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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tory Maid, by Herbert Baird Stimpson
+
+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 Tory Maid
+
+Author: Herbert Baird Stimpson
+
+Release Date: February 26, 2007 [EBook #20678]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TORY MAID ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Diane Monico, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+The
+Tory Maid
+
+By
+HERBERT BAIRD
+STIMPSON
+
+
+New York
+Dodd, Mead and Company
+
+[Illustration: (decorative borders)]
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1898, by H. B. STIMPSON.
+
+
+
+
+_To
+Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Hall Harrison
+this volume
+is affectionately inscribed by
+the Author_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                             PAGE
+
+I. WE START FOR THE WAR                1
+
+II. WE MEET THE MAID                  10
+
+III. A FLASH OF STEEL                 24
+
+IV. THE RED COCKADE                   34
+
+V. SIR SQUIRE OF TORY DAMES           44
+
+VI. A TALE IS TOLD                    55
+
+VII. THE DEFIANCE OF THE TORY         68
+
+VIII. THE BLACK COCKADE               77
+
+IX. THE RED TIDE OF BLOOD             89
+
+X. THE HARRYING OF THE TORY          107
+
+XI. THE COUNCIL OF SAFETY            118
+
+XII. THE VETO OF A MAID              132
+
+XIII. THE GREETING OF FAIR LIPS      146
+
+XIV. THE RETURN OF THE TORY          156
+
+XV. THE FLAG OF TRUCE                166
+
+XVI. THE BALL OF MY LORD HOWE        176
+
+XVII. AN EXCHANGE OF COURTESIES      187
+
+XVIII. THE CROSSING OF SWORDS        196
+
+XIX. THE SANDS OF MONMOUTH           206
+
+XX. IN THE LINES OF THE ENEMY        222
+
+XXI. THE PASSING OF YEARS            230
+
+XXII. THE COMING OF THE MAID         238
+
+
+
+
+The Tory Maid
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+WE START FOR THE WAR
+
+
+I, James Frisby of Fairlee, in the county of Kent, on the eastern
+shore of what was known in my youth as the fair Province of Maryland,
+but now the proud State of that name, growing old in years, but hearty
+and hale withal, though the blood courses not through my veins as in
+the days of my youth, sit on the great porch of Fairlee watching the
+sails on the distant bay, where its gleaming waters meet the mouth of
+the creek that runs at the foot of Fairlee. A julep there is on the
+table beside me, flavoured with mint gathered by the hands of John
+Cotton early in the morning, while the dew was still upon it, from the
+finest bank in all Kent County.
+
+So with these old friends around me, with the julep on my right hand
+and the paper before me, I sit on the great porch of Fairlee to write
+of the wild days of my youth, when I first drew my sword in the Great
+Cause. To write, before my hand becomes feeble and my eyes grow dim,
+of the strange things that I saw and the adventures that befell me, of
+the old Tory of the Braes, of the fair maid his daughter, and of the
+part they played in my life during the War of the Deliverance. To
+write so that those who come after me, as well as those who are
+growing up around my knees, may know the part their grandfather played
+in the stirring times that proclaimed the birth of a mighty nation.
+
+The first year of the great struggle, ah, me! I was young then, and
+the wild blood was in my veins. I was broad of shoulder and long of
+limb, with a hand that gripped like steel and a seat in the saddle
+that was the envy of all that hard-riding country. I was hardy and
+skilled in all the outdoor sports and pastimes of my race and people,
+and being light in the saddle I often led the hardest riders and won
+from them the brush, while every creek for fifty miles up and down the
+broad Chesapeake, and even the farther shore as far as Baltimore, knew
+my canoe, and the High Sheriff himself was no finer shot than I.
+
+You, who bask in the sunshine of long and dreary years of peace, who
+never hear the note of the bugle nor see the flash of the foeman's
+steel from one year's end to another, know not what it was to live in
+those stirring times and all the joy of the strife. You should have
+seen us then, when the whole land was aflame.
+
+The fiery signal had come like a rush of the wind from the north, with
+the cry of the dying on the roadsides and fields of Lexington.
+
+All along the western shore the men of Anne Arundel, of Frederick, and
+Prince George were mustering fast and strong. Then the Kentish men and
+those of Queen Anne and all the lower shore were mounting fast and
+mustering, while from the Howard hills came riding down bold and hardy
+yeomen.
+
+Then, and as it has always been in the old province of Maryland, the
+gentlemen led the people, and everywhere the spirit of fire ran like
+molten steel through the veins of the gathering hosts, and the people
+took up the gauntlet of war with a laugh and a cheer and shook their
+clenched hands at the King who was over the sea; so it was the length
+and breadth of the province, and so it was with me.
+
+And so one day the signal came, and I mounted my black colt Toby and
+rode away to the Head of Elk in the county of Cecil, where the
+mustering was, to take my place, as it was my duty and right to do,
+side by side with the bravest gentlemen of the province in the coming
+struggle for the Great Cause.
+
+I was eighteen in the month of March of that year and considered
+myself a man, and, having reached man's estate, I bade good-bye to my
+mother and rode from out the sheltering walls and groves of Fairlee.
+
+But just before I rode within the shadow of the great woods I turned
+in my saddle and waved my hand to the small, quaint figure that stood
+on the broad porch watching me disappear; and she bravely--for the
+women were brave in those days--waved her hand in return, and then I
+rode on, for the moment saddened at the parting, for the die that day
+would be cast, and, though there would be mustering and drilling for
+many weeks before we took up our march to the northward, the hand of
+the cause would claim me as its own.
+
+I was riding thus through the forest when I heard hoof-beats behind me
+and a cheery halloo, and who should ride up but Dick Ringgold of
+Hunting Field, a lad of my own age and my true friend?
+
+"Why such a long face?" he laughed. "You look as if you were going to
+a funeral and not to a hunt that will beat all the runs to the hounds
+in the world. We are going to hunt redcoats and fair ladies' smiles
+and not foxes now; so cheer up, man."
+
+"Plague on it, Dick, you are ten miles from home and I am only one," I
+retorted. "You ought to have seen how bravely her ladyship tried to
+smile, too."
+
+"We will increase the number of miles then," said he, and reaching
+over he struck Toby across the flank. Well, Toby needs the curb at
+best, and it was a full half-mile before I brought him up and had a
+chance to give Dick a rating.
+
+But Dick only laughed.
+
+And so we rode on, across the low-lying plains of Kent, northward
+toward the borders of Cecil.
+
+For miles we would ride under the shadow of the dense forest, and then
+we would come to the wide-reaching fields of some great manor or
+plantation, the manor house itself generally crowning some gently
+rising knoll amid a grove of trees, with a view of the distant bay,
+or creek, or river, as the case might be; the cluster of houses, the
+quarters for the slaves, the stables and the barns, making little
+villages and hamlets amid the wide expanse of farm lands and the
+distant circle of the dark green forests.
+
+Then, again, a creek or river would bar our course, and we would have
+to ride for miles until we turned its head, or found a ferry or a
+ford, and so overcome its opposition. So on we rode until, as the day
+waxed near the noon hour, we came to the little hamlet of Georgetown,
+nestling amid the hills on the banks of the Sassafras. Crossing the
+river at the ferry, we began the last stage of our journey.
+
+The trail now skirted the broad lands of Bohemia Manor, and crossed
+the beautiful river of that name, embedded between the hills and
+wide-stretching farm lands.
+
+As we approached the banks of the Elk the country grew more rolling
+and wilder--in our front the Iron Hills rose up before us, crowned
+with forests, in sharp contrast to the low-lying country through which
+we had been passing.
+
+And now, as our appetites became pressing, we urged our horses on, for
+we had still many miles to travel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+WE MEET THE MAID
+
+
+We had just come in sight of the blue waters of the Elk, as it rolled
+between the forest-clad hills on either side, basking here for a
+moment in the sunshine, then lost in the deeper shadows of the
+overhanging forest.
+
+"There rolls the Elk," cried Dick. "Only ten miles more, and a stroke
+upon a piece of paper, and then, my boy, you are done for. A pain that
+eats its way ever inward, a thirst that never slackens, and over all
+the black night lowering down. Aye, so it is, Sir Monk of the Long
+Face; but we will have some fun before we are put under the sod or our
+bones are left to whiten on the sands."
+
+"That we will, Sir Richard. And now we are in for it, for here comes
+our first adventure. Is she ugly or is she fair? Which, Sir Richard?"
+
+For, as we reached the point where our road joins the river road, we
+saw, approaching along the lower road, a gentleman riding on a
+powerful horse, while behind him on a pillion sat a slight girlish
+figure, hidden in part by the broad shoulders of the rider.
+
+"By Jove, it is Gordon of the Braes," said Dick.
+
+"What, the suspected Tory?"
+
+"Yes; and that must be his daughter. They say she is the fairest lass
+in all the county of Cecil."
+
+"Tory or no Tory," said I, "with a fair face at stake, I will speak to
+him."
+
+They were as yet some distance off, but as the rider drew nearer to us
+we saw that he was a splendid specimen of manhood, such as I had but
+seldom seen before.
+
+While strong of frame and above the medium height, he carried himself
+and rode with a courtliness and ease that bespoke the accomplished
+horseman and gentleman. His splendid head and face showed the marks of
+an adventurous career, and all bespoke the blood of the family from
+which he had sprung, the Gordons of Avochie.
+
+But striking as was the figure of the rider, the glimpse we caught of
+the fair burden behind made us for the moment forget him.
+
+A slender figure it was that sat upon the pillion, with wonderful eyes
+of the darkest blue and hair of the deepest brown that waved and
+clustered around the temples--a mouth that was winsome and sweet, a
+small and aristocratic nose, a chin that was slightly determined,
+giving her altogether a queenly air, as she sat so straight and prim
+behind her father.
+
+"Sir," said I, making Toby advance and bowing to his mane, "as we are
+travelling the same way, will you permit us to accompany you? My
+friend is Richard Ringgold of Hunting Field and I am James Frisby of
+Fairlee."
+
+"It will give me pleasure," he replied, saluting courteously, "to have
+your company to the Head of Elk. I know your families and your houses
+well, and you, no doubt, have heard of me, Charles Gordon of the
+Braes."
+
+"That we have," said Dick Ringgold. "It was only a week ago that my
+mother spoke of your first coming to old Kent."
+
+"It was kind of her to remember me," he replied. "She was a great
+belle and a beauty in her youth."
+
+Dick smiled with pleasure, and I, taking advantage of a narrow place
+in the road, fell behind, and rode so I could talk to Mistress Jean,
+much to Master Richard's secret indignation. But she received me with
+a show of displeasure, and though I courteously asked her of her
+journey, it was some minutes before I knew the cause thereof.
+
+"Are you not," said she, and her aristocratic little head was in the
+air, "afraid to be seen riding with suspected Tories, you who wear the
+black cockade?"
+
+And then I remembered that I wore the emblem of our party.
+
+"Afraid!" I replied. "Afraid! We who have bearded the Ministers of the
+Crown in the broad light of day? Do you think I am afraid of our own
+men? Why, if Mistress North herself were half as fair as your ladyship
+of the Braes, I would ride with her through all the armies of the
+patriots, and no man would dare say me nay."
+
+A merry twinkle came into her eyes. "Would you wear the red cockade if
+she should ask you?"
+
+"Ah, Mistress Jean, would you seduce me from my allegiance to the
+cause of the patriots?"
+
+"To the cause of the patriots? What of your allegiance to the King?"
+
+"But the King himself has broken that, and forced us in self-defence
+to take up arms in revolt. Would you have me true to my people, or to
+the King, who is over the sea?"
+
+"To the King," she answered promptly, "for the King's Ministers may be
+bad men to-day and good to-morrow, but if you once strike a blow at
+the mother country and win, then the ties of love, of friendship, and
+of interest are severed for ever."
+
+"Yes; but she should have thought of that before she forced us to it."
+
+"What spoiled children you are," she cried. "Because the taffy is not
+as good as usual you want to pull the house down about our ears."
+
+Thus receiving and parrying thrusts, we rode along the banks of the
+Elk, and as we neared the ferry we met numbers of men travelling the
+same way with us, all bound for the great mustering, and though they
+returned our salutations, seeing the black cockade in our hats, they
+scowled on Gordon of the Braes.
+
+"There goes that dog of a Tory," I would hear them growl to one
+another as we passed.
+
+But Gordon rode on with a cool, indifferent, almost contemptuous
+manner, which made the frowns grow blacker, and the mutterings deeper
+and louder. But no man as yet sought to beard him, for his courage and
+his daring were well known throughout the shore, and it would have
+taken a bold man indeed to cross Gordon of the Braes.
+
+At last we came to the ferry and saw on the hillside, among the forest
+trees, the white tents, already taking on the appearance of a
+well-regulated camp. The little town amid the trees, busy with the
+life of the moving crowd, and bright with the uniforms of the Maryland
+Line, which we were soon to don, formed a curious spectacle as we
+entered.
+
+Every part of the province was represented. Here was a tall
+backwoodsman in his coonskin cap, buckskin shirt and leggings, with
+his long and deadly rifle, totally unadorned by the glint of silver or
+chasing on the barrel to betray him to his redskin neighbour--and you
+knew that one of Cresap's riflemen was before you.
+
+By his side, for the moment, was a young tobacco planter from Prince
+George. The youngster to whom he was talking, clad in the scarlet and
+buff of the Maryland Line, was a young dandy from Annapolis.
+
+And so it was all through the crowd, the frontiersman, the hard-riding
+country squire, and the city swell, all mingled together, and all
+animated with one all-pervading and all-engrossing thought--how best
+to secure the freedom of the country and resist the tyranny of the
+King.
+
+As we made our way through the crowd the faces grew dark as they saw
+the Tory, but as Dick and I rode on either hand, with our black
+cockades, the crowd murmuringly gave way before us, and though all the
+people were hostile to him, and he could not help but see it, he
+coolly looked them over and rode as if he had no enemy within a
+hundred miles.
+
+But the colour in Mistress Jean's cheek flamed high, and I saw her
+little hands clenched together, as if she would like to tell these
+rebels what she thought of their treatment of her father. And I,
+seeing the war signal so clearly on her cheek, and daring not the
+batteries of her eyes and wit, was discreet and said not a word.
+
+We took our way to the inn, kept by one John McLean, a genial host and
+Scotchman, who was well known in three provinces, and kept the finest
+inn for many miles around.
+
+He received us in a jovial way, for though he was a stanch patriot, he
+and Gordon had been friends for many years.
+
+"So, Mistress Jean, you have deigned to honour my roof with your
+presence. Welcome, welcome, all of you."
+
+And though I had swung myself off Toby to assist Mistress Jean to
+dismount, he was before me and swung her lightly to the ground.
+
+"I declare," he said, "you grow bonnier every day, lassie," which
+brought a blush to her cheek. Then, turning, he called his wife and
+placed Mistress Jean in her charge.
+
+"I am sorry to say, gentlemen, that the inn is very crowded, as you
+see, but I think I can find a place for you." Then drawing the Tory
+aside for a little way, we heard him remonstrating with him for coming
+to the town at such a time, when the feeling ran so strong and high
+against the Loyalist.
+
+"You risk your life," he said, "for the slightest spark or
+indiscretion will bring a mob, boiling and seething around you. The
+officers will not be able to hold the men in, as they are only
+volunteers, and have not yet felt the hand of discipline."
+
+But Charles Gordon shrugged his shoulders, and his reply came
+distinct and clear: "I thought you knew me better, McLean. I would
+not hide my head for a hundred or a thousand of them;" and he turned
+and went into the inn.
+
+The innkeeper made a gesture of despair. "That is always the way,"
+said he, "both in this country and the old; tell a Gordon of a danger
+and he will rush right into it, and then expect to come out safe and
+sound."
+
+We laughed, for the expression on the old Scotchman's face was so
+droll.
+
+"But now for your room, gentlemen;" and he led the way to a small room
+under the gable roof. "It is the only room I have left," he said, "but
+you are welcome to it."
+
+It was now somewhat late in the afternoon, but having made ourselves
+presentable and partaken of a lunch, we went to report ourselves to
+Captain Ramsay of the 1st Regiment of the Maryland Line.
+
+He received us at his tent door with a warm grasp of the hand. "You
+are the very lads I have been waiting for," he said. "I have two
+Lieutenancies to fill, and you are the men to fill them."
+
+"But, Captain," said Dick Ringgold, "we have not been tried yet. Let
+us go into the ranks and fight our way up, as so many better men than
+we are doing."
+
+I could not help admiring Dick for his modesty, and though I, too,
+said the same thing, I confess I hoped the Captain would not hear of
+it, and so it proved.
+
+"No, no," he said, and patted Dick on the shoulder. "I must have you;
+I know the blood that runs in your veins, lads, and that I will have
+no better fighting stock in the army." And thus it was settled, and
+we became officers in that Maryland Line, and--I say it with all due
+modesty--the most famous of all the fighting regiments in the struggle
+for the Great Cause.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A FLASH OF STEEL
+
+
+That night we sat at the long table in the dining-room of the inn. All
+up and down its great length sat the officers of the Line--country
+gentlemen from Cecil, Kent, and as far south as Queen Anne, who had
+ridden thus far to see the mustering and to give it their countenance
+and their favour. Grave and sedate gentlemen many of them, men of
+affairs, the leaders of their counties, and delegates to the
+Convention and to Congress--men of the oldest and bluest blood in the
+province, of wide estates and famous names, whose families wielded a
+mighty influence in the cause of the patriots and gave it stability
+and great strength.
+
+Then there was the parson, a merry old gentleman, stout of form, with
+a round face and twinkling eyes, who in his youth was a mighty
+fox-hunter in spite of his cloth; even then, stout as he had grown,
+when he heard the music of the hounds, it was with difficulty he
+restrained the inclination to follow, which now, alas! was made
+impossible by his great weight. We who loved hard riding, hard
+fighting, and a strong will, admired him, and no man was more popular
+throughout the three counties than the fox-hunting parson. He knew the
+people and their ways, and was one of them.
+
+"I hear you are fire-eaters here," he said to a vestryman upon being
+installed.
