a +means to you whereby I shall be taken from here, and your neighbors +shall never know that you entertained an enemy unawares, though God +knows I don't see why we should be enemies when the battle is over. If +your son were in my condition I should think very hard of my mother if +she were not to him what you have been to me." + +"But I can't believe you're a Yankee; you were so gentle, so patient in +all the dreadful times when the surgeon was cutting and hacking. Oh, I +can't believe it! Oh, please say you are joking--that you wanted to give +me a fright. And you have a mother?" She came over near the bed again +and stood looking at him dismally, half in doubt, half in perplexed +wonder; for Yankee, in her mind, suggested some such monster as the +Greeks conjured when the Goths poured into the peninsula, maiming the +men and debauching the women. "I said Sprague wasn't a Virginia name," +she murmered, plaintively, in a last desperate attempt to fortify +herself against the worst; "but there's no telling what names are in +Virginia now, since Norfolk has grown so big and folks come in that way +from all over the world." + +Jack could scarcely keep a serious face, as this humorous lament +displayed the pride of the Dominion and the unconscious Boeotianism of +the provincial. + +"Now, Mrs. Raines, here is what I propose: Major Atterbury, of whom you +read to me, is my nearest friend. We have been college comrades; he has +passed weeks at my home, and I have been asked to his, and meant to come +this autumn vacation, if the war had not broken out. I will write to his +mother, and she will have me removed to her house, and it need never be +known that you gave aid and comfort to the enemy." + +"But the Atterburys will never receive you. They were the first to favor +secession, when all the rest of us opposed it. To tell you the truth, +Mr. Sprague, it is partly because we were abused a good deal for holding +back when the secession excitement was first started, that I am so--so +anxious about the story getting out that we entertained a Yankee +prisoner. My husband is in the service of the government in Norfolk, and +my son is in the army. But you know what neighborhood gossip is." + +So, after a friendly talk in which the poor lady cried a great deal and +besought Jack's good-will for her darling William, if ever he were +luckless enough to be captured, the note was written and dispatched to +the Atterburys, whose city house was near the capital square. The +messenger returned a half-hour later, reporting the family out of town; +that they had taken the major to their country-place near Williamsburg, +on the banks of the James. The messenger had given the letter to the +housekeeper, who said that it would go out an hour later with the mail +sent daily to the family. + +"Williamsburg is two hours' ride on the train," Mrs. Raines explained, +"and we sha'n't hear from them until to-morrow." + +Jack said nothing; his mind was on his mother and the misery she must be +enduring. He turned restlessly on his pillow that night, and woke +feverish in the morning. Mrs. Raines now took as much pains to keep +people who called from seeing her hero as she had before put herself out +to display the invalid. Even the doctor, calling about nine o'clock, was +sent away on some pretext, and the poor lady waited with an anxiety, +almost as poignant as Jack's own, for the response to his note. About +noon it came. Mrs. Raines went to the door herself, not daring to trust +the colored girl, who had lavished untold pains on Jack's linen and the +manual part of his care. Jack heard low voices in the hallway, then on +the stairs, and he knew some one had come. + +"Here is Miss Atterbury sent to fetch you, lieutenant," Mrs. Raines +said, now very much relieved, and impressed, too, by the powerful +friends her dangerous _protégé_ was able to summon so promptly by +a line. + +"You are Rosalind?" Jack said, smiling at a pair of the brownest and +most bewitching eyes fixed soberly on him. "I should have known you if I +had met you in the street, although you were a small girl when I saw +you last." + +"You needn't take much credit for that, sir, since Vincent probably had +my portrait in all his coat-pockets and his room frescoed with +them--it's a trick of his. So you needn't pretend that it was family +likeness--I know better. Vincent has all the good looks of the family, +and I have all the good qualities." + +"That's why you've come to console the afflicted?" + +"Yes, duty--you know how disagreeable that is. Vincent declared he would +come himself, if I didn't, and mamma wouldn't hear of your being moved +by servants alone, so I am here. But I give you fair warning that I am a +rebel of the most ferocious sort. You shall ride under the 'bonnie blue +flag' to Rosedale, and you shall salute our flag every morning when it +is hoisted." + +"I am the most docile of men and the easiest of invalids. I will ride +under Captain Kidd's flag and salute the standard of the Grand Turk, to +be near Vincent just now." + +When Rosalind's colored aids had placed him in the big family carriage, +and he had bidden Mrs. Raines farewell, the young lady resumed: "Ah, I +know you! Vincent has told me about your Yankee ways. Not another word, +sir. I'll act as guide, and tell you all we see of note as we go on. +There where your eyes are resting now is the Confederate Hall of +Independence; that modest house on the corner is President Davis's. We +are going to build him another by and by--after we capture Washington +and get our belongings--no--no--you needn't speak. I know what you want +to say. That's Washington's monument, and there is our dear old +Jefferson. Doesn't it quicken even your slow Yankee blood to pass the +walls that heard Jefferson at his greatest, that held Patrick Henry, +that covered Washington? Ah! if you Northern Pharisees were not +money-grubbers and souless to everything but the almighty dollar, you +would join hands with us in creating our new Confederacy. Yes, sir, +you're my prisoner. We shall see that one Yankee is kept out of +mischief--if the war lasts--which is not likely, as your folks are quite +cowed by the victory at Bull Run. Wasn't it a splendid fight? I shall +never forgive Vin for not letting me know it was coming off. Vin, you +know, is on General Early's staff. He knew two days before that there +was to be a fight, for he started from Winchester to keep the railway +clear and lead the troops to the Henry House when they got off the cars. +He was in the thickest of the fight, near Professor Jackson--Stonewall, +they call him now. He--Vin--had three horses killed, and was made a +major on the field by General Joe Johnston. What?----" + +"Please let the carriage stop a moment. I want to absorb that lovely +view." + +He pointed to the James, debouching from the hills over which the +carriage was slowly rolling. The afternoon sun was behind them; but far, +far to the eastward the noble river wound through masses of dark, deep +green until it was lost in a glow of shimmering mirage in the +low horizon. + +"Isn't it lovely? We shall have a nobler capital city than Washington, +with its horrid red streets, its wilderness of bare squares, its +interminable distances--" + +"Carcassonne," Jack murmured. + +"Carcassonne--what's that?" + +"An exquisite bit of verse and a touching story. I----" + +"There, there--stop. You are talking again. You shall read the poem to +me--that is, if it isn't a glorification of the North." + +"No; Carcassonne was a city of the South." + +"Really--you must not talk. I'm not going to open my lips again until we +get to the boat." + +She settled back in her place and took out a book, looking over the top +at him from time to time. The motion of the vehicle, the warmth of the +day, and the odorous breath of flowers and shrubs gradually dulled his +mischievous spirits, and he slept tranquilly until the carriage drew up +at the wharf at Harrison's Landing, whence, taken on a primitive ferry, +they in an hour or more arrived at a long wooden pier extending into the +river. It was nearly six o'clock when the carriage entered a solemn +aisle of pines ending in a labyrinth of oleanders and the tropic-like +plants of the South. Then an old-fashioned porticoed mansion came into +view, and on signal from the driver a _posse_ of colored servants came +trooping out noisily to carry the invalid in. Mrs. Atterbury was on the +veranda, and stepped down to the carriage to welcome the guest. She +greeted him with the affectionate cordiality of a mother, and asked: + +"How have you borne the fatigue? I hope Rosa hasn't let you talk?" + +"If I may speak now it will be to bear testimony that I have been made a +mummy since noon. I haven't been permitted to ask the local habitation +or name of the scenic delights that have made the journey a panorama of +beauty and my guide a tyrant, to whom, by comparison, Caligula was a +tender master!" + +"Since you slept most of the way you must have dreamed the beauty, as +you certainly have invented the tyrant," Rosa retorted, as the brawny +servants lifted Jack bodily and carried him up the three steps and into +the sitting-room. + +"Your quarters are next to my son's, if you think you can endure the +constant outbreaks of that locality. We are with him in all but his +sleeping hours, so you will do well to reflect before you decide." + +"Oh, I shall insist on being near Vincent. He's too badly hurt to +overcome me in case we are tempted to fight our battles over again." + +"But he has allies here, sir, and you must remember that you are a +prisoner of war," Rosa cried from the landing above, _en route_ to +minister to her hero before the Yankee invaded him. Vincent was propped +up in the bed with a mass of pillows, and the two friends embraced in +college-boy fashion, too much moved for a moment to begin the flood of +questions each was eager to ask and answer. + +"Before I say a word of anything else, Vint, I want you to do me a great +service. It is two weeks since the battle. I am sure my mother can not +have any certain information about me. Can you manage any way to get a +letter or telegram sent her?" + +"Of course I can. Nothing easier. Write your telegram. I will send it +under cover to General Early. He will forward it by flag of truce to +Washington, and it will be sent North from there." + +But Jack's letter was never sent, for when the post came from Richmond +the next day, Vincent read in the morning paper a surprising +personal item: + +"'Among the distinguished arrivals in the city within the week, we have +just learned of the presence of Mrs. Sprague, wife of the famous +Senator, a contemporary with Clay and Webster. Mrs. Sprague has come to +Richmond in search of her son, who was captured or killed on the field +near the Henry House. She comes with her daughter under a safeguard from +General Johnston, who knew the family when he was at West Point. Mrs. +Sprague is stopping with Mrs. Bevan, on Vernon Street, and is under the +escort of Private William Bevan of the general headquarters.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +UNDER TWO FLAGS. + + +That modest paragraph in the morning paper wrought amazing results in +the fortunes of many of the people we are interested in. A regiment of +cavalry encamped near the outskirts of the city on the line of the +Virginia Central had broken camp early in the morning to march +northward. One company detailed to bring up the rear was still loitering +near the station when the newspapers were thrown off the train and +eagerly seized by the men, who bestrewed themselves in groups to hear +the news read aloud. + +"Here, you Towhead, you're company clerk; you read so that we can all +hear." + +In response to this a stripling, in the most extraordinary costume, came +out from the impedimenta of the company with a springy step and +consequential air. You wouldn't have recognized the scapegrace, Dick +Perley, in the carnival figure that came forward, for his curling blond +hair was closely cropped, his face was smeared with the soilure of pots +and pans, and it was evident that the eager warrior had exchanged the +weapons of war for the utensils of the company kitchen. He read in a +high, clear treble the telegraphic dispatches, the sanguinary editorial +ratiocinations, Orphic in their prophetic sententiousness, and then +turned to the local columns. + +Any one listening to the lad would never have suspected that he was not +a Southron. He prolonged the _a's_ and _o's_, as the Southern trick is, +and imitated to such perfection the pleasant localisms of Virginian +pronunciation, that keener critics of speech and accent than these +galliard troops would have been deceived. But suddenly his voice breaks, +he falls into the clear, distinct enunciation of New York--the only +speech in the Union that betrays no sign of locality. He is reading the +lines about the distinguished arrivals. Fortunately at the instant there +is a blast from the bugles--"Fall in!"--and the men rush to their +horses. In twenty minutes the company is clattering out on the +Mechanicsville road, and at noon, when the squadron halted for dinner, +the company cook had to rely on the clumsy ministrations of his colored +aides. "Towhead" had disappeared. + +Olympia, after a night of anguish, began the new day with a heavy burden +on her mind. Mrs. Sprague was delirious. The physician summoned during +the night shook his head gravely. She was suffering from overexertion, +heat, and anxiety. He was unable to do more than mitigate her +sufferings. He recommended country air and absolute repose. Merry, too, +though holding up bravely, gave signs of breaking down. The two +women--Olympia and Merry--under the escort of young Bevan, had gone +through the prisons, the dreadful Castle Winder, and through the +hospitals, with hope dying at every new disappointment. They came across +many of the Caribees, and saw a member of Congress, caught on the +battle-field, who knew the regiment well. + +Jack had been traced to Porter's lines, then far to the left, where Nick +had been told to wait. Nick was among the sweltering mass at Castle +Winder, but he could trace the missing no farther. He told of Jack's +persistent valor to the last, and the dreadful moment, when he, Jack, +had been separated. Dick he had not seen at all. Olympia made +intercession for Nick's release, but was informed that nothing could be +done until a cartel of exchange had been arranged. The Yankee +authorities had in the first five months of the war refused to make any +arrangement, while the Union forces were capturing the Confederate +armies in West Virginia and Missouri. Now that the Confederates held an +equal number, they were going to retaliate upon the overconfident North. +Olympia placed five hundred dollars at Nick's disposal in the hands of +the commandant to supply the lad with better food than the commissary +furnished, and, promising him strenuous aid so soon as she got back to +Washington, she resumed the quest for the lost. She had written out an +advertisement, to be inserted in all the city papers, and was to visit +the offices herself with young Bevan that evening. She had her bonnet +on, and was charging Merry how to minister to the ailing mother, when +the hostess knocked at the door. "A lady is in the parlor who says she +must see Mrs. Sprague immediately." Olympia followed Mrs. Bevan down +tremblingly, far from any anticipation of what was in store for her; +rather in the belief that it was some wretched mother from Acredale who +had learned of their presence and hoped to get aid for an imprisoned +son, husband, or brother. But when she saw the kind, matronly face of +Mrs. Raines beaming with the delight of bearing good news, she sank into +a chair, saying faintly: + +"Did you wish to see me, Mrs.--Mrs.--" + +"You are not Mrs. Sprague?" + +"No; my mother is very ill. I am Mrs. Sprague's daughter. Can I--" + +"Well, Miss Sprague, I think I can cure your mother. I--" + +She arose and walked mysteriously to the door and looked into the +hallway. + +"I know what the disease is your mother is suffering from." + +She couldn't resist prolonging the consequence of her mission. All women +have the dramatic instinct. All love to intensify the unexpected. But +Olympia's listless manner and touching desolation spurred her on. She +put her fingers to her lips warningly, and coming quite near her +whispered, as she had seen people do on the stage: + +"Don't make any disturbance; don't faint. Your brother is alive and +well! There, there--I told you." + +Olympia was hugging the astonished woman, who glanced in terror over her +shoulder to see that feminine curiosity was not dangerously alert. "You +will ruin me," she whispered, "if you don't be calm." Then Olympia +suddenly recovered herself, sobbing behind her handkerchief. "He has +been at my house two weeks. He left yesterday and is now with Major +Atterbury's family on the James River, near Williamsburg. Miss Atterbury +came herself to take him there yesterday morning. I saw your name in +_The Examiner_ only an hour ago, and I came at once to relieve the +distress I knew you must be suffering." + +Then the kind soul told the story, charging the sister never to reveal +the facts. She withdrew very happy and contented, for Olympia had said +many tender things; she almost felt that she had done the Confederacy a +great service, to have laid so many people under an obligation that +might in the future result in something remarkable for the cause. + +Olympia's purpose of breaking the news gradually to the invalid was +frustrated by her tell-tale eyes and buoyant movements. + +"O Olympia, you have seen John!" she screamed, starting up--"where is +he? Oh, where is he? I know you have seen him!" And then there were +subdued laughter and tears, and mamma instantly declared her intention +of flying to the hero. But there was considerable diplomacy still +requisite. Mrs. Raines must not be compromised, and young Bevan must get +transportation for them to the Atterburys. It was past noon when the +carriage came for them. Olympia had come down-stairs to give Mrs. Bevan +final instruction regarding letters and luggage, when a resounding knock +came upon the door. Mrs. Bevan opened it herself, and Olympia, standing +in the hall, heard a well-known voice, quick, eager, joyous: + +"Is Mrs. Sprague, here?" + +"O Richard," Olympia cried, rushing at him--"ah, you darling boy!--Aunt +Merry--Aunt Merry! Come--come quick! He is here." But Aunt Merry at the +head of the stairs had heard the voice, and Dick, tearing himself +ungallantly from the embrace of beauty, was up the stairs in four leaps +and in the arms of the fainting spinster. + +"It is Miss Perley's nephew," Olympia said, joyously, to the amazed lady +of the house, who stood speechless. "We had given up all hope of seeing +him, as his name was not on our army list. He ran away to be with my +brother, and we felt like murderers, as you may imagine, and are almost +as much relieved to find him as our own flesh and blood." + +The subsequent conversation between the matron and the young girl seemed +to put the mistress of the house in excellent humor, and when the +carriage drove off she kissed all the ladies quite as rapturously as if +she had never vowed undying hatred and vengeance upon the Yankee people. +In the carriage the prodigal Dick rattled off the story of his +adventures. He had come to Company K after Jack had been sent out on the +skirmish-line. He had followed in wild despair the direction pointed out +to him. He had lost his way until he met Colonel Sherman's orderlies. +They had told him where the company was halted on the banks of +the stream. + +When he reached the place indicated he learned of Jack's detail to the +extreme right of the army. He dared not set out openly to follow. He ran +back in the bushes, out of sight, and then by a _détour_ struck the +stream far above to the right. The volleys away to the west guided him, +and he tore forward, bruising his flesh and tearing his raiment to +tatters. The stream seemed too deep to cross, for a mile or more, but +finally, finding that the firing seemed to go swiftly to the southward, +he plunged in. The banks on the other side were rugged and precipitous, +and he was obliged to push on in the morass that the stream wound +through. But nature gave out, and on a sunny slope he sat down to rest. +He soon fell into a sound sleep, and when he woke there was noise of men +laughing and shouting about him. He started to his feet. + +"Hello! buster," a voice said near him. "What are you doin' away from +yer mammy? Beckon she'll think the Yanks have got you if you ain't home +for bedtime." + +The man who said this was lying peacefully under a laurel-bush. Others +were sprawled about, feasting on the spoil of Union haversacks. + +"I knew then that I was in a rebel camp," Dick continued, "but I wasn't +afraid, because my clothes were not military; and, even if they had +been, they were so torn and muddy, no one would have thought of them as +a uniform. But, for that matter, a good many of the rebels had blue +trousers; and, as for regimentals, there really were none, as we have +them. I made believe that I lived in the neighborhood, imitated the +Southern twang, and was set to work right away helping the company cook. +The firing was still going on very near us, to the south, west, and +east. But the men didn't seem to mind it much. In about a half-hour +there was a sudden move. + +"A volley was poured into us from the east, and in an instant all the +graybacks were in commotion. I heard the officers shout: 'We are +surrounded! Die at your post, men!' But the men didn't want to die at +their posts, or anywhere else, but made off like frightened rabbits. In +a few minutes we were all marching between two lines of Richardson's +Union brigade. I had no trouble in stepping out, and then I pushed on in +Jack's direction. But I could not find him when I got to Hunter's +headquarters. An orderly remembered seeing him, or rather seeing the men +that brought the good news that Sherman was on the rebel side of the +stone bridge early in the battle. There I found an orderly of +Franklin's, who had seen two men I described, sent off to the right to +picket, until the cavalry could be sent there. I came upon Nick Marsh +near the general's headquarters, and he told me the direction the others +had gone, but urged me to remain with him--as Jack would surely be back +there, horsemen having ridden out in that direction to relieve him. I +don't know how far I went, but it must have been a mile. + +"There I had to lie in the bushes, for two columns of troops were coming +and going, the flying fellows that Sherman had routed near the stone +bridge and the re-enforcements that were tearing up from the Manassas +Railway. The men coming were laughing and singing as they ran. The men +flying were silent, and seemed too frightened to notice the forces +coming to their support. I broke out of the bushes and ran toward the +line of thick trees that seemed to mark the course of the river. As I +came out on a deep sandy road I ran right into troops, halting. There +were great cheering and hurrah; then a cavalcade of civilians came +through the rushing ranks at a gallop. 'Hurrah for President Davis! Hip, +hip, hurrah!' I saw him. He was riding a splendid gray horse, and as the +men broke into shouts he raised his hat and bowed right and left. He was +stopped for a few minutes just in front of where I stood, or, rather, I +ran to where he halted. There were long trains of wounded filing down +the road, and men without guns, knapsacks, or side-arms, breaking +through the bushes on all sides. + +"'They've routed us, Mr. President,' a wounded officer cried, as the +stretcher upon which he was lying passed near Jeff Davis. + +"'What part of the field are you from?' Davis asked, huskily. + +"'Bartow's brigade, stone bridge. They've captured all our guns, and are +pouring down on the fords. You will be in danger Mr. President, if you +continue northward a hundred yards.' + +"Sure enough, there was a mighty cheer, hardly a half-mile to the north +of us, and clouds of dust arose in the air. Davis watched the movement +through his glass, and, turning to a horseman at his side, cried, +exultantly: + +"'The breeze is from the northwest; that dust is going toward the +Warrenton Pike. Johnston has got up in time; we've won the day!' + +"With this he put spurs to his horse, and the squadron halted on the +road set off at a wild gallop. The words of the President were repeated +from man to man, and then a mighty shout broke out. It seemed to clip +the leaves from the trees, as I saw them cut, an hour or two before, by +the swarming volleys of musketry. A horseman suddenly broke from a path +just behind where I was. + +"'Is President Davis here?' he asked, riding close to me, but not +halting. + +"'He has just ridden off yonder.' I pointed toward the cloud of dust +east and north of us. + +"'Split your throats, boys! General Beauregard has just sent me to the +President to welcome him with the news that the Yankees are licked and +flying in all directions! Not a man of them can escape. General +Longstreet is on their rear at Centreville.' + +"There were deafening, crazy shouts; hats, canteens, even muskets, were +flung in the air, and the wounded, lying on the ground, were struck by +some of these things as they fell, in a cloud, about them. The shouts +grew louder and louder, they rose and fell, far, far away right and +left. Everybody embraced everybody else. Men who had been limping and +despondent before broke into wild dances of joy. Everybody wanted to go +toward the field of battle now, but a provost guard filed down the road +presently, and in a few minutes I saw a sight that made tears of rage +and shame blind me. Whole regiments of blue-coats came at a quick-step +through the dusty roadway, the rebel guards prodding them brutally with +their bayonets. The fellows near me, who had been running from the +fight, set up insulting cheers and cat-calls. + +"'Did you'ns leave a lock of your hair with old Mas'r Lincoln?' + +"'Come down to Dixie to marry niggers, have ye?' and scores of taunts +more insulting and obscene. Our men never answered. They were worn and +dusty. They had no weapons, of course, for the first thing the rebels +did was to search every man, take his money, watch, studs, even his coat +and shoes, when they were better than their own. Hundreds of our men +were in their stocking-feet, or, rather, in their bare feet, as they +tramped wearily through the burning sand and twisted roots. I heard one +of the rebels near me, an officer, say that the prisoners were all going +to the junction to take the cars. President Davis had ordered that they +should be marched through the streets of Richmond to show the people of +the capital the extent of the victory. Then the thought flashed into my +head that if our army had been captured, my best chance of finding Jack +would be to follow to Richmond and watch the blue-coats. I easily +slipped among the prisoners, came to the city and saw every man that +went to Castle Winder. But no one that I knew was among them, and I made +up my mind that Jack had escaped. I saw Wesley Boone's father and sister +at the Spottswood House yesterday, but I was too late to catch them, +and, when I asked the clerk at the desk, be said they had taken quarters +in the town--he didn't know where." + +"That's a fact," Olympia exclaimed; "they left Washington before us. I +wonder if they found Wesley?" + +"I don't know," Dick continued, "The officers were brought in a gang by +themselves, and I didn't see them. Well, I hung about the town, visiting +all the places I thought it likely Jack might be, and then I joined a +cavalry company that belonged to Early's brigade, at Manassas. I was +going there with them this morning to get back to our lines and find +Jack, when I saw the paragraph in _The Examiner_, telling of your coming +and whereabouts." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ROSEDALE. + + +"What an intrepid young brave you are, Dick!" Olympia cried, as the +artless narrative came to an end. + +"What a cruel boy, to leave his family and--and--run into such dreadful +danger!" Merry expostulated. + +"What a devoted boy, to risk his life and liberty for our poor Jack!" +Mrs. Sprague said, bending forward to stroke the tow-head. The carriage +passed down the same road that Jack had gone the day before, whistling +sarcasms at his keeper. At Harrison's Landing there was a delay of +several hours, and the impatient party wandered on the shores of the +majestic James--glittering, like a sylvan lake, in its rich border of +woodland. The sun was too hot to permit of the excursion Dick suggested, +and late in the afternoon the wheezy ferry carried them down the +lake-like stream. On every hand there were signs of peace--not a fort, +not a breastwork gave token that this was in a few months to be the +shambles of mighty armies, the anchorage of that new wonder, the iron +battle-ship; the scene of McClellan's miraculous victory at Malvern, of +Grant's slaughtering grapplings with rebellion at bay, of Butler's comic +joustings, and the last desperate onslaughts of Hancock's legions. The +air, tempered by the faint flavor of salt in the water, filled the +travelers with an intoxicating vigor, lent strength to their jaded +forces, which, while tense with expectation, could not wholly resist the +delicious aroma, the lovely outlines of primeval forest, the melody of +strange birds, startled along the shore by the wheezy puffing of the +ferry. There were cries of admiring delight as the carriage ran from the +long wooden pier into the dim arcade of sycamore and pine, through which +the road wound, all the way to Rosedale. Then they emerged into a +gentle, rolling, upland, where cultivated fields spread far into the +horizon, and in the distance a dense grove, which proved to be the park +about the house. The coming of the carriage was a signal to a swarm of +small black urchins to scramble, grinning and delighted, to the wide +lawn. There was no need to sound the great knocker; no need to explain, +when Rosalind, hurrying to the door, saw Olympia emerging from the +vehicle. They had not seen each other in four years, but they were in +each other's arms--laughing, sobbing--exclaiming: + +"How did you know? When did you come?" + +"Jack, Jack! Where is he? How is he?" + +"Jack's able to eat," Rosa cried, darting down to embrace Mrs. Sprague, +and starting with a little cry of wonder as Aunt Merry exclaimed, timidly: + +"We're all here. You've captured the best part of Acredale, though you +haven't got Washington yet." + +"Why, how delightful! We shall think it is Acredale," Rosa cried, +welcoming the blushing lady. "And--I should say, if he were not so much +like--like 'we uns,' that this was my old friend, the naughty Richard," +she said, welcoming the blushing youth cordially. (Dick avowed +afterward, in confidence to Jack, that she would have kissed him if he +hadn't held back, remembering his unkempt condition.) Mamma and Olympia +were shown up to the door of Jack's room, where Rosalind very discreetly +left them, to introduce the other guests to Mrs. Atterbury, attracted to +the place by the unwonted sounds. When presently the visitors were shown +into Vincent's room, Jack called out to them to come and see valor +conquered by love; and, when they entered, mamma was brushing her eyes +furtively, while she still held Jack's unwounded hand under the +counterpane. Master Dick excited the maternal alarm by throwing himself +rapturously on the wounded hero and giving him the kiss he had denied +Rosalind. Indeed, he showered kisses on the abashed hero, whose eyes +were suspiciously sparkling at the evidence of the boy's delight. He +established himself in Jack's room, and no urging, prayer, or reproof +could induce him to quit his hero's sight. + +"I lost him once," he said, doggedly, "and I'm not going to lose him +again. Where he goes, I'm going; where he stays, I'll stay--sha'n't +I, Jack?" + +"You shall, indeed, my dauntless Orestes; you shall share my fortunes, +whatever they be." + +He insisted on a cot in the room, and there, during the convalescence of +his idol, he persisted in sleeping--ruling all who had to do with the +invalid in his own capricious humor, hardly excepting Mrs. Sprague, whom +he tolerated with some impatience. Letters were dispatched northward to +relieve the anxiety of Pliny and Phemie, as well as the Marshes. But it +hung heavily on Jack's heart that no trace of Barney had been found. +Advertisements were sent to the Richmond papers, and he waited in +restless impatience for some sign of the kind lad's well-being. + +"Well, Jack, this isn't much like the pomp and circumstance of glorious +war," Olympia cried, the next morning, coming in from an excursion about +the "plantation," as she insisted on calling the estate, attended by +Merry, Rosa, and Dick. "I never saw such foliage! The roses are as large +as sunflowers, and there are whole fields of them!" + +"Yes; I believe the Atterburys make merchandise of them." + +"But who buys them about here? They seem to grow wild--as fine in form +and color as our hot-house varieties. Surely they are not bought by the +colored people, and there seems to be no one else--no other +inhabitants, I mean." + +"Oh, no; they are shipped North in the season for them; but I don't +think the family has paid much attention to that branch of the business +of late years. Their revenues come from tobacco and cotton. Their +cotton-fields are in South Carolina and along the Atlantic coast." + +"And are these colored people all slaves?" Her voice sank to a whisper, +for Vincent's door was ajar. + +"Yes, every man jack of them. Did you ever see such merry rogues? They +laugh and sing half the night, and sing and work half the day." + +"They don't seem unhappy, that's a fact," Olympia said, reflectively, +"but I should think ownership in flesh and blood would harden people; +and yet the Atterburys are very kind and gentle. I saw tears in Mrs. +Atterbury's eyes, yesterday, when mamma was sitting here with you." + +"Yes," Jack said, unconsciously, "women enjoy crying--" + +"You insufferable braggart, how dare you talk like that? Pray, what do +you know about women's likes and dislikes?" + +"Oh, I beg pardon, Polly; I'm sure I didn't mean anything--I was taking +the minor for the major. All women like babies; babies pass most of +their time crying; therefore women like crying." + +"Well, if that is the sum of your college training, it is a good thing +the war came--" + +"What about the war? No treason in Rosedale, remember!" Vincent shouted +from the next room. "You pledged me that when you talked war you would +talk in open assembly." The voice neared the open doorway as he spoke. +The servant had moved the invalid's cot, where Vincent could look in +on Jack. + +"There was really no war talk, Vint, except such war as women always +raise, contention--" + +"I object, Jack, to your generalization," Olympia retorted. "It is a +habit of boyishness and immaturity.--He said a moment ago" (she turned +to Vincent) "that women loved crying, and then sneaked out by a very +shallow evasion." + +"I'll leave it to Vint: All women love babies; babies do nothing but +cry; therefore, women love crying; there couldn't be a syllogism more +irrefutable." + +"Unless it be that all women love liars," Vincent ventured, jocosely. + +"How do you prove that?" + +"All men are liars; women love men; therefore--" + +"Oh, pshaw! you have to assume in that premise. I don't in mine. It is +notorious that women love babies, while you have only the spiteful +saying of a very uncertain old prophet for your major--" + +"Whose major?" Rosa asked, appearing suddenly. "I'll have you to know, +sir, that this major is mamma's, and no one else can have, hold, or make +eyes at him." + +"It was the major in logic we were making free with," Jack mumbled, +laughing. "I hope logic isn't a heresy in your new Confederacy, as +religion was in the French Constitution of '93?" + +Rosa looked at Olympia, a little perplexed, and, seating herself on the +cot with Vincent, where she could caress him furtively, said, with +piquant deliberation: + +"I don't know about logic, but we've got everything needed to make us +happy in the Montgomery Constitution." + +"Have you read it?" Jack asked, innocently. + +"How insulting! Of course I have. I read it the very first thing when it +appeared in the newspapers." + +"Catch our Northern women doing that!" Jack interjected, loftily. "There +is my learned sister, she doesn't know the Constitution from Plato's +Dialogues." + +"Indeed, I do not; nor do I know Plato's Dialogues," Olympia returned, +quite at ease in this state of ignorance. + +"Wherein does the Montgomery Constitution differ from the old one?" Jack +asked, looking at Vincent. + +"I'm blessed if I know. I've read neither. I did read the Declaration of +Independence once at a Fourth-of-July barbecue. I always thought that +was the Constitution. Indeed, every fellow about here does! You know in +the South the women do all the thinking for the men. Rosa keeps my +political conscience." + +"Well, then, Lord High Chancellor, tell us the vital articles in the +Montgomery document that have inspired you to arm Mars for the conflict, +plunge millions into strife and thousands into hades, as Socrates would +have said, employing his method?" Jack continued derisively. + +"Our Constitution assures us the eternal right to own our own property." + +"Slaves?" + +"Yes." + +"No one denied you that right, so far as the law went, under the old; it +was only the justice, the humanity, that was questioned. The right would +have endured a hundred years, perhaps forever, if you had kept still--" + +"Come, Jack, I won't listen to politics," Olympia cried, with a warning +look. + +"No, the time for talk is past; it is battle, and God defend the right!" +Rosa said, solemnly. + +"And you may be sure he will," Jack added, softly, as though to himself. + +"But we've got far away from the crying and the babies," Vincent began, +when Jack interrupted, fervently: + +"Thank Heaven!" + +"You monster!" the two girls cried in a breath. + +"No, I can't conceive a sillier paradox than 'A babe in the house is a +well-spring of joy.' A woman must have written it first. Now, my idea of +perfect happiness for a house is to have two wounded warriors like +Vincent and me, tractable, amiable, always ready to join in rational +conversation and make love if necessary, providing we're encouraged." + +"Really, Olympia, your Northern men are not what I fancied," Rosa cried, +with a laugh. + +"What did you fancy them?" + +"Oh, ever so different, from this--this saucy fellow--modest, timid, +shy; needing ever so much encouragement to--to--" + +"Claim their due?" Jack added, slyly. + +"Well, there is one that doesn't require much encouragement to claim +everything that comes in his way," Rosa retorts, and Olympia adds: + +"And to spare my feelings you won't name him now." + +"Exactly," said Rosa. + +"How touching!" exclaimed Vincent. + +"I left all my blood to enrich your soil, or I'd blush," replied Jack. + +"Oh, no; it won't enrich the soil; it will bring out a crop of Johnny +Jump-ups, a weed that we don't relish in the South," retorted Rosa. + +"Ah, Jack, you're hit there!--Rosa, I'm proud of you. This odious Yankee +needs combing down; he ran over us so long at college that he is +conceited in his own impudence," and Vincent exploded in shouts +of laughter. + +"I fear you're not a botanist, Miss Rosa. It's 'Jack in the pulpit' that +will spring from Northern blood, and they'll preach such truths that the +very herbage will bring the lesson of liberty and toleration to you." + +"What is this very serious discussion, my children?" Mrs. Atterbury +said, beaming sweetly upon the group. "I couldn't imagine what had +started Vincent in such boisterous laughter; and now, that I come, Mr. +Jack is as serious as we were at school when Madame Clarice told us of +our sins." + +"Jack was telling his, mamma, and that is still more serious than to +hear one's own," Vincent said, grinning at the moralist. + +"But, to be serious a moment, I have written to my old friend General +Robert Lee, of Arlington, about Miss Perley. I know that he will grant +her permission to take Richard home with her, and the question now is +whether it is safe to let them go together alone?" Mrs. Atterbury +addressed the question to Olympia, making no account of Jack. + +"Oh, let us leave the decision until you get General Lee's answer. If +they get the message in Acredale that Dick is safe and sound, I don't +see why they need go back before we do. I shall be able to travel in a +few weeks. If the roads were not so rickety I wouldn't be afraid to set +out now," Jack answered. + +"Impossible! You can't leave for a month yet, if then," Vincent +proclaimed, authoritatively. "I know what gunshot wounds are: you think +they are healed, and begin fooling about, when you find yourself laid up +worse than ever. There's no hurry. The campaign can't begin before +October. I'm as anxious to be back as you are, but I don't mean to stir +before October. Perhaps you think it will be dull here? Just wait until +you are strong enough to knock about a bit; we shall have royal rides. +We'll go to Williamsburg and see the oldest college in the country. +We'll go down the James, and you shall see some of the richest lands in +the world. We'll get a lot of fellows out from Richmond and have our +regular barbecue in September. We wind up the season here every year +with a grand dance, and Olympia shall lead the Queen Anne minuet with +mamma's kinsman, General Lee, who is the President's chief of staff." + +"This doesn't sound much like soldiering," Jack said, dreamily. + +"No. When in the field, let us fight; when at home, let us be merry." + +"A very proper sentiment, young men. We want you to be very merry, for +you must remember the time comes when we can't be anything but sad--when +you are away and the night of doubt settles upon our weak women's +hearts." It was Mrs. Atterbury who spoke, and the sentence seemed to +bring silence upon the group. + +Meanwhile, all the inquiries set on foot through the agency of the +Atterburys failed to bring any tidings of Barney Moore. It suddenly +occurred to Jack that the poor fellow was masquerading as a rebel in the +bosom of some eager patriot like Mrs. Raines and he reluctantly +consented to let Dick go to Richmond to investigate. Perhaps Mrs. Raines +might know where the wounded men were taken that had come with him. Some +of the stragglers could at least be found. The advertisement asking +information concerning a wounded man arriving in Richmond with himself +was kept in all the journals. But Merry wouldn't consent to let Dick go +on the dangerous quest without her. She would never dare face her +sisters if any mishap came to the lad, and though Vincent put him under +the care of an experienced overseer, and ordered the town-house to be +opened for his entertainment, the timorous aunt was immovable. + +"You must go and call on the President, Miss Merry. He receives +Thursdays at the State House. Then you'll see a really great man in +authority, not the backwoods clowns that have brought this country into +ridicule--such a man as Virginia used to give the people for President," +Rosa said in the tone a lady of Louis XVIII's court might have used to +an adherent of the Bonapartes. + +"Ah, Rosa, we saw a gentle, tender-hearted man in Washington--the very +ideal of a people's father. No one else can ever be President to me +while he lives," Olympia said, seriously. + +"Lincoln?" Rosa asked, a little disdainfully. + +"Yes, Abraham Lincoln. We have all misunderstood him. Oh if you could +have seen him as I saw him--so patient, so considerate: the sorrows of +the nation in his heart and its burdens on his shoulders; but confident, +calm, serene, with the benignant humility of a man sent by God," Olympia +added almost reverently. "It was he who came to our aid and ordered the +rules to be broken that our mother might seek Jack." + +Rosa was about to retort, but a warning glance from Vincent checked her, +and she said nothing. + +"I say, Dick, don't try to capture Jeff Davis or blow up the Confederate +Congress, or any other of the casual master strokes that may enter your +wild head. Remember that we have given double hostages to the enemy. We +have accepted their hospitality, and we have made ourselves their +guests," Jack said, half seriously, as the young Hotspur wrung his hand +in a tearful embrace. + +"Above all, remember, Mr. Yankee, that you are in a certain sense a +civilian now; you must not compromise us by free speech in Richmond," +Rosa added. + +"Ah, I know very well there's none of that in the South: you folks +object to free speech; they killed poor old Brown for it; that's what +you made war for, to silence free speech," Dick cried hotly, while Merry +pinched his arm in terror. + +Dick began his campaign in the morning with longheaded address. He +visited the prison under ample powers from General Lee--procured though +Vincent's mediation. There were a score of the Caribees in Castle +Winder, and to these the boy came as a good fairy in the tale. For he +distributed money, tobacco, and other things, which enabled the +unfortunates to beguile the tedious hours of confinement. The prisoners +were crowded like cattle in the immense warehouse in squads of a hundred +or more. They had blankets to stretch on the floor for beds, a general +basin to wash in, and for some time amused themselves watching through +the barred windows the crowds outside that flocked to the place to see +the Yankees, and, when not checked by the guards, to revile and +taunt them. + +Dick was enraged to see how contentedly the men bore the irksome +confinement, the meager food, and harsh peremptoriness of the beardless +boys set over them as guards. Most of the prisoners passed the time in +cards, playing for buttons, trinkets, or what not that formed their +scanty possessions. Dick learned that all the commissioned officers of +the company with Wesley Boone had been wounded or killed in the charge +near the stone bridge. Wesley had been with the prisoners at first. He +had been struck on the head, and was in a raging fever when his father +and sister came to the prison to take him away. No one could tell where +he was now, but Dick knew that he must be in the city, since there were +no exchanges, the Confederates allowing no one to leave the lines except +women with the dead, or those who came from the North on +special permits. + +Then he visited the provost headquarters, and was shown the complete +list of names recorded in the books there; but Barney's was not among +them. At the Spottswood Hotel, the day after his coming, he met Elisha +Boone, haggard, depressed, almost despairing. Dick had no love for the +hard-headed plutocrat, but he couldn't resist making himself known. + +"How d'ye do, Mr. Boone? I hope Wesley is coming on well, sir." + +Boone brought his wandering eyes down to the stripling in dull +amazement. + +"Why, where on earth do you come from? How is it you are free and +allowed in the streets?" + +"Oh, I am a privileged person, sir. I am looking up Company K. You +haven't heard anything of young Moore, Barney, who lives on the Callao +road south of Acredale?" + +"No, my mind has been taken up with my son"; his voice grew softer. "He +is in a very bad way, and the worst is there is no decent doctor to be +got here for love or money; all the capable ones are in the army, and +those that are here refuse to take any interest in a Yankee." + +The father's grief and the unhappy situation of his whilom enemy touched +the lad; forgetting Jack's and Vincent's warning, Dick said, +impulsively: + +"Oh, I can get him a good doctor. We have friends here." He knew, the +moment he had spoken the words, that he had been imprudent--how +imprudent the sudden, suspicious gleam in Boone's eye at once +admonished him. + +"Friends here? Union men have no friends here. There are men here with, +whom I have done business for years, men that owe prosperity to me, but +when I called on them they almost insulted me. If you have friends, you +must have sympathies that they appreciate." + +Dick knew what this meant. To be a Democrat had been, in Acredale, to be +charged with secret leanings to rebellion. He restrained his wrath +manfully, and said, simply: + +"An old college friend of Jack's has been very kind to us." + +"Us? I take it you mean the Spragues. They are stopping with Jeff Davis, +I suppose? It's the least he could do for allies so steadfast." + +"You shouldn't talk that way, sir. Every man in the Caribees, except old +Oswald's gang, is a Democrat, but they are for the country +before party." + +"Yes, yes, it may be so--but, the North don't think that way. Well, I'm +going to Washington to see if I can't get my boy out of this infernal +place, where a man can't even get shaved decently." + +"And Miss Kate, Mr. Boone, where is she?" + +"She is nursing Wesley, poor girl. She is having a harder trial than any +of us; for these devilish women fairly push into the sick-room to abuse +the North and berate the soldiers that fought at Manassas." + +"I should like to call on Wesley--if you don't mind," Dick said, +hesitatingly. + +"I shall be only too glad; and I'll tell you what it is, Richard, if +you'll make use of your friends here, to get Kate and Wesley some +comforts, some consideration, I'll make it worth your while. I'll see +that you do not have to wait long for a commission, and I'll pay you any +reasonable sum so soon as you get back North." + +Dick restrained his anger under this insulting blow, perceiving, even in +the hotness of his wrath, that the other was unconscious of the double +ignominy implied in dealing with soldiers' rewards as personal bribes, +and proffering money for common brotherly offices. It was only when Jack +commended his astuteness, afterward, that Dick realized the adroitness +of his own diplomacy. + +"Thank you, Mr. Boone. I shouldn't care for promotion that I didn't win +in war; and, as for money, I shall have enough when I need it. But any +man in the Caribees shall have my help. Under the flag every man is +a friend." + +"True. Yes; you are quite right. Kate will be very glad to see you." + +They walked along, neither disposed to talk after this narrow shave from +a quarrel. Boone led the way to the northern outskirts of the city, +until they reached a dull-brown frame building, back some distance from +the street. A colored woman, with a flaming turban on her head, opened +the door as she saw them coming up the trim walk lined with shells and +gay with poppies, bergamot, asters, and heliotrope. + +"This woman is a slave. She belongs to the proprietor of the hotel who +refused to receive Wesley. It was a great concession to let him come +here, they told me. But the poor boy might as well be in a Michigan +logging camp, for all the care he can get. But I'm mighty glad I met +you. I know you can help Kate while I am gone. I hated to leave her, but +I can do nothing here, and unless Wesley is removed he will never leave +this cussed town alive. I sha'n't be gone more than ten days." + +Kate had been called by the turbaned mistress, and came into the room +with a little shriek of pleasure. + +"O, Richard, what a delightful surprise! Have you seen your aunt? Ah! I +am so glad; she must be so relieved! And Mr. Sprague--have they +found him?" + +Dick retailed as much of the story as he thought safe, but he had to say +that the Spragues were all with the Atterburys in the country. + +"How providential! Ah, if our poor Wesley could find some such friends! +He is very low. He recognizes no one. Unless papa can get leave to take +him North--I am afraid of the worst. Indeed, I doubt whether he could +stand so long a journey. You must stay the day with us. I am so lonely, +and I dread being more lonely still when papa leaves this evening." + +Dick remained until late in the afternoon, sending word to Merry, who +came promptly to the aid of the afflicted. The next day Dick left his +aunt at the cottage with Kate, and warning them that he should be gone +all day, and perhaps not see them until the next morning, he set off for +Rosedale, where he told Jack Kate's plight. Vincent heard the story, +too, and when it was ended he said, decisively: + +"Jack, we must send for them. It would never do to have the story told +in Acredale that you had found friends in the South--because you are a +Democrat, and Boone was thrust into negro quarters because he is an +abolitionist." + +It was the very thought on Jack's mind, and straightway the carriage was +made ready, with ample pillows and what not. Dick set out in great +state, filled with the importance of his mission and the glory of Jack's +cordial praises. He was to stop on the way through town and carry the +Atterbury's family physician to direct the removal. When he appeared +before Kate, with Mrs. Atterbury's commands that she and her brother +should make Rosedale their home until the invalid could be removed +North, the poor girl broke down in the sudden sense of relief--the +certainty of salvation to the slowly dying brother. The physician spent +many hours redressing the wounds. Gangrene had begun to eat away the +flesh of the head above the temple, and poor Wesley was unrecognizable. +He was quite unconscious of the burning bromine and the clipping of +flesh that the skillful hand of the practitioner carried on. When the +little group started on the long journey, the invalid looked more like +himself than he had since Kate found him. The drive lasted many hours. +Wesley was stretched in an ambulance, Kate sitting on the seat with the +driver, the physician and Dick following in the carriage. Merry went +back to the city house, where her nephew was to return as soon as Wesley +had been delivered at Rosedale. Her charge placed in the hands of the +kind hostess, Mrs. Atterbury, Kate broke down. She had borne up while +her head and heart alone stood between her brother and death; but now, +relieved of the strain, she fell into an alarming fever. A Williamsburg +veteran, who had practiced in that ancient college town, since the early +days of the century, took the Richmond surgeon's place, and the gay +summer house became, for the time, a hospital. + +Meanwhile the rebel provost-marshal had simplified Dick's task a good +deal. An order was issued that all houses where wounded or ailing men +were lying should signalize the fact by a yellow flag or ribbon, +attached to the front in a conspicuous place. Thus directed, Dick walked +street after street, asking to see the wounded; and the fourth day, +coming to a residence, rather handsomer than the others on the street, +not two blocks from Mrs. Raines, Jack's Samaritan, he found a wasted +figure, with bandaged head and unmeaning eyes, that he recognized +as Barney. + +"We haven't been able to get any clew as to his name or regiment. The +guards at the station said he belonged to the Twelfth Virginia, but none +of the members of that body in the city recognize him. You know him?" + +"Yes. He is of my regiment," Dick said, neglecting to mention the +regiment. "I will send word to his friends at once and have +him removed." + +"Oh, we are proud and happy to have him here. Our only anxiety was lest +he should die and his family remain in ignorance. But, now that you +identify him, we hope that we may be permitted to keep him until his +recovery." + +It was a stately matron who spoke with such a manner, as Dick thought, +must be the mark of nobility in other lands. He learned, with surprise, +that the Atterbury physician was ministering to Barney, though there was +nothing strange in that, since the doctor was the favorite practitioner +of the well-to-do in the city. That night he wrote to Jack, asking +instructions, and the next day received a note, written by Olympia, +advising that Barney be left with his present hosts until he recovered +consciousness; that by that time Vincent would be able to come up to +town and explain matters to the deluded family. The better to carry out +this plan, Dick was bidden to return to Rosedale, and thus, six weeks +after the battle and dispersion, all our Acredale personages, by the +strange chances of war, were assembled within sight of the rebel +capital, and, though in the hands of friends, as absolutely cut off from +their home and duties as if they had been captured in a combat with +the Indians. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A MASQUE IN ARCADY. + + +In the latter days of September, the life at Rosedale was but a faint +reminder of the hospital it had seemed in August. The young men were +able to take part in all the simple gayeties devised by Rosa to make the +time pass agreeably. Wesley was still subject to dizziness if exposed to +the sun, but Jack and Vincent were robust as lumbermen. Mrs. Sprague and +Merry sighed wearily in the seclusion of their chambers for the Northern +homeside, but they banished all signs of discontent before their +warm-hearted hosts. There was as yet no exchange arranged between the +hostile Cabinets of Richmond and Washington. Even Boone's potent +influence among the magnates of his party had not served him to effect +Wesley's release nor enabled him to return to watch over the boy's +fortunes. There was no one at Rosedale sorry for the latter calamity +outside of Wesley and Kate. I believe even she was secretly not +heart-broken, for she knew that her father would be antipathetic to the +outspoken ladies of Rosedale. + +There had been an almost total suspension of military movements East and +West. Both sides were straining every resource to bring drilled armies +into the field, when the decisive blow fell. In his drives and walks +about the James and Williamsburg, Jack saw that the country was stripped +of the white male population. The negroes carried on all the domestic +concerns of the land. In these excursions, too, he marked, with a keen +military instinct, the points of defense General Magruder, who commanded +the department, had left untouched. He wondered if the Union arms would +ever get as far down as this. If they did, and he were of the force, he +would like to have a cavalry regiment to lead! Vincent was to rejoin his +command at Manassas in October. Jack looked forward to the event with +the most dismal discontent. To be tied up here, far from his companions; +to seem to enjoy ease, when his regiment was indurating itself by +drills, marches, and the rough life of the soldier for the great work it +was to do, maddened him. + +"I give you fair warning, Vint, if an exchange isn't arranged before you +leave here, I shall cut stick: the best way I can." + +"Good! How will you manage? It's a long pull between here and our front +at Manassas. How will you work it? Just as soon as you quit the shelter +of Rosedale, you are a suspect. Even the negroes will halt you. If you +should make for Fortress Monroe, you have all of Magruder's army to get +through. You would surely be caught in the act, and then I could do +nothing for you. You would be sent to Castle Winder, and that isn't a +very comfortable billet." + +Some hint of Jack's discontent, or rather of his vague dream of flight, +came into Dick's busy head, and when one day they were tramping down by +the James together, he said, owlishly: + +"I say, Jack, when Vincent goes, let us clear out!" + +"I say yes, with all my heart, but how can it be done? We are more than +forty miles from the nearest Union lines. Whole armies are between us. +Any white man found on the highway is questioned, and if he can't give a +clear account of himself is sent to the provost prison. You remember the +other day, when we left the rest to go through the swamp road near +Williamsburg, we were hailed by a patrol, and if Vincent hadn't been +within reach we would have been sent to the provost prison. Even the +negroes act as guards." + +"Don't be too sure of that. I've been talking to some of them. They are +'fraid as sin of the overseers, but you notice they shut up all the +negroes in their own quarters at night, don't you? If they were all +right, why should they do that?" + +"Good heavens! you haven't been trying to make an uprising among the +Rosedale servants, Dick? Don't you know that no end of ours could +justify that? These people have been like brothers--like our own family +to us. It would be infamous--infamous without power in the language for +comparison--if we should requite their humanity by stirring up servile +strife. I should be the first to take arms against the slaves in such +revolt, and give my life rather than be instrumental in bringing misery +upon the Atterburys." + +"Oh, keep your powder dry, Jack! I never dreamed of stirring 'em up. +What I mean is, that they are all restless and uneasy. They have an idea +that 'Massa Linculm' is coming down with a big army to set them free. +Many of them want to fly to meet this army. Many, too, would almost +rather die than leave their mistress. None of them--but the very bad +ones--could be induced under any circumstances to lift their hands +against the family or its property." + +"I should hope not--at least through our instrumentality. The time must +come when they will leave the family, for the one call only and in one +way; that is, by cutting out slavery root and branch. However, that's +for the politicians to manage; all we have to do is to stand by the +colors and fight." + +"I don't see much chance of standing by the colors here," Dick retorted, +wrathfully. "If you'll give me the word, I'll arrange a plan, and, as +soon as Vincent goes--we'll be off." + +"I'm not your master, you young hornet; I can't see what you're doing +all the time. All I can do is to approve or reject such doings of yours +as you bring me to decide on." + +Dick's eyes sparkled. "All right, I'll keep you posted, never fear." + +They were a very jovial group that prattled about the long Rosedale +dining-table daily now, since every one was able to come down. The house +was furnished in the easy unpretentiousness that prevailed in the South +in other days. Cool matting covered all the floors, the hallways, and +bedchambers. The dining-room opened into a drawing-room, where Kate and +Olympia took turns at the big piano. The day was divided, English +fashion, into breakfast, luncheon, dinner, and supper, the latter as +late as nine o'clock in the night. Jack being unprovided with +regimentals, Vincent wore civilian garb, to spare the "prisoner" (as +Jack jocosely called himself) mortification. Gray was the "only wear" +obtainable in Richmond, Mrs. Atterbury enjoying with gentle malice the +rueful perplexities of her prisoner guests, Jack, Wesley, and Richard, +as they surrounded the board in this rebel attire. + +"I shall feel as uncertain of myself when I get back to blue, as I do in +chess, after I have played a long while with the black, changing to +white. I manoeuvre for some time for the discarded color," Jack said, +one evening. + +"Oh, you'll hardly forget in this case," Rosa said, saucily; "it is for +the blacks you are manoeuvring constantly." + +Jack looked up, startled, and glanced swiftly at Dick. Had that +headstrong young marplot been detected in treason with the colored +people? No. Dick met his glance clear-eyed, unconstrained. The shot must +have been a random one. + +"I think you do us injustice, Miss Rosa," Wesley said. "I, for one, am +not interested in the blacks. All I want is the Union; after that I +don't care a rush!" + +"I protest against politics," Mrs. Atterbury intervened, gently. "When I +was a girl the young people found much more interesting subjects than +politics." + +Rosa: "Crops, mamma?" + +Vincent: "A mistress's eyebrow?" + +Dick: "Some other fellow's sister?" + +Olympia: "Some other girl's brother?" + +Mrs. Sprague: "Giddy girls?" + +Merry: "Bad boys?" + +"Well, something about all of these," Mrs. Atterbury resumed, laughing. +"I don't think young people in these times are as attached to each other +as we used to be in our day--do you, Mrs. Sprague?" + +"I don't know how it is with you in the South; but we no longer have +young people in the North. Our children bring us up now--we do not +bring them up." + +"That accounts for the higher average of intelligence among parents +noted in the last census," Olympia interrupts her mother to say. + +"There, do you see?" Mrs. Sprague continues, with a smile, and in a tone +that has none of the asperity the words might imply. "No reverence, no +waiting for the elders, as we were taught." + +"It depends a good deal, does it not, whether the elders are lovers?" +Vincent asked, innocently. + +"Oh, don't look at me, Mrs. Sprague, for support or sympathy. Vincent is +your handiwork; he was formed in the North. He is one of your new school +of youth; he is Southern only in loyalty to his State. For a time I had +painful apprehensions that that, too, had been educated away." + +"It was his reason that kept him faithful there," Rosa ventured, and +catches Vincent dropping his eyes in confusion from the demure glances +of Olympia. + +"Oh, no; pride. A Virginian is like a Roman, he is prouder to be a +citizen in the Dominion than a king in another country," Mrs. Atterbury +says, with stately decision. "No matter where his heart may be," and she +glanced casually at Olympia, "his duty is to his State." + +"Politics, mamma, politics; remember your young days. Talk of kings, +courts, romance, madrigals--but leave out politics," Rosa cried, +remonstratingly. + +"Let's turn to political economy. How do you propose disposing of your +tobacco and cotton this year?" Jack asked, gravely. + +"We are under contract to deliver ten thousand bales at Wilmington to +our agent," Vincent replied. "As for tobacco, we expect to sell all we +can raise to the Yankee generals. We have already begun negotiations +with some of your commanders who are too good Yankees to miss the +main chance." + +"You're not in earnest?" Jack cried, aghast. + +"As earnest as a maid with her first love." + +"But who--who--is the miscreant that degrades his cause by such +traffic?" + +"Oh, if you wait until you learn from me, you'll never be a dangerous +accuser. I learn in letters from friends in the West that all the cotton +crop has been contracted for by men either in the Northern army or high +in the confidence of the Administration. You see, Jack, we are not the +Arcadian simpletons you think us. This war is to be paid for out of +Northern pockets, any way you look at it. We've got cotton and tobacco, +you must have both; you've got money, we must have that. What we don't +sell to you we'll send to England." + +All at the table had listened absorbedly to this strange revelation, and +Jack rose from the table shocked and discouraged. + +Olympia seated herself at the piano, and, slipping out, as he supposed, +unseen, Jack strolled off into the fragrant alleys of oleander and +laurel. Dick, however, was at his heels. The two continued on in +silence, Dick trolling along, switching the bugs from the pink blossoms +that filled the air with an enervating odor. + +"I say. Jack, I've found out something." + +"What have you found out, you young conspirator?" + +"Wesley Boone's trying to get the negroes to help him off." + +"The devil he is!" + +"Yes. Last night I was down in the rose-fields. Young Clem, Aunt +Penelope's boy, was sitting under a bush talking with a crony. I heard +him say, 'De cap'n'll take you, too, ef you doan say noffin'. He guv +Pompey ten gold dollars.' + +"'De Lor'! Will he take ev'ybody 'long, too, Clem?' + +"'Good Lor', no! He's goin' to get his army, and den he'll come an' +fetch all de niggahs.' + +"'De Lor'!' + +"Trying to get closer, I made a rustling of the bushes, and the young +imps shot through them like weasles before I could lay hands on them. +Now, what do you think of that?" + +"If it is only to escape, all right; but if it is an attempt to stir up +insurrection, I will stop Wesley myself, rather than let him carry +it out!" + +"Wouldn't it be the best thing to warn Vincent? It would be a dreadful +thing to let him go and leave his poor mother and sister here +unprotected." + +"Let me think it over. I will hit on some plan to keep Wesley from +making an ingrate of himself without bringing danger on our +benefactors." + +Kate was dawdling on the lawn as the two returned to the house. Jack +challenged her to a jaunt. + +"Where shall it be?" she asked, readily, moving toward him. "The garden +of the gods?" + +"The garden of the goddesses, you mean, if it is the rose-field." + +"That's true; a god's garden would be filled with thorns and warlike +blossoms." + +"I don't know; a rose-garden grew the wars of the houses of York and +Lancaster." + +"Do you remember the scene in Shakespeare where Bolingbroke and Gaunt +pluck the roses?" + +"Quite well. There is always something pathetic to me in the fables +historians invent to excuse or palliate, or, perhaps it would be juster +to say, make tolerable, the stained pages of the past. It is brought +doubly nearer and distinct by this miserable war, and the strange fate +that has fallen upon us--to be the guests of a family whose hopes are +fixed upon what would make us miserable if it ever happened." + +"It never will. That's the reason I listen with pity to the childish +vauntings of these kind people. They have, you see, no conception of the +Northern people--no idea of the deep-seated purpose that moves the +States as one man to stifle this monstrous attempt." + +They walked on in silence a few paces, and Kate continued: "I don't know +how you feel, Mr. Sprague, but I am wretched here. I feel like a +traitor, receiving such kindness, treated with such guileless +confidence, and yet my heart is filled with everything they abhor. It is +not so hard for you, because you and Vincent have been close friends. He +has made your house his home, but I certainly feel that Wesley and I +should go elsewhere, now that he is able to be about." + +"Does Wesley feel this--this embarrassment?" + +"Passionately. He said, last night, he felt like a sneak. He would fly +in an instant, if he could see any possible way to our lines." + +"Pray, Miss Boone, tell him to be very circumspect. I know the Southern +nature. When they give you their heart they give entirely. But the least +sign of--of--distrust will turn them into something worse than +indifference. We may see our way out soon. Caution Wesley against any +act--any act"--he emphasized the words--"that may lead these kind people +to think that he doesn't trust them, or that he would take advantage of +servile insurrection to gain his liberty. Of course, they know that we +are all restive here; that we shall be even more impatient when Vincent +goes--but they could not understand any surreptitious movement on our +part, to enable us to get away." + +He hoped that, if she were in Wesley's confidence, she would understand +his meaning. But she gave no sign. She assented with an affirmative +movement of the head, and they walked through the fragrant paths, +plucking a rose now and then that seemed more tempting than its fellows. +At the end of the field of roses a Cherokee hedge grew so thick and high +that it formed a screen and rampart between the house land and a dense +grove of pines which was itself bordered by a stream that here and there +spread out into tiny lakelets. On the larger of these there were rude +"dug-outs," made by the darkies to cut off the long walk from their +quarters to the tobacco and corn fields. + +"Was there ever an Eden more perfect than this delicious place?" Kate +cried, as the flaming sun sent banners of gold, mingled in a rainbow +baldric with the blooming parterres of roses. + +"I don't know much about Eden, and the little I do know doesn't give me +a sympathetic reminiscence of the place; but I agree with you that +Rosedale is about as near a paradise as one can come to on this earth," +Jack qualifiedly replied. + +"And yet we want to fly from it?" + +"Ah, yes; because the tree of our life, the volume of our knowledge, or, +in plain prose, our hearts, are not here, and scenic beauty is a poor +substitute for that. Duty, I am convinced, is the key of the best life. +There are hearts here, noble ones--duties here, inspiring ones. But they +do not satisfy us: they are become a torment to me. I feel like a +soldier brought from duty; a priest fallen into the ways of the flesh." + +"Your rhapsodies are like most fine-sounding things, more to the hope +than the heart," Kate murmured, gazing dreamily into the purple mass of +color hovering changefully over the opaque water at their feet. "You +mean they do not reach your heart; that your soul is far away as to what +is here. I think Vincent and Rosa would not agree that life has any more +or narrower limitations here than we recognize at Acredale." + +"Let us go on the water." He pulled the rude shallop to her feet and +they got in and went on, Jack not heeding her gibe. "These brackish, +threatening deeps remind me of all sorts of weird and uncanny things; +Stygian pools--Lethe--what not mystic and terrifying. See, the tiny +waves that curl before our boat are like thin ink; a thousand roots and +herbs and who knows what mysterious vegetable mixture colors these dark +deeps? I could fancy myself on an uncanny pilgrimage, seeking some +demon delight." + +There was but one oar in the boat, which the negroes used as a scull. +Jack made a poor fist with this, but there was no need of rowing. Kate, +catching a projecting limb from the thick bushes on the margin, sent the +little, wabbling craft onward in noisless, spasmodic plunges. Deep +fringes of wild columbine fell in fluffy sprays from the higher banks as +the boat drifted along the other side. The thickets were musical with +the chattering cat-birds and whip-poor-wills, mingled with a score of +woodland melodists that Jack's limited woodcraft did not enable him to +recognize. + +"Who would think that we are within a half-mile of a completely +appointed country house? We are as isolated here from all vestiges of +civilization as we should be in a Florida everglade," Kate said, as the +little craft swam along in an eddy. + +"It seems to me typical of the people--this curiously wild transition +from blooming, well-kept gardens, to such still and solemn nature. The +place might be called primeval: look at those gnarled roots, like +prodigious serpents; see the shining bark of the larch--I think it is +larch--I should call it 'slippery' elm if it were at Acredale; but see +the fantastic effects of the little lances of sunlight breaking through! +Isn't it the realization of all you ever read in 'Uncle Tom' or 'Dred'?" + +Kate glanced into the weird deeps of foliage, where a bird, fluttering +on the wing, aroused strange echoes. "Ugh!" she said, in a half-whisper, +"I can imagine it the meeting-place of 'Tam o' Shanter's' eldritches +seeing this--but, all the same, do you know it is fascinating beyond +words to me? Should you mind going in a little farther--I should like +the sensation of awe the place suggests, since there can be no +danger--while you are here?" + +He gave her a quick glance, but her eyes were fastened on the dark +recesses beyond. + +"I should be delighted, but I won't insure your gown, nor--nor half +promise that we shall come out alive." + +"Oh, as to that, I'll take the risk." + +"I don't know the habits of Southern snakes; but if they are as +well-bred as ours, they retire from the ken of wicked men at sundown, so +we needn't fear them, as the sun is too far down for the snake of +tradition to see or molest us." + +They stepped out of the boat at a green, sedgy point, extending from a +labyrinth of flowering vines and creepers. Once inside the delicious +odorous screen, they found themselves in an archipelago of green islets, +connected by monster roots or moss-covered trunks that seemed laid by +elfin hands for the penetration of this leafy jungle. + +"Yes; I was going to say," Jack continued, "this swift transposition +from the cultivation of civilization to the handiwork of Nature is +whimsically illustrative of the people. Did you ever see or hear or read +of such open-handed, honest-hearted hospitality as theirs; such +refinement of manners; such sincerity in speech and act? Contrast this +with their fairly pagan creed as to the slaves; their intolerance of the +Northern people; their clannish reverence for family." + +"But isn't the inequality of the Southern character due to their strange +lack of education? Few of them are cultivated as we understand +education. Do you notice that among the people we met at +Williamsburg--officers as well as civilians--none of them were equal to +even a very limited range of subjects? All who are educated have been in +the North. Ah--good Heavens!" + +Kate's exclamation was due to a sudden sinking in the mossy causeway +until she was almost buried in the tall ferns. Jack helped her out, +shivered a moment, doubtingly, as he exclaimed: + +"The sun is nearly down now, though the air is transparent, or would be +if we were in the free play of daylight. I think it would be better to +go back." But they made no haste. Such trophies of ferns and lace-like +mosses were not to be plucked in every walk, and they dawdled on and on +skirmishing, with delighted hardihood, against the pitfalls of bog that +covered morass and pitch-black mud. When the impulse finally came to +hasten back, they were somewhat chagrined to discover that they had lost +their own trail. The point where they had quit the stream could not be +found. Clambering plants, burdened with blossoms, fragrant as +honeysuckle, grew all along the bank, and the bush that had attracted +them was no longer a landmark. + +"Well," Jack said, confidently, "the sun disappeared over there; that is +southwest. The house is in that direction--northeast. Now, if you will +keep that big sycamore in your eye and follow me, we shall be nearing +the house, as I calculate." + +They pushed on in that direction, but had only gone a few yards when the +ground became a perfect quagmire of black loam, that looked like coal +ground to powder, and was thin as mush. + +"This is a brilliant stroke on my part, I must say," Jack cried, facing +Kate ruefully. "We must go back and examine the ground, as Indians do, +and find our entrance trail in that way. I will watch the ground and you +keep an eye on the shrubs. Wherever you see havoc among them you may be +sure my manly foot has fallen there." + +Suddenly they were conscious of an indescribable change in the place. +Neither knew what it was. It had come on in the excitement of their +march into the morass--or it had come the instant they both became +conscious of it. What was it? Kate turned and looked into Jack's +blank face! + +"I'm blessed if I know what it is, but it seems as if something had +suddenly gone out of the order of things! What is it? Do you feel it; do +you notice it?" + +"Feel it--see it--why, it is as palpable, or, rather to speak +accurately, it is as clearly absent as the color from an oil-painting, +leaving mere black and white outlines." + +"How besotted I am!" Jack cried; "why, I know. The sun has wholly gone, +and the birds and living things have ceased to sing and move." + +"That's it; could you believe that it would make such a change? Why, I +thought, when we came in, the place was a temple of silence, but it was +a mad world compared to this." + +"Yes, and we must hurry and get out while we have daylight to help us. I +take it you wouldn't care to swim the lagoon. Let us call it lagoon, for +this place makes the name appropriate." + +"Call it whatever you like, but don't ask me to swim it," Kate cried, +pushing on. + +"Ah! I have our trail," Jack cries in triumph. "By George, it is wide +enough!" he added, bending over where the thick grasses were crushed and +broken. "See the advantage of large feet. Now, if you had been alone, +'twould have been as hard as to trace a bird's track." + +"Is that an implication that I have Chinese feet?" + +"No, too literal young woman. It was meant to show you that I am very +much relieved, for, 'pon my soul, I was afraid we were in a very +disagreeable scrape." + +"And you are now quite sure we are not?" + +"Quite sure. Don't you want to take my arm?" + +"Oh, no, thank you. I'm not at all tired. I'm used to longer walks than +this." + +"Longer, possibly, but not over such trying ground." + +"Oh, yes. I've gone with Wesley and his friends to the lakes in the +North Woods." + +"Ah! I've never been there. Are they as bad travel as this?" + +"Infinitely worse--Why, what was that?" + +"It sounded very like the report of a pistol." + +Both stopped, Kate coming quite close to the young man, who was bent +over with his hand to his ear, trumpet-fashion. + +"Do you--" He made a warning gesture with his hand, and motioned her to +stoop among the ferns. A halloo was heard in the distance; then a +response just ahead of where the two crouched in the breast-high ferns, +through which the path made by their recent footsteps led. When the +echoing halloo died away, a bird in the distance seemed to catch up the +refrain and dwell upon the note with an exquisite, painful melody. + +"Why, it's the throat interlude in the Magic Flute! How lovely it is!" +Kate whispered. "If you were my knight, I should put on you the task of +caging that lovely sound for me." + +The distant bird-note ceased, and then suddenly, from the bushes just +ahead of them, it was caught up and answered, note for note, in a wild +pibroch strain, harsher but inexpressibly moving. Jack turned to Kate, +his face quite pale, and whispered: + +"It in not a bird. They are negroes. I have read of these sounds. They +are marauding slaves, and we must not let them see us. We must get to +those thick clumps of bushes. Do you think you can remain bent until we +reach them? If not, we will rest every few paces." + +"Go on. I can try." + +The pibroch strains still continued, rising into a mournful wail, then +sinking info the soft cries of the whip-poor-will. In a few minutes the +perplexed fugitives were deep in a clump of wild hawberries, invisible +to any one who should pass. The strains had ceased as suddenly as they +began. Then a faint hallo-o-o sounded, being answered in the bushes, as +it seemed, just in front of where Jack and his companion stood; voices +soon became audible farther along, ten or more paces. Motioning to Kate, +Jack crept along noiselessly, and fancied he could distinguish forms +through the thick screen of bushes. A voice, not a negro's, said: + +"I went to the cove for you--what was the matter?" + +"I had the devil's work to get through the posts. For some reason or +other they're getting mighty sharp. I must be back before twelve; what's +been done?" + +"Well, the mokes consent to go, but they won't touch the ranch. You'll +have to bring up a few hands; the fewer the better. If them damned +feather-bed sojers wasn't there, we could do the job ourselves." + +"When, does the boss get out?" + +"Next week. I don't know what day. They'd pay high for him both ways." + +"No, we can't nibble there. The cap'n'll pay well. That's square. We +can't afford to try the other now, at any rate. Is the skiff here?" + +"Yes; well, get in." + +There was a plash and the-receding sound of voices. Jack darted through +the screen of branches, but he could not distinguish the figures, for it +was growing every instant dimmer twilight. He turned to Kate. She was +at his side. + +"Who were they--what were they planning? Were they soldiers?" she asked. + +"Never mind them now. We must find a way out of this. Our boat can't be +far off. We must follow this line of bushes until we come to the spot we +left. I know I can recognize it, for there was an enormous tree fallen a +few steps from the sedge bank we landed on." + +It was a very toilsome journey now, obliged as they were to hug the +obstinate growth of haws, wild alder, and dog roses, which tore flesh +and garments in the hurried flight. They came to the dead tree finally, +and Jack almost shouted in grateful relief: + +"You were a true prophet, Miss Boone. You gave utterance to some +Druid-like remarks as we crossed the Stygian pool. The worst your fancy +painted couldn't equal what we've seen and heard." + +"I have seen nothing dreadful, and I can't say that I understand very +much of what we heard." + +"There is some 'caper' going on to give these cut-throats a chance to +get booty or something of the sort." + +"They are probably rebel soldiers planning to sack the commissary." + +They were in the boat now, and Jack was sending it forward by lusty +lunges against every protruding object he could get a stroke at; when +these failed he managed to scull after a fashion. They found the +household in consternation when they got back, but Jack gave a +picturesque narrative of their escapade, omitting the encounter with the +negroes which he had charged Kate to say nothing about, as it would only +alarm Mrs. Atterbury. The garments of the explorers told the tale of +their mishaps, and when they had clothed themselves anew supper was +announced. The feast was of the lightest sort: sherbet or tea for those +who liked it; fruit and crackers, honey or marmalade--a triumph in the +cultivation of dyspepsia, Jack said when he first began the eating. But +it was observed that the disease had no terrors for him, for he sat at +the table as long as he could get any one to remain with him, and did +his share in testing all the dishes. He outsat everybody that night +except Dick, who never got tired of any place that brought him near +his idol. + +"I'm going up-stairs in a moment, Towhead. Come up after me." + +Dick nodded, a gleam of delightful expectation in his eyes. He was just +in the ardent period when boys love to make mysteries of very ordinary +things, and Jack's _sotto voce_ command was like the hero's voice in the +play, "Meet me by the ruined well when midnight strikes." He followed +Jack up the wide staircase and into his own room, for greater security, +as no one would think of looking for them there. + +"Now, tell me all you have found out," Jack commanded as he shut the +door. "Have you been among the darkys?" + +"I've found out this much. The old negroes are opposed to going away or +in any shape annoying their masters. The young bucks and the women are +very eager to fly. It seems that some one has spread the story among +them that Lincoln has sent Butler to Fort Monroe to receive all the +negroes on the Peninsula. They have been assured that they are to have +'their freedom, one hundred acres of land, and an ox-team.' Where the +report comes from, I can't find out; but there is some communication +between here and the Union lines, I'm positive." + +"Has Wesley been with the negroes again?" + +"No. I have kept an eye on him all day." + +"Where does he go at night?" + +"The doctor has forbidden him to be in the night air for the present." + +"Well, you keep an eye on Wesley," and then Jack narrated the strange +scene in the swamp, the mysterious calls, and the conversation. + +Dick listened in awe, mingled with rapture. "Oh, why wasn't I there? +Just my blamed luck! I would have followed them, and then we should have +known what they were up to. Did you know that a company of cavalry had +gone into camp just below the grove?" + +"No--when?" + +"This evening. Vincent is down there now." + +"Well, you may be sure they suspect something. I wonder if it wouldn't +be better to speak to Vincent?" + +"Of course not! What have we to tell him? Simply my suspicions and +Clem's chatter. The little moke may have been lying; I can't see that +any of them do much else." + +"The worst of it is, these Southerners are very sensitive about any +allusion to the negroes. They would pooh-pooh anything we might say that +was not backed by proof. It's a mighty uncomfortable fix to be in, Dick, +my boy; though, 'pon my soul, I believe you enjoy it!" + +Dick grinned deprecating. + +"I think you do, you unfledged Guy Fawkes. I know nothing would give you +greater joy than to put on a mask, grasp a dagger in your hand, and go +to Wesley, crying, 'Villain, your secret or your life!' Dick, you're a +stage hero; you're a thing of sawdust and tinsel. Come to the parlor and +hear Kate play the divine songs of Mendelssohn; perhaps, night-eyed +conspirator, to whirl Polly or Miss Rosa in the delirium of the '_Blaue +Donau_.' Come." + +But there was neither dance nor music when they reached the +drawing-room. Everybody was there; Vincent had just come, and the first +words Jack and Dick heard glued them to their places. + +"Yes, all the negroes on the Lawless', Skinner's, and Lomas's +plantations have gone. Butler has declared them contrabands of war, and +a lot of Yankee speculators have been sneaking through the plantations, +filling their ignorant minds with promises of freedom, a farm, and a +share of their masters' property. Their real purpose is to get the +negroes and hold them until the two governments come to terms, and then +they will get rewards for every nigger they hold. Oh, these Yankees can +see ways of making money through a stone-wall," and Vincent laughed +lightly, as though the incident in no way concerned him. "Captain Cram, +who is in camp just below in the oak clearing, is ordered to scour the +river-bank to the enemy's lines near Hampton, so we need have no fear of +these enterprising apostles of freedom interfering with our niggers." + +"I don't think one of them could be induced to leave us if offered all +our farms," Mrs. Atterbury said, a little proudly. + +"There isn't one of them that I haven't brought through sickness or +trouble of one sort or another, and there isn't one that wouldn't take +my command before the gold of a stranger." + +"I don't know, Mrs. Atterbury," Mrs. Sprague ventured, mildly. "Gold is +a mighty weight in an argument. I have known it to change the +convictions of a lifetime in a moment. I have known it to make a man +renounce his father, dishonor his name, belie his whole life, deny +his family." + +"When a fortune beyond reasonable dreams was placed upon the head of +Charles Stuart, for whom our ancestors fought and beggared themselves, +his secret was in the keeping of scores of peasants, and the blood-money +lay idle. I could cite hundreds of similar proofs, that gold is not God +everywhere. I mean no offense, but you will agree with me that you +Northern people are given up to the getting and worship of money. It is +not so with us. Perhaps because we have it, and with it something that +makes it secondary--birth. I have no fear of the infidelity of any of my +people. I would as soon doubt Rosa or Vincent us the smallest black on +my estate." + +She spoke with mild, high-bred dignity, not a particle of assertion or +captious intolerance, but as a prelate might assert the majesty of the +word on the altar, neither looking for dissent nor dreaming that the +spirit of it could exist. + +"I'm glad to hear your mother express such confidence, Vint," Jack said +as they walked out on the veranda to take a good-night smoke; "but just +let me give you a maxim of my own, the lock's not sure unless the key is +in your pocket." + +"Sententious, my boy, but vague. My mother is perfectly right. Our +niggers are fidelity itself. But since we are so near the Butler lines, +where his agents can sneak up on the river and kidnap the new sort of +contraband, I think it better to take some precaution. Hereafter General +Magruder will have a picket post within two miles of us, between here +and the creek, which offers a convenient point for smuggling." + +"I am heartily relieved to hear it," Jack cried, giving something too +much fervor to his relief, for Vincent turned and looked at him in +surprise, but it was too dark in the shadow of the clematis to see his +face, and after a silence Vincent said: + +"Mamma has told you that the President is coming to Williamsburg to +review Magruder's troops?" + +"No; she hadn't mentioned it. Is he?" + +"Yes; he will be there Thursday afternoon, and we shall have the ball +the same evening. He will be here with General Lee, his chief of staff, +and remain all night; so that you will be able to say when you go back +North--something that few Yankees will be able to say during the +war--that you have broken bread with the first President of the +Confederacy." + +"I will strive to bear my honors with humility," Jack said. + +"It befits the conquered to be humble." + +"If I hadn't come in time, you two would have been in a squabble--own +it!" and Rosa drew a chair between them as a peacemaker. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +TREASON AND STRATAGEMS. + + +Rosedale was, indeed, Eden in the most orthodox sense to the group so +strangely billeted in its lovely tranquillity. No sooner was the anguish +concerning the invalids off Kate's, Olympia's, and Rosa's minds, than +new perplexities beset them. Rosa was barely eighteen, Kate and Olympia +older by three or four years, but the younger girl was in many essential +things quite as mature as her Northern comrades. But Jack could not +comprehend this, and quite innocently did and said things to arouse the +young girl's dreams. I think I have said that Jack was a very comely +fellow? He was big and brawny, and tireless in good-humor, and the +attractive little gallantries that women adore. He looked as +sentimentally sincere, uttering a paradox, as another vowing eternal +fidelity. He gave every woman the impression that his mind was lost +wondering how he should exist until she gave him the right to call her +his own. Though, as a matter of fact, it is the man who is the woman's +own--when the final word comes. + +Rosa was not long in discovering Vincent's happy tumult in Olympia's +presence, and she secretly misunderstood Jack the more that he was so +lavish and open in his adulations. If he rode, he exhausted eulogy in +describing her pose, her daring, her skill; if they danced, as they did +nearly every night until poor Merry's fingers ached from drumming the +unholy strains of Faust, Strauss, and what not, in the old-fashioned +waltzes--he pantingly declared that she made the music seem a celestial +choir by her lightness; in long walks in the rose-fields he exhausted a +not very laborious store of botanical conceits, to make her cheeks +resemble the roses. This assurance, this recklessness, this _aplomb_, +quite bewildered the girl, who posed in Richmond for a passed mistress +of flirting. She had, unless rumor was badly at fault, jilted an +appalling list of the striplings who believed that beard-growing and +love-making were conventionally contemporaneous events. But they had +"mooned" about her and made themselves absurd in vain, while this +unconscious Adonis calmly walked, talked, and acted as if she could know +nothing else than love him, and one day she started in delicious misery +to find that she did--that is, she thought she might if--if? But there +her dreams became nebulous--they were rosy in outline, however, and she +was content to rest there. + +The morning after the coming of the cavalry-troop, Wesley was discussing +the never-ending theme of how he was going to get home--with Kate busy +arranging the ferns she had brought from the swamp. + +"Really, Wesley, just now you ought to be content. There is no +likelihood of any movement; besides, philosophy is as much a merit in a +soldier as valor--it is valor, it is endurance. You complain of your +unhappy fate, housed here with a lot of women and idlers. How would you +bear up in Libby Prison? There are as good men as you there, my dear; +shall I say better or older soldiers, Brutus? You may take your choice, +and 'count on a sister's blind partiality to justify you!'" + +"Oh, don't always talk nonsense, Kate. You're worse than Jack Sprague. +He doesn't seem to have a serious thought in his head from daylight +till bedtime." + +"Perhaps he keeps all his sober thoughts for the night, to give them +good company." + +"No, but do say what I ought to do." + +"You ought to study to make yourself tolerable to your sister, dear, and +agreeable to the other fellows' sisters. I have remarked that the young +man who does that, keeps out of despondency and other uncomfortable +conditions that too much brooding on an empty head brings about." + +"I'd like to know what heart I can have to make myself agreeable to +other fellows' sisters when you are always lampooning me; you delight in +making me think I am nobody." + +"Don't fear, my dear; if that were my delight I should die an old maid, +never having known delight, for it would need more force than I can +muster to make Wesley Boone, captain U.S.A., anything else than he +is--his father's pride and his sister's joy. No, dear, my delight is to +see you gay and open and frank and manly, self-dependent, grateful for +the consideration shown you, and recognizant of the constant admonition +of your sagacious sister." + +"You talk exactly like the woman in George Sand's stupid stories; they +always remind me of men in petticoats." + +"That's a weak and strained comparison; not, however, unworthy a +soldier. We always compare, in speech, to strengthen assertion or adorn +it, and when we do we compare what is equivocal or vague, with what is +well known and usual. Now, I do not remember any men in petticoats, +unless you mean the Orientals, who wear a sort of skirt, and the Scots, +who used to wear kilts--but strictly speaking--" + +"Do, Kate, for Heaven's sake, be serious for a moment! I have a chance +to escape, no matter how, but I can make my way to our lines without +running any great risk. Now, is it or is it not dishonorable for me +to do it?" + +"Seriously, Wesley, just now it would be, while Vincent is here, for he +is in a sense pledged for you to his superior. Further, there is no need +to hurry. You are barely recovered. If you were North you would be in +Acredale; if you were, there is no immediate want of your presence in +the army. The articles we see in the Richmond papers every day, copied +from Northern journals, show that this new general, McClellan, means to +bring a trained, drilled, disciplined army down when he moves. It took +six months to prepare McDowell's useless mass. It will certainly take a +year to put the million men now arming in shape to fight. I may be +wrong, but at the earliest there can be no movement before late in +October. By that time we shall probably have the problem solved by the +Government, and you will go North, having made delightful friends of all +this charming family." + +Wesley was even more afraid of Kate's strong sense of honor than of her +biting sarcasm, and he ended the interview without daring to tell her +how far he had compromised himself with the secret agents that were +surrounding the plantation. Dick, running down-stairs in his wake, +encountered Rosa, with her garden hat covering her like the roof of a +disrupted pagoda. She arrested his stride as he was darting toward +the door. + +"Here--you--Richard, just come and be of some use to me. I'm housekeeper +to-day, and I want to go to the quarters. Come along." + +Now Dick had a double grievance against this imperious young person. He +had fallen into the most violent love with her brown eyes and pink +cheeks the moment he saw her; he had assiduously striven both to conceal +and reveal this maddening condition of mind. But he remarked with +ungovernable wrath that, whenever Jack or Wesley came about, the +heartless young jilt, made as if she didn't know him; quite ignored him, +and cared no more for his simple adoration than she did for the frisky +gambols of Pizarro, the mastiff. But she was so adorable; her Southern +accent was so bewitching; she put so much softness in those amusing +idioms "I reckon" and "Seems like," "You others," and the countless +little tricks of the Southern vernacular, that Dick passed sleepless +hours and delicious days dreaming and sighing and groaning and doing all +manner of unreasonable things--that we all do when we meet our first +Rosas and they light the torch for other feet more favored than our own. + +So, when Rosa called him to accompany her, Dick took the round basket +she held out to him, and walked sulkily ahead of her, never opening his +mouth. When he had stalked along through the currant bushes, he half +turned his face; she was walking demurely behind him, and he made a +pretext of picking a currant to give her a chance to come abreast. She +did, and passed him trippingly, saying, as she cast a sympathetic side +glance at him: + +"Toothache?" + +He stood rooted to the spot with indignant amazement. The heartless +little minx! How dare she talk like that to a soldier? + +"Did you call some one, Miss Atterbury?" he said, with chilling dignity. +Usually he called her plain Rosa. + +"I thought may be you had the toothache--you kept so quiet." + +"No; I haven't got the toothache." Poor Dick! He said, to himself, that +he had much worse. But he wouldn't gratify her with the acknowledgment +of her triumph, and he stalked along with the basket over his head, as +he had often seen the darkeys in the sun. There was a faint little +appealing cry from behind. + +"Oh--oh--dear!" + +"What is it; are you hurt?" he cried, rushing to where Rosa stood, +balanced on one foot. + +"There is a crab thorn an inch long in my foot; it's gone through shoe +and all. That wretched Sardanapalus never clears the limbs away when he +cuts the hedge. I'll have him horsewhipped. Oh, dear!" + +"Let me hold you while I look for the thorn." + +Dick cleverly slipped his arm about her waist and set the basket endwise +for her to sit on. Then kneeling, he picked out the thorn, which was a +great deal less than the dimensions Rosa had described. But he said +nothing to her about picking the torment out and slipping it in his vest +pocket. He held the foot, examining the sole critically. Finally, as she +moved impatiently, he asked: + +"Does it hurt yet?" + +"Of course it does, you stupid fellow. Do you suppose I would sit here +like a goose on a gridiron and let you hold my foot if it didn't hurt? +Men never have any sense when they ought to." + +He affected to examine the sole of the thin leather of the upper still +more minutely. As she gave no sign of ending the comedy, he said: + +"I'm sure, Rosa, if it relieves the pain to have me hold your foot, I'll +sit here in the sun all day--if you'll bring the rim of your hat over a +little--but, as for the thorn, it has been out this ten minutes." + +She gave him a sudden push and darted away. He followed laughing, +admonishing her against another thorn. But she deigned no answer. Coming +to the bee-hives, she stopped a moment to watch the busy swarm, and Dick +stole up beside her. She turned pettishly, and he said, insinuatingly: + +"Toothache?" + +"You know, Dick, you're too trying for anything--holding my foot there +like a ninny in the hot sun. You haven't a thimbleful of sense." + +"Well, now we'll test these propositions, as Jack does, by syllogisms. +Let me see. All men are trying. Dick Perley is a man: therefore he +is trying." + +"No; your premise--isn't that what you call it?--is wrong. Dick Perley +is only a boy." + +"I'll be nineteen in January next." + +"Well?" + +"Well, your father was married at nineteen. You've said it yourself, +Rosa, and thought it greatly to his credit--at least Vint does." + +"You can't imitate my father in that, at least." + +"I might." + +"How?" + +"You could help me, Rosa." + +"How?" + +"Would you if you could?" + +"That depends." + +"On what?" + +"On the girl." + +"Ah! she's a perfect girl, but she's very young," and Dick eyed Rosa +with ineffable complacency. + +"That's bad." + +"But she's older than she looks." + +"That's worse; you'd grow tired of her." + +"No, no; I don't mean she's older than she looks; her mind is older than +her looks." + +"Women with minds make troublesome wives. I have refused to let Vincent +marry several of that kind." + +"But, my girl hasn't got that kind of mind; it is all sweetness and wit +and gayety and loveliness and--and--" + +"Your girl? Who gave her to you?" + +"Love gave her to me." + +"Oh, well, since love gave her to you, I don't see how I can be of any +service. Down here the mother always gives the girl, unless she have no +mother; then some other kin gives her. But if your girl has all these +qualities you describe, I advise you to get her into your own keeping +just as soon as you can, for that's the sort of girl all the fellows +about here are seeking." + +"Very well, I'm ready. Will you help me? It comes back where we +started." + +"But you evaded my question." + +"What question did I evade? I answered like an encyclopedia!" Dick +cried, immensely satisfied with his own readiness. + +"That convicts you; an encyclopedia has nothing about living people." + +"Oh, yes; the new ones do." Dick was now very near her as she stood +contemplating the bees, swarming in the comb. "O Rosa--Rosa, you know I +love you, and you know I can never love anybody else. Why will you +pretend not to understand me? I don't want you to marry me now, but by +and by, when I shall have made a name as a soldier, or--or something," +he added in painful turbulence of joy and fear over the great +words--which he had been racking his small wits to fashion for weeks +past, and, now that they were spoken, were not nearly so impressive as +he had intended they should be. + +"My dear Richard, you are a perfect boy--a very delightful boy, too, and +I am extremely fond of you--oh, very, very fond of you--but you really +must not make love to me. It isn't proper," and Rosa glanced into his +eyes with a tender little gleam, that gave more encouragement than +rebuff--for it came into her mind, in a moment, that it was not a time +to hurt the bright, eager love--so winning, if boyish. + +"Nonsense, Rosa, it is perfectly proper; everybody makes love to you; +Jack makes love to you, and he is as good as engaged--" But here it +suddenly flashed in Dick's mad head that he was meddling, and he stopped +short. Rosa had turned upon him with a flash of such scorn, such +indignant pain, that he cried: + +"No, no; I don't mean that; but you know fellows do make love to you, +and why mayn't I?" + +She flirted away from him too angry or mortified to speak. He could not +see her face, for she pulled the ample breadth of the hat-brim down, +which served at once as a veil to shut out her visage and a sweeping +sort of funnel to keep him far from her side, as she tripped +determinedly to the pleasant group of clean, whitewashed cabins, where +the negroes abode. Poor Dick, vexed with himself--angry at her for being +irritated-waited in the hot sun until she had ended her commands, and +when she came out to return he repentantly sidled up, imploring pardon +in every movement. She couldn't resist the big, pleading blue eyes, and +said, quite as if there had been deep discussion on the point: + +"I don't think you mean to be a bad boy." + +"I'm not a boy, I'm a soldier. It isn't fair in you to call me a boy." + +"You're not a girl." + +"If I were I wouldn't be so heartless as some I know." + +"And if I were a boy I wouldn't be so silly as some I know." + +"Yes, I think Southern boys are quite soft." + +"Come, sir, my brother _was_ a Southern boy." + +"Yes, but he always lived North, and is like us." + +"Jackanapes!" + +"Dear Rosa." + +"How dare you, sir?" + +"Oh, just as easy, I dare do all that becomes a man--who dares do more +is none. You are Rosa, and you are dear--" + +"Not to you." + +"You cost me enough to be dear and you are lovely enough to be 'Rosa' in +Latin, Rose in English, and sweetheart in any tongue." + +"You're much too pert. Boys so glib as you never really love. They think +they do and perhaps they do--just a little." + +"Ah! a 'little more than a little,' dear Rosa." + +"You're quoting Shakespeare, I suppose you know? I'll quote more: 'A +little more than a little is much too much.'" + +"A little less than all is much too little for me. So, Rosa, give all or +none." + +"I don't understand you." + +"That's proof you love me. Girls never love fellows they understand." + +"Prove that I love you." + +"Well, you don't hate me. You don't hate Vincent. Therefore you love +him. Ergo, you love me." + +"Simpleton." + +"True love is always simple. Here, take this white rose as a sign that +you don't hate me." He plucked a large half-opened bud from a great +sprouting branch and held it toward her. + +"But the red rose is my favorite." + +"Well, here is a red one. Give me the white. That is my favorite. Now +we've exchanged tokens. The rose always goes before the ring. I'll +get that." + +"If you were a true lover you would wear my colors." + +"These white leaves will grow red resting on my heart." + +"When they do I will listen to you." + +"Will you, though? It is a promise; when this white rose is red you will +love me?" + +"Oh, yes, I can promise that." + +"Dear Rosa!" He was very near her as she disentangled an obtruding vine +from her garments, and before she was aware of his purpose he had +audaciously snatched a kiss from her astonished lips. + +"You odious Yankee! I haven't words to express my disgust--abhorrence!" + +"Don't try, love needs no words: but I'll tell you; let me put this +white rose to your lips; it will turn red at the touch, and in that way +you can take your kiss back, if you really want it; then there'll be a +fair exchange. I--" + +"Hello, there! are you two grafting roses?" + +It was Wesley, coming from the lower garden, where the stream was +narrowest beyond the high wall of hedge. + +"Oh, no, Mr. Boone; Richard here is studying the color in flowers. He +has a theory that eclipses Goethe's 'Farbenlehre.'" + +"Oh, indeed!" Wesley was quite unconscious of what Goethe's doctrine of +colors might be, so he prudently avoided urging fuller particulars +regarding Dick's theory, and said, vaguely; + +"You have color enough here to theorize on, I'm sure." + +"Yes, we have had very satisfactory experiments," Dick assented naïvely, +stealing a glance at Rosa. + +"But quite inconclusive," she rejoined, moving onward, the two young men +following in the penumbra of her wide hat. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A CAMPAIGN OF PLOTS. + + +Meanwhile, there were curious events passing and coming to pass on the +seven hills upon which the proud young capital of the proud young +Confederacy stood. Rome, in her most imperial days, never dreamed of the +scenic glories that Richmond, like a spoiled beauty, was hardly +conscious of holding as her dower. Indeed, such is the necromantic +mastery of the passion of the beautiful that, once standing on the +glorious hill, that commands the James for twenty miles--twenty miles of +such varied loveliness of color, configuration, and _mis en scène_, that +the purple distances of Naples seem common to it--standing there, I say, +one day, when the sword had long been rusting in the scabbard, and the +memory of those who raised it in revolt had faded from all minds save +those who wanted office--this historian thought that, had it been his +lot to be born in that lovely spot, he, too, would have fought for State +caprices--just as a gallant man will take up the quarrel of beauty, +right or wrong! + +Thoughts of this sort filled Barney Moore's mind too, that delicious +September afternoon as he stood gazing dreamily down the river, toward +that vague morning-land of the sun's rising, where his mind saw the long +lines of blue his eyes ached to rest on. Barney had left the kindly roof +where he had been nursed back to vigor. He had quit it in a fashion that +left a rankling sorrow in his grateful heart. Vincent had represented to +Jack the inconvenience it would be, the peril, rather, for him to assume +the guardianship of so many enemies of the Confederacy. Scores of the +old families of the city were under the ban simply because they had +pleaded for deliberation before deciding on the secession ordinance. The +Atterburys had their enemies too. It was pointed out that Vincent and +Rosa had been educated in the North; that Mrs. Atterbury had spent many +of her recent summers there. Their devotion to the Confederacy must be +shown by deeds. It was true they had given twenty thousand dollars to +the cause, but what was that to threefold millionaires? General Lee, +their kinsman, had shaken his Socratic head solemnly when Rosa, at the +War Department, told him, as an excellent joke, the strange chance that +had brought Vincent's college chum and his family under the kind +Rosedale roof. + +Richard Perley was, therefore, deputized to rescue Barney from his false +position and give him a chance for exchange when the time came. He +journeyed up to Richmond, and, one day, laid these facts before Barney, +who instantly saw his friend's dilemma, and at once set about inventing +a _ruse_ that should extricate him, without mortifying the kind people +who had befriended him. When he was able to be about, he feigned a +desire to go to his friends in Arrowfield County, south of the James, +and was bidden hearty Godspeed. Then, with funds supplied by Jack, he +gained admittance to a modest house far out on Main Street, where the +city merges into the country. They were simple people, and his thrilling +tale of being a refugee from Harper's Ferry was plausible enough to be +accepted by more skeptical people than the Gannats. + +Day after day Barney skirted furtively about the uncompromising walls of +Libby and Castle Thunder, where once or twice he had gone with his hosts +to make a mental diagram of the place for future use. Little by little +he became familiar with Richmond, which, like a new bride, gave the +visitor welcome to admire her splendid spouse, the Confederate +government. He learned all the plots of the prison, and became the +confidant of Letitia Lanview, known to every exile in Richmond as the +friend of the suffering--St. Veronica she was called--after a poem +dedicated to her by a young Harvard graduate, rescued by her +perseverance from death in Libby Prison. With this lady he drove all +about the environs of Richmond, and several times far out toward the +meditated route of flight, in order that he might be able to lead the +bewildered refugees. He got the whole landscape by heart, and could have +led a battalion over it in the dark. Then he passed days wandering over +the Libby Hill, down in the bed of the "Rockets," as the bed of the +James was known in those days; he learned the ground to the very beat of +the patrols that guarded the wretched prisoners in the towering +shambles. One whole night, too, he spent in marking the course of the +guards as they changed in two-hour reliefs. With his facts well +collected he visited Mrs. Lanview, and at last he was confronted by +Butler's agent. This agent was a middle-aged man, who had evidently once +been very handsome, but dissipation had left pitiable traces upon his +fine features, and his once large, open eyes, that perplexingly +suggested some one Barney tried in vain to recall--vainly? The man +didn't say much in the lady's presence, but when the two were in the +open air, facing toward the center of the town, he divulged a good deal +that surprised Barney. + +"You are from Acredale, young man. I lived there when I was younger than +I am now. My name? People call me a good many names. I don't mind at +all, so that I have rum enough and a bed and a bite to eat. No man can +have more than that, my boy. I am plain Dick Jones now. It's an easy +name, and plenty of the same in the land; and if I should die suddenly +there would be lots o' folks to feel sorry, eh? But as you are from +Acredale I don't mind telling you that it is Elisha Boone that foots the +bill. Butler is a friend of Boone's, and he has given me authority to +summon all the troops within reach to my aid. My business is to carry +young Wes Boone to Fort Monroe. Butler doesn't know that. He thinks I am +spying Jeff Davis and piping for the prisoners. He didn't say that he +wanted me to kill Davis, but if we could carry him to Fort Monroe, my +boy, there'd be about a million dollars swag to divide! How does that +strike you?" + +"It doesn't strike me at all. I think it is for the interest of the +Union that Davis should be where he is. He is vain, arrogant, silly, and +dull. He will alone wreck the rebel cause if he is given time. There +couldn't be a greater misfortune for the North than to have Davis +displaced by some one of real ability, such as Stephens, Lee, Benjamin, +Mason, Breckenridge, or, in fact, any of the men identified with +secession." + +"You surprise me, my son. Still, admitting all you say, the men who +should surprise the North some fine morning with a present of Jeff Davis +on their breakfast-plates, wouldn't be without honor, to say nothing of +promotion and profit" + +"Oh, if we can carry Jeff off without compromising the safety of the +prisoners, I'll join you heartily. But first of all we must +rescue them." + +"Unquestionably; now, here's the programme: Butler's forces will be +within gunshot of Magruder's lines on Warwick Creek Thursday--that's +three days from now. The prisoners will be out of the sewer Wednesday +after midnight. You know the roads eastward. You will lead them to the +swamps near Williamsburg. There we will have boats to take part down the +river; the rest will make through the swamps under my lead. I have been +spying out the land for a week. At a place called Rosedale we pick up +young Boone, who is really the object of my journey. I couldn't find him +for weeks, and inquired of all the prisoners. Mrs. Lanview finally put +me on the track, and I saw Wes Boone as I came up here. He thought the +chances were better with a big party than alone. I saw him again +yesterday, and he told me that Davis and Lee, his chief of staff, were +to be at a party in the Rosedale house on Thursday next. Now, we can +pick up Davis just as well as Boone. There is the whole plan." + +"Oh, that's a different matter. Davis will not be near the city, and his +keeping will not add to our danger. I see no reason why we shouldn't +grab him. Heavens, what a sensation it will make! We shall be the wonder +of the North--we shall he like the men that discovered André and +Arnold--Paulding and--and"--but here Barney's historical facts came to +an end--"we shall be famous for--forever!" + +"For a week, my son; wonders don't live long in these fast days. For a +week the North will glorify us; then, if they find that we voted for +Douglas, as I did, they will say we had some sinister design in bringing +Davis North, and likely send us to Fort Lafayette." + +Barney stopped dead; they had come under a gas-lamp between Grace and +Franklin Streets. He looked at the man. He was quite sober. His eyes +answered the young man's indignant protesting glance, openly, +unshrinkingly, humorously. + +"I should be sorry to think that, Mr. Jones." + +"Well, wait. When you get North you will see a mighty change in things. +Sentiment, my boy, follows the main chance. It's money, my boy, money. +Enough money would have made Judas respectable; he was fool enough to +put his price too low." + +"Ugh!--you almost make me hate the North! Who can have heart to fight +for such heartless traffickers?" + +"The North doesn't ask your heart. It has counted the cost, and finds +that it can pay a million of men thirteen dollars a month for three +years, and still make a good thing out of it--that's about the breadth +of it. Here's an oasis in the desert of darkness. Come and have +a drink?" + +But Barney--not caring for a drink, the cynic--gave him his address, +and, dreadfully cast down in spirit, the eager partisan moped up the +long hill homeward. The next day Mrs. Lanview gave him the details of +the meditated escape. There were only sixty or a hundred in position to +avail themselves of the subterranean way that had been toilsomely dug, +by a few devoted spirits, with tools casually dropped among them by the +guileless Veronica during her daily visits. The plotters counted on at +least six hours' start before discovery. The guards were not to be +disturbed, and the evasion would not be known until eight o'clock, when +the miserable breakfast ration was distributed. + +Of that amazing-exploit, the digging through twenty solid feet of earth +and stone, I do not propose to tell. It is to be found in the journals +of the day: it is contained in the hundred pathetic narratives of the +men who took part. It has nothing to do with this history beyond the use +made of it to mislead the ingenious Barney, and in the end complicate +the careers of those in whom we are interested. Suffice it, therefore, +to say that in the dim morning mist, as arranged, a shadowy host emerged +on the river-bottom, now dry and footable; that each man, as he crawled +from the pit, was directed into the thick willows bordering the banks; +that when six score or more had clambered out they obeyed a whispered +command, for which Veronica had prepared them, and noiselessly, in +shadowy single file, they followed the bed of the stream, even where the +water flowed deep and dangerous, until they came to the gentle slopes of +Church Hill. Then, under guidance of Barney, those who were wise +followed swiftly down the river-road until daylight, when they hid in +the dim recesses of the white-oak swamps, where they lay concealed many +hours. As night fell they faced hopefully forward down the Williamsburg +road, until a flaming wave in the air admonished them to strike to the +right, and they plunged into the pathless swamps of the Chickahominy. +Here they were secure. No force able to cope with them could enter; no +force at the command of Magruder could surround them. But Barney's +guiding hand was now replaced by another. Jones had appeared, and with +him men bearing Butler's commission. The prisoners of Libby set up a +defiant cheer. They were once more under the flag. Father Abraham was +again their commander. + +There were sedate, fatherly men among these rescued bands. There were +men with gray hairs and sober behavior; men who could bow meekly under +the chastening rod; but the antics of the juvenile group, in which we +are mainly interested, were grave and decorous compared with the +abandoned, delirious joy of these grave men as they reached the recesses +of a swamp that denied admission to all save practiced explorers. Why, +here they could subsist for weeks! The rebels might spy them, might +surround them, but they need not starve--the buds were food, the bushes +refreshment, the pellucid pools drink and life. Barney stared in +speechless amazement at the unseemly gambols of the motley mass. + +Delirium! it was a mild term for the embracing, the prancing, the +Carmagnole-like ecstasy of the half-clad madmen running amuck in the +almost unendurable joy of liberation. Barney knew that this condition of +things would never do. All who bore commissions in the army were +selected from the men. The highest in rank, who proved to be a colonel, +was invested with the command, Barney serving as adjutant, and Jones as +guide. The rabble, having made a good meal from the spoil of a +sweet-potato patch, pushed forward through the fretwork of fern, rank +morass, and verdure, toward security. But the march was a snail's pace, +as may be imagined. The men, worn to skeletons by months of captivity, +insufficient food, and stinted exercise, were forced to halt often for +rest in such toilsome marching as the half-aquatic surface of the +swamp involved. + +By Thursday noon they were still far from the river. Foragers were +detailed to procure food, and pending their return the wearied band sank +to the earth to rest. In less than two hours the predatory platoon +returned with a sybaritic store--chickens, young lamb, green corn, +onions. Only the stern command of the colonel suppressed a mighty cheer. +When the march was resumed the colonel led the main column south by +east. Jones, with Barney and a dozen men, struck due east. In answer to +Barney's surprised question, Jones informed him they were to pick up +"Wes" Boone by taking that route. Difficult as the way had been +heretofore, it now became laborious in the extreme for this smaller +band. The bottom was all under water, and before they had proceeded a +mile half the group were drenched. In many cases an imprudent plunger +was compelled to call a halt to rescue his shoes--that is, those who +were lucky enough to have shoes--from the deep mud, hidden by a fair +green surface of moss or tendrils. It was a wondrous journey to Barney, +The pages of Sindbad alone seemed to have a parallel for the awful +mysteries of that long, long flight through jungles of towering timber, +whose leaves and bark were as unfamiliar as Brazilian growth to the +troops of Pizarro or the Congo vegetation to the French pioneer. Jones +and his comrades saw nothing but the hardships of the march and the +delay of the painful _détours_ in the solemn glades. The direction was +kept by compass, many of the men having been supplied with a miniature +instrument by the prudent foresight of Mrs. Lanview, who was niggard of +neither time nor money in the cause she had at heart. In spite of every +effort a march so swift that it would have exhausted cavalry, Jones's +ranks did not reach the rendezvous until midnight. At about that hour +the exhausted fugitives came suddenly upon a wide, open plain, and far +below them, in the valley, a vision of light and life shone through +the dark. + +"There, boys, we're at the end of our first stage. Unless I'm much +mistaken, that bit of merry-making yonder will cost the Confederacy +a chief." + +"But is it certain that Davis is there?" asked the man Jones called +Moon, who seemed to be his intimate. + +"Ah, that we will learn so soon as Nasmyd reports. We will give the +signal when we reach that fringe of wood yonder. It's back of the +grounds, separated from them by a hard piece of swamp and water.--Men, +you must follow now in single file, and when we get in the swamp, mind, +a single step out of line will cost you your lives, for, sucked into +that morass, wild horses can't pull you out." + +Then, as they plunged anew in the gloomy deeps of swamp and brake, the +friendly lights were lost and the depressed wayfarers struggled on with +something of the feeling of a crew cast away at sea, who, thrown upon +the crest of a rising billow, catch a near glimpse of a great ship, +light and taut, riding serenely havenward to lose it the next in the +dire waste. Presently the melancholy bird-notes that had puzzled Jack in +the same vicinity days before broke out just in front of Barney, who was +clambering along, the third man from the head of the little column. +Again, after a long pause, the sweet, plaintive note was re-echoed from +a distance. + +"Ah, all is well!" he heard Jones ejaculate triumphantly. "We are in +time and we are waited for.--Now, men, put all the heart that's in you +to the next half-hour's work. No danger, but just cool heads and +strong arms." + +This good news was conveyed from man to man, and the toilsome movement +briskly accelerated under the inspiring watchword. Shortly afterward the +larger growth--cypress and oak--diminished, as the band straggled into +the open, starry night at the margin of what they could tell was water +by the croaking of frogs and plashing of night birds and reptiles. Then +the train was halted. Jones left Nasmyd in command and plunged into a +thick skirt of bushes. Now Barney, hot and dirty from the march, had +shot ahead when he heard the ripple of the water. He had taken off his +shoes to bathe his blistered and swollen feet, and sat quite still and +restful under the leafy sprays of an odorous bush that even in the dark +he knew to be honeysuckle. + +"Well," he heard Jones cry in an exultant whisper, "we've done it. The +woman is a trump. There are a hundred nearly of the prisoners gone to +the boats. Now we are ready for Boone. Is Davis here?" + +"Yes; he came over from Williamsburg at eight o'clock; they were +feasting when Clem came away a three or more ago." + +"Any cavalry at the house?" + +"A squadron; but they are ordered to be in saddle for their quarters at +midnight. There's the bugle for boots and saddles now." + +"Yes; by the Eternal, what luck! Davis will sleep there." + +"So Clem says; the state chamber has been prepared for him; all the rest +except Lee go back to Williamsburg." + +"We couldn't have arranged it better if we had been given the ordering +of it. Are all the boats here?" + +"Yes." + +"And the negroes--how many have you?" + +"I can't say. They've been dropping across in twos and threes since ten +o'clock. The curious thing is that the women are more taken with the +idea of fight than the men. We shall have enough--too many, I fear." + +"We'll make them our safety, Jim, my boy; we'll divide them up, and, in +case of pursuit, send them in different directions to confuse +the troops." + +"How many men are you going to take to the house?" + +"Six, with you and me. It will be unsafe to take more, as the boats are +small. I will go back and select the men. You get the boats ready." + +Barney hurried on his shoes, crawled through the bushes, and was in his +place when Jones presently appeared. The men, dead tired, were disposed +about on the ground asleep, not minding the damp grass or the heavy dew +that made the air fairly misty. + +"Wake four of the men," Jones whispered, and when they were aroused he +said to a tall, reeling shadow, idly waiting orders: + +"We'll be back in a half-hour, or an hour at the farthest. Let the men +sleep; they need it. Sleep yourself if you want to. Moon or I will come +to rouse you, and we will bring you plenty of bacon and hominy. Have no +fears if you hear movements just beyond you; there are a couple of +contrabands here who go with us. Here's a ration of tobacco for the men +when they wake, and a gallon of whisky, which you must serve out +gradually." + +Revived by this stimulating news quite as much as by the whisky, Barney +and his three comrades followed Jones to the boats. There were four--the +dug-outs we saw Jack manoeuvring in the same waters a few nights before. +A negro sat silent, shadowy in each, and, when Jones gave the word, "Let +drive!" the barks shot through the waters, propelled by the single +scull, as swiftly as an Indian canoe. In a few moments all debarked on +the grassy knoll behind the black line of hedge. Jones made straight for +the high doorway, and inserting a key it was noiselessly opened. + +"Men," he whispered, "no names must be used in any case. I'm number one, +Jim here is number two, Moore number three, and so on. Each one remember +his number. Clem will remain here with number six to guard the gate. All +the rest follow me." + +Two negroes joined the party that stole forward through the rose-field +to the negro quarters. All was silent. As they reached the great kitchen +behind the house and connected with it by a trellised pavilion, only an +occasional light could be seen in the house. All were apparently there. +The ball had ended. Leaving Barney in charge of the rest, Jones and +Number Two crept along the trellis toward the house and soon disappeared +around the southern corner. Jones presently returned and said, +exultingly: + +"The cavalry is gone; we have nothing to fear.--Plato, you go with +Number Two to the stables and bring the horses out; hold six and send +the rest scattering in the fields, so that in case of anybody's being in +the mind to follow hell have to use his legs, and we can beat them at +that game. Where are the ropes?" he asked the black man left in +the group. + +"In de kitchen, massa." + +"Get them!" + +"Must I go alone, massa?" + +"That's a fact.--There, Moore, you go with the boy--don't be a minute." + +Barney followed the sable marauder through the grounds to the rear of +the trellis, and crept with him through a window which stood open. The +kitchen was dark, but the negro seemed perfectly familiar with the +place. He made directly for a dark panel in the northern wall, opened a +cupboard-door, knelt down and began to grope among bottles, boxes, and +what not that housewives gather in such receptacles. + +"Oh, de lor'! dey ain't no rope! It's done gone!" "Have you a match?" +Barney asked. + +"No, massa, but dey is some yondah." + +"Find them." + +The boy crept cautiously in the direction of the passage leading into +the house; he fumbled about, an age, as it seemed to the impatient +Barney, and at last uttered an exclamation: + +"Got 'em?" + +"No, massa, but Ise suah deys kep dar." + +"Take my hand and lead me." + +"It's molasses, massa, and Ise all stickem," the voice in the dark +whispered, delightedly, and Barney could see a double row of glistening +white ivory in the dim light that came through the window. He came +nearer the clumsy wight, and saw that it was a pan of batter the cook +had left on the table, probably the morning griddle-cakes. The negro was +a mass of white, pasty glue, and knelt on the floor, licking his hands +passively. + +"Where are the matches?" + +"Under de clock, in a tin safe, massa--right da." + +Barney groped angrily about the table, on the clock-shelf, knocking down +a tin dish, that fell with the clatter of a bursting magazine in the +dense stillness of the night. Both drew back in shadow, waiting with +heart-beats that sounded in their ears like tramping horses on thick +sward. The clamor of rushing steeds in the lane suddenly drowned this; a +loud, joyous whinny sounded in the very kitchen it seemed, and there was +a rush houseward past the pantry as of a troop of cavalry. Then a +blood-curdling outcry of voices, then shots. Barney, leaving the negro +writhing in convulsions under the table, darted to the window--to the +rendezvous. It was deserted. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +"HE EITHER FEARS HIS FATE TOO MUCH." + + +When Vincent visited the stables on the morning of that +eagerly-looked-for Thursday, he found three of the horses clammy with +perspiration and giving every sign of having been ridden! The awkward +and evasive answers of the stablemen would not have been enough for any +other than a man preoccupied by love. When Rosa went to the kitchen, if +her head had not been taken up with the love in her heart, she must +certainly have remarked that the stores of food prepared for the +household were curiously diminished and the kitchen girls unwontedly +reserved. Indeed, in any other condition than that in which the family +now found themselves, they must have remarked a singular change in the +black brigade in kitchen and garden. But, preocupied each with a +different interest, as well as the preparation for the President's +_fête_, the Atterburys remarked nothing sinister in the distracted +conduct of their servants, and had only a vague feeling that the great +event had in some sort paralyzed their wonted noisy activities and +repressed their usual chatter. Kate's uneasiness and restless vagaries, +her disjointed talk and half-guilty evasions, would have been remarked +by her prepossessed hosts; while Wesley's shifting and moody silence +would have warned his comrades that he was suffering the pangs of an +evil done or meditated. Precursive signs like these--and much more, +which need not be dwelt on--the kind hosts of Rosedale made no note of. +But when Vincent opened the mail-bag--brought by an orderly from +Williamsburg every morning, the first surprise and shock of the day was +felt--though in varying degrees by all the diverse inmates of the house. + +"Hah! glory to the Lord of hosts!" the exultant reader cried, as he +passed to his mother a large official envelope at the breakfast-table. + +"I'm ordered to the field." he cried, as Jack looked inquiringly; "I'm +to set out to-night and report for duty with General Johnston to-morrow +at Manassas. No more loitering in my lady's bower; Jack, my boy, the +carpet will be clear for your knightly pranks after to-night." + +"If it were Aladdin's magic rug, I should caper nimbly enough. I warrant +you." + +"What would you wish--if it were under your feet, with its slaves at +your command?" + +"I should whisk you all off--North--instanter." + +"Ingrate!--plunge us into the chilly blasts of the North, in return for +our glorious Southern sun? Fie, Jack! I'm surprised at such selfish +ingratitude. We expected better things of our prisoners," Mrs. Atterbury +murmured, and affected a reproving frown at the culprit, as she handed +her son back the order, with a stilled sigh. + +"The sun of the South is not the sun of York to us, you know; all the +clouds that lower on our house are doubly darkened by this Southern sun; +even the warmth of Rosedale hearts can not make up for our eclipsed +Northern star," Jack said, sadly, with a wistful look at the rival +warrior reading with sparkling eyes the instructions accompanying the +order to march. + +"Since Vincent is going so far northward, I think it will be a good time +for us to go home," Mrs. Sprague began, tentatively. + +"Oh--no--no! Oh, we could never think of such a thing," Rosa +cried--"could we, mamma?" + +"Why should you go?" Mrs. Atterbury asked. "Until Jack is exchanged, +you've certainly no duty in the North so important as watching over this +headstrong fellow. We can't think of your going--unless you are weary +of us." + +"O Mrs. Atterbury, pray don't put it in that way! You know better. Our +visit here has been perfect. But you can understand my anxiety to be at +home; to be where I can aid my son's release. I have been anxious for +some time to broach the subject, but I saw that our going would be a +trouble to you; now, since fortune offers this chance, we must seize +it--that is, those of us who feel it a duty to go"; and she looked +meaningly at Merry and her daughter. + +"Nonsense! You are hostages for Vincent, in case he is captured, as long +as you are here; I can't let you go--under the laws of war--I can not. +Can I, Vincent?" + +Vincent looked at Jack solemnly, but made no answer. + +"Mamma is quite right. While you are with us no harm can come to +Vincent; for, if he should be taken prisoner, we can threaten the Yankee +Government to put you to torture unless he is well treated," Rosa +interrupted, reassuringly. + +"We should be far more aid and comfort to Vincent if we were in the +North than we could be here. If he were taken prisoner and wounded, we +could return him the kindness we have received here. In any event, we +could lessen the hardships of prison life." + +"Oh, you would have to minister to a mind diseased, if such a fate +should befall me!" Vincent cried, sentimentally; with a glance into +Olympia's eyes, which met his at the moment. Both blushed; and Olympia, +to relieve the embarrassment, said, decisively: + +"Mamma is right. Jack must have his family on the ground, to watch over +his interests. I am sure there is some underhand work responsible for +this long delay in his case, for I saw by _The Whig_, last week, that +exchanges of prisoners had been made; I think that--" But, suddenly +remembering the presence of Kate and Wesley, she did not finish the +thought, which implied a belief in the intervention of the elder +Boone--to Jack's detriment. In the end--when the two mothers talked the +matter over--Mrs. Sprague carried the point. She convinced Mrs. +Atterbury that there was danger to Jack in a longer stay of his family +in the Confederate lines. Vague reports had already reached them from +Acredale of the suspicious hostility in which the Democrats were held +after Bull Run. The Northern papers, which came through the lines quite +regularly, left no doubt that Democratic leanings were universally +interpreted in the North as evidences of rebel sympathy, if not +partisanship. Such a charge, as things stood, would be fatal to Jack; +and the mother's duty was plain. She had friends in Washington, once +powerful, who could stand between her son and calumny--perhaps more +serious danger--when she was present in person to explain his conduct. +If she could not at once secure his exchange, she could save him from +compromise in the present inflammable and capricious state of the public +mind. Understanding this, and the enmity of Boone, Mrs. Atterbury not +only made no further objection, but acknowledged the urgent necessity of +the mother's presence in the North. The idle life of Rosedale had grown +unbearably irksome to Merry, too. + +"I feel as if I were a rebel," she confided to Mrs. Sprague in the +evening talks, when the piano sounded and the young people were making +the hours pass in gayety. "It's a sin for us to laugh and be contented +here, when our friends are bearing the burdens of war. I shall be +ashamed to show my face in Acredale. Oh, I wish I could carry a musket!" + +"You might carry a canteen, my dear. I believe the regiments take out +_vivandières_--there would be an outlet for your warlike emotions," Mrs. +Sprague said, with the purpose of cheering the unhappy spinster. + +"Ah, no; I must not give encouragement to that dreadful Richard. But we +shall go now, thank Heaven, and it will comfort my sisters to have the +boy back on Northern soil, even if he persists in being a soldier." + +She had a long talk with Jack on the subject. That tempest-tossed knight +convinced her that it would only incite the boy to more unruliness to +persist in his quitting the army, or to urge him northward now, before +an exchange was properly arranged. Indeed, he was a prisoner--taken in +battle--though his name did not appear on the lists. So Vincent's sudden +going was welcomed as a stroke of good fortune. The Atterburys, +understanding the natural feelings of the family, made only perfunctory +opposition. Olympia and Kate were to remain until their brothers' fates +were decided. Vincent, who had been for weeks wildly impatient to return +to the field, was divided in mind now--by joy and despair. He had put +off and put off a last appeal to Olympia. He had not had an opportunity, +or rather had too much opportunity--and had, from day to day, deferred +the longed-for yet dreaded decision. When ready to speak, prudence +whispered that it would be better to leave the question open until it +should come up of itself. She would learn every day to know him better +in his own home, where all the artificialities of life are stripped from +a man, by the concurrent abrasions of family love and domestic +_devoirs_. She would see that, however unworthy of her love he might +have seemed in the old boyish days at Acredale, now he could be a man +when manliness was demanded; that he could be patient, reticent, humble +in the trials her caprice or coquetry put upon him. She had, it seemed +to him, deepened and broadened the current of his love during these +blissful weeks of waiting. Her very reserve, under the new conditions +surrounding her, had made more luminous the beauty of her heart and +mind. She was no longer the airy, capricious Olympia of his college +days. The pensive gravity of misfortune and premature responsibility had +ennobled and made more tangible the traits that had won him in her +Northern home. She had not avoided him during these weeks of purifying +probation, as he feared she would. Of late--Jack's state being +secure--she had revived much of the old vivacity, and deepened the +thrall that held him. + +But now the merry-making season which had opened before them was at an +end. The madrigals that welled up in his soft heart must sing themselves +in the silence of the night, in the camp yonder, with no ears to +comprehend, no heart to melt to them. He should probably not get a +chance to see her again during the conflict. How long? Perhaps a +year--for it would take two campaigns, as the rebel leaders reckoned, to +convince the North that the Confederacy was unconquerable! And what +might not happen during those momentous months? Perhaps Jack's +death?--and then they would be divided as by fire--or, if the conflict +resulted victoriously for the South, as he knew it must, he foresaw that +the soldier of the conquering army would not be received as a wooer in +the family of the defeated. He knew her so well! She would, in the very +pride of outraged patriotism, give her love to one of the defeated, +rather than add to the triumphs of the hated South. She had strong +convictions on the war. She hated slavery, and she could not be made to +see that the South was warring for liberty, not to sustain slavery. +These thoughts ran through Vincent's troubled mind as his mother +directed the preparations for the _fête_ of the President. + +Kate, Jack, and Dick were pressed into the service of decorating the +apartments. Olympia left the room with her mother to advise and assist +in making ready for the journey North; and Vincent, aiding his mother +with a sadly divided mind, kept furtive watch on the hallway. She held +him hours in suspense, he thought, almost wrathfully, of deliberate +purpose; for she must have read in his eyes that he wanted to talk with +her. The artless Dick finally gave him a chance. + +"I say, Vint, get Polly to show you the roses needed for the tables; +I'll be with you by-and-by to cut the ferns. Do you think you could make +yourself of that much use? You're not worth a straw here" + +"Send for Miss Polly and I'll do my best," Vincent said, with a gulp, to +conceal his joy. She appeared presently; and, as they were passing out +of the door, Rosa cried, imperiously: + +"Oh, yes, Vint, we need ever so much honeysuckle; you know where it +hangs thickest--in the Owl's Glen. Olympia will like to see that--the +haunt of her favorite bird"; and the busy little maid laughed cheerily, +like a disordered goddess, intoxicated by the exhaling odors of the +floral chaos. + +"_En route_ for Roumelia, then," Vincent cried in military cadence, as +the florists set out. Roumelia was the name Jack had given the +rose-lands near the stream, in fanciful allusion to the Turkish province +of flowers. Halting at the gardener's cottage, Vincent procured an +immense pair of shears, like a double rapier in size, and, bidding the +man follow to gather the blossoms, he pushed into the blooming vineyard. + +"With such an instrument I should say it was the golden fleece you were +after," Olympia cried, as he reached her side, "though I believe Jason +didn't do the shearing." + +"No, the powers of air worked for him, and he found his quest ready to +his hand." + +"I'm sure the powers of air have not denied you; look at those radiant +ranks of blossoms bending to be gathered." + +"Ah, yes, beauty stoops sometimes to welcome the trembling hand of the +suitor." + +"Your hand is rather unsteady--infirm of purpose; give me the blades." +She took them laughingly, and snipped the green stems rapidly and +dexterously. + +"Yes, I believe men are infirm in moral purposes, as compared to women. +It is only in the brutalities of life that men are decisive." + +"Do you mean that women approach the trials of life less thinkingly and +act less rationally than men?" + +"Yes and no. The daring too much is always before a man; the daring too +little is, I think, the only trouble a woman has." + +"Oh, that is a large question, involving too much mental strain in a +garden of roses, where the senses sleep and one is content with mere +breath and the faintest motion." + +"There are enough roses; now we will go for the wild smilax and +honeysuckle; perhaps the cool air of the pools will restore your mental +activities." + +They left the dismembered roses scattered in fragrant heaps on the +shaded path and walked slowly toward the dense hedge. + +"What a perfect fortress this green wall makes of the gardens!" Olympia +said, glancing around the great square, where the solid green wall could +be seen running up much higher than their heads. + +"Yes, as I said the other day, it would take hard work for an invading +force to get at the house unless traitors within gave up the gates. This +one," he added, unlocking a massive oak door, crossed with thick planks +and studded with iron bolts, "alone admits from the creek and swamp. It +is locked all the time; no one has the key except the gardener, who +delivers it to mamma every night." + +"A feudal demesne; it takes one back to the so-called days of chivalry." + +"Why do you say 'so-called'? To me they are the delight of the +past--when men went to battle for the smile of the women they loved, +when knights rode the world over in search of adventure, and my lady, in +her donjon, listened with pleasure to the lover's roundelay. Ah, it was +a perfect life, an enchanting time. We are living in a coarse, brutal +age; chivalry was the creed of civilization, the knights the priesthood +of the higher life." + +"There's the Southerner through and through in that sentimentality. To +me chivalry means all that is narrow, cruel, and rapacious in man. The +philandering knights were sensual boobies, the simpering dames soulless +wantons. Life meant simply the rule of the strong, the slaughter of the +weak. Servitude was its law and robbery its methods. Have you ever +traveled in out-of-the-way places in Germany, Austria, or Italy?" + +"No, I've never been abroad." + +"You would know better what I mean if you had seen the monstrous relics +of the age you admire. The few ruled the many; the knights were simply a +brotherhood of blood and rapine; men were slaves, women were worse. The +bravest were as unlettered as your body-servant, the most beautiful +dames as termagant as Penelope the cook. At the table men and women ate +from a common dish, without forks or spoons. Men guzzled gallons of +unfermented wine. A bath was unknown. Cleanliness was as unpracticed as +Islamism in New York. Ugh! anything but chivalry for me." + +"But surely the great lords were not what you represent. They were +gentle born, gentle bred. They could not be robbers; they lived from +great estates." + +"They were the 'Knights of St. Nicholas,' which, in the slang of the +middle ages, meant what they call in the West road agents; indeed, plain +highwaymen they were called in England in Bacon's day." + +Vincent bent over discomfited, and held the little shallop until Olympia +was seated, and then pushed off into the murky stream. + +"Do you see those streamers of loveliness waving welcome to you, fair +damsel--Nature knows its kind?" + +"That's one word for me and one for yourself," she cried, seizing the +dainty pink sprays that now trailed over her head and shoulders as the +boat glided along the fringe of hushes supporting the clinging vines. + +"Oh, no, Olympia; I can't speak even one word for myself. I have been +trembling to do it this six weeks, but your eye had none of the +invitation these starry blossoms offer us. I am going to say now, +Olympia, what I have to say--for after to-day there will be no chance; +what has been on my mind you have long known. You know that I love you; +how much I love you, how impossible it is to think of life without you, +I dare not venture to say to you, for you distrust our Southern +exaggeration. But I do love you; ah, my God! all the world else--my +mother, my sister, my duty seem nothing compared to the one passionate +hope in my breast. Do you believe me, Olympia--do you doubt me?" + +"Far from it, Vincent--dear Vincent--no--no--sit where you are and +listen to me--" She was deeply moved, and the lover in his heart cursed +the luckless veils of blossom that she apparently, without design, drew +before her face. "I do believe all you say; I knew it before you said +it. But you remember we went over this very same ground before. Since +then, it is true, you have been the means of saving us much misery; how +much I hardly dare think of when I look back to that dreadful day, when +mamma lay in the fever of coming disease and the hopelessness of +despair. All I can say, dear, dear Vincent, is what I said before. Wait +until thine and mine are no longer at war. Wait until one flag +covers us--" + +"But that can never be!" + +"Wait! I have faith that it will be!" + +"If one flag should cover us--my flag--would you--would you--?" + +"Ah, Vincent! don't ask me; don't force me to say something thing that +will make you unhappy, since I don't know my own mind well enough yet to +answer as you wish me to answer--" + +"But you can tell me now whether you love me, or, at least, whether +there is any one you love more?" + +"I don't think I love you. I know, however, that I think no more of any +one else than I think of you; pray, let that suffice." + +"But how cruel that is, Olympia! It is as much, as to say that you won't +wait and see whether you may meet some one that you can be surer of than +you are of me?" + +"I must distress you whatever I say, Vincent! Frankly, I don't think you +can decide just now whether your heart is really engaged. I think you do +not know me as a man should knows the woman he makes his wife. I am +certain I do not know you. If you had been born and bred in the North, I +should have no difficulty in deciding; but your ways are so different +here: women are accorded so much before marriage, and made so little of +a man's life after marriage, that I shrink from a promise which, if +lightly or inconsiderately given, would bring the last misery a woman +can confront." + +"What, Olympia! you think Southern men do not hold marriage to be +sacred?" + +"I think that the Southern man has a good deal of the knight you spoke +of in him, and, like the Frenchman, marries inconsiderately, and does +penance in infidelity, at least to the form, if not the fact, of the +relation." + +"O Olympia! where do you get such repulsive ideas of us; who has been +traducing us to you?" + +"I judge from the Southern men I have seen North; pardon me, Vincent, I +do not see how it can be otherwise in a society based upon human +servitude. To live on the labors of a helot people blunts the finer +sensibilities of men and women alike; when you can look unshrinkingly at +the separation of husband and wife on the auction-block, when you can +see innocent children taken from their mothers and sold into eternal +separation, I think it is not unnatural in me to fear that a woman with +my convictions would not be happy mated with a Southerner. All this is +cruel, I fear you will think, but it would be crueller for me to +encourage a love that, under present circumstances, would bring misery +to both of us." + +"You are an abolitionist?" + +"Yes; every right-thinking person in the North is an abolitionist to +this extent; we want the South to take the remedy into its own hands, to +free its slaves voluntarily; the radical abolitionists prefer a violent +means. That I do not seek or did not; but now, Vincent, it is bound +to come." + +"And, if it should come, what would you answer to my question?" + +"Here is a white rose: I picked it with my hand, and, you see, a drop of +my blood is on it; when you can give me a rose with a drop of your blood +on it as free from taint as the stain mine makes, I shall have an answer +that will not be unworthy your waiting for!" + +"Unworthy! I don't understand you. Surely, you don't think me a +profligate?" + +"When the time comes that no human being acknowledges your ownership, +perhaps you may receive a voluntary bond-maid, bound to you by stronger +ties than the chattel of the slave." + +"But you love me, then, Olympia?" + +"I can not love where I do not reverence." + +"But it is not my fault that slaves are my inheritance!" + +"It will be your fault if they are your support when you are your own +master." + +"You love an idea better than you love a man who would die for you!" + +"I love manliness and the sense of right, which is called duty, better +than I love a man who is blind to the first impulse of real manhood--" + +"Would you ask a Jew to give up his synagogue to gain your hand?" + +"The synagogue is the temple of a creed as divine as my own, and the +faith of the man I loved would never swerve me in accepting or +refusing him." + +"We of the South believe slavery a divine institution--that is, first +established by the fathers!" + +"The tribes in the Fiji Islands believe man-eating an ordinance of the +gods!" + +"Well, this sort of discussion leads to nothing," Vincent said, +ruefully. "The world is well lost for the woman one loves, when I come +to you shorn of my world!" + +"Ah! then, Vincent, you will find another!" + +He drew her hand from the clinging vines and kissed it. + +"I am very happy. I shall lose my world with a very light heart." + +"The world is a very tough brier; we sometimes bring it closer, when its +thorns prick us more painfully in the struggles to cast it off." + +"Then I'll cut the brambles, and not risk tearing my flesh!" + +"That's the soldier's way--the heroic way; but wait for the future; I am +young and you are not old." + +Vincent's gayety when they returned to the drawing-room attracted the +observant Dick, and he slyly whispered to the warrior, "Been practicing +the Roman strategy with the Sabines?" + +"No, I've been at the Temple of Minerva and taken a pledge to hold my +tongue." + +"Ah! the goddess of the owls; but, as they see light only in darkness, I +fear you groped in blackness." + +The whole household were to meet President Davis and his party in +Williamsburg, assist at the review, and get back with the distinguished +guests in time for a state dinner. Merry and Mrs. Sprague were reluctant +to go, but they feared a refusal would be misunderstood. Poor Merry was +very tearful and disconsolate at the thought of leaving Dick, but she +strove heroically to hide her grief when the cavalcade set out, the +elder ladies driving, the young people mounted. The ancient capital of +Virginia was aflame with the new rebel bunting. President Davis, with +Generals Lee and Magruder, were in place on the pretty green before the +old colonial college edifice when the Rosedale people came up. Davis +saluted Mrs. Atterbury with cordial urbanity; but, as the troops were +already in column, there was only time for hasty presentation of the +strangers. + +Jack watched the rather piebald pageant with absorbed interest. The +infantry marched wretchedly. The arms were as varied as the uniforms, +and the artillery seemed a relic of Jackson's time. But the cavalry was +superb. Never had he seen such splendid ranks, such noble horses. At +sight of the tall, elegant figure of the President, the troops broke +into the peculiar shrill cheer that afterward became a sound of wonder, +almost terror, to unaccustomed Northern ears. It was a mingling of the +boyish treble of college cries and the menacing shriek of the wild-cat. +Jack was secretly very much delighted with the review. More than half +the rank and file were mere boys; and he could see that they were +unruly, almost to point-blank disregard of their officers commands, or +the prescriptions of the manual. It would take short work for the +disciplined hosts the new Northern general was training, to sweep such +chaff from the field of war. Vincent saw something of this in his +comrade's eye, and a good deal nettled himself by the slovenly march and +humorous abandon of the men, he said: + +"You must remember, Jack, our army is made up of gentlemen's sons; the +gentry of the South are all in arms, and we can't at once reduce them to +the mere machines a more heterogeneous soldiery can be made. The men who +won Manassas passed in review a day or two before the battle, and they +made the same impression upon me--upon Beauregard himself--that I see +these men have made on you. Depend upon it, in a fight they will be good +soldiers." + +"Let me have the poor comfort of underrating my enemy, the thing above +all others that a wise man shuns and a fool indulges." + +"Oh, on that theory revile them if you like." + +"No, indeed; I'm far from reviling them. The cavalry is magnificent. I +don't think we have a regiment in our army that can compare with that +brigade. Who commands it?" + +"Jeb Stuart--the Murat of the South," Vincent said, proudly. "I'm going +to tell the President what you said of the brigade; you know he is +passionately fond of the army, and really wanted to be the +commander-in-chief, when they made him President at Montgomery." + +At sunset the President and General Lee entered the carriage with Mrs. +Atterbury and Mrs. Sprague, Merry driving in a phaeton with Kate, who +didn't enjoy so long a ride on the horse. + +"I'm glad we've got such important hostages as yourself and son," Davis +said gallantly to Mrs. Sprague, as the carriage passed out of the clamor +of acclamation the crowd set up. "I knew the Senator, your husband, +intimately. If he had lived, I doubt whether we should have been driven +out of the Union. He was, in my mind, one of the most prudent statesmen +that came from the North to Congress." + +"He certainly never would have consented to break up the Union," Mrs. +Sprague said, in embarrassment. + +"Nor should I, madam, if there had been any further security in it. The +truth is, there was nothing left for us but to go out or be kicked out. +The leaders of the Abolition party long ago proclaimed that. However, +war settles all such problems. When it is settled by the sword we shall +be satisfied." + +Mrs. Atterbury changed the conversation by asking how Mrs. Davis liked +Richmond. + +"Oh, she has been treated royally by the people there. I declare +Richmond is as Southern a city as Charleston. I have been agreeably +surprised by the absolute unanimity of gentle and simple in the cause. +My wife receives a clothes-basketful of letters every morning from the +mothers of the Confederacy proffering time, money, and service wherever +she can suggest anything for them to do. I propose later on establishing +an order something like the Golden Fleece, which shall confer a certain +social precedence upon the wearers. I have thousands of letters on the +subject, and as the society of the South is, as a matter of fact, a +society of gentle-folk--for the most part lineally descended from the +nobility of older countries--I think it proper and right that lineage +should have certain acknowledged advantages in the new commonwealth. But +I propose to go further, and institute an order of something like +nobility for women--who have thus far given us great help and +encouragement. Indeed, there are many in the Congress--a dozen Senators +I could name--who think that we ought to make our regime entirely +different from the North, and that we should adopt a monarchical form--" + +"I'm sure, I think we should," Mrs. Atterbury exclaimed, delightedly. +"We are really as unlike the Northern people as the French or +the Germans." + +"The strongest argument for declaring the Confederacy an empire is the +one that weighed with Napoleon I. We should at one stroke secure the +alliance of all the monarchies. They have never looked with favor on the +experiment of a powerful republic over here, and it is almost certain +they would befriend us for transforming this mighty infant state into an +empire. However, that is for future action. Our agents abroad have sent +us full reports on the matter." + +"I doubt the wisdom of ever hinting such a thing," General Lee said, +gravely. "We must show that we are able to act independently in +selecting our form of government. I doubt very much whether the masses +would listen favorably to an empire established by foreign aid." + +"Possibly, general, possibly. As I said before, there will be time +enough for that when, like Napoleon, we have made our armies the masters +of this continent. Then, with boundaries embracing Mexico, Canada, and +the Western States--for they can never exist independent of us--we can +choose empire, republic, or a Venetian oligarchy." + +As they came in sight of Rosedale, Davis stood up in the carriage to get +a better view of the landscape, which showed swift alternations of dense +thickets and wood and rolling acres of rich crops. + +"What a State Virginia is!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm. "It has the +climate and soil to support half of Europe. Mother of Presidents in the +past, it will be the granary and magazine of the Confederacy in ten +years. My own State, Mississippi, is rich in land, but the climate is +hard for the stranger. It enervates the European at first. But we are an +agricultural people, or rather we give our energies to our staple, +cotton; that is to be the chief treasure of the Confederacy." + +Dinner was ready for the table when the guests came from their rooms. +Davis excused his lack of ceremonial dress, saying pleasantly: + +"I am something of a soldier, you know, and travel with a light train. +Lee, there, has the advantage of me. A soldier's uniform is court +costume the world over." + +"But you are the commander-in-chief, Mr. President. Don't you have a +uniform?" + +"No. I am commander-in-chief only in law. Congress is really the +commander-in-chief. The man that assumes those duties can attend to them +alone. He is, of course, subject to the executive; but only in general +plans, rarely in details." + +Davis was placed at Mrs. Atterbury's right, Mrs. Sprague at her left, +General Lee sat at Vincent's right, _vis-à-vis_ to Jack, who was lost in +prodigious admiration of the Socratic-like chieftain--Lee was as yet +unknown to all but a discriminating few in the Confederacy. He was as +tall as Davis fully six feet--but more rounded and symmetrical. He spoke +with great gravity, but seemed to enjoy the jests that the young people +found opportunities to indulge in, when it was seen that the President +devoted his talk exclusively to the hostess or Mrs. Sprague. Davis was a +good talker, and charmed the company with reminiscences of old times +in Congress. + +"I don't remember Lincoln distinctly," he said, concluding a +reminiscence, "but I think he's the man that used to be so popular in +the House cloak-room, telling stories which were said to be +extremely droll." + +"Mrs. Lincoln is in some sort kin to Mrs. Davis, isn't she?" Mrs. +Atterbury asked. "I have read it somewhere." + +"Very distant. Mrs. Lincoln is of the Kentucky Tods, and they were in +some way kin of my wife's family, the Howells. Not enough to put on +mourning, if Mrs. Lincoln should become a widow." + +"Is it true, Mr. President, that a society in the North has offered a +million dollars for your capture--abduction? I heard it in Williamsburg, +and saw an allusion to it in _The Examiner_ the other day." + +"Oh, I'm sure I can't say. If the offer were authenticated, I should be +tempted to go and get the reward myself. With a million dollars I could +do a good deal more for the cause in the North than I can here, making +brigadiers and settling questions of precedence between Cabinet +ministers, judges, and Senators." + +"Mr. President, give me an exchange North, and I will ascertain the +facts in the million-dollar offer and write you faithfully how to set +about getting the money," Jack said, very soberly, from his end of +the table. + +"Ah! the Yankee spoke there--nothing if not a bargain. Sir, you deserve +your clearance papers, but I'm too good a friend of Mrs. Atterbury and +her daughter to bring about the loss of company that I am sure must be +agreeable. Then, too, there's no telling the miracles of conversion that +may be brought about by such ministers as Miss Rosa there." + +Rosa blushed, Jack felt foolish, and everybody laughed except Dick, who +looked unutterable things at his adored, and boldly entered the lists +against the great personage by asking, in a quivering treble: + +"Doesn't the Bible say that the wife shall cleave to the husband; that +his people shall be her people, his God her God, where he goes +she goes?" + +"It is so said in the Bible, sir; but it was a woman that uttered it, +and she was in love. When you know more of the sex, you will understand +that women in love are like poets; they say much that they don't mean, +and more that they don't understand." + +"But, Mr. President, what the one woman said in the Bible all women +practice. You never knew a woman that didn't believe her husband's +beliefs, hate his hates, love his loves." + +Davis smiled, and his eyes twinkled kindly on his boyish inquisitor. + +"I know only one woman. That is as much as a man can speak for. She +doesn't hate my hates, love my loves, or enter unprotestingly into all +my ways. Indeed, I may say that, being a peaceful man, I wanted to +remain in Washington, for I believed that Seward was sincere in pleading +for a compromise; but the woman I speak of had her own opinion convinced +me that she was right, and I came to my own people." + +At this moment there was a diversion. A soldier, booted and spurred, +entered the room, walked to the head of the table, and bending +deferentially to the President, said; + +"I am ordered to deliver this message wherever you may be found." He +handed Davis a large envelope and retreated respectfully two or three +paces backward. Everybody affected to resume conversation as the +President, breaking the seal, said; + +"Pardon me a moment, madam." But he had no sooner ran over the lines +than he turned to the courier, crying, in visible discomfiture: + +"When did you leave the war office?" + +"At five o'clock, sir." + +"General, we must return instantly to Richmond; a hundred or more of the +prisoners have broken out of Libby! It is reported that a column of the +enemy with gunboats have passed up the James.