+
+"Then we are well matched," came the reply, "for they say you are a
+pepperbox."
+
+So no gathering throughout the county was a success without the
+parson, and by the unanimous voice of the Line he was called to be
+their chaplain.
+
+We sat there in the long dining-room amid the hum of many voices, the
+glare of many lights, and the click of the glasses, as the wine was
+going around, when a young man who sat across the table from me rose
+with his glass poised between his fingers.
+
+He was a handsome man, of twenty-one or twenty-two, of dark and
+swarthy features, thick lips and nose, and hair as black as night,
+telling of the Indian blood in his veins.
+
+His name was Rodolph, and he was the son of a man more noted for his
+wealth than for his principles, but who was then at the city of
+Annapolis, a delegate from the county of Cecil.
+
+"I propose a toast," he cried, "that all true patriots should drink. A
+toast to the delegates of this county, who at the convention of the
+province in the city of Annapolis are standing as the bulwarks of
+liberty against the tyranny of the Crown."
+
+We were all on our feet in an instant to drink the toast, with a right
+goodwill, all except Charles Gordon, who sat at my right hand. He kept
+his seat and watched us with a cool, sarcastic smile upon his lips.
+
+"Is not the toast good enough for you?" cried Rodolph, with an ugly
+sneer upon his face.
+
+All eyes now turned to where Charles Gordon sat, and he slowly rose.
+
+"Drink to your delegates?" said he. "Not I. They are the scum of the
+county of Cecil, and you know it. I would as soon be governed by my
+slaves at the Braes as by such men as they are. I wish you joy of
+them." And bowing, he turned and left the room by a door that was near
+at hand.
+
+For an instant there was silence, then an uproar broke forth, and
+Rodolph sprang around the table to follow him, with several of the
+young men at his heels. But I, seeing the danger, with possibly a
+thought of a fair maid's eyes, threw myself before the door with drawn
+sword.
+
+"No man passes through this door," I cried, "unless he passes over
+me."
+
+The crowd drew back in surprise.
+
+"Since when," I shouted, for they hesitated, "have Maryland gentlemen
+learned to fight in mobs? If any one has an insult to resent, let him
+fight as becomes a gentleman, man to man."
+
+"Stand aside," shouted Rodolph, who was now before me, "and let me get
+at the traitor."
+
+"Put up your swords, gentlemen." I found I had a new ally in a tall,
+dignified gentleman, who took his place beside me, a Mr. Wilmer of the
+White House in Kent.
+
+"The lad is right," he said; "and you, Rodolph, I should think, would
+have had enough of Charles Gordon of the Braes."
+
+At this there was a laugh, which at the time I did not understand; but
+the company good-naturedly put back their swords and resumed their
+places at the table, all except Rodolph, who slipped away from the
+room.
+
+That night, as I lay upon my bed, dreaming, boylike, of the fair eyes
+of the Tory maid, and hoping that the part I had played in the matter
+of the toast might come to her ears and cause her to give me a smile
+at our next meeting, I heard the sound of footsteps coming down the
+passageway.
+
+"There is great danger," said a voice, which I recognised as the
+landlord's, as they were passing by my door. "Rodolph is stirring up
+the crowd, and though you might brave the mob, Mistress Jean--" and
+then the voices died away.
+
+"The mob" and "Mistress Jean." Clearly something must be afoot.
+Springing from my bed, I swore to myself, that, if anything happened
+to the Tory maid, I would make Phil Rodolph feel the edge of my sword.
+Hastily throwing on my clothes, I went to the window and looked out.
+The night was dark, the sky being full of drifting clouds, through
+which the moon faintly struggled; everything lay quiet and still in
+the village and the camp. Steps were heard upon the porch below, and
+then a horse was brought around from the stables. A moment later a
+horseman mounted, and I saw a slender figure on the pillion behind
+him.
+
+"Keep to the south road," said a voice, "they have only one sentry
+there."
+
+I did not wait to hear more, but slipped downstairs and out of a side
+door, and the next moment I was running softly through the camp to the
+outpost on the south road, for one of my own men was stationed there,
+and I knew that without orders or the countersign no man would pass
+that way that night. It was well I did, for as I drew near I heard the
+challenge "Who goes there?" and the answer "A friend."
+
+"Advance, friend, and give the countersign."
+
+"Maryland." But the Tory had missed it, and the next moment the
+sentry's rifle was at his shoulder, and I knew the cry for the officer
+of the guard would follow; so I stepped out from the shadow, and the
+sentry, seeing me, brought his rifle to a salute.
+
+"Lieutenant," he said, "he wants to pass, and has given the wrong
+countersign."
+
+"Yes," said I, drawing my hat over my eyes, for I did not wish to be
+recognised by Mistress Jean. "I heard. But I know them; let them
+pass."
+
+"Certainly, Lieutenant."
+
+"Thank you," said the rider, and a still softer "Thank you" came from
+his companion. I bowed, but said nothing, and stood there watching
+them disappear down the dark road until the sound of the horse's hoofs
+was lost in the distance.
+
+"Queer time of the night to ride, sir," said the sentinel.
+
+"Yes; but they have far to go."
+
+"Kent or Queen Anne's, sir?"
+
+"Down by Bohemia Manor."
+
+"That is where that old Tory Gordon lives; they say they are going to
+rout him out in the morning for insulting the committee last night. He
+is up at the inn, there, and Phil Rodolph says he is going to make it
+hot for him."
+
+"Mere talk, I expect. Good-night."
+
+"Good-night, sir."
+
+I took my way back to the inn, and when I crawled to my room once more
+and into bed, Dick Ringgold raised himself on his arm and said in a
+sleepy voice: "What's up, Frisby?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," I replied; "go to sleep." And I soon followed my own
+advice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE RED COCKADE
+
+
+The stirring notes of the bugle made us spring up in the morning, to
+find, when we were again downstairs, that every one was talking of the
+disappearance of Charles Gordon of the Braes.
+
+Master Richard marvelled much at the disappearance of the Tory, and,
+though I knew it was of the Tory maid he was thinking, I said not a
+word, but went on with my duties; and manifold they were for many days
+to come. The drilling of the raw recruits, who, though they were full
+of fire and _elan_, were not used to the strict obedience of orders,
+was at first very difficult. But soon there came the spirit and the
+pride that were to make them the best drilled troops, the dandies and
+macaronies of the army. And so, with the drilling of recruits and
+assisting Captain Ramsay in the formation of the regiment, a week
+passed by before a day came when Dick and I found a few spare hours on
+our hands. And having certain plans and purposes in view, and not
+wishing them to be known to Dick, I sat and watched for an opportunity
+to slip away.
+
+Master Richard, it was evident, had also some plans on foot, for after
+moving from the chair to the top of a box and then back again, he
+stretched his arms above his head, and, yawning, said: "I believe I
+will take a little canter down the south road; come along?"
+
+"No," I replied; "I am going to ride a short distance down the east
+road."
+
+"All right," said he, and springing from his chair, he went to order
+his horse. I soon followed, and, having seen Dick well on his way,
+rode for a short distance on the east road, then turned, rode back,
+and entered the road which runs along the bank of the Elk, by which we
+had entered the town on our journey from Kent. As I rode, I hummed a
+jovial hunting-song and touched Toby with the spur, for I was quite
+jubilant at having got rid of Dick and so well on the road to my
+adventure.
+
+My time was short and it was good twelve miles to the Braes, but
+Toby's sire was a son of old Ranter, and I knew he could do it in an
+hour and a half. So Toby felt the spur, and I barely noticed the miles
+as we flew along, until we came to the road that leads south to the
+Braes. Down this road we turned, and as we were so near the end of our
+journey I began to think of the reasons and excuses I should give for
+my visit. Reason! Pshaw! What better reason does a Marylander want
+than a pair of blue eyes? And if Mistress Jean should so much as
+demand it by the merest glance of those eyes, I would tell her so.
+Aye, but she is a Tory and wears the red cockade. True, but the fairer
+the enemy the more difficult the prize, the greater the glory and
+effort to win.
+
+And so, having justified my invasion of the stronghold of the Tory, I
+pricked Toby with the spur and rode on more rapidly, when, on turning
+a bend in the road where it is intersected by one from the east, whom
+should I come face to face with but Master Richard? For a moment he
+stared at me with open mouth, and I at him; then his brow grew dark.
+
+"I thought," he cried; but suddenly the humour of our meeting came
+over him. Thrusting his hands into his pockets, he broke out into a
+hearty burst of laughter, and I could do nothing but follow.
+
+"And so, Master Frisby, you rode down the east road."
+
+"And you, methinks, rode down the south." Again our laughter rang
+through the woods.
+
+"Come," he cried, "which is it to be? So fair a maid deserves two
+cavaliers, but we would be at sword points within a week, and I do not
+wish to lose the friendship of Mr. James Frisby of Fairlee."
+
+"A chance has brought us here, so let chance decide."
+
+"Agreed," said Dick, pulling out a sovereign, and with a twitch of the
+thumb, he sent it high in the air. "Heads, you win. Tails, I win."
+Then catching it as it fell: "By Jove, you have it. Present my
+compliments to Mistress Jean," he cried, with a grandiloquent bow,
+"and tell her how near she came to being Mrs. Dick Ringgold of Hunting
+Field."
+
+"That I will, Sir Richard." But Dick was gone, and I was left to ride
+on to the Braes.
+
+A long, rambling house it was, standing white amid the trees, a wide
+lawn around it stretching down to the creek at its foot; while beyond
+could be seen the sunlight gleaming on the bay. A quaint,
+old-fashioned place, the low roof already growing dark with age; the
+quiet air of ease and comfort brooding over all, making a fitting
+setting for the quaint, slender little lady that ruled its destinies.
+
+A negro took my horse; another showed me across the broad hall, with
+its hunting whips and trophies on the wall, to the parlour, and there
+I awaited the coming of the Tory maid. And as I sat there, gently
+stroking the toe of my boot with my whip, and thinking of that night
+at the inn, of that soft "Thank you" on the old south road, I heard
+the soft swish of her skirts, and, looking up, saw Mistress Jean
+standing in the doorway. A beautiful picture it was, like some old
+portrait of Lely's, the maid standing there framed in the old oak. And
+I, though I had been to the balls at the Governor's house the winter
+before, and was therefore a man of the world, sat staring for a
+moment. But she advanced, and I was on my feet with a low and sweeping
+bow.
+
+"Father is away," said she, "but in his name I wish to thank you for
+defending us at the inn that night."
+
+So she knew.
+
+"It was to save the honour of Maryland gentlemen," I replied modestly.
+"Heretofore they have not fought in mobs. But will you not thank me
+for yourself?"
+
+"When you turn loyalist, yes," said she.
+
+"Almost thou persuadest me to become a traitor."
+
+"You are that already," she said with spirit.
+
+"Yes, that is the way they have written 'Patriot' since Tyranny first
+stalked across the world. But patriot or traitor, Mistress Jean, I
+have already won one 'Thank you,' and I hope some day to win another."
+
+"Won one 'Thank you'--when and where?" and she looked at me with wide
+open eyes.
+
+Now every Marylander will admit that there are no more gallant fellows
+in the world than we are, and if any one chooses to dispute it, well
+and good, we are willing to cross swords with him any day, and so
+reprove him for his recklessness. Indeed, we have been called with
+truth the Gascons of the South, and, like those gallant gentlemen of
+old France, we have never hidden our light under a bushel, to use a
+homely phrase; and so when I saw Mistress Jean's air of surprise, the
+spirit of my race came over me.
+
+"Yes," I replied, "it was the sweetest 'Thank you' I ever heard."
+
+Again the mystified look.
+
+"But where?" said she again.
+
+"It was rather dark," I replied, "and the clouds were drifting across
+the sky, and you, I am afraid, did not know who it was who received
+that soft 'Thank you.'"
+
+"Were you the Lieutenant?"
+
+I bowed.
+
+"Oh," she said, and she stamped her tiny foot, "if you were only not a
+rebel!"
+
+"But even rebels have their uses."
+
+Thus it was we became good friends in spite of the traitor stamped
+upon my brow. Ere I knew it, the time approached when I had to mount
+and ride. But before I left, her soft hand rested for a moment in
+mine.
+
+"We march in a few days," said I, "to the North, to the Leaguer of
+Boston. There will be fighting there and bloody work. Can I not carry
+a single token?"
+
+Her nimble fingers flew to her hair, and took from thence a blood-red
+rose, and pinned it to my coat.
+
+"There," said she, "my red cockade;" and turning quickly, she ran into
+the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SIR SQUIRE OF TORY DAMES
+
+
+"Well, Sir Squire of Tory Dames, did she smile on you?" The voice was
+harsh and rasping; looking across the table, I saw the sneer upon his
+lips. I had but entered a moment before the dining-room of the inn,
+after my long ride, and was about to take my seat, when Rodolph's
+sneering question made me pause.
+
+"That is more than you could ever win, my Mighty Lord from Nowhere," I
+retorted. At this there was a laugh from those about. An angry flush
+showed through even his dark and swarthy skin; for, being a burly
+bully of the border, he liked not being bearded thus by a youth.
+
+"You damned impudent puppy!" he cried, rising.
+
+But there stood a glass at my right hand, full to the brim, and ere he
+could say another word the red wine flew across the table straight
+into his face.
+
+"Take that!" I cried, "with the compliments of James Frisby of
+Fairlee!"
+
+A dozen men were now around us, and Rodolph, spluttering through the
+wine and swearing many oaths, demanded to be released from the hands
+upon his shoulders, shouting that he would shoot me like a dog.
+
+"It will give me pleasure to let you have an opportunity," I replied
+coolly. "It will be a rare chance for you to become a gentleman."
+
+And so, still muttering and swearing, his friends took him from the
+room, while I took my seat at the table. But I was not allowed to eat
+my meal in peace; for many gentlemen came to offer their services and
+to thank me. Rodolph's overbearing manners had long been unpopular
+among them, and the wonder was that he had not been forced to fight
+before. But I was determined that Dick should be my second, and so,
+thanking them all for their kind offers, I placed my hand on Dick's
+shoulder, and we went out together amid a volley of advice and
+friendly warning.
+
+Half an hour later, as I was examining my sword and Dick his pistols,
+there came a rap on my door, and two gentlemen entered; one was
+Captain Brooke, the other Lieutenant Barry of the Line.
+
+"Lieutenant Frisby," said Captain Brooke, as he advanced and bowed,
+"it is my painful duty to deliver you this challenge."
+
+"It is a pleasure to receive it from your hands," I replied,
+returning his courtesy. "Lieutenant Ringgold and Harry Gresham of Kent
+will act as my seconds, permit me to refer you to them."
+
+Dick now went out with them to Harry Gresham's room near by, where
+they would be safe from interruption, Gresham having volunteered with
+Dick to be one of my seconds, and I went on polishing my sword,
+waiting for the issue. At last Dick came back.
+
+"Well," he cried, "it is all settled. You are to fight to-morrow
+morning at sunrise down in the little meadow below the creek."
+
+"Swords, I suppose?"
+
+"No; pistols. I insisted on swords at first, it being our privilege;
+but Captain Brooke said that Rodolph had broken his arm the year
+before, and that it was still too weak to fight with. So I waived the
+swords and agreed to the pistols."
+
+"It is not quite as gentlemanly a weapon, but just as deadly. I have
+put a bullet through the head of a wild duck flying, and I think I can
+hit Phil Rodolph."
+
+"That you can," said Dick.
+
+It was a bright, clear morning as we slipped out of the inn on our way
+to the little meadow. The eastern sky was already tinged with crimson,
+and the blood-red lances across the heavens told of the coming dawn.
+The air was fresh and cool as it blew up the river from the bay, and
+our lungs drew in great draughts of it as we felt the breeze in our
+faces.
+
+"A splendid morning to die on," said Harry Gresham.
+
+"And to live on, too," I replied.
+
+"Stop your croaking, Gresham," put in Dick Ringgold. We walked on
+silently to the meadow, where we found that we were the first to
+arrive.
+
+Though I have stood on many a field of honour since that day, though I
+have felt the bullet tearing and burning its way through the flesh,
+and the sudden, sharp pain of the sword thrust, I shall never forget
+that encounter on the meadow beside the Elk, when I first faced the
+muzzle of a hostile pistol, and knew that the will behind it sought my
+life.
+
+It was not fear that I felt as I stood there, waiting for the coming
+of my adversary, for fear has always been foreign to my family, but a
+sort of secret elation. For that day, if I survived, though the down
+upon my lip was as yet imperceptible, I could take my place as a man
+among men. No longer would my boyish face keep me out of the councils
+of my elders, but I would have the right to take my stand and ruffle
+it with the best of them all. I was there to win my spurs as a man
+and a duellist, and to show to all the world that I had the courage of
+my race. For then, as it has ever been in the fair province of
+Maryland, we love above all else courage in a man; and so it was I
+waited with impatience Rodolph's approach, for it meant the casting
+off of the boy and the making of the man.
+
+We did not have long to wait, for Rodolph and his seconds soon
+followed us down the path, and each party saluted. Then Captain Brooke
+and Dick Ringgold measured off the paces, and threw for the choice of
+positions. Dick won, and I found myself standing near a small sapling,
+with my back to the rising sun, which as yet had not climbed over the
+tree tops, and so did not interfere with Rodolph's position. Facing
+me, twelve paces away, stood Rodolph, his dark, swarthy face darker,
+more Indian-like, and forbidding than ever; behind him stretched away
+the small glade, and the smooth green waters of the river, as they
+wound their way between the tall forests on either side. I remember
+watching a wild duck as he went swiftly flying down the Elk, when Dick
+Ringgold's "Are you ready?" suddenly recalled me to my position.
+"Yes," I nodded. Then came the even counting, "One, two;" but ere
+"two" had been uttered, I saw the flash of Rodolph's pistol, and felt
+the sharp pain of the bullet tearing its way into my side. While I,
+taken by surprise at such rank treachery, fired not so accurately as
+usual, and my bullet clipped his ear. Dick's sword was out in an
+instant, and I verily believe he would have run Rodolph through on the
+spot, as it was his duty and right to do, so base was the crime of
+firing before the time--a thing that had never been known among
+Maryland gentlemen before. But seeing me reel, he came to my
+assistance, and threw his arm around me.
+
+"Tie me to the sapling, Dick," said I, "and give me one more shot."
+
+"But no gentleman should fight with such a scoundrel!" cried Dick
+hotly.
+
+"I waive that, just one more shot."
+
+So, with Harry Gresham's assistance, they took Dick's sash and tied me
+to the sapling, and in this way enabled me to keep an upright
+position. Captain Brooke had come forward to inquire as to my injury,
+but Dick met him and demanded another exchange of shots. "My
+principal," he said, "waives the treachery that places your principal
+beyond the pale of men of honour. But," continued Dick, "if he should
+dare to fire again before the time, I will shoot him down where he
+stands."
+
+Captain Brooke flushed, and though we saw that it was painful to him
+as a man of honour to be the second of such a principal, he could do
+nothing but accept. "I will shoot him down myself," said he, "if he
+dares again to do it."
+
+He then returned to his party, and we saw by his angry gestures that
+he was warning Rodolph of the penalty if he should a second time
+transgress the rules of honour.
+
+Again we faced, and I could feel the strength ebbing fast from me, but
+I could see that Rodolph's face was pale, even through his swarthy
+skin. "One, two, three, Fire," came again the fateful words; but I had
+nerved myself for the final effort, and glancing down the polished
+barrel, I fired, at the same moment that Rodolph's pistol rang out.
+
+For a moment I saw him standing there, and then he lurched forward,
+with his arms in the air, and fell face downward as the mortally
+wounded do. With that there came a mist before my eyes, my hand fell
+to my side, and I remembered nothing more. They told me afterward that
+they carried me to the inn in the village, Captain Brooke assisting,
+after they had seen that Rodolph was dead. "Leave him there for
+awhile," said the Captain, as he came to assist Dick in my removal.
+"The dog had a better death than he deserved."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A TALE IS TOLD
+
+
+I lay there at the inn, I do not know how long, but they told me
+afterward it was for many days, hanging on the brink between life and
+death, until one day I heard in my dreams the music of the fife and
+the rattle of the drums, and awoke to life and hope again. The
+sunlight was streaming through the south window across the counterpane
+of the bed, and outside could be heard the steady tread of marching
+men.
+
+"What troops are those?" I asked somewhat hazily, for I was still on
+the borderland of dreams.
+
+"They are the Maryland Line marching away to the North to join General
+Washington."
+
+"Marching to the North? Then I must join them." And I tried to rise in
+my bed, for it came back to me with a rush that I was a Lieutenant in
+the Line. But strong hands pushed me gently back upon my pillow, and I
+recognised now the voice of my nurse, Mrs. McLean.
+
+"No, no, Mr. Frisby; be still. You are a regular little bantam, but
+your spurs are clipped for some time yet."
+
+"Why, what is the matter, Mrs. McLean? How did I come here?"
+
+"Law bless the boy!" said the good old soul. "He has clean forgot."
+
+But the dull pain in my side soon brought back to me that clear, fresh
+morning on the bank of the Elk, and for a moment I lay still.
+
+"Did I kill Rodolph?" I asked.
+
+"That you did, lad; and no man deserved it more."
+
+Then I heard a heavy step in the passageway outside, and then a
+lighter one. The next moment the door opened and I saw my mother, more
+pale and fairy-like than ever, and behind her came Captain Ramsay,
+bluff and hearty, but looking very solemn at that moment. But they saw
+the news on Mrs. McLean's good-natured face, and when I spoke to my
+lady, the old-time happy look came back again, as she came to my
+bedside and kissed me, while the great voice of the Captain came
+hearty and strong.
+
+"Aye, lad, I told them that you would pull through; make a gallant
+fight, my boy, and you will have a shot at the redcoats yet."
+
+"But, Captain, you are marching away without me."
+
+"You will be in time for the fighting, never worry; lie still and get
+well. Half the young men in the Line are envying you, you rogue, for
+becoming a hero before them all." And the Captain took my hand, and
+bade me good-bye, for he must hurry away to join his regiment.
+
+A few minutes later there came the clank of a sword and a hurried
+step, and then the door burst open and in marched Master Dick in all
+the glory of his full regimentals. And so brave was the show that he
+made in his cocked hat, scarlet coat, with its facings of buff, and
+the long clanking sword, that I longed to spring up and don my own
+then and there. But my mother's finger on her lip caused him to stop
+the cheery greeting, and he came forward on his tiptoes, holding his
+sword carefully to keep it from clanking, for by this time I was
+growing weak again. Master Dick shook my hand gently and murmured,
+"Cheer up, old fellow, you will soon be with us again," but I could
+only give him a slight smile, for I was again on the borderland of
+dreams. Dick stood for awhile looking down on me; then he, too, had to
+depart. Gradually the steady tramp of marching feet died away, and
+everything became quiet and still again.
+
+The days passed by, week followed week, and though at first I gained
+strength but slowly, the process seeming a long and dreary one, the
+vigour of a youthful frame soon asserted itself, and I could feel the
+returning tide of health and strength. But as yet I lay there upon the
+great four-post bed, with my mother sitting near by, her dear face
+bending over the embroidery frame, as her deft fingers weaved
+beautiful designs with the silk. As I lay there, I would wander back
+again to that day before the duel, to the swift challenging glance of
+a pair of blue eyes as a blood-red rose was pinned to my coat. But
+that was so long ago, years it seemed to me, away back in the past, a
+memory as it were of a fairy tale heard from the lips of a grandmother
+before the big open fire in the great hall on a winter night; a fairy
+tale, aye, and she the Princess, with her blue eyes and hair of waving
+brown, with her step as light as the dew-drop, and her voice as low
+and soft as the breath of the Southern breeze in the spring; and then
+I would be her Prince Charming, with my coal-black horse. But, pshaw!
+I am becoming a child again; whereas I am a man, who has fought his
+duel as becomes a man, with a right to the sword by his side. And yet
+those blue eyes, what fate was in store for them? And would their
+challenging glance ever meet mine again? But here my mother stopped
+the trend of my thoughts for a moment.
+
+"James," she said, "John Cotton tells me that an old darky comes to
+inquire for you every night. Strange, is it not? We know so few
+people here."
+
+"Yes," I replied. "Does John Cotton know who he is?"
+
+"No; he refuses to tell, and all John Cotton can find out is that he
+leaves town by the river road. He appears to be a stranger to all the
+other darkies, and nobody seems to know him."
+
+By the river road! Could it possibly be, then, that it was the Tory
+maid who sent those many miles to see if I were in the land of the
+living or the dead? Ah, it was too pleasant a thing to dream of; too
+pleasant to have it shattered by the rough hand of fact. And so I said
+dreamily, "It is only one of John Cotton's stories, I suppose."
+
+Yet I would not have believed it otherwise for all of John Cotton's
+weight in gold. Thus it was I was thinking one day of the Tory maid,
+when the door opened, and a tall, dignified gentleman came in--the man
+who had stood by my side that day when with drawn sword I held the
+door against Rodolph and his followers--Mr. Lambert Wilmer of the
+White House in Kent.
+
+He came forward and greeted me with many kind phrases. While he sat
+talking to me of the duel and its cause, I thought of that great burst
+of laughter when he told Rodolph to put up his sword, as by this time
+he should have had enough of Gordon of the Braes, and I asked the
+reason for it all.
+
+"It is a long story, lad," said he, "but I will tell it to you."
+
+Then he told me how, many years before, Mistress Margaret Nicholson
+had been the loveliest girl in Kent, and the belle of the whole shore,
+and how there was not a bachelor within three counties who did not
+seek her as his bride, or who would not have sold his soul for a
+glance of her eyes or the soft pressure of her hand; and how when
+James Rodolph of Charlestown Hundred came riding down from Cecil and
+boasted of his wealth, his horses, and his slaves, swearing that he
+would win her or no one would, the suitors stood aside to see how he
+would fare with this the proudest of Kent beauties. To their dismay,
+he seemed to prosper well, until one day there disembarked from a
+vessel that came sailing up the broad Chester a young gentleman of
+distinguished appearance, who asked his way to Radcliffe, the home of
+the Nicholsons.
+
+"Now, the Nicholsons, as you know," said Mr. Wilmer, "are Scotch, and
+this young gentleman was Scotch, for his accent betrayed him, and we,
+thinking he might be a cousin and have brought news from over the
+water, welcomed him, and showed him the way to Radcliffe. He, though
+he was very reserved, told us that he had indeed come from over the
+sea, and bore a letter to the Nicholsons, who were old friends of his
+family, but of himself he would say no more. And so, when he strode
+off, we turned to Captain Hezekiah Brown of the Maid of Perth, who was
+a man who delighted to talk. From him we learned that his name was
+Gordon, and that there was a mystery about him, as people suspected
+him of being one of the young chiefs who had led that famous clan in
+the recent rebellion against the King. But this we held not to his
+injury, for there were still many lovers of the White Rose in the fair
+province of Maryland, and we afterward welcomed him the more heartily
+for it. From the advent of the stranger the good fortune of James
+Rodolph began to wane; for the rich planter of the border, with his
+wild and boisterous manners, was no match for the Scottish cavalier.
+It is true that he was penniless, but he was very handsome, of
+distinguished manners and address, and when it became known that he
+was out in 'forty-five' the mantle of romance that fell around Prince
+Charles was shared as well by him, and he became the hero of many a
+pair of fair eyes.
+
+"James Rodolph soon saw this, and his hatred grew from day to day, as
+his rival became more successful. One day there was a quarrel, and
+next morning, upon the smooth, sandy shore of the river, they met and
+fought it out. Rodolph was fiery, quick, and fierce; Gordon cool and
+steady; until Rodolph, growing weary and desperate, tried a foul and
+dangerous stroke, to find his rapier flying through the air, to fall
+with a splash into the river.
+
+"'I would not stain my blade by killing you,' said Gordon; and turning
+with the other gentlemen who had seen the foul stroke, he walked away,
+leaving him there.
+
+"And so it was that Rodolph came back to Cecil with a blot upon his
+name, and Gordon married the maid, and became in time the owner of the
+Braes, for she was an heiress as well as a great beauty. From that
+time has grown the feud which we may some day see the end of. And that
+is why the people laughed and Rodolph slunk away. For the old story is
+known throughout the shore, and Rodolph proved, in his fight with you,
+the bad blood in his veins. It never does to cross the white blood
+with the red, for the treachery of the Indian will taint the race for
+generations."
+
+Thus it was, by the light of this old tale of thirty years before, I
+saw and read the cause and reason of it all--of his fatal course, of
+our quarrel, and of the meeting by the banks of the river Elk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE DEFIANCE OF THE TORY
+
+
+A few weeks later I was up and out, fast gaining strength and courage
+for the long ride to the northward to join the gallant fellows of the
+Maryland Line, who had taken up their line of march soon after the
+accident befell me. And though I was eager to be off, the surgeon
+would not let me go, and so, until I could gather strength for the
+long journey, I served as best I could my country and the commands of
+the Committee of Public Safety sitting at the Head of Elk. Thus it was
+I rode one day by the side of Edward Veasey, High Sheriff of the
+county of Cecil, carrying the writ and command of the Committee of
+Public Safety to Charles Gordon of the Braes, now a suspected Tory
+and a malcontent. And as I rode by the side of the High Sheriff on
+this most unpleasant task, I longed to turn back and let the Sheriff
+ride on alone; but duty held me as a point of honour. For as it was, I
+was carrying I knew not what ruin and destruction to the roof of the
+very house that once had received me as a guest and that sheltered the
+fairest eyes that had ever gazed in mine. And now I was to appear
+before that house as the bearer of ill-tidings. Ah, duty often wears a
+gruesome countenance; yet it is a sign of courage to face this duty
+down, and I sat more firmly in my saddle and rode nearer to the High
+Sheriff. He was a stern and determined man; he was short of stature,
+stout of frame, and sat his powerful horse like the fox-hunter that he
+was. But, though it was the height of summer, and the hills and the
+forests were green, the air laden with the odour of flowers, and the
+streams full and rushing, there was anything but a smile on the High
+Sheriff's face. For though he was no friend to Gordon of the Braes, he
+liked not the errand on which he rode, and would gladly have turned
+his horse's head with me.
+
+"If they want to fight," said he to me, "why don't they join the
+Maryland Line and leave men alone who are disposed to be quiet? They
+will have enough to do in repulsing the redcoats, and should not stir
+up opposition in the rear of our armies, which this persecution of
+private individuals will certainly do. I wish some other carried this
+writ, and I was with the lads fighting in the North."
+
+"Aye, so do I, but it is the order of the committee," said I grimly.
+
+"True, and as such must be obeyed."
+
+We had come to where the ferry crosses the Elk, and hailing it we
+were soon on the south bank and taking up again the road that leads to
+the Braes. Over the hills and dales of Cecil, the forest, streams, and
+rivers, the soft warm sunlight played, and nature blessed with lavish
+hand the harvest of the year. Seldom had she been more pleasing, the
+earth bursting with flowers and the very trees welcoming with
+outstretched arms the soft breezes wafted from the bay. And then,
+after some hours' travelling, we came to the Braes and I saw again the
+long rambling house amid the trees. I took a firmer grip upon my sense
+of duty and rode on. The clatter of our horses' hoofs as we rode up to
+the door announced us. A moment later Charles Gordon came through the
+open doorway on to the porch. Though I had seen him before, it seemed
+to me, as I saw him standing there, with the memory of the old tale
+in my mind, that I saw not the Tory, but one of those figures of
+romance that stepped out from the mystery and the haze of the North,
+when Prince Charles raised his standard in the Highlands, one of those
+heroic men who drew swords with Wallace and with Bruce, rallied with
+Montrose, and went to death with a cheer behind Bonnie Dundee at
+Killiecrankie, of such gallant bearing and bold and open countenance
+was he.
+
+"What brings you here, Mr. Sheriff, riding so fast?"
+
+"I come, Charles Gordon of the Braes," replied the Sheriff, "to serve
+on you the writ and summons of the Committee of Public Safety." And
+here he unfolded the summons and read aloud, sitting on his horse as
+he was:
+
+     "_Whereas_, Great complaints have this day been made against
+     Charles Gordon of the Braes, for that he has infamously
+     reflected on the membership of this Committee and the
+     deputies of this county who lately attended the Provincial
+     Convention,
+
+     "These are therefore requiring the said Charles Gordon of
+     the Braes that he appear before this Committee, at the house
+     of Thomas Savin at the Head of Elk, to-morrow at two o'clock
+     P.M., to answer unto said complaints.
+
+     "Hereto fail not on your peril.
+
+                    "JAMES RODOLPH, Chairman.
+
+     "To CHARLES GORDON of the Braes."
+
+Then spoke Charles Gordon:
+
+"Go tell those who sent you, Mr. Sheriff, that if they wish to see
+Charles Gordon they will have to come to the Braes to do so; that I
+will give them a right warm welcome, as my plantation is large enough
+to hold them all; but that if any of their rascally crew dare to
+approach the house, there will be lives lost; for I say to you, Mr.
+Sheriff, as I have said before and will say again, that James Rodolph
+and his committee are a set of infamous scoundrels, who have usurped
+such power and authority in troublous times as the King himself would
+not dare to claim. Tell them that I am at their defiance, that I do
+not recognise their authority, and that I have as much contempt for
+them as I have for their dogs."
+
+The old gentleman, for he must have been nearly sixty, looked splendid
+in his wrath, as he denounced the Committee of Public Safety. The ring
+in his voice told that the ire of the Scot was rising.
+
+For an instant the High Sheriff hesitated, as if he would turn and go,
+but then he said:
+
+"Charles Gordon, I spoke to you a moment ago as an officer of the law.
+I speak to you now as one who does not wish you an injury. Obey the
+order of the committee, and I will see that you have fair speech
+before it. Refuse and you will be declared a traitor and an outlaw,
+and the edict will go forth through all the province that no man shall
+buy of you, that no man shall sell to you, and he that shows you
+kindness will become an outlaw like yourself."
+
+Charles Gordon laughed.
+
+"Do you think I care a snap of a finger for their edict? There has not
+been a generation of my family that has not been at the Horn at
+Edinburgh for high treason. Do you think that I care when my neck has
+been on the block for the part I took at Preston Pans and Culloden? Go
+frighten the children with their edicts, but not an old Scot who has
+seen the claymores flash and led the charge for the King who is over
+the sea."
+
+"If you fought against the father, why not against the son?"
+
+"A fair question deserves a fair answer. When my head was on the
+block my life was saved by the intercession of the Duchess of Gordon,
+but upon conditions, and those conditions are these: That I should
+nevermore bear arms against the King, that I should leave the realm of
+Scotland, sail across the sea to the province of Maryland, there
+remain and never return. So, though I love not the King nor his race,
+I will not draw sword against him, for never yet has a Gordon broken
+faith with friend or foe. Yet for all that I will not take up arms for
+the King's cause unless I am forced to do so by such rascals as
+compose your Committee of Public Safety."
+
+"So be it, then, but I wish it were otherwise," said the Sheriff; and,
+turning, we rode away, leaving him standing there. As I entered the
+woods I looked back again, my eyes searching every window in the old
+house, but never a sign of the Tory maid did I see.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE BLACK COCKADE
+
+
+It was two o'clock next day when we rode up to the house where the
+Committee of Public Safety held its meetings, dismounted, and entered
+the room. Six gentlemen sat at the long table, and the room was
+crowded with hangers-on. They were men who stayed behind while the
+others went to the war; they fought the fight with their tongues, with
+writs of forfeiture for high treason, became great statesmen, and in
+time aspired to become members of the committee. How the worthy High
+Sheriff regarded them could be seen by the manner in which he brushed
+past them to stand before the committee.
+
+"What right have you to talk of liberty and of freedom, if you will
+not fight for it? Why are you not with Howard, Gist, Smallwood, and
+the other heroes who are making the name of the Maryland Line ring
+through the army?" he would ask, and they would turn away.