--Madam, this is one of the +exigencies of a time of war. I needn't say to an Atterbury that +everything must give way to public business!" He called Lee aside, spoke +rapidly to him, and the latter, beckoning Vincent, left the room. He +returned in ten minutes, announcing that everything was in readiness to +set out. The carriage with Mrs. Sprague's and Merry's small luggage was +ready when the cavalcade set out, Davis riding with them and the cavalry +company from below, divided into squadrons before and behind the +carriage. It was eleven o'clock as the last dark line of the troop +disappeared. Olympia and Jack stood at the great gate in mournful +silence. The swiftness of the parting had lessened the pain, but their +minds were full of the sorrow that follows the inevitable. Mrs. Sprague +had herself declined to postpone the ordeal when Mrs. Atterbury pointed +out the untimely hour. No, it was better to suffer this slight +inconvenience to have Vincent's protecting presence all the way to the +Union lines; and Jack, acknowledging this, didn't say a word to dissuade +her. Vincent's last act was to call Jack to his room. + +"I wanted to tell you, Jack, what a great joy it has been to me--it has +been to all of us--to have you in our home at this trying time. I can +not tell you how much comfort it has been to me now, but some time you +shall know," Vincent stammered, and began to open a drawer in the +bureau. "Here is something I want you to accept as a keepsake from me." +He drew forth a pistol-case and opened it. "It will be a melancholy +pleasure for me to feel, in the dark days to come, that these weapons +may prove your friend in battle, where I must be your enemy." + +"By George, they're beauties!" Jack cried, taking the weapons out. + +"Yes; they were bought last year, and I have had J.S. cut on one, and +V.A. on the other. I meant them for your Christmas last year, but they +were mislaid." + +"What a kind fellow you are, Vint! I don't think I ought to take these." + +"Why not? I have others! I shall feel easier, knowing that you have +them. You can stow them about you easily, they are so small." + +"But it's against the laws of war for a prisoner to be armed." + +"That's just the reason I haven't asked you to take them before. You can +leave them here in my room until you are exchanged, and then you can +carry them with impunity." + +The household assembled at the gate leading into the roadway as the +cavalcade took up the march. There were sad, sobbing farewells +spoken--the kindly night covering the tears, and the loud neighing of +the horses drowning the sobs. + +The Northern group remained in the roadway, straining their eyes to +catch the last glimpse of the wanderers as they disappeared in the misty +foliage, far up the roadway. + +The horizon to the zenith was full of shimmering star-points, Olympia, +with Jack, turned slowly toward the house, silent and not wholly sad. +Dick, in a low treble, could be heard just behind them, quoting +melancholy verses to Rosa; and the brother and sister returned slowly up +the dewy, odorous path. At the porch Rosa exclaimed, in surprise: + +"I wonder where Pizarro is? I haven't seen him while we have been out. +It can't be possible he has followed Vincent! What shall we do if +he has?" + +"Make Dick take his place. A terrier is sometimes as faithful as a +mastiff," Jack said, quickly. + +"Oh! Miss Atterbury wants something with a bite, rather than a bark, and +a terrier wouldn't do," the boy answered. + +"I want Pizarro. I shall never sleep a wink all night if he isn't here," +Rosa said, in consternation; "he is better than a regiment of soldiers, +for he won't let a human being come near the house after the doors are +closed, not even the servants." + +An expedition, calling upon Pizarro in many keys, set out and wandered +through the grounds, back to the quarters, to the gates leading to the +rose-fields, to the stable, but Pizarro was not to be found. Lights were +burning in the hall only when the four re-entered, and with a very grave +face Rosa bade the rest good-night. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +A CATASTROPHE. + + +Rosedale had been a bed of thorns to Wesley Boone since his recovery. He +felt that he was an incongruous visitor among the rest, as a hawk might +feel in a dove-cote. He would have willingly returned to Richmond--even +at the risk of re-entering the prison--if Kate had not been on his +hands. The life of the place, the constant necessity of masking his +aversion to the Spragues, his detestation of Dick, the simple +merry-making and intimate amenities of such close quarters, tasked his +small art of dissimulation beyond even the most practiced powers. The +garment of duplicity was gossamer, he felt, after all, in such +atmosphere of loyalty and trust as surrounded him at Rosedale. + +He knew that in the daily attrition and conventional intimacies of the +table, the drawing-room, or the promenade, the cloak covering his +resentful antipathy, his moral perversities, his thinly veiled +impatience, was worn to such thin shreds that eyes keen as Jack's must +see and know him as he was. What was hatefulest and most unendurable of +all was the bondage of truce in which the Atterburys held him. Wesley +was no coward, and he ached to meet Jack face to face, arm to arm, and +settle with that thoughtless insubordinate a rankling list of griefs +heaped up in moments of over-vivacious frankness. He would make Jack +smart for his arrogance, his insolence, his cursed condescension so soon +as they were back among the Caribees. + +But meanwhile, here, daily tortured by harmless things--tortured by his +soul's imaginings--Wesley was becoming a burden to Kate, who saw too +plainly that he was in misery, and realized that it was largely through +his own inherent weakness and insincerity. He had all the coarse fiber +of his father without the same force in its texture. With merely +superficial good manners, he was never certain whether the punctilious +niceties observed toward him by the Spragues and Atterburys were not a +species of studied satire. Vincent, who had never shown him the +slightest consideration in Acredale, treated him here with the +chivalrous decorum that the code of the South demanded in those days to +a guest. Wesley ground his teeth under the burden, not quite sure +whether it was mockery or malevolence. He watched with malignant +attentiveness the imperceptible change of tone and manner that marked +the family's treatment of the Spragues. There was none of the grave +ceremoniousness he resented in the Atterburys' behavior with them. + +Jack was a hobbledehoy son of the house, almost as much as Vincent. +Kate, too, was, he felt certain, treated with a reserve not shown to +Mrs. Sprague or Merry. Brooding on this, brooding on the unhappiness of +his own disposition, which denied him the privilege of enjoying the best +at the moment, indifferent to what might be behind, Wesley had come to +hate the Atterburys for the burden of an obligation that he could never +lift. He hated Mrs. Atterbury for her high-bred, easy ignoring of all +conditions save those that she exacted. He hated Rosa for her gayety, +her absorption in the young scamp Dick. He hated Vincent because he +seemed to think there was no one in the North but the Spragues worthy of +a moment's consideration. It is in hate as in love--what we seek we +find. Every innocent word and sign that passed in the group, in which he +did not seek to make himself one, Wesley construed as a gird at him or +his family. Constantly on the watch for slights or disparagements, the +most thoughtless acts of the two groups were taken by the tormented +egotist as in some sense a disparagement to his own good repute or his +family standing. + +Nor were the marked affection and confidence shown Kate by everybody in +the house a mitigation of this malign fabric of humiliation. Jack's +fondness for Kate had not escaped the observant eyes of Dick, who had +confided the secret to Rosa, who had likewise unraveled it to mamma, +and, as she kept nothing from Vincent, the Atterburys had that sort of +interest in Kate that intimate spectators always show in love affairs, +where there are no clashing interests involved. It was a moot question, +however, between the three, when, after weeks of observation, Mrs. +Atterbury declared that Jack was not in love with Miss Boone. "He can't +be," she declared. "He doesn't seek her alone; he doesn't make up to her +in the evening. Half the time when they come together it is by Dick's +arrangement. _He_ seems to be in love with Kate." + +"How absurd!" Rosa cried, with a laugh; "a boy like him! Why, he would +be in school, if there were no war." + +"Well, Rosa, I fancy that Dick hasn't found war very much different from +school, so far. He seems to recite a good deal to the mistress, and +occupies the dunce's block quite regularly," Vincent retorted, with a +provoking significance that set mamma in a brown study and suspended the +comments on Kate's and Jack's probable sentiments. + +Mrs. Sprague and Wesley were the only people in the house who had no +suspicion of a deeper feeling than mere passing goodfellowship between +Jack and Kate. Both were blinded by the same confidence. The mother +could never conceive a son of the house of Sprague making such a breach +on the family traditions as a union with a Boone. Wesley could not +conceive a sister of his giving her heart to the son of a family that +had insolently refused to concede social equality to her father. +Something of Wesley's miserable inner unrest could not fail to be +visible to the Atterburys, but the less congenial he became the more +watchfully considerate they made their treatment of him. He was their +guest, with all the sacred rights and immunities that quality implies, +in the exaggerated code of the Southern host. Kate was the single power +that Wesley had bent his headstrong will before, ever since he was a +boy. His father he obeyed, while in his presence, trusting to wheedling +to make his peace in the event of disobedience. But Kate he +couldn't wheedle. + +She was relentless in her scorn for his meannesses and follies, and, +though he did not always heed her counsels, he proved their justness by +finding his own course wrong. Kate, however, hesitated about +remonstrating with him on his deepening moodiness, for she was not quite +sure whether it was mad jealousy of Dick's favor in Rosa's eyes, or a +secret purpose to attempt to fly from the gentle bondage of Rosedale. +Wesley with Rosa it was remarked by Kate, was, or seemed to be, his +better self, or rather better than the self with which others identified +him. It was, however, she feared, more to torment Dick, than because she +found Wesley to her liking, that the little maid often carried the moody +captain off into the garden, pretending to teach him the varied flora of +that blooming domain. Dick remarked these excursions with growing +impatience, and visited his anger upon Rosa in protests so pungent and +woe-begone that she was forced to own to him that she only pretended an +interest in the captain, so that he might not think he was shut out of +the confidence of the circle. + +"And who cares if he does think he is shut out, I should like to know? +He is a sneak, and I don't like to have you talking with him alone," +Dick cries, quite in the tone of the Benedict who has passed the +marriage-portal and feels safe to make his will known. + +"I should like to know what right you have to order what I shall or +shall not do?" Rosa protests, half angry, half laughing. "Why, you talk +like a grown man--like a husband. How dare you?" + +Dick pauses confused, and looks guiltily about at this. + +"Ah, if you put it that way I have no right except this: My whole heart +is yours. You know that. You may not have given me all yours." +(Protesting shrug from Rosa's shoulders.) "Well, all the same; if my +heart is all your own you have a duty in the case. You ought to spare +your own property from pain." (Rosa laughs softly.) "Of course you are +right. You are always right. How could such a beautiful being be wrong!" +The artful rogue slips his arm about her waist at this, and, after a +feeble struggle, he is permitted to hold this outwork unprotested. + +"And, Rosa, if I speak like a man, it is because I am a man. Wasn't it +the part of maids in the old times to inspire the arm of their +sweethearts; to make them constant in danger, brave in battle, and +patient in defeat? Are you less than any of the damsels we read of in +chivalry? Am I not a man when I look in your dear eyes and see nothing +worldlier than love, nothing earthlier than truth there?" + +"What a blarney you are! I must really get Vint to send you away, or he +will have a Yankee brother-in-law." + +"And the Perleys will have a rebel at the head of the house." + +Now, this silly prattle had been carried on in the arbor near the +library, and Wesley, sitting under the curtain, had heard every word of +it. Neither the words nor the unmistakable sounds that lips meeting lips +make, which followed, served to soothe his angry discontent. This was +early on the great Davis gala day, and thereafter he disappeared from +the scene. He made one of the party to Williamsburg, and, though +distraught in the conversation, was keenly alert to all he saw. + +Rallied upon his reticence, he had snubbed Kate and turned disdainfully +from Jack's polite proffers to guide him through the review. He had +studied Davis all through the manoeuvres with a furtive, fascinated +attention, which Mrs. Atterbury remarked with complacency, attributing +it to awe. At the dinner-table, seated between Kate and Merry, he had +never taken his eye from the chief of the Confederacy. Twice the +President, courteously addressing him, he had blushed guiltily and +dropped his gaze. Before the dinner was half over he pleaded a severe +headache, and, bidding his hostess good-night, hurried from the room. +The wide hall was deserted; the moon threw broad swaths of light on the +cool matting, and he halted for an instant, breathing rapidly. Something +lying on the rug at the door moved languidly. Wesley, looking carefully +about, moved swiftly to the spot and stopped. Pizarro raised his head, +whining amicably, and, as Wesley bent over to pat him, wagged his tail +with a spasmodic thud against the floor, in sign of goodfellowship. + +"Come, Pizarro, come with me," Wesley said, coaxingly. But the dog, +redoubling the tattoo with his tail, remained obstinately at his post. +Wesley stole to the end of the hall and listened, then, hearing the busy +clamor of the servants moving from the kitchen to the dining-room, he +retraced his steps to the stairs, bounded lightly up and in three +minutes reappeared, and, keeping his eyes on the half-closed doors, +slipped softly to Pizarro. The dog sniffed excitedly, and as Wesley took +a thick parcel from his coat-pocket the beast leaped up and attempted +to seize it. + +"Follow me, Pizarro, and you shall have it." He held up the packet, a +red, glistening slice of raw beef. The dog whined ecstatically and +Wesley, holding a morsel of it just out of his reach, retreated up the +stairs. Pizarro bounded after him as if construing the by-play into a +challenge, and frisking in all sorts of fantastic shapes to win the +savory prize. The door of Wesley's room was open, and as the dog came +abreast of it he flung a piece into the apartment. Pizarro, lowering his +sniffing nose, looked at the tempting bit sidewise, and then wagging his +tail in modest deprecation of his boldness, made a start inward. It was +swallowed in an instant, and then, as Wesley entered, the door was +closed. Pizarro, by the humility of his manner, the lowered head and +sidelong glance, asked pardon for intruding upon the privacy of a guest, +but argued with his ears and by short yelps, in extenuation, that such a +feast as a bit of meat--after an active day, when the servants had +forgotten to feed him--no dog with a healthy appetite could resist, no +matter how perfect his breeding. He was ready for the larger ration +Wesley held in his hand. + +Wesley held the temptation in his hand until he had lured the dog into a +large closet communicating with the bedroom by a locked door. Once in, +the door was shut, and the young man sank on a seat in a thrill of +grateful relief. + +"That danger's over," he muttered. "Now to see who is in the upper +rooms." + +Perfect silence on the upper floor; only the solemn shadows of the +night, as the moon rises higher and higher, and the plaintive cries of +the night-birds alone betoken life. Through the windows the +white-jacketed house-servants are rushing gayly to and from the +dining-room. All the rooms are dimly lighted. The President's apartment +is fragrant with blossoms, and the lace counterpane turned down. +Retracing his steps, Wesley enters Vincent's room on the corridor with +his own. The candle is burning dimly on the mantel. He seems to know his +whereabouts very well for he makes straight for a bureau between the bed +and the window. He takes from the top drawer a pistol-case, which he has +evidently handled before, as he touches the spring at once. He takes out +one pistol, and, rapidly extracting the loads, puts it back. He has +taken four out of the five barrels of the second when a sound of +footsteps in the hall startles him. He has barely time to replace the +weapons, close the case, put it in the drawer and crawl under the bed, +when Vincent and Jack enter. + +His suspense and terror are so overmastering that he can only hear an +occasional word. His own heart-beats sound in his ears like the thumping +of a paddle. Is Vincent going to bed? Are Jack and he going to sit and +smoke, as they often do? No, relief beyond words, they are going out! +Perhaps to Jack's room? They often sit there until very late, and then +Vincent slips in stocking-feet to his own room. But they are gone, and +he must fly. He dares not return to extract the last charge. But one +ball can't do much hurt in the dark, and, if his plans are carried out +with care, there will be no chance for any one to use the weapons on the +rescuing party, even if he were disposed to. In a moment Wesley is back +in his room, marking, with surprise, that there is no sound from Jack's +or Dick's room. But all is well. He is in his own room and secure +from surprise. + +He sat down to think. He must keep everything in mind. One whippoorwill +cry from outside would mean that all was well; two that he must hurry to +the rendezvous. It seemed like a dream. Davis, the arch-rebel, the chief +architect of the Confederacy, under the same roof; in an hour, if no +hitch come, the traitor would be bound and flying in trusty Union hands. +And when they got North?--when he, Wesley Boone, handed over to the +authorities in Washington this hateful chief of a hateful cause, what +fame would be his! No one could dispute it. He had informed Butler's +agent; he had watched day and night; had given the Unionists plans of +the grounds; was now periling his own rescue to bring the arch-traitor +to his doom. Ah! what in all history would compare with this glorious +daring? He sat glowing in dreams of such delicious, roseate delight, +that he took no heed of time, and was startled when he heard Dick and +Jack bidding each other good-night. Then in a few minutes be heard +Jack's door open and a tap at Dick's door. + +"Come to my room. I want to show you a present I got to-night." Then +silence. Wesley had no watch. The rebels had relieved him of that at +Bull Run. But it must be quite midnight. He opened one of the windows +softly. Oh, the glory of the night, harbinger of his high emprise, his +deathless glory! The wondrous, wondrous stillness of the scene--and to +think that over yonder, in the dark depths of the forest, fifty, perhaps +a hundred, men were waiting for him--for him? Yes, the mighty arms of +the Union were about him; the trump of a fame, such as no song had ever +sung, was poised to blow to the world his daring. Hark! Heavens, yes; +the long, tender plaint of the whippoorwill. Ah! now, now there was no +doubt. In swooning delight he waits. Good Heaven! What's that sound? +Angels and ministers of grace, the dead in wailing woe over the deed +about to be done? Ah! he breathes. + +Pizarro has grown tired of imprisonment and has set up an expostulatory +wail, facetiously impatient at first, but now breaking into sharp yelps. +This will never do. He must stop that ear-splitting outcry, or the +househould will be awakened. That sharp-eyed, razor tongued young devil, +Dick, is just across the hall. Wesley opens the closet door, and Pizarro +bounds out, licking his jailer's hands in grateful acknowledgment. He +frisks, appealing to the room door, inviting the further favor of being +permitted to go to his post, his wagging tail explaining how necessary +it is that a dog intrusted with such important duties as the +guardianship of the household can not suffer the casual claims of +friendlessness or the comity of surreptitious feeding to lure him into +infidelity. The tail proving ineffectual in argument, Pizarro +supplemented its eloquence by sharp admonitory yelps, tempered by a +sharp _crescendo_ whining, of which he seemed rather proud as an +accomplishment. + +"Damn the brute! He will ruin everything. I must kill him." But how? He +had no weapon. He looked about the room in gasping terror--the dog +accepting the move as a sign that the eloquence of the tail argument had +proved overpowering, supplemented this by an explosion of ecstatic yelps +of a deep, bass volume, that murdered the deep silence of the night, +like salvos of pistols. The curtains to the windows were held in place +by stout dimity bands. Whispering soothingly to the dog, Wesley knotted +four of these together, and, making as if to open the door, slipped the +bands like a lasso over the head of the unsuspecting brute. In an +instant his howls were silenced. The dog, with protruding tongue and +eyes--that had the piteous pleading and reproach of the human, looked up +at him, bloodshot and failing. But now the second signal must be near! +He may have missed it in the infernal howling of the brute. Yes, that +was it. He looks out of the window; his room is in view of the covered +way to the kitchen. He sees moving figures; he hears voices. They are +there. He has missed the signal; he must hasten to them. He puts out the +lights and opens the door cautiously. All is invitingly, reassuringly +still. He is at the hall door in a minute, in another he is with the +shadows in the rear of the house. + +"Jones, is it you?" + +"Ah, captain, we are waiting for ropes to secure the prize." + +"There is no time to wait. The dog has made such a noise that I didn't +hear your signal. I saw you from my window. Come, we must not lose a +minute, for I couldn't fasten the brute very well. Davis is here, and we +have only to take him from his room. The cavalry went about eleven; I +heard them march away an hour ago." + +"Now, give me the exact situation here, that there may be no surprise. +How many men are we likely to encounter in the event of a fracas?" + +"Counting Davis and Lee, four in the house. How near the orderlies and +guards are you know better than I. Besides Davis, there's Jack Sprague, +young Atterbury, and Dick--but he don't count." + +"No! Why?" + +"He is not over his wound, and besides he's but a boy. They had two +pistols loaded, but I managed to draw all the charges except one. So +that if Jack and Atterbury should come to the rescue they could do +no damage." + +"They sleep at this end of the house?" + +"Yes, and our work is at the other." + +"Well, then, in that case I will get ladders I saw near the +carriage-house and put them up to Davis's window as a means of escape in +case these young men get after us before we finish the job. Even with +their unloaded pistols, two full grown men and the boy could +make trouble." + +He called Number Two and gave him orders to place a ladder at each of +the two windows of Davis's room, and to have a man at the top of +each--armed. When the men had hurried away, Jones continued: + +"Here's a pistol for you. It is a six-shooter bull-dog, and will do sure +work. Now move on to the stairway; others will join us in a moment. +You're sure you know Davis's room? It would be mighty awkward to poke +into any of the others." + +"Yes; everybody in the house was taken to see it. It is the old lady's +room, occupied by mother and daughter, generally; but given up to the +President for the night." + +They are in the hall, stealing softly over the thick matting; they are +in the broad corridor--running the whole length of the house--Jack's, +Olympiads, Dick's, and Kate's rooms all behind them--southward. Wesley, +with Jones touching his right arm and Number Two at his left, is moving +slowly, silently northward to the left of the stairs. + +"Great God! What was that?" + +A sound as of a clattering troop of cavalry, the neighing of horses in +the grounds! Wesley halted, trembling, dismayed. + +"That's all right," Jones whispered, "I ordered the stables opened so +that the horses wouldn't be handy, if any one should happen to be at +hand who felt like pursuing us, or going for the cavalry." + +"It was a mistake; the horses will arouse the house. We must hurry." + +In a moment they were before the door of the Davis room. Wesley raised +the latch. It was an old-fashioned fastening. Number Two was directed to +stand at the threshold while Wesley and Jones secured Davis. + +Now they are in the room. There is no sound; but from the open window, +looking upon the carriage-road, there is the tramping of horses, +drowning all sounds in the room. They are nearly to the large canopied +bed between the open windows, when Jones, who is nearest, discovers a +startled apparition half rising from the bed. He is discovered by the +figure at the same instant, and a piercing scream, so loud, prolonged, +and ear-splitting that it echoes over the house, ends the wild dream of +the marauders. Wesley reels in panic. But Jones is an old campaigner. If +he can't have victory, there must be no recapture. He rushes at the +white figure, and snatches--Rosa, limp, nerveless, and swooning! + +"See who's in the bed!--I'm damned if you haven't brought us to the +wrong room--see, quick!" + +But there was no necessity for seeing. Mrs. Atterbury uttered a stifled +cry: "Help! help! murder!" + +"You, Boone, know the place; stand by me and I'll see that we are not +nabbed; but you've made a nice mess of the affair." + +But the comments of the indignant Jones were suddenly drowned in a +blood-curdling sound in the doorway: the savage, suppressed growl of a +dog, and the responsive imprecations of Number Two. With this came the +apparition of two figures, at sight of which Jones darted to the window, +the two figures, Jack and Dick, following to his right and left. + +"Save your powder, whoever you are. Fire at me, and you hit the young +woman. I don't know who she is, but her body is my protection." Saying +this, Jones coolly, determinedly retreated backward to the window; but +Dick, hardly hearing, and certainly not comprehending, had come within +arm's length of the two, somewhat to the left of Jones. + +"Don't fear, Rosa," Dick exclaimed, between his teeth. "I can see you. +Ah, ah!" Then four reports, that sounded as one, split the air. + +Rosa broke from the thick cloud of smoke as a fifth report rang out, and +a scream of death went up between the bed and the door where Jack stood. + +At the instant Dick spoke, Jack, in the doorway, heard an exclamation at +his side. He half turned, and as he did so his eye caught the outlines +of a man, with a shining something raised in the air, coming toward him +from the bedside. He pointed his own pistol at the figure, there were +three simultaneous reports, and the oncoming figure fell with a hoarse +cry of pain. The man at Jack's back now cried: + +"Get through the window; they're coming through the house!" + +"It's only a dog; come on." + +Then there was a sound of flying feet in the wide passage. + +"Are you hurt, Rosa? Tell me--did they hit you? Speak, oh, speak!" It +was Dick's voice, in a convulsive sob. Now, the boy again, that +danger was gone. + +Jack meanwhile had struck a match, and soon found the candles on the +night-table near the bed. There was, at the same instant, the audible +sound of scurrying along the passage. He ran out. The man assailed by +the dog had reached the head of the stairs. As Jack got half-way down +the corridor, man and dog disappeared over the balustrade. When he +reached the hall the dog was inside, growling furiously, the door was +closed and the man gone. Jack opened the door. Pizarro bounded out, and +Jack followed. The dog stopped a moment, sniffed the ground, and made +for the kitchen. A loud bark, followed by a ferocious growl, and a +scream of mortal pain broke on the air; then a pistol-shot, and a long, +pitiful gasp, and silence. + +"Well, that dog won't trouble any one now," Jack heard, and the voice +made his hair rise into bristling quills. + +"Barney!" he cried; "Barney Moore, is that you?" + +"It is; no one else. If I'm not drunk or dreaming, that's my own Jack. +God be praised!" + +"How in Heaven's name did you get here?" + +"I might ask you the same question, but you have priority of query, as +they say in court. I came here first to help rescue Captain Wesley +Boone, and second to capture his rebel Excellency Jeff Davis." + +"O my God! my God! Barney, Barney, tell me all, and tell me quickly!" + +Barney told all he knew, and told it rapidly, Jack catching his arm +almost fiercely, as the miserable truth began to define itself in his +whirling senses. Then the meaning of the two marauders in the ladies' +apartments became plain. Jack and Barney were hurrying toward the +chamber as the latter talked, Jack filled with an awful fear. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE STORY OF THE NIGHT. + + +Now, the timely--or untimely--appearance of Jack and Dick in the crisis +of the plot came about in this way: Dick, on returning from Jack's room, +had remarked, with quickening suspicion, a gleam of light under Wesley's +door. Perhaps he is ill, the boy thought, compunctiously; if he were, he +(Dick) ought to offer his services. He started to carry this kind +thought into effect, when he heard suspicious sounds in the room. Some +one was moving. He waited, now in alert anticipation. The plaintive +signal of the whippoorwill--bringing passionate energy to +Wesley--reached Dick's ears; he heard the opening of the window; then +silence. Could Wesley be descending thence to the ground? He blew out +his candle, drew the curtain, and cautiously raised the window. No; +Wesley was not getting out. Then the sound of the Pizarro episode came +dimly through the walls. He thought the dog's expostulatory growls a +voice. There was someone in the room with Wesley. Perhaps it was Kate. +It wouldn't do to act until he was sure that his suspicions were a +certainty. Besides, Jack had warned him not to interfere, with a mere +escape on Wesley's part, unless it seemed to involve depredations upon +the Atterburys. Then he heard the faint sound of the scuffle, when +Wesley throttled the compromising mastiff. Should he slip over and warn +Jack? He was moving toward the door, when, through the stillness of the +night, a sound came up from the direction of the quarters. He ran +lightly to the window again. His eyes, now accustomed to the darkness in +his room, distinguished clearly in the pale starlight. He thrilled with +a sudden sensation of choking. Yonder, stealing houseward from the +rose-gardens, he could plainly discern two--four--six--moving figures. +Heavens, the slaves were out! There was to be a servile uprising. Now he +must go and warn Jack; but he must note first whither the assassins were +directing their attack. Perhaps, with the aid of Jack's pistols, they +could be frightened away by a few shots from the windows. He ran +noiselessly to Jack's room, to his bed, and whispered in his +sleeping ear: + +"Jack, make no noise; dress yourself and come. The negroes are +surrounding the house, and Wesley is in mischief." + +Jack was awake and in his clothes in a few seconds. He handed Dick one +of the pistols, and, armed with the other, hastened toward Wesley's +room. The door was open and all was silent. Dick looked in hastily, +marked the open window, and exclaimed: + +"He is gone! Come to my room. I know exactly where to locate them from +my window; it is nearer the point they halted at than Wesley's." + +Yes; figures were moving swiftly against the trellised walls that led to +the kitchen. They moved, too, with the precision of people thoroughly +acquainted with the place. Then some one appeared swiftly from under the +shadow of the house; then three came toward it and passed under the +veranda near Wesley's window. Jack leaned far out to discover what this +diversion meant. At the same instant the sounding gallopade of hoofs +came from the tranquil roadway leading to the stables. The shrill whinny +of horses broke on the air. + +"They are mounted. There are a score of them!" Jack cried, desperately. +"We can at least keep them out of the house." + +"We can, if Wesley hasn't opened the doors to them," Dick said, +shrewdly. + +"That's a fact. But is it sure Wesley is not in his room? Bring matches +and let us examine it." + +There was no sign of Wesley in the room. The cool night air poured in +from the open window. + +"Draw the curtain before you strike the match," Jack whispered. "We must +not let a light be seen from the outside." + +"But the curtains are thin, the light will shine through." + +"Sh! Come here. By Heaven, it is Wesley, and he is dead! No--the +devil!--it is Pizarro--dead! Kneel down and strike a match, keeping +between the light and the window. One glance will be enough." + +One glimpse revealed the dog with distended tongue and half-glazed eyes, +but still alive. Jack loosed the band from the neck. The dog gave a +convulsive thrill and uttered a plaintive moan. + +"Set a basin of water down here. He may recover. Poor fellow! This was a +cruel return for his kindness to Wesley," Jack said, forcing the dog's +nose into the basin. He began to lap the cool water greedily. But now +Dick, in the doorway, littered a cry. + +"They are in the house. I hear them moving in the vestibule. Come, for +God's sake, Jack! They are making for Mrs. Atterbury's apartment. +Evidently some one who knows that the family jewels are there, for what +else can they want?" + +The dog staggered to his feet as the two stole softly from the room. +They followed with high-wrought, loudly-beating hearts and tingling +nerves. The marauders in front of them moved on like men accustomed to +the house. They made, as the light footfalls indicated, straight for +Mrs. Atterbury's door, which, unlike the others, fronted the length of +the hall in a small vestibule sunk into the lateral wall. The invaders +were thus screened from Jack and Dick when they had turned the corner, +and the latter were forced to move with painful caution to get the +advantage of surprise to offset superior numbers. But now a new peril +menaces them. A shuffling in the long corridor behind them freezes the +current of their blood. They have been caught in a trap. There are two +forces in the house. They both turn and halt, silent and trembling, +against the south wall and wait. The steps still advance, the scraping +of the nailed boots tears the light matting. + +"We will wait until the new-comer or new-comers are abreast," Jack +breathes in Dick's ear, "and then fire a volley into them point blank." + +At the instant Rosa's shriek, blood-curdling and electric, breaks from +the corner. Dick is over the intervening steps in two mighty bounds, +Jack at his heels and the foe in the rear following. Against the open +window Dick catches the outlines of his darling in the brawny arms of +Tarquin. He has the advantage of the light, and, as the ruffian retreats +to the window, Dick is at his side, and in an instant deals him a +stunning blow on the head. Jack, in the dim light, sees the dark figure +dashing at him with the gleam of steel in his hand. He levels his +weapon, three reports ring out at once, and the miserable Wesley falls +with a dreadful gurgling gasp on the floor. + +But there are interlopers in the rear as well! Jack turned to confront +them. He realized vaguely hearing a struggle as he confronted the +robbers. Ah! yes, the dog; the dog has come upon the scene. There is +sound of low, fierce, growling, flying footsteps on the floor, and Jack, +assuring himself by a quick glance that there were no more marauders in +the room, hurried to see that the front door was closed before +re-enforcements could come to the invaders. But Pizarro's lusty growls, +denoting recovered strength, attracted him kitchenward, and he +encountered Barney, and with Barney something of a clew to the hideous +attempt. One prayer was in his heart--one hope--that Wesley had escaped; +but with shuddering horror he hastened with Barney back to the scene of +blood and death. The great candelabra on the mantel had been lighted, +and the room was visible as in daylight. Jack halted, transfixed, +horror-stricken, in the doorway. The women in hastily snatched robes +were all there, and on the floor, wailing over the dead body of Wesley, +Kate sat, prone and disheveled, calling to him to look at her, to speak +to her, as she kissed the cold lips in incredulous despair. She paid no +heed to Mrs. Atterbury, to Olympia, kneeling beside her--all her heart, +all her senses benumbed in the agony of the cruel blow. Jack moved to +the piteous group, and, dropping on his knees, felt the lifeless pulse, +and sank back, pale and shrinking, with the feeling that he was a +murderer. Mrs. Atterbury turned to him, crying convulsively: + +"Oh, what does it mean, Mr. Sprague? what does it mean?" + +"It is a dreadful game of cross-purposes. These unhappy men believed Mr. +Davis to be in this room when they entered. They meant to capture him +and carry him North." + +"Ah, thank God! thank God! who carried our President away in time," and +the matron clasped her hands fervently as she sank in a chair. But the +sight of Kate, woe-begone, feverishly caressing the dead brother, +brought the tenderer instincts back. She rose again, and, clasping her +arms about the poor girl, said pleadingly: + +"Let him be carried to his room; you are covered with blood." + +"Ah, it is his blood, his innocent blood! Murdered, when he should have +found merry." + +Jack found tongue now. He was hideously calm--the frightful calm of +great-hearted men, who use mirth, levity, and indolency to hide emotion. + +"Miss Boone--Kate it was perhaps the shot from my pistol that killed +Wesley. I did it in defense of women in peril, in defense of my own +life. It was an accident in one sense. Had I known the circumstances I +certainly shouldn't have fired, but you must put the blame on me, not +upon this guiltless household." + +She looked up at him--looked with a wild, despairing, unbelieving gaze, +pressing the handsome dead face to her bosom, and then, with a wild, +wailing sob, bent her head until the shining dark mass of hair fell like +a funeral veil over her own and the dead face. Rosa, who had disappeared +in the dressing-room, now entered the chamber. Turning from the woful +group on the floor, she glanced hastily about, as if in search of some +one. Her eyes fell upon Dick, dazed and bleeding, on the couch. She ran +to him with a tender cry. + +"O Richard! are you hurt? Great heavens! your face is all blood. You are +wounded. O mamma, come--come--Richard is dying!" + +The boy tried his best to smile, holding his hand over his left side, as +if stifling pain. He smiled--a bright, contented happy smile--as Rosa +knelt, sobbing, by his side, and, opening his jacket, baring the +blood-stained shirt, plucked a purplish rose from the bleeding bosom. + +"The white rose is red now, Rosa." + +"Oh, my darling! my darling!" Rosa sobbed; and the boy, smiling in the +joy of it, tried to raise himself to fold her in his arms. But the long +tension had been too much--he fell back unconscious. + +Olympia saw that Mrs. Atterbury, the natural head of the house, was +unequal to the dismal burden of control. She took the painful duty of +order upon herself, sent Jack to summon the servants, called Barney to +her aid in removing Dick to his room, and, when the terrified housemaids +came, distributed the rest to the nearest apartments. Morning had dawned +when the work was done, and then Jack set out to investigate the +condition of the quarters. Twenty or more of the negroes had +disappeared. It was easy to trace them to the swamp, but Jack made no +attempt to organize a pursuit. Blood could be traced on the white shell +path leading to the rose-fields, and the pond gate was wide open. He +reported the state of affairs to Mrs. Atterbury. She begged him to take +horse to Williamsburg, bring the surgeon, and deliver a note to the +commanding officer. He returned in two hours with the surgeon, and a +half-hour later a cavalry troop clattered into the grounds. + +Dick's wound was first examined. The ball had entered the fleshy part of +his chest, just under the armpit. It was readily extracted, and, if so +much blood had not been lost, the boy would not be in serious danger. +Wesley had died almost instantly. The ball entered his breast just above +the heart. He had passed away painlessly. Jones was shot through the +right shoulder, the ball passing clear across the breast, grazing the +upper ribs, and lodging just above the left lung. He was, by Mrs. +Atterbury's command, removed to the quarters and delivered to the +commander of the cavalry troop as a spy, an inciter of servile +insurrection. By order of the department commander, civilians were +refused all communication with him, as the Davis cabinet meant to make a +stern example so soon as he was able to bear trial. Mrs. Atterbury +announced to Jack and Olympia that so soon as Dick could bear removal +the house would be closed and the family return to Richmond. They heard +this with relief, for the place had become hideous to all now. To Jack +it was a reminder of his misfortune, and to every one of the group it +was associated with crime, treason, and blood. The hardest part of poor +Jack's burden was the seizure of Barney, who was marched off by the +cavalry commander. Vincent gone, Jack had no one to reach the ear of +authority, and he shrank from asking the intervention of the mistress +whose home had been invaded by the guiltless culprit. The case was +stated with all the eloquence Jack was master of to the captain +in command. + +"You are a soldier, sir," the officer replied. "You know I have no +latitude in the matter. This Moore has no status as a regular prisoner +of war; he is found on the premises of a non-combatant aiding servile +insurrection. Even President Davis himself could not intervene. The +Southern people are deeply agitated by Butler's attempts to arouse the +negroes. We have been weakened, robbed by the abduction of hundreds +right here on the Peninsula. The gang that Moore came here with was led +by this scoundrel Jones, who is Butler's agent. A very vigorous example +must be made of these wretches, or the country-side will be deserted and +the government will be without produce. We must inspire confidence in +the owners of plantations, or the soldiers in the army will have to come +back to guard their homes." + +Jack saw the futility of further pleading. The officer was +unquestionably right. Such scenes as Rosedale had witnessed would end in +the desertion of the rural regions of the Confederacy. At Mrs. +Atterbury's urgent intercession Kate was permitted to leave the lines +with her dead. She was conducted to the rebel outposts in the Atterbury +carriage, and under a flag of truce entered the Union lines near +Hampton. Olympia accompanied her in the carriage, Jack riding with the +escort. Kate refused every suggestion to see Jack; refused his own +prayerful message, and sternly, solemnly with her dead passed from the +scene of her sorrows. + +Youth and something else stronger than medicine, more tenacious than any +other motive that keeps the life-current brisk and vigorous, made Dick's +recovery swift and sure. Rosa had no torments for him now. The blood-red +rose had proved a magician's amulet to confirm her mind in the sweet +teachings of her heart. But the patrician mother was with difficulty +brought to listen to the tying of this love-knot. She had looked forward +to a grand alliance for the heiress of Rosedale--an alliance that should +bring the family high up in the dominant hierarchy of the South. She +listened silently to the young girl's pleading prattle of the boy's +bravery, his wit, his manliness. She did not say no, but she hoped to +find a way to distract her daughter from a _mésalliance_, which would +not only diminish her child's rank, but compromise the family +politically. Such a sacrifice could not be. Fortunately, both were mere +children, and the knot would unravel itself without perplexities that +maturer love would have involved. So the mother smiled on the happy +girl, kissed Dick tenderly morning and night, for he had been a hero in +their defense, and she was too kindly of heart, too loyal to obligation, +to permit Dick's attitude of suitor to lessen her fondness and +admiration for the bright, handsome lad. Olympia was the confidante of +both the lovers, listened with her usual good-humor to the boy's +raptures and the girl's panegyrics, and soon came to share Jack's high +place in the happy lovers' devotion. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A CARPET-KNIGHT. + + +Jack meanwhile sank into incurable gloom. The memory of Kate's mute, +reproachful look, her heart-broken outcry, never quitted him. He woke at +times with the dead eyes of Wesley staring into the night at him, the +convicting gaze of Kate fastened upon him. He must fly, or he must die +in this abhorred, guilt-haunted atmosphere. Olympia saw this, Mrs. +Atterbury saw it, and the first week in November Rosedale was turned +over to the military and the household re-established in the stately +house in the official quarter of Richmond, where the bustle and movement +of new conditions gave Jack's mind another direction, or, rather, took +it from the bitter brooding that threatened madness. + +When the sun accepted the wind's challenge to contest for the traveler's +cloak, I dare say all the spectators of the novel highway robbery--the +moon, the stars, the trees, birds and beasts, and others that the fable +does not mention--took odds that the wind would snatch off the +wayfarer's garment in triumph. However, the wind whipped and thrashed +the poor man in vain. The stronger it blew and the more it walloped the +cloak's folds, the tighter and more determinedly the traveler held on to +it, as he plodded wearily over the hillside. But when the sun came +caressingly, inspiring gentle confidence, bathing the body in warm +moisture, the tenacious hold was relaxed, then the disputed coat was +thrown over his arm, and as the vista spread far away in golden light, +the victim cast the garment by the wayside and the sun came off victor. +Youth is despoiled of the garment of grief in this sort. Congenial +warmth, the sunshine of friendliness, soon relax the mantle of woe, and +the path that looks wintry and hard becomes a way of light and gayety. + +It was by mingling--at first perfunctorily--in the gayety of the +Confederate capital that Jack lost the melancholy in which the tragedy +at Rosedale had clothed his spirits. At worst, the calamity was over; he +had been a guiltless vengeance in the punishment of Wesley's treason. So +he took bond in hope of better things to come. With a stout heart, +strong limbs, a plowman's appetite, and a natural bent to joyousness, a +youth of twenty-two or three is not apt to mistake his memories for his +hopes and hang the horizon in black when the sun is shining in his eyes! + +Richmond, always the center of a fascinating society, was at that time +exuberant in her young metropolitan glories. It was the gayest capital +in the Western hemisphere. To resist its seductions would have tasked +the self-denial of a more constant anchorite than our dashing Jack ever +aspired to be, in the lowest stage of his martial vicissitudes. There +was nothing of the garishness of the parvenu in the capital's display. +The patrician caste ruled in camp and court. The walls that had echoed +to the oratory of Jefferson, Henry, Washington, Randolph, now housed the +young Congress of the new Confederacy. An hundred years of political, +military, legal, and social precedence were the inheritance of the men +chief in the cabinet, the council, and the camp. Stirring traditions +clung about every quarter of the town, now devoted to the offices of +administration, from the Mayo wharves to the lodgings of Washington and +Lafayette. On the stately square yonder, where the musing eye of the +rebel chief might study its history, stood the suggestive mansion where +Burr's treason was brought home to that first great rebel. + +Not far distant the disdainful pointed out the tenement where Fremont +had instructed the Richmond youth in far other doctrines than those +which made him the abolitionist choice for President in after-times. +Royalist and republican glories mingled in the reliquary edifices that +met the wondering eyes of the provincial Confederates drawn to the +capital in the generous enthusiasm of that first prodigious achievement +at Bull Run. Here a royal Governor had dwelt, yonder a Bonaparte had +sojourned and beguiled the famous beauties of Powhatan, as the +patriarchs loved to call the city. A Lee was the chief of the military +staff, a Randolph ruled the war office; scions of the Washingtons family +filled a dozen subordinate places; the kin of Patrick Henry revived +their ancestor's glory by as zealous a devotion to the new revolution. +With personages like these in every office the society of the new +capital revived the brilliancy of the French Directory and also the +character of the States-General, while Holland held the Spains at bay. +The blockade had not yet pinched the affluent, nor beggared the +industries of the well-to-do. Always famous for a brilliant bar, a +learned judiciary, and a cultivated taste among its women, Richmond in +1861 was the ideal of a political, military, and social rendezvous of a +young nation. + +The raw legions had been victorious in the first pitched battle of the +war on the plains of Manassas, and what might not be reasonably hoped +from them under the training of such muster-minds as Johnston, +Beauregard, Jackson, and Lee? Wasn't it the common talk among diplomats, +the concurrent opinion of the French and English press, the despairing +admission of the half-hearted and panic-stricken North, that one more +such decisive victory would bring the South peace and independence? +Wasn't it, indeed, well known among the favored juntas that those +sagacious diplomats, Senators Mason and Slidell, had delayed their +journey to Europe in order to aid the President in the treaty of peace +that the victorious legions of Johnston were to exact in Washington? + +Jack was amazed and disheartened at what he saw and heard. The activity, +resources, gayety, and confidence of the authorities and people, +recalled to his mind, Oxford, the jocund capital of Charles II and the +royalists, while the Commonwealth leaders were drilling their armies. +But instead of the chaos of rapine, the wanton excesses, the pillage of +churches and colleges that marked the tenure of the miserable Charles, +Richmond was as orderly, serene, the Congress as deliberate, and the +people as content, as the Rome of the conquest of Persia or France after +Jemmapes. The army was hot for battle, and as confident of the result as +the Guard at Austerlitz or McClellan at Malvern. The work done and the +way of its doing showed that the populace, as well as the rulers, were +convinced of the destiny of the city to be henceforth mistress of +herself, the preordained metropolis of half the continent--perhaps the +whole continent--for, would the North be able to resist joining States +with a destiny so glorious--a regal republic where birth and rank were +tacitly enthroned? The city's greatness was taken by the mass, as a +matter of course--like an heir in chancery who has won all but the final +decree in the suit, or like a great nobleman who has come to his +inheritance. + +Though it was the first week of November when the Atterburys found home +affairs going on smoothly in the town-house, summer still disputed with +winter the short lovely days of fall, as Jack described the lingering +May-day mildness of this seductive Southern autumn. It was the first +season he had ever spent south of New York, and, like most Americans, he +realized, with wonder, that the wind which brought ice and snow to New +York, visited lower Virginia with only a sharp evening and morning +reminder that summer was gone. The balm and beauty of the climate came +with something of healing to the hurt his heart and hope had suffered at +Rosedale. If anything could have mitigated the pangs of a young warrior +perplexed in love and held in leash in war, it was such an existence as +the Atterburys inveigled him into leading. The part of carpet-knight is +not difficult to learn, and the awkwardness of it is to some extent +atoned for when the service is constrained. At least Jack took this +philosophical view of it, and soon gave himself up to the merry social +life of his surroundings with an animation that led his hosts to hope +that he might be won over to the Confederate cause. Very young men do +not sorrow long or deeply, and Jack was young. He was neither reckless +nor trifling, but I am sure that none of the adulating groups that made +much of the handsome Yankee in Richmond that season would have suspected +that the young man looked in his mirror night and morning, frowned +darkly at the reflected image he saw there, and said, solemnly, "You are +a murderer!" It was by no means a tragic accent in which this thrilling +apostrophe was spoken. It was very much in the tone that a woman employs +when she looks hastily in the mirror and utters a soft "What a fright I +am!" apparently receiving comforting contradiction enough from the +mirror to make the remark worth frequent repetition. + +As a matter of fact, however, Jack was not insensible to the awkward +complication of his predicament. Grief as a mantle is difficult to +adjust to the shoulders of the young. It is melted by the ardor of +companionship as swiftly as it is spun by the loom of adversity. His +interest in the strange scenes that the war brought to pass, his +association with people--intimate in a sense with the leading forces of +rebellion, the airs of incipient grandeur, these raw instruments of +government gave themselves--all these things engrossed the observant +faculties of the young man, who looked out upon the serio-comic +harlequinade playing about him as a hostage of the Roundheads might have +taken part in the showy festivities of the Cavaliers, in the years when +the chances of battle had not gone over wholly to the Puritans. Not that +the figure illustrates the contrasting conditions adequately. For, if +the South prided itself at all--and the South did pride itself +vauntingly, clamorously, and incessantly--it made its chief boast the +point that its people were the gentry of the land, and that under the +rebel banner the hosts of chivalry had assembled anew to make all manner +of fine things the rule of life. Jack, writing and talking of his few +months' experience, dwelt with wonder upon the curious ignorance of the +two peoples respecting each other. Mason and Dixon's line separated two +civilizations as markedly unlike as the peoples that confront each other +on either side the Vistula or the Baltic Sea. The hierarchy not only +seemed to love war for war's sake; they possessed that feudal facalty, +so incomprehensible in the middle ages, the power of making those who +suffered most by it believe in it too, and sacrifice themselves for it. + +The people--Jack sagaciously remarked, in discussing the topic with +Olympia--seemed made for such a climate, rather than made by it. They +would have been out of place in the bleak autumn blasts, and wan, +colorless seasons of Acredale, where the sun, bleary and dim, furtively +skirted the low horizon from November until April, as if ashamed to be +identified with the glorious courser that rode the radiant summer sky. +Here the sun came up of a morning--a little tardy, 'tis true, but quite +in the manner of the people--warm and engaging, and when he went down in +the afternoon he covered the western sky with a roseate mantle that +fairly kept out the chill of the Northern night. "No wonder," Jack said +to his sister, watching this daily spectacle--"no wonder these people +are warm, impulsive, and even energetic; here is an Italian climate +without the enervating languor of that sensuous sunshine." + +The Atterbury house was the gayest in Richmond. Mrs. Atterbury, though +the mother of a son in the army and a daughter with a coterie of her own +in society, insisted on maintaining the leadership she had long held +among the social forces of the capital. "All Richmond," and that meant a +good deal in a city whose women had been adored for beauty and wit on +two continents, received Mrs. Atterbury's bidding to her drawing-room +with proud alacrity. Never had her "teas," her _musicales_, her +receptions, and _fêtes_ been merrier or more convivial than during this +memorable autumn that Jack and Olympia passed as prisoners of war. It +was generally believed that the brother and sister were occult agents of +the Federal power, negotiating with the Davis Cabinet, and Jack's +whimsical sobriety of speech and manner, contrasting with his former +high animal spirits, carried out the notion of his being a secret +ambassador. + +It was at a reception given to the Cabinet by Mrs. Atterbury that the +rumor of this accredited function came to Jack's ears. "All Richmond" +was among the guests. Olympia, in spite of her abhorrence of the cause, +couldn't resist a glow of sympathetic admiration of the women who, in +dress, in speech, in tact, in all the artifices which make feminine +diplomacy so potent an agency in statecraft, bent every faculty to +inspire confidence in the new Administration. Mrs. Davis herself was not +the least of the factors that made the President's policy the creed of +the land. There was no elaboration of costume--no obtrusive jewels. The +most richly dressed dame in the company was a Madame Gannat, the deity +of the most charming drawing-room at the capital. At her house society +was always sure to meet the European noblemen traveling in the country, +the _quasi_ official agents of France, England, and Austria, accredited +to the new Confederacy, the generals of the Southern armies on leave in +the city, and the political leaders able to snatch an evening's +relaxation. For some reason this potential personage let Olympia and +Jack see that she was deeply interested in them. She took the young +man's arm late in the evening, and whispering, "Find a place where we +can have a little talk," accompanied him to a small apartment joining a +conservatory, where Mrs. Atterbury transacted business with her agents. + +"You must take down a book, so that, in case the curious remark us, our +_tête-à-tête_ may not be regarded as conspiracy." + +"No one would be apt to associate you with such a thing," Jack said, +vaguely. + +"I don't know. Like all conspiracies, this Confederate comedy is +suspicious." + +"Comedy, Mrs. Gannat? Why, I never saw people so earnest! I can't +imagine the surroundings of Cromwell more methodic." + +"Ah, yes; those who have all to lose by the crash when it comes, are +bending every energy to impress the North that we are all of one mind +down here; we are not. I am talking frankly with you, because my friend +Mrs. Lanview has made me fully acquainted with your circumstances. I +have asked you for a talk here because I dare not have you at my house. +No one suspects my loyalty to this Davis masquerade; but there are many +of us who are doing, and shall do, all the better work for the Union +cause. You are just the man needed for a great work here; you are +believed to be secretly in favor of the Confederate cause--an +ambassador, in short. Now, the special purpose of this talk is this: The +men caught at Rosedale three weeks ago are to be tried before a military +court. If you and this young man Perley could escape before the event, +it would be impossible to convict them. Mrs. Lanview tells me that you +are very closely allied to the younger prisoner, Moore, and that for his +sake you will do all in your power to avoid testifying." + +"I will cut out my tongue before a syllable from me shall bring danger +to that noble fellow!" + +"Exactly. I expected as much. Now, can you not manage to inspire Perley +with the same sentiment? If you can, we feel confident that the court +will be unable to secure evidence sufficient to convict. I leave the +details to your own ingenuity. Your absence would deprive the +judge-advocate of the vital witnesses, but your refusal to testify would +only bring you into danger, and prolong the proceedings; and with time +we hope to effect an escape. Sh! As I say, Mr. Sprague, the heart of the +South beats with one impulse, the triumph of the noblest inspiration of +a great people." + +The warning and sudden change in topic were caused by the apparition of +a dame who came rustling in, a vision of youthful charms and +vivaciousness. + +"Mrs. Didier Rodney--Mr. Sprague," Mrs. Gannat said, cordially. "You are +sent by inspiration, for I am doing my poor best to convince this +obdurate Yankee to turn from evil courses and do a duty by the country +that will in future make his name illustrious." + +"And I have no doubt you have shaken his obstinacy, if there be any +left," Mrs. Rodney murmured, studying Jack attentively. "I have just +been dining at the Executive Mansion, and Mr. Davis, hearing your name, +lamented that women were not eligible to office. If they were, he +declared that Mistress Gannat should be appointed ambassadress to +France, and that, within ten days of her reception at the Tuileries, +there would be a treaty of alliance signed between France and the +Confederacy!" + +"I take that as rather an admission of weakness on your President's +part," Jack said, as the lady glanced inquiringly at him, "since it is a +poor cause that requires the strongest advocates." + +"Ah! a Southern man would never have said a thing so uncivil as that," +Mrs. Rodney cried, reproachfully. "You pay Mrs. Gannat a compliment at +the cost of the Confederacy." + +"And Mr. Davis paid me a compliment at the expense of the truth, so the +account is squared," the elder lady said, serenely. + +"Well, Mr. Davis is here himself by this time, and you shall talk it out +with him," Mrs. Rodney retorted, as a rustle at the door announced +new-comers. A half-dozen ladies came trooping in, among them Mrs. Davis +and several of the Cabinet ladies. + +"We heard you were here, Madame Gannat," the President's wife murmured, +graciously. "And since you wouldn't come to us, we have come to you." + +Mrs. Gannat arose to receive the great lady, and when she had exchanged +salutations with the rest she presented Jack. + +"Ah! the hero of the Rosedale affair," and as Mrs. Davis said this she +looked keenly at the young man. She was, he owned, an extremely graceful +woman, of a mature beauty, admirable manner, and, as she talked, he +remarked keen intelligence, with an occasional evidence of reading, if +not high education. She was dressed in simpler taste than her "court," +as it was the fashion then to style the Cabinet group. A few jewels were +half hidden in the rare lace that covered her bodice, but she was +ungloved, and in no sense in the full-dress understood in the North, at +a gathering of the sort. The talk became general. Jack, not knowing the +personages, simply listened. There was animated discussion as to whether +Mistress Judge this, and Mistress General that, or Mistress Senator the +other, would be in the capital in time for the opening of the new +Congress in December. + +"Mr. Davis is very anxious to have the occasion made a grand one, and I +reckon that every one of account in the Confederacy will he here." Mrs. +Davis said, with conviction. + +"The scene will be worthy of a great painting, like the Long Parliament, +or the meeting of the Three Estates, at Versailles," Mrs. Rodney added, +in a glow of anticipation. + +This amusing pedantry rather taxed the historical knowledge of most of +the ladies, and to divert the talk Mrs. Monteith, a Cabinet lady, said: + +"Who has read the account in the Yankee papers of Lincoln and his wife +at a reception of the diplomatic corps? It is too funny. The Lincoln +woman was a Southerner. She has some good blood, and ought to know +better. She was dressed like a dowdy, and when the ministers bowed she +gave them her hand and said, 'How d'ye do?'" + +"It will really be a liberal education, to the North to have a capital +like ours near them, where their public men can learn manners, and where +Northern ladies can see how to conduct themselves in public," Mrs. +Rodney broke in, laughing. "It is not often a great people go to war for +an idea, but we are taking up the gage of battle to teach our +inferiors manners." + +"We taught them how to run at Manassas," Mrs. Starlow, a Senator's dame, +remarked. + +"I'm afraid they have learned the lesson so well that we shall never +teach them how to stand," Mrs. Davis added, gayly. + +"Ah! friends, we are teaching each other how to die--let us not forget +that," Mrs. Gannat murmured, gently, and there was a sudden hush in the +exchange of vivacities. Before the strain could he renewed, Mrs. +Atterbury entered hastily, crying: + +"The gentlemen are all distracted. We are going to have an old-time +minuet, such as my mother used to dance with Justice Marshall and Tom +Mayo. The President is going to lead with Mistress Wendolph, and all the +rest of you are assigned, by command of the Executive." + +"Humph! a military despotism?" asked Mrs. Renfrew, a young bride of the +Executive Mansion, whose husband was confidential adviser of the +President. "I don't think I shall obey. I shall show the honesty of my +rebel blood by selecting my own partner, unless some one asks me +very humbly." + +"Shall I go on my knees, Mrs. Renfrew?--I know no humbler attitude," +Jack said, hastily presenting himself. + +"Oh, yes, sir; there is something humbler than the knees." + +"Yes? What, pray?" + +"Repentance. Deny your name; no longer be a Montague--that is, a Yankee. +Give me the hand of a rebel. Then I shall believe you." + +"I am a rebel." + +"Ah! you have been converted?" + +"I never was perverted." + +"You have been with us all the time?" + +"I have been here a long time!" + +"And you are a rebel. Oh, I must tell Mr. Davis!" + +"He knows it, I think." + +"Oh, no, he can not; for it was only a few moments since that he said to +Mrs. Atterbury that the son of Senator Sprague, the friend of Calhoun +and the comrade of Hayne, should be in the ranks of the young nobility +upholding our sacred cause." + +"I am, however, a rebel--a rebel to all these fascinations I see about +me, a rebel to your beauty, a rebel to all you desire." + +"Pah! you odious Yankee; I felt certain that you had not come to your +senses." + +"I don't think I ever lost them--though I never had enough to make such +a spirit as yours lament their loss." The rest of the ladies had passed +out; and, as this repartee went on. Jack led his petulant companion into +the large drawing-room, where he instantly recognized the President with +Mrs. Wendolph on his arm. He towered above the mass of the dancers, +eying the admiring groups with attentive scrutiny. He was in evening +dress, but, unlike the larger number of the eminent partisans in the +rooms, had no insignia, military or otherwise, to denote exalted rank. + +As the President was to lead off, to keep up the character of a court +minuet, the middle of the large room was left uncrowded. The music began +what Jack thought at first was a funeral march, but with the first bars +the tall, slender figure of the President bent almost double, while the +lady seemed fairly seated on the floor, she bent down and back so far. +She had adjusted a prodigious silken train, which swept and swirled in +many bewildering folds as she slowly turned, courtesied, tripped forward +and retreated, with such bending and twisting as would turn a +ballet-master mad with envy. In all the movement of the overture the two +dancers merely touched the tips of each other's fingers, and when the +solemn measure came to a close the President slid across the floor in +one graceful, immense pirouette, handing the lady who confronted him, +bent nearly to the ground, into her seat. There was an outburst of +applause, and then the assembly took places, repeating, in as far as the +mass would permit, the stately evolutions of the leader. + +Later, a Virginia reel followed, danced with old-time _verve_, some of +the more accomplished dancers bounding over the floor in pigeon-wings, +such as were cut by the nimble a hundred years ago, when Richmond danced +in honor of Washington and Lafayette. There was no end of drinking among +the men, and as soon as the dancing seemed at its height the matrons +began to gather into groups and send out signals to the younger ladies. +The feast ended in drinking-bouts between dispersed bodies, who seemed +to know the names of all the servants, and ordered as liberally as if in +their own houses. In the _mêlée_ of separation, Jack felt a hand on +his shoulder. + +"Remember, every moment is precious. Many lives, perhaps a great +campaign, depend upon your discretion, promptitude, and loyalty. Be +ready when the signal reaches you, and remember you do not know me +beyond the civility of a presentation, and do not like me." + +Jack had hardly turned as these words were whispered in his ear, and he +gave the kind lady's hand a warm pressure, as she moved away unremarked +in the throng. + +Jack, confiding Mrs. Gannat's disclosures to Olympia, was elated by his +sister's enthusiasm, and was strengthened in his conviction that he was +doing right by her approval. + +"But you know, Polly, that--I--I, too, must be of the party? I must fly +to the Union lines." + +"Of course you will! I should be ashamed of you were you to let such a +chance pass. It is the only thing to do; it is your duty as a soldier to +be with your flag; any means to get to it is justified. The Atterburys +will feel hurt, perhaps outraged, but I can soon convince them that you +have only done what Vincent would do, and whatever he would do they will +soon see is right for you to do, even though it may bring them into +temporary disgrace with the authorities. Of late I have begun to suspect +that the Atterburys are to blame for your detention." + +"What do you mean to blame? Surely they can not hasten the slow business +of negotiation?" + +"No; but I'm convinced that they have given out hopes that you can be +seduced into a soldier of secession. It is common talk in the +drawing-rooms I have visited, where I was not always recognized as your +sister. The silly tale has angered me, but for prudence sake I kept +silent. I have heard in a score of places that the Atterburys were +detaining you until another reverse to the Union arms should convince +you of the uselessness of remaining in the service of the +abolitionists." + +"O Polly, it must be a joke! They little know me, who could suspect me +of such dishonor! Surely the Atterburys can't think me so base as that. +What have I ever done to justify such a stigma?" + +"You wrong them there. They hold that you are wanting in loyalty to our +father's memory in espousing the cause of men who were his enemies--men +who strove to ruin his political life. It is in being a soldier of the +Union that they look upon you as recreant to the traditions of your +family and your party." + +"Well, I shall make a hard struggle for escape. If I fail, they will at +least see that I am in earnest--that I put country before family or +party, or anything else that men hold dear. Heavens! to think of being +held in such bondage! I could stand it with more patience if I were in +prison sharing the hard lines of the fellows. But to be here; to be hand +in glove with these boasting, audacious coxcombs, and forced to listen +to their callow banter of us and our army, it makes me feel like a sneak +and a traitor, and I'm glad that I see the end." + +"But do you see the end? Prudence is one of the wisest counselors in +war. You are very rash, and you must take all your measures carefully. +It won't do to rush into a trap, as you did at Manassas; and, O Jack, +what is to become of Dick? He is not in the lists. He has no standing +here, and is at the mercy of any one who chooses to accuse him of +being a spy." + +"By George, you're right! I hadn't thought of that. He must go with me. +I had thought it better to leave him. He is so happy with Rosa that I +fancied he would remain contentedly until the war ends. But he is in +constant danger. He is forever tantalizing the people that visit the +house, who make slighting allusions to the Northern armies, and very +likely some rebel patriot will take the trouble to inquire about him." + +"But even if this were not a peril, he would never consent to remain +here if you were gone. I think he would give up Rosa rather than be +separated from you." + +"Yes, the impulsive little beggar, I believe he would," Jack said, his +eyes glistening. "That will compel us to take him into the secret. In +fact, I don't see how it can be managed without him; and then his +testimony would convict the prisoners. I hadn't thought of that. But +now, Polly, about yourself. What's to become of you?" + +"I have my plans laid. Mrs. Myrason, the wife of one of Johnston's +generals, is going to the front next week. I shall insist to-night on +accompanying her, as some of our physicians are going to be sent through +the lines at the same time. There is really no reason for my remaining +here, now that you are well. I have already broached the subject to Mrs. +Atterbury, and I shall inform her at once that I am decided. She will +not suspect anything, as she knew I was half-tempted to go North when +mamma went. The important thing for you, now, is to give your whole mind +to the rescue, and have no fears for me. If you can convince Dick to go +with you, all will be well. If he proves obstinate, hand him over to +me." Jack laughed. + +"Polly, you should have been the first-born of the house of Sprague; you +have twice the sense that I have." + +"It isn't sense that wins in war; it is daring and resolution, and you +have all that." + +When Jack had cautiously laid the situation before his young Patroclus, +that precocious warrior at once justified the confidence reposed in him. + +"Rosa has promised to marry me as soon as the war is over. She can't +expect me to hang around here like a peg-top on a string. Besides, I +wouldn't stay where you are not, Jacko, even if I lost my sweetheart for +good and all." + +There was a piteous quaver in the treble voice, and, forgetting that he +was no longer a school-boy, he brushed his eyes furtively with his +coat-sleeve, as Jack pretended preoccupation with his shoe-string. + +"You're a brick, Dick. I think I have confided that to you before--but +you are a brick, made of the best straw in the field of life, and you +shall be a general one of these days--your shrill voice shall let slip +the dogs of war and cry havoc to the enemy. You shall return to +Acredale--proud Acredale--your brows bound with victorious wreaths, and +all the small boys perched on the spreading oaks to salute you." + +"I think I have heard something like that before, my blarneying +Plantagenet. You shall be the Percy of the North, and command the great +battle. You shall meet and vanquish fifty Harrys, and cry, 'God for +Union, liberty, and the laws.'" + +"Bravo! You know your Shakespeare if you don't know prudence. However, +we're plotters now, and you must take on your wisest humor. You must not +breathe a word to Rosa. Love is a freebooter in confidences. It has no +conscience, as it has no law. It is an immense friction on the sober +relations of life. It is cousin to the god of lies--Mercury. So be +warned that while your heart is Rosa's your reason's your country's, +your friends', and you have a chance now to employ it to the profit of +both! You must be ready to evade Rosa's infinite questioning with +innocent plausibilities, for you must bear in mind that, however much +she may love you, she, like you, loves her cause, her people--more, in +fact, for you have seen that these passionate Southerners have made a +religion of the war, and, like all enthusiasts, they will go any +lengths, deny all ties; glory, faith, in personal sacrifices and +heart-wrenchings, to make the South triumph. So, without being false to +your love, you must deceive, to be true to your country; for to lull +love's suspicions a man must regulate the two currents of his life, the +heart and brain. Keep the heart in check and let the brain rule in such +affairs as we have on hand." + +"Phew Jack! you talk like a college professor. You're deeper than a +well; and what was the other thing Mercutio said?" + +"Ah! Mercutio said so much that Shakespeare got frightened and let +Tybalt kill him. So beware of saying too much. That's your great danger, +Dick; your tongue is terrible--mostly to your friends." + +"Is it, indeed? I have a friend who doesn't think so." + +"No, because she considers your tongue part of herself now." + +"I don't see why she should; she has enough of her own." + +"In wooing-time no woman ever had enough tongue." + +"How changed you are from what you were at Acredale, Jack! I never heard +you talk so deep and bookish." + +"I had no need at Acredale, Dick. There I was a boy--lived as a boy, +romped as a boy, and loved boyish things. But a man ripens swiftly in +war--you yourself have. You are no longer the mischief-maker and tom-boy +that terrified your family and set the gossips agog in the dear old +village. Mind broadens swiftly in war. That one dreadful day at Bull Run +enlarged my faculties, or trained them rather, as much as a course in +college. Something very serious came into my life that day. It had its +effect on you too. It fairly revolutionized Vint; we may not have +exactly put away boyishness and boyish things--please God, I hope to be +a boy many a year yet--but we have been made to think as men, act as +men, and realize that there are consequences and responsibilities in +life such as we could not have realized in ten years in time of peace." + +Dick listened during this solemn comedy of immature doctrinal induction, +his eyes dilating with wonder and admiration. Jack, in the _rôle_ of +sage, delighted him, and he straightway confided to Rosa that he +couldn't understand how any girl could love another man while Jack was +to be had. + +"He's so clever, so brave, so manly. He knows so much, and yet never +takes the trouble to let any one see it. Ah, Rosa, I wish I were +like Jack!" + +"I think Jack's very nice, but I know somebody that's much nicer," Rosa +replied, busy with a rough material that was plainly intended for the +Southern warriors. + +"Ah! but if you really knew all about Jack, you wouldn't look at anybody +else," Dick cried, pensively, tangling his long legs in the young +girl's work. + +"There, you clumsy fellow; you've ruined this seam, and I must get this +work done before noon. We're all going to the provost prison to take +garments to the recruits. You may come if you'll be very good and help +me with these supplies." + +"May I? I will sew on the buttons. Oh, you think I can't? Just give me a +needle." And sure enough Dick, gravely arming himself from the store in +Rosa's "catch-all," set to fastening the big buttons as composedly as if +he had been brought up in a tailor's shop. It was in this sartorial +industry that Jack, coming in, presently discovered the pair. + +"You've turned Dick into a seamstress, have you, Rosalind? You're an +amazing little magician. Dick's sewing heretofore has been of the common +boy-sort--wild oats." + +"No, Mr. Jack, I'm no magician. Dick is a very sensible fellow, and, +like Richelieu in the play, he ekes out the lion's skin with the fox's." + +"I didn't come to add to the stores of your wisdom. This is the day set, +as I understand it, for us to go to the prison and relieve the distress +of the victims of war. Do I understand that we, Dick and I, are to go +and have our patriotic hearts torn by the sight of woes that fortune, in +the shape of the Atterburys, keeps us from?" + +"Of course you are. We couldn't think of going without you. There, my +work is done. We'll have lunch and then start," Rosa said, rising and +directing Dick to fill the large wicker basket with the garments. + +Fashion and idleness make strange pastimes. The recreation to which Jack +and Dick were bidden was a visit to the melancholy shambles where the +heterogeneous mass of unclassified prisoners were detained. It was a +long, gabled building on the brink of the river, from whose low, grated +windows the culprits could catch glimpses of the James, tumbling over +its sedgy, sometimes rocky bed. A few yards from it arose the grim walls +of what had been a tobacco-factory, now the never-to-be forgotten +Libby Prison. + +It was an animated and curious group that made up Jack's party. They +were piloted by a young aide on the staff of General Lee, and, as his +entire mind was engrossed in making his court to Rosa, the pilgrims were +given the widest latitude for investigation. On the lower tier he +pointed out the cells of the Rosedale prisoners, where, as you may +imagine, Jack and Dick, without giving a sign, kept their wits alert. +Jones--the "most desperate of the conspirators against the President, +the special agent of Butler"--was in a cell by himself, constantly +guarded by a sentinel. + +"This, Sprague," said the young aide, lowering his voice as he came +abreast of Jones's cell, "is the man the Government has the strongest +proof against. He is proved to have come into our lines from the Warwick +River, to have managed to escape from Castle Thunder, and to have led +the miscreants to Rosedale. Your own and young Perley's testimony after +that will swing him higher than a spy was ever swung before." + +These words, begun in a low tone, were made clearer and louder by the +sudden cessation of chatter among the visiting group. Jones, who seemed +to have come to his grating when the suppressed laughter sounded in the +dark corridor, heard every word of the official's speech. He was no +longer the bearded desperado Jack had seen in the _mêlée_ at +Rosedale--there was a certain distinction in the poise of the head, an +inborn gentility in the impassive contemplation with which he met the +furtive scrutiny of the curious visitors. Jack he eyed with something of +surprise, but when Dick pushed suddenly in front of the timorous group +of young women, he started, changed color, and averted his face; then, +as if suddenly recalling himself, turned and devoured the lad with a +strange, yearning tenderness. Dick met the gaze with his habitual easy +gayety, and, turning to Jack, said, impulsively: + +"I should never recognize this man as the bandit who fired the shot that +night--are you really the Jones that choked and wounded me at Rosedale?" +Dick advanced quite close to the wicked as he asked this. + +"And who may you be, if I am permitted to ask a question?" the prisoner +replied vaguely, all the time devouring the boy with his dilating eyes. + +"I am Richard Perley, of Acredale, a soldier of the Union and a friend +of all who suffer in its cause." Dick murmured the last words so low +that the group of visitors did not catch them, and, adding to them an +emphasis of the eye that the prisoner seemed too agitated to notice, he +continued, as Jack pushed nearer; "This is certainly not the man we saw +at Rosedale. But I have seen you somewhere. Tell me, have I not?" + +"I can tell you nothing--I--I" As he said this Jones backed against the +wall. The guard sprang forward in alarm. The women, of course, cried out +in many keys, most of them skurrying away toward the staircase. + +"Water!" Jack cried. "Guard, have you no water handy?" + +"No, sir; the canteen was broken, and there is none nearer than the +guard-room." + +"Run and get some. I will see that the prisoner does not get out. Run!" + +The aide had gallantly gone forward in the passage to reassure the +ladies, and Jack, seizing the chance, for which the prisoner seemed to +be prepared, whispered: + +"Here is an auger, a chisel, and a knife. Secrete them. Work straight +out under your window. We shall be ready for you by Wednesday night. +Don't fail to give a signal if anything happens that prevents your +cutting through. There is only an old stone wall between you and the +river. You must take precautions against the water, if it is high enough +to reach your cut." + +Jones played his part admirably. He remained limp and stolid in the +supporting arms of Jack, while Dick, hovering in the doorway, kept the +prying remnant of the visitors, eager to witness the scene, at a safe +distance. When the water came Jack yielded his place to the guard and +the party moved on. + +"Here we have a real Yankee, a regular nutmeg," the young aide cried, as +the party came to a room not far from Jones's. "This youngster was one +of the chief devils in the attack on Rosedale. The judge-advocate has +tried every means to coax a confession from him, but without result. He +is as gay as a bridegroom, and answers all threats with a joke." + +"Ah! the old Barney under all," Jack said, half sadly. + +"Do you know him, Mr. Sprague?" + +"Like a brother. He is from my town." + +"Ah, perhaps you can convince him that his best course is open +confession?" + +"No, I fear not. He is very headstrong, and would rather have his joke +on the gibbet than own himself in the wrong." + +"But, Mr. Jack, if you should talk to him, show him the wickedness of +conspiring against a peaceful family, inciting a servile race to murder, +I'm sure you could move him, and it would be such a comfort to have the +criminals themselves expose the atrocious plot." + +This was said by Miss Delmayne, a niece of Mrs. Gannat. Jack caught her +eye as she spoke, and instantly realized the covert meaning. How stupid +he had been! Of course, Barney must be apprised of the rescue, and what +time more propitious than the present? But, unfortunately, he had not +provided himself with the tools for the emergency. What could be done? +He suddenly remembered a bayonet he had seen near the guard-room. It was +lying unnoticed on the bench. + +"I must have a drink before I answer a plea so urgent. Amuse the +prisoner while I slake my thirst." + +Barney was lying at the far end of the narrow, boarded cage. He raised +his head as the group halted before his door, but gave no sign of +interest as this dialogue was carried on: + +"Prisoner," said the aide, magisterially, "come to the door." + +"Jailer, what shall I come to the door for?" Barney mimicked indolently. + +"Because I hid you, sir." + +"Not a reason in law, sir." + +"I'll have the guard haul you here." + +"Then he'll have a mighty poor haul, as King James said when he caught +the Orange troopers in the Boyne." + +"I'll teach you, sir, to defy a commissioned officer!" + +"I've learned that already; but if you're a school-teacher I'll decline +the verb 'will' for you." + +"Guard, hustle that beast forward." + +"Guard, don't give yourself the trouble." And Barney arose nimbly and +came to the grating. "O captain, dear, why didn't ye tell me there were +ladies here? You could have spared your eloquence and your authority if +you had told me that the star of beauty, the smile of angels, the--" + +"Never mind, sir; be respectful, and wait till you're spoken to." + +"Then, captain, dear, do you profit by your own advice; let the ladies +talk. I'm all ears, as the rabbit said to the weasel." + +But at this interesting point of the combat Jack returned, and, +pushing-to the door, cried, as if in surprise, "Hello, Barney, boy, what +are you doing here?" + +"Diverting the ladies, Jack, dear, and giving the captain a chance to +practice command, for fear he'll not get a show in battle." The roar +that saluted this retort subdued the bumptious cavalier, and he affected +deep interest in the whispered questions of one of the young women in +the rear of the group. + +"You're the same old Barney. Marc Anthony gave up the world for a kiss, +you'd capitulate a kingdom for a joke," Jack said, striving to catch +Barney's eye and warn him to be prudent. + +"Well, Jack, dear, between the joke and the kiss, I think I'd go out of +the world better satisfied with the kiss; at all events, it wouldn't be +dacent to say less with so many red lips forninst me," and Barney winked +untold admiration at the laughing group before him, all plainly +delighted with his conquest of the captain. + +"But, Barney, you should be thinking of more serious things." + +"Sure I've thought of nothing else for three months. The trees can't go +naked all the year; the brook can't keep ice on it in summer; the swan +sings before it dies; the grasshopper whirrs loudest when its grave is +ready. Why shouldn't I have me joke when I've had nothing but hard +knocks, loneliness, and the company of the prison for half the year?" + +"Poor fellow!" Rosa murmured in Dick's ear, who had not trusted himself +in sight of his old comrade. "I don't believe he's a bad man; I don't +believe he came to our house. Oh! pray, Mr. Jack, do talk with him. +Encourage him to be frank, and we will get Mr. Davis to pardon him." + +"Pardon, is it, me dear? Sure there's no pardon could be as sweet as +your honest e'en--God be good to ye!--an' if I were Peter after the +third denial of me Maker, your sweet lips would drag the truth from me! +What is it you would have me tell?" + +"The captain, here, desires me to talk with you. He thinks that perhaps +I can convince you of the wiser course to follow," Jack said, with a +meaning light in his eye. + +"Oh, if that's what's wanted, I will listen to you 'till yer arms give +out, as Judy McMoyne said, when Teddy tould his love, I promise, in +advance, to do what you advise." + +"I knew you would," Jack said, approvingly.--"Now, captain, if you can +give me five minutes--" + +The captain beckoned the guard, whispered a moment, and then said, +exultingly: + +"The guard will stand in the passage until you have finished with the +prisoner. We shall await you in the porch." + +"Now, Barney, I must be brief, and you must not lose a syllable I say. +Here, sit on the cot, so that I may slip this bayonet under the blanket. +You can work through this wall with that. You must do it to-night and +to-morrow. Be ready Thursday at daylight. You will be met on the outside +either by Dick or myself. We have the route all arranged, and friends in +many places to lull suspicion." + +"But I won't stir a foot without Jones. Do you know who he is?" Barney +whispered, eying Jack curiously. + +"No other than that he seems a very desperate devil-may-care fellow. Who +is he?" + +"An agent and crony of Boone's." + +"Good God!" + +"It's a long story I can't tell it now, but if your plan takes him in, +I'm ready, and will be on hand." + +"I have seen him, and have given him better tools than I have brought +you for the work." + +"That's all right. I ask nothing better than the bayonet. The other +fellows that got out of Libby didn't have nearly so good." + +"You know how I am fixed here. I have grown tired of this sort of +hostage life, and I am going North with you. So, Barney, I beg of you to +be careful, for other lives than your own are at stake. I should be +specially hateful to the authorities if I were retaken--for the whole +Southern people clamor to have an example made of the assassins of the +President, as they call you." + +"Don't fear, Jack; I'll be quiet as a sucking pig in star light. I'll be +yer shadow and never open me mouth, even if a jug, big as Teddy Fin's +praty-patch, stud furninst me!" + +"It isn't your tongue I'm so much afraid of as your propensity to +combat. You must resist that delight of yours--whacking stray heads and +flourishing your big fists." + +"My fists, is it? Then I'll engage to keep them still as O'Connell's +legs in Phoenix Square." + +"Now, I shall report that you are considering my advice. You must be +very gentle and placating to the guard, and let on that you have +something on your mind." + +"Indeed, I needn't let on at all. I have as much on me mind as Biddy +McGinniss had on her back when she carried Mick home from the gallows." + +"O Barney, Barney, you would joke if the halter were about your neck!" + +"An' why wouldn't I, me bye? What chance would I have if I didn't? I +couldn't joke when I was dead, could I?" + +"Well, well, think over what I've said, and remember that penitence half +absolves guilt." + +This was said for the benefit of the guard, who had approached as Jack +arose to take his leave. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR. + + +Opportunity is an instinct to the man who dares. To him the law of the +impossible has no meaning. To him there is no such thing as the +unexpected. What he wants comes to pass, because he can not see danger, +difficulty, nor any of the obstacles that daunt the prudent and the +temporizing. It is, therefore, the impossible that is fulfilled in many +of the crises of life. By the same token it is the foolhardy and +preposterous thing that is most readily done in determinate +conjunctures. We guard against the possible, but we take little note of +the enterprises that involve foolhardiness or desperation. Daring has +safeguards of its own that are understood only when mad ventures have +come to successful issue. Helpless and hopeless as Jack's situation +seemed, the very poverty of his resources, helped the daring scheme of +escape that filled his mind night and day during these apparently +indolent weeks of pleasuring in the ranks of his enemies. Then, too, the +arrogant self-confidence of his captors was an inestimable aid. Military +discipline and provost vigilance were at their slackest stage in the +rebel lines at this triumphant epoch in the fortunes of the Confederacy. +The easily won combat at Bull Run had filled the authorities--as well as +the rank and file--with overweening contempt for the resources of the +North, or the enterprise of its soldiers. It was not until long after +the time I am now writing about, that the prisoners were closely guarded +and access refused to the idle and curious. But, as a matter of fact, +nothing in the fortunes of our friends equals the truth of the thrilling +and desperate chances taken by Northern captives to escape the lingering +death of prison in the South. Since the war, volumes have been written +of personal experience, amply attested, that would in romance receive +the derisive mark of the critics. Danger daily met becomes a commonplace +to men of resolution. Things which appall us when we read them become a +simple part of our purpose when we live in an atmosphere of peril and +put our hope only in ending the ordeal. + +The incident I am narrating were the work of many hands. Mrs. Gannat had +from the first given her heart to the Union cause. A woman of high +standing in society, well known throughout the State for her mind, her +manners, and her benevolence, it was not difficult for her, by adroit +management, to aid such prisoners as fell into rebel hands during the +early years of the war. Before Richmond became a mart in the modern +sense, the Gannat mansion, set far back among the trees of a noble +grove, was a shrine to the tradition loving citizens, for, beyond any +Southern city, save perhaps New Orleans, Richmond folk cherished the +memory of aristocratic and semi-regal ancestors. There were those still +living when the war began, who had heard their fathers and mothers talk +of the last royal Governor and the splendid state of the great noblemen +who had flocked to the city of Powhatan when Virginia was the gem of +England's colonial coronet. The patrician caste of the city still held +its own, aided by the helot hand of slavery. Among the most reverently +considered in this sanctified group, Mrs. Gannat was, if not first, the +conceded equal. She was the dowager of the ancient noblesse. The young +Virginian received in her drawing-rooms carried away a distinction which +was recognized throughout the State. The dame admitted to Mrs. Gannat's +semi-literary _leveés_ was accepted as all that society demanded of +its votaries. + +In other years this great lady had been the admired center of the court +circle in Washington. There she had known very intimately Senator--then +Congressman--Sprague. Jack remembered vaguely the gossip of an +engagement between his father and a famous Southern beauty; and when the +lady in the course of the conspiring said, as they talked, "My son, I +might have been your mother," he knew that this gentle-voiced, +kindly-eyed matron was the woman his father had loved and lost. I don't +propose to rehearse the ingenuities of the complicated plans whereby the +group we are interested in were to be delivered. Mrs. Gannat's perfect +knowledge of the city, her intimacy with the President, Cabinet, and +leading men, her vogue with the officials, all tended to make very +simple and easy that which would seem in the telling hare-brained and +impossible. Jack's unique position, and Dick's attitude of the +half-acknowledged _fiancé_ of an Atterbury, broke down bars that even +Mrs. Gannat's far-reaching sagacity might not have been able to cope +with in certainty. The night chosen for the escape was fatefully +propitious. The President was entertaining the newly arrived French +delegate and the ministers Mason and Slidell, just appointed to the +courts of St. James and the Tuileries. Everybody that was anybody was of +the splendid company. + +Jack, however, was tortured by a doubt of Dick's constancy when it came +to an abrupt quitting of his sweetheart. Poor lad, he fought the battle +bravely, making no sign; and when Rosa, the picture of demure +loveliness, in her girlish finery, asked him maliciously as the carriage +drove toward the Executive Mansion-- + +"Don't you feel like a traitor, you sly Yankee?" Dick gave a great groan +and said: + +"O Rosa, Rosa, I can't go! I do feel like a traitor. I am a traitor." + +Jack, luckily, was sitting beside him, and brought his heel down on the +lad's toes with such emphasis that he uttered a cry of pain. Rosa was +all solicitude at this. + +"What is it, Richard; have I wounded you? Don't mind my chatter; I only +do it to tease you. He shall be a Yankee; he shall make nutmegs; he +shall abuse the chivalrous South; he shall be what he likes; he sha'n't +be teased--" and she wound her bare arms about his neck, quite +indifferent to the reproving nudges of mamma and the sad mirthfulness +of Jack. + +Dick found means in the noise of the chariot, and the crush they +presently came into, for saying something that seemed to lessen the +self-reproachful tone of the penitent, and, when they entered the modest +portals of the presidency, Rosa was radiant and Dick equable, but not in +his usual chattering volubility. + +"You are sure you do not repent? You can stay if you choose," Jack said, +as they entered the dressing-room. + +"Where you go, I go; what you say is right I know is right, and I will +do it." Dick looked away confusedly as he said this. They were +surrounded by young officers, all of whom the two young men knew. + +"Ah, ha, Mr. Perley! I have stolen a march on you; I have secured the +first waltz from Miss Rosa," a young man at the mirror cried, as Dick +adjusted his gloves. + +"Then, Captain Warrick, I'm likely to be a wall-flower, for the second, +third, and fourth were promised yesterday." + +"Fortunes of war, my dear fellow--fortunes of war. You must lay siege to +another fortress." + +"Dick," Jack whispered, "it's an omen. It will give us time to slip out +and change our garments without the danger of excuses, for, though +nothing is suspected, any incautious phrase may destroy us." + +"Don't fear for me. I shall be prudent as a confessor. We can't go, +however, just yet. I must have a little talk with Rosa. I may never see +her again. If you were in love and going from the light of her eye, +perhaps never to see her again, you wouldn't be so cool. We must, +anyway, take the ladies to the host and hostess for presentation; then a +few words and I am ready." Dick was trembling visibly and blushing like +a school-girl at first facing a class-day crowd. Jack's heart went out +to the lad, and he thought the chances about even that when the moment +of trial came the boy's resolution would give way. The ladies were +waiting for them when they emerged into the corridors--Rosa began, +prettily, to rally Dick on his tardiness. It took time to thread the +constantly increasing crowd in the hallways, the corridors, and on the +stairs, but they finally reached the group in which Mrs. Davis was +receiving the confused salutations of the throng at the drawing-room +door. As soon as this formality was ended, Rosa whisked Dick in one +direction while Mrs. Atterbury asked Jack to take her to the library. +Here, by a happy chance, she came upon a group of dowagers--friends of +her youth from other towns--brought to the capital by the event, or +their husbands' official duties in the new government. Jack bowed low as +he relinquished the good lady's arm, feeling as if he were embarking on +some odious treason, in view of her persistent and generous treatment of +him and his. + +"Now that you are among the friends of your youth, I will leave you; who +knows whether I shall see you again?" he faltered, as she turned an +affectionate glance upon him. + +"Oh, you needn't think that you can take _congé_ for good, Jack. I may +want to dance during the night. If I do I shall certainly lay my +commands upon you. You may devote yourself to the young people now, but +I warn you I am not to be thrown over so easily. Besides, I want to +present you to a dozen friends that you have not yet met at my house." + +"You will always know where to find me; but I am not so sure that I +shall be as able, as I am willing, to come to you," Jack said, trembling +at the double meaning of his words. + +"Oh, I know you're dying to get to the dancers." + +"I can go to no one that it will give me more happiness to please than +you. Indeed, I'm going into danger when I quit you. Give me your +blessing, as if it were Vincent going to the wars." + +She had turned from the throng of ladies, who were discussing a +political secret, and her eyes melted tenderly as Vincent's name passed +Jack's lips. She touched his bowed head gently, saying: + +"Why, how serious you are! One would think beauty a battery, and you on +the way to charge." + +"You are right. It is a murderous ambush." + +"Well, if you regard it so seriously--God bless you in it." + +Her gentle eyes rested tenderly on him; he seized the kind hand, and, +raising it to his lips in the gallant Southern fashion, turned and +hurried away among the guests. + +"Ah, Mrs. Atterbury, conquests at your age, from hand to lip, there's +but short interval," and the President held up a warning finger as he +came closer to the lady. + +"Oh, no, age makes a long route between hand and lip--thirty years ago +you kissed my hand, and you never reached the lip." + +"It wasn't my fault that I didn't." + +"Nor your misfortune either," and Mrs. Atterbury glanced archly at her +rival, Mrs. Davis, the mature beauty of the scene. + +Dick, meanwhile, not so dexterous in expedients or ready in speech as +his mentor, became wedged in an eddy, just outside the main stream, +pouring drawing-room ward, so that, returning to the spot where they had +separated, Jack did not, for the moment, discover him. + +Rosa's gayety and delight deepened the depression that made Dick so +unlike himself. At first, in the exuberance of the scene, the girl did +not heed this. She knew everybody, and, though in daily contact with +most of them, there were no end of whispered confidences to exchange and +tender reassurances in ratification of some new compact. Then there were +solemn notes of comparison as to the fit and form of gowns, or the fit +of a furbelow, exhaustively discussed, perhaps that very afternoon. Keen +eyes, merry and tantalizing, were lifted to Dick's sulky face during +this pretty by-play, but all the gayety of the comedy was lost to him. +When he could contain himself no longer, with another bevy of cronies in +sight coming down the stairs, he cried out, desperately: + +"For Heaven's sake, Rosa, don't wait here like the statue in St. +Peter's, to be kissed by everybody on the way to the pope; it's simply +sickening to stand here like a shrine to be slopped by girls that you +see every day. Come away; I want to say something to you." + +Rosa turned her astonished eyes upon the railer, and, with a comic +movement of immense dignity, drew her arm from his sheltering elbow, +and, in tones of freezing _hauteur_ retorted: + +"And since when, sir, are you master of my conduct? I am my own +mistress, I believe. I shall kiss whom I please." + +"O Rosa, Rosa, I didn't mean that; I don't know what I meant. I--O Rosa, +don't be fretful with me now! I can't bear it. I am ill--I mean I am +tired. Come and sit with me." + +Several on the outer edge of the flowing current turned curiously as +this sharp cry of boyish pleading rose above the noisy clamor. It was +impossible, however, to push backward, but in an instant the lovers were +sheltered in an alcove near the doorway. Rosa had taken his rejected arm +again in a panic of guilty repentance, and, looking at his half-suffused +eyes, cried, piteously: + +"Oh, forgive me, Richard, forgive me--I did not mean it! I forgot you +were ill. Ah, please, please forgive me! You know--I--I--" + +But Dick, now conscious that inquiring eyes were fastened upon them, +curious ears listening, seized her arm, and, by main force, reached the +hall doorway, now nearly deserted. + +"Rosa, I am not well--that is, I have a headache, or heartache--it's the +same thing. I didn't mean to tell you, for I didn't want to destroy your +pleasure, and you have looked forward so long to this; but I--I--can not +dance. Jack and I are going to walk a little while, and then we--we +shall be more ourselves." + +Poor Dick had only the slightest idea what he was saying, and Rosa +listened with wide-open eyes and little appealing caresses, not quite +certain what the distracted lover did mean. + +"All your dances are taken up. Young Warrick just told me he had the +first. You gave Gayo Brotherton two yesterday, so you will have no need +of me for hours yet." + +"But I will cut them if you say so. Only you know that it is our way +here to give the first who ask." + +"Yes, yes; that's right. I--I couldn't dance now. I shall be all right, +presently if--if I see you happy. Ah, Rosa, if--if I should die--if I +should be carried away, would you always love me, would you always +believe in me?" + +"Why, Dick, you are really ill; let me feel your wrist." Rosa seized +Dick's hand and began a convulsive squeezing. "Yes, you certainly have a +fever. You must go home. I shall go with you. It is your wound. It has +broken out again--I know it has. You shall go home this instant. I will +send for the carriage. Come straight up-stairs, you wicked boy! To let +me come here when you are so ill! I shall never forgive myself--never!" + +"A large vow for a small maid." + +"Mr. Jack!"--for the voice was Jack's--"Dick is very ill, and he must go +home at once. Will you not get the carriage and take us?" + +"I will not take you. I am very experienced in Dick's ailments, and I +have already summoned a physician, who is waiting for us. But he can not +attend his patient if you are present." + +"Yes, Rosa, Jack is right. I will leave you now, and when you see me +again you will see that I am not ill--that I--I--" + +"I will stop for you at the door, Dick. You know the physician can not +be kept waiting, so make your parting brief. Short shrift is the easiest +in love and war." + +"A doctor is as dreadful to me as a battle, Rosa. Kiss me as if I were +going to the field," Dick whispered as Jack's back was turned. A minute +later he had joined his mentor, and the two hurried through the square +and down toward the river. + +"I can't do it, Jack," Dick suddenly broke out, as they hurried through +the dark street. "I must leave Rosa a line telling her my motive. What +will she think of me sneaking away like this without a word? Now, you go +on to Blake's cabin and change your clothes. I will get an old suit of +Vint's. It will really make no difference in the time, and it will be +safer for us to reach the prison separately than together." + +"No, Dick, be a man. Every line you write will add to our peril. She +will, of course, show it to her mother. Our night will be known in the +morning. Mrs. Atterbury is too loyal to the Confederacy to conceal +anything. You will thus give the authorities the very clew they need. +No, Dick, you must be guided by me in this; besides, you can send Rosa +letters through Vincent at headquarters as soon as we reach Washington." + +"I can't help it. I know you are right, but I must do it. I will be with +you in less than an hour. I'm off." + +"Listen!--Good God, he's gone!" Jack ejaculated as Dick, taking +advantage of a cross-street, shot off into the darkness. Jack halted. To +call would be dangerous; to run after him excite comment, perhaps +pursuit and discovery. There was nothing to be done but wait at the +rendezvous. He would come back--Jack tried to make himself believe that +he could depend on that. When, after a circuitous walk of half an hour, +he reached the cabin of Blake, the colored agent of Mrs. Gannat, he +found a note from his patroness warning him that the prison authorities +had become alert. A rumor of a plot to escape had penetrated the War +Department, and orders had been given to increase the precaution of the +guards. The reception at the President's was a stroke of good fortune +for the prisoners, as all the higher officials would be detained there +until morning. Perhaps, in view of the chance, it would be better to +anticipate the hour of flight, as, unfortunately, the horses that had +been got together for the fugitives were in use for the Davis guests, +and on such short notice others could not be provided without exciting +suspicion or pointing to the agency by which the liberation had been +brought about. + +"Ah, if Dick were only here," Jack groaned, "we could go to the square +and lead away enough staff or orderly horses to serve the purpose. The +little wretch! It would serve him properly to leave him here mooning +over his sweetheart." Then his heart took up a little tremor of protest. +He sighed gently. He, too, had loitered when his heart pleaded. Why +should Dick be firmer than he? It was after midnight when he reached the +sheltering, broken, ground along the river. The provost prison fronted +the water. It had been a tobacco warehouse, built long before, and +hastily transformed into its present military purpose. It was set in +what was called a "cut" in the heavy clay bank, thus bringing the lower +windows below the level of the surrounding land. There were sentries +stationed in front and rear, who walked at regular intervals from corner +to corner. The sentinel on the high level to the rear could not see the +ground along the wall, and it was this fact which Jack calculated upon +to enable him to help the prisoners to remove the _débris_ of the wall +through which they were to presently emerge. The night was pitchy dark. +This had been taken into consideration long before. Heavy clouds hung +over the river, throwing the prison and its environs into still more +security for Jack's purpose. He reconnoitred every available point, +searched every corner of possible danger, and as the time passed he +began to rage with impatience against Dick, whose delay was now periling +the success of the enterprise. + +It was twelve o'clock and after. He dared wait no longer. Dick must +shift for himself. Perhaps he had lost his way. In any event it was +safer to set the general prisoners free, as they were only carelessly +guarded. Lamps glimmered fitfully in the guard-room, throwing fantastic +banners of light almost to the water's edge. He made a final tour about +the broken ground, but there was no sound or suspicion of Dick. He knew +every inch of the ground. Dick and he had surveyed and resurveyed it for +days. The coast was clear. No one was on guard at the vital point, but +still he lingered, his breath coming and going painfully, as a break in +the clouds cast a moving shape over the undulating ground. Should he +give the boy another half-hour's grace? He makes a circuit in the +direction Dick must approach by and waits. He will count a hundred very +slowly, then wait no longer. He counts up to fifty, hears a coming step, +and waits alertly. No--it passes on. He begins again--counts one +hundred, two hundred. No sign. "Pah! it is madness to delay for him. The +young poltroon has lost his resolution in his lovesick fever. Very +likely he has been unable to run the risk of Rosa's anger--her mother's +indignation--the possibility of never seeing the girl again." Well, he +had given him ample grace. He had endangered his own and other lives to +humor a boyish whim. Now he must act, and swiftly. + +The plan was too far gone in execution to be changed. He must carry out +the final measures alone. Now, one of these details required some one to +slip down on the ground and crawl to the point between the windows where +the prisoners were working and aid them to remove the thin, shell of +brick. If it fell outward, the guard at the corner would hear the noise, +and might come down to see what it was that made it. The removal of this +wall released all confined in the main prison. These he saw stealing out +in groups of ten or more. They had guides waiting on the bank of the +river. Jack gave them final orders. The most difficult work was the +getting out Jones and Barney, for they had special cells. Jack was to +guard Jones's exit and Dick Barney's, but now all the work would devolve +upon him. It was two o'clock, and he dared wait no longer. Raising +himself from the low wall where he had been crouching, he started toward +the corner of the prison farthest from the guard-room. At the wall of +the building he dropped flat on his face and began to crawl forward, +sheltered by the low ground that formed a sort of dry ditch about the +basement of the prison. He had barely stretched himself at full length +when a bright light was flashed on him from a deep doorway just beyond +him, and a voice, mocking and triumphant, exclaimed. + +"This is a bad place to swim, my friend! There ain't enough water to +drown you, but if you stir you'll run against a bullet." + +Jack lay quite still and raised his eyes. Above him stood a trooper, +with a revolver leveled at and within ten feet of him. Figure to +yourself any predicament in life in which vital stakes hang on the +issue; figure to yourself the shipwrecked seizing ice where he had hoped +for timber; the condemned criminal walking into the jailer's toils where +he had laboriously dug through solid walls; the captain of an army +leaving the field victor, to find his legions rushing upon him in rout; +figure any monstrous overturn in well-laid schemes, and you have but a +faint reflex of poor Jack's heart-breaking anguish when this jocular +fate stood above him, with the five gaping barrels pointed at his +miserable head. Oh, if Dick had only been there! His quick eye and keen +activity would have discovered this lurking devil; perhaps, between +them, they would have averted the disaster. Where could Dick be? + + + + +BOOK III + +_THE DESERTERS_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +BETWEEN THE LINES. + + +On quitting Jack, Dick had but one thought in mind--to make his +departure less abrupt for Rosa. If he left her without a word, what +would she think? Then, with an officer's uniform, he could be of much +more help to Jack and the party than in the rough civilian homespun +furnished at the cabin. Besides, he knew of certain blank headquarter +passes lying on Vincent's desk. He would get a few of these; they might +extricate the party in the event of a surprise. + +He tore over the solemn roadway, under the spectral foliage, and in +twenty minutes he was in his room in the Atterburys'. Vincent's old +uniform he had often noticed in a spare closet adjoining his own +sleeping-room. In an instant he was in it, and, though it was not a fit, +he soon put it in order to pass casual inspection. The line for Rosa was +the next delay. What should he say? He had had his mind full for days of +the most tender sentiments and prettily turned phrases, but the turmoil +of the last hour, the vital value of every moment to Jack's plans, left +him no time to compose the poem he had meditated so long. Rosa's own +pretty desk was open, and on a sheet of her own paper he wrote, in a +scrawling, school-boy hand: + +"DARLING ROSA: You've often said that you would disown Vincent if he +were not true to the South. Think of Vincent in my place--dawdling in +Acredale or Washington while battles were going on. You would not hold +him less contemptible that he was in love; that he let his love, or his +life, for you are both to me, stand as a barrier to his duty. You can't +love where you can't honor, and you can't hate where you know conscience +rules. I go to my duty, that in the end I may come to you without shame. +I ask no pledge other than comes to your heart when you read this; but +whatever you may say, whatever you may decide, I am now and always shall +be your devoted + +"RICHARD" + +He sighed, casting a woe-begone glance into the mirror, dimly conscious +that he was a very heroic young person. He kissed various objects dear +to the little maid, and then, in lugubrious unrest, sallied out +and mounted. + +Again under the calm sky--again the fleet limbs of the horse almost +keeping time to his own inward impatience. He holds to the soft, +unpaved, outlying streets, that his pace may not attract remark. He +passes horsemen, like himself spurring fleetly in the darkness. He is +near the river at last--dismounts and reconnoitres. He easily finds a +place to tie the horse, and, familiar with every inch of the outlying +ground about the prison, crawls close to the wall, listening intently. +He can hear no sound save the weary clank of the sentry on the wooden +walk. He reaches the wall where the prisoners Jones and Barney were to +emerge. There is no sign of a break! Where can Jack be? Some disaster +must have overtaken him, for it is past the hour set and soon it will be +dawn, and then all action will be impossible. Perhaps Jack has been +caught reconnoitring? Perhaps he has gone with the main body, not +venturing to try for Jones and Dick without help? No, that was not like +Jack. This was his special part in the plan--if it were not done, Jack +was still about. He can find out readily--thanks to the countersign. He +steals back over the low hillock, mounts the horse, and by a _détour_ +reaches the sentry guarding the river front of the prison. He is +challenged, but, possessed of the countersign, finds no difficulty in +riding up to the guard-room doorway. + +"Has Lieutenant Hawkins been here within an hour, sentry?" he asks, in +apparent haste. + +"No, sir. I think he has been sent for--leastwise, the sergeant went +away about an hour ago to report the taking of a deserter, found +prowling about the side of the prison." + +"A deserter?" + +"Yes, sir. He had a brand-new uniform on and no company mark, nor no +equipments." + +"What has been done with him?" Dick asked, breathlessly, dismounting. "I +wonder if he isn't one of my company from Fort Lee? He went off on a +drunk yesterday, though he was sent here on a commissary errand." + +"I dunno, sir. He's in the lockup there. He was very violent, and the +sergeant bound him with straps." + +"I will go in and examine him; he may be one of my men, and, as our +brigade moves in the morning, I should like to know." + +"Very well, sir; the officer of the day is asleep in the room beyond the +first door. One of the men will call him." + +"Oh, no need to disturb him until I have seen the prisoner.--Here, my +man"--addressing a soldier asleep on a settee--"show me to the deserter +brought in to-night." + +"Yes, sir," the man cried, starting up with confused alacrity; then, +noticing the insignia of major on Dick's gray collar, he saluted +respectfully, and, pointing to a double doorway, waited for his superior +to lead the way. Dick, who had been in the prison before, knew his +whereabouts very well, and it was not until the soldier reached the room +in which the deserter was detained that he seemed to remember that there +were no lights. + +"Here are the man's quarters, sir; but I'm out of matches. If you'll +wait a minute I'll bring a candle." + +"All right," Dick responded, in a loud voice; "I'll stand here until you +come back." + +The quest of the candle would take the guide to the closet in the +guard-room, and, risking little to learn much, Dick struck a match and +peered into the stuffy little room, more like a corn-crib than a +prison-cell. + +"Hist, Jack! is it you?" he called. + +There was an exclamation from the farther end of the room, and then a +fervent-- + +"Heavens, Dick! is it really you?" + +"Sh--sh--!" + +The soldier's returning footfalls sounded in the passage-way; but, as he +re-entered the hall where Dick stood shading the flickering light, he +could not see the hastily extinguished match in Dick's hand. As the man +came slowly along the winding passage-way, Dick whispered: + +"You are a recruit in Rickett's legion; you were drunk and lost your +way, and I am your major; you are stationed at Fort Lee near +Mechanicsville, and you belong to Company G." + +Jack pretended to be sound asleep when the soldier and Dick entered. He +rubbed his eyes sleepily, and looked up in a vacant, tipsy way, leering +knowingly at the soldier, who had caught him by the shoulder. + +"What are you doing here, Tarpey? Why aren't you with your company? +You'll get ball and chain for this lark, or my name's not James Braine." + +"But, major, it--it wasn't my fault. My cousin, Joe Tarpey, came down +from Staunton with a barrel of so'gum whisky, and--and--" + +"You drank too much and was caught where you had no business to be. +However," Dick added, sternly, "the regiment marches in the morning--you +must get out of here. Soldier, show me to Captain Payne's quarters. Say +to him that Major Braine, of Rickett's Legion, desires to speak with him +a moment." But he had no sooner said this than he realized the danger he +was running. + +The captain might know Braine, and then how could he extricate himself +from the dilemma? Luckily the captain was not in his quarters, and Dick, +with calm effrontery, sat down and wrote out a statement of the case, +where he was to be found, and his reasons for carrying the +prisoner away. + +The sergeant, having read this, made no objection to releasing the +alleged deserter, since there had been no orders concerning him, and, +without more ado, Jack walked away with his captain, the picture of +abashed valor and repentant tipsiness. + +"Now, Dick, there's no time to ask the meaning of your miraculous +doings. We've still time to let our friends out and get away before +daylight; but we mustn't lose a second. Sh! stand still, what's that? +Troopers! Good heavens, they can't have found out your trick so soon! +Ah, no! They are floundering about looking for quarters," he added, in +immeasurable relief, as the voices of the riders sounded through the +darkness, cursing luck, the road, and everything else. "O Dick, if we +only had the countersign I could play a brilliant trick on these +greenhorns! Perhaps I can as it is." + +"I have the countersign. How do you suppose I could have managed to get +to you if I hadn't? It is 'Lafayette.'" + +"Glory! Now make all the clatter you can after I challenge." + +They had by this time reached a row of tumble-down stables directly in +the rear of the prison, and shut out from the open ground by a decrepit +fence, broken here and there by negroes too lazy to pass out into the +street to reach the river. The horsemen had turned into this lane-like +highway--evidently misdirected. When within a few feet, Jack gave a +sudden whack on the board and cried, sternly: + +"Halt! Who comes there?" + +There was a sudden clash of steel as the group halted in a heap, and +then a weary voice replied: + +"We have no countersign. We should have been at our destination long +before sundown, but were misdirected ten miles out of our course on the +Manchester pike." + +"Very well. Dismount and come forward one man at a time," Jack answered, +briefly. This the spokesman did with some alacrity. As he came up, Dick +took the precaution of getting between him and his three companions, and +then Jack said: "I suppose you are all right; but my orders are to +arrest all mounted men, detain their horses here in these, the provost +stables," and Jack pointed to Dick's horse dimly outlined against the +sky. "I will give you a receipt for him, and you can get him back in the +morning when you state your case to the provost marshal.--Stephen," he +turned to Dick, "take that horse and put him with the others." He then +made out a receipt, handed it to the astonished trooper, and, directing +him where to go, carried out the same short shrift with the other three. +The troopers were glad enough to be relieved of their beasts. This they +did not attempt to deny, for they had seen a public-house in the street +below, where they could procure much-needed refreshment, relieved as +they now were from the necessity of reporting to their commander, whose +whereabouts were far down the Rocett road. + +"By George, Jack, what a, crafty plotter you are! Now we have a mount +for the party, and I needn't take poor Warick's crack stallion." + +"Yes; we've doubled the chances of escape by this little stratagem; but +we have lost time. Come. Have you tied the horses?" + +"Yes. Lead on." + +Over the turfy hillside, now moist and sticky with the heavy dew, they +stole, half crouching, half crawling, until they were on a level with +the prison basement. The sentry in front was no longer pacing his beat, +and there was no sign of the man in the rear. In a few minutes the two +crawling figures were at the preconcerted places in the wall. In +response to their light taps, a square of brick-work large enough to +leave a space for a man to crawl through crumbled upon Jack and Dick, +who held their bodies closely pressed against the _débris_ to prevent +too loud a noise. There was no time to wait probabilities of discovery, +and an instant later Barney and Jones emerged, panting and half +smothered. + +"I thought it was all up with me hopes, as Glory McNab said when her +sweetheart ran away with the cobbler's daughter." Barney whispered, +hugging Jack rapturously. + +"Sh--! Down on your stomachs. Move that way until you see me rise. +Come." And Jack squirmed ahead as if he had been accustomed to the +locomotion of snakes all his life. In ten minutes they were in the +improvised stables. Dick had taken the precaution to place the horses +where they could feed on a heap of fodder stacked in the yard, and when +they mounted the beasts appeared refreshed as well as rested. Dick +loosing Warick's horse so that he might make his way back to his master, +the fugitives rode cautiously out of the lane, into the open fields, +and, though it was not their shortest way, pushed along the river road +to mislead pursuit. Jack's stratagem had resulted in better luck even +than the possession of the horses. It not only secured a mount for the +four, but, what was equally and perhaps, in view of unforeseen +contingencies, more important disguises for the two prisoners. + +They found an extra coat strapped to each saddle, and with these Barney +and Jones were easily transformed into something like Confederate +soldiers. Both Jack and Jones knew every inch of the suburbs, having +made the topography a study. They struck for the less traveled +thoroughfares until they reached the northeastern limits, then following +the old Cold Harbor road they pushed decisively toward the Williamsburg +pike. But, instead of following it, they traversed on by lanes and +bridle-paths during the day. This was to divide pursuit, as the larger +party had taken the river route where Butler's troops were waiting in +boats for them. The saddle-bags proved a windfall, for in them were +orders to proceed to Yorktown and report to General Magruder. With these +Jack felt no difficulty in passing several awkward points, where there +was no escaping the cavalry patrols, owing to miles of swamp and +impenetrable forest. + +They kept clear, however, of such places as the telegraph reached, +though at one point they found a post in a great state of excitement +over news brought from a neighboring wire, announcing the escape of two +prisoners who had been traced to the York road. But with such papers as +Jack presented and the number of the party double that described in the +dispatch, the adventurers easily evaded suspicion. The great danger, +however, was in quitting the Confederate lines to pass into Butler's. +They chose the night for this, as the camp-fires would warn them of the +vicinity of outposts, Union or rebel. They had purposely avoided +highways and habitations, and, as a result, were limited in food to such +corn-cribs as they found far from human abodes, or the autumn aftermath +of vegetables sometimes found in the shadow of the woods. All were good +shots, however, and a fat rabbit and partridge were cooked by Dick with +such address, that the party were eager to take more time in halting +since they need not starve, no matter how long the journey lasted. + +Jack, by tacit consent, was considered commander of the squad, Barney +remarking humorously that they would not ask to see his commission until +they were in a country where a title meant authority. The commander +ordered his small army very judiciously. They were to ride as far apart +as the roads or woods or natural obstructions would admit. They thus +moved forward in the shape of a triangle, the apex to the rear. +Exchanges of position were made every six hours. They were at the end of +the second day, toward sunset, approaching what they supposed was +Warrick Creek, nearly half-way to Fort Monroe, when they suddenly +emerged on an open plateau from which they could see a mile or two +before them a tranquil waste of crimson water. + +"Why, this can't be the creek!" exclaimed Jones, excitedly. "The creek +isn't half a mile at its broadest." + +"What can it be?" Jack asked, who had been the right wing to Jones's +left. "It's certainly not the James, for the sun is setting at +our back!" + +"Blest if I can tell. It looks very much like the Chesapeake, only the +Chesapeake is wider." + +By this time Barney and Dick had ridden up, and began to admire the +expanse of water spreading from the land before them to a green +wilderness in the distance. + +"I'm afraid we are in a fix," Jones said, resignedly. "If I'm not very +much mistaken, the red line yonder, that looks like a roadway, is a +breastwork, and behind that what looks like a plowed field is +earthworks. My boys, we are before Yorktown and farther from our lines +than we were yesterday. The nigger that showed us the way in the woods +was either ignorant or deceiving us. We are now inside the outposts of +the rebels, and we shall have to crawl on our hands and knees to +escape them." + +"I don't see what better off we'll be on our hands and knees than we are +in our saddles," Barney cried, guilelessly. "Sure we can go faster on +the bastes than we can on our hands, and, as for me knees, 'tis only in +prayer that I ever use them." + +"Not in love, Barney?" Dick asked, innocently. + +"No, me darlin'. The gurls I love think more of me arms than me knees, +and I do all of me pleadin' with me lips." + +"I should think they could hold their own," Jones remarked, dryly. + +"Indeed, they can that, and a good deal more, as me best gurl'll tell +you if she'll tell the truth, and no fear of her doing that, I'll +go bail." + +"Fie! Barney, if she won't tell the truth you should have none of her," +Dick cried in stage tones. + +"Indeed, it's little I have of her, for she's that set on Teddy Redmund +that she leaves me to her mother, when Teddy comes to the porch of +an evening." + +"Well, friends, your loves are, no doubt, adorable, and it is a pleasant +thing to talk over, but just now what we want is a way out of this +trap"; and Jack, saying this, slipped from his horse and led him into +the shelter of a thick growth of scrub-pines. The rest followed his +example. They tied their animals and held a council of war. It was +resolved that Jack and Jones should make a reconnaissance to find out +the route toward the Warrick; that Dick and Barney should secrete and +guard the horses and do what they could to obtain some food. This +decision was barely agreed upon, when the shrill call of a bugle sounded +almost among the refugees, and they sprang to their horses, waiting in +silence the next demonstration. Other bugles sounded farther away; a +great cloud of dust arose in the direction of the water, and then Jack +whispered: + +"Remain here. I will climb one of these trees and see what it means." + +He was in the leafy boughs of a spreading pine in a few minutes, and +could descry a broad plain, with tents scattered here and there; still +farther on the broad uplands frame buildings with a red and white flag +floating to the wind could be seen. Back of all this he could make out a +broad expanse of water and a few ungainly craft, lazily moving to the +current in the Yorktown roadstead. + +"Yes. this certainly must be Yorktown. Why have they such a force here? +No one is threatening it," Jack murmured, his eyes arrested by a long +line of cavalry in undress, leading their horses up a circuitous and +hitherto concealed road to the plateau. "Ha! they go down there for +water. Let me see. That is to the southeastward; that is our point of +direction. I think we may venture to push on now." He hastily descended +from his survey, and making known what he had seen, added: "We must +proceed with the greatest caution. There is no time to think of food +until we get away from this dangerous neighborhood. We must keep well +spread out, and move only over turfy ground or in the deep shade of the +wood. In case of disaster, the cry of the night owl, as agreed upon, +will be a warning." + +The four had practiced the melancholy cry of the owl, as heard in the +Southern woods both day and night, and they could all imitate it +sufficiently well to pass muster if the hearer were not on guard against +the trick, and yet so clever an imitation that none of the four could +mistake it. So soon as they quit the plateau, seeking a way east by +south, they plunged immediately into a dreary swamp, where progress was +slow and difficult. The mosquitoes beset them in swarms, plaguing even +the poor animals with their lusty sting. Hour after hour, until the +woods became a hideous chaos of darkness and unseemly sounds, the four +panting fugitives pushed on, fainting with hunger, worn out by the +incessant battle with the corded foliage, the dense marshes, and +quagmires through which their path to safety lay. But at midnight Jones +gasped and gave up the fight. + +"Go on; leave me here. I am of no use at best. I should only be a drag +on you. Perhaps you may find some darkey and send him back to give me a +mouthful to eat. That would pick me up; nothing else can." + +The four gathered together for counsel. The horses, faring better than +their masters, for they found abundance to allay hunger in the lush, +dank grass of the morass, were corralled in a clump of white ash, and +the jaded men, groping about, clambered upon the gnarled roots of the +trees to catch breath. They had been battling steadily for five hours +against all the forces of Nature. Their clothes were torn, their flesh +abraded, their strength exhausted. They could have slept, but the ground +offered no place, for wherever the foot rested an instant the weight of +the body pushed it down into the oozy soil until water gushed in over +the shoe-tops. Jones had found the struggle hardest because he had not +the youth of the others nor their light frames. The striplings were +spared many of his hardships and were still able to endure the ordeal, +if the end were sure relief. Jack struck a match, and with this lighted +a pine knot. He surveyed the gloomy brake carefully, and at last, +finding a mound where a thick growth of underbrush gave assurance of +less treacherous soil, he called to Barney to aid him. The little +hillock was made into a couch by means of the saddles, and the groaning +veteran carefully laid upon the by no means uncomfortable refuge. As +Jack held the light above him, Jones's eyes closed and he sank into a +lethargic sleep. + +"He will be in a high fever when he awakes," Jack said, looking at +Barney. "We must see that he has food, or the fever will be his death. +Here is what I propose: you and I shall sally out from here, blazing the +path as we go. We must find some sign of life within a circuit of five +miles. That will take us say till daylight to go and come. We will leave +Dick here to guard Jones, and if we do not return by noon to-morrow Dick +will know that he must shift for himself." + +"You command, Jack dear. What you say I'll do, as Molly Meginniss said +to the priest when he told her to repent of her sins." + +"Dick, my boy, do you think you are equal to a vigil? You must stay here +with Jones. If he wakes and wants water, press the moisture of these +leaves to his lips, it's sassafras; and, stay--here is a sort of +plantain, filled with little globules of dew; pour these into his mouth, +and at a pinch give him a handful from the pool. In case of great danger +fire two shots, but if any one should come toward you or discover you it +will be better to surrender. In that event, you can make up a story to +suit the case, which may enable you to finally escape. This man's life +is in your hands. Remember that it is as glorious a deed as fighting in +line. Keep up a stout heart. We will soon be back, or you may take it +for granted all is up with us." + +"Ah! Jack! Jack! To start so well and end so miserably, I can't bear +it--I can't stay here. You stay and let me go." + +"No, Dick, it can't be; you are already so worn out that we should have +been obliged to halt for you if Jones hadn't broken down. It can't be +that you would think of leaving a fellow-soldier in such extremity as +this, Dick? I know you better." + +"But I don't know him. I have no interest in him. With you I'll face any +danger--I'll die without a word; but to stay here in this awful place, +with the black pools of water, like great dead eyes, glaring in their +hideous light" (the pine-torch flaring in the wind filled the glade with +vast ogreish shadows, as the clustering bushes were swayed in the night +air) "and these hideous night-cries--O Jack, I can't--I can't--I +must go!" + +"But the horses and the need of some one that can come back in case +anything befalls me. I am disappointed in you, Dick. I am shocked; you +are not the man of courage and honor I thought you." + +"O my God, go--go--I will stay; but, Jack, if you find me dead, +tell--tell--Rosa--that--that--" He gasped and sank down sobbing against +the gnarled tree that crossed the mound above Jones's head. + +"I will tell Rosa that you were the man she believed you were when the +trial came," and with this Jack and Barney, with a flaming torch, set +forward hastily through the fantastic curtain of foliage and night, +which shut in the glimmering vista of specters, dark, sinister, +and menacing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +PHANTASMAGORIA. + + +To say that night is a time of terror is a commonplace. Night is not +terrible of itself. It is like the ocean--peace and repose if there be +no storm. But of all terrors there are none, outside a guilty mind, so +benumbing as night in the unknown. It does not lessen the horror of +darkness that fear makes use of the imagination for its agencies. Fancy, +intuition, and the train that follows the inner vision, these make of +night a phantasmagoria, compared to which Milton's inferno is a place of +comparative repose. + +If you would realize the wondrous necromancy of the sun, pass a night in +some primeval forest, untouched by the hand of man. Until he stands in +the awful silence of the midnight wood, or upon some vast waste of +nature, no man can figure to himself the varied shapes the mind can give +to terrors based upon the mysterious noises of nature, and the goblin +motions of inanimate things. The lover thinking of his lass welcomes the +night and the rapturous walks among well-known scenes and kindly +objects. With glimmering lamps in the foliage and the not distant sounds +of daily life, even the woods have nothing fearful to the meditative or +the distraught. But in flight, with fear as a garment that can not be +laid aside, the somber forms of the forest are more terrible than an +army with banners, as a haunted house is a more unnerving dread than +burglars or any form of night marauders. It was at night that the +mutinous sailors of Columbus broke into decisive revolt; it was at night +that the iron band of Cortes lost heart, and were routed on the lakes of +Mexico; it was at night that the resolution of Brutus failed before the +disaster at Philippi. + +That two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage, which is the secret of +soldierly success, comes only from companionship. The night-wood is a +world by itself, filled with its own atmosphere, as oppressive to valor +as the electric reefs that drew the nails from the ships of Sindbad. +Among familiar scenes and well-known shapes, it is all the delight the +poets sing--so tranquillizing, inspiring, fecund, that in comparison the +thought of day brings up garish hues, flaunting figures--the hardness, +harshness and unlovely in life. But night in the goblin-land, where Dick +found himself suddenly deserted, with fantastic forms swaying in the +lazy wind, would have had terrors for the most constant mind; terrors +such as filled the soul of MacBeth, when Birnam wood came marching to +Dunsinane. In an instant, as it seemed to Dick's exalted and painfully +impressionable sense, every separate leaf, branch, brier, copse, and +jungle, was endowed with a voice of its own--hateful, irritating, +mocking. Swarms of peering eyes hovered in the air, glowering uncanny +menace into the boy's wild, dilating vision. + +Brave, even to recklessness, Dick was, as you have seen; but no sooner +had the glimmer of Jack's torch flickered and fluttered into the black +distance, making place for the monstrous shapes, the luring shadows, and +threatening forms encompassing him, than Dick threw himself, with a +wailing shriek, into the morass in a wild attempt to follow. + +In an instant he was up to his middle in mud and water. He seized the +prickly branches coiling about and above him; he gasped in prayerful +pleading, the home teaching still strong in him; but there was no +answer, save the crooning night-birds and the croaking frogs. Slimy +things touched his torn flesh; whirring birds shot past him, disturbed +in their night perches. The deadly odor, pungent and nauseous, of a +thousand exhaling herbs, filled his nostrils. The darkness grew, +instinct with threatening forms. He gasped, struggled, and in a fervent +outburst of thanksgiving regained the dank mound. Ah, there was life on +that! human life. Jones slept, the stertorous sleep of delirium. He +murmured brokenly. Dick was too terrified to distinguish what he said. +The blaze of the pine knot flared from side to side as the sighing +breeze arose from the brackish pools, protesting the vitality of even +this moribund hades. Ah! if he could but lie down and bury his face. The +horses? They were feeding tranquilly yonder, standing up to their knees +in mosses and water. The lines that tied them were long. They could move +about. This was some comfort. They were more human than the dreadful +specters that filled the place. + +Ah! the blessed, blessed light that flamed out from the merry +pine-torch; he didn't wonder that half the Eastern world worshiped fire. +He adored it--blessed, blessed fire--the sign of God, the beacon of the +human. Hark! What half-human--or rather wholly inhuman--sounds are these +that alternate in unearthly measure? Surely animal nature has no voice +so strident, vengeful, odious. Can it be animals of prey? No. The +Virginia forests are dangerous only in snakes. Snakes? Ah, yes! He +shrinks into shadow against the oak at this suggestion; snakes? the +deadly moccasin, that prowls as well by night as day. Ugh! what's this +at his feet--soft, clammy, shining in the flaring light? He leaps upon +the smooth tree-trunk, growing slantwise instead of perpendicular. What +if the torch and the odor of flesh should draw the snakes to the +sleeper? The flame flares in wide, lurid curves, revealing the outlines +of the sleeping man. Heavens, what a terrible face! He moves in +spasmodic contortions. He is smothering. The veins of his neck will +break if he is not awakened. + +"O my God! my God! have mercy!" Dick buries his face in his hands, as he +clings desperately to the smooth white-oak trunk. A strange, wild +strain, like a detached chord of a vesper melody, sounds above him! It +is the whippoorwill--steadily, continuously, entrancingly the dulcet +measure is taken up and echoed, until the slough of despond seems +transformed into a varying diapason of melancholy minstrelsy. He dares +not raise his head. It will vanish if he moves. He crouches, panting, +almost exultant, in the sense of recovered faculties, or rather the +suspension of numbing fear. How long will it last? He must move; his +limbs are cramped and aching. He raises his head. Mortal powers! the +torch is flickering into ashes! Another instant and he will be in the +dark. Dare he move? Dare he seek the distant pine, between him and which +the black surface of the murky sheet shines, dotted with uncanny growth +and reptilian things? Yes; anything is better than the hideous darkness +of this hideous place. + +The horse he rode has broken his leash and comes to him with a gentle +whinny, as if asking why the delay in such a place. "Blessed, blessed +God, that made a beast so human!" He caresses it, he clings to its neck +and calls to it piteously. Ah, yes; the dying light. He must renew it. +He slips down upon the bare back and urges the patient beast across the +brackish morass. Ah, this is life again! He is not alone. This noble +beast is human. It crops the tender leaves confidingly, and swings its +head as much as to say: "Don't fear, Dick; Fin here. I'll stand by you; +I don't forget the pains you took to get me water, and that particularly +toothsome measure of oats you cribbed in the rebel barn near +Williamsburg!" + +But the pine knot that will burn is not so easily found. Dick was forced +to go a long way before he came upon the resinous sort. He brought back +a supply, having taken the precaution to provide matches in order to +secure his way back. The quest had to some extent lessened the morbid or +supernatural forms of his terrors. They all returned, however, when, +having dismounted, he forgot to tie the horse, and it wandered off in +search of herbage. He called, but the beast made no sign of returning. +Alone again. Alone in the night; spectral forms about him; the sleeping +man adding to the ghostliness of the scene by his incoherent mutterings, +his hideous, gulping breath, his ghastly, blood-curdling outcries. Then +through the gloom the shining outlines of the white oak, like shreds of +shrouds hung on funeral foliage. Ah! he would go mad--he must break the +brutish sleep of the sick man. + +"Mr. Jones," he wails--and his own voice--the comically commonplace +name, "Mr. Jones," even in the agony of his terror, the humor of the +conjuncture glimmered in the boy's crazed intelligence, and he laughed a +wild, maniacal laugh. But the laugh died out in a pulseless horror. The +sick man uprose on his elbow. Dick, above him on the white-oak trunk, +could see his very eyes bloodshot and wandering. He uprose, almost +sitting. He passed his hand over his staring eyes, and began to murmur: + +"Did you bring me here to do murder, Elisha Boone? You have bought my +body, but you never bought my soul. No, no! I will not. I say I will +not. Do you hear? I will not!" + +He glared wildly; then, his eyes meeting the full flame of the torch, he +laughed, a dreadful, marrow-freezing laugh, and broke out again in +clearer tones: "I am yours, Elisha Boone, but my boy is not yours. He +was born in my shape, but he has his mother's soul. He will be a man; he +will be your vengeance; he will undo all his father has done. You've +robbed me; you've made me rob others. But if you touch, if you look at +my boy, my first-born, you might as well hold a pistol at your head. I'm +no longer mad. You must treat with him. Ah! yes; I'll do your bidding +with the others. I'll make young Jack as much trouble as you ask, but +you must make a path of gold for my boy. You must give him what you have +robbed from me. Felon? I'm no felon. It was you who plotted it. It was +you that put the means in mad hands. I can face my family. I have no +shame but that I was a coward. My son! He is no coward. He is a soldier. +He is the pride of the Caribees. He is the beloved of--of--" + +The gibbering maniac, exhausted in body, still incoherently raving, sank +back in piteous collapse, a terrifying gurgle breaking from his throat, +while his tongue absolutely protruded from his jaws. + +Dick, his terrors all forgotten in a new and overmastering horror, +bethought him of Jack's admonition about the water. He slipped down from +the tree, gathered the large moist leaves that clustered near the pool +and held them to the burning lips, Jones swallowed the drops with a +hideous gurgling avidity, clutching the boy's hand ravenously to secure +a more copious flow. There was a tin cup in the holster under the +invalid's head. Taking this, Dick dipped up water from the black pool +between the green leaves; the hot lips sucked it in at one +dreadful gulp. + +"More, more; for God's sake, more!" + +Dick filled it again, and again it was emptied. + +"More--more--I'm burning--more!" + +The boy was cruelly perplexed. He remembered vaguely hearing that fever +should be starved; that the thing craved was the dangerous thing; and he +moved away in a sort of compunctious terror. + +"More--more! Oh, in the name of God, more!" + +The words came gaspingly. Dick thought of the death-rattle he had heard +in Acredale when old man Nagle, the madman, died. He dared not give more +water, but he gathered leaves from the aromatic bushes and pressed them +to the fevered lips. Before he could withdraw them, the eager jaws +closed upon the balsamic shrub. They answered the purpose better than +the most scientific remedy in the pharmacopoeia, for the patient called +for no further drink, and presently fell into profound and undisturbed +sleep. Again the boy was alone with the daunting forces of the dark in +its grimmest and most terrifying mood. Alone! No; his mind was now taken +from all thought of self. He was with a fellow-townsman. The man had +mentioned Boone; had referred to deeds that he had heard all his life +associated with the father he had never seen. A wild thought flashed +upon him. Was the collapsed body at his feet his father's? He could not +see any resemblance in the dark, handsome face to the portrait at home, +though all through the flight from Richmond something in the man's +manner had seemed like a memory. He strove to recall the image his young +mind had cherished, the personality he had heard whispered about in the +gossiping groups of Acredale. This was not the gay, the brilliant, the +fascinating _bon viveur_ who had been the life of society from +Warchester to Bucephalo, from Pentica to New York. Ah! what were the +mystic terrors of the night, what the oppressive surroundings of this +charnel-house of Nature, to the awful spectacle of this unmanned mind, +this delirious echo of past guilt, past cowardice, past shame? + +To lessen the somber gloom, Dick had lighted many torches and set them +about the high mound where the sleeper lay in a huddle. Taking little +heed of where he set them, some of them, as the wind arose, flared out +until their flames licked the decayed branches of the fallen white oak. +As the boy crouched, pensive and distraught, he was suddenly aroused by +a vivacious cracking. He looked up. Lines of fire were darting thither +and yon, where dry wood, the _débris_ of years of decay, had been caught +in the thick clumps of underbrush and among the limbs of the trees. The +fire had pushed briskly, and the uncanny glade was now an amphitheatre +of crawling flames, stretching in many-colored banners in a vast circle +about the point of refuge. Dick gazed fascinated, with no thought of +danger. His spirits rose. It was something like life--this gorgeous +decoration of fire. How beautiful it was! How it brought out the shining +lines of the white oak, the glistening green of the cypress! Why hadn't +he thought of this before? Then, as the curling waves of fire pushed +farther and farther up the steins of the trees, and farther and farther +endlessly into the undergrowth, an unearthly outcry and stir began. +Birds, blinded by the light, whirred and fluttered into the open space +above the water, falling helplessly so near Dick that he could have +caught and killed a score to surprise Jack with a game breakfast, when +he returned. Then--ugh!--horror!--great, coiling masses detached +themselves from the tufts of sward, and splashed noisily into the putrid +water, wriggling and convulsed. The invalid still slept--but, dreadful +sight! the coiling monsters, upheaving themselves from the water, +glided, dull eyed and sluggish, upon the mossy island, about the +unconscious figure. + +Dick, fascinated and inert, watched the snaky mass, squirming in hideous +folds almost on the recumbent body. Then, aroused to the horror of their +nearness, he seized a torch and made at the slimy heap. The fire +conquered them. They slid off the ground, with forked tongues darting +out in impotent malice. But others, squirming through the water, +wriggled up; and the boy, maddened by the danger, stood his ground, +torch in hand, defending the sleeper. + +But now the fire had widened its path, and is enveloping the tiny +island. The serpents, hedged in from the outer line, uproar in +blood-curdling masses, their dull eyes gleaming, and their tongues +phosphorescent, darting out in their agony. Dick doesn't mind them now, +for he has, for the first time, begun to realize that his illumination +has destruction as the sequel of its delight. Great clouds of smoke +settle a moment on the water and then rise, impelled by the cold +surface. Even the green verdure begins to roll back where the crackling +flames play into the more compact wall of incombustible timber. The +sleeper murmurs in his dreams. Dick casts about despairingly. He hears +the horses--they have broken their tethers--he can hear them whinnying, +upbraidingly, far off. Wherever he casts his eye, volumes of fire dart +and sway, always coming inward, first scorching the green limbs, then +fastening on the tender stems and turning them to glowing lines of +cordage; only the great sheet of water, inky, terrible, and threatening +a few hours before, protects him and his charge. The hissing snakes have +sunk into it. + +Bevies of birds, supernaturally keen of sight, have dropped upon the +twigs that lie on the glittering bosom of the water. Dick, in all the +agonized uncertainty of that night of peril, thinks with wonder on the +mysterious resources Nature provides its helpless outcasts. The hideous +shallows, black, glistening, are now a belt of safety, not only for +himself and the sleeper, but a refuge for all manner of whirring birds +and crawling things, intimidated and harmless in the stifling breath of +the fire. The flame, leaping from sedge to sedge, from trunk to trunk, +seems to seek, with a human instinct, and more than human pertinacity, +food for its ravening hunger; far upward, where festoons of moss hung +from the sycamores in the day, airy banners of starry sparks, swayed, +coiled, and flamed among the branches. But Dick was soon reminded that +the scene was not for enjoyment, however fantastically fascinating. + +The smoke, at first rising from the burning brakes, lodged among the +tree-tops; then, meeting the humid night-air in the matted leaves, +descended slowly. Dick found himself nearly smothered when he had partly +recovered from the spell-bound wonder of the demoniac _fête_. The ground +under his feet felt gratefully cool. He bent down, and shudderingly +laved his burning face in the inky water. The sick man had slept more +peacefully during the last half-hour. He no longer breathed in gasping +efforts; his sleep was unbroken by muttering or outcry. But now he must +be aroused. He must be taken out of the circle of fire, for, sooner or +later, the curling waves would lick downward from the dry vines above +and scorch the mound. How to get away? The horses were long since gone. +They might be miles from the spot! Dick touched the sleeping man, filled +with a new suspense. He breathed so softly, or did he breathe at all? + +"For God's sake, Mr. Jones, wake up! We must go from here; the swamp is +burning!" + +"Eh--who is it? Where am I? Was--I dreaming? I thought my boy was with +me, and we were in the old home at Acredale." + +He lay quite still, staring upward with unseeing eyes. Dick's heart gave +a great throb of grateful, devout thanksgiving. The madness and fever +were gone. + +"You remember you were too worn out to go on, and Jack has gone to get +food. But the swamp has caught fire, and we must move away." + +Jones had risen to his elbow; then, with an exclamation that sounded +like an oath, to his feet, gazing on the flaming specters rising and +falling, enlarging and shrinking, among the black tracery of limbs +and trunks. + +"You ought to have waked me before," Jones said, when he had swept the +scene, with sane realization in his eye. "I'm afraid we can never break +through the fire. It reaches a mile or more all about us, and I--I am in +no condition to move. I feel as if I had been down months with illness." + +"But if you could eat something you would be able to move," Dick +ventured, cruelly hurt at the implied delinquency. + +"Eat!" Jones held up one of the luckless torches that Dirk had lighted +in a circle about the mound, and began to examine the ground. "What is +there to eat? Stay! By Heaven, I have it! The bushes are filled with +fluttering game. There, see that! and that, and that!" As he spoke he +had thrust the burning torch into a thick clump of bushes, dense and +glistening as laurels, that looked like wild huckleberry. The branches +were laden with birds, and in a moment be had seized three or four +partridges. + +"What better do we need? We have salt, water, and fire. I'll prepare +them. Do you keep your face well bathed, and heap up embers at the foot +of that ash." + +Sure enough, sometimes hidden by billows of smoke, rising lazily among +the burning bushes, Jones stripped the birds, spitted them on his +bayonet, and, holding them in the hot coals, soon presented a +well-browned portion to his companion. + +"I have had a good deal worse fare than this, my young friend. I have +been in the West, when fire, Indians, and hunger besieged us at the same +time. But we should have a poor chance here if it were not for the wet +grass and the everlasting water. If we can manage to keep clear of the +smoke, we shall be all right, but the smoke seems to grow denser. Where +can it come from?" + +"Great Heavens! do you hear that? Shots--one--two! That's Jack's signal. +He--he is near. He is in danger. I must go to him." Dick cried. "Listen; +more shots. No, that can't be the signal. There, do you hear that? A +volley. The rebels are after them, or we are near the outposts, and the +two armies are skirmishing." + +Yes; the shots now sounded more frequently, but they seemed to be fired +not far away. + +"It is Jack. I know it is Jack, and he is in peril. I must go to him. I +can not stay here. Surely there is no danger in pushing toward +the firing?" + +"There is every danger. In the first place, the smoke will smother us. +Then suppose we reached the spot? We might be nearer the rebels than our +friends. They know where we are. If they are not taken, they will come +back for us. If they are taken, we must do our best to get to our lines +and send out a scouting party. Be guided by me, youngster. I am an older +hand in business of this sort than you are." + +The boy stood irresolute. Both listened intently. The firing had +stopped. A great sough of rising storm came from the northwest, carrying +a hot, blinding mass of smoke and flame into the little retreat. They +flung themselves on the damp ferns to keep their breath. Still the +breeze rose, until it became a wind--a spasm of hurricane. It was +madness to linger, for the flames now licked the ground, driven down +anew by the blast. Then Jones spoke decisively: "Strap a pine torch to +your body. I will do the same. Take all you can carry and follow in my +wake." Jones, as he spoke, seized a torch, extinguished it, and handed +it to Dick. Equipped as he had directed, they set out, half crawling, +half swimming, to avoid the volumes of smoke hovering in the thick, +cactus-like leaves of the wild laurel. Presently they emerged, after +toil and misery, that excitement alone enabled the boy to support, into +what seemed a cleared space. But as soon as their eyes could distinguish +clearly, they found themselves on the edge of a wide pond. The fire was +now behind them. They could stand erect and breathe the pure, cool air. + +"Ah, now we are in luck!" Jones whispered. "We will walk to the right, +on the edge of this lake, and keep it between us and the fire. We have +got out of that purgatory; now if we could only signal our friends." + +"Hist!" whispered Dick, "I hear some one moving behind us." + +They crouched down in the thick reeds and waited. The sky above was +darkly overcast; an occasional burst of lightning revealed the +dimensions of the pond, and they could see high ground on the eastern +shore, covered by enormous pines. + +"If we can only reach the pines we shall be all right. There the ground +will be dry and soft and you can get some rest. I'm afraid, my boy, it +will go hard with you if you don't." + +"I don't mind what happens if we can only come up with Jack. There, do +you hear that?" + +Yes, both could plainly hear voices ahead of them on the margin of the +pond. They were talking in low tones, and the words were +undistinguishable. + +"We must crawl back toward the bush, and get as near those folks as we +can," Jones whispered. They made their way easily into the high bushes +and stole forward in the direction of the voices. But as they had to +guard against breaking twigs or hurtling branches, which would have +betrayed them, their advance was slow. When they reached the vicinity +where they had fancied the voices to be, all was silent. + +"Sound the call; perhaps that will lead to something," Jones whispered +in Dick's ear. + +But, unnerved by the trying experience of the night, or worn out by +fatigue, Dick's call was far from the significant signal he had +practiced with Jack. He repeated it several times, but there was no +response. There was, however, something more startling. A few rods +beyond them a flame suddenly shot up, lighting a group of cavalry +patrols standing beside a fire just kindled. + +"Rebels!" Jones whispered. "Now we must be slippery as snakes. If they +have no dogs, we are all right. If you hear the whimper of a hound, +follow me like lightning and plunge into the water. That'll break the +trail. Stay here and let me reconnoitre a bit. Have no fear. I'll go in +no danger." + +Jones crept away, leaving Dick by no means easy in his mind, but he no +longer felt the terror that numbed him in the deep wood. Here there was +companionship. By pushing the branches aside he could see the figures +lounging about the fire; he could see the dark vault of the sky, and was +not oppressed by the hideous shapes and shadows of the dense jungle. +Jones meanwhile had pushed within earshot of the group. He flattened his +body against a friendly pine and listened. + +"I reckon they ain't the Westover niggers, for they were traced to the +Pamunkey; these rascals are most likely from the south side--" + +"If Jim gets here with the dogs in an hour, we can be back to the +barracks for breakfast." + +"Ef it hadn't been for that blamed fire in the swamp, we should have had +them before this. The rascal that fired at Tom wasn't a musket-shot from +me when the smoke poured out and hid him." + +"They've gone into the swamp. The dogs'll soon tree them. I'm going to +turn in till the dogs come. One of you stay awake and keep a sharp eye +toward the creek." + +"All right, sergeant. You won't have more'n a cat-nap. Bilcox's dogs are +over at the ford, I know, for they were brought there's soon as the news +of the Yankee escape came." + +"I hope they are; but I'm afraid they are not. If they are, we shall +soon hear them." + +Jones had heard enough. Hastening back to Dick, he asked: + +"Can you swim?" + +"Yes, I'm a good swimmer." + +"Very well; throw away everything--no, stay--that would betray us. When +we reach the water bury all you can't carry in the sand and then +follow me." + +They were forced to retrace their painful way through the bushes to +reach a place as distant from the point of pursuit as possible. A +half-mile or more from their starting-place they found themselves in a +running stream. Jones examined it in both directions, and bade Dick +enter it and follow in the water, pushing upward in the bed, waist-deep, +a hundred yards. Then, climbing to the bank, he groped about until he +found a slender white oak. Climbing this as high as he could get, he +slowly swung off, and, the tree bending down to the very stream, he +dropped back into the water and rejoined Dick. Both waded in the middle +of the stream until they reached the pond, and then struck out toward +the pine clump the lightning had revealed a little while before. There +was no need of swimming, and, finding it possible to wade, Jones decided +to retain the pistols and ammunition which he had at first resolved to +bury as impeding the flight. The bottom appeared to be hard sand, a +condition often found in Southern ponds near the inflow of the sea. They +had gone a mile or more, keeping just far enough from the bank to remain +undistinguishable, when the appalling baying of a hound sounded from the +farther end of the pond, where the patrol fire gleamed faintly among +the trees. + +"Now, youngster, we must keep all our wits at work. The dogs will push +on to where we hid. They will follow to the stream, and I think I have +given them the slip there. Then they will beat about and follow our +trail into the cypress swamp. There the horses will mislead them, and if +you can only hold out, so soon as daylight comes we can strike into the +pines and make for the Union lines." + +"I--I--think I can--ah!