+
+The burly form and dark, swarthy face of the Chairman dominated the
+committee. As we entered and stood before him his dark eyes flashed.
+
+"Do you bring the body of Charles Gordon with you?" he demanded.
+
+"No; I do not. I bring his defiance, instead;" and the High Sheriff
+delivered the message of Charles Gordon to the committee.
+
+The committee glanced from one to another, and there was a big stir in
+the room. Then the Chairman was on his feet.
+
+"By a thousand devils," he swore, "Charles Gordon shall suffer for
+this. I will not stop until the Braes is razed to the ground, and I
+have driven him from the province. He is a Tory and a traitor, and a
+danger to the peace of the county. He will be up in arms next. Mr.
+Sheriff, summon a posse and ride to the Braes and bring us the body of
+Charles Gordon, dead or alive."
+
+"You will not accept the invitation to go to the Braes yourself,
+then?" asked the High Sheriff gravely, though there was the suggestion
+of a smile around the corners of his mouth.
+
+The Chairman hesitated. "No," he said; "it is absolutely necessary for
+the welfare of the county of Cecil that we should remain where we are
+and not engage in any brawls or tumults, for if we are killed who will
+take our places?"
+
+"That is true," said the High Sheriff ironically, "but have you
+considered, gentlemen, that Charles Gordon's wife was of the
+Nicholsons of Kent, who, as you know, are the leaders of the patriots
+in that county? How will they like it when they hear of your burnings
+and your razings?"
+
+The Chairman frowned. "You are right," he said; "we must proceed about
+it in a legal way, which is slow but sure. Mr. Clerk, institute
+proceedings against Charles Gordon for the forfeiture of his lands for
+high treason, and meanwhile we will publish him throughout the
+province as a Tory and a traitor. We will teach this Charles Gordon
+and all Tories what it means to contemn the authority and dignity of
+this province and its committee."
+
+And then applause broke out from the crowd; but the High Sheriff, who
+left the room with me, shrugged his shoulders and said: "If they had
+half of the courage of that Scot they would not be loafing around
+here, applauding James Rodolph. I am tired of it; I am going to resign
+and go to the front." He was as good as his word, for that very day he
+resigned the office of High Sheriff of the county of Cecil, packed his
+saddle-bags, gathered some volunteers about him, and rode away to the
+North, becoming in time a noted officer. But it was not until the
+month of August of that year that I was ready to follow him and felt
+equal to the length of the journey. On the night of the day before I
+took my departure I called John Cotton and ordered him to saddle Toby.
+
+John Cotton received the order with wide-open eyes, as it was growing
+somewhat late.
+
+"Fo' de Lord's sake, Mars Jim, what do you want Toby fo'? It's after
+ten o'clock."
+
+"Ask no questions, you black rascal, and bring Toby around in a
+hurry."
+
+Then his eyes fell on a cluster of red roses on my table, and a broad
+grin crept from ear to ear.
+
+"Sartin, Mars Jim, sartin;" and he was out of the door before my
+flying boot could repay the impertinence of that grin. A few minutes
+later I slipped out of the house to the stables, and, mounting Toby,
+was soon riding out of the silent town, having hit that rascal John
+Cotton across the shoulders with my whip for the snickering laugh he
+could not restrain as I was riding off.
+
+Have you ever ridden by the silent river after the night has fallen,
+and when it is far advanced? The great trees, rising far above you
+like the vaulted arch of a cathedral, overhanging the path down which
+you ride; the smooth flowing waters of the river, the towering dark
+mass on the farther shore, and over all the glorious moon shining
+down flooding everything with its silvery light, weird and fantastic,
+glinting now like polished steel upon the waters, now deepening the
+shadows of the forest, or flooding again with its glorious radiance
+some wide and sweeping stretch of water. And then, the unearthly
+silence of it all, the mournful howl of the wolf in the hills, and the
+piercing shrill cry of the wildcat, like that of a child tortured by
+the demons of hell; then the horror of its beauty, its stillness and
+its loneliness, comes over you; nervous chills become distinctly
+apparent, and you put spurs to your horse and ride on more rapidly,
+and the night is broken first by your whistle and then by your song.
+So it was, as I rode by the banks of the Elk, that night in early
+August, and my voice rang across the waters, as I sang the old
+Highland ballad:
+
+    The Gordons cam', and the Gordons ran,
+    And they were stark and steady,
+    And aye the word among them a'
+    Was, Gordons, keep you ready.
+
+A ballad that I heard a young girl sing one day not long before. Thus
+the length of my ride passed quickly away until Toby felt the soft
+grass under his feet as I rode silently across the lawn. Her window
+was high, it is true, but it was open to admit the fresh, cool breeze
+from the bay, and then I had not thrown quoits in my youth not to be
+able to surmount so small a difficulty. So I fastened a black cockade
+amid the blood-red of the roses, and, rising in my stirrups, threw
+them firmly and gently, and saw them rise in the air, top the
+window-sill, and fall with a slight thud upon the floor. I did not
+wait for more, but turned and rode away; but it seemed to me that as I
+gained the shadow of the forest and looked back I saw the faint
+suggestion of a girlish form standing at the open window. I looked
+once again and rode on.
+
+When morning came, I bade good-bye to my mother, mounted my black colt
+Toby, and rode away to join the Maryland Line, which was marching now
+from Boston, to meet the British before New York. As that day I
+crossed the line into the province of Delaware, I saw nailed to a
+great oak the proclamation of the Committee of Public Safety,
+denouncing Charles Gordon as a Tory and a traitor, and calling upon
+all persons to have no dealings with him, either in public or private,
+at their peril. And thus it was at every cross-roads in the county of
+Cecil, and in all the counties to the south and west, the edict had
+gone forth.
+
+Now in Maryland, as I have said before, we love, above all else,
+courage in a man, and so I rode under the oak, and tore down the
+proclamation, for I knew the courage of Charles Gordon, Tory though he
+was. I knew also that the proceedings of forfeiture had been
+instituted against him in the High Court of the Province, and that ere
+I set foot on the soil of Maryland again, he would be driven from the
+province, and it was for this that I paid this courtesy to the courage
+of an enemy, as I left my native plains behind me.
+
+It was a long road for a lad, but the people received me with open
+arms and urged me on when I told them whither I was riding. After
+several days of travelling along the shore of the Delaware and across
+the low-lying plains of New Jersey, I came to the banks of the Hudson,
+and saw across the water the great city of New York, its clustering
+houses and steeples. And then it was not long before I was on the
+ferry that conveyed me across the river, and heard the sharp ring of
+the pavement under my horse's feet as I rode toward the great common
+where lay the encampment of the troops. It was near twelve o'clock
+when I came to the camp of the patriots and asked my way of an officer
+to the quarters of the Maryland Line.
+
+"You must be a stranger," he said, "or you would know that the
+Maryland Line always has the place of honour in the camp;" and he
+showed me where their quarters lay.
+
+I felt aglow with pride when I heard this tribute to my countrymen. I
+thanked him and rode on. A few minutes later I was among them. The
+great voice of the Captain was giving me greeting; Dick Ringgold's
+hand was on my shoulder, as he took charge of me; and many of my kith
+and kin, old friends and neighbours who belonged to that famous
+corps, came forward to greet and welcome me to the camp. Thus, after
+many days of sickness and of travel, I took my place among the men who
+were about to face the great storm. True, at the time quiet reigned
+all along our front, which lay over beyond the heights of Brooklyn;
+but hot work was soon expected, as the British fleet had been seen in
+the offing, and it was only a question of time when the army would be
+landed and the attack begun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE RED TIDE OF BLOOD
+
+
+    Spruce Macaronies, and pretty to see,
+    Tidy and dapper and gallant were we;
+    Blooded, fine gentlemen, proper and tall,
+    Bold in a fox-hunt and gay at a ball;
+
+    Tralara! Tralara! now praise we the Lord,
+    For the clang of His call and the flash of His sword.
+    Tralara! Tralara! now forward to die;
+    For the banner, hurrah! and for sweethearts, good-bye!
+
+                JOHN WILLIAMSON PALMER.
+
+
+It was on the 22d day of August that the rumour flew through the camp
+that the enemy had landed and was preparing to attack. But the hours
+flew by, and still no orders came, until the Line became restless, and
+the fear grew that the fight would begin before we could reach the
+field of battle. The sun began to sink over the Heights of Harlem
+when an aide rode into our lines. It was Tench Tilghman, who swung his
+hat and shouted as he went by: "You will have warm work in a day or
+two, boys!"
+
+We gave him a yell in reply, and started with renewed interest the
+preparations for the coming fight. A few minutes later came the orders
+that we were to march at dawn. The men received the news joyfully, and
+it was wonderful to see the change in their bearing; for while the
+doubt hung over them, they were restless and murmuring was heard all
+through the camp; but now all was laughter and gaiety. They prepared
+for the fight as one would prepare for the next county ball or a
+fox-hunt on the morrow.
+
+The stirring notes of the bugle ringing over the camp brought me to my
+feet with a bound, and I looked out of the tent to see a heavy mist
+over everything, and hear the sound of men's voices coming through it
+all around me. It does not take a soldier long to don his uniform, and
+I was soon out attending to my duties. At seven o'clock we were on our
+march to the ferry, crossing the East River at the foot of the main
+street of the small town of Brooklyn; then we took a road leading over
+a creek called Gowanus, and knew that we were marching to guard the
+right of the American line. Low-lying hills, heavily wooded, lay
+before us; it was in these woods that our line was called to a halt,
+and we took up our position for the battle. We lay there several days,
+with constant rumours flying through the camp of the enemy's advance,
+but yet they would not come.
+
+It was on the morning of the 27th of August that the great battle of
+Long Island, so disastrous for the patriot forces, broke upon us. The
+scattering shots of the skirmishers first made us spring to arms; then
+the sharp rattle of the musketry of Atlee's men and the boom of
+Carpenter's cannon on our immediate right told that the enemy was
+pushing them hard. Then through the forest trees came the line of the
+British advance. The fire extended along our whole front, while far
+over, to our left came the distant roar of cannon and musketry.
+
+"They are having a hot time over there," said Dick, "but why don't
+these fellows charge us?"
+
+"They will charge us soon enough," I replied. But it seemed as if they
+never would, for what promised to be an attack along our whole line
+dwindled down to a mere exchange of shots. Hour after hour went by,
+and yet they never advanced beyond a certain point except when a
+company or so would dash forward and a sharp skirmish would break
+forth for a moment or two, and then die away again. But far over to
+our left the sound of the battle came rolling nearer and nearer,
+telling the tale of Sullivan's men being driven in.
+
+"I do not like that," said Dick. "They are doing all the fighting,
+while we are merely exchanging courtesies with our friends six hundred
+yards away. Hello! There comes news."
+
+I looked behind us to a small hill, where Lord Stirling stood with his
+staff, and saw Tench Tilghman riding up at full speed. There was a
+hurried movement among the staff, and Stirling's glasses swept the
+country to our left and rear. A moment later an order was given and
+the aides came dashing down our lines, and then, to our disgust, came
+the order to retire.
+
+"Retreat!" cried one of the men. "Why, we haven't begun to fight
+yet!"
+
+"Steady, men," cried Captain Ramsay; "you form the rear guard and must
+hold the enemy in check," for they were beginning to advance as the
+regiments on each side of us withdrew. Then we began slowly to
+withdraw, but there came an aide riding swiftly to Major Gist.
+Pennsylvania and Delaware regiments took our place in the rear, and we
+were marched rapidly to the front. The heavy woods had heretofore
+prevented our seeing what was taking place, but now that we had come
+out to the opening a wild scene of terror and dismay lay before us.
+Gowanus Creek, deep and unfordable, with its sullen tide rising fast,
+lay like a great ugly serpent across our path, while over the meadow
+and far in our front the broken streams of fugitives were swarming,
+flying toward the bridge at the mill, the only hope of crossing
+Gowanus Creek. And as I looked, to my horror, the mill and the bridge
+burst into flames, catching the routed army as it were between the
+rising tide and the advancing legions of the victorious English. Then,
+as we watched it, a rumour grew and spread through the ranks, as such
+things will in battle, that a New England Colonel had fired the bridge
+to save himself and his regiment. How we cursed New England then, and
+swore that if we ever escaped we would have our reckoning with her and
+her people.
+
+"There they come!" cried Dick at my side, pointing to where a large
+stone house crowned a hill immediately in the rear and commanded the
+whole field of the terror-stricken fugitives.
+
+I saw the brilliant scarlet of their coats as they took possession of
+the hill and prepared to open fire.
+
+"They will have to be driven from there or we are lost," I answered.
+
+Then, as the prospect looked the darkest and the long line of the
+British formed to make their last advance, Lord Stirling rode up to
+our line.
+
+"Men of Maryland!" he shouted, "charge that hill, hold Cornwallis in
+check and save the army!"
+
+We answered with a yell, as he sprang from his horse to lead us.
+
+Ah, I shall never forget the pride with which we stepped out of the
+mass of flying fugitives, four hundred Marylanders, the greatest
+dandies and bluest blood in all the army, for this, the proudest
+service of the day. We formed for the charge as if on the drill
+ground; our evolutions and lines were perfect, and would have done
+credit to the grenadiers of the later empire. Stirling's sword was in
+the air, the drums were beating the charge, when there broke from the
+throats of our Marylanders the wild, thrilling yell of the southern
+provinces, and we leaped to the charge up the long hill, straight into
+the face of Cornwallis's army, a handful against thousands. Up, up the
+hill we dashed. A fire as of hell broke upon us and rattled and roared
+about our ears, thinning our ranks and strewing our pathway with the
+dead. Men fell to the right and to the left of me, and I strode across
+the bodies of the slain in my path; but still, over the roar of the
+cannon and the rattle of musketry, high and shrill rose the yell of
+the charging line. We swept up the hill, the crest was gained, and the
+British fell back before us, when we were met by a sheet of flame, a
+storm of lead and smoke and fire. We were raised as it were in the air
+and held there gasping for breath, and then we were swept back down
+the hill, struggling desperately to gain a foothold to make a stand.
+
+Again we saw Stirling glance over the meadow and the marsh behind us
+as we re-formed our line. His voice came ringing down our ranks.
+
+"Once again, men of Maryland."
+
+Once again! Aye, we knew how to answer that call, for the bodies of
+our comrades lay dotting the long hillside.
+
+"Once again, and charge home!" cried Ramsay.
+
+We sprang to the charge, and wilder, shriller, fiercer, more terrible,
+rose the yell--the yell of vengeance that seemed to pick the line up
+bodily and hurl it up the hill through the scorching, blistering storm
+and hail of lead, fire, and smoke. I remembered naught till the crest
+was gained, and Edward Veasey crying, "Charge home! Charge home!" and
+we dashed in upon the scarlet line. Ah me, for a moment, then it was
+glorious, as steel met steel, and we drove them, ten times our
+number, back, and rolled them up against the house and forced them off
+the plain. And then our hands were on the ugly muzzles of the guns,
+and Edward Veasey, springing on the carriage, cheered on his men. But
+ere it had died on his lips, so desperate was the struggle, the
+English Captain of the guns fired, and Veasey fell. I was but a dozen
+steps away, and, seeing Veasey fall, I dashed through the press of
+bayonets to where the English Captain fought.
+
+"Another one!" he cried, as we met face to face.
+
+"Yes, and the last;" and our swords met.
+
+"No time for that!" cried a voice at my side; then there was a flash,
+and the Englishman fell back into the arms of his men, and the guns
+were won for an instant. But only for an instant. Our men melted away
+under the storm of lead from the Cortelyou house, and the weight of
+the advancing regiments forced us back to the crest of the hill. Then
+slowly, step by step, down the hill they forced us, until we rested
+once more at its foot.
+
+But still the meadow, the marsh, and the creek were black with the
+mass of flying men seeking eagerly, desperately to escape, while
+between them and the victorious British stretched the ranks of the
+Maryland Line, now sadly thinned, for one-third of our men were dyeing
+the long dank grass with their blood. But that line, thin as it was,
+closed up the wide gaps in the ranks with as jaunty a step and as
+gallant a carriage as when they first stepped out for the charge.
+Their faces looked grim, it is true, for with the smoke and the fire,
+and the blood and the dust, the genius of battle had sketched
+thereon.
+
+For a few minutes we rested at the foot of the hill, for we knew that
+our work was not half done, and until the last fugitive was over
+Gowanus Creek we must check the British advance. A glance from Lord
+Stirling told us to charge, as he pointed up the long hill with his
+sword.
+
+Again there came the answering yell, the requiem for many a gallant
+soul, and the line once more swung forward to breast the hill. Up the
+long hill we toiled again, straight into the teeth of the fire.
+
+Again we gained the crest and fought them, man to man; again by weight
+of numbers they forced us off the crest, and sent us staggering,
+reeling down the hill, desperate now.
+
+Yet again Lord Stirling called on us to follow, and yet again we
+charged them home.
+
+Men lay wounded, men lay dying, all across the long hillside, and
+more than half our number were dead or sorely stricken.
+
+Yet it was for a fifth time that Stirling's voice rang clear, over the
+roar of the battle, and for the fifth time we picked up the gauge of
+their challenge, and swept forward in the charge.
+
+Thus for the last time we reached the crest, and for one heroic moment
+held our own, and then came reeling back from the shock. And, as I was
+carried down the hill with the retreating line, I saw the tall figure
+of Lord Stirling standing upright and alone amid the storm of bullets,
+courting death and disdaining to retreat.
+
+"To the rescue of Lord Stirling," I cried to the few soldiers who were
+around me. Dick, who was near, echoed my shout, and we dashed forward,
+determined to bring him off by force if no other way could be found.
+
+But we had not advanced a dozen yards before every man that was with
+us had fallen and only Dick and I reached Lord Stirling, who was
+calmly awaiting the end.
+
+"The day is lost, my lord," I cried, "but we have yet time to save
+you."
+
+"Save yourselves, lads," he replied; "you have done everything that
+men can do, but it remains for me either to die or surrender."
+
+"My lord," I cried; but at this moment Dick reeled. "Struck, by
+George!" he exclaimed, and I caught him as he fell.
+
+"See to your comrade," said Lord Stirling; "you have yet time to
+escape."
+
+So, throwing Dick's arms around my neck, for there was no time to
+parley under that rain of lead, I bore him quickly down the hill.
+
+But our work had not been in vain, for as a soldier came to my
+assistance I saw that the last of the fugitives had reached the other
+side, and the army for the moment was saved.
+
+And so, when we reached the banks of Gowanus Creek, we formed in line
+once more and gave a parting yell of defiance; then, turning, we
+plunged into the creek and swam to the other side, while the shot and
+grape from the English on the hill tore across the whole surface of
+the water.
+
+Dick was badly wounded, but, with the soldier's assistance, I swam
+with him across the creek and bore him safely out of the range of the
+fire.
+
+Ah, it was but a shadow of our former line when we formed once more,
+but the great General himself came to thank us, and that shadow of a
+line was worth a thousand men.
+
+Thereafter we claimed as our own the post of honour in advance or in
+retreat; during the famous march on the night after the battle, and
+in the retreat to White Plains, we formed the rear guard, and the army
+felt secure.
+
+There came a breathing time one day during the retreat, and the
+General rode up to our lines. We greeted him with the yell he loved to
+hear, for it brought back to him the Southland and the hunting fields
+of Old Virginia.
+
+Then he told our officers that he wanted us to pick out the youngest
+of our line to carry a special despatch to the Committee of Public
+Safety, sitting at Annapolis, announcing the battle and the famous
+part we had taken therein. The choice fell on me, as poor Dick was
+groaning in the hospital, but luckily out of danger from his wound.
+
+"Well, my boy, how old are you?" said the General, smiling down upon
+me, as I saluted.
+
+"Eighteen, General."
+
+"Do you think you can carry this safely?"
+
+"I was in the charge at Gowanus Ford, General," said I modestly.
+
+"I see," laughed the General, "you are a true Marylander. I wish I had
+more of you in the army."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE HARRYING OF THE TORY
+
+
+I was soon riding southward, the bearer of the message from General
+Washington to the Council of Safety, sitting at Annapolis; and as I
+rode, the people hailed me for my news, and gave me food and drink, so
+I could hurry on.
+
+At last I reached the borders of Maryland, and again rode under the
+old oak from which I had torn the proclamation. It was only a few
+weeks before, and I wondered what had been the fate of Charles Gordon.
+
+So, as I rode through the Head of Elk late that afternoon and came to
+the ferry there, I asked the boatman what they had done with him.
+
+"Forfeiture has been decreed," he answered, "and the new High Sheriff
+and James Rodolph have gone to-day with a posse and many men to root
+the traitor out."
+
+"How long ago did they start?"
+
+"About an hour."
+
+"What road did they take?"
+
+"The river road. They expect to reach there about nine o'clock.
+Jupiter! I'd like to be there and see the flames reddening the sky. It
+will be a grand sight." He looked longingly through the forest toward
+the Braes.
+
+"Something else will be dyed crimson, if I know that Tory right."
+
+"That there will be, sir; it will be a lovely scrimmage;" and he
+sighed at the lost opportunity.
+
+The boat grounded on the south bank, and I mounted Toby.
+
+"A pleasant ride, sir."
+
+"Thanks; good-night."
+
+"Toby," said I, as I patted his neck, "you have travelled many a mile
+to-day, old fellow; but you will have to cover the ground to-night as
+you never covered it before. They have an hour's start, and we have a
+longer distance to go; so double your legs under you, my boy, and go."
+
+Toby rising to the occasion, and the spirit of old Ranter proving
+true, he broke into the long even gallop that makes the miles pass
+swiftly. It was a race against time, against James Rodolph and his
+crew. I knew if once they gained the Braes, black death would stalk
+among the ruins, for Charles Gordon would never surrender.
+
+The night fell rapidly as we raced along and the miles flew by.
+
+As Toby and I drew near Bohemia Manor, where the road joined the one
+on which the posse was marching, I reined him in and rode more
+cautiously. It was well that I did so, for as I approached I heard
+the low murmur of men's voices and saw their figures in the dim light
+as they were marching by.
+
+I brought Toby to a halt. The road was cut off that way, so I wheeled
+him around to ride back a short distance to where the road skirted the
+open fields of Bohemia Manor. As Toby plunged forward in answer to my
+spur, I heard a cry and then a shot came whistling by. But I left them
+behind, and coming to the open fields, I put Toby at the fence and
+raced across the open country, through the lower fields to the Braes,
+Toby taking the fences in his stride.
+
+Then I dashed once more across the green lawn of the Braes and drew my
+sword hilt across the shutter.
+
+There was a stir in the room above me; the shutter was cautiously
+opened and I was covered by the muzzle of a pistol.
+
+"Who are you?" demanded a voice which I knew to be Charles Gordon's.
+
+"James Frisby of Fairlee," I replied. "I have ridden to warn you, Mr.
+Gordon. You have only a few minutes to escape in; James Rodolph, with
+a hundred men behind him, will be here in ten minutes."
+
+"Thank you, lad, for the information. I will give them a warm
+reception."
+
+"But you cannot hold the Braes against a hundred men; they will burn
+you out, and then Mistress Jean."
+
+"Hum; that is so, lad. Ride round to the rear of the house."
+
+I did so, and a moment later, they came out on the little porch. The
+old gentleman had buckled on his sword, and there were pistols in his
+belt. And she, ah! she never looked more bewitching. Her beautiful
+hair flowed wild about her shoulders, over the light dark mantle in
+which she was wrapped. By the flicker of the candle, I saw that a
+bright flush mantled her cheek, as she spoke rapidly.
+
+"Father, there is an English vessel a few miles down the bay. Call the
+slaves and escape to it."
+
+"But I cannot take you there."
+
+"I will carry her through the lines," I cried, "and see her safe in
+the hands of her aunt in Kent."
+
+They hesitated, but the noise in front of the house told of the
+approaching mob, and there was no time for parley. So, true to my
+race, I acted quickly, and stooping from my saddle I caught her up
+gently and placed her on Toby before me.
+
+"It is the only chance, lad. See that you carry her safely."
+
+"I will carry her through or die," I replied with deep conviction. At
+the touch of the spur Toby sprang forward under his double burden.
+
+"The creek," she cried.
+
+"Yes; but we can swim it."
+
+Indeed it was our only way, as the mob blocked the other roads of
+escape, so we rode boldly in and swam for the other side. The creek
+was several hundred yards wide, but Toby bore us bravely until we
+reached the southern shore, then he plunged forward, threw himself up
+the bank, and we were out of immediate danger.
+
+There we halted for a moment under the shadow of a great tree and
+looked back across the water.
+
+We heard the sound of many voices, the howling of the mob, and through
+the trunks of the trees flickered the glare of the torches. Suddenly
+shots rang out, a cry of dismay and rage followed, and then the flash
+of guns and a rattling volley crashed around the house.
+
+"By Jove, he is fighting it out!" But the slender figure on my arm
+trembled, and I saw that her face was white through the darkness.
+
+"He will escape, Mistress Jean," I said reassuringly; "trust an old
+Highlander for that." And I saw that her eyes were bright and tense,
+watching the scene across the water.
+
+"There he goes," she exclaimed joyfully; and there, gliding swiftly
+through the waters, where the shadow of the trees made the darkness
+more intense, was a long low boat rowed by stalwart slaves. The sound
+of the oars was drowned by the clamour of the mob.
+
+"If he passes the neck," I exclaimed, "he will be safe;" for the creek
+narrowed at its mouth until it was but a hundred yards wide.
+
+"Ride quick to the point," she said.
+
+So Toby plunged forward again at the pressure of my knees, and though
+he still went gallantly on, I could tell that the strain and the toil
+of the long march from the north, and his dash from the Head of Elk,
+were beginning to tell on him.
+
+At last we reached the mouth of the creek, and I brought Toby to a
+halt under the shadow of a clump of trees, where we could see and yet
+not be seen. I glanced for a moment out over the waters of the bay,
+and I saw, several miles to the southward, the gleam of a light as it
+fell on the waves; I knew it was the English man-of-war.
+
+But Mistress Jean's eyes were eagerly searching the waters of the
+creek, and she was straining her ears to catch the sound of the oars.
+Then we were rewarded. For at that moment we heard the long sweep of
+the oars in the water, and out from the mouth of the creek came the
+boat, the brawny negroes bending to their task.
+
+The commanding figure of the old Tory stood in the stern, looking back
+up the creek whence they came. Unconsciously my glance followed his,
+and I saw that the sky was crimson, and high above the tree-tops the
+flames licked the skies.
+
+"The Braes!" I exclaimed, and Mistress Jean was about to call out,
+when there came the sound of galloping hoofs on the other side. A
+horseman dashed into view, and rode into the water up to the
+saddle-girths. There was a flash, and the crack of a pistol broke the
+stillness of the night; then with a gesture of rage, the horseman rose
+in his stirrups and hurled the pistol far over the water; we heard the
+splash as it fell.
+
+Then the figure in the boat raised his clenched hand and shook it at
+the horseman and the flames.
+
+"You fired too quick, Mr. Rodolph," said the ferryman.
+
+"Yes, damn him, he has escaped." He turned his horse and rode into the
+darkness, while a soft voice whispered in my ear,--
+
+"Thank God."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE COUNCIL OF SAFETY
+
+
+The sun had risen when we came once more in view of the groves of
+Fairlee. Toby's pace had degenerated into a walk, as if not to disturb
+the fair burden he bore, for she, overcome with fatigue and
+excitement, was quietly sleeping with her head on my shoulder. Toby
+picked his way like a dancing-master, and though the road was rough,
+never once did he stumble; he still bore himself gallantly for the old
+House of Fairlee. Ah! Toby, that road was miles too short for your
+master. Willingly would he have ridden thus, aye, until his hair had
+turned as white as snow on his brows, until the hand that guided the
+reins became too feeble to grasp them; aye, even unto the end of time.
+
+But before us lay Fairlee, and beyond that lay duty and the army.
+"Look once more, my cavalier," said I to myself; "look once more, for
+the moments are short, and in the days to come, in the dreary bivouacs
+and on the long marches, when the world seems bare and cold, the
+memory of that sweet face will brighten up with sunshine your
+existence and make it all glorious again. Oh, hang it, here is
+Fairlee!"
+
+"Mistress Jean," I whispered. I was loath to wake her, but it had to
+be done. "Mistress Jean!" I said, this time louder, and she awoke with
+a start. "This is Fairlee, and you can rest here with my mother, while
+I push on."
+
+"Fairlee? Why, where am I? Oh, I remember now. Did I go to sleep, Mr.
+Frisby?"
+
+"You did, Mistress Jean."
+
+A quick, blush came.
+
+"Oh," she said, "how can I thank you? I don't deserve----"
+
+"Ah, Mistress Jean, it is I who do not deserve that pleasure. I would
+go through a hundred fights to be able to do it again; but you are
+tired, and I will rouse the house."
+
+So, hammering on the door, I soon brought John Cotton to it. His
+woolly hair almost went straight on seeing me, and he started back,
+for he thought he saw my ghost.
+
+"Good Lord, Mars Jim," he stammered, "does that be you?"
+
+"Yes, you black scamp." And I soon convinced him of my real
+personality.
+
+"But, Mars Jim, who is dat you got wid you? It ain't one of dem
+Yankee ladies, is it?" For, I am sorry to say, John Cotton did not
+approve of the ladies in question, and was afraid I would "disgrace de
+family" if I married one of them. Before I could answer I heard a glad
+little cry, and there was my mother, coming down the stairway of the
+great hall.
+
+"How is my little lady?" said I, as I picked her up and kissed her,
+and then I introduced Mistress Jean to her and told her of our
+adventure at the Braes.
+
+Then my mother went up to her, in her stately little way, and took her
+hands in hers, and kissed and welcomed her to the House of Fairlee.
+
+So they made friends with each other then and there, as women do, and
+my mother led her away, up the broad stairs, and I stood looking after
+them. Then I turned to my own room, and, throwing myself on the bed,
+I slept the sleep of exhaustion for many hours.
+
+When the hour of my awakening came I sprang up, for there lay the
+despatch which I was to bear to the Council of Safety.
+
+Drawing on my riding-boots and buckling on my sword, I called John
+Cotton to bring my horse to the door, for several miles lay between
+Fairlee and Rock Hall, where the boat lay to take me to Annapolis.
+
+I walked across to the hall and on to the old porch, where I saw
+Mistress Jean standing, gazing wistfully out on the broad bay.
+
+"He is safe now, Mistress Jean."
+
+"Yes," she said with a sad smile, "but when shall I ever see him
+again?"
+
+"Just as soon as we whip them," I replied.
+
+"Then it will never be," came her retort.
+
+"Oh, ho! What will your uncle, Captain Nicholson, say when he finds he
+has such a fiery little Tory in his house? He will have to give up
+chasing the redcoats to suppress the Goddess of Sedition in his own
+camp."
+
+But at this Mistress Jean gave her head a toss and walked away to the
+end of the porch.
+
+Then John Cotton brought the horse to the steps.
+
+"Are you going so soon, Mr. Frisby?"
+
+"I must," I answered; "I am a bearer of despatches to the Council of
+Safety. I would gladly desert my trust to be your escort to
+Chestertown, but--"
+
+"The honour of the House of Fairlee stands in the way," said she
+mockingly.
+
+"Not that, my lady," I replied, bowing courteously, "but the fact that
+I would fall even lower in your good graces."
+
+"Well said, cavalier," she retorted, with a sweeping courtesy. "'Tis a
+pity that so fine a gentleman should be a rebel."
+
+"Or so fair a maid a Tory."
+
+"Is this a minuet?" came the laughing voice of my mother from the
+door.
+
+"Nay, mother, I am only bidding Mistress Jean good-bye with all due
+ceremony."
+
+A few moments later I was in the saddle, trotting slowly off, while
+behind me fluttered their handkerchiefs, waving good-bye.
+
+Rock Hall lies on a bluff, looking out across the bay. To the
+southward lies the Isle of Kent, with its fertile fields of waving
+grain, and off there on the horizon the greenish ribbon near the sky
+line tells where the hills of Anne Arundel lay.
+
+Down below, under the bluff, lay a long, slender boat, shaped like a
+canoe, but much larger, stouter, stronger, and far swifter, when the
+wind filled its sails and carried it like a bird skimming over the
+waters.
+
+"An English man-of-war is lying off the Isle of Kent now," said the
+old waterman in answer to my question, "but we can walk all around her
+in this boat."
+
+"Then we will start immediately," I replied, and placing my things on
+board we were soon under way.
+
+The wind caught our sails; we stood out into the bay gloriously, and
+she fairly flew through the water. As we rounded the Isle of Kent we
+saw, lying almost in our track, the English man-of-war, lazily rolling
+with the tide.
+
+Then there was a great bustle on board, and the sailors flew to the
+rigging, the sails filled with the wind, and through the port hole was
+run the ugly muzzle of a Long Tom. The waterman with me laughed
+merrily.
+
+"They think they can stop us," said he, but he never altered his
+course.
+
+So we bore down on her until there came a flash; a cannon ball came
+ricochetting across the water, but fell short by a hundred yards.
+
+The waterman chuckled. "That is about the right distance," said he;
+and the boat answering the helm, fairly danced around his Majesty's
+representative, always, by a saving grace, just beyond cannon shot.
+
+And when his Majesty's ship actually gave chase and sent a broadside
+after our impertinent piece of baggage the waterman fairly danced with
+delight and led her a merry chase down the bay until we were opposite
+Annapolis. Then with a flirt of her sail we bade them good-bye and ran
+for the mouth of the Severn. Gaining that, we soon passed the charred
+hulk of the Peggy Stewart and ran up beside the wharf, and I found
+myself walking the streets of that gay little capital.
+
+It was growing somewhat late, but I made my way at once to the State
+House, where the Convention of the Freemen of the Province sat, hoping
+still to find them at their deliberations. I paused for the moment
+when I came to the foot of the knoll on which the State House stands,
+for it had only recently been completed, and was the noblest building
+in America. Its massive proportions towered high above me, overawing
+the town at its feet, and commanding the country for miles around. But
+it was not a time for halting. Hurrying up the long flights of steps,
+I found myself in the great lobby, with its lofty ceilings and its air
+of vastness.
+
+The Convention had adjourned but a short time before, and the lobby
+was still filled with men. As I threaded my way through them my dusty
+uniform and muddy boots marked me out as a bearer of despatches.
+
+"News from the army--victory or defeat?" cried eager voices around me.
+Answer them I would not, but hurried on to the room where sat the
+Council of Safety, who held the fate and the fortunes of the province
+in its hand and was the heart and soul of the great revolt.
+
+An usher stood at the door, but, seeing my uniform, threw it wide
+open, and, as I entered, softly swung it to behind me. It was a lofty
+room in which I found myself, with immense windows looking out over
+the town and the sweep of the waters of the bay to the distant line
+of the eastern shore. A long, broad table extended down the centre of
+the room. Around it were seated some sixteen or eighteen gentlemen.
+Staid men and grave they were, past the middle age of life, for the
+younger men had gone to fight the battles of the republic; men who
+were fitted by experience to guide the province through the stormy
+scenes of the civil war.
+
+At their head sat a venerable gentleman whom I knew to be Matthew
+Tilghman, the patriarch of the Colony. At his right hand sat a man of
+sturdy build, ruddy countenance, and dark hair and eyes, more like a
+prosperous planter with many acres and numerous slaves than the man
+who was soon to become the Great War Governor of Maryland. All down
+the table on either side sat men with strong, determined faces, whose
+names bespoke the chieftainship of many a powerful family. A movement
+of interest ran down the table as I entered and delivered to the
+venerable Chairman the despatch. He broke the seal with nervous
+fingers, and then rising, read General Washington's despatch aloud
+amid intense interest.
+
+"Battle," "defeat," "rout," "Cortelyou House," "the Maryland Line."
+"Good, I see the boys did their duty," were among the many
+exclamations I heard around the table and when the despatch ended.
+
+"The bearer will describe the battle."
+
+They all turned to me, and Thomas Johnson said: "Come, young
+gentleman, tell us everything you saw and heard."
+
+So I took my place by the Chairman and told them of what I had seen
+and done, amid many interruptions and eager questions from the
+Council.
+
+Thus for a time, as I stood there, I became a man of importance,
+telling the tale of the battle, of the defeat and the rout, of the
+fiery charges, the death, the pain and the anguish of it all, until
+long after the night had fallen. But an end comes to all things, and
+Thomas Johnson, laying his hand on my shoulder, said:
+
+"Young gentleman, you must stay with me to-night."
+
+I accepted gladly, for the inns were crowded, and it was somewhat late
+in the evening to find a friend to take me in. We strolled across the
+State House grounds under the soft September skies, through the wide,
+dusty streets, until we came to the future Governor's house. Though it
+was late, we talked for yet another hour, and then, with a cheery
+good-night, I was shown to my room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE VETO OF A MAID
+
+
+Ah, I am afraid the clean white sheets, the soft springy bed, and the
+balmy September air proved traitor to me, after the hardships of a
+soldier's life in the field, the rough bivouac, and the hard ride from
+the North, for when I awoke with a start, I found the sun high in the
+heavens and the music of birds coming through the open window from the
+trees outside. Hurriedly dressing, I opened my door and went down the
+broad stairway into the old hall. Everything was quiet, not a soul was
+around. I wandered across the hall and parlour, and there I stood for
+a few minutes, looking out into the street, when a merry burst of
+laughter across the hall attracted my attention. The door of the room
+opposite was slightly ajar, and I saw that it was the library of the
+house; so crossing the hall, I gently rapped on the panel. A cheery
+"Come in!" was my answer. I obeyed the summons, threw the door open,
+and entered.
+
+"Why, it is our feather-bed soldier," came a merry voice from the
+broad window-sill, where sat two young ladies. A peal of ringing
+laughter followed; for, indeed, I was somewhat non-plussed to thus
+come upon two such laughing, merry girls.
+
+    One was dark, the other fair;
+    Both were sweet and debonair.
+
+Indeed they were very pretty, sitting there amid the quaint old
+surroundings, the heavy old book-presses, with solid oak doors, the
+wainscoting extending to the ceiling, the broad window-seats, the
+green trees, and quiet garden beyond. I knew at once that they must be
+daughters of my host, Mistress Polly and Mistress Betsy Johnson, at
+that time the reigning belles of the western shore.
+
+"Now I know what awaited me I shall never forgive that feather-bed," I
+replied, recovering from my confusion and making my best bow. "I would
+never have proved such a traitor to my cloth."
+
+"That is better," said Mistress Polly, the black-haired, dark-eyed
+one. "Come and report to us, sir. Do you not know that no officer
+returns from the army who does not immediately report to us?"
+
+"I understand their alacrity in doing so. I shall be among the first
+to obey the order hereafter."
+
+"Then, sir, come tell us of the battle, and what brought you hither so
+fast that the mud is still upon your boots?"
+
+Now, telling the account of the battle to two charming young ladies,
+whose bright eyes and eager faces told of the interest they took in my
+narrative, was a far different thing from telling the same tale before
+the powerful Council of Safety, and I am free to confess that I
+enjoyed the last far more than the first.
+
+Their exclamations and excited questions spurred me on, and I drew the
+picture of the battle with a stronger hand and painted myself a hero,
+which I am afraid I was far from being.
+
+But Mistress Betsy suddenly sat up straight, exclaiming:
+
+"Bless me, Polly, Mr. Frisby has not had his breakfast, and here it is
+near ten o'clock"--an outrageous late hour in those days.
+
+At this both Mistress Polly and Mistress Betsy sprang to their feet,
+and I was duly conducted to the dining-room, where a delightful
+breakfast awaited me, which I endeavoured to eat amid their sallies
+and their questioning.
+
+We were having a very gay time of it, when there came a heavy step
+through the hall into the room, and a cheery voice asked: "How is the
+soldier to-day? In good hands, I see." It was Thomas Johnson.
+
+"That he is, sir," I replied, rising, "and he thoroughly enjoys it
+too."
+
+"Spoken like a soldier," replied our future Governor, "and like a
+soldier you must leave at once, for the Council desire you to carry
+these despatches posthaste to General Washington."
+
+"No; he shall not," cried Mistress Polly, with a stamp of her foot.
+"He has promised to drive our four-in-hand to the races this
+afternoon, and I am not going to let that Council of old fogies rob us
+of the only soldier in town who has seen service for at least one
+day."
+
+"So that is the way the wind blows," said her father, pinching her
+cheek and laughing. "I will tell the great Council of Public Safety
+that they have been overruled by a maid."
+
+"It will not be the first time," she retorted. "Their wives overrule
+them every day."
+
+"I will ride all night to make it up," I suggested.
+
+"Never mind, my boy," he replied, "you deserve a little holiday; you
+need not leave Annapolis until nightfall, and Kent the following
+night, which will give you a chance to see your mother again. There, I
+hope this little minx will give me some peace now."
+
+The treaty was quickly sealed by a kiss, and Mistress Polly ran off to
+give the order for the coach-and-four, for the races began at one
+o'clock and the course was a short distance out of the city.
+
+There soon came a clatter of hoofs, a rattle, a slam and a bang, a
+whoaing, a yelling, and a confusion of noises.
+
+"They have put the colts in," cried Mistress Betsy with glee, and
+Mistress Polly was at the door crying, "Come on."
+
+"Great Jove!" said I to myself, as I seized my hat and followed after,
+for though I had driven many a wild team I had never done so through a
+town before. And four devils they were for a certainty, a little under
+size, but making up for that by the fire and vim of their proceedings.
+
+The heels of the wheelers were playing like castanets on the
+dashboard, while the leaders were in the air half the time as they
+swayed above the crowd of darkies, who, hanging on everywhere, were
+trying to hold them down, while the great coach swayed and rocked
+behind.
+
+There was a flash of skirts, a gleam of the smallest feet in the
+world, and Mistress Polly and Mistress Betsy were in their places, and
+I had sprung to my seat and gathered the reins in my hands.
+
+"All ready, Captain?"
+
+"Ready. Let go." They scattered like chaff. There was a flash of hoofs
+and they were off like a shot, their bodies stretched low to the
+ground, the great coach rolling and rocking behind.
+
+Luckily the street ended in a country road, for the street and the
+houses were gone in an instant, and we were rushing along between
+green fields. A column of dust rose up and whirled behind us, and the
+road stretched like a ribbon before, while the young ladies at my side
+laughed and clapped their hands in glee. After several miles the pace
+began to tell, I slowly brought them under control, and by the time I
+had come to the race-course I had them well in hand. We had gone
+several miles out of our way, but by taking a short cut we arrived at
+the races on time. I brought the four colts into the field with a dash
+and a flourish as they were preparing for the first race.
+
+The course was a great level field of greensward, oval in shape, with
+the track in beautiful condition. Far down the track on either hand,
+almost encircling the field, stretched the lines of the coaches,
+chariots, gigs, and wagons. Gentlemen on horseback and on foot, an
+eager, bustling crowd, gay with colours and bright faces, already
+tingling with the excitement of the coming race, made a stirring
+scene; for the Trinity of the Marylanders in the early days of my
+youth were the horse, the hounds, and a fight.
+
+But though the faces were fair, merry, and pleasant to look upon,
+though the chariots and four-in-hands were gorgeous and bedecked,
+there was a woful lack of cavaliers to make those damask cheeks
+mantle with a blush, for they were away fighting in the North. Thus it
+was, as I drove down the line in my uniform of scarlet and buff, to
+find a stand, that Mistress Polly and Mistress Betsy had their
+triumph, and many a fair face turned our way as we drove by, until I
+brought the coach to a halt in a good place next to the parson, where
+he sat his cob, watching the preliminaries.
+
+"Find the parson," said Mistress Polly judiciously, "and you will have
+found the best place in the field."
+
+"Oh, Mistress Polly, you are a minx," said that reverend gentleman.
+"How in the world could I make the youngsters come to church if they
+did not know I was a good judge of horseflesh as well as a minister?"
+
+"They are off," cried Mistress Betsy. The race had begun; but why
+describe the race? Those who have never seen a race are mere
+worthless creatures deserving no consideration, and those who have
+seen a race do not need a description. At the mere name they see the
+grand thoroughbreds at the line, their coats shining like satin in the
+sun, eager and ready to be off. Then the flag falls, and, amid the
+rustling of skirts and craning of necks, they are off. Ah, and then
+comes the glorious excitement of it all as you watch with eager eyes
+that ribbon of a track, and see now this one, now that one, slowly
+draw away from the bunch at the start, and the closing of the space
+again, until they become mere moving spots on the far side of the
+field. And then, that home stretch, with its thunder of hoofs, its
+roar of voices, and cheers and yells, as the grand beasts, with
+straining nerves and neck to neck, make the last great effort; and
+afterward the triumph, the waving of handkerchiefs, the great cheer
+that greets the victor, and the smiles of merry lips and laughing
+eyes. Those were the prizes we raced for, when racing was the pastime
+of gentlemen, and not an excuse for blackguardism and gambling, as
+to-day it is fast becoming. So my kind hosts and I made our little
+bets, and enjoyed ourselves right thoroughly, until the last race,
+which was won by a grandson of the great Selim, was over and done.
+Then I swung my four colts into the road again, and at a rattling pace
+returned to town.
+
+It was late now, and the sun was preparing to take its last dip behind
+the western hills; so I was forced to bid my charming hostesses adieu,
+and amid many good wishes and a waving of handkerchiefs, departed to
+seek my waterman, to begin my trip across the bay.
+
+The town became a blur, a dark mass behind us, broken by the twinkling
+of the lights through the gloom, as we swiftly glided down the Severn
+before the wind. Out upon the bay it was still light, and we steered
+for the north point of the Isle of Kent. The wind was fresh. With all
+sail set we skimmed the water before it, and ere many hours had passed
+we saw the light through the gloom of Rock Hall straight ahead. But
+the old waterman suddenly brought his helm around hard, and pointed
+her nose for the wide mouth of the Chester close at hand.
+
+"What is wrong?" I asked, and for an answer he pointed with his arm to
+where against the sky were outlined the tapering masts of a large
+vessel lying between us and Rock Hall.
+
+"That is a man-of-war," he said, "we will have to run up the river to
+Chestertown."
+
+"Agreed," said I, right readily, for I thought I might see Mistress
+Jean once more before I went back to the front.
+
+The mouth of the Chester was soon gained, and for hours, through the
+stillness of the night, we glided over its smooth waters, between low,
+heavily wooded banks, or the broad sweeping fields of some plantation,
+whose boundaries were lapped by the waters of the river. In the early
+morning, in the dusky gray hours, we ran along beside the wharf of the
+old county seat of Kent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE GREETING OF FAIR LIPS
+
+
+After wandering through the streets of this old town during the early
+hours of the morning, seeing it gradually wake into life and take on
+the quiet bustle of the day, I at last found myself before the inn,
+which had just been opened.
+
+The host was an old friend, and we were soon fighting over the battles
+again, when a shadow fell across us and I sprang to my feet.
+
+It was Capt. James Nicholson, one of the three brothers who fought
+their ships in sunshine and in storm, while there was a plank left for
+them to stand upon, carrying dismay through the English fleets by
+their desperate courage and daring. He was a man about forty years
+old, over medium height, but slender and of fair complexion, with
+light blue eyes and reddish hair, a typical descendant of that old
+Viking, Nicholson, who fought some famous fights under King Haco, and
+harried the coasts of Scotland until he gained a foothold there and
+founded the Scottish family of the name. The same open, bold
+countenance of the Admiral, the same frank and manly bearing, showed
+him to be a sailor and a fighter.
+
+"Hello, Frisby," said he, shaking my hand cordially. "With the dove so
+near I knew that the hawk would not be far away."
+
+I stammered out, as the landlord smiled, that I was forced to come to
+Chestertown to avoid the man-of-war lying off Rock Hall.
+
+"She is off Rock Hall, is she? Well, I shall have to chase her away
+with the Defence next week. But is that your only excuse for coming
+so far out of your way?"
+
+And when I protested that it was, he laughed genially, and, turning to
+the landlord, said: "He does not look like a knight-errant who flies
+to the rescue of maids, and Tory maids at that, does he? But see here,
+youngster, since you have brought this little traitress into my
+household, you will have to do your share in converting her to the
+true principles of liberty and democracy."
+
+"Keep that for the men, Captain," cried the landlord. "Keep that for
+the men; the women give us no peace, as it is, and if they once get
+those notions there will be no living with them."
+
+"Ah, you old reprobate, you had better not let your wife hear you."
+
+With this we left the inn, and going through some quiet streets, we at
+last came to Water Street, with its square brick houses, gardens and
+flowers, and green lawns leading to the river. Very substantial were
+the buildings, quaint and old-fashioned. A number of white steps led
+from the street to the porch of the Captain's house. When, at his
+motion, I opened the door and stepped into the hall, which was
+somewhat dark after the glare of the street, there came a flurry of
+lace, and soft arms were around my neck. And--well, what could a man
+do but return that kiss with interest? But the best things are but
+fleeting, for, when she glanced at my face, and saw who I was, she
+gave a little cry, broke from my arms, and vanished in confusion up
+the stairway, followed by the merry laughter of the real uncle, not
+the proxy.
+
+"You surely cannot object to that welcome, Frisby; but I must tell
+Mistress Jean to be more careful, or the army will lose a promising
+officer. They will not be able to keep you away from the town if this
+keeps on."
+
+So saying, he led the way to the rear porch where it overlooked the
+lawn and the river.
+
+Here we sat and talked until the breakfast-bell rang, and we went into
+the dining-room. I was as hungry as a trooper by this time, after my
+all-night experience on the Chester.
+
+The dining-room was a long room, with open windows looking out across
+the river and the fields.
+
+We had not as yet taken our seats, when through another door came
+Mistress Jean and Mistress Nancy Nicholson, her bosom friend and
+confidante, with their arms around each other's waists--a charming
+picture.
+
+The colour mantled high on Mistress Jean's cheek, and I am sure that
+mine played the traitor also, but Mistress Nancy came to the rescue by
+demanding news and particulars of her cavalier, for such she declared
+Mr. Richard Ringgold of Hunting Field to be.
+
+Answering, I told her that I had left him covered with blood and with
+glory, but on the fair road to recovery. And so, though Mistress Jean
+still showed a heightened colour, in telling of Master Richard's
+fortunes and escapes we broke the embarrassment of the meeting, and
+were soon fast friends again. It was a merry breakfast. Afterward the
+two young ladies and I walked in the garden by the river's edge and
+talked of many things,--of war and campaigning, for I claimed to be an
+authority by now, and quite a veteran,--of love; but that was too
+dangerous, for Mistress Nancy would look at me slyly and laugh as she
+asked if I was as great an authority upon the one as I was upon the
+other.
+
+I retorted that I had heard many a lecture on the subject from Master
+Richard, but otherwise knew nothing of the art, and then I begged her
+to take me as a pupil, so that in time I might become as great a
+scholar as Dick himself. But she roguishly recommended me to her
+Assistant Professor Mistress Jean Gordon, who, she told me, knew more
+of the art than she did herself. And then, having come to some boxwood
+alleys, she slipped away and left Mistress Jean and me alone.
+
+"They tell me, Mistress Jean, that love is war; may I ask what the
+fate of the prisoners is?"
+
+"As in real war," she replied, "those who surrender at discretion
+receive but scant courtesy, but those who make a gallant resistance
+are often victorious in their defeat."
+
+"I see that you love the old Highland fashion, where the bridegroom
+came with force and arms and bore the bride away."
+
+"Better swords and daggers, and hearts that are true, than silks and
+satins, Lowland fops and perfidy."
+
+"English swords have crossed ere this with Highland steel, and English
+hearts are as tried and as true as those that beat beneath the plaid,"
+said I, coming to the defence of my English ancestry.
+
+"So ho! Sir Rebel!" she cried in glee, "what means this defence of the
+hated redcoat? Do you not fear the shadow of the great committee that
+you preach treason so openly?" And she looked so bewitching in her
+little triumph that I had to thrust my hands into my pockets and turn
+away, so great was the temptation.
+
+"I will turn Highlander," said I, "if you do not stop."
+
+"Stop?" she said with the most innocent air in the world.
+
+"Aye," said I, "for if your Highlanders have ever been sturdy knaves,
+the Frisbys have ever been quick where bright eyes and ruby lips are
+concerned, and there is no telling what might happen." And I looked so
+determined and fierce that she broke into merry laughter in my face.
+
+"Your fate be upon you," said I solemnly; and--well, at that moment, I
+heard Captain Nicholson calling that my horse was at the door, waiting
+for me.
+
+"That means that I must go, Mistress Jean," and the laughter died on
+her lips, "go to join my comrades in the North in their struggle for
+the Great Cause. When you hear of battles and sieges and sudden
+deaths, will you sometimes think of the young rebel who rode with you
+from the Braes to Fairlee? For wherever he may be, whether in the
+glory of the rush and the sweep of the charge, or the gloomy and
+dismal retreat; whether in the camp on the bleak hillside, with the
+cold north wind blowing, or bivouacked in the Southern savannahs
+warmed by the rays of the sun; in the fatigue and the toil of the
+marches, amid the groans and cries of the dying, or the joy and
+triumph of the hour when the fight has been fought and won, your smile
+shall always be with him, the light of your eye in his heart. Will you
+think of him, or forget, Mistress Jean?"
+
+"I will think of him." Her voice was very low and sweet. Then I
+stooped and kissed her hand, the fairest hand that man ever looked
+upon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE RETURN OF THE TORY
+
+
+As I turned to ride away, after bidding good-bye to the Captain, I
+heard a voice calling me, and looking up, I saw Mistress Nancy at a
+window, and riding under it she commanded me to convey to Master
+Richard a tiny case wrapped in many papers.
+
+"And now, sir," said she, "here is something for you;" and she threw
+me a little case, which, on opening quickly, I saw contained a
+miniature of a fair young girl, with a wealth of dark brown hair, the
+loveliest eyes and the sweetest face.
+
+"Mistress Nancy," I cried, "you are my guardian angel." Placing the
+miniature over my heart, I threw her a kiss, and rode on my way
+rejoicing.
+
+I rode from Chestertown to Fairlee, where I bade my mother good-bye,
+and from there I took up the trail to the North, riding into camp one
+evening just as the sun was setting.
+
+I reported immediately to the great General, who thanked me for the
+speed with which I had carried the despatches and returned. And then I
+was once more among my old comrades of the Line.
+
+They crowded around me, one and all, for I had messages for many of
+them, and they were eager for the news of old Kent and the shore, and
+my welcome was right royal.
+
+And now, for a month or so, disasters came crowding upon our arms;
+defeat and death stalked through our ranks, and cast a gloom over the
+cause.
+
+We fought the fight at White Plains, and when Fort Washington fell
+many of our Maryland boys went to the hulks of old Jersey to find a
+last resting-place under the cold gray waters of Wallabout Bay. Amid
+constant marching, skirmishes, and defeats the months slipped away,
+and the cold gloomy winter was upon us. Ah, how cold and bleak and
+barren the hillsides looked after the smiling fields of Maryland,
+touched and warmed by the Southern sun! And then the cold, the bitter
+cold of it all, the white winding sheet of the snow and the ice made
+us shiver and hug the fire of dry fence-rails and button our
+threadbare coats more tightly around us, while we looked in despair at
+the toes peeping through the ends of our boots. But the great General
+knew how to warm the blood in our veins and drive the despair from our
+hearts, when on that bitterly cold Christmas night he led us across
+the Delaware and hurled us against the Hessians.
+
+It is true that we left a trail of blood as we marched, dyeing the
+snow with its crimson. Yet the fight itself was glorious, and when we
+came back in our triumph the cold and the snow were as nothing. We
+made sport of our rags and tatters and laughed the English to scorn.
+
+Then again when we struck them at Princeton seven days later, threw
+the dust in Cornwallis's eyes, and played with him as we willed, we
+were ready to follow our leader wherever he pointed the way.
+
+And so, after humbling the English, we returned to our camp for the
+winter, and there made ready for the spring, when we saw my Lord
+Cornwallis back on the Hudson again.
+
+Then we lay in Jersey, watching them over in New York, until far into
+the summer, ready to take up the march when the news should come of
+the destination of the English fleet that lay off Sandy Hook.
+
+At last one day there came a horseman spurring fast from the
+southward, bearing the news of a vast fleet that covered the waves of
+the Chesapeake and lay at that moment off the harbor of Baltimore,
+threatening it with fire and sword.
+
+Then there was a mighty bustle in the camp, and we whose homes were
+now in danger took up the march to the southward, eager to meet the
+foe.
+
+When we reached Philadelphia we found that the enemy had entered the
+Elk, and was now marching on the city, while the hastily called
+Maryland and Delaware volunteers threw themselves in the way, cutting
+off straggling parties and obstructing the advance.
+
+So we hurried on to assist them, and found ourselves on the evening of
+the 10th of September at the Brandywine, with the English advance but
+a few miles away.
+
+It was here that I met with one of the volunteers, who on hearing the
+English were in the Chesapeake had taken his rifle from the rack and
+joined in the defence. He came from lower Kent, but told me of the
+devastation all through the county of Cecil, wherever the enemy had
+laid its blighting hand.
+
+"They tell me," he said, "that the old Tory, Charles Gordon, whom they
+ran out of Cecil, is with Lord Howe, and high in his counsels. When
+they arrived in the Elk, Gordon, with a body of troops, marched all
+night and attacked the house of James Rodolph at dawn. Rodolph was
+away from home, and that is the only thing that saved him, for they
+say that Gordon swore that he would hang him if he once caught him. As
+it was, he gave Rodolph's house to the flames, and burned everything
+on the place. 'An eye for an eye,' said he, 'is a Highland saying as
+well as a Jewish one. I regret that I cannot destroy the land as
+well.' Rodolph, when he heard of it, stormed and swore, but he has not
+dared to venture within the confines of Cecil since."
+
+"Did Gordon do anything else?" I asked.
+
+"No. After he burnt Rodolph out he tried to stop Lord Howe from
+pillaging, but his lordship answered, 'You have had your turn, and now
+you must let the others have theirs,' and so the pillaging went on."
+
+But the planters and the yeomen who had risen at the first alarm hung
+on the flanks of Lord Howe's army, cutting off stragglers and
+scouting-parties, and confining the belt of desolation within narrow
+lines.
+
+At last came the 11th of September, the day when we met Lord Howe at
+the Brandywine, and were sent reeling back in disorderly retreat, when
+by a skilful march they outflanked our right wing and rolled it up.
+
+And then disaster followed disaster. Paoli came, that grim and bloody
+surprise at the dead of night. We had marched with Wayne and gained
+the rear of the British column, and lay for the night in a dense wood,
+waiting for the recruits under Smallwood, who was marching to join us,
+before we began our attack on the British rear.
+
+It was in the early hours of the morning, the blackest of the night,
+the hour before the dawn, when there came sudden shots from our
+pickets, and before we could spring to arms the Highland war-cry rang
+through the forest and the Black Watch swept over us. The wild forms
+of the Highlanders, the intense darkness, the surprise, the din and
+noise of the strife as those who could grasp their muskets made a
+desperate stand, struck terror through the camp, and ere the men could
+rally we were swept into the woods beyond. It seemed to me, as I was
+borne along in the press, I heard, high over the charging cry of the
+Scots, the voice of the old Tory cheering his men on. Certain it is
+that I saw him for a moment by the light of a camp-fire, sword in
+hand, urging on his wild Scots, who seemed to grow wilder under his
+leadership, as our line melted away before their advance.
+
+Ah! but it was grim and terrible. Our men, overcome by the surprise
+and the rout, carried terror into the camp of Smallwood's recruits,
+which was near at hand, and they, too, gave way.
+
+But the dawn came: with it we gathered our shattered forces together
+and marched back to join Washington.
+
+Philadelphia fell, but the tide soon turned; for at Germantown we once
+more met them and avenged the surprise at Paoli.
+
+But the thing that thrilled us through and through and set our banners
+high was the courage of our brothers of the Line, who, thrown into
+Fort Mifflin, held it in the teeth of the enemy's fire until every gun
+was dismounted and the fort itself levelled to the earth, leaving
+nothing to defend. It was a brave and gallant action, and we envied
+them for their good fortune.
+
+We had avenged Paoli at Germantown, yet this added another wreath to
+our banner. It was a thing to stir the blood and to set the pulses
+bounding to hear how those heroes fought under the crumbling walls of
+Mifflin, and prayed for the friendly cover of night to fall to hide
+them from that storm of fire and shell, and yet fought on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE FLAG OF TRUCE
+
+
+The long hard winter soon came on, and we retired to Valley Forge to
+suffer and to bear what was far more deadly than the English
+bullets--the terrible cold and desolation of that dreary place. Cold,
+bitterly cold it was, as the wind came down from the mountains, swept
+over the broad fields, pierced through our torn and tattered garments,
+and racked our frames with pain. And yet, terrible as the exposure
+was, there stands out one bright day in all that dreary winter, one
+day, one hour in which I forgot all the cold and the hardships and
+would not have been elsewhere for anything in the wide world.
+
+It was near the setting of the sun on one of the bleakest and coldest
+days of the year. The sun itself was sinking behind the distant hills,
+and the sky was brilliant with its fiery javelins, which threw a lurid
+light across the cold gray heavens, the last protest of departing day
+against the approach of the chill dismal night. The snow lay heavy
+upon the ground, and spread like a great white pall over the sins and
+sorrows of the world. Before us stretched the road, unbroken and
+trackless; not a man had passed that way, for we stood guard at the
+outpost, and the flicker of the foeman's fire could be seen six
+hundred yards away, through the gloom.
+
+"Lucifer, but it is cold!" said one of the guard, as he threw another
+rail on the fire and held his hands out over the flames to warm them.
+
+"Aye; Old Nick himself would not be a bad acquaintance now--his smell
+of brimstone and sulphur might warm us up a bit," said another.
+
+We were making the best we could of it, under the lee of a high bank
+by the side of the road, where we had cleared a space and stacked a
+good supply of dry fence-rails to feed the fire during the night. The
+wind from the northwest swept over our heads, sheltered as we were by
+the bank, and we would have defied the cold that crept ever upward but
+for the rags and tatters that covered our frames. The men themselves
+were cheerful, as they sat hugging the fire, and laughed and joked at
+their hardships.
+
+"I wonder if those Highland devils will bother us to-night?" asked
+one, for the Black Watch held the outpost down the road.
+
+"They will be too busy warming their knees," came the reply from
+across the fire, and a laugh followed.
+
+"Hello, what is that?" for the thud of hoofs was heard on the road
+coming from the camp.
+
+"A flag of truce, by George!" said the sergeant. "Who on earth wants
+to go through the lines on a night like this?"
+
+The party, consisting of several troopers, an officer, and what
+appeared to be a woman on horseback, was soon within hailing distance,
+and I heard Ringgold's voice call out:
+
+"I say, Frisby, are you in charge here?"
+
+"Yes," I replied. "What's up?"
+
+"We have a prisoner here who wishes to go through the lines, but I
+don't know whether you will permit her or not."
+
+"Is she fair?" I asked. "For in that case she shall not pass unless
+she gives us a smile by way of tribute as she rides by."
+
+"Not even if George Washington so orders, sir," said a voice that I
+knew.
+
+"By the saints, my lady!" I cried, and I was by her side in an
+instant. "What brings you here, and why are you going within the
+English lines?"
+
+"Should not a daughter be with her father?" she asked.
+
+"But those bloody English, with all their fine trappings and their
+feathers! Nay, my lady, you have been disrespectful to the Continental
+Congress, as I can vouch for. You are our prisoner, and I will not let
+you escape thus, to smile on the wearers of his Majesty's uniform."
+
+But she laughed quite merrily, and answered my threat with "Lieutenant
+Ringgold, pray ride on with the flag of truce."
+
+"Dick Ringgold," I cried in my turn, "if you take less than ten
+minutes I shall be your deadly enemy for life."
+
+"All right, old fellow." Dick rode on toward the enemy's campfire with
+the bugler until he had gone about half the way, and then we heard the
+parley sounded and saw a stir in the opposite camp.
+
+"Mistress Jean," said I, returning to the charge, "you are perfectly
+heartless, and though I know the redcoats cannot help but fall in love
+with you, I warn you that if you smile on any one of them I shall go
+through the lines and seek him out, even into the heart of the city
+itself, though I have to swing for it."
+
+"You will never try anything so rash;" and now the laughter had gone
+from her voice.
+
+"That I will, my lady," I replied, "for I would rather dance on
+nothing than know that you belonged to another."
+
+"But you must not," said she. "You must not think of such a thing. You
+must promise me never to attempt it."
+
+"Nay, Mistress Jean, that I cannot promise. It would drive me mad to
+stand here on guard all the winter night and see the lights of
+Philadelphia off there in the east; to know amid all the gayety and
+the balls you reign supreme; to know I could not see you because of
+the miserable redcoats that guard the city. If they were ten times
+their number I would find my way through them to be once more at your
+side, Mistress Jean."
+
+Before she could reply the Highland officer broke in, for he had
+ridden up with Ringgold.
+
+"Mistress Jean, it gives me pleasure to be the first to welcome you to
+our lines. Your father told us of your coming, and there has been a
+rivalry between us as to who should be the one to escort you to the
+city."
+
+"That was kind of all of you; but how did you leave my father?"
+
+"Well, and eager for your coming."
+
+He was a splendid-looking young fellow, tall, broad-shouldered, and
+somewhat bony, with a voice that rang frank and true. He was a
+Highlander, every inch of him, and carried himself with a free and
+graceful carriage, and when I heard him tell Mistress Jean that he was
+a Farquharson and an old ally of her house, I knew I had at last met a
+dangerous rival. For, out of romances, it is not the villain, but the
+brave and frank gentleman who is most dangerous to the peace of mind
+of lovers, for they see in him what they themselves most admire, and
+by which they hope to win their ladies' love.
+
+"Lieutenant Ringgold, now," said Farquharson, "I am ready to receive
+Mistress Gordon from your hands, and to conduct her within our lines."
+
+"Far more ready than we are to let her go," answered Dick gallantly;
+"but it is the fortune of war." And then the two officers saluted and
+the exchange was made.
+
+So Mistress Jean bade us all good-bye right prettily, and I, being on
+the off side of her horse from the others, seized her hand as it hung
+by her side and kissed it several times. She at first did not withdraw
+it, and then, bending over, whispered, "Do not try to enter the city,
+for they will hang thee, and I would not lose so true a friend." Here
+her voice was very soft and low. I kissed her hand once again and she
+was gone.
+
+We watched their dark shadows down the road to the Highland outpost,
+as they moved like great blots across the snow. I stood, I do not know
+how long, gazing after them, when Dick's hand was on my shoulder.
+
+"Never mind, Frisby," said he, "we shall win the city in the spring,
+and then you may win her also."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE BALL OF MY LORD HOWE
+
+
+Many a night after that last parting I stood guard on that dreary
+outpost, gazing out across the snow at the dim lights of the city far
+to the eastward. Aye, for the city was gay that winter, gay with
+parties and dances, balls and dinners, and the bells rang as merrily
+as if we were not starving and dying out on the bleak, hillsides. Aye,
+those old burghers were warm and comfortable as they sat by their
+fires, with a glass of their wine or toddy at their side.
+
+True, my Lord Howe ruled the city with an iron hand, but he was a
+gallant gentleman, and his officers made good partners for their fair
+daughters at the balls. They were handsome in their scarlet uniforms,
+with their epaulets and their sabres, making, indeed, a very gallant
+show, while those ragged patriots out upon the snow had not shoes to
+their feet, and were altogether too disreputable to be admitted even
+to the kitchens of their houses. Then, again, runs not the Quaker law,
+"Thou shalt not fight"? And so the good old burghers threw another log
+on the fire and sat down to enjoy the cheerful blaze.
+
+The news came to us, sifted through the lines; we heard of their
+dances and their balls, and everywhere we heard that Mistress Jean
+Gordon was the belle of them all. The old Tory held high rank in the
+counsels of Lord Howe, and the daughter, by her grace and beauty,
+reigned it over the hearts of every gallant gentleman of his army.
+
+We heard of her refusing my Lord Paulet and several other gentlemen,
+noted among us for their hard fighting, whenever by chance we were
+opposed to them. And I, standing guard on the outpost, chafed in vain
+when I heard these tales, until one day chance decided me to risk all,
+to see her once more with my own eyes, and perhaps speak to her.
+
+There had been a skirmish on the outposts that day, and our men had
+captured an English officer, a Captain of the line. He was a talkative
+man, and while he was waiting to be sent to the rear as a prisoner we
+entertained him at our mess table, and he in turn told us the news of
+the town.
+
+"That must be a wonderful country, what do you call it, that eastern
+shore of yours?" said he, "if it contains any more beauties like
+Mistress Jean Gordon."
+
+"Ah, the Tory's daughter?"
+
+"Yes. She is the reigning belle of the whole town, and all our fellows
+are wild about her. I never saw so many fellows in love with one girl
+before, but Farquharson seems to have the best of it, while Lord
+Paulet stamps and swears."
+
+Now, we were loyal Marylanders--loyal, at least, to her wit and
+beauty, so then and there we proposed and drank the health of the Tory
+maid, while Dick chimed in with the amendment, "May she never marry a
+Britisher, but a patriot tried and true," at which our English Captain
+good-naturedly protested; and while they drank the toast I made a vow
+that ere a week was past I would be within that city.
+
+Fortune came my way, for as I left the mess-room that night I ran
+against Tom Jones of Cresap's old company of riflemen from the
+mountains of the West, the most daring and desperate spy in all our
+army. He was a man of powerful strength, as lithe and active as a
+panther, while his face was as immovable as that of an Indian, with
+never a sign thereon of the thoughts and passions of the man within.
+He was clad for the moment in the dress of the riflemen, a full suit
+of buckskin, leggings, hunting-shirt, and all, while carelessly thrown
+across one arm was his rifle, and in his belt was sheathed the long
+hunting-knife.
+
+"Lieutenant," said he, "I expect to return through your lines
+to-morrow night, so do not fire before you challenge."
+
+"Come this way, Jones," said I, leading him aside from the others. "I
+do not know which way you are going, but I want you to help me through
+the lines into the city. Can you do so?"
+
+"But, Lieutenant, they will be wanting to hang you if you are caught."
+
+"I will take that risk. I must be in the city within a week."
+
+Jones, like most great frontiersmen, was a man of quick decision and
+few words.
+
+"Meet me in an hour," said he, "at the Yellow Tavern."
+
+An hour later found me at the tavern in full uniform, for it was the
+only suit I possessed in which it would be possible to present myself
+before a lady, so dilapidated, torn, and ragged was my wardrobe. But I
+had a great storm-coat which hid the uniform and was an admirable
+disguise.
+
+The tavern was crowded. As I stood by the fire I did not at once
+notice a quiet, unassuming traveller who had just entered, until he
+brushed past my arm and whispered, "Follow me." I did so a few minutes
+later, for it was Tom Jones, who looked for all the world as if he was
+a quiet city merchant, born and bred within its limits. Yet you had
+but to notice his walk, and you saw at once that he was a
+mountaineer, for he threaded his way through the crowd as noiselessly
+as he did among his native forests, where the crack of a dead twig
+might mean his death by a hostile bullet.
+
+I followed him out into the night, and a dark and dismal night it was;
+the snow was falling heavily and you could not see three rods away.
+
+"We will follow the pike," said he, "until we see their camp-fire.
+They will not keep strict watch to-night, and we will have to keep in
+touch with the landmarks."
+
+We trudged along through the snow past the outpost where I had
+commanded so many nights, keeping the vigils by the weary hours; then
+we became more careful, as the Highland outpost was but a few yards
+away.
+
+"They will have their backs to the storm," said the spy, "and though
+it is dangerous to go to the windward of a foe, yet he is not so apt
+to hear us as he would be to see us if we tried the leeward side.
+Those Highlanders have keen eyes."
+
+So we flanked the outpost to the windward and passed them safely, and
+then Jones led me by many little bypaths and lanes until we came to
+the outskirts of the town. And though the guard at one time could have
+touched us as they passed, so dense was the storm that never for a
+moment was our safety jeoparded.
+
+At last the houses became closer and we found ourselves in the town,
+while every now and then a belated traveller met us, glanced our way
+and passed on, for by now it was far into the night. But when we
+reached the heart of the town, even at that hour, the streets became
+filled with carriages, and we met many officers and gentlemen,
+returning from a ball. My Lord Howe entertained that night, and it
+was a sign of loyalty and good faith for every one to attend.
+
+Though I became interested in seeing the muffled figures pass us, and
+the carriages hurrying through the street, I grew uneasy as I saw that
+Jones was making his way to the centre of the town, to the very door
+of Lord Howe's mansion. At last I remonstrated with him, but Jones
+growled in answer: "How can you throw the dogs off your track, if the
+snow does not fill it, but by mixing it with other tracks?"
+
+This was unanswerable. I followed him along the street until we were
+among the crowd before Lord Howe's door.
+
+It was a gay and brilliant scene, that ball of my Lord Howe, and
+though it was near the end, the music of the dance still floated
+through the wide entrance, while the figures of the dancers flitted
+across the windows, which were ablaze with lights. The guests were
+fast leaving; fair ladies and officers bravely uniformed were coming
+down the steps. There was a calling of carriages and of names, the
+slamming of doors and the muffled roll of the wheels as they drove
+off. I was about to move on with Jones, when I heard the major-domo, a
+sergeant of the guard, call out the carriage of Colonel Charles
+Gordon, and then I would have drawn back, as I had been forced into
+the front rank; for, though I knew that she must be at the ball, I had
+not thought to be brought so suddenly face to face with her. But ere I
+could do so, she came down the carpeted stairs leaning on her father's
+arm, graceful and beautiful, while by her side walked Farquharson in
+full Highland costume, eager and attentive. A smile was upon her lips
+as she listened, and then her eyes met mine. Her face went pale, and
+she was near fainting. Her father caught her as she slightly reeled,
+and Farquharson looked fiercely around to see what the cause was. But
+I was muffled up, and before he could demand the cause Mistress Jean
+was eagerly declaring that it was a mere nothing; and, as if to prove
+what she said was true, she hurried on to the carriage.
+
+Farquharson leaned for a moment into the carriage to bid them
+good-night, and then it rolled off into the darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+AN EXCHANGE OF COURTESIES
+
+
+"A narrow escape that for you, Lieutenant," said Jones. "But she was a
+plucky lass, and now it is time for us to be looking for cover."
+
+He turned down a narrow, quiet street until we came to a house set
+somewhat back in the yard.
+
+Jones now rapped very gently on the door; it swung open as if he was
+expected, and a moment later we found ourselves heartily welcomed by
+an old Quaker lady in a little room with a bright fire burning.
+
+"I thought thee would come, Brother Jones," said she, "and who is this
+braw lad thou hast brought with thee?" And she smiled on me.
+
+"He is one of our Lieutenants, who has a sweetheart in town, and is
+willing to risk his neck to see her," said Jones gruffly, but there
+was a twinkle in his eye.
+
+This completed my conquest, and the motherly old soul proceeded to
+take charge of me.
+
+"Who is thy lady love thou hast come to see?" And when I told her that
+she was a Tory she was much distressed, but eager to help me.
+
+"The Good Book says thou must not fight, but it also says thou must
+help thy friends and neighbours, so I will help thee."
+
+But at last, after chattering awhile she took a candle and showed us
+to our rooms. I was soon lost in the almost blissful comfort of clean
+white sheets and a feather-bed.
+
+When I awoke next morning Jones had already departed on his mission,
+leaving me a note telling me where to meet him the next night on our
+return to camp.
+
+All that day I kept close to the house, for I did not dare to venture
+forth in the broad day, as I was known to many, and it would not have
+gone well with me if I had met with those I knew.
+
+But at last the night began to fall, and, bidding my kind hostess
+good-bye, I made my way through the streets to the Tory's house.
+
+I soon found it--a square brick structure in a quiet street. I
+noticed, as I approached it, several dark alleys just at the right
+places for a rapid retreat if the worse should come to the worst.
+
+Then my hand was on the knocker, and its fall startled me as the
+clatter echoed far down the street and seemed to wake the very dead.
+
+A slave opened the door, who, though he glanced at me suspiciously,
+told me that his mistress was at home.
+
+Then in a moment my storm-coat was off, and I stood in the door of the
+drawing-room.
+
+It was a beautiful picture, the great strong Highlander on his knees
+at the feet of Mistress Jean begging for her hand, which she seemed to
+be denying him, for he was growing more and more passionate.
+
+For a moment, as I stood there, I could feel my hair grow gray, but
+the tumult and the conflict within me were short and I turned to go,
+for it seemed to me that she could not but care for so gallant a
+gentleman.
+
+But her eyes met mine, and then for a moment there was terror in them,
+and a cry broke forth from her lips.
+
+Farquharson, startled by her gaze, turned also, and, seeing me, was
+quickly on his feet, his face aflame with passion.
+
+"Sir," said he, advancing toward me, "do you not know the fate of
+eavesdroppers"--and then for the first time noticing my uniform,
+added, "and spies?"
+
+"I know the fate of those who call a gentleman by such names," I
+retorted coolly.
+
+"A gentleman?" and he laughed. "I will have you hanged for a dog of a
+spy before sunrise."
+
+"Pardon me, sir, but you are my prisoner until it shall suit me to let
+you go free."
+
+At this he laughed merrily.
+
+"Well said, Sir Rebel," he cried; "but permit me to pass before I spit
+you on my sword." And he drew and advanced upon me.
+
+"Permit me, sir, to use another argument;" and I drew my pistol and
+covered him. "Advance another step and I will blow your brains out."
+
+He glanced at me for a moment, but did not advance. "And further, let
+me suggest that we are in the presence of a lady, and it is not seemly
+for her to see the flash of weapons."
+
+At this he put up his sword.
+
+"To whom do I owe a lesson in gallantry?" he asked with a low and
+sweeping bow.
+
+"James Frisby, of Fairlee, a Lieutenant in the Maryland Line," I
+replied with equal courtesy.
+
+Mistress Jean had stood as though she were turned to stone during our
+exchange of courtesies, but now she seemed to recover.
+
+"Captain Farquharson," she cried, and she came and stood between us,
+"this is an old friend of mine. He saved my life at the Braes when we
+were raided by the rebels. You must promise me to let him go free out
+of the city."
+
+"Your wishes, Mistress Jean, are law," said he, "and shall be obeyed.
+I shall give him till morning to escape in."
+
+"Which I promptly accept," said I, "with the hope that I may be able
+to repay your courtesy if fortune should bring you within our lines
+some day."
+
+And so he bade Mistress Jean farewell, but as he passed me, I
+whispered to him:
+
+"Sir, some words have been said that need an explanation."
+
+"It will give me pleasure to offer you one at any place you may
+appoint."
+
+"Then meet me," I said, "two days hence at sunrise on the pike,
+half-way between the lines."
+
+"With swords or pistols?"
+
+"Swords."
+
+"I will be there;" and he passed on out.
+
+When he had gone, I turned to Mistress Jean, who urged me to leave at
+once.
+
+"You must go," said she, "for at any moment you may be tracked and
+discovered, and then----"
+
+"And then--what?" I answered, smiling. "Do you think, Mistress Jean,
+that I, who travelled for miles through the snow and the storm last
+night to catch one glimpse of your face, that I, who at last stand in
+your presence, would give a thought to the noose around my neck?"
+
+But she would not let me say her nay, and then her terror grew, until
+at last she told me that Lord Howe sometimes came home with her father
+at nine o'clock to talk over the plans of the spring campaign, and
+that every moment she expected to hear their voices in the hall.
+
+"The sight of your face, Mistress Jean, has repaid me for my journey;
+but if you bid me go, why, then, it is fate, and go I must." Then a
+thought came to me. "Mistress Jean, tell me this before I leave in the
+enemy's camp all that is dearest on earth to me: tell me if you love
+that Highlander, if you care for him." And she, who a moment before
+was urging me to leave, stood silent, with her face turned away from
+me, with never a word to say.
+
+And I, seeing how matters stood, took my courage in my hands, and,
+with a low bow, wished her good-bye.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE CROSSING OF SWORDS
+
+
+Sunrise, two days later, found Mr. Richard Ringgold and myself
+stamping our feet in the snow on the pike, half-way between the
+hostile lines.
+
+"I suppose they will let us fight here without interruption," said
+Dick.
+
+"No danger from that," I replied. "We will fight in that little
+hollow, where the outposts cannot see us."
+
+"Here they come," said Dick. We saw two officers approaching across
+the snow from the Highland outpost.
+
+They soon came up, and we saluted, while Dick and Captain Forbes,
+Farquharson's second, soon agreed upon the preliminaries.
+
+"Will you lead the way, gentlemen?" said Forbes.
+
+Dick and I led them to the little hollow between the hills, where a
+slight meadow formed a platform, as it were, for us to act our drama
+upon.
+
+Since my first duel with Rodolph on the banks of the Elk I had seen
+something of war and of battles, and considered myself an old hand in
+such encounters.
+
+And so I found myself looking Farquharson over and estimating his
+strength and his skill, for I knew him to be one of the best swordsmen
+among the Highlanders, while I could claim, with all due modesty, to
+be the best in the Maryland Line.
+
+He was a notable swordsman, you could see that at a glance; the
+powerful figure, yet as light and active as a cat, the muscles of his
+sword arm telling of long and patient handling of the weapon, while
+his cold gray eye spoke for his coolness and determination.
+
+He glanced at me, as we threw off our coats, in almost an indifferent
+manner, as if he had a duty to perform, which was to be done as
+quickly as possible, the mere suppression of a country bumpkin by a
+gentleman of fashion. I knew that would change as soon as our swords
+crossed, and smiled to myself. Then, being stripped to our shirts, we
+took our places and saluted.
+
+Click, and our swords rang true. Though he fenced somewhat carelessly
+at first, there came a surprised look and a sudden change in his
+manner, as I parried a skilful thrust and touched him lightly on the
+shoulder. He seemed to realise that he had no ordinary swordsman
+opposed to him, and quickly brought into play all his skill and
+fierceness in attack, throwing me on the defensive and forcing me
+gradually back.
+
+It could not last; no strength could stand it. When he found that the
+steel guard met every attack, that every thrust was parried, he
+relaxed the fierceness of his attack and began to fence with more
+skill and caution.
+
+Thus it was we fenced for several minutes, the clash of the steel
+ringing out in the cold, crisp air across the snow, and it came to my
+opponent that he had at last met a swordsman who was his equal in
+skill. From this on every moment he developed some new feint, some new
+attack, and, though I met them every one, it took my utmost skill to
+do so.
+
+But at last there came the end. He had assumed the offensive again and
+was pressing hard upon me, when he placed his foot upon a loose stone
+in the snow, which rolled. The sword flew from out his hand and he
+was down upon his knee.
+
+My sword was at his throat, and then my hand was stayed, for there
+came before me the vision of the Tory maid, standing with face averted
+in the square brick house in the city. That she might care, that she
+might be in terror then as to the fate that might befall him, flashed
+through my brain. I brought my sword to a salute, and returned it to
+its scabbard.
+
+"Sir," said I, as Farquharson rose, "it is a pleasure to have fought
+with so gallant a gentleman."
+
+"And I, sir," he returned, "am happy to have met so skilful a
+swordsman." And then, like gallant men who have fought and know each
+other's worth, we shook hands on the spot where a moment before our
+blades were thirsting for each other's blood.
+
+"It gives me pleasure," he continued, "to withdraw my remarks at
+Colonel Gordon's, as they arose from a misapprehension."
+
+"I will consider them as if they had never been said," I replied, "and
+I beg of you, on your return, to present my compliments to Mistress
+Gordon, and tell her that I send you to her as my wedding gift."
+
+"Why, is she to be married?" he asked in a startled way.
+
+"I believe so," I answered, "but she will tell you all about it."
+
+And so we returned to the pike, where we all saluted again, and
+retraced our steps to the lines.
+
+The spring was late that year. April had come before there came a soft
+warm breeze from the Southland, waking nature into life, and covering
+the hard frozen face of mother earth with wreaths and clouds of mist
+and moisture. From every hillside, from every frost-bound plain, the
+smoke of spring arose, and through the air there breathed the spirit
+of the reincarnated life of the world.
+
+How we of the Southland hailed it with joy, and drank in with our
+lungs this promise of a new life! We who loved the sunshine and the
+balmy breezes, the great joy of living amid fragrant fields and
+green-clad forests, we who hated the storms, the wind and cold of the
+North,--ah, how the blood in our veins welcomed this soft caress of
+the South! We threw off the terror of the winter, looked forward with
+glee to the opening of the spring campaign, and counted in
+anticipation the honours we were to win, the glory that would be ours.
+
+New life sprang up all through the camp; the troops left the busy duty
+of hugging the fires, the ranks filled up, and order and discipline
+once more became the order of the day.
+
+Rumours soon came creeping through the lines of a change in the
+leadership of the enemy's forces, but as yet they lay quietly within
+the city and showed not the teeth of offence. Thus we lay on the green
+hillsides of Valley Forge, busily preparing for the struggle which was
+certain to come, until far into the spring, without a sign of a
+movement on the part of the enemy.
+
+But with May came their new Commander-in-Chief, Sir Henry Clinton, and
+the departure of Lord Howe, and we knew that the time had at last come
+when some bold stroke would be played in the game of war.
+
+The gaps in our ranks had been somewhat filled, and we were ready and
+eager for active service as soon as the great General would give the
+command.
+
+At last came rumours of a retreat, that the English were preparing to
+desert the city and march across the plains of Jersey to where New
+York lay, sheltered by the waters of the sea and the rivers. We
+marched toward the Delaware to be ready to strike them when they
+moved.
+
+So, one day, as I stood on the outpost, guarding the nearest road to
+the city, I saw Jones approaching at full speed on an old horse, which
+he had evidently borrowed. I was ready for his news.
+
+"The British are crossing the Delaware; we will catch them in Jersey
+now or never," he cried, and then he had dashed past on his way to
+headquarters.
+
+My little guard received the news with a yell, and we looked forward
+eagerly for the order to join our regiment on the march.
+
+It was not long in coming, and on that night, the 18th of June, we
+crossed the Delaware, and started on the race across Jersey that was
+to end at Monmouth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE SANDS OF MONMOUTH
+
+
+For a week we hung on the flank of the enemy, waiting for an
+opportunity to strike, as we saw the immense train form on the right
+bank of the Delaware and take up its cumbersome march across the
+Jersey plains.
+
+With it marched the whole force of the British army of seventeen
+thousand men, who did their duty so well that we longed for an opening
+in vain.
+
+All through those blazing hot days of June we marched through the
+sands of Jersey, ankle deep as we trudged along, and it seemed as if
+the time for a trial of strength would never come. All to the east and
+south of us the great train of their wagons crawled along through the
+heat and the dust, and the sun glinted and gleamed on the points of
+the bayonets as the mass of their troops marched on.
+
+Slowly they crawled through the dusty roads of Jersey, and slowly they
+were crawling beyond the reach of our arms into the haven of safety.
+
+At last, on the 27th of the month, they reached the heights of
+Monmouth, within a day's march of their journey's end, while we lay
+five miles away at Englishtown, swearing low and earnestly at our
+luck.
+
+That night there came news to the camp that put new life in the men,
+and made them forget the heat and the toil of the march; the news that
+the great General had decided to risk a throw in the morning, and that
+our regiment was to be with the advance.
+
+And so, when Lee rode up to take command, we gave him a cheer, for
+though we disliked and distrusted the man, yet his coming meant a
+fight in the morning.
+
+Then there was a great stir in the camp; the men saw to their muskets,
+and the signs everywhere told of their eager preparations for the
+deadly struggle in the morning, while the cheery laugh and the
+snatches of song spoke well for the spirits of the men after the long,
+toilsome march of the day.
+
+The sun comes up out of the ocean early in Jersey, but even before its
+rays had cleared the pine tops our camp was stirring with life, the
+men preparing for the advance.
+
+But there seemed to be a fatality about it all; a hand, as it were,
+covered us and held us back, paralyzing the spirit of the men. Delay
+followed delay, and when at last the regiments took up the line of
+march, ours was held back until almost the last. The New Jersey
+volunteers had the post of honour, as they longed to revenge their
+ruined homesteads and devastated farms, and then our turn came.
+
+We marched out of Englishtown into the dreary country beyond. On every
+side sand dunes, former barriers of the ocean, raised their crests,
+covered with a straggling forest of stunted pines and scrub trees,
+which, in the passes in the hills, came down to the road, disputing
+the passageway, while in the shallow valleys lay the open fields and
+marshes. A dreary country withal, but where a small body of troops
+could hold the passes in the hills against many hundreds and make good
+their defence.
+
+We passed through the defile in the first range of hills, crossed the
+low valley, and then, after passing through the second defile, we had
+only to cross the one before us to be on the heights overlooking the
+enemy's position at Freehold.
+
+As we approached this last pass in the hills we were surprised to see
+a steady stream of our troops coming back in disorder through the gap.
+The men were retreating doggedly in broken ranks, and turning, as they
+trudged along, to look back, as if with half a mind to return.
+
+As they came streaming past our advance I called to a sergeant, an old
+backwoodsman whose courage I knew, and asked him of the battle and why
+he was not fighting.
+
+"Fight?" he cried indignantly, "why, damn it, Lieutenant, they will
+not let us fight. They ordered us to retreat before a musket was
+fired."
+
+At that moment Captain Mercer, an aide of the staff of General Lee,
+rode up to Colonel Ramsay, who was near me.
+
+He delivered an order rapidly, and