--" + +Dick reeled helplessly and would have sunk under the water, if Jones had +not caught him. + +"Courage, my boy, courage! Don't give up now, just as we are near +rescue!" + +But Dick was unconscious, the strain of the early part of the night, the +desperate fight through the brakes, all had told on the slight frame, +and Jones stood up to his middle in the dark water, holding the +fainting boy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +IN THE UNION LINES. + + +If there is reason as well as rhyme in the old song that danger's a +soldier's delight and a storm the sailor's joy, Jack and his comrade +were in for all the delights that ever gladdened soldier or sailor boy. +When they left Dick and Jones, the eager couriers tore through the +marshy lowlands, the stubbly thickets and treacherous quagmires, poor +Barney, panting and groaning in his docile desire to keep up with his +leader, as he had done often in boyish bravado. + +"There'll not be a rag on me body nor a whole bone in me skin when we +get out of this!" he gasped, as they reached high ground between two +spreading deeps of mingled weeds and water. "The sight of us'd frighten +the whole rebel army, if we don't come on them aisy loike, as the fox +said when he whisked into the hen-house." + +"He was a very considerate fox, Barney. Most of the personages you +select to illustrate your notions seem to me to be gifted with little +touches of thoughtfulness. Barney, you ought to write a sequel to Aesop. +There never was out of his list of animal friends such wise beasts, +birds, and what not as you seem to have known." + +"Jack, dear, if a man lived on roses would the bees feed on him? If he +ate honeysuckle instead of hard-tack would he be squeezed for his scents +to fill ladies' smelling-bottles?" + +"I don't know that sense is always a recommendation to women," Jack +shifts his burden to say tentatively, as Barney, involved in a more than +commonly obstinate brier, loses the thread of this jocose induction. + +"Ah, Jack, dear, ye're weak in ye're mind when you fall to play on words +like that." + +"You mean my sense is small?" + +"Not that at all. Sure, it's a hero's mind ye show when you can find +heart to make merry at a time like this!" + +"Yes--'he jests at love who never felt a throb.'" + +"Then you've a hard heart--and I know I lie when I say it, as Father +Mike McCune said to himself when he tuk the oath to King George in +'98--if ye're heart never throbbed in Acredale beyant, for there's many +a merry one cast down entirely that handsome Jack's gone." + +"Come, come, Barney; it's dark, and I can't see the grin that saves this +from fulsome blarney." + +"Indeed, then--" + +"Hark!" + +Through the monotonous noises of the night the clanking of steel and the +neighing of horses could be heard just ahead. + +"We must move cautiously now, Barney. Try to put a curb on your tongue, +and let your reflections mature in your busy brain." + +"Put me tongue in bonds to keep the peace, as Lawyer Donigan cautioned +Biddy Gavan when the doctor said she was driving the parish mad with +her prate." + +"Sh!--sh!--you noisy brawl; we shall have a platoon of cavalry upon us. +Even the birds have stopped crooning to catch your delicate brogue!" + +"'Tis only the ill-mannered owl that makes game of me--if--" + +"Sh! Come on. Bend low. Do as I do--if you can see me. If not, keep +touch on my arm." + +"As the wolf said to the lamb when he bid him take a walk in the +wather." + +They had now emerged on the reedy margin of the dark pool discovered by +Dick and Jones later. All was silent. The sky was full of stars--so full +that, even in the absence of the moon, there was a transparent clarity +in the air that enabled Jack to take definite bearings. + +"This must be an outlet of the York River, the stream we saw this +afternoon. If it be, then we are not far from our own outposts. The +troopers we heard just now may be Union soldiers. We must wait patiently +to let them discover themselves. Keep abreast of me, and don't, as you +value your life, speak above a whisper--better not to speak at all." + +"That's what the priest said to Randy Maloney's third wife when she +complained that he bate her." + +"Barney, I'll throttle you if you don't keep that mill you call your +tongue still." + +"Ah, I'll hold it in me fist, as Mag Gleason held her jaw, for fear her +tooth would lep out to get more room to ache." + +Jack laughed. "If we're caught it will be through your jokes, for bad as +they are I must laugh at some of them." + +"Dear, oh dear no; you may save the laugh till a convenient time, as +Hugh McGowen kept his penances, until his head was clear, and there was +no whisky in the jar." + +They had been pushing on rapidly--noiselessly, during this whispered +dispute, and now found themselves at the reedy margin of a wide inlet, +where, from the swift motion of the water and the musical gurgling, they +could tell they were by the side of a main channel. + +"We must push on southward, and see if there is a crossing. If we come +to one, that will tell us where we are, for it will be guarded, you may +be sure," said Jack, buoyantly. + +"Yes, but I'd rather find a hill of potatoes and a drop than all the +soldiers in the two armies." + +"You are not logical, Barney. If we find soldiers, we'll find rations; +though I have my doubts about the sort of 'drop' you'll be apt to find +down here." + +"There was enough corn in the field beyant to keep a still at work for a +winter," Barney lamented with a sigh, recalling fields of grain they had +passed near Williamsburg, which he vaguely alluded to as "beyant." + +"I wish some of the 'still' were on the end of your tongue at this +moment." + +"With all me heart--'twould do yer sowl good to see the work it'd give +me tongue to do to hould itself," Barney gasped, trying to keep abreast +of his reviler. "Be the dark eyes of Pharaoh's daughter there's a field +beyant--yes, and a shebeen; d'ye see that?" + +They had suddenly emerged in a cleared place. Against the horizon they +could distinctly distinguish the outlines of a cabin, the "shebeen" +Barney alluded to. + +"Yes, we're in luck. It's a negro shanty. We shall find friends there, +if we find anybody. Now, do be silent." + +"If the field was full of girruls, with ears as big as sunflowers, they +wouldn't hear me breathe, so have no fear. A hill of potatoes all eyes +couldn't see us in such darkness as this." + +For dense clouds had swiftly come up from the west, covering the +horizon. After careful reconnoitring, requiring a circuit of the +clearing, Jack ventured to make directly for the dark outlines of the +cabin. War had obviously not visited the place, for as they passed a low +outhouse the startled cackle of chickens sounded toothsomely, and Barney +came to a delighted halt. + +"Sure we'd better get a bite to ate while we may, as th' ass said when +he passed th' market car, for who knows what'll happen if we stop to ask +by your lave?" + +For answer Jack gave him a sharp push, and the discomfited plunderer +hurried on with a good-humored grunt. All was silent in the cabin. The +windows were slatted, without glass, and the door was unfastened. Jack +pushed in boldly, leaving Barney to guard the rear. Peaceful snoring +came from one corner, and Jack, shading a lighted match with his hand, +looked about him. In the hurried glimpse he caught sight of an old negro +on a husk mattress, and the heads of young boys just beyond. They were +sleeping so soundly that the striking of the match never aroused them. +Jack had to shake the man violently before the profound sleep +was broken. + +"I say, wake up! or can you wake?" + +"What dat? Who's dar--you, Gabe? What you 'bout?" + +The old man shuffled to a sitting posture, and Jack, renewing his match, +held it in the negro's blinking eyes. + +"Have you any food? We are Yankees, and want something for companions in +the swamp. Are we in danger here? We heard cavalry-men on the other side +of the pond; are they rebel or Yankee?" + +At this volley of questions the bewildered man turned piteously to the +sleepers, and then stared at Jack in perplexity. + +"'Deed, marsa captain, I don no noffin 'tall, I--I hain't been to de +crick fo' a monf. I'se fo'bid to go da--I--" + +"Well, well, have you any food? Get that first, and then talk," Jack +cried, impatiently. + +But now the boys were awake, and Jack had to give them warning to make +no noise. Yes, there was food, plenty. Cooked bacon, hoe-cake, and cold +chicken, boiled eggs, and, to Barney's immeasurable joy, sorghum whisky. +The hunger of the invaders satisfied, each provided himself with a sack +to feed the waiting comrades; and while this was going on they extracted +from the now reassured negroes that the spot was just behind Warick +Creek, near Lee's Mills; that parties of rebels from the fort at +Yorktown had been at work building lines of earthworks, and that every +now and then Yankees came across and skirmished in the woods a mile or +two up in the direction whence Jack had come. The cabin was only a step +from the main road, upon which the rebels were encamped--a regiment or +more. Some Yankee prisoners had been captured early in the morning, and +were in the block-house, a short distance up the road. + +"Can you lead us near the block-house?" Jack asked. + +"I reckon I can; but ef I do they'll shu' ah' find it out, and den I'se +don, 'cos Marsa Hinton--he's in de cavalry--he'll guess dat it was me +dat tuk you 'uns dar." + +"Do you want to be free? Do you want to go into the Union lines?" + +"Free! oh, de Lor', free! O marsa captain, don't fool a ole man. Free! +I'd rudder be free dan--dan go to Jesus--almost." + +"Have you a wife--are these your children?" + +"My ole woman is up at Marsa Hinton's; she's de nuss gal. Dese is my +boys; yes, sah." + +"Very well; we're going into the Union lines. You know the country +hereabouts. Help us to find our friends in the swamp, and we will take +you all with us," Jack said; but feeling a good deal of compunction, as +he was not so sure that the freedom bestowed upon these guileless +friends might not, for a time at least, be more of a hardship than their +happy-go-lucky servitude. Meanwhile, in the expansion of renewed hopes +and full stomachs, no watch had been kept on the outside; a tallow dip +had been lighted, and the whole party busied in getting together such +necessaries as could be carried. One of the boys, passing the door, +uttered a stifled cry: + +"Somebody comin' from de road." + +"Where can we hide? Don't put out the light; that will look suspicions!" +Jack whispered, making for the window in the rear, "Is there a cellar, +or can we get on the roof?" But the dark group were too terrified to +speak. They ran in a mob to the doorway, luckily the most adroit +manoeuvre they could hit upon, for with the dip flaring in the current +of air, the room was left in darkness. Jack and Barney slipped through +the low lattice, and by means of a narrow shed reached the low roof. +They could hear the tramp of horses, how many they could not judge, and +then a gruff voice demanding: + +"You, Rafe, what ye up to? What ye got a light burnin' this time o' +night fo'?" + +"'Deed, marsa, it's nuffin'--fo' God, marsa! I was gittin' de stomach +bottle fo' Gabe--he eat some jelly root fo' supper and he's been +powerful sick--frow his insides out--I--" + +"Leave your horses, boys. Rafe's got some of Hinton's best sorghum +whisky--you, there, nigger, get us a jug and some cups." + +How many dismounted Jack couldn't make out, but presently there was a +heavy tramping in the cabin and then a ferocious oath. + +"What does this mean; why have you got all these traps packed? Going to +cut to the Yankees! Don't lie, now--you'll get more lashes for it." + +Jack listened breathlessly. Would the quavering slaves have presence of +mind to divert suspicion? There was a pause, and then the old man cried, +pleadingly: + +"We'se gwine to lebe dis place; we's gwine up to de house in de mornin'. +My ole woman can't come down heah now, case de sojers is always firm', +and Mars' Hinton told us to come to de quarters, sah." + +"I don't believe a word of it, you old rascal. I'll see whether Hinton +has ordered you to leave here. Likely story, indeed; leave one of his +best fields with no one to care for it. Git the whisky and stop your +mumbling. You, there, you young imps, step about lively--do you heah?" + +There was the sound of a sharp stroke, then a howl of pain and a +boisterous laugh. + +"You keep an eye on the rear and I will see how many horses there are," +Jack's lips murmured in Barney's ear. He slid cautiously down the +slanting roof until he came to the corner where he saw the dark group of +horses. There were three--tied to the peach-trees. He made his way back +to Barney and whispered: + +"There are but three horses. If you are up to an adventure I think we +can make this turn to our profit." + +"I'm up to anything, as the cat said when Biddy Hiks's plug ran her up +the crab-tree." + +"Very well. Come after me." + +The sorghum, meanwhile, had been handed to the raiders in the cabin, and +the men could be heard making merry. + +"You, Gabe, go out and mind the horses; see that they don't twist the +bridles about their legs." + +Gabe sallied out and one of his brothers with him. As they neared the +horses Jack came upon them, and taking the elder, Gabe, in the shadow of +the house, he whispered: + +"Have the soldiers' pistols?" + +"Yes, sah." + +"Where are they?" + +"De put dem on de stool, neah de doah." + +"Good. How many?" + +"Free." + +"Have they swords?" + +"Yes, sah." + +"Where are they?" + +"On de stool, too." + +"That will do; keep with the horses, and don't be frightened if you hear +anything. We'll give you freedom yet, if you'll be prudent." + +He could hear the men grumbling because the food was not enough to go +around. The liquor had begun to work in their systems, drinking so +lavishly, and without nourishment to absorb its fiery quality. Jack let +enough time pass to give this ally full play in disabling the troopers, +then taking Barney to the rear of the cabin, whispered: + +"I will dash in at the door, seize the weapons, and demand surrender. +You make a great ado here; give command, as if there were a squad. The +boys will make a loud clatter with the horses, and we shall bag the game +without a blow. Now, be prudent. Barney, and we will go into the Union +lines in triumph." + +Inside the men were laughing uproariously, mingling accounts of love and +war in a confused medley--how a sweetheart in Petersburg was only +waiting for the stars on her lover's collar to make him happy; how the +Yankees would be wiped out of the Peninsula as soon as Jack Magruder got +his nails pared for fight; how three Yankees had been gobbled that day, +and how others were in the net to be taken in the morning. The bacchanal +was at its highest when Jack, dashing into the open doorway, placed +himself between the drinkers and their arms, and cried, sternly, as he +pointed his pistol at the group: + +"Surrender, men! You are surrounded!" + +"Close up, there! Keep your guns on a line with the windows; don't fire +till I give the order!" Barney could be heard at the window in +suppressed tones, as he, too, covered the maudlin company. Gabe and his +brother added to the effect of numbers by clattering the stirrups of the +horses, so that the clearing seemed alive with armed men. + +The troopers, sobered and astonished, half rose, and then as these +sounds of superior force emphasized the menace of Jack's pistol in front +and Barney's in the rear, they sank back in their seats, the spokesman +saying, tipsily: + +"I don't see as we've much choice." + +"No, you have no choice.--Sergeant, bring in the cords," Jack ordered. + +Barney at this came in with a clothes-line Jack had prepared from the +negroes' posts. The arms of the three men were bound behind them, and +then Jack retired with his aide to hold a council of war. Without the +negro they could never retrace their way to Dick. But how could they +carry the prisoners with them? Manifestly it could not be done. It was +then agreed that Barney should take the prisoners, the horses, and the +old man, with the younger boys, and make for the Union lines, not a mile +distant. Jack, meanwhile, with little Gabe, would go to the rescue of +Dick. If firing were heard later, Barney would understand that his +friends were in peril, and, if the Union outposts were in sufficient +strength, they could come to the rescue, and, perhaps, add to the +captures of the night. Barney was now serious enough. He was reminded of +no joke by the present dilemma, and remained very solemn, as Jack +enlarged on the glories of the proposed campaign. How all Acredale would +applaud the intrepidity of its townsmen snatching glory from peril! +Barney consented to leave him with reluctance, suggesting that the "ould +nagur" could take the prisoners "beyant." + +"Gabe has shown sense and courage, and I shall be much more likely to +reach Dick and extricate him and Jones, alone, than if I had this +cavalcade at my heels." + +Jack and Barney were forced to laugh at the big-eyed wonder in old +Rafe's eyes when he was informed of the imposing part he was to play in +the warlike comedy. To be guard over "white folks," to dare to look them +in the face without fear of a blow, in all his sixty years Rafael Hinton +had never dreamed such a mission for a man of color. The troopers, too +tipsy and subdued to remark the sudden paucity of the force that had +overcome them, were tied upon their own steeds, Barney in front of the +leader, and Rafe and his son in charge of the two others. + +Rafe led the way in trembling triumph. He knew the ford, indeed, every +foot of the country, and had no misgivings about reaching the Union +lines. Jack watched the squad until it disappeared in the fringe of +trees, and then, turning to the tearful Gabe, said, encouragingly: + +"Now, we must do as well when we go among the Union soldiers. You know +the point in the swamp I have told about. How long will it take us to +reach that the shortest way?" + +"Ef we had dad's dugout we could save right smart." + +"You mean we could get there by water?" + +"Yes, sah. We ken go all froo de swamp in a boat." + +"Then I'm afraid it is not the place I mean, for we found as much land +as water." + +"Dey ain't no odder swamp neah heah, sah." + +"Well, we'll try my route first. If that misleads us, we shall try the +boat. Can you find it?" + +"Suah." + +"Where is it?" + +"Ober neah the blockhouse. De sogers done tuk it to fish." + +"Ah, yes, the blockhouse! I must look into that! Now, we must hurry. +Skirt the edge of the water and make no noise." + +This was a needless warning to the boy, who, barefooted and scantily +clad, gave Jack as much as he could do to keep up with him. They had +left the cabin a mile or more behind them to the southeastward, and were +somewhere near the spot Jack had emerged from the cypress swamp, when +both were brought to a halt by shifting clouds of smoke pouring out from +the underwood. + +"Where does that come from?" Jack asked, throwing himself flat to catch +his breath. + +"Dunno, sah. Most likely de sojers sot de brush on fiah." + +When Jack was able to look again he saw far in among the trees a moving +wave of light now and then, as the heavy curtain of smoke was lifted +by the wind. + +"Good heavens!" he ejaculated; "it was in there I left my friends. Can +we get to them?" + +"No, sah; der ain't no crick dah." + +"Then!" Jack thought, "have I sacrificed Dick and Jones in my zeal to be +adventurous? Ten minutes sooner, and we could have gone in and brought +them out. But I will find a way in, if I have to clamber over the +tree-tops." + +The noise of whirring wings, the rush of startled animals, now drowned +all other sounds, until, through the tumult from the copse far in front +of them, they heard the clatter of swords, and then gigantic figures +breaking toward them, along the edge of the pond. + +"Down, down; hug the ground!" Jack cried, pushing the boy down into the +reeds. Almost as they sank, a group of troopers dashed by, talking +excitedly. + +"Fire at random, men; that will force them into cover! If we can keep +them in ambush till daylight, the dogs will be here, and we shall nab +them," Jack heard a voice say as the men rode past. + +How could they have heard of the affair so quickly, for Jack took it for +granted that it was his exploit that the troopers were afoot to balk? +Still another group passed, and they were talking of the dogs that +were expected. + +"You may depend upon it, they are in the swamp. They are making off that +way and hope to mislead us by firing the place. We must keep our eyes +peeled on the swamp. The creek will stop them down yonder, and we must +watch this break in the brush. As soon as the dogs come we shall have no +trouble. They'll run 'em down in no time." + +Jack had heard enough to warn him that it was useless to try to +penetrate the swamp. With half of his usual wit, Dick would have been +_en route_ long before this, for the fiery glow in the woods showed that +the flames had been raging some time. Unless Jones's illness had +handicapped him, Dick would be on his way, following Jack's route as +closely as the darkness would permit. But now he must seek means to +evade the dogs. This could be done only by reaching the water and +getting into it far from the point where they proposed to leave it. + +"Can you find the boat?" he asked Gabe, who chattered between his teeth. + +"I think so, sah." + +"Very well; we must find a small stream running into the pond, and then +lead me to the boat." + +"Moccasin Brook is close yonder, sah. Shall I go dah?" + +"Yes, like lightning." + +In a few minutes they were in a sluggish current, running between masses +of reeds and spreading lily-leaves, into the pond. Here Jack repeated +Jones's manoeuvre, except that he was not wise enough in woodcraft to +make use of a tree to get into the water, and thus leave the dogs at the +end of the trail at a point far removed from his real entrance into it. +When they had reached the pond, Jack bade the boy head to the boat. This +they found moored under a bluff, and Gabe, pointing upward, said the +blockhouse was there. + +"Very well, you stay here in the boat and wait for me. Don't stir, don't +speak, no matter what you see or hear. Will you do this?" + +"Oh, yes, sah; 'deed, 'deed I will, sah!" + +Jack crawled up the bank, keeping in the shadow of the uneven ground, +until he reached a point whence he could make out the blockhouse. It was +a half-finished structure of rough logs, and, from the stakes and other +signs of engineering preliminaries, he saw that it was intended as the +guard-house of a fortification. He could hear the drawl of languid, +half-sleepy voices, and, as he pushed farther to the eastward, saw a +group of troopers lounging about a dying fire. A sentry sat before the +doorway, which had no door. He was dozing on his post, though, now and +then he aroused himself to listen to the comments of the men at the +fire. While Jack waited, irresolute what to do, a volley sounded across +the pond, evidently the fellows whom he had seen, keeping up the +fusilade to distract the fugitives. + +"They've wasted enough lead to fight a battle," he heard one of the men +say, scornfully. + +"Well, that's what lead's for," a philosopher remarked, stirring the +embers. "So it don't get under my skin, I don't care a cuss what they +do with it." + +"Oh, your skin's safe enough, Ned. You may adorn a gallows yet." + +"If I do, you'll be at one end of the string--and I ain't a-saying which +end, neither," the other retorted, taking a square segment of what +looked like bark, but was really tobacco, and worrying out a circle with +his teeth, until he had detached a large mouthful. This affording his +jaws all the present occupation they seemed capable of undertaking, the +other resumed when the haw-haw that met the sally had subsided: + +"Yes, it takes two to make a hangin', just like it takes two to make a +weddin', and you can't allus say just sartin which one has the +lucky end." + +This facetious epigram was duly relished, and the sage was turning his +toasted side from the fire to present the other, when the clatter of a +horse coming up the hillside sent the group scouring toward their guns, +stacked near the unfinished walls. + +"Sergeant Bland, the captain orders you to take four men and station +them along the north shore of the pond. The rascals are in the cypress +swamp, and are making their way out toward Moccasin Creek. One man can +watch the block-house, and the rest come with me.--Guard, we shall be +within a hundred yards of you. A shot will bring a dozen men to your +assistance; but it isn't likely an enemy can reach this point. The whole +regiment is deployed in the woods." + +This was said to the sentry as the group, detailed for Moccasin Creek, +filed off at a double-quick down the hill. In a few moments the +blockhouse was deserted, save by the sentry, who had now risen and was +vigorously pacing before the doorway. Now was Jack's time, if ever. If +he could only whisper to one of the prisoners to call the sentry. But +how? He had nothing to fear in approaching the rear, and in a few +moments he had examined the walls. There was no opening where he could +get speech with those inside. What could he do? To boldly fall upon the +sentry was risky, for the slightest noise would bring rescue from the +front of the bluff. At the base of the wall, where the log-joists rested +upon a huge bowlder, his quick eye detected an air-hole. He examined it +hurriedly. It was evidently below the flooring. So much the better. +Putting his mouth to this, he called out in a piteous tone: + +"For God's sake, sentry, give me some water! I'm choking--oh--oh water! +water!" + +He waited to see if the sentry would heed the call. He knew that the men +inside could not betray him, for, if they were not asleep, they could +not be sure that the voice was not from among themselves. Sure enough, +the sentry's step ceased. Was he near the door? Jack crept to the +corner. Yes, he had halted at the aperture. Would he enter? Jack stepped +back to his post, as the guard called out: + +"Where are you? Which of you wants water? Sing out!" + +"Here!" Jack cried, "Here!" Then darting back to the corner, he was just +in time to see the man lean his gun against the door-post, and disappear +in the hut. In an instant the gun was in Jack's possession, and he was +behind the Samaritan in quest of the suffering victim. It was dark as a +tunnel. Jack's victim still gave him the aid he needed, for, as he +groped along the wall, he said, good-humoredly: + +"Sing out again, my friend; I haven't got cat's eyes." + +Jack's grasp was on his throat and Jack's mouth was at his ear. + +"One sound, one word, and this knife goes to the hilt in your heart!" + +The astounded man half reeled at this awful apparition in the black +darkness, and he limply yielded to his captor under the impression that +the prisoners were loose and upon him. Jack tied the man's unresisting +hands with his own canteen-straps; then seated him near the wall and +lighted a match. Four men, undisturbed by this swift and noiseless coup, +were stretched on the board floor, breathing the heavy, deep sleep of +exhaustion. Jack aroused them with the greatest difficulty, and found it +still harder to make them understand that, with courage and resolution, +they would be back in their own lines by daylight. When this became +clear to them they were as eager and energetic as their rescuer. The men +were to remain near the blockhouse, but not in it, until Jack returned +for the negro, and then under the lad's guidance they could find their +way to the Union outposts. Just as this was decided, a blood-curdling +baying of bloodhounds echoed across the pond from the distant cabin. +Jack trembled, his mind at once on Dick, so near and yet so far from him +now, in this new danger. There was not a moment to be lost. Perhaps even +now all the night's hard-won victories were to be turned to worse than +defeat--prison, death; for the liberation of slaves was at that time +punishable by hanging in the rebel military code. + +"Courage," he said to himself, grimly; "courage, a dog's no worse than a +man. We've overcome them to-night, we ought to be able to tackle the +dogs." This new danger changed his plan slightly. Instead of leaving all +the men, he took one of the rescued four, Tom Denby by name, with him, +and set out for the water. But here another check met him. He suddenly +recalled that the guard at the blockhouse had been scattered along the +shore to watch the debouch from the swamp. This enforced a wide +_détour_, bringing him out in the rear of the boat and nearer the point +where Moccasin Creek emptied into the pond. They reached it finally, and +skirting along the shore kept a keen eye on the water for the boat. They +had skurried along half-way back toward the bluff, listening for a sound +on the water and peering into the black surface, when Denby suddenly +touched Jack's arm. + +"There's a horse or cow standing in the water yonder. I've seen it move; +there, look!" + +Yes, outlined against the low horizon, a monstrous shape could be +plainly seen. The yelp of the hounds suddenly broke through the air back +of them toward the creek. The monstrous figure started, moved heavily +forward, then seemed as if coming toward them. Both waited, wondering, +curious, terrified. It was within a rod of them, staggering, gasping. + +"Oh, God help us! I can go no farther; better be taken than both drown +together." + +Jack could hardly repress a cry: + +"Jones--Dick! Is it you?" + +But whoever it was or whatever it was had no speech to answer this eager +inquiry. They would have sunk in the shallow water if Jack and Denby had +not caught them. Jack had food with him, and, better than all, the +bottle of sorghum whisky. With this restorative, both were soon able to +sit upon the ground and eat. Jack left Denby to feed them, while he went +in search of the boat. He found it just where he had left it, and in a +few minutes, at the head of his little band, he was back at the +blockhouse. The food and Jack's hastily told news had restored Dick to +something like his old friskiness. + +"Jericho!" he cried, as the released prisoners, having held back warily +until the color of the new-comers was known, ran forward. "The whole +army is here. I feel as if I were in the Union lines." + +"Well, you ain't, by a long shot," Denby cried. "We've got a good hour's +march, and if you're wise, Captain Sprague, you won't waste time for +any frills." + +"No time shall be wasted.--Jones, you and Dick take the rear. I, with +Denby, will skirmish; and you, Corporal Kane, shall command the center. +No firing, remember, unless superior force assails us.--Gabe, stick to +the waterside as closely as you can, but make the shortest cut to +the bridge." + +Gabe was the most delighted darkey in all Virginia for the next hour. He +led them swiftly and surely, and why shouldn't he? He had passed all his +life in the vicinity, and with the first beams of the sun he pointed to +a narrow wooden bridge. + +"Dar's whar de pickets fire across." + +As they passed the bridge a loud sound of rushing horses could be heard +in the distance. + +"Dick, you take two men and hurry down the road to assure our pickets +that we are friends. We'll take up the planks to give them time!" Jack +shouted, and Dick, with two of the rescued prisoners, dashed away. Many +hands and high hope made short work of the light timbers. As the +pursuing cavalry turned the bend in the road, in sight of the bridge. +Jack's squad gave them a volley and then dashed into cover. The fire was +returned. Dick, coming back at a run, with a dozen dismounted men, heard +the bullets whistling over his head and saw Jack's _posse_ dispersing to +the right and left in the bushes. All were forced into the woods, as the +rebels commanded the highway. + +"Where is Jack?" Dick asked, rushing among the men. No one had noticed +him in the panic. He was not in the huddle that cowered in the reeds to +escape the balls, still hurtling viciously over the open. With a cry of +rage and despair, Dick flew into the road, and there, not a hundred +yards from the bridge, he saw the well-known figure prone on the red +earth motionless--dead? Heedless of the warning cries of the others, +Dick tore madly to the body, and with a wild cry fell upon the lifeless +figure, weltering in blood. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +"THE ABSENT ARE ALWAYS IN THE WRONG." + + +Under Vincent's ardent escort Mrs. Sprague and Merry traveled from +Richmond northward in something like haste and with as much comfort as +was possible to the limited means of transportation at the command of +the Confederate commissary. Even in those early days of the war, the +railway system of the South was worn out and inadequate. Such a luxury +as a parlor car was unknown. The trains were filled with military +personages on their way to the field. Mrs. Sprague and Merry were the +only women in the car in which they passed from Richmond to +Fredericksburg. The route brought them through a land covered with +hamlets of camps, drilling squadrons, and the panoply of war. While the +elder lady gave a divided mind to the strange panorama, Merry watched +everything eagerly, amused and interested by this spectacle of +preparation. Such soldiers as she could see distinctly looked like +farmers in holiday homespun; the cavalry like nondescript companies of +backwoods hunters. There seemed to be no uniformity in infantry +equipment or cavalry accoutrements, and the discipline struck her as in +keeping with this diversity of dress and ornament. The men could be seen +hurrying in boyish glee toward the train as it drew near the temporary +station, where mail-bags were thrown out and sometimes supplies of food +or munitions of war. Jocular remarks were passed between the soldiery at +the windows when the wistful groups gathered along the railway line. + +"I say, North Cal'ina, you'n's goin' straight through to Yankee land?" a +man in the throng shouts to some one on the train. + +"Straight." + +"Send us a lock o' Lincoln's hair to poison blind adders, will you?" + +"No--promised his scalp to my sweetheart to cover the rocking-chair." + +Then, as the laugh that met this sally died away, another humorist +piped, out: + +"Tell Uncle Joe Johnston we're just rustin' down here for a fight; ef he +don't hurry up we'll go ahead ourselves. We're drilled down so fine now +that we can't think 'cept by the rule o' tactics." + +"Jest you never mind, boys. Uncle Joe'll do enough thinkin' fur ye when +he gets ready to tackle the Yanks." + +"Hurrah for Uncle Joe!" And as the cheery cry swelled farther and +farther, the train drew out, everybody looking from the windows as the +patient soldiery straggled back campward. + +"Your soldiers seem very gay, Vincent. One would think that war, the +dreadful uncertainty of their movements, absence of friends, and lack of +good food would sadden them," Mrs. Sprague said wistfully at one of the +stations when raillery like this had been even more pointed and +boisterous. + +"A wise commander will do all he can to keep his men gay; if they were +not jovial they'd go mad. Think of it! Day after day, week after week, +who knows but year after year, the wearisome monotony of camp and march! +Where the men are educated, or at least readers, they make better +soldiers, because they brood less. Brooding saps the best fiber of the +army. Your Northern men ought to have an advantage there, for education +is more general with you than it is with us. It is not bravery that +makes a man eager for the campaign, it is unrest. As a rule, the best +soldiers in action are those who have a mortal dread of battle." + +"That surprises me." + +"It is true. I always distrust men that clamor to be led on; they are +the first to break when the brush comes. Jack will tell you that, for we +are agreed on it." + +"Jack himself was eager for battle," Mrs. Sprague said, sighing. + +"No, Jack was eager for the field. When the battle comes he meets it +coolly, but he has no hunger for it, nor have I. General Johnston is as +brave a man as ever headed an army, yet he has often told us that his +blood freezes when the guns open. I'm sure no one would ever suspect it, +for he is as calm and confident as if he were in a quadrille when he +rides to the field." + +"We in the North have heard more of Beauregard than Johnston, yet I +never hear you mention him. Wasn't it he who commanded at Bull Run?" + +"Yes and no. General Beauregard is a superb soldier. He is, it has been +agreed among us, better for a desperate charge, or some sudden +inspiration in an emergency, than the complicated strategy that half +wins a battle before it is begun. For example, at Manassas he would have +been defeated, our whole army captured, if fortune had not exposed +General McDowell's plans before they were completed. As it was, we +should have been driven from the field if General Johnston had not come +up in time and rearranged the Confederate lilies." + +"Yes, Jack has described that. Battles, after all, are decided by luck." + +"And genius." + +"Luck won Waterloo." + +"Partly, but genius, too, for Wellington and Blücher practiced one of +Napoleon's most perfect maxims, and won because he despised them both so +much that he didn't dream them capable of even imitating him. Nor, left +to themselves, would they have been equal to it. But renegade Frenchmen, +taught under Napoleon's eye, prompted them." + +"General Johnston was very considerate to us when we came down. I wish +you would make him know how grateful we are." + +"Oh, he couldn't be anything else; he is the ideal of a chivalrous +knight." + +"Yes, I believe you claim chivalry as your strong point in the South, +and accuse us of being a race of sordid money-getters." + +"I don't, for I know better, but our people do. They will learn better +in time. Men who fought as your army fought at Manassas must be more +than mere sordid hucksters." + +"And yet it is curious," Mrs. Sprague continued, musingly, "it is we who +are warring for an idea and you are warring for property." + +"How do you mean?" Vincent said, quickly. + +"You are fighting to continue slavery, to extend it; we to abolish it or +limit it. But even I can see that slavery is doomed. No Northern party +would ever venture to give it toleration after this." + +"But if we succeed, it will exist in our union at least." + +"Ah, Vincent, can't you see that such a people as ours may be checked, +beaten even, but they will never give up the Union? Why, much as I love +Jack, I would never let him leave the colors while there was an army in +the field. Don't you know every Northern mother has the same feeling?" + +"And every Southern mother, too." + +"Yes, I believe that, but there's this difference: Your Southern mothers +are counting on what doesn't exist--a higher physical courage--a prowess +in battle, I may call it, that you must know the Southern soldier has +not, as distinguished from the Northern. As time goes on and the war +does not end; as our armies become disciplined, the confidence that +supports your side will die, and then the struggle, though it may be +prolonged, will end in our triumph." + +"I don't think it. I can't think it. But don't let us talk about it. We, +at least, are as much friends as though Jack and I were under one flag, +and if it depends on me it shall be always so." + +"If it depends on us, it shall never be otherwise." She gave the young +man a kind, scrutinizing glance, which made his heart beat joyously and +his handsome cheeks mount color. At Fairfax Court-House they said +farewell, the ladies continuing the journey in an ambulance under +Federal guard. + +They passed over the long bridge three days after the famous night at +Rosedale, of whose exciting sequel they were profoundly ignorant. In her +husband's time Mrs. Sprague had lived in hotels in the capital, as the +sessions were short; she had never remained in the city when the warm +weather set in, no matter how long the term lasted. But on her arrival +at the old hotel now, she was a good deal disturbed to learn that she +could not be accommodated in her former quarters. The military crowded +not only this but every hotel in the city, and it was only after long +search that a habitable apartment was found in Georgetown. On the whole, +the necessity that drove her thither was not an unmitigated adversity, +for Georgetown then was far more desirable for residence than +Washington. Nothing could be more depressing than the city at that +epoch. Every visible object in the vast circumference of its spreading +limits was then naked unkempt. Even the trees, that ranged themselves +irregularly in the straggling squares and wide street areas, stretched +out a draggled and piebald plumage, as if uncertain whether beauty or +ugliness were their function in the _ensemble_. + +The photographic realism of the later newspaper correspondent had not +come into play in these earlier years of the war, and, as a consequence, +the thousands who poured down to the Army of the Potomac beheld the city +with something of the incredulous scorn with which the effeminate +Byzantines regarded the capital of the Goths, when the corrupt +descendant of Constantine made the savage Dacians his allies, rather +than fight them. Patriotism, however, not pride, marked the common mold +of the men of the civil war. It may have been that many an honest +plowman, marching through the muddy quagmires of Pennsylvania Avenue, +bethought himself that such a capital was hardly worth while marching so +far to protect--more emphatically so when the enemy was really to be +found on lines far north of it! Sentiment is the heart and soul of war; +if it were not, there would be no war, for war never gained as much as +it loses; never settled as much as it unsettles; never left victor or +vanquished better when the last gun was fired! In old times the capture +of a nation's capital meant the end of the war, but we have seen +capitals captured and the war not modified a bit by it. Washington was +seized and burned by the British in 1814, and the war went on; Paris was +held by the Germans for half a year, and the war went on. + +Our civil war would have been three campaigns shorter--Burnside's, +Hooker's, and the stupid massacre of Pope--to say nothing of the saving +of untold treasure, had the political authorities abandoned a capital +which must be defended for a secure seat like New York or Philadelphia. +The sagacious Lincoln, whose action in army matters was paralyzed by +cliques, in the end saw through sham with an inspired clarity of vision, +and proposed the measure, but the backwoods Mazarin, Seward, prepared +such voluminous "considerations" in opposition that the good-natured +President withdrew his suggestion, and, as a consequence, the dismal +Ilium on the Potomac became the bone of a four years' contention, whose +vicissitudes exceed the incidents of the Iliad. Great armies, created by +an inspired commander, were wasted upon the defense of a capital that no +one would have lamented had it been again burned, and of which to-day +there is scarcely a remnant, save in the public buildings and the +topographical charts. A new race entered the sleepy city. The astute, +far-seeing Yankee divined the possibilities of the future, where the +indolent, sentimental Southerner had never taken thought of a nation's +growth and a people's pride! The thrifty and shifty patriots sent from +the North at once took a stake in the city, and thenceforward there was +growth, if not grace, in the capital. + +Lincoln's Washington was to the capital of to-day what the Rome of Numa +was to the imperial city of Augustus. Never, in its best days, more +imposing than a wild Western metropolis of to-day, the sudden inrush of +armies and the wherewithal to supply and house them, soon gave the vast +spaces laid out for the capital the uncouthness and incompleteness of an +exaggerated mining town or series of towns. Contrasted even with its +rival on the James, Washington was raw, chaotic, squalid. + +Long tenure of estates and little change in the people had given +Richmond the venerableness we associate with age. Many of her +picturesque seven hills were transformed into blooming fields or +umbrageous groves, under which vast villa-like edifices clustered in +Grecian repose. Save in the bustling main streets none of the edifices +were new or raw, or wholly unlovely in design or fabric. In Washington +nothing of this could be seen. Staring brick walls, buildings of unequal +height and fatiguingly ugly designs, uprose here and there in morasses +of mud that were meant for streets. Disproportionate outline, sharp +conjunctures of affluence and squalor, accented the disheartening +hideousness of the scene. + +But upon this uncouth stage a great drama was going on; great figures +were in action; momentous events were hourly taking form and +consequence; men, and women at their best and worst were working out the +awful ends of Fate. In the large mansion yonder, the wisest, greatest, +simplest of mankind--by times Diogenes and Cromwell, Lafayette and +Robespierre was, in jest and joke, mirth and sadness, working out his +own and a people's sublime destiny. It was to this curiously unequal +personage that Mrs. Sprague, after fruitless pleading with her husband's +friends, came finally to secure action on behalf of her son. There was +little of the ceremonial needed to gain access to the Chief Magistrate +which is now the fashion. + +She found a care-worn man, deeply harassed, standing in the low-ceiled +room, in which the Cabinet had met a few moments before. A sweet, wan +smile--the instinctive, inborn sensitiveness of a noble nature-flickered +over the rugged lines of the face as the usher, retiring, said: + +"Mr. President, this is Mrs. Sprague, whom you ordered to be admitted." + +"I am both glad and sorry to meet you, madam. I knew your husband, the +Senator, in other and happier times. I wish that it were in my power to +do for him or his what he was always doing for the unhappy or +distressed." + +"Ah! how kind you are! How--" + +She was going to say different from what she expected, but bethought +herself of the ungraciousness of this form, since at that time Mr. +Lincoln was the object of almost universal misreport and caricature. + +"How can I say what a mother should say?" + +While she spoke he began pacing the apartment, each time, as he came to +the double window near which she sat, peering out with a yearning, +far-away look toward the river and the red lines of the hills beyond it. +Then turning back, he strode the length of the long baize-covered table, +sometimes absently picking up a document, until, facing her again as she +narrated the story of Jack's misfortunes, he would fling it hastily on +the scattered heaps and fix his mild eye upon her. + +"I know all this already, dear madam. It has come to me from the boy's +friends, and"--he hesitated a second--"and from his--or from those who +are not his friends." + +"Not his friends?" the mother cried, half rising. "Why, Mr. President, +Jack hasn't an enemy in the world!" + +"You came through from Richmond last week? Have you heard nothing from +your son since you saw him?" + +"Nothing. Oh, is there anything about him?" + +"You have not even read the newspapers, I see." + +"No, no; I have been so uncertain, so agitated, so constantly in +attendance upon our members, that I have had no time to read or even +talk. But, pray tell me! Your manner indicates that something has +happened. O Mr. President, think of my anxiety! My only son!" + +"Ah, Mrs. Sprague! It is I that should be pitied here. You came to me +for comfort. You came in reliance on my power to restore your son, and +I--I have the burden of telling you very grievous news. No, no, your son +is not dead, have no fear of that, if in the end it prove a comfort. +Last night your townsman, Elisha Boone, came to me with his heart-broken +daughter, demanding vengeance for his son's death, whom your boy had +slain the very night you left him on the James. He shot Captain Boone in +the house you visited, and defeated a well-arranged plan to capture the +rebel chief, Davis. Not only this, but he endangered the escape of a +number of sorely-worn prisoners who had succeeded in reaching the +Rosedale place and halted only to make Davis's capture certain." + +"My son shot Wesley! oh no, no; it can not be; or, if he did, it was +because his own life was in peril. Ah! no, no, Mr. President, do not +believe this. I know my son. I know the misery he endured in Wesley's +company; endured like a hero; endured like a Sprague. He must have been +in peril of his life." + +"Dear madam, I feel for you. I feel with you, but these facts are all in +the possession of the Secretary of War. Mr. Boone will no doubt give you +all the details. If it can be made to seem as you say, have no fear that +I will wink at mere revenge, or make the machinery of justice an +instrument of family feuds. Get your lawyer; have the matter +investigated, and rely upon me for every proper clemency and aid in your +hard lot." + +She had arisen long before, and, recognizing this as a dismissal, she +bowed, unable to speak, and, with blinded eyes, staggered toward the two +steps leading upward from the room. She would have fallen had the ready +arm of the President not been near to support her. In the anteroom he +said, huskily: + +"Captain, send an orderly to accompany this lady to her carriage." + +Merry was in the carriage. One glance at Mrs. Sprague's face told that +dire news had been heard. She did not ask a question, but, embracing and +supporting the sobbing mother, awaited patiently for the dreaded +revelation. When at length the miserable story came in gaspings and +sobs, the spinster exhibited an unexpected firmness. + +"I don't believe a word of it. If Jack shot Wesley, it was because he +was in some sort of treacherous business. You may depend upon it, that, +when we get the true story, Jack's part will prove him in the right. I +am going this instant to Boone to learn his source of information. He +can have nothing but rumors." + +"I will go. It is better for me to see Mr. Boone. He will not venture to +misrepresent to me." + +At Willards, where Boone was stopping, the ladies were obliged to wait a +long time, and, in the end, it was Kate who appeared before them in deep +black, with a half-yearning, half-defiant expression in the sadly worn +face. They would never have recognized her, and, as it was, Merry +started with a slight scream as the dark figure stopped before them. + +"Papa begs to be excused. He supposes that you want to hear the +particulars of the--the affair at Rosedale, and bids me tell you." + +"O Kate, Kate, it is not true! it can not be true. Oh, you who knew Jack +so well, you know that he never could have--have--" + +Kate had seized a chair and drawn it before the two who sat on one of +the long sofas that filled without adorning the vast hotel parlor, dim +even at noonday in its semi-subterranean light. + +"Yes, Mrs. Sprague, your son shot Wesley deliberately; shot him as +deliberately as if I should draw a pistol and take your life now +and here." + +"And--and killed him?" + +"He never spoke again. He--he--ah! I can not, I can not! We brought him +here. His body is in the cemetery, waiting the military formalities." + +"But tell us how it happened, Kate," Merry sobbed, entreatingly. "We +know nothing but what you have told us. Tell us all. It is so startling, +so awful, that we can not comprehend such a thing happening where we +left everybody in the most friendly spirit." + +Kate, struggling with her tears, told the story so far as she knew it, +but of course she knew little beyond the mere fact that Wesley had come +to his death in Mrs. Atterbury's room; that Jack stood over him with the +smoking pistol, and owned that he had fired in the darkness. She told +the tale as gently as might be, her own heart secretly pleading for +everything of extenuation that might lessen Jack's guilt, but she had +insensibly taken the darker view her father had instantly adopted, that +Jack's enmity had led him to seize the chance to rid himself of a rival +and enemy under cover of defending the Atterburys. She did not hint this +to the mother, but Merry, knowing Boone, at once saw what the +President's words meant. Boone had charged Jack with deliberate murder. +Dreading the realization of this by Mrs. Sprague at this time, Merry +made a sign to Kate, who, comprehending at once, arose and begged to go +back to her father, who was in need of her. + +"Oh, if Olympia were here! she has so much self-control! she would +advise so well what should he done!" the mother moaned, as she passed +down through the long, barrack-like parlor. + +"But, dear Mrs. Sprague, Olympia is just where her good sense is most +needed. She is near Jack. He needs comfort and counsel. You can have +your lawyer, and you shall see the case isn't so bad as we have heard. +You must remember that the Boones are not likely to take an impartial +view. It is only human nature that they should think the worst of +the--the death of son and brother. Wait till we hear Jack's story, and +you will see that it puts a different face on the matter." + +"But it's Jack's disgrace and death they want. That was what the +President meant. I didn't understand it then: I do understand it now. +They shall not murder him! I shall command him to remain in Richmond. I +shall command him to join Vincent. The North is unworthy of such men as +my son. He is too pure, too innocent, too high-minded to be understood +by the coarse natures that have come to power in the country. I shall +not let this odious Boone destroy him as he ruined your brother." + +"O Mrs. Sprague, think what you are saying! Think how fatal such words +would be, if Jack were brought to trial. You see every day in the press +how all are suspected of treason who were Democrats in the old days. I +know very well that you do not mean this. Much as I love Jack, I would +rather see him in his grave with the Union flag over him than in the +rebel lines, a soldier of that bad cause. As to my poor brother, Boone +was only an accident in his ruin. If it had not been Boone, it would +have been some one else. Put the whole matter in the hands of Simon +Brodie. He is almost a Sprague. He will see that the son of his old +patron has justice." + +Simon Brodie, of Warchester, was the chief advocate of the three +counties. He had studied law with the late Senator Sprague, and, at his +death, from partner succeeded to his lucrative law practice. He came at +once to Washington at Mrs. Sprague's summons, and set about learning the +status of the case. The affair was no easy matter to trace, but, after +inconceivable delays and persistent misleading, he found that Jack was +in the military archives charged with desertion, murder, and treason: +desertion in quitting his company and regiment without orders, treason +in consorting with armed rebels, and murder in joining with the enemies +of the country to take the life of his commanding officer. Meanwhile, +Mrs. Sprague and Merry had returned to Acredale, and the lawyer sent +letters to Richmond setting forth the case to Jack--letters which, by +some mysterious jugglery, never reached their address, as we have seen. +Nothing could be done until Jack was either exchanged or until his +advocate had made out a documentary case that could be presented to the +military authorities. As he surmised, every one in authority had been +prejudiced against Jack. The Congressman from Warchester dared not work +against Boone, who was potent as a Cabinet minister in the councils of +the Government. One of Senator Sprague's old friends, still in the +Senate, advised Brodie to let Jack remain at Richmond till the peace +came, "for," said he, "no Democrat nor any one identified with that +party can hope for impartial justice here." + +"But what am I to do? I can get no assistance here. Every bureau +containing documents bearing on the poor boy's case is either closed to +me, or the officials so hostile that I can not work with or +through them." + +"You must go about the affair as if it were a State matter. You must go +to McClellan. He is a young man of the most spotless honor, the most +generous sympathies. He is as rigid as a Prussian in discipline, but his +methods are enlightened and above board. He is the only man in authority +that has any real conception of the magnitude of the struggle the North +has entered upon. He is, however, miserably hampered. The new rulers +have come down to Washington very much in the spirit of the Goths when +they captured Rome. Every one is on the make. The contract system is +something beyond the wildest excesses I ever read of in pillage and +chicanery. Shoes by the million have been accepted that melt as soon as +they are wet; garments are stacked mountain-high in the storehouses that +blow into rags so soon as the air goes through them. Food, moldy, +filthy, is accumulated on the wharves of Washington, Baltimore, and +Alexandria that would be forbidden as infectious in any carefully +guarded port in the world. Contracts for vessels have been signed where +steamships are called for, and the contractor sends canal-boats. Lines +of ships are paid for to run to ports not known in navigation; and the +chief men in the great departments share the money with the rings--" + +"But why don't you expose it?" + +"Expose it? A word in the Senate against these villainies is set down as +disloyalty. All that a rascal needs to gain any scope he pleases, is to +say 'rebel sympathizer,' and Fort Warren or Lafayette is held up as +a menace." + +Among the confidential aides of McClellan Brodie knew intimately a young +officer, the son of a distinguished lady, whose writings delighted +cultivated people fifty years ago. This young man, Captain Churchland, +had often been a guest at the Spragues, and to him Brodie went for +advice. Inheriting a great deal of his mother's intellect, with a droll +sense of humor, not then so well understood as the lighter school of +writers have since made it, Churchland was the delight of the +headquarters. He listened to the melancholy story of Jack's +compromising plight. + +"It's a bad fix--no mistake," he said, gravely; "but I suggest that your +fiery young friend come home and shoot the father, marry the daughter, +and, as a wife can't testify against the husband, your client +is secure." + +"Ah, captain, it's not a matter for joking. Think of his wretched +mother." + +"That's just what I do think of--murder's no joke, though it's more of a +fine art than it was when De Quincey wrote. I'm perfectly serious. I +would shoot the scoundrel Boone. Why, do you know the man has cleared a +million dollars on rotten blankets since he came here? McClellan ordered +a report made out showing his rascalities a few weeks ago. It was +disapproved at the War Office, and the condemned blankets have gone to +Halleck's army. Doesn't that deserve shooting? Napoleon directed all the +army contractors to be hanged. I say shoot them. For every one put out +of the way a thousand soldiers' lives will be saved." + +"Well, well, let Boone go. It's Sprague I'm interested in." + +"So am I. It is Sprague that Boone seems to be interested in, too, for +he has filled the new Secretary with, what he himself would call, +righteous wrath against the poor boy and his friends. But make your mind +easy. The exchange of prisoners will soon begin. Sprague's turn will +come among the first, and then I will keep track of the affair. Beyond +that I can promise nothing. You may be sure, so far as purely military +men have to do with the business, there will be impartial justice. When +the politicians take hold, I can give no assurance." + +And with this cold comfort the disheartened lawyer betook himself to +Acredale, where his report, guardedly given, brought no very strong hope +to the anxious mother. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE WORLD WENT VERY ILL THEN. + + +Acredale was not the sleepy, sylvan scene we first saw it, when Mrs. +Sprague and Merry drove through the wide main street from the station, +four months after they had quitted it in search of their soldier boys. +The stately elms still arched the highway to Warchester, but here and +there rough gaps were seen in the trim hedge-rows. Staring new edifices +jutted through these breaks upon the grassy walks, and building material +lay heaped in confusion all along the graveled walks. Merry railed at +these evidences of commercial invasion, wondering who had come to the +village to transform it into city hideousness. Mrs. Sprague did not give +much heed to her companion's speculations. Her mind was far away on the +James, wondering where her boy was. It was very hard to settle down to +the commonplaces of home life; but, even in all her distraction, Mrs. +Sprague saw that a change had come upon the people as well as the place. +With the war and its desolating sights fresh in her memory, she saw, +with sorrow and aversion, that social life was gayer than it had ever +been, that the rush for wealth had become a fever, and that the simple +ways and homely joys of the past were now remitted to the very elderly. +The story of Dick's mad pursuit of Jack and the Caribees, after the +disaster at Bull Run, was soon known in every home in the county. +Friends came from far and near to hear the exciting adventure; and the +younger boys, who had been the lad's classmates in the academy, at once +made up a company of youngsters, adorned by the name of the "Perley +Rangers," to be in readiness for the hero's command when he +should return. + +The feud between the adherents of the houses of Sprague and Boone had +become acrimoniously embittered by the point of view from which each +side saw the conduct of Jack. Among the Boone feudatories he was set +down as a traitor, a spy, a murderer. The first malignant rumors that +reached the village after the battle were still maintained stoutly by +the Boone lictors. Jack had ingloriously shirked his part in the battle +with the Caribees; he had skulked in the bushes until the issue was +decided, and then had followed the sympathies of his secession family; +he had gone to the Atterburys, well known for their hatred to the North. +It was to prove his sincerity in the Southern cause that he had wormed +himself into the confidence of Wesley Boone's comrades, and in order +that he might be chief agent in the frustration of the plan of escape. + +He had won high regard in the Confederacy by saving Davis from capture. +He had, with his own hand, shot Wesley Boone when the plan of capture +was on the verge of success. Could anything be clearer than his odious +treason? Hadn't he, of all the unfortunates of the battle, found favor +and luxurious quarters in Richmond? Hadn't he cunningly cajoled the +Boones into the visit to the rebel household, in order to wrest the +secrets of the Union rescue from them? It was in vain that the Perleys +and others set forth the real case. "Very likely, indeed," the Boone +side cried, "that rebels like the Atterburys would receive true +Unionists into their house, and treat them as friends! A real Unionist +would have refused hospitality from the enemies of his country." There +was talk among the more zealous patriots of having the Sprague family +expelled from Acredale. Loyal zealots looked up the law on expatriation +and attainder, and complained bitterly that no applicable provisions +were found in the statutes. Stirring addresses were sent to the member +from Warchester, imploring him to have laws enacted that would enable +the patriots to deal summarily with covert treason. It was true that the +Spragues had contributed many thousand dollars toward the equipment of +the Caribees, had endowed twenty beds in one of the city hospitals for +the wounded--but this was when Jack expected high command in the +regiment. Failing in that ignoble self-seeking, he had gone where his +heart was, while the family, to retain their property, remained among +the loyal, to insult their woe and gloat over their misfortunes. + +At a great "war meeting" in the town-hall, over which Boone presided, +one thrilling orator hinted that fire, if not the law, could "relieve a +loyal community of the Copperhead's nest!" "It was an insult, as well as +a menace, to have the patrician palace of disloyalty flaunting its +grandeurs among a people loyal and devoted, whose sons and brothers were +battling for the Union. Every rebel sympathizer driven from the North +would strengthen the Union cause; ashes and salt sowed on the ground +their insolent homes had desecrated, would be a holy reminder to the +loyal, a warning to the secret foes of the Union." + +There were loud expressions of approval, and a solemn "Amen" to this +intrepid plan of campaign. Lawyer Brodie, who was present, arose under a +thunder of discordant notes--"Copperhead!" "Traitor!" "Dough-face!" "We +don't want to hear from rebel sympathizers! Out with him!" and other +more opprobrious taunts. Now, Brodie was Boone's counsel, and had been +identified with him in some very difficult litigation. It would not do +to have him discredited. The chairman rapped loudly for order. + +"I can vouch, my friends, for Mr. Brodie's patriotism. He is a Democrat, +it is true; but he loves the Union. I know that to be a fact. You can do +the Union no better service than listening to what he has to say." + +Brodie, who had held his place, calmly smiled as Boone sat down, and, +surveying the audience from side to side, began: + +"Free speech was one of the cries that aroused the North in the late +campaign, I believe in free speech. I have done my share toward securing +it, but I never was refused it before. I look among the men here and see +among you neighbors whom I have known since boyhood, neighbors who have +known me since boyhood, and when I arise here to take a citizen's part, +in a meeting called to aid and comfort the cause of the Union, I am +permitted to speak only by the personal request of one man. If that is +your idea of free speech, if that is your notion of aiding the Union +cause, and strengthening the hands of the Administration, I don't need +to be in the confidence of the rebel authorities to tell you that they +could ask no more powerful allies than you! [Sensation.] + +"There are three hundred men in this hall. The light is good, and my +eyesight is not impaired; but I can not see a man among you who was not +a Democrat a year or two ago. There are not fifty men among you that +voted for Abraham Lincoln. [Murmurs.] Are the two hundred and fifty, +then, traitors? Are they rebel sympathizers? Are they Copperheads? One +thousand men marched under the Caribee flag; not a man of them voted for +Lincoln. Are they Copperheads? This township, by its vote at the last +election, was five to one Democratic. Is this a Copperhead community? +Nearly a half million dollars have been subscribed for bounties and war +measures; the tax-payers, almost to a man, are Democrats. Is it +possible, then, that the Copperheads are supplying the money to carry on +the war? You propose to burn the mansion of my old partner, Senator +Sprague! Why? Because his estate has given more to the Union cause than +any other family in the township?" + +"The son has gone over to the rebels," a voice cried. + +"Thank you. There--I'm glad you have given me the chance to crush that +cowardly calumny--the invention of some envious malefactor. Jack Sprague +has gone over to the rebels, just as Anderson and his men went over at +Sumter; just as fifteen hundred of his comrades went over at Bull Run; +just as some of our sons and brothers here in Acredale went over; just +as my friend, Boone's son, went over--because he was surrounded +and wounded." + +"Stop a moment, if you please, friend Brodie; I protest against your +making anything in common between my son and this young man. The matter +is to be investigated, and then we can tell better." + +Boone spoke in great excitement, and the audience, now feverishly +wrought up, urged the lawyer to say his say out. He continued in the +trained, impassive tones of the advocate: + +"Every one in this room knows the two young men. It would be waste of +time for me to strive to make anything in common between John Sprague +and Wesley Boone. Here, where they both grew up, that is quite +unnecessary." + +"I--I--referred to their conduct as soldiers," Boone cried, hoarsely. +"My son lost his life in the service of his country. I can't have his +name coupled with a--murderer's--with a traitor's." + +"Ah, my friend, when hate draws your portrait it is bound to be black. +When prejudice holds the pen, your virtues stand in the shade of vice. I +will tell John Sprague's story from the day he quit Acredale to the +unhappy hour his comrade was killed in the dark, in the sleeping-room of +the mother and daughter who had nursed him from the very jaws of death. +He was in that house by his father's urgent request, though it would +have needed none to open its doors to any one in want of succor. Nor," +he added, significantly, "can it be told who killed Wesley Boone until +all the shots fired in Mrs. Atterbury's chamber are accounted for." + +Then he narrated rapidly, but tellingly, the substance of what has been +already set down in this history--the facts taken from Jack's letters +and attested by the corroboration of Barney, Dick, and the company's +officers. There was a visible revulsion in the larger part of the +audience as the tale went on; and when the lawyer wound up with the +story of Mrs. Sprague's baffled efforts in Washington to have her boy +brought North, there was an outburst of applause and a faint cheer from +the younger men for "glorious old Jack." + +The factions shifted a good deal after this official rendering of the +affair. There was no longer any talk of burning the Sprague property, +and opinion was about evenly divided as to Jack's conduct. December had +come, and the township was busy packing boxes to send to the army. No +news had come North from Richmond. Active movements were looked for +every day, and in the momentous expectation such lesser incidents as +exchange were forgotten or ignored. The daily journals were filled with +details of contemplated expeditions, and one morning Mrs. Sprague read +with beating heart this paragraph in the _Herald_: + +"A score or more of the men who escaped from the Richmond prison a few +weeks ago, arrived at Washington to-day from Fort Monroe. The party +endured untold privations in the swamps between Williamsburg and our +line on the Warwick, but all came in safely, except two men who died +from the results of their wounds. The expedition was planned and carried +out by an agent of General Butler, who has been in Virginia since the +unfortunate attempt to rescue Captain Boone of the 'Caribee' regiment. +At the moment the party reached the Union outpost, one of the most +daring of the Union men, Sergeant Jacques of the Caribees, was, it is +thought, mortally wounded." + +Merry, too, had seen the story, and came over to show it to Mrs. +Sprague. + +"I have seen it, I have seen it. Who of the Caribees can these be? Who +is Jacques? I never heard that name here." + +"Ah! he must be one of the town recruits. It's a French name." + +"Yes, it is part of a rather famous French name," Mrs. Sprague replied, +half smiling at Merry's innocence. "Something must be done to get into +communication with these escaped men. Some of them must have seen Jack. +If there are Caribees among them, you may be sure they have messages +from our boys. I think I shall set out for Washington, or ask Mr. +Brodie to go." + +"That's better. Mr. Brodie can get at the men and you couldn't. I shall +be in a fever until we have heard from them." + +Brodie agreed with the ladies when, later, they discussed the matter +with him, and that evening he set out for Washington. Mrs. Sprague at +the tea-table with Merry, who made it a point to give the lonely mother +as much of her time as she could spare, was still pondering the +paragraph when the sound of carriage-wheels came in through the closed +curtains. Then the front door opened without knocking, and there was a +rustle in the hallway, and then, with a simultaneous scream, three +agitated females, to wit, Mrs. Sprague, Merry, and Olympia, in a +confused mass. + +"O my child! my child!" + +"Mamma!" + +"Dearest, dearest Olympia," Merry splutters, wildly embracing both. + +"Oh, how delightful to be here, to see you, mamma as peaceful and serene +as in the old days! I thought I should never get home. I left Richmond +three weeks ago. I was held at Fredericksburg for ten days. Then I had +to turn back when we got to Manassas, through some red tape lacking +there. But here I am. Here I am at home--ugh!--I shall never quit it +again--never." + +"But, my child. Tell us--Jack!" + +"Jack? Haven't you heard from him? He escaped three weeks ago. It was he +who got the men out of the prison. Dick was with him. Surely you have +heard of that?" and Olympia sank into the nearest chair, all the gayety +gone from her face, her eyes questioning the two wretched women. Neither +could for the moment control her agitation; neither was capable of +thinking. All that was in their minds was this dire specter of a month's +silence. Alive, Jack or Dick would have found means to relieve +their anxiety. + +"Surely you heard that a party had escaped from Libby and made their way +to Fort Monroe?" Olympia cried, desperately. + +"Fort Monroe?" Mrs. Sprague echoed mechanically. "Yes, ah, yes. Merry, +where's the paper?" + +Olympia devoured the meager scrap and then dropped the journal on her +knees. Her mind was in a whirl. In Richmond the escape had been +announced, then the news that the party had been surrounded in the +swamp, then day by day details of the taking of straggling negroes and +one or two soldiers, but no name that even resembled Jack's. The +Atterburys, after the first painful sensation, had given their approval +of Jack's going, and used all means in their power to get such facts as +would comfort Olympia. They assured her that Jack had reached the Union +lines, and then she had set out northward, expecting to find him at home +or in communication with his family. No word from Dick? No word from +Jack? They were dead, and she--she had urged them to the mad adventure! +She had given Jack no peace, had fired Dick to the fatal enterprise. She +dared not look in the tearless eyes of her mother. She dared not face +the ghastly questioning in Merry's meek eye. Brodie had gone down to see +the escaped men. Perhaps he would discover something. This was the small +comfort left the three when, near midnight, they ended the woful +conference. + +The next day Olympia was visited by a representative of the _Crossbow_, +the chief journal of Warchester, and urged to write a narrative of her +adventures in the rebel capital. Until her friends made her see how much +effect it would have in clearing Jack's reputation she shrank from the +publicity, but with that end in view--Jack's honor--she wrote, and wrote +with strength and clearness, the moving incidents of her brother's +capture, captivity, and escape--or his bold effort to escape. This she +told so simply, so directly, so vividly, that the truth of it at once, +struck the most prejudiced reader, who had no cause to continue in his +prepossession. After the publication in the Warchester paper scores who +had sided with the Boone faction either called or wrote to confess their +error. Even the Acredale _Monitor_, a weekly sheet notoriously in the +interest of Boone, felt constrained to copy parts of the account and +publish with it a shambling retraction of previous criticism, based on +imperfect knowledge, that it had printed concerning Sergeant Sprague. +"Death," it declared, "has obliterated all feeling that existed against +our young townsman, whose conduct, though open to grievous doubt in the +early part of his military career has been amply atoned for in the +intrepid enterprise in which he seems to have lost his life." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +A WOMAN'S REASON. + + +The still, small voice that makes itself a force in the heart, which the +poets call our mentor and the moralists conscience, had been painfully +garrulous in Kate Boone's breast since the angry parting with Jack at +Rosedale. At first, in the wild grief of Wesley's death, she had hugged +hatred of Jack to her heart as a sublime revenge for the murder. But +with the hot partisanship allayed in the long weeks of reflection +preceding the rumor of Jack's own death, she began dimly to admit of +palliation in her lover's fatal act. Her father, the Boone faction, all +who had access to her, held the shooting to be a craftily planned +murder, calculated to bring advantage to the assassin. To check the +sacrilegious love she felt in her heart, she too had been forced to +believe, to admit the worst. But when the image of Jack came to her +mind, as it did day and night, it was as the gay, frank, chivalrous +Hotspur, as unlike a murderer as Golgotha to Hesperides. She had never +dared to confide to her father that vows had been exchanged between, +them--that they were, in fact, affianced lovers. He, never suspecting, +talked with her day after day of the signal vengeance in store for the +miscreant; how he had enlisted the aid of the most powerful in +Washington; how he had instructed the emissaries sent to Richmond to +effect Wesley's release, to direct all their energies to entrapping the +murderer into the ranks of the escaping prisoners. + +She had often been startled by her father's far-seeing, malignantly +planned vengeances, and, now that the rumor of Jack's death began to +settle into belief, she was appalled by a sudden sense of complicity in +a murderous plot. Not that she believed her father capable of murder or +its procuration, but, knowing his potency with the authorities, she saw +that there were many ways in which Jack might be sacrificed in the +natural course of military duties. She had heard things of the sort +discussed--how inconvenient men had been sent into pitfalls and never +heard of again. + +She began dimly to see that, at worst, Jack's act was not the calculated +murder her father held it to be. In her own tortured mind there had been +at first but one clear process of reasoning. That process, whenever she +began to gather the shreds, had led her mind straight to the conviction +that Jack's shot had been premeditated, that the chance had been +prearranged with the enemies of her brother. At first her only distinct +thought was that the hapless Wesley had been lured to his death. The +hand of the man she loved had sent the fatal shot into the poor boy's +body. Had it been in self-defense--even in the heat of uncontrollable +anger--she could have found mitigation for Jack; but there was neither +the justification of self-defense nor the plausible pretext of anger. +One word of warning, which Jack could have spoken, would have saved +Wesley from the rash, the dastardly attempt upon the Rosedale household. +The plot, in all its details, must have been known to Jack or Dick, else +how explain their presence in the chamber, armed and ready for +the murder? + +It had been a conspiracy of delusive kindness from the day Wesley +entered Rosedale. The frankness and kindliness of the Atterburys had +been assumed to lure him to his fatal adventure. Boone himself believed +that Jack's ignoble ambition and envy had been the main motives in the +murder. To this Kate, from the first, opposed a resolute incredulity. + +"You don't know the fellow, I tell you," Boone doggedly argued. "He's as +like his father as two snakes in a hole. Old man Sprague never let a man +stand in his way. Jack's the same. He thought Wes' kept him from the +shoulder-straps, and he got him out of the way. Wasn't he always +snooping 'round in the regiment trying to undermine your brother? Wasn't +he always trying to be popular? Ah, I know the Spragues. But I'll give +them a wrench that'll twist their damned pride out of them. I'll have +that cold-blooded young villain shot in a hollow square, and I'll have +it done in this very district, that the whole county may know the +disgrace of the high and mighty Spragues." + +"No, father." Kate had heard all this before, but she, for the first +time, resolved upon setting her father right. "No, Jack hasn't a +particle of the feeling you ascribe to him. I don't think he liked poor +Wesley. They were totally unlike in nature, and I think that Jack felt +deeply that he had been wronged by Wesley's appointment. But it was not +in his nature to seek revenge. He would have fought Wesley openly, but +he would never be one of a gang of murderers. I think I can see how Jack +was led into the part he played. It does not lessen the guilt, but it +relieves him of the odious suspicions I first felt." + +Then Boone, in irritable impatience, reminded her of her own earlier +utterances; how from his first coming Wesley had been treated with +studied distrust; how he had been denied the boyish intimacy that +existed between Jack and Dick; how he was insensibly made to feel that +he was in the house under a different cartel from that of Jack and Dick; +that he was a prisoner on parole, and his word was doubted. Nothing +could make him believe, he declared, getting up moodily, but that the +whole lot of them had set out to drive Wesley into a corner and then +kill him, as they had done. + +Kate sighed wearily as her father left the room. If she could only be as +well assured as her strong words implied! Ah! if she could fetch back +her lover by getting at the truth, how willingly she would fly to +Rosedale and learn all! But she dared not question, lest questioning +should confirm, where she now at least had the miserable solace of +doubt. Could it be true? Could Jack be the base schemer her father +depicted him? Then her mind ran back to Rosedale. She lived again all +the enchanting days of that earthly paradise. She saw Wesley's furtive +starts, his strange disappearances, his growing melancholy, his moody +reticence when she questioned him. Ah! if he had but confided to her! If +she had but dreamed of the desperate purpose born of the loneliness he +lived in! If Jack had been loyal to him, loyal to her, Wesley would have +been warned that eager eyes were upon him, ready wits reading his +purposes, and revengeful hatred ready to slaughter him. + +When the news came that Jack had lost his life in the very enterprise +Wesley had contemplated, Kate collapsed under the shock. Now, when it +was too late, she convinced herself that he was innocent. If she could +have recalled him to life, she cried in self-reproach, she would not ask +whether he was all her first impulse had painted him. She had borne up +with something like composure when Wesley's death came upon her; but +now, tortured by a sense of responsibility in Jack's fate, she gave way +to the grief she had so long repressed. If she had not upbraided him, if +she had not accused him, in so many words, of murder, he would never +have embarked on the mad plot of escape. + +She had driven him to his death. She had sat silent while Acredale rang +with calumnies against him. It was not too late yet to make reparation. +She would proclaim publicly that her brother had rashly courted his own +death; that Jack had unknowingly shot him down, as many a man does, in +battle, shoot his best friend. She resolved on the instant to go to the +stricken family and make such expiation there as was in her power. But +was there any certainty that the report of Jack's death was true? +Grievous mistakes of the same sort had been made repeatedly in the +public journals. She was not able to formulate any plan at first. Her +father was more morose than ever. He seemed in his way to deplore the +young man's death, but not in pity, as she soon learned. Death had +robbed him of a cruelly meditated revenge. She wisely made no comment +when this brutal feeling betrayed itself; but for the first time in her +life the girl shuddered at the sight of her father. The vague rumors of +years, that had been whispered about him--rumors which of old had fired +her soul with hot indignation, came back insidiously. She shuddered. Was +she to lose all--brother, lover, father--in this unnatural strife? She +had been so loyal to her father. She had been so proud of him when +others reviled. She had felt so serenely confident of the nobleness of +his heart, the generosity of his impulses. She had always been able to +mold him, as she thought. Could it be possible that he was human to her, +inhuman to the rest of the world? Then her mind, tortured by newly +awakened doubts, ran back over the events leading to the rupture with +the Spragues. She groaned at the retrospect. It was injustice that had +displaced Jack in the command of the company. It was injustice that had +marked her father's conduct in the Perley feud. + +Grief is a logician of very direct methods. Its clarifying processes +work like light in darkness. Kate saw the past in her father's conduct +with terrifying vividness. She realized that it was her father's harsh +purpose that had arrayed Acredale against him. It was his pride and +arrogant obstinacy that had brought about the loss of all she loved. The +fates had immolated the helpless; were the fates preparing a still +bitterer expiation? Life had very little left for her now, but she +resolved that she would no longer be isolated by her father's enmities. +The great house had been gloomy enough for father and daughter during +the last miserable months, but he still fled to her for comfort. It was +one evening when he came in, apparently in better spirits than he had +shown since Wesley's death, that she told him what had been filling her +mind since Jack's death. + +"O father, I think I see that our lives have been unworthy, if not +altogether wrong. Surely such neighbors as ours could not all take sides +against you, if you were in the right in all the feuds that have divided +us as a family from the people of Acredale." + +Then, in an almost imploring tone of reproach, she retraced the harsh +episodes in the father's dealings with the Perleys, with the community, +and, finally, the quarrel with the Spragues, involving in it the lives +of Wesley and Jack. Her voice softened into tremulousness. She arose, +and in her old pleading way pulled the shaggy head down on her breast, +pressing her lips on the high, bare forehead. + +"Dear father, all this is unchristian; you have in reality been waging +war against women and children. Jack was a mere boy, Richard is a boy. I +don't go into other enmities, where you have used the enormous power of +wealth to crush the helpless. If you had not alienated the Spragues and +encouraged Wesley in overbearing Jack, my brother would be alive to-day. +My sweetheart--yes, Jack was dearer than all the world to me--he would +not be dead to-day. Ah! father, father, what good comes of anger--what +joy of revenge? You have brought about the death of these two boys. Is +it not time to look at life with a new heart--with clear-seeing eyes?" + +Elisha Boone sat quite still. He had listened at first with a flush of +anger, which deepened as the girl pleaded, until it died away and left +his face very pale. He pushed himself away from the clinging figure, as +if the better to see her face. Then his head drooped. He sighed heavily, +rose and without a word left the room. Kate heard him ascending the +stairs, then the sound of his room door softly closing. Had the hateful +fires of vengeance been quenched? It was her father's way, when +resolutely opposed, to quit the scene and without confessing himself in +the wrong, do as Kate urged. The next morning he was gone before she +reached the breakfast-table. There was a note on her plate in his +handwriting. She read with a sinking heart: + +"MY DAUGHTER: If what you said last night is true, you +can not be the daughter to me that you have been. I am +going to Washington, and when I come back you will know +that your brother was deliberately murdered, and that his +murderer, even in the grave, is held guilty before all men +of the crime." + +The servant confirmed the tidings. Her father had arisen early and +departed on the first train. What could it mean? Had he some evidence +that she had not heard? Had Jack left papers incriminating him? Ah! why +carry the hideous feud further? Why blast the melancholy repose of the +living, by fastening this stain upon the dead? But they could not. She +knew it. She could herself refute any proof brought forward. She would +tell all. She would reveal their tender relationship, and surely then +any one, knowing the young man's nature, would scout the assertion of +his willfully shooting Wesley. But surely Olympia and Mrs. Sprague must +be able to tell, and tell decisively, the circumstances in the tragedy. +She would go to them. She owed this to the living; she owed it still +more imperatively to the dead. She had not seen Olympia since her +return. Mrs. Sprague had been too infirm to see her when she called. But +she would not heed rebuffs now. In such a cause, on such a mission, she +would have stood at the Sprague door a suppliant until even the +obstinacy of her father would have relented. On her way across the +square she saw Merry coming from the post. She turned out of her way, +and hurrying to the near-sighted spinster held out her hand, +saying, softly: + +"Ah, Miss Merry, I'm so glad to see you! I have been meaning to call on +you ever since I heard of your return, but, what with sorrow and +illness, I have put it off, and now I want you to take me home with you. +Will you not?" + +The pleading tone, the caressing clasp of the hand, the sadly changed +face, the somber black weeds, made the voice and figure so much unlike +the old Kate, that Merry stood for an instant confused and blushing as +she stammered: + +"Bless me, Miss Kate, I--I--shouldn't have known you. Ah, I am very glad +to see you; sisters will be very glad to see you, too. Do, do come right +along with me. I'm afraid the parlor won't be very sightly, but you +won't mind, will you?" + +Kate squeezed the hand still resting in her own, and drawing the long +veil back over face, she walked silently with the puzzled spinster, +unable to broach the theme she had at heart. Merry spared her the +torture of going at it obliquely. + +"I have just been at the Spragues. Poor dears, they are in dreadful +distress. Mrs. Sprague is preparing to go in search of the body, but +Olympia won't give in that Jack is killed. She says that if he had been +she certainly would have known it in Richmond, for there are couriers +twice a day from the rebel outposts to the capital; that the Atterburys +had taken special measures to learn the fate of the escaped prisoners; +that, besides this, several young men in Richmond, who knew Jack well, +had been sent down the peninsula with the prisoners, to befriend him in +case he were retaken." + +"And Olympia believes that Jack is alive?" + +"Yes, firmly." + +"Where does she think he is?" + +"She believes that he is among a squad separated from the rest of the +prisoners, near the Union lines. It was asserted in Richmond that many +had crossed the James River, and were making for the Dismal Swamp, or +into Burnside's lines in North Carolina." + +"Dear Miss Merry, I--I--think I won't go in now," Kate said, +tremblingly. "I must see Olympia. Perhaps I can help them in the search +for Jack, and you know there is no time to lose. I shall come and see +you all soon." + +She squeezed the astonished Merry's hand, convulsively, and shot off, +leaving the bewildered lady quite speechless, so speechless that, when +she reached the stately presence of Aunt Pliny, she forgot the +commissions she had been sent to execute, and was at once reviled by the +parrot as "a no-account dawdler." + +Meanwhile, Kate, with wild, throbbing hope in her heart that kindled +color in her pale cheeks and light in her weary eyes, sped away to the +Spragues. There was no tremor in the hand that raised the dragon-headed +knocker, nor hesitancy in the voice that bade the servant say that "Miss +Boone requested a few moments' conversation with Miss Sprague." + +Olympia came presently into the reception-room, and the girls met with a +warm embrace. + +"Ah, Olympia, I have been made so--so--glad by what Merry tells me! +You--do--not believe that your brother is dead?" Her voice faltered, and +Olympia, gazing at her fixedly, said: + +"No, I shall not believe Jack is dead until I see his body. Poor mother, +who believes the worst whenever we are out of her sight, has given up +all but the faintest hope. I shall not. I know Jack so well. I know that +it would take a good deal to kill him, young and strong as he is. +Besides that, I know that the Atterburys would find means to let us +know, if there were any certainty as to his fate. Poor Jack! It would be +an unendurable calamity if he were to die before the monstrous calumnies +that have been published about him are proved lies." + +"Dear Olympia, that is one reason of my coming. In my horror at +Rosedale, I, too, believed that John had been in a plot to entrap +Wesley; but I--I--know better now, and I have come to tell you that it +is no less my duty than my right to see that your brother's memory is +made as spotless as his life." + +"I knew it; I knew you would, do it; I told Jack so in Richmond, almost +the last words I said before he set out on this miserable adventure. I +told him you were not the girl I took you for if you could believe him +to be such a dastard, when you had time to get over the shock of poor +Wesley's death. You never heard the whole story of that dreadful night. +I must tell it to you--as he would if he were here, and I know you would +believe him." The two girls sat down, hand in hand, and Olympia told +the tale as it has been set down in these pages. + +Kate was sobbing when the story ended. She flung her arms about +Olympia's neck, and for a time the two sat silent, tearful. + +"Oh, why didn't he tell me this at the time? It was not Jack's bullet +that entered poor Wesley's body. Jack was at his right, at the side of +the bed. Wesley's wound was on the left side, and the shot must have +come from Jones's pistol!" + +"I remember that; but Jack's remorse put all thought of everything else +out of my head. I recall, perfectly, that the wound was in Wesley's left +side. Oh, if I could only get that word to Jack! I If--" + +"I'll get it to him if he's alive. I, or mine, have been his undoing! I +shall make amends. Ah, Olympia, I--I am ashamed to feel so full of +joy--forgive me." + +"It isn't your fault, dear, that you didn't know Jack as we do," Olympia +said, tenderly. + +"What are your plans?" Kate asked, presently. + +"Mother insists upon going to the peninsula and examining the ground, +questioning all who took part in the pursuit, and seeing with her own +eyes every wounded man in the neighborhood. I don't know whether we can +get passes, but we shall set out at once and do our best." + +"O Olympia. I must--I must go with you! I shall die if I remain here +doing nothing--helpless! Let me go. I can aid you much. I can surely get +all the passports required. I can do many things that you couldn't do, +for my father--" + +She stopped and colored. Her father! What was she rashly promising for +him? Dead, he was bent on Jack's dishonor; living, he would never rest +until Jack's life was condemned. + +"Ah, yes--that's true. Your father is potent at headquarters. I can +answer for mamma. We shall be delighted and comforted to have you. I +shall need you as much as mamma needs me. We are only waiting for Mr. +Brodie's report. I don't expect much from his researches. It is only a +woman's heart that upholds one in such trials as this search means." + +The plans were agreed upon at once and the two girls separated, knit +together by the same bond in more senses than one, for, while Olympia +set out to rescue her brother, she secretly hoped that the search would +bring her near some one else; and so, as soon as Kate had gone, she sat +down and wrote Vincent of Jack's disappearance, asking his aid in +finding such traces as might be in the rebel lines. She merely alluded +to their projected plan, adding, in a postscript, that she would write +him as soon as the party approached the outposts. Kate wrote at once to +her father, at his Washington address, narrating her visit to the +Spragues, telling him of the new hope that had come to her, and +beseeching him to lend his whole heart to the distressed mother and +sister. He should see her in Washington within a few days, and she +counted on his sympathy with her to help to restore the lost son and +brother if alive, to co-operate in giving the body honorable burial if +he were dead. These letters dispatched, the party waited only to hear +from Brodie. He came a day or two later, but he could give them no hope. +He had been repelled from all sources of information, insulted in the +War Office, and denied access to the President. He was convinced that +there were secret influences at work to obscure the true facts in the +case of the escaped prisoners, but what the agencies were he could not +guess. When Olympia told this to Kate, she was surprised at her look +and response. + +"I know the influences, I think, and I can discover the agencies. Take +comfort. I believe Jack is alive. I promise you that I shall never rest +until he is found, alive or dead." + +"O Kate, what an impulsive ally we have gained! I wish Jack could have +heard that speech; it would have put power in his arm, as poor Barney +used to say." + +Twenty-four hours later the three women were in Washington, Kate +remaining with her friends, instead of joining her father at Willard's. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +A GAME OF CHANCE. + + +It was the end of January, 1862, when Olympia and her mother found +themselves in Washington for the second time in quest of the missing +soldier. They took lodgings in the same quiet house, not far from +Lafayette Square--Kate with them. Kate counted upon her father's aid, +active or passive; but when her messenger returned from Willard's with +word that Mr. Boone had gone from the hotel several days before, she was +numb with a dreadful foreboding. He was avoiding her deliberately. She +drove at once to the hotel. The clerk summoned to her aid could only +inform her that her father had given up his room and had left the hotel +late at night. She could get no further clew. She telegraphed at once to +Acredale and returned to the Spragues, not daring to breathe her +apprehensions. Yes, her father was plainly keeping away from her. He +meant to persist in his savage vengeance. What had he learned? Was Jack +indeed dead, and was his good name the object of her father's hatred? +Whither should she turn? Why had she not thought of this--her fathers +passivity or even opposition? How could she reveal her terrors to the +mother and sister? How make known to them the unworthy side of her +father's character? If in the morning no telegram came from Acredale, it +would be proof that her father was bent, implacably in his purpose to +undo Jack, living or dead. When she reached the lodging, Olympia was +dressed for the street. + +"You are just in time. I have matured my plans. First, we must find out +at the proper quarter the names of all the wounded brought here from +Fort Monroe. Then we must trace the report in the _Herald_ down to its +origin. Then we must visit every hospital in and near Washington to find +out from actual sight of each man whether Jack or Dick, or any one we +know, is in the city. As we go on, we shall learn a good deal which may +modify this plan, or perhaps make the search less difficult." + +Olympia said this with composure and a certain confidence in herself +that struck Kate with admiration. She felt ashamed of herself. Here was +Olympia, unconscious of Jack's real peril if living, the menace to his +reputation if dead, planning as composedly as if it were an every-day +thing to have a brother lost in the appalling mazes of war; and she had +been weakly depending upon her father, Jack's most persevering enemy! +She recoiled from herself in a shiver of self-reproach as she said: + +"Olympia, you have the good sense of a man in an emergency. I am ashamed +of myself. I, who ought to do the thinking for you, am as helpless as a +kitchen-maid set to playing lady in the parlor. I can at least help you; +I can make my body follow you, if I haven't sense enough to suggest." + +"Dear Kate, it isn't sense, or insight, or any fine quality of mind that +is needed here. All I ask is, that you won't get dispirited, or, if you +do, don't let mamma see you are. Poor mamma! She is as easily influenced +as a baby. Jack is her darling, remember. All the world is a small +affair to her compared with our poor boy. I fancy, if we were as much +wrapped up in him as she is, we should make poor pioneers in the +wilderness before us." + +But Kate could stand no more of this. With a choking sob she turned and +fled up the stairway, crying as she disappeared: "Wait--wait a moment; I +must get my purse." + +When she reappeared, the heavy mourning-veil was drawn down, and +Olympia, with a reassured glance, opened the door. + +"You must affect confidence, if you have it not--even gayety. I warn you +not to be shocked at my conduct. I must keep up mamma's spirits, and to +do it I must play indifference or confidence, and you must be careful to +say nothing, to do nothing, to excite her suspicions." + +Kate's cab had driven off, and the two girls walked through Lafayette +Square into Pennsylvania Avenue to get another. The wide streets were +filled, as of old, with skurrying orderlies, groups of lounging +officers, and lumbering army wagons. But even the untrained eyes of +Olympia soon took account of the better discipline, the more +businesslike celerity of the men on duty as well as the flying couriers. +The White House was gay with hunting, and salutes from the distant forts +were signalizing the news that had just come of Union successes at Mill +Spring and Roanoke Island. The girls, procuring a hack, were driven to +the provost-general's office. Here, after an interminable delay they +were admitted to the presence of a complacent young coxcomb in spotless +regimentals, who, so soon as he saw Olympia's face and bearing, threw +off the listlessness of routine, and, rising deferentially, asked her +pleasure. She told her story simply, and asked his advice as to the +course to be followed. When the extract from the _Herald_ was shown to +him, he examined an enormous folio, and then rang a bell. + +"It is more than likely that these names are wrong. This happens +constantly. The operators are raw and some of them can barely read. The +names are given hurriedly, and if not written plainly they make wretched +work of them. The newspapers make many a fool famous, while neglecting +many a hero who deserves fame, simply through the blundering or +carelessness of the writers or operators. Here is an orderly who will +take you to the surgeon-general. You will find in his books the names of +all the wounded in hospital in the Eastern armies. But if your brother +was wounded or brought in wounded at Fort Monroe, his name will be on +the books of the Army of the Potomac or the Department of Eastern +Virginia." + +They were treated with the same deferential gallantry at the +surgeon-general's office; the young doctors, indeed, became almost +obtrusive in their eagerness to spare the young women the drudgery of +scrutinizing the long lists of invalids. But, after two days' careful +search, no names resembling Sprague or Perley could be found. + +"I wonder who this can be?" Kate said, returning to an entry made a +month before: "Jones, Warchester; Caribee Regiment." + +"I know no one of that name," Olympia said, "but perhaps he might know +something of Jack. Let us go to him. It will do no harm to find out +who he is." + +The surgeon's clerk readily gave them Jones's address, reminding them +that the hospital was in Georgetown, and that they would be too late to +obtain entrance to the patient that day. Next morning Mrs. Sprague was +too ill to rise from her bed, and Olympia could not leave her alone. +Kate undertook the investigation into the Jones affair alone. When she +reached the hospital there was some delay before she could see the +personage intrusted with the admission of guests. She was shown into an +office on the ground-floor and given a seat. As she sat, distraught and +eager, she heard her own name in the next room, the door of which +stood open: + +"It's at Boone's risk. He would have him moved, and the surgeon-general +gave him _carte blanche_ with the patient." + +"Well, it will cost the man his life. I'll stake my diploma on that. +Why, the journey to Warchester alone is enough to down the most vigorous +convalescent." + +Kate trembled. What did this mean? What was she hearing? +Boone--Warchester? Whom had her father been taking from the +hospital--Jack? Her heart gave a wild leap. Yes--Jack. Who else did her +father know in the army? She arose trembling, fainting, but resolute. +She reached the open door, but tried for a moment in vain to ask: + +"If you please, tell me, tell me--" But she could say no more. The +occupants of the room, in undress uniform, turned upon her at first in +hostile surprise, but, as she threw her veil farther back in alarm, the +elder of the two said: + +"Pray, madam, what is it; are you ill?" + +"No; may I sit down, please? Thank you. I am come to, to--" What should +she say? How expose the doubt of her father? How find out for certain +who had been removed to Warchester--abducted was the word her agitated +thoughts shaped. Oh, if Olympia, intrepid, self-possessed, were only +with her!--but no, not Olympia; no one must ever know the unutterable +crime she suspected her father of. She must be brave. She must be +resolute. Oh, where were her arts now, when she most needed them? She +tried to speak. A hoarse gasping came in her throat and died there. + +"Ah--ah--some water!--I--I am faint." + +In an instant a goblet of cool water was at her lips. She drank slowly, +deliberating all the time to recover her senses; the surgeons--both +young men, mere lads--waiting respectfully, inferring much from the +melancholy robes. The water cooled her head, and she began to be able to +think coherently. + +"I have the surgeon-general's permit to visit a patient in your fever +ward--Jones, the name is. Can I see him?" + +"Pray, let me see the permit, madam?" He glanced at it, looked +significantly at his comrade, and said: + +"This man was removed three days ago." + +"Whereto?" + +"Warchester." + +"Ah!" Kate's veil, by an imperceptible gesture, fell over part of her +face. A great trembling came upon her again. The young surgeons +exchanged glances. + +"Who--who--did--who asked for his removal?" + +"A Mr. Boone, also of Warchester." + +"Thank you--I am too late--I wanted to--to ask this Mr. Jones some +questions concerning a dear friend in his regiment. But I can write, if +you will kindly give me the address." + +"I am very sorry--beyond Warchester we have no record here of his +whereabouts. If he had been officially transferred to another government +hospital, we should have all the facts. But the removal was a personal +favor to Mr. Boone. He is well known both here and in Warchester, and +you can have no difficulty in communicating with him." + +"Ah, true; I had forgotten that." + +"If we can be of any service to you, Miss Sprague," the young man said, +handing Kate back the permit, made out in Olympia's name, which Kate had +never thought of, "you can always reach us through the surgeon-general's +office." He handed her a card with his own and his comrade's name +in pencil. + +Thanking the young man with as much self-possession as she could summon, +Kate reached the carriage in a whirl of wild imaginings, more terrifying +as she strove to reduce them to definite shape. Who was this Jones? Why +remove him to Warchester? If it were not Jack, what interest could her +father have in his removal? But. first, what could she say to Olympia? +She could say she did not know Jones, but Olympia would surely ask what +questions she had put to him. What should she say? That he had been +taken away from the hospital? She knew Olympia well enough to know that +this vague story would only incite her to further inquiry. She would +find out the father's handiwork in the affair, and she, too, would be +set on the rack of suspicion. + +When the carriage reached the door, Kate dared not enter. She dismissed +the man and set out toward the green fields below the rounded slope of +Meridian Hill. Here she could breathe freely. "I can think clearly now," +she panted, with a gush of warm tears. If she could only remain calm, +she could look Into the black abyss with the eye of reason, rather than +terror. Calmness came soothingly as she walked, and she began at the +beginning, weighing probabilities. All seemed dark and hopeless, until +she came back to the record in the surgeon-general's office. Jones, sent +from Hampton Hospital, December 13th. This was about the time Jack had +reached the Union lines. He had left Richmond late in November. All +Brodie's inquiries at Fort Monroe had been fruitless in finding the +whereabouts of the fugitives that came through the lines at that time. +Dick had been one of them. If Jones were not Jack himself, he must have +been one of the group that escaped with Jack. It all led back to the +first frightful conjecture. Her father was abducting a witness who could +divulge Jack's whereabouts, or he was secreting Jack until be could work +him harm. The walk began to revive Kate's courage as well as her +faculties. She must act with energy. The hardest part of the problem was +to get clear of Olympia, for Kate at once made up her mind to quit +Washington that very night for home. She must evade Olympia's inquiries +as best she could, and make some excuse for journeying thither. + +When she reached home, fortune had intervened to save her conscience +from the falsehoods she feared she would have to employ. The landlady +met her in the hallway with a white face. + +"O Miss Boone, Mrs. Sprague is taken very bad. The doctor's with her +now. I think it is typhoid fever." + +Up-stairs misfortune gave her a further release. Olympia came into +Kate's room, agitated and in tears. + +"All, Kate, mamma is suffering pitiably. The doctor thinks it is +typhoid, and he ordered me to remain away from her. You must leave the +house. It won't do for all of us to be ill together. I may not be able +to see you for days, until the crisis is past. But you must continue the +search, and you must let me know, from day to day, what you learn. There +are letters for you--I hear mamma. I will be back in a moment." + +Kate fairly hated herself for the passing thrill of relief over the +timely illness that had intervened to expedite her mission. She glanced +over the letters. There was one in her father's hand, postmarked +Acredale. It contained no clew to his purposes, but she read +tremblingly: + +"My daughter: You are doing a foolish thing. The search you propose can +lead to nothing. All that can be done has been done by his friends. They +have found no trace of him. Women can not hope to succeed where so keen +a man as Brodie has failed. I have every confidence that in good time +the matter will be cleared up, but you must remember that the Government +and its agents have all they can do to manage and keep track of the +millions of soldiers in the field, and they can not be expected to take +much interest in the fate of the wounded or dead. Always affectionately. + +"Your Father." + +All doubt of her father's sinister intervention in Jack's disappearance +now took the form of certainty in the girl's mind. When Olympia came +back, a few moments later, Kate said, tenderly: + +"I have news from home. I must go back at once. It is less of a grief to +me, since I should be banished from you if I were here. I shall not be +gone long. I shall certainly be back as soon as you can receive me. In +the mean while, don't despair. I have been put on a new trail that I can +not explain to you now. But I can say this much, when you see me again +you shall know whether Jack is alive or dead." + +Olympia, who had been so strong, cheery, and masterful when it had been +a question of reassuring her mother, was now the stricken spirit. She +looked at Kate through swimming eyes, and her voice was lost in sobs as +she tried to speak. The girls held each other in a tearful silence, +neither able to say what was in the minds of both. Even the uncertainty +had a sort of solace compared with the dreadful possibility of +the worst. + +"Remember, dear, you have your mother. What is our poor grief to hers; +what is our loss to hers? It ought to comfort you to know that whatever +human thought, courage, love can do to recover Jack, I shall do, just as +you would in my place. I am very strong and resolute now, and I am +filled with hope--so filled that I can not talk to you. I dare not let +you see how much I hope, lest if it be not fulfilled you will hate me +for inspiring you with it." + +"I will hope. I do believe you will do better than I should. The loving +are the daring--you will find Jack. I know it." + +"Ah, God bless you, Olympia! That removes a curse from me--I--I mean +that fills me with a courage that is not my own, I have learned yours or +stolen it. But you will forgive me, for I mean to use it all in +your behalf." + +Olympia smiled sadly, and the two parted. By the night express Kate left +the city, and, the next afternoon, reached Acredale. As she anticipated, +her father was not at home. He had only been an hour or two in the house +since his return. The servants had no idea where he was. His letters +were forwarded to him under cover of his lawyers in Warchester. If, as +she fearfully surmised, her father were engaged in some cruel scheme to +the hurt of Jack, her best way with him would be perfect frankness. She +had never yet failed in swerving him from his most headstrong impulses +when she could talk with him. She must have him now to herself. Her best +plan, therefore, would be to write. Yet she hardly knew how to frame the +note, reflecting bitterly, as she sat twirling her pen, on the monstrous +state of things that made writing to her own father almost a duplicity. +At length she wrote: + +"DEAREST PAPA: I am come all the way from Washington, leaving poor Mrs. +Sprague very low with fever, and her daughter tormented and ill with +anxiety. I feel, I know, that you can relieve the distress of this +miserable mother and devoted sister. I must see you. I felt sure of +seeing you in Washington, and you can imagine my surprise and grief when +they told me at the hotel that you had gone. Do come to me, or let me +come to you. Your daughter's place is with you or near you now. We have +only each other in this world; pray, dear father, let nothing come +between us; let nothing make you doubt the constant love of +your daughter. + +"KATE." + +The note dispatched, she went immediately to the Perleys. Perhaps they +had news that might be of help. No. The three ladies met her with +agitated volubility. Had she heard from their nephew? Had Dick escaped +with Jack? Olympia had assured them that he had quitted Richmond with +her brother. They had written to the Caribee regiment, and received word +that no trace of him could be found. The regiment, or what was left of +it, was home refilling its ranks. The officers, indeed, knew nothing of +such a person as Richard Perley. McGoyle, who was now colonel, did +vaguely recall the lad at Washington, but had no idea what became of +him. Kate found a new grief in the misery of the helpless ladies. But +she could give them no comfort, and returned home to await her father's +coming. In the evening a messenger brought her a note. It was in the +straight, emphatic hand of her father. He wrote: + +"DEAR DAUGHTER: I am just now engaged in very important matters that +require me to move about considerably. I shall not be home for some +days. I am glad you have come home. That's the place for you. You had +better let the matter you speak of alone. The mother and sister are +enough in the business. I don't see how it concerns you or me. If the +man is dead it will be known as soon as the commissioners of exchange +hand in their lists. If he is not dead, it is certainly no business of +yours or mine to bring him home. I will write you soon again. Love your +father. Keep the house well till I come." + +That was all. More than evasive. Subtly calculated to make her believe +that he had dismissed all thought of Jack and was immersed in his own +affairs. She sat staring and helpless, a cold horror creeping into her +heart and a nameless terror taking outline in her senses. Hideous +alternative. To be coherent she must suspect, nay, accuse, her father of +a dreadful duplicity. He was deceiving her; else why no mention of his +mission to Washington--his abduction of Jones? Jones! Who was he? Oh, +blind and senseless that she had been! Why had she not asked the young +men at Georgetown to describe Jones? That would have revealed all she +needed to know. Was it too late to write them? Yes; but could she throw +suspicion upon her father by writing to strangers, and of necessity +exposing the sinister secrecy of her father's action. But she could +hurry back to Washington, and, without letting the young men know, got a +descriptive list. This she resolved to do. Twenty-four hours later she +was in Washington. The journey was thrown away. The descriptive list had +been sent by the hospital steward with the invalid. He could be found in +the military hospital in Warchester. His name was Leander Elkins. This +was something gained. Two days later she was at the hospital in +Warchester. The steward, Elkins, came to her in the waiting room. He was +a young giant in stature, with light flaxen hair, a merry blue eye, and +so bashful in the presence of a woman that he colored rosily as Kate +asked him if he was the person she had sent for. + +"Yes'm. I'm Lee Elkins," he stammered, very much perplexed to find ease +for his large hands and ample feet. + +"Are you--is Mr. Jones, who came from the Georgetown Hospital, in your +case?" Kate had thought out her course in advance, and had decided that +the direct way was the best. Unless the man had been charged to conceal +facts, an apparent knowledge of Jones's movements would be the surest +way of eliciting his whereabouts. + +"Oh no, miss. Jones wa'nt brought here; he was took to a private place. +I don't rightly know where, but I calculate I ken find eout of ye +want to know." + +"Yes, I should like very much to know. I am deeply interested in him, +Did you have charge of him?" + +"I can't say I did. I was sent from Washington in the same train, but +the old chap that got Jones removed did all the nussing. I only got a +sight of him as he was lifted into the carriage." + +"Should you know him again if you saw him?" + +"Think I should. Yes'm, think I should. His head was about as big as a +pumpkin." + +"He had been wounded?" + +"Well, I should say so." + +"Have you seen the gentleman that brought him on from Washington +lately?" + +"Not here, mum; I did see him in the street the other day. He was in a +wagon--leastwise, it looked mighty like him." + +Kate began to breathe more freely. Her father had, at least, avoided any +collusion with inferiors. His handiwork had been natural, involving no +conspiracy or bribing of menials. + +"Do you think you could find out for me where Mr. Jones is?" + +"Wall, I reckon it could be done. It may take some days, as I must trust +to the luck of running upon old Dofunny again." + +Kate started. "Old Dofunny"--the unsuspecting humorist meant her father +by this jocular _nom de guerre_, and she dared not resent it. How should +she gain her end and yet save herself from the humiliation of seeming to +spy upon her father? It wouldn't do for Elkins to go to him, for he +would at once suspect, inquire, and learn that she had come upon his +tracks. If she could only see him face to face, she would be spared all +this odious complotting. But she dared not reject the means Providence +had put in her hands. And yet, how use them, and avoid throwing +suspicion upon her father in cautioning Elkins not to approach him? She +was not equal to the invention of a plan on the moment, and said in a +doubting, reflective way: + +"Never mind. I may be able to learn from some of his friends where he +is. The gentleman you speak of does not live in this city, and you would +hardly be able to find him. If I could, find him I could find +Mr. Jones." + +"Ah, yes; jes' so. Wall, I think I can find him in another way. I +remember the carriage that took him from the station, I can find out +from the driver. 'T'wan't no mystery, I reckon." + +Kate looked into the innocent blue eyes as the young fellow scratched +his tow head, wondering whether he was as simple-minded as he seemed. He +stood the scrutiny with blushing restiveness, in which there was nothing +of the malign, and she resolved that he was to be trusted. + +"Very well," she said, indifferently, "that does seem the shortest way +to find out the poor fellow's whereabouts. Get the facts, and you shall +be well paid for your trouble." + +"'Tain't no trouble, miss, if it's a service to you. It would make me +powerful glad to do anything for a comrade or his sister." + +Kate smiled at the astute mingling of sly fun and questioning implied in +the gently rising inflection in this query. + +"Yes," she said, "you will be relieving the anxious heart of a sister if +you find what I am seeking." + +"Nuff said, miss. Just as soon as I get my relief I'm off like a shot. +Where shall you be?" + +"Ah, yes; you can come to me at the Alburn House. Here is my card, and +you will doubtless be at some expense. Here is money to pay--spare +no expense." + +The big eyes opened in wonder as Kate handed him three new ten-dollar +greenbacks, just then something of a novelty to soldiers especially, who +got their pay infrequently. It was a bold stroke to intrust her name to +this unconscious agent of her father, for, if he were really playing a +part, his first act would be to reveal her visit and thus set her father +on his guard. But she trusted him implicitly. His wide-open blue eyes, +the artless admiration mingling with his bashful diffidence, all were +proof that he could not be deceiving her. She took rooms at the Alburn +House, which was not the chief hotel, as being better adapted for her +purpose of seclusion. At the big hotel she was known, and if her father +were in town she would be under his espionage without the solace of +writing him. Late in the evening her agent came in radiant. He had +found the man. + +"Easy as rolling off a log." The hackman had taken him to the house +where Jones was lying. It was on the outskirts of the city toward +Acredale. He described the house. Kate knew it very well. It was the +property of her father. + +"Did you see the patient?" + +"No, indeed. You didn't tell me to, and I had nothing, to see him for. +Ef you had told me that you wanted I should see him, I'd have seen him +as easy as greased lightning." + +"Thank you. I am relieved of a great burden through your kindness. You +must permit me to give you something to show my gratitude. Here, use +this money for some one who needs it, if you do not need it yourself." + +"But I don't need it. Here is what you gave me this morning, 'cept a +half-dollar I spent in treating John. I couldn't think of taking so much +money. It's more'n Uncle Sam allows me for five months' pay." + +"No, I shall feel distressed if you do not accept it. You can find use +for it. It will bring you luck, for it is the reward of a very important +service. Perhaps some time we may meet again, and then you shall know +how important." + +The tow hair stood up in wild dismay, and the blue eyes were perfect +saucepans, as Kate gently forced the money into the big palm. + +"Wall, I vum, miss, I feel like I was a-robbing you, but ef yeou deu +want I should take it, why I will, and send it to my old mother, who +will find plenty o' use for it. Good-by, miss. Ef you should want me +again, I'm at the hospital. I shall be mitey tickled to do anything for +yeou or your brother." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +TWO BLADES OF THE SAME STEEL. + + +It was too late to follow up the discovery that night. Kate, after a +feverish rest, set out early in the morning. She went first to Acredale, +where she could get her own equipage and driver. The tenants of the +house did not know her. She rang boldly at the door, and when a maid +answered, quite taken aback by the girlish figure in deep black, Kate +asked, confidently: + +"I want to see the sick man, Mr. Jones." + +"Yes'm, come right in. This way, please, ma'am." The girl led the way up +a flight of stairs, but if she had been part of the balustrade Kate +could not have been more immovable. Whom was she about to see? Jack, +wan, emaciated, on the verge of the grave? They had said in Washington +that the journey would kill him; was it to that end her relentless +father had persisted in the removal? Was she about to see the dying +brought to death's door by her own flesh and blood? She reeled against +the stair-post and brought her veil over her face. The girl had turned +above and was waiting in wonder. With a desperate gathering together of +her relaxed forces, she mounted the stairway. In the corridor the girl +turned to a closed doorway and knocked lightly. There was no sound +within; but the door swung open, and Elisha Boone stood on the +threshold. He did not in the dim light observe the figure in black, but, +looking at the maid, said, softly: + +"What's wanted, Sarah?" + +"A young lady to see Mr. Jones, sir," and, stepping slightly aside for +Kate to enter, the father recognized the visitor. + +"You here, Kate? What does this mean?" + +With a great throb of joy she flung herself into his arms; too happy, +too relieved to take into consideration the defeat of her purpose +involved in the meeting. For an instant she lost all thought of anything +but that her estranged parent was in her arms, that she would not let +him quit her sight again, that her pleading would keep him from any act +that could cause her or any one else unhappiness. + +"Ah, father, I'm so relieved, so glad! I was miserable, and did not know +where you were. I--I will not let you leave me again." + +"But my child, you must not be here; this is a house of sickness; there +is dangerous illness here." + +"It's no more dangerous for me than for you. I know who is here." She +looked archly at him, as he started in surprise. "I will help nurse Mr. +Jones." She said this with immense knowingness in her manner as she +squeezed the astonished man to her heart. The maid meanwhile had +retreated to a safe distance, where she lurked in covert to make report +of the extraordinary goings on. + +"Impossible, Kate; you must not be here. I will not have it; you must +go." His voice grew stern. "You must go, I say, Kate; you must go +down-stairs this instant." + +"Come, Boone, I say, this isn't fair; let the lady come in if she wants +to see valor laid low." Boone, who had been insensibly moving Kate from +the open doorway, caught her eye fixed on the room, and looking over his +shoulder at these jocular words he saw Jones leaning against the post, a +wan smile on his face. Boone turned, almost flinging Kate from him, and, +fairly lifting the invalid, carried him back into the room. + +"This is madness; you are in no condition to rise. I won't be +responsible for your life if you persist in this course." + +"So much trouble off your hands, old man. I'll be more use to you dead +than living. Better let me blow my own flame out. It won't burn long at +best or worst." + +In the overwhelming revulsion of feeling brought about by the actual +sight of Jones, Kate stood, interdicted, in the corridor, uncertain what +to do. She heard the man's words and shuddered at the bantering levity +with which he spoke of his own death. Who could it be? It was not Jack, +as she had feared and hoped. But he must know something of Jack. She +must speak with him. How? It would not do to irritate her father. She +caught Boone's almost whispered words: + +"I tell you, Jones, you shall be brought about, but you know the danger +of seeing any Acredale people. My daughter knows you--knows the Perleys. +I should think that would be reason enough why you should not be seen +by her." + +"Oh, I don't mind; the sight of a pretty girl is the best medicine I +know of. I'd risk all Acredale for that." + +Kate turned softly and waited at the foot of the stairs for her father. +He came presently, looking worried and embarrassed. + +"Now don't go to imagining mysteries here. This is a man who has been on +my hands a good many years. He is an irreclaimable spendthrift. He was +in other days a man of repute and station. I am interested in him, +through old ties, since the days we were boys." + +"The carriage is here, papa; won't you come home with me?" + +"Yes; you get into the carriage." + +He reappeared presently, the face of a strange woman, that Kate had not +seen, peering over his shoulder into the carriage as he came down the +steps. Kate instantly divined that he had been warning the landlady +against admitting strangers to the sick man's room. During the drive +home Kate strove to reassert her old dominion over the moody figure at +her side. It was useless. As the carriage stopped at the door he turned +toward her and said, not unkindly: + +"Daughter, there are some things I know better how to manage than you +do. You have been spying on your father. This is another count in the +long score of grudges I owe the Sprague tribe and their scoundrel son. +Understand me clearly, my child; you must not speak of this matter +again. The whole business will soon be at an end; that end is in my +hands, and no power this side the grave can alter a fact in the outcome. +You are very dear to me; you are all I have left in the world; you must +trust me, and you must believe that I am doing everything for the best. +Try to think that the world is not coming to an end because I insist on +having my own way for once." + +Nothing but the sense of having giving hostages to good behavior rather +than honor upheld Kate in the line she had marked out for herself. She +was not, in the modern sense of the word, a strong-minded young woman, +this sorely beset champion of the overborne. She hadn't even the +perversity of the sex in love. Chivalrously as she loved the lost +soldier, she loved her father with that old-fashioned veneration which +made her see all that he did with the moral indistinctness, without +which there could not be the perfect filial devotion that makes the +family a union in good report and evil. She had not even that, by no +means repellent, secondary egoism which upholds us in doing ungrateful +things that abstract good may follow. Opposition, which becomes +delightful when we can call it persecution, had no charm for her. If her +father had suddenly adopted the _rôle_ of the stern parent in novels and +ordered her to her chamber, Kate would have regarded it as a joke, and +felt rather relieved that she could thus escape the pledge given to the +Spragues. But, as it was, she felt morally bound by her promise to +Olympia; and, though she realized dimly that her instrumentality was +slowly involving her father in a coil of unloveliness, she resolutely +braced herself for the worst. In spite of herself she had believed in +conquering her father's severity and changing his mind. She had rescued +him from revenges quite as dear to him as this, at least so far as she +understood it, forgetting that her father believed himself to be +pursuing the deliberate murderer of his son. When we have achieved a +victory over our own less noble impulses and put the sophistries that +misled us behind us, it is impossible to realize that others have not +the same vision, the same mind as our own. Kate had accused Jack of +cold-blooded murder. She had reasoned herself out of that hateful +spirit, and, forgetting that her father had not the vital force of love +to act as a fulcrum, she could not quite comprehend how difficult it was +to shift the wrathful burden in his mind. She had gone too far to recede +now with honor. Olympia had trusted her, had indeed given over into her +hands the active work of finding the strangely lost clew of Jack's +whereabouts. Perhaps for her father's sake it was better that she should +be the instrument. She might be able to dissemble his intervention, +shield him from obloquy--if, as she feared, he was responsible for +anything doubtful. + +She knew her father too well to suppose that he would flinch from any +measure he had proposed to himself. She knew that she need not count any +further upon her accustomed powers of persuasion. His own words were +final on that score. If she could only learn his intentions! If she +could be sure that he was ulteriorly shaping events against Jack--was +acquainted with his whereabouts--she would have known exactly what to +do. But, pilloried in doubt, shackled by the dread of exposing him in +some hateful malevolence which would forever disgrace him in the +community, she hardly dared stir, though she felt that every hour's +delay was a new peril to Jack in some way. The more she thought of the +scene of the morning, the surer she felt that Jones--or Mr. Dick, as her +father sometimes called him--was in some way an instrument in the +paternal scheme. If she could but see Jones ten minutes! Her father, she +well knew, had guarded against that. Whom could she send in her place? +Ah! there was the double check. She couldn't expose her father to a +stranger; yet if her apprehensions were grounded on anything more +substantial than fear, strangers must in time know all. Could Merry be +made use of? No--that would not do. The libertine tone of the invalid, +his impudent allusion to herself, convinced Kate that a man must be her +agent, if any one were to be. But what man did she know? If she sent any +of the servants, her father would recognize them, and the attempt fail. +She had trusted Elkins. He seemed an honest, incurious lad, just the one +to be trusted in the business. She could invent a fable which would +satisfy his ready credulity without compromising her father. It was +plain that he was the only resource. She dressed at once and returned to +the Alburn. Thence she dispatched a note to Elkins, begging him to call +at his earliest leisure. While waiting his return, she wrote a letter to +be handed to Jones. This was a work of no little ingenuity, forced as +she was to avoid all allusion to her father and the scene of the +morning. When completed, this stroke of the conspiracy ran: + + "DEAR SIR: A mother and sister who have exhausted all + official sources in vain to get trace of a lost son and brother, + John Sprague of the Caribees, have reason to believe that + you can give them a clew to his whereabouts. Will you + therefore kindly confide in the bearer of this letter, giving + him by word of mouth such facts as will enable John + Sprague's relatives to work intelligently in the search for + him, living or dead? + + "Very truly yours, + + "KATHERINE BOONE." + +It was hardly written when Elkins himself appeared, radiant with +satisfaction and blushing like a peony under lamplight. + +"Yeour note came just in th' nick o' time. I have leave of absence for +twenty-four hours, and was just goin' inter teown." + +"If you can spare me the day, I have a very important matter I think you +can attend to for me. I want you to go to the sick man Jones. You must +see before entering whether he is alone or not. I don't know how you can +find out, but you can invent some way. If you see the man who brought +him from Washington, you are not to enter. But if you find that he is +not in the house, ask boldly for Jones, and when you reach him hand him +this note. He will give you an answer, and you must be careful not to +lose a word, for life depends on the accuracy of your report. I fancy +that your regimentals and hospital badge can gain you admission, if, as +I have reason to believe, there are orders to refuse strangers +admission. I depend on you to overcome any difficulty you may meet. If +you knew how much depends upon it, I'm sure you would not be baffled by +anything less than force." + +The big blue eyes were fairly bulging, like two monster morning-glories, +as Elkins, putting the note carefully in his jacket pocket, +said, softly: + +"Ef I don't get thet 'ere letter into Jones's hands, you may have me +drummed out o' camp by the mule-drivers." + +"I believe you, and trust you. I shall be here to-morrow morning early, +and shall hope to hear something from you. Good-by." + +"Good-by, miss. Just you make up your mind I am goin' to do what you +command." + +When she reached home she found her father in the library. He looked at +her inquiringly as she came over and kissed him. + +"I have been in town all day, and am run out." + +"Still plotting?" + +"Yes, still plotting." + +"You're wasting your time, my dear. You'll know all you care to soon +enough, if you'll just keep quiet." + +"Yes; but I can't. I want to know all you know, and I want to know it +now." + +"All I know wouldn't be much, according to the Spragues, who gave me my +status in this town, long ago, as an ignoramus." + +"Perhaps you were then, papa." + +"Yes; I hadn't been schooled fifteen years by my accomplished daughter." + +"A lie is truth to those who only tell the truth." + +"What does that mean?" + +"It's simple enough--a home-made epigram. People who tell nothing but +the truth are easiest made to believe a lie. The Spragues had heard of +you as ignorant, and believed it. You can't blame them for that." + +"I don't blame them because it was a lie. I blame them because it was +the truth. I don't care a straw how many lies are told about me--it's +the ill-natured truth I object to." + +"I'm afraid that you will have a hard time in life if you like lies +better than the truth." + +"I didn't say that." + +"Then I don't understand English." + +"You don't understand me." + +"Ah, yes I do, papa. I do understand you. I know that at this moment you +are doing something that you are ashamed of--something that later you +will bitterly repent. You are carrying on now through pride what you +began in wrath. Stop where you are. The dead can not be avenged. That's +a barbarous code. Remember, in all the petty irritations of the past, +when you have been hurt by your neighbors, you were never so triumphant +as when you surprised those who injured you by a magnanimous return--" + +"There, I made an agreement with you that we should not speak of these +things. I mean it. I find that you take advantage of me. I shall be +banished from the house if you do not keep to your bargain." + +Kate sighed. She had hoped that the early banter was paving the way for +a reconciliation. She took up some work and tried to busy her hands. + +"Suppose you read me something? You haven't read in an age." + +"What shall it be?" + +"Oh, something from Dickens--anything you like." + +"Very well, I shall show you a counterfeit presentment of yourself," +and, with an arch-smile, she began to read from The Chimes. + +He listened soberly until the last page was turned, and then, rising, +said abstractedly: + +"I sha'n't see you for a few days. I wish you would remain at home as +much as possible. Get some of the neighbors' girls to keep you company, +if you're lonesome." + +"Oh, I shall not be lonesome. I shall have too much to do--too much to +think about." + +He laughed. "You are enough like your father, my girl, to pass for him. +Very well, you'll be penitent enough when I come back." + +He was gone in the morning, as he had said, and she was free to keep her +appointment with Elkins. He was waiting for her when she readied +the hotel. + +"Well?" she cried, breathlessly. + +"I saw him." + +She seized the blushing lad's two hands. "Ah, you splendid follow! And +then?--" + +"He wrote this note for you," and he handed her an envelope with her own +name written on it in an uneven, uncertain scrawl. She tore it open +and read: + +"DEAR MADAM: I can not understand why there should +be any difficulty in finding what became of Sprague and his +party. We all reached the lines together, but, as I was hit +by a bullet in the head at the moment of rescue, I knew +nothing of their movements after reaching the Union lines. +I, too, am interested in the young man. I should like to see +you or some of his friends at once, as I suspect foul play of +some sort. + +"Obediently yours, + +"JONES." + +"Did you get to him without trouble?" Kate asked, keenly, disappointed +by the result of all this strategy. + +"I made them believe I was on hospital business. I showed them a large +official envelope, and they let me go up. Jones told me to tell you that +he would see you there in the parlor if you would come; that he is +unable to leave the house, or he would come to see you." + +"Can you take me there now?" + +"I have four hours of my leave still. It does not expire until two +o'clock." + +"Then we will go at once. Will you call a carriage?" + +While he was gone, Kate read the note again. She was more puzzled than +ever. The man wrote as if he had no idea that Jack was not easily +traceable, yet all the Spragues' money and influence had been spent in +vain. He expected her. Where could her father be? He wrote as though he +had no idea that he had been virtually a prisoner. When she reached the +house, the servant made no difficulty in admitting her. Elkins remained +outside in the vehicle, with an admonition from Kate to remain unseen +unless she called him. Jones, the shadow of the burly soldier we saw in +the famous escape, was seated in a deep, reclining chair, and, as Kate +entered, rose feebly. + +"Pray, don't rise, don't disturb yourself in the least. I will sit here +near you, and we can talk, if it won't make you ill." + +"No. It isn't talking that troubles me--but never mind that. Your note +has pulled me down a good deal. I was given to understand that the boys +were home and all right." + +"The boys?" + +"Jack and young Perley." + +"Who gave you--who told you that?" + +"Your father. He is the only person I have talked with since I got my +wits back." + +Kate drew back with a shuddering horror. + +"Are you quite sure, Mr.--Mr. Jones that my father told you that?" + +"Perfectly certain. Do you suppose that I would not have taken measures +to find out where my own--I mean where friends were? These boys saved me +from prison once and from a death nearly as dreadful as Libby. Could I +be indifferent to them?" + +"But why should papa tell you they were safe, when--when our hearts have +been tortured? Ah! I see. He wanted to spare you the anxiety. Ah! yes. +He knew that you would fret and worry, and that you could not recover +under the strain." Kate's heart swelled with a triumphant revulsion. She +had vilely suspected without cause. She must now do justice. Jones eyed +her pensively, holding his head with both his hands. + +"Nothing has been heard of the boys since when?" + +"Nothing directly since the escape from Richmond. Miss Sprague brought +that news, and about the same time a paragraph in the _Herald_ announced +that prisoners from Richmond had reached the Union lines on +the Warrick." + +"When was that?" + +"Late in November." + +"Yes, I was one of them. I escaped from Richmond. Jack and young Perley +got me out of the tobacco warehouse. We reached the Warrick after a hard +week of marching and hiding, and the boys were alive and well when we +reached the Union outpost. I was last to cross the bridge, and as I +plunged into the thick bushes a bullet struck me, I knew no more until I +found myself here. I had agents at Fort Monroe waiting for me. They +probably forwarded me at once. But I don't understand how there can be +any difficulty in tracing the two boys. Haven't they written?" + +"Not a line, not a word concerning them has been heard. Mrs. Sprague +sent agents so soon as the _Herald_ paragraph was shown to Olympia. They +are in Washington now on the quest. It was there we got track of +you--before you were sent here,"' + +"Why was I sent here?" + +Kate was about to speak. Again the shadow of her first fear--again the +dread of some malevolent purpose on her father's part--choked +her speech. + +"I--I--don't know," she faltered. + +"Who came with me?" + +"My father." + +"Ah!" Jones's eyes were penetrating her now. She felt the questioning in +them, and turned her face to the clinging folds of the veil. + +"Miss Boone, you seem to be deeply interested in these boys. Are you +really their friend?" + +"Ah, believe me, I am heart and soul their friend!" + +"Does your father know it?" + +"Yes: he knows that I am seeking them." + +"Does he approve your search?" + +"No, he does not." + +"Good. Now listen. We have short time to work in. You have a carriage +outside. Your father will be here any moment. I could never keep from +him my indignation and even distrust. I shall get into that carriage +with you, and you must conceal me somewhere and give me time to set the +proper machinery in motion to find these boys. There is no other way. +Your father has some reason for keeping their whereabouts concealed. I +may know the purpose and I may not. The boys may have been killed in the +volley that struck me. It will require a mere telegram to find out. I +know whom to address, but I must be where I can use trusted agents. I +have no money. You can, I hope, provide me with that, or the Spragues if +you can't." + +He spoke with a flush deepening on his face, and arose with something +like vigor. + +"Ample means--you shall have any sum you need," Kate said, handing him a +well-filled purse. + +"Good--I have one or two articles in my room. I will fetch them and +follow you to the carriage." + +Ten minutes later the carriage was whirling over the broad road to +Warchester. By Jones's advice it was stopped at the hospital. Here he +proposed remaining for the night, to mislead suspicion if any one had +taken the precaution to follow. + +"I will remain with our friend Elkins to-night, as you suggest," Jones +said; "to-morrow I will send you word of my whereabouts, and you may +expect to have news of the boys within the week." + +"My address will be in Washington," Kate said. "I shall go at once to +the Spragues. They have been there, as I told you, to seek every +possible source of information. I left them to follow you, hoping that +through you I should find the missing." + +"You made no mistake. I shall find them. You can tell your friends +that," and he added, with a gleam of savage malice, "God help the man +that has raised the weight of a feather against them, for he has put a +heavy hurt on me if he has harmed them!" + +Kate shuddered. Was she never to emerge from this hideous circle of +vengeful hatred--this condition of passionate vendetta--where men were +seeking each other's harm? On reaching home she addressed a note to her +father explaining frankly that she had entered into communication with +Jones; that who had been pained by all that she had heard; that the +inquiry had now passed out of her hands and was in that of the +authorities, and begging him to drop any participation he might have +meditated In a late letter Olympia had given good news of her mother, +saying that Kate could return with safety, and, informing her father of +this, Kate bade him good-by for a time. + +When Kate reached Washington she found Mrs. Sprague convalescent, but +painfully feeble. The poor mother reproached herself for the +interruption of the search, and implored the two girls to begin again +without a moment's delay. Kate gave her as much hope as she dared. She +hinted something of the outlines of what she had done and the new agent +in the field. With this Mrs. Sprague was greatly comforted, but begged +then to remit no efforts of their own. It was after three days' +fruitless searching among the records of the department and among the +men of the Caribee regiment, now returned to Washington _en route_ to +the front, that Kate bethought herself of her father's probable presence +in the city. She got out of the carriage and entered the long reception +room of Willard's to make inquiry. The boy who came at her call said, as +soon as she asked for Mr. Boone: + +"Why, I jast saw him at the desk, paying his bill. He is probably there +still. Wait here until I see." + +But Kate, fearing that he might be gone before she could reach him, +followed the boy. There was no sign of her father at the desk, and, +turning hastily out of the main corridor, filled with officers and the +clank of swords almost stunning her, she reached the porch just as a cab +set out toward the station. She might a glimpse of her father's face in +it. He was leaving the city. She must see him. The inspiration of the +instant suggested by a cabman was followed. She hastily entered the +vehicle and bade the driver keep in sight of the one her father was in +until it came to a stop. The driver whipped up his horses, but there +wasn't much speed in them. Kate dared not look out of the window, and +sat in feverish anxiety while she was whirled along Pennsylvania Avenue, +almost to the Baltimore Station, then the only one in the city +connecting with the North. To her surprise, the driver stopped near the +curb a block or more short of the railway. She looked out, and as she +did so the driver pointed to her father's carriage halted just ahead. +She took out her purse, but was delayed a moment in getting the fare, +keeping her eye, however, on her father as he hurried from the cab to a +building before which a sentry was lazily pacing. She was not two +minutes in reaching the doorway, but he had disappeared. + +The soldier asked her no questions, and of course she could ask none, as +probably her father was unknown to the military filling the place. She +must follow on until she overtook him. There were clerks busy at long +desks, military officials moving about with files of documents. The +presence of a few women in widow's weeds reassured Kate, and as no one +molested her she persisted in her design. He was not on the lower floor, +and, coming back, she ascended a broad stairway. The hall was wide, and +filled with people all in uniform. She could hear a monotonous voice +reading in front, where the crowd clustered thickest. She looked about +helplessly, and tried to push forward. Suddenly she heard the words: +"Guilty of taking the life of the same Wesley Boone. Specification +third: And that the said John Sprague is guilty of the crime of spying +inside the lines of the armies of the United States." For a moment Kate +stood stupefied--rooted to the floor. Jack was undergoing an ignominious +trial for murder--for desertion! All fear, all timidity, all sense of +the unfitness of feminine evidence in such a place fled from her. She +pushed her way through the astonished throng which fell aside as they +saw her black dress and flowing drapery. She reached the last range of +benches, where men were seated, some writing, some consulting documents, +while the clerk read the charges. Her eye fell upon her father seated +near the place of the presiding officer. She grew confident and +confirmed by the sight: it was a signal to the daring that fired her. +"Stop!" she said, in a clear voice. "I don't know what this place is; I +don't know what meaning these proceedings have. I heard a charge that is +not true. It is false that John Sprague murdered Wesley Boone. Wesley +Boone was my brother, and he was killed in the dark by one of several +shots fired at the same instant. Furthermore, my brother was armed and +in the sleeping-room of the mistress of the house at the dead of night. +If John Sprague's bullet killed him it was shot in self-defense and in +the safeguarding of two terrified women. He had no more idea of whom he +was struggling with than--than the soldier who fires in battle. +Furthermore, he is no spy. He risked his life to rescue prisoners. He +saved the life of one of them who can be brought here to testify. He--" + +But here Kale broke down. She had spoken with a passionate, resentful +vehemence, her mind all the time seething with the fear and shame of her +father's responsibility for this hideous attack upon the absent. She +stretched out her hand exhaustedly for support. A young officer near her +pushed up a chair and helped her into it. Boone had turned in speechless +amazement as the first words of the voice sounded in his ears. His back +was toward the door, and he had not seen Kate. He turned as she broke +into this fervid apostrophe. Whether from surprise, prudence, or anger +he sat silent, uninterrupting till she tottered into the seat placed for +her by a stranger. Then he arose and went to her side, in nowise angry +or discomposed so far as his outward demeanor betrayed him. The +presiding officer of the court-martial had attempted to silence Kate by +a gesture, but with eyes fixed steadily upon him she had disregarded his +command. Now, however, he spoke: + +"Madame, you must know this is highly disorderly and indecorous. The +court can take no cognizance of this sort of testimony. Do you desire to +be heard by counsel? If you do, the judge-advocate will give you all +lawful assistance." + +"If the court please, this lady is my daughter. She is somewhat excited. +I will take the necessary measures in the matter," Boone began. + +Kate pushed her father from before her and again addressed the +president. + +"I refuse my father's aid in this case. I don't know what is necessary, +but I ask this court, if it has anything to do with John Sprague, to +give his friends an opportunity to present his story truthfully and +without prejudice." + +"The judge-advocate will give you all necessary information. Meanwhile, +the case will be adjourned until to-morrow." + +Elisha Boone stood beside his daughter, a figure of perplexity and +chagrin. He dared not remonstrate openly. He was forced to hear the +judge-advocate question this extraordinary witness, and instruct her on +the steps necessary to be taken; worse than all, hear him inform Kate +that the citations to John Sprague had been regularly issued, and that +the evidence of his desertion rested wholly on the fact that he had put +in no answer to the charges promulgated against him by his commanding +officer; that the trial was proceeding on the ground that Sprague had +deserted to the enemy, and refused to answer within the time allowed +by law. + +"But he has never heard of the charges," Kate cried, indignantly. "He +has not been heard of since he escaped from Richmond." + +"As we understand it, he reached the Union lines merely to ambuscade our +outposts, and then returned to Richmond." + +"His sister left Richmond ten days after his flight, and he had then +passed into our lines, as she had the surest means of knowing." + +"There is some extraordinary error in all this. If Sprague can be +produced before the term fixed by the regulations, he can vindicate +himself by establishing the facts you have told me. If not, we have no +alternative but to condemn him to death as a spy and deserter. The +testimony on these specifications is uncontradicted. The murder we may +not be able to establish, though we have witnesses of the shooting." + +It was arranged that Sprague's counsel should see the judge-advocate at +once, Kate giving him the address in case by any accident she should be +prevented from seeing the Spragues. As she left the room, under a +fusillade of admiring glances, she leaned on her father's arm, trembling +but resolute. She now knew the worst, and she had no further terror. As +they reached the door, her father asked: + +"Where are you going? I suppose I need not tell you that I was on my way +home when I came here, for I suppose you have been spying on my +movements." + +"Never. I feared you were acting unwisely, but I never dreamed of +watching you. Providence has put your plans in my hands at nearly every +step, but I was so ignorant that, of myself, the information would have +done but little service to poor Jack. I came into the court by the +merest chance. I saw you get into the cab at Willard's, and as I had +only reached Washington, I wanted to see you before you went away. I +drove after you--followed without the slightest suspicion of the place +or your purpose in it." + +"Well, all your running about is useless. He will be sentenced to death +and the family disgraced. Nothing can now prevent that." + +"Yes, Jack can prevent it! I can prevent it!" + +"How?" + +"Jack will be found. Surely they dare not commit such a monstrous crime +against the absent, the undefended!" + +"Well, we won't talk of it. I suppose you are with the Spragues?" + +"Yes; I shall remain with them until this is ended." + +"What if I should tell you to come home with me?" + +"I should, of course, obey you if you commanded me. But before doing so +I should have to put my statement in legal shape--that is, swear to it, +and give my address to the court that I might be regularly summoned." + +"You know something of law, too, I see. I sha'n't ask you to go home, +nor shall I go myself. I shall remain to see how this affair turns out." + +They were driving down Pennsylvania Avenue now. Kate, recalling her +departure, asked, "You did not get the letter I left for you at home?" + +"No, I did not know you were gone." + +"I left a few lines to tell you that I had seen Jones." She watched him +as she said this. He did not start, as she expected. His lips were +suddenly compressed and his eye grew dark; then he smiled grimly. + +"I hope you felt repaid for your trouble." + +"Yes. I felt amply repaid. Jones has undertaken to find out what became +of Jack after his arrival at the Union outposts." + +"Did you discuss the whole affair with him?" + +"Yes. I was greatly relieved by what I learned. I was afraid you had +some sinister purpose in secreting him as the only link between Jack and +his friends. It gave me new life to find that you had been so tender and +thoughtful to Jones, for, as the event proved, he no sooner learned that +there were apprehensions as to Jack's safety, than he set about his +discovery." + +"Did Jones share your grateful sentiment?" + +"I think he did. To spare you agitation, he set out at once alone, in +order that you might be relieved of all responsibility." + +"Ah!" And Elisha Boone sank far back in the cushion. The carriage +stopped in front of Willard's; then he said: "I shall remain here now. I +will order the driver to take you home. Come to me as often as you can." +He kissed her in the old friendly way and hurried into the hotel. + +On reaching her lodgings she found a telegram waiting her. It read: +"Jones gone South. He will advise you of his movements. ELKINS." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE LOST CARIBEES. + + +Meanwhile war, in one of its grim humors, had prepared a comedy when the +stage was set in tragic trappings. In the withdrawal of Johnston's army +from Manassas--signalized in history as the Quaker campaign, because our +army found wooden guns in the deserted works--that ardent young Hotspur, +Vincent Atterbury, ran upon a disagreeable end to a very charming +adventure. In chivalric bravado, to emphasize the fact that the +withdrawal of the Confederates was merely strategic, not forced, the +young man, with a lively company of horsemen, hungering for excitement, +formed themselves into a defiant rear-guard. The Union outposts, never +suspecting that Johnston's army was not behind the enterprising cavalry, +withdrew prudently to the main forces. + +Then, when they were convinced that the little band was merely on an +audacious lark, forces were sent out on either flank, while the main +body feigned the disorder of retreat. The result was, that Vincent's +squadron was handsomely entrapped, and in the savage contest that ensued +the intrepid major was hustled from his horse with a dislocated shoulder +and broken wrist. He was brought, with a half-dozen more of his +dare-devil comrades, into the Union lines, and in the course of time +found himself in the hideous shambles allotted rebel prisoners at Point +Lookout, Maryland. Too weak at first, or too confused, to bethink +himself of his Northern friends, Vincent shared the hard usage of his +companions and resigned himself patiently to the slow procedure of +exchange, which was now going on regularly, since the Union victories in +the West and South had given the Northern authorities ten prisoners to +the Southerners' one. The prospect of his own release was, under these +circumstances, rather distant, as without special intervention he would +have to await his turn, the rule being that those first captured were +first exchanged. He knew that his family's influence and his own +intimacy with General Johnston would probably hasten the release, but he +could not count upon an immediate return to his duties, and in view of +this he was not very reluctant to undergo convalescence in the North. + +Jack's influence, he counted, would soon relieve him from the hardships +of confinement, and then he should see Olympia--that, at least, was +recompense for his misfortune. His mother and Rosa would immediately +learn of his capture, and he might count upon hearing from them, as very +generous latitude was allowed in such cases by the authorities on both +sides. He caused a letter to be written to Jack, addressing it to his +regiment, in care of the War Department, and waited patiently the +response. His disappointment and anxiety, as days passed and he got no +answer, began to tell on his health, already weakened by his wounds. +Thus, one day, when a young lady was shown to his bedside--who fell upon +him with a glad cry, and held his head to her breast--he was too far +gone in delirium to distinguish his sister. + +"My darling! O Olympia, I knew you would come," he murmured, and Rosa, +terrified, but composed, soothed the fevered lover as best she might. He +grew worse in spite of all her devotion. The physicians, burdened with +patients far in excess of their powers, assured her that her brother +would require the most patient care and enlightened nursing; that +medicine would do him but slight good, and that she must make up her +mind to a prolonged illness. Rosa was alone in the vast hospital, save +for the presence of her maid Linda, who had come through the lines with +her and was, of course, under the Northern laws, free. Worse than all, +she was poorly provided with money, and this need, rather than Vincent's +love-lorn babbling about Olympia, reminded Rosa to call upon the +Spragues for help. She wrote at once to Olympia, telling the distressing +story, and then set about bettering Vincent's surroundings. + +Point Lookout had been selected for its natural prison-like safeguards. +A rank bog surrounded the place on three sides, and thus but few troops +were needed to guard the great mass of rebel prisoners lodged in wooden +barracks and long lines of tents. Vincent's case seemed to have grown +stationary after her coming. He slept a fitful, troubled sleep half the +day. At night he grew delirious and restless. Rosa and Linda divided the +hours into watches, and administered the draughts prepared by the +stewards. Through the humanity of the physician in charge, the invalid +had been transferred to an A tent, where Rosa could remain day and night +unmolested with her maid. Vincent thus cared for, Rosa began to think of +the other poor fellows in her brother's squadron, and set about a +systematic search for them. Many of them she found in the general wards +of the hospital. It was on this kindly mission one day that she heard +her brother's name mentioned by a civilian, who was talking with an +official in uniform. + +"Major Atterbury? Oh, yes; he was removed to division D. You will find +him in a separate tent. He has a woman nurse. I will send an orderly +with you." + +Rosa did not recognize the civilian at first, but as he turned to +accompany the soldier she remembered where she had seen him before. He +was the prisoner Jack had spoken with in Richmond the day the party +visited the tobacco warehouse. She hastened her step, and, as she came +up with the men, she said, tremulously: + +"I am Major Atterbury's sister. My brother is unconscious. Can I attend +to the business you have with him?" + +Jones turned and stopped, glancing in surprise at the girl. + +"I'm sorry to learn that your brother's so low. But you can do all that +I hoped from him. Here is a letter addressed to John Sprague. It was +received at his regiment three days ago. I happened to be there making +inquiries for him, and the colonel handed it to me. Under the +circumstances I felt justified in reading it, and it turns out that I +did well." + +"John Sprague is missing?" Rosa cried, her mind instantly at work in +alarm for some one else. + +Jones, dismissing the orderly, told her the facts as we have already +followed them. Leaving out all mention of Kate, he told her how he had +hurried down to Newport News, and thence to the outposts on the Warrick. + +There he had learned that Jack and Dick had been wounded, fatally the +story went, in the final volley fired by the pursuers. They had been +carried to the hospital at Hampton. But there all trace had been lost. +The steward who received them and the surgeon who had taken their +descriptive list had been transferred to St. Louis. There was, however, +no record of their deaths, and upon that he based the hope that they +were either in hospital, or had been, through some strange confusion, +assigned among rebel wounded, a thing that had frequently happened in +the hurry of transporting large numbers of wounded men. + +"And does Mrs. Sprague know all this?" Rosa cried, understanding now why +Vincent's letter and her own had not brought a response. + +"Partly, I think. Mrs. Sprague and her daughter are in Washington, in +the state of mind you may imagine, and exhausting bales of red tape to +reach the lost boys." + +Poor Rosa! She had thought her grief and terror too much to endure +before. Now how trivial Vincent's fever in comparison with this +appalling disappearance of Dick and Jack! She walked on over the sparse +herbage, over her shoes in the soft sand, when Linda came running from +the tent in joyous excitement. + +"De good Lord, Miss Rosa, she's here; she's done come!" + +"Who is here--who is come?" Rosa cried, impatiently; "not mamma?" + +"'Deed no, Miss Rosa; Miss Limpy." + +"What?" + +"Yes, indeedy; and, oh, bress de Lord, Massa Vint knows her, and is +talkin' like a sweet dove!" + +It was true. Miss "Limpy," blushing very red, was surprised by Rosa in a +very motherly attitude by the patient's cot. The two girls melted in a +delirious hug, mingled with spasmodic smacks of the lips and a soft, +gurgling _crescendo_ of exclamation, not very intelligible to Jones and +Linda, who discreetly remained near the door on the outside. + +Vincent's eyes were fixed on Olympia. For the first time in ten days +they shone with the light of reason. He smiled softly at the scene and +murmured lightly to himself. Warned not to tax the feeble powers of the +invalid, Rosa and Jones withdrew, leaving Olympia to recover from the +fatigues of her journey in the tent with Vincent. + +"Now, you're not to talk, you know," Olympia said, with matronly +decision, "I shall remain here to mesmerize you into repose. You know I +am a magnetic person. Be perfectly quiet, and keep your eyes off me. +They make me nervous." + +"I can only keep my eyes away on condition you put your hand in mine, +Then the magnetic current can have full play." + +"My impression is that you have not been ill at all. I believe you have +been shamming, to escape the harder lines of the prison. Very well, you +needn't answer. I'll take that shake of the head as denial and proof for +want of better. Now, I will give you the history of our doings since I +saw you at Fairfax Court-House in January. I got home safe. I found +mamma in painful excitement." + +He moved impatiently, and said, beseechingly: + +"But tell me how you got here so soon. How did you learn I was here? +Jack told you when he got my letter?" + +"O Vincent, that was what I was coming to! Jack has never been seen or +heard from since he escaped from your troops near the Warrick. I did not +know you had written. I got a letter from Rosa yesterday morning and +went at once to the War Department, where we have a good friend--" + +"I can't understand it. All these things are done with system in an army +like yours. Men can't disappear like this, leaving no record. I'll stake +my head there's foul play, if the boys can't be found. Have you made +inquiry in the company on duty where Jack and his companions got into +your lines?" + +She explained all the efforts that had been made--how Brodie had been +baffled, and how letters had been sent to the commanding officer at +Fort Monroe. + +"We had begun to think that Jack had been recaptured; but surely, if he +were, you would have known of it." + +"Of course I should." + +"Then that confines the search to our own lines. I can not make myself +believe that Jack is dead, though mamma has nearly made up her mind to +it. The mysterious part of the affair is, that we can not find one of +the men who escaped with Jack, though it was announced in the papers +weeks ago that a party of them had arrived at Fort Monroe." + +"And young 'Perley'?" + +"He, too, we can get no trace of." + +"Good heavens! I'm glad Rosa doesn't know that; she'd be in every camp +and hospital in the North until she had found her sweetheart." + +"That sounds something like a reflection on us--mamma and me." + +"Ah! never. What I mean is, that Rosa is such an impulsive, silly child, +she would do all sorts of imprudent things. How could you do such a +thing? Preposterous!" + +"Well, I began it yesterday morning. As I said, so soon as I read Rosa's +letter, I went to headquarters, where we have a good friend and gave my +word for your safe keeping. You are to be our prisoner; but if you +escape you will get us into trouble, for we are none too well considered +by the folks in power." + +"God forgive me, Olympia! escape is the last thing I think of now, when +I am near you. I was going to say I should never care to go back, but I +know you wouldn't think the better of me for that." + +"I don't know. Why should you go back? The South is sure to be beaten. +We are conquering territory every day, from the armies at Donelson to +the forts at New Orleans. We shall beat you in Virginia so soon as +General McClellan gives the word." + +"Even if that were the case, my duty and my honor would point to but one +course--to return to the natural course of exchange." + +"Honor? Vincent, it is a vague term under such circumstances--" + +"I could not love you, dear, so much, loved I not honor more. You know +you gave me that for a motto." + +"Poetic rubbish, Mr. Soldier; but I must leave you now. You will insist +on talking, and, as I shall be held responsible to your mother and Rosa, +I must be firm--not another syllable! Besides, the imprudence will keep +you here longer, and if you are to be carried away you must get well at +once. I can't leave mamma alone in Washington with such grief preying +upon her." + +He answered with a glance of pitying pleading. He looked so helpless--so +woe-begone--that she bent over near his face to smooth his disordered +bandages. When she withdrew she was blushing very prettily, and Vincent +was smiling in triumph. "On these terms," the smile seemed to say, "I +will be mute for an age." + +What an adroit ally war is to love! Here was the self-contained +Olympia--so confident of herself--fond and yielding as Rosa; when war +rushed in, infirmity came to the rescue of Vincent's despairing passion. + +Meanwhile, Jones began a systematic search among the prisoners for the +missing Caribees. Rosa joined with impatient ardor. There were three +thousand inmates of the improvised city, but no one resembling Jack or +Dick could be found. Linda, ministering to some of Vincent's comrades, +was piteously besought to ask her mistress's good offices for an orderly +in the small-pox ward. This was a tent far off from the main barracks on +the beach, attended only by a single surgeon and a corps of rather +indifferent nurses. Two of Vincent's men were in this lazar, shut off +from the world, for the soldier, reckless in battle, has a shuddering +horror of this loathsome disease. Rosa instantly resolved that she would +herself nurse the plague-smitten rebels. She had no fear of the disease, +the truth being that she had only the vaguest idea of what it was. With +great difficulty she obtained permission to visit the outcast colony. +She was forced to enter the noisome purlieu alone, even the maid's +devotion rebelling against the nameless horror small-pox has for +the African. + +Once within the long marqueé, however, Rosa was relieved to find that +the casual spectacle was not different from that of the other seriously +sick-wards. A melancholy silence seemed to signalize the despair of the +twoscore patients, each occupying a cot screened from the rest by thin +canvas curtains. Double lines of sentries guarded each opening of the +marqueé, so that no one could pass in or out without the rigidly _viséd_ +order of the surgeon-in-chief. Braziers of charcoal burned at the foot +of each bed, while the atmosphere was heavy with a strong solution of +carbolic acid, then just beginning to be recognized as a sovereign +preventive of malarious vapors, and an antiseptic against the germs of +disease. Rosa inquired for the _protégés_ she was seeking. They were +pointed out, on one side of the tent, the steward accompanying her +to each cot. + +"All have the small-pox?" she inquired, shuddering, as she glanced at +the white screens, behind which an occasional plaintive groan could +be heard. + +"Oh, no! there are some here that have no more small-pox than I have." + +"Then why do you keep them here?" Rosa asked, indignantly. + +"Oh, red tape, miss. There's two men that were brought here three months +ago. They'd no more small-pox than you have, miss; but they were +assigned here, and I have given up trying to get them taken to the +convalescent camp. The truth, is the surgeon in charge is afraid to show +up here. The others make by the number they have in charge, for we are +allowed extra pay and an extra ration for every case on hand." + +"Why, this is infamous!" Rosa cried. "It is murder. Why don't you write +to the--the--head man?" + +"And get myself in the guard-house for my trouble? No, thank you, miss. +I wouldn't have spoken to you if it hadn't been for the sympathy you +showed coming in, and to sort o' show you that you are not running so +much danger as folks try to make you believe." + +Rosa had a basket on her arm filled with such comforting delicacies as +the surgeon had advised. She set about administering them to her +brother's orderly, when a feeble voice in a cot a few feet away fell +upon her ear. She started. Though almost a whisper, there was a strange +familiarity in the low tone. She turned to the steward-- + +"Who is in the third cot from here?" + +"Let me see. Oh, yes, number seven; that's a man named Paling." + +"And the next?" + +"Number eight; that's a man named Jake, or Jakes, I'm blessed if I am +certain. They've been out of their head since they come. They're the two +I spoke of who ain't no more small-pox than I have." + +"May I see them?" + +"Certainly. I'll see that they're in shape for inspection, and call +you." + +He disappeared behind the curtain and could be heard in a kindly, jovial +tone: + +"There, sonny, keep kivered; the lady is coming to bring you something +better than the doctor's gruel, so lie still." + +Beckoning to Rosa, he made way for her to enter the narrow aisle of +number seven, but he nearly fell over the man across the bed, when Rosa, +with a shriek, fell upon the body of number seven, crying: + +"O, my darling, my darling, I have found you!" + +It would have required the eyes of maternal love of Rosa's to recognize +our jaunty Dick in the emaciated, fleshless face that lay imbedded in +the disarray of the cot. Dick's blue eyes were sunken and dim, his lips +chalky and parched. He made no sign of recognition when Rosa drew back +with her arm under his head to scrutinize the disease-worn face. + +"Sometimes, miss, he is in his right mind--but he goes off again like +this. Is the other man his brother? They seem to understand each other +when they are at the worst. Once when we separated them they fought like +maniacs until we were forced to let them be near again." + +"Oh, yes--the other." Rosa started and hastened to the next cot. Yes, it +was Jack--or a piteous ghost of him. He was sleeping, and she +withdrew gently. + +"Please distribute the contents of the basket to the men I named. I will +be back presently." + +With this she darted out, running at the top of her speed, heedless even +of the peremptory challenge of the sentries, who thought her mad or +stricken with the plague, and made no attempt to molest her. She ran +straight to Jones's quarters. He was writing, and started in surprise as +she entered panting and breathless. + +"Ah! I have found them; I have found them!" She could say no more. Jones +helped her to a seat and held a glass of water to her lips. Then she +regained breath. + +"They are in the small-pox ward, but they haven't the disease. Ah! they +are there, they are there. Come at once and take them away. Ah! take +them away this minute." + +"By 'they' do you mean Perley and Sprague?" Jones asked, breathlessly. + +"Yes, ah, yes. Thank God! thank God! Ah! I could say prayers from now +until my dying day. But, oh, Mr. Jones, do, do hurry; because they may +die if we do not get them away from that dreadful pest-house." + +"It will take some time to get the order for the removal. Meanwhile, +they will need good nursing. If you hope to help them you must be calm; +you must keep well. Now go to your brother. It is just as well that Miss +Sprague went away this morning. Before she comes back, her brother will +be in a place she can visit with safety. You can not go back there. You +must remain patient now until I get them away from that +dangerous place." + +It was not until the next day that the red tape of the establishment was +so far cut as to warrant the surgeon in charge in making a personal +inspection of the two invalids. He at once, and in indignant +astonishment, pronounced the two untouched by the disease set against +their names in their papers of admission. Early in the afternoon they +were carried on a stretcher to a clean, fresh tent on the sandy beach, +where the laurel bushes almost ran into the water. Letters had been +dispatched to Olympia in forming her that Jack was found, and urging her +to come on at once. The next evening the three ladies arrived--Mrs. +Sprague, Olympia, and Kate. With them they brought a renowned physician +who had been uniformly successful in treating maladies of the sort the +lads were described as suffering. + +Days of painful anxiety followed. Once, all hope of Dick was abandoned, +and his aunts were telegraphed for. But, in the end, he opened his big +blue eyes, sane and convalescent. There was rapid mending after this, +you may be sure. Kate had, through Olympia's unobtrusive manoeuvring, +been forced to bear the burden of Jack's nursing, and, somehow, when +that impatient warrior mingled amorous pleadings with his early +consciousness, she forgot upon which side the burden of repentance and +forgiving lay. She listened with gentle serenity to his protestations, +checking him only by the threat to quit the place and return to +her father. + +During all this, Rosa was divided in her mind. She resented the +assiduity of Jones in the recovery of Dick. That reticent person had +installed himself in Dick's tent and never quitted the lad, day or +night, unless to relinquish him to Rosa's arbitrary hand. When, one day, +Pliny and Merry Perley entered the tent, Jones changed color. The two +ladies, not heeding the stranger, fell upon the convalescent on the cot, +and Jones slipped away. Thereafter Rosa had her invalid to herself, +Jones only reappearing at night, to keep the vigils of the dark. A month +later, the invalids were strong enough to be removed. An inquiry had +been set on foot to account for the presence of the two Union soldiers +among the rebel prisoners. The result was confusing, however. The facts +seemed to point out design in the original entry of the young men's +names at Hampton, where they had been taken when brought in by +the outposts. + +The dispersion of the rest of their companions from Richmond was +accounted for by furloughs granted them so soon as they reached the +provost-marshal's office. Just before leaving Point Lookout Jack +received a much-directed letter that gave signs of having been in every +mail-bag in the Army of the Potomac. It was from Barney Moore, bristling +with wonder and turgid with woful lamentation at Jack's coldness in not +writing him. He had been sent by mistake to Ship Island, near New +Orleans, to join his regiment, and had only at the writing of the letter +reached Washington, where the Caribees were expected every day to move +to the Peninsula in McClellan's new campaign. + +So soon as he was sufficiently recovered to write, Jack reported by +letter to the regiment. He had received no reply. The explanation was +awaiting him so soon as he reached Washington. While seated with his +mother in Willard's, a heavy knock came on the door. It was thrown open +before the maid could reach it. A provost corporal stood on the +threshold, a file of men behind him: + +"I have an order for the arrest of Sergeant John Sprague." + +"I am John Sprague. Of what am I accused?" + +"I have no orders to tell you. My orders are to deliver you at the +provost prison. You will hear the charges there." + +"But I am still under the doctor's charge. I am on the hospital list." + +"I don't know what condition you are in. My orders are to arrest you, +and you know I have no option. All can be remedied at the +provost's office." + +"I will go with you, my son," Mrs. Sprague said, trying to look +untroubled. "It is some error which can be explained." + +"No, mamma, you can't come. Send word to the counsel you engaged in the +search. I fancy it is some mistake; but I wish it hadn't occurred just +now. I wouldn't write Olympia about it." Olympia had gone on to Acredale +with Kate, to set the house in order for a season of festivity. Jack, +Vincent, Dick, and the rest, were to join them so soon as the invalid +had taken rest in Washington. + +The guard indulged Jack in a carriage to headquarters. Here he was +handed over to a lieutenant in charge, and conducted to a prison-like +apartment in the rear. + +"What is the charge against me?" Jack asked, as the officer touched a +bell. + +"I am not acquainted with the papers in your case. My instructions are +to hold you until called for.--Sergeant," he added, as a soldier in +uniform entered, "the prisoner is to be confined in close quarters, and +is not to be lost sight of night or day." + +The soldier saluted and motioned Jack to follow him, two other soldiers +closing in behind him as he set out. At the end of a short hallway the +sergeant stopped, took a key from a bunch at his belt, unlocked a +heavily-barred door and motioned Jack to enter. It was useless to +protest, useless to parley. He knew military procedure too well to think +of it, but his heart swelled with bitter rage. This was the reward of an +almost idolatrous patriotism--this was the _patrie's_ way of cherishing +her defenders. He flung himself on the cot in a wild passion of tears +and rebellious scorn. But his humiliation was not yet ended; while he +sat with his face covered by his bands, he felt hands upon his legs, and +the sharp click of a lock. He moved his left leg. Great God! it was +chained to an enormous iron bolt. He started to rise; the sharp links of +the chain cut his ankle as the great ball rolled away from him. With a +cry of madness he flung himself on the harsh pine pallet, groaning his +heart out in bitter anguish and maledictions. In time food was brought +him, but he sat supine, staring ghastly at the dull-eyed orderly, +silent, unquestioning. Dim banners of light fell across the corridor. +They were broken at regular intervals by the passing figure of a sentry. +The night wore on. There was a lull in the monotonous tramp. Steps came +toward Jack's cell--stopped; the key grated in the lock; some one +touched him on the shoulder. He never stirred. + +"Cheer up, Sprague; it's all a mistake." It was the voice of the lawyer. + +At this Jack started, his eyes gleaming wildly. "Ah, I thought so. I +knew I could never have been disgraced like this in earnest. They have +discovered the wrong done me?" + +"No, no; not exactly that, Jack, but we shall show them the mistake, I +make no doubt." + +"Why am I dishonored? Of what am I accused? Why am I here?" Jack cried, +shivering under the revulsion from despair to hope, and from hope back +to horror. + +"You are dishonored, my poor young friend, because a court-martial has +found you guilty of murder, desertion, and treason against the articles +of war, and you are here because you are sentenced to be shot one week +from Friday, in the center of a hollow square, seated on your +own coffin." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +FATHER ABRAHAM'S JOKE. + + +In her own mind, as the train rolled toward Acredale from Washington, +Kate was enjoying in anticipation the victory she had to announce to her +father. He had written her regularly from Warchester, where he was +engaged in an important suit. She had written more frequently than he, +but she had made no allusion to the happy ending of her troubles. It was +partly dread that the knowledge of Jack's restoration might bring on +more active hostility, as well as a whimsical feminine caprice to spring +the great event upon him when all danger was over. She watched Dick and +Rosa in the seat near her, for they, too, were of the advance guard to +Acredale, where, when Olympia had arranged the house, Vincent and Jack +were to come for final restoration to health. When the party arrived at +the little Acredale Station there was a great crowd gathered. + +A company of the Caribees was just setting out for the front. Some of +the old members recognized Dick, and then straightway went up a cheer +that brought all the corner loiterers to the spot to learn the goings +on. It was in consequence rather a triumphal procession that followed +the carriage to the Sprague gateway, and even followed up the sanded +road to the broad piazza. Rosa remained with Olympia, while Kate carried +Dick off to commit him to the aunts waiting on the porch to welcome the +prodigal. Kate had telegraphed her coming, and her father was at the +door to meet her. He was plainly relieved and delighted to have her with +him again, for he held her long and close in his arms. "Then all's +forgiven; we're friends again," she said, laughing and crying together. + +"There is nothing to forgive. It may be a matter of regret that you are +a Boone in blood rather than an Ovid, and that you imitate the Boones in +obstinacy. But justice has been done, and there's no need to quarrel +about strangers." + +She didn't understand in the least what he meant about justice being +done. Remembering that all was well, she smiled as they entered the +library, and when she had removed her wraps, said, in repressed triumph: +"You need never attempt the role of Shylock again. I play Portia better +than you play the Jew. You have lost your pound of flesh." + +"Well, be magnanimous. Don't abuse your victory. I shouldn't, in your +place; but women are never merciful to the fallen." + +"I am to you. For, see, I kiss you as gayly as when I believed you all +heart and goodness." + +"Now you believe me no heart and badness?" + +"I didn't say that, I say you are given over to sinful hates, and I must +correct you." + +"Well, I'm willing now to be corrected." + +"But the correction will be a severe one; you must prepare for a very +grievous penance." + +"Knowing you, I can foresee that you won't spare the rod. Very well, +I'll try to get used to it." + +At this moment a servant came to the door. + +"A note for Miss Kate," she said. Kate tore it open and read: + +"Come to me at once. I have frightful news from +Washington. As it concerns Jack you ought to know it. + +"OLYMPIA." + +She read the lines twice before she could seize the meaning. Frightful +news concerning Jack! Had he suffered a relapse? Had he been +accidentally hurt? No; if it had been news of that sort, Olympia would +have come herself. A gleam of prescience shot through her brain. The +court--the charges against Jack! That was it. That was the secret of her +father's equanimity under her raillery. She turned with a rush into the +library. The bad blood of the Boones was all up in her soul now. She +walked straight at, not to her father, and, holding Olympia's note +before him, said in bitter scorn: + +"Tell me what this means. I know that you know." + +He took the paper with leisurely unconcern, affecting not to remark +Kate's flashing wrath; he read the lines, handed the paper back, or held +it toward Kate, who put her hands behind her. + +"Since it concerns you, my child, suppose you go over and ask Miss +Sprague. How should I know the affairs of such superior people?" + +"Could nothing soften you?--humanize you, I was going to say. Could +nothing satisfy you but the death of this injured family?--for this blow +will kill them. Kill them? Why should they care to live when that noble +fellow has been dishonored by your cruel acts? Ah, I know what you have +done! You have brought the court to disgrace Jack--to make him appear a +deserter. You it was who, in some mysterious way, caused him to be +abducted into the small-pox ward among the rebel prisoners. But it shall +all be made known. I shall myself go on the stand and testify to your +handiwork. Yes, I am a Boone in this. I will follow the lesson you have +set me. I will avenge the innocent and save him by exposing the guilty." + +"On second thought, daughter, you are not in a frame of mind to see +strangers to-night. You will remain home this evening. To-morrow you can +see your friend and advise her in her sorrow, whatever it is." He went +to the door and called the servant. "Go to Miss Sprague with my +compliments, and tell her my daughter is not able to leave the house +this evening." As the man closed the outer door, Kate made a step +forward, crying: + +"You never mean to say that I am a prisoner in my own father's house?" + +"Certainly not. We're not play-actors. I think it best that you should +not go to the neighbors to-night, and you, as a dutiful daughter, obey +without murmur, because I have always been an indulgent parent and +gratified every whim of yours, even to letting you consort with my +bitterest enemies for months." As he spoke, there was a ring at the +doorbell. Presently the servant entered the room and announced "Mr. +Jones." Before Boone could direct him to be shown into another room +Jones entered the library, fairly pushing the astonished menial aside. +Boone held up his hand with a warning gesture, and nodded toward Kate; +but, without halting, Jones advanced to Boone's chair, and, seizing him +by the shoulder, held up a copy of the afternoon paper. + +"Read that? What does it mean?" + +Boone's eyes rested a moment on the paragraphs pointed out. Then, +throwing the paper aside, he asked, coldly: + +"Why should you ask me what it means? If you are interested in the +affair, you might find out by writing to the court." + +At this, Jones, looking around the room, marked the two doors, one +leading to the hall, the other to the drawing-room. He deliberately went +to each, and, locking it, slipped the key in his pocket. He glanced +reassuringly at Kate, as she sat dumfounded waiting the issue of this +singular scene. He confronted Boone, leaning against the mantel. + +"It's just as well that we have a witness to this final settlement, +Elisha Boone.--Twenty years ago, Miss Boone, I was a citizen of this +town. I was the owner of these acres. I am Richard Perley. In those days +I was a wild fellow--I thought then, a wicked one; but I have learned +since that I was not, for folly is not crime. In those days--I was +barely twenty-five--your father had a hard ground to till in his way of +life. I became his patron, and from that I became his slave. I never +exactly knew how it came about, but within a few years most of my +property was mortgaged to Elisha Boone. I won't accuse him, as the world +does, of inciting me to drink and gambling. God knows he has enough to +answer for without that! In the end I was driven to a deed that +imperiled my liberty, and Elisha Boone put the temptation and the means +to do it within my reach. Detection followed, and the detection came +about through Elisha Boone. All my property in his hands, my name a +scorn, and my person subject to the law, Elisha Boone had no further +fear of me, and thenceforth doled me out an income sufficient to supply +my modest wants. I strove to turn the new leaf that recommends itself to +men who have exhausted the so-called pleasures of life. I was living in +honesty and seclusion in Richmond, when Boone, who had never lost sight +of me, came with a mission for me to perform. I was engaged as an agent +of the detective force of the United States, with the special duty of +rescuing Wesley Boone from captivity. + +"I was further commissioned to get evidence against John Sprague, fixing +upon him the crime of betraying his colors and aiding the Confederacy. +In the attempt to rescue Captain Boone at Bosedale circumstances pointed +to the guilt of young Sprague, but that was all dissipated a few weeks +after, when, at the peril of his own life, not once, but a score of +times, he rashly liberated a score or two of prisoners, and personally +led them through an entire rebel army to the Union lines. I, who would +have been abandoned by a less noble nature, for I was weakened by +captivity and bad fare, broke down, but Sprague and--and--young Dick--my +son, clung to me with such devotion as few sons would exhibit under such +trials, and brought me safe to the outposts. Here, by some mysterious +means, we were all dispersed. When I found my senses I was under Elisha +Boone's Samaritan care in the house where you saw me at first. The two +boys, Sprague and Perley, spirited away from the hospital at Hampton, +where they had been entered under assumed names, Jacques and Paling, +were by some curious instrumentality hidden in the small-pox ward of the +rebel prison at Point Lookout. While they lay there, and while some one +in Washington knew that they were there, a court martial in that city +hurriedly convened, found John Sprague guilty of murder, desertion, and +treason, and the evening dispatches from Washington state that John +Sprague is to be shot a week from Friday in a hollow square, in which a +company of the Caribees is to do the shooting. + +"Miss Boone, you worked faithfully to rescue the life of this young man, +but your father has brought that work to ruin. Worse, the death you +dreaded when you gave heart and soul to the rescue of the lost was a +mercy compared to that in store for him. He is to be shot by a file of +his own company, seated upon a rough board coffin, ready to receive his +mangled remains. You will--" + +But Kate, at this hideous detail, fell with a low, wailing cry to the +floor, happily dead to the woful consciousness of the scene and its +meaning. Jones ran to the door, and, unlocking it, shouted for the +servants. When they came, she was carried to her room and the physician +summoned. Almost at the same time Olympia, in her traveling-dress, drove +up. She was informed by the servants of Kate's state, and, without +stopping to ask permission, ran up to the sick-room. Kate was now +conscious, but at sight of Olympia she covered her face, shuddering. + +"Ah, Kate! Kate! what is it? Have you learned the dreadful news? I am +going to take the train back this evening." + +"I, too, will go with you. Stay with me; don't leave me!" + +She stopped, put out her hand, as if to make sure of Olympia, then broke +into low but convulsive sobs. Her father, with the doctor, entered the +room; but at the sight Kate turned her head to the wall, crying, +piteously: + +"No, no--not here, not here! I can't see him now! Oh, spare me! I--I--" + +"Do your duty, doctor," Boone said, in a quick, gasping tone, and with +an uncertain step quit the chamber. Olympia explained to the physician +that Kate had heard painful news from an unexpected quarter, and that +her illness was more nervous than physical. + +"I don't know about that," the doctor said, decisively. He felt her +pulse, then with a quick start of surprise raised her head and examined +the tongue and lining of the palate. A still graver look settled on his +face as he tested the breath and action of the heart. When he had +apparently satisfied himself he turned to Olympia with a perturbed air, +and, beckoning her into the dressing-room, said: + +"Miss Sprague, this is no place for you. Miss Boone has every symptom of +typhoid fever. She has evidently been exposed to a malarial air. Her +complaint may be even worse than typhoid--I can't quite make out certain +whitish blotches on her skin. I should suspect small-pox or varioloid, +but that there has not been a case reported here for years. Where has +she been of late?" + +Olympia turned ghastly white with horror. + +"O doctor, she has been nursing Jack, who was for weeks in the small-pox +ward at Point Lookout!" + +"Good God! Fly, fly the house at once! I wondered if I could be deceived +in the symptoms. I must insist on your leaving at once." + +"But the poor girl must have some one of her own sex with her. Whom can +she get if not a friend?" + +"She can get a professional nurse, and that is worth a dozen friends. +Indeed, friends will be only a drawback for the next ten days." + +He took her gently by the shoulders and pushed her out of the room. He +was an old friend of the family, and she was accustomed to his +tyrannical ways. He held her sternly under way until the front door +closed and shut her out. Then, turning into the library, he saw that the +host was alone. Closing the door, he said: + +"Mr. Boone, your daughter has been exposed to a great danger. We may be +able to save her, but it will require great patience." + +"Danger, doctor! What do you mean?" + +"Your daughter has caught the most hideous of all diseases--small-pox!" + +Elisha Boone started to his feet. "Great God! where could she catch +small-pox?" + +"She caught it nursing young Sprague. I thought you knew of that;" and +the doctor regarded the incredulous, terror-stricken face of the father +with bewildered fixity. Well he might. The first rod of the moral law +had just struck him. The vengeance he had so subtly planned had turned +into retributive justice. He had refused Kate's prayer; he had driven +her to this mad search and the contagion now periling her life, or, if +it were spared, leaving her a hideous specter of herself. This passed +through his shattered mind as the doctor stood regarding him. + +"What do you propose doing?" he finally asked, to get his thoughts from +the torturing grip of conscience. + +"I propose to install two trained nurses in the house. You are not to +let a soul know what your daughter is suffering from. I hope to be able +to check the evil in the blood, but I must be secure against any form of +meddling. You must avoid your daughter's chamber--indeed, it would be +better if you could quit Acredale for a few days. You would be less +embarrassed by intrusive neighbors and keep your conscience clear of +evasions." + +So it was settled that Boone should take up his quarters in Warchester, +coming out late every night for news. + +Meanwhile, Acredale had read with amazement, first, of the finding of +Jack Sprague among the rebels at Point Lookout, then, the extraordinary +story of the court-martial and death-sentence. Every one called at the +Sprague mansion, but it was in the hands of the servants, Olympia and +her guest having returned to Washington so soon as the story of her +brother's peril reached her. Dick, too, had flown to his adored Jack, +and Acredale, confounded by the swift alternations in the young +soldier's fortunes, settled down to wait the outcome with a tender +sorrow for the bright young life eclipsed in disgrace so awful, death so +ignominious. + +We have looked on while most of the people in this history worked +through night to light in the moral perplexities besetting them. We have +seen warriors in love and danger gallantly extricating themselves and +plucking the bloom of safety from the dragon path of danger. We have +seen a moral combat in the minds of most of the people who have had to +do with our luckless Jack. But all herein set down has been the merest +November melancholy compared to the charnel-house of dead hopes and +baffled purposes that tortured Elisha Boone. Unlovely as Boone has +seemed to us, he had one of the prime conditions of human goodness--he +loved. He had loved very fondly his son Wesley. He loved very tenderly +his daughter Kate. + +With this love came the sanctification that must abide where love is. I +don't think he had much of what may be called the second condition of +human goodness--reverence. If he had, we should never have seen him push +revenge to the verge of crime. Richard Perley, it is true, accuses him +of a turpitude that makes a man shudder and abhor; but allowances must +be made for the exaggeration of a careless spendthrift--a "good fellow," +than whom I can conceive of nothing so useless and mischievous in the +human economy. For my part, I think I could endure the frank +heartlessness of a man like Boone more philosophically than the false +good-nature of the creature men call a good fellow. + +Obviously, Boone did not take Dick Perley's estimate of him very +seriously. He, too, could have told a tale not without its strong +features of a shiftless set, constantly borrowing, constantly +squandering, constantly provoking the thrifty to accumulate unguarded +properties. All this, however, had faded from the old man's mind now. He +had avenged himself upon the life-long scorners of his name and fame; +but the blow that shattered their pride had sent a dart to his own +heart. His beautiful Kate, his big-hearted, high-spirited, man-witted +girl!--she would bear a leper-taint for life, and his hand had put the +virus on her perfect flesh! + +In a few days the black in his hair withered to an ashen white. His +flesh fell away. He could neither eat nor sleep. He shambled through the +obscure streets of Warchester, or lingered wistfully in the beech woods +behind his own palatial home in Acredale, staring at the window of his +daughter's chamber. The week passed in such mental torture as tries the +strong when confronted by the major force of conscience. Then the doctor +told him that he had balked the plague; that Kate was recovering from +varioloid; that beyond a transparency of skin, which would add to her +beauty rather than impair it, there would be no sign of the attack. + +Elisha Boone slept in his own home that night, and, for the first time +in forty years, he fell upon his knees--upon his knees! Indeed, the +doctor found him so at midnight, when he came with a request from his +daughter to come to her room. The doctor, with a word of warning against +agitating the sufferer, wisely retired from the solemn reconciliation +which, without knowing the circumstances, he knew was to take place +between father and child. She was propped up upon pillows whose texture +her flesh rivaled in whiteness. She opened her arms as the specter of +what had been her father flew to her with a stifled cry. + +"O father, we have both been wicked! we have both been punished! Help me +to do my part; help me to bear my burden." + +It was hope, mercy, and peace the meeting brought. The next day Elisha +Boone bade Kate a tender farewell. She did not ask him where he was +going. She knew, and the light in her eye shone brighter as he rode in +the darkness over the bare fields and through the sleeping towns to the +capital, where Jack's fate was hanging in the balance. With Boone's +influence to aid them, Jack's friends found a surprising change in the +demeanor of the officials, hitherto captious and indifferent. Boone +himself laid the case before the President, omitting certain details not +essential to the showing of the monstrous injustice done a brave +soldier. The President listened attentively, and with the expression, +half sad and half droll, with which he softened the asperities of +official life, said, humorously: + +"I wish by such simple means as courts-martial we could find out more +such soldiers as this; we need all of that sort we can get." He touched +a bell, and, when a clerk appeared in response, he said, "Ask General +McClellan to come in for a moment before he leaves." + +What need to go into the details? The court reconvened, and traversed +the charges, which were disproved or withdrawn. John Sprague was +pronounced guiltless on every specification, and, on General McClellan's +recommendation, was promoted to a captaincy and assigned to the +headquarters staff. I might go on and tell of Jack's daring on the +Peninsula and his immeasurable usefulness to McClellan in the +Williamsburg contest and the final wondrous change of base from the +Chickahominy to the James; how his services were recognized by promotion +to a colonelcy on the battle-field of Malvern; and how, when McClellan +was wronged by Stanton, and removed from the army, Jack broke his sword +and swore that he would never serve again. But, thinking better of it, +he applied for a place in Hancock's corps, and was by his side from +Fredericksburg to Gettysburg. You have seen from the very first what was +going to happen. The marriages all took place, just as you have guessed +from the beginning. Young Dick was too impatient and too skeptical to +wait until the end of the war, and, to the amazement of his aunts and +the amusement of Acredale, he carried Rosa off, one day, and was +secretly married in the rector's study at Warchester, so that his first +son was born under the Stars and Bars in Richmond, while Dick was +beleaguering the walls at Fort Walthall, four miles away. The other +young people waited rationally until a month or two after the peace, and +while they were still entitled to wear the blue, and then they were +wedded. It was said that Kate made the most beautiful bride ever seen in +Warchester, for it was there they were married. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Game, by Henry Francis Keenan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON GAME *** + +***** This file should be named 10062-8.txt or 10062-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/6/10062/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Virginia Paque +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Iron Game + A Tale of the War + +Author: Henry Francis Keenan + +Release Date: November 12, 2003 [EBook #10062] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON GAME *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Virginia Paque +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original have +been retained in this etext.] + + + The Iron Game + + A TALE OF THE WAR + + BY + + HENRY F. KEENAN + + + "Heavy and solemn the cloudy column + Over the green fields marching came, + Measureless spread like a table bread + For the cold grim dice of the iron game." + + + + + 1898 + + + + + TO + + BERNARD JOHN McGRANN + + WHOSE LIFE AND CONDUCT EMBODY AND ILLUSTRATE + + THE MANLINESS, MODESTY, AND WORTH + + THAT FANCY DELIGHTS TO EMBALM IN FICTION + + THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED + + BY ONE AMONG THE MANY WITNESSES OF HIS NOBLE CAREER + + HENRY F. KEENAN + + NEW YORK, _25th March, 1891_. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + + BOOK I. + + _THE CARIBEES_. + + + CHAPTER + + I.--THE BOY IN BLUE + II.--FLAG AND FAITH + III.--MALBROOK S'EN VA-T-EN GUERRE + IV.--GUELPH AND GHIBELLINE + V.--A NAPOLEONIC EPIGRAM + VI.--ON THE POTOMAC + VII.--THE STEP THAT COSTS + VIII.--AN ARMY WITH BANNERS + IX.--"THE ASSYRIAN CAME DOWN LIKE THE WOLF ON THE FOLD" + X.--BLOOD AND IRON + XI.--THE LEGIONS OF VARUS + + + + BOOK II. + + _THE HOSTAGES_. + + + XII.--THE AFTERMATH + XIII.--A COMEDY OF TERRORS + XIV.--UNDER TWO FLAGS + XV.--ROSEDALE + XVI.--A MASQUE IN ARCADY + XVII.--TREASON AND STRATAGEMS + XVIII.--A CAMPAIGN OF PLOTS + XIX.--"HE EITHER FEARS HIS FATE TOO MUCH" + XX.--A CATASTROPHE + XXI.--THE STORY OF THE NIGHT + XXII.--A CARPET-KNIGHT + XXIII.--ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR + + + + BOOK III. + + _THE DESERTERS._ + + + XXIV.--BETWEEN THE LINES + XXV.--PHANTASMAGORIA + XXVI.--IN THE UNION LINES + XXVII.--"THE ABSENT ARE ALWAYS IN THE WRONG" +XXVIII.--THE WORLD WENT VERY ILL THEN + XXIX.--A WOMAN'S REASON + XXX.--A GAME OF CHANCE + XXXI.--TWO BLADES OF THE SAME STEEL + XXXII.--THE LOST CARIBEES +XXXIII.--FATHER ABRAHAM'S JOKE + + + + +BOOK I. + +_THE CARIBEES_. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE BOY IN BLUE. + + +When expulsion from college, in his junior years, was visited upon Jack +Sprague, he straightway became the hero of Acredale. And, though the +grave faculty had felt constrained to vindicate college authority, it +was well known that they sympathized with the infraction of decorum that +obliged them to put this mark of disgrace upon one of the most promising +of their students. + +All his young life Jack had dreamed of West Point and the years of +training that were to fit him for the glories of war. He knew the +battles of the Revolution as other boys knew the child-lore of the +nursery. He had the campaigns of Marlborough, the strategy of Turenne, +the inspirations of the great Frederick, and the prodigies of Napoleon, +as readily on the end of his tongue as his comrades had the struggles of +the Giant Killer or the tactics of Robinson Crusoe. When, inspired by +the promise of West Point, he had mastered the repugnant rubrics of the +village academy, the statesman of his district conferred the promised +nomination upon his school rival, Wesley Boone, Jack passionately +refused to pursue the arid paths of learning, and declared his purpose +of becoming a pirate, a scout, or some other equally fascinating child +of nature delightful to the boyish mind. + +When Jack Sprague entered Warchester College, he carried with him the +light baggage of learning picked up at the Acredale Academy. At his +entrance to the sequestered quadrangles of Dessau Hall, Jack's frame of +mind was very much like the passionate discontent of the younger son of +a feudal lord whose discrepant birthright doomed him to the gown instead +of the sword. + +Long before the senior year he had allured a chosen band about him who +shared his eager aspiration for war, and when the other fellows dawdled +in society or wrangled in debate, these young Alexanders set their tents +in the college campus and fought the campaigns of Frederick or Napoleon +over again. Jack did not give much heed to the menacing signs of civil +war that came day by day from the tempestuous spirits North and South. A +Democrat, as his fathers had been before him, he saw no probability of +the pomp and circumstance of glorious war in the noisy wrangling of +politicians. The defeat of Douglas, the Navarre of the young Democracy +of the North, amazed him: but all thought of Lincoln asserting the +national authority, and reviving the splendor of Jackson and Madison, +was looked upon as the step between the sublime and the ridiculous that +reasoning men refuse to consider. + +When, however, the stupefying news came that a national garrison had +been fired upon by the South Carolinians, in Charleston Harbor, the +college boys took sides strongly. There were many in the classes from +Maryland and Virginia. These were as ardent in admiration of their +Southern compatriots as the Northern boys were for the insulted Union. +Months passed, and, although the forces of war were arraying themselves +behind the thin veil of compromise and negotiation, the public mind only +languidly convinced itself that actual war would come. + +The college was divided into hostile camps. The "Secessionists," led by +Vincent Atterbury, Jack's old-time chief crony, went so far as to hoist +the flag of the Montgomery (Jeff Davis's) government on the campus pole, +one morning in April. A fierce fight followed, in which Jack's ardent +partisans made painful havoc with the limbs of the enemy--Atterbury, +their leader, being carted from the campus, under the horrified eyes of +the faculty, dying, as it was thought. Then followed expulsion. When the +solemn words were spoken in chapel, the culprit bore up with great +serenity. But when he announced that he had enlisted in the army, then +such an uproar, such an outburst, that the session was at an end. Even +the grave president looked sympathetic. The like of it was never seen in +a sober college since Antony with Cleopatra invaded the Academy at +Alexandria. The boys flung themselves upon the abashed Jack. They hugged +him, raised him on their shoulders, carried him out on the campus, and, +forming a ring round him, swore, in the classic form dear to collegians, +that they would follow him; that they would be his soldiers, and fight +for the _patria_ in danger. + +"I have nothing to offer you, boys. I'm only sergeant; but if you will +join now, I'm authorized to swear you in provisionally," Jack said, +shrewdly, seizing the flood at high tide. + +So soon as the names could be written the whole senior class +(forty-three) were enrolled. Jack refused the prayerful urgings of the +juniors, who pleaded tearfully to join him. But the president coming out +confirmed Jack's decision until the juniors could get the written +consent of their parents. + +The recitations were sadly disjointed that day, and the excited +professors were glad when rest came. The humanities had received +disjointed exposition during that session. Jack had been summoned to the +president's sanctuary, where he had been received with a parental +tenderness that brought the tears to his big brown eyes. + +"Ah, ha! soldiers mustn't know tears. You must be made of sterner stuff +now, sergeant," the doctor cried, cheerily, as the culprit stood +confusedly before him. "O Jack, Jack, why did you put this hard task +upon me? Why make me drive from Dessau the brightest fellow in the +classes? What will your mother say? I would as soon have lost my own +child as be forced to put this mark on you? But you know I am bound by +the laws of the college. You know I have time and again overlooked your +wild pranks. We have already suffered a good deal from the press for +winking at the sympathy the college has shown in this political quarrel." + +"Yes, professor, I haven't a word to say. You did your duty. Now I want +you to bear witness how I do mine. I do not complain that I am condemned +rather through the form than the fact. I was carried out of my senses by +the sight of that rebel flag." + +The Warchester press, known for many years as the most sprightly and +enterprising of the country, was too much taken up with the direful news +from Baltimore to even make a note of Jack Sprague's expulsion, and the +soldier boy was spared that mortification. Nor did he meet the tearful +lament and heart-broken remonstrance at home, to which he had looked +forward with lively dread. His friends in the village of Acredale were +so astonished by his blue regimentals that he reached the homestead door +unquestioned. His mother, at the dining-room window, caught sight of the +uniform, and did not recognize her son until she was almost smothered in +his hearty embrace. + +"Why, John! What does this mean? What--what have you on?" + +"Mother, I am twenty-two years old. A man who won't fight for his +country isn't a good son. He has no right to stay in a country that he +isn't willing to fight for!" and with this specious dictum he drew +himself up and met the astonished eyes of his sister Olympia, who had +been apprised of his coming. But the maternal fears clouded patriotic +conceptions where her darling was involved, and his mother sobbed: + +"O Jack, Jack! what shall we do? How can we live without you! And oh, my +son, you are too young to go to the war. You will break down. You can't +manage a--a musket, and the--the heavy load the soldiers carry. My son, +don't break your mother's heart. Don't go--don't, Jack, Jack! What shall +I do?--O Polly, what shall we do?" + +"What shall we do? Why, we'll just show Jack that all of war isn't in +soldiering; that the women who stay at home help the heroes, though they +may not take part in the battle. As to you and me, mamma, we shall be +the proudest women in Acredale, for our Jack's the first--" she was +going to say "boy," but, catching the coming protest in the warrior's +glowing eye, substituted "man" with timely magnanimity--"the first man +that volunteered from Acredale. And how shamed you would have been--we +would have been--if Jack hadn't kept up the tradition of the family! He +comes naturally by his sense of duty. Your father's father was the first +to join Gates at Saratoga. My father's father was the right hand of +Warren, at Bunker Hill! If ever blood ran like water in our Jack's +veins, I should put on--trousers and go to the war myself. I'm not sure +that I sha'n't as it is," and, affecting Spartan fortitude, Olympia +pretended to be deeply absorbed in adjusting a disarranged furbelow in +her attire to conceal the quavering in her voice and the dewy something +in her dark eyes. The mother, disconcerted by this defection where she +had counted on the blindest adhesion, sank back in the cane rocker, +helpless, speechless. + +"Yes, mother, Polly is right. How could you ever lift up your head if it +were said that son of John Sprague's--Governor, Senator, minister +abroad--was the last to fly to his country's call? Why, Jackson would +turn in his grave if a son of John Sprague were not the first to take up +arms when the Union that he loved, as he loved his life, was in peril!" + +Mrs. Sprague listened with woe-begone perplexity to these sounding +periods, conscious only that her darling, her adored scapegrace, had +suddenly turned serious, and was using the weapons she had so often +employed to justify his conduct. For it was using one of the standing +arms in the maternal arsenal, to remind the wild and headstrong lad that +his father had been Jackson's confidant, that he had been Governor of +Imperia, that he had enforced the demands of the United States upon +European statesmen, that after a life spent in the public service he had +died, reverenced by his party and by his neighbors. Jack, as an infant, +had been fondled by Webster, by Clay, and, one never-to-be-forgotten +day, Jackson, the Scipio of the republic, had placed his brawny hand +upon the infant's head and declared that he would be "worthy of Jack +Sprague, who was man enough to make two Kentuckians." + +"But you--you, ought to be a colonel. Your father was a major-general in +the Mexican War at twenty-five. A Sprague can't be a private soldier!" +she cried, seizing on this as the only tenable ground where she could +begin the contest against the two children confederated against her. + +"I don't want to owe everything to my father. This is a republic, mamma, +and a man is, or ought to be, what he makes himself. I saw in a paper, +the other day, that the Government has more brigadiers and colonels +and--and--officers than it knows what to do with. I saw it stated that a +stone thrown from Willard's Hotel in Washington hit a dozen brigadiers. +I want to earn a commission before I assume it. I'll be an officer soon +enough, no fear. I could have had a lieutenant's commission if I had +gone in Blandon's regiment. But I hate Blandon. He is one of those +canting sneaks father detested, and I won't serve under such cattle." + +Mrs. Sprague, like millions of mothers in those days, was cruelly +divided in mind. When the neighbors felicitated her on the valor and +patriotism of Mr. Jack she was elated and fitfully reconciled. When, in +the long watches of the night, she reflected on the hardships, +temptations, the dreadful companions her darling must be thrown with, +country, lineage, everything faded into the dreadful reality that her +darling was in peril, body and soul. He was so like his father--gay, +impressionable, easily influenced--he would be saint or sinner, just as +his surroundings incited him. This was the woe that ate the mother's +heart; this was the sorrow that clouded millions of homes when mothers +saw their boys pranked out in the trappings of war. + +Our jaunty Jack enjoyed the worship that came to him. He was the first +boy in blue that appeared in the sandy streets of Acredale. Never had +the rascal been so petted, so feted, so adored. He might have been a +pasha, had he been a Turk. The promising down on his upper lip--the +object of his own secret solicitude and Olympia's gibes during the +junior year--was quite worn away by the kissing he underwent among the +impulsive Jeannettes of the village, who had a vague notion that +soldiers, like sailors, were indurated for battle by adosculation. Jack +may have believed this himself, for he took no pains to disabuse the +maidens as to the inefficacy of the rite, and bore with galliard +fortitude the wear and tear of the nascent mustache, without which, to +his mind, a soldier would figure very much as a monk without a shaven +crown or a mandarin without a queue. And though presently big Tom +Tooker, chief of the rival faction in Acredale, gave his name to the +recruiting officer in Warchester, and a score more of Jack's rivals and +cronies, he was the soldier of the village. For hadn't he given up the +glory of graduation and the delights of "commencement" to take up his +musket for the Union? And then the fife was heard in the village +street--delicious airs from Arcady--and a great flag was flung out from +the post-office, and Master Jack was installed recruiting sergeant for +Colonel Ulrich Oswald's regiment, that was to be raised in Warchester +County. For Colonel Oswald, having failed in a third nomination for +Congress, had gallantly proffered his services to the Governor of the +State, and, in consideration of his influence with his German +compatriots, had been granted a commission, though with reluctance, as +he had supported the Democratic party and was not yet trusted in the +Republican councils. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +FLAG AND FAITH. + + +If Acredale had not been for a century the ancestral seat of the +Spragues, and in its widest sense typical of the suburban Northern town, +there would be merely an objective and extrinsic interest in portraying +its sequestered life, its monotonous activities. But Acredale was not +only a very complete reflex of Northern local sentiment; its war epoch +represented the normal conduct of every hamlet in the land during the +conflict with the South. Now that the war is becoming a memory, even to +those who were actors in it, the facts distorted and the incidents +warped to serve partisan ends or personal pique, the photograph of the +time may have its value. + +Made up of thriving farmers and semi-retired city men, Acredale mingled +the simple conditions of a country village and the easy refinement of +city life. The houses were large, the grounds ornate and ample, the +society decorously convivial. People could be fine--at least they were +thought very fine--without going to the British isles to recast their +home manners or take hints for the fashioning of their grounds and +mansions. There was what would be called to-day the English air about +the place and some of the people; but it was an inheritance, not an +imitation. Save in the bustling business segment, abutting the four +corners, where the old United States road bore off westward to Bucephalo +and the lakes, the few score houses were set far back from the highway +in a wilderness of shrubbery, secluded by hedges and shaded by an almost +primeval growth of elms or maples. The whole hamlet might be mistaken +for a lordly park or an old-fashioned German Spa. Family marketing was +mostly done in Warchester; hence the village shops were like Arabian +bazaars, few but all-supplying. The most pregnant evidence of the +approach of modern ways that tinged the primitive color of the village +life, was the then new railway skirting furtively through the meadows on +the northern limits, as if decently ashamed of intruding upon such +idyllic tranquillity. The little Gothic station, cunningly hidden behind +a clustering grove of oaks at a respectful distance from the Corners, +like the lodge of a great estate, reconciled those who had at first +fought the iron mischief-maker. + +The public edifices of the town--the Episcopal church, the free academy, +the bank, the young ladies' seminary--were very unlike such institutions +in the bustling, treeless towns of to-day. Corinthian columns and Greek +friezes adorned these architectural evidences of Acredale's affluence +and taste. The village had grown up on private grounds, conceded to the +public year by year as the children and dependents of the founders +increased. The Spragues were the founders, and they had never been +anxious to alienate their patrimony. Acredale is not now the sylvan +sanctuary of rural simplicity it was thirty years ago--before the war. +The febrile tentacles of Warchester had not yet reached out to make its +vernal recesses the court quarter for the "new rich." In Jack Sprague's +young warrior days the village was three miles from the most suburban +limits of the city. There was not even a horse-car, or, as fashionable +Warchesterians have it, a "tram," to remind the tranquil villagers that +life had any need more pressing than a jaunt to the post twice a day. +Some "city folks" did hold villas on the outskirts, but they used them +only for short seasons in the late summer, when the air at the lake +began to grow too sharp for outdoor pleasures. + +Society in the place was patriarchal as an English shire town. The large +Sprague mansion, about which the village clustered at a respectful +distance, was the "Castle" of local phrase. Much of the glory of early +days had departed, however, when the Senator--Jack's papa--died. The +widow found herself unable to maintain the affluent state her lord had +loved. His legal practice, rather than the wide acres of his domain, had +supported a hospitality famous from Bucephalo to Washington. But with +prudent management the family had abundance, and, as Jack often said, he +was a fortune in himself. When the time came he would revive the +splendors his father loved to associate with the home of his ancestors. + +"But where are we to get this splendor now, Jack?" Olympia inquired, as +the youth was dilating to his mother on the wonders to come. "Private +soldiers get just thirteen dollars a month; and if you continue +smoking--as I am informed all men do in the army--I expect to have to +stint my pin-money expenses to eke out your tobacco bills." + +"Oh, I'll bring home glory. Napoleon said that every soldier carried a +marshal's _baton_ in his knapsack." + +"I'm afraid you won't have room for it if you carry all the things that +I know of intended for you in this and other families." + +"Yes; but, Polly, you know, or perhaps you don't know, a _baton_ is like +a college love--no matter how full your heart is, you can always find +room for another!" + +"John," Mistress Sprague reproves mildly; "how can you? I don't like to +hear my son talk like that even in jest. Don't get the idea that it is +soldierly to treat sacred things with levity. Love is a very sacred +thing; it ought to be part of a man's religion; it was of your +father's." + +"Then Jack must be a high priest, for there are a dozen girls here and +in the city who believe themselves enshrined in that elastic heart." + +"Olympia, you are a baleful influence on your brother. If anything could +reconcile me to his going it is the thought that he will escape the +extraordinary speech and manners you have brought back from New York. Do +the Misses Pomfret graduate all their young ladies with such a tone and +laxity of speech as you have lately shown? Strangers would naturally +think that you had no training at home." + +"Don't fear, mamma; strangers are not favored with my lighter vein; I +assume that for you and Jack, to keep your minds from graver things. I +preserve the senatorial suavity of speech and the Sprague austerity of +manner 'before folks,' as Aunt Merry would say. Which reminds me, Jack, +Kitty Moore declares that you are responsible for Barney's enlisting. +The family look to you to bring him home safe--a colonel at least." + +"Well, by George, I like that! Why, the beggar was bent on going long +ago. He was the first to ask me to run away and enlist. The other day he +wanted me to have him sworn in, and I told him to wait until--until I +got a commission." Jack was going to say until he was older, but he +suddenly recollected that Barney was his own age, and that, in view of +his mother's argument, struck him as unfortunate. He saw Olympia smiling +mischievously and turned the subject abruptly. "I suppose you know, +Polly, that Vincent is going home to join the rebels?" + +"Is he?" She had turned swiftly to gather a ball of worsted, and when it +was secured began to rummage in her work-basket for something that +seemed from her intentness to be vitally necessary to her at the moment. + +"Yes, he wrote to President Grandison that he should go as soon as his +passports and remittances came. He's promised a captain's commission. +I'm very, very sorry. Vint is the noblest of fellows. I hate to think of +him in the rebel army." + +"That's the reason you half killed him the other day, I suppose," +Olympia said, sweetly, still investigating the contents of the basket. + +"What, John, you've not been in a broil--fighting?" and Mistress Sprague +could not, even in imagination, go further in such an odious direction, +and let her eyes finish the interrogatory. + +Jack, a good deal subdued by what Olympia had left unsaid, rather than +what she had said, blurted out: "It was a campus shindy: Vint led the +rebel side and they got licked, that's all." + +"Oh, was that all?" Olympia had ended her search in the basket and +fastened a glance of satiric good humor upon the culprit, which did not +tend to relieve the awkwardness of the moment. Jack blushed under the +glance and began to hum an air from Figaro, as if the conversation had +ebbed into an impass from which it could only be rescued by a +lively air. + +Mrs. Sprague looked at the uneasy warrior, then at her daughter, darting +the crochet-needles placidly through the wool. + +"Well," she said, "never mind what's past; we must have Vincent out here +for a visit before he goes. I must send Mrs. Atterbury a number of +things. I hope she won't think that we intend to let the war make any +difference in our feeling toward the family." + +Jack was very glad to set out at once for his quondam foe, and in ten +minutes was driving down the road to Warchester. Vincent's bruises were +nearly healed, and he saluted Jack as a "chum" rather than as the agent +of his late discomfiture. + +"I'm mighty glad you've come to day. I didn't know whether you meant to +break off or not. I don't cherish any rancor. I don't see any use in +carrying the war into friendships. We made the best fight we could. We +did better than your side. You had the most men and the biggest fellows. +We showed good pluck, if we did get licked. If you hadn't come to-day I +should have been gone without seeing you, for I began to think that you +were as narrow as these prating abolitionists. My commission is ready +for me now at Richmond, and I'm just aching to get my regimentals on. +I'm to be with Johnston in the Shenandoah, you know, and--" + +"You mustn't tell me your army plans, Vint. I'm a soldier," and Jack +drew himself up with martial pomposity, "and--and--perhaps I ought to +arrest you now as an enemy, you know. I will look in the articles of war +and find out my duty in such cases." Jack waved his arm reassuringly, as +if to bid the rebel take heart for the moment--he would not hurry in the +matter. Vincent eyed his comrade with such a woe-begone mingling of +alarm and comic indignation that Jack forgot his possible part as agent +of his country's laws, and said, soothingly: "Never mind, Vint, I'm not +really a full soldier in the technical sense until the regiment is +mustered in at Washington. After that, of course, you know very well it +would he treason to give aid or comfort to the country's enemies." + +Vincent didn't leave next day, nor for a good many days. He seemed to +get a good deal of "aid and comfort" from those who should have been his +enemies. Mistress Sprague found that he was not in a fit state to +travel; that he needed nursing to prepare him for his journey, and that +no place was so fit as the great guest-chamber in the baronial Sprague +mansion, near his friend Jack. Strange to say, Vincent's eagerness to +get to Richmond and his shoulder-straps were forgotten in the agreeable +pastimes of the big house, where he spent hours enlightening Olympia on +the wonders the Southern soldiers were to perform and the glory that he +(Vincent) was to win. He went of a morning to the post-office, where +Jack was installed recruiting-agent for Acredale township, and made very +merry over the homespun stuff enrolled in defense of the Union. + +"Our strapping cavaliers will make short work of your gawky bumpkins;" +he remarked to Jack as the recruits loitered about the wide, shaded +streets, waiting to be forwarded to the rendezvous. + +"Don't be too sure of that. These young, boyish-looking fellows are just +the sort of men that met the British at Bunker Hill. They laughed too, +when they saw them; but they didn't laugh after they met them, nor will +your cavaliers," Jack cried, loftily. + +"But there's not a full-grown man among all these I've seen. How do you +suppose they are to endure march and battle? None of them can ride. All +our young men ride, and cavalry is the main thing in modern armies." + +In the Sprague parlors conversation of this risky sort was eschewed. +Mistress Sprague was anxious that the son of her oldest friend should +return to his mother with only the memory of amiable hospitality in his +heart to show that, although war raged between the people, families were +still friends. Vincent's mother had been one of Mistress Sprague's +bridesmaids, and it was her wish that the children might grow up in the +old kindly ties. So Vincent was made much of. There were companies every +night, and drives and boating in the afternoons, and such merry-making +as it was thought a lad of his years would enjoy. He was a very +entertaining guest; that all Acredale had known in the old vacations +when, with his sister, the pretty Rosa, he spent a summer with +the Spragues. + +But, now that there was to be a separation involving the unknown in its +vaguest form, the lad was treated with a tenderness that made the swift +days very sweet to the young rebel. It was from Olympia that he met the +only distinct formality in the manners of his hosts. He had known and +adored her in a boyish way for years, and now, as he contemplated going, +he thought that she ought to exhibit something of the old-time warmth. +In other days she had ridden, walked, and flirted to his heart's desire. +Now she avoided him when Jack was not at hand, and when she talked it +was in a flippant vein that drove him wild with baffled hope. The day +before he was to bid the kind house adieu he had his wish. She was +riding with him over the shaded roadway that curves in bewildering +beauty toward the lake. She seemed in a gentler mood than he had lately +seen her. They rode slowly side by side, but Vincent had a dismal +awkwardness of speech in whimsical contrast to his habitual fluency. + +"There's only one thing hateful to me in this war," he said, caressing +the arching neck of his horse, "and that is, the better we do our duty +as soldiers the more sorrow we must bring upon our own friends." + +"That's a rather solemn view to take of what Jack regards as the path of +glory." + +"Oh, you know what I mean: under the flag there can or ought to be no +friendships--the bullet sent from the musket, the sword drawn in light, +must be aimed blindly. It might be my fate, for example, to meet +Jack, to--to--" + +"Yes," Olympia laughed demurely, ignoring the sentimental aspect of +Vincent's remark. "Yes, that might paralyze the arm of valor; but, then, +you and Jack have met before, when duty demanded one thing and affection +another: I don't see that the dilemma softened the blows, or that either +of you are any the worse for them." + +Vincent was the real Southerner of his epoch--impulsive, sentimental, +ardent in all that he espoused, without the slightest notion of humor, +though imaginative as a dreamer; love, war, and his State, Virginia, +were passions that he thought it a duty to uphold at any and all times. +He colored under the girl's satiric sally. If she had been a man he +would have bid her to battle on the spot. Her sly fun and gentle malice +he resented as insulting, coarse, and unwomanly. He flashed a look of +piteous, surprised reproach at her as she flecked the flies from the +neck of her horse. He rode along moodily--too angry, too wretched to +trust himself to speak, for he felt sure he must say something bitter. +But, as she gave no sign of resuming the discourse, he was forced to +take up the burden again. Venturing nearer her side, he said in a +conciliating, argumentative tone, as if he had not heard the +foregoing speech: + +"Do you know, it seems to me, Olympia, that you of the North do not seem +to realize the seriousness of the war, the determination of our side to +make the South free? Here you go about the common business of life, +parties, balls, dress, and all the follies of peace, as if war could not +affect you at all. Your newspapers are full of coarse jokes at the +expense of your own soldiers, your own President. There seems no +devotion to your own cause, such as we feel in the South. I believe that +if put to a vote more than half the North would side with us to-day." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MALBROOK S'EN VA-T-EN GUERRE. + + +Olympia had been jogging along, apparently oblivious to everything but +the blazing vision of sun and cloud above the lake, purpling shapes of +mirage, reflecting the smooth surface of the glowing water. But as the +young man's voice--fallen into a melodious murmur--ceased, she took up +the theme with unexpected earnestness. + +"That's the error the South has made from the first. You know my father +was a public man. I have been educated more at our dinner-table and in +his talks with guests than at school. That is, the things that have +taken strongest hold of my mind young girls rarely hear or understand. +Now I think I can tell you something that may be of value to you in +official places where you are going. The North is not only in +earnest--it is religiously in earnest. If you know Puritan history you +know what that means. For example: if Jack had hesitated a moment or +made delay to get rank in the army, I should have abhorred him. So would +our mother, though she seems to be dismayed at his serving as a common +soldier. I adore Jack; I think him the finest, the most perfect nature +after my father's--that lives. But I give him up gladly, because to keep +him would be to degrade him. We know that he may fall; that he may come +back to us a cripple or worse. But, as you see, we make no sign. Not a +line of routine has been changed in the house. Jack will march away and +never see a tear in my eye or feel my pulse tremble. It is not in our +Northern blood to give much expression to sentiment, but we feel none +the less deeply--much more deeply, I think, than you exuberant +Southerners; you are impulsive, mercurial, and fickle." + +"Oh, don't say that: I can't bear to hear you say it; we have deep +feelings, we are constant, true as steel, chivalrous--" + +"Yes, you are delightful people; but you are always living in the past. +Shall I say it? You are womanlike; you can't reason. What you want at +the moment is right, and only that; with us nothing is real until we +have tried and proved it. If you count on Northern apathy you will soon +see your mistake. When Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter the North was of +one mind, and will stay so until all is again as it was." + +"Pray don't let us talk on this subject. I'm free to own that it does +not interest me. Then," he added adroitly, "you are readier in argument +than I, because you were brought up in it. But what I want to say is, +that it seems base for me to turn upon the goodness I have met in this +house, and--and--" + +"But you need not turn. In battle do your duty like a man. If it should +fall to you to do a kindness to the wounded, do it in memory of the +friends you have here. War is less savage now than it was when your +ancestors and mine tortured each other in the name of God and the king." + +"All murder is done for love of one sort or another: war is love of +country; revenge is love of some one else--men rarely kill from hate," +Vincent stammered, his heart beating at the nearness of what he was +dying to say. + +"In that case I hope I shall he hated. I shall shun people who love me," +and with that she struck the horse a lively tap and soon was far ahead +of her tongue-tied wooer. Was this a challenge? Vincent asked himself, +as he sped after her. When he reached her side the tender words were +chilled on his lips, for Olympia had in her laughing eye the, to him, +odious expression he saw there when she made the irritating speech about +himself and Jack a few minutes before. Fearing a teasing retort, he +bridled the tender outburst and rode along pensively, revolving pretexts +for another day's stay in Acredale. But when they reached home he found +an imperative mandate to set out at once, as his lingering in the North +was subjecting himself and kinsmen to doubt among the zealous partisans +of the Davis party. Olympia was alone in the library when he ran down to +tell Jack that he must start at once. He took it as an omen, and said, +confusedly: + +"It is decided; I must go in the morning." + +As this had been the plan all along, she looked up at him in surprise, +not knowing, of course, that he had been thinking of putting off the +fixed time. + +"Yes, everything has been made ready; Jack will take you to Warchester, +and we shall drive over to see you _en route_." + +"It is fortunate the letter from my mother came to-night." He stood +quite, over her chair, his eyes glittering strangely, his +manner excited. + +"Do you know what they think at home? They say that I--I am not true to +my cause; that my heart is with the North--that I want to stay here." + +"They won't think that when they hear you, as we have, breathing fury +and wrath against the Lincolnites," Olympia briskly replied, as if to +proffer her services as witness to his misguided loyalty to the South. + +"Ah, don't be so ungenerous, now--at this time. I never talk like that +now--here--never before you." He hesitated, and his voice dropped. "Why +will you put a fellow in a ridiculous light? Your sneers almost make me +ashamed of my honest pride in my State--my enthusiasm for our +sacred cause." + +"Deep feeling isn't so easily shaken; true love should brave all +things--even sneers and blows." + +"If I should tell you that I loved somebody, I am sure you would make me +seem ridiculous or ignorant of my own mind." + +"Then pray be wise and don't tell me. It's bad enough to be in love, +without being photographed in the agony." + +He looked at her in angry perplexity. Could she ever be serious? Was all +the tenderness of the past only heedless coquetry? Had she danced with +him, drove with him, sailed with him, walked in the moonlight and made +much of him in mere wanton mischief? What right had she to be so pretty +and so--without heart or sensibility? A Southern girl with the word love +on a young man's lips would have become a Circe of seductive wooing +until the tale were told, even though she could not give her heart +in return. + +"I--I am going to-morrow, you know, and--" Then he almost laughed +himself, for the droll inconsequence of this intelligence, after what +had passed, touched even his small sense of humor. "O Olympia, I mean +that I shall be far away: that I shall not see you after to-morrow. +Won't you say something to encourage me--to give me heart for +the future?" + +"Let me see," and she leaned on her elbow musingly, as if construing his +words literally, and quite unaware of the tender intent of his prayer. +"It ought to be a line to go on your sword--there's where you have the +advantage of poor Jack, he has only a musket. But, no, you being a +Southerner, have a coat of arms, and the line must go on that. I used to +know plenty of stirring phrases suitable to young men setting out for +the wars. Perhaps you know them, too; they are to be found in the +copy-books. 'The pen is mightier than the sword' wouldn't do, would it? +Pens are only fit for poets and men of peace? We should have something +brief and epigrammatic. 'That hour is regal when the sentinel mounts on +guard.' There is sublimity in that, but you won't go on guard, being +an officer. + + 'No blood-stained woes in mankind's story + Should daunt the heart that's set on glory.' + +"That's too trivial--the sort of doggerel for newspaper poets' corners +rather than a warrior's shield. + + 'Think on the perils that environ + The man that meddles with cold iron!' + +"That's too much like a caution, and a soldier's motto should urge to +daring. So we'll none of that. What do you say to the distich in honor +of your great ancestor, Pocahontas's husband, John Smith: + + 'I never yet knew a warrior but thee, + From wine, tobacco, debt, and vice so free.' + +"Perhaps, however, that might be regarded as vaunting over your +comrades, who, I've no doubt, relax the tedium of war in temperate +indulgence of some of these vices. 'Put up thy sword; states may be +saved without it,' would sound out of keeping for a warrior whose States +drew the sword when the olive-branch was offered them. You see, I can +not select any text quite suitable to your case?" + +"O Olympia, I did not believe you could be so heartless! Be serious." + +"Well, Mr. Soldier, if you insist, I know nothing better for a warrior +to bear in mind in war than these simple lines: + + 'The bravest are the tenderest, + The loving are the daring.'" + +"You are right, Olympia--those are noble lines. It gives me courage; the +loving are the daring! I love you; I dare to tell you that I love you! +Ah, Olympia, I love you so well that I have been traitor to my +fatherland! I have loitered here in the hope that you would give me some +sign--some word to take with me in the dark path Fate has set for me +to follow." + +He came back to her side now, passion and zeal in his shining eyes, +ardent, elate, expectant. But she put the hand behind her that he +reached out to seize as he fell upon one knee by her chair. Her voice +softened and a warm light shone in her eye when she spoke: + +"I beg you to get up; we cold-blooded people up here don't understand +that old-fashioned way." As he started back with something like a groan, +she gave him a quick glance that electrified him. He seized her hand +before she could snatch it away and pressed it to his lips. + +"Pray be serious. You are too young to talk of love." + +"I am twenty-two; my father was married at nineteen." + +"No, dear Vincent, don't talk of this now. You don't know your own mind +yet. I am sure that when you go home and think over the matter you will +see that it would be impossible, but, even if you were sure of yourself, +I never could think of it. You are going to take up arms against all I +hold dear and sacred. If I were your affianced, with the love for you +that you deserve, I would break the pledge when you joined in arms +against my family and country." + +"You have known for years, Olympia, that I loved you; that I was only +waiting to finish college to tell you of my love. Why didn't you +tell me--" + +"Tell you what?" + +"I say, Polly," Jack cried, bursting in, radiant and eager. "I have the +last man of the one hundred--" Observing Vincent he stopped. It seemed +to him a sort of treason to talk of his regiment before the man who was +so soon to be in the ranks against them. "Oh, I can't tell our secrets +before the enemy," he ended, jocosely. The word went to Vincent's heart +like the prod of sharp steel. He gave Olympia one pathetic glance, and, +without a word, hastened from the room. In spite of a great many adroit +efforts, Vincent could get no further speech with Olympia alone that +night. Early in the morning he was driven, with Mrs. Sprague and Jack to +the station. Olympia sent down excuses and adieus, alleging some not +incredible ailing of the sort that is always gallantly at the disposal +of damsels not minded to do things people expect. + +Presently, when the lorn lover had been gone three days, a letter came +from Washington to Olympia, and, though it was handed to her by her +mother, the maiden made no proffer to confide its contents to the +naturally curious parent. But we, who can look over the reader's +shoulder, need not be kept in the dark. + + "Dear Olympia" (the letter said), "it was hard to leave + without a last word. All the way here I have been thinking + of our little talk--if that can be called a talk where one + side has lost his senses and the other is trifling or mystifying. + I told you that I loved you. I thrill even yet with + the joy of that. You are so wayward and capricious, so + coy, that I began to fear that I never could get your car long + enough to tell you what I felt you must have long known. You + didn't say that you loved me; but, dear Olympia, neither did + you say that you did not. The rose has fallen on the hem + of your robe. When its fragrance steals into your senses, + you will stoop and put the blossom in your bosom. It is the + war that divides us, you say. It will soon pass. And who + knows what may happen to make you glad that, since there + must be strife, I am one of the enemy rather than a stranger? + I feel that we shall be brought together in danger, when it + may be my happiness to serve you or yours. But, even if I + am not so favored, I shall still ask your love. You know + our Southern ways. Whom I love my mother loves. But + my mother and sister Rosa have loved you long and dearly. + They have known you as long as I have, and when you consent + to come to us you will take no stranger's place in the + heart and home of the family. Remember the motto you + gave me. You are a woman, therefore tender; I am daring, + Heaven knows, in aspiring to such a reward as your love. + But I dare to love you; if you cast that love from you, love + will lose its tenderness, bravery its daring. One of the high + mountains of hope whereon I sun my fainting soul is the + knowledge that you love no one else. I won't say that you + should in love hold to the ride 'first come first served,' but I + do say, 'first dare, first win.' And when you reflect on what + you said about the accident of war separating us, just put + Jack in my place. What would you think of a Southern + girl who should refuse him because he fought on the side of + his family and his State? What is the old line? 'I could + not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honor more.' I'm + sure I couldn't ask your love if there were not honor in my + own. The war will be over and forgotten in six months, + but you and I are young; we have long years before us. + The right will win in the contest, and, right or wrong, I am + yours, and only yours, while there are life in my body and + hope in my soul. VINCENT." + +In a little glow of what was plainly not displeasure, the young woman +"filed" this "writ of pre-emption," as Jack afterward called it, in +careful hiding, and resumed meditation of the writer. It could not now +be answered, for letters between the lines were subject to censorship, +and Olympia perhaps shrank from adding to her lover's misery by exposing +his rejection to the unfeeling eyes of the postal agents. There was pity +in the resolve as well as prudence. Had Vincent been able to read the +workings of the lady's mind, he would have donned his rebel gray with +more buoyant joy that day in Richmond. Another ally of the absent came +in the course of the day. Miss Boone, the daughter of the opulent +contractor and chief local magnate, called to plan work for the +soldiers. Vincent's name being mentioned, Miss Boone said, in the +apparent effusion of girlish intimacy: + +"I like Mr. Atterbury very much. He is a charming fellow. But, for your +family's sake, I am glad he is away from this house." At Olympia's +surprised start she nodded as if to emphasize this, continuing: "Yes, +and for good reasons. You know our house is the high court of +abolitionism? Well, papa's cronies have made Mr. Atterbury's visit cause +of suspicion." + +"Suspicion? What do you mean?" + +Miss Boone was paling and blushing painfully. "Dear Olympia, I hate to +say it; but you should know it. You will hear it elsewhere. Cruel things +like this always come out. You know that feeling has been very bitter +here since the dreadful attack on the Massachusetts soldiers in +Baltimore? Radicals make no distinction between Democrats and rebels, +and--I'm to say it--but Mr. Atterbury is charged with being a spy +here--and--and your family, being Democrats, are thought to sympathize +with the rebels. Of course, your friends know better. I and many more +know that the Atterburys and Spragues have been intimate for thirty +years. But in war-time people seem to lose their senses and change their +opinions like lake breezes; prejudices grow like gourds, and the people +who do least and talk loudest make public sentiment." + +"What an outrageous state of things!" Olympia cried, hotly. "Our family +sympathize with traitors indeed! Why, it was my father who, in the +Senate, upheld Jackson when he stamped out South Carolina in its +rebellion. Oh! it is monstrous, such a calumny. Why, just think of it! +The only man in the family is a private soldier, when he might have been +high in rank, with such influences as we could bring to bear. O Kate! it +almost makes one pray for a defeat to punish such ingrates!" + +"Yes; but for Heaven's sake don't let any one hear you say such a +thing--for your brother's sake! He is already the victim of the feeling +I have spoken about. He was to have had the captaincy of the first one +hundred men he raised. But the Governor has been made to change the +usual rule, and the colonel is to appoint the officers." + +"And Jack isn't to have a commission?" + +"No, not now; only men of the war party are to be made officers." + +"Good heavens! Nobody could be more eager for the war than Jack. It is +his passion. His delight in it shocks my mother, who hates war. What +stronger evidence of sympathy for the cause could he show than joining +the army before finishing college?" + +"But he is a Democrat--and--and--only Republicans are to be trusted at +first." Miss Boone blushed as she stammered this, for it was her own +father, in his function as chairman of the war committee, who had +insisted upon this discrimination. Worse still, but this Kate did not +mention--it was Boone's own work that kept Jack from his expected +epaulets. There had long been a feud between Boone and the late Senator +Sprague, and Olympia conjectured most of what the daughter reserved. + +"Your brother has done wonders, everybody says; he has the finest +fellows in the township, and he ought to be colonel, at least," Miss +Boone said, rising to go. + +"Oh, I have no fear that he will not win his way," Olympia replied, +cheerfully. "The brave in battle are captains, no matter what rank +they hold." + +The odious partisanship and ready calumny of her own compatriots gave a +strange bent to her mind in dealing with another problem. Vincent, too, +had suffered from the wretched battle of his family's enemies. After +all, might he not be right? Might the war not be a mere game of havoc +played by the base and unscrupulous? Country, right or wrong, had been +her family watchword since her ancestor flew to fight the British +invaders. It was Jack's watchword, too, and his conduct in battle should +put these wretches to shame. She thought more kindly of the rebel in +this vengeful mood, and straightway ran up-stairs, where, sitting by the +open window and lulled by the piping of the robins, she took the letter +from its pretty covert, read it again with heightened color, and, +smiling rosily at the face she saw in the mirror, raised it to her lips +and sighed softly. + +When a whole people have but one thought in mind that thought becomes +mania. Acredale had but this one thought, "Beat rebellion and punish +rebels." "On to Richmond!" was the cry, and forming ranks to go there +the business that everybody took in hand. These had been great days to +Jack. He began to feel something of the burden that a feudal chief must +have borne at the summoning of the clans. So soon as it spread in the +country-side that "young Sprague had 'listed," all the "ageable" sons of +the soil were fired with a burning zeal to take up arms and bear him +company. Boys from sixteen to twenty these were for the most part, and +there was bitter grumbling when Jack firmly refused to take the names of +any under twenty. Some he solaced with a gun, a pistol, or such object +as he knew was dear to the country boy's heart. They returned to the +relieved hearthstone loud in Jack's praise, having his promise to enlist +them when they were twenty, if the war lasted so long; and if the wise +smiled at this, wasn't it well known that the great army now gathering +was to set out at latest by the 4th of July? And didn't everybody know +that it was going to march direct to Richmond? There were trying scenes +too, in the _role_ Jack had assumed so gayly. He began to see that war +had ministers of pain and sorrow hardly less cruel than those dealing +death and wounds. Tearful parents came to him day by day to beg his help +in restoring sons who had fled to the wars. Others came to warn him that +if their boys applied to him he must refuse them, as they were +under age. + +In this list the Perley sisters, Dick's three maiden aunts, came on a +respectful embassy to implore Jack to discourage their nephew, who had +quite deserted school and gave all his time to drilling with the +"college squad." Jack pledged himself that he would hand Dick over to +the justice of the peace, to be detained at the house of refuge, if he +didn't give up his evil designs. But, when that young aspirant appeared, +so soon as his aunts had gone, and reminded Jack of years of intimate +companionship in dare-deviltry, the elder saw that his own safety would +be in flight, and that night, his company was removed to Warchester. +There in the great camp, surrounded by sentinels, his Acredale cronies +were shut out, and Jack began in earnest his soldier life. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +GUELPH AND GHIBELLINE. + + +The shifting of Jack's company to the regimental camp in Warchester left +a broad gap in the lines of the social life of Acredale. Jack's going +alone, to say nothing of the others, would have eclipsed the gayety of +many home groups besides his own, in which the Sprague primacy in a +social sense was acknowledged. Since the influx of the new-made rich, +under the stimulus of the war and Acredale's advantages as a resort, +there were a good many who disputed the Sprague leadership--tacitly +conceded rather than asserted. Chief of the dissidents was Elisha Boone, +who, by virtue of longer tenure, vast wealth, and political precedence, +divided not unequally the homage paid the patrician family. Boone was +fond of speaking of himself as a "self-made man," and the satirical were +not slow to add that he had no other worship than his "creator." This +was a gibe made rather for the antithesis than its accuracy, for even +Boone's enemies owned that he was a good neighbor, and, where his +prejudices were not in question, a man with few distinctly repellent +traits. He delighted in showing his affluence--not always in good taste. +He filled his fine house with bizarre crowds, and made no stint to his +friends who needed his purse or his influence. He had in the early days +when he came to Acredale aspired to political leadership in the +Democratic party. + +But Senator Sprague was too firmly enshrined in the loyalty of the +district to be overcome by the parvenu's manoeuvres or his money. His +ambition in time turned to rancor as he marked the patrician's +disdainful disregard of his (Boone's) efforts to supplant him. Hatred of +the Spragues became something like a passion in Boone. Sarcasms and +disparagement leveled at his social and political pretensions he +attributed to the Senator and his family. All sorts of slurs and gossip +were reported to him by busybodies, until it became a settled purpose +with Boone to make the Sprague family feel heavy heart-burnings for the +sum of the affronts he had endured. It was to them he attributed the +whispered gibes about his illiteracy; his shady business methods; the +awful story of his handiwork in the ruin of Richard Perley, the +spendthrift brother of the Misses Perley. Once, too, when he had so well +manipulated the district delegates that he was sure of nomination in the +convention, Senator Sprague had hurried home from Washington and +defeated him just as the prize was in his grasp. The Senator made a +speech to the delegates, in which he pointedly declared that it was men +of honor and brains, not men of money, that should be chosen to make +the laws. + +"The time will come, Senator, that you'll be sorry for this hour's +work," Boone said, joining Sprague at the door as he was leaving +the hall. + +"How's that?" the other asked, with just the shade of superciliousness +in the tone admired in the Senate for suavity. "I hope I am always sorry +when I do wrong, in speech or act; I teach my children to be." + +"Well, if you think it right to run the party for a few lordly idlers +too proud to mix with the people--men who think they are better born and +better bred than the rest of us--I don't want to have anything more to +do with it. I will go elsewhere." + +"That's your privilege, sir. The Whigs have plenty of room for self-made +men. Though I do think you are taking too personal a view of to-day's +contest, your defeat was purely a matter of duty. Moore, whom we have +chosen, was a poor Irish settler here before you came. He was promised +the nomination two years ago." With a lofty bow the Senator turned and +stalked in another direction as if he did not care for the other's +further company. Even this small and wholly unintended affront worked in +the poor, misjudging victim of morbid self-esteem, as a cinder in the +eye will torture and blind the sufferer to all the landscape. Boone +mingled no more with the Democrats. He threw himself with the fervor of +the convert into the radical wing of the Whigs, and was brought into +close relation with some of the most admired of the band of great men +who created the young Republican party. If Douglas, Dickinson, Cass, Van +Buren, Seymour, or any eminent Democrat passing through Warchester +stopped to break bread with their colleague Sprague in his Acredale +retreat, straightway the splendid Sumner, the Ciceronian Phillips, or +the Walpole-Seward, or some other of the shining galaxy of agitators, +whose light so shone before men that the whole land was presently +brought out of darkness, met at Boone's table to maintain the balance in +distinction. + +It was Boone's liberal purse that paid the expenses of the memorable +campaign in the Warchester district, wherein the Democrats were first +shaken in their hold. It was his money that finally secured the seat in +Congress for Oswald, who was his tenant and debtor. It was therefore no +surprise when Oswald--who had been greatly aided in business affairs by +Senator Sprague--passed over the prior claims of his old patron's son, +and gave the cadetship to Wesley Boone, the son of his new liege. It was +looked upon as another step in the ladder of gratitude when Wesley +carried off the captaincy in the Acredale company, though everybody knew +that young Boone was not in any way so well fitted for the "straps" as +Jack. When one day an item appeared in the local paper to the effect +that President Lincoln had shown the "sagacity for which he was so well +known, in honoring our distinguished townsman, Elisha Boone, Esq., with +the appointment of ambassador to Russia," everybody thought the +statement only natural. There were many congratulations. But when, +having declined this splendid proffer, the authorities pressed the place +of "Assistant Secretary of the Treasury" upon their townsman, the whole +village awoke to the fact that all its greatness had not gone when +Senator Sprague was gathered to his fathers. + +The event was potent as the cross Constantine saw, or dreamed he saw, in +the sky, in the conversion of party workers to the new Administration. +Everybody looked forward to an eminent future for the potent partisan +and millionaire, the first of that--now not uncommon--hierarchy that +replace the feudal barons in modern social forces. Had he listened to +the eager urging of Kate, his daughter and prime minister, Boone would +have accepted the foreign mission; but he stubbornly refused to listen +to her in this. + +Kate Boone was like her father only in strong will, vehement purpose, +and a certain humorous independence that made her a great delight among +even the anti-Boone partisans in both Acredale and Warchester. Since the +death of her mother, Kate had been head of her father's household--an +imperious, capricious, kind-hearted tyrant, who ruled mostly by jokes +and persuasions of the gentler sort. It was her father's one lament that +Kate was not "the boy of the family, for she had more of the stuff that +makes the man in her little finger than Wes had in his whole body." She +kept him in a perpetual unrest of delight and dismay. She espoused none +of his piques or prejudices; she was as apt to bring people he disliked +to his dinner-table as those he liked. She was forever making him +forgive wrongs, or what he fancied to be wrongs, and causing him seem at +fault in all his squabbles, so that he was often heard to say, when +things went as he didn't want them: + +"I don't know whether I am to blame or the other fellow until Kate hears +the story." + +His illiteracy and lack of polish were the secret grief of the rich +man's life. Kate was quick in detecting this. Much of it she saw was due +to the shyness that unschooled men feel in the presence of college men, +or those who have been trained. On returning from her seminary life, the +young girl set about remedying the single break in her father's +perfections. She was far too clever to let him know her ambitious +purpose. With a patience almost maternal and an exquisite adroitness, +she interested him in her own reading, which was comprehensive, if not +very well ordered. But she won the main point. During the long winter +evenings her father found no pleasure like that Kate had always ready +for him in the cheery library. He was soon amazed at his keen interest +in the world of mind unrolled to his understanding; more than all, he +retained with the receptivity of a boy all that was read to him. Kate +made believe that she needed his help in reviewing her own studies, and +so carried him through all she had gone over in the seminary classes. +Boone began presently to see that education is not the result of mere +attendance in schools and the parroting of the classics in a few +semesters in college. Without suspecting it, his varied business +enterprises and his wide experience of men had grounded him as well in +the ordinary forms of knowledge as nine in ten college men attain. + +"Education, after all, papa, is like a trade. A man may be able to +handle all the tools and not know their names. Now, you are a +well-informed man, but, because you didn't know logic, grammar, +scientific terms, and the like, you thought yourself ignorant." + +In the new confidence in himself he was surprised at his own ability in +launching a subject in the presence of his eminent friends when +especially Kate was on hand to support the conversation. She got him not +only to buy fine pictures, as most rich men do, but she made him see +wherein their value lay, so that when artists and amateurs came to +admire his treasures, he could talk to them without gross solecisms. + +"I'm not a liberal education to you, papa, as Steele said of the Duchess +of Devonshire. That implies too much, but I am an index. You can find +out what you need to know by keeping track of my ignorance." + +Elisha Boone's domestic circle was a termagancy--as Kate often told his +guests--tempered by wit and good-humor. He was prouder of his daughter +than of his self-made rank or his revered million. In moments of +expansive good-nature he invited business or political associates to +"Acre Villa," as his place was called, to enjoy the surprise Kate's +graces wrought in the guests. But these were not always times of delight +to the doting parent. Kate was a shrewd judge of the amenities; and if +the personages who came, at the father's bidding, gave the least sign of +a not unnatural surprise to find a girl so well bred and self-contained +in the daughter of such a man as Boone, she became very frigid and left +the father to do the honors of the evening visit. No entreaty could move +her to reappear on the scene. In time, the prodigal papa was careful to +submit a list of the names of his proposed guests, as chamberlains give +royalty a descriptive list of those to be bidden to court. + +Kate was on terms that, if not cordial, were not constrained, with the +Spragues. She had gone to the same seminary with Olympia, had danced +with Jack, and, in the cadetship affair, had plainly given her opinion +that her brother Wesley, having no taste or fitness for military life, +Jack, who had, should have the prize. But two motives entered into the +father's determination: one was to annoy and humiliate the Spragues; the +other, the sleepless craving of the parvenu to get for his son what had +not been his, in spite of all the adulation paid him--the conceded +equality of social condition. The army was then, as I believe it is +considered now, the surest sign of higher caste in a democracy. Wesley, +by the mere right to epaulets, would be of the acknowledged gentility. +Nobody could sneer at him; no doors could be opened grudgingly when he +called. He would, in virtue of his West Point insignia, be a knighted +member of the blood royal of the republic. Some of this mysterious +unction would distill itself into the unconsecrated ichor of the rest of +the family, and Kate, as well as himself, would be part of the patrician +caste. The daughter looked upon all this good-humoredly; she shared none +of her father's morbid delusions on the subject. She rallied the cadet a +good deal on his mission. When Wesley, after the June examinations, +which he passed by the narrowest squeeze--'twas said by outside +influence--came home to display his cadet buttons and his neat gray +uniform in Acredale, Kate bantered the complacent young +warrior jocosely. + +"We shall all have to live up to your shoulder-straps and brass buttons +after this, Wesley," she cried, as the proud young dandy strutted over +the arabesques of the library, where the delighted papa marched him, the +better to survey the boy's splendor. "And think of the fate that awaits +you if, in the esteem of Acredale, you should turn out less than a +Napoleon." + +"Be serious, Kate, and don't tease the boy. Wesley knows what's expected +of him; he has an opportunity to show what is in his stock. Thank God, +men in the North can now come to their own without going down on their +knees to the South!" + +Wesley grinned. He was no match for his sister in the humorous bouts +waged over his head against his father's prejudices and cherished social +schemes. During the vacation she put a heavy penalty of raillery upon +his swelling pride and vanity, sarcasm that tried the paternal patience +as well as his own. Wesley, however, had a large fund of the philosophy +that comes from a high estimate of one's self. He was well favored in +looks and build, though somewhat effeminate, with his small hands and +carefully shod feet. He would have been called a "dude" had the word +been known in its present significance; as it was, he was regarded as a +coxcomb by the derisive group hostile to the father's social +pretensions. He was the first of the golden youth of his set to adopt +the then reviving mode of parting the hair on the middle of the head. In +the teeth of the village derision, he persisted in this with a tenacity +that Kate declared gave promise of a "Wellington." For many who had at +first adopted the foreign freak had been ridiculed out of it, +discouraged by the obstinate refusal of the generality to follow the +lead. In those sturdily primitive days the rich youth of the land had +not so universally gone abroad as they do now, and "the proper thing" +among the "well born" was not so distinctly laid down in the code of the +_elite_. The accent and manners that now mark "good form" seemed queer, +not to say _bouffe_, to even the first circles of home society, and the +first disciples of "Anglomania" had a very hard time polishing the raw +material. The home life of the Boones was something better and sincerer +than the impression made upon their neighbors by the father's invincible +push and high-handed ways. His daughter and son had been born to him in +middle age. They had the reverence for the parent marked in the conduct +of children who associate gray hairs with the venerable. With all her +strong sense and self-assertion, Kate was proud of the fact that she was +her father's daughter. It was a distinction to bear his name. His +solidity, his masterful will, his well-defined, if narrow, convictions, +were to her the sanctities one is apt to associate with lineage or +magistracy. Wesley, though less impressionable than his sister, shared +these secret devotions to the parent's parts, and bowed before his +father's behests, in the filial reverence of the sons of the patriarchs. +When Elisha Boone denounced the outbreak of John Brown at Harper's Ferry +as more criminal than Aaron Burr's treason, his children made his +prepossessions their own; when, three years later, the father proudly +eulogized the uprising he had so luridly condemned, his children saw no +tergiversation in the swift conversion. When to this full measure of lay +perfection the complexion of Levite godliness was superadded by election +to the deaconate in the Baptist Church, it will readily be seen that two +young people, in whom the hard worldliness of wealth and easy conditions +had not bred home agnosticism, were material for all the credulities of +parent worship. Kate, a year older than Wesley, soon encountered the +influences which gave the first shock to her faith and gradually +tinctured her sentiments with a clearer insight into her father's +character. Oddly enough, it was through the rival house this came. +Olympia, a sort of ablegate in the social hierarchy of the village, had +been thrown much with Kate, and was greatly amused with her point of +view in many of the snarls arising in a provincial society. The intimacy +had been begun in the New York school, where both had been in the same +classes, and, though the families saw nothing of each other, the girls +did. Kate was soon led to see that the Spragues had none of the +patrician pretension her father attributed to them. Jack, too, had made +much of her, and seemed to delight in her sharp retorts to the inanities +of would-be wits. The episode in Elisha Boone's life, that all his +success, wealth, and after exemplary conduct had not condoned in the +village mind, was his handiwork in the ruin of Richard Perley, I set +this down with something of the delight Carlyle expresses when in the +rubbish of history he found, among the shams called kings and nobles, +anything like a man. + +It is worth the noting, this trait of Acredale, at a time when riches +and success are looked upon as condoning every breach of the decalogue. +Just how the intimacy between the two men came about was not known. It, +however, was known that when Boone first came to Acredale he had been +helped in his affairs by Dick Perley's lavish means. In a few years +Boone was the patron and Perley the client. As Boone grew rich Perley +grew poor, until finally all was gone. Then the fairest lands of the +Perley inheritance passed to Boone. It was the fireside history of the +whole Caribee Valley that the rich contractor had encouraged the ruined +gentleman in the excesses that ended the profligate's career; that the +two men had staked large sums at play in Bucephalo, and that inability +to meet his losses to Boone had caused Dick Perley's flight. He had been +seen by one of the village people a year or two before the war in +Richmond, and had been heard of in California later, but no word had +ever reached his family, not even when his wife died, two years after +his exile. There were those who said that Boone was in correspondence +with his victim, and it was known that drafts, made by Dick Perley, had +been paid by Boone at the bank in Warchester. Between Boone and the +Perley ladies, whose house was separated from "Acre Villa" by a wide +lawn and hedge, there had always been the tacit enmity that wrong on one +side and meek unreproach on the other breeds. The rancor that manifested +itself in Boone's treatment of the Misses Perley was not imitated by +them. They never alluded to their affluent neighbor, never suffered +gossip concerning the Boones in what Olympia humorously called the +"Orphic adytum," the "tabby-shop," as Wesley named the Perley parlors. +Young Dick, however, had none of the scruples that kept his aunts +silent. One dreadful day, when he had been nagged to fisticuffs with +Wesley, whose dudish dignity exacted a certain restraint with the +hot-headed youngster, Elisha Boone, behind the thick hedge, heard on the +highway outside his grounds this outrageous anathema: + +"You're no more than a thief, Wes Boone; your father stole all he's got. +Some day I'll make him give it back, or send him to jail, where he ought +to be now." + +Schoolboy though the railer was, Boone staggered against the hedge, the +words brought a dreadful flush and then a livid pallor to the miserable +parent's cheek. He dared not trust himself to speak then. Nor was the +antipathy the outbreak caused mitigated by the savage thrashing that +Wesley, throwing aside his dignity, proceeded to administer to the +unbridled accuser. After that, by the father's sternest command, neither +of his children was to return the courteous salutation the Perley ladies +had never ceased to bestow in meeting the Boones walking or in company. +Now, Dick was the kind of boy that those who know boy nature would call +adorable. To the Philistine, without humor or sympathy, I'm afraid he +was a very bad boy. He was until late in his teens painfully shy with +grown people and strangers; even under the eyes of his aunts and with +youths of his own age, diffident to awkwardness. He had the face of a +well-fed cherub and the gentle, dreamy, and wistful eye of a girl in +love. With his elders he had the halting, confused speech of a new boy +in a big school. But in the woods or on the playground he was the +merriest, most daring, and winningly obstreperous lad that ever filled +three maiden aunts with terror and delight. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A NAPOLEONIC EPIGRAM. + + +For weeks the regiment expected every day the order to march. The guns +had been distributed and all their fascinating secrets mastered. In +evolution and manual the men regarded themselves as quite equal to the +regulars. The strict orders forbidding absence overnight were hardly +needed, as no one ventured far, fearing that the regiment would be +whirled away to Washington during the night. Had the men been older or +more experienced in war, the weeks of waiting would have been delightful +rather than dreary. The regiment was the object of universal interest in +the town. Base-ball and the alluring outdoor pastimes that now divert +the dawdlers of cities were unknown. Hence the camp-ground of the +Caribees was the matinee, ball-match, tennis, boating, all in one of the +idle afternoon world of Warchester. At parade and battalion drill the +scene was like the race-ground on gala days. + +All the fine equipages of the town drew up in the roads and lanes +flanking the camp, where with leveled glasses the mothers, sisters, and +sweethearts watched the columns as they skirmished, formed squares, or +"passed the defile," quite sure that the rebels would fly in confusion +before such surprising manoeuvres. This daily audience stimulated such a +fierce rivalry among the companies that the men turned out at all hours +of the day to drill and practice in squads, rather than loiter about the +camp. One day great news aroused the camp: the Governor was to review +the regiment and send it to the front. All Warchester poured out to the +Holly Hills, and when at five o'clock the companies filed out on the +shining green there was such a cheer that the men felt repaid for the +tiresome wait of months. The civic commander-in-chief watched the +movements with affable scrutiny, surrounded by a profusely uniformed +staff, to whom he expressed the most politic approval. He was heard to +remark that no such soldiers had been seen on this continent since Scott +had marched to Lundy's Lane. + +There was a throb of passionate joy in the ranks when this eulogium +reached the men, for the words were hardly spoken when they were known +in every company by that mysterious telegraphy which makes the human +body a conductor swift as an electric wire among large masses of men. +Nor were the words less relished that the eulogist was as ignorant of +military excellence as a Malay of the uses of a patent mower. The men, +it was easy to see, were much more efficient in movement than the +officers in handling them. Colonel Oswald had wasted weeks in the study +of the occult evolutions of the battalion; they were still a maddening +mystery to him that fatal day. For six weeks his dreams had been haunted +by airy battalions filing over impossible defiles. The commands he gave +that day would have thrown the companies into hopeless confusion had the +junior officers not boldly substituted the right ones for the colonel's +blunders. This, however, passed unnoted, for the crowds, and even the +men, were not the sharp critics they afterward became when mistakes by +an incompetent officer were saluted by shouts of ridicule, and the men +contemptuously disregarded them. When Colonel Oswald ordered them to +"present arms" from a "place rest" there was more perplexity than +merriment, and the admiring crowd saw nothing peculiar in one company +snatching up bayonets to present while others remained perfectly still. + +Jack, to whom the manual was a very sacred thing, broke into fierce +ridicule of the commander, declaring that he was better fitted for +sutler than colonel. When the savage speech was reported to headquarters +that young fellow's prospects for the straps--never the best--were by no +means improved. The review brought bitter disappointment to the +regiment. The inspector-general, who was present, informed the colonel +that no more than a thousand men could be accepted in one body; that +five hundred of the Caribees would have to be divided among other troops +in the State. The order aroused wild excitement. Half the men looked +upon the edict as a scheme to give the politicians more places for their +feudatories. Indeed, though that was not the origin of the order, that +was the use made of it. Some of the junior officers, who disliked Oswald +and distrusted his capacity to command, drew out very willingly, and of +course carried many of their men with them. + +But in the end the matter had to be decided by lot. Now this chance +threw Wesley Boone out, and there was great rejoicing in the Acredale +group, who hoped that this stroke of luck would make place for their +favorite, Jack Sprague. But, to everybody's astonishment, a day or two +after the event, Wesley resumed his place in Company K, and gave out +that it was by order of the Governor. Jack was urged by the major of the +regiment, who had gone with the five hundred, to cast his fortunes with +the new body, promising a speedy lieutenancy. But Jack would not desert +the Caribees. All of Company K, and many in the others, had enlisted on +his word, and he could not in honor leave them. The opposition journals +had from the first denounced the division of the Caribees as a trick of +the partisans, and, sure enough, the men were given to understand that +there would be no move to Washington until after the election, then +pending. This was a municipal contest, and the Administration party made +good use of the incipient soldiery to obtain a majority in the town. + +Promotion was quite openly held out as a reward for those who could +influence most votes for the Administration candidates. At night the +various companies were sent into the city to take part in the political +propaganda; to march in processions or occupy conspicuous places at the +party meetings. The private soldiers were almost to a man Democrats, but +the chance to escape the long and irksome evenings of the camp and join +the frolic and adventure of the street made most of them willing enough +to play the part of claque or figurantes. Jack, of course, refused to +take part in these scenic rallies, making known his sentiments in +vehement disdain. He detested Oswald, who had quit his party, not on a +question of principle, but merely for place, and Jack did not spare him +in his satirical allusions to the new uses invented for the military. + +A still more trying injustice befell the luckless Jack. For a long time +he had, as senior, acted as orderly sergeant of Company K. This officer +is virtually the executive functionary in the company. It is his place +to form the men in rank, make out details, and prepare everything for +the captain. The orderly sergeant is to the company what the adjutant is +to the regiment. He carries a musket and marches with the ranks, but in +responsibility is not inferior to an officer. One evening when it was +known that orders had come for the regiment to march, Jack, having +formed the company for parade, received a paper from the captain's +orderly to read. He opened it without suspicion, and, among other +changes in the corps, read, "Thomas Trask to be first sergeant of +Company K, and he will be obeyed and respected accordingly." Jack read +the monstrous wrong without a tremor. The men flung down their arms and +broke into a fierce clamor of rage and grief. Many of them were Jack's +classmates. These swarmed about him. One, assuming the part of +spokesman, cried out: + +"It's an infamous outrage. They cheated you out of your captaincy; they +have put every slight they could upon you. But we have some rights. We +won't stand this. There are thirty of your classmates who will do +whatever you say to show these people that they can't act like this." + +There were mutiny and desperation in the air. It needed but a spark to +destroy the usefulness of the company. But, as is often the case with +impetuous, hot-headed spirits, Jack cooled as his friends grew hot. He +was the more patient that the injustice was his injury alone. He +remained in his place at the right of the company, and confronted the +rebellious group with amazing self-control. Then loud above the +murmuring his voice rang out: + +"Company, attention! fall in, fall in! Any man out of the ranks will be +sent to the guard-house. Eight dress, steady on the left." + +Many a time afterward these angry mutineers heard that sonorous, clear, +boyish treble in stern and determined command; but they never heard it +signalize a more heroic temper than at that moment, when, himself deeply +wronged, he forced them to go back in the ranks to receive the +interloper. They "dressed up" sullenly as Jack called the roll for the +last time, and received Trask, the new orderly, at a "present," which, +though not in the tactics, Jack exacted as a penitence for the momentary +revolt. Poor Trask looked very unhappy indeed as his displaced rival +stepped back to the rear and left the new orderly to march the company +out from the narrow way to take its place in the parade. It was easy to +see that he would have been very glad to postpone or evade his new +honors, on any pretext, for the time. He was so confused that Jack, from +the flank, was obliged to repeat the few commands needed to get the +company to the field. + +Fortunately for the efficiency of the raw army, as this public +discontent reached its most acute stage orders came to march the troops +to Washington. The Caribees were the first body of soldiers sent from +Warchester, and there was a memorable scene when the jaunty ranks filed +through the streets to the station. By the time the men reached the +train they discovered that they could never make war laden down as they +were by knapsacks filled with the preposterous impedimenta feminine +foresight had provided. + +The men's backs bulged out with such a pack of supplies that when the +regiment halted each man was forced to kneel and let a comrade take off +or put on his knapsack. And then the march through the streets--every +man known to scores in the throng! The brisk, high-stepping drum corps +rat-a-tatting at intervals; then tempests of cheers, flashing banners +and patriotic symbols at every window; tears, laughter, humorous cries, +jokes, sobbing outbreaks. The whole city was in march as the Caribees +reached the thronged main thoroughfare. Ready hands relieved the +soldiers of their burden as the line filed in sight of the Governor, who +had come to speed the parting braves. + +Lads and lasses made merry with the elated warriors. The muskets were +turned into bouquet-holders, and the first move toward real war took on +the air of a floral _fete_. There were popping corks and sounds of +convivial revelry that made the scene anything but warlike. Jack, in a +cluster of his town cronies, caught sight of his mother at one of the +windows of the Parthenon Hotel. He wafted her a joyous kiss, pretending +not to see the tears falling down her cheeks. Olympia was not apparently +very deeply affected. She made her way through the crowd to her +brother's side, and with an air of the liveliest interest demanded: + +"Jack, what have you in your knapsack? Let me see." + +"O Polly, it's such a job to close it! What do you want? It is harder to +manage than a Saratoga trunk. I can't really stuff another pin or needle +in, so pray keep what you have for my furlough." + +"No, I am not going to put anything in." She bent over while Barney +Moore, one of Jack's Acredale comrades, gallantly loosed the straps. She +searched carefully through the divers articles, taking everything out, +Jack looking on ruefully while his companions gathered about in vague +curiosity. When she had removed and restored everything she arose, +saying: "I feel easier now. I merely looked to see if that marshal's +_baton_ I have heard so much about was there. I shall feel easy in my +mind now, because a _baton_ in your baggage would have made you too +adventurous." + +There was a great shout of laughter as the fun of the incident flashed +upon the listeners, many of whom had heard the ingenuous Jack often in +other days sighing for war, and the chance that Napoleon said every man +had of finding a marshal's _baton_ in his knapsack. Jack bore the banter +very equably, knowing that Olympia was rather striving to keep his +spirits up and divert him from the tears in his mother's eyes than +indulge her own humor. Indeed, most of the gayety at this moment was +contributed by those whose hearts were heaviest. The consecrated +priesthood of patriotism must see no weakness in those left behind. The +only son, now brought face to face with the meaning and consequence of +his rashly seized chance for glory, must not be reminded that perhaps a +grave lay beyond the thin veil of the near future; must not be reminded +that heavy hearts and dim eyes were left behind, feeding day by day, +hour by hour, on terror and dread, unsupported by the changing scenes, +the wild excitement, and the joyous vicissitudes of the soldier's life, +it was a cruel comedy acted every day between 1861 and 1865. They +laughed who were not gay, and they seemed indifferent who were fainting +with despair. The courage of battle is mere brutish insensibility +compared with the abnegation of the million mothers who gave their boys +to the bestial maw of war. + +The harrowing ceremonial of parting is ended. The train moves slowly out +of the station, and a murmur of sobs and cheers echoes until it is far +beyond the easternmost limits of the city. After a journey of two days +and a night the train readied Philadelphia. Jack was all eyes and ears +for the spectacle the country presented. In every station through which +the regiment passed crowds welcomed the blue-coats. Women fed them, or +those who seemed in need, thinking, perhaps, of their own distant +darlings receiving like tenderness from the stranger. + +In Philadelphia, the regiment marched across the city to resume its +journey. It was a cold spring night, and the regimental quartermaster +and commissary had made no provision for the men. Indeed, as the +observant Jack afterward learned, it was part of the plan of the groups +that first began to create great fortunes during the war to make the +soldiers pay for their rations _en route_ to the seat of war, or depend +upon the charity of citizens along the railway lines. The Government +paid for the supplies just the same, while the money went into the +pockets of contractors and quartermasters. After a weary tramp through +what seemed to the soldiers the biggest city in the world, the regiment, +with blistered feet, hungry and cross, were halted before a long, low +wooden building, through whose rough glass windows cheerful lights could +be seen. A rumor spread that they were to have a hot supper, and, sure +enough, they were marched in, dividing on each side of four long tables +that stretched into spectral distance, in the feeble glimmer of the +oil-lamps hanging from the ceiling. Most of the men in Jack's company, +at least, were gently nurtured, but the steaming oysters, cold beef, and +generous "chunks" of bread, filled their eyes with a magnificence and +their stomachs with a gentle repletion no banquet before or after ever +equaled. The feast was set in the same place during four years, by the +Sanitary Society, I think, but the memory of that homely board, +plenteously spread, is in the mind of many a veteran who faced warward +during the conflict. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +ON THE POTOMAC. + + +The next morning, when the men debarked to march through Baltimore, +every one was on the _qui vive_ to fasten in his memory the scene of the +shameful attack upon the soldiers of Massachusetts on the 19th of April. +But, as the line marched proudly down Pratt Street, there were no signs +of the hostile spirit that made Baltimore a center of doubt and +suspicion in the North for many a day afterward. It was, however, when +the train dashed out from among the hills to the northwest of the sheet +of water behind the capitol that the Caribees glued their eyes to the +panes in awe not unmingled with delight. No American will ever look upon +that imperial dome again with the sensations that filled the breasts of +those who first saw its rounded outlines in the war epoch. What the ark +of the covenant was to the armies that marched in the wilderness, or the +cross of St. Peter to the pilgrims approaching Rome, that the great +dome, towering cloud ward in the perpetual blue, was to the wondering +eye of the soldier as his glance first fell upon it; that it was for +months--yes, ever after--on the plains of Arlington and in the deadly +exhalations of the Chickahominy. Every one looked anxiously to see signs +of war--indeed, since leaving Baltimore, there was a delicious feeling +of suspense--as the train shot over embankments or skirted the deep pine +woods. Perhaps an adventurous rebel vanguard might attack them. Perhaps +they might have the glory of fighting their way to the beleaguered +capital. Perhaps Father Abraham might come out and smile benignantly at +them for a brave deed well done. Faces flushed and eyes sparkled in the +delightful anticipation: and some of the ardent spirits, more eager than +the others, loaded their muskets to be ready! But, beyond the Federal +picket-post at the stations, no sign of war was soon, nor much sign of +hostilities, such as the vivid fancies of the raw young +warriors conjured. + +But now the train was at rest, and the officers--who had not been seen +during the journey--turned out in resplendent plumery. The station--in +those days a tumble-down barrack--was already crowded with soldiery. The +Caribees were aligned along the track, the officers so bewildered by the +confusion that it was by a miracle some of the groups of moving men were +not run over by the backing engines. After an interminable delay, the +band set up "We're coming down to Washington to fight for Abraham's +daughter!" and with exuberant joy a thousand pairs of legs kept brisk +step and elastic movement to the inspiriting strain. Now the longing +eyes see the circumstance and even some of the pomp of war. The regiment +debouches into Pennsylvania Avenue, under the very shadow of the +Capitol, which looks sadly shabby and disproportioned to the eyes that +had an hour or two before opened in such admiration at the first view. +But there is no time for architectural criticism. They are moving down +the avenue toward the White House, toward the home of that patient, +kindly, sorely-tried ruler--the Democritus of his grisly epoch. The +Caribees excite none of the sensation here they have been accustomed to. +The streets are not crowded, and the few civilians passing hardly turn +their heads. Mounted orderlies dash hurriedly, with hideous clatter of +sabre and equipments, across the line of march, through the very +regiment's ranks, answering with a disdainful oath or mocking gibe when +an outraged shoulder-strap raised a remonstrating voice. At Fourteenth +Street the Caribees were halted until the colonel could take his +bearings from headquarters, just around the corner. The wide sidewalks +were dense with bestarred and epauleted personages in various keys of +discussion. Jack and his crony, Barney Moore, studied the scene in +wonder. Their company was halted exactly at the corner of Fourteenth +Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, and the two were standing at +Willard's corner. + +"I wonder if the President just stands and throws the stars down from +that balcony?" Jack said, as the crowd of brigadiers thickened before +the hotel door. "What on earth are they all doing here?" + +"Oh, they come to make requisition on General Bacchus; he's the +commissary-general of the brigadiers--don't you know?" Barney said, +innocently. + +"General Bacchus? Barney, you're crazy--there's no such officer in the +army--I know all the names--you mean General Banks, don't you?" + +"Oh, no, I'm not mistaken--General Bacchus has been selected to deal out +the _esprit de corps!_" + +"_L'esprit de corps_? Barney, you're certainly tipsy. I'm ashamed of +you!" + +"Yes, the spirit of that corps, as you can tell from the whiffs that +come this way, is the whisky-bottle. Bacchus presides over that spirit. +One would think you'd never read an eclogue of Virgil--you're duller +than a doctor of divinity's after-dinner speech! A tutor's joke is the +utmost wit you ought to bear." + +"And so you call that a joke?" + +"Well, it isn't a cough, a song, an oath, or--or anything old Oswald +would say, so it must be a joke." + +"Well, in that sense it may pass, like a tipsy soldier without the +countersign." + +"Oh, come now, Jack, these stars are really dazzling you!" + +"Not but I'll make you see some that will dazzle you, if you don't treat +your superior more respectfully." + +"Oh, the punch you think of giving me wouldn't solve this star problem; +it requires to be made in the old--the milky way." + +But Barney's astral jokes were brought to a period by the sharp note of +the bugle, as Colonel Oswald, very important under the eye of so many +big-wigs, magnificently ordered the march. The regiment passed up the +steep hill, out Fourteenth Street--then a red clay thoroughfare of +sticky mire with only here and there a negro's shanty where the palaces +of the rich rise to-day. The men learned something of their future +enemy, Virginia mud, as they climbed the red gorge and debouched on +Meridian Hill, where, presently, an aide-de-camp marked the ground +assigned the regiment, and the real life of the soldier began. How tame +to tell, but how "imperial the hour" when these one thousand lads first +went, on guard! Yes, the fact was now before them. They were no longer +segregated atoms, inert, ineffective, eccentric. They were part of that +mighty bulwark of blood and iron that stood between law and rebellion, +between the nation's heart and the assassin dagger of disunion. + +How proud and glad and manly they felt, these bright-eyed boys--for boys +they mostly were; not a hundred in the regiment had seen their +five-and-twentieth year. One razor would have been ample for the beards +of the whole battalion. And oh, the nameless, the intoxicating sense of +solidarity as they swept the vast reach of hillsides, and saw the white +tents in brooding immensity on either hand! Yes, yonder, far across the +wondrous belt of water, touching loyalty and rebellion in its mighty +rush seaward, they could distinguish the cities of canvas on the distant +Virginia shore. + +"It makes a fellow feel as Godfrey's hosts felt when they came in sight +of the Bosporus, and the hordes of the Saracens on the plains of the +Hellespont," Jack said, exultingly, as Barney stood on a pile of camp +equipages above him, surveying the quickening spectacle. + +"I don't know how Godfrey's fellows felt, Jack, but it _do_ make a man +feel kinder able to do something with so many near by to lend a hand. +But, stars and garters! what a head it must take to manage all these! +Fair and square, now, Jack, you feel the fires of military genius in +your big head--do you think that you could disentangle this enormous +coil--put each corps, division, and regiment, in its proper place--at a +day's notice?" + +"Oh, I couldn't perhaps do it just to-day; but give me time!" + +"Yes, I'll give you to the age of Methuselah, and then if you can manage +it I shall not lose faith in you." + +"Come, men, the tents must be up before dark. Sergeant Sprague, your +squad has five tents for its detail. You'll find axes and tools at the +quartermaster's wagon on the hill yonder!" It was the captain who spoke, +and, an instant later, the plot of ground, perhaps an acre and a half in +area, was a scene of rollicking labor. Each company had a street, the +tents--calculated to hold four each, but the number varied, going up +often as high as six--faced each other, leaving room enough for the +company to march in column or in line between the white walls. As the +regiment would be presumably some time on the ground, the canvas tents +rested on the top of a palisade of logs cut in the neighboring woods. +These were five feet or more in length, and when driven into the ground +a foot, and banked by the sticky clay, served excellently as walls upon +which to rest the A tents. Two berths, sometimes four, were fastened +laterally on these walls, frames running up to the center of the A held +the guns, while lines stretched across from above served as wardrobes +for such garments as could be hung up. + +All this manoeuvring for space in such close quarters was great fun for +lads accustomed to roomy houses, and careless, almost to slovenliness, +in the matter of keeping things in place. Absurd as these details may +seem, they were all parts, and very important parts, in the life and +training of that mighty host that carried the destiny of the country in +its discipline during four years. There was rigid inspection of quarters +every Sunday morning, and during the week the non-commissioned officers +were expected to see that cleanliness was not intermitted. The company +"street" was "policed" every morning after breakfast, swept and +garnished, that is, with the care of a Dutch housewife. Order is the +first law of the soldier as well as of Heaven, and many a careless lad +brought from his four years' drill method and painstaking that made him +of more value to himself and his neighbors. + +Personal traits, too, could be divined in these toy-like interiors. The +regulations prescribed the arrangement of the "bunks," blankets folded, +knapsacks laid at the head of the bed, accoutrements burnished until, at +first sight, the four guns in the rack seemed to be a mirror for the +orderly spirit of this thrifty grot. The shining plates, cups, and +spoons, would have done no discredit to the most energetic, housewife, +as they hung from pegs either above the bunks or along the wall. If +running water were not accessible, every tent had a tin basin for the +morning ablution, each soldier taking turn good humoredly. The household +duties were scrupulously observed, each man assuming his _role_ in the +complicated _menage_. + +It was fully a week before the Caribees were installed ready for Sunday +inspection, as no exigency was permitted to interfere with morning and +afternoon drill, guard-mount, and parade. Battalion and brigade drill, +too, were new diversions for the Caribees, as now, camped near other +troops, these more complicated movements were part of the regiment's +allotted duty. After they were sufficiently trained in this they were to +take part in a grand review by the general-in-chief, when the President, +the Secretary of War, and all the great folks in Washington rode out to +witness the spectacle. + +There was no time for dullness. Every hour had its duty, and these soon +became second nature to the zealous young warriors. Such rivalry to best +master the manual, to hold the most soldierly stature in the ranks, to +detect the drill-sergeant when, to test their attention, he gave a false +command! And then the coronal joy of a reward of merit for efficiency +and alertness on guard! The rapture the bit of paper brought, and the +exultation with which the hero thus signalized went off to town for the +day, wandered through the waste of streets, stood before Willard's and +admired in awe and wonder the indolent groups from whose shoulders +gleamed one and sometimes two stars! One day Jack and Barney, walking in +Fifteenth Street, saw a stout man, with no insignia to indicate rank or +station, coming out of the headquarters hurriedly. He walked to the edge +of the pavement, and, looking up and down, seemed disconcerted. Noticing +the two lads, he came to where Jack was standing in a preoccupied way, +and the two saluted decorously. He returned the salute and asked: + +"Sergeant, are you on duty?" + +"No, sir; I'm on leave for the day." + +"Ah, good; my orderly was here a moment ago, but I don't see him +anywhere. Would you mind taking this telegram to the War Department, +through the park yonder?" + +He gave Jack an envelope and hurried back into the building as the two +lads started with alacrity across the street. + +"I've seen that chap before, somewhere," Barney said, panting with the +rapid pace. + +"He's a staff officer, I suppose, not very high rank, for he only had a +blouse on. General officers always wear double-button frocks even if +they don't carry the insignia." + +The War Department was easy of access, an old building not unlike Jack's +own home in Acredale. He asked the sentry at the door where his envelope +was to be delivered. The man looked at it, pointed to a closed door, and +Jack, receiving no response to his knock, entered. Three men were in the +room. One was seated at a vast desk with papers, maps, dispatches, and +books piled in disheartening confusion, within reach of his hand. Behind +him a young captain in uniform sat writing. But the figure that fixed +Jack's reverential attention was half sprawling, half lying over the +heaped-up impediments of the big desk. The young soldier caught sight of +the serious, sad face, the wistful humorous eyes, and he knew, with a +thrill through all his body and an adoring throb in his breast, that it +was the President--hapless heritor of generations of disjointed time. +All thought of his errand, all thought of place and person, faded as he +realized this presence. How long he would have remained in this mute +adoration there is no telling. The restless, keen eyes looked up sharply +and a dissonant, imperious, repellent voice jerked out: + +"Well, my man, what is it?" + +Without a word Jack handed him the envelope, and with a sort of +reverence to the tall figure whose face was turned kindly toward him he +backed to the door. + +"O Barney, I've seen the President!" + +"Seen the President! No? Oh! Why could not I have gone in with you? It's +always my luck." + +"No: it was my luck. But take heart. He will come out pretty soon, and +we'll loaf about here. Perhaps we can see him as he goes back to the +White House yonder." + +But though they waited far into the afternoon, forgetting their dinner +in the impulse of homage, they did not catch sight of the well-known +figure, for the President's way to the Secretary's room was a private +one, and when he went away the boys of course could not see him. But +Jack's good fortune was the talk of the regiment for many a day, and for +months when the fellows of the Caribee got leave they lingered +expectantly about the modest headquarters, hoping that a missing orderly +might bring them Jack Sprague's proud distinction of seeing the +President face to face. On the grand review, a few days later, Jack and +his crony were reminded of the encounter at headquarters, for the man +who had given the envelope to carry to the war office was riding a +splendid horse next to the President. Two stars glittered on his +shoulder now, and as he answered the cheers that saluted the group, the +young men saw that it was General McDowell, the commander of the forces. +The President rode along the lines, with a kindly wistfulness in the +honest eyes that studied with no superficial glance the long line of +shouting soldiery. He was not an imposing figure in the sense of +cavalier bravery, but no man that watched as he moved in the glittering +group, conspicuous by his somber black and high hat, ever forgot the +melancholy, rapt regard he gave the ranks, as at an easy canter he +passed the fronts of the squares or sat solemnly at the march past that +concluded the review. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE STEP THAT COSTS. + + +What between the doings of the camp and the daily visit to Washington, +"soldiering" grew into an enchanting existence for the young warriors of +the Caribee. Their quarters were on the high plateaus north and west of +the city--which were in those days shaded slopes, that made suburban +Washington a vale of Tempe. In the streets they saw bedizened officers, +from commanders of armies down to presidential orderlies. In the Senate +and House they heard the voices of men afterward potent in +public councils. + +What an exuberant, vagrant life it was! The blood warms and the nerves +tingle after the tensions and heats of a quarter of a century as those +days of sublime vagabondage come back. The melodious morning calls that +waked the sleepy, lusty young bodies; the echoing bugle and the abrupt +drum! And then the roll-call, in the misty morning when the sun, blear +and very red, rose as if blushing, or apoplectic after the night's +carouse! It was an army of poets--of Homers--that began the never +monotonous routine of these memorable days, for the incense of national +sympathy came faint but intoxicating to the soldier's nostrils in the +visits of great statesmen, the picnics of civilians, the copious +descriptive letters of correspondents and the daily scrawls from +far-away valleys, where fond eyes watched the sun rise, noted the stars, +to mark the special duties their darlings were doing in the watches of +the night. And then the mad music of cheers when the news came that the +young McClellan in West Virginia had scattered the adventurous columns +of Lee, capturing guns, men, and arms, and forever saving the great +Kanawha country to the Union! And in Kentucky the rebels had been +outmanoeuvred; while in Missouri the glorious Lyon and the crafty Blair +had, one in the Cabinet, the other in the camp, routed the secret, +black, and Janus-like rabble of treason and anarchy. + +To feel that he was part of all this; that, at rest in the iron ring +girdling the capital, he was might in leash; that to-morrow he would be +vengeance let loose--this was the sustaining, exulting thought that made +the volunteer the best of soldiers. His heart was all in the glorious +ardor for action. Night and morning he looked proudly at the sacred +ensign waving lightly in the summer breeze, and he remembered that the +eyes of Washington had rested on the same standard at Valley Forge; that +the sullen battalions of Cornwallis had saluted it at Yorktown. + +It was a beautiful ardor that filled the young hosts that waited in +leash on the green hills of the Potomac those months of turmoil, when +Scott and McDowell were straining the crude machinery of war to get +ready for the vital lunge. Jack and his Acredale squad, as the college +fellows were called, lived in a perpetual dream, from which the hard +realities of drill, now six hours a day, could not waken them. In days +of release they scoured the Maryland hills, secretly hoping that an +adventurous rebel picket might appear and give them occasion to return +to camp decked with preluding laurels. Mile after mile of the charming +woodland country they scoured, their hearts beating at the appearance of +any animate thing that for a brief, intoxicating moment they could +conjure into a rebel advance post. But, beyond wan and reticent yokels, +engaged in the primitive husbandry of this slave section, they never +encountered any one that could be counted overt enemies of the cause. +Money was plenty among these excursive groups, and they were welcomed in +Company K with effusive outbreaks by their less restive comrades. + +As July wore on, the signs of movement grew. Regiments were moved away +mysteriously, and soon the Caribees were almost alone on Meridian Hill. +Jack was filled with dire fears that the commanding officer, having +discovered the incompetency of Oswald, feared to take the Caribees to +the front. Something of the rumor spread through the regiment, and if, +as reputed, "Old Sauerkraut" (this was the name he got behind his back) +had spies in all the companies, the adage about listeners was abundantly +confirmed. In the secrecy of Jack's tent, however, the subject was +freely discussed. Nick Marsh, the poet of the class, as became the +mystic tendencies of his tribe, was for poisoning the detested +Pomeranian--Oswald was a compatriot of Bismarck, often boasting, as the +then slowly emerging statesman became more widely known, that he lived +in his near neighborhood. Marsh's suggestion fell upon fruitful +perceptions. Bernard Moore--Barney, for short--was to be a physician, +and had already passed an apprenticeship in a pharmacy, coincident with +his college term in Jack's class. + +"By the powers of mud and blood, Nick, dear, I have it!" + +"Have what, Barney, me b'y?" Nick asked, mimicking Barney's quaintly +displaced vowels. + +"Why, the way to get rid of Old Schnapps and Blitzen--more power to +me!" + +"All the power you want, if you'll only do that; and your voice will be +as sweet as 'the harp that once in Tara's halls--'" + +"Never moind the harp--Sassenach--here's what we can do. Tim Hussey is +Oswald's orderly; he and I are good friends. I know a preparation that +will turn the sauerkraut and sausages, that Oswald eats so much of, into +degluted fire and brimstone, warranted to keep him on the broad of his +back for ten days or a fortnight. Will ye all swear secrecy?" + +"We will! We will!" + +"On what?" + +"On the double crown on your head," Jack answered, solemnly, "which you +have often told us was considered a sign that an angel had touched +you--I'm sure nothing could be more solemn than that. It isn't every +fellow that can get an angel to touch the top of his head." + +"No; most fellows can consider themselves lucky if an angel touches +their lips--or heart," Barney cried, naively. + +"Well, never mind that sort of angel now, Barney," Nick said, pettishly; +"I notice that you always bring up with something about the girls, no +matter what the subject we set off on. It's the jalap--isn't that what +it's called?--we want to hear about." + +"There isn't enough poetry or sentiment in the two o' ye to fill a +wind-blown buttercup. No wonder ye don't care to talk of the +gurls--they'll have none of ye." + +"We'll be satisfied if they'll have you, Barney. I'm sure that's +magnanimous. But if your jalap takes as much time in working Old +Schnapps as you take in explaining it, the war will be over, and we +shall have seen none of it." + +"It's too great a conception to be hastily set forth. Give me time. I'll +lay a guinea that Oswald goes to the hospital before this day week. Let +us see. This is the 14th; before the 20th--" and Barney gave the barrel +of his gun, near him, a furtive wipe with his coat-sleeve. + +"Barney, if you'll do that, I'll gather every four-leaved clover between +here and Richmond to give you; and, what's more, if I die I'll leave you +my bones to operate." + +"Ah, Nick, dear, I'd rather have your little finger living than all the +possessions of your father's bank. If you were dead--" And honest Barney +seized the poet's hand sentimentally. + +"Come, come, fellows, what sort of soldiering do you call this? You +remind me of two school-girls," Jack remonstrated, as in duty bound to +keep up the warrior spirit. + +"Yer acquaintances among females being chiefly of the silly sort, it's +no wonder we remind you of the only things you can look back on without +blushing," Barney retorted; and a neighbor poking his head in the door +to learn the cause of the hilarity, the conspirators sallied out for a +jaunt until parade-time. Now, what means Barney employed, or whether he +had any handiwork in what befell, it does not fall to me to say, but +this is what happened: A market hawker came into camp the next morning +and went straight to the big marquee tent where Colonel Oswald stood, in +all the bravery of a new broadcloth uniform with spreading eagles on the +shoulders. The savory fumes of hot sauerkraut aroused the warrior from +his reveries, and he asked, in vociferous delight: + +_"Was haben sie? Kohlen, nicht wahr--sauerkraut--das is aber schon?"_ + +"Yes, mein golonel, I hof cabbage und sauerkraut und"--looking about +circumspectly--"_etwas schnapps aus Antwerpen gebracht?"_ + +The "golonel's" eyes glistened and he made a motion for the vender to go +to the rear of the marquee. Passing through from the front, he met him +at the rear, and the bargain was hastily concluded, Marsh secreting +three portly bottles in his chest, and turning the edibles over to +Hussey to store in the larder. There had been a good deal of uneasiness +in camp over rumors of cholera, yellow fever, and other dismal +epidemics. When, therefore, the evening after the colonel's purchase the +regimental surgeon was summoned in alarm, it was instantly believed in +the regiment that "Old Sauerkraut" was stricken with cholera. He at +first suffered hideous pains in the stomachic regions. This was followed +by a raging thirst, and, unknown to the physician, the three bottles of +schnapps were quite emptied. On the fourth day the poor man, very +woe-begone, but now suffering no pain, was carried to the hospital, and +the next day, as the campaign was about to begin, he was sent North, to +leave room near the field for those who should be wounded in the coming +engagement. + +Company K was drilling on the wide plateau between the camp and the +highway when the ambulance bearing the afflicted officer came slowly +over the road worn through the greensward. Hussey sat solemnly on the +seat with the driver, and as the vehicle reached the company, standing +at rest, Barney Moore in the rear rank spoke up: + +"Tim, is the poor colonel no better?" + +"Divil a betther; it's worse he's intirely. God be good till 'im!" + +Neither Jack nor Nick Marsh dared trust himself to meet the other's eyes +as the helpless chief disappeared down the hillside, while Barney +entered into an exhaustive treatise on the symptoms of cholera and the +liability of the most robust to meet sudden disaster in this malarious +upland, circumvailated by ages of decaying matter in the damp swamps on +every hand. But when, an hour later, Company K's whole street was +aroused by peal on peal of Abderian laughter, Jack and Nick were found +helpless in their bunks, and Barney was engaged in presenting a potion +to settle their collapsed nerves! + +"Well, haven't I won the guinea, now? It cost me just twice that. If +ye's have a spark of honor ye'll pay your just dues, so ye will," Barney +said, in the evening, returning from parade, where Lieutenant-Colonel +Grandison officiated as commander, to the unconcealed delight of all but +the Oswald parasites among the officers. + +"Don't say a word, Barney--to whom the medicos of mythology and all the +wizards of antique story are clowns and mountebanks--you shall have the +guinea or its equivalent." + +"Twenty-one shillings gold, bear in mind. Yer father's a banker, ye +ought to know that!" + +"I do. You shall have the twenty-one shillings in the shinplasters of +the republic." + +The colonel had been routed none too soon. The very next morning, when +the Caribees "fell in" for roll-call, the orderly received a paper from +the commander's orderly which read, "Tents to be struck at twelve +o'clock and the men ready to march, with ten days' rations." + +At last! All the future, glowing with heroism, exciting with the march, +the attack, the battle--ah! what after? With something of joy and regret +the comely tents, that had given them home and harbor, were taken down, +folded in precise line, and carried away for storage--for in the field +the ranks were to bivouac in the open air. Such gayety; such jokes; such +bravado; and augury of the to be! And the rumors! Telephones, had they +been invented; stenographers, had they been present in legion, could not +have kept track of the momentous tales that were instantly bruited +about. General Scott was going to lead the army in person. His charger +had been seen before the headquarters. The rebels were going to be +swooped up by another such famous dash as the flank march from Vera Cruz +to the plateau of Mexico! Then came a numbing fear that Beauregard's +bragging host had fled, and that the movement would turn out a tedious +stern chase to Richmond. In the agony of all this Jack, returning from a +"detail" to the quartermaster's tent, heard his name shouted where his +tent had been. He hurried to the spot and Nick saluted him with +the cry-- + +"Here, Jack, are two recruits who declare they must enter Company K." + +His gun was on his arm and his knapsack on his back, but only the +realization that a score of eyes were upon him saved Jack from dropping +limply on the ground, as, looking in the group, he saw Dick Perley and +Tom Twigg grinning ingratiatingly at him. + +"Where--how in the name of all that's sacred did you get here?" he +gasped. + +"Why, we enlisted for drummers in the Caribees, but the recruiting +officer told us as we were eighteen we could carry muskets if we wanted +to. We do want to, and we're going to come into Company K." + +They looked him confidently in the face as Dick repeated this evidently +long-practiced explanation. It would not do to take them to task before +the company. Jack waited until the rest were scattered, and then, +leading the boys aside, said, sternly: + +"Don't you know you can be put in prison for this? You have run away +from your parents and guardians. No one had a lawful right to enlist +you. I shall send for the provost marshal and have you put in prison +until your parents can come and get your enlistment annulled." + +Appalled by Jack's stern manner as much as by his words, the two lads +began to whimper and expostulate tearfully. They had trusted to his +ancient friendship. They could have gone into any other regiment, but +they had enlisted to be with him. Whatever happened, they were soldiers, +and, if Tom Twigg wasn't eighteen until September, it was perfectly +lawful for him to enlist as a drummer. Perley was eighteen in April +last, and he was a soldier in spite of all that Jack could do. Jack was +deeply perplexed. What could be done? If he attempted to put the +machinery of reclamation in order, the boys would be subjected to all +sorts of vicissitudes, prisons, everything distressing and demoralizing +to tender youth. + +"Do they know at home what you have done?" Jack asked, doubtingly. + +"Yes," Dick said, noting with boyish quickness the indecision in Jack's +troubled face. "I sent a letter to Aunt Pliny, from New York, telling +her we were soldiers, and that we were happy and well." + +"You impudent young scamp--to write that to your best friend! Don't you +know it will kill her?" + +Dick had no answer for this, and looked perplexedly at Tom, who was lost +in admiration of a neighboring group engaged in athletic exercises. He +felt rather than heard the question put by the Mentor, and observing +Dick's discomfiture, stammered: + +"It didn't kill your mother when you went for a soldier, I guess." + +The astute young rascal had hit upon the weak place, and Jack stood in +anxious doubt wondering what to do. An aide that he recognized from +division headquarters rode past at the moment and Jack turned to watch +him. He leaped from his horse at the colonel's tent. Jack again looked +at the boys. They were lost in delight at the scene and oblivious of the +debate going on in their guardian's mind. + +"Stay here till I come back," he said, authoritatively, and strode off +to Grandison's tent. As he reached it the major, McGoyle, was entering, +and Jack waited until that officer should come out. He came presently, +and Colonel Grandison with him. Jack saluted, and stated his dilemma to +the commander, who listened with amused interest. + +"I don't see that anything can be done now, Jack. I'm just about leaving +the regiment. I have been assigned to General Tyler's staff during the +campaign. McGoyle takes command of the regiment. He will need orderlies, +and the boys can serve with him until we can get time to look into the +business. I will settle the matter with him, and if you will write a +telegram to the lad's family I will have it sent as I go to +headquarters." + +Jack's relief and gratitude were best seen in the brightening eye and +the more buoyant movement that succeeded the heaviness and agitation of +his first impression. The boys' coming would weigh upon him every minute +until he was in some sort relieved of even passive complicity. He would +feel that the kind-hearted "Pearls," as the aunts were often called, +would look upon him as having led the truants into the army. But +Grandison's interposition had shifted from him a weighty anxiety. The +boys would not be left friendless and irresponsible in the turbulent +streets of Washington. Nor would they, as orderlies, be in continuous or +inextricable danger in battle--for whereas the soldier in the line must +keep in ranks even when not in actual battle, with the enemy's missiles +as destructive as in the charge or combat, the orderlies may take +advantage of the inequalities of ground and natural objects. Jack +explained something of this to the young Marlboroughs, and was fairly +irritated at the crest-fallen look that came into their eager, shining +faces when they comprehended that they were not to be with their hero. + +"But you couldn't be in the company in any event. You look more like +rebels than soldiers, with your gray jackets and trousers"--for the boys +still wore their Acredale uniform, an imitation of the West Point +cadet's costume. "We shall be on the march in a few minutes, and there +is only one of two things to be done. Remain here in the 'unassigned' +camp, where you may be transferred into any regiment in the service that +needs recruits; or go, as Colonel Grandison has very kindly consented to +have you, as orderlies or clerks." + +The very possibility of being sent into some unknown regiment was a +terror so great that the other alternative became less odious to the +boys, and they trotted after Jack, as he stalked moody and distracted to +Major Mike McGoyle's tent, now the only habitable spot left where a few +hours before a symmetrical little city had stood. + +"And so ye want to be solgers, me foine b'yes? Well, well, 'tis litter +for yer mothers' knees ye are, with yer rosy cheeks and curling locks. +It's a poor place here for yer bright oies and soft hands, me lads; but +I'm not the wan to throw the dish after th' milk when it's spilt!" + +He stroked the bared heads of the blushing lads, and, turning to their +unhappy sponsor, he added with official brevity: "I will put Twiggs's +son at me papers in the adjutant's office. Young Pearley can remain with +your company until I make out a detail for him." + +It was impossible for Jack to sustain the _role_ of frowning displeasure +as Dick skipped back with him to the company. He remembered his own +delight three months before, even with the haunting thoughts of his +mother's reproaches to dampen his ardor, and he was soon dazzling the +neophyte with the wonders that were just about to begin. + +It was the afternoon of the 16th of July, and the hillsides, which the +day before were covered with tents as far as the eye could see on every +hand, were now blue with masses of men, while other masses had been +passing on the red highways since early morning, taking the direction of +the Potomac bridges. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +AN ARMY WITH BANNERS. + + +It has always seemed to me that the life, the routine, the many small +haps in the daily function of a soldier, which in sum made up to him all +that there was in the _devoir_ of death, ought to be read with interest +by the millions whose kin were part of the civil war, as well as by +those who knew of it only as we know Napoleon's wars or Washington's. +For my part, I would find a livelier pleasure in the diary of a common +soldier, in any of the great wars, than I do in the confusing pamphlets, +bound in volumes called history. I like to read of war as our Uncle Toby +related it. I like to know what two observing eyes saw and the feelings +that sometimes made the timidest heroes--sometimes cravens. + +For a month--yes, months--the burden of the press, the prayers of the +North, had been, "On to Richmond!" Jack, through Colonel Grandison, knew +that General McDowell and the commander-in-chief, the venerable soldier +Scott, had pleaded and protested against a move until the new levies +under the three-months' call could be drilled and disciplined. But on +the Fourth of July Congress had assembled, and the raw statesmen--with +an eye to future elections--took up the public clamor. They gave the +Cabinet, the President, no peace until General Scott and McDowell had +given way and promised the pending movement. + +"Our soldiers are so green that I shall move with fear," McDowell said +to the President. + +"Well, they" (meaning the rebels) "are green too, and one greenness will +offset the other," Lincoln responded with kindly malice. It was useless +to argue further; useless to point out that the rebels were not so +"green," for the young men of the semi-aristocratic society of the South +were trained to arms, whereas it was a mark of lawlessness and vulgarity +to carry arms in the Puritan ranks of the North. Something of the +unreadiness of the army, every reflecting soldier in the ranks +comprehended, when he saw within the precincts of his own brigades the +hap hazard conduct of the quartermaster's and staff departments. Some +regiments had raw flour dealt them for rations and no bake-ovens to turn +it into bread; some regiments had abundance of bread, but no coffee or +meat rations. As to vegetables--beans, or anything of the sort--if the +pockets of the soldiers had not been well supplied from home, the army +that set out for Manassas would have been eaten with scurvy and the skin +diseases that come from unseasoned food. + +Now, at the very moment the legions were stripped for the march, many of +them were without proper ammunition. Various arms were in use, and the +same cartridge did not lit them all. Eager groups could be seen all +through the brigades filing down the leaden end of the cartridge to make +their weapons effective, until a proper supply could be obtained. This +was promised at Fairfax Station, or Centreville, where the army's +supplies were to be sent. So, in spite of the high hopes and feverish +unrest for the forward movement, there was a good deal of sober +foreboding among the men, who held to the American right to criticise as +the Briton maintains his right to grumble. For the soldier in camp or on +the march is as garrulous as a tea gossip, and no problem in war or +statecraft is too complex or sacred for him to attempt the solution. Of +the thirty thousand men leaving the banks of the Potomac that 16th of +July there were, at a low estimate, ten thousand who believed themselves +as fitted to command as the chieftains who led them. + +By two o'clock the Caribees were in the line that had been passing +city-ward since daylight. The sun had baked the sticky clay into +brick-like hardness, and the hours of trampling, the tread of heavy +teams, and the still heavier artillery, had filled the air with an +opaque atmosphere of reddish powder, through which the masses passed in +almost spectral vagueness. The city crowds, usually alert, when great +masses of men moved, were discouraged by heat and dust, and the streets +were quite given over to the military. Eager as Jack and his friends +were to note the impression the march made upon the civilians, most of +whom were thought to be secretly in sympathy with the rebellion, it was +impossible to even catch sight of any but soldiers. Pennsylvania Avenue, +when they reached it, was a billowy channel of impalpable powder. But at +the Long Bridge the breeze from the wide channel of the river cleared +the clouds of dust, and the men, catching glimpses of each other, broke +into jocose banter. On the bridge they looked eagerly down the river, +where the low roofs of Alexandria were visible, and upward on the +Virginia shore where the gleaming walls of Arlington recalled to Jack +far different times and scenes. + +"Now we're in Jeff Davis's land," Barney called out from one of the rear +files, as the company reached midway in the bridge. + +"Not by a long shot," Nick Marsh cried. "Davis's land begins and ends +within cannon-shot of himself. He is like the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen--he +has to beg his neighbor's permission to hold battalion drill." + +"He isn't so polite as the duke; he takes it without asking," Barney +retorts. + +"But now we are on the 'sacred soil,'" Jack cries, as the company +debouched from the bridge up the steep, narrow road that seemed to be +taking them to Arlington. In spite of the burning heat and the +exhaustion of the three hours' march, the scene was, or rather the +imagination of the men, invested each step with a sort of awe. They were +at last in the enemy's territory. It had been held by the Union forces, +only by dint of large numbers and strong fortifications. There wasn't a +man in the company that didn't resent the fact, constantly obtruding +itself on the ranks as they marched eagerly onward by every knoll, every +bush in the landscape, that Union soldiers had been there before them! +that their devouring eyes were not the first to mark these +historic spots. + +Tired as they were and burdensome as the heavy knapsacks and still +heavier ammunition had become, they heard an aide give the order to +bivouac with chagrin! They so longed to put undebatable ground behind +them and really be where the distant coppice might be a curtain to the +enemy! The Caribees marked with indignant surprise that, when they had +turned into a field about seven o'clock, the long line following them +pushed onward until far into the night, and they envied the contiguity +this would give the lucky laggards to first see and engage the enemy! +But they turned-to very merrily, in this first night of real soldiering. +They were "in the field." All the parade part of military life was now +relaxed. The hot little dress coats were left behind; there was no +display. Even guard-mount was reduced to the simplest possible form. + +With one impulse all the men--that is, all who had been alert enough to +provide pen and paper--bestowed themselves about the candles allotted +each group, and began letters "home," dated magniloquently "Headquarters +in the Field. Tyler's Division, Sherman's Brigade, 16th July, 1861." The +imperial impulse manifested itself in these curt epistles. I can't +resist giving Jack's: + +"Dear Mother: How I wish you and Polly could see us now! We are really +on the march at last. The battle can't be far off. We are not many miles +from the enemy, and, if he stands, what glorious news you will hear very +soon! I wish you could have seen us to-day. Colonel Sherman, who is the +sternest looking man I ever saw, a regular army officer, once a +professor, told the major--you know McGoyle is commanding us now--he is +a brick--Sherman told him that the Caribees did as good marching as the +regulars, who came behind us. Dear old Mick, with his brogue and his +blarney, has won every heart in the regiment, and you may be sure we +shall see the whites of the enemy's eyes under him, which we never +should have done under that odious Hessian, Oswald--in hospital now, +thank Heaven--though some time, when I tell you the story, you will see +that in this, as in most other things, Heaven helps those who help +themselves. Taps will sound in five minutes, and I can only add that I +am in good health, glorious spirits, and unshaken confidence that we +shall return to Acredale before your longing to see your son overcomes +your love of glory. We shall return victors, if not heroes--at least I +know that you and Polly will believe this of your affectionate and +dutiful son + +"JACK." + +Barney read one or two phrases of his composition to the indulgent ear +of Jack and the poet, over which they laughed a good deal. "We are," he +said, "before the enemy. I feel as our great ancestor, Baron Moore, felt +at Fontenoy when the Sassenachs were over against the French lines--as +if all the blood in Munster was in my veins and I wanted to spill it on +the villains ferninst us." + +The poet declined to quote from his epistle, and the three friends sat +in the dim light until midnight, wondering over what the morrow had in +store. Dick Perley listened in awe to Jack's wonderful ratiocinations on +what was to come--secretly believing him much more learned in war than +this General McDowell who was commanding the army. The first bugle +sounded at three in the morning in the Caribees' camp, and when the +coffee had been hastily dispatched, the men began to understand the +cause of their being shunted into the field so early the evening before +while the rear of the column marched ahead of them. The Caribees passed +a mile or more of encampments, the men not yet aroused, and when at +daylight the whole body was in motion they were in advance, with nothing +before them but a few hundred cavalry. + +A delirious expectation, a rapturous sense of holding the post of +danger, kept every sense in such a thrill of anticipation that the hours +passed like minutes. The dusty roads, the intolerable thirst, and the +nauseous, tepid water, the blistered feet, the abraded hips, where the +cartridge-box began to wear the flesh--all these woes of the march were +ignored in the one impulse to see the ground ahead, to note the first +sight of the enemy. It was not until four o'clock in the afternoon that +the column was halted, and two companies, K and H, were marched out of +the column and formed in platoons across the line of march, that the +regiment learned with mortification that hitherto the route had been +inside the Union lines! They soon saw the difference in the tactics of +the march. The company was spread out in groups of four; these again +were separated by a few yards, and in this order, sweeping like a +drag-net, they advanced over the dry fields, through the clustering +pines or into cultivated acres, and through great farm-yards. + +Back of them the long column came, slowly winding over the sandy highway +which curved through the undulating land. Here and there the +skirmishers--for that was the office the two companies were now +filling--came upon signs of picket-posts; and once, as Jack hurried +beyond his group to the thicket, near a wretched cabin, a horse and +rider were visible tearing through the foliage of a winding lane. He +drew up his musket in prompt recognition of his duty, but he saw with +mortification that the horse and rider continued unharmed. Other shots +from the skirmish-line followed, but Jack's rebel was the only enemy +seen, when, in the early dusk, an orderly from the main column brought +the command to set pickets and bivouac for the night. Jack would have +written with better grounds for his solemnity if he had waited until +this evening; but now there was no chance. + +The companies were the extreme advance of the army; nothing between them +and the enemy but detached pickets of cavalry, at long distances apart, +to fly back with the report of the least signs made by the rebels. These +meager groups were forbidden fires, or any evidence of their presence +that might guide hostile movement, and the infantry outposts felt that +they were really the guardians of the sleeping thousands a mile or so +behind them. No one minded the cold water and hard bread which for the +first time formed the company's fare that night. Like the cavalry, fire +was forbidden them. They formed little groups in the rear of the outer +line of pickets, discussing with animation--even levity--the likelihood +of an engagement the next day. It was the general opinion that if +Beauregard meant to fight he would have made a stand at some of the +excellent points of vantage that had been encountered in the day's +march. Jack smiled wisely over these amateur guesses, and quite abashed +the rest when he said: + +"Beauregard is no fool. His army is massed near the point that he is +guarding--Manassas Junction. You seem to think that war is a game of +chance, armies fighting just where they happen to meet each other. Not +at all. Our business is to march to Richmond; Beauregard's business is +to prevent us. To do this he must, first of all, keep his lines of +supply safe. An army without that is like a ship at sea without +food--the more of a crew, the worse the situation. Of course, Beauregard +had his skirmishers spread out in front of us, but, as there is no use +in killing until some end is to be gained, they have got out of our way. +If the spies that are in our ranks should send information that promised +to give the rebels a chance to get at a big body of our men, before the +whole army came up, you'd see a change of things very quick. We've got +fifty thousand men, or thereabout" (Jack was wrong; there were but +thirty thousand). "Now, these men are stretched back of us to +Washington, fifteen miles or more, because the artillery must be +guarded, and infantry only can do that. Now, suppose Beauregard finds +that there is a gap somewhere between the forces stretching back, and he +happens to have ten or fifteen thousand men handy? Why, he just swoops +down upon us, and, if we can't defend ourselves until the rest of the +army comes up, he has won what is called a tactical victory, and +endangered our strategy." + +"Goodness, Jack, you ought to have been commander-in-chief! You talk war +like a book!" Barney cried, in mock admiration. + +The war-talk went on late into the night, for the company, detached from +camp, was not obliged to follow the signals of the bugles that came in +melodious echoes over the fragrant fields. It was a thrilling sight as +the lone watchers peered backward. The June fields for miles were dotted +with blazing spires, as if the earth had opened to pour out columns of +flame, guiding the wanderers on their trying way. The sleep of the night +was desultory and fitful, excitement stimulating everybody to +wakefulness. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +"THE ASSYRIAN CAME DOWN LIKE THE WOLF ON THE FOLD." + + +The next morning the march was resumed by daylight, the two companies +remaining on the skirmish-line. The country gradually became more rugged +as the route brought them near Centreville. There were no hills--a bare +but not bleak champaign, mostly without houses or farms, as the North +knows them. Sluggish brooks became more frequent, but none that were not +easily fordable. There were no landmarks to hold the mind to the scene, +nor, in case of battle, give the strategists points of vantage for the +iron game. About noon, the detached groups stalking a little negligently +now over the tedious plains, were startled by the unexpected. + +On the green slope of a hill, a mile or more ahead, a score of little +puffs of white smoke were seen, then a sharp report, and, in some places +near by, the ground was broken as if by a thrust of a spear, and little +scraps of clay scattered over the greensward. Then the bugle sounded a +halt. A few minutes later the horsemen spread in a chain across the line +of march, rode swiftly to a common center, formed in a solid group, +turned to the rear and rode back of the skirmishers to the main body. +Company K watched them as they galloped back, and as they reached the +group at the head of the long line, a half-mile or so distant, a body of +men hastened forward laden with stretchers and hospital appliances. Ah! +at last! It is now real war. The bugle sounds Forward! and with an +elastic spring the groups of four push dauntlessly ahead. Their eyes are +fixed on the brow of the hill, separated from them by a narrow +depression. + +The whole line--perhaps three miles wide--but, of course, not at all +regular, conforming largely to the difficulties encountered, moves down +the sloping bank on a run. Before they reach the bottom they are an +excellent target, and for the first time that most blood curdling of +sounds--the half-singing, half-hissing z-z-z-ip of the minie-ball--numbs +the ardor of the bravest. It is such a malignant, direct, devilish +admonition of murder; it comes so unexpectedly, no matter how well you +are prepared, that Achilles himself would feel a spasm of fear. And when +it strikes it does its work with such a venomous, exultant splutter, +that there seems something animate, demoniac in it. The volley, as I +said, came as the men were hurried down the hill by their own momentum +and by the sharp fall in the ground. The balls passed too high or too +low, but they impressed the fact on enthusiasts, who had longed for +battle, that one might die for one's country and not die gloriously. It +seemed such an ignoble, such a dastardly, outrageous thing, that death +could come to them from unseen hands, for as yet they had not seen a +soul. But now they are at the foot of the hill--though it is not correct +to so call it, for it was a long, winding valley, through which ran a +dancing streamlet, very welcome to the thirsty warriors when they had +succeeded in breaking through the vicious natural _chevaux de frise_ of +blackberry-briers and nettles. But now there wasn't much time to slake +thirst. The bullets had begun to come regularly; and suddenly, as Jack +conducted his squad across the stream, he was startled by the +exclamation, uttered rather in reverence, it seemed to him, than +surprise or pain: + +"My God, I'm hit!" + +Yes, a fair-haired lad--one of his class--tottered a second in a limp, +helpless way, and fell headlong, pitching into the little stream. Jack +ran and lifted him out; but even before the hospital corps came the boy +was dead. The bullet had gone quite through his heart. + +However, now the first numbing terror of the bullet was changed to a +sort of revengeful delight. Relinquishing any return fire for a moment, +the company, with a great shout, that sounded all along its front, +dashed up the hill, through the scrub-oak at the brow, and then they +could see the enemy slowly retiring, a chain of them a mile or more +wide. While one of the rebel ranks fired the other knelt, or lay flat +upon the ground loading, where there were no natural obstacles to take +shelter behind. A vengeful shout ran along the Union lines. + +"Capture them--don't fire!" and with one impulse the groups lied forward +so swiftly that the enemy, believing the rush only momentary, delayed +too long, and in two minutes the Union line was pell-mell among them. + +"Surrender!" Jack shouted to the squad just ahead of him--"surrender, or +we'll blow your heads off!" and along the line for some distance to his +left and right he could hear his own exultant demand echoed. There was +nothing to do for the rebels, who had neglected to keep their enemies at +the proper distance, but throw up their hands. Jack's squad sent back +twenty-three prisoners to Major Mike, who took them in proud triumph to +General Tyler, riding with the head of the column, now that the tenacity +of the rebel skirmishers made it seem probable that there would be +serious work. But though the firing kept up as the Union forces +advanced, no obstacle more, serious than the thin lines of the +skirmishers revealed itself. + +At dusk the bugles, moving with the captains in the rear, sounded the +rally, and then the scattered groups came together in company. They were +to bivouac on the spot to await their regiment when it arrived. +Meanwhile, to the bitter discontent of the Caribee companies, their post +of honor was taken by new troops, and they knew that next day they would +march in line. They had so enjoyed the glory of the first volleys, the +first deaths, and the first prisoners, that, not remembering military +procedure, they resented the change as an aspersion upon their valor. + +When the regiment came up, however, they forgot their mortification in +the eager questioning and envious jocularities of the rest. Companies K +and H were so beset that they forgot to boil their coffee, and would +have gone thirsty to their dewy beds, if the other companies' cooks had +not shared their rations with the gossiping heroes. As darkness fell, +the sky was reddened for miles with pillars of fire, and for a time the +Caribees thought it was the enemy. But Tom Twigg, who had been with the +major at headquarters, explained to Jack that the army was divided into +three bodies of about ten thousand men each, and that Tyler's column, of +which the Caribees were the advance, were the extreme northern body; +that they were now at Vienna, far north of Manassas, where Schenck had +been beset a month before in his never-enough-ridiculed reconnaissance +by train; that in the morning they were to push on to Fairfax +Court-House and thence to Centreville, where the army was to come +together for the blow at the rebels. Jack and his friends were a good +deal chagrined to learn that they were not as near the enemy as the +column to the south of them, whose fires had been mistaken for +Beauregard's. Though the levee came to an end at "taps," no one felt +sleepy, and the excitement banished the pains of fatigue. Major Mike, +sauntering through the dark lines near midnight, heard the tale still +going on in drowsy monotone, but, good-naturedly, made no sign. + +Though not given the skirmish-line next day--the 17th--Jack was +delighted to find that the Caribees led all the rest. With them rode the +commander of the brigade, Colonel Sherman, whom the soldiers thought a +very crabbed and "grumpy" sort of a fellow. His red hair bristled +straight up and out when he took his slouch hat off, as he did very +often, for the heat was intolerable. His eyes had a merry twinkle, +however, that won the hearts of the lads as he rode by, scrupulously +striking into the fields to save the panting and heavily laden line +every extra step he could. Often, in after-days--when Sherman had become +the Turenne of the armies--Jack, who was often heard to brag of his gift +of detecting greatness, used to turn very red in the face when he was +reminded of a saying of his on that hot July day: + +"That chap is too lean and hungry to have much stomach for a fight; he +looks better fitted for wielding the ferule than the sword. Schoolmaster +is written in every line of his face and stamped in his +pedagogue manner." + +The march that day was south by a little west, and about nine o'clock a +cool morning breeze lifted the clouds of dust far enough above the +horizon to reveal the distant blue of the mountains. The whole line +seemed to come to a pause in the enchanting, mirage-like spectacle. "The +Shenandoah," Jack said, mopping the dust, or rather the thin coating of +mud, from his face and brow, for the perspiration, oozing at every pore, +naturally covered the exposed skin with an unpremeditated cosmetic. The +march to Fairfax Court-House, for which judicial temple the curious +soldier looked in vain, was but eight miles from the point of departure +in the morning, but it was two o'clock in the afternoon when the +Caribees passed the hamlet, turning sharply to the right. They marched +up the deep cut of projected railway, where, for a time, they were +shaded from the sun by the high banks. But, emerging presently on the +Warrenton pike, they saw evidences that other columns--whether friends +or foes they couldn't tell--had recently preceded them. Scores of the +raw and overworked were breaking down now every hour. + +The dust and heat were insupportable. Whenever the march came near +water, all thought of discipline was forgotten, and the panting, +miner-like hosts broke for the inviting stream. The officers were +powerless to enforce discipline; when these breaks happened the column +was forced to come to a halt until every man had filled his canteen--and +here is one, among the many trivial causes, that brought about the +reverses of McDowell's masterly campaign. A march that ought to have +been made in twenty-four hours, or thirty at the utmost, took more than +three days! One of those days saved to the army would have enabled +McDowell to finish Beauregard before the ten thousand re-enforcements +from the Shenandoah came upon his flank at Bull Run. But we shall see +that in proper time, for there is nothing more dramatically timely, or +untimely, than this incident in the history of battles, unless it be +Bluecher's miraculous appearance at Waterloo, when Napoleon supposed that +Grouchy was pummeling him twenty miles away. + +There was no provost guard to spur on the stragglers; and when, late in +the afternoon, the way-worn columns spread themselves on the western +slope of the hamlet of Centreville, at least a third of each regiment +was far in the rear. Nearly every man had, in the heat and burden of the +march, thrown away the provisions in his haversack, and that night ten +thousand men lay down supperless on the grateful greensward, happy to +rest and sleep. Mother Earth must have ministered to the weary flesh, +for at sunrise, when the music of the bugles aroused them, they started +up with the alert vivacity of old campaigners. Provisions, that should +have been with the column the night before, arrived in the morning. +While the reinvigorated ranks were at coffee, there was a great clatter +in the rear, and presently a _cortege_ of mounted officers appeared, +General McDowell among them. Dick Perley, who was at the brigade +headquarters, with Grandison, came to the Caribees presently with +great news. + +The battle was to begin that very day. General Tyler was to go forward +to a river called Bull Run, where Beauregard was waiting. The whole army +was to spread out like a fan and fight him. He had seen the map on the +table, and the place couldn't be more than four miles away. Yes, they +all looked eagerly to the westward now. The mountains in the distance +rolled themselves down into lower and lower ridges, and just about four +miles ahead could be seen a range that seemed to melt into a wide +plateau fringed deeply with scrub-oak and clusters of pine. Jack had +provided himself with a field-glass. Standing in the middle of the +Warrenton pike, a fine highway, that ran downward as solid as a Roman +causeway, for four or five miles, he could see the break made by the +Bull Run River, and--yes, by the glaive of battle!--he could see the +glistening of bayonets now and then, where the screen of woods +grew thinner. + +The general, too, was examining the distant lines, and Jack took it as a +good omen that Sherman grew jocose and appeared to be making merry with +Tyler, whose face looked troubled, now that the decisive moment seemed +at hand. But the day passed, and there was no advance. It was not until +late in the evening that the cause became known. The army had been +waiting for supplies, ammunition, and what not, that should have been on +the field the day before. The Caribees were made frantic, too, by what +seemed a battle going on to the south of them, a few miles to the left. +The camp that night was a grand debating society, every man propounding +a theory of strategy that would have edified General McDowell, no doubt, +if he could have been given a _precis_ of the whole. How such things +become known it is difficult to guess, but every man in the columns knew +that the general had planned to put forward his thirty thousand men in +the form of a half-moon, covering about ten miles from tip to tip. The +right or northward horn was to be considerably thicker and of more body +than the left or southern. When the time came this right was to curve in +like a hook and cut the ground out from the left wing of the rebel army. + +This is the homely way these unscientific strategists made the movement +known to each other, and it very aptly describes the formulated plan of +battle, save that, of course, there were gaps between the forces here +and there along this human crescent. Long before daylight Sherman's +brigade, with a battery of guns and a squadron of cavalry, set out due +south, leaving the broad Warrenton pike far to their right hand. Such a +country as the march led into, no one had ever seen in the North outside +of mountain regions--deep gullies; wastes of gnarled and aggressive +oaks, that tore clothes and flesh in the passage; sudden hillocks rising +conical and inconsequent every few rods; deep chasms conducting driblets +of water; morasses covered with dark and stagnant pools, where the +pioneers fairly picked their steps among squirming reptiles. A stream, +sometimes large as a river, crawling languidly through deep fissures in +the red shale, protected the left flank of the column. The cavalry was +forced to hold the narrow wood road, as the bush was hardly passable +for men. + +"Hi, Jack!" Barney cries, catching his breath at the edge of a muddy +stream, "what sort of a place must the rebels be in if they let us +promenade through such a jungle as this unopposed?" + +"I have been thinking of that," Jack replies. And so had every man in +the expedition--for to think was one of the drawbacks as well as one of +the excellences of the soldier in the civil war. But presently, after +five hours of laborious work, a halt is called. The men dive into their +haversacks, and even the brackish water in the nearest sedge pond has a +flavor of nectar and the invigoration of a tonic. On they tear again, +the whole body pushing on in skirmish-like dispersion. Suddenly the land +changes. They are climbing a rolling table-land, cleared in some places +as though the axe of the settler had been at work. The march is now +easier and the picket-lines are strengthened. Then a sharp volley comes, +as if from the tree-tops. + +The march is instantly halted. The mass, moving in a column, is +deployed--that is, stretched out to cover a mile or more as it moves +forward; the cavalry divides and rides far to right and left, to see +that no ambush is set to enable the rebels to sneak in behind the vast +human broom, as it sweeps through the solemn aisles of the pines, now +rising in vernal columns thicker and thicker. The firing is going on now +in scattering volleys, and soon the wounded--a dozen or more--are +carried back through the silent ranks. Joking has now ceased. Lips are +compressed; eyes glitter, and the men avoid meeting each other's gaze. +It is the moment of all moments, the most trying to the soldier, when he +is expecting every instant a hurricane of bullets, and yet sees no one +to avenge his anguish on or forestall in the deadly work. But they have +been moving forward all the time, the hurtling bullets sweeping through +the leafy covering, now and then thumping into the soft pine with a +vicious joyousness, as if to say to each man, "The next is for you, see +how well our work is done." For these hideous missiles have a language +of their own, as every man that stood fire can tell. The skirmishers are +now all drawn in. The solid line must do the work at hand. No one but +the commander and his confidants knew the work intended, save that to +kill and be killed was the business to be done. The panting lines are on +high cleared ground now, and they can see absolutely nothing but the +irregular depressions that mark the channel of the Bull Run, as it +rushes down to the Rappahannock. The line is moving along steadily. +Looking to left and right, Jack can see the colors of three regiments, +and his eye rests with pleasure on the bright, shining folds of the +Caribees' dark-blue State flag spread to the breeze beside the stars of +the Union. Are they to cross the river? Evidently, for the command is +still "Forward, bear center, bear right." Then, square in front, where +the thick, broad leaves of the oak glitter in the sun, there is seen a +cylinder of steam-like smoke, with fiery gleams at the end, a crackling +explosion of a hogshead of fire-crackers, then a rushing, screaming +sound in their very faces, then a few rods behind a ringing, vicious +explosion. They are in the very teeth of a masked battery. The Union +skirmishers have been withdrawn too soon. The main line will be torn to +pieces, for retreat is as fatal as advance. + +"Lie down, men!" The command rings out and is echoed along the column. +The guns have the range, and the enemy knows the ground. The Caribees +are directly in the sweep of the artillery, and the command comes to +them by company to crawl backward, exposing themselves as little as may +be. Presently two brass guns are brought up behind the Caribees. The +gunners have noted the point of the enemy's fire. The men point the big +muzzles with intrepid equanimity, firing over the prostrate blue coats. +For twenty minutes, perhaps half an hour, this is kept up; then there is +silence on the hill beyond. The column rises to its feet, and at the +command, "Forward!" they start with a rush and a cheer. Five hundred +yards onward, and a solid mass of gray coats confront them. A volley is +fired and returned; the exulting Caribees, with two lines behind them, +give a loud cheer and, in an instant, the gray mass has disappeared, as +if the earth had opened. The skirmish-line, advancing now, picks up a +half-dozen or more wounded rebels, besides two or three who had become +confused in the hasty retreat and run toward the "Yankees" instead of +their own line. Jack's comrade held this conversation with one of the +prisoners: + +"I say, reb, what place is this?" + +"Mitchell's Ford." + +"Much of your army here?" + +"'Nuff to lick you uns out of your boots, I reckon." + +"What did they run across the ford for, then?" + +"Oh, you'll see soon enough--when our folks get ready." + +"Who's in command here?" + +"General Bonham, of South Carolina." + +"How many men, about?" + +"Well, there's right smart on to a million, I reckon. They had to cut +the trees down, yonder, to get room for 'em.". + +The man's eyes twinkled as he gave this precise approximation; but +Barney, who had brought the humorist in, whispered to the captain to let +him have a moment's speech with the man before he was sent away. The +captain nodded, and Barney said innocently: + +"Had anything to eat to-day?" + +"Not a mouthful. The trains were all taken up with soldiers coming from +Richmond." + +"Have a bit of beef--and here's a cracker or two. You can have some +coffee if the guards will let you make it." + +"Old Longstreet himself would envy me now," the rebel cried, his mouth +stuffed with the cold meat and hard-tack, almost as fresh and crisp as +soda-crackers, for the contractors had not yet learned the trick of +making them out of sawdust, white sand, and other inexpensive +substitutes for flour. + +"Longstreet?" Barney said, carelessly. + +"Yes, that's the commander of the right wing, just below, at Blackburn's +Ford." + +"Blackburn's Ford?" + +"Yes, that's a mile down, and really behind you uns, for the run makes a +big elbow to the east. I tell you what it is, Yank, you'll see snakes +right soon, for our folks are behind you." + +Sure enough, a crackling to the left confirmed this, and the captain, +who had listened to Barney's adroit cross-questioning, sent the man with +a note to Colonel Sherman, a few rods in the rear. Ten minutes later the +column fell into ranks again and moved off swiftly southeastward. A +march of a mile or so brought them to a bold ridge cutting down almost +aslant to the clear water of the run. The skirmishers, for some reason, +had not pushed ahead to explore the ground, and the regiments, marching +in close masses, came out in a rather disorderly multitude on the ridged +crest. A hundred yards nearly below the water-course was fringed with +thick copses of oak, and the gently ascending slopes on the western bank +were completely hidden from the Union lines. A few gaunt, almost +limbless trees rose up spectrally on the ridge, offering the compact +masses neither shelter from the sun nor security from the enemy--if +there were an enemy near. + +Dick came up to Jack out of breath with great news, just as the Caribees +were aligning themselves to move forward. + +"General Tyler just told Richardson"--a brigade commander--"that the +rebels had retreated from Manassas, and he (Tyler) is going to have the +glory of occupying the works: that McDowell thought the army would have +to fight a big battle to get--" + +"Glory!" the group shouted, near enough to hear; and the delightful +story ran up and down the lines by a telephone process that was much +swifter than Edison's electric invention. A roar of gratulatory triumph +broke--a roar so loud and inspiring that for a moment the densely packed +masses did not distinguish an ear-splitting outburst just in front of +them. But on the instant piercing shrieks among the huddled +cheerers--cries of death and agony--changed the paeans of triumph into +wails of anguish and mortal pain. A panic--instant, unreasoning, +irresistible--fell upon the mass, a breath before so confident. A third +of the regiment seemed to wither away. The colors fell in the struggling +group in the center. Hoarse shouts, indistinguishable and ominous, could +be vaguely heard from the staff and line. + +Direr still, hideous clamor of masked cannon, right in their very faces, +added the horror of surprise to the disorder of attack, and the thick +blue lines broke in irrestrainable confusion. The terror of the unknown +seized officers and men alike. In five minutes the crest was cleared, +and the ignoble vanity, ignorance, and self-sufficiency of one man had +undone in an hour the splendid work of the commander-in-chief. A _melee_ +of miserable, disgraceful disorder ensued. The rebel sharpshooters, +hurrying to the flank, poured in hurtling, murderous volleys, filling +the minds of the panic-stricken mob with the idea, the most awful that +can enter a soldier's mind, that his line is surrounded. Hundreds threw +away guns and everything that could impede flight. Other hundreds fired +wildly wherever they saw moving men, and thus aided the rebels in +killing their own comrades, for it was into the supporting Union forces +they directed their random shots. The fire grew every instant more +bewildering. Shots came in volleys from every direction, and the +helpless hordes darted wildly together--sometimes toward, instead of +from the enemy. Had the rebels been as numerous as they were crafty, the +brigade could have been seized _en masse_. But now Sherman is at hand +with fresh regiments, others are at his heels, and the contest takes on +some of the order of intelligent action. The rebels, too, are +re-enforced, but the dispositions made by the Union chiefs bring the +combat to equal terms. The clamor of cannon and musketry continues an +hour, though the lines are now among the friendly undergrowth, and the +losses are not serious. But the Caribees, with the regiment supporting +them, have been blotted from the scene as a factor. For hours the +scattering groups fled--fled in ever-increasing panic, and it was long +after dark before the remnants of the regiment came into camp at +Centreville. + +Poor Jack! He gave no heed to supper that dreadful night. He threw +himself on the ground, too exhausted to think and too disheartened to +talk. He couldn't understand the shameful panic. The Caribees were not +cowards; every man in the regiment had longed for the battle. When under +fire at Mitchell's Ford, an hour earlier than the disaster at Blackburn, +all had stood firmly in place, fought with coolness, and gave no sign of +fear. The volume of fire when they broke was not much greater than the +Mitchell's Ford volleys. During the night Grandison came to camp and +assembled the officers. He expressed his sorrow at the sudden shadow +that had fallen on the fair fame of the regiment, but since the panic +had not been followed, as such outbreaks often are, by the total +destruction of the men, there would be abundant chance to redeem the +disgrace of the day. He had himself begged the division commander to +give the men another trial, and he had staked his commission on their +doing such duty as would remove the tarnish of the afternoon from +their banners. + +The officers had been dispirited. Major Mike had raged over the field, +through the woods, a very angry man indeed, belaboring the fleeing men +with his sword and imploring those he couldn't reach to "come to me +here. Dress on me. There's no call to be afeard. We've more men than +they have, and we'll soon wallop them." + +But the resounding blows on the backs of those near the officer did not +give the encouraging emphasis to his appeal that captivates men whose +reasoning faculties are almost gone for the moment. Before daylight on +the next morning--Saturday, the 20th--the companies were called together +and little addresses were made to the men by the officers. The substance +of Colonel Grandison's words was imparted, and the hope expressed that +when, in the course of that or the next day the regiment was again under +fire, they would show that the panic of yesterday had not been +cowardice. The men said nothing, and every one was glad that the light +was so dim that the officers could not look in their faces, though, as a +matter of fact, the shoulder-straps had shown as little fortitude as the +muskets in the dispersion. All that day the forces rested, the Caribees +providing themselves with new arms and equipments, or the two or three +hundred who had flung their own away. During the afternoon an incident +happened in the division that lessened the mortification of the +Caribees. A splendid regiment and a battery of bronze guns came into the +highway from the extreme of the line that was expected to take part in +the battle which all knew would be opened the next morning. Every one +was surprised to see the men moving without muskets and the colors +wrapped in their cases. "Where you bound for?" some one at the roadside +yelled curiously. + +"Our time is out; we're going home." + +Then a derisive howl followed the line as it passed through the masses +of the army, and remarks of an acrid nature were made that were not +gratifying to the departing patriots: + +"Don't you want a guard to protect you?" + +"Does your mamma know you're out alone?" + +"Wait till to-morrow and we'll send Beauregard's forces to see you safe +home." + +The men and officers looked very conscious and uncomfortable under the +gamut of jeers, for word went along the line, and all along the route to +the rear they passed through this clamor of contemptuous outcry. + +"Well, I thought we had reached the eminent deadly pinnacle of +disgrace," Barney said, with a sigh, as a group of Company K watched the +considerable number taken out of McDowell's small army, "but this sight +makes me feel like the man on trial for murder who escapes with a +verdict of manslaughter." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BLOOD AND IRON. + + +Late at night Dick came down to Jack's bivouac with a strange tale. +McDowell had come to Tyler's quarters storming with rage. He had accused +that officer of disobeying orders in forcing a fight on the fords of +Bull Run where he had been told to merely reconnoitre. + +The staff believed that Tyler would be cashiered, for he had not only +wrecked the general's plan of battle, but he had given the rebels the +secret of the movement and demoralized one wing of the army by putting +raw soldiers in front of masked batteries that could have been detected +by proper outpost work. Then one of the staff reported a speech Tyler +had made when his troops rushed over the empty rebel breastworks and +forts around Centreville. His officers were discussing the probable +forces Beauregard had behind the crooked stream beyond. + +"I believe we've got them on the run," Tyler said, exultingly, "from +what we see here. I tell you the great man of this war is the man that +plants the flag at Manassas, and I'm going through to Richmond +to-night." + +"Not much comfort in knowing we've got such a fool for a commander," +Jack cried, thinking of the disgrace of the day before and of the small +chance the regiment had under such a chief to redeem its prestige on the +morrow. All personal griefs, everything but the pending battle, were +driven from the men's minds as the signs of the momentous work of the +morrow accumulated. The hospital corps was up in force. The yellow flag +floated from an immense tent near the roadway. A great _cortege_ of +general officers rode away from McDowell's quarters about ten in the +evening. The haversacks were filled with three days' cooked rations. One +hundred rounds of ammunition to a man were dealt out to each company. +Everything not absolutely necessary was ordered to the company wagons. + +The talk in the camp that night was of home--of anything and everything +but the dreadful to-morrow, so long looked forward to with eager hope, +now regarded with uncertainty that was not so much fear as the memory of +the panic at Blackburn's Ford. Jack was provided with a large atlas map +of Virginia, and with the bits of information given by Dick he was able +to conjecture the probable plan of the next day. The cronies of Company +K listened in delight to his exposition of the action. + +"Here," he said, "is the Bull Run. It makes two big elbows eastward +toward us--one about four miles to the northwest of us, the other about +eight miles to the southeast of that, and about four miles from our +right hand here! The rebel we quizzed yesterday says that there are five +fords between the Warrenton pike bridge--that's just ahead of us yonder +at the end of the road we are on--the last one is McLean's Ford, at the +very knuckle of the elbow that is crooked toward us a mile west of where +we were yesterday. That is near the railway, which it is Beauregard's +business to fight for and our business to get, for then he will have to +fall back near Richmond to feed his army. Now from the railway where it +crosses Bull Run near Mitchell's Ford to the Warrenton road, which +Beauregard must also hold, is about nine miles. He must guard all these +fords, and we must fight for any one or two of them that we need to +cross by. The only problem is, whether our general is going to strike +with his right arm at Mitchell's Ford, his left arm at this very +Warrenton road we are on, or whether he means to butt the middle of the +line of Beauregard's battle to break him into two pieces?" + +"What would Frederick the Great or Napoleon do?" Nick asked, absorbed in +Jack's confident predications. + +"If Frederick had equal forces he would have a reserve just where we +shall be in the morning--there at that point marked 'Stone Ridge,' and +move a heavy mass to the southwest below McLean's Ford there, where you +see the railway runs along the run for a half-mile or more. Or he would +send this body to the northeast, over there where you see Sudley Springs +marked in rather large letters, and he would by either one of these +movements turn the enemy's flank--that is, get in behind him and force +him to change front to fight, something that is rarely done successfully +in battle. Napoleon would, on the contrary, mass all his best troops at +the stone bridge, open the fight with every piece of artillery he could +bring to bear, and in the panic send divisions ten deep across +the bridge." + +"Which would be the better plan?" + +"Ah! that no one can say. The first is sure enough and less dangerous, +if the commander is not certain of his men, because you notice that we +felt excellent and confident all day, so long as we were marching +forward and pushing the enemy from our path. The trial in battle is to +be kept standing under fire, not sure where your enemy is; and then you +noticed that our own guns behind us, sending shot and shells over us, +were just as trying as the rebels'. Only soldiers of the very first +class can be depended on in the Napoleon tactics. We are not soldiers of +the first class; and you may be sure McDowell, who was many years in +Europe, and who is a trained officer, will make use of the manoeuvres +best calculated to bring out whatever there is in his men. As a matter +of opinion, I should say that, in view of the miserable affair on the +right yesterday, he will strike out for Sudley Springs, where we shall +have the rebels just as you would have me if you were at my side, held +my left arm behind me, ready to break my back with your knee planted +in it." + +Jack was sergeant of the guard that night, and it was in the group of +sentries awaiting their relief every two hours, re-enforced by his +tent-mates of Company K, that these learned dissertations on war were +carried on. It was a never to be forgotten Saturday night to millions +yet living. In Washington the President and his Cabinet sat far into the +morning hours receiving the dispatches from the weary and disappointed +chief--for, if Tyler had not made his miserable attempt to reach +Manassas, the battle would have been fought that vital Saturday, and the +result would have been another story in history. As the morning broke, +red and murky, the army was up and in line, but without the usual noisy +signals. The artillery-horses began to move first wherever it was +possible. The heavy guns were pushed forward on the sward, to prevent +the loud metallic clangor that penetrated the still air like clashing +anvils. By half after six, the advance brigade, the Caribees in their +old place, were within gunshot of the stone bridge. + +"Ah ha, Jack! It is the Napoleonic plan!" Barney cried, as the artillery +took places in front of the masses lying on the ground. + +"Wait," Jack cried, owlishly. "The battle isn't fought always where the +guns are loudest." + +But the guns were now loud and quick. The rebels, behind a thick screen +of trees, took up the challenge, and every sound was drowned in the roar +of the artillery. A few far in the rear were wounded--those nearest the +rebels were in the least danger, whether because the guns could not be +sufficiently depressed, or because the gunners were poor hands, couldn't +be determined. A breathless suspense, an insatiate craving to see, to +move, to fly forward, or do anything, devoured the prostrate ranks. The +firing had gone on two hours or more, which seemed only so many minutes, +when to the group near General Tyler a courier, panting and dusty, rode +in great excitement. + +"General Tyler, the major-general has just learned that the enemy have +crossed in force at Blackburn's Ford, below you. You are at once to take +measures to protect your left flank." + +"Ah ha, Jack; Frederick's on the other side, eh?" Barney said, as, +standing near the group, these words reached their ears. + +"Perhaps there are two Fredericks at work. Look yonder!" handing him his +glass as he spoke. + +"Thunder! our whole army is marching over there to the right, and we +sha'n't even see the battle. They are four miles off. Why, what an +immense army we must have! I thought this was the bulk of it, but we're +not a brigade compared to that." + +"Now, Barney, I feel confident that is the grand movement. Look how they +fly along! The fields are as good as roads out there, and if it were not +for the artillery they could make five miles an hour. Now, keep your +ears open, my lad: you'll hear music off there to the northwest, music +that will make Beauregard sick, if that courier's information is exact. +For, don't you see, as we are placed here, with that gully to our left +and the thick woods in front, we could hold this ground against six +times our number." + +Company K were now sent forward to the right to relieve a body of +skirmishers that had been hidden on the margin of Bull Run, some +distance to the westward of the stone bridge. Jack, going forward with +his glass, noticed an officer among the men, but not catching sight of +his face did not recognize him. + +"Is that a rebel or one of our fellows?" one of the men said, pointing +to a horseman disappearing in the woods four hundred yards to the right +and in front of the company, marching in a straggling line two abreast, +"by the flank," as it is called. Jack took his glass to discover, but +the rider had disappeared. An instant after from a knoll, Jack, glass at +eye, was examining eagerly the field on the other side of the river, +when a horseman suddenly shot into view, riding desperately. + +"By George, it is the same man! I wonder how he crossed the stream? +There must be a bridge down there among those thick trees and bushes," +Jack said, excitedly. + +"Are you sure, sergeant, that is the same man that was in the woods to +the right there, five minutes ago?" + +Jack turned; the officer was at his shoulder. He saluted respectfully, +recognizing, with a thrill of joy, old Red Top, as the company +called Sherman. + +"Yes, colonel, it's the same man. He was in his shirtsleeves and had a +blue scarf tied about his arm. There can be no mistake; several of us +saw him quite plainly." + +"If that be true, we've gained a half-day's work in two minutes." He was +looking diligently through the glass as he spoke, and his eye brightened +as he marked the man until he disappeared. He turned to an orderly that +was following at a distance leading a horse. Mounting this lightly the +colonel rode to the head of the company and said in a short, +decisive tone: + +"Come ahead men, at a double-quick, until you strike the stream." He +kept beside the men as they moved. In fifteen minutes they were at the +water's edge. Then the company was deployed as skirmishers, two thirds +halting where they struck the water and the rest keeping on up the bank +of the river for a few hundred yards. Sherman was eying every inch of +the bank until, suddenly reaching a break where fresh tracks of a horse +were visible, he directed his orderly to follow, and plunged into the +water. It was not up to the horses' knees from bank to bank. Riding +back, his face aglow, the colonel ordered the captain to cross half his +men and station them up and down on the bank where they would not be +seen by the rebels on the high ground above. Then, addressing Jack, +he said: + +"Sergeant, select two or three trusty men. Follow the bank of the stream +until you come to General Hunter's division, which may be a mile, +perhaps more, to the right yonder; you can tell by the firing soon. Tell +General Hunter that we have discovered a ford and shall not have to +fight for the stone bridge. We shall be across in no time and take the +enemy in the rear. If you can't find Hunter, give this intelligence to +any officer in command. Stay." + +He scribbled a line on a sheet of his order-book, saying: "This will be +your authority. It's better not to write the rest for fear you should be +captured. In case you are in danger tell each man with you what to say, +so that there will be more chances of getting the information where it +will do good; and remember, sergeant, that this news in Hunter's hands +will be almost equivalent to victory. Ah!" + +He paused again. Reverberating crashes came from the high grounds up the +river. "You will have no trouble in finding him now. Those are Hunter's +guns. Hurry." + +Glowing, grateful, big with the fate of the battle, Jack had Barney, +Nick, and another, whom he charged with the duty of historian, detailed +for this duty of glory. The group set off with a fervent Godspeed from +the company sheltered among the thick pines and oaks. + +"Now, boys," Jack said, every inch the captain, "we must spread out like +skirmishers. Our chief danger will be from the left, as no one will be +likely to be in the water but our own men, and we must look as sharply +for them as for the enemy. I will take the center; you, Barney, the +left, next to me; and you, Nick, four paces farther to the left." Jack +looked at his watch. It was just 9.30, Sunday morning, July 21, 1861. +The crash of musketry ahead now became one unbroken roar, with a +_crescendo_ of artillery that fairly shook the ground the messengers +were darting over, for all were on a dead run. The bushes grew thick on +the hillside and their branches were stubborn as crab thorns. Hell, as +Barney afterward remarked, would have been cool in comparison to the +heat as the adventurers tugged and wrestled forward. Now guns were +roaring on every side save the river. Behind, before, to the left, the +thunders played upon the parched land. At the end of a half-hour the +bullets and shells passed over the group as Jack and his squad pushed +along the hilly way. Twice, commands, and even the clicking, of what +Jack knew must be rebel guns sounded not twenty paces away, but, thanks +to the thick bushes, the scouts passed unseen, and, thanks to the noise +of battle, unheard. But now the danger is from friends, not enemies. +Balls come hurtling through the trees across the stream, and in a low +voice Jack bids Barney summon Nick. Then all slip down to the water's +edge, and make their way painfully through the marshy swamps, the +cane-like rushes that fill the narrow valley. The run has been a fearful +strain upon Nick, and at length he falls, gasping, in a clump of +cat-tails. + +"What is it, old fellow?" Jack cries in alarm. + +"O Jack! I can't go a step farther. You go on and leave me. I shall +follow when I get breath." + +He was white and gasping. Barney filled his canteen from the running +water, and, wetting his handkerchief, laid it on Nick's parboiled head +and temples. + +"Best a few minutes," Jack said, soothingly. "I will reconnoitre a bit." +Stripping off his accoutrements, he clasped a tall sycamore growing at +the crest of the ravine, and when far up brought his glass to bear. A +third of a mile to the left and southward, he could see a regiment with +a flag bearing a single star, surrounding a small stone farm-house on +the brow of a gentle hill. They were firing to the west and toward the +north, where the black clouds obscured his view. But the red gleam in +the smoke told of at least a dozen guns, and he knew that the main +battle was there, though the fury of it reached far to the east, near +the stone bridge which he had quit an hour before. Then through the veil +of smoke long, deep masses of blue emerge and make for the rebel front +on the brow of the hill, fairly at Jack's feet; the enemy redoubles the +fire; two guns at their left pour canister into the advancing wall of +blue. It never wavers, but, as a group falls to the earth, the rest +close together and the mass whirls on. + +Jack feels like flying. Oh, the grandeur of it, the fearlessness, the +intoxication! He almost falls from the tree in his excitement. But he +takes a last sweep of the belching hill. Hark! Loud cheers in the trees +back of the rebels, far to the southeast, perhaps a mile and a half; +then the flaunting Palmetto flag flying forward in the center of deep +masses of gray. Which will reach the hill first? He can not quit the +deadly sight. Ah! the blue lines are pressing on now; the cannon-shots +pass over their heads into the devoted line of gray, desperately +thinned, but clinging to the key of the battle-field. But, great God! +Perhaps his delay is aiding the enemy. He sees the route now +clear--straight to the west--and no rebels near enough to intervene. He +descends so fast that his hands and legs are blistered, but he is down. + +"Look sharp, boys; you must follow me as best you can. I know the +route--there is a forest path directly to our lines, and we shall be +there in twenty minutes--I shall, at least." He doesn't stop to see +whether he is followed or not, but dashes on, and the rest after him. He +is far out of sight in an instant. It is only by the crackling of the +branches that the others keep his course. The way is between steep, +precipitous hills, which explains how they could be so near the battle +and yet not in it, nor harmed by the missiles flying sometimes very near +them. At a deep branch of the stream the three rearmost came in sight of +Jack, up to his armpits in water and pushing for the shore. + +While they are hailing him exultantly he sinks out of sight; an awful +anguish almost stops the others, but Barney, flinging his musket and +impediments off as he runs, leaps far into the stream, and when the rest +reach the spot he has Jack by the hair, dragging him to the bank. He is +fairly worn out by the stress, and the others loosen his coat, stretch +him on the brown sward and rub his hands, his body. It is ten minutes, +it seemed an hour, before he is able to get up, and the rest insist on +carrying his accoutrements. Then the wild race is begun again, every +instant bringing them nearer the pandemonium of battle. Suddenly the +sharp commands of officers are heard in front and to the left. Is it the +enemy, or is it friends? The group halts in an agony of doubt. How can +they find out? Barney takes out his handkerchief and puts it on his gun, +which he was careful to go back and recover when Jack was on the bank. A +ray of bright red suddenly flits above the thick tops of the scrub-oaks. + +Yes, God be praised, there is the flag of stars, and there are blue +uniforms! With a wild hurrah, drowned in the musketry to the left, they +rush forward, are halted by a picket guard, exhibit Sherman's order, and +are directed to the commanding-officer. That personage has no knowledge +of General Hunter's whereabouts, but Colonel Andrew Porter is just +beyond, commanding the brigade. To him Jack makes known Sherman's +message, and is directed farther to the southwest, the Union right now +facing nearly to the east in the execution of McDowell's admirable flank +manoeuvre. + +Now among their own, Sherman's couriers run more peril than when +skirting the edge of the battle, for the shells are directed at the line +they are pursuing. They push to the rear and continue southeastward, +where Hunter's headquarters are supposed to be. But Jack is easy on the +score of his mission, since the general, who is nearest the stone +bridge, has been apprised, and well knows that the fire which has been +coming near his left flank is Sherman's. Until, however, he has executed +his orders literally Jack won't be satisfied, and plunges on, the others +following, nothing loath. But it is a way of pain for the lads now. +Every step they come upon the dead and dying. The air is filled with +moaning men, whinnying horses, the hurried movement of stretchers, the +solemn solicitude of the hospital corps. The line of foremost battle is +less terrifying, less trying than this inner way of Golgotha, and the +four are well-nigh unnerved when they reach a group where the commanding +officer has been pointed out. + +"General Hunter?" Jack says, addressing an officer with a star. + +"My name is Franklin. General Hunter was wounded an hour ago. What's the +matter?" + +Jack gave his message, and Franklin said, cheerfully: "That's good news. +You're a very brave fellow. Go a few yards in the rear yonder and you'll +find General McDowell. He'll enjoy your message." + +On the hill they halt electrified. + +Thick copses of scrub-pine dot the gently sloping sward. Here and there +clumps of tall pines stand in the bare, brown sod as if to guard the +young outshoots clustering about them in wanton dispersion. Cow-paths, +marked only by the worn edges of the bushes, run in zigzags across the +hillside and up to the plateau. The remnants of rail fences strew the +ground here and there. The low roof of the farm-house can be seen far +back even from the depression, where the lines of blue are now resting a +brief, deadly half-hour. + +The sun is now behind the halted line of blue; the bayonets, catching +the light, make a sea of liquid, mirror-like rivulets hovering in the +air, with the bushy branches of pine rising like green isles in the +shimmering tide. The men are filling their cartridge-boxes; new +regiments are gliding into the gaps where death has cut the widest +swath. From the woods, cries, groans, commands, clashing steel as the +men hustle against each other in the rush into line, prelude the Vulcan +clamor soon to begin. Men, bent, sometimes crawling, with stretchers on +their shoulders, glide through the maimed and shrieking fragments of +bodies, picking out here and there those seeming capable of carriage. +Other men, prone on their faces, hold canteens of tepid, muddy +water--but ah! a draught to the feverish lips which seems godlike +nectar. Against the stout bodies of the trees, armless men, legless +trunks, the maimed in every condition of death's fantastic sport, hold +themselves limply erect, to gain succor or save some of the vital stream +pouring from their gaping wounds. + +Couriers dash up to the impassive chief, calm-eyed, keen, alert, +surveying the line, dispatching brief commands, receiving reports. It is +Franklin. With the air of a marshal on a civic pageant, perplexed only +by some geometrical problem denying the possibility of two right lines +on the same plane, he glances upward toward the brow of the plateau. The +four flags had been increased by half a dozen. Ah, they have received +aid! A tremendous crash comes from the left. That must be Sherman. He is +on the rebel rear. One strong pull, and the two bodies will be united, +his left arm reaching Sherman's right. The shining mirage of steel above +the green isle sinks. The clash of hurtling accoutrements comes up +musically, tranquilly from the low ground. The blue mass, first +deliberately, then in a quiet, regular run, passes like a moving +barricade up the sloping hillside. Then from one end of the long wall to +the other white puffs as of some monster breathing spasmodically. + +The air is a blur of sulphurous blackness. The bullets are as thick as +if a swarm of leaden locusts had been routed from the foliage, and taken +wing hillward. Then behind, through the gaps in the trees, big, whining, +screeching swarms of another caliber shells fly over the wall of blue. +In a moment the ground of the plateau is torn, the red clay flying far +into the air. But now the blue wall is girdling the very crest of the +hill; it stops, shrivels. Long gaps are cut in its broken surface. The +hillside is dotted with sprawling figures. The crest is a ragged edge of +writhing bodies and struggling limbs. Forward! The wall is advancing, +but shorter. It is within reach of the shining guns--spouting flame and +iron in the very face of the dauntless wall. Then there is a pause. The +smoke hides everything but the maimed and quivering heaps that strive to +crawl backward, back to the crest, back to the deeps that are not rest +nor security. The hillside is like a field, covered with sheaved +grain--with a thousand mangled bodies that had been men. + +Then to these wrestling specters--for in the dim smoke and Tartarean +atmosphere the actions of loading and aiming take the shape of huge +writhing, convulsing, monstrous, grappling--come quick-moving lines of +help. They rush through them, over them. The thirteen cannon behind the +struggling hydra of gray seem one vortex--sulphurous, flaming, spitting, +as from one vast mouth, scorching fire, huge mouthfuls of granite venom. +Back--back, the gray masses break in sinuous, definite, slow-yielding +disruption. + +Then a sudden inrush from the left of the broken gray, where smoke and +space play fantastic tricks with the sunshine. Miraculously a dark mass +is projected on the shimmering spectrum, and a ringing voice is heard: + +"We are saved; we are re-enforced. We will die here!" Then high above +the din, in the exultant tumult of the deadly won ground, the nearest in +blue hear a stentorian voice--grim, deliberate, exultant: + +"Look where Jackson stands like a stone-wall! At them, men! Let us +determine to die here, and we will conquer." + +Die he did, when the yelling horde in the sudden outrush grazed the edge +of the Union besom sweeping over the plain in a rush of death. Then +behind these spectral shapes came others--thousands--with wild, fierce +shouts. The blue mass is thinned to a single line. Men in command look +anxiously to the rear. Where is Burnside? Where are the twelve thousand +men whom Hunter and Heintzelman deployed in these woods two hours since? +Back, slowly, fiercely, but backward, the slender wall of blue is +forced; not defeated, but not victorious. All this Jack sees, and he +turns heartsick from the sight. + +When the straggling couriers reached the point designated as McDowell's +headquarters, he had gone to the eastward of the line, and, faithful to +the command given him, Jack set out with Barney, leaving the others to +deliver the message in case he missed the general. They emerged +presently on the edge of a plateau, whence nearly the whole battle could +be seen. Jack climbed a tall oak to reconnoitre the ground for McDowell, +but, as his glass revealed the battling lines, he shouted to Barney to +climb for a moment, to impress the frightful yet grandiose spectacle +upon his mind. Far off toward the stone bridge, now a mile or more +northeast of them, they could see the Union flags waving, and mark the +white puffs of smoke that preceded the booming of the cannon. Every +instant the clouds of smoke came southward, where the rebel lines were +concealed by the thick copses. But they were breaking--always breaking +back anew. In twenty minutes more, at the same rate, the hill upon which +the rebel lines nearest the tree held the Union right at bay would be +surrounded on two sides. + +This, for the moment, was a sulphurous crater, the fire-belching demons, +invisible in the smoke. Through the glass Jack could see the lines +clearly--or the smoke arising above them. The enemy had been pushed back +nearly two miles since he had left Colonel Sherman a few rods above the +stone bridge. The Union force, as marked by the veil of smoke, curved, +about the foemen, a vast crescent, seven miles or more from tip to tip. +The bodies opposing were scattered like a gigantic staircase, with the +angles of the steps confronting each other step by step. But now the +Union ranks at Jack's feet rush forward; a group of riders are coming to +the tree, and Jack descends hastily to meet the general. He is again +disappointed. It is not McDowell. At a loss what to do, he salutes one +of the officers and states his case, recognizing, as he turns, +General Franklin. + +"I don't see that you can do better than remain where you are, or, still +better, push to the brow of that hill yonder and act as a picket. In +case you see any force approaching from this side, which is not likely, +give warning. Our cavalry ought to be here, but it isn't. If you are +called to account when the battle is done, give me as your authority. I +take it your brigade will be around here pretty soon, if they make as +rapid work all the way as they have made since eleven o'clock. If the +cavalry come, you can report to the nearest officer for assignment." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE LEGIONS OF VARUS. + + +The two free lances set out now, relieved of all responsibility, and +determined to watch the open fields and woods to see that this part of +the field was not surprised. The hill to which the general had directed +them was farther from the battle than they had yet been, but the work +going on to the northeast showed that this would soon be the western +edge of the combat if Sherman continued advancing. They are soon on the +hill, and Jack posts himself in a tree with his glass. There is a lull +in the quarter they have just quit. The smoke rolls away, and now he can +see streams of gray-coats hurrying to the edge of the plateau, where, +two hours before, he had encountered Porter's brigade. Can it be +possible that Porter's troops do not see these on-rushing hordes? They +are moving on the right point of the crescent, and unless the Union +commander is alert they will break in on the back of the point; for +Jack, without knowing it, was virtually in the rebel lines--that is, he +was nearer the rebel left flank, the foot of the long, bow-shaped +staircase, than he was to the tip of the Union crescent. + +But no! The Stars and Stripes fly forward; they are on the very crest +whence the defiant guns spat upon them. But now the smoke covers +everything. Then there is a calm. The ground is clear again. The gray +masses are pouring up to the crest in still greater numbers; a large +body of them march down the hill in the rear of the Union line concealed +by the woods; they march right up to the ranks where the red-barred flag +is flying! What can it mean? Neither side fires. There must surely be +some mistake. Hark! now the blue line discovers--too late--that the mass +is the enemy, and half the line withers in the point-blank discharge. +They are swept from the ground. Jack is trembling--demoniac. The gray +mass springs forward; they have seized the guns--four of them--and turn +them upon the disappearing blue. Then a hoarse shout of delirious +triumph. The guns are lost; the day is lost, for now there are no +blue-coats in sight. But no! A still wilder shout--electrifying, +stentorian--comes across the plateau. The blue mass reappears; they come +with a wild rush in well-ordered array; they are the regulars, Jack can +tell by their movements. It must be the famous Rickett's battery he saw +at Centreville in the morning. In five minutes the tale was retold, and +the guns, snatched from the worsted gray-coats, are safe in the hands of +their masters. Again the smoke obscures the picture; again it clears +away, and now the gray are in greater force than before, and the +horseless batteries are again the prize of this rapacious grapple. +Swarming in from three sides, the gray again hold the contested pieces. +The blue vanish into the thick bushes. Another irruption, another pall +of smoke, and Jack's heart bounds in exultant joy, for he sees the New +York flag in the van. Sherman has reached the point of dispute. But +alas! the guns are run back, and as the gray lines sway rearward in +billowy, regular measure, they retain the Titanically contested trophies. + +The sun is now far beyond the meridian. The Union lines are closing up +compactly. One more such grapple as the last and the broad plateau where +the rebel artillery is massed, pointing westward, northward, eastward, +will be won. But a palsy seems to have settled on the lines of blue. +They are motionless, while their adversaries are hurrying men from some +secret place, where they seem to be inexhaustible. The whole battle is +now within the compass of a mile. But where can these hordes come from? +Surely, General McDowell has never been mad enough to leave them +disengaged along the fords! No; they do not come from that direction. +They come at the very center of the rebel rear. Can it be that troops +are arriving from Richmond? The Southern lines are longer than the +Northern, but they have been since the first moment Jack got a glimpse +of them. He could see, too, that they were thinner: that on the spur of +the plateau in front of the massed rebel artillery a single brigade was +holding the Union mass at bay. He can almost hear the rebel commands as +the re-enforcements pour in. But now the thunder breaks out anew, rolls +in vengeful fury around the western and northern base of the plateau. +The gray lines stagger; the falling men block the steps of the living. +Surely now McDowell is going to do or die. Yes. The iron game goes on; +the blue lines jostle and crush forward. They are at the last wall of +resistance. But what is the sound at his very feet? As Jack looks down +in the narrow way between the hill he is on and the plateau on the very +edge of the Union line--in fact, behind it now, for it has moved forward +since he took post--a rushing mass of gray-clad soldiery is moving +forward on the dead run. In one instant the head of the column is where +General Franklin rode but an hour or two before. He looks for Barney. He +can see him nowhere. He climbs down in haste and discovers his comrade +soundly sleeping against the base of the tree. + +"Barney, the army is ruined!" + +"Is the battle over?" + +"Oh, no, no, but it will be in a moment. Hark, hear that!" + +A roar of musketry--it seemed at their very feet. Then an outbreak of +yells, so sharp, so piercing, so devilish the sound, that the marrow +froze in their veins, arose, as if from the whole thicket about them. + +"Is it too late to warn General Franklin?" Barney asked, trembling. + +"Ah, Barney, we are as bad as traitors; we ought to have seen these +rebels before they got near. If we had done our duty this would never +have happened. Perhaps it is not too late to get back. Let me go up and +see where we can find a way without running into the enemy." + +Reaching his perch again, Jack cast his despairing eyes toward the fatal +hill. It was now clear of smoke, and there wasn't a regiment left on it. +His heart leaped for an instant, the next it was lead, for the ranks +that had disappeared were down on the brow of the hill--in the valley-- +rushing forward, unresisted, the red and blue of the Union, mixed with +the stars and bars of the rebellion; but, worse than all, the ranks of +gray were sweeping in overwhelming masses quite behind the lines of +blue, cutting them down as a scythe when near the end of the furrow. To +the eastward Sherman still clung desperately to the crests he had won, +but Jack saw with agony that, slipping between him and the river, a +great wedge of gray was hurrying forward. His last despairing glance +caught a body of jet black horses galloping wildly into the dispersing +ranks of blue. He came down from the tree limp, nerveless, unmanned. + +"Well?" Barney asked. + +"It's all over--we are ruined!" + +"The army, you mean?" + +"Ah, yes! the army and we too." + +"But what's going to become of us?" + +"I don't much care what becomes of us--at least I don't care what +becomes of me!" + +"But if we don't get back to our regiment, they'll think we're +deserters." + +"Good God, yes! I forgot that; I think I can find the way back. But +we'll have to be careful, the enemy are all around us. I can hear them +plainly, very near. Follow me, and don't speak above a whisper." + +Then, with swift movement, always as near the thick bushes as they could +push, they fled faster and faster, as fear fell more and more heavily +upon their quickened fancies. The thought of the repute of deserters +lent them endurance, or they must have broken down before the weary +shiftings of that dreadful flight. They are now near the spot where they +had met Porter's pickets in the morning. The sounds of battle had died +out at intervals, renewed now and again by an outcry of cheers, a quick +fusillade, then more cheers, and then an ominous silence. But now there +is a continuous roll of musketry near the knoll, back of the Warrenton +road. The two wanderers, breathless, with torn uniforms, swollen faces, +halt, gasping, to take their bearings. They can see the turnpike far +beyond the stone bridge half-way to Centreville: they see crowds fleeing +in zigzag lines over the open fields, see horses plunging wildly, laden +down by two and even three men on their backs; they see vehicles +overturned at the roadside, whence the horses have been cut or killed by +the rebel shells; they see an army, in every sense a mob, swarming +behind the deserted rebel forts; they see orderly ranks of shining black +horses this side the stone bridge charging the fleeing lines of blue; +they see shells whirling like huge blackbirds in the sky, suddenly +falling among the skurrying thousands; they see a shell finally burst on +the bridge, shiver a caisson to fragments, and then all sign of +organized flight comes to an end. + +But near them, meanwhile, a sullen fire replies with desperate +promptitude to the rebel shots. + +"If we can get over to the men fighting at the edge of the woods, we may +be killed or captured, but we won't be disgraced!" Jack cries. + +Again they make a wide circuit through the woods, and now the firing is +near at hand, coming slowly toward them. They have only to wait and they +will be among the forlorn hope. Ah, with what fervent joy Jack marks the +Union banner, flapping its twin streamers among the hurtling pines! They +are near it; they are under it! Their own guns are no longer available; +hundreds are lying at hand; they seize them. The line is firing in +retreat. It is a sadly depleted battalion of Keyes's regulars, +steadfast, imperturbable, devoted. A handful of them has been forgotten +or misdirected. The rebels, uncertain whether it was not a trap to snare +them, move with caution, while far to the left a turning column is +hurrying to hem the Union group in on every side. There are hardly three +hundred blue-coats in the mass, but their volleys are so swift, so +regular, so steady, that they make the impression of a thousand. The +enemy felt sure, as was afterward learned, that there was at least +a regiment. + +A young captain, soiled, ragged, his sleeves hanging in ribbons, the +whole skirt of his coat gone, moves alertly, composedly in the center, +seizing a gun when one comes handy on the ground, where there are plenty +scattered. + +"Steady, men, steady! We shall be at the water's edge, soon, and then we +can give them hell!" + +Never music sounded sweeter in Jack's car than that jaunty epithet +"hell"! How inspiring! How little of the ordinary association the word +brought up! Now they were traversing slowly the very ground Jack and his +comrades had flown over in the morning. Still firing--still working with +all his heart in the deadly play, Jack sidles to the officer and +cries out: + +"Captain, I know a ford that will take us across above the stone bridge. +We discovered it this morning. Shall I guide that way?" + +"Guide if you can; but fire like seven devils, above all!" the captain +cried, seizing two or three pouches lying in a mass and emptying the +cartridges into his pockets. + +"There, keep to the left sharp, and we shall come to a deep gully where +the water is only knee-deep," Jack cries, also replenishing his +cartridge-box, which had shrunk under the rapid work of the last +half-hour. + +"What regiment are you, sergeant?" the captain cries, looking for a +moment at the tattered recruit. + +"Caribees of New York, Sherman's brigade." + +"And how came you off here? Your brigade was near the right of the line +at the stone budge." The captain asked this with a shade of suspicion in +his voice. + +Jack explained his mission, and the officer, who had been dealing out +the timely windfall of ammunition, nodded. + +"Poor Hunter was shot early in the advance. It would have been victory +to our flag if the poor old follow had been wounded before the action +began. He lost three hours in the attack, and gave the rebels a chance +to come up from Winchester." + +Now Jack understood the mysterious legions that seemed to spring from +the earth. They were Johnston's army from the Shenandoah. + +"Keep up heart, men: Burnside and Schenck are near us somewhere. They +are in reserve, and they'll give these devils a warm welcome, if they +push far enough after us." + +Then the steady volleys grew swifter, if that were possible, the enemy +moving steadily after the slowly retiring group. But now there is a +clear field to cross, so wide that the smallness of the force must be +detected. The captain halts the line, takes his bearings, divides the +little army into two bodies, orders one to move at a double-quick +directly across the open; the rest are stretched out as skirmishers. He +retires with the first squad across the field, directing the skirmishers +to hold the ground until they hear three musket-shots from the wood +behind. The rebels can now be seen closing in very near. But the +skirmish-line, spreading over a wider front, evidently perplexes them, +and they halt. The three shots are presently heard, then the +skirmish-line flees in groups across the bare downs, the vociferating +yells of the gray-coats fairly drowning the hideous clamor of +the muskets. + +"Ah! we're saved," a lieutenant cries, waving his cap like a madman. +"Look! there are men in the wood yonder, to our right; they are coming +this way!" + +Jack turned, he was near the captain; and he marked, with deadly panic, +a look of despair settle down on the heroic, handsome face. What could +it mean? Didn't he believe that there were men there? Jack handed him +his own glass--the captain had none. + +"By Heaven, our flag! But what troops can they be in that quarter? They +must be surrounded, like ourselves.--Sergeant, can you undertake a +dangerous duty?" + +"With all my heart," Jack cried, heartily. + +"What's your name and company?" + +"John Sprague, Caribees, Company K." + +"Slip around the edge of the skirt of bushes. You'll be within an arm's +length of the enemy all the way. Reach the place where we saw those men +a moment since. When you get there, if they are friendly, fire a shot. +Here, take this pistol. Fire that; I shall recognize it from the +musketry. If they are the enemy, fire all the barrels as fast as you can +and retreat. You run great danger; you can only by a miracle escape +capture; but it is our only resource for the next charge. We must +surrender or die," he added, looking wofully at the meager remnant of +his company. Before the words had fairly ended, Jack is off like a shot, +forgetting Barney, forgetting everything but the extrication of this +grand young Roman. As he skurried along, sometimes on hands and knees, +he blames himself for not learning the captain's name. He feels sure +that a day will come when the world will know and admire it. He has +gained the other corner, and in a moment he will be in the thick copse +where the Union flag had been seen, but as he makes a dash through a +clump of laurel he is confronted by two men, muskets in hand. + +"A Yank, by the Lord! Surrender, you damned mudsill!" + +For answer Jack raised the pistol in his hand and fired. The man fell, +with a frightful yell. The other leveled his musket fairly in Jack's +face; but before he could pull the trigger a report at his ear deafened +Jack, and the second man staggered against the tree. + +"Ah, ha! me boy, the rear rank did the best work there," Barney cried, +as Jack turned to see whence the timely aid had come, "A day after the +fair's better than the fair itself, if the rain has kept the girls +away," and Barney laughed good-humoredly. + +"Well, 'pon my soul, Barney, it's a shameful thing to say, but all +thought of you had gone from my mind. I should not have let you come if +you had proposed it, but now we're in for it. Ah--!" + +As he spoke the Union flag he had seen came forward, but it was in the +hands of a rebel bearer, and was upside down in mockery. The sight was +enough. He fired the shots as agreed upon, firing two at the group +marching heedlessly forward, as the skirmish-line was far ahead, or they +supposed it was, for the two men disabled by Jack and Barney were the +advance, as it was not supposed that any but stragglers were near at +hand, and the company were returning to their regiment. In an instant a +fierce volley is returned, and Barney, who is fairly in the bush behind +a huge tree, hears a low groan. He looks where Jack had been and sees +him lying on the ground, stifling an agonized cry by holding his left +arm over his mouth. Barney might have escaped, at least he might have +delayed capture, but coming from behind the tree, he holds up his hands, +and flinging himself on the ground beside his comrade takes his head +upon his knee and awaits the worst. + + + + +BOOK II. + +_THE HOSTAGES_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE AFTERMATH. + + +There were not so many millions of Americans in 1861 as there are +to-day. But they were more American then than they are now. That is, the +Old World had not sent the millions to our shores that now people the +waste places of the West. It was not until after the civil war that +those prodigious hosts came--enough to make the populace of such empires +as fill the largest space in history. That part of the land that loved +the flag cherished it with a fervor deeper than the half-alien race that +first flung it to the breeze under Washington. They loved the republic +with something of that passionate idolatry that made the Greek's ideal +joy--death for the fatherland; some of that burning zeal and godlike +pride that made the earlier Roman esteem his citizenship more precious +than a foreign crown. But until the battle on that awful 21st of July +proved the war real--with the added horror of civil hate--Secretary +Seward's epigram of ninety days clung fast in the public mind. + +Up to Bull Run there was a vague feeling that our army, in proper time, +would march down upon the rebels like the hosts of Joshua, and scatter +them and the rebellion to uttermost destruction in one action. It was +upon this assumption that the journals of the North satirized, abused, +vilified Scott, and clamored day by day for an "advance upon Richmond." +The damnation of public clamor, and not the incompetency of the general, +set the inchoate armies of Scott upon that fatal adventure. But that +humiliating, incredible, and for years misunderstood Sunday, on the +plateaus of Manassas, where, after all, blundering and imbecility +brought disaster, but not shame, upon the devoted soldiery, aroused the +sense of the North to the reality of war, as the overthrow at Jemmapes +in 1793 convinced the Prussian oligarchy that the republic in France +was a fact. + +It was a dreadful Monday in the North when the first hideous bulletins +were sent broadcast through the cities and carried by couriers into +every hamlet. For hours--sickening hours--it was not believed. We have +awakened many a morning since 1861 to hear of thrones overturned, armies +vanquished, dynasties obliterated; to hear of great men gone by sudden +and cruel death: but the anger and despair when Booth's cruel work was +known; the shuddering horror over Garfield's taking off; the amazement +when the hand of Nihilism laid an emperor dead; the overthrow of Austria +in a single day; the extinction of the Bonapartes--these things were +heard and digested with something like repose compared to the +bewildering outbreak that met the destruction of our army at Manassas. + +It was not the dazed, panic-stricken, panic anguish that followed +Fredericksburg or the second Bull Run. It was not the indignant, fretful +wrath that rebuked official culpability for the destruction of the grand +campaign on the Peninsula. It was a startled, incredulous, angry +amazement, in which blame afterward visited upon generals or Cabinet, +was humbly taken on the people's shoulders and echoed in a moaning _mea +culpa_. For days all the people were close kin. In the streets strangers +talked to strangers; the pulpit echoed the inextinguishable wrath of the +streets; the journals, for a moment restrained into solemnity, echoed +for once the real voice of an elevated humanity and not the drivel of +partisanship nor the ulterior purposes of wealth and sham. Even +schoolboys, arrested in the merry-making of youth, looked in wonder at +the sudden reversal of conditions. Boys well remember in the school that +Monday, when the northern heavens were hung in black and grief wrung its +crystal tresses in the air, the master began the work of the day with a +brief, pathetic review of the public agony, and dismissed the classes +that he was too agitated to instruct. There were no games on the +greensward, no swimming in the river, no excursion to the Malvern cherry +groves. The streets were filled with blank faces and whispering crowds +unable to endure the restraint of routine or the ordinary callings of +life. Parties were obliterated, or rather from the flux of this white +heat, came out in solidified unity that compact of parties which for +four years breathed the breath of the nation's life, spoke the purposes +of the republic, and amid stupendous reverses and triumphs held the +public conscience clear in its sublime duty. The woes of bereavement +were not wide-spread; the killed at Manassas were hardly more than we +read of now in a disaster at sea or a catastrophe in the mines. The +whole army engaged hardly outnumbered the slaughtered at Antietam, +Gettysburg, or Burnside's butchery at St. Mary's Hill. + +Hence the marvel of the instant fusion, the swift resolve of the +Northern mind. The battle was the sudden grapple of aggressive +weakness--catching the half-contemptuous strong man unaware and rolling +him in the dust. Brought to earth by this unlooked-for blow, the North +arose with renewed force and the deathless determination that could have +but one issue. The people, when the benumbing force of the surprise was +mastered, flew together with one mind, one voice, one impulse. The +churches, the public halls, the street corners, moving trains, and +rushing steamers, were such hustings as the Athenian improvised in the +porticoes, when her orators inflamed the heart of Greece to repel the +barbarians, to die with Leonidas in the gorges of the Thermopylae. + +Ah, what an imposing spectacle it was! The blood of wrath leaped +fiercely in the chilled veins of age; the ardor of youth became the +delirium of the Crusaders, the lofty zeal of the Puritans, the +chivalrous daring of Rupert's troopers, and the Dutch devotees of +Orange. A half-million men had been called out; a million were waiting +in passionate eagerness within a month; two hundred and fifty millions +of money had been voted--ten times that amount was offered in a day. +Every interest in life became suddenly centered in one duty--war. It +touched the heart of the whole people, and for the time they arose, +purified, contrite, as the armies of Moses under the chastening of +the rod. + +In Acredale there were sore hearts as the dreadful news became more and +more definite. For days the death lists were mere guess-work; but when +the routed forces returned to their camps in Washington the awful gaps +in the ranks were ascertained with certainty. The Caribees were nearly +obliterated. Of the thousand men and over who had marched from Meridian +Hill only four hundred were found ten days after the battle. Elisha +Boone had hurried at once to Washington, charged by all the fathers, +mothers, brothers, and sisters of the regiment to make swift report of +the absent darlings. Kate was besieged in the grand house with tearful +watchers, waiting in agonizing impatience for the fatal finality. +Olympia, to spare her mother the distress of the vague responses her +telegrams brought from Washington, spent most of the time at the +Boones', where, thanks to the father's high standing with the +Administration, the earliest, most accurate information came. Finally he +wrote. He had seen Nick Marsh, who gave the first coherent narrative of +Jack, Barney, and Dick Perley. They had been seen--the first two in the +last desperate conflict. An officer (the hero whom Jack had so much +admired, and who turned out to be Gouverneur K. Warren) had escaped from +the forlorn hope left to dispute the rebel charge upon the flying +columns. He gave particulars that pointed with heart-breaking certainty +to the death of the two boys. Young Perley had been lost sight of since +noon of the battle. He had followed the path taken by Jack and his +comrades across the flank of the enemy. He had been seen at +Heintzelman's headquarters, but after that no one could trace him. +Wesley, too, had been left near the stone bridge with a ball in either +his arm or thigh, the informant was not quite sure which, as he fell in +a charge of the line. Boone telegraphed to Kate that he was going +through the lines with a flag of truce so soon as the affair could be +regulated, and proffered his best offices for the Acredale victims. + +Everything had been prepared by Olympia and her mother for an instant +departure so soon as positive information came. With them Marcia Perley +went, trembling and tearful, and Telemachus Twigg, to extricate his son +from danger, for it was uncertain what his status was in the forces. +Kate, too, joined the melancholy pilgrimage that set out one morning +followed to the station by weeping kinsmen imploring the good offices of +these ambassadors of woe. The sleeping-car gave the miserable company +seclusion, if not rest. They were not the only ones in quest of the +missing, for as yet there was no certainty as to the fate of those left +on the field of battle. Later reports had been more encouraging, for +hundreds who were set down as prisoners or missing began to be heard +from as far northward as the Maryland line. In the station at Washington +Boone met his daughter. Twigg hurried to him and asked: + +"Any further news, Mr. Boone? We're all here--about half Acredale." + +"Yes, I see; but there is no more news of the Caribees. We learn that +the wounded have been sent to Richmond, and I shall set out for there +to-morrow." + +Mrs. Sprague, with Olympia and Merry, drove to the house of a friend +she had known years before, whose husband was a Senator. The Boones--or +rather Kate--bade them a cordial adieu as they drove off to the +National Hotel. + +Then the most trying part of the quest began. The War Department was +besieged with applicants, mostly women. Orders had been issued to forbid +all crossing the lines, and the despairing kinsfolk of the lost were in +a panic of impatient terror. In vain Olympia called upon eminent +Senators who had been friends of her father; in vain she invoked the aid +of the Secretary of State, who had been the family's guest at Acredale. +Once she penetrated, by the aid of strong letters, to the Secretary of +War. He was surrounded by a hurried throng of orderlies, officers, and +clerks, and even after she had been admitted to his office Olympia was +left unnoticed on a settee, waiting some sign to approach the dreaded +presence. His imperious and abrupt manner, his alternation of +deferential concern for some and disdainful impatience for others, gave +her small hope that he would heed her prayer. She waited hours, sitting +in the crowded room, ill from the oppressive air, the fixed stare of the +officers, and the sobbing of others like herself waiting a word with the +autocrat. At length, late in the afternoon, when the crowd had quite +gone, she heard the Secretary say in an undertone: + +"Send an orderly to those women and see what they want." + +Each of the waiting women handed credentials to the young man, and each +in turn arose trembling and stood before the decisive official at the +great, paper-strewn desk. There was no attempt to soften the refusal, as +he turned curtly from the pleaders; and Olympia, shrinking from the +ordeal, was about to step out of the room, when a tall, care-worn man +shambled in, glancing pityingly at her as she arose, half trembling, +recognizing the President. + +She stepped in front of him in a desperate impulse, and, throwing up her +veil, cried piteously: + +"O Mr. Lincoln, you are a father, you have a tender heart; you will +listen to the bereaved!" He stopped, looking at her kindly, and put his +left arm wearily on the desk by his side. + +"Yes, my poor girl, I am a father and have a heart; the more's the pity, +for just now something else is needed in its place. I suppose your +father is over yonder," and he nodded toward the Virginia shore. + +"O Mr. Lincoln, my father is farther away than that. My father was +Senator Sprague--you served with him in Congress--I--I--thought that +perhaps you might take pity on his widow, his daughter, his son, if the +poor boy is still living, and--and--" + +"Send you across the lines?" + +"Oh, if God would put it in your heart!" + +"It's in my heart fast enough, my poor child, but--" + +"Impossible, Mr. President! The enemy, as it is, can open a Sabine +campaign on us, and tie our hands by stretching Northern women out in a +line of battle between the ranks!" + +It was the weary, discouraging voice of the Secretary, imperiously +implying that the Executive must not interpose weakness and mercy where +Draconian rigor sat enthroned. The President smiled sadly. + +"Ah, Mr. Secretary, a sister--a mother--give a great deal for the +country. We can not err much in granting their prayer. Make out an +order--for whom?" + +Olympia, speechless with gratitude reverence could hardly articulate: + +"My mother, myself, and Miss Marcia Perley." + +"Another mother?" + +"Her boy is not of age, and ran away to join my brother's company." She +had a woman's presence of mind to answer with this diplomatic evasion. + +"I'm afraid you will only add to your distress, my poor child; but you +shall go." He inclined his head benignantly and passed into the inner +sanctuary behind the rail, when Olympia heard the Secretary say, grimly: + +"I shall take measures to stop this sort of thing, Mr. President. +Hereafter you shall only come to this department at certain hours. At +all other times the doors shall be guarded." + +A gray-haired man in undress uniform presently appeared, and as he +handed Olympia the large official envelope he said, respectfully: + +"You never heard of me, Miss Sprague? Many years ago the Senator, your +father, did a kind turn for my brother--an employe in the Treasury. If +I can be of any aid to you in this painful business, pray give me a +chance to show a kindness to the family of a great and good man. My name +is Charles Bevan, and it is signed to one of the papers in this letter." + +Within an hour all was ready, but they could not set out until the next +morning, when, by eight o'clock, the three ladies were _en route_. There +was a large company with them, all under a flag of truce. They passed +through the long lines of soldiery that lay intrenched on the Virginia +side of the Potomac, and pushed on to Annandale, where the rebel outpost +received them. Olympia's eyes dwelt on the wide-stretching lands of pine +and oak, remembering the pictures Jack had given in his letters of this +very same route. But there were few signs of war. The cleared places lay +red and baking under the hot August sun; the trees seemed crisp +and sapless. + +At Fairfax Court-House, where the first signs of real warlike tenure +were seen, the visitors were taken into a low frame house, and each in +turn asked to explain the objects of her mission. Then the hospital +reports were searched. In half a dozen or more instances the sad-eyed +mothers were thrown into tremulous hope by the tidings of their +darlings' whereabouts. But for Olympia and Aunt Merry there was no clew. +No such names as Sprague or Perley were recorded in the fateful pages of +the hospital corps. But there were several badly wounded in the hospital +at Manassas, where fuller particulars were accessible. + +They were conducted very politely by a young lieutenant in a shabby gray +uniform to an ambulance and driven four miles southward to Fairfax +Station on the railway, when, after despairing hours of waiting, they +were taken by train to Manassas. An orderly accompanied them, and as the +train passed beyond Union Mills, where the Bull Run River runs along the +railway a mile or more before crossing under it, the young soldier +pointed out the distant plateau, near the famous stone bridge, and, when +the train crossed the river, the high bluffs, a half-mile to the +northward, where the action had begun at Blackburn's Ford. He was very +respectful and gentle in alluding to the battle, and said, ingenuously, +pointing to the plateau jutting out from the Bull Run Mountains: + +"At two o'clock on Sunday we would have cried quits to McDowell to hold +his ground and let us alone. But just as we were on our heel to turn, +Joe Johnston came piling in here, right where you see that gully yonder, +with ten thousand fresh men, and in twenty minutes we were three to one, +and then your folks had the worst of it. President Davis got off the +train at the junction yonder, and as he rode across this field, where we +are now, the woods yonder were full of our men, flying from the Henry +House Hill, where Sherman had cut General Bee's brigade to pieces and +was routing Jackson--'Stonewall,' we call him now, because General +Bonham, when he brought up the reserves, shouted, 'See, there, where +Jackson stands like a stone wall!' He's a college professor and very +pious; he makes his men pray before fighting, and has 'meetings' in the +commissary tent twice a week." + +"Did Mr. Davis join in the battle?" Olympia asked, more to seem +interested in the garrulous warrior's narrative than because she really +had her mind on the story. + +"Oh, dear, no. Old Johnston had finished the job before the President +(Olympia noticed that all Southerners dwelt upon this title with +complacent insistence) could reach the field. He was barely in time to +see the cavalry of 'Jeb' Stuart charge the regulars on the +Warrenton road." + +The train came to a halt, and the young man said, cheerfully: + +"Here we are. The hospital's still right smart over yonder in the +trees." + +"But you will go with us, will you not?" Olympia asked in alarm, for it +was wearing toward night. + +"Oh, yes; I'm detailed to remain with you until you have found out about +your kinsfolk." + +In the mellow sunset the three women followed the orderly across the +fields strewed with armaments, supplies, and the rough depot +paraphernalia of an army at rest. The hospital consisted of a large tent +for the slightly hurt, and a few old buildings and a barn for the more +serious cases. The search was futile. There were two or three of the +Caribees in the place, but they knew nothing of their missing comrades. +Indeed, Jack's detail by Colonel Sherman had effectually cut off all +trace of his movements after the battle began. + +Mrs. Sprague's tears were falling softly as the orderly led them to the +surgeon's office. They were there shown the records of all who had been +buried on the field. Many, he informed them, sympathetically, had been +buried where they fell, in great ditches dug by the sappers. In every +case the garments had been stripped from the bodies before burial, so +that there was absolutely no means of identification. Most of the +wounded had, however, been sent to Richmond with the prisoners. "It +would not do," he added, kindly, "to give up all hope of the lost ones, +until they had seen the roster of the prisoners and the wounded in the +Richmond prisons and hospitals." + +Quarters were given to them in a tent put at their disposal by the +surgeons, and in the long, wakeful hours of the night Olympia heard the +guard pacing monotonously before the door. The music of the bugles +aroused them at sunrise--a wan, haggard group, sad-eyed and silent. The +girl made desperate efforts to cheer the wretched mother, and even +privily took Merry to task for giving way before what was as yet but a +shadow. 'Twould be time enough for tears when they found evidence that +the stout, vigorous boys had been killed. As they finished the very +plain breakfast of half-baked bread, pea-coffee, and eggs, bought by the +orderly at an exorbitant rate, he said, good-naturedly: + +"The train don't come till about ten o'clock. If you'd like to see the +battle-field, I can get the ambulance and take you over." + +Olympia eagerly assented--anything was preferable to this mute misery of +her mother and Merry's sepulchral struggles to be conversational and +tearless. They drove through bewildering numbers of tents, most of them, +Olympia's sharp eyes noted, marked "U.S.A.," and she reflected, almost +angrily, that the chief part of war, after all, was pillage. The men +looked shabby, and the uniforms were as varied as a carnival, though by +no means so gay. Whenever they crossed a stream, which was not seldom, +groups of men were standing in the water to their middle, washing their +clothing, very much as Olympia had seen the washer-women on the +Continent, in Europe. They were very merry, even boisterous in this +unaccustomed work, responding to rough jests by resounding slashes of +the tightly wrung garments upon the heads or backs of the unwary wags. + +"Why, there must be a million men here," Merry cried, as the tents +stretched for miles, as far as she could see. + +"No; not quite a million, I reckon," the orderly said, proudly; "but we +shall have a million when we march on Washington." + +"March on Washington!" Merry gasped, as though it was an official order +she had just heard promulgated. "But--but we aren't ready yet. We--" +Then she halted in dismay. Was she giving information to the enemy? +Would they instantly make use of it? Ah! she must, at any cost, undo +this fatal treason, big with disaster to the republic. "I mean we are +not ready yet to put our many million men on the march." + +The orderly laughed. "I reckon your many million will be ready as soon +as our one million. You know we have a big country to cover with them. +You folks have only Washington to guard and Richmond to take. We have +the Mississippi and fifteen hundred miles of coast to guard. Now, this +corner is Newmarket, where Johnston waited for his troops on Sunday and +led them right along the road we are on--to the pine wood yonder--just +north of us. We won't go through there, because we ain't making a flank +movement," and he laughed pleasantly. They drove on at a rapid rate as +they came upon the southern shelf of the Manassas plateau. + +"This," the orderly said, pointing to a small stone building in a bare +and ragged waste of trees, shrubs, and ruined implements of war, "is the +Henry House--what is left of it--the key of our position when Jackson +formed his stone wall facing toward the northwest, over there where your +folks very cleverly flanked us and waited an hour or two, Heaven only +knows what for, unless it was to give us time to bring up our +re-enforcements. Your officers lay the blame on Burnside and Hunter, +who, they declare, just sat still half the day, while Sherman got in +behind us and would have captured every man Jack of our fellows, if +Johnston hadn't come up, where I showed you, in the very nick of time." + +The women were looking eagerly at the field of death. It was still as on +the day of the battle, save that instead of the thousands of beating +hearts, the flaunting flags, and roaring guns, there were countless +ridges torn in the sod, as if a plow had run through at random, limbs +and trees torn down and whirled across each other, broken wheels, musket +stocks and barrels, twisted and sticking, gaunt and eloquent, in the +tough, grassy fiber of the earth. + +"In this circle of a mile and a half fifty thousand men pelted each +other from two o'clock that Sunday morning until four in the afternoon. +Up to two o'clock we were on the defensive. We were driven from the +broad, smooth road yonder that you see cutting through the trees, +northward a mile from here. Jackson alone made a stand; if it hadn't +been for him we should have been prisoners in Washington now, I reckon. +You see those men at work? They are picking up lead. We reckon that it +takes a ton of lead to kill a man." + +"A ton of lead?" Olympia repeated. + +"Yes. You wouldn't believe that thousands of men can stand in front of +each other a whole day and pour lead into each other's faces, and not +one in fifty is hit?" + +"Ah!" Olympia commented, thinking that, after all, Jack might not have +been hit. + +"These are the trenches of the dead. Our dead are not here. They were +all taken and sent to friends. There are five hundred of your dead here +and near the stone bridge yonder. We lost three hundred killed in +the fight." + +"And are there no other marks than this plain board?" Olympia pointed to +a rough pine plank, sticking loosely in the ground, with the words +painted in lampblack: "85 Yanks. By the Hospital Corps, Bee's Brigade." + +"That's all. They were all stripped--no means of identifying them. The +sun was very hot; the rain next day made the bodies rot, and the men had +to just shovel them in--" "Oh, oh! don't, pray don't!" Olympia cried, as +her mother tottered against the ambulance. + +"I ask your pardon, ladies; I forgot that these are not things for +ladies to hear." He spoke in sincere contrition. + +To relieve him Olympia smiled sadly, saying, "Won't you take us back, +please?" + +The ambulance drove on into the Warrenton pike, and, if Olympia had +known it, within a stone's-throw of Jack's last effort, where the +cavalry picket came upon him. It was noon when they reached the station. +The orderly returned the ambulance to the hospital, brought down the +luggage, and the three women made a luncheon of fruit and dry bread, +declining the orderly's invitation to eat at the hospital. The train +came on three hours late. It was filled with military men, most of them +officers; but so soon as the orderly entered the rear coach, ushering in +his charges, two or three young men with official insignia on their +collars arose with alacrity and begged the ladies to take the vacant +places. At Bristow Station many of the officers got out and a number of +civilians entered from the coach ahead and took their places. Mrs. +Sprague, worn out by the fatigue of the journey and the strain upon her +mind, quite broke down in the hot, ill-ventilated car. There was no +water to be had, and Olympia turned inquiringly to the person opposite +her, asking: + +"Could we possibly get any water--my mother is very much overcome?" + +"Certainly, madam. There must be plenty of canteens on the train. I will +bring you some in a moment." + +An officer who had been sharing the seat with Merry arose on hearing +this and said, kindly: + +"Madam, if you will make use of your seat as a couch, perhaps your +mother will feel more comfortable reclining. I will get a seat +elsewhere." + +Olympia was too much distressed to think of acknowledging this courteous +action, but Merry spoke up timidly: + +"We are most grateful to you, sir." + +"Oh, don't mention it. Are you going far?" "Yes, we're going to +Richmond, to--to find our boys, lost in the battle two weeks ago." + +"Oh, you're from the North." He was a young man, perhaps thirty, +evidently proud of his unsoiled uniform and the glittering insignia of +rank on the sleeve and collar. + +"Yes, sir; we're from Acredale, near Warchester," Merry said, as though +Acredale must be known even in this remote place, and that the knowing +of it would bring a certain consideration to the travelers. + +"Oh, yes, Warchester. I fell in with an officer from there after the +battle, a Captain Boone. Do you know him?" + +"Oh, dear me, yes. He is from Acredale. He is captain of Company K of +the Caribee Regiment--" + +"Caribee? Why, yes. I remember that name. We got their flags and sent +them to Richmond; we--" + +"And, oh, sir, did you take the prisoners? I mean the Caribees--were +there many? Oh, dear sir, it is among them our boys were; they were +mere boys." + +"Yes, ma'am, there were a good smart lot of them, and as you say all +very young. Boone himself can't be twenty-five." + +"And are they treated well? Do they have care? Of course you did not ask +any of their names?" Merry asked eagerly, comforted to be able to talk +with some one who knew of the Caribees, for heretofore, of the scores +they had questioned, no one had ever heard of the regiment. + +"Oh, as to that, ma'am, you know a soldier's life is hard, and a +prisoner's is a good deal harder. Most of your men are in Castle +Thunder--a large tobacco warehouse." He hesitated, and looked furtively +at Olympia administering water to her mother. "Perhaps," he said, +heartily, "if you would put a drop of whisky in the cup it would brace +up your mother's nerves. We find it a good friend down here, when it +isn't an enemy," he added, smiling as Olympia looked at the proffered +flask hesitatingly. + +"I assure you, madam," (Southerners, in the old time at least, imitated +the pleasant continental custom of addressing all women by this +comprehensive term), "you will be the better for a sip yourself. It was +upon that we did most of our fighting the other day, and it is a mighty +good brace-up, I assure you." + +But Olympia shook her head, smiling. Her mother had taken a fair dose, +and was, as she owned, greatly benefited by it. The young man sat on the +arm of the opposite seat, anxious to continue the conversation, but +divided in mind. Merry was trying to hide her tears, and kept her head +obstinately toward the window. Olympia, with her mother's head pillowed +on her lap, strove to fan a current of air into circulation. She gave +the young man a reassuring glance, and he resumed his seat in front of +her, beside the distracted Merry. + +"You are from Richmond?" Olympia asked as he sat puzzling for a pretext +to renew the talk with her. + +"Oh, no; I am from Wilmington, but I have kinsfolk in Richmond, I am on +General Beauregard's staff. My name is Ballman--Captain Ballman." + +She vaguely remembered that Vincent Atterbury was on staff duty. Perhaps +this young man knew him. + +"Do you know a Mr. Atterbury in--in your army?" she asked, blushing +foolishly. + +"Atterbury--Atterbury--why, yes! I know there is such a man. He is in +General Jackson's forces--whether on the staff or not I can't say. Stay. +I saw his name in _The Whig_ this very day." He took out the paper and +glanced down the columns. "Ah, yes; is this the man?" And he read: +"Major Vincent Atterbury, whose wounds were at first pronounced serious, +is now at his mother's country-house on the river. He is doing +excellently, and all fears have been removed." + +"Yes, that is he. We know him quite well." And she turned her head +window-ward, with a feeling of confidence in the mission, heretofore so +blank and wild. Vincent would aid them. He could bring official +intervention to bear, without which Jack might, even though alive and +well, be hidden from them. She whispered this confidence to her mother +as the train jolted along noisily over the rough road, and, a good deal +inspired by it, Mrs. Sprague began to take something like interest in +the melancholy country that flew past the window, as if seeking a place +to hide its bareness in the blue line of uplands that marked the +receding mountain spurs. + +The captain was much more potential in providing a supper at the evening +station than the orderly, who was looked upon with some suspicion when +he told the story of his _proteges_. The zeal of the new Confederates +did not extend to aiding the enemy, even though weak women and within +the Confederate lines. It was nearly morning when the train finally drew +up in the Richmond station, and the captain, with many protestations of +being at their service, gave them his army address, and, relinquishing +them to the orderly, withdrew. It had been decided that the party should +not attempt to find quarters in the hotels, which their escort declared +were crowded by the government and the thousands of curious flocking to +the city since the battle. + +He could, however, he thought, get them plain accommodations with an +aunt, who lived a little from the center of the town. They were forced +to walk thither, no conveyance being obtainable. After a long delay they +were admitted, the widow explaining that she had been a good deal +troubled by marauding volunteers. The orderly explained the situation to +his kinswoman, and without parley the three ladies were shown into two +plain rooms adjoining. They were very prim and clean; the morning air +came through the open windows, bearing an almost stupefying odor. It may +have been the narcotic influence of the flowers that brought sleep to +the three women, for in ten minutes they were at rest as tranquilly as +if in the security of Acredale. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +A COMEDY OF TERRORS. + + +When Jack, the day after the battle, found himself able to take account +of what was going on, he closed his eyes again with a deep groan, +believing in a vague glimpse of peaceful rest that his last confused +sensation was real--that he was dead. But there were no airy aids of +languorous ease to perpetuate or encourage this delusion. Sharp pains +racked his head; his right arm burned and twinged as though he had +thrust it into pricking flames. Loud voices about, but invisible to him, +were swearing and gibing. He was lying on his back, his head on a line +with his body. A regular movement, broken by joltings that sent +torturing darts through his whole frame, told him without much +conjecture that he was in an ambulance. The accent of the voices outside +told him that it was a rebel ambulance and not a Northern one he was in. +He tried to raise his head to see his companions, but he might as well +have been nailed to the cross, so far as pain and helplessness went. +Then he lost the thread of his thought. He heard, in a vague, far-off +voice, men talking: + +"We'll catch old Abe on our next trip ef we go on like this--eh, Ben?" + +"I reckon. I'm jess going to take a furlough now. Hain't seen my girl +fo' foah months." + +"How much did you pick up?" + +"I've got five gold watches and right smart o' shinplasters, I don't +reckon they'll pass in our parts, but I'm going to trade 'em off with +some of these wounded chaps. They'll give gold for 'em fast enough." + +"I got a heap of gold watches, jackknives, and sech. I don't know what +in the land to do with 'em. Suppose we can sell 'em in Richmond?" + +"Yes--but how are we going to get to Richmond? We're ordered to dump +these Yanks at Newmarket and go back. Ef we don't get to Richmond, our +watches ain't worth a red cent. Jess like's not old Bory'll issue an +order to turn everything in. I'm blamed if I will!" + +"Look yere, Ben, do you see that road off there to the right?" + +"Yes, I do, but I don't see that it's different from any other road." + +"Don't you? Well, honey, it's mitey sight different from all the roads +you ever saw. It takes you where you don't want to go." + +"What do you mean, Bob?" + +"I jess mean that ar road goes to Newmarket, where these Yanks are +ordered, but we've lost it and we shall come out in about an hour and a +half at the junction, whar th' train goes on to Richmond. See?" + +"Bob Purvis, you are a general, suah," and then there followed low, +rollicking laughter, mingled with a gurgling as of a liquid swallowed +from a flask. "But how'll we manage at the junction? We can't go right +on the cars? There is some hocus-pocus about everything you do in +the army." + +"Oh, jess you keep your eye on your dad, and you'll see things you never +saw afore. The minit them cavalry sneaks left us back thar, I made up my +mind I'd skip Newmarket. They've gone back to pick up more loot. No one +at the junction knows what our orders was. Besides, it'll be dark when +we get thar. The trains'll be full of our wounded. We'll slip these +Yanks in as if under orders. No one will know but we're hospital guards +on a detail for the wounded. When it is found out we shall be in +Richmond, and, if the provost folk get hold of me afore I've been home +and planted my haul, then I'm a Yank." + +"By mitey, Ben, you are a general, suah." Then suppressed laughter and +the gurgling of the flowing enlivener. Jack blissfully fell into dreams, +wherein home things and warlike doings mingled in grotesque medley. +Relapses into consciousness followed at he knew not what intervals +thereafter. He was conscious of cruel torment and a clumsy transfer into +another vehicle, confused sounds of groans, curses, waving lights, and +the hissing of escaping steam almost in his very ears. Then the anguish +of thundering wheels, until his cracked brain reeled and he was +mercifully unconscious. How long? His eyes opened on a clean white wall, +flowers hung from the windows in plumy festoons, birds sang in the +yellow dazzling sunlight. What could it mean? Was he at home? Surely +there was nothing of war in these comfortable surroundings. His left arm +was free, there was no one lying near to impede its movement. So it +wasn't a hospital. He took vague note of all this before he tried to +lift his arm. He raised his hand to rub his eyes and to assure himself +that it was not a cruel delusion. When he took it away, a kind face--the +face of a woman--was bending over him. + +"You are feeling better, aren't you, lieutenant?" + +"Lieutenant"? Why did she call him lieutenant? Had he been promoted on +the battle-field? Was he in the Union lines? Oh, yes; else he would have +been in a hospital, with moaning men all about him. He tried to speak. +The woman put her finger to her lips, warningly. + +"The doctor says you must not speak or be spoken to until you get +strong." + +Days passed. He couldn't tell how many, for he lay, long hours at a +time, unconscious, the mental faculties mercifully dead while the +wounded ligatures knit themselves anew. His right arm had been cut by a +saber-stroke, and a pistol-ball had entered above the shoulder-blade. +Prompt attention would have given him recovery in a few days, but the +twenty-four hours in a cart and the cars made his condition, for a +time, serious. + +But now he is visibly stronger, and his nurse brings people into the +room to see him. They look at him with wonder and admiration, while the +good lady is all in a flutter of delight. He hears himself spoken of +always as the "lieutenant," and hesitates to ask an explanation. The +physician comes but seldom, the lady explaining that all the doctors in +town are busy in the hospitals. The truth flashed upon him one morning, +when his hostess came bursting in to say: + +"The provost guard has come to take your name. I don't know it, for when +you were brought here my son only heard you called lieutenant." + +"My name is John Sprague"--Jack lifted himself to his elbow in +excitement and disregard of everything--"and my regiment is the--ah!" He +fell back, and the frightened dame hurried to him as she saw his changed +look and deadly pallor. + +"Oh, how careless of me; how unthinking! There, lie perfectly still. I +will send the guard away and come back." + +She was gone before he could recover his speech or enough coherence to +say what was in his mind. She informed the orderly that the ailing man +was John Sprague, a lieutenant in the First Virginia Volunteers, for +that was the regiment the hospital guards had named, when, on the night +of the arrival, the eager citizens swarmed at the station to take the +wounded to their homes, the hospitals being sadly unready. Jack +instantly suspected the situation, the conversation in the ambulance +coming back to him now distinctly. What should he do? He was in honor +bound to undeceive the kind-hearted and unwitting accomplice of the +fraud practiced on herself as well as on him. She came in presently with +an officer. Jack was not familiar with the rebel insignia, and could not +discover his rank or service, but he expected to hear himself denounced +as a spy or anything odious. + +"Our surgeon has been sent to Manassas, and Dr. Van Ness is come to take +care of you in his place," the matron said, as Jack stared silent and +quavering at the new-comer. That gentleman examined the patient, shook +his head dubiously and declared high fever at work, and ordered absolute +quiet for at least twenty-four hours, when, if he could, he would +return. "Continue the prescriptions you have now, Mrs. Raines. All he +needs is quiet. The hospital steward will come to dress his wounds +as usual." + +Mrs. Raines came in with tea and toast in the evening, and as she spread +the napkin on the bed she prattled cheerily. + +"I'm so happy to-night. I've just received a letter from my son. He's at +Manassas. He's been promoted to lieutenant from sergeant. It was read at +the head of the regiment--for gallant service at the Henry House, where +he captured part of a company of Yankees with a squad of cavalry. He's +only twenty-two, and if he lives he may be a general--if those cowardly +Yankees will only fight long enough. But I'm afraid they won't. _The +Whig_ says this morning that that beast Lincoln has to keep himself +guarded by a regiment of negroes, as the Northern people want to kill +him. I hope they won't, for if they did then they might put some one in +his place that has some sense, and then the war would come to an end and +we should be cheated in a settlement, for the Yankees are sharper than +our big-hearted, generous men. No, sir, no; you mustn't talk. I've +promised to keep you quiet, so lie still. I'll read _The Whig_ to you." + +She ran over the meager dispatches made up of hearsay and +speculation--how the North had fallen into a rage with the Washington +authorities; how Lincoln's life wasn't safe; how the Cabinet had all +resigned; how the Democrats had arisen in Congress and in the State +Legislatures and demanded negotiations with "President Davis"; how +England was drawing up a treaty with the new Confederacy. Then she +turned to the local page. She ran over a dozen paragraphs recounting the +deeds of well-known Richmond heroes, but these made no impression upon +the listener, until she read: + +"Major Vincent Atterbury, whose gallantry at the battle of the 21st +Richmond is a subject of pride to his friends, was transferred to his +country home, on the James, yesterday. He is still very low, but the +surgeons declare that home quiet and careful nursing will restore him to +his duties in time for the autumn campaign--if the Yankees do not +surrender before that time." + +Jack's eyes were so bright when Mrs. Raines looked at him, as she +lowered the sheet, that she arose, exclaiming quickly: + +"There, I have brought the fever back! Your eyes are glittering and your +cheeks are flushed. No, do not speak." + +She moved precipitately from the room, and Jack sank back with a groan. +His danger, if not his difficulties, might be overcome now. He would +write to Mrs. Atterbury, and through Vincent arrange for an exchange. +But a still deeper trouble had been on his mind. Where were Barney and +Nick, and, worse than all, young Dick Perley? If any mishap had befallen +that boy, he would shrink from returning to Acredale. And his mother, +what must her state of mind be? How many days had passed since the +battle? He had no means of knowing. Ah, yes! The paper was there on the +stand, where Mrs. Raines had thrown it. He raised himself slowly and +seized it. Heavens! Saturday, August 4th? Two weeks since that fatal +Sunday! And his mother? Oh, he must find means to write, to telegraph. +"Mrs. Raines," he called, hoarsely, "Mrs. Raines!" She came running to +his side in alarm. + +"Oh, what has happened? You are worse!" + +"I am very comfortable; but, my kind friend, I must--I must let my +mother know that I am alive; she will think me dead." + +"That's what I meant to ask you--just as soon as you seemed able to +talk. I would have gladly sent her word and invited her to come here, +but I didn't know the name nor the address. You didn't have a stitch of +clothes when you came except your underwear; the rest had been taken +off, the men said, because they were soiled and bloody, and there wasn't +a clew of any sort to your identity, except that you were a lieutenant +in a Virginia regiment. I thought we should find out when the provost +came, but they have sent to Manassas, and no answer has come back yet." + +"The men who brought me here deceived you, Mrs. Raines. I do not belong +to a Virginia regiment; I belong to a New York regiment, and I am +a--a--Union soldier." + +"Great Father! A Yankee?" The poor woman sank on the nearest chair, as +some one who has been nursing a patient that suddenly turns out to have +small-pox or leprosy. + +"Yes, Mrs. Raines: if you prefer that name, I'm a Yankee--but we call +only New-Englanders Yankees." He waited for her to speak, but as she sat +dumb, helpless, overcome, he continued: "I tried to explain the mistake +before, but your kindness cut me off. I can only say that, though you +have given me a mother's care and a Christian's consideration under a +misunderstanding, I trust you will not blame me for willful deception +nor regret the goodness you have shown the stranger in your hands." + +"And those men that brought you here--were they Yankees, too?" she +asked, her mind dwelling, womanlike, on the least essential factor of +the problem in order to keep the grievous fact as far away as possible. + +"Oh, no! they were your own people. There was no collusion, I assure +you." Jack almost laughed now, as the dialogue in the ambulance recurred +to him, and the adroit use the men had made of their unconscious charges +to secure a furlough. "No; I was more amazed than I can say when I came +to myself in this charming chamber--a paradise it seemed to me, a home +paradise--when your kind face bent over my pillow." + +"It's a cruel disappointment," she said, rising and holding the back of +the chair as she tilted it toward the bed. "We were so proud of you--so +proud to have any one that had fought for our dear State in our own +house to nurse, to bring back to life. Every one on the street has some +one from the battle, and oh, what will be said of us when people know +that we--we--" But here the cruelty of the conclusion came too sharply +to her mind, and she walked to the window, sobbing softly. + +"I can understand, believe me, Mrs. Raines, and I am going to propose a +means to you whereby I shall be taken from here, and your neighbors +shall never know that you entertained an enemy unawares, though God +knows I don't see why we should be enemies when the battle is over. If +your son were in my condition I should think very hard of my mother if +she were not to him what you have been to me." + +"But I can't believe you're a Yankee; you were so gentle, so patient in +all the dreadful times when the surgeon was cutting and hacking. Oh, I +can't believe it! Oh, please say you are joking--that you wanted to give +me a fright. And you have a mother?" She came over near the bed again +and stood looking at him dismally, half in doubt, half in perplexed +wonder; for Yankee, in her mind, suggested some such monster as the +Greeks conjured when the Goths poured into the peninsula, maiming the +men and debauching the women. "I said Sprague wasn't a Virginia name," +she murmered, plaintively, in a last desperate attempt to fortify +herself against the worst; "but there's no telling what names are in +Virginia now, since Norfolk has grown so big and folks come in that way +from all over the world." + +Jack could scarcely keep a serious face, as this humorous lament +displayed the pride of the Dominion and the unconscious Boeotianism of +the provincial. + +"Now, Mrs. Raines, here is what I propose: Major Atterbury, of whom you +read to me, is my nearest friend. We have been college comrades; he has +passed weeks at my home, and I have been asked to his, and meant to come +this autumn vacation, if the war had not broken out. I will write to his +mother, and she will have me removed to her house, and it need never be +known that you gave aid and comfort to the enemy." + +"But the Atterburys will never receive you. They were the first to favor +secession, when all the rest of us opposed it. To tell you the truth, +Mr. Sprague, it is partly because we were abused a good deal for holding +back when the secession excitement was first started, that I am so--so +anxious about the story getting out that we entertained a Yankee +prisoner. My husband is in the service of the government in Norfolk, and +my son is in the army. But you know what neighborhood gossip is." + +So, after a friendly talk in which the poor lady cried a great deal and +besought Jack's good-will for her darling William, if ever he were +luckless enough to be captured, the note was written and dispatched to +the Atterburys, whose city house was near the capital square. The +messenger returned a half-hour later, reporting the family out of town; +that they had taken the major to their country-place near Williamsburg, +on the banks of the James. The messenger had given the letter to the +housekeeper, who said that it would go out an hour later with the mail +sent daily to the family. + +"Williamsburg is two hours' ride on the train," Mrs. Raines explained, +"and we sha'n't hear from them until to-morrow." + +Jack said nothing; his mind was on his mother and the misery she must be +enduring. He turned restlessly on his pillow that night, and woke +feverish in the morning. Mrs. Raines now took as much pains to keep +people who called from seeing her hero as she had before put herself out +to display the invalid. Even the doctor, calling about nine o'clock, was +sent away on some pretext, and the poor lady waited with an anxiety, +almost as poignant as Jack's own, for the response to his note. About +noon it came. Mrs. Raines went to the door herself, not daring to trust +the colored girl, who had lavished untold pains on Jack's linen and the +manual part of his care. Jack heard low voices in the hallway, then on +the stairs, and he knew some one had come. + +"Here is Miss Atterbury sent to fetch you, lieutenant," Mrs. Raines +said, now very much relieved, and impressed, too, by the powerful +friends her dangerous _protege_ was able to summon so promptly by +a line. + +"You are Rosalind?" Jack said, smiling at a pair of the brownest and +most bewitching eyes fixed soberly on him. "I should have known you if I +had met you in the street, although you were a small girl when I saw +you last." + +"You needn't take much credit for that, sir, since Vincent probably had +my portrait in all his coat-pockets and his room frescoed with +them--it's a trick of his. So you needn't pretend that it was family +likeness--I know better. Vincent has all the good looks of the family, +and I have all the good qualities." + +"That's why you've come to console the afflicted?" + +"Yes, duty--you know how disagreeable that is. Vincent declared he would +come himself, if I didn't, and mamma wouldn't hear of your being moved +by servants alone, so I am here. But I give you fair warning that I am a +rebel of the most ferocious sort. You shall ride under the 'bonnie blue +flag' to Rosedale, and you shall salute our flag every morning when it +is hoisted." + +"I am the most docile of men and the easiest of invalids. I will ride +under Captain Kidd's flag and salute the standard of the Grand Turk, to +be near Vincent just now." + +When Rosalind's colored aids had placed him in the big family carriage, +and he had bidden Mrs. Raines farewell, the young lady resumed: "Ah, I +know you! Vincent has told me about your Yankee ways. Not another word, +sir. I'll act as guide, and tell you all we see of note as we go on. +There where your eyes are resting now is the Confederate Hall of +Independence; that modest house on the corner is President Davis's. We +are going to build him another by and by--after we capture Washington +and get our belongings--no--no--you needn't speak. I know what you want +to say. That's Washington's monument, and there is our dear old +Jefferson. Doesn't it quicken even your slow Yankee blood to pass the +walls that heard Jefferson at his greatest, that held Patrick Henry, +that covered Washington? Ah! if you Northern Pharisees were not +money-grubbers and souless to everything but the almighty dollar, you +would join hands with us in creating our new Confederacy. Yes, sir, +you're my prisoner. We shall see that one Yankee is kept out of +mischief--if the war lasts--which is not likely, as your folks are quite +cowed by the victory at Bull Run. Wasn't it a splendid fight? I shall +never forgive Vin for not letting me know it was coming off. Vin, you +know, is on General Early's staff. He knew two days before that there +was to be a fight, for he started from Winchester to keep the railway +clear and lead the troops to the Henry House when they got off the cars. +He was in the thickest of the fight, near Professor Jackson--Stonewall, +they call him now. He--Vin--had three horses killed, and was made a +major on the field by General Joe Johnston. What?----" + +"Please let the carriage stop a moment. I want to absorb that lovely +view." + +He pointed to the James, debouching from the hills over which the +carriage was slowly rolling. The afternoon sun was behind them; but far, +far to the eastward the noble river wound through masses of dark, deep +green until it was lost in a glow of shimmering mirage in the +low horizon. + +"Isn't it lovely? We shall have a nobler capital city than Washington, +with its horrid red streets, its wilderness of bare squares, its +interminable distances--" + +"Carcassonne," Jack murmured. + +"Carcassonne--what's that?" + +"An exquisite bit of verse and a touching story. I----" + +"There, there--stop. You are talking again. You shall read the poem to +me--that is, if it isn't a glorification of the North." + +"No; Carcassonne was a city of the South." + +"Really--you must not talk. I'm not going to open my lips again until we +get to the boat." + +She settled back in her place and took out a book, looking over the top +at him from time to time. The motion of the vehicle, the warmth of the +day, and the odorous breath of flowers and shrubs gradually dulled his +mischievous spirits, and he slept tranquilly until the carriage drew up +at the wharf at Harrison's Landing, whence, taken on a primitive ferry, +they in an hour or more arrived at a long wooden pier extending into the +river. It was nearly six o'clock when the carriage entered a solemn +aisle of pines ending in a labyrinth of oleanders and the tropic-like +plants of the South. Then an old-fashioned porticoed mansion came into +view, and on signal from the driver a _posse_ of colored servants came +trooping out noisily to carry the invalid in. Mrs. Atterbury was on the +veranda, and stepped down to the carriage to welcome the guest. She +greeted him with the affectionate cordiality of a mother, and asked: + +"How have you borne the fatigue? I hope Rosa hasn't let you talk?" + +"If I may speak now it will be to bear testimony that I have been made a +mummy since noon. I haven't been permitted to ask the local habitation +or name of the scenic delights that have made the journey a panorama of +beauty and my guide a tyrant, to whom, by comparison, Caligula was a +tender master!" + +"Since you slept most of the way you must have dreamed the beauty, as +you certainly have invented the tyrant," Rosa retorted, as the brawny +servants lifted Jack bodily and carried him up the three steps and into +the sitting-room. + +"Your quarters are next to my son's, if you think you can endure the +constant outbreaks of that locality. We are with him in all but his +sleeping hours, so you will do well to reflect before you decide." + +"Oh, I shall insist on being near Vincent. He's too badly hurt to +overcome me in case we are tempted to fight our battles over again." + +"But he has allies here, sir, and you must remember that you are a +prisoner of war," Rosa cried from the landing above, _en route_ to +minister to her hero before the Yankee invaded him. Vincent was propped +up in the bed with a mass of pillows, and the two friends embraced in +college-boy fashion, too much moved for a moment to begin the flood of +questions each was eager to ask and answer. + +"Before I say a word of anything else, Vint, I want you to do me a great +service. It is two weeks since the battle. I am sure my mother can not +have any certain information about me. Can you manage any way to get a +letter or telegram sent her?" + +"Of course I can. Nothing easier. Write your telegram. I will send it +under cover to General Early. He will forward it by flag of truce to +Washington, and it will be sent North from there." + +But Jack's letter was never sent, for when the post came from Richmond +the next day, Vincent read in the morning paper a surprising +personal item: + +"'Among the distinguished arrivals in the city within the week, we have +just learned of the presence of Mrs. Sprague, wife of the famous +Senator, a contemporary with Clay and Webster. Mrs. Sprague has come to +Richmond in search of her son, who was captured or killed on the field +near the Henry House. She comes with her daughter under a safeguard from +General Johnston, who knew the family when he was at West Point. Mrs. +Sprague is stopping with Mrs. Bevan, on Vernon Street, and is under the +escort of Private William Bevan of the general headquarters.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +UNDER TWO FLAGS. + + +That modest paragraph in the morning paper wrought amazing results in +the fortunes of many of the people we are interested in. A regiment of +cavalry encamped near the outskirts of the city on the line of the +Virginia Central had broken camp early in the morning to march +northward. One company detailed to bring up the rear was still loitering +near the station when the newspapers were thrown off the train and +eagerly seized by the men, who bestrewed themselves in groups to hear +the news read aloud. + +"Here, you Towhead, you're company clerk; you read so that we can all +hear." + +In response to this a stripling, in the most extraordinary costume, came +out from the impedimenta of the company with a springy step and +consequential air. You wouldn't have recognized the scapegrace, Dick +Perley, in the carnival figure that came forward, for his curling blond +hair was closely cropped, his face was smeared with the soilure of pots +and pans, and it was evident that the eager warrior had exchanged the +weapons of war for the utensils of the company kitchen. He read in a +high, clear treble the telegraphic dispatches, the sanguinary editorial +ratiocinations, Orphic in their prophetic sententiousness, and then +turned to the local columns. + +Any one listening to the lad would never have suspected that he was not +a Southron. He prolonged the _a's_ and _o's_, as the Southern trick is, +and imitated to such perfection the pleasant localisms of Virginian +pronunciation, that keener critics of speech and accent than these +galliard troops would have been deceived. But suddenly his voice breaks, +he falls into the clear, distinct enunciation of New York--the only +speech in the Union that betrays no sign of locality. He is reading the +lines about the distinguished arrivals. Fortunately at the instant there +is a blast from the bugles--"Fall in!"--and the men rush to their +horses. In twenty minutes the company is clattering out on the +Mechanicsville road, and at noon, when the squadron halted for dinner, +the company cook had to rely on the clumsy ministrations of his colored +aides. "Towhead" had disappeared. + +Olympia, after a night of anguish, began the new day with a heavy burden +on her mind. Mrs. Sprague was delirious. The physician summoned during +the night shook his head gravely. She was suffering from overexertion, +heat, and anxiety. He was unable to do more than mitigate her +sufferings. He recommended country air and absolute repose. Merry, too, +though holding up bravely, gave signs of breaking down. The two +women--Olympia and Merry--under the escort of young Bevan, had gone +through the prisons, the dreadful Castle Winder, and through the +hospitals, with hope dying at every new disappointment. They came across +many of the Caribees, and saw a member of Congress, caught on the +battle-field, who knew the regiment well. + +Jack had been traced to Porter's lines, then far to the left, where Nick +had been told to wait. Nick was among the sweltering mass at Castle +Winder, but he could trace the missing no farther. He told of Jack's +persistent valor to the last, and the dreadful moment, when he, Jack, +had been separated. Dick he had not seen at all. Olympia made +intercession for Nick's release, but was informed that nothing could be +done until a cartel of exchange had been arranged. The Yankee +authorities had in the first five months of the war refused to make any +arrangement, while the Union forces were capturing the Confederate +armies in West Virginia and Missouri. Now that the Confederates held an +equal number, they were going to retaliate upon the overconfident North. +Olympia placed five hundred dollars at Nick's disposal in the hands of +the commandant to supply the lad with better food than the commissary +furnished, and, promising him strenuous aid so soon as she got back to +Washington, she resumed the quest for the lost. She had written out an +advertisement, to be inserted in all the city papers, and was to visit +the offices herself with young Bevan that evening. She had her bonnet +on, and was charging Merry how to minister to the ailing mother, when +the hostess knocked at the door. "A lady is in the parlor who says she +must see Mrs. Sprague immediately." Olympia followed Mrs. Bevan down +tremblingly, far from any anticipation of what was in store for her; +rather in the belief that it was some wretched mother from Acredale who +had learned of their presence and hoped to get aid for an imprisoned +son, husband, or brother. But when she saw the kind, matronly face of +Mrs. Raines beaming with the delight of bearing good news, she sank into +a chair, saying faintly: + +"Did you wish to see me, Mrs.--Mrs.--" + +"You are not Mrs. Sprague?" + +"No; my mother is very ill. I am Mrs. Sprague's daughter. Can I--" + +"Well, Miss Sprague, I think I can cure your mother. I--" + +She arose and walked mysteriously to the door and looked into the +hallway. + +"I know what the disease is your mother is suffering from." + +She couldn't resist prolonging the consequence of her mission. All women +have the dramatic instinct. All love to intensify the unexpected. But +Olympia's listless manner and touching desolation spurred her on. She +put her fingers to her lips warningly, and coming quite near her +whispered, as she had seen people do on the stage: + +"Don't make any disturbance; don't faint. Your brother is alive and +well! There, there--I told you." + +Olympia was hugging the astonished woman, who glanced in terror over her +shoulder to see that feminine curiosity was not dangerously alert. "You +will ruin me," she whispered, "if you don't be calm." Then Olympia +suddenly recovered herself, sobbing behind her handkerchief. "He has +been at my house two weeks. He left yesterday and is now with Major +Atterbury's family on the James River, near Williamsburg. Miss Atterbury +came herself to take him there yesterday morning. I saw your name in +_The Examiner_ only an hour ago, and I came at once to relieve the +distress I knew you must be suffering." + +Then the kind soul told the story, charging the sister never to reveal +the facts. She withdrew very happy and contented, for Olympia had said +many tender things; she almost felt that she had done the Confederacy a +great service, to have laid so many people under an obligation that +might in the future result in something remarkable for the cause. + +Olympia's purpose of breaking the news gradually to the invalid was +frustrated by her tell-tale eyes and buoyant movements. + +"O Olympia, you have seen John!" she screamed, starting up--"where is +he? Oh, where is he? I know you have seen him!" And then there were +subdued laughter and tears, and mamma instantly declared her intention +of flying to the hero. But there was considerable diplomacy still +requisite. Mrs. Raines must not be compromised, and young Bevan must get +transportation for them to the Atterburys. It was past noon when the +carriage came for them. Olympia had come down-stairs to give Mrs. Bevan +final instruction regarding letters and luggage, when a resounding knock +came upon the door. Mrs. Bevan opened it herself, and Olympia, standing +in the hall, heard a well-known voice, quick, eager, joyous: + +"Is Mrs. Sprague, here?" + +"O Richard," Olympia cried, rushing at him--"ah, you darling boy!--Aunt +Merry--Aunt Merry! Come--come quick! He is here." But Aunt Merry at the +head of the stairs had heard the voice, and Dick, tearing himself +ungallantly from the embrace of beauty, was up the stairs in four leaps +and in the arms of the fainting spinster. + +"It is Miss Perley's nephew," Olympia said, joyously, to the amazed lady +of the house, who stood speechless. "We had given up all hope of seeing +him, as his name was not on our army list. He ran away to be with my +brother, and we felt like murderers, as you may imagine, and are almost +as much relieved to find him as our own flesh and blood." + +The subsequent conversation between the matron and the young girl seemed +to put the mistress of the house in excellent humor, and when the +carriage drove off she kissed all the ladies quite as rapturously as if +she had never vowed undying hatred and vengeance upon the Yankee people. +In the carriage the prodigal Dick rattled off the story of his +adventures. He had come to Company K after Jack had been sent out on the +skirmish-line. He had followed in wild despair the direction pointed out +to him. He had lost his way until he met Colonel Sherman's orderlies. +They had told him where the company was halted on the banks of +the stream. + +When he reached the place indicated he learned of Jack's detail to the +extreme right of the army. He dared not set out openly to follow. He ran +back in the bushes, out of sight, and then by a _detour_ struck the +stream far above to the right. The volleys away to the west guided him, +and he tore forward, bruising his flesh and tearing his raiment to +tatters. The stream seemed too deep to cross, for a mile or more, but +finally, finding that the firing seemed to go swiftly to the southward, +he plunged in. The banks on the other side were rugged and precipitous, +and he was obliged to push on in the morass that the stream wound +through. But nature gave out, and on a sunny slope he sat down to rest. +He soon fell into a sound sleep, and when he woke there was noise of men +laughing and shouting about him. He started to his feet. + +"Hello! buster," a voice said near him. "What are you doin' away from +yer mammy? Beckon she'll think the Yanks have got you if you ain't home +for bedtime." + +The man who said this was lying peacefully under a laurel-bush. Others +were sprawled about, feasting on the spoil of Union haversacks. + +"I knew then that I was in a rebel camp," Dick continued, "but I wasn't +afraid, because my clothes were not military; and, even if they had +been, they were so torn and muddy, no one would have thought of them as +a uniform. But, for that matter, a good many of the rebels had blue +trousers; and, as for regimentals, there really were none, as we have +them. I made believe that I lived in the neighborhood, imitated the +Southern twang, and was set to work right away helping the company cook. +The firing was still going on very near us, to the south, west, and +east. But the men didn't seem to mind it much. In about a half-hour +there was a sudden move. + +"A volley was poured into us from the east, and in an instant all the +graybacks were in commotion. I heard the officers shout: 'We are +surrounded! Die at your post, men!' But the men didn't want to die at +their posts, or anywhere else, but made off like frightened rabbits. In +a few minutes we were all marching between two lines of Richardson's +Union brigade. I had no trouble in stepping out, and then I pushed on in +Jack's direction. But I could not find him when I got to Hunter's +headquarters. An orderly remembered seeing him, or rather seeing the men +that brought the good news that Sherman was on the rebel side of the +stone bridge early in the battle. There I found an orderly of +Franklin's, who had seen two men I described, sent off to the right to +picket, until the cavalry could be sent there. I came upon Nick Marsh +near the general's headquarters, and he told me the direction the others +had gone, but urged me to remain with him--as Jack would surely be back +there, horsemen having ridden out in that direction to relieve him. I +don't know how far I went, but it must have been a mile. + +"There I had to lie in the bushes, for two columns of troops were coming +and going, the flying fellows that Sherman had routed near the stone +bridge and the re-enforcements that were tearing up from the Manassas +Railway. The men coming were laughing and singing as they ran. The men +flying were silent, and seemed too frightened to notice the forces +coming to their support. I broke out of the bushes and ran toward the +line of thick trees that seemed to mark the course of the river. As I +came out on a deep sandy road I ran right into troops, halting. There +were great cheering and hurrah; then a cavalcade of civilians came +through the rushing ranks at a gallop. 'Hurrah for President Davis! Hip, +hip, hurrah!' I saw him. He was riding a splendid gray horse, and as the +men broke into shouts he raised his hat and bowed right and left. He was +stopped for a few minutes just in front of where I stood, or, rather, I +ran to where he halted. There were long trains of wounded filing down +the road, and men without guns, knapsacks, or side-arms, breaking +through the bushes on all sides. + +"'They've routed us, Mr. President,' a wounded officer cried, as the +stretcher upon which he was lying passed near Jeff Davis. + +"'What part of the field are you from?' Davis asked, huskily. + +"'Bartow's brigade, stone bridge. They've captured all our guns, and are +pouring down on the fords. You will be in danger Mr. President, if you +continue northward a hundred yards.' + +"Sure enough, there was a mighty cheer, hardly a half-mile to the north +of us, and clouds of dust arose in the air. Davis watched the movement +through his glass, and, turning to a horseman at his side, cried, +exultantly: + +"'The breeze is from the northwest; that dust is going toward the +Warrenton Pike. Johnston has got up in time; we've won the day!' + +"With this he put spurs to his horse, and the squadron halted on the +road set off at a wild gallop. The words of the President were repeated +from man to man, and then a mighty shout broke out. It seemed to clip +the leaves from the trees, as I saw them cut, an hour or two before, by +the swarming volleys of musketry. A horseman suddenly broke from a path +just behind where I was. + +"'Is President Davis here?' he asked, riding close to me, but not +halting. + +"'He has just ridden off yonder.' I pointed toward the cloud of dust +east and north of us. + +"'Split your throats, boys! General Beauregard has just sent me to the +President to welcome him with the news that the Yankees are licked and +flying in all directions! Not a man of them can escape. General +Longstreet is on their rear at Centreville.' + +"There were deafening, crazy shouts; hats, canteens, even muskets, were +flung in the air, and the wounded, lying on the ground, were struck by +some of these things as they fell, in a cloud, about them. The shouts +grew louder and louder, they rose and fell, far, far away right and +left. Everybody embraced everybody else. Men who had been limping and +despondent before broke into wild dances of joy. Everybody wanted to go +toward the field of battle now, but a provost guard filed down the road +presently, and in a few minutes I saw a sight that made tears of rage +and shame blind me. Whole regiments of blue-coats came at a quick-step +through the dusty roadway, the rebel guards prodding them brutally with +their bayonets. The fellows near me, who had been running from the +fight, set up insulting cheers and cat-calls. + +"'Did you'ns leave a lock of your hair with old Mas'r Lincoln?' + +"'Come down to Dixie to marry niggers, have ye?' and scores of taunts +more insulting and obscene. Our men never answered. They were worn and +dusty. They had no weapons, of course, for the first thing the rebels +did was to search every man, take his money, watch, studs, even his coat +and shoes, when they were better than their own. Hundreds of our men +were in their stocking-feet, or, rather, in their bare feet, as they +tramped wearily through the burning sand and twisted roots. I heard one +of the rebels near me, an officer, say that the prisoners were all going +to the junction to take the cars. President Davis had ordered that they +should be marched through the streets of Richmond to show the people of +the capital the extent of the victory. Then the thought flashed into my +head that if our army had been captured, my best chance of finding Jack +would be to follow to Richmond and watch the blue-coats. I easily +slipped among the prisoners, came to the city and saw every man that +went to Castle Winder. But no one that I knew was among them, and I made +up my mind that Jack had escaped. I saw Wesley Boone's father and sister +at the Spottswood House yesterday, but I was too late to catch them, +and, when I asked the clerk at the desk, be said they had taken quarters +in the town--he didn't know where." + +"That's a fact," Olympia exclaimed; "they left Washington before us. I +wonder if they found Wesley?" + +"I don't know," Dick continued, "The officers were brought in a gang by +themselves, and I didn't see them. Well, I hung about the town, visiting +all the places I thought it likely Jack might be, and then I joined a +cavalry company that belonged to Early's brigade, at Manassas. I was +going there with them this morning to get back to our lines and find +Jack, when I saw the paragraph in _The Examiner_, telling of your coming +and whereabouts." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ROSEDALE. + + +"What an intrepid young brave you are, Dick!" Olympia cried, as the +artless narrative came to an end. + +"What a cruel boy, to leave his family and--and--run into such dreadful +danger!" Merry expostulated. + +"What a devoted boy, to risk his life and liberty for our poor Jack!" +Mrs. Sprague said, bending forward to stroke the tow-head. The carriage +passed down the same road that Jack had gone the day before, whistling +sarcasms at his keeper. At Harrison's Landing there was a delay of +several hours, and the impatient party wandered on the shores of the +majestic James--glittering, like a sylvan lake, in its rich border of +woodland. The sun was too hot to permit of the excursion Dick suggested, +and late in the afternoon the wheezy ferry carried them down the +lake-like stream. On every hand there were signs of peace--not a fort, +not a breastwork gave token that this was in a few months to be the +shambles of mighty armies, the anchorage of that new wonder, the iron +battle-ship; the scene of McClellan's miraculous victory at Malvern, of +Grant's slaughtering grapplings with rebellion at bay, of Butler's comic +joustings, and the last desperate onslaughts of Hancock's legions. The +air, tempered by the faint flavor of salt in the water, filled the +travelers with an intoxicating vigor, lent strength to their jaded +forces, which, while tense with expectation, could not wholly resist the +delicious aroma, the lovely outlines of primeval forest, the melody of +strange birds, startled along the shore by the wheezy puffing of the +ferry. There were cries of admiring delight as the carriage ran from the +long wooden pier into the dim arcade of sycamore and pine, through which +the road wound, all the way to Rosedale. Then they emerged into a +gentle, rolling, upland, where cultivated fields spread far into the +horizon, and in the distance a dense grove, which proved to be the park +about the house. The coming of the carriage was a signal to a swarm of +small black urchins to scramble, grinning and delighted, to the wide +lawn. There was no need to sound the great knocker; no need to explain, +when Rosalind, hurrying to the door, saw Olympia emerging from the +vehicle. They had not seen each other in four years, but they were in +each other's arms--laughing, sobbing--exclaiming: + +"How did you know? When did you come?" + +"Jack, Jack! Where is he? How is he?" + +"Jack's able to eat," Rosa cried, darting down to embrace Mrs. Sprague, +and starting with a little cry of wonder as Aunt Merry exclaimed, timidly: + +"We're all here. You've captured the best part of Acredale, though you +haven't got Washington yet." + +"Why, how delightful! We shall think it is Acredale," Rosa cried, +welcoming the blushing lady. "And--I should say, if he were not so much +like--like 'we uns,' that this was my old friend, the naughty Richard," +she said, welcoming the blushing youth cordially. (Dick avowed +afterward, in confidence to Jack, that she would have kissed him if he +hadn't held back, remembering his unkempt condition.) Mamma and Olympia +were shown up to the door of Jack's room, where Rosalind very discreetly +left them, to introduce the other guests to Mrs. Atterbury, attracted to +the place by the unwonted sounds. When presently the visitors were shown +into Vincent's room, Jack called out to them to come and see valor +conquered by love; and, when they entered, mamma was brushing her eyes +furtively, while she still held Jack's unwounded hand under the +counterpane. Master Dick excited the maternal alarm by throwing himself +rapturously on the wounded hero and giving him the kiss he had denied +Rosalind. Indeed, he showered kisses on the abashed hero, whose eyes +were suspiciously sparkling at the evidence of the boy's delight. He +established himself in Jack's room, and no urging, prayer, or reproof +could induce him to quit his hero's sight. + +"I lost him once," he said, doggedly, "and I'm not going to lose him +again. Where he goes, I'm going; where he stays, I'll stay--sha'n't +I, Jack?" + +"You shall, indeed, my dauntless Orestes; you shall share my fortunes, +whatever they be." + +He insisted on a cot in the room, and there, during the convalescence of +his idol, he persisted in sleeping--ruling all who had to do with the +invalid in his own capricious humor, hardly excepting Mrs. Sprague, whom +he tolerated with some impatience. Letters were dispatched northward to +relieve the anxiety of Pliny and Phemie, as well as the Marshes. But it +hung heavily on Jack's heart that no trace of Barney had been found. +Advertisements were sent to the Richmond papers, and he waited in +restless impatience for some sign of the kind lad's well-being. + +"Well, Jack, this isn't much like the pomp and circumstance of glorious +war," Olympia cried, the next morning, coming in from an excursion about +the "plantation," as she insisted on calling the estate, attended by +Merry, Rosa, and Dick. "I never saw such foliage! The roses are as large +as sunflowers, and there are whole fields of them!" + +"Yes; I believe the Atterburys make merchandise of them." + +"But who buys them about here? They seem to grow wild--as fine in form +and color as our hot-house varieties. Surely they are not bought by the +colored people, and there seems to be no one else--no other +inhabitants, I mean." + +"Oh, no; they are shipped North in the season for them; but I don't +think the family has paid much attention to that branch of the business +of late years. Their revenues come from tobacco and cotton. Their +cotton-fields are in South Carolina and along the Atlantic coast." + +"And are these colored people all slaves?" Her voice sank to a whisper, +for Vincent's door was ajar. + +"Yes, every man jack of them. Did you ever see such merry rogues? They +laugh and sing half the night, and sing and work half the day." + +"They don't seem unhappy, that's a fact," Olympia said, reflectively, +"but I should think ownership in flesh and blood would harden people; +and yet the Atterburys are very kind and gentle. I saw tears in Mrs. +Atterbury's eyes, yesterday, when mamma was sitting here with you." + +"Yes," Jack said, unconsciously, "women enjoy crying--" + +"You insufferable braggart, how dare you talk like that? Pray, what do +you know about women's likes and dislikes?" + +"Oh, I beg pardon, Polly; I'm sure I didn't mean anything--I was taking +the minor for the major. All women like babies; babies pass most of +their time crying; therefore women like crying." + +"Well, if that is the sum of your college training, it is a good thing +the war came--" + +"What about the war? No treason in Rosedale, remember!" Vincent shouted +from the next room. "You pledged me that when you talked war you would +talk in open assembly." The voice neared the open doorway as he spoke. +The servant had moved the invalid's cot, where Vincent could look in +on Jack. + +"There was really no war talk, Vint, except such war as women always +raise, contention--" + +"I object, Jack, to your generalization," Olympia retorted. "It is a +habit of boyishness and immaturity.--He said a moment ago" (she turned +to Vincent) "that women loved crying, and then sneaked out by a very +shallow evasion." + +"I'll leave it to Vint: All women love babies; babies do nothing but +cry; therefore, women love crying; there couldn't be a syllogism more +irrefutable." + +"Unless it be that all women love liars," Vincent ventured, jocosely. + +"How do you prove that?" + +"All men are liars; women love men; therefore--" + +"Oh, pshaw! you have to assume in that premise. I don't in mine. It is +notorious that women love babies, while you have only the spiteful +saying of a very uncertain old prophet for your major--" + +"Whose major?" Rosa asked, appearing suddenly. "I'll have you to know, +sir, that this major is mamma's, and no one else can have, hold, or make +eyes at him." + +"It was the major in logic we were making free with," Jack mumbled, +laughing. "I hope logic isn't a heresy in your new Confederacy, as +religion was in the French Constitution of '93?" + +Rosa looked at Olympia, a little perplexed, and, seating herself on the +cot with Vincent, where she could caress him furtively, said, with +piquant deliberation: + +"I don't know about logic, but we've got everything needed to make us +happy in the Montgomery Constitution." + +"Have you read it?" Jack asked, innocently. + +"How insulting! Of course I have. I read it the very first thing when it +appeared in the newspapers." + +"Catch our Northern women doing that!" Jack interjected, loftily. "There +is my learned sister, she doesn't know the Constitution from Plato's +Dialogues." + +"Indeed, I do not; nor do I know Plato's Dialogues," Olympia returned, +quite at ease in this state of ignorance. + +"Wherein does the Montgomery Constitution differ from the old one?" Jack +asked, looking at Vincent. + +"I'm blessed if I know. I've read neither. I did read the Declaration of +Independence once at a Fourth-of-July barbecue. I always thought that +was the Constitution. Indeed, every fellow about here does! You know in +the South the women do all the thinking for the men. Rosa keeps my +political conscience." + +"Well, then, Lord High Chancellor, tell us the vital articles in the +Montgomery document that have inspired you to arm Mars for the conflict, +plunge millions into strife and thousands into hades, as Socrates would +have said, employing his method?" Jack continued derisively. + +"Our Constitution assures us the eternal right to own our own property." + +"Slaves?" + +"Yes." + +"No one denied you that right, so far as the law went, under the old; it +was only the justice, the humanity, that was questioned. The right would +have endured a hundred years, perhaps forever, if you had kept still--" + +"Come, Jack, I won't listen to politics," Olympia cried, with a warning +look. + +"No, the time for talk is past; it is battle, and God defend the right!" +Rosa said, solemnly. + +"And you may be sure he will," Jack added, softly, as though to himself. + +"But we've got far away from the crying and the babies," Vincent began, +when Jack interrupted, fervently: + +"Thank Heaven!" + +"You monster!" the two girls cried in a breath. + +"No, I can't conceive a sillier paradox than 'A babe in the house is a +well-spring of joy.' A woman must have written it first. Now, my idea of +perfect happiness for a house is to have two wounded warriors like +Vincent and me, tractable, amiable, always ready to join in rational +conversation and make love if necessary, providing we're encouraged." + +"Really, Olympia, your Northern men are not what I fancied," Rosa cried, +with a laugh. + +"What did you fancy them?" + +"Oh, ever so different, from this--this saucy fellow--modest, timid, +shy; needing ever so much encouragement to--to--" + +"Claim their due?" Jack added, slyly. + +"Well, there is one that doesn't require much encouragement to claim +everything that comes in his way," Rosa retorts, and Olympia adds: + +"And to spare my feelings you won't name him now." + +"Exactly," said Rosa. + +"How touching!" exclaimed Vincent. + +"I left all my blood to enrich your soil, or I'd blush," replied Jack. + +"Oh, no; it won't enrich the soil; it will bring out a crop of Johnny +Jump-ups, a weed that we don't relish in the South," retorted Rosa. + +"Ah, Jack, you're hit there!--Rosa, I'm proud of you. This odious Yankee +needs combing down; he ran over us so long at college that he is +conceited in his own impudence," and Vincent exploded in shouts +of laughter. + +"I fear you're not a botanist, Miss Rosa. It's 'Jack in the pulpit' that +will spring from Northern blood, and they'll preach such truths that the +very herbage will bring the lesson of liberty and toleration to you." + +"What is this very serious discussion, my children?" Mrs. Atterbury +said, beaming sweetly upon the group. "I couldn't imagine what had +started Vincent in such boisterous laughter; and now, that I come, Mr. +Jack is as serious as we were at school when Madame Clarice told us of +our sins." + +"Jack was telling his, mamma, and that is still more serious than to +hear one's own," Vincent said, grinning at the moralist. + +"But, to be serious a moment, I have written to my old friend General +Robert Lee, of Arlington, about Miss Perley. I know that he will grant +her permission to take Richard home with her, and the question now is +whether it is safe to let them go together alone?" Mrs. Atterbury +addressed the question to Olympia, making no account of Jack. + +"Oh, let us leave the decision until you get General Lee's answer. If +they get the message in Acredale that Dick is safe and sound, I don't +see why they need go back before we do. I shall be able to travel in a +few weeks. If the roads were not so rickety I wouldn't be afraid to set +out now," Jack answered. + +"Impossible! You can't leave for a month yet, if then," Vincent +proclaimed, authoritatively. "I know what gunshot wounds are: you think +they are healed, and begin fooling about, when you find yourself laid up +worse than ever. There's no hurry. The campaign can't begin before +October. I'm as anxious to be back as you are, but I don't mean to stir +before October. Perhaps you think it will be dull here? Just wait until +you are strong enough to knock about a bit; we shall have royal rides. +We'll go to Williamsburg and see the oldest college in the country. +We'll go down the James, and you shall see some of the richest lands in +the world. We'll get a lot of fellows out from Richmond and have our +regular barbecue in September. We wind up the season here every year +with a grand dance, and Olympia shall lead the Queen Anne minuet with +mamma's kinsman, General Lee, who is the President's chief of staff." + +"This doesn't sound much like soldiering," Jack said, dreamily. + +"No. When in the field, let us fight; when at home, let us be merry." + +"A very proper sentiment, young men. We want you to be very merry, for +you must remember the time comes when we can't be anything but sad--when +you are away and the night of doubt settles upon our weak women's +hearts." It was Mrs. Atterbury who spoke, and the sentence seemed to +bring silence upon the group. + +Meanwhile, all the inquiries set on foot through the agency of the +Atterburys failed to bring any tidings of Barney Moore. It suddenly +occurred to Jack that the poor fellow was masquerading as a rebel in the +bosom of some eager patriot like Mrs. Raines and he reluctantly +consented to let Dick go to Richmond to investigate. Perhaps Mrs. Raines +might know where the wounded men were taken that had come with him. Some +of the stragglers could at least be found. The advertisement asking +information concerning a wounded man arriving in Richmond with himself +was kept in all the journals. But Merry wouldn't consent to let Dick go +on the dangerous quest without her. She would never dare face her +sisters if any mishap came to the lad, and though Vincent put him under +the care of an experienced overseer, and ordered the town-house to be +opened for his entertainment, the timorous aunt was immovable. + +"You must go and call on the President, Miss Merry. He receives +Thursdays at the State House. Then you'll see a really great man in +authority, not the backwoods clowns that have brought this country into +ridicule--such a man as Virginia used to give the people for President," +Rosa said in the tone a lady of Louis XVIII's court might have used to +an adherent of the Bonapartes. + +"Ah, Rosa, we saw a gentle, tender-hearted man in Washington--the very +ideal of a people's father. No one else can ever be President to me +while he lives," Olympia said, seriously. + +"Lincoln?" Rosa asked, a little disdainfully. + +"Yes, Abraham Lincoln. We have all misunderstood him. Oh if you could +have seen him as I saw him--so patient, so considerate: the sorrows of +the nation in his heart and its burdens on his shoulders; but confident, +calm, serene, with the benignant humility of a man sent by God," Olympia +added almost reverently. "It was he who came to our aid and ordered the +rules to be broken that our mother might seek Jack." + +Rosa was about to retort, but a warning glance from Vincent checked her, +and she said nothing. + +"I say, Dick, don't try to capture Jeff Davis or blow up the Confederate +Congress, or any other of the casual master strokes that may enter your +wild head. Remember that we have given double hostages to the enemy. We +have accepted their hospitality, and we have made ourselves their +guests," Jack said, half seriously, as the young Hotspur wrung his hand +in a tearful embrace. + +"Above all, remember, Mr. Yankee, that you are in a certain sense a +civilian now; you must not compromise us by free speech in Richmond," +Rosa added. + +"Ah, I know very well there's none of that in the South: you folks +object to free speech; they killed poor old Brown for it; that's what +you made war for, to silence free speech," Dick cried hotly, while Merry +pinched his arm in terror. + +Dick began his campaign in the morning with longheaded address. He +visited the prison under ample powers from General Lee--procured though +Vincent's mediation. There were a score of the Caribees in Castle +Winder, and to these the boy came as a good fairy in the tale. For he +distributed money, tobacco, and other things, which enabled the +unfortunates to beguile the tedious hours of confinement. The prisoners +were crowded like cattle in the immense warehouse in squads of a hundred +or more. They had blankets to stretch on the floor for beds, a general +basin to wash in, and for some time amused themselves watching through +the barred windows the crowds outside that flocked to the place to see +the Yankees, and, when not checked by the guards, to revile and +taunt them. + +Dick was enraged to see how contentedly the men bore the irksome +confinement, the meager food, and harsh peremptoriness of the beardless +boys set over them as guards. Most of the prisoners passed the time in +cards, playing for buttons, trinkets, or what not that formed their +scanty possessions. Dick learned that all the commissioned officers of +the company with Wesley Boone had been wounded or killed in the charge +near the stone bridge. Wesley had been with the prisoners at first. He +had been struck on the head, and was in a raging fever when his father +and sister came to the prison to take him away. No one could tell where +he was now, but Dick knew that he must be in the city, since there were +no exchanges, the Confederates allowing no one to leave the lines except +women with the dead, or those who came from the North on +special permits. + +Then he visited the provost headquarters, and was shown the complete +list of names recorded in the books there; but Barney's was not among +them. At the Spottswood Hotel, the day after his coming, he met Elisha +Boone, haggard, depressed, almost despairing. Dick had no love for the +hard-headed plutocrat, but he couldn't resist making himself known. + +"How d'ye do, Mr. Boone? I hope Wesley is coming on well, sir." + +Boone brought his wandering eyes down to the stripling in dull +amazement. + +"Why, where on earth do you come from? How is it you are free and +allowed in the streets?" + +"Oh, I am a privileged person, sir. I am looking up Company K. You +haven't heard anything of young Moore, Barney, who lives on the Callao +road south of Acredale?" + +"No, my mind has been taken up with my son"; his voice grew softer. "He +is in a very bad way, and the worst is there is no decent doctor to be +got here for love or money; all the capable ones are in the army, and +those that are here refuse to take any interest in a Yankee." + +The father's grief and the unhappy situation of his whilom enemy touched +the lad; forgetting Jack's and Vincent's warning, Dick said, +impulsively: + +"Oh, I can get him a good doctor. We have friends here." He knew, the +moment he had spoken the words, that he had been imprudent--how +imprudent the sudden, suspicious gleam in Boone's eye at once +admonished him. + +"Friends here? Union men have no friends here. There are men here with, +whom I have done business for years, men that owe prosperity to me, but +when I called on them they almost insulted me. If you have friends, you +must have sympathies that they appreciate." + +Dick knew what this meant. To be a Democrat had been, in Acredale, to be +charged with secret leanings to rebellion. He restrained his wrath +manfully, and said, simply: + +"An old college friend of Jack's has been very kind to us." + +"Us? I take it you mean the Spragues. They are stopping with Jeff Davis, +I suppose? It's the least he could do for allies so steadfast." + +"You shouldn't talk that way, sir. Every man in the Caribees, except old +Oswald's gang, is a Democrat, but they are for the country +before party." + +"Yes, yes, it may be so--but, the North don't think that way. Well, I'm +going to Washington to see if I can't get my boy out of this infernal +place, where a man can't even get shaved decently." + +"And Miss Kate, Mr. Boone, where is she?" + +"She is nursing Wesley, poor girl. She is having a harder trial than any +of us; for these devilish women fairly push into the sick-room to abuse +the North and berate the soldiers that fought at Manassas." + +"I should like to call on Wesley--if you don't mind," Dick said, +hesitatingly. + +"I shall be only too glad; and I'll tell you what it is, Richard, if +you'll make use of your friends here, to get Kate and Wesley some +comforts, some consideration, I'll make it worth your while. I'll see +that you do not have to wait long for a commission, and I'll pay you any +reasonable sum so soon as you get back North." + +Dick restrained his anger under this insulting blow, perceiving, even in +the hotness of his wrath, that the other was unconscious of the double +ignominy implied in dealing with soldiers' rewards as personal bribes, +and proffering money for common brotherly offices. It was only when Jack +commended his astuteness, afterward, that Dick realized the adroitness +of his own diplomacy. + +"Thank you, Mr. Boone. I shouldn't care for promotion that I didn't win +in war; and, as for money, I shall have enough when I need it. But any +man in the Caribees shall have my help. Under the flag every man is +a friend." + +"True. Yes; you are quite right. Kate will be very glad to see you." + +They walked along, neither disposed to talk after this narrow shave from +a quarrel. Boone led the way to the northern outskirts of the city, +until they reached a dull-brown frame building, back some distance from +the street. A colored woman, with a flaming turban on her head, opened +the door as she saw them coming up the trim walk lined with shells and +gay with poppies, bergamot, asters, and heliotrope. + +"This woman is a slave. She belongs to the proprietor of the hotel who +refused to receive Wesley. It was a great concession to let him come +here, they told me. But the poor boy might as well be in a Michigan +logging camp, for all the care he can get. But I'm mighty glad I met +you. I know you can help Kate while I am gone. I hated to leave her, but +I can do nothing here, and unless Wesley is removed he will never leave +this cussed town alive. I sha'n't be gone more than ten days." + +Kate had been called by the turbaned mistress, and came into the room +with a little shriek of pleasure. + +"O, Richard, what a delightful surprise! Have you seen your aunt? Ah! I +am so glad; she must be so relieved! And Mr. Sprague--have they +found him?" + +Dick retailed as much of the story as he thought safe, but he had to say +that the Spragues were all with the Atterburys in the country. + +"How providential! Ah, if our poor Wesley could find some such friends! +He is very low. He recognizes no one. Unless papa can get leave to take +him North--I am afraid of the worst. Indeed, I doubt whether he could +stand so long a journey. You must stay the day with us. I am so lonely, +and I dread being more lonely still when papa leaves this evening." + +Dick remained until late in the afternoon, sending word to Merry, who +came promptly to the aid of the afflicted. The next day Dick left his +aunt at the cottage with Kate, and warning them that he should be gone +all day, and perhaps not see them until the next morning, he set off for +Rosedale, where he told Jack Kate's plight. Vincent heard the story, +too, and when it was ended he said, decisively: + +"Jack, we must send for them. It would never do to have the story told +in Acredale that you had found friends in the South--because you are a +Democrat, and Boone was thrust into negro quarters because he is an +abolitionist." + +It was the very thought on Jack's mind, and straightway the carriage was +made ready, with ample pillows and what not. Dick set out in great +state, filled with the importance of his mission and the glory of Jack's +cordial praises. He was to stop on the way through town and carry the +Atterbury's family physician to direct the removal. When he appeared +before Kate, with Mrs. Atterbury's commands that she and her brother +should make Rosedale their home until the invalid could be removed +North, the poor girl broke down in the sudden sense of relief--the +certainty of salvation to the slowly dying brother. The physician spent +many hours redressing the wounds. Gangrene had begun to eat away the +flesh of the head above the temple, and poor Wesley was unrecognizable. +He was quite unconscious of the burning bromine and the clipping of +flesh that the skillful hand of the practitioner carried on. When the +little group started on the long journey, the invalid looked more like +himself than he had since Kate found him. The drive lasted many hours. +Wesley was stretched in an ambulance, Kate sitting on the seat with the +driver, the physician and Dick following in the carriage. Merry went +back to the city house, where her nephew was to return as soon as Wesley +had been delivered at Rosedale. Her charge placed in the hands of the +kind hostess, Mrs. Atterbury, Kate broke down. She had borne up while +her head and heart alone stood between her brother and death; but now, +relieved of the strain, she fell into an alarming fever. A Williamsburg +veteran, who had practiced in that ancient college town, since the early +days of the century, took the Richmond surgeon's place, and the gay +summer house became, for the time, a hospital. + +Meanwhile the rebel provost-marshal had simplified Dick's task a good +deal. An order was issued that all houses where wounded or ailing men +were lying should signalize the fact by a yellow flag or ribbon, +attached to the front in a conspicuous place. Thus directed, Dick walked +street after street, asking to see the wounded; and the fourth day, +coming to a residence, rather handsomer than the others on the street, +not two blocks from Mrs. Raines, Jack's Samaritan, he found a wasted +figure, with bandaged head and unmeaning eyes, that he recognized +as Barney. + +"We haven't been able to get any clew as to his name or regiment. The +guards at the station said he belonged to the Twelfth Virginia, but none +of the members of that body in the city recognize him. You know him?" + +"Yes. He is of my regiment," Dick said, neglecting to mention the +regiment. "I will send word to his friends at once and have +him removed." + +"Oh, we are proud and happy to have him here. Our only anxiety was lest +he should die and his family remain in ignorance. But, now that you +identify him, we hope that we may be permitted to keep him until his +recovery." + +It was a stately matron who spoke with such a manner, as Dick thought, +must be the mark of nobility in other lands. He learned, with surprise, +that the Atterbury physician was ministering to Barney, though there was +nothing strange in that, since the doctor was the favorite practitioner +of the well-to-do in the city. That night he wrote to Jack, asking +instructions, and the next day received a note, written by Olympia, +advising that Barney be left with his present hosts until he recovered +consciousness; that by that time Vincent would be able to come up to +town and explain matters to the deluded family. The better to carry out +this plan, Dick was bidden to return to Rosedale, and thus, six weeks +after the battle and dispersion, all our Acredale personages, by the +strange chances of war, were assembled within sight of the rebel +capital, and, though in the hands of friends, as absolutely cut off from +their home and duties as if they had been captured in a combat with +the Indians. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A MASQUE IN ARCADY. + + +In the latter days of September, the life at Rosedale was but a faint +reminder of the hospital it had seemed in August. The young men were +able to take part in all the simple gayeties devised by Rosa to make the +time pass agreeably. Wesley was still subject to dizziness if exposed to +the sun, but Jack and Vincent were robust as lumbermen. Mrs. Sprague and +Merry sighed wearily in the seclusion of their chambers for the Northern +homeside, but they banished all signs of discontent before their +warm-hearted hosts. There was as yet no exchange arranged between the +hostile Cabinets of Richmond and Washington. Even Boone's potent +influence among the magnates of his party had not served him to effect +Wesley's release nor enabled him to return to watch over the boy's +fortunes. There was no one at Rosedale sorry for the latter calamity +outside of Wesley and Kate. I believe even she was secretly not +heart-broken, for she knew that her father would be antipathetic to the +outspoken ladies of Rosedale. + +There had been an almost total suspension of military movements East and +West. Both sides were straining every resource to bring drilled armies +into the field, when the decisive blow fell. In his drives and walks +about the James and Williamsburg, Jack saw that the country was stripped +of the white male population. The negroes carried on all the domestic +concerns of the land. In these excursions, too, he marked, with a keen +military instinct, the points of defense General Magruder, who commanded +the department, had left untouched. He wondered if the Union arms would +ever get as far down as this. If they did, and he were of the force, he +would like to have a cavalry regiment to lead! Vincent was to rejoin his +command at Manassas in October. Jack looked forward to the event with +the most dismal discontent. To be tied up here, far from his companions; +to seem to enjoy ease, when his regiment was indurating itself by +drills, marches, and the rough life of the soldier for the great work it +was to do, maddened him. + +"I give you fair warning, Vint, if an exchange isn't arranged before you +leave here, I shall cut stick: the best way I can." + +"Good! How will you manage? It's a long pull between here and our front +at Manassas. How will you work it? Just as soon as you quit the shelter +of Rosedale, you are a suspect. Even the negroes will halt you. If you +should make for Fortress Monroe, you have all of Magruder's army to get +through. You would surely be caught in the act, and then I could do +nothing for you. You would be sent to Castle Winder, and that isn't a +very comfortable billet." + +Some hint of Jack's discontent, or rather of his vague dream of flight, +came into Dick's busy head, and when one day they were tramping down by +the James together, he said, owlishly: + +"I say, Jack, when Vincent goes, let us clear out!" + +"I say yes, with all my heart, but how can it be done? We are more than +forty miles from the nearest Union lines. Whole armies are between us. +Any white man found on the highway is questioned, and if he can't give a +clear account of himself is sent to the provost prison. You remember the +other day, when we left the rest to go through the swamp road near +Williamsburg, we were hailed by a patrol, and if Vincent hadn't been +within reach we would have been sent to the provost prison. Even the +negroes act as guards." + +"Don't be too sure of that. I've been talking to some of them. They are +'fraid as sin of the overseers, but you notice they shut up all the +negroes in their own quarters at night, don't you? If they were all +right, why should they do that?" + +"Good heavens! you haven't been trying to make an uprising among the +Rosedale servants, Dick? Don't you know that no end of ours could +justify that? These people have been like brothers--like our own family +to us. It would be infamous--infamous without power in the language for +comparison--if we should requite their humanity by stirring up servile +strife. I should be the first to take arms against the slaves in such +revolt, and give my life rather than be instrumental in bringing misery +upon the Atterburys." + +"Oh, keep your powder dry, Jack! I never dreamed of stirring 'em up. +What I mean is, that they are all restless and uneasy. They have an idea +that 'Massa Linculm' is coming down with a big army to set them free. +Many of them want to fly to meet this army. Many, too, would almost +rather die than leave their mistress. None of them--but the very bad +ones--could be induced under any circumstances to lift their hands +against the family or its property." + +"I should hope not--at least through our instrumentality. The time must +come when they will leave the family, for the one call only and in one +way; that is, by cutting out slavery root and branch. However, that's +for the politicians to manage; all we have to do is to stand by the +colors and fight." + +"I don't see much chance of standing by the colors here," Dick retorted, +wrathfully. "If you'll give me the word, I'll arrange a plan, and, as +soon as Vincent goes--we'll be off." + +"I'm not your master, you young hornet; I can't see what you're doing +all the time. All I can do is to approve or reject such doings of yours +as you bring me to decide on." + +Dick's eyes sparkled. "All right, I'll keep you posted, never fear." + +They were a very jovial group that prattled about the long Rosedale +dining-table daily now, since every one was able to come down. The house +was furnished in the easy unpretentiousness that prevailed in the South +in other days. Cool matting covered all the floors, the hallways, and +bedchambers. The dining-room opened into a drawing-room, where Kate and +Olympia took turns at the big piano. The day was divided, English +fashion, into breakfast, luncheon, dinner, and supper, the latter as +late as nine o'clock in the night. Jack being unprovided with +regimentals, Vincent wore civilian garb, to spare the "prisoner" (as +Jack jocosely called himself) mortification. Gray was the "only wear" +obtainable in Richmond, Mrs. Atterbury enjoying with gentle malice the +rueful perplexities of her prisoner guests, Jack, Wesley, and Richard, +as they surrounded the board in this rebel attire. + +"I shall feel as uncertain of myself when I get back to blue, as I do in +chess, after I have played a long while with the black, changing to +white. I manoeuvre for some time for the discarded color," Jack said, +one evening. + +"Oh, you'll hardly forget in this case," Rosa said, saucily; "it is for +the blacks you are manoeuvring constantly." + +Jack looked up, startled, and glanced swiftly at Dick. Had that +headstrong young marplot been detected in treason with the colored +people? No. Dick met his glance clear-eyed, unconstrained. The shot must +have been a random one. + +"I think you do us injustice, Miss Rosa," Wesley said. "I, for one, am +not interested in the blacks. All I want is the Union; after that I +don't care a rush!" + +"I protest against politics," Mrs. Atterbury intervened, gently. "When I +was a girl the young people found much more interesting subjects than +politics." + +Rosa: "Crops, mamma?" + +Vincent: "A mistress's eyebrow?" + +Dick: "Some other fellow's sister?" + +Olympia: "Some other girl's brother?" + +Mrs. Sprague: "Giddy girls?" + +Merry: "Bad boys?" + +"Well, something about all of these," Mrs. Atterbury resumed, laughing. +"I don't think young people in these times are as attached to each other +as we used to be in our day--do you, Mrs. Sprague?" + +"I don't know how it is with you in the South; but we no longer have +young people in the North. Our children bring us up now--we do not +bring them up." + +"That accounts for the higher average of intelligence among parents +noted in the last census," Olympia interrupts her mother to say. + +"There, do you see?" Mrs. Sprague continues, with a smile, and in a tone +that has none of the asperity the words might imply. "No reverence, no +waiting for the elders, as we were taught." + +"It depends a good deal, does it not, whether the elders are lovers?" +Vincent asked, innocently. + +"Oh, don't look at me, Mrs. Sprague, for support or sympathy. Vincent is +your handiwork; he was formed in the North. He is one of your new school +of youth; he is Southern only in loyalty to his State. For a time I had +painful apprehensions that that, too, had been educated away." + +"It was his reason that kept him faithful there," Rosa ventured, and +catches Vincent dropping his eyes in confusion from the demure glances +of Olympia. + +"Oh, no; pride. A Virginian is like a Roman, he is prouder to be a +citizen in the Dominion than a king in another country," Mrs. Atterbury +says, with stately decision. "No matter where his heart may be," and she +glanced casually at Olympia, "his duty is to his State." + +"Politics, mamma, politics; remember your young days. Talk of kings, +courts, romance, madrigals--but leave out politics," Rosa cried, +remonstratingly. + +"Let's turn to political economy. How do you propose disposing of your +tobacco and cotton this year?" Jack asked, gravely. + +"We are under contract to deliver ten thousand bales at Wilmington to +our agent," Vincent replied. "As for tobacco, we expect to sell all we +can raise to the Yankee generals. We have already begun negotiations +with some of your commanders who are too good Yankees to miss the +main chance." + +"You're not in earnest?" Jack cried, aghast. + +"As earnest as a maid with her first love." + +"But who--who--is the miscreant that degrades his cause by such +traffic?" + +"Oh, if you wait until you learn from me, you'll never be a dangerous +accuser. I learn in letters from friends in the West that all the cotton +crop has been contracted for by men either in the Northern army or high +in the confidence of the Administration. You see, Jack, we are not the +Arcadian simpletons you think us. This war is to be paid for out of +Northern pockets, any way you look at it. We've got cotton and tobacco, +you must have both; you've got money, we must have that. What we don't +sell to you we'll send to England." + +All at the table had listened absorbedly to this strange revelation, and +Jack rose from the table shocked and discouraged. + +Olympia seated herself at the piano, and, slipping out, as he supposed, +unseen, Jack strolled off into the fragrant alleys of oleander and +laurel. Dick, however, was at his heels. The two continued on in +silence, Dick trolling along, switching the bugs from the pink blossoms +that filled the air with an enervating odor. + +"I say. Jack, I've found out something." + +"What have you found out, you young conspirator?" + +"Wesley Boone's trying to get the negroes to help him off." + +"The devil he is!" + +"Yes. Last night I was down in the rose-fields. Young Clem, Aunt +Penelope's boy, was sitting under a bush talking with a crony. I heard +him say, 'De cap'n'll take you, too, ef you doan say noffin'. He guv +Pompey ten gold dollars.' + +"'De Lor'! Will he take ev'ybody 'long, too, Clem?' + +"'Good Lor', no! He's goin' to get his army, and den he'll come an' +fetch all de niggahs.' + +"'De Lor'!' + +"Trying to get closer, I made a rustling of the bushes, and the young +imps shot through them like weasles before I could lay hands on them. +Now, what do you think of that?" + +"If it is only to escape, all right; but if it is an attempt to stir up +insurrection, I will stop Wesley myself, rather than let him carry +it out!" + +"Wouldn't it be the best thing to warn Vincent? It would be a dreadful +thing to let him go and leave his poor mother and sister here +unprotected." + +"Let me think it over. I will hit on some plan to keep Wesley from +making an ingrate of himself without bringing danger on our +benefactors." + +Kate was dawdling on the lawn as the two returned to the house. Jack +challenged her to a jaunt. + +"Where shall it be?" she asked, readily, moving toward him. "The garden +of the gods?" + +"The garden of the goddesses, you mean, if it is the rose-field." + +"That's true; a god's garden would be filled with thorns and warlike +blossoms." + +"I don't know; a rose-garden grew the wars of the houses of York and +Lancaster." + +"Do you remember the scene in Shakespeare where Bolingbroke and Gaunt +pluck the roses?" + +"Quite well. There is always something pathetic to me in the fables +historians invent to excuse or palliate, or, perhaps it would be juster +to say, make tolerable, the stained pages of the past. It is brought +doubly nearer and distinct by this miserable war, and the strange fate +that has fallen upon us--to be the guests of a family whose hopes are +fixed upon what would make us miserable if it ever happened." + +"It never will. That's the reason I listen with pity to the childish +vauntings of these kind people. They have, you see, no conception of the +Northern people--no idea of the deep-seated purpose that moves the +States as one man to stifle this monstrous attempt." + +They walked on in silence a few paces, and Kate continued: "I don't know +how you feel, Mr. Sprague, but I am wretched here. I feel like a +traitor, receiving such kindness, treated with such guileless +confidence, and yet my heart is filled with everything they abhor. It is +not so hard for you, because you and Vincent have been close friends. He +has made your house his home, but I certainly feel that Wesley and I +should go elsewhere, now that he is able to be about." + +"Does Wesley feel this--this embarrassment?" + +"Passionately. He said, last night, he felt like a sneak. He would fly +in an instant, if he could see any possible way to our lines." + +"Pray, Miss Boone, tell him to be very circumspect. I know the Southern +nature. When they give you their heart they give entirely. But the least +sign of--of--distrust will turn them into something worse than +indifference. We may see our way out soon. Caution Wesley against any +act--any act"--he emphasized the words--"that may lead these kind people +to think that he doesn't trust them, or that he would take advantage of +servile insurrection to gain his liberty. Of course, they know that we +are all restive here; that we shall be even more impatient when Vincent +goes--but they could not understand any surreptitious movement on our +part, to enable us to get away." + +He hoped that, if she were in Wesley's confidence, she would understand +his meaning. But she gave no sign. She assented with an affirmative +movement of the head, and they walked through the fragrant paths, +plucking a rose now and then that seemed more tempting than its fellows. +At the end of the field of roses a Cherokee hedge grew so thick and high +that it formed a screen and rampart between the house land and a dense +grove of pines which was itself bordered by a stream that here and there +spread out into tiny lakelets. On the larger of these there were rude +"dug-outs," made by the darkies to cut off the long walk from their +quarters to the tobacco and corn fields. + +"Was there ever an Eden more perfect than this delicious place?" Kate +cried, as the flaming sun sent banners of gold, mingled in a rainbow +baldric with the blooming parterres of roses. + +"I don't know much about Eden, and the little I do know doesn't give me +a sympathetic reminiscence of the place; but I agree with you that +Rosedale is about as near a paradise as one can come to on this earth," +Jack qualifiedly replied. + +"And yet we want to fly from it?" + +"Ah, yes; because the tree of our life, the volume of our knowledge, or, +in plain prose, our hearts, are not here, and scenic beauty is a poor +substitute for that. Duty, I am convinced, is the key of the best life. +There are hearts here, noble ones--duties here, inspiring ones. But they +do not satisfy us: they are become a torment to me. I feel like a +soldier brought from duty; a priest fallen into the ways of the flesh." + +"Your rhapsodies are like most fine-sounding things, more to the hope +than the heart," Kate murmured, gazing dreamily into the purple mass of +color hovering changefully over the opaque water at their feet. "You +mean they do not reach your heart; that your soul is far away as to what +is here. I think Vincent and Rosa would not agree that life has any more +or narrower limitations here than we recognize at Acredale." + +"Let us go on the water." He pulled the rude shallop to her feet and +they got in and went on, Jack not heeding her gibe. "These brackish, +threatening deeps remind me of all sorts of weird and uncanny things; +Stygian pools--Lethe--what not mystic and terrifying. See, the tiny +waves that curl before our boat are like thin ink; a thousand roots and +herbs and who knows what mysterious vegetable mixture colors these dark +deeps? I could fancy myself on an uncanny pilgrimage, seeking some +demon delight." + +There was but one oar in the boat, which the negroes used as a scull. +Jack made a poor fist with this, but there was no need of rowing. Kate, +catching a projecting limb from the thick bushes on the margin, sent the +little, wabbling craft onward in noisless, spasmodic plunges. Deep +fringes of wild columbine fell in fluffy sprays from the higher banks as +the boat drifted along the other side. The thickets were musical with +the chattering cat-birds and whip-poor-wills, mingled with a score of +woodland melodists that Jack's limited woodcraft did not enable him to +recognize. + +"Who would think that we are within a half-mile of a completely +appointed country house? We are as isolated here from all vestiges of +civilization as we should be in a Florida everglade," Kate said, as the +little craft swam along in an eddy. + +"It seems to me typical of the people--this curiously wild transition +from blooming, well-kept gardens, to such still and solemn nature. The +place might be called primeval: look at those gnarled roots, like +prodigious serpents; see the shining bark of the larch--I think it is +larch--I should call it 'slippery' elm if it were at Acredale; but see +the fantastic effects of the little lances of sunlight breaking through! +Isn't it the realization of all you ever read in 'Uncle Tom' or 'Dred'?" + +Kate glanced into the weird deeps of foliage, where a bird, fluttering +on the wing, aroused strange echoes. "Ugh!" she said, in a half-whisper, +"I can imagine it the meeting-place of 'Tam o' Shanter's' eldritches +seeing this--but, all the same, do you know it is fascinating beyond +words to me? Should you mind going in a little farther--I should like +the sensation of awe the place suggests, since there can be no +danger--while you are here?" + +He gave her a quick glance, but her eyes were fastened on the dark +recesses beyond. + +"I should be delighted, but I won't insure your gown, nor--nor half +promise that we shall come out alive." + +"Oh, as to that, I'll take the risk." + +"I don't know the habits of Southern snakes; but if they are as +well-bred as ours, they retire from the ken of wicked men at sundown, so +we needn't fear them, as the sun is too far down for the snake of +tradition to see or molest us." + +They stepped out of the boat at a green, sedgy point, extending from a +labyrinth of flowering vines and creepers. Once inside the delicious +odorous screen, they found themselves in an archipelago of green islets, +connected by monster roots or moss-covered trunks that seemed laid by +elfin hands for the penetration of this leafy jungle. + +"Yes; I was going to say," Jack continued, "this swift transposition +from the cultivation of civilization to the handiwork of Nature is +whimsically illustrative of the people. Did you ever see or hear or read +of such open-handed, honest-hearted hospitality as theirs; such +refinement of manners; such sincerity in speech and act? Contrast this +with their fairly pagan creed as to the slaves; their intolerance of the +Northern people; their clannish reverence for family." + +"But isn't the inequality of the Southern character due to their strange +lack of education? Few of them are cultivated as we understand +education. Do you notice that among the people we met at +Williamsburg--officers as well as civilians--none of them were equal to +even a very limited range of subjects? All who are educated have been in +the North. Ah--good Heavens!" + +Kate's exclamation was due to a sudden sinking in the mossy causeway +until she was almost buried in the tall ferns. Jack helped her out, +shivered a moment, doubtingly, as he exclaimed: + +"The sun is nearly down now, though the air is transparent, or would be +if we were in the free play of daylight. I think it would be better to +go back." But they made no haste. Such trophies of ferns and lace-like +mosses were not to be plucked in every walk, and they dawdled on and on +skirmishing, with delighted hardihood, against the pitfalls of bog that +covered morass and pitch-black mud. When the impulse finally came to +hasten back, they were somewhat chagrined to discover that they had lost +their own trail. The point where they had quit the stream could not be +found. Clambering plants, burdened with blossoms, fragrant as +honeysuckle, grew all along the bank, and the bush that had attracted +them was no longer a landmark. + +"Well," Jack said, confidently, "the sun disappeared over there; that is +southwest. The house is in that direction--northeast. Now, if you will +keep that big sycamore in your eye and follow me, we shall be nearing +the house, as I calculate." + +They pushed on in that direction, but had only gone a few yards when the +ground became a perfect quagmire of black loam, that looked like coal +ground to powder, and was thin as mush. + +"This is a brilliant stroke on my part, I must say," Jack cried, facing +Kate ruefully. "We must go back and examine the ground, as Indians do, +and find our entrance trail in that way. I will watch the ground and you +keep an eye on the shrubs. Wherever you see havoc among them you may be +sure my manly foot has fallen there." + +Suddenly they were conscious of an indescribable change in the place. +Neither knew what it was. It had come on in the excitement of their +march into the morass--or it had come the instant they both became +conscious of it. What was it? Kate turned and looked into Jack's +blank face! + +"I'm blessed if I know what it is, but it seems as if something had +suddenly gone out of the order of things! What is it? Do you feel it; do +you notice it?" + +"Feel it--see it--why, it is as palpable, or, rather to speak +accurately, it is as clearly absent as the color from an oil-painting, +leaving mere black and white outlines." + +"How besotted I am!" Jack cried; "why, I know. The sun has wholly gone, +and the birds and living things have ceased to sing and move." + +"That's it; could you believe that it would make such a change? Why, I +thought, when we came in, the place was a temple of silence, but it was +a mad world compared to this." + +"Yes, and we must hurry and get out while we have daylight to help us. I +take it you wouldn't care to swim the lagoon. Let us call it lagoon, for +this place makes the name appropriate." + +"Call it whatever you like, but don't ask me to swim it," Kate cried, +pushing on. + +"Ah! I have our trail," Jack cries in triumph. "By George, it is wide +enough!" he added, bending over where the thick grasses were crushed and +broken. "See the advantage of large feet. Now, if you had been alone, +'twould have been as hard as to trace a bird's track." + +"Is that an implication that I have Chinese feet?" + +"No, too literal young woman. It was meant to show you that I am very +much relieved, for, 'pon my soul, I was afraid we were in a very +disagreeable scrape." + +"And you are now quite sure we are not?" + +"Quite sure. Don't you want to take my arm?" + +"Oh, no, thank you. I'm not at all tired. I'm used to longer walks than +this." + +"Longer, possibly, but not over such trying ground." + +"Oh, yes. I've gone with Wesley and his friends to the lakes in the +North Woods." + +"Ah! I've never been there. Are they as bad travel as this?" + +"Infinitely worse--Why, what was that?" + +"It sounded very like the report of a pistol." + +Both stopped, Kate coming quite close to the young man, who was bent +over with his hand to his ear, trumpet-fashion. + +"Do you--" He made a warning gesture with his hand, and motioned her to +stoop among the ferns. A halloo was heard in the distance; then a +response just ahead of where the two crouched in the breast-high ferns, +through which the path made by their recent footsteps led. When the +echoing halloo died away, a bird in the distance seemed to catch up the +refrain and dwell upon the note with an exquisite, painful melody. + +"Why, it's the throat interlude in the Magic Flute! How lovely it is!" +Kate whispered. "If you were my knight, I should put on you the task of +caging that lovely sound for me." + +The distant bird-note ceased, and then suddenly, from the bushes just +ahead of them, it was caught up and answered, note for note, in a wild +pibroch strain, harsher but inexpressibly moving. Jack turned to Kate, +his face quite pale, and whispered: + +"It in not a bird. They are negroes. I have read of these sounds. They +are marauding slaves, and we must not let them see us. We must get to +those thick clumps of bushes. Do you think you can remain bent until we +reach them? If not, we will rest every few paces." + +"Go on. I can try." + +The pibroch strains still continued, rising into a mournful wail, then +sinking info the soft cries of the whip-poor-will. In a few minutes the +perplexed fugitives were deep in a clump of wild hawberries, invisible +to any one who should pass. The strains had ceased as suddenly as they +began. Then a faint hallo-o-o sounded, being answered in the bushes, as +it seemed, just in front of where Jack and his companion stood; voices +soon became audible farther along, ten or more paces. Motioning to Kate, +Jack crept along noiselessly, and fancied he could distinguish forms +through the thick screen of bushes. A voice, not a negro's, said: + +"I went to the cove for you--what was the matter?" + +"I had the devil's work to get through the posts. For some reason or +other they're getting mighty sharp. I must be back before twelve; what's +been done?" + +"Well, the mokes consent to go, but they won't touch the ranch. You'll +have to bring up a few hands; the fewer the better. If them damned +feather-bed sojers wasn't there, we could do the job ourselves." + +"When, does the boss get out?" + +"Next week. I don't know what day. They'd pay high for him both ways." + +"No, we can't nibble there. The cap'n'll pay well. That's square. We +can't afford to try the other now, at any rate. Is the skiff here?" + +"Yes; well, get in." + +There was a plash and the-receding sound of voices. Jack darted through +the screen of branches, but he could not distinguish the figures, for it +was growing every instant dimmer twilight. He turned to Kate. She was +at his side. + +"Who were they--what were they planning? Were they soldiers?" she asked. + +"Never mind them now. We must find a way out of this. Our boat can't be +far off. We must follow this line of bushes until we come to the spot we +left. I know I can recognize it, for there was an enormous tree fallen a +few steps from the sedge bank we landed on." + +It was a very toilsome journey now, obliged as they were to hug the +obstinate growth of haws, wild alder, and dog roses, which tore flesh +and garments in the hurried flight. They came to the dead tree finally, +and Jack almost shouted in grateful relief: + +"You were a true prophet, Miss Boone. You gave utterance to some +Druid-like remarks as we crossed the Stygian pool. The worst your fancy +painted couldn't equal what we've seen and heard." + +"I have seen nothing dreadful, and I can't say that I understand very +much of what we heard." + +"There is some 'caper' going on to give these cut-throats a chance to +get booty or something of the sort." + +"They are probably rebel soldiers planning to sack the commissary." + +They were in the boat now, and Jack was sending it forward by lusty +lunges against every protruding object he could get a stroke at; when +these failed he managed to scull after a fashion. They found the +household in consternation when they got back, but Jack gave a +picturesque narrative of their escapade, omitting the encounter with the +negroes which he had charged Kate to say nothing about, as it would only +alarm Mrs. Atterbury. The garments of the explorers told the tale of +their mishaps, and when they had clothed themselves anew supper was +announced. The feast was of the lightest sort: sherbet or tea for those +who liked it; fruit and crackers, honey or marmalade--a triumph in the +cultivation of dyspepsia, Jack said when he first began the eating. But +it was observed that the disease had no terrors for him, for he sat at +the table as long as he could get any one to remain with him, and did +his share in testing all the dishes. He outsat everybody that night +except Dick, who never got tired of any place that brought him near +his idol. + +"I'm going up-stairs in a moment, Towhead. Come up after me." + +Dick nodded, a gleam of delightful expectation in his eyes. He was just +in the ardent period when boys love to make mysteries of very ordinary +things, and Jack's _sotto voce_ command was like the hero's voice in the +play, "Meet me by the ruined well when midnight strikes." He followed +Jack up the wide staircase and into his own room, for greater security, +as no one would think of looking for them there. + +"Now, tell me all you have found out," Jack commanded as he shut the +door. "Have you been among the darkys?" + +"I've found out this much. The old negroes are opposed to going away or +in any shape annoying their masters. The young bucks and the women are +very eager to fly. It seems that some one has spread the story among +them that Lincoln has sent Butler to Fort Monroe to receive all the +negroes on the Peninsula. They have been assured that they are to have +'their freedom, one hundred acres of land, and an ox-team.' Where the +report comes from, I can't find out; but there is some communication +between here and the Union lines, I'm positive." + +"Has Wesley been with the negroes again?" + +"No. I have kept an eye on him all day." + +"Where does he go at night?" + +"The doctor has forbidden him to be in the night air for the present." + +"Well, you keep an eye on Wesley," and then Jack narrated the strange +scene in the swamp, the mysterious calls, and the conversation. + +Dick listened in awe, mingled with rapture. "Oh, why wasn't I there? +Just my blamed luck! I would have followed them, and then we should have +known what they were up to. Did you know that a company of cavalry had +gone into camp just below the grove?" + +"No--when?" + +"This evening. Vincent is down there now." + +"Well, you may be sure they suspect something. I wonder if it wouldn't +be better to speak to Vincent?" + +"Of course not! What have we to tell him? Simply my suspicions and +Clem's chatter. The little moke may have been lying; I can't see that +any of them do much else." + +"The worst of it is, these Southerners are very sensitive about any +allusion to the negroes. They would pooh-pooh anything we might say that +was not backed by proof. It's a mighty uncomfortable fix to be in, Dick, +my boy; though, 'pon my soul, I believe you enjoy it!" + +Dick grinned deprecating. + +"I think you do, you unfledged Guy Fawkes. I know nothing would give you +greater joy than to put on a mask, grasp a dagger in your hand, and go +to Wesley, crying, 'Villain, your secret or your life!' Dick, you're a +stage hero; you're a thing of sawdust and tinsel. Come to the parlor and +hear Kate play the divine songs of Mendelssohn; perhaps, night-eyed +conspirator, to whirl Polly or Miss Rosa in the delirium of the '_Blaue +Donau_.' Come." + +But there was neither dance nor music when they reached the +drawing-room. Everybody was there; Vincent had just come, and the first +words Jack and Dick heard glued them to their places. + +"Yes, all the negroes on the Lawless', Skinner's, and Lomas's +plantations have gone. Butler has declared them contrabands of war, and +a lot of Yankee speculators have been sneaking through the plantations, +filling their ignorant minds with promises of freedom, a farm, and a +share of their masters' property. Their real purpose is to get the +negroes and hold them until the two governments come to terms, and then +they will get rewards for every nigger they hold. Oh, these Yankees can +see ways of making money through a stone-wall," and Vincent laughed +lightly, as though the incident in no way concerned him. "Captain Cram, +who is in camp just below in the oak clearing, is ordered to scour the +river-bank to the enemy's lines near Hampton, so we need have no fear of +these enterprising apostles of freedom interfering with our niggers." + +"I don't think one of them could be induced to leave us if offered all +our farms," Mrs. Atterbury said, a little proudly. + +"There isn't one of them that I haven't brought through sickness or +trouble of one sort or another, and there isn't one that wouldn't take +my command before the gold of a stranger." + +"I don't know, Mrs. Atterbury," Mrs. Sprague ventured, mildly. "Gold is +a mighty weight in an argument. I have known it to change the +convictions of a lifetime in a moment. I have known it to make a man +renounce his father, dishonor his name, belie his whole life, deny +his family." + +"When a fortune beyond reasonable dreams was placed upon the head of +Charles Stuart, for whom our ancestors fought and beggared themselves, +his secret was in the keeping of scores of peasants, and the blood-money +lay idle. I could cite hundreds of similar proofs, that gold is not God +everywhere. I mean no offense, but you will agree with me that you +Northern people are given up to the getting and worship of money. It is +not so with us. Perhaps because we have it, and with it something that +makes it secondary--birth. I have no fear of the infidelity of any of my +people. I would as soon doubt Rosa or Vincent us the smallest black on +my estate." + +She spoke with mild, high-bred dignity, not a particle of assertion or +captious intolerance, but as a prelate might assert the majesty of the +word on the altar, neither looking for dissent nor dreaming that the +spirit of it could exist. + +"I'm glad to hear your mother express such confidence, Vint," Jack said +as they walked out on the veranda to take a good-night smoke; "but just +let me give you a maxim of my own, the lock's not sure unless the key is +in your pocket." + +"Sententious, my boy, but vague. My mother is perfectly right. Our +niggers are fidelity itself. But since we are so near the Butler lines, +where his agents can sneak up on the river and kidnap the new sort of +contraband, I think it better to take some precaution. Hereafter General +Magruder will have a picket post within two miles of us, between here +and the creek, which offers a convenient point for smuggling." + +"I am heartily relieved to hear it," Jack cried, giving something too +much fervor to his relief, for Vincent turned and looked at him in +surprise, but it was too dark in the shadow of the clematis to see his +face, and after a silence Vincent said: + +"Mamma has told you that the President is coming to Williamsburg to +review Magruder's troops?" + +"No; she hadn't mentioned it. Is he?" + +"Yes; he will be there Thursday afternoon, and we shall have the ball +the same evening. He will be here with General Lee, his chief of staff, +and remain all night; so that you will be able to say when you go back +North--something that few Yankees will be able to say during the +war--that you have broken bread with the first President of the +Confederacy." + +"I will strive to bear my honors with humility," Jack said. + +"It befits the conquered to be humble." + +"If I hadn't come in time, you two would have been in a squabble--own +it!" and Rosa drew a chair between them as a peacemaker. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +TREASON AND STRATAGEMS. + + +Rosedale was, indeed, Eden in the most orthodox sense to the group so +strangely billeted in its lovely tranquillity. No sooner was the anguish +concerning the invalids off Kate's, Olympia's, and Rosa's minds, than +new perplexities beset them. Rosa was barely eighteen, Kate and Olympia +older by three or four years, but the younger girl was in many essential +things quite as mature as her Northern comrades. But Jack could not +comprehend this, and quite innocently did and said things to arouse the +young girl's dreams. I think I have said that Jack was a very comely +fellow? He was big and brawny, and tireless in good-humor, and the +attractive little gallantries that women adore. He looked as +sentimentally sincere, uttering a paradox, as another vowing eternal +fidelity. He gave every woman the impression that his mind was lost +wondering how he should exist until she gave him the right to call her +his own. Though, as a matter of fact, it is the man who is the woman's +own--when the final word comes. + +Rosa was not long in discovering Vincent's happy tumult in Olympia's +presence, and she secretly misunderstood Jack the more that he was so +lavish and open in his adulations. If he rode, he exhausted eulogy in +describing her pose, her daring, her skill; if they danced, as they did +nearly every night until poor Merry's fingers ached from drumming the +unholy strains of Faust, Strauss, and what not, in the old-fashioned +waltzes--he pantingly declared that she made the music seem a celestial +choir by her lightness; in long walks in the rose-fields he exhausted a +not very laborious store of botanical conceits, to make her cheeks +resemble the roses. This assurance, this recklessness, this _aplomb_, +quite bewildered the girl, who posed in Richmond for a passed mistress +of flirting. She had, unless rumor was badly at fault, jilted an +appalling list of the striplings who believed that beard-growing and +love-making were conventionally contemporaneous events. But they had +"mooned" about her and made themselves absurd in vain, while this +unconscious Adonis calmly walked, talked, and acted as if she could know +nothing else than love him, and one day she started in delicious misery +to find that she did--that is, she thought she might if--if? But there +her dreams became nebulous--they were rosy in outline, however, and she +was content to rest there. + +The morning after the coming of the cavalry-troop, Wesley was discussing +the never-ending theme of how he was going to get home--with Kate busy +arranging the ferns she had brought from the swamp. + +"Really, Wesley, just now you ought to be content. There is no +likelihood of any movement; besides, philosophy is as much a merit in a +soldier as valor--it is valor, it is endurance. You complain of your +unhappy fate, housed here with a lot of women and idlers. How would you +bear up in Libby Prison? There are as good men as you there, my dear; +shall I say better or older soldiers, Brutus? You may take your choice, +and 'count on a sister's blind partiality to justify you!'" + +"Oh, don't always talk nonsense, Kate. You're worse than Jack Sprague. +He doesn't seem to have a serious thought in his head from daylight +till bedtime." + +"Perhaps he keeps all his sober thoughts for the night, to give them +good company." + +"No, but do say what I ought to do." + +"You ought to study to make yourself tolerable to your sister, dear, and +agreeable to the other fellows' sisters. I have remarked that the young +man who does that, keeps out of despondency and other uncomfortable +conditions that too much brooding on an empty head brings about." + +"I'd like to know what heart I can have to make myself agreeable to +other fellows' sisters when you are always lampooning me; you delight in +making me think I am nobody." + +"Don't fear, my dear; if that were my delight I should die an old maid, +never having known delight, for it would need more force than I can +muster to make Wesley Boone, captain U.S.A., anything else than he +is--his father's pride and his sister's joy. No, dear, my delight is to +see you gay and open and frank and manly, self-dependent, grateful for +the consideration shown you, and recognizant of the constant admonition +of your sagacious sister." + +"You talk exactly like the woman in George Sand's stupid stories; they +always remind me of men in petticoats." + +"That's a weak and strained comparison; not, however, unworthy a +soldier. We always compare, in speech, to strengthen assertion or adorn +it, and when we do we compare what is equivocal or vague, with what is +well known and usual. Now, I do not remember any men in petticoats, +unless you mean the Orientals, who wear a sort of skirt, and the Scots, +who used to wear kilts--but strictly speaking--" + +"Do, Kate, for Heaven's sake, be serious for a moment! I have a chance +to escape, no matter how, but I can make my way to our lines without +running any great risk. Now, is it or is it not dishonorable for me +to do it?" + +"Seriously, Wesley, just now it would be, while Vincent is here, for he +is in a sense pledged for you to his superior. Further, there is no need +to hurry. You are barely recovered. If you were North you would be in +Acredale; if you were, there is no immediate want of your presence in +the army. The articles we see in the Richmond papers every day, copied +from Northern journals, show that this new general, McClellan, means to +bring a trained, drilled, disciplined army down when he moves. It took +six months to prepare McDowell's useless mass. It will certainly take a +year to put the million men now arming in shape to fight. I may be +wrong, but at the earliest there can be no movement before late in +October. By that time we shall probably have the problem solved by the +Government, and you will go North, having made delightful friends of all +this charming family." + +Wesley was even more afraid of Kate's strong sense of honor than of her +biting sarcasm, and he ended the interview without daring to tell her +how far he had compromised himself with the secret agents that were +surrounding the plantation. Dick, running down-stairs in his wake, +encountered Rosa, with her garden hat covering her like the roof of a +disrupted pagoda. She arrested his stride as he was darting toward +the door. + +"Here--you--Richard, just come and be of some use to me. I'm housekeeper +to-day, and I want to go to the quarters. Come along." + +Now Dick had a double grievance against this imperious young person. He +had fallen into the most violent love with her brown eyes and pink +cheeks the moment he saw her; he had assiduously striven both to conceal +and reveal this maddening condition of mind. But he remarked with +ungovernable wrath that, whenever Jack or Wesley came about, the +heartless young jilt, made as if she didn't know him; quite ignored him, +and cared no more for his simple adoration than she did for the frisky +gambols of Pizarro, the mastiff. But she was so adorable; her Southern +accent was so bewitching; she put so much softness in those amusing +idioms "I reckon" and "Seems like," "You others," and the countless +little tricks of the Southern vernacular, that Dick passed sleepless +hours and delicious days dreaming and sighing and groaning and doing all +manner of unreasonable things--that we all do when we meet our first +Rosas and they light the torch for other feet more favored than our own. + +So, when Rosa called him to accompany her, Dick took the round basket +she held out to him, and walked sulkily ahead of her, never opening his +mouth. When he had stalked along through the currant bushes, he half +turned his face; she was walking demurely behind him, and he made a +pretext of picking a currant to give her a chance to come abreast. She +did, and passed him trippingly, saying, as she cast a sympathetic side +glance at him: + +"Toothache?" + +He stood rooted to the spot with indignant amazement. The heartless +little minx! How dare she talk like that to a soldier? + +"Did you call some one, Miss Atterbury?" he said, with chilling dignity. +Usually he called her plain Rosa. + +"I thought may be you had the toothache--you kept so quiet." + +"No; I haven't got the toothache." Poor Dick! He said, to himself, that +he had much worse. But he wouldn't gratify her with the acknowledgment +of her triumph, and he stalked along with the basket over his head, as +he had often seen the darkeys in the sun. There was a faint little +appealing cry from behind. + +"Oh--oh--dear!" + +"What is it; are you hurt?" he cried, rushing to where Rosa stood, +balanced on one foot. + +"There is a crab thorn an inch long in my foot; it's gone through shoe +and all. That wretched Sardanapalus never clears the limbs away when he +cuts the hedge. I'll have him horsewhipped. Oh, dear!" + +"Let me hold you while I look for the thorn." + +Dick cleverly slipped his arm about her waist and set the basket endwise +for her to sit on. Then kneeling, he picked out the thorn, which was a +great deal less than the dimensions Rosa had described. But he said +nothing to her about picking the torment out and slipping it in his vest +pocket. He held the foot, examining the sole critically. Finally, as she +moved impatiently, he asked: + +"Does it hurt yet?" + +"Of course it does, you stupid fellow. Do you suppose I would sit here +like a goose on a gridiron and let you hold my foot if it didn't hurt? +Men never have any sense when they ought to." + +He affected to examine the sole of the thin leather of the upper still +more minutely. As she gave no sign of ending the comedy, he said: + +"I'm sure, Rosa, if it relieves the pain to have me hold your foot, I'll +sit here in the sun all day--if you'll bring the rim of your hat over a +little--but, as for the thorn, it has been out this ten minutes." + +She gave him a sudden push and darted away. He followed laughing, +admonishing her against another thorn. But she deigned no answer. Coming +to the bee-hives, she stopped a moment to watch the busy swarm, and Dick +stole up beside her. She turned pettishly, and he said, insinuatingly: + +"Toothache?" + +"You know, Dick, you're too trying for anything--holding my foot there +like a ninny in the hot sun. You haven't a thimbleful of sense." + +"Well, now we'll test these propositions, as Jack does, by syllogisms. +Let me see. All men are trying. Dick Perley is a man: therefore he +is trying." + +"No; your premise--isn't that what you call it?--is wrong. Dick Perley +is only a boy." + +"I'll be nineteen in January next." + +"Well?" + +"Well, your father was married at nineteen. You've said it yourself, +Rosa, and thought it greatly to his credit--at least Vint does." + +"You can't imitate my father in that, at least." + +"I might." + +"How?" + +"You could help me, Rosa." + +"How?" + +"Would you if you could?" + +"That depends." + +"On what?" + +"On the girl." + +"Ah! she's a perfect girl, but she's very young," and Dick eyed Rosa +with ineffable complacency. + +"That's bad." + +"But she's older than she looks." + +"That's worse; you'd grow tired of her." + +"No, no; I don't mean she's older than she looks; her mind is older than +her looks." + +"Women with minds make troublesome wives. I have refused to let Vincent +marry several of that kind." + +"But, my girl hasn't got that kind of mind; it is all sweetness and wit +and gayety and loveliness and--and--" + +"Your girl? Who gave her to you?" + +"Love gave her to me." + +"Oh, well, since love gave her to you, I don't see how I can be of any +service. Down here the mother always gives the girl, unless she have no +mother; then some other kin gives her. But if your girl has all these +qualities you describe, I advise you to get her into your own keeping +just as soon as you can, for that's the sort of girl all the fellows +about here are seeking." + +"Very well, I'm ready. Will you help me? It comes back where we +started." + +"But you evaded my question." + +"What question did I evade? I answered like an encyclopedia!" Dick +cried, immensely satisfied with his own readiness. + +"That convicts you; an encyclopedia has nothing about living people." + +"Oh, yes; the new ones do." Dick was now very near her as she stood +contemplating the bees, swarming in the comb. "O Rosa--Rosa, you know I +love you, and you know I can never love anybody else. Why will you +pretend not to understand me? I don't want you to marry me now, but by +and by, when I shall have made a name as a soldier, or--or something," +he added in painful turbulence of joy and fear over the great +words--which he had been racking his small wits to fashion for weeks +past, and, now that they were spoken, were not nearly so impressive as +he had intended they should be. + +"My dear Richard, you are a perfect boy--a very delightful boy, too, and +I am extremely fond of you--oh, very, very fond of you--but you really +must not make love to me. It isn't proper," and Rosa glanced into his +eyes with a tender little gleam, that gave more encouragement than +rebuff--for it came into her mind, in a moment, that it was not a time +to hurt the bright, eager love--so winning, if boyish. + +"Nonsense, Rosa, it is perfectly proper; everybody makes love to you; +Jack makes love to you, and he is as good as engaged--" But here it +suddenly flashed in Dick's mad head that he was meddling, and he stopped +short. Rosa had turned upon him with a flash of such scorn, such +indignant pain, that he cried: + +"No, no; I don't mean that; but you know fellows do make love to you, +and why mayn't I?" + +She flirted away from him too angry or mortified to speak. He could not +see her face, for she pulled the ample breadth of the hat-brim down, +which served at once as a veil to shut out her visage and a sweeping +sort of funnel to keep him far from her side, as she tripped +determinedly to the pleasant group of clean, whitewashed cabins, where +the negroes abode. Poor Dick, vexed with himself--angry at her for being +irritated-waited in the hot sun until she had ended her commands, and +when she came out to return he repentantly sidled up, imploring pardon +in every movement. She couldn't resist the big, pleading blue eyes, and +said, quite as if there had been deep discussion on the point: + +"I don't think you mean to be a bad boy." + +"I'm not a boy, I'm a soldier. It isn't fair in you to call me a boy." + +"You're not a girl." + +"If I were I wouldn't be so heartless as some I know." + +"And if I were a boy I wouldn't be so silly as some I know." + +"Yes, I think Southern boys are quite soft." + +"Come, sir, my brother _was_ a Southern boy." + +"Yes, but he always lived North, and is like us." + +"Jackanapes!" + +"Dear Rosa." + +"How dare you, sir?" + +"Oh, just as easy, I dare do all that becomes a man--who dares do more +is none. You are Rosa, and you are dear--" + +"Not to you." + +"You cost me enough to be dear and you are lovely enough to be 'Rosa' in +Latin, Rose in English, and sweetheart in any tongue." + +"You're much too pert. Boys so glib as you never really love. They think +they do and perhaps they do--just a little." + +"Ah! a 'little more than a little,' dear Rosa." + +"You're quoting Shakespeare, I suppose you know? I'll quote more: 'A +little more than a little is much too much.'" + +"A little less than all is much too little for me. So, Rosa, give all or +none." + +"I don't understand you." + +"That's proof you love me. Girls never love fellows they understand." + +"Prove that I love you." + +"Well, you don't hate me. You don't hate Vincent. Therefore you love +him. Ergo, you love me." + +"Simpleton." + +"True love is always simple. Here, take this white rose as a sign that +you don't hate me." He plucked a large half-opened bud from a great +sprouting branch and held it toward her. + +"But the red rose is my favorite." + +"Well, here is a red one. Give me the white. That is my favorite. Now +we've exchanged tokens. The rose always goes before the ring. I'll +get that." + +"If you were a true lover you would wear my colors." + +"These white leaves will grow red resting on my heart." + +"When they do I will listen to you." + +"Will you, though? It is a promise; when this white rose is red you will +love me?" + +"Oh, yes, I can promise that." + +"Dear Rosa!" He was very near her as she disentangled an obtruding vine +from her garments, and before she was aware of his purpose he had +audaciously snatched a kiss from her astonished lips. + +"You odious Yankee! I haven't words to express my disgust--abhorrence!" + +"Don't try, love needs no words: but I'll tell you; let me put this +white rose to your lips; it will turn red at the touch, and in that way +you can take your kiss back, if you really want it; then there'll be a +fair exchange. I--" + +"Hello, there! are you two grafting roses?" + +It was Wesley, coming from the lower garden, where the stream was +narrowest beyond the high wall of hedge. + +"Oh, no, Mr. Boone; Richard here is studying the color in flowers. He +has a theory that eclipses Goethe's 'Farbenlehre.'" + +"Oh, indeed!" Wesley was quite unconscious of what Goethe's doctrine of +colors might be, so he prudently avoided urging fuller particulars +regarding Dick's theory, and said, vaguely; + +"You have color enough here to theorize on, I'm sure." + +"Yes, we have had very satisfactory experiments," Dick assented naively, +stealing a glance at Rosa. + +"But quite inconclusive," she rejoined, moving onward, the two young men +following in the penumbra of her wide hat. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A CAMPAIGN OF PLOTS. + + +Meanwhile, there were curious events passing and coming to pass on the +seven hills upon which the proud young capital of the proud young +Confederacy stood. Rome, in her most imperial days, never dreamed of the +scenic glories that Richmond, like a spoiled beauty, was hardly +conscious of holding as her dower. Indeed, such is the necromantic +mastery of the passion of the beautiful that, once standing on the +glorious hill, that commands the James for twenty miles--twenty miles of +such varied loveliness of color, configuration, and _mis en scene_, that +the purple distances of Naples seem common to it--standing there, I say, +one day, when the sword had long been rusting in the scabbard, and the +memory of those who raised it in revolt had faded from all minds save +those who wanted office--this historian thought that, had it been his +lot to be born in that lovely spot, he, too, would have fought for State +caprices--just as a gallant man will take up the quarrel of beauty, +right or wrong! + +Thoughts of this sort filled Barney Moore's mind too, that delicious +September afternoon as he stood gazing dreamily down the river, toward +that vague morning-land of the sun's rising, where his mind saw the long +lines of blue his eyes ached to rest on. Barney had left the kindly roof +where he had been nursed back to vigor. He had quit it in a fashion that +left a rankling sorrow in his grateful heart. Vincent had represented to +Jack the inconvenience it would be, the peril, rather, for him to assume +the guardianship of so many enemies of the Confederacy. Scores of the +old families of the city were under the ban simply because they had +pleaded for deliberation before deciding on the secession ordinance. The +Atterburys had their enemies too. It was pointed out that Vincent and +Rosa had been educated in the North; that Mrs. Atterbury had spent many +of her recent summers there. Their devotion to the Confederacy must be +shown by deeds. It was true they had given twenty thousand dollars to +the cause, but what was that to threefold millionaires? General Lee, +their kinsman, had shaken his Socratic head solemnly when Rosa, at the +War Department, told him, as an excellent joke, the strange chance that +had brought Vincent's college chum and his family under the kind +Rosedale roof. + +Richard Perley was, therefore, deputized to rescue Barney from his false +position and give him a chance for exchange when the time came. He +journeyed up to Richmond, and, one day, laid these facts before Barney, +who instantly saw his friend's dilemma, and at once set about inventing +a _ruse_ that should extricate him, without mortifying the kind people +who had befriended him. When he was able to be about, he feigned a +desire to go to his friends in Arrowfield County, south of the James, +and was bidden hearty Godspeed. Then, with funds supplied by Jack, he +gained admittance to a modest house far out on Main Street, where the +city merges into the country. They were simple people, and his thrilling +tale of being a refugee from Harper's Ferry was plausible enough to be +accepted by more skeptical people than the Gannats. + +Day after day Barney skirted furtively about the uncompromising walls of +Libby and Castle Thunder, where once or twice he had gone with his hosts +to make a mental diagram of the place for future use. Little by little +he became familiar with Richmond, which, like a new bride, gave the +visitor welcome to admire her splendid spouse, the Confederate +government. He learned all the plots of the prison, and became the +confidant of Letitia Lanview, known to every exile in Richmond as the +friend of the suffering--St. Veronica she was called--after a poem +dedicated to her by a young Harvard graduate, rescued by her +perseverance from death in Libby Prison. With this lady he drove all +about the environs of Richmond, and several times far out toward the +meditated route of flight, in order that he might be able to lead the +bewildered refugees. He got the whole landscape by heart, and could have +led a battalion over it in the dark. Then he passed days wandering over +the Libby Hill, down in the bed of the "Rockets," as the bed of the +James was known in those days; he learned the ground to the very beat of +the patrols that guarded the wretched prisoners in the towering +shambles. One whole night, too, he spent in marking the course of the +guards as they changed in two-hour reliefs. With his facts well +collected he visited Mrs. Lanview, and at last he was confronted by +Butler's agent. This agent was a middle-aged man, who had evidently once +been very handsome, but dissipation had left pitiable traces upon his +fine features, and his once large, open eyes, that perplexingly +suggested some one Barney tried in vain to recall--vainly? The man +didn't say much in the lady's presence, but when the two were in the +open air, facing toward the center of the town, he divulged a good deal +that surprised Barney. + +"You are from Acredale, young man. I lived there when I was younger than +I am now. My name? People call me a good many names. I don't mind at +all, so that I have rum enough and a bed and a bite to eat. No man can +have more than that, my boy. I am plain Dick Jones now. It's an easy +name, and plenty of the same in the land; and if I should die suddenly +there would be lots o' folks to feel sorry, eh? But as you are from +Acredale I don't mind telling you that it is Elisha Boone that foots the +bill. Butler is a friend of Boone's, and he has given me authority to +summon all the troops within reach to my aid. My business is to carry +young Wes Boone to Fort Monroe. Butler doesn't know that. He thinks I am +spying Jeff Davis and piping for the prisoners. He didn't say that he +wanted me to kill Davis, but if we could carry him to Fort Monroe, my +boy, there'd be about a million dollars swag to divide! How does that +strike you?" + +"It doesn't strike me at all. I think it is for the interest of the +Union that Davis should be where he is. He is vain, arrogant, silly, and +dull. He will alone wreck the rebel cause if he is given time. There +couldn't be a greater misfortune for the North than to have Davis +displaced by some one of real ability, such as Stephens, Lee, Benjamin, +Mason, Breckenridge, or, in fact, any of the men identified with +secession." + +"You surprise me, my son. Still, admitting all you say, the men who +should surprise the North some fine morning with a present of Jeff Davis +on their breakfast-plates, wouldn't be without honor, to say nothing of +promotion and profit" + +"Oh, if we can carry Jeff off without compromising the safety of the +prisoners, I'll join you heartily. But first of all we must +rescue them." + +"Unquestionably; now, here's the programme: Butler's forces will be +within gunshot of Magruder's lines on Warwick Creek Thursday--that's +three days from now. The prisoners will be out of the sewer Wednesday +after midnight. You know the roads eastward. You will lead them to the +swamps near Williamsburg. There we will have boats to take part down the +river; the rest will make through the swamps under my lead. I have been +spying out the land for a week. At a place called Rosedale we pick up +young Boone, who is really the object of my journey. I couldn't find him +for weeks, and inquired of all the prisoners. Mrs. Lanview finally put +me on the track, and I saw Wes Boone as I came up here. He thought the +chances were better with a big party than alone. I saw him again +yesterday, and he told me that Davis and Lee, his chief of staff, were +to be at a party in the Rosedale house on Thursday next. Now, we can +pick up Davis just as well as Boone. There is the whole plan." + +"Oh, that's a different matter. Davis will not be near the city, and his +keeping will not add to our danger. I see no reason why we shouldn't +grab him. Heavens, what a sensation it will make! We shall be the wonder +of the North--we shall he like the men that discovered Andre and +Arnold--Paulding and--and"--but here Barney's historical facts came to +an end--"we shall be famous for--forever!" + +"For a week, my son; wonders don't live long in these fast days. For a +week the North will glorify us; then, if they find that we voted for +Douglas, as I did, they will say we had some sinister design in bringing +Davis North, and likely send us to Fort Lafayette." + +Barney stopped dead; they had come under a gas-lamp between Grace and +Franklin Streets. He looked at the man. He was quite sober. His eyes +answered the young man's indignant protesting glance, openly, +unshrinkingly, humorously. + +"I should be sorry to think that, Mr. Jones." + +"Well, wait. When you get North you will see a mighty change in things. +Sentiment, my boy, follows the main chance. It's money, my boy, money. +Enough money would have made Judas respectable; he was fool enough to +put his price too low." + +"Ugh!--you almost make me hate the North! Who can have heart to fight +for such heartless traffickers?" + +"The North doesn't ask your heart. It has counted the cost, and finds +that it can pay a million of men thirteen dollars a month for three +years, and still make a good thing out of it--that's about the breadth +of it. Here's an oasis in the desert of darkness. Come and have +a drink?" + +But Barney--not caring for a drink, the cynic--gave him his address, +and, dreadfully cast down in spirit, the eager partisan moped up the +long hill homeward. The next day Mrs. Lanview gave him the details of +the meditated escape. There were only sixty or a hundred in position to +avail themselves of the subterranean way that had been toilsomely dug, +by a few devoted spirits, with tools casually dropped among them by the +guileless Veronica during her daily visits. The plotters counted on at +least six hours' start before discovery. The guards were not to be +disturbed, and the evasion would not be known until eight o'clock, when +the miserable breakfast ration was distributed. + +Of that amazing-exploit, the digging through twenty solid feet of earth +and stone, I do not propose to tell. It is to be found in the journals +of the day: it is contained in the hundred pathetic narratives of the +men who took part. It has nothing to do with this history beyond the use +made of it to mislead the ingenious Barney, and in the end complicate +the careers of those in whom we are interested. Suffice it, therefore, +to say that in the dim morning mist, as arranged, a shadowy host emerged +on the river-bottom, now dry and footable; that each man, as he crawled +from the pit, was directed into the thick willows bordering the banks; +that when six score or more had clambered out they obeyed a whispered +command, for which Veronica had prepared them, and noiselessly, in +shadowy single file, they followed the bed of the stream, even where the +water flowed deep and dangerous, until they came to the gentle slopes of +Church Hill. Then, under guidance of Barney, those who were wise +followed swiftly down the river-road until daylight, when they hid in +the dim recesses of the white-oak swamps, where they lay concealed many +hours. As night fell they faced hopefully forward down the Williamsburg +road, until a flaming wave in the air admonished them to strike to the +right, and they plunged into the pathless swamps of the Chickahominy. +Here they were secure. No force able to cope with them could enter; no +force at the command of Magruder could surround them. But Barney's +guiding hand was now replaced by another. Jones had appeared, and with +him men bearing Butler's commission. The prisoners of Libby set up a +defiant cheer. They were once more under the flag. Father Abraham was +again their commander. + +There were sedate, fatherly men among these rescued bands. There were +men with gray hairs and sober behavior; men who could bow meekly under +the chastening rod; but the antics of the juvenile group, in which we +are mainly interested, were grave and decorous compared with the +abandoned, delirious joy of these grave men as they reached the recesses +of a swamp that denied admission to all save practiced explorers. Why, +here they could subsist for weeks! The rebels might spy them, might +surround them, but they need not starve--the buds were food, the bushes +refreshment, the pellucid pools drink and life. Barney stared in +speechless amazement at the unseemly gambols of the motley mass. + +Delirium! it was a mild term for the embracing, the prancing, the +Carmagnole-like ecstasy of the half-clad madmen running amuck in the +almost unendurable joy of liberation. Barney knew that this condition of +things would never do. All who bore commissions in the army were +selected from the men. The highest in rank, who proved to be a colonel, +was invested with the command, Barney serving as adjutant, and Jones as +guide. The rabble, having made a good meal from the spoil of a +sweet-potato patch, pushed forward through the fretwork of fern, rank +morass, and verdure, toward security. But the march was a snail's pace, +as may be imagined. The men, worn to skeletons by months of captivity, +insufficient food, and stinted exercise, were forced to halt often for +rest in such toilsome marching as the half-aquatic surface of the +swamp involved. + +By Thursday noon they were still far from the river. Foragers were +detailed to procure food, and pending their return the wearied band sank +to the earth to rest. In less than two hours the predatory platoon +returned with a sybaritic store--chickens, young lamb, green corn, +onions. Only the stern command of the colonel suppressed a mighty cheer. +When the march was resumed the colonel led the main column south by +east. Jones, with Barney and a dozen men, struck due east. In answer to +Barney's surprised question, Jones informed him they were to pick up +"Wes" Boone by taking that route. Difficult as the way had been +heretofore, it now became laborious in the extreme for this smaller +band. The bottom was all under water, and before they had proceeded a +mile half the group were drenched. In many cases an imprudent plunger +was compelled to call a halt to rescue his shoes--that is, those who +were lucky enough to have shoes--from the deep mud, hidden by a fair +green surface of moss or tendrils. It was a wondrous journey to Barney, +The pages of Sindbad alone seemed to have a parallel for the awful +mysteries of that long, long flight through jungles of towering timber, +whose leaves and bark were as unfamiliar as Brazilian growth to the +troops of Pizarro or the Congo vegetation to the French pioneer. Jones +and his comrades saw nothing but the hardships of the march and the +delay of the painful _detours_ in the solemn glades. The direction was +kept by compass, many of the men having been supplied with a miniature +instrument by the prudent foresight of Mrs. Lanview, who was niggard of +neither time nor money in the cause she had at heart. In spite of every +effort a march so swift that it would have exhausted cavalry, Jones's +ranks did not reach the rendezvous until midnight. At about that hour +the exhausted fugitives came suddenly upon a wide, open plain, and far +below them, in the valley, a vision of light and life shone through +the dark. + +"There, boys, we're at the end of our first stage. Unless I'm much +mistaken, that bit of merry-making yonder will cost the Confederacy +a chief." + +"But is it certain that Davis is there?" asked the man Jones called +Moon, who seemed to be his intimate. + +"Ah, that we will learn so soon as Nasmyd reports. We will give the +signal when we reach that fringe of wood yonder. It's back of the +grounds, separated from them by a hard piece of swamp and water.--Men, +you must follow now in single file, and when we get in the swamp, mind, +a single step out of line will cost you your lives, for, sucked into +that morass, wild horses can't pull you out." + +Then, as they plunged anew in the gloomy deeps of swamp and brake, the +friendly lights were lost and the depressed wayfarers struggled on with +something of the feeling of a crew cast away at sea, who, thrown upon +the crest of a rising billow, catch a near glimpse of a great ship, +light and taut, riding serenely havenward to lose it the next in the +dire waste. Presently the melancholy bird-notes that had puzzled Jack in +the same vicinity days before broke out just in front of Barney, who was +clambering along, the third man from the head of the little column. +Again, after a long pause, the sweet, plaintive note was re-echoed from +a distance. + +"Ah, all is well!" he heard Jones ejaculate triumphantly. "We are in +time and we are waited for.--Now, men, put all the heart that's in you +to the next half-hour's work. No danger, but just cool heads and +strong arms." + +This good news was conveyed from man to man, and the toilsome movement +briskly accelerated under the inspiring watchword. Shortly afterward the +larger growth--cypress and oak--diminished, as the band straggled into +the open, starry night at the margin of what they could tell was water +by the croaking of frogs and plashing of night birds and reptiles. Then +the train was halted. Jones left Nasmyd in command and plunged into a +thick skirt of bushes. Now Barney, hot and dirty from the march, had +shot ahead when he heard the ripple of the water. He had taken off his +shoes to bathe his blistered and swollen feet, and sat quite still and +restful under the leafy sprays of an odorous bush that even in the dark +he knew to be honeysuckle. + +"Well," he heard Jones cry in an exultant whisper, "we've done it. The +woman is a trump. There are a hundred nearly of the prisoners gone to +the boats. Now we are ready for Boone. Is Davis here?" + +"Yes; he came over from Williamsburg at eight o'clock; they were +feasting when Clem came away a three or more ago." + +"Any cavalry at the house?" + +"A squadron; but they are ordered to be in saddle for their quarters at +midnight. There's the bugle for boots and saddles now." + +"Yes; by the Eternal, what luck! Davis will sleep there." + +"So Clem says; the state chamber has been prepared for him; all the rest +except Lee go back to Williamsburg." + +"We couldn't have arranged it better if we had been given the ordering +of it. Are all the boats here?" + +"Yes." + +"And the negroes--how many have you?" + +"I can't say. They've been dropping across in twos and threes since ten +o'clock. The curious thing is that the women are more taken with the +idea of fight than the men. We shall have enough--too many, I fear." + +"We'll make them our safety, Jim, my boy; we'll divide them up, and, in +case of pursuit, send them in different directions to confuse +the troops." + +"How many men are you going to take to the house?" + +"Six, with you and me. It will be unsafe to take more, as the boats are +small. I will go back and select the men. You get the boats ready." + +Barney hurried on his shoes, crawled through the bushes, and was in his +place when Jones presently appeared. The men, dead tired, were disposed +about on the ground asleep, not minding the damp grass or the heavy dew +that made the air fairly misty. + +"Wake four of the men," Jones whispered, and when they were aroused he +said to a tall, reeling shadow, idly waiting orders: + +"We'll be back in a half-hour, or an hour at the farthest. Let the men +sleep; they need it. Sleep yourself if you want to. Moon or I will come +to rouse you, and we will bring you plenty of bacon and hominy. Have no +fears if you hear movements just beyond you; there are a couple of +contrabands here who go with us. Here's a ration of tobacco for the men +when they wake, and a gallon of whisky, which you must serve out +gradually." + +Revived by this stimulating news quite as much as by the whisky, Barney +and his three comrades followed Jones to the boats. There were four--the +dug-outs we saw Jack manoeuvring in the same waters a few nights before. +A negro sat silent, shadowy in each, and, when Jones gave the word, "Let +drive!" the barks shot through the waters, propelled by the single +scull, as swiftly as an Indian canoe. In a few moments all debarked on +the grassy knoll behind the black line of hedge. Jones made straight for +the high doorway, and inserting a key it was noiselessly opened. + +"Men," he whispered, "no names must be used in any case. I'm number one, +Jim here is number two, Moore number three, and so on. Each one remember +his number. Clem will remain here with number six to guard the gate. All +the rest follow me." + +Two negroes joined the party that stole forward through the rose-field +to the negro quarters. All was silent. As they reached the great kitchen +behind the house and connected with it by a trellised pavilion, only an +occasional light could be seen in the house. All were apparently there. +The ball had ended. Leaving Barney in charge of the rest, Jones and +Number Two crept along the trellis toward the house and soon disappeared +around the southern corner. Jones presently returned and said, +exultingly: + +"The cavalry is gone; we have nothing to fear.--Plato, you go with +Number Two to the stables and bring the horses out; hold six and send +the rest scattering in the fields, so that in case of anybody's being in +the mind to follow hell have to use his legs, and we can beat them at +that game. Where are the ropes?" he asked the black man left in +the group. + +"In de kitchen, massa." + +"Get them!" + +"Must I go alone, massa?" + +"That's a fact.--There, Moore, you go with the boy--don't be a minute." + +Barney followed the sable marauder through the grounds to the rear of +the trellis, and crept with him through a window which stood open. The +kitchen was dark, but the negro seemed perfectly familiar with the +place. He made directly for a dark panel in the northern wall, opened a +cupboard-door, knelt down and began to grope among bottles, boxes, and +what not that housewives gather in such receptacles. + +"Oh, de lor'! dey ain't no rope! It's done gone!" "Have you a match?" +Barney asked. + +"No, massa, but dey is some yondah." + +"Find them." + +The boy crept cautiously in the direction of the passage leading into +the house; he fumbled about, an age, as it seemed to the impatient +Barney, and at last uttered an exclamation: + +"Got 'em?" + +"No, massa, but Ise suah deys kep dar." + +"Take my hand and lead me." + +"It's molasses, massa, and Ise all stickem," the voice in the dark +whispered, delightedly, and Barney could see a double row of glistening +white ivory in the dim light that came through the window. He came +nearer the clumsy wight, and saw that it was a pan of batter the cook +had left on the table, probably the morning griddle-cakes. The negro was +a mass of white, pasty glue, and knelt on the floor, licking his hands +passively. + +"Where are the matches?" + +"Under de clock, in a tin safe, massa--right da." + +Barney groped angrily about the table, on the clock-shelf, knocking down +a tin dish, that fell with the clatter of a bursting magazine in the +dense stillness of the night. Both drew back in shadow, waiting with +heart-beats that sounded in their ears like tramping horses on thick +sward. The clamor of rushing steeds in the lane suddenly drowned this; a +loud, joyous whinny sounded in the very kitchen it seemed, and there was +a rush houseward past the pantry as of a troop of cavalry. Then a +blood-curdling outcry of voices, then shots. Barney, leaving the negro +writhing in convulsions under the table, darted to the window--to the +rendezvous. It was deserted. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +"HE EITHER FEARS HIS FATE TOO MUCH." + + +When Vincent visited the stables on the morning of that +eagerly-looked-for Thursday, he found three of the horses clammy with +perspiration and giving every sign of having been ridden! The awkward +and evasive answers of the stablemen would not have been enough for any +other than a man preoccupied by love. When Rosa went to the kitchen, if +her head had not been taken up with the love in her heart, she must +certainly have remarked that the stores of food prepared for the +household were curiously diminished and the kitchen girls unwontedly +reserved. Indeed, in any other condition than that in which the family +now found themselves, they must have remarked a singular change in the +black brigade in kitchen and garden. But, preocupied each with a +different interest, as well as the preparation for the President's +_fete_, the Atterburys remarked nothing sinister in the distracted +conduct of their servants, and had only a vague feeling that the great +event had in some sort paralyzed their wonted noisy activities and +repressed their usual chatter. Kate's uneasiness and restless vagaries, +her disjointed talk and half-guilty evasions, would have been remarked +by her prepossessed hosts; while Wesley's shifting and moody silence +would have warned his comrades that he was suffering the pangs of an +evil done or meditated. Precursive signs like these--and much more, +which need not be dwelt on--the kind hosts of Rosedale made no note of. +But when Vincent opened the mail-bag--brought by an orderly from +Williamsburg every morning, the first surprise and shock of the day was +felt--though in varying degrees by all the diverse inmates of the house. + +"Hah! glory to the Lord of hosts!" the exultant reader cried, as he +passed to his mother a large official envelope at the breakfast-table. + +"I'm ordered to the field." he cried, as Jack looked inquiringly; "I'm +to set out to-night and report for duty with General Johnston to-morrow +at Manassas. No more loitering in my lady's bower; Jack, my boy, the +carpet will be clear for your knightly pranks after to-night." + +"If it were Aladdin's magic rug, I should caper nimbly enough. I warrant +you." + +"What would you wish--if it were under your feet, with its slaves at +your command?" + +"I should whisk you all off--North--instanter." + +"Ingrate!--plunge us into the chilly blasts of the North, in return for +our glorious Southern sun? Fie, Jack! I'm surprised at such selfish +ingratitude. We expected better things of our prisoners," Mrs. Atterbury +murmured, and affected a reproving frown at the culprit, as she handed +her son back the order, with a stilled sigh. + +"The sun of the South is not the sun of York to us, you know; all the +clouds that lower on our house are doubly darkened by this Southern sun; +even the warmth of Rosedale hearts can not make up for our eclipsed +Northern star," Jack said, sadly, with a wistful look at the rival +warrior reading with sparkling eyes the instructions accompanying the +order to march. + +"Since Vincent is going so far northward, I think it will be a good time +for us to go home," Mrs. Sprague began, tentatively. + +"Oh--no--no! Oh, we could never think of such a thing," Rosa +cried--"could we, mamma?" + +"Why should you go?" Mrs. Atterbury asked. "Until Jack is exchanged, +you've certainly no duty in the North so important as watching over this +headstrong fellow. We can't think of your going--unless you are weary +of us." + +"O Mrs. Atterbury, pray don't put it in that way! You know better. Our +visit here has been perfect. But you can understand my anxiety to be at +home; to be where I can aid my son's release. I have been anxious for +some time to broach the subject, but I saw that our going would be a +trouble to you; now, since fortune offers this chance, we must seize +it--that is, those of us who feel it a duty to go"; and she looked +meaningly at Merry and her daughter. + +"Nonsense! You are hostages for Vincent, in case he is captured, as long +as you are here; I can't let you go--under the laws of war--I can not. +Can I, Vincent?" + +Vincent looked at Jack solemnly, but made no answer. + +"Mamma is quite right. While you are with us no harm can come to +Vincent; for, if he should be taken prisoner, we can threaten the Yankee +Government to put you to torture unless he is well treated," Rosa +interrupted, reassuringly. + +"We should be far more aid and comfort to Vincent if we were in the +North than we could be here. If he were taken prisoner and wounded, we +could return him the kindness we have received here. In any event, we +could lessen the hardships of prison life." + +"Oh, you would have to minister to a mind diseased, if such a fate +should befall me!" Vincent cried, sentimentally; with a glance into +Olympia's eyes, which met his at the moment. Both blushed; and Olympia, +to relieve the embarrassment, said, decisively: + +"Mamma is right. Jack must have his family on the ground, to watch over +his interests. I am sure there is some underhand work responsible for +this long delay in his case, for I saw by _The Whig_, last week, that +exchanges of prisoners had been made; I think that--" But, suddenly +remembering the presence of Kate and Wesley, she did not finish the +thought, which implied a belief in the intervention of the elder +Boone--to Jack's detriment. In the end--when the two mothers talked the +matter over--Mrs. Sprague carried the point. She convinced Mrs. +Atterbury that there was danger to Jack in a longer stay of his family +in the Confederate lines. Vague reports had already reached them from +Acredale of the suspicious hostility in which the Democrats were held +after Bull Run. The Northern papers, which came through the lines quite +regularly, left no doubt that Democratic leanings were universally +interpreted in the North as evidences of rebel sympathy, if not +partisanship. Such a charge, as things stood, would be fatal to Jack; +and the mother's duty was plain. She had friends in Washington, once +powerful, who could stand between her son and calumny--perhaps more +serious danger--when she was present in person to explain his conduct. +If she could not at once secure his exchange, she could save him from +compromise in the present inflammable and capricious state of the public +mind. Understanding this, and the enmity of Boone, Mrs. Atterbury not +only made no further objection, but acknowledged the urgent necessity of +the mother's presence in the North. The idle life of Rosedale had grown +unbearably irksome to Merry, too. + +"I feel as if I were a rebel," she confided to Mrs. Sprague in the +evening talks, when the piano sounded and the young people were making +the hours pass in gayety. "It's a sin for us to laugh and be contented +here, when our friends are bearing the burdens of war. I shall be +ashamed to show my face in Acredale. Oh, I wish I could carry a musket!" + +"You might carry a canteen, my dear. I believe the regiments take out +_vivandieres_--there would be an outlet for your warlike emotions," Mrs. +Sprague said, with the purpose of cheering the unhappy spinster. + +"Ah, no; I must not give encouragement to that dreadful Richard. But we +shall go now, thank Heaven, and it will comfort my sisters to have the +boy back on Northern soil, even if he persists in being a soldier." + +She had a long talk with Jack on the subject. That tempest-tossed knight +convinced her that it would only incite the boy to more unruliness to +persist in his quitting the army, or to urge him northward now, before +an exchange was properly arranged. Indeed, he was a prisoner--taken in +battle--though his name did not appear on the lists. So Vincent's sudden +going was welcomed as a stroke of good fortune. The Atterburys, +understanding the natural feelings of the family, made only perfunctory +opposition. Olympia and Kate were to remain until their brothers' fates +were decided. Vincent, who had been for weeks wildly impatient to return +to the field, was divided in mind now--by joy and despair. He had put +off and put off a last appeal to Olympia. He had not had an opportunity, +or rather had too much opportunity--and had, from day to day, deferred +the longed-for yet dreaded decision. When ready to speak, prudence +whispered that it would be better to leave the question open until it +should come up of itself. She would learn every day to know him better +in his own home, where all the artificialities of life are stripped from +a man, by the concurrent abrasions of family love and domestic +_devoirs_. She would see that, however unworthy of her love he might +have seemed in the old boyish days at Acredale, now he could be a man +when manliness was demanded; that he could be patient, reticent, humble +in the trials her caprice or coquetry put upon him. She had, it seemed +to him, deepened and broadened the current of his love during these +blissful weeks of waiting. Her very reserve, under the new conditions +surrounding her, had made more luminous the beauty of her heart and +mind. She was no longer the airy, capricious Olympia of his college +days. The pensive gravity of misfortune and premature responsibility had +ennobled and made more tangible the traits that had won him in her +Northern home. She had not avoided him during these weeks of purifying +probation, as he feared she would. Of late--Jack's state being +secure--she had revived much of the old vivacity, and deepened the +thrall that held him. + +But now the merry-making season which had opened before them was at an +end. The madrigals that welled up in his soft heart must sing themselves +in the silence of the night, in the camp yonder, with no ears to +comprehend, no heart to melt to them. He should probably not get a +chance to see her again during the conflict. How long? Perhaps a +year--for it would take two campaigns, as the rebel leaders reckoned, to +convince the North that the Confederacy was unconquerable! And what +might not happen during those momentous months? Perhaps Jack's +death?--and then they would be divided as by fire--or, if the conflict +resulted victoriously for the South, as he knew it must, he foresaw that +the soldier of the conquering army would not be received as a wooer in +the family of the defeated. He knew her so well! She would, in the very +pride of outraged patriotism, give her love to one of the defeated, +rather than add to the triumphs of the hated South. She had strong +convictions on the war. She hated slavery, and she could not be made to +see that the South was warring for liberty, not to sustain slavery. +These thoughts ran through Vincent's troubled mind as his mother +directed the preparations for the _fete_ of the President. + +Kate, Jack, and Dick were pressed into the service of decorating the +apartments. Olympia left the room with her mother to advise and assist +in making ready for the journey North; and Vincent, aiding his mother +with a sadly divided mind, kept furtive watch on the hallway. She held +him hours in suspense, he thought, almost wrathfully, of deliberate +purpose; for she must have read in his eyes that he wanted to talk with +her. The artless Dick finally gave him a chance. + +"I say, Vint, get Polly to show you the roses needed for the tables; +I'll be with you by-and-by to cut the ferns. Do you think you could make +yourself of that much use? You're not worth a straw here" + +"Send for Miss Polly and I'll do my best," Vincent said, with a gulp, to +conceal his joy. She appeared presently; and, as they were passing out +of the door, Rosa cried, imperiously: + +"Oh, yes, Vint, we need ever so much honeysuckle; you know where it +hangs thickest--in the Owl's Glen. Olympia will like to see that--the +haunt of her favorite bird"; and the busy little maid laughed cheerily, +like a disordered goddess, intoxicated by the exhaling odors of the +floral chaos. + +"_En route_ for Roumelia, then," Vincent cried in military cadence, as +the florists set out. Roumelia was the name Jack had given the +rose-lands near the stream, in fanciful allusion to the Turkish province +of flowers. Halting at the gardener's cottage, Vincent procured an +immense pair of shears, like a double rapier in size, and, bidding the +man follow to gather the blossoms, he pushed into the blooming vineyard. + +"With such an instrument I should say it was the golden fleece you were +after," Olympia cried, as he reached her side, "though I believe Jason +didn't do the shearing." + +"No, the powers of air worked for him, and he found his quest ready to +his hand." + +"I'm sure the powers of air have not denied you; look at those radiant +ranks of blossoms bending to be gathered." + +"Ah, yes, beauty stoops sometimes to welcome the trembling hand of the +suitor." + +"Your hand is rather unsteady--infirm of purpose; give me the blades." +She took them laughingly, and snipped the green stems rapidly and +dexterously. + +"Yes, I believe men are infirm in moral purposes, as compared to women. +It is only in the brutalities of life that men are decisive." + +"Do you mean that women approach the trials of life less thinkingly and +act less rationally than men?" + +"Yes and no. The daring too much is always before a man; the daring too +little is, I think, the only trouble a woman has." + +"Oh, that is a large question, involving too much mental strain in a +garden of roses, where the senses sleep and one is content with mere +breath and the faintest motion." + +"There are enough roses; now we will go for the wild smilax and +honeysuckle; perhaps the cool air of the pools will restore your mental +activities." + +They left the dismembered roses scattered in fragrant heaps on the +shaded path and walked slowly toward the dense hedge. + +"What a perfect fortress this green wall makes of the gardens!" Olympia +said, glancing around the great square, where the solid green wall could +be seen running up much higher than their heads. + +"Yes, as I said the other day, it would take hard work for an invading +force to get at the house unless traitors within gave up the gates. This +one," he added, unlocking a massive oak door, crossed with thick planks +and studded with iron bolts, "alone admits from the creek and swamp. It +is locked all the time; no one has the key except the gardener, who +delivers it to mamma every night." + +"A feudal demesne; it takes one back to the so-called days of chivalry." + +"Why do you say 'so-called'? To me they are the delight of the +past--when men went to battle for the smile of the women they loved, +when knights rode the world over in search of adventure, and my lady, in +her donjon, listened with pleasure to the lover's roundelay. Ah, it was +a perfect life, an enchanting time. We are living in a coarse, brutal +age; chivalry was the creed of civilization, the knights the priesthood +of the higher life." + +"There's the Southerner through and through in that sentimentality. To +me chivalry means all that is narrow, cruel, and rapacious in man. The +philandering knights were sensual boobies, the simpering dames soulless +wantons. Life meant simply the rule of the strong, the slaughter of the +weak. Servitude was its law and robbery its methods. Have you ever +traveled in out-of-the-way places in Germany, Austria, or Italy?" + +"No, I've never been abroad." + +"You would know better what I mean if you had seen the monstrous relics +of the age you admire. The few ruled the many; the knights were simply a +brotherhood of blood and rapine; men were slaves, women were worse. The +bravest were as unlettered as your body-servant, the most beautiful +dames as termagant as Penelope the cook. At the table men and women ate +from a common dish, without forks or spoons. Men guzzled gallons of +unfermented wine. A bath was unknown. Cleanliness was as unpracticed as +Islamism in New York. Ugh! anything but chivalry for me." + +"But surely the great lords were not what you represent. They were +gentle born, gentle bred. They could not be robbers; they lived from +great estates." + +"They were the 'Knights of St. Nicholas,' which, in the slang of the +middle ages, meant what they call in the West road agents; indeed, plain +highwaymen they were called in England in Bacon's day." + +Vincent bent over discomfited, and held the little shallop until Olympia +was seated, and then pushed off into the murky stream. + +"Do you see those streamers of loveliness waving welcome to you, fair +damsel--Nature knows its kind?" + +"That's one word for me and one for yourself," she cried, seizing the +dainty pink sprays that now trailed over her head and shoulders as the +boat glided along the fringe of hushes supporting the clinging vines. + +"Oh, no, Olympia; I can't speak even one word for myself. I have been +trembling to do it this six weeks, but your eye had none of the +invitation these starry blossoms offer us. I am going to say now, +Olympia, what I have to say--for after to-day there will be no chance; +what has been on my mind you have long known. You know that I love you; +how much I love you, how impossible it is to think of life without you, +I dare not venture to say to you, for you distrust our Southern +exaggeration. But I do love you; ah, my God! all the world else--my +mother, my sister, my duty seem nothing compared to the one passionate +hope in my breast. Do you believe me, Olympia--do you doubt me?" + +"Far from it, Vincent--dear Vincent--no--no--sit where you are and +listen to me--" She was deeply moved, and the lover in his heart cursed +the luckless veils of blossom that she apparently, without design, drew +before her face. "I do believe all you say; I knew it before you said +it. But you remember we went over this very same ground before. Since +then, it is true, you have been the means of saving us much misery; how +much I hardly dare think of when I look back to that dreadful day, when +mamma lay in the fever of coming disease and the hopelessness of +despair. All I can say, dear, dear Vincent, is what I said before. Wait +until thine and mine are no longer at war. Wait until one flag +covers us--" + +"But that can never be!" + +"Wait! I have faith that it will be!" + +"If one flag should cover us--my flag--would you--would you--?" + +"Ah, Vincent! don't ask me; don't force me to say something thing that +will make you unhappy, since I don't know my own mind well enough yet to +answer as you wish me to answer--" + +"But you can tell me now whether you love me, or, at least, whether +there is any one you love more?" + +"I don't think I love you. I know, however, that I think no more of any +one else than I think of you; pray, let that suffice." + +"But how cruel that is, Olympia! It is as much, as to say that you won't +wait and see whether you may meet some one that you can be surer of than +you are of me?" + +"I must distress you whatever I say, Vincent! Frankly, I don't think you +can decide just now whether your heart is really engaged. I think you do +not know me as a man should knows the woman he makes his wife. I am +certain I do not know you. If you had been born and bred in the North, I +should have no difficulty in deciding; but your ways are so different +here: women are accorded so much before marriage, and made so little of +a man's life after marriage, that I shrink from a promise which, if +lightly or inconsiderately given, would bring the last misery a woman +can confront." + +"What, Olympia! you think Southern men do not hold marriage to be +sacred?" + +"I think that the Southern man has a good deal of the knight you spoke +of in him, and, like the Frenchman, marries inconsiderately, and does +penance in infidelity, at least to the form, if not the fact, of the +relation." + +"O Olympia! where do you get such repulsive ideas of us; who has been +traducing us to you?" + +"I judge from the Southern men I have seen North; pardon me, Vincent, I +do not see how it can be otherwise in a society based upon human +servitude. To live on the labors of a helot people blunts the finer +sensibilities of men and women alike; when you can look unshrinkingly at +the separation of husband and wife on the auction-block, when you can +see innocent children taken from their mothers and sold into eternal +separation, I think it is not unnatural in me to fear that a woman with +my convictions would not be happy mated with a Southerner. All this is +cruel, I fear you will think, but it would be crueller for me to +encourage a love that, under present circumstances, would bring misery +to both of us." + +"You are an abolitionist?" + +"Yes; every right-thinking person in the North is an abolitionist to +this extent; we want the South to take the remedy into its own hands, to +free its slaves voluntarily; the radical abolitionists prefer a violent +means. That I do not seek or did not; but now, Vincent, it is bound +to come." + +"And, if it should come, what would you answer to my question?" + +"Here is a white rose: I picked it with my hand, and, you see, a drop of +my blood is on it; when you can give me a rose with a drop of your blood +on it as free from taint as the stain mine makes, I shall have an answer +that will not be unworthy your waiting for!" + +"Unworthy! I don't understand you. Surely, you don't think me a +profligate?" + +"When the time comes that no human being acknowledges your ownership, +perhaps you may receive a voluntary bond-maid, bound to you by stronger +ties than the chattel of the slave." + +"But you love me, then, Olympia?" + +"I can not love where I do not reverence." + +"But it is not my fault that slaves are my inheritance!" + +"It will be your fault if they are your support when you are your own +master." + +"You love an idea better than you love a man who would die for you!" + +"I love manliness and the sense of right, which is called duty, better +than I love a man who is blind to the first impulse of real manhood--" + +"Would you ask a Jew to give up his synagogue to gain your hand?" + +"The synagogue is the temple of a creed as divine as my own, and the +faith of the man I loved would never swerve me in accepting or +refusing him." + +"We of the South believe slavery a divine institution--that is, first +established by the fathers!" + +"The tribes in the Fiji Islands believe man-eating an ordinance of the +gods!" + +"Well, this sort of discussion leads to nothing," Vincent said, +ruefully. "The world is well lost for the woman one loves, when I come +to you shorn of my world!" + +"Ah! then, Vincent, you will find another!" + +He drew her hand from the clinging vines and kissed it. + +"I am very happy. I shall lose my world with a very light heart." + +"The world is a very tough brier; we sometimes bring it closer, when its +thorns prick us more painfully in the struggles to cast it off." + +"Then I'll cut the brambles, and not risk tearing my flesh!" + +"That's the soldier's way--the heroic way; but wait for the future; I am +young and you are not old." + +Vincent's gayety when they returned to the drawing-room attracted the +observant Dick, and he slyly whispered to the warrior, "Been practicing +the Roman strategy with the Sabines?" + +"No, I've been at the Temple of Minerva and taken a pledge to hold my +tongue." + +"Ah! the goddess of the owls; but, as they see light only in darkness, I +fear you groped in blackness." + +The whole household were to meet President Davis and his party in +Williamsburg, assist at the review, and get back with the distinguished +guests in time for a state dinner. Merry and Mrs. Sprague were reluctant +to go, but they feared a refusal would be misunderstood. Poor Merry was +very tearful and disconsolate at the thought of leaving Dick, but she +strove heroically to hide her grief when the cavalcade set out, the +elder ladies driving, the young people mounted. The ancient capital of +Virginia was aflame with the new rebel bunting. President Davis, with +Generals Lee and Magruder, were in place on the pretty green before the +old colonial college edifice when the Rosedale people came up. Davis +saluted Mrs. Atterbury with cordial urbanity; but, as the troops were +already in column, there was only time for hasty presentation of the +strangers. + +Jack watched the rather piebald pageant with absorbed interest. The +infantry marched wretchedly. The arms were as varied as the uniforms, +and the artillery seemed a relic of Jackson's time. But the cavalry was +superb. Never had he seen such splendid ranks, such noble horses. At +sight of the tall, elegant figure of the President, the troops broke +into the peculiar shrill cheer that afterward became a sound of wonder, +almost terror, to unaccustomed Northern ears. It was a mingling of the +boyish treble of college cries and the menacing shriek of the wild-cat. +Jack was secretly very much delighted with the review. More than half +the rank and file were mere boys; and he could see that they were +unruly, almost to point-blank disregard of their officers commands, or +the prescriptions of the manual. It would take short work for the +disciplined hosts the new Northern general was training, to sweep such +chaff from the field of war. Vincent saw something of this in his +comrade's eye, and a good deal nettled himself by the slovenly march and +humorous abandon of the men, he said: + +"You must remember, Jack, our army is made up of gentlemen's sons; the +gentry of the South are all in arms, and we can't at once reduce them to +the mere machines a more heterogeneous soldiery can be made. The men who +won Manassas passed in review a day or two before the battle, and they +made the same impression upon me--upon Beauregard himself--that I see +these men have made on you. Depend upon it, in a fight they will be good +soldiers." + +"Let me have the poor comfort of underrating my enemy, the thing above +all others that a wise man shuns and a fool indulges." + +"Oh, on that theory revile them if you like." + +"No, indeed; I'm far from reviling them. The cavalry is magnificent. I +don't think we have a regiment in our army that can compare with that +brigade. Who commands it?" + +"Jeb Stuart--the Murat of the South," Vincent said, proudly. "I'm going +to tell the President what you said of the brigade; you know he is +passionately fond of the army, and really wanted to be the +commander-in-chief, when they made him President at Montgomery." + +At sunset the President and General Lee entered the carriage with Mrs. +Atterbury and Mrs. Sprague, Merry driving in a phaeton with Kate, who +didn't enjoy so long a ride on the horse. + +"I'm glad we've got such important hostages as yourself and son," Davis +said gallantly to Mrs. Sprague, as the carriage passed out of the clamor +of acclamation the crowd set up. "I knew the Senator, your husband, +intimately. If he had lived, I doubt whether we should have been driven +out of the Union. He was, in my mind, one of the most prudent statesmen +that came from the North to Congress." + +"He certainly never would have consented to break up the Union," Mrs. +Sprague said, in embarrassment. + +"Nor should I, madam, if there had been any further security in it. The +truth is, there was nothing left for us but to go out or be kicked out. +The leaders of the Abolition party long ago proclaimed that. However, +war settles all such problems. When it is settled by the sword we shall +be satisfied." + +Mrs. Atterbury changed the conversation by asking how Mrs. Davis liked +Richmond. + +"Oh, she has been treated royally by the people there. I declare +Richmond is as Southern a city as Charleston. I have been agreeably +surprised by the absolute unanimity of gentle and simple in the cause. +My wife receives a clothes-basketful of letters every morning from the +mothers of the Confederacy proffering time, money, and service wherever +she can suggest anything for them to do. I propose later on establishing +an order something like the Golden Fleece, which shall confer a certain +social precedence upon the wearers. I have thousands of letters on the +subject, and as the society of the South is, as a matter of fact, a +society of gentle-folk--for the most part lineally descended from the +nobility of older countries--I think it proper and right that lineage +should have certain acknowledged advantages in the new commonwealth. But +I propose to go further, and institute an order of something like +nobility for women--who have thus far given us great help and +encouragement. Indeed, there are many in the Congress--a dozen Senators +I could name--who think that we ought to make our regime entirely +different from the North, and that we should adopt a monarchical form--" + +"I'm sure, I think we should," Mrs. Atterbury exclaimed, delightedly. +"We are really as unlike the Northern people as the French or +the Germans." + +"The strongest argument for declaring the Confederacy an empire is the +one that weighed with Napoleon I. We should at one stroke secure the +alliance of all the monarchies. They have never looked with favor on the +experiment of a powerful republic over here, and it is almost certain +they would befriend us for transforming this mighty infant state into an +empire. However, that is for future action. Our agents abroad have sent +us full reports on the matter." + +"I doubt the wisdom of ever hinting such a thing," General Lee said, +gravely. "We must show that we are able to act independently in +selecting our form of government. I doubt very much whether the masses +would listen favorably to an empire established by foreign aid." + +"Possibly, general, possibly. As I said before, there will be time +enough for that when, like Napoleon, we have made our armies the masters +of this continent. Then, with boundaries embracing Mexico, Canada, and +the Western States--for they can never exist independent of us--we can +choose empire, republic, or a Venetian oligarchy." + +As they came in sight of Rosedale, Davis stood up in the carriage to get +a better view of the landscape, which showed swift alternations of dense +thickets and wood and rolling acres of rich crops. + +"What a State Virginia is!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm. "It has the +climate and soil to support half of Europe. Mother of Presidents in the +past, it will be the granary and magazine of the Confederacy in ten +years. My own State, Mississippi, is rich in land, but the climate is +hard for the stranger. It enervates the European at first. But we are an +agricultural people, or rather we give our energies to our staple, +cotton; that is to be the chief treasure of the Confederacy." + +Dinner was ready for the table when the guests came from their rooms. +Davis excused his lack of ceremonial dress, saying pleasantly: + +"I am something of a soldier, you know, and travel with a light train. +Lee, there, has the advantage of me. A soldier's uniform is court +costume the world over." + +"But you are the commander-in-chief, Mr. President. Don't you have a +uniform?" + +"No. I am commander-in-chief only in law. Congress is really the +commander-in-chief. The man that assumes those duties can attend to them +alone. He is, of course, subject to the executive; but only in general +plans, rarely in details." + +Davis was placed at Mrs. Atterbury's right, Mrs. Sprague at her left, +General Lee sat at Vincent's right, _vis-a-vis_ to Jack, who was lost in +prodigious admiration of the Socratic-like chieftain--Lee was as yet +unknown to all but a discriminating few in the Confederacy. He was as +tall as Davis fully six feet--but more rounded and symmetrical. He spoke +with great gravity, but seemed to enjoy the jests that the young people +found opportunities to indulge in, when it was seen that the President +devoted his talk exclusively to the hostess or Mrs. Sprague. Davis was a +good talker, and charmed the company with reminiscences of old times +in Congress. + +"I don't remember Lincoln distinctly," he said, concluding a +reminiscence, "but I think he's the man that used to be so popular in +the House cloak-room, telling stories which were said to be +extremely droll." + +"Mrs. Lincoln is in some sort kin to Mrs. Davis, isn't she?" Mrs. +Atterbury asked. "I have read it somewhere." + +"Very distant. Mrs. Lincoln is of the Kentucky Tods, and they were in +some way kin of my wife's family, the Howells. Not enough to put on +mourning, if Mrs. Lincoln should become a widow." + +"Is it true, Mr. President, that a society in the North has offered a +million dollars for your capture--abduction? I heard it in Williamsburg, +and saw an allusion to it in _The Examiner_ the other day." + +"Oh, I'm sure I can't say. If the offer were authenticated, I should be +tempted to go and get the reward myself. With a million dollars I could +do a good deal more for the cause in the North than I can here, making +brigadiers and settling questions of precedence between Cabinet +ministers, judges, and Senators." + +"Mr. President, give me an exchange North, and I will ascertain the +facts in the million-dollar offer and write you faithfully how to set +about getting the money," Jack said, very soberly, from his end of +the table. + +"Ah! the Yankee spoke there--nothing if not a bargain. Sir, you deserve +your clearance papers, but I'm too good a friend of Mrs. Atterbury and +her daughter to bring about the loss of company that I am sure must be +agreeable. Then, too, there's no telling the miracles of conversion that +may be brought about by such ministers as Miss Rosa there." + +Rosa blushed, Jack felt foolish, and everybody laughed except Dick, who +looked unutterable things at his adored, and boldly entered the lists +against the great personage by asking, in a quivering treble: + +"Doesn't the Bible say that the wife shall cleave to the husband; that +his people shall be her people, his God her God, where he goes +she goes?" + +"It is so said in the Bible, sir; but it was a woman that uttered it, +and she was in love. When you know more of the sex, you will understand +that women in love are like poets; they say much that they don't mean, +and more that they don't understand." + +"But, Mr. President, what the one woman said in the Bible all women +practice. You never knew a woman that didn't believe her husband's +beliefs, hate his hates, love his loves." + +Davis smiled, and his eyes twinkled kindly on his boyish inquisitor. + +"I know only one woman. That is as much as a man can speak for. She +doesn't hate my hates, love my loves, or enter unprotestingly into all +my ways. Indeed, I may say that, being a peaceful man, I wanted to +remain in Washington, for I believed that Seward was sincere in pleading +for a compromise; but the woman I speak of had her own opinion convinced +me that she was right, and I came to my own people." + +At this moment there was a diversion. A soldier, booted and spurred, +entered the room, walked to the head of the table, and bending +deferentially to the President, said; + +"I am ordered to deliver this message wherever you may be found." He +handed Davis a large envelope and retreated respectfully two or three +paces backward. Everybody affected to resume conversation as the +President, breaking the seal, said; + +"Pardon me a moment, madam." But he had no sooner ran over the lines +than he turned to the courier, crying, in visible discomfiture: + +"When did you leave the war office?" + +"At five o'clock, sir." + +"General, we must return instantly to Richmond; a hundred or more of the +prisoners have broken out of Libby! It is reported that a column of the +enemy with gunboats have passed up the James.--Madam, this is one of the +exigencies of a time of war. I needn't say to an Atterbury that +everything must give way to public business!" He called Lee aside, spoke +rapidly to him, and the latter, beckoning Vincent, left the room. He +returned in ten minutes, announcing that everything was in readiness to +set out. The carriage with Mrs. Sprague's and Merry's small luggage was +ready when the cavalcade set out, Davis riding with them and the cavalry +company from below, divided into squadrons before and behind the +carriage. It was eleven o'clock as the last dark line of the troop +disappeared. Olympia and Jack stood at the great gate in mournful +silence. The swiftness of the parting had lessened the pain, but their +minds were full of the sorrow that follows the inevitable. Mrs. Sprague +had herself declined to postpone the ordeal when Mrs. Atterbury pointed +out the untimely hour. No, it was better to suffer this slight +inconvenience to have Vincent's protecting presence all the way to the +Union lines; and Jack, acknowledging this, didn't say a word to dissuade +her. Vincent's last act was to call Jack to his room. + +"I wanted to tell you, Jack, what a great joy it has been to me--it has +been to all of us--to have you in our home at this trying time. I can +not tell you how much comfort it has been to me now, but some time you +shall know," Vincent stammered, and began to open a drawer in the +bureau. "Here is something I want you to accept as a keepsake from me." +He drew forth a pistol-case and opened it. "It will be a melancholy +pleasure for me to feel, in the dark days to come, that these weapons +may prove your friend in battle, where I must be your enemy." + +"By George, they're beauties!" Jack cried, taking the weapons out. + +"Yes; they were bought last year, and I have had J.S. cut on one, and +V.A. on the other. I meant them for your Christmas last year, but they +were mislaid." + +"What a kind fellow you are, Vint! I don't think I ought to take these." + +"Why not? I have others! I shall feel easier, knowing that you have +them. You can stow them about you easily, they are so small." + +"But it's against the laws of war for a prisoner to be armed." + +"That's just the reason I haven't asked you to take them before. You can +leave them here in my room until you are exchanged, and then you can +carry them with impunity." + +The household assembled at the gate leading into the roadway as the +cavalcade took up the march. There were sad, sobbing farewells +spoken--the kindly night covering the tears, and the loud neighing of +the horses drowning the sobs. + +The Northern group remained in the roadway, straining their eyes to +catch the last glimpse of the wanderers as they disappeared in the misty +foliage, far up the roadway. + +The horizon to the zenith was full of shimmering star-points, Olympia, +with Jack, turned slowly toward the house, silent and not wholly sad. +Dick, in a low treble, could be heard just behind them, quoting +melancholy verses to Rosa; and the brother and sister returned slowly up +the dewy, odorous path. At the porch Rosa exclaimed, in surprise: + +"I wonder where Pizarro is? I haven't seen him while we have been out. +It can't be possible he has followed Vincent! What shall we do if +he has?" + +"Make Dick take his place. A terrier is sometimes as faithful as a +mastiff," Jack said, quickly. + +"Oh! Miss Atterbury wants something with a bite, rather than a bark, and +a terrier wouldn't do," the boy answered. + +"I want Pizarro. I shall never sleep a wink all night if he isn't here," +Rosa said, in consternation; "he is better than a regiment of soldiers, +for he won't let a human being come near the house after the doors are +closed, not even the servants." + +An expedition, calling upon Pizarro in many keys, set out and wandered +through the grounds, back to the quarters, to the gates leading to the +rose-fields, to the stable, but Pizarro was not to be found. Lights were +burning in the hall only when the four re-entered, and with a very grave +face Rosa bade the rest good-night. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +A CATASTROPHE. + + +Rosedale had been a bed of thorns to Wesley Boone since his recovery. He +felt that he was an incongruous visitor among the rest, as a hawk might +feel in a dove-cote. He would have willingly returned to Richmond--even +at the risk of re-entering the prison--if Kate had not been on his +hands. The life of the place, the constant necessity of masking his +aversion to the Spragues, his detestation of Dick, the simple +merry-making and intimate amenities of such close quarters, tasked his +small art of dissimulation beyond even the most practiced powers. The +garment of duplicity was gossamer, he felt, after all, in such +atmosphere of loyalty and trust as surrounded him at Rosedale. + +He knew that in the daily attrition and conventional intimacies of the +table, the drawing-room, or the promenade, the cloak covering his +resentful antipathy, his moral perversities, his thinly veiled +impatience, was worn to such thin shreds that eyes keen as Jack's must +see and know him as he was. What was hatefulest and most unendurable of +all was the bondage of truce in which the Atterburys held him. Wesley +was no coward, and he ached to meet Jack face to face, arm to arm, and +settle with that thoughtless insubordinate a rankling list of griefs +heaped up in moments of over-vivacious frankness. He would make Jack +smart for his arrogance, his insolence, his cursed condescension so soon +as they were back among the Caribees. + +But meanwhile, here, daily tortured by harmless things--tortured by his +soul's imaginings--Wesley was becoming a burden to Kate, who saw too +plainly that he was in misery, and realized that it was largely through +his own inherent weakness and insincerity. He had all the coarse fiber +of his father without the same force in its texture. With merely +superficial good manners, he was never certain whether the punctilious +niceties observed toward him by the Spragues and Atterburys were not a +species of studied satire. Vincent, who had never shown him the +slightest consideration in Acredale, treated him here with the +chivalrous decorum that the code of the South demanded in those days to +a guest. Wesley ground his teeth under the burden, not quite sure +whether it was mockery or malevolence. He watched with malignant +attentiveness the imperceptible change of tone and manner that marked +the family's treatment of the Spragues. There was none of the grave +ceremoniousness he resented in the Atterburys' behavior with them. + +Jack was a hobbledehoy son of the house, almost as much as Vincent. +Kate, too, was, he felt certain, treated with a reserve not shown to +Mrs. Sprague or Merry. Brooding on this, brooding on the unhappiness of +his own disposition, which denied him the privilege of enjoying the best +at the moment, indifferent to what might be behind, Wesley had come to +hate the Atterburys for the burden of an obligation that he could never +lift. He hated Mrs. Atterbury for her high-bred, easy ignoring of all +conditions save those that she exacted. He hated Rosa for her gayety, +her absorption in the young scamp Dick. He hated Vincent because he +seemed to think there was no one in the North but the Spragues worthy of +a moment's consideration. It is in hate as in love--what we seek we +find. Every innocent word and sign that passed in the group, in which he +did not seek to make himself one, Wesley construed as a gird at him or +his family. Constantly on the watch for slights or disparagements, the +most thoughtless acts of the two groups were taken by the tormented +egotist as in some sense a disparagement to his own good repute or his +family standing. + +Nor were the marked affection and confidence shown Kate by everybody in +the house a mitigation of this malign fabric of humiliation. Jack's +fondness for Kate had not escaped the observant eyes of Dick, who had +confided the secret to Rosa, who had likewise unraveled it to mamma, +and, as she kept nothing from Vincent, the Atterburys had that sort of +interest in Kate that intimate spectators always show in love affairs, +where there are no clashing interests involved. It was a moot question, +however, between the three, when, after weeks of observation, Mrs. +Atterbury declared that Jack was not in love with Miss Boone. "He can't +be," she declared. "He doesn't seek her alone; he doesn't make up to her +in the evening. Half the time when they come together it is by Dick's +arrangement. _He_ seems to be in love with Kate." + +"How absurd!" Rosa cried, with a laugh; "a boy like him! Why, he would +be in school, if there were no war." + +"Well, Rosa, I fancy that Dick hasn't found war very much different from +school, so far. He seems to recite a good deal to the mistress, and +occupies the dunce's block quite regularly," Vincent retorted, with a +provoking significance that set mamma in a brown study and suspended the +comments on Kate's and Jack's probable sentiments. + +Mrs. Sprague and Wesley were the only people in the house who had no +suspicion of a deeper feeling than mere passing goodfellowship between +Jack and Kate. Both were blinded by the same confidence. The mother +could never conceive a son of the house of Sprague making such a breach +on the family traditions as a union with a Boone. Wesley could not +conceive a sister of his giving her heart to the son of a family that +had insolently refused to concede social equality to her father. +Something of Wesley's miserable inner unrest could not fail to be +visible to the Atterburys, but the less congenial he became the more +watchfully considerate they made their treatment of him. He was their +guest, with all the sacred rights and immunities that quality implies, +in the exaggerated code of the Southern host. Kate was the single power +that Wesley had bent his headstrong will before, ever since he was a +boy. His father he obeyed, while in his presence, trusting to wheedling +to make his peace in the event of disobedience. But Kate he +couldn't wheedle. + +She was relentless in her scorn for his meannesses and follies, and, +though he did not always heed her counsels, he proved their justness by +finding his own course wrong. Kate, however, hesitated about +remonstrating with him on his deepening moodiness, for she was not quite +sure whether it was mad jealousy of Dick's favor in Rosa's eyes, or a +secret purpose to attempt to fly from the gentle bondage of Rosedale. +Wesley with Rosa it was remarked by Kate, was, or seemed to be, his +better self, or rather better than the self with which others identified +him. It was, however, she feared, more to torment Dick, than because she +found Wesley to her liking, that the little maid often carried the moody +captain off into the garden, pretending to teach him the varied flora of +that blooming domain. Dick remarked these excursions with growing +impatience, and visited his anger upon Rosa in protests so pungent and +woe-begone that she was forced to own to him that she only pretended an +interest in the captain, so that he might not think he was shut out of +the confidence of the circle. + +"And who cares if he does think he is shut out, I should like to know? +He is a sneak, and I don't like to have you talking with him alone," +Dick cries, quite in the tone of the Benedict who has passed the +marriage-portal and feels safe to make his will known. + +"I should like to know what right you have to order what I shall or +shall not do?" Rosa protests, half angry, half laughing. "Why, you talk +like a grown man--like a husband. How dare you?" + +Dick pauses confused, and looks guiltily about at this. + +"Ah, if you put it that way I have no right except this: My whole heart +is yours. You know that. You may not have given me all yours." +(Protesting shrug from Rosa's shoulders.) "Well, all the same; if my +heart is all your own you have a duty in the case. You ought to spare +your own property from pain." (Rosa laughs softly.) "Of course you are +right. You are always right. How could such a beautiful being be wrong!" +The artful rogue slips his arm about her waist at this, and, after a +feeble struggle, he is permitted to hold this outwork unprotested. + +"And, Rosa, if I speak like a man, it is because I am a man. Wasn't it +the part of maids in the old times to inspire the arm of their +sweethearts; to make them constant in danger, brave in battle, and +patient in defeat? Are you less than any of the damsels we read of in +chivalry? Am I not a man when I look in your dear eyes and see nothing +worldlier than love, nothing earthlier than truth there?" + +"What a blarney you are! I must really get Vint to send you away, or he +will have a Yankee brother-in-law." + +"And the Perleys will have a rebel at the head of the house." + +Now, this silly prattle had been carried on in the arbor near the +library, and Wesley, sitting under the curtain, had heard every word of +it. Neither the words nor the unmistakable sounds that lips meeting lips +make, which followed, served to soothe his angry discontent. This was +early on the great Davis gala day, and thereafter he disappeared from +the scene. He made one of the party to Williamsburg, and, though +distraught in the conversation, was keenly alert to all he saw. + +Rallied upon his reticence, he had snubbed Kate and turned disdainfully +from Jack's polite proffers to guide him through the review. He had +studied Davis all through the manoeuvres with a furtive, fascinated +attention, which Mrs. Atterbury remarked with complacency, attributing +it to awe. At the dinner-table, seated between Kate and Merry, he had +never taken his eye from the chief of the Confederacy. Twice the +President, courteously addressing him, he had blushed guiltily and +dropped his gaze. Before the dinner was half over he pleaded a severe +headache, and, bidding his hostess good-night, hurried from the room. +The wide hall was deserted; the moon threw broad swaths of light on the +cool matting, and he halted for an instant, breathing rapidly. Something +lying on the rug at the door moved languidly. Wesley, looking carefully +about, moved swiftly to the spot and stopped. Pizarro raised his head, +whining amicably, and, as Wesley bent over to pat him, wagged his tail +with a spasmodic thud against the floor, in sign of goodfellowship. + +"Come, Pizarro, come with me," Wesley said, coaxingly. But the dog, +redoubling the tattoo with his tail, remained obstinately at his post. +Wesley stole to the end of the hall and listened, then, hearing the busy +clamor of the servants moving from the kitchen to the dining-room, he +retraced his steps to the stairs, bounded lightly up and in three +minutes reappeared, and, keeping his eyes on the half-closed doors, +slipped softly to Pizarro. The dog sniffed excitedly, and as Wesley took +a thick parcel from his coat-pocket the beast leaped up and attempted +to seize it. + +"Follow me, Pizarro, and you shall have it." He held up the packet, a +red, glistening slice of raw beef. The dog whined ecstatically and +Wesley, holding a morsel of it just out of his reach, retreated up the +stairs. Pizarro bounded after him as if construing the by-play into a +challenge, and frisking in all sorts of fantastic shapes to win the +savory prize. The door of Wesley's room was open, and as the dog came +abreast of it he flung a piece into the apartment. Pizarro, lowering his +sniffing nose, looked at the tempting bit sidewise, and then wagging his +tail in modest deprecation of his boldness, made a start inward. It was +swallowed in an instant, and then, as Wesley entered, the door was +closed. Pizarro, by the humility of his manner, the lowered head and +sidelong glance, asked pardon for intruding upon the privacy of a guest, +but argued with his ears and by short yelps, in extenuation, that such a +feast as a bit of meat--after an active day, when the servants had +forgotten to feed him--no dog with a healthy appetite could resist, no +matter how perfect his breeding. He was ready for the larger ration +Wesley held in his hand. + +Wesley held the temptation in his hand until he had lured the dog into a +large closet communicating with the bedroom by a locked door. Once in, +the door was shut, and the young man sank on a seat in a thrill of +grateful relief. + +"That danger's over," he muttered. "Now to see who is in the upper +rooms." + +Perfect silence on the upper floor; only the solemn shadows of the +night, as the moon rises higher and higher, and the plaintive cries of +the night-birds alone betoken life. Through the windows the +white-jacketed house-servants are rushing gayly to and from the +dining-room. All the rooms are dimly lighted. The President's apartment +is fragrant with blossoms, and the lace counterpane turned down. +Retracing his steps, Wesley enters Vincent's room on the corridor with +his own. The candle is burning dimly on the mantel. He seems to know his +whereabouts very well for he makes straight for a bureau between the bed +and the window. He takes from the top drawer a pistol-case, which he has +evidently handled before, as he touches the spring at once. He takes out +one pistol, and, rapidly extracting the loads, puts it back. He has +taken four out of the five barrels of the second when a sound of +footsteps in the hall startles him. He has barely time to replace the +weapons, close the case, put it in the drawer and crawl under the bed, +when Vincent and Jack enter. + +His suspense and terror are so overmastering that he can only hear an +occasional word. His own heart-beats sound in his ears like the thumping +of a paddle. Is Vincent going to bed? Are Jack and he going to sit and +smoke, as they often do? No, relief beyond words, they are going out! +Perhaps to Jack's room? They often sit there until very late, and then +Vincent slips in stocking-feet to his own room. But they are gone, and +he must fly. He dares not return to extract the last charge. But one +ball can't do much hurt in the dark, and, if his plans are carried out +with care, there will be no chance for any one to use the weapons on the +rescuing party, even if he were disposed to. In a moment Wesley is back +in his room, marking, with surprise, that there is no sound from Jack's +or Dick's room. But all is well. He is in his own room and secure +from surprise. + +He sat down to think. He must keep everything in mind. One whippoorwill +cry from outside would mean that all was well; two that he must hurry to +the rendezvous. It seemed like a dream. Davis, the arch-rebel, the chief +architect of the Confederacy, under the same roof; in an hour, if no +hitch come, the traitor would be bound and flying in trusty Union hands. +And when they got North?--when he, Wesley Boone, handed over to the +authorities in Washington this hateful chief of a hateful cause, what +fame would be his! No one could dispute it. He had informed Butler's +agent; he had watched day and night; had given the Unionists plans of +the grounds; was now periling his own rescue to bring the arch-traitor +to his doom. Ah! what in all history would compare with this glorious +daring? He sat glowing in dreams of such delicious, roseate delight, +that he took no heed of time, and was startled when he heard Dick and +Jack bidding each other good-night. Then in a few minutes be heard +Jack's door open and a tap at Dick's door. + +"Come to my room. I want to show you a present I got to-night." Then +silence. Wesley had no watch. The rebels had relieved him of that at +Bull Run. But it must be quite midnight. He opened one of the windows +softly. Oh, the glory of the night, harbinger of his high emprise, his +deathless glory! The wondrous, wondrous stillness of the scene--and to +think that over yonder, in the dark depths of the forest, fifty, perhaps +a hundred, men were waiting for him--for him? Yes, the mighty arms of +the Union were about him; the trump of a fame, such as no song had ever +sung, was poised to blow to the world his daring. Hark! Heavens, yes; +the long, tender plaint of the whippoorwill. Ah! now, now there was no +doubt. In swooning delight he waits. Good Heaven! What's that sound? +Angels and ministers of grace, the dead in wailing woe over the deed +about to be done? Ah! he breathes. + +Pizarro has grown tired of imprisonment and has set up an expostulatory +wail, facetiously impatient at first, but now breaking into sharp yelps. +This will never do. He must stop that ear-splitting outcry, or the +househould will be awakened. That sharp-eyed, razor tongued young devil, +Dick, is just across the hall. Wesley opens the closet door, and Pizarro +bounds out, licking his jailer's hands in grateful acknowledgment. He +frisks, appealing to the room door, inviting the further favor of being +permitted to go to his post, his wagging tail explaining how necessary +it is that a dog intrusted with such important duties as the +guardianship of the household can not suffer the casual claims of +friendlessness or the comity of surreptitious feeding to lure him into +infidelity. The tail proving ineffectual in argument, Pizarro +supplemented its eloquence by sharp admonitory yelps, tempered by a +sharp _crescendo_ whining, of which he seemed rather proud as an +accomplishment. + +"Damn the brute! He will ruin everything. I must kill him." But how? He +had no weapon. He looked about the room in gasping terror--the dog +accepting the move as a sign that the eloquence of the tail argument had +proved overpowering, supplemented this by an explosion of ecstatic yelps +of a deep, bass volume, that murdered the deep silence of the night, +like salvos of pistols. The curtains to the windows were held in place +by stout dimity bands. Whispering soothingly to the dog, Wesley knotted +four of these together, and, making as if to open the door, slipped the +bands like a lasso over the head of the unsuspecting brute. In an +instant his howls were silenced. The dog, with protruding tongue and +eyes--that had the piteous pleading and reproach of the human, looked up +at him, bloodshot and failing. But now the second signal must be near! +He may have missed it in the infernal howling of the brute. Yes, that +was it. He looks out of the window; his room is in view of the covered +way to the kitchen. He sees moving figures; he hears voices. They are +there. He has missed the signal; he must hasten to them. He puts out the +lights and opens the door cautiously. All is invitingly, reassuringly +still. He is at the hall door in a minute, in another he is with the +shadows in the rear of the house. + +"Jones, is it you?" + +"Ah, captain, we are waiting for ropes to secure the prize." + +"There is no time to wait. The dog has made such a noise that I didn't +hear your signal. I saw you from my window. Come, we must not lose a +minute, for I couldn't fasten the brute very well. Davis is here, and we +have only to take him from his room. The cavalry went about eleven; I +heard them march away an hour ago." + +"Now, give me the exact situation here, that there may be no surprise. +How many men are we likely to encounter in the event of a fracas?" + +"Counting Davis and Lee, four in the house. How near the orderlies and +guards are you know better than I. Besides Davis, there's Jack Sprague, +young Atterbury, and Dick--but he don't count." + +"No! Why?" + +"He is not over his wound, and besides he's but a boy. They had two +pistols loaded, but I managed to draw all the charges except one. So +that if Jack and Atterbury should come to the rescue they could do +no damage." + +"They sleep at this end of the house?" + +"Yes, and our work is at the other." + +"Well, then, in that case I will get ladders I saw near the +carriage-house and put them up to Davis's window as a means of escape in +case these young men get after us before we finish the job. Even with +their unloaded pistols, two full grown men and the boy could +make trouble." + +He called Number Two and gave him orders to place a ladder at each of +the two windows of Davis's room, and to have a man at the top of +each--armed. When the men had hurried away, Jones continued: + +"Here's a pistol for you. It is a six-shooter bull-dog, and will do sure +work. Now move on to the stairway; others will join us in a moment. +You're sure you know Davis's room? It would be mighty awkward to poke +into any of the others." + +"Yes; everybody in the house was taken to see it. It is the old lady's +room, occupied by mother and daughter, generally; but given up to the +President for the night." + +They are in the hall, stealing softly over the thick matting; they are +in the broad corridor--running the whole length of the house--Jack's, +Olympiads, Dick's, and Kate's rooms all behind them--southward. Wesley, +with Jones touching his right arm and Number Two at his left, is moving +slowly, silently northward to the left of the stairs. + +"Great God! What was that?" + +A sound as of a clattering troop of cavalry, the neighing of horses in +the grounds! Wesley halted, trembling, dismayed. + +"That's all right," Jones whispered, "I ordered the stables opened so +that the horses wouldn't be handy, if any one should happen to be at +hand who felt like pursuing us, or going for the cavalry." + +"It was a mistake; the horses will arouse the house. We must hurry." + +In a moment they were before the door of the Davis room. Wesley raised +the latch. It was an old-fashioned fastening. Number Two was directed to +stand at the threshold while Wesley and Jones secured Davis. + +Now they are in the room. There is no sound; but from the open window, +looking upon the carriage-road, there is the tramping of horses, +drowning all sounds in the room. They are nearly to the large canopied +bed between the open windows, when Jones, who is nearest, discovers a +startled apparition half rising from the bed. He is discovered by the +figure at the same instant, and a piercing scream, so loud, prolonged, +and ear-splitting that it echoes over the house, ends the wild dream of +the marauders. Wesley reels in panic. But Jones is an old campaigner. If +he can't have victory, there must be no recapture. He rushes at the +white figure, and snatches--Rosa, limp, nerveless, and swooning! + +"See who's in the bed!--I'm damned if you haven't brought us to the +wrong room--see, quick!" + +But there was no necessity for seeing. Mrs. Atterbury uttered a stifled +cry: "Help! help! murder!" + +"You, Boone, know the place; stand by me and I'll see that we are not +nabbed; but you've made a nice mess of the affair." + +But the comments of the indignant Jones were suddenly drowned in a +blood-curdling sound in the doorway: the savage, suppressed growl of a +dog, and the responsive imprecations of Number Two. With this came the +apparition of two figures, at sight of which Jones darted to the window, +the two figures, Jack and Dick, following to his right and left. + +"Save your powder, whoever you are. Fire at me, and you hit the young +woman. I don't know who she is, but her body is my protection." Saying +this, Jones coolly, determinedly retreated backward to the window; but +Dick, hardly hearing, and certainly not comprehending, had come within +arm's length of the two, somewhat to the left of Jones. + +"Don't fear, Rosa," Dick exclaimed, between his teeth. "I can see you. +Ah, ah!" Then four reports, that sounded as one, split the air. + +Rosa broke from the thick cloud of smoke as a fifth report rang out, and +a scream of death went up between the bed and the door where Jack stood. + +At the instant Dick spoke, Jack, in the doorway, heard an exclamation at +his side. He half turned, and as he did so his eye caught the outlines +of a man, with a shining something raised in the air, coming toward him +from the bedside. He pointed his own pistol at the figure, there were +three simultaneous reports, and the oncoming figure fell with a hoarse +cry of pain. The man at Jack's back now cried: + +"Get through the window; they're coming through the house!" + +"It's only a dog; come on." + +Then there was a sound of flying feet in the wide passage. + +"Are you hurt, Rosa? Tell me--did they hit you? Speak, oh, speak!" It +was Dick's voice, in a convulsive sob. Now, the boy again, that +danger was gone. + +Jack meanwhile had struck a match, and soon found the candles on the +night-table near the bed. There was, at the same instant, the audible +sound of scurrying along the passage. He ran out. The man assailed by +the dog had reached the head of the stairs. As Jack got half-way down +the corridor, man and dog disappeared over the balustrade. When he +reached the hall the dog was inside, growling furiously, the door was +closed and the man gone. Jack opened the door. Pizarro bounded out, and +Jack followed. The dog stopped a moment, sniffed the ground, and made +for the kitchen. A loud bark, followed by a ferocious growl, and a +scream of mortal pain broke on the air; then a pistol-shot, and a long, +pitiful gasp, and silence. + +"Well, that dog won't trouble any one now," Jack heard, and the voice +made his hair rise into bristling quills. + +"Barney!" he cried; "Barney Moore, is that you?" + +"It is; no one else. If I'm not drunk or dreaming, that's my own Jack. +God be praised!" + +"How in Heaven's name did you get here?" + +"I might ask you the same question, but you have priority of query, as +they say in court. I came here first to help rescue Captain Wesley +Boone, and second to capture his rebel Excellency Jeff Davis." + +"O my God! my God! Barney, Barney, tell me all, and tell me quickly!" + +Barney told all he knew, and told it rapidly, Jack catching his arm +almost fiercely, as the miserable truth began to define itself in his +whirling senses. Then the meaning of the two marauders in the ladies' +apartments became plain. Jack and Barney were hurrying toward the +chamber as the latter talked, Jack filled with an awful fear. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +THE STORY OF THE NIGHT. + + +Now, the timely--or untimely--appearance of Jack and Dick in the crisis +of the plot came about in this way: Dick, on returning from Jack's room, +had remarked, with quickening suspicion, a gleam of light under Wesley's +door. Perhaps he is ill, the boy thought, compunctiously; if he were, he +(Dick) ought to offer his services. He started to carry this kind +thought into effect, when he heard suspicious sounds in the room. Some +one was moving. He waited, now in alert anticipation. The plaintive +signal of the whippoorwill--bringing passionate energy to +Wesley--reached Dick's ears; he heard the opening of the window; then +silence. Could Wesley be descending thence to the ground? He blew out +his candle, drew the curtain, and cautiously raised the window. No; +Wesley was not getting out. Then the sound of the Pizarro episode came +dimly through the walls. He thought the dog's expostulatory growls a +voice. There was someone in the room with Wesley. Perhaps it was Kate. +It wouldn't do to act until he was sure that his suspicions were a +certainty. Besides, Jack had warned him not to interfere, with a mere +escape on Wesley's part, unless it seemed to involve depredations upon +the Atterburys. Then he heard the faint sound of the scuffle, when +Wesley throttled the compromising mastiff. Should he slip over and warn +Jack? He was moving toward the door, when, through the stillness of the +night, a sound came up from the direction of the quarters. He ran +lightly to the window again. His eyes, now accustomed to the darkness in +his room, distinguished clearly in the pale starlight. He thrilled with +a sudden sensation of choking. Yonder, stealing houseward from the +rose-gardens, he could plainly discern two--four--six--moving figures. +Heavens, the slaves were out! There was to be a servile uprising. Now he +must go and warn Jack; but he must note first whither the assassins were +directing their attack. Perhaps, with the aid of Jack's pistols, they +could be frightened away by a few shots from the windows. He ran +noiselessly to Jack's room, to his bed, and whispered in his +sleeping ear: + +"Jack, make no noise; dress yourself and come. The negroes are +surrounding the house, and Wesley is in mischief." + +Jack was awake and in his clothes in a few seconds. He handed Dick one +of the pistols, and, armed with the other, hastened toward Wesley's +room. The door was open and all was silent. Dick looked in hastily, +marked the open window, and exclaimed: + +"He is gone! Come to my room. I know exactly where to locate them from +my window; it is nearer the point they halted at than Wesley's." + +Yes; figures were moving swiftly against the trellised walls that led to +the kitchen. They moved, too, with the precision of people thoroughly +acquainted with the place. Then some one appeared swiftly from under the +shadow of the house; then three came toward it and passed under the +veranda near Wesley's window. Jack leaned far out to discover what this +diversion meant. At the same instant the sounding gallopade of hoofs +came from the tranquil roadway leading to the stables. The shrill whinny +of horses broke on the air. + +"They are mounted. There are a score of them!" Jack cried, desperately. +"We can at least keep them out of the house." + +"We can, if Wesley hasn't opened the doors to them," Dick said, +shrewdly. + +"That's a fact. But is it sure Wesley is not in his room? Bring matches +and let us examine it." + +There was no sign of Wesley in the room. The cool night air poured in +from the open window. + +"Draw the curtain before you strike the match," Jack whispered. "We must +not let a light be seen from the outside." + +"But the curtains are thin, the light will shine through." + +"Sh! Come here. By Heaven, it is Wesley, and he is dead! No--the +devil!--it is Pizarro--dead! Kneel down and strike a match, keeping +between the light and the window. One glance will be enough." + +One glimpse revealed the dog with distended tongue and half-glazed eyes, +but still alive. Jack loosed the band from the neck. The dog gave a +convulsive thrill and uttered a plaintive moan. + +"Set a basin of water down here. He may recover. Poor fellow! This was a +cruel return for his kindness to Wesley," Jack said, forcing the dog's +nose into the basin. He began to lap the cool water greedily. But now +Dick, in the doorway, littered a cry. + +"They are in the house. I hear them moving in the vestibule. Come, for +God's sake, Jack! They are making for Mrs. Atterbury's apartment. +Evidently some one who knows that the family jewels are there, for what +else can they want?" + +The dog staggered to his feet as the two stole softly from the room. +They followed with high-wrought, loudly-beating hearts and tingling +nerves. The marauders in front of them moved on like men accustomed to +the house. They made, as the light footfalls indicated, straight for +Mrs. Atterbury's door, which, unlike the others, fronted the length of +the hall in a small vestibule sunk into the lateral wall. The invaders +were thus screened from Jack and Dick when they had turned the corner, +and the latter were forced to move with painful caution to get the +advantage of surprise to offset superior numbers. But now a new peril +menaces them. A shuffling in the long corridor behind them freezes the +current of their blood. They have been caught in a trap. There are two +forces in the house. They both turn and halt, silent and trembling, +against the south wall and wait. The steps still advance, the scraping +of the nailed boots tears the light matting. + +"We will wait until the new-comer or new-comers are abreast," Jack +breathes in Dick's ear, "and then fire a volley into them point blank." + +At the instant Rosa's shriek, blood-curdling and electric, breaks from +the corner. Dick is over the intervening steps in two mighty bounds, +Jack at his heels and the foe in the rear following. Against the open +window Dick catches the outlines of his darling in the brawny arms of +Tarquin. He has the advantage of the light, and, as the ruffian retreats +to the window, Dick is at his side, and in an instant deals him a +stunning blow on the head. Jack, in the dim light, sees the dark figure +dashing at him with the gleam of steel in his hand. He levels his +weapon, three reports ring out at once, and the miserable Wesley falls +with a dreadful gurgling gasp on the floor. + +But there are interlopers in the rear as well! Jack turned to confront +them. He realized vaguely hearing a struggle as he confronted the +robbers. Ah! yes, the dog; the dog has come upon the scene. There is +sound of low, fierce, growling, flying footsteps on the floor, and Jack, +assuring himself by a quick glance that there were no more marauders in +the room, hurried to see that the front door was closed before +re-enforcements could come to the invaders. But Pizarro's lusty growls, +denoting recovered strength, attracted him kitchenward, and he +encountered Barney, and with Barney something of a clew to the hideous +attempt. One prayer was in his heart--one hope--that Wesley had escaped; +but with shuddering horror he hastened with Barney back to the scene of +blood and death. The great candelabra on the mantel had been lighted, +and the room was visible as in daylight. Jack halted, transfixed, +horror-stricken, in the doorway. The women in hastily snatched robes +were all there, and on the floor, wailing over the dead body of Wesley, +Kate sat, prone and disheveled, calling to him to look at her, to speak +to her, as she kissed the cold lips in incredulous despair. She paid no +heed to Mrs. Atterbury, to Olympia, kneeling beside her--all her heart, +all her senses benumbed in the agony of the cruel blow. Jack moved to +the piteous group, and, dropping on his knees, felt the lifeless pulse, +and sank back, pale and shrinking, with the feeling that he was a +murderer. Mrs. Atterbury turned to him, crying convulsively: + +"Oh, what does it mean, Mr. Sprague? what does it mean?" + +"It is a dreadful game of cross-purposes. These unhappy men believed Mr. +Davis to be in this room when they entered. They meant to capture him +and carry him North." + +"Ah, thank God! thank God! who carried our President away in time," and +the matron clasped her hands fervently as she sank in a chair. But the +sight of Kate, woe-begone, feverishly caressing the dead brother, +brought the tenderer instincts back. She rose again, and, clasping her +arms about the poor girl, said pleadingly: + +"Let him be carried to his room; you are covered with blood." + +"Ah, it is his blood, his innocent blood! Murdered, when he should have +found merry." + +Jack found tongue now. He was hideously calm--the frightful calm of +great-hearted men, who use mirth, levity, and indolency to hide emotion. + +"Miss Boone--Kate it was perhaps the shot from my pistol that killed +Wesley. I did it in defense of women in peril, in defense of my own +life. It was an accident in one sense. Had I known the circumstances I +certainly shouldn't have fired, but you must put the blame on me, not +upon this guiltless household." + +She looked up at him--looked with a wild, despairing, unbelieving gaze, +pressing the handsome dead face to her bosom, and then, with a wild, +wailing sob, bent her head until the shining dark mass of hair fell like +a funeral veil over her own and the dead face. Rosa, who had disappeared +in the dressing-room, now entered the chamber. Turning from the woful +group on the floor, she glanced hastily about, as if in search of some +one. Her eyes fell upon Dick, dazed and bleeding, on the couch. She ran +to him with a tender cry. + +"O Richard! are you hurt? Great heavens! your face is all blood. You are +wounded. O mamma, come--come--Richard is dying!" + +The boy tried his best to smile, holding his hand over his left side, as +if stifling pain. He smiled--a bright, contented happy smile--as Rosa +knelt, sobbing, by his side, and, opening his jacket, baring the +blood-stained shirt, plucked a purplish rose from the bleeding bosom. + +"The white rose is red now, Rosa." + +"Oh, my darling! my darling!" Rosa sobbed; and the boy, smiling in the +joy of it, tried to raise himself to fold her in his arms. But the long +tension had been too much--he fell back unconscious. + +Olympia saw that Mrs. Atterbury, the natural head of the house, was +unequal to the dismal burden of control. She took the painful duty of +order upon herself, sent Jack to summon the servants, called Barney to +her aid in removing Dick to his room, and, when the terrified housemaids +came, distributed the rest to the nearest apartments. Morning had dawned +when the work was done, and then Jack set out to investigate the +condition of the quarters. Twenty or more of the negroes had +disappeared. It was easy to trace them to the swamp, but Jack made no +attempt to organize a pursuit. Blood could be traced on the white shell +path leading to the rose-fields, and the pond gate was wide open. He +reported the state of affairs to Mrs. Atterbury. She begged him to take +horse to Williamsburg, bring the surgeon, and deliver a note to the +commanding officer. He returned in two hours with the surgeon, and a +half-hour later a cavalry troop clattered into the grounds. + +Dick's wound was first examined. The ball had entered the fleshy part of +his chest, just under the armpit. It was readily extracted, and, if so +much blood had not been lost, the boy would not be in serious danger. +Wesley had died almost instantly. The ball entered his breast just above +the heart. He had passed away painlessly. Jones was shot through the +right shoulder, the ball passing clear across the breast, grazing the +upper ribs, and lodging just above the left lung. He was, by Mrs. +Atterbury's command, removed to the quarters and delivered to the +commander of the cavalry troop as a spy, an inciter of servile +insurrection. By order of the department commander, civilians were +refused all communication with him, as the Davis cabinet meant to make a +stern example so soon as he was able to bear trial. Mrs. Atterbury +announced to Jack and Olympia that so soon as Dick could bear removal +the house would be closed and the family return to Richmond. They heard +this with relief, for the place had become hideous to all now. To Jack +it was a reminder of his misfortune, and to every one of the group it +was associated with crime, treason, and blood. The hardest part of poor +Jack's burden was the seizure of Barney, who was marched off by the +cavalry commander. Vincent gone, Jack had no one to reach the ear of +authority, and he shrank from asking the intervention of the mistress +whose home had been invaded by the guiltless culprit. The case was +stated with all the eloquence Jack was master of to the captain +in command. + +"You are a soldier, sir," the officer replied. "You know I have no +latitude in the matter. This Moore has no status as a regular prisoner +of war; he is found on the premises of a non-combatant aiding servile +insurrection. Even President Davis himself could not intervene. The +Southern people are deeply agitated by Butler's attempts to arouse the +negroes. We have been weakened, robbed by the abduction of hundreds +right here on the Peninsula. The gang that Moore came here with was led +by this scoundrel Jones, who is Butler's agent. A very vigorous example +must be made of these wretches, or the country-side will be deserted and +the government will be without produce. We must inspire confidence in +the owners of plantations, or the soldiers in the army will have to come +back to guard their homes." + +Jack saw the futility of further pleading. The officer was +unquestionably right. Such scenes as Rosedale had witnessed would end in +the desertion of the rural regions of the Confederacy. At Mrs. +Atterbury's urgent intercession Kate was permitted to leave the lines +with her dead. She was conducted to the rebel outposts in the Atterbury +carriage, and under a flag of truce entered the Union lines near +Hampton. Olympia accompanied her in the carriage, Jack riding with the +escort. Kate refused every suggestion to see Jack; refused his own +prayerful message, and sternly, solemnly with her dead passed from the +scene of her sorrows. + +Youth and something else stronger than medicine, more tenacious than any +other motive that keeps the life-current brisk and vigorous, made Dick's +recovery swift and sure. Rosa had no torments for him now. The blood-red +rose had proved a magician's amulet to confirm her mind in the sweet +teachings of her heart. But the patrician mother was with difficulty +brought to listen to the tying of this love-knot. She had looked forward +to a grand alliance for the heiress of Rosedale--an alliance that should +bring the family high up in the dominant hierarchy of the South. She +listened silently to the young girl's pleading prattle of the boy's +bravery, his wit, his manliness. She did not say no, but she hoped to +find a way to distract her daughter from a _mesalliance_, which would +not only diminish her child's rank, but compromise the family +politically. Such a sacrifice could not be. Fortunately, both were mere +children, and the knot would unravel itself without perplexities that +maturer love would have involved. So the mother smiled on the happy +girl, kissed Dick tenderly morning and night, for he had been a hero in +their defense, and she was too kindly of heart, too loyal to obligation, +to permit Dick's attitude of suitor to lessen her fondness and +admiration for the bright, handsome lad. Olympia was the confidante of +both the lovers, listened with her usual good-humor to the boy's +raptures and the girl's panegyrics, and soon came to share Jack's high +place in the happy lovers' devotion. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A CARPET-KNIGHT. + + +Jack meanwhile sank into incurable gloom. The memory of Kate's mute, +reproachful look, her heart-broken outcry, never quitted him. He woke at +times with the dead eyes of Wesley staring into the night at him, the +convicting gaze of Kate fastened upon him. He must fly, or he must die +in this abhorred, guilt-haunted atmosphere. Olympia saw this, Mrs. +Atterbury saw it, and the first week in November Rosedale was turned +over to the military and the household re-established in the stately +house in the official quarter of Richmond, where the bustle and movement +of new conditions gave Jack's mind another direction, or, rather, took +it from the bitter brooding that threatened madness. + +When the sun accepted the wind's challenge to contest for the traveler's +cloak, I dare say all the spectators of the novel highway robbery--the +moon, the stars, the trees, birds and beasts, and others that the fable +does not mention--took odds that the wind would snatch off the +wayfarer's garment in triumph. However, the wind whipped and thrashed +the poor man in vain. The stronger it blew and the more it walloped the +cloak's folds, the tighter and more determinedly the traveler held on to +it, as he plodded wearily over the hillside. But when the sun came +caressingly, inspiring gentle confidence, bathing the body in warm +moisture, the tenacious hold was relaxed, then the disputed coat was +thrown over his arm, and as the vista spread far away in golden light, +the victim cast the garment by the wayside and the sun came off victor. +Youth is despoiled of the garment of grief in this sort. Congenial +warmth, the sunshine of friendliness, soon relax the mantle of woe, and +the path that looks wintry and hard becomes a way of light and gayety. + +It was by mingling--at first perfunctorily--in the gayety of the +Confederate capital that Jack lost the melancholy in which the tragedy +at Rosedale had clothed his spirits. At worst, the calamity was over; he +had been a guiltless vengeance in the punishment of Wesley's treason. So +he took bond in hope of better things to come. With a stout heart, +strong limbs, a plowman's appetite, and a natural bent to joyousness, a +youth of twenty-two or three is not apt to mistake his memories for his +hopes and hang the horizon in black when the sun is shining in his eyes! + +Richmond, always the center of a fascinating society, was at that time +exuberant in her young metropolitan glories. It was the gayest capital +in the Western hemisphere. To resist its seductions would have tasked +the self-denial of a more constant anchorite than our dashing Jack ever +aspired to be, in the lowest stage of his martial vicissitudes. There +was nothing of the garishness of the parvenu in the capital's display. +The patrician caste ruled in camp and court. The walls that had echoed +to the oratory of Jefferson, Henry, Washington, Randolph, now housed the +young Congress of the new Confederacy. An hundred years of political, +military, legal, and social precedence were the inheritance of the men +chief in the cabinet, the council, and the camp. Stirring traditions +clung about every quarter of the town, now devoted to the offices of +administration, from the Mayo wharves to the lodgings of Washington and +Lafayette. On the stately square yonder, where the musing eye of the +rebel chief might study its history, stood the suggestive mansion where +Burr's treason was brought home to that first great rebel. + +Not far distant the disdainful pointed out the tenement where Fremont +had instructed the Richmond youth in far other doctrines than those +which made him the abolitionist choice for President in after-times. +Royalist and republican glories mingled in the reliquary edifices that +met the wondering eyes of the provincial Confederates drawn to the +capital in the generous enthusiasm of that first prodigious achievement +at Bull Run. Here a royal Governor had dwelt, yonder a Bonaparte had +sojourned and beguiled the famous beauties of Powhatan, as the +patriarchs loved to call the city. A Lee was the chief of the military +staff, a Randolph ruled the war office; scions of the Washingtons family +filled a dozen subordinate places; the kin of Patrick Henry revived +their ancestor's glory by as zealous a devotion to the new revolution. +With personages like these in every office the society of the new +capital revived the brilliancy of the French Directory and also the +character of the States-General, while Holland held the Spains at bay. +The blockade had not yet pinched the affluent, nor beggared the +industries of the well-to-do. Always famous for a brilliant bar, a +learned judiciary, and a cultivated taste among its women, Richmond in +1861 was the ideal of a political, military, and social rendezvous of a +young nation. + +The raw legions had been victorious in the first pitched battle of the +war on the plains of Manassas, and what might not be reasonably hoped +from them under the training of such muster-minds as Johnston, +Beauregard, Jackson, and Lee? Wasn't it the common talk among diplomats, +the concurrent opinion of the French and English press, the despairing +admission of the half-hearted and panic-stricken North, that one more +such decisive victory would bring the South peace and independence? +Wasn't it, indeed, well known among the favored juntas that those +sagacious diplomats, Senators Mason and Slidell, had delayed their +journey to Europe in order to aid the President in the treaty of peace +that the victorious legions of Johnston were to exact in Washington? + +Jack was amazed and disheartened at what he saw and heard. The activity, +resources, gayety, and confidence of the authorities and people, +recalled to his mind, Oxford, the jocund capital of Charles II and the +royalists, while the Commonwealth leaders were drilling their armies. +But instead of the chaos of rapine, the wanton excesses, the pillage of +churches and colleges that marked the tenure of the miserable Charles, +Richmond was as orderly, serene, the Congress as deliberate, and the +people as content, as the Rome of the conquest of Persia or France after +Jemmapes. The army was hot for battle, and as confident of the result as +the Guard at Austerlitz or McClellan at Malvern. The work done and the +way of its doing showed that the populace, as well as the rulers, were +convinced of the destiny of the city to be henceforth mistress of +herself, the preordained metropolis of half the continent--perhaps the +whole continent--for, would the North be able to resist joining States +with a destiny so glorious--a regal republic where birth and rank were +tacitly enthroned? The city's greatness was taken by the mass, as a +matter of course--like an heir in chancery who has won all but the final +decree in the suit, or like a great nobleman who has come to his +inheritance. + +Though it was the first week of November when the Atterburys found home +affairs going on smoothly in the town-house, summer still disputed with +winter the short lovely days of fall, as Jack described the lingering +May-day mildness of this seductive Southern autumn. It was the first +season he had ever spent south of New York, and, like most Americans, he +realized, with wonder, that the wind which brought ice and snow to New +York, visited lower Virginia with only a sharp evening and morning +reminder that summer was gone. The balm and beauty of the climate came +with something of healing to the hurt his heart and hope had suffered at +Rosedale. If anything could have mitigated the pangs of a young warrior +perplexed in love and held in leash in war, it was such an existence as +the Atterburys inveigled him into leading. The part of carpet-knight is +not difficult to learn, and the awkwardness of it is to some extent +atoned for when the service is constrained. At least Jack took this +philosophical view of it, and soon gave himself up to the merry social +life of his surroundings with an animation that led his hosts to hope +that he might be won over to the Confederate cause. Very young men do +not sorrow long or deeply, and Jack was young. He was neither reckless +nor trifling, but I am sure that none of the adulating groups that made +much of the handsome Yankee in Richmond that season would have suspected +that the young man looked in his mirror night and morning, frowned +darkly at the reflected image he saw there, and said, solemnly, "You are +a murderer!" It was by no means a tragic accent in which this thrilling +apostrophe was spoken. It was very much in the tone that a woman employs +when she looks hastily in the mirror and utters a soft "What a fright I +am!" apparently receiving comforting contradiction enough from the +mirror to make the remark worth frequent repetition. + +As a matter of fact, however, Jack was not insensible to the awkward +complication of his predicament. Grief as a mantle is difficult to +adjust to the shoulders of the young. It is melted by the ardor of +companionship as swiftly as it is spun by the loom of adversity. His +interest in the strange scenes that the war brought to pass, his +association with people--intimate in a sense with the leading forces of +rebellion, the airs of incipient grandeur, these raw instruments of +government gave themselves--all these things engrossed the observant +faculties of the young man, who looked out upon the serio-comic +harlequinade playing about him as a hostage of the Roundheads might have +taken part in the showy festivities of the Cavaliers, in the years when +the chances of battle had not gone over wholly to the Puritans. Not that +the figure illustrates the contrasting conditions adequately. For, if +the South prided itself at all--and the South did pride itself +vauntingly, clamorously, and incessantly--it made its chief boast the +point that its people were the gentry of the land, and that under the +rebel banner the hosts of chivalry had assembled anew to make all manner +of fine things the rule of life. Jack, writing and talking of his few +months' experience, dwelt with wonder upon the curious ignorance of the +two peoples respecting each other. Mason and Dixon's line separated two +civilizations as markedly unlike as the peoples that confront each other +on either side the Vistula or the Baltic Sea. The hierarchy not only +seemed to love war for war's sake; they possessed that feudal facalty, +so incomprehensible in the middle ages, the power of making those who +suffered most by it believe in it too, and sacrifice themselves for it. + +The people--Jack sagaciously remarked, in discussing the topic with +Olympia--seemed made for such a climate, rather than made by it. They +would have been out of place in the bleak autumn blasts, and wan, +colorless seasons of Acredale, where the sun, bleary and dim, furtively +skirted the low horizon from November until April, as if ashamed to be +identified with the glorious courser that rode the radiant summer sky. +Here the sun came up of a morning--a little tardy, 'tis true, but quite +in the manner of the people--warm and engaging, and when he went down in +the afternoon he covered the western sky with a roseate mantle that +fairly kept out the chill of the Northern night. "No wonder," Jack said +to his sister, watching this daily spectacle--"no wonder these people +are warm, impulsive, and even energetic; here is an Italian climate +without the enervating languor of that sensuous sunshine." + +The Atterbury house was the gayest in Richmond. Mrs. Atterbury, though +the mother of a son in the army and a daughter with a coterie of her own +in society, insisted on maintaining the leadership she had long held +among the social forces of the capital. "All Richmond," and that meant a +good deal in a city whose women had been adored for beauty and wit on +two continents, received Mrs. Atterbury's bidding to her drawing-room +with proud alacrity. Never had her "teas," her _musicales_, her +receptions, and _fetes_ been merrier or more convivial than during this +memorable autumn that Jack and Olympia passed as prisoners of war. It +was generally believed that the brother and sister were occult agents of +the Federal power, negotiating with the Davis Cabinet, and Jack's +whimsical sobriety of speech and manner, contrasting with his former +high animal spirits, carried out the notion of his being a secret +ambassador. + +It was at a reception given to the Cabinet by Mrs. Atterbury that the +rumor of this accredited function came to Jack's ears. "All Richmond" +was among the guests. Olympia, in spite of her abhorrence of the cause, +couldn't resist a glow of sympathetic admiration of the women who, in +dress, in speech, in tact, in all the artifices which make feminine +diplomacy so potent an agency in statecraft, bent every faculty to +inspire confidence in the new Administration. Mrs. Davis herself was not +the least of the factors that made the President's policy the creed of +the land. There was no elaboration of costume--no obtrusive jewels. The +most richly dressed dame in the company was a Madame Gannat, the deity +of the most charming drawing-room at the capital. At her house society +was always sure to meet the European noblemen traveling in the country, +the _quasi_ official agents of France, England, and Austria, accredited +to the new Confederacy, the generals of the Southern armies on leave in +the city, and the political leaders able to snatch an evening's +relaxation. For some reason this potential personage let Olympia and +Jack see that she was deeply interested in them. She took the young +man's arm late in the evening, and whispering, "Find a place where we +can have a little talk," accompanied him to a small apartment joining a +conservatory, where Mrs. Atterbury transacted business with her agents. + +"You must take down a book, so that, in case the curious remark us, our +_tete-a-tete_ may not be regarded as conspiracy." + +"No one would be apt to associate you with such a thing," Jack said, +vaguely. + +"I don't know. Like all conspiracies, this Confederate comedy is +suspicious." + +"Comedy, Mrs. Gannat? Why, I never saw people so earnest! I can't +imagine the surroundings of Cromwell more methodic." + +"Ah, yes; those who have all to lose by the crash when it comes, are +bending every energy to impress the North that we are all of one mind +down here; we are not. I am talking frankly with you, because my friend +Mrs. Lanview has made me fully acquainted with your circumstances. I +have asked you for a talk here because I dare not have you at my house. +No one suspects my loyalty to this Davis masquerade; but there are many +of us who are doing, and shall do, all the better work for the Union +cause. You are just the man needed for a great work here; you are +believed to be secretly in favor of the Confederate cause--an +ambassador, in short. Now, the special purpose of this talk is this: The +men caught at Rosedale three weeks ago are to be tried before a military +court. If you and this young man Perley could escape before the event, +it would be impossible to convict them. Mrs. Lanview tells me that you +are very closely allied to the younger prisoner, Moore, and that for his +sake you will do all in your power to avoid testifying." + +"I will cut out my tongue before a syllable from me shall bring danger +to that noble fellow!" + +"Exactly. I expected as much. Now, can you not manage to inspire Perley +with the same sentiment? If you can, we feel confident that the court +will be unable to secure evidence sufficient to convict. I leave the +details to your own ingenuity. Your absence would deprive the +judge-advocate of the vital witnesses, but your refusal to testify would +only bring you into danger, and prolong the proceedings; and with time +we hope to effect an escape. Sh! As I say, Mr. Sprague, the heart of the +South beats with one impulse, the triumph of the noblest inspiration of +a great people." + +The warning and sudden change in topic were caused by the apparition of +a dame who came rustling in, a vision of youthful charms and +vivaciousness. + +"Mrs. Didier Rodney--Mr. Sprague," Mrs. Gannat said, cordially. "You are +sent by inspiration, for I am doing my poor best to convince this +obdurate Yankee to turn from evil courses and do a duty by the country +that will in future make his name illustrious." + +"And I have no doubt you have shaken his obstinacy, if there be any +left," Mrs. Rodney murmured, studying Jack attentively. "I have just +been dining at the Executive Mansion, and Mr. Davis, hearing your name, +lamented that women were not eligible to office. If they were, he +declared that Mistress Gannat should be appointed ambassadress to +France, and that, within ten days of her reception at the Tuileries, +there would be a treaty of alliance signed between France and the +Confederacy!" + +"I take that as rather an admission of weakness on your President's +part," Jack said, as the lady glanced inquiringly at him, "since it is a +poor cause that requires the strongest advocates." + +"Ah! a Southern man would never have said a thing so uncivil as that," +Mrs. Rodney cried, reproachfully. "You pay Mrs. Gannat a compliment at +the cost of the Confederacy." + +"And Mr. Davis paid me a compliment at the expense of the truth, so the +account is squared," the elder lady said, serenely. + +"Well, Mr. Davis is here himself by this time, and you shall talk it out +with him," Mrs. Rodney retorted, as a rustle at the door announced +new-comers. A half-dozen ladies came trooping in, among them Mrs. Davis +and several of the Cabinet ladies. + +"We heard you were here, Madame Gannat," the President's wife murmured, +graciously. "And since you wouldn't come to us, we have come to you." + +Mrs. Gannat arose to receive the great lady, and when she had exchanged +salutations with the rest she presented Jack. + +"Ah! the hero of the Rosedale affair," and as Mrs. Davis said this she +looked keenly at the young man. She was, he owned, an extremely graceful +woman, of a mature beauty, admirable manner, and, as she talked, he +remarked keen intelligence, with an occasional evidence of reading, if +not high education. She was dressed in simpler taste than her "court," +as it was the fashion then to style the Cabinet group. A few jewels were +half hidden in the rare lace that covered her bodice, but she was +ungloved, and in no sense in the full-dress understood in the North, at +a gathering of the sort. The talk became general. Jack, not knowing the +personages, simply listened. There was animated discussion as to whether +Mistress Judge this, and Mistress General that, or Mistress Senator the +other, would be in the capital in time for the opening of the new +Congress in December. + +"Mr. Davis is very anxious to have the occasion made a grand one, and I +reckon that every one of account in the Confederacy will he here." Mrs. +Davis said, with conviction. + +"The scene will be worthy of a great painting, like the Long Parliament, +or the meeting of the Three Estates, at Versailles," Mrs. Rodney added, +in a glow of anticipation. + +This amusing pedantry rather taxed the historical knowledge of most of +the ladies, and to divert the talk Mrs. Monteith, a Cabinet lady, said: + +"Who has read the account in the Yankee papers of Lincoln and his wife +at a reception of the diplomatic corps? It is too funny. The Lincoln +woman was a Southerner. She has some good blood, and ought to know +better. She was dressed like a dowdy, and when the ministers bowed she +gave them her hand and said, 'How d'ye do?'" + +"It will really be a liberal education, to the North to have a capital +like ours near them, where their public men can learn manners, and where +Northern ladies can see how to conduct themselves in public," Mrs. +Rodney broke in, laughing. "It is not often a great people go to war for +an idea, but we are taking up the gage of battle to teach our +inferiors manners." + +"We taught them how to run at Manassas," Mrs. Starlow, a Senator's dame, +remarked. + +"I'm afraid they have learned the lesson so well that we shall never +teach them how to stand," Mrs. Davis added, gayly. + +"Ah! friends, we are teaching each other how to die--let us not forget +that," Mrs. Gannat murmured, gently, and there was a sudden hush in the +exchange of vivacities. Before the strain could he renewed, Mrs. +Atterbury entered hastily, crying: + +"The gentlemen are all distracted. We are going to have an old-time +minuet, such as my mother used to dance with Justice Marshall and Tom +Mayo. The President is going to lead with Mistress Wendolph, and all the +rest of you are assigned, by command of the Executive." + +"Humph! a military despotism?" asked Mrs. Renfrew, a young bride of the +Executive Mansion, whose husband was confidential adviser of the +President. "I don't think I shall obey. I shall show the honesty of my +rebel blood by selecting my own partner, unless some one asks me +very humbly." + +"Shall I go on my knees, Mrs. Renfrew?--I know no humbler attitude," +Jack said, hastily presenting himself. + +"Oh, yes, sir; there is something humbler than the knees." + +"Yes? What, pray?" + +"Repentance. Deny your name; no longer be a Montague--that is, a Yankee. +Give me the hand of a rebel. Then I shall believe you." + +"I am a rebel." + +"Ah! you have been converted?" + +"I never was perverted." + +"You have been with us all the time?" + +"I have been here a long time!" + +"And you are a rebel. Oh, I must tell Mr. Davis!" + +"He knows it, I think." + +"Oh, no, he can not; for it was only a few moments since that he said to +Mrs. Atterbury that the son of Senator Sprague, the friend of Calhoun +and the comrade of Hayne, should be in the ranks of the young nobility +upholding our sacred cause." + +"I am, however, a rebel--a rebel to all these fascinations I see about +me, a rebel to your beauty, a rebel to all you desire." + +"Pah! you odious Yankee; I felt certain that you had not come to your +senses." + +"I don't think I ever lost them--though I never had enough to make such +a spirit as yours lament their loss." The rest of the ladies had passed +out; and, as this repartee went on. Jack led his petulant companion into +the large drawing-room, where he instantly recognized the President with +Mrs. Wendolph on his arm. He towered above the mass of the dancers, +eying the admiring groups with attentive scrutiny. He was in evening +dress, but, unlike the larger number of the eminent partisans in the +rooms, had no insignia, military or otherwise, to denote exalted rank. + +As the President was to lead off, to keep up the character of a court +minuet, the middle of the large room was left uncrowded. The music began +what Jack thought at first was a funeral march, but with the first bars +the tall, slender figure of the President bent almost double, while the +lady seemed fairly seated on the floor, she bent down and back so far. +She had adjusted a prodigious silken train, which swept and swirled in +many bewildering folds as she slowly turned, courtesied, tripped forward +and retreated, with such bending and twisting as would turn a +ballet-master mad with envy. In all the movement of the overture the two +dancers merely touched the tips of each other's fingers, and when the +solemn measure came to a close the President slid across the floor in +one graceful, immense pirouette, handing the lady who confronted him, +bent nearly to the ground, into her seat. There was an outburst of +applause, and then the assembly took places, repeating, in as far as the +mass would permit, the stately evolutions of the leader. + +Later, a Virginia reel followed, danced with old-time _verve_, some of +the more accomplished dancers bounding over the floor in pigeon-wings, +such as were cut by the nimble a hundred years ago, when Richmond danced +in honor of Washington and Lafayette. There was no end of drinking among +the men, and as soon as the dancing seemed at its height the matrons +began to gather into groups and send out signals to the younger ladies. +The feast ended in drinking-bouts between dispersed bodies, who seemed +to know the names of all the servants, and ordered as liberally as if in +their own houses. In the _melee_ of separation, Jack felt a hand on +his shoulder. + +"Remember, every moment is precious. Many lives, perhaps a great +campaign, depend upon your discretion, promptitude, and loyalty. Be +ready when the signal reaches you, and remember you do not know me +beyond the civility of a presentation, and do not like me." + +Jack had hardly turned as these words were whispered in his ear, and he +gave the kind lady's hand a warm pressure, as she moved away unremarked +in the throng. + +Jack, confiding Mrs. Gannat's disclosures to Olympia, was elated by his +sister's enthusiasm, and was strengthened in his conviction that he was +doing right by her approval. + +"But you know, Polly, that--I--I, too, must be of the party? I must fly +to the Union lines." + +"Of course you will! I should be ashamed of you were you to let such a +chance pass. It is the only thing to do; it is your duty as a soldier to +be with your flag; any means to get to it is justified. The Atterburys +will feel hurt, perhaps outraged, but I can soon convince them that you +have only done what Vincent would do, and whatever he would do they will +soon see is right for you to do, even though it may bring them into +temporary disgrace with the authorities. Of late I have begun to suspect +that the Atterburys are to blame for your detention." + +"What do you mean to blame? Surely they can not hasten the slow business +of negotiation?" + +"No; but I'm convinced that they have given out hopes that you can be +seduced into a soldier of secession. It is common talk in the +drawing-rooms I have visited, where I was not always recognized as your +sister. The silly tale has angered me, but for prudence sake I kept +silent. I have heard in a score of places that the Atterburys were +detaining you until another reverse to the Union arms should convince +you of the uselessness of remaining in the service of the +abolitionists." + +"O Polly, it must be a joke! They little know me, who could suspect me +of such dishonor! Surely the Atterburys can't think me so base as that. +What have I ever done to justify such a stigma?" + +"You wrong them there. They hold that you are wanting in loyalty to our +father's memory in espousing the cause of men who were his enemies--men +who strove to ruin his political life. It is in being a soldier of the +Union that they look upon you as recreant to the traditions of your +family and your party." + +"Well, I shall make a hard struggle for escape. If I fail, they will at +least see that I am in earnest--that I put country before family or +party, or anything else that men hold dear. Heavens! to think of being +held in such bondage! I could stand it with more patience if I were in +prison sharing the hard lines of the fellows. But to be here; to be hand +in glove with these boasting, audacious coxcombs, and forced to listen +to their callow banter of us and our army, it makes me feel like a sneak +and a traitor, and I'm glad that I see the end." + +"But do you see the end? Prudence is one of the wisest counselors in +war. You are very rash, and you must take all your measures carefully. +It won't do to rush into a trap, as you did at Manassas; and, O Jack, +what is to become of Dick? He is not in the lists. He has no standing +here, and is at the mercy of any one who chooses to accuse him of +being a spy." + +"By George, you're right! I hadn't thought of that. He must go with me. +I had thought it better to leave him. He is so happy with Rosa that I +fancied he would remain contentedly until the war ends. But he is in +constant danger. He is forever tantalizing the people that visit the +house, who make slighting allusions to the Northern armies, and very +likely some rebel patriot will take the trouble to inquire about him." + +"But even if this were not a peril, he would never consent to remain +here if you were gone. I think he would give up Rosa rather than be +separated from you." + +"Yes, the impulsive little beggar, I believe he would," Jack said, his +eyes glistening. "That will compel us to take him into the secret. In +fact, I don't see how it can be managed without him; and then his +testimony would convict the prisoners. I hadn't thought of that. But +now, Polly, about yourself. What's to become of you?" + +"I have my plans laid. Mrs. Myrason, the wife of one of Johnston's +generals, is going to the front next week. I shall insist to-night on +accompanying her, as some of our physicians are going to be sent through +the lines at the same time. There is really no reason for my remaining +here, now that you are well. I have already broached the subject to Mrs. +Atterbury, and I shall inform her at once that I am decided. She will +not suspect anything, as she knew I was half-tempted to go North when +mamma went. The important thing for you, now, is to give your whole mind +to the rescue, and have no fears for me. If you can convince Dick to go +with you, all will be well. If he proves obstinate, hand him over to +me." Jack laughed. + +"Polly, you should have been the first-born of the house of Sprague; you +have twice the sense that I have." + +"It isn't sense that wins in war; it is daring and resolution, and you +have all that." + +When Jack had cautiously laid the situation before his young Patroclus, +that precocious warrior at once justified the confidence reposed in him. + +"Rosa has promised to marry me as soon as the war is over. She can't +expect me to hang around here like a peg-top on a string. Besides, I +wouldn't stay where you are not, Jacko, even if I lost my sweetheart for +good and all." + +There was a piteous quaver in the treble voice, and, forgetting that he +was no longer a school-boy, he brushed his eyes furtively with his +coat-sleeve, as Jack pretended preoccupation with his shoe-string. + +"You're a brick, Dick. I think I have confided that to you before--but +you are a brick, made of the best straw in the field of life, and you +shall be a general one of these days--your shrill voice shall let slip +the dogs of war and cry havoc to the enemy. You shall return to +Acredale--proud Acredale--your brows bound with victorious wreaths, and +all the small boys perched on the spreading oaks to salute you." + +"I think I have heard something like that before, my blarneying +Plantagenet. You shall be the Percy of the North, and command the great +battle. You shall meet and vanquish fifty Harrys, and cry, 'God for +Union, liberty, and the laws.'" + +"Bravo! You know your Shakespeare if you don't know prudence. However, +we're plotters now, and you must take on your wisest humor. You must not +breathe a word to Rosa. Love is a freebooter in confidences. It has no +conscience, as it has no law. It is an immense friction on the sober +relations of life. It is cousin to the god of lies--Mercury. So be +warned that while your heart is Rosa's your reason's your country's, +your friends', and you have a chance now to employ it to the profit of +both! You must be ready to evade Rosa's infinite questioning with +innocent plausibilities, for you must bear in mind that, however much +she may love you, she, like you, loves her cause, her people--more, in +fact, for you have seen that these passionate Southerners have made a +religion of the war, and, like all enthusiasts, they will go any +lengths, deny all ties; glory, faith, in personal sacrifices and +heart-wrenchings, to make the South triumph. So, without being false to +your love, you must deceive, to be true to your country; for to lull +love's suspicions a man must regulate the two currents of his life, the +heart and brain. Keep the heart in check and let the brain rule in such +affairs as we have on hand." + +"Phew Jack! you talk like a college professor. You're deeper than a +well; and what was the other thing Mercutio said?" + +"Ah! Mercutio said so much that Shakespeare got frightened and let +Tybalt kill him. So beware of saying too much. That's your great danger, +Dick; your tongue is terrible--mostly to your friends." + +"Is it, indeed? I have a friend who doesn't think so." + +"No, because she considers your tongue part of herself now." + +"I don't see why she should; she has enough of her own." + +"In wooing-time no woman ever had enough tongue." + +"How changed you are from what you were at Acredale, Jack! I never heard +you talk so deep and bookish." + +"I had no need at Acredale, Dick. There I was a boy--lived as a boy, +romped as a boy, and loved boyish things. But a man ripens swiftly in +war--you yourself have. You are no longer the mischief-maker and tom-boy +that terrified your family and set the gossips agog in the dear old +village. Mind broadens swiftly in war. That one dreadful day at Bull Run +enlarged my faculties, or trained them rather, as much as a course in +college. Something very serious came into my life that day. It had its +effect on you too. It fairly revolutionized Vint; we may not have +exactly put away boyishness and boyish things--please God, I hope to be +a boy many a year yet--but we have been made to think as men, act as +men, and realize that there are consequences and responsibilities in +life such as we could not have realized in ten years in time of peace." + +Dick listened during this solemn comedy of immature doctrinal induction, +his eyes dilating with wonder and admiration. Jack, in the _role_ of +sage, delighted him, and he straightway confided to Rosa that he +couldn't understand how any girl could love another man while Jack was +to be had. + +"He's so clever, so brave, so manly. He knows so much, and yet never +takes the trouble to let any one see it. Ah, Rosa, I wish I were +like Jack!" + +"I think Jack's very nice, but I know somebody that's much nicer," Rosa +replied, busy with a rough material that was plainly intended for the +Southern warriors. + +"Ah! but if you really knew all about Jack, you wouldn't look at anybody +else," Dick cried, pensively, tangling his long legs in the young +girl's work. + +"There, you clumsy fellow; you've ruined this seam, and I must get this +work done before noon. We're all going to the provost prison to take +garments to the recruits. You may come if you'll be very good and help +me with these supplies." + +"May I? I will sew on the buttons. Oh, you think I can't? Just give me a +needle." And sure enough Dick, gravely arming himself from the store in +Rosa's "catch-all," set to fastening the big buttons as composedly as if +he had been brought up in a tailor's shop. It was in this sartorial +industry that Jack, coming in, presently discovered the pair. + +"You've turned Dick into a seamstress, have you, Rosalind? You're an +amazing little magician. Dick's sewing heretofore has been of the common +boy-sort--wild oats." + +"No, Mr. Jack, I'm no magician. Dick is a very sensible fellow, and, +like Richelieu in the play, he ekes out the lion's skin with the fox's." + +"I didn't come to add to the stores of your wisdom. This is the day set, +as I understand it, for us to go to the prison and relieve the distress +of the victims of war. Do I understand that we, Dick and I, are to go +and have our patriotic hearts torn by the sight of woes that fortune, in +the shape of the Atterburys, keeps us from?" + +"Of course you are. We couldn't think of going without you. There, my +work is done. We'll have lunch and then start," Rosa said, rising and +directing Dick to fill the large wicker basket with the garments. + +Fashion and idleness make strange pastimes. The recreation to which Jack +and Dick were bidden was a visit to the melancholy shambles where the +heterogeneous mass of unclassified prisoners were detained. It was a +long, gabled building on the brink of the river, from whose low, grated +windows the culprits could catch glimpses of the James, tumbling over +its sedgy, sometimes rocky bed. A few yards from it arose the grim walls +of what had been a tobacco-factory, now the never-to-be forgotten +Libby Prison. + +It was an animated and curious group that made up Jack's party. They +were piloted by a young aide on the staff of General Lee, and, as his +entire mind was engrossed in making his court to Rosa, the pilgrims were +given the widest latitude for investigation. On the lower tier he +pointed out the cells of the Rosedale prisoners, where, as you may +imagine, Jack and Dick, without giving a sign, kept their wits alert. +Jones--the "most desperate of the conspirators against the President, +the special agent of Butler"--was in a cell by himself, constantly +guarded by a sentinel. + +"This, Sprague," said the young aide, lowering his voice as he came +abreast of Jones's cell, "is the man the Government has the strongest +proof against. He is proved to have come into our lines from the Warwick +River, to have managed to escape from Castle Thunder, and to have led +the miscreants to Rosedale. Your own and young Perley's testimony after +that will swing him higher than a spy was ever swung before." + +These words, begun in a low tone, were made clearer and louder by the +sudden cessation of chatter among the visiting group. Jones, who seemed +to have come to his grating when the suppressed laughter sounded in the +dark corridor, heard every word of the official's speech. He was no +longer the bearded desperado Jack had seen in the _melee_ at +Rosedale--there was a certain distinction in the poise of the head, an +inborn gentility in the impassive contemplation with which he met the +furtive scrutiny of the curious visitors. Jack he eyed with something of +surprise, but when Dick pushed suddenly in front of the timorous group +of young women, he started, changed color, and averted his face; then, +as if suddenly recalling himself, turned and devoured the lad with a +strange, yearning tenderness. Dick met the gaze with his habitual easy +gayety, and, turning to Jack, said, impulsively: + +"I should never recognize this man as the bandit who fired the shot that +night--are you really the Jones that choked and wounded me at Rosedale?" +Dick advanced quite close to the wicked as he asked this. + +"And who may you be, if I am permitted to ask a question?" the prisoner +replied vaguely, all the time devouring the boy with his dilating eyes. + +"I am Richard Perley, of Acredale, a soldier of the Union and a friend +of all who suffer in its cause." Dick murmured the last words so low +that the group of visitors did not catch them, and, adding to them an +emphasis of the eye that the prisoner seemed too agitated to notice, he +continued, as Jack pushed nearer; "This is certainly not the man we saw +at Rosedale. But I have seen you somewhere. Tell me, have I not?" + +"I can tell you nothing--I--I" As he said this Jones backed against the +wall. The guard sprang forward in alarm. The women, of course, cried out +in many keys, most of them skurrying away toward the staircase. + +"Water!" Jack cried. "Guard, have you no water handy?" + +"No, sir; the canteen was broken, and there is none nearer than the +guard-room." + +"Run and get some. I will see that the prisoner does not get out. Run!" + +The aide had gallantly gone forward in the passage to reassure the +ladies, and Jack, seizing the chance, for which the prisoner seemed to +be prepared, whispered: + +"Here is an auger, a chisel, and a knife. Secrete them. Work straight +out under your window. We shall be ready for you by Wednesday night. +Don't fail to give a signal if anything happens that prevents your +cutting through. There is only an old stone wall between you and the +river. You must take precautions against the water, if it is high enough +to reach your cut." + +Jones played his part admirably. He remained limp and stolid in the +supporting arms of Jack, while Dick, hovering in the doorway, kept the +prying remnant of the visitors, eager to witness the scene, at a safe +distance. When the water came Jack yielded his place to the guard and +the party moved on. + +"Here we have a real Yankee, a regular nutmeg," the young aide cried, as +the party came to a room not far from Jones's. "This youngster was one +of the chief devils in the attack on Rosedale. The judge-advocate has +tried every means to coax a confession from him, but without result. He +is as gay as a bridegroom, and answers all threats with a joke." + +"Ah! the old Barney under all," Jack said, half sadly. + +"Do you know him, Mr. Sprague?" + +"Like a brother. He is from my town." + +"Ah, perhaps you can convince him that his best course is open +confession?" + +"No, I fear not. He is very headstrong, and would rather have his joke +on the gibbet than own himself in the wrong." + +"But, Mr. Jack, if you should talk to him, show him the wickedness of +conspiring against a peaceful family, inciting a servile race to murder, +I'm sure you could move him, and it would be such a comfort to have the +criminals themselves expose the atrocious plot." + +This was said by Miss Delmayne, a niece of Mrs. Gannat. Jack caught her +eye as she spoke, and instantly realized the covert meaning. How stupid +he had been! Of course, Barney must be apprised of the rescue, and what +time more propitious than the present? But, unfortunately, he had not +provided himself with the tools for the emergency. What could be done? +He suddenly remembered a bayonet he had seen near the guard-room. It was +lying unnoticed on the bench. + +"I must have a drink before I answer a plea so urgent. Amuse the +prisoner while I slake my thirst." + +Barney was lying at the far end of the narrow, boarded cage. He raised +his head as the group halted before his door, but gave no sign of +interest as this dialogue was carried on: + +"Prisoner," said the aide, magisterially, "come to the door." + +"Jailer, what shall I come to the door for?" Barney mimicked indolently. + +"Because I hid you, sir." + +"Not a reason in law, sir." + +"I'll have the guard haul you here." + +"Then he'll have a mighty poor haul, as King James said when he caught +the Orange troopers in the Boyne." + +"I'll teach you, sir, to defy a commissioned officer!" + +"I've learned that already; but if you're a school-teacher I'll decline +the verb 'will' for you." + +"Guard, hustle that beast forward." + +"Guard, don't give yourself the trouble." And Barney arose nimbly and +came to the grating. "O captain, dear, why didn't ye tell me there were +ladies here? You could have spared your eloquence and your authority if +you had told me that the star of beauty, the smile of angels, the--" + +"Never mind, sir; be respectful, and wait till you're spoken to." + +"Then, captain, dear, do you profit by your own advice; let the ladies +talk. I'm all ears, as the rabbit said to the weasel." + +But at this interesting point of the combat Jack returned, and, +pushing-to the door, cried, as if in surprise, "Hello, Barney, boy, what +are you doing here?" + +"Diverting the ladies, Jack, dear, and giving the captain a chance to +practice command, for fear he'll not get a show in battle." The roar +that saluted this retort subdued the bumptious cavalier, and he affected +deep interest in the whispered questions of one of the young women in +the rear of the group. + +"You're the same old Barney. Marc Anthony gave up the world for a kiss, +you'd capitulate a kingdom for a joke," Jack said, striving to catch +Barney's eye and warn him to be prudent. + +"Well, Jack, dear, between the joke and the kiss, I think I'd go out of +the world better satisfied with the kiss; at all events, it wouldn't be +dacent to say less with so many red lips forninst me," and Barney winked +untold admiration at the laughing group before him, all plainly +delighted with his conquest of the captain. + +"But, Barney, you should be thinking of more serious things." + +"Sure I've thought of nothing else for three months. The trees can't go +naked all the year; the brook can't keep ice on it in summer; the swan +sings before it dies; the grasshopper whirrs loudest when its grave is +ready. Why shouldn't I have me joke when I've had nothing but hard +knocks, loneliness, and the company of the prison for half the year?" + +"Poor fellow!" Rosa murmured in Dick's ear, who had not trusted himself +in sight of his old comrade. "I don't believe he's a bad man; I don't +believe he came to our house. Oh! pray, Mr. Jack, do talk with him. +Encourage him to be frank, and we will get Mr. Davis to pardon him." + +"Pardon, is it, me dear? Sure there's no pardon could be as sweet as +your honest e'en--God be good to ye!--an' if I were Peter after the +third denial of me Maker, your sweet lips would drag the truth from me! +What is it you would have me tell?" + +"The captain, here, desires me to talk with you. He thinks that perhaps +I can convince you of the wiser course to follow," Jack said, with a +meaning light in his eye. + +"Oh, if that's what's wanted, I will listen to you 'till yer arms give +out, as Judy McMoyne said, when Teddy tould his love, I promise, in +advance, to do what you advise." + +"I knew you would," Jack said, approvingly.--"Now, captain, if you can +give me five minutes--" + +The captain beckoned the guard, whispered a moment, and then said, +exultingly: + +"The guard will stand in the passage until you have finished with the +prisoner. We shall await you in the porch." + +"Now, Barney, I must be brief, and you must not lose a syllable I say. +Here, sit on the cot, so that I may slip this bayonet under the blanket. +You can work through this wall with that. You must do it to-night and +to-morrow. Be ready Thursday at daylight. You will be met on the outside +either by Dick or myself. We have the route all arranged, and friends in +many places to lull suspicion." + +"But I won't stir a foot without Jones. Do you know who he is?" Barney +whispered, eying Jack curiously. + +"No other than that he seems a very desperate devil-may-care fellow. Who +is he?" + +"An agent and crony of Boone's." + +"Good God!" + +"It's a long story I can't tell it now, but if your plan takes him in, +I'm ready, and will be on hand." + +"I have seen him, and have given him better tools than I have brought +you for the work." + +"That's all right. I ask nothing better than the bayonet. The other +fellows that got out of Libby didn't have nearly so good." + +"You know how I am fixed here. I have grown tired of this sort of +hostage life, and I am going North with you. So, Barney, I beg of you to +be careful, for other lives than your own are at stake. I should be +specially hateful to the authorities if I were retaken--for the whole +Southern people clamor to have an example made of the assassins of the +President, as they call you." + +"Don't fear, Jack; I'll be quiet as a sucking pig in star light. I'll be +yer shadow and never open me mouth, even if a jug, big as Teddy Fin's +praty-patch, stud furninst me!" + +"It isn't your tongue I'm so much afraid of as your propensity to +combat. You must resist that delight of yours--whacking stray heads and +flourishing your big fists." + +"My fists, is it? Then I'll engage to keep them still as O'Connell's +legs in Phoenix Square." + +"Now, I shall report that you are considering my advice. You must be +very gentle and placating to the guard, and let on that you have +something on your mind." + +"Indeed, I needn't let on at all. I have as much on me mind as Biddy +McGinniss had on her back when she carried Mick home from the gallows." + +"O Barney, Barney, you would joke if the halter were about your neck!" + +"An' why wouldn't I, me bye? What chance would I have if I didn't? I +couldn't joke when I was dead, could I?" + +"Well, well, think over what I've said, and remember that penitence half +absolves guilt." + +This was said for the benefit of the guard, who had approached as Jack +arose to take his leave. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR. + + +Opportunity is an instinct to the man who dares. To him the law of the +impossible has no meaning. To him there is no such thing as the +unexpected. What he wants comes to pass, because he can not see danger, +difficulty, nor any of the obstacles that daunt the prudent and the +temporizing. It is, therefore, the impossible that is fulfilled in many +of the crises of life. By the same token it is the foolhardy and +preposterous thing that is most readily done in determinate +conjunctures. We guard against the possible, but we take little note of +the enterprises that involve foolhardiness or desperation. Daring has +safeguards of its own that are understood only when mad ventures have +come to successful issue. Helpless and hopeless as Jack's situation +seemed, the very poverty of his resources, helped the daring scheme of +escape that filled his mind night and day during these apparently +indolent weeks of pleasuring in the ranks of his enemies. Then, too, the +arrogant self-confidence of his captors was an inestimable aid. Military +discipline and provost vigilance were at their slackest stage in the +rebel lines at this triumphant epoch in the fortunes of the Confederacy. +The easily won combat at Bull Run had filled the authorities--as well as +the rank and file--with overweening contempt for the resources of the +North, or the enterprise of its soldiers. It was not until long after +the time I am now writing about, that the prisoners were closely guarded +and access refused to the idle and curious. But, as a matter of fact, +nothing in the fortunes of our friends equals the truth of the thrilling +and desperate chances taken by Northern captives to escape the lingering +death of prison in the South. Since the war, volumes have been written +of personal experience, amply attested, that would in romance receive +the derisive mark of the critics. Danger daily met becomes a commonplace +to men of resolution. Things which appall us when we read them become a +simple part of our purpose when we live in an atmosphere of peril and +put our hope only in ending the ordeal. + +The incident I am narrating were the work of many hands. Mrs. Gannat had +from the first given her heart to the Union cause. A woman of high +standing in society, well known throughout the State for her mind, her +manners, and her benevolence, it was not difficult for her, by adroit +management, to aid such prisoners as fell into rebel hands during the +early years of the war. Before Richmond became a mart in the modern +sense, the Gannat mansion, set far back among the trees of a noble +grove, was a shrine to the tradition loving citizens, for, beyond any +Southern city, save perhaps New Orleans, Richmond folk cherished the +memory of aristocratic and semi-regal ancestors. There were those still +living when the war began, who had heard their fathers and mothers talk +of the last royal Governor and the splendid state of the great noblemen +who had flocked to the city of Powhatan when Virginia was the gem of +England's colonial coronet. The patrician caste of the city still held +its own, aided by the helot hand of slavery. Among the most reverently +considered in this sanctified group, Mrs. Gannat was, if not first, the +conceded equal. She was the dowager of the ancient noblesse. The young +Virginian received in her drawing-rooms carried away a distinction which +was recognized throughout the State. The dame admitted to Mrs. Gannat's +semi-literary _levees_ was accepted as all that society demanded of +its votaries. + +In other years this great lady had been the admired center of the court +circle in Washington. There she had known very intimately Senator--then +Congressman--Sprague. Jack remembered vaguely the gossip of an +engagement between his father and a famous Southern beauty; and when the +lady in the course of the conspiring said, as they talked, "My son, I +might have been your mother," he knew that this gentle-voiced, +kindly-eyed matron was the woman his father had loved and lost. I don't +propose to rehearse the ingenuities of the complicated plans whereby the +group we are interested in were to be delivered. Mrs. Gannat's perfect +knowledge of the city, her intimacy with the President, Cabinet, and +leading men, her vogue with the officials, all tended to make very +simple and easy that which would seem in the telling hare-brained and +impossible. Jack's unique position, and Dick's attitude of the +half-acknowledged _fiance_ of an Atterbury, broke down bars that even +Mrs. Gannat's far-reaching sagacity might not have been able to cope +with in certainty. The night chosen for the escape was fatefully +propitious. The President was entertaining the newly arrived French +delegate and the ministers Mason and Slidell, just appointed to the +courts of St. James and the Tuileries. Everybody that was anybody was of +the splendid company. + +Jack, however, was tortured by a doubt of Dick's constancy when it came +to an abrupt quitting of his sweetheart. Poor lad, he fought the battle +bravely, making no sign; and when Rosa, the picture of demure +loveliness, in her girlish finery, asked him maliciously as the carriage +drove toward the Executive Mansion-- + +"Don't you feel like a traitor, you sly Yankee?" Dick gave a great groan +and said: + +"O Rosa, Rosa, I can't go! I do feel like a traitor. I am a traitor." + +Jack, luckily, was sitting beside him, and brought his heel down on the +lad's toes with such emphasis that he uttered a cry of pain. Rosa was +all solicitude at this. + +"What is it, Richard; have I wounded you? Don't mind my chatter; I only +do it to tease you. He shall be a Yankee; he shall make nutmegs; he +shall abuse the chivalrous South; he shall be what he likes; he sha'n't +be teased--" and she wound her bare arms about his neck, quite +indifferent to the reproving nudges of mamma and the sad mirthfulness +of Jack. + +Dick found means in the noise of the chariot, and the crush they +presently came into, for saying something that seemed to lessen the +self-reproachful tone of the penitent, and, when they entered the modest +portals of the presidency, Rosa was radiant and Dick equable, but not in +his usual chattering volubility. + +"You are sure you do not repent? You can stay if you choose," Jack said, +as they entered the dressing-room. + +"Where you go, I go; what you say is right I know is right, and I will +do it." Dick looked away confusedly as he said this. They were +surrounded by young officers, all of whom the two young men knew. + +"Ah, ha, Mr. Perley! I have stolen a march on you; I have secured the +first waltz from Miss Rosa," a young man at the mirror cried, as Dick +adjusted his gloves. + +"Then, Captain Warrick, I'm likely to be a wall-flower, for the second, +third, and fourth were promised yesterday." + +"Fortunes of war, my dear fellow--fortunes of war. You must lay siege to +another fortress." + +"Dick," Jack whispered, "it's an omen. It will give us time to slip out +and change our garments without the danger of excuses, for, though +nothing is suspected, any incautious phrase may destroy us." + +"Don't fear for me. I shall be prudent as a confessor. We can't go, +however, just yet. I must have a little talk with Rosa. I may never see +her again. If you were in love and going from the light of her eye, +perhaps never to see her again, you wouldn't be so cool. We must, +anyway, take the ladies to the host and hostess for presentation; then a +few words and I am ready." Dick was trembling visibly and blushing like +a school-girl at first facing a class-day crowd. Jack's heart went out +to the lad, and he thought the chances about even that when the moment +of trial came the boy's resolution would give way. The ladies were +waiting for them when they emerged into the corridors--Rosa began, +prettily, to rally Dick on his tardiness. It took time to thread the +constantly increasing crowd in the hallways, the corridors, and on the +stairs, but they finally reached the group in which Mrs. Davis was +receiving the confused salutations of the throng at the drawing-room +door. As soon as this formality was ended, Rosa whisked Dick in one +direction while Mrs. Atterbury asked Jack to take her to the library. +Here, by a happy chance, she came upon a group of dowagers--friends of +her youth from other towns--brought to the capital by the event, or +their husbands' official duties in the new government. Jack bowed low as +he relinquished the good lady's arm, feeling as if he were embarking on +some odious treason, in view of her persistent and generous treatment of +him and his. + +"Now that you are among the friends of your youth, I will leave you; who +knows whether I shall see you again?" he faltered, as she turned an +affectionate glance upon him. + +"Oh, you needn't think that you can take _conge_ for good, Jack. I may +want to dance during the night. If I do I shall certainly lay my +commands upon you. You may devote yourself to the young people now, but +I warn you I am not to be thrown over so easily. Besides, I want to +present you to a dozen friends that you have not yet met at my house." + +"You will always know where to find me; but I am not so sure that I +shall be as able, as I am willing, to come to you," Jack said, trembling +at the double meaning of his words. + +"Oh, I know you're dying to get to the dancers." + +"I can go to no one that it will give me more happiness to please than +you. Indeed, I'm going into danger when I quit you. Give me your +blessing, as if it were Vincent going to the wars." + +She had turned from the throng of ladies, who were discussing a +political secret, and her eyes melted tenderly as Vincent's name passed +Jack's lips. She touched his bowed head gently, saying: + +"Why, how serious you are! One would think beauty a battery, and you on +the way to charge." + +"You are right. It is a murderous ambush." + +"Well, if you regard it so seriously--God bless you in it." + +Her gentle eyes rested tenderly on him; he seized the kind hand, and, +raising it to his lips in the gallant Southern fashion, turned and +hurried away among the guests. + +"Ah, Mrs. Atterbury, conquests at your age, from hand to lip, there's +but short interval," and the President held up a warning finger as he +came closer to the lady. + +"Oh, no, age makes a long route between hand and lip--thirty years ago +you kissed my hand, and you never reached the lip." + +"It wasn't my fault that I didn't." + +"Nor your misfortune either," and Mrs. Atterbury glanced archly at her +rival, Mrs. Davis, the mature beauty of the scene. + +Dick, meanwhile, not so dexterous in expedients or ready in speech as +his mentor, became wedged in an eddy, just outside the main stream, +pouring drawing-room ward, so that, returning to the spot where they had +separated, Jack did not, for the moment, discover him. + +Rosa's gayety and delight deepened the depression that made Dick so +unlike himself. At first, in the exuberance of the scene, the girl did +not heed this. She knew everybody, and, though in daily contact with +most of them, there were no end of whispered confidences to exchange and +tender reassurances in ratification of some new compact. Then there were +solemn notes of comparison as to the fit and form of gowns, or the fit +of a furbelow, exhaustively discussed, perhaps that very afternoon. Keen +eyes, merry and tantalizing, were lifted to Dick's sulky face during +this pretty by-play, but all the gayety of the comedy was lost to him. +When he could contain himself no longer, with another bevy of cronies in +sight coming down the stairs, he cried out, desperately: + +"For Heaven's sake, Rosa, don't wait here like the statue in St. +Peter's, to be kissed by everybody on the way to the pope; it's simply +sickening to stand here like a shrine to be slopped by girls that you +see every day. Come away; I want to say something to you." + +Rosa turned her astonished eyes upon the railer, and, with a comic +movement of immense dignity, drew her arm from his sheltering elbow, +and, in tones of freezing _hauteur_ retorted: + +"And since when, sir, are you master of my conduct? I am my own +mistress, I believe. I shall kiss whom I please." + +"O Rosa, Rosa, I didn't mean that; I don't know what I meant. I--O Rosa, +don't be fretful with me now! I can't bear it. I am ill--I mean I am +tired. Come and sit with me." + +Several on the outer edge of the flowing current turned curiously as +this sharp cry of boyish pleading rose above the noisy clamor. It was +impossible, however, to push backward, but in an instant the lovers were +sheltered in an alcove near the doorway. Rosa had taken his rejected arm +again in a panic of guilty repentance, and, looking at his half-suffused +eyes, cried, piteously: + +"Oh, forgive me, Richard, forgive me--I did not mean it! I forgot you +were ill. Ah, please, please forgive me! You know--I--I--" + +But Dick, now conscious that inquiring eyes were fastened upon them, +curious ears listening, seized her arm, and, by main force, reached the +hall doorway, now nearly deserted. + +"Rosa, I am not well--that is, I have a headache, or heartache--it's the +same thing. I didn't mean to tell you, for I didn't want to destroy your +pleasure, and you have looked forward so long to this; but I--I--can not +dance. Jack and I are going to walk a little while, and then we--we +shall be more ourselves." + +Poor Dick had only the slightest idea what he was saying, and Rosa +listened with wide-open eyes and little appealing caresses, not quite +certain what the distracted lover did mean. + +"All your dances are taken up. Young Warrick just told me he had the +first. You gave Gayo Brotherton two yesterday, so you will have no need +of me for hours yet." + +"But I will cut them if you say so. Only you know that it is our way +here to give the first who ask." + +"Yes, yes; that's right. I--I couldn't dance now. I shall be all right, +presently if--if I see you happy. Ah, Rosa, if--if I should die--if I +should be carried away, would you always love me, would you always +believe in me?" + +"Why, Dick, you are really ill; let me feel your wrist." Rosa seized +Dick's hand and began a convulsive squeezing. "Yes, you certainly have a +fever. You must go home. I shall go with you. It is your wound. It has +broken out again--I know it has. You shall go home this instant. I will +send for the carriage. Come straight up-stairs, you wicked boy! To let +me come here when you are so ill! I shall never forgive myself--never!" + +"A large vow for a small maid." + +"Mr. Jack!"--for the voice was Jack's--"Dick is very ill, and he must go +home at once. Will you not get the carriage and take us?" + +"I will not take you. I am very experienced in Dick's ailments, and I +have already summoned a physician, who is waiting for us. But he can not +attend his patient if you are present." + +"Yes, Rosa, Jack is right. I will leave you now, and when you see me +again you will see that I am not ill--that I--I--" + +"I will stop for you at the door, Dick. You know the physician can not +be kept waiting, so make your parting brief. Short shrift is the easiest +in love and war." + +"A doctor is as dreadful to me as a battle, Rosa. Kiss me as if I were +going to the field," Dick whispered as Jack's back was turned. A minute +later he had joined his mentor, and the two hurried through the square +and down toward the river. + +"I can't do it, Jack," Dick suddenly broke out, as they hurried through +the dark street. "I must leave Rosa a line telling her my motive. What +will she think of me sneaking away like this without a word? Now, you go +on to Blake's cabin and change your clothes. I will get an old suit of +Vint's. It will really make no difference in the time, and it will be +safer for us to reach the prison separately than together." + +"No, Dick, be a man. Every line you write will add to our peril. She +will, of course, show it to her mother. Our night will be known in the +morning. Mrs. Atterbury is too loyal to the Confederacy to conceal +anything. You will thus give the authorities the very clew they need. +No, Dick, you must be guided by me in this; besides, you can send Rosa +letters through Vincent at headquarters as soon as we reach Washington." + +"I can't help it. I know you are right, but I must do it. I will be with +you in less than an hour. I'm off." + +"Listen!--Good God, he's gone!" Jack ejaculated as Dick, taking +advantage of a cross-street, shot off into the darkness. Jack halted. To +call would be dangerous; to run after him excite comment, perhaps +pursuit and discovery. There was nothing to be done but wait at the +rendezvous. He would come back--Jack tried to make himself believe that +he could depend on that. When, after a circuitous walk of half an hour, +he reached the cabin of Blake, the colored agent of Mrs. Gannat, he +found a note from his patroness warning him that the prison authorities +had become alert. A rumor of a plot to escape had penetrated the War +Department, and orders had been given to increase the precaution of the +guards. The reception at the President's was a stroke of good fortune +for the prisoners, as all the higher officials would be detained there +until morning. Perhaps, in view of the chance, it would be better to +anticipate the hour of flight, as, unfortunately, the horses that had +been got together for the fugitives were in use for the Davis guests, +and on such short notice others could not be provided without exciting +suspicion or pointing to the agency by which the liberation had been +brought about. + +"Ah, if Dick were only here," Jack groaned, "we could go to the square +and lead away enough staff or orderly horses to serve the purpose. The +little wretch! It would serve him properly to leave him here mooning +over his sweetheart." Then his heart took up a little tremor of protest. +He sighed gently. He, too, had loitered when his heart pleaded. Why +should Dick be firmer than he? It was after midnight when he reached the +sheltering, broken, ground along the river. The provost prison fronted +the water. It had been a tobacco warehouse, built long before, and +hastily transformed into its present military purpose. It was set in +what was called a "cut" in the heavy clay bank, thus bringing the lower +windows below the level of the surrounding land. There were sentries +stationed in front and rear, who walked at regular intervals from corner +to corner. The sentinel on the high level to the rear could not see the +ground along the wall, and it was this fact which Jack calculated upon +to enable him to help the prisoners to remove the _debris_ of the wall +through which they were to presently emerge. The night was pitchy dark. +This had been taken into consideration long before. Heavy clouds hung +over the river, throwing the prison and its environs into still more +security for Jack's purpose. He reconnoitred every available point, +searched every corner of possible danger, and as the time passed he +began to rage with impatience against Dick, whose delay was now periling +the success of the enterprise. + +It was twelve o'clock and after. He dared wait no longer. Dick must +shift for himself. Perhaps he had lost his way. In any event it was +safer to set the general prisoners free, as they were only carelessly +guarded. Lamps glimmered fitfully in the guard-room, throwing fantastic +banners of light almost to the water's edge. He made a final tour about +the broken ground, but there was no sound or suspicion of Dick. He knew +every inch of the ground. Dick and he had surveyed and resurveyed it for +days. The coast was clear. No one was on guard at the vital point, but +still he lingered, his breath coming and going painfully, as a break in +the clouds cast a moving shape over the undulating ground. Should he +give the boy another half-hour's grace? He makes a circuit in the +direction Dick must approach by and waits. He will count a hundred very +slowly, then wait no longer. He counts up to fifty, hears a coming step, +and waits alertly. No--it passes on. He begins again--counts one +hundred, two hundred. No sign. "Pah! it is madness to delay for him. The +young poltroon has lost his resolution in his lovesick fever. Very +likely he has been unable to run the risk of Rosa's anger--her mother's +indignation--the possibility of never seeing the girl again." Well, he +had given him ample grace. He had endangered his own and other lives to +humor a boyish whim. Now he must act, and swiftly. + +The plan was too far gone in execution to be changed. He must carry out +the final measures alone. Now, one of these details required some one to +slip down on the ground and crawl to the point between the windows where +the prisoners were working and aid them to remove the thin, shell of +brick. If it fell outward, the guard at the corner would hear the noise, +and might come down to see what it was that made it. The removal of this +wall released all confined in the main prison. These he saw stealing out +in groups of ten or more. They had guides waiting on the bank of the +river. Jack gave them final orders. The most difficult work was the +getting out Jones and Barney, for they had special cells. Jack was to +guard Jones's exit and Dick Barney's, but now all the work would devolve +upon him. It was two o'clock, and he dared wait no longer. Raising +himself from the low wall where he had been crouching, he started toward +the corner of the prison farthest from the guard-room. At the wall of +the building he dropped flat on his face and began to crawl forward, +sheltered by the low ground that formed a sort of dry ditch about the +basement of the prison. He had barely stretched himself at full length +when a bright light was flashed on him from a deep doorway just beyond +him, and a voice, mocking and triumphant, exclaimed. + +"This is a bad place to swim, my friend! There ain't enough water to +drown you, but if you stir you'll run against a bullet." + +Jack lay quite still and raised his eyes. Above him stood a trooper, +with a revolver leveled at and within ten feet of him. Figure to +yourself any predicament in life in which vital stakes hang on the +issue; figure to yourself the shipwrecked seizing ice where he had hoped +for timber; the condemned criminal walking into the jailer's toils where +he had laboriously dug through solid walls; the captain of an army +leaving the field victor, to find his legions rushing upon him in rout; +figure any monstrous overturn in well-laid schemes, and you have but a +faint reflex of poor Jack's heart-breaking anguish when this jocular +fate stood above him, with the five gaping barrels pointed at his +miserable head. Oh, if Dick had only been there! His quick eye and keen +activity would have discovered this lurking devil; perhaps, between +them, they would have averted the disaster. Where could Dick be? + + + + +BOOK III + +_THE DESERTERS_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +BETWEEN THE LINES. + + +On quitting Jack, Dick had but one thought in mind--to make his +departure less abrupt for Rosa. If he left her without a word, what +would she think? Then, with an officer's uniform, he could be of much +more help to Jack and the party than in the rough civilian homespun +furnished at the cabin. Besides, he knew of certain blank headquarter +passes lying on Vincent's desk. He would get a few of these; they might +extricate the party in the event of a surprise. + +He tore over the solemn roadway, under the spectral foliage, and in +twenty minutes he was in his room in the Atterburys'. Vincent's old +uniform he had often noticed in a spare closet adjoining his own +sleeping-room. In an instant he was in it, and, though it was not a fit, +he soon put it in order to pass casual inspection. The line for Rosa was +the next delay. What should he say? He had had his mind full for days of +the most tender sentiments and prettily turned phrases, but the turmoil +of the last hour, the vital value of every moment to Jack's plans, left +him no time to compose the poem he had meditated so long. Rosa's own +pretty desk was open, and on a sheet of her own paper he wrote, in a +scrawling, school-boy hand: + +"DARLING ROSA: You've often said that you would disown Vincent if he +were not true to the South. Think of Vincent in my place--dawdling in +Acredale or Washington while battles were going on. You would not hold +him less contemptible that he was in love; that he let his love, or his +life, for you are both to me, stand as a barrier to his duty. You can't +love where you can't honor, and you can't hate where you know conscience +rules. I go to my duty, that in the end I may come to you without shame. +I ask no pledge other than comes to your heart when you read this; but +whatever you may say, whatever you may decide, I am now and always shall +be your devoted + +"RICHARD" + +He sighed, casting a woe-begone glance into the mirror, dimly conscious +that he was a very heroic young person. He kissed various objects dear +to the little maid, and then, in lugubrious unrest, sallied out +and mounted. + +Again under the calm sky--again the fleet limbs of the horse almost +keeping time to his own inward impatience. He holds to the soft, +unpaved, outlying streets, that his pace may not attract remark. He +passes horsemen, like himself spurring fleetly in the darkness. He is +near the river at last--dismounts and reconnoitres. He easily finds a +place to tie the horse, and, familiar with every inch of the outlying +ground about the prison, crawls close to the wall, listening intently. +He can hear no sound save the weary clank of the sentry on the wooden +walk. He reaches the wall where the prisoners Jones and Barney were to +emerge. There is no sign of a break! Where can Jack be? Some disaster +must have overtaken him, for it is past the hour set and soon it will be +dawn, and then all action will be impossible. Perhaps Jack has been +caught reconnoitring? Perhaps he has gone with the main body, not +venturing to try for Jones and Dick without help? No, that was not like +Jack. This was his special part in the plan--if it were not done, Jack +was still about. He can find out readily--thanks to the countersign. He +steals back over the low hillock, mounts the horse, and by a _detour_ +reaches the sentry guarding the river front of the prison. He is +challenged, but, possessed of the countersign, finds no difficulty in +riding up to the guard-room doorway. + +"Has Lieutenant Hawkins been here within an hour, sentry?" he asks, in +apparent haste. + +"No, sir. I think he has been sent for--leastwise, the sergeant went +away about an hour ago to report the taking of a deserter, found +prowling about the side of the prison." + +"A deserter?" + +"Yes, sir. He had a brand-new uniform on and no company mark, nor no +equipments." + +"What has been done with him?" Dick asked, breathlessly, dismounting. "I +wonder if he isn't one of my company from Fort Lee? He went off on a +drunk yesterday, though he was sent here on a commissary errand." + +"I dunno, sir. He's in the lockup there. He was very violent, and the +sergeant bound him with straps." + +"I will go in and examine him; he may be one of my men, and, as our +brigade moves in the morning, I should like to know." + +"Very well, sir; the officer of the day is asleep in the room beyond the +first door. One of the men will call him." + +"Oh, no need to disturb him until I have seen the prisoner.--Here, my +man"--addressing a soldier asleep on a settee--"show me to the deserter +brought in to-night." + +"Yes, sir," the man cried, starting up with confused alacrity; then, +noticing the insignia of major on Dick's gray collar, he saluted +respectfully, and, pointing to a double doorway, waited for his superior +to lead the way. Dick, who had been in the prison before, knew his +whereabouts very well, and it was not until the soldier reached the room +in which the deserter was detained that he seemed to remember that there +were no lights. + +"Here are the man's quarters, sir; but I'm out of matches. If you'll +wait a minute I'll bring a candle." + +"All right," Dick responded, in a loud voice; "I'll stand here until you +come back." + +The quest of the candle would take the guide to the closet in the +guard-room, and, risking little to learn much, Dick struck a match and +peered into the stuffy little room, more like a corn-crib than a +prison-cell. + +"Hist, Jack! is it you?" he called. + +There was an exclamation from the farther end of the room, and then a +fervent-- + +"Heavens, Dick! is it really you?" + +"Sh--sh--!" + +The soldier's returning footfalls sounded in the passage-way; but, as he +re-entered the hall where Dick stood shading the flickering light, he +could not see the hastily extinguished match in Dick's hand. As the man +came slowly along the winding passage-way, Dick whispered: + +"You are a recruit in Rickett's legion; you were drunk and lost your +way, and I am your major; you are stationed at Fort Lee near +Mechanicsville, and you belong to Company G." + +Jack pretended to be sound asleep when the soldier and Dick entered. He +rubbed his eyes sleepily, and looked up in a vacant, tipsy way, leering +knowingly at the soldier, who had caught him by the shoulder. + +"What are you doing here, Tarpey? Why aren't you with your company? +You'll get ball and chain for this lark, or my name's not James Braine." + +"But, major, it--it wasn't my fault. My cousin, Joe Tarpey, came down +from Staunton with a barrel of so'gum whisky, and--and--" + +"You drank too much and was caught where you had no business to be. +However," Dick added, sternly, "the regiment marches in the morning--you +must get out of here. Soldier, show me to Captain Payne's quarters. Say +to him that Major Braine, of Rickett's Legion, desires to speak with him +a moment." But he had no sooner said this than he realized the danger he +was running. + +The captain might know Braine, and then how could he extricate himself +from the dilemma? Luckily the captain was not in his quarters, and Dick, +with calm effrontery, sat down and wrote out a statement of the case, +where he was to be found, and his reasons for carrying the +prisoner away. + +The sergeant, having read this, made no objection to releasing the +alleged deserter, since there had been no orders concerning him, and, +without more ado, Jack walked away with his captain, the picture of +abashed valor and repentant tipsiness. + +"Now, Dick, there's no time to ask the meaning of your miraculous +doings. We've still time to let our friends out and get away before +daylight; but we mustn't lose a second. Sh! stand still, what's that? +Troopers! Good heavens, they can't have found out your trick so soon! +Ah, no! They are floundering about looking for quarters," he added, in +immeasurable relief, as the voices of the riders sounded through the +darkness, cursing luck, the road, and everything else. "O Dick, if we +only had the countersign I could play a brilliant trick on these +greenhorns! Perhaps I can as it is." + +"I have the countersign. How do you suppose I could have managed to get +to you if I hadn't? It is 'Lafayette.'" + +"Glory! Now make all the clatter you can after I challenge." + +They had by this time reached a row of tumble-down stables directly in +the rear of the prison, and shut out from the open ground by a decrepit +fence, broken here and there by negroes too lazy to pass out into the +street to reach the river. The horsemen had turned into this lane-like +highway--evidently misdirected. When within a few feet, Jack gave a +sudden whack on the board and cried, sternly: + +"Halt! Who comes there?" + +There was a sudden clash of steel as the group halted in a heap, and +then a weary voice replied: + +"We have no countersign. We should have been at our destination long +before sundown, but were misdirected ten miles out of our course on the +Manchester pike." + +"Very well. Dismount and come forward one man at a time," Jack answered, +briefly. This the spokesman did with some alacrity. As he came up, Dick +took the precaution of getting between him and his three companions, and +then Jack said: "I suppose you are all right; but my orders are to +arrest all mounted men, detain their horses here in these, the provost +stables," and Jack pointed to Dick's horse dimly outlined against the +sky. "I will give you a receipt for him, and you can get him back in the +morning when you state your case to the provost marshal.--Stephen," he +turned to Dick, "take that horse and put him with the others." He then +made out a receipt, handed it to the astonished trooper, and, directing +him where to go, carried out the same short shrift with the other three. +The troopers were glad enough to be relieved of their beasts. This they +did not attempt to deny, for they had seen a public-house in the street +below, where they could procure much-needed refreshment, relieved as +they now were from the necessity of reporting to their commander, whose +whereabouts were far down the Rocett road. + +"By George, Jack, what a, crafty plotter you are! Now we have a mount +for the party, and I needn't take poor Warick's crack stallion." + +"Yes; we've doubled the chances of escape by this little stratagem; but +we have lost time. Come. Have you tied the horses?" + +"Yes. Lead on." + +Over the turfy hillside, now moist and sticky with the heavy dew, they +stole, half crouching, half crawling, until they were on a level with +the prison basement. The sentry in front was no longer pacing his beat, +and there was no sign of the man in the rear. In a few minutes the two +crawling figures were at the preconcerted places in the wall. In +response to their light taps, a square of brick-work large enough to +leave a space for a man to crawl through crumbled upon Jack and Dick, +who held their bodies closely pressed against the _debris_ to prevent +too loud a noise. There was no time to wait probabilities of discovery, +and an instant later Barney and Jones emerged, panting and half +smothered. + +"I thought it was all up with me hopes, as Glory McNab said when her +sweetheart ran away with the cobbler's daughter." Barney whispered, +hugging Jack rapturously. + +"Sh--! Down on your stomachs. Move that way until you see me rise. +Come." And Jack squirmed ahead as if he had been accustomed to the +locomotion of snakes all his life. In ten minutes they were in the +improvised stables. Dick had taken the precaution to place the horses +where they could feed on a heap of fodder stacked in the yard, and when +they mounted the beasts appeared refreshed as well as rested. Dick +loosing Warick's horse so that he might make his way back to his master, +the fugitives rode cautiously out of the lane, into the open fields, +and, though it was not their shortest way, pushed along the river road +to mislead pursuit. Jack's stratagem had resulted in better luck even +than the possession of the horses. It not only secured a mount for the +four, but, what was equally and perhaps, in view of unforeseen +contingencies, more important disguises for the two prisoners. + +They found an extra coat strapped to each saddle, and with these Barney +and Jones were easily transformed into something like Confederate +soldiers. Both Jack and Jones knew every inch of the suburbs, having +made the topography a study. They struck for the less traveled +thoroughfares until they reached the northeastern limits, then following +the old Cold Harbor road they pushed decisively toward the Williamsburg +pike. But, instead of following it, they traversed on by lanes and +bridle-paths during the day. This was to divide pursuit, as the larger +party had taken the river route where Butler's troops were waiting in +boats for them. The saddle-bags proved a windfall, for in them were +orders to proceed to Yorktown and report to General Magruder. With these +Jack felt no difficulty in passing several awkward points, where there +was no escaping the cavalry patrols, owing to miles of swamp and +impenetrable forest. + +They kept clear, however, of such places as the telegraph reached, +though at one point they found a post in a great state of excitement +over news brought from a neighboring wire, announcing the escape of two +prisoners who had been traced to the York road. But with such papers as +Jack presented and the number of the party double that described in the +dispatch, the adventurers easily evaded suspicion. The great danger, +however, was in quitting the Confederate lines to pass into Butler's. +They chose the night for this, as the camp-fires would warn them of the +vicinity of outposts, Union or rebel. They had purposely avoided +highways and habitations, and, as a result, were limited in food to such +corn-cribs as they found far from human abodes, or the autumn aftermath +of vegetables sometimes found in the shadow of the woods. All were good +shots, however, and a fat rabbit and partridge were cooked by Dick with +such address, that the party were eager to take more time in halting +since they need not starve, no matter how long the journey lasted. + +Jack, by tacit consent, was considered commander of the squad, Barney +remarking humorously that they would not ask to see his commission until +they were in a country where a title meant authority. The commander +ordered his small army very judiciously. They were to ride as far apart +as the roads or woods or natural obstructions would admit. They thus +moved forward in the shape of a triangle, the apex to the rear. +Exchanges of position were made every six hours. They were at the end of +the second day, toward sunset, approaching what they supposed was +Warrick Creek, nearly half-way to Fort Monroe, when they suddenly +emerged on an open plateau from which they could see a mile or two +before them a tranquil waste of crimson water. + +"Why, this can't be the creek!" exclaimed Jones, excitedly. "The creek +isn't half a mile at its broadest." + +"What can it be?" Jack asked, who had been the right wing to Jones's +left. "It's certainly not the James, for the sun is setting at +our back!" + +"Blest if I can tell. It looks very much like the Chesapeake, only the +Chesapeake is wider." + +By this time Barney and Dick had ridden up, and began to admire the +expanse of water spreading from the land before them to a green +wilderness in the distance. + +"I'm afraid we are in a fix," Jones said, resignedly. "If I'm not very +much mistaken, the red line yonder, that looks like a roadway, is a +breastwork, and behind that what looks like a plowed field is +earthworks. My boys, we are before Yorktown and farther from our lines +than we were yesterday. The nigger that showed us the way in the woods +was either ignorant or deceiving us. We are now inside the outposts of +the rebels, and we shall have to crawl on our hands and knees to +escape them." + +"I don't see what better off we'll be on our hands and knees than we are +in our saddles," Barney cried, guilelessly. "Sure we can go faster on +the bastes than we can on our hands, and, as for me knees, 'tis only in +prayer that I ever use them." + +"Not in love, Barney?" Dick asked, innocently. + +"No, me darlin'. The gurls I love think more of me arms than me knees, +and I do all of me pleadin' with me lips." + +"I should think they could hold their own," Jones remarked, dryly. + +"Indeed, they can that, and a good deal more, as me best gurl'll tell +you if she'll tell the truth, and no fear of her doing that, I'll +go bail." + +"Fie! Barney, if she won't tell the truth you should have none of her," +Dick cried in stage tones. + +"Indeed, it's little I have of her, for she's that set on Teddy Redmund +that she leaves me to her mother, when Teddy comes to the porch of +an evening." + +"Well, friends, your loves are, no doubt, adorable, and it is a pleasant +thing to talk over, but just now what we want is a way out of this +trap"; and Jack, saying this, slipped from his horse and led him into +the shelter of a thick growth of scrub-pines. The rest followed his +example. They tied their animals and held a council of war. It was +resolved that Jack and Jones should make a reconnaissance to find out +the route toward the Warrick; that Dick and Barney should secrete and +guard the horses and do what they could to obtain some food. This +decision was barely agreed upon, when the shrill call of a bugle sounded +almost among the refugees, and they sprang to their horses, waiting in +silence the next demonstration. Other bugles sounded farther away; a +great cloud of dust arose in the direction of the water, and then Jack +whispered: + +"Remain here. I will climb one of these trees and see what it means." + +He was in the leafy boughs of a spreading pine in a few minutes, and +could descry a broad plain, with tents scattered here and there; still +farther on the broad uplands frame buildings with a red and white flag +floating to the wind could be seen. Back of all this he could make out a +broad expanse of water and a few ungainly craft, lazily moving to the +current in the Yorktown roadstead. + +"Yes. this certainly must be Yorktown. Why have they such a force here? +No one is threatening it," Jack murmured, his eyes arrested by a long +line of cavalry in undress, leading their horses up a circuitous and +hitherto concealed road to the plateau. "Ha! they go down there for +water. Let me see. That is to the southeastward; that is our point of +direction. I think we may venture to push on now." He hastily descended +from his survey, and making known what he had seen, added: "We must +proceed with the greatest caution. There is no time to think of food +until we get away from this dangerous neighborhood. We must keep well +spread out, and move only over turfy ground or in the deep shade of the +wood. In case of disaster, the cry of the night owl, as agreed upon, +will be a warning." + +The four had practiced the melancholy cry of the owl, as heard in the +Southern woods both day and night, and they could all imitate it +sufficiently well to pass muster if the hearer were not on guard against +the trick, and yet so clever an imitation that none of the four could +mistake it. So soon as they quit the plateau, seeking a way east by +south, they plunged immediately into a dreary swamp, where progress was +slow and difficult. The mosquitoes beset them in swarms, plaguing even +the poor animals with their lusty sting. Hour after hour, until the +woods became a hideous chaos of darkness and unseemly sounds, the four +panting fugitives pushed on, fainting with hunger, worn out by the +incessant battle with the corded foliage, the dense marshes, and +quagmires through which their path to safety lay. But at midnight Jones +gasped and gave up the fight. + +"Go on; leave me here. I am of no use at best. I should only be a drag +on you. Perhaps you may find some darkey and send him back to give me a +mouthful to eat. That would pick me up; nothing else can." + +The four gathered together for counsel. The horses, faring better than +their masters, for they found abundance to allay hunger in the lush, +dank grass of the morass, were corralled in a clump of white ash, and +the jaded men, groping about, clambered upon the gnarled roots of the +trees to catch breath. They had been battling steadily for five hours +against all the forces of Nature. Their clothes were torn, their flesh +abraded, their strength exhausted. They could have slept, but the ground +offered no place, for wherever the foot rested an instant the weight of +the body pushed it down into the oozy soil until water gushed in over +the shoe-tops. Jones had found the struggle hardest because he had not +the youth of the others nor their light frames. The striplings were +spared many of his hardships and were still able to endure the ordeal, +if the end were sure relief. Jack struck a match, and with this lighted +a pine knot. He surveyed the gloomy brake carefully, and at last, +finding a mound where a thick growth of underbrush gave assurance of +less treacherous soil, he called to Barney to aid him. The little +hillock was made into a couch by means of the saddles, and the groaning +veteran carefully laid upon the by no means uncomfortable refuge. As +Jack held the light above him, Jones's eyes closed and he sank into a +lethargic sleep. + +"He will be in a high fever when he awakes," Jack said, looking at +Barney. "We must see that he has food, or the fever will be his death. +Here is what I propose: you and I shall sally out from here, blazing the +path as we go. We must find some sign of life within a circuit of five +miles. That will take us say till daylight to go and come. We will leave +Dick here to guard Jones, and if we do not return by noon to-morrow Dick +will know that he must shift for himself." + +"You command, Jack dear. What you say I'll do, as Molly Meginniss said +to the priest when he told her to repent of her sins." + +"Dick, my boy, do you think you are equal to a vigil? You must stay here +with Jones. If he wakes and wants water, press the moisture of these +leaves to his lips, it's sassafras; and, stay--here is a sort of +plantain, filled with little globules of dew; pour these into his mouth, +and at a pinch give him a handful from the pool. In case of great danger +fire two shots, but if any one should come toward you or discover you it +will be better to surrender. In that event, you can make up a story to +suit the case, which may enable you to finally escape. This man's life +is in your hands. Remember that it is as glorious a deed as fighting in +line. Keep up a stout heart. We will soon be back, or you may take it +for granted all is up with us." + +"Ah! Jack! Jack! To start so well and end so miserably, I can't bear +it--I can't stay here. You stay and let me go." + +"No, Dick, it can't be; you are already so worn out that we should have +been obliged to halt for you if Jones hadn't broken down. It can't be +that you would think of leaving a fellow-soldier in such extremity as +this, Dick? I know you better." + +"But I don't know him. I have no interest in him. With you I'll face any +danger--I'll die without a word; but to stay here in this awful place, +with the black pools of water, like great dead eyes, glaring in their +hideous light" (the pine-torch flaring in the wind filled the glade with +vast ogreish shadows, as the clustering bushes were swayed in the night +air) "and these hideous night-cries--O Jack, I can't--I can't--I +must go!" + +"But the horses and the need of some one that can come back in case +anything befalls me. I am disappointed in you, Dick. I am shocked; you +are not the man of courage and honor I thought you." + +"O my God, go--go--I will stay; but, Jack, if you find me dead, +tell--tell--Rosa--that--that--" He gasped and sank down sobbing against +the gnarled tree that crossed the mound above Jones's head. + +"I will tell Rosa that you were the man she believed you were when the +trial came," and with this Jack and Barney, with a flaming torch, set +forward hastily through the fantastic curtain of foliage and night, +which shut in the glimmering vista of specters, dark, sinister, +and menacing. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +PHANTASMAGORIA. + + +To say that night is a time of terror is a commonplace. Night is not +terrible of itself. It is like the ocean--peace and repose if there be +no storm. But of all terrors there are none, outside a guilty mind, so +benumbing as night in the unknown. It does not lessen the horror of +darkness that fear makes use of the imagination for its agencies. Fancy, +intuition, and the train that follows the inner vision, these make of +night a phantasmagoria, compared to which Milton's inferno is a place of +comparative repose. + +If you would realize the wondrous necromancy of the sun, pass a night in +some primeval forest, untouched by the hand of man. Until he stands in +the awful silence of the midnight wood, or upon some vast waste of +nature, no man can figure to himself the varied shapes the mind can give +to terrors based upon the mysterious noises of nature, and the goblin +motions of inanimate things. The lover thinking of his lass welcomes the +night and the rapturous walks among well-known scenes and kindly +objects. With glimmering lamps in the foliage and the not distant sounds +of daily life, even the woods have nothing fearful to the meditative or +the distraught. But in flight, with fear as a garment that can not be +laid aside, the somber forms of the forest are more terrible than an +army with banners, as a haunted house is a more unnerving dread than +burglars or any form of night marauders. It was at night that the +mutinous sailors of Columbus broke into decisive revolt; it was at night +that the iron band of Cortes lost heart, and were routed on the lakes of +Mexico; it was at night that the resolution of Brutus failed before the +disaster at Philippi. + +That two-o'clock-in-the-morning courage, which is the secret of +soldierly success, comes only from companionship. The night-wood is a +world by itself, filled with its own atmosphere, as oppressive to valor +as the electric reefs that drew the nails from the ships of Sindbad. +Among familiar scenes and well-known shapes, it is all the delight the +poets sing--so tranquillizing, inspiring, fecund, that in comparison the +thought of day brings up garish hues, flaunting figures--the hardness, +harshness and unlovely in life. But night in the goblin-land, where Dick +found himself suddenly deserted, with fantastic forms swaying in the +lazy wind, would have had terrors for the most constant mind; terrors +such as filled the soul of MacBeth, when Birnam wood came marching to +Dunsinane. In an instant, as it seemed to Dick's exalted and painfully +impressionable sense, every separate leaf, branch, brier, copse, and +jungle, was endowed with a voice of its own--hateful, irritating, +mocking. Swarms of peering eyes hovered in the air, glowering uncanny +menace into the boy's wild, dilating vision. + +Brave, even to recklessness, Dick was, as you have seen; but no sooner +had the glimmer of Jack's torch flickered and fluttered into the black +distance, making place for the monstrous shapes, the luring shadows, and +threatening forms encompassing him, than Dick threw himself, with a +wailing shriek, into the morass in a wild attempt to follow. + +In an instant he was up to his middle in mud and water. He seized the +prickly branches coiling about and above him; he gasped in prayerful +pleading, the home teaching still strong in him; but there was no +answer, save the crooning night-birds and the croaking frogs. Slimy +things touched his torn flesh; whirring birds shot past him, disturbed +in their night perches. The deadly odor, pungent and nauseous, of a +thousand exhaling herbs, filled his nostrils. The darkness grew, +instinct with threatening forms. He gasped, struggled, and in a fervent +outburst of thanksgiving regained the dank mound. Ah, there was life on +that! human life. Jones slept, the stertorous sleep of delirium. He +murmured brokenly. Dick was too terrified to distinguish what he said. +The blaze of the pine knot flared from side to side as the sighing +breeze arose from the brackish pools, protesting the vitality of even +this moribund hades. Ah! if he could but lie down and bury his face. The +horses? They were feeding tranquilly yonder, standing up to their knees +in mosses and water. The lines that tied them were long. They could move +about. This was some comfort. They were more human than the dreadful +specters that filled the place. + +Ah! the blessed, blessed light that flamed out from the merry +pine-torch; he didn't wonder that half the Eastern world worshiped fire. +He adored it--blessed, blessed fire--the sign of God, the beacon of the +human. Hark! What half-human--or rather wholly inhuman--sounds are these +that alternate in unearthly measure? Surely animal nature has no voice +so strident, vengeful, odious. Can it be animals of prey? No. The +Virginia forests are dangerous only in snakes. Snakes? Ah, yes! He +shrinks into shadow against the oak at this suggestion; snakes? the +deadly moccasin, that prowls as well by night as day. Ugh! what's this +at his feet--soft, clammy, shining in the flaring light? He leaps upon +the smooth tree-trunk, growing slantwise instead of perpendicular. What +if the torch and the odor of flesh should draw the snakes to the +sleeper? The flame flares in wide, lurid curves, revealing the outlines +of the sleeping man. Heavens, what a terrible face! He moves in +spasmodic contortions. He is smothering. The veins of his neck will +break if he is not awakened. + +"O my God! my God! have mercy!" Dick buries his face in his hands, as he +clings desperately to the smooth white-oak trunk. A strange, wild +strain, like a detached chord of a vesper melody, sounds above him! It +is the whippoorwill--steadily, continuously, entrancingly the dulcet +measure is taken up and echoed, until the slough of despond seems +transformed into a varying diapason of melancholy minstrelsy. He dares +not raise his head. It will vanish if he moves. He crouches, panting, +almost exultant, in the sense of recovered faculties, or rather the +suspension of numbing fear. How long will it last? He must move; his +limbs are cramped and aching. He raises his head. Mortal powers! the +torch is flickering into ashes! Another instant and he will be in the +dark. Dare he move? Dare he seek the distant pine, between him and which +the black surface of the murky sheet shines, dotted with uncanny growth +and reptilian things? Yes; anything is better than the hideous darkness +of this hideous place. + +The horse he rode has broken his leash and comes to him with a gentle +whinny, as if asking why the delay in such a place. "Blessed, blessed +God, that made a beast so human!" He caresses it, he clings to its neck +and calls to it piteously. Ah, yes; the dying light. He must renew it. +He slips down upon the bare back and urges the patient beast across the +brackish morass. Ah, this is life again! He is not alone. This noble +beast is human. It crops the tender leaves confidingly, and swings its +head as much as to say: "Don't fear, Dick; Fin here. I'll stand by you; +I don't forget the pains you took to get me water, and that particularly +toothsome measure of oats you cribbed in the rebel barn near +Williamsburg!" + +But the pine knot that will burn is not so easily found. Dick was forced +to go a long way before he came upon the resinous sort. He brought back +a supply, having taken the precaution to provide matches in order to +secure his way back. The quest had to some extent lessened the morbid or +supernatural forms of his terrors. They all returned, however, when, +having dismounted, he forgot to tie the horse, and it wandered off in +search of herbage. He called, but the beast made no sign of returning. +Alone again. Alone in the night; spectral forms about him; the sleeping +man adding to the ghostliness of the scene by his incoherent mutterings, +his hideous, gulping breath, his ghastly, blood-curdling outcries. Then +through the gloom the shining outlines of the white oak, like shreds of +shrouds hung on funeral foliage. Ah! he would go mad--he must break the +brutish sleep of the sick man. + +"Mr. Jones," he wails--and his own voice--the comically commonplace +name, "Mr. Jones," even in the agony of his terror, the humor of the +conjuncture glimmered in the boy's crazed intelligence, and he laughed a +wild, maniacal laugh. But the laugh died out in a pulseless horror. The +sick man uprose on his elbow. Dick, above him on the white-oak trunk, +could see his very eyes bloodshot and wandering. He uprose, almost +sitting. He passed his hand over his staring eyes, and began to murmur: + +"Did you bring me here to do murder, Elisha Boone? You have bought my +body, but you never bought my soul. No, no! I will not. I say I will +not. Do you hear? I will not!" + +He glared wildly; then, his eyes meeting the full flame of the torch, he +laughed, a dreadful, marrow-freezing laugh, and broke out again in +clearer tones: "I am yours, Elisha Boone, but my boy is not yours. He +was born in my shape, but he has his mother's soul. He will be a man; he +will be your vengeance; he will undo all his father has done. You've +robbed me; you've made me rob others. But if you touch, if you look at +my boy, my first-born, you might as well hold a pistol at your head. I'm +no longer mad. You must treat with him. Ah! yes; I'll do your bidding +with the others. I'll make young Jack as much trouble as you ask, but +you must make a path of gold for my boy. You must give him what you have +robbed from me. Felon? I'm no felon. It was you who plotted it. It was +you that put the means in mad hands. I can face my family. I have no +shame but that I was a coward. My son! He is no coward. He is a soldier. +He is the pride of the Caribees. He is the beloved of--of--" + +The gibbering maniac, exhausted in body, still incoherently raving, sank +back in piteous collapse, a terrifying gurgle breaking from his throat, +while his tongue absolutely protruded from his jaws. + +Dick, his terrors all forgotten in a new and overmastering horror, +bethought him of Jack's admonition about the water. He slipped down from +the tree, gathered the large moist leaves that clustered near the pool +and held them to the burning lips, Jones swallowed the drops with a +hideous gurgling avidity, clutching the boy's hand ravenously to secure +a more copious flow. There was a tin cup in the holster under the +invalid's head. Taking this, Dick dipped up water from the black pool +between the green leaves; the hot lips sucked it in at one +dreadful gulp. + +"More, more; for God's sake, more!" + +Dick filled it again, and again it was emptied. + +"More--more--I'm burning--more!" + +The boy was cruelly perplexed. He remembered vaguely hearing that fever +should be starved; that the thing craved was the dangerous thing; and he +moved away in a sort of compunctious terror. + +"More--more! Oh, in the name of God, more!" + +The words came gaspingly. Dick thought of the death-rattle he had heard +in Acredale when old man Nagle, the madman, died. He dared not give more +water, but he gathered leaves from the aromatic bushes and pressed them +to the fevered lips. Before he could withdraw them, the eager jaws +closed upon the balsamic shrub. They answered the purpose better than +the most scientific remedy in the pharmacopoeia, for the patient called +for no further drink, and presently fell into profound and undisturbed +sleep. Again the boy was alone with the daunting forces of the dark in +its grimmest and most terrifying mood. Alone! No; his mind was now taken +from all thought of self. He was with a fellow-townsman. The man had +mentioned Boone; had referred to deeds that he had heard all his life +associated with the father he had never seen. A wild thought flashed +upon him. Was the collapsed body at his feet his father's? He could not +see any resemblance in the dark, handsome face to the portrait at home, +though all through the flight from Richmond something in the man's +manner had seemed like a memory. He strove to recall the image his young +mind had cherished, the personality he had heard whispered about in the +gossiping groups of Acredale. This was not the gay, the brilliant, the +fascinating _bon viveur_ who had been the life of society from +Warchester to Bucephalo, from Pentica to New York. Ah! what were the +mystic terrors of the night, what the oppressive surroundings of this +charnel-house of Nature, to the awful spectacle of this unmanned mind, +this delirious echo of past guilt, past cowardice, past shame? + +To lessen the somber gloom, Dick had lighted many torches and set them +about the high mound where the sleeper lay in a huddle. Taking little +heed of where he set them, some of them, as the wind arose, flared out +until their flames licked the decayed branches of the fallen white oak. +As the boy crouched, pensive and distraught, he was suddenly aroused by +a vivacious cracking. He looked up. Lines of fire were darting thither +and yon, where dry wood, the _debris_ of years of decay, had been caught +in the thick clumps of underbrush and among the limbs of the trees. The +fire had pushed briskly, and the uncanny glade was now an amphitheatre +of crawling flames, stretching in many-colored banners in a vast circle +about the point of refuge. Dick gazed fascinated, with no thought of +danger. His spirits rose. It was something like life--this gorgeous +decoration of fire. How beautiful it was! How it brought out the shining +lines of the white oak, the glistening green of the cypress! Why hadn't +he thought of this before? Then, as the curling waves of fire pushed +farther and farther up the steins of the trees, and farther and farther +endlessly into the undergrowth, an unearthly outcry and stir began. +Birds, blinded by the light, whirred and fluttered into the open space +above the water, falling helplessly so near Dick that he could have +caught and killed a score to surprise Jack with a game breakfast, when +he returned. Then--ugh!--horror!--great, coiling masses detached +themselves from the tufts of sward, and splashed noisily into the putrid +water, wriggling and convulsed. The invalid still slept--but, dreadful +sight! the coiling monsters, upheaving themselves from the water, +glided, dull eyed and sluggish, upon the mossy island, about the +unconscious figure. + +Dick, fascinated and inert, watched the snaky mass, squirming in hideous +folds almost on the recumbent body. Then, aroused to the horror of their +nearness, he seized a torch and made at the slimy heap. The fire +conquered them. They slid off the ground, with forked tongues darting +out in impotent malice. But others, squirming through the water, +wriggled up; and the boy, maddened by the danger, stood his ground, +torch in hand, defending the sleeper. + +But now the fire had widened its path, and is enveloping the tiny +island. The serpents, hedged in from the outer line, uproar in +blood-curdling masses, their dull eyes gleaming, and their tongues +phosphorescent, darting out in their agony. Dick doesn't mind them now, +for he has, for the first time, begun to realize that his illumination +has destruction as the sequel of its delight. Great clouds of smoke +settle a moment on the water and then rise, impelled by the cold +surface. Even the green verdure begins to roll back where the crackling +flames play into the more compact wall of incombustible timber. The +sleeper murmurs in his dreams. Dick casts about despairingly. He hears +the horses--they have broken their tethers--he can hear them whinnying, +upbraidingly, far off. Wherever he casts his eye, volumes of fire dart +and sway, always coming inward, first scorching the green limbs, then +fastening on the tender stems and turning them to glowing lines of +cordage; only the great sheet of water, inky, terrible, and threatening +a few hours before, protects him and his charge. The hissing snakes have +sunk into it. + +Bevies of birds, supernaturally keen of sight, have dropped upon the +twigs that lie on the glittering bosom of the water. Dick, in all the +agonized uncertainty of that night of peril, thinks with wonder on the +mysterious resources Nature provides its helpless outcasts. The hideous +shallows, black, glistening, are now a belt of safety, not only for +himself and the sleeper, but a refuge for all manner of whirring birds +and crawling things, intimidated and harmless in the stifling breath of +the fire. The flame, leaping from sedge to sedge, from trunk to trunk, +seems to seek, with a human instinct, and more than human pertinacity, +food for its ravening hunger; far upward, where festoons of moss hung +from the sycamores in the day, airy banners of starry sparks, swayed, +coiled, and flamed among the branches. But Dick was soon reminded that +the scene was not for enjoyment, however fantastically fascinating. + +The smoke, at first rising from the burning brakes, lodged among the +tree-tops; then, meeting the humid night-air in the matted leaves, +descended slowly. Dick found himself nearly smothered when he had partly +recovered from the spell-bound wonder of the demoniac _fete_. The ground +under his feet felt gratefully cool. He bent down, and shudderingly +laved his burning face in the inky water. The sick man had slept more +peacefully during the last half-hour. He no longer breathed in gasping +efforts; his sleep was unbroken by muttering or outcry. But now he must +be aroused. He must be taken out of the circle of fire, for, sooner or +later, the curling waves would lick downward from the dry vines above +and scorch the mound. How to get away? The horses were long since gone. +They might be miles from the spot! Dick touched the sleeping man, filled +with a new suspense. He breathed so softly, or did he breathe at all? + +"For God's sake, Mr. Jones, wake up! We must go from here; the swamp is +burning!" + +"Eh--who is it? Where am I? Was--I dreaming? I thought my boy was with +me, and we were in the old home at Acredale." + +He lay quite still, staring upward with unseeing eyes. Dick's heart gave +a great throb of grateful, devout thanksgiving. The madness and fever +were gone. + +"You remember you were too worn out to go on, and Jack has gone to get +food. But the swamp has caught fire, and we must move away." + +Jones had risen to his elbow; then, with an exclamation that sounded +like an oath, to his feet, gazing on the flaming specters rising and +falling, enlarging and shrinking, among the black tracery of limbs +and trunks. + +"You ought to have waked me before," Jones said, when he had swept the +scene, with sane realization in his eye. "I'm afraid we can never break +through the fire. It reaches a mile or more all about us, and I--I am in +no condition to move. I feel as if I had been down months with illness." + +"But if you could eat something you would be able to move," Dick +ventured, cruelly hurt at the implied delinquency. + +"Eat!" Jones held up one of the luckless torches that Dirk had lighted +in a circle about the mound, and began to examine the ground. "What is +there to eat? Stay! By Heaven, I have it! The bushes are filled with +fluttering game. There, see that! and that, and that!" As he spoke he +had thrust the burning torch into a thick clump of bushes, dense and +glistening as laurels, that looked like wild huckleberry. The branches +were laden with birds, and in a moment be had seized three or four +partridges. + +"What better do we need? We have salt, water, and fire. I'll prepare +them. Do you keep your face well bathed, and heap up embers at the foot +of that ash." + +Sure enough, sometimes hidden by billows of smoke, rising lazily among +the burning bushes, Jones stripped the birds, spitted them on his +bayonet, and, holding them in the hot coals, soon presented a +well-browned portion to his companion. + +"I have had a good deal worse fare than this, my young friend. I have +been in the West, when fire, Indians, and hunger besieged us at the same +time. But we should have a poor chance here if it were not for the wet +grass and the everlasting water. If we can manage to keep clear of the +smoke, we shall be all right, but the smoke seems to grow denser. Where +can it come from?" + +"Great Heavens! do you hear that? Shots--one--two! That's Jack's signal. +He--he is near. He is in danger. I must go to him." Dick cried. "Listen; +more shots. No, that can't be the signal. There, do you hear that? A +volley. The rebels are after them, or we are near the outposts, and the +two armies are skirmishing." + +Yes; the shots now sounded more frequently, but they seemed to be fired +not far away. + +"It is Jack. I know it is Jack, and he is in peril. I must go to him. I +can not stay here. Surely there is no danger in pushing toward +the firing?" + +"There is every danger. In the first place, the smoke will smother us. +Then suppose we reached the spot? We might be nearer the rebels than our +friends. They know where we are. If they are not taken, they will come +back for us. If they are taken, we must do our best to get to our lines +and send out a scouting party. Be guided by me, youngster. I am an older +hand in business of this sort than you are." + +The boy stood irresolute. Both listened intently. The firing had +stopped. A great sough of rising storm came from the northwest, carrying +a hot, blinding mass of smoke and flame into the little retreat. They +flung themselves on the damp ferns to keep their breath. Still the +breeze rose, until it became a wind--a spasm of hurricane. It was +madness to linger, for the flames now licked the ground, driven down +anew by the blast. Then Jones spoke decisively: "Strap a pine torch to +your body. I will do the same. Take all you can carry and follow in my +wake." Jones, as he spoke, seized a torch, extinguished it, and handed +it to Dick. Equipped as he had directed, they set out, half crawling, +half swimming, to avoid the volumes of smoke hovering in the thick, +cactus-like leaves of the wild laurel. Presently they emerged, after +toil and misery, that excitement alone enabled the boy to support, into +what seemed a cleared space. But as soon as their eyes could distinguish +clearly, they found themselves on the edge of a wide pond. The fire was +now behind them. They could stand erect and breathe the pure, cool air. + +"Ah, now we are in luck!" Jones whispered. "We will walk to the right, +on the edge of this lake, and keep it between us and the fire. We have +got out of that purgatory; now if we could only signal our friends." + +"Hist!" whispered Dick, "I hear some one moving behind us." + +They crouched down in the thick reeds and waited. The sky above was +darkly overcast; an occasional burst of lightning revealed the +dimensions of the pond, and they could see high ground on the eastern +shore, covered by enormous pines. + +"If we can only reach the pines we shall be all right. There the ground +will be dry and soft and you can get some rest. I'm afraid, my boy, it +will go hard with you if you don't." + +"I don't mind what happens if we can only come up with Jack. There, do +you hear that?" + +Yes, both could plainly hear voices ahead of them on the margin of the +pond. They were talking in low tones, and the words were +undistinguishable. + +"We must crawl back toward the bush, and get as near those folks as we +can," Jones whispered. They made their way easily into the high bushes +and stole forward in the direction of the voices. But as they had to +guard against breaking twigs or hurtling branches, which would have +betrayed them, their advance was slow. When they reached the vicinity +where they had fancied the voices to be, all was silent. + +"Sound the call; perhaps that will lead to something," Jones whispered +in Dick's ear. + +But, unnerved by the trying experience of the night, or worn out by +fatigue, Dick's call was far from the significant signal he had +practiced with Jack. He repeated it several times, but there was no +response. There was, however, something more startling. A few rods +beyond them a flame suddenly shot up, lighting a group of cavalry +patrols standing beside a fire just kindled. + +"Rebels!" Jones whispered. "Now we must be slippery as snakes. If they +have no dogs, we are all right. If you hear the whimper of a hound, +follow me like lightning and plunge into the water. That'll break the +trail. Stay here and let me reconnoitre a bit. Have no fear. I'll go in +no danger." + +Jones crept away, leaving Dick by no means easy in his mind, but he no +longer felt the terror that numbed him in the deep wood. Here there was +companionship. By pushing the branches aside he could see the figures +lounging about the fire; he could see the dark vault of the sky, and was +not oppressed by the hideous shapes and shadows of the dense jungle. +Jones meanwhile had pushed within earshot of the group. He flattened his +body against a friendly pine and listened. + +"I reckon they ain't the Westover niggers, for they were traced to the +Pamunkey; these rascals are most likely from the south side--" + +"If Jim gets here with the dogs in an hour, we can be back to the +barracks for breakfast." + +"Ef it hadn't been for that blamed fire in the swamp, we should have had +them before this. The rascal that fired at Tom wasn't a musket-shot from +me when the smoke poured out and hid him." + +"They've gone into the swamp. The dogs'll soon tree them. I'm going to +turn in till the dogs come. One of you stay awake and keep a sharp eye +toward the creek." + +"All right, sergeant. You won't have more'n a cat-nap. Bilcox's dogs are +over at the ford, I know, for they were brought there's soon as the news +of the Yankee escape came." + +"I hope they are; but I'm afraid they are not. If they are, we shall +soon hear them." + +Jones had heard enough. Hastening back to Dick, he asked: + +"Can you swim?" + +"Yes, I'm a good swimmer." + +"Very well; throw away everything--no, stay--that would betray us. When +we reach the water bury all you can't carry in the sand and then +follow me." + +They were forced to retrace their painful way through the bushes to +reach a place as distant from the point of pursuit as possible. A +half-mile or more from their starting-place they found themselves in a +running stream. Jones examined it in both directions, and bade Dick +enter it and follow in the water, pushing upward in the bed, waist-deep, +a hundred yards. Then, climbing to the bank, he groped about until he +found a slender white oak. Climbing this as high as he could get, he +slowly swung off, and, the tree bending down to the very stream, he +dropped back into the water and rejoined Dick. Both waded in the middle +of the stream until they reached the pond, and then struck out toward +the pine clump the lightning had revealed a little while before. There +was no need of swimming, and, finding it possible to wade, Jones decided +to retain the pistols and ammunition which he had at first resolved to +bury as impeding the flight. The bottom appeared to be hard sand, a +condition often found in Southern ponds near the inflow of the sea. They +had gone a mile or more, keeping just far enough from the bank to remain +undistinguishable, when the appalling baying of a hound sounded from the +farther end of the pond, where the patrol fire gleamed faintly among +the trees. + +"Now, youngster, we must keep all our wits at work. The dogs will push +on to where we hid. They will follow to the stream, and I think I have +given them the slip there. Then they will beat about and follow our +trail into the cypress swamp. There the horses will mislead them, and if +you can only hold out, so soon as daylight comes we can strike into the +pines and make for the Union lines." + +"I--I--think I can--ah!--" + +Dick reeled helplessly and would have sunk under the water, if Jones had +not caught him. + +"Courage, my boy, courage! Don't give up now, just as we are near +rescue!" + +But Dick was unconscious, the strain of the early part of the night, the +desperate fight through the brakes, all had told on the slight frame, +and Jones stood up to his middle in the dark water, holding the +fainting boy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +IN THE UNION LINES. + + +If there is reason as well as rhyme in the old song that danger's a +soldier's delight and a storm the sailor's joy, Jack and his comrade +were in for all the delights that ever gladdened soldier or sailor boy. +When they left Dick and Jones, the eager couriers tore through the +marshy lowlands, the stubbly thickets and treacherous quagmires, poor +Barney, panting and groaning in his docile desire to keep up with his +leader, as he had done often in boyish bravado. + +"There'll not be a rag on me body nor a whole bone in me skin when we +get out of this!" he gasped, as they reached high ground between two +spreading deeps of mingled weeds and water. "The sight of us'd frighten +the whole rebel army, if we don't come on them aisy loike, as the fox +said when he whisked into the hen-house." + +"He was a very considerate fox, Barney. Most of the personages you +select to illustrate your notions seem to me to be gifted with little +touches of thoughtfulness. Barney, you ought to write a sequel to Aesop. +There never was out of his list of animal friends such wise beasts, +birds, and what not as you seem to have known." + +"Jack, dear, if a man lived on roses would the bees feed on him? If he +ate honeysuckle instead of hard-tack would he be squeezed for his scents +to fill ladies' smelling-bottles?" + +"I don't know that sense is always a recommendation to women," Jack +shifts his burden to say tentatively, as Barney, involved in a more than +commonly obstinate brier, loses the thread of this jocose induction. + +"Ah, Jack, dear, ye're weak in ye're mind when you fall to play on words +like that." + +"You mean my sense is small?" + +"Not that at all. Sure, it's a hero's mind ye show when you can find +heart to make merry at a time like this!" + +"Yes--'he jests at love who never felt a throb.'" + +"Then you've a hard heart--and I know I lie when I say it, as Father +Mike McCune said to himself when he tuk the oath to King George in +'98--if ye're heart never throbbed in Acredale beyant, for there's many +a merry one cast down entirely that handsome Jack's gone." + +"Come, come, Barney; it's dark, and I can't see the grin that saves this +from fulsome blarney." + +"Indeed, then--" + +"Hark!" + +Through the monotonous noises of the night the clanking of steel and the +neighing of horses could be heard just ahead. + +"We must move cautiously now, Barney. Try to put a curb on your tongue, +and let your reflections mature in your busy brain." + +"Put me tongue in bonds to keep the peace, as Lawyer Donigan cautioned +Biddy Gavan when the doctor said she was driving the parish mad with +her prate." + +"Sh!--sh!--you noisy brawl; we shall have a platoon of cavalry upon us. +Even the birds have stopped crooning to catch your delicate brogue!" + +"'Tis only the ill-mannered owl that makes game of me--if--" + +"Sh! Come on. Bend low. Do as I do--if you can see me. If not, keep +touch on my arm." + +"As the wolf said to the lamb when he bid him take a walk in the +wather." + +They had now emerged on the reedy margin of the dark pool discovered by +Dick and Jones later. All was silent. The sky was full of stars--so full +that, even in the absence of the moon, there was a transparent clarity +in the air that enabled Jack to take definite bearings. + +"This must be an outlet of the York River, the stream we saw this +afternoon. If it be, then we are not far from our own outposts. The +troopers we heard just now may be Union soldiers. We must wait patiently +to let them discover themselves. Keep abreast of me, and don't, as you +value your life, speak above a whisper--better not to speak at all." + +"That's what the priest said to Randy Maloney's third wife when she +complained that he bate her." + +"Barney, I'll throttle you if you don't keep that mill you call your +tongue still." + +"Ah, I'll hold it in me fist, as Mag Gleason held her jaw, for fear her +tooth would lep out to get more room to ache." + +Jack laughed. "If we're caught it will be through your jokes, for bad as +they are I must laugh at some of them." + +"Dear, oh dear no; you may save the laugh till a convenient time, as +Hugh McGowen kept his penances, until his head was clear, and there was +no whisky in the jar." + +They had been pushing on rapidly--noiselessly, during this whispered +dispute, and now found themselves at the reedy margin of a wide inlet, +where, from the swift motion of the water and the musical gurgling, they +could tell they were by the side of a main channel. + +"We must push on southward, and see if there is a crossing. If we come +to one, that will tell us where we are, for it will be guarded, you may +be sure," said Jack, buoyantly. + +"Yes, but I'd rather find a hill of potatoes and a drop than all the +soldiers in the two armies." + +"You are not logical, Barney. If we find soldiers, we'll find rations; +though I have my doubts about the sort of 'drop' you'll be apt to find +down here." + +"There was enough corn in the field beyant to keep a still at work for a +winter," Barney lamented with a sigh, recalling fields of grain they had +passed near Williamsburg, which he vaguely alluded to as "beyant." + +"I wish some of the 'still' were on the end of your tongue at this +moment." + +"With all me heart--'twould do yer sowl good to see the work it'd give +me tongue to do to hould itself," Barney gasped, trying to keep abreast +of his reviler. "Be the dark eyes of Pharaoh's daughter there's a field +beyant--yes, and a shebeen; d'ye see that?" + +They had suddenly emerged in a cleared place. Against the horizon they +could distinctly distinguish the outlines of a cabin, the "shebeen" +Barney alluded to. + +"Yes, we're in luck. It's a negro shanty. We shall find friends there, +if we find anybody. Now, do be silent." + +"If the field was full of girruls, with ears as big as sunflowers, they +wouldn't hear me breathe, so have no fear. A hill of potatoes all eyes +couldn't see us in such darkness as this." + +For dense clouds had swiftly come up from the west, covering the +horizon. After careful reconnoitring, requiring a circuit of the +clearing, Jack ventured to make directly for the dark outlines of the +cabin. War had obviously not visited the place, for as they passed a low +outhouse the startled cackle of chickens sounded toothsomely, and Barney +came to a delighted halt. + +"Sure we'd better get a bite to ate while we may, as th' ass said when +he passed th' market car, for who knows what'll happen if we stop to ask +by your lave?" + +For answer Jack gave him a sharp push, and the discomfited plunderer +hurried on with a good-humored grunt. All was silent in the cabin. The +windows were slatted, without glass, and the door was unfastened. Jack +pushed in boldly, leaving Barney to guard the rear. Peaceful snoring +came from one corner, and Jack, shading a lighted match with his hand, +looked about him. In the hurried glimpse he caught sight of an old negro +on a husk mattress, and the heads of young boys just beyond. They were +sleeping so soundly that the striking of the match never aroused them. +Jack had to shake the man violently before the profound sleep +was broken. + +"I say, wake up! or can you wake?" + +"What dat? Who's dar--you, Gabe? What you 'bout?" + +The old man shuffled to a sitting posture, and Jack, renewing his match, +held it in the negro's blinking eyes. + +"Have you any food? We are Yankees, and want something for companions in +the swamp. Are we in danger here? We heard cavalry-men on the other side +of the pond; are they rebel or Yankee?" + +At this volley of questions the bewildered man turned piteously to the +sleepers, and then stared at Jack in perplexity. + +"'Deed, marsa captain, I don no noffin 'tall, I--I hain't been to de +crick fo' a monf. I'se fo'bid to go da--I--" + +"Well, well, have you any food? Get that first, and then talk," Jack +cried, impatiently. + +But now the boys were awake, and Jack had to give them warning to make +no noise. Yes, there was food, plenty. Cooked bacon, hoe-cake, and cold +chicken, boiled eggs, and, to Barney's immeasurable joy, sorghum whisky. +The hunger of the invaders satisfied, each provided himself with a sack +to feed the waiting comrades; and while this was going on they extracted +from the now reassured negroes that the spot was just behind Warick +Creek, near Lee's Mills; that parties of rebels from the fort at +Yorktown had been at work building lines of earthworks, and that every +now and then Yankees came across and skirmished in the woods a mile or +two up in the direction whence Jack had come. The cabin was only a step +from the main road, upon which the rebels were encamped--a regiment or +more. Some Yankee prisoners had been captured early in the morning, and +were in the block-house, a short distance up the road. + +"Can you lead us near the block-house?" Jack asked. + +"I reckon I can; but ef I do they'll shu' ah' find it out, and den I'se +don, 'cos Marsa Hinton--he's in de cavalry--he'll guess dat it was me +dat tuk you 'uns dar." + +"Do you want to be free? Do you want to go into the Union lines?" + +"Free! oh, de Lor', free! O marsa captain, don't fool a ole man. Free! +I'd rudder be free dan--dan go to Jesus--almost." + +"Have you a wife--are these your children?" + +"My ole woman is up at Marsa Hinton's; she's de nuss gal. Dese is my +boys; yes, sah." + +"Very well; we're going into the Union lines. You know the country +hereabouts. Help us to find our friends in the swamp, and we will take +you all with us," Jack said; but feeling a good deal of compunction, as +he was not so sure that the freedom bestowed upon these guileless +friends might not, for a time at least, be more of a hardship than their +happy-go-lucky servitude. Meanwhile, in the expansion of renewed hopes +and full stomachs, no watch had been kept on the outside; a tallow dip +had been lighted, and the whole party busied in getting together such +necessaries as could be carried. One of the boys, passing the door, +uttered a stifled cry: + +"Somebody comin' from de road." + +"Where can we hide? Don't put out the light; that will look suspicions!" +Jack whispered, making for the window in the rear, "Is there a cellar, +or can we get on the roof?" But the dark group were too terrified to +speak. They ran in a mob to the doorway, luckily the most adroit +manoeuvre they could hit upon, for with the dip flaring in the current +of air, the room was left in darkness. Jack and Barney slipped through +the low lattice, and by means of a narrow shed reached the low roof. +They could hear the tramp of horses, how many they could not judge, and +then a gruff voice demanding: + +"You, Rafe, what ye up to? What ye got a light burnin' this time o' +night fo'?" + +"'Deed, marsa, it's nuffin'--fo' God, marsa! I was gittin' de stomach +bottle fo' Gabe--he eat some jelly root fo' supper and he's been +powerful sick--frow his insides out--I--" + +"Leave your horses, boys. Rafe's got some of Hinton's best sorghum +whisky--you, there, nigger, get us a jug and some cups." + +How many dismounted Jack couldn't make out, but presently there was a +heavy tramping in the cabin and then a ferocious oath. + +"What does this mean; why have you got all these traps packed? Going to +cut to the Yankees! Don't lie, now--you'll get more lashes for it." + +Jack listened breathlessly. Would the quavering slaves have presence of +mind to divert suspicion? There was a pause, and then the old man cried, +pleadingly: + +"We'se gwine to lebe dis place; we's gwine up to de house in de mornin'. +My ole woman can't come down heah now, case de sojers is always firm', +and Mars' Hinton told us to come to de quarters, sah." + +"I don't believe a word of it, you old rascal. I'll see whether Hinton +has ordered you to leave here. Likely story, indeed; leave one of his +best fields with no one to care for it. Git the whisky and stop your +mumbling. You, there, you young imps, step about lively--do you heah?" + +There was the sound of a sharp stroke, then a howl of pain and a +boisterous laugh. + +"You keep an eye on the rear and I will see how many horses there are," +Jack's lips murmured in Barney's ear. He slid cautiously down the +slanting roof until he came to the corner where he saw the dark group of +horses. There were three--tied to the peach-trees. He made his way back +to Barney and whispered: + +"There are but three horses. If you are up to an adventure I think we +can make this turn to our profit." + +"I'm up to anything, as the cat said when Biddy Hiks's plug ran her up +the crab-tree." + +"Very well. Come after me." + +The sorghum, meanwhile, had been handed to the raiders in the cabin, and +the men could be heard making merry. + +"You, Gabe, go out and mind the horses; see that they don't twist the +bridles about their legs." + +Gabe sallied out and one of his brothers with him. As they neared the +horses Jack came upon them, and taking the elder, Gabe, in the shadow of +the house, he whispered: + +"Have the soldiers' pistols?" + +"Yes, sah." + +"Where are they?" + +"De put dem on de stool, neah de doah." + +"Good. How many?" + +"Free." + +"Have they swords?" + +"Yes, sah." + +"Where are they?" + +"On de stool, too." + +"That will do; keep with the horses, and don't be frightened if you hear +anything. We'll give you freedom yet, if you'll be prudent." + +He could hear the men grumbling because the food was not enough to go +around. The liquor had begun to work in their systems, drinking so +lavishly, and without nourishment to absorb its fiery quality. Jack let +enough time pass to give this ally full play in disabling the troopers, +then taking Barney to the rear of the cabin, whispered: + +"I will dash in at the door, seize the weapons, and demand surrender. +You make a great ado here; give command, as if there were a squad. The +boys will make a loud clatter with the horses, and we shall bag the game +without a blow. Now, be prudent. Barney, and we will go into the Union +lines in triumph." + +Inside the men were laughing uproariously, mingling accounts of love and +war in a confused medley--how a sweetheart in Petersburg was only +waiting for the stars on her lover's collar to make him happy; how the +Yankees would be wiped out of the Peninsula as soon as Jack Magruder got +his nails pared for fight; how three Yankees had been gobbled that day, +and how others were in the net to be taken in the morning. The bacchanal +was at its highest when Jack, dashing into the open doorway, placed +himself between the drinkers and their arms, and cried, sternly, as he +pointed his pistol at the group: + +"Surrender, men! You are surrounded!" + +"Close up, there! Keep your guns on a line with the windows; don't fire +till I give the order!" Barney could be heard at the window in +suppressed tones, as he, too, covered the maudlin company. Gabe and his +brother added to the effect of numbers by clattering the stirrups of the +horses, so that the clearing seemed alive with armed men. + +The troopers, sobered and astonished, half rose, and then as these +sounds of superior force emphasized the menace of Jack's pistol in front +and Barney's in the rear, they sank back in their seats, the spokesman +saying, tipsily: + +"I don't see as we've much choice." + +"No, you have no choice.--Sergeant, bring in the cords," Jack ordered. + +Barney at this came in with a clothes-line Jack had prepared from the +negroes' posts. The arms of the three men were bound behind them, and +then Jack retired with his aide to hold a council of war. Without the +negro they could never retrace their way to Dick. But how could they +carry the prisoners with them? Manifestly it could not be done. It was +then agreed that Barney should take the prisoners, the horses, and the +old man, with the younger boys, and make for the Union lines, not a mile +distant. Jack, meanwhile, with little Gabe, would go to the rescue of +Dick. If firing were heard later, Barney would understand that his +friends were in peril, and, if the Union outposts were in sufficient +strength, they could come to the rescue, and, perhaps, add to the +captures of the night. Barney was now serious enough. He was reminded of +no joke by the present dilemma, and remained very solemn, as Jack +enlarged on the glories of the proposed campaign. How all Acredale would +applaud the intrepidity of its townsmen snatching glory from peril! +Barney consented to leave him with reluctance, suggesting that the "ould +nagur" could take the prisoners "beyant." + +"Gabe has shown sense and courage, and I shall be much more likely to +reach Dick and extricate him and Jones, alone, than if I had this +cavalcade at my heels." + +Jack and Barney were forced to laugh at the big-eyed wonder in old +Rafe's eyes when he was informed of the imposing part he was to play in +the warlike comedy. To be guard over "white folks," to dare to look them +in the face without fear of a blow, in all his sixty years Rafael Hinton +had never dreamed such a mission for a man of color. The troopers, too +tipsy and subdued to remark the sudden paucity of the force that had +overcome them, were tied upon their own steeds, Barney in front of the +leader, and Rafe and his son in charge of the two others. + +Rafe led the way in trembling triumph. He knew the ford, indeed, every +foot of the country, and had no misgivings about reaching the Union +lines. Jack watched the squad until it disappeared in the fringe of +trees, and then, turning to the tearful Gabe, said, encouragingly: + +"Now, we must do as well when we go among the Union soldiers. You know +the point in the swamp I have told about. How long will it take us to +reach that the shortest way?" + +"Ef we had dad's dugout we could save right smart." + +"You mean we could get there by water?" + +"Yes, sah. We ken go all froo de swamp in a boat." + +"Then I'm afraid it is not the place I mean, for we found as much land +as water." + +"Dey ain't no odder swamp neah heah, sah." + +"Well, we'll try my route first. If that misleads us, we shall try the +boat. Can you find it?" + +"Suah." + +"Where is it?" + +"Ober neah the blockhouse. De sogers done tuk it to fish." + +"Ah, yes, the blockhouse! I must look into that! Now, we must hurry. +Skirt the edge of the water and make no noise." + +This was a needless warning to the boy, who, barefooted and scantily +clad, gave Jack as much as he could do to keep up with him. They had +left the cabin a mile or more behind them to the southeastward, and were +somewhere near the spot Jack had emerged from the cypress swamp, when +both were brought to a halt by shifting clouds of smoke pouring out from +the underwood. + +"Where does that come from?" Jack asked, throwing himself flat to catch +his breath. + +"Dunno, sah. Most likely de sojers sot de brush on fiah." + +When Jack was able to look again he saw far in among the trees a moving +wave of light now and then, as the heavy curtain of smoke was lifted +by the wind. + +"Good heavens!" he ejaculated; "it was in there I left my friends. Can +we get to them?" + +"No, sah; der ain't no crick dah." + +"Then!" Jack thought, "have I sacrificed Dick and Jones in my zeal to be +adventurous? Ten minutes sooner, and we could have gone in and brought +them out. But I will find a way in, if I have to clamber over the +tree-tops." + +The noise of whirring wings, the rush of startled animals, now drowned +all other sounds, until, through the tumult from the copse far in front +of them, they heard the clatter of swords, and then gigantic figures +breaking toward them, along the edge of the pond. + +"Down, down; hug the ground!" Jack cried, pushing the boy down into the +reeds. Almost as they sank, a group of troopers dashed by, talking +excitedly. + +"Fire at random, men; that will force them into cover! If we can keep +them in ambush till daylight, the dogs will be here, and we shall nab +them," Jack heard a voice say as the men rode past. + +How could they have heard of the affair so quickly, for Jack took it for +granted that it was his exploit that the troopers were afoot to balk? +Still another group passed, and they were talking of the dogs that +were expected. + +"You may depend upon it, they are in the swamp. They are making off that +way and hope to mislead us by firing the place. We must keep our eyes +peeled on the swamp. The creek will stop them down yonder, and we must +watch this break in the brush. As soon as the dogs come we shall have no +trouble. They'll run 'em down in no time." + +Jack had heard enough to warn him that it was useless to try to +penetrate the swamp. With half of his usual wit, Dick would have been +_en route_ long before this, for the fiery glow in the woods showed that +the flames had been raging some time. Unless Jones's illness had +handicapped him, Dick would be on his way, following Jack's route as +closely as the darkness would permit. But now he must seek means to +evade the dogs. This could be done only by reaching the water and +getting into it far from the point where they proposed to leave it. + +"Can you find the boat?" he asked Gabe, who chattered between his teeth. + +"I think so, sah." + +"Very well; we must find a small stream running into the pond, and then +lead me to the boat." + +"Moccasin Brook is close yonder, sah. Shall I go dah?" + +"Yes, like lightning." + +In a few minutes they were in a sluggish current, running between masses +of reeds and spreading lily-leaves, into the pond. Here Jack repeated +Jones's manoeuvre, except that he was not wise enough in woodcraft to +make use of a tree to get into the water, and thus leave the dogs at the +end of the trail at a point far removed from his real entrance into it. +When they had reached the pond, Jack bade the boy head to the boat. This +they found moored under a bluff, and Gabe, pointing upward, said the +blockhouse was there. + +"Very well, you stay here in the boat and wait for me. Don't stir, don't +speak, no matter what you see or hear. Will you do this?" + +"Oh, yes, sah; 'deed, 'deed I will, sah!" + +Jack crawled up the bank, keeping in the shadow of the uneven ground, +until he reached a point whence he could make out the blockhouse. It was +a half-finished structure of rough logs, and, from the stakes and other +signs of engineering preliminaries, he saw that it was intended as the +guard-house of a fortification. He could hear the drawl of languid, +half-sleepy voices, and, as he pushed farther to the eastward, saw a +group of troopers lounging about a dying fire. A sentry sat before the +doorway, which had no door. He was dozing on his post, though, now and +then he aroused himself to listen to the comments of the men at the +fire. While Jack waited, irresolute what to do, a volley sounded across +the pond, evidently the fellows whom he had seen, keeping up the +fusilade to distract the fugitives. + +"They've wasted enough lead to fight a battle," he heard one of the men +say, scornfully. + +"Well, that's what lead's for," a philosopher remarked, stirring the +embers. "So it don't get under my skin, I don't care a cuss what they +do with it." + +"Oh, your skin's safe enough, Ned. You may adorn a gallows yet." + +"If I do, you'll be at one end of the string--and I ain't a-saying which +end, neither," the other retorted, taking a square segment of what +looked like bark, but was really tobacco, and worrying out a circle with +his teeth, until he had detached a large mouthful. This affording his +jaws all the present occupation they seemed capable of undertaking, the +other resumed when the haw-haw that met the sally had subsided: + +"Yes, it takes two to make a hangin', just like it takes two to make a +weddin', and you can't allus say just sartin which one has the +lucky end." + +This facetious epigram was duly relished, and the sage was turning his +toasted side from the fire to present the other, when the clatter of a +horse coming up the hillside sent the group scouring toward their guns, +stacked near the unfinished walls. + +"Sergeant Bland, the captain orders you to take four men and station +them along the north shore of the pond. The rascals are in the cypress +swamp, and are making their way out toward Moccasin Creek. One man can +watch the block-house, and the rest come with me.--Guard, we shall be +within a hundred yards of you. A shot will bring a dozen men to your +assistance; but it isn't likely an enemy can reach this point. The whole +regiment is deployed in the woods." + +This was said to the sentry as the group, detailed for Moccasin Creek, +filed off at a double-quick down the hill. In a few moments the +blockhouse was deserted, save by the sentry, who had now risen and was +vigorously pacing before the doorway. Now was Jack's time, if ever. If +he could only whisper to one of the prisoners to call the sentry. But +how? He had nothing to fear in approaching the rear, and in a few +moments he had examined the walls. There was no opening where he could +get speech with those inside. What could he do? To boldly fall upon the +sentry was risky, for the slightest noise would bring rescue from the +front of the bluff. At the base of the wall, where the log-joists rested +upon a huge bowlder, his quick eye detected an air-hole. He examined it +hurriedly. It was evidently below the flooring. So much the better. +Putting his mouth to this, he called out in a piteous tone: + +"For God's sake, sentry, give me some water! I'm choking--oh--oh water! +water!" + +He waited to see if the sentry would heed the call. He knew that the men +inside could not betray him, for, if they were not asleep, they could +not be sure that the voice was not from among themselves. Sure enough, +the sentry's step ceased. Was he near the door? Jack crept to the +corner. Yes, he had halted at the aperture. Would he enter? Jack stepped +back to his post, as the guard called out: + +"Where are you? Which of you wants water? Sing out!" + +"Here!" Jack cried, "Here!" Then darting back to the corner, he was just +in time to see the man lean his gun against the door-post, and disappear +in the hut. In an instant the gun was in Jack's possession, and he was +behind the Samaritan in quest of the suffering victim. It was dark as a +tunnel. Jack's victim still gave him the aid he needed, for, as he +groped along the wall, he said, good-humoredly: + +"Sing out again, my friend; I haven't got cat's eyes." + +Jack's grasp was on his throat and Jack's mouth was at his ear. + +"One sound, one word, and this knife goes to the hilt in your heart!" + +The astounded man half reeled at this awful apparition in the black +darkness, and he limply yielded to his captor under the impression that +the prisoners were loose and upon him. Jack tied the man's unresisting +hands with his own canteen-straps; then seated him near the wall and +lighted a match. Four men, undisturbed by this swift and noiseless coup, +were stretched on the board floor, breathing the heavy, deep sleep of +exhaustion. Jack aroused them with the greatest difficulty, and found it +still harder to make them understand that, with courage and resolution, +they would be back in their own lines by daylight. When this became +clear to them they were as eager and energetic as their rescuer. The men +were to remain near the blockhouse, but not in it, until Jack returned +for the negro, and then under the lad's guidance they could find their +way to the Union outposts. Just as this was decided, a blood-curdling +baying of bloodhounds echoed across the pond from the distant cabin. +Jack trembled, his mind at once on Dick, so near and yet so far from him +now, in this new danger. There was not a moment to be lost. Perhaps even +now all the night's hard-won victories were to be turned to worse than +defeat--prison, death; for the liberation of slaves was at that time +punishable by hanging in the rebel military code. + +"Courage," he said to himself, grimly; "courage, a dog's no worse than a +man. We've overcome them to-night, we ought to be able to tackle the +dogs." This new danger changed his plan slightly. Instead of leaving all +the men, he took one of the rescued four, Tom Denby by name, with him, +and set out for the water. But here another check met him. He suddenly +recalled that the guard at the blockhouse had been scattered along the +shore to watch the debouch from the swamp. This enforced a wide +_detour_, bringing him out in the rear of the boat and nearer the point +where Moccasin Creek emptied into the pond. They reached it finally, and +skirting along the shore kept a keen eye on the water for the boat. They +had skurried along half-way back toward the bluff, listening for a sound +on the water and peering into the black surface, when Denby suddenly +touched Jack's arm. + +"There's a horse or cow standing in the water yonder. I've seen it move; +there, look!" + +Yes, outlined against the low horizon, a monstrous shape could be +plainly seen. The yelp of the hounds suddenly broke through the air back +of them toward the creek. The monstrous figure started, moved heavily +forward, then seemed as if coming toward them. Both waited, wondering, +curious, terrified. It was within a rod of them, staggering, gasping. + +"Oh, God help us! I can go no farther; better be taken than both drown +together." + +Jack could hardly repress a cry: + +"Jones--Dick! Is it you?" + +But whoever it was or whatever it was had no speech to answer this eager +inquiry. They would have sunk in the shallow water if Jack and Denby had +not caught them. Jack had food with him, and, better than all, the +bottle of sorghum whisky. With this restorative, both were soon able to +sit upon the ground and eat. Jack left Denby to feed them, while he went +in search of the boat. He found it just where he had left it, and in a +few minutes, at the head of his little band, he was back at the +blockhouse. The food and Jack's hastily told news had restored Dick to +something like his old friskiness. + +"Jericho!" he cried, as the released prisoners, having held back warily +until the color of the new-comers was known, ran forward. "The whole +army is here. I feel as if I were in the Union lines." + +"Well, you ain't, by a long shot," Denby cried. "We've got a good hour's +march, and if you're wise, Captain Sprague, you won't waste time for +any frills." + +"No time shall be wasted.--Jones, you and Dick take the rear. I, with +Denby, will skirmish; and you, Corporal Kane, shall command the center. +No firing, remember, unless superior force assails us.--Gabe, stick to +the waterside as closely as you can, but make the shortest cut to +the bridge." + +Gabe was the most delighted darkey in all Virginia for the next hour. He +led them swiftly and surely, and why shouldn't he? He had passed all his +life in the vicinity, and with the first beams of the sun he pointed to +a narrow wooden bridge. + +"Dar's whar de pickets fire across." + +As they passed the bridge a loud sound of rushing horses could be heard +in the distance. + +"Dick, you take two men and hurry down the road to assure our pickets +that we are friends. We'll take up the planks to give them time!" Jack +shouted, and Dick, with two of the rescued prisoners, dashed away. Many +hands and high hope made short work of the light timbers. As the +pursuing cavalry turned the bend in the road, in sight of the bridge. +Jack's squad gave them a volley and then dashed into cover. The fire was +returned. Dick, coming back at a run, with a dozen dismounted men, heard +the bullets whistling over his head and saw Jack's _posse_ dispersing to +the right and left in the bushes. All were forced into the woods, as the +rebels commanded the highway. + +"Where is Jack?" Dick asked, rushing among the men. No one had noticed +him in the panic. He was not in the huddle that cowered in the reeds to +escape the balls, still hurtling viciously over the open. With a cry of +rage and despair, Dick flew into the road, and there, not a hundred +yards from the bridge, he saw the well-known figure prone on the red +earth motionless--dead? Heedless of the warning cries of the others, +Dick tore madly to the body, and with a wild cry fell upon the lifeless +figure, weltering in blood. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +"THE ABSENT ARE ALWAYS IN THE WRONG." + + +Under Vincent's ardent escort Mrs. Sprague and Merry traveled from +Richmond northward in something like haste and with as much comfort as +was possible to the limited means of transportation at the command of +the Confederate commissary. Even in those early days of the war, the +railway system of the South was worn out and inadequate. Such a luxury +as a parlor car was unknown. The trains were filled with military +personages on their way to the field. Mrs. Sprague and Merry were the +only women in the car in which they passed from Richmond to +Fredericksburg. The route brought them through a land covered with +hamlets of camps, drilling squadrons, and the panoply of war. While the +elder lady gave a divided mind to the strange panorama, Merry watched +everything eagerly, amused and interested by this spectacle of +preparation. Such soldiers as she could see distinctly looked like +farmers in holiday homespun; the cavalry like nondescript companies of +backwoods hunters. There seemed to be no uniformity in infantry +equipment or cavalry accoutrements, and the discipline struck her as in +keeping with this diversity of dress and ornament. The men could be seen +hurrying in boyish glee toward the train as it drew near the temporary +station, where mail-bags were thrown out and sometimes supplies of food +or munitions of war. Jocular remarks were passed between the soldiery at +the windows when the wistful groups gathered along the railway line. + +"I say, North Cal'ina, you'n's goin' straight through to Yankee land?" a +man in the throng shouts to some one on the train. + +"Straight." + +"Send us a lock o' Lincoln's hair to poison blind adders, will you?" + +"No--promised his scalp to my sweetheart to cover the rocking-chair." + +Then, as the laugh that met this sally died away, another humorist +piped, out: + +"Tell Uncle Joe Johnston we're just rustin' down here for a fight; ef he +don't hurry up we'll go ahead ourselves. We're drilled down so fine now +that we can't think 'cept by the rule o' tactics." + +"Jest you never mind, boys. Uncle Joe'll do enough thinkin' fur ye when +he gets ready to tackle the Yanks." + +"Hurrah for Uncle Joe!" And as the cheery cry swelled farther and +farther, the train drew out, everybody looking from the windows as the +patient soldiery straggled back campward. + +"Your soldiers seem very gay, Vincent. One would think that war, the +dreadful uncertainty of their movements, absence of friends, and lack of +good food would sadden them," Mrs. Sprague said wistfully at one of the +stations when raillery like this had been even more pointed and +boisterous. + +"A wise commander will do all he can to keep his men gay; if they were +not jovial they'd go mad. Think of it! Day after day, week after week, +who knows but year after year, the wearisome monotony of camp and march! +Where the men are educated, or at least readers, they make better +soldiers, because they brood less. Brooding saps the best fiber of the +army. Your Northern men ought to have an advantage there, for education +is more general with you than it is with us. It is not bravery that +makes a man eager for the campaign, it is unrest. As a rule, the best +soldiers in action are those who have a mortal dread of battle." + +"That surprises me." + +"It is true. I always distrust men that clamor to be led on; they are +the first to break when the brush comes. Jack will tell you that, for we +are agreed on it." + +"Jack himself was eager for battle," Mrs. Sprague said, sighing. + +"No, Jack was eager for the field. When the battle comes he meets it +coolly, but he has no hunger for it, nor have I. General Johnston is as +brave a man as ever headed an army, yet he has often told us that his +blood freezes when the guns open. I'm sure no one would ever suspect it, +for he is as calm and confident as if he were in a quadrille when he +rides to the field." + +"We in the North have heard more of Beauregard than Johnston, yet I +never hear you mention him. Wasn't it he who commanded at Bull Run?" + +"Yes and no. General Beauregard is a superb soldier. He is, it has been +agreed among us, better for a desperate charge, or some sudden +inspiration in an emergency, than the complicated strategy that half +wins a battle before it is begun. For example, at Manassas he would have +been defeated, our whole army captured, if fortune had not exposed +General McDowell's plans before they were completed. As it was, we +should have been driven from the field if General Johnston had not come +up in time and rearranged the Confederate lilies." + +"Yes, Jack has described that. Battles, after all, are decided by luck." + +"And genius." + +"Luck won Waterloo." + +"Partly, but genius, too, for Wellington and Bluecher practiced one of +Napoleon's most perfect maxims, and won because he despised them both so +much that he didn't dream them capable of even imitating him. Nor, left +to themselves, would they have been equal to it. But renegade Frenchmen, +taught under Napoleon's eye, prompted them." + +"General Johnston was very considerate to us when we came down. I wish +you would make him know how grateful we are." + +"Oh, he couldn't be anything else; he is the ideal of a chivalrous +knight." + +"Yes, I believe you claim chivalry as your strong point in the South, +and accuse us of being a race of sordid money-getters." + +"I don't, for I know better, but our people do. They will learn better +in time. Men who fought as your army fought at Manassas must be more +than mere sordid hucksters." + +"And yet it is curious," Mrs. Sprague continued, musingly, "it is we who +are warring for an idea and you are warring for property." + +"How do you mean?" Vincent said, quickly. + +"You are fighting to continue slavery, to extend it; we to abolish it or +limit it. But even I can see that slavery is doomed. No Northern party +would ever venture to give it toleration after this." + +"But if we succeed, it will exist in our union at least." + +"Ah, Vincent, can't you see that such a people as ours may be checked, +beaten even, but they will never give up the Union? Why, much as I love +Jack, I would never let him leave the colors while there was an army in +the field. Don't you know every Northern mother has the same feeling?" + +"And every Southern mother, too." + +"Yes, I believe that, but there's this difference: Your Southern mothers +are counting on what doesn't exist--a higher physical courage--a prowess +in battle, I may call it, that you must know the Southern soldier has +not, as distinguished from the Northern. As time goes on and the war +does not end; as our armies become disciplined, the confidence that +supports your side will die, and then the struggle, though it may be +prolonged, will end in our triumph." + +"I don't think it. I can't think it. But don't let us talk about it. We, +at least, are as much friends as though Jack and I were under one flag, +and if it depends on me it shall be always so." + +"If it depends on us, it shall never be otherwise." She gave the young +man a kind, scrutinizing glance, which made his heart beat joyously and +his handsome cheeks mount color. At Fairfax Court-House they said +farewell, the ladies continuing the journey in an ambulance under +Federal guard. + +They passed over the long bridge three days after the famous night at +Rosedale, of whose exciting sequel they were profoundly ignorant. In her +husband's time Mrs. Sprague had lived in hotels in the capital, as the +sessions were short; she had never remained in the city when the warm +weather set in, no matter how long the term lasted. But on her arrival +at the old hotel now, she was a good deal disturbed to learn that she +could not be accommodated in her former quarters. The military crowded +not only this but every hotel in the city, and it was only after long +search that a habitable apartment was found in Georgetown. On the whole, +the necessity that drove her thither was not an unmitigated adversity, +for Georgetown then was far more desirable for residence than +Washington. Nothing could be more depressing than the city at that +epoch. Every visible object in the vast circumference of its spreading +limits was then naked unkempt. Even the trees, that ranged themselves +irregularly in the straggling squares and wide street areas, stretched +out a draggled and piebald plumage, as if uncertain whether beauty or +ugliness were their function in the _ensemble_. + +The photographic realism of the later newspaper correspondent had not +come into play in these earlier years of the war, and, as a consequence, +the thousands who poured down to the Army of the Potomac beheld the city +with something of the incredulous scorn with which the effeminate +Byzantines regarded the capital of the Goths, when the corrupt +descendant of Constantine made the savage Dacians his allies, rather +than fight them. Patriotism, however, not pride, marked the common mold +of the men of the civil war. It may have been that many an honest +plowman, marching through the muddy quagmires of Pennsylvania Avenue, +bethought himself that such a capital was hardly worth while marching so +far to protect--more emphatically so when the enemy was really to be +found on lines far north of it! Sentiment is the heart and soul of war; +if it were not, there would be no war, for war never gained as much as +it loses; never settled as much as it unsettles; never left victor or +vanquished better when the last gun was fired! In old times the capture +of a nation's capital meant the end of the war, but we have seen +capitals captured and the war not modified a bit by it. Washington was +seized and burned by the British in 1814, and the war went on; Paris was +held by the Germans for half a year, and the war went on. + +Our civil war would have been three campaigns shorter--Burnside's, +Hooker's, and the stupid massacre of Pope--to say nothing of the saving +of untold treasure, had the political authorities abandoned a capital +which must be defended for a secure seat like New York or Philadelphia. +The sagacious Lincoln, whose action in army matters was paralyzed by +cliques, in the end saw through sham with an inspired clarity of vision, +and proposed the measure, but the backwoods Mazarin, Seward, prepared +such voluminous "considerations" in opposition that the good-natured +President withdrew his suggestion, and, as a consequence, the dismal +Ilium on the Potomac became the bone of a four years' contention, whose +vicissitudes exceed the incidents of the Iliad. Great armies, created by +an inspired commander, were wasted upon the defense of a capital that no +one would have lamented had it been again burned, and of which to-day +there is scarcely a remnant, save in the public buildings and the +topographical charts. A new race entered the sleepy city. The astute, +far-seeing Yankee divined the possibilities of the future, where the +indolent, sentimental Southerner had never taken thought of a nation's +growth and a people's pride! The thrifty and shifty patriots sent from +the North at once took a stake in the city, and thenceforward there was +growth, if not grace, in the capital. + +Lincoln's Washington was to the capital of to-day what the Rome of Numa +was to the imperial city of Augustus. Never, in its best days, more +imposing than a wild Western metropolis of to-day, the sudden inrush of +armies and the wherewithal to supply and house them, soon gave the vast +spaces laid out for the capital the uncouthness and incompleteness of an +exaggerated mining town or series of towns. Contrasted even with its +rival on the James, Washington was raw, chaotic, squalid. + +Long tenure of estates and little change in the people had given +Richmond the venerableness we associate with age. Many of her +picturesque seven hills were transformed into blooming fields or +umbrageous groves, under which vast villa-like edifices clustered in +Grecian repose. Save in the bustling main streets none of the edifices +were new or raw, or wholly unlovely in design or fabric. In Washington +nothing of this could be seen. Staring brick walls, buildings of unequal +height and fatiguingly ugly designs, uprose here and there in morasses +of mud that were meant for streets. Disproportionate outline, sharp +conjunctures of affluence and squalor, accented the disheartening +hideousness of the scene. + +But upon this uncouth stage a great drama was going on; great figures +were in action; momentous events were hourly taking form and +consequence; men, and women at their best and worst were working out the +awful ends of Fate. In the large mansion yonder, the wisest, greatest, +simplest of mankind--by times Diogenes and Cromwell, Lafayette and +Robespierre was, in jest and joke, mirth and sadness, working out his +own and a people's sublime destiny. It was to this curiously unequal +personage that Mrs. Sprague, after fruitless pleading with her husband's +friends, came finally to secure action on behalf of her son. There was +little of the ceremonial needed to gain access to the Chief Magistrate +which is now the fashion. + +She found a care-worn man, deeply harassed, standing in the low-ceiled +room, in which the Cabinet had met a few moments before. A sweet, wan +smile--the instinctive, inborn sensitiveness of a noble nature-flickered +over the rugged lines of the face as the usher, retiring, said: + +"Mr. President, this is Mrs. Sprague, whom you ordered to be admitted." + +"I am both glad and sorry to meet you, madam. I knew your husband, the +Senator, in other and happier times. I wish that it were in my power to +do for him or his what he was always doing for the unhappy or +distressed." + +"Ah! how kind you are! How--" + +She was going to say different from what she expected, but bethought +herself of the ungraciousness of this form, since at that time Mr. +Lincoln was the object of almost universal misreport and caricature. + +"How can I say what a mother should say?" + +While she spoke he began pacing the apartment, each time, as he came to +the double window near which she sat, peering out with a yearning, +far-away look toward the river and the red lines of the hills beyond it. +Then turning back, he strode the length of the long baize-covered table, +sometimes absently picking up a document, until, facing her again as she +narrated the story of Jack's misfortunes, he would fling it hastily on +the scattered heaps and fix his mild eye upon her. + +"I know all this already, dear madam. It has come to me from the boy's +friends, and"--he hesitated a second--"and from his--or from those who +are not his friends." + +"Not his friends?" the mother cried, half rising. "Why, Mr. President, +Jack hasn't an enemy in the world!" + +"You came through from Richmond last week? Have you heard nothing from +your son since you saw him?" + +"Nothing. Oh, is there anything about him?" + +"You have not even read the newspapers, I see." + +"No, no; I have been so uncertain, so agitated, so constantly in +attendance upon our members, that I have had no time to read or even +talk. But, pray tell me! Your manner indicates that something has +happened. O Mr. President, think of my anxiety! My only son!" + +"Ah, Mrs. Sprague! It is I that should be pitied here. You came to me +for comfort. You came in reliance on my power to restore your son, and +I--I have the burden of telling you very grievous news. No, no, your son +is not dead, have no fear of that, if in the end it prove a comfort. +Last night your townsman, Elisha Boone, came to me with his heart-broken +daughter, demanding vengeance for his son's death, whom your boy had +slain the very night you left him on the James. He shot Captain Boone in +the house you visited, and defeated a well-arranged plan to capture the +rebel chief, Davis. Not only this, but he endangered the escape of a +number of sorely-worn prisoners who had succeeded in reaching the +Rosedale place and halted only to make Davis's capture certain." + +"My son shot Wesley! oh no, no; it can not be; or, if he did, it was +because his own life was in peril. Ah! no, no, Mr. President, do not +believe this. I know my son. I know the misery he endured in Wesley's +company; endured like a hero; endured like a Sprague. He must have been +in peril of his life." + +"Dear madam, I feel for you. I feel with you, but these facts are all in +the possession of the Secretary of War. Mr. Boone will no doubt give you +all the details. If it can be made to seem as you say, have no fear that +I will wink at mere revenge, or make the machinery of justice an +instrument of family feuds. Get your lawyer; have the matter +investigated, and rely upon me for every proper clemency and aid in your +hard lot." + +She had arisen long before, and, recognizing this as a dismissal, she +bowed, unable to speak, and, with blinded eyes, staggered toward the two +steps leading upward from the room. She would have fallen had the ready +arm of the President not been near to support her. In the anteroom he +said, huskily: + +"Captain, send an orderly to accompany this lady to her carriage." + +Merry was in the carriage. One glance at Mrs. Sprague's face told that +dire news had been heard. She did not ask a question, but, embracing and +supporting the sobbing mother, awaited patiently for the dreaded +revelation. When at length the miserable story came in gaspings and +sobs, the spinster exhibited an unexpected firmness. + +"I don't believe a word of it. If Jack shot Wesley, it was because he +was in some sort of treacherous business. You may depend upon it, that, +when we get the true story, Jack's part will prove him in the right. I +am going this instant to Boone to learn his source of information. He +can have nothing but rumors." + +"I will go. It is better for me to see Mr. Boone. He will not venture to +misrepresent to me." + +At Willards, where Boone was stopping, the ladies were obliged to wait a +long time, and, in the end, it was Kate who appeared before them in deep +black, with a half-yearning, half-defiant expression in the sadly worn +face. They would never have recognized her, and, as it was, Merry +started with a slight scream as the dark figure stopped before them. + +"Papa begs to be excused. He supposes that you want to hear the +particulars of the--the affair at Rosedale, and bids me tell you." + +"O Kate, Kate, it is not true! it can not be true. Oh, you who knew Jack +so well, you know that he never could have--have--" + +Kate had seized a chair and drawn it before the two who sat on one of +the long sofas that filled without adorning the vast hotel parlor, dim +even at noonday in its semi-subterranean light. + +"Yes, Mrs. Sprague, your son shot Wesley deliberately; shot him as +deliberately as if I should draw a pistol and take your life now +and here." + +"And--and killed him?" + +"He never spoke again. He--he--ah! I can not, I can not! We brought him +here. His body is in the cemetery, waiting the military formalities." + +"But tell us how it happened, Kate," Merry sobbed, entreatingly. "We +know nothing but what you have told us. Tell us all. It is so startling, +so awful, that we can not comprehend such a thing happening where we +left everybody in the most friendly spirit." + +Kate, struggling with her tears, told the story so far as she knew it, +but of course she knew little beyond the mere fact that Wesley had come +to his death in Mrs. Atterbury's room; that Jack stood over him with the +smoking pistol, and owned that he had fired in the darkness. She told +the tale as gently as might be, her own heart secretly pleading for +everything of extenuation that might lessen Jack's guilt, but she had +insensibly taken the darker view her father had instantly adopted, that +Jack's enmity had led him to seize the chance to rid himself of a rival +and enemy under cover of defending the Atterburys. She did not hint this +to the mother, but Merry, knowing Boone, at once saw what the +President's words meant. Boone had charged Jack with deliberate murder. +Dreading the realization of this by Mrs. Sprague at this time, Merry +made a sign to Kate, who, comprehending at once, arose and begged to go +back to her father, who was in need of her. + +"Oh, if Olympia were here! she has so much self-control! she would +advise so well what should he done!" the mother moaned, as she passed +down through the long, barrack-like parlor. + +"But, dear Mrs. Sprague, Olympia is just where her good sense is most +needed. She is near Jack. He needs comfort and counsel. You can have +your lawyer, and you shall see the case isn't so bad as we have heard. +You must remember that the Boones are not likely to take an impartial +view. It is only human nature that they should think the worst of +the--the death of son and brother. Wait till we hear Jack's story, and +you will see that it puts a different face on the matter." + +"But it's Jack's disgrace and death they want. That was what the +President meant. I didn't understand it then: I do understand it now. +They shall not murder him! I shall command him to remain in Richmond. I +shall command him to join Vincent. The North is unworthy of such men as +my son. He is too pure, too innocent, too high-minded to be understood +by the coarse natures that have come to power in the country. I shall +not let this odious Boone destroy him as he ruined your brother." + +"O Mrs. Sprague, think what you are saying! Think how fatal such words +would be, if Jack were brought to trial. You see every day in the press +how all are suspected of treason who were Democrats in the old days. I +know very well that you do not mean this. Much as I love Jack, I would +rather see him in his grave with the Union flag over him than in the +rebel lines, a soldier of that bad cause. As to my poor brother, Boone +was only an accident in his ruin. If it had not been Boone, it would +have been some one else. Put the whole matter in the hands of Simon +Brodie. He is almost a Sprague. He will see that the son of his old +patron has justice." + +Simon Brodie, of Warchester, was the chief advocate of the three +counties. He had studied law with the late Senator Sprague, and, at his +death, from partner succeeded to his lucrative law practice. He came at +once to Washington at Mrs. Sprague's summons, and set about learning the +status of the case. The affair was no easy matter to trace, but, after +inconceivable delays and persistent misleading, he found that Jack was +in the military archives charged with desertion, murder, and treason: +desertion in quitting his company and regiment without orders, treason +in consorting with armed rebels, and murder in joining with the enemies +of the country to take the life of his commanding officer. Meanwhile, +Mrs. Sprague and Merry had returned to Acredale, and the lawyer sent +letters to Richmond setting forth the case to Jack--letters which, by +some mysterious jugglery, never reached their address, as we have seen. +Nothing could be done until Jack was either exchanged or until his +advocate had made out a documentary case that could be presented to the +military authorities. As he surmised, every one in authority had been +prejudiced against Jack. The Congressman from Warchester dared not work +against Boone, who was potent as a Cabinet minister in the councils of +the Government. One of Senator Sprague's old friends, still in the +Senate, advised Brodie to let Jack remain at Richmond till the peace +came, "for," said he, "no Democrat nor any one identified with that +party can hope for impartial justice here." + +"But what am I to do? I can get no assistance here. Every bureau +containing documents bearing on the poor boy's case is either closed to +me, or the officials so hostile that I can not work with or +through them." + +"You must go about the affair as if it were a State matter. You must go +to McClellan. He is a young man of the most spotless honor, the most +generous sympathies. He is as rigid as a Prussian in discipline, but his +methods are enlightened and above board. He is the only man in authority +that has any real conception of the magnitude of the struggle the North +has entered upon. He is, however, miserably hampered. The new rulers +have come down to Washington very much in the spirit of the Goths when +they captured Rome. Every one is on the make. The contract system is +something beyond the wildest excesses I ever read of in pillage and +chicanery. Shoes by the million have been accepted that melt as soon as +they are wet; garments are stacked mountain-high in the storehouses that +blow into rags so soon as the air goes through them. Food, moldy, +filthy, is accumulated on the wharves of Washington, Baltimore, and +Alexandria that would be forbidden as infectious in any carefully +guarded port in the world. Contracts for vessels have been signed where +steamships are called for, and the contractor sends canal-boats. Lines +of ships are paid for to run to ports not known in navigation; and the +chief men in the great departments share the money with the rings--" + +"But why don't you expose it?" + +"Expose it? A word in the Senate against these villainies is set down as +disloyalty. All that a rascal needs to gain any scope he pleases, is to +say 'rebel sympathizer,' and Fort Warren or Lafayette is held up as +a menace." + +Among the confidential aides of McClellan Brodie knew intimately a young +officer, the son of a distinguished lady, whose writings delighted +cultivated people fifty years ago. This young man, Captain Churchland, +had often been a guest at the Spragues, and to him Brodie went for +advice. Inheriting a great deal of his mother's intellect, with a droll +sense of humor, not then so well understood as the lighter school of +writers have since made it, Churchland was the delight of the +headquarters. He listened to the melancholy story of Jack's +compromising plight. + +"It's a bad fix--no mistake," he said, gravely; "but I suggest that your +fiery young friend come home and shoot the father, marry the daughter, +and, as a wife can't testify against the husband, your client +is secure." + +"Ah, captain, it's not a matter for joking. Think of his wretched +mother." + +"That's just what I do think of--murder's no joke, though it's more of a +fine art than it was when De Quincey wrote. I'm perfectly serious. I +would shoot the scoundrel Boone. Why, do you know the man has cleared a +million dollars on rotten blankets since he came here? McClellan ordered +a report made out showing his rascalities a few weeks ago. It was +disapproved at the War Office, and the condemned blankets have gone to +Halleck's army. Doesn't that deserve shooting? Napoleon directed all the +army contractors to be hanged. I say shoot them. For every one put out +of the way a thousand soldiers' lives will be saved." + +"Well, well, let Boone go. It's Sprague I'm interested in." + +"So am I. It is Sprague that Boone seems to be interested in, too, for +he has filled the new Secretary with, what he himself would call, +righteous wrath against the poor boy and his friends. But make your mind +easy. The exchange of prisoners will soon begin. Sprague's turn will +come among the first, and then I will keep track of the affair. Beyond +that I can promise nothing. You may be sure, so far as purely military +men have to do with the business, there will be impartial justice. When +the politicians take hold, I can give no assurance." + +And with this cold comfort the disheartened lawyer betook himself to +Acredale, where his report, guardedly given, brought no very strong hope +to the anxious mother. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE WORLD WENT VERY ILL THEN. + + +Acredale was not the sleepy, sylvan scene we first saw it, when Mrs. +Sprague and Merry drove through the wide main street from the station, +four months after they had quitted it in search of their soldier boys. +The stately elms still arched the highway to Warchester, but here and +there rough gaps were seen in the trim hedge-rows. Staring new edifices +jutted through these breaks upon the grassy walks, and building material +lay heaped in confusion all along the graveled walks. Merry railed at +these evidences of commercial invasion, wondering who had come to the +village to transform it into city hideousness. Mrs. Sprague did not give +much heed to her companion's speculations. Her mind was far away on the +James, wondering where her boy was. It was very hard to settle down to +the commonplaces of home life; but, even in all her distraction, Mrs. +Sprague saw that a change had come upon the people as well as the place. +With the war and its desolating sights fresh in her memory, she saw, +with sorrow and aversion, that social life was gayer than it had ever +been, that the rush for wealth had become a fever, and that the simple +ways and homely joys of the past were now remitted to the very elderly. +The story of Dick's mad pursuit of Jack and the Caribees, after the +disaster at Bull Run, was soon known in every home in the county. +Friends came from far and near to hear the exciting adventure; and the +younger boys, who had been the lad's classmates in the academy, at once +made up a company of youngsters, adorned by the name of the "Perley +Rangers," to be in readiness for the hero's command when he +should return. + +The feud between the adherents of the houses of Sprague and Boone had +become acrimoniously embittered by the point of view from which each +side saw the conduct of Jack. Among the Boone feudatories he was set +down as a traitor, a spy, a murderer. The first malignant rumors that +reached the village after the battle were still maintained stoutly by +the Boone lictors. Jack had ingloriously shirked his part in the battle +with the Caribees; he had skulked in the bushes until the issue was +decided, and then had followed the sympathies of his secession family; +he had gone to the Atterburys, well known for their hatred to the North. +It was to prove his sincerity in the Southern cause that he had wormed +himself into the confidence of Wesley Boone's comrades, and in order +that he might be chief agent in the frustration of the plan of escape. + +He had won high regard in the Confederacy by saving Davis from capture. +He had, with his own hand, shot Wesley Boone when the plan of capture +was on the verge of success. Could anything be clearer than his odious +treason? Hadn't he, of all the unfortunates of the battle, found favor +and luxurious quarters in Richmond? Hadn't he cunningly cajoled the +Boones into the visit to the rebel household, in order to wrest the +secrets of the Union rescue from them? It was in vain that the Perleys +and others set forth the real case. "Very likely, indeed," the Boone +side cried, "that rebels like the Atterburys would receive true +Unionists into their house, and treat them as friends! A real Unionist +would have refused hospitality from the enemies of his country." There +was talk among the more zealous patriots of having the Sprague family +expelled from Acredale. Loyal zealots looked up the law on expatriation +and attainder, and complained bitterly that no applicable provisions +were found in the statutes. Stirring addresses were sent to the member +from Warchester, imploring him to have laws enacted that would enable +the patriots to deal summarily with covert treason. It was true that the +Spragues had contributed many thousand dollars toward the equipment of +the Caribees, had endowed twenty beds in one of the city hospitals for +the wounded--but this was when Jack expected high command in the +regiment. Failing in that ignoble self-seeking, he had gone where his +heart was, while the family, to retain their property, remained among +the loyal, to insult their woe and gloat over their misfortunes. + +At a great "war meeting" in the town-hall, over which Boone presided, +one thrilling orator hinted that fire, if not the law, could "relieve a +loyal community of the Copperhead's nest!" "It was an insult, as well as +a menace, to have the patrician palace of disloyalty flaunting its +grandeurs among a people loyal and devoted, whose sons and brothers were +battling for the Union. Every rebel sympathizer driven from the North +would strengthen the Union cause; ashes and salt sowed on the ground +their insolent homes had desecrated, would be a holy reminder to the +loyal, a warning to the secret foes of the Union." + +There were loud expressions of approval, and a solemn "Amen" to this +intrepid plan of campaign. Lawyer Brodie, who was present, arose under a +thunder of discordant notes--"Copperhead!" "Traitor!" "Dough-face!" "We +don't want to hear from rebel sympathizers! Out with him!" and other +more opprobrious taunts. Now, Brodie was Boone's counsel, and had been +identified with him in some very difficult litigation. It would not do +to have him discredited. The chairman rapped loudly for order. + +"I can vouch, my friends, for Mr. Brodie's patriotism. He is a Democrat, +it is true; but he loves the Union. I know that to be a fact. You can do +the Union no better service than listening to what he has to say." + +Brodie, who had held his place, calmly smiled as Boone sat down, and, +surveying the audience from side to side, began: + +"Free speech was one of the cries that aroused the North in the late +campaign, I believe in free speech. I have done my share toward securing +it, but I never was refused it before. I look among the men here and see +among you neighbors whom I have known since boyhood, neighbors who have +known me since boyhood, and when I arise here to take a citizen's part, +in a meeting called to aid and comfort the cause of the Union, I am +permitted to speak only by the personal request of one man. If that is +your idea of free speech, if that is your notion of aiding the Union +cause, and strengthening the hands of the Administration, I don't need +to be in the confidence of the rebel authorities to tell you that they +could ask no more powerful allies than you! [Sensation.] + +"There are three hundred men in this hall. The light is good, and my +eyesight is not impaired; but I can not see a man among you who was not +a Democrat a year or two ago. There are not fifty men among you that +voted for Abraham Lincoln. [Murmurs.] Are the two hundred and fifty, +then, traitors? Are they rebel sympathizers? Are they Copperheads? One +thousand men marched under the Caribee flag; not a man of them voted for +Lincoln. Are they Copperheads? This township, by its vote at the last +election, was five to one Democratic. Is this a Copperhead community? +Nearly a half million dollars have been subscribed for bounties and war +measures; the tax-payers, almost to a man, are Democrats. Is it +possible, then, that the Copperheads are supplying the money to carry on +the war? You propose to burn the mansion of my old partner, Senator +Sprague! Why? Because his estate has given more to the Union cause than +any other family in the township?" + +"The son has gone over to the rebels," a voice cried. + +"Thank you. There--I'm glad you have given me the chance to crush that +cowardly calumny--the invention of some envious malefactor. Jack Sprague +has gone over to the rebels, just as Anderson and his men went over at +Sumter; just as fifteen hundred of his comrades went over at Bull Run; +just as some of our sons and brothers here in Acredale went over; just +as my friend, Boone's son, went over--because he was surrounded +and wounded." + +"Stop a moment, if you please, friend Brodie; I protest against your +making anything in common between my son and this young man. The matter +is to be investigated, and then we can tell better." + +Boone spoke in great excitement, and the audience, now feverishly +wrought up, urged the lawyer to say his say out. He continued in the +trained, impassive tones of the advocate: + +"Every one in this room knows the two young men. It would be waste of +time for me to strive to make anything in common between John Sprague +and Wesley Boone. Here, where they both grew up, that is quite +unnecessary." + +"I--I--referred to their conduct as soldiers," Boone cried, hoarsely. +"My son lost his life in the service of his country. I can't have his +name coupled with a--murderer's--with a traitor's." + +"Ah, my friend, when hate draws your portrait it is bound to be black. +When prejudice holds the pen, your virtues stand in the shade of vice. I +will tell John Sprague's story from the day he quit Acredale to the +unhappy hour his comrade was killed in the dark, in the sleeping-room of +the mother and daughter who had nursed him from the very jaws of death. +He was in that house by his father's urgent request, though it would +have needed none to open its doors to any one in want of succor. Nor," +he added, significantly, "can it be told who killed Wesley Boone until +all the shots fired in Mrs. Atterbury's chamber are accounted for." + +Then he narrated rapidly, but tellingly, the substance of what has been +already set down in this history--the facts taken from Jack's letters +and attested by the corroboration of Barney, Dick, and the company's +officers. There was a visible revulsion in the larger part of the +audience as the tale went on; and when the lawyer wound up with the +story of Mrs. Sprague's baffled efforts in Washington to have her boy +brought North, there was an outburst of applause and a faint cheer from +the younger men for "glorious old Jack." + +The factions shifted a good deal after this official rendering of the +affair. There was no longer any talk of burning the Sprague property, +and opinion was about evenly divided as to Jack's conduct. December had +come, and the township was busy packing boxes to send to the army. No +news had come North from Richmond. Active movements were looked for +every day, and in the momentous expectation such lesser incidents as +exchange were forgotten or ignored. The daily journals were filled with +details of contemplated expeditions, and one morning Mrs. Sprague read +with beating heart this paragraph in the _Herald_: + +"A score or more of the men who escaped from the Richmond prison a few +weeks ago, arrived at Washington to-day from Fort Monroe. The party +endured untold privations in the swamps between Williamsburg and our +line on the Warwick, but all came in safely, except two men who died +from the results of their wounds. The expedition was planned and carried +out by an agent of General Butler, who has been in Virginia since the +unfortunate attempt to rescue Captain Boone of the 'Caribee' regiment. +At the moment the party reached the Union outpost, one of the most +daring of the Union men, Sergeant Jacques of the Caribees, was, it is +thought, mortally wounded." + +Merry, too, had seen the story, and came over to show it to Mrs. +Sprague. + +"I have seen it, I have seen it. Who of the Caribees can these be? Who +is Jacques? I never heard that name here." + +"Ah! he must be one of the town recruits. It's a French name." + +"Yes, it is part of a rather famous French name," Mrs. Sprague replied, +half smiling at Merry's innocence. "Something must be done to get into +communication with these escaped men. Some of them must have seen Jack. +If there are Caribees among them, you may be sure they have messages +from our boys. I think I shall set out for Washington, or ask Mr. +Brodie to go." + +"That's better. Mr. Brodie can get at the men and you couldn't. I shall +be in a fever until we have heard from them." + +Brodie agreed with the ladies when, later, they discussed the matter +with him, and that evening he set out for Washington. Mrs. Sprague at +the tea-table with Merry, who made it a point to give the lonely mother +as much of her time as she could spare, was still pondering the +paragraph when the sound of carriage-wheels came in through the closed +curtains. Then the front door opened without knocking, and there was a +rustle in the hallway, and then, with a simultaneous scream, three +agitated females, to wit, Mrs. Sprague, Merry, and Olympia, in a +confused mass. + +"O my child! my child!" + +"Mamma!" + +"Dearest, dearest Olympia," Merry splutters, wildly embracing both. + +"Oh, how delightful to be here, to see you, mamma as peaceful and serene +as in the old days! I thought I should never get home. I left Richmond +three weeks ago. I was held at Fredericksburg for ten days. Then I had +to turn back when we got to Manassas, through some red tape lacking +there. But here I am. Here I am at home--ugh!--I shall never quit it +again--never." + +"But, my child. Tell us--Jack!" + +"Jack? Haven't you heard from him? He escaped three weeks ago. It was he +who got the men out of the prison. Dick was with him. Surely you have +heard of that?" and Olympia sank into the nearest chair, all the gayety +gone from her face, her eyes questioning the two wretched women. Neither +could for the moment control her agitation; neither was capable of +thinking. All that was in their minds was this dire specter of a month's +silence. Alive, Jack or Dick would have found means to relieve +their anxiety. + +"Surely you heard that a party had escaped from Libby and made their way +to Fort Monroe?" Olympia cried, desperately. + +"Fort Monroe?" Mrs. Sprague echoed mechanically. "Yes, ah, yes. Merry, +where's the paper?" + +Olympia devoured the meager scrap and then dropped the journal on her +knees. Her mind was in a whirl. In Richmond the escape had been +announced, then the news that the party had been surrounded in the +swamp, then day by day details of the taking of straggling negroes and +one or two soldiers, but no name that even resembled Jack's. The +Atterburys, after the first painful sensation, had given their approval +of Jack's going, and used all means in their power to get such facts as +would comfort Olympia. They assured her that Jack had reached the Union +lines, and then she had set out northward, expecting to find him at home +or in communication with his family. No word from Dick? No word from +Jack? They were dead, and she--she had urged them to the mad adventure! +She had given Jack no peace, had fired Dick to the fatal enterprise. She +dared not look in the tearless eyes of her mother. She dared not face +the ghastly questioning in Merry's meek eye. Brodie had gone down to see +the escaped men. Perhaps he would discover something. This was the small +comfort left the three when, near midnight, they ended the woful +conference. + +The next day Olympia was visited by a representative of the _Crossbow_, +the chief journal of Warchester, and urged to write a narrative of her +adventures in the rebel capital. Until her friends made her see how much +effect it would have in clearing Jack's reputation she shrank from the +publicity, but with that end in view--Jack's honor--she wrote, and wrote +with strength and clearness, the moving incidents of her brother's +capture, captivity, and escape--or his bold effort to escape. This she +told so simply, so directly, so vividly, that the truth of it at once, +struck the most prejudiced reader, who had no cause to continue in his +prepossession. After the publication in the Warchester paper scores who +had sided with the Boone faction either called or wrote to confess their +error. Even the Acredale _Monitor_, a weekly sheet notoriously in the +interest of Boone, felt constrained to copy parts of the account and +publish with it a shambling retraction of previous criticism, based on +imperfect knowledge, that it had printed concerning Sergeant Sprague. +"Death," it declared, "has obliterated all feeling that existed against +our young townsman, whose conduct, though open to grievous doubt in the +early part of his military career has been amply atoned for in the +intrepid enterprise in which he seems to have lost his life." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +A WOMAN'S REASON. + + +The still, small voice that makes itself a force in the heart, which the +poets call our mentor and the moralists conscience, had been painfully +garrulous in Kate Boone's breast since the angry parting with Jack at +Rosedale. At first, in the wild grief of Wesley's death, she had hugged +hatred of Jack to her heart as a sublime revenge for the murder. But +with the hot partisanship allayed in the long weeks of reflection +preceding the rumor of Jack's own death, she began dimly to admit of +palliation in her lover's fatal act. Her father, the Boone faction, all +who had access to her, held the shooting to be a craftily planned +murder, calculated to bring advantage to the assassin. To check the +sacrilegious love she felt in her heart, she too had been forced to +believe, to admit the worst. But when the image of Jack came to her +mind, as it did day and night, it was as the gay, frank, chivalrous +Hotspur, as unlike a murderer as Golgotha to Hesperides. She had never +dared to confide to her father that vows had been exchanged between, +them--that they were, in fact, affianced lovers. He, never suspecting, +talked with her day after day of the signal vengeance in store for the +miscreant; how he had enlisted the aid of the most powerful in +Washington; how he had instructed the emissaries sent to Richmond to +effect Wesley's release, to direct all their energies to entrapping the +murderer into the ranks of the escaping prisoners. + +She had often been startled by her father's far-seeing, malignantly +planned vengeances, and, now that the rumor of Jack's death began to +settle into belief, she was appalled by a sudden sense of complicity in +a murderous plot. Not that she believed her father capable of murder or +its procuration, but, knowing his potency with the authorities, she saw +that there were many ways in which Jack might be sacrificed in the +natural course of military duties. She had heard things of the sort +discussed--how inconvenient men had been sent into pitfalls and never +heard of again. + +She began dimly to see that, at worst, Jack's act was not the calculated +murder her father held it to be. In her own tortured mind there had been +at first but one clear process of reasoning. That process, whenever she +began to gather the shreds, had led her mind straight to the conviction +that Jack's shot had been premeditated, that the chance had been +prearranged with the enemies of her brother. At first her only distinct +thought was that the hapless Wesley had been lured to his death. The +hand of the man she loved had sent the fatal shot into the poor boy's +body. Had it been in self-defense--even in the heat of uncontrollable +anger--she could have found mitigation for Jack; but there was neither +the justification of self-defense nor the plausible pretext of anger. +One word of warning, which Jack could have spoken, would have saved +Wesley from the rash, the dastardly attempt upon the Rosedale household. +The plot, in all its details, must have been known to Jack or Dick, else +how explain their presence in the chamber, armed and ready for +the murder? + +It had been a conspiracy of delusive kindness from the day Wesley +entered Rosedale. The frankness and kindliness of the Atterburys had +been assumed to lure him to his fatal adventure. Boone himself believed +that Jack's ignoble ambition and envy had been the main motives in the +murder. To this Kate, from the first, opposed a resolute incredulity. + +"You don't know the fellow, I tell you," Boone doggedly argued. "He's as +like his father as two snakes in a hole. Old man Sprague never let a man +stand in his way. Jack's the same. He thought Wes' kept him from the +shoulder-straps, and he got him out of the way. Wasn't he always +snooping 'round in the regiment trying to undermine your brother? Wasn't +he always trying to be popular? Ah, I know the Spragues. But I'll give +them a wrench that'll twist their damned pride out of them. I'll have +that cold-blooded young villain shot in a hollow square, and I'll have +it done in this very district, that the whole county may know the +disgrace of the high and mighty Spragues." + +"No, father." Kate had heard all this before, but she, for the first +time, resolved upon setting her father right. "No, Jack hasn't a +particle of the feeling you ascribe to him. I don't think he liked poor +Wesley. They were totally unlike in nature, and I think that Jack felt +deeply that he had been wronged by Wesley's appointment. But it was not +in his nature to seek revenge. He would have fought Wesley openly, but +he would never be one of a gang of murderers. I think I can see how Jack +was led into the part he played. It does not lessen the guilt, but it +relieves him of the odious suspicions I first felt." + +Then Boone, in irritable impatience, reminded her of her own earlier +utterances; how from his first coming Wesley had been treated with +studied distrust; how he had been denied the boyish intimacy that +existed between Jack and Dick; how he was insensibly made to feel that +he was in the house under a different cartel from that of Jack and Dick; +that he was a prisoner on parole, and his word was doubted. Nothing +could make him believe, he declared, getting up moodily, but that the +whole lot of them had set out to drive Wesley into a corner and then +kill him, as they had done. + +Kate sighed wearily as her father left the room. If she could only be as +well assured as her strong words implied! Ah! if she could fetch back +her lover by getting at the truth, how willingly she would fly to +Rosedale and learn all! But she dared not question, lest questioning +should confirm, where she now at least had the miserable solace of +doubt. Could it be true? Could Jack be the base schemer her father +depicted him? Then her mind ran back to Rosedale. She lived again all +the enchanting days of that earthly paradise. She saw Wesley's furtive +starts, his strange disappearances, his growing melancholy, his moody +reticence when she questioned him. Ah! if he had but confided to her! If +she had but dreamed of the desperate purpose born of the loneliness he +lived in! If Jack had been loyal to him, loyal to her, Wesley would have +been warned that eager eyes were upon him, ready wits reading his +purposes, and revengeful hatred ready to slaughter him. + +When the news came that Jack had lost his life in the very enterprise +Wesley had contemplated, Kate collapsed under the shock. Now, when it +was too late, she convinced herself that he was innocent. If she could +have recalled him to life, she cried in self-reproach, she would not ask +whether he was all her first impulse had painted him. She had borne up +with something like composure when Wesley's death came upon her; but +now, tortured by a sense of responsibility in Jack's fate, she gave way +to the grief she had so long repressed. If she had not upbraided him, if +she had not accused him, in so many words, of murder, he would never +have embarked on the mad plot of escape. + +She had driven him to his death. She had sat silent while Acredale rang +with calumnies against him. It was not too late yet to make reparation. +She would proclaim publicly that her brother had rashly courted his own +death; that Jack had unknowingly shot him down, as many a man does, in +battle, shoot his best friend. She resolved on the instant to go to the +stricken family and make such expiation there as was in her power. But +was there any certainty that the report of Jack's death was true? +Grievous mistakes of the same sort had been made repeatedly in the +public journals. She was not able to formulate any plan at first. Her +father was more morose than ever. He seemed in his way to deplore the +young man's death, but not in pity, as she soon learned. Death had +robbed him of a cruelly meditated revenge. She wisely made no comment +when this brutal feeling betrayed itself; but for the first time in her +life the girl shuddered at the sight of her father. The vague rumors of +years, that had been whispered about him--rumors which of old had fired +her soul with hot indignation, came back insidiously. She shuddered. Was +she to lose all--brother, lover, father--in this unnatural strife? She +had been so loyal to her father. She had been so proud of him when +others reviled. She had felt so serenely confident of the nobleness of +his heart, the generosity of his impulses. She had always been able to +mold him, as she thought. Could it be possible that he was human to her, +inhuman to the rest of the world? Then her mind, tortured by newly +awakened doubts, ran back over the events leading to the rupture with +the Spragues. She groaned at the retrospect. It was injustice that had +displaced Jack in the command of the company. It was injustice that had +marked her father's conduct in the Perley feud. + +Grief is a logician of very direct methods. Its clarifying processes +work like light in darkness. Kate saw the past in her father's conduct +with terrifying vividness. She realized that it was her father's harsh +purpose that had arrayed Acredale against him. It was his pride and +arrogant obstinacy that had brought about the loss of all she loved. The +fates had immolated the helpless; were the fates preparing a still +bitterer expiation? Life had very little left for her now, but she +resolved that she would no longer be isolated by her father's enmities. +The great house had been gloomy enough for father and daughter during +the last miserable months, but he still fled to her for comfort. It was +one evening when he came in, apparently in better spirits than he had +shown since Wesley's death, that she told him what had been filling her +mind since Jack's death. + +"O father, I think I see that our lives have been unworthy, if not +altogether wrong. Surely such neighbors as ours could not all take sides +against you, if you were in the right in all the feuds that have divided +us as a family from the people of Acredale." + +Then, in an almost imploring tone of reproach, she retraced the harsh +episodes in the father's dealings with the Perleys, with the community, +and, finally, the quarrel with the Spragues, involving in it the lives +of Wesley and Jack. Her voice softened into tremulousness. She arose, +and in her old pleading way pulled the shaggy head down on her breast, +pressing her lips on the high, bare forehead. + +"Dear father, all this is unchristian; you have in reality been waging +war against women and children. Jack was a mere boy, Richard is a boy. I +don't go into other enmities, where you have used the enormous power of +wealth to crush the helpless. If you had not alienated the Spragues and +encouraged Wesley in overbearing Jack, my brother would be alive to-day. +My sweetheart--yes, Jack was dearer than all the world to me--he would +not be dead to-day. Ah! father, father, what good comes of anger--what +joy of revenge? You have brought about the death of these two boys. Is +it not time to look at life with a new heart--with clear-seeing eyes?" + +Elisha Boone sat quite still. He had listened at first with a flush of +anger, which deepened as the girl pleaded, until it died away and left +his face very pale. He pushed himself away from the clinging figure, as +if the better to see her face. Then his head drooped. He sighed heavily, +rose and without a word left the room. Kate heard him ascending the +stairs, then the sound of his room door softly closing. Had the hateful +fires of vengeance been quenched? It was her father's way, when +resolutely opposed, to quit the scene and without confessing himself in +the wrong, do as Kate urged. The next morning he was gone before she +reached the breakfast-table. There was a note on her plate in his +handwriting. She read with a sinking heart: + +"MY DAUGHTER: If what you said last night is true, you +can not be the daughter to me that you have been. I am +going to Washington, and when I come back you will know +that your brother was deliberately murdered, and that his +murderer, even in the grave, is held guilty before all men +of the crime." + +The servant confirmed the tidings. Her father had arisen early and +departed on the first train. What could it mean? Had he some evidence +that she had not heard? Had Jack left papers incriminating him? Ah! why +carry the hideous feud further? Why blast the melancholy repose of the +living, by fastening this stain upon the dead? But they could not. She +knew it. She could herself refute any proof brought forward. She would +tell all. She would reveal their tender relationship, and surely then +any one, knowing the young man's nature, would scout the assertion of +his willfully shooting Wesley. But surely Olympia and Mrs. Sprague must +be able to tell, and tell decisively, the circumstances in the tragedy. +She would go to them. She owed this to the living; she owed it still +more imperatively to the dead. She had not seen Olympia since her +return. Mrs. Sprague had been too infirm to see her when she called. But +she would not heed rebuffs now. In such a cause, on such a mission, she +would have stood at the Sprague door a suppliant until even the +obstinacy of her father would have relented. On her way across the +square she saw Merry coming from the post. She turned out of her way, +and hurrying to the near-sighted spinster held out her hand, +saying, softly: + +"Ah, Miss Merry, I'm so glad to see you! I have been meaning to call on +you ever since I heard of your return, but, what with sorrow and +illness, I have put it off, and now I want you to take me home with you. +Will you not?" + +The pleading tone, the caressing clasp of the hand, the sadly changed +face, the somber black weeds, made the voice and figure so much unlike +the old Kate, that Merry stood for an instant confused and blushing as +she stammered: + +"Bless me, Miss Kate, I--I--shouldn't have known you. Ah, I am very glad +to see you; sisters will be very glad to see you, too. Do, do come right +along with me. I'm afraid the parlor won't be very sightly, but you +won't mind, will you?" + +Kate squeezed the hand still resting in her own, and drawing the long +veil back over face, she walked silently with the puzzled spinster, +unable to broach the theme she had at heart. Merry spared her the +torture of going at it obliquely. + +"I have just been at the Spragues. Poor dears, they are in dreadful +distress. Mrs. Sprague is preparing to go in search of the body, but +Olympia won't give in that Jack is killed. She says that if he had been +she certainly would have known it in Richmond, for there are couriers +twice a day from the rebel outposts to the capital; that the Atterburys +had taken special measures to learn the fate of the escaped prisoners; +that, besides this, several young men in Richmond, who knew Jack well, +had been sent down the peninsula with the prisoners, to befriend him in +case he were retaken." + +"And Olympia believes that Jack is alive?" + +"Yes, firmly." + +"Where does she think he is?" + +"She believes that he is among a squad separated from the rest of the +prisoners, near the Union lines. It was asserted in Richmond that many +had crossed the James River, and were making for the Dismal Swamp, or +into Burnside's lines in North Carolina." + +"Dear Miss Merry, I--I--think I won't go in now," Kate said, +tremblingly. "I must see Olympia. Perhaps I can help them in the search +for Jack, and you know there is no time to lose. I shall come and see +you all soon." + +She squeezed the astonished Merry's hand, convulsively, and shot off, +leaving the bewildered lady quite speechless, so speechless that, when +she reached the stately presence of Aunt Pliny, she forgot the +commissions she had been sent to execute, and was at once reviled by the +parrot as "a no-account dawdler." + +Meanwhile, Kate, with wild, throbbing hope in her heart that kindled +color in her pale cheeks and light in her weary eyes, sped away to the +Spragues. There was no tremor in the hand that raised the dragon-headed +knocker, nor hesitancy in the voice that bade the servant say that "Miss +Boone requested a few moments' conversation with Miss Sprague." + +Olympia came presently into the reception-room, and the girls met with a +warm embrace. + +"Ah, Olympia, I have been made so--so--glad by what Merry tells me! +You--do--not believe that your brother is dead?" Her voice faltered, and +Olympia, gazing at her fixedly, said: + +"No, I shall not believe Jack is dead until I see his body. Poor mother, +who believes the worst whenever we are out of her sight, has given up +all but the faintest hope. I shall not. I know Jack so well. I know that +it would take a good deal to kill him, young and strong as he is. +Besides that, I know that the Atterburys would find means to let us +know, if there were any certainty as to his fate. Poor Jack! It would be +an unendurable calamity if he were to die before the monstrous calumnies +that have been published about him are proved lies." + +"Dear Olympia, that is one reason of my coming. In my horror at +Rosedale, I, too, believed that John had been in a plot to entrap +Wesley; but I--I--know better now, and I have come to tell you that it +is no less my duty than my right to see that your brother's memory is +made as spotless as his life." + +"I knew it; I knew you would, do it; I told Jack so in Richmond, almost +the last words I said before he set out on this miserable adventure. I +told him you were not the girl I took you for if you could believe him +to be such a dastard, when you had time to get over the shock of poor +Wesley's death. You never heard the whole story of that dreadful night. +I must tell it to you--as he would if he were here, and I know you would +believe him." The two girls sat down, hand in hand, and Olympia told +the tale as it has been set down in these pages. + +Kate was sobbing when the story ended. She flung her arms about +Olympia's neck, and for a time the two sat silent, tearful. + +"Oh, why didn't he tell me this at the time? It was not Jack's bullet +that entered poor Wesley's body. Jack was at his right, at the side of +the bed. Wesley's wound was on the left side, and the shot must have +come from Jones's pistol!" + +"I remember that; but Jack's remorse put all thought of everything else +out of my head. I recall, perfectly, that the wound was in Wesley's left +side. Oh, if I could only get that word to Jack! I If--" + +"I'll get it to him if he's alive. I, or mine, have been his undoing! I +shall make amends. Ah, Olympia, I--I am ashamed to feel so full of +joy--forgive me." + +"It isn't your fault, dear, that you didn't know Jack as we do," Olympia +said, tenderly. + +"What are your plans?" Kate asked, presently. + +"Mother insists upon going to the peninsula and examining the ground, +questioning all who took part in the pursuit, and seeing with her own +eyes every wounded man in the neighborhood. I don't know whether we can +get passes, but we shall set out at once and do our best." + +"O Olympia. I must--I must go with you! I shall die if I remain here +doing nothing--helpless! Let me go. I can aid you much. I can surely get +all the passports required. I can do many things that you couldn't do, +for my father--" + +She stopped and colored. Her father! What was she rashly promising for +him? Dead, he was bent on Jack's dishonor; living, he would never rest +until Jack's life was condemned. + +"Ah, yes--that's true. Your father is potent at headquarters. I can +answer for mamma. We shall be delighted and comforted to have you. I +shall need you as much as mamma needs me. We are only waiting for Mr. +Brodie's report. I don't expect much from his researches. It is only a +woman's heart that upholds one in such trials as this search means." + +The plans were agreed upon at once and the two girls separated, knit +together by the same bond in more senses than one, for, while Olympia +set out to rescue her brother, she secretly hoped that the search would +bring her near some one else; and so, as soon as Kate had gone, she sat +down and wrote Vincent of Jack's disappearance, asking his aid in +finding such traces as might be in the rebel lines. She merely alluded +to their projected plan, adding, in a postscript, that she would write +him as soon as the party approached the outposts. Kate wrote at once to +her father, at his Washington address, narrating her visit to the +Spragues, telling him of the new hope that had come to her, and +beseeching him to lend his whole heart to the distressed mother and +sister. He should see her in Washington within a few days, and she +counted on his sympathy with her to help to restore the lost son and +brother if alive, to co-operate in giving the body honorable burial if +he were dead. These letters dispatched, the party waited only to hear +from Brodie. He came a day or two later, but he could give them no hope. +He had been repelled from all sources of information, insulted in the +War Office, and denied access to the President. He was convinced that +there were secret influences at work to obscure the true facts in the +case of the escaped prisoners, but what the agencies were he could not +guess. When Olympia told this to Kate, she was surprised at her look +and response. + +"I know the influences, I think, and I can discover the agencies. Take +comfort. I believe Jack is alive. I promise you that I shall never rest +until he is found, alive or dead." + +"O Kate, what an impulsive ally we have gained! I wish Jack could have +heard that speech; it would have put power in his arm, as poor Barney +used to say." + +Twenty-four hours later the three women were in Washington, Kate +remaining with her friends, instead of joining her father at Willard's. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +A GAME OF CHANCE. + + +It was the end of January, 1862, when Olympia and her mother found +themselves in Washington for the second time in quest of the missing +soldier. They took lodgings in the same quiet house, not far from +Lafayette Square--Kate with them. Kate counted upon her father's aid, +active or passive; but when her messenger returned from Willard's with +word that Mr. Boone had gone from the hotel several days before, she was +numb with a dreadful foreboding. He was avoiding her deliberately. She +drove at once to the hotel. The clerk summoned to her aid could only +inform her that her father had given up his room and had left the hotel +late at night. She could get no further clew. She telegraphed at once to +Acredale and returned to the Spragues, not daring to breathe her +apprehensions. Yes, her father was plainly keeping away from her. He +meant to persist in his savage vengeance. What had he learned? Was Jack +indeed dead, and was his good name the object of her father's hatred? +Whither should she turn? Why had she not thought of this--her fathers +passivity or even opposition? How could she reveal her terrors to the +mother and sister? How make known to them the unworthy side of her +father's character? If in the morning no telegram came from Acredale, it +would be proof that her father was bent, implacably in his purpose to +undo Jack, living or dead. When she reached the lodging, Olympia was +dressed for the street. + +"You are just in time. I have matured my plans. First, we must find out +at the proper quarter the names of all the wounded brought here from +Fort Monroe. Then we must trace the report in the _Herald_ down to its +origin. Then we must visit every hospital in and near Washington to find +out from actual sight of each man whether Jack or Dick, or any one we +know, is in the city. As we go on, we shall learn a good deal which may +modify this plan, or perhaps make the search less difficult." + +Olympia said this with composure and a certain confidence in herself +that struck Kate with admiration. She felt ashamed of herself. Here was +Olympia, unconscious of Jack's real peril if living, the menace to his +reputation if dead, planning as composedly as if it were an every-day +thing to have a brother lost in the appalling mazes of war; and she had +been weakly depending upon her father, Jack's most persevering enemy! +She recoiled from herself in a shiver of self-reproach as she said: + +"Olympia, you have the good sense of a man in an emergency. I am ashamed +of myself. I, who ought to do the thinking for you, am as helpless as a +kitchen-maid set to playing lady in the parlor. I can at least help you; +I can make my body follow you, if I haven't sense enough to suggest." + +"Dear Kate, it isn't sense, or insight, or any fine quality of mind that +is needed here. All I ask is, that you won't get dispirited, or, if you +do, don't let mamma see you are. Poor mamma! She is as easily influenced +as a baby. Jack is her darling, remember. All the world is a small +affair to her compared with our poor boy. I fancy, if we were as much +wrapped up in him as she is, we should make poor pioneers in the +wilderness before us." + +But Kate could stand no more of this. With a choking sob she turned and +fled up the stairway, crying as she disappeared: "Wait--wait a moment; I +must get my purse." + +When she reappeared, the heavy mourning-veil was drawn down, and +Olympia, with a reassured glance, opened the door. + +"You must affect confidence, if you have it not--even gayety. I warn you +not to be shocked at my conduct. I must keep up mamma's spirits, and to +do it I must play indifference or confidence, and you must be careful to +say nothing, to do nothing, to excite her suspicions." + +Kate's cab had driven off, and the two girls walked through Lafayette +Square into Pennsylvania Avenue to get another. The wide streets were +filled, as of old, with skurrying orderlies, groups of lounging +officers, and lumbering army wagons. But even the untrained eyes of +Olympia soon took account of the better discipline, the more +businesslike celerity of the men on duty as well as the flying couriers. +The White House was gay with hunting, and salutes from the distant forts +were signalizing the news that had just come of Union successes at Mill +Spring and Roanoke Island. The girls, procuring a hack, were driven to +the provost-general's office. Here, after an interminable delay they +were admitted to the presence of a complacent young coxcomb in spotless +regimentals, who, so soon as he saw Olympia's face and bearing, threw +off the listlessness of routine, and, rising deferentially, asked her +pleasure. She told her story simply, and asked his advice as to the +course to be followed. When the extract from the _Herald_ was shown to +him, he examined an enormous folio, and then rang a bell. + +"It is more than likely that these names are wrong. This happens +constantly. The operators are raw and some of them can barely read. The +names are given hurriedly, and if not written plainly they make wretched +work of them. The newspapers make many a fool famous, while neglecting +many a hero who deserves fame, simply through the blundering or +carelessness of the writers or operators. Here is an orderly who will +take you to the surgeon-general. You will find in his books the names of +all the wounded in hospital in the Eastern armies. But if your brother +was wounded or brought in wounded at Fort Monroe, his name will be on +the books of the Army of the Potomac or the Department of Eastern +Virginia." + +They were treated with the same deferential gallantry at the +surgeon-general's office; the young doctors, indeed, became almost +obtrusive in their eagerness to spare the young women the drudgery of +scrutinizing the long lists of invalids. But, after two days' careful +search, no names resembling Sprague or Perley could be found. + +"I wonder who this can be?" Kate said, returning to an entry made a +month before: "Jones, Warchester; Caribee Regiment." + +"I know no one of that name," Olympia said, "but perhaps he might know +something of Jack. Let us go to him. It will do no harm to find out +who he is." + +The surgeon's clerk readily gave them Jones's address, reminding them +that the hospital was in Georgetown, and that they would be too late to +obtain entrance to the patient that day. Next morning Mrs. Sprague was +too ill to rise from her bed, and Olympia could not leave her alone. +Kate undertook the investigation into the Jones affair alone. When she +reached the hospital there was some delay before she could see the +personage intrusted with the admission of guests. She was shown into an +office on the ground-floor and given a seat. As she sat, distraught and +eager, she heard her own name in the next room, the door of which +stood open: + +"It's at Boone's risk. He would have him moved, and the surgeon-general +gave him _carte blanche_ with the patient." + +"Well, it will cost the man his life. I'll stake my diploma on that. +Why, the journey to Warchester alone is enough to down the most vigorous +convalescent." + +Kate trembled. What did this mean? What was she hearing? +Boone--Warchester? Whom had her father been taking from the +hospital--Jack? Her heart gave a wild leap. Yes--Jack. Who else did her +father know in the army? She arose trembling, fainting, but resolute. +She reached the open door, but tried for a moment in vain to ask: + +"If you please, tell me, tell me--" But she could say no more. The +occupants of the room, in undress uniform, turned upon her at first in +hostile surprise, but, as she threw her veil farther back in alarm, the +elder of the two said: + +"Pray, madam, what is it; are you ill?" + +"No; may I sit down, please? Thank you. I am come to, to--" What should +she say? How expose the doubt of her father? How find out for certain +who had been removed to Warchester--abducted was the word her agitated +thoughts shaped. Oh, if Olympia, intrepid, self-possessed, were only +with her!--but no, not Olympia; no one must ever know the unutterable +crime she suspected her father of. She must be brave. She must be +resolute. Oh, where were her arts now, when she most needed them? She +tried to speak. A hoarse gasping came in her throat and died there. + +"Ah--ah--some water!--I--I am faint." + +In an instant a goblet of cool water was at her lips. She drank slowly, +deliberating all the time to recover her senses; the surgeons--both +young men, mere lads--waiting respectfully, inferring much from the +melancholy robes. The water cooled her head, and she began to be able to +think coherently. + +"I have the surgeon-general's permit to visit a patient in your fever +ward--Jones, the name is. Can I see him?" + +"Pray, let me see the permit, madam?" He glanced at it, looked +significantly at his comrade, and said: + +"This man was removed three days ago." + +"Whereto?" + +"Warchester." + +"Ah!" Kate's veil, by an imperceptible gesture, fell over part of her +face. A great trembling came upon her again. The young surgeons +exchanged glances. + +"Who--who--did--who asked for his removal?" + +"A Mr. Boone, also of Warchester." + +"Thank you--I am too late--I wanted to--to ask this Mr. Jones some +questions concerning a dear friend in his regiment. But I can write, if +you will kindly give me the address." + +"I am very sorry--beyond Warchester we have no record here of his +whereabouts. If he had been officially transferred to another government +hospital, we should have all the facts. But the removal was a personal +favor to Mr. Boone. He is well known both here and in Warchester, and +you can have no difficulty in communicating with him." + +"Ah, true; I had forgotten that." + +"If we can be of any service to you, Miss Sprague," the young man said, +handing Kate back the permit, made out in Olympia's name, which Kate had +never thought of, "you can always reach us through the surgeon-general's +office." He handed her a card with his own and his comrade's name +in pencil. + +Thanking the young man with as much self-possession as she could summon, +Kate reached the carriage in a whirl of wild imaginings, more terrifying +as she strove to reduce them to definite shape. Who was this Jones? Why +remove him to Warchester? If it were not Jack, what interest could her +father have in his removal? But. first, what could she say to Olympia? +She could say she did not know Jones, but Olympia would surely ask what +questions she had put to him. What should she say? That he had been +taken away from the hospital? She knew Olympia well enough to know that +this vague story would only incite her to further inquiry. She would +find out the father's handiwork in the affair, and she, too, would be +set on the rack of suspicion. + +When the carriage reached the door, Kate dared not enter. She dismissed +the man and set out toward the green fields below the rounded slope of +Meridian Hill. Here she could breathe freely. "I can think clearly now," +she panted, with a gush of warm tears. If she could only remain calm, +she could look Into the black abyss with the eye of reason, rather than +terror. Calmness came soothingly as she walked, and she began at the +beginning, weighing probabilities. All seemed dark and hopeless, until +she came back to the record in the surgeon-general's office. Jones, sent +from Hampton Hospital, December 13th. This was about the time Jack had +reached the Union lines. He had left Richmond late in November. All +Brodie's inquiries at Fort Monroe had been fruitless in finding the +whereabouts of the fugitives that came through the lines at that time. +Dick had been one of them. If Jones were not Jack himself, he must have +been one of the group that escaped with Jack. It all led back to the +first frightful conjecture. Her father was abducting a witness who could +divulge Jack's whereabouts, or he was secreting Jack until be could work +him harm. The walk began to revive Kate's courage as well as her +faculties. She must act with energy. The hardest part of the problem was +to get clear of Olympia, for Kate at once made up her mind to quit +Washington that very night for home. She must evade Olympia's inquiries +as best she could, and make some excuse for journeying thither. + +When she reached home, fortune had intervened to save her conscience +from the falsehoods she feared she would have to employ. The landlady +met her in the hallway with a white face. + +"O Miss Boone, Mrs. Sprague is taken very bad. The doctor's with her +now. I think it is typhoid fever." + +Up-stairs misfortune gave her a further release. Olympia came into +Kate's room, agitated and in tears. + +"All, Kate, mamma is suffering pitiably. The doctor thinks it is +typhoid, and he ordered me to remain away from her. You must leave the +house. It won't do for all of us to be ill together. I may not be able +to see you for days, until the crisis is past. But you must continue the +search, and you must let me know, from day to day, what you learn. There +are letters for you--I hear mamma. I will be back in a moment." + +Kate fairly hated herself for the passing thrill of relief over the +timely illness that had intervened to expedite her mission. She glanced +over the letters. There was one in her father's hand, postmarked +Acredale. It contained no clew to his purposes, but she read +tremblingly: + +"My daughter: You are doing a foolish thing. The search you propose can +lead to nothing. All that can be done has been done by his friends. They +have found no trace of him. Women can not hope to succeed where so keen +a man as Brodie has failed. I have every confidence that in good time +the matter will be cleared up, but you must remember that the Government +and its agents have all they can do to manage and keep track of the +millions of soldiers in the field, and they can not be expected to take +much interest in the fate of the wounded or dead. Always affectionately. + +"Your Father." + +All doubt of her father's sinister intervention in Jack's disappearance +now took the form of certainty in the girl's mind. When Olympia came +back, a few moments later, Kate said, tenderly: + +"I have news from home. I must go back at once. It is less of a grief to +me, since I should be banished from you if I were here. I shall not be +gone long. I shall certainly be back as soon as you can receive me. In +the mean while, don't despair. I have been put on a new trail that I can +not explain to you now. But I can say this much, when you see me again +you shall know whether Jack is alive or dead." + +Olympia, who had been so strong, cheery, and masterful when it had been +a question of reassuring her mother, was now the stricken spirit. She +looked at Kate through swimming eyes, and her voice was lost in sobs as +she tried to speak. The girls held each other in a tearful silence, +neither able to say what was in the minds of both. Even the uncertainty +had a sort of solace compared with the dreadful possibility of +the worst. + +"Remember, dear, you have your mother. What is our poor grief to hers; +what is our loss to hers? It ought to comfort you to know that whatever +human thought, courage, love can do to recover Jack, I shall do, just as +you would in my place. I am very strong and resolute now, and I am +filled with hope--so filled that I can not talk to you. I dare not let +you see how much I hope, lest if it be not fulfilled you will hate me +for inspiring you with it." + +"I will hope. I do believe you will do better than I should. The loving +are the daring--you will find Jack. I know it." + +"Ah, God bless you, Olympia! That removes a curse from me--I--I mean +that fills me with a courage that is not my own, I have learned yours or +stolen it. But you will forgive me, for I mean to use it all in +your behalf." + +Olympia smiled sadly, and the two parted. By the night express Kate left +the city, and, the next afternoon, reached Acredale. As she anticipated, +her father was not at home. He had only been an hour or two in the house +since his return. The servants had no idea where he was. His letters +were forwarded to him under cover of his lawyers in Warchester. If, as +she fearfully surmised, her father were engaged in some cruel scheme to +the hurt of Jack, her best way with him would be perfect frankness. She +had never yet failed in swerving him from his most headstrong impulses +when she could talk with him. She must have him now to herself. Her best +plan, therefore, would be to write. Yet she hardly knew how to frame the +note, reflecting bitterly, as she sat twirling her pen, on the monstrous +state of things that made writing to her own father almost a duplicity. +At length she wrote: + +"DEAREST PAPA: I am come all the way from Washington, leaving poor Mrs. +Sprague very low with fever, and her daughter tormented and ill with +anxiety. I feel, I know, that you can relieve the distress of this +miserable mother and devoted sister. I must see you. I felt sure of +seeing you in Washington, and you can imagine my surprise and grief when +they told me at the hotel that you had gone. Do come to me, or let me +come to you. Your daughter's place is with you or near you now. We have +only each other in this world; pray, dear father, let nothing come +between us; let nothing make you doubt the constant love of +your daughter. + +"KATE." + +The note dispatched, she went immediately to the Perleys. Perhaps they +had news that might be of help. No. The three ladies met her with +agitated volubility. Had she heard from their nephew? Had Dick escaped +with Jack? Olympia had assured them that he had quitted Richmond with +her brother. They had written to the Caribee regiment, and received word +that no trace of him could be found. The regiment, or what was left of +it, was home refilling its ranks. The officers, indeed, knew nothing of +such a person as Richard Perley. McGoyle, who was now colonel, did +vaguely recall the lad at Washington, but had no idea what became of +him. Kate found a new grief in the misery of the helpless ladies. But +she could give them no comfort, and returned home to await her father's +coming. In the evening a messenger brought her a note. It was in the +straight, emphatic hand of her father. He wrote: + +"DEAR DAUGHTER: I am just now engaged in very important matters that +require me to move about considerably. I shall not be home for some +days. I am glad you have come home. That's the place for you. You had +better let the matter you speak of alone. The mother and sister are +enough in the business. I don't see how it concerns you or me. If the +man is dead it will be known as soon as the commissioners of exchange +hand in their lists. If he is not dead, it is certainly no business of +yours or mine to bring him home. I will write you soon again. Love your +father. Keep the house well till I come." + +That was all. More than evasive. Subtly calculated to make her believe +that he had dismissed all thought of Jack and was immersed in his own +affairs. She sat staring and helpless, a cold horror creeping into her +heart and a nameless terror taking outline in her senses. Hideous +alternative. To be coherent she must suspect, nay, accuse, her father of +a dreadful duplicity. He was deceiving her; else why no mention of his +mission to Washington--his abduction of Jones? Jones! Who was he? Oh, +blind and senseless that she had been! Why had she not asked the young +men at Georgetown to describe Jones? That would have revealed all she +needed to know. Was it too late to write them? Yes; but could she throw +suspicion upon her father by writing to strangers, and of necessity +exposing the sinister secrecy of her father's action. But she could +hurry back to Washington, and, without letting the young men know, got a +descriptive list. This she resolved to do. Twenty-four hours later she +was in Washington. The journey was thrown away. The descriptive list had +been sent by the hospital steward with the invalid. He could be found in +the military hospital in Warchester. His name was Leander Elkins. This +was something gained. Two days later she was at the hospital in +Warchester. The steward, Elkins, came to her in the waiting room. He was +a young giant in stature, with light flaxen hair, a merry blue eye, and +so bashful in the presence of a woman that he colored rosily as Kate +asked him if he was the person she had sent for. + +"Yes'm. I'm Lee Elkins," he stammered, very much perplexed to find ease +for his large hands and ample feet. + +"Are you--is Mr. Jones, who came from the Georgetown Hospital, in your +case?" Kate had thought out her course in advance, and had decided that +the direct way was the best. Unless the man had been charged to conceal +facts, an apparent knowledge of Jones's movements would be the surest +way of eliciting his whereabouts. + +"Oh no, miss. Jones wa'nt brought here; he was took to a private place. +I don't rightly know where, but I calculate I ken find eout of ye +want to know." + +"Yes, I should like very much to know. I am deeply interested in him, +Did you have charge of him?" + +"I can't say I did. I was sent from Washington in the same train, but +the old chap that got Jones removed did all the nussing. I only got a +sight of him as he was lifted into the carriage." + +"Should you know him again if you saw him?" + +"Think I should. Yes'm, think I should. His head was about as big as a +pumpkin." + +"He had been wounded?" + +"Well, I should say so." + +"Have you seen the gentleman that brought him on from Washington +lately?" + +"Not here, mum; I did see him in the street the other day. He was in a +wagon--leastwise, it looked mighty like him." + +Kate began to breathe more freely. Her father had, at least, avoided any +collusion with inferiors. His handiwork had been natural, involving no +conspiracy or bribing of menials. + +"Do you think you could find out for me where Mr. Jones is?" + +"Wall, I reckon it could be done. It may take some days, as I must trust +to the luck of running upon old Dofunny again." + +Kate started. "Old Dofunny"--the unsuspecting humorist meant her father +by this jocular _nom de guerre_, and she dared not resent it. How should +she gain her end and yet save herself from the humiliation of seeming to +spy upon her father? It wouldn't do for Elkins to go to him, for he +would at once suspect, inquire, and learn that she had come upon his +tracks. If she could only see him face to face, she would be spared all +this odious complotting. But she dared not reject the means Providence +had put in her hands. And yet, how use them, and avoid throwing +suspicion upon her father in cautioning Elkins not to approach him? She +was not equal to the invention of a plan on the moment, and said in a +doubting, reflective way: + +"Never mind. I may be able to learn from some of his friends where he +is. The gentleman you speak of does not live in this city, and you would +hardly be able to find him. If I could, find him I could find +Mr. Jones." + +"Ah, yes; jes' so. Wall, I think I can find him in another way. I +remember the carriage that took him from the station, I can find out +from the driver. 'T'wan't no mystery, I reckon." + +Kate looked into the innocent blue eyes as the young fellow scratched +his tow head, wondering whether he was as simple-minded as he seemed. He +stood the scrutiny with blushing restiveness, in which there was nothing +of the malign, and she resolved that he was to be trusted. + +"Very well," she said, indifferently, "that does seem the shortest way +to find out the poor fellow's whereabouts. Get the facts, and you shall +be well paid for your trouble." + +"'Tain't no trouble, miss, if it's a service to you. It would make me +powerful glad to do anything for a comrade or his sister." + +Kate smiled at the astute mingling of sly fun and questioning implied in +the gently rising inflection in this query. + +"Yes," she said, "you will be relieving the anxious heart of a sister if +you find what I am seeking." + +"Nuff said, miss. Just as soon as I get my relief I'm off like a shot. +Where shall you be?" + +"Ah, yes; you can come to me at the Alburn House. Here is my card, and +you will doubtless be at some expense. Here is money to pay--spare +no expense." + +The big eyes opened in wonder as Kate handed him three new ten-dollar +greenbacks, just then something of a novelty to soldiers especially, who +got their pay infrequently. It was a bold stroke to intrust her name to +this unconscious agent of her father, for, if he were really playing a +part, his first act would be to reveal her visit and thus set her father +on his guard. But she trusted him implicitly. His wide-open blue eyes, +the artless admiration mingling with his bashful diffidence, all were +proof that he could not be deceiving her. She took rooms at the Alburn +House, which was not the chief hotel, as being better adapted for her +purpose of seclusion. At the big hotel she was known, and if her father +were in town she would be under his espionage without the solace of +writing him. Late in the evening her agent came in radiant. He had +found the man. + +"Easy as rolling off a log." The hackman had taken him to the house +where Jones was lying. It was on the outskirts of the city toward +Acredale. He described the house. Kate knew it very well. It was the +property of her father. + +"Did you see the patient?" + +"No, indeed. You didn't tell me to, and I had nothing, to see him for. +Ef you had told me that you wanted I should see him, I'd have seen him +as easy as greased lightning." + +"Thank you. I am relieved of a great burden through your kindness. You +must permit me to give you something to show my gratitude. Here, use +this money for some one who needs it, if you do not need it yourself." + +"But I don't need it. Here is what you gave me this morning, 'cept a +half-dollar I spent in treating John. I couldn't think of taking so much +money. It's more'n Uncle Sam allows me for five months' pay." + +"No, I shall feel distressed if you do not accept it. You can find use +for it. It will bring you luck, for it is the reward of a very important +service. Perhaps some time we may meet again, and then you shall know +how important." + +The tow hair stood up in wild dismay, and the blue eyes were perfect +saucepans, as Kate gently forced the money into the big palm. + +"Wall, I vum, miss, I feel like I was a-robbing you, but ef yeou deu +want I should take it, why I will, and send it to my old mother, who +will find plenty o' use for it. Good-by, miss. Ef you should want me +again, I'm at the hospital. I shall be mitey tickled to do anything for +yeou or your brother." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +TWO BLADES OF THE SAME STEEL. + + +It was too late to follow up the discovery that night. Kate, after a +feverish rest, set out early in the morning. She went first to Acredale, +where she could get her own equipage and driver. The tenants of the +house did not know her. She rang boldly at the door, and when a maid +answered, quite taken aback by the girlish figure in deep black, Kate +asked, confidently: + +"I want to see the sick man, Mr. Jones." + +"Yes'm, come right in. This way, please, ma'am." The girl led the way up +a flight of stairs, but if she had been part of the balustrade Kate +could not have been more immovable. Whom was she about to see? Jack, +wan, emaciated, on the verge of the grave? They had said in Washington +that the journey would kill him; was it to that end her relentless +father had persisted in the removal? Was she about to see the dying +brought to death's door by her own flesh and blood? She reeled against +the stair-post and brought her veil over her face. The girl had turned +above and was waiting in wonder. With a desperate gathering together of +her relaxed forces, she mounted the stairway. In the corridor the girl +turned to a closed doorway and knocked lightly. There was no sound +within; but the door swung open, and Elisha Boone stood on the +threshold. He did not in the dim light observe the figure in black, but, +looking at the maid, said, softly: + +"What's wanted, Sarah?" + +"A young lady to see Mr. Jones, sir," and, stepping slightly aside for +Kate to enter, the father recognized the visitor. + +"You here, Kate? What does this mean?" + +With a great throb of joy she flung herself into his arms; too happy, +too relieved to take into consideration the defeat of her purpose +involved in the meeting. For an instant she lost all thought of anything +but that her estranged parent was in her arms, that she would not let +him quit her sight again, that her pleading would keep him from any act +that could cause her or any one else unhappiness. + +"Ah, father, I'm so relieved, so glad! I was miserable, and did not know +where you were. I--I will not let you leave me again." + +"But my child, you must not be here; this is a house of sickness; there +is dangerous illness here." + +"It's no more dangerous for me than for you. I know who is here." She +looked archly at him, as he started in surprise. "I will help nurse Mr. +Jones." She said this with immense knowingness in her manner as she +squeezed the astonished man to her heart. The maid meanwhile had +retreated to a safe distance, where she lurked in covert to make report +of the extraordinary goings on. + +"Impossible, Kate; you must not be here. I will not have it; you must +go." His voice grew stern. "You must go, I say, Kate; you must go +down-stairs this instant." + +"Come, Boone, I say, this isn't fair; let the lady come in if she wants +to see valor laid low." Boone, who had been insensibly moving Kate from +the open doorway, caught her eye fixed on the room, and looking over his +shoulder at these jocular words he saw Jones leaning against the post, a +wan smile on his face. Boone turned, almost flinging Kate from him, and, +fairly lifting the invalid, carried him back into the room. + +"This is madness; you are in no condition to rise. I won't be +responsible for your life if you persist in this course." + +"So much trouble off your hands, old man. I'll be more use to you dead +than living. Better let me blow my own flame out. It won't burn long at +best or worst." + +In the overwhelming revulsion of feeling brought about by the actual +sight of Jones, Kate stood, interdicted, in the corridor, uncertain what +to do. She heard the man's words and shuddered at the bantering levity +with which he spoke of his own death. Who could it be? It was not Jack, +as she had feared and hoped. But he must know something of Jack. She +must speak with him. How? It would not do to irritate her father. She +caught Boone's almost whispered words: + +"I tell you, Jones, you shall be brought about, but you know the danger +of seeing any Acredale people. My daughter knows you--knows the Perleys. +I should think that would be reason enough why you should not be seen +by her." + +"Oh, I don't mind; the sight of a pretty girl is the best medicine I +know of. I'd risk all Acredale for that." + +Kate turned softly and waited at the foot of the stairs for her father. +He came presently, looking worried and embarrassed. + +"Now don't go to imagining mysteries here. This is a man who has been on +my hands a good many years. He is an irreclaimable spendthrift. He was +in other days a man of repute and station. I am interested in him, +through old ties, since the days we were boys." + +"The carriage is here, papa; won't you come home with me?" + +"Yes; you get into the carriage." + +He reappeared presently, the face of a strange woman, that Kate had not +seen, peering over his shoulder into the carriage as he came down the +steps. Kate instantly divined that he had been warning the landlady +against admitting strangers to the sick man's room. During the drive +home Kate strove to reassert her old dominion over the moody figure at +her side. It was useless. As the carriage stopped at the door he turned +toward her and said, not unkindly: + +"Daughter, there are some things I know better how to manage than you +do. You have been spying on your father. This is another count in the +long score of grudges I owe the Sprague tribe and their scoundrel son. +Understand me clearly, my child; you must not speak of this matter +again. The whole business will soon be at an end; that end is in my +hands, and no power this side the grave can alter a fact in the outcome. +You are very dear to me; you are all I have left in the world; you must +trust me, and you must believe that I am doing everything for the best. +Try to think that the world is not coming to an end because I insist on +having my own way for once." + +Nothing but the sense of having giving hostages to good behavior rather +than honor upheld Kate in the line she had marked out for herself. She +was not, in the modern sense of the word, a strong-minded young woman, +this sorely beset champion of the overborne. She hadn't even the +perversity of the sex in love. Chivalrously as she loved the lost +soldier, she loved her father with that old-fashioned veneration which +made her see all that he did with the moral indistinctness, without +which there could not be the perfect filial devotion that makes the +family a union in good report and evil. She had not even that, by no +means repellent, secondary egoism which upholds us in doing ungrateful +things that abstract good may follow. Opposition, which becomes +delightful when we can call it persecution, had no charm for her. If her +father had suddenly adopted the _role_ of the stern parent in novels and +ordered her to her chamber, Kate would have regarded it as a joke, and +felt rather relieved that she could thus escape the pledge given to the +Spragues. But, as it was, she felt morally bound by her promise to +Olympia; and, though she realized dimly that her instrumentality was +slowly involving her father in a coil of unloveliness, she resolutely +braced herself for the worst. In spite of herself she had believed in +conquering her father's severity and changing his mind. She had rescued +him from revenges quite as dear to him as this, at least so far as she +understood it, forgetting that her father believed himself to be +pursuing the deliberate murderer of his son. When we have achieved a +victory over our own less noble impulses and put the sophistries that +misled us behind us, it is impossible to realize that others have not +the same vision, the same mind as our own. Kate had accused Jack of +cold-blooded murder. She had reasoned herself out of that hateful +spirit, and, forgetting that her father had not the vital force of love +to act as a fulcrum, she could not quite comprehend how difficult it was +to shift the wrathful burden in his mind. She had gone too far to recede +now with honor. Olympia had trusted her, had indeed given over into her +hands the active work of finding the strangely lost clew of Jack's +whereabouts. Perhaps for her father's sake it was better that she should +be the instrument. She might be able to dissemble his intervention, +shield him from obloquy--if, as she feared, he was responsible for +anything doubtful. + +She knew her father too well to suppose that he would flinch from any +measure he had proposed to himself. She knew that she need not count any +further upon her accustomed powers of persuasion. His own words were +final on that score. If she could only learn his intentions! If she +could be sure that he was ulteriorly shaping events against Jack--was +acquainted with his whereabouts--she would have known exactly what to +do. But, pilloried in doubt, shackled by the dread of exposing him in +some hateful malevolence which would forever disgrace him in the +community, she hardly dared stir, though she felt that every hour's +delay was a new peril to Jack in some way. The more she thought of the +scene of the morning, the surer she felt that Jones--or Mr. Dick, as her +father sometimes called him--was in some way an instrument in the +paternal scheme. If she could but see Jones ten minutes! Her father, she +well knew, had guarded against that. Whom could she send in her place? +Ah! there was the double check. She couldn't expose her father to a +stranger; yet if her apprehensions were grounded on anything more +substantial than fear, strangers must in time know all. Could Merry be +made use of? No--that would not do. The libertine tone of the invalid, +his impudent allusion to herself, convinced Kate that a man must be her +agent, if any one were to be. But what man did she know? If she sent any +of the servants, her father would recognize them, and the attempt fail. +She had trusted Elkins. He seemed an honest, incurious lad, just the one +to be trusted in the business. She could invent a fable which would +satisfy his ready credulity without compromising her father. It was +plain that he was the only resource. She dressed at once and returned to +the Alburn. Thence she dispatched a note to Elkins, begging him to call +at his earliest leisure. While waiting his return, she wrote a letter to +be handed to Jones. This was a work of no little ingenuity, forced as +she was to avoid all allusion to her father and the scene of the +morning. When completed, this stroke of the conspiracy ran: + + "DEAR SIR: A mother and sister who have exhausted all + official sources in vain to get trace of a lost son and brother, + John Sprague of the Caribees, have reason to believe that + you can give them a clew to his whereabouts. Will you + therefore kindly confide in the bearer of this letter, giving + him by word of mouth such facts as will enable John + Sprague's relatives to work intelligently in the search for + him, living or dead? + + "Very truly yours, + + "KATHERINE BOONE." + +It was hardly written when Elkins himself appeared, radiant with +satisfaction and blushing like a peony under lamplight. + +"Yeour note came just in th' nick o' time. I have leave of absence for +twenty-four hours, and was just goin' inter teown." + +"If you can spare me the day, I have a very important matter I think you +can attend to for me. I want you to go to the sick man Jones. You must +see before entering whether he is alone or not. I don't know how you can +find out, but you can invent some way. If you see the man who brought +him from Washington, you are not to enter. But if you find that he is +not in the house, ask boldly for Jones, and when you reach him hand him +this note. He will give you an answer, and you must be careful not to +lose a word, for life depends on the accuracy of your report. I fancy +that your regimentals and hospital badge can gain you admission, if, as +I have reason to believe, there are orders to refuse strangers +admission. I depend on you to overcome any difficulty you may meet. If +you knew how much depends upon it, I'm sure you would not be baffled by +anything less than force." + +The big blue eyes were fairly bulging, like two monster morning-glories, +as Elkins, putting the note carefully in his jacket pocket, +said, softly: + +"Ef I don't get thet 'ere letter into Jones's hands, you may have me +drummed out o' camp by the mule-drivers." + +"I believe you, and trust you. I shall be here to-morrow morning early, +and shall hope to hear something from you. Good-by." + +"Good-by, miss. Just you make up your mind I am goin' to do what you +command." + +When she reached home she found her father in the library. He looked at +her inquiringly as she came over and kissed him. + +"I have been in town all day, and am run out." + +"Still plotting?" + +"Yes, still plotting." + +"You're wasting your time, my dear. You'll know all you care to soon +enough, if you'll just keep quiet." + +"Yes; but I can't. I want to know all you know, and I want to know it +now." + +"All I know wouldn't be much, according to the Spragues, who gave me my +status in this town, long ago, as an ignoramus." + +"Perhaps you were then, papa." + +"Yes; I hadn't been schooled fifteen years by my accomplished daughter." + +"A lie is truth to those who only tell the truth." + +"What does that mean?" + +"It's simple enough--a home-made epigram. People who tell nothing but +the truth are easiest made to believe a lie. The Spragues had heard of +you as ignorant, and believed it. You can't blame them for that." + +"I don't blame them because it was a lie. I blame them because it was +the truth. I don't care a straw how many lies are told about me--it's +the ill-natured truth I object to." + +"I'm afraid that you will have a hard time in life if you like lies +better than the truth." + +"I didn't say that." + +"Then I don't understand English." + +"You don't understand me." + +"Ah, yes I do, papa. I do understand you. I know that at this moment you +are doing something that you are ashamed of--something that later you +will bitterly repent. You are carrying on now through pride what you +began in wrath. Stop where you are. The dead can not be avenged. That's +a barbarous code. Remember, in all the petty irritations of the past, +when you have been hurt by your neighbors, you were never so triumphant +as when you surprised those who injured you by a magnanimous return--" + +"There, I made an agreement with you that we should not speak of these +things. I mean it. I find that you take advantage of me. I shall be +banished from the house if you do not keep to your bargain." + +Kate sighed. She had hoped that the early banter was paving the way for +a reconciliation. She took up some work and tried to busy her hands. + +"Suppose you read me something? You haven't read in an age." + +"What shall it be?" + +"Oh, something from Dickens--anything you like." + +"Very well, I shall show you a counterfeit presentment of yourself," +and, with an arch-smile, she began to read from The Chimes. + +He listened soberly until the last page was turned, and then, rising, +said abstractedly: + +"I sha'n't see you for a few days. I wish you would remain at home as +much as possible. Get some of the neighbors' girls to keep you company, +if you're lonesome." + +"Oh, I shall not be lonesome. I shall have too much to do--too much to +think about." + +He laughed. "You are enough like your father, my girl, to pass for him. +Very well, you'll be penitent enough when I come back." + +He was gone in the morning, as he had said, and she was free to keep her +appointment with Elkins. He was waiting for her when she readied +the hotel. + +"Well?" she cried, breathlessly. + +"I saw him." + +She seized the blushing lad's two hands. "Ah, you splendid follow! And +then?--" + +"He wrote this note for you," and he handed her an envelope with her own +name written on it in an uneven, uncertain scrawl. She tore it open +and read: + +"DEAR MADAM: I can not understand why there should +be any difficulty in finding what became of Sprague and his +party. We all reached the lines together, but, as I was hit +by a bullet in the head at the moment of rescue, I knew +nothing of their movements after reaching the Union lines. +I, too, am interested in the young man. I should like to see +you or some of his friends at once, as I suspect foul play of +some sort. + +"Obediently yours, + +"JONES." + +"Did you get to him without trouble?" Kate asked, keenly, disappointed +by the result of all this strategy. + +"I made them believe I was on hospital business. I showed them a large +official envelope, and they let me go up. Jones told me to tell you that +he would see you there in the parlor if you would come; that he is +unable to leave the house, or he would come to see you." + +"Can you take me there now?" + +"I have four hours of my leave still. It does not expire until two +o'clock." + +"Then we will go at once. Will you call a carriage?" + +While he was gone, Kate read the note again. She was more puzzled than +ever. The man wrote as if he had no idea that Jack was not easily +traceable, yet all the Spragues' money and influence had been spent in +vain. He expected her. Where could her father be? He wrote as though he +had no idea that he had been virtually a prisoner. When she reached the +house, the servant made no difficulty in admitting her. Elkins remained +outside in the vehicle, with an admonition from Kate to remain unseen +unless she called him. Jones, the shadow of the burly soldier we saw in +the famous escape, was seated in a deep, reclining chair, and, as Kate +entered, rose feebly. + +"Pray, don't rise, don't disturb yourself in the least. I will sit here +near you, and we can talk, if it won't make you ill." + +"No. It isn't talking that troubles me--but never mind that. Your note +has pulled me down a good deal. I was given to understand that the boys +were home and all right." + +"The boys?" + +"Jack and young Perley." + +"Who gave you--who told you that?" + +"Your father. He is the only person I have talked with since I got my +wits back." + +Kate drew back with a shuddering horror. + +"Are you quite sure, Mr.--Mr. Jones that my father told you that?" + +"Perfectly certain. Do you suppose that I would not have taken measures +to find out where my own--I mean where friends were? These boys saved me +from prison once and from a death nearly as dreadful as Libby. Could I +be indifferent to them?" + +"But why should papa tell you they were safe, when--when our hearts have +been tortured? Ah! I see. He wanted to spare you the anxiety. Ah! yes. +He knew that you would fret and worry, and that you could not recover +under the strain." Kate's heart swelled with a triumphant revulsion. She +had vilely suspected without cause. She must now do justice. Jones eyed +her pensively, holding his head with both his hands. + +"Nothing has been heard of the boys since when?" + +"Nothing directly since the escape from Richmond. Miss Sprague brought +that news, and about the same time a paragraph in the _Herald_ announced +that prisoners from Richmond had reached the Union lines on +the Warrick." + +"When was that?" + +"Late in November." + +"Yes, I was one of them. I escaped from Richmond. Jack and young Perley +got me out of the tobacco warehouse. We reached the Warrick after a hard +week of marching and hiding, and the boys were alive and well when we +reached the Union outpost. I was last to cross the bridge, and as I +plunged into the thick bushes a bullet struck me, I knew no more until I +found myself here. I had agents at Fort Monroe waiting for me. They +probably forwarded me at once. But I don't understand how there can be +any difficulty in tracing the two boys. Haven't they written?" + +"Not a line, not a word concerning them has been heard. Mrs. Sprague +sent agents so soon as the _Herald_ paragraph was shown to Olympia. They +are in Washington now on the quest. It was there we got track of +you--before you were sent here,"' + +"Why was I sent here?" + +Kate was about to speak. Again the shadow of her first fear--again the +dread of some malevolent purpose on her father's part--choked +her speech. + +"I--I--don't know," she faltered. + +"Who came with me?" + +"My father." + +"Ah!" Jones's eyes were penetrating her now. She felt the questioning in +them, and turned her face to the clinging folds of the veil. + +"Miss Boone, you seem to be deeply interested in these boys. Are you +really their friend?" + +"Ah, believe me, I am heart and soul their friend!" + +"Does your father know it?" + +"Yes: he knows that I am seeking them." + +"Does he approve your search?" + +"No, he does not." + +"Good. Now listen. We have short time to work in. You have a carriage +outside. Your father will be here any moment. I could never keep from +him my indignation and even distrust. I shall get into that carriage +with you, and you must conceal me somewhere and give me time to set the +proper machinery in motion to find these boys. There is no other way. +Your father has some reason for keeping their whereabouts concealed. I +may know the purpose and I may not. The boys may have been killed in the +volley that struck me. It will require a mere telegram to find out. I +know whom to address, but I must be where I can use trusted agents. I +have no money. You can, I hope, provide me with that, or the Spragues if +you can't." + +He spoke with a flush deepening on his face, and arose with something +like vigor. + +"Ample means--you shall have any sum you need," Kate said, handing him a +well-filled purse. + +"Good--I have one or two articles in my room. I will fetch them and +follow you to the carriage." + +Ten minutes later the carriage was whirling over the broad road to +Warchester. By Jones's advice it was stopped at the hospital. Here he +proposed remaining for the night, to mislead suspicion if any one had +taken the precaution to follow. + +"I will remain with our friend Elkins to-night, as you suggest," Jones +said; "to-morrow I will send you word of my whereabouts, and you may +expect to have news of the boys within the week." + +"My address will be in Washington," Kate said. "I shall go at once to +the Spragues. They have been there, as I told you, to seek every +possible source of information. I left them to follow you, hoping that +through you I should find the missing." + +"You made no mistake. I shall find them. You can tell your friends +that," and he added, with a gleam of savage malice, "God help the man +that has raised the weight of a feather against them, for he has put a +heavy hurt on me if he has harmed them!" + +Kate shuddered. Was she never to emerge from this hideous circle of +vengeful hatred--this condition of passionate vendetta--where men were +seeking each other's harm? On reaching home she addressed a note to her +father explaining frankly that she had entered into communication with +Jones; that who had been pained by all that she had heard; that the +inquiry had now passed out of her hands and was in that of the +authorities, and begging him to drop any participation he might have +meditated In a late letter Olympia had given good news of her mother, +saying that Kate could return with safety, and, informing her father of +this, Kate bade him good-by for a time. + +When Kate reached Washington she found Mrs. Sprague convalescent, but +painfully feeble. The poor mother reproached herself for the +interruption of the search, and implored the two girls to begin again +without a moment's delay. Kate gave her as much hope as she dared. She +hinted something of the outlines of what she had done and the new agent +in the field. With this Mrs. Sprague was greatly comforted, but begged +then to remit no efforts of their own. It was after three days' +fruitless searching among the records of the department and among the +men of the Caribee regiment, now returned to Washington _en route_ to +the front, that Kate bethought herself of her father's probable presence +in the city. She got out of the carriage and entered the long reception +room of Willard's to make inquiry. The boy who came at her call said, as +soon as she asked for Mr. Boone: + +"Why, I jast saw him at the desk, paying his bill. He is probably there +still. Wait here until I see." + +But Kate, fearing that he might be gone before she could reach him, +followed the boy. There was no sign of her father at the desk, and, +turning hastily out of the main corridor, filled with officers and the +clank of swords almost stunning her, she reached the porch just as a cab +set out toward the station. She might a glimpse of her father's face in +it. He was leaving the city. She must see him. The inspiration of the +instant suggested by a cabman was followed. She hastily entered the +vehicle and bade the driver keep in sight of the one her father was in +until it came to a stop. The driver whipped up his horses, but there +wasn't much speed in them. Kate dared not look out of the window, and +sat in feverish anxiety while she was whirled along Pennsylvania Avenue, +almost to the Baltimore Station, then the only one in the city +connecting with the North. To her surprise, the driver stopped near the +curb a block or more short of the railway. She looked out, and as she +did so the driver pointed to her father's carriage halted just ahead. +She took out her purse, but was delayed a moment in getting the fare, +keeping her eye, however, on her father as he hurried from the cab to a +building before which a sentry was lazily pacing. She was not two +minutes in reaching the doorway, but he had disappeared. + +The soldier asked her no questions, and of course she could ask none, as +probably her father was unknown to the military filling the place. She +must follow on until she overtook him. There were clerks busy at long +desks, military officials moving about with files of documents. The +presence of a few women in widow's weeds reassured Kate, and as no one +molested her she persisted in her design. He was not on the lower floor, +and, coming back, she ascended a broad stairway. The hall was wide, and +filled with people all in uniform. She could hear a monotonous voice +reading in front, where the crowd clustered thickest. She looked about +helplessly, and tried to push forward. Suddenly she heard the words: +"Guilty of taking the life of the same Wesley Boone. Specification +third: And that the said John Sprague is guilty of the crime of spying +inside the lines of the armies of the United States." For a moment Kate +stood stupefied--rooted to the floor. Jack was undergoing an ignominious +trial for murder--for desertion! All fear, all timidity, all sense of +the unfitness of feminine evidence in such a place fled from her. She +pushed her way through the astonished throng which fell aside as they +saw her black dress and flowing drapery. She reached the last range of +benches, where men were seated, some writing, some consulting documents, +while the clerk read the charges. Her eye fell upon her father seated +near the place of the presiding officer. She grew confident and +confirmed by the sight: it was a signal to the daring that fired her. +"Stop!" she said, in a clear voice. "I don't know what this place is; I +don't know what meaning these proceedings have. I heard a charge that is +not true. It is false that John Sprague murdered Wesley Boone. Wesley +Boone was my brother, and he was killed in the dark by one of several +shots fired at the same instant. Furthermore, my brother was armed and +in the sleeping-room of the mistress of the house at the dead of night. +If John Sprague's bullet killed him it was shot in self-defense and in +the safeguarding of two terrified women. He had no more idea of whom he +was struggling with than--than the soldier who fires in battle. +Furthermore, he is no spy. He risked his life to rescue prisoners. He +saved the life of one of them who can be brought here to testify. He--" + +But here Kale broke down. She had spoken with a passionate, resentful +vehemence, her mind all the time seething with the fear and shame of her +father's responsibility for this hideous attack upon the absent. She +stretched out her hand exhaustedly for support. A young officer near her +pushed up a chair and helped her into it. Boone had turned in speechless +amazement as the first words of the voice sounded in his ears. His back +was toward the door, and he had not seen Kate. He turned as she broke +into this fervid apostrophe. Whether from surprise, prudence, or anger +he sat silent, uninterrupting till she tottered into the seat placed for +her by a stranger. Then he arose and went to her side, in nowise angry +or discomposed so far as his outward demeanor betrayed him. The +presiding officer of the court-martial had attempted to silence Kate by +a gesture, but with eyes fixed steadily upon him she had disregarded his +command. Now, however, he spoke: + +"Madame, you must know this is highly disorderly and indecorous. The +court can take no cognizance of this sort of testimony. Do you desire to +be heard by counsel? If you do, the judge-advocate will give you all +lawful assistance." + +"If the court please, this lady is my daughter. She is somewhat excited. +I will take the necessary measures in the matter," Boone began. + +Kate pushed her father from before her and again addressed the +president. + +"I refuse my father's aid in this case. I don't know what is necessary, +but I ask this court, if it has anything to do with John Sprague, to +give his friends an opportunity to present his story truthfully and +without prejudice." + +"The judge-advocate will give you all necessary information. Meanwhile, +the case will be adjourned until to-morrow." + +Elisha Boone stood beside his daughter, a figure of perplexity and +chagrin. He dared not remonstrate openly. He was forced to hear the +judge-advocate question this extraordinary witness, and instruct her on +the steps necessary to be taken; worse than all, hear him inform Kate +that the citations to John Sprague had been regularly issued, and that +the evidence of his desertion rested wholly on the fact that he had put +in no answer to the charges promulgated against him by his commanding +officer; that the trial was proceeding on the ground that Sprague had +deserted to the enemy, and refused to answer within the time allowed +by law. + +"But he has never heard of the charges," Kate cried, indignantly. "He +has not been heard of since he escaped from Richmond." + +"As we understand it, he reached the Union lines merely to ambuscade our +outposts, and then returned to Richmond." + +"His sister left Richmond ten days after his flight, and he had then +passed into our lines, as she had the surest means of knowing." + +"There is some extraordinary error in all this. If Sprague can be +produced before the term fixed by the regulations, he can vindicate +himself by establishing the facts you have told me. If not, we have no +alternative but to condemn him to death as a spy and deserter. The +testimony on these specifications is uncontradicted. The murder we may +not be able to establish, though we have witnesses of the shooting." + +It was arranged that Sprague's counsel should see the judge-advocate at +once, Kate giving him the address in case by any accident she should be +prevented from seeing the Spragues. As she left the room, under a +fusillade of admiring glances, she leaned on her father's arm, trembling +but resolute. She now knew the worst, and she had no further terror. As +they reached the door, her father asked: + +"Where are you going? I suppose I need not tell you that I was on my way +home when I came here, for I suppose you have been spying on my +movements." + +"Never. I feared you were acting unwisely, but I never dreamed of +watching you. Providence has put your plans in my hands at nearly every +step, but I was so ignorant that, of myself, the information would have +done but little service to poor Jack. I came into the court by the +merest chance. I saw you get into the cab at Willard's, and as I had +only reached Washington, I wanted to see you before you went away. I +drove after you--followed without the slightest suspicion of the place +or your purpose in it." + +"Well, all your running about is useless. He will be sentenced to death +and the family disgraced. Nothing can now prevent that." + +"Yes, Jack can prevent it! I can prevent it!" + +"How?" + +"Jack will be found. Surely they dare not commit such a monstrous crime +against the absent, the undefended!" + +"Well, we won't talk of it. I suppose you are with the Spragues?" + +"Yes; I shall remain with them until this is ended." + +"What if I should tell you to come home with me?" + +"I should, of course, obey you if you commanded me. But before doing so +I should have to put my statement in legal shape--that is, swear to it, +and give my address to the court that I might be regularly summoned." + +"You know something of law, too, I see. I sha'n't ask you to go home, +nor shall I go myself. I shall remain to see how this affair turns out." + +They were driving down Pennsylvania Avenue now. Kate, recalling her +departure, asked, "You did not get the letter I left for you at home?" + +"No, I did not know you were gone." + +"I left a few lines to tell you that I had seen Jones." She watched him +as she said this. He did not start, as she expected. His lips were +suddenly compressed and his eye grew dark; then he smiled grimly. + +"I hope you felt repaid for your trouble." + +"Yes. I felt amply repaid. Jones has undertaken to find out what became +of Jack after his arrival at the Union outposts." + +"Did you discuss the whole affair with him?" + +"Yes. I was greatly relieved by what I learned. I was afraid you had +some sinister purpose in secreting him as the only link between Jack and +his friends. It gave me new life to find that you had been so tender and +thoughtful to Jones, for, as the event proved, he no sooner learned that +there were apprehensions as to Jack's safety, than he set about his +discovery." + +"Did Jones share your grateful sentiment?" + +"I think he did. To spare you agitation, he set out at once alone, in +order that you might be relieved of all responsibility." + +"Ah!" And Elisha Boone sank far back in the cushion. The carriage +stopped in front of Willard's; then he said: "I shall remain here now. I +will order the driver to take you home. Come to me as often as you can." +He kissed her in the old friendly way and hurried into the hotel. + +On reaching her lodgings she found a telegram waiting her. It read: +"Jones gone South. He will advise you of his movements. ELKINS." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE LOST CARIBEES. + + +Meanwhile war, in one of its grim humors, had prepared a comedy when the +stage was set in tragic trappings. In the withdrawal of Johnston's army +from Manassas--signalized in history as the Quaker campaign, because our +army found wooden guns in the deserted works--that ardent young Hotspur, +Vincent Atterbury, ran upon a disagreeable end to a very charming +adventure. In chivalric bravado, to emphasize the fact that the +withdrawal of the Confederates was merely strategic, not forced, the +young man, with a lively company of horsemen, hungering for excitement, +formed themselves into a defiant rear-guard. The Union outposts, never +suspecting that Johnston's army was not behind the enterprising cavalry, +withdrew prudently to the main forces. + +Then, when they were convinced that the little band was merely on an +audacious lark, forces were sent out on either flank, while the main +body feigned the disorder of retreat. The result was, that Vincent's +squadron was handsomely entrapped, and in the savage contest that ensued +the intrepid major was hustled from his horse with a dislocated shoulder +and broken wrist. He was brought, with a half-dozen more of his +dare-devil comrades, into the Union lines, and in the course of time +found himself in the hideous shambles allotted rebel prisoners at Point +Lookout, Maryland. Too weak at first, or too confused, to bethink +himself of his Northern friends, Vincent shared the hard usage of his +companions and resigned himself patiently to the slow procedure of +exchange, which was now going on regularly, since the Union victories in +the West and South had given the Northern authorities ten prisoners to +the Southerners' one. The prospect of his own release was, under these +circumstances, rather distant, as without special intervention he would +have to await his turn, the rule being that those first captured were +first exchanged. He knew that his family's influence and his own +intimacy with General Johnston would probably hasten the release, but he +could not count upon an immediate return to his duties, and in view of +this he was not very reluctant to undergo convalescence in the North. + +Jack's influence, he counted, would soon relieve him from the hardships +of confinement, and then he should see Olympia--that, at least, was +recompense for his misfortune. His mother and Rosa would immediately +learn of his capture, and he might count upon hearing from them, as very +generous latitude was allowed in such cases by the authorities on both +sides. He caused a letter to be written to Jack, addressing it to his +regiment, in care of the War Department, and waited patiently the +response. His disappointment and anxiety, as days passed and he got no +answer, began to tell on his health, already weakened by his wounds. +Thus, one day, when a young lady was shown to his bedside--who fell upon +him with a glad cry, and held his head to her breast--he was too far +gone in delirium to distinguish his sister. + +"My darling! O Olympia, I knew you would come," he murmured, and Rosa, +terrified, but composed, soothed the fevered lover as best she might. He +grew worse in spite of all her devotion. The physicians, burdened with +patients far in excess of their powers, assured her that her brother +would require the most patient care and enlightened nursing; that +medicine would do him but slight good, and that she must make up her +mind to a prolonged illness. Rosa was alone in the vast hospital, save +for the presence of her maid Linda, who had come through the lines with +her and was, of course, under the Northern laws, free. Worse than all, +she was poorly provided with money, and this need, rather than Vincent's +love-lorn babbling about Olympia, reminded Rosa to call upon the +Spragues for help. She wrote at once to Olympia, telling the distressing +story, and then set about bettering Vincent's surroundings. + +Point Lookout had been selected for its natural prison-like safeguards. +A rank bog surrounded the place on three sides, and thus but few troops +were needed to guard the great mass of rebel prisoners lodged in wooden +barracks and long lines of tents. Vincent's case seemed to have grown +stationary after her coming. He slept a fitful, troubled sleep half the +day. At night he grew delirious and restless. Rosa and Linda divided the +hours into watches, and administered the draughts prepared by the +stewards. Through the humanity of the physician in charge, the invalid +had been transferred to an A tent, where Rosa could remain day and night +unmolested with her maid. Vincent thus cared for, Rosa began to think of +the other poor fellows in her brother's squadron, and set about a +systematic search for them. Many of them she found in the general wards +of the hospital. It was on this kindly mission one day that she heard +her brother's name mentioned by a civilian, who was talking with an +official in uniform. + +"Major Atterbury? Oh, yes; he was removed to division D. You will find +him in a separate tent. He has a woman nurse. I will send an orderly +with you." + +Rosa did not recognize the civilian at first, but as he turned to +accompany the soldier she remembered where she had seen him before. He +was the prisoner Jack had spoken with in Richmond the day the party +visited the tobacco warehouse. She hastened her step, and, as she came +up with the men, she said, tremulously: + +"I am Major Atterbury's sister. My brother is unconscious. Can I attend +to the business you have with him?" + +Jones turned and stopped, glancing in surprise at the girl. + +"I'm sorry to learn that your brother's so low. But you can do all that +I hoped from him. Here is a letter addressed to John Sprague. It was +received at his regiment three days ago. I happened to be there making +inquiries for him, and the colonel handed it to me. Under the +circumstances I felt justified in reading it, and it turns out that I +did well." + +"John Sprague is missing?" Rosa cried, her mind instantly at work in +alarm for some one else. + +Jones, dismissing the orderly, told her the facts as we have already +followed them. Leaving out all mention of Kate, he told her how he had +hurried down to Newport News, and thence to the outposts on the Warrick. + +There he had learned that Jack and Dick had been wounded, fatally the +story went, in the final volley fired by the pursuers. They had been +carried to the hospital at Hampton. But there all trace had been lost. +The steward who received them and the surgeon who had taken their +descriptive list had been transferred to St. Louis. There was, however, +no record of their deaths, and upon that he based the hope that they +were either in hospital, or had been, through some strange confusion, +assigned among rebel wounded, a thing that had frequently happened in +the hurry of transporting large numbers of wounded men. + +"And does Mrs. Sprague know all this?" Rosa cried, understanding now why +Vincent's letter and her own had not brought a response. + +"Partly, I think. Mrs. Sprague and her daughter are in Washington, in +the state of mind you may imagine, and exhausting bales of red tape to +reach the lost boys." + +Poor Rosa! She had thought her grief and terror too much to endure +before. Now how trivial Vincent's fever in comparison with this +appalling disappearance of Dick and Jack! She walked on over the sparse +herbage, over her shoes in the soft sand, when Linda came running from +the tent in joyous excitement. + +"De good Lord, Miss Rosa, she's here; she's done come!" + +"Who is here--who is come?" Rosa cried, impatiently; "not mamma?" + +"'Deed no, Miss Rosa; Miss Limpy." + +"What?" + +"Yes, indeedy; and, oh, bress de Lord, Massa Vint knows her, and is +talkin' like a sweet dove!" + +It was true. Miss "Limpy," blushing very red, was surprised by Rosa in a +very motherly attitude by the patient's cot. The two girls melted in a +delirious hug, mingled with spasmodic smacks of the lips and a soft, +gurgling _crescendo_ of exclamation, not very intelligible to Jones and +Linda, who discreetly remained near the door on the outside. + +Vincent's eyes were fixed on Olympia. For the first time in ten days +they shone with the light of reason. He smiled softly at the scene and +murmured lightly to himself. Warned not to tax the feeble powers of the +invalid, Rosa and Jones withdrew, leaving Olympia to recover from the +fatigues of her journey in the tent with Vincent. + +"Now, you're not to talk, you know," Olympia said, with matronly +decision, "I shall remain here to mesmerize you into repose. You know I +am a magnetic person. Be perfectly quiet, and keep your eyes off me. +They make me nervous." + +"I can only keep my eyes away on condition you put your hand in mine, +Then the magnetic current can have full play." + +"My impression is that you have not been ill at all. I believe you have +been shamming, to escape the harder lines of the prison. Very well, you +needn't answer. I'll take that shake of the head as denial and proof for +want of better. Now, I will give you the history of our doings since I +saw you at Fairfax Court-House in January. I got home safe. I found +mamma in painful excitement." + +He moved impatiently, and said, beseechingly: + +"But tell me how you got here so soon. How did you learn I was here? +Jack told you when he got my letter?" + +"O Vincent, that was what I was coming to! Jack has never been seen or +heard from since he escaped from your troops near the Warrick. I did not +know you had written. I got a letter from Rosa yesterday morning and +went at once to the War Department, where we have a good friend--" + +"I can't understand it. All these things are done with system in an army +like yours. Men can't disappear like this, leaving no record. I'll stake +my head there's foul play, if the boys can't be found. Have you made +inquiry in the company on duty where Jack and his companions got into +your lines?" + +She explained all the efforts that had been made--how Brodie had been +baffled, and how letters had been sent to the commanding officer at +Fort Monroe. + +"We had begun to think that Jack had been recaptured; but surely, if he +were, you would have known of it." + +"Of course I should." + +"Then that confines the search to our own lines. I can not make myself +believe that Jack is dead, though mamma has nearly made up her mind to +it. The mysterious part of the affair is, that we can not find one of +the men who escaped with Jack, though it was announced in the papers +weeks ago that a party of them had arrived at Fort Monroe." + +"And young 'Perley'?" + +"He, too, we can get no trace of." + +"Good heavens! I'm glad Rosa doesn't know that; she'd be in every camp +and hospital in the North until she had found her sweetheart." + +"That sounds something like a reflection on us--mamma and me." + +"Ah! never. What I mean is, that Rosa is such an impulsive, silly child, +she would do all sorts of imprudent things. How could you do such a +thing? Preposterous!" + +"Well, I began it yesterday morning. As I said, so soon as I read Rosa's +letter, I went to headquarters, where we have a good friend and gave my +word for your safe keeping. You are to be our prisoner; but if you +escape you will get us into trouble, for we are none too well considered +by the folks in power." + +"God forgive me, Olympia! escape is the last thing I think of now, when +I am near you. I was going to say I should never care to go back, but I +know you wouldn't think the better of me for that." + +"I don't know. Why should you go back? The South is sure to be beaten. +We are conquering territory every day, from the armies at Donelson to +the forts at New Orleans. We shall beat you in Virginia so soon as +General McClellan gives the word." + +"Even if that were the case, my duty and my honor would point to but one +course--to return to the natural course of exchange." + +"Honor? Vincent, it is a vague term under such circumstances--" + +"I could not love you, dear, so much, loved I not honor more. You know +you gave me that for a motto." + +"Poetic rubbish, Mr. Soldier; but I must leave you now. You will insist +on talking, and, as I shall be held responsible to your mother and Rosa, +I must be firm--not another syllable! Besides, the imprudence will keep +you here longer, and if you are to be carried away you must get well at +once. I can't leave mamma alone in Washington with such grief preying +upon her." + +He answered with a glance of pitying pleading. He looked so helpless--so +woe-begone--that she bent over near his face to smooth his disordered +bandages. When she withdrew she was blushing very prettily, and Vincent +was smiling in triumph. "On these terms," the smile seemed to say, "I +will be mute for an age." + +What an adroit ally war is to love! Here was the self-contained +Olympia--so confident of herself--fond and yielding as Rosa; when war +rushed in, infirmity came to the rescue of Vincent's despairing passion. + +Meanwhile, Jones began a systematic search among the prisoners for the +missing Caribees. Rosa joined with impatient ardor. There were three +thousand inmates of the improvised city, but no one resembling Jack or +Dick could be found. Linda, ministering to some of Vincent's comrades, +was piteously besought to ask her mistress's good offices for an orderly +in the small-pox ward. This was a tent far off from the main barracks on +the beach, attended only by a single surgeon and a corps of rather +indifferent nurses. Two of Vincent's men were in this lazar, shut off +from the world, for the soldier, reckless in battle, has a shuddering +horror of this loathsome disease. Rosa instantly resolved that she would +herself nurse the plague-smitten rebels. She had no fear of the disease, +the truth being that she had only the vaguest idea of what it was. With +great difficulty she obtained permission to visit the outcast colony. +She was forced to enter the noisome purlieu alone, even the maid's +devotion rebelling against the nameless horror small-pox has for +the African. + +Once within the long marquee, however, Rosa was relieved to find that +the casual spectacle was not different from that of the other seriously +sick-wards. A melancholy silence seemed to signalize the despair of the +twoscore patients, each occupying a cot screened from the rest by thin +canvas curtains. Double lines of sentries guarded each opening of the +marquee, so that no one could pass in or out without the rigidly _vised_ +order of the surgeon-in-chief. Braziers of charcoal burned at the foot +of each bed, while the atmosphere was heavy with a strong solution of +carbolic acid, then just beginning to be recognized as a sovereign +preventive of malarious vapors, and an antiseptic against the germs of +disease. Rosa inquired for the _proteges_ she was seeking. They were +pointed out, on one side of the tent, the steward accompanying her +to each cot. + +"All have the small-pox?" she inquired, shuddering, as she glanced at +the white screens, behind which an occasional plaintive groan could +be heard. + +"Oh, no! there are some here that have no more small-pox than I have." + +"Then why do you keep them here?" Rosa asked, indignantly. + +"Oh, red tape, miss. There's two men that were brought here three months +ago. They'd no more small-pox than you have, miss; but they were +assigned here, and I have given up trying to get them taken to the +convalescent camp. The truth, is the surgeon in charge is afraid to show +up here. The others make by the number they have in charge, for we are +allowed extra pay and an extra ration for every case on hand." + +"Why, this is infamous!" Rosa cried. "It is murder. Why don't you write +to the--the--head man?" + +"And get myself in the guard-house for my trouble? No, thank you, miss. +I wouldn't have spoken to you if it hadn't been for the sympathy you +showed coming in, and to sort o' show you that you are not running so +much danger as folks try to make you believe." + +Rosa had a basket on her arm filled with such comforting delicacies as +the surgeon had advised. She set about administering them to her +brother's orderly, when a feeble voice in a cot a few feet away fell +upon her ear. She started. Though almost a whisper, there was a strange +familiarity in the low tone. She turned to the steward-- + +"Who is in the third cot from here?" + +"Let me see. Oh, yes, number seven; that's a man named Paling." + +"And the next?" + +"Number eight; that's a man named Jake, or Jakes, I'm blessed if I am +certain. They've been out of their head since they come. They're the two +I spoke of who ain't no more small-pox than I have." + +"May I see them?" + +"Certainly. I'll see that they're in shape for inspection, and call +you." + +He disappeared behind the curtain and could be heard in a kindly, jovial +tone: + +"There, sonny, keep kivered; the lady is coming to bring you something +better than the doctor's gruel, so lie still." + +Beckoning to Rosa, he made way for her to enter the narrow aisle of +number seven, but he nearly fell over the man across the bed, when Rosa, +with a shriek, fell upon the body of number seven, crying: + +"O, my darling, my darling, I have found you!" + +It would have required the eyes of maternal love of Rosa's to recognize +our jaunty Dick in the emaciated, fleshless face that lay imbedded in +the disarray of the cot. Dick's blue eyes were sunken and dim, his lips +chalky and parched. He made no sign of recognition when Rosa drew back +with her arm under his head to scrutinize the disease-worn face. + +"Sometimes, miss, he is in his right mind--but he goes off again like +this. Is the other man his brother? They seem to understand each other +when they are at the worst. Once when we separated them they fought like +maniacs until we were forced to let them be near again." + +"Oh, yes--the other." Rosa started and hastened to the next cot. Yes, it +was Jack--or a piteous ghost of him. He was sleeping, and she +withdrew gently. + +"Please distribute the contents of the basket to the men I named. I will +be back presently." + +With this she darted out, running at the top of her speed, heedless even +of the peremptory challenge of the sentries, who thought her mad or +stricken with the plague, and made no attempt to molest her. She ran +straight to Jones's quarters. He was writing, and started in surprise as +she entered panting and breathless. + +"Ah! I have found them; I have found them!" She could say no more. Jones +helped her to a seat and held a glass of water to her lips. Then she +regained breath. + +"They are in the small-pox ward, but they haven't the disease. Ah! they +are there, they are there. Come at once and take them away. Ah! take +them away this minute." + +"By 'they' do you mean Perley and Sprague?" Jones asked, breathlessly. + +"Yes, ah, yes. Thank God! thank God! Ah! I could say prayers from now +until my dying day. But, oh, Mr. Jones, do, do hurry; because they may +die if we do not get them away from that dreadful pest-house." + +"It will take some time to get the order for the removal. Meanwhile, +they will need good nursing. If you hope to help them you must be calm; +you must keep well. Now go to your brother. It is just as well that Miss +Sprague went away this morning. Before she comes back, her brother will +be in a place she can visit with safety. You can not go back there. You +must remain patient now until I get them away from that +dangerous place." + +It was not until the next day that the red tape of the establishment was +so far cut as to warrant the surgeon in charge in making a personal +inspection of the two invalids. He at once, and in indignant +astonishment, pronounced the two untouched by the disease set against +their names in their papers of admission. Early in the afternoon they +were carried on a stretcher to a clean, fresh tent on the sandy beach, +where the laurel bushes almost ran into the water. Letters had been +dispatched to Olympia in forming her that Jack was found, and urging her +to come on at once. The next evening the three ladies arrived--Mrs. +Sprague, Olympia, and Kate. With them they brought a renowned physician +who had been uniformly successful in treating maladies of the sort the +lads were described as suffering. + +Days of painful anxiety followed. Once, all hope of Dick was abandoned, +and his aunts were telegraphed for. But, in the end, he opened his big +blue eyes, sane and convalescent. There was rapid mending after this, +you may be sure. Kate had, through Olympia's unobtrusive manoeuvring, +been forced to bear the burden of Jack's nursing, and, somehow, when +that impatient warrior mingled amorous pleadings with his early +consciousness, she forgot upon which side the burden of repentance and +forgiving lay. She listened with gentle serenity to his protestations, +checking him only by the threat to quit the place and return to +her father. + +During all this, Rosa was divided in her mind. She resented the +assiduity of Jones in the recovery of Dick. That reticent person had +installed himself in Dick's tent and never quitted the lad, day or +night, unless to relinquish him to Rosa's arbitrary hand. When, one day, +Pliny and Merry Perley entered the tent, Jones changed color. The two +ladies, not heeding the stranger, fell upon the convalescent on the cot, +and Jones slipped away. Thereafter Rosa had her invalid to herself, +Jones only reappearing at night, to keep the vigils of the dark. A month +later, the invalids were strong enough to be removed. An inquiry had +been set on foot to account for the presence of the two Union soldiers +among the rebel prisoners. The result was confusing, however. The facts +seemed to point out design in the original entry of the young men's +names at Hampton, where they had been taken when brought in by +the outposts. + +The dispersion of the rest of their companions from Richmond was +accounted for by furloughs granted them so soon as they reached the +provost-marshal's office. Just before leaving Point Lookout Jack +received a much-directed letter that gave signs of having been in every +mail-bag in the Army of the Potomac. It was from Barney Moore, bristling +with wonder and turgid with woful lamentation at Jack's coldness in not +writing him. He had been sent by mistake to Ship Island, near New +Orleans, to join his regiment, and had only at the writing of the letter +reached Washington, where the Caribees were expected every day to move +to the Peninsula in McClellan's new campaign. + +So soon as he was sufficiently recovered to write, Jack reported by +letter to the regiment. He had received no reply. The explanation was +awaiting him so soon as he reached Washington. While seated with his +mother in Willard's, a heavy knock came on the door. It was thrown open +before the maid could reach it. A provost corporal stood on the +threshold, a file of men behind him: + +"I have an order for the arrest of Sergeant John Sprague." + +"I am John Sprague. Of what am I accused?" + +"I have no orders to tell you. My orders are to deliver you at the +provost prison. You will hear the charges there." + +"But I am still under the doctor's charge. I am on the hospital list." + +"I don't know what condition you are in. My orders are to arrest you, +and you know I have no option. All can be remedied at the +provost's office." + +"I will go with you, my son," Mrs. Sprague said, trying to look +untroubled. "It is some error which can be explained." + +"No, mamma, you can't come. Send word to the counsel you engaged in the +search. I fancy it is some mistake; but I wish it hadn't occurred just +now. I wouldn't write Olympia about it." Olympia had gone on to Acredale +with Kate, to set the house in order for a season of festivity. Jack, +Vincent, Dick, and the rest, were to join them so soon as the invalid +had taken rest in Washington. + +The guard indulged Jack in a carriage to headquarters. Here he was +handed over to a lieutenant in charge, and conducted to a prison-like +apartment in the rear. + +"What is the charge against me?" Jack asked, as the officer touched a +bell. + +"I am not acquainted with the papers in your case. My instructions are +to hold you until called for.--Sergeant," he added, as a soldier in +uniform entered, "the prisoner is to be confined in close quarters, and +is not to be lost sight of night or day." + +The soldier saluted and motioned Jack to follow him, two other soldiers +closing in behind him as he set out. At the end of a short hallway the +sergeant stopped, took a key from a bunch at his belt, unlocked a +heavily-barred door and motioned Jack to enter. It was useless to +protest, useless to parley. He knew military procedure too well to think +of it, but his heart swelled with bitter rage. This was the reward of an +almost idolatrous patriotism--this was the _patrie's_ way of cherishing +her defenders. He flung himself on the cot in a wild passion of tears +and rebellious scorn. But his humiliation was not yet ended; while he +sat with his face covered by his bands, he felt hands upon his legs, and +the sharp click of a lock. He moved his left leg. Great God! it was +chained to an enormous iron bolt. He started to rise; the sharp links of +the chain cut his ankle as the great ball rolled away from him. With a +cry of madness he flung himself on the harsh pine pallet, groaning his +heart out in bitter anguish and maledictions. In time food was brought +him, but he sat supine, staring ghastly at the dull-eyed orderly, +silent, unquestioning. Dim banners of light fell across the corridor. +They were broken at regular intervals by the passing figure of a sentry. +The night wore on. There was a lull in the monotonous tramp. Steps came +toward Jack's cell--stopped; the key grated in the lock; some one +touched him on the shoulder. He never stirred. + +"Cheer up, Sprague; it's all a mistake." It was the voice of the lawyer. + +At this Jack started, his eyes gleaming wildly. "Ah, I thought so. I +knew I could never have been disgraced like this in earnest. They have +discovered the wrong done me?" + +"No, no; not exactly that, Jack, but we shall show them the mistake, I +make no doubt." + +"Why am I dishonored? Of what am I accused? Why am I here?" Jack cried, +shivering under the revulsion from despair to hope, and from hope back +to horror. + +"You are dishonored, my poor young friend, because a court-martial has +found you guilty of murder, desertion, and treason against the articles +of war, and you are here because you are sentenced to be shot one week +from Friday, in the center of a hollow square, seated on your +own coffin." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +FATHER ABRAHAM'S JOKE. + + +In her own mind, as the train rolled toward Acredale from Washington, +Kate was enjoying in anticipation the victory she had to announce to her +father. He had written her regularly from Warchester, where he was +engaged in an important suit. She had written more frequently than he, +but she had made no allusion to the happy ending of her troubles. It was +partly dread that the knowledge of Jack's restoration might bring on +more active hostility, as well as a whimsical feminine caprice to spring +the great event upon him when all danger was over. She watched Dick and +Rosa in the seat near her, for they, too, were of the advance guard to +Acredale, where, when Olympia had arranged the house, Vincent and Jack +were to come for final restoration to health. When the party arrived at +the little Acredale Station there was a great crowd gathered. + +A company of the Caribees was just setting out for the front. Some of +the old members recognized Dick, and then straightway went up a cheer +that brought all the corner loiterers to the spot to learn the goings +on. It was in consequence rather a triumphal procession that followed +the carriage to the Sprague gateway, and even followed up the sanded +road to the broad piazza. Rosa remained with Olympia, while Kate carried +Dick off to commit him to the aunts waiting on the porch to welcome the +prodigal. Kate had telegraphed her coming, and her father was at the +door to meet her. He was plainly relieved and delighted to have her with +him again, for he held her long and close in his arms. "Then all's +forgiven; we're friends again," she said, laughing and crying together. + +"There is nothing to forgive. It may be a matter of regret that you are +a Boone in blood rather than an Ovid, and that you imitate the Boones in +obstinacy. But justice has been done, and there's no need to quarrel +about strangers." + +She didn't understand in the least what he meant about justice being +done. Remembering that all was well, she smiled as they entered the +library, and when she had removed her wraps, said, in repressed triumph: +"You need never attempt the role of Shylock again. I play Portia better +than you play the Jew. You have lost your pound of flesh." + +"Well, be magnanimous. Don't abuse your victory. I shouldn't, in your +place; but women are never merciful to the fallen." + +"I am to you. For, see, I kiss you as gayly as when I believed you all +heart and goodness." + +"Now you believe me no heart and badness?" + +"I didn't say that, I say you are given over to sinful hates, and I must +correct you." + +"Well, I'm willing now to be corrected." + +"But the correction will be a severe one; you must prepare for a very +grievous penance." + +"Knowing you, I can foresee that you won't spare the rod. Very well, +I'll try to get used to it." + +At this moment a servant came to the door. + +"A note for Miss Kate," she said. Kate tore it open and read: + +"Come to me at once. I have frightful news from +Washington. As it concerns Jack you ought to know it. + +"OLYMPIA." + +She read the lines twice before she could seize the meaning. Frightful +news concerning Jack! Had he suffered a relapse? Had he been +accidentally hurt? No; if it had been news of that sort, Olympia would +have come herself. A gleam of prescience shot through her brain. The +court--the charges against Jack! That was it. That was the secret of her +father's equanimity under her raillery. She turned with a rush into the +library. The bad blood of the Boones was all up in her soul now. She +walked straight at, not to her father, and, holding Olympia's note +before him, said in bitter scorn: + +"Tell me what this means. I know that you know." + +He took the paper with leisurely unconcern, affecting not to remark +Kate's flashing wrath; he read the lines, handed the paper back, or held +it toward Kate, who put her hands behind her. + +"Since it concerns you, my child, suppose you go over and ask Miss +Sprague. How should I know the affairs of such superior people?" + +"Could nothing soften you?--humanize you, I was going to say. Could +nothing satisfy you but the death of this injured family?--for this blow +will kill them. Kill them? Why should they care to live when that noble +fellow has been dishonored by your cruel acts? Ah, I know what you have +done! You have brought the court to disgrace Jack--to make him appear a +deserter. You it was who, in some mysterious way, caused him to be +abducted into the small-pox ward among the rebel prisoners. But it shall +all be made known. I shall myself go on the stand and testify to your +handiwork. Yes, I am a Boone in this. I will follow the lesson you have +set me. I will avenge the innocent and save him by exposing the guilty." + +"On second thought, daughter, you are not in a frame of mind to see +strangers to-night. You will remain home this evening. To-morrow you can +see your friend and advise her in her sorrow, whatever it is." He went +to the door and called the servant. "Go to Miss Sprague with my +compliments, and tell her my daughter is not able to leave the house +this evening." As the man closed the outer door, Kate made a step +forward, crying: + +"You never mean to say that I am a prisoner in my own father's house?" + +"Certainly not. We're not play-actors. I think it best that you should +not go to the neighbors to-night, and you, as a dutiful daughter, obey +without murmur, because I have always been an indulgent parent and +gratified every whim of yours, even to letting you consort with my +bitterest enemies for months." As he spoke, there was a ring at the +doorbell. Presently the servant entered the room and announced "Mr. +Jones." Before Boone could direct him to be shown into another room +Jones entered the library, fairly pushing the astonished menial aside. +Boone held up his hand with a warning gesture, and nodded toward Kate; +but, without halting, Jones advanced to Boone's chair, and, seizing him +by the shoulder, held up a copy of the afternoon paper. + +"Read that? What does it mean?" + +Boone's eyes rested a moment on the paragraphs pointed out. Then, +throwing the paper aside, he asked, coldly: + +"Why should you ask me what it means? If you are interested in the +affair, you might find out by writing to the court." + +At this, Jones, looking around the room, marked the two doors, one +leading to the hall, the other to the drawing-room. He deliberately went +to each, and, locking it, slipped the key in his pocket. He glanced +reassuringly at Kate, as she sat dumfounded waiting the issue of this +singular scene. He confronted Boone, leaning against the mantel. + +"It's just as well that we have a witness to this final settlement, +Elisha Boone.--Twenty years ago, Miss Boone, I was a citizen of this +town. I was the owner of these acres. I am Richard Perley. In those days +I was a wild fellow--I thought then, a wicked one; but I have learned +since that I was not, for folly is not crime. In those days--I was +barely twenty-five--your father had a hard ground to till in his way of +life. I became his patron, and from that I became his slave. I never +exactly knew how it came about, but within a few years most of my +property was mortgaged to Elisha Boone. I won't accuse him, as the world +does, of inciting me to drink and gambling. God knows he has enough to +answer for without that! In the end I was driven to a deed that +imperiled my liberty, and Elisha Boone put the temptation and the means +to do it within my reach. Detection followed, and the detection came +about through Elisha Boone. All my property in his hands, my name a +scorn, and my person subject to the law, Elisha Boone had no further +fear of me, and thenceforth doled me out an income sufficient to supply +my modest wants. I strove to turn the new leaf that recommends itself to +men who have exhausted the so-called pleasures of life. I was living in +honesty and seclusion in Richmond, when Boone, who had never lost sight +of me, came with a mission for me to perform. I was engaged as an agent +of the detective force of the United States, with the special duty of +rescuing Wesley Boone from captivity. + +"I was further commissioned to get evidence against John Sprague, fixing +upon him the crime of betraying his colors and aiding the Confederacy. +In the attempt to rescue Captain Boone at Bosedale circumstances pointed +to the guilt of young Sprague, but that was all dissipated a few weeks +after, when, at the peril of his own life, not once, but a score of +times, he rashly liberated a score or two of prisoners, and personally +led them through an entire rebel army to the Union lines. I, who would +have been abandoned by a less noble nature, for I was weakened by +captivity and bad fare, broke down, but Sprague and--and--young Dick--my +son, clung to me with such devotion as few sons would exhibit under such +trials, and brought me safe to the outposts. Here, by some mysterious +means, we were all dispersed. When I found my senses I was under Elisha +Boone's Samaritan care in the house where you saw me at first. The two +boys, Sprague and Perley, spirited away from the hospital at Hampton, +where they had been entered under assumed names, Jacques and Paling, +were by some curious instrumentality hidden in the small-pox ward of the +rebel prison at Point Lookout. While they lay there, and while some one +in Washington knew that they were there, a court martial in that city +hurriedly convened, found John Sprague guilty of murder, desertion, and +treason, and the evening dispatches from Washington state that John +Sprague is to be shot a week from Friday in a hollow square, in which a +company of the Caribees is to do the shooting. + +"Miss Boone, you worked faithfully to rescue the life of this young man, +but your father has brought that work to ruin. Worse, the death you +dreaded when you gave heart and soul to the rescue of the lost was a +mercy compared to that in store for him. He is to be shot by a file of +his own company, seated upon a rough board coffin, ready to receive his +mangled remains. You will--" + +But Kate, at this hideous detail, fell with a low, wailing cry to the +floor, happily dead to the woful consciousness of the scene and its +meaning. Jones ran to the door, and, unlocking it, shouted for the +servants. When they came, she was carried to her room and the physician +summoned. Almost at the same time Olympia, in her traveling-dress, drove +up. She was informed by the servants of Kate's state, and, without +stopping to ask permission, ran up to the sick-room. Kate was now +conscious, but at sight of Olympia she covered her face, shuddering. + +"Ah, Kate! Kate! what is it? Have you learned the dreadful news? I am +going to take the train back this evening." + +"I, too, will go with you. Stay with me; don't leave me!" + +She stopped, put out her hand, as if to make sure of Olympia, then broke +into low but convulsive sobs. Her father, with the doctor, entered the +room; but at the sight Kate turned her head to the wall, crying, +piteously: + +"No, no--not here, not here! I can't see him now! Oh, spare me! I--I--" + +"Do your duty, doctor," Boone said, in a quick, gasping tone, and with +an uncertain step quit the chamber. Olympia explained to the physician +that Kate had heard painful news from an unexpected quarter, and that +her illness was more nervous than physical. + +"I don't know about that," the doctor said, decisively. He felt her +pulse, then with a quick start of surprise raised her head and examined +the tongue and lining of the palate. A still graver look settled on his +face as he tested the breath and action of the heart. When he had +apparently satisfied himself he turned to Olympia with a perturbed air, +and, beckoning her into the dressing-room, said: + +"Miss Sprague, this is no place for you. Miss Boone has every symptom of +typhoid fever. She has evidently been exposed to a malarial air. Her +complaint may be even worse than typhoid--I can't quite make out certain +whitish blotches on her skin. I should suspect small-pox or varioloid, +but that there has not been a case reported here for years. Where has +she been of late?" + +Olympia turned ghastly white with horror. + +"O doctor, she has been nursing Jack, who was for weeks in the small-pox +ward at Point Lookout!" + +"Good God! Fly, fly the house at once! I wondered if I could be deceived +in the symptoms. I must insist on your leaving at once." + +"But the poor girl must have some one of her own sex with her. Whom can +she get if not a friend?" + +"She can get a professional nurse, and that is worth a dozen friends. +Indeed, friends will be only a drawback for the next ten days." + +He took her gently by the shoulders and pushed her out of the room. He +was an old friend of the family, and she was accustomed to his +tyrannical ways. He held her sternly under way until the front door +closed and shut her out. Then, turning into the library, he saw that the +host was alone. Closing the door, he said: + +"Mr. Boone, your daughter has been exposed to a great danger. We may be +able to save her, but it will require great patience." + +"Danger, doctor! What do you mean?" + +"Your daughter has caught the most hideous of all diseases--small-pox!" + +Elisha Boone started to his feet. "Great God! where could she catch +small-pox?" + +"She caught it nursing young Sprague. I thought you knew of that;" and +the doctor regarded the incredulous, terror-stricken face of the father +with bewildered fixity. Well he might. The first rod of the moral law +had just struck him. The vengeance he had so subtly planned had turned +into retributive justice. He had refused Kate's prayer; he had driven +her to this mad search and the contagion now periling her life, or, if +it were spared, leaving her a hideous specter of herself. This passed +through his shattered mind as the doctor stood regarding him. + +"What do you propose doing?" he finally asked, to get his thoughts from +the torturing grip of conscience. + +"I propose to install two trained nurses in the house. You are not to +let a soul know what your daughter is suffering from. I hope to be able +to check the evil in the blood, but I must be secure against any form of +meddling. You must avoid your daughter's chamber--indeed, it would be +better if you could quit Acredale for a few days. You would be less +embarrassed by intrusive neighbors and keep your conscience clear of +evasions." + +So it was settled that Boone should take up his quarters in Warchester, +coming out late every night for news. + +Meanwhile, Acredale had read with amazement, first, of the finding of +Jack Sprague among the rebels at Point Lookout, then, the extraordinary +story of the court-martial and death-sentence. Every one called at the +Sprague mansion, but it was in the hands of the servants, Olympia and +her guest having returned to Washington so soon as the story of her +brother's peril reached her. Dick, too, had flown to his adored Jack, +and Acredale, confounded by the swift alternations in the young +soldier's fortunes, settled down to wait the outcome with a tender +sorrow for the bright young life eclipsed in disgrace so awful, death so +ignominious. + +We have looked on while most of the people in this history worked +through night to light in the moral perplexities besetting them. We have +seen warriors in love and danger gallantly extricating themselves and +plucking the bloom of safety from the dragon path of danger. We have +seen a moral combat in the minds of most of the people who have had to +do with our luckless Jack. But all herein set down has been the merest +November melancholy compared to the charnel-house of dead hopes and +baffled purposes that tortured Elisha Boone. Unlovely as Boone has +seemed to us, he had one of the prime conditions of human goodness--he +loved. He had loved very fondly his son Wesley. He loved very tenderly +his daughter Kate. + +With this love came the sanctification that must abide where love is. I +don't think he had much of what may be called the second condition of +human goodness--reverence. If he had, we should never have seen him push +revenge to the verge of crime. Richard Perley, it is true, accuses him +of a turpitude that makes a man shudder and abhor; but allowances must +be made for the exaggeration of a careless spendthrift--a "good fellow," +than whom I can conceive of nothing so useless and mischievous in the +human economy. For my part, I think I could endure the frank +heartlessness of a man like Boone more philosophically than the false +good-nature of the creature men call a good fellow. + +Obviously, Boone did not take Dick Perley's estimate of him very +seriously. He, too, could have told a tale not without its strong +features of a shiftless set, constantly borrowing, constantly +squandering, constantly provoking the thrifty to accumulate unguarded +properties. All this, however, had faded from the old man's mind now. He +had avenged himself upon the life-long scorners of his name and fame; +but the blow that shattered their pride had sent a dart to his own +heart. His beautiful Kate, his big-hearted, high-spirited, man-witted +girl!--she would bear a leper-taint for life, and his hand had put the +virus on her perfect flesh! + +In a few days the black in his hair withered to an ashen white. His +flesh fell away. He could neither eat nor sleep. He shambled through the +obscure streets of Warchester, or lingered wistfully in the beech woods +behind his own palatial home in Acredale, staring at the window of his +daughter's chamber. The week passed in such mental torture as tries the +strong when confronted by the major force of conscience. Then the doctor +told him that he had balked the plague; that Kate was recovering from +varioloid; that beyond a transparency of skin, which would add to her +beauty rather than impair it, there would be no sign of the attack. + +Elisha Boone slept in his own home that night, and, for the first time +in forty years, he fell upon his knees--upon his knees! Indeed, the +doctor found him so at midnight, when he came with a request from his +daughter to come to her room. The doctor, with a word of warning against +agitating the sufferer, wisely retired from the solemn reconciliation +which, without knowing the circumstances, he knew was to take place +between father and child. She was propped up upon pillows whose texture +her flesh rivaled in whiteness. She opened her arms as the specter of +what had been her father flew to her with a stifled cry. + +"O father, we have both been wicked! we have both been punished! Help me +to do my part; help me to bear my burden." + +It was hope, mercy, and peace the meeting brought. The next day Elisha +Boone bade Kate a tender farewell. She did not ask him where he was +going. She knew, and the light in her eye shone brighter as he rode in +the darkness over the bare fields and through the sleeping towns to the +capital, where Jack's fate was hanging in the balance. With Boone's +influence to aid them, Jack's friends found a surprising change in the +demeanor of the officials, hitherto captious and indifferent. Boone +himself laid the case before the President, omitting certain details not +essential to the showing of the monstrous injustice done a brave +soldier. The President listened attentively, and with the expression, +half sad and half droll, with which he softened the asperities of +official life, said, humorously: + +"I wish by such simple means as courts-martial we could find out more +such soldiers as this; we need all of that sort we can get." He touched +a bell, and, when a clerk appeared in response, he said, "Ask General +McClellan to come in for a moment before he leaves." + +What need to go into the details? The court reconvened, and traversed +the charges, which were disproved or withdrawn. John Sprague was +pronounced guiltless on every specification, and, on General McClellan's +recommendation, was promoted to a captaincy and assigned to the +headquarters staff. I might go on and tell of Jack's daring on the +Peninsula and his immeasurable usefulness to McClellan in the +Williamsburg contest and the final wondrous change of base from the +Chickahominy to the James; how his services were recognized by promotion +to a colonelcy on the battle-field of Malvern; and how, when McClellan +was wronged by Stanton, and removed from the army, Jack broke his sword +and swore that he would never serve again. But, thinking better of it, +he applied for a place in Hancock's corps, and was by his side from +Fredericksburg to Gettysburg. You have seen from the very first what was +going to happen. The marriages all took place, just as you have guessed +from the beginning. Young Dick was too impatient and too skeptical to +wait until the end of the war, and, to the amazement of his aunts and +the amusement of Acredale, he carried Rosa off, one day, and was +secretly married in the rector's study at Warchester, so that his first +son was born under the Stars and Bars in Richmond, while Dick was +beleaguering the walls at Fort Walthall, four miles away. The other +young people waited rationally until a month or two after the peace, and +while they were still entitled to wear the blue, and then they were +wedded. It was said that Kate made the most beautiful bride ever seen in +Warchester, for it was there they were married. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Iron Game, by Henry Francis Keenan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRON GAME *** + +***** This file should be named 10062.txt or 10062.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/6/10062/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Virginia Paque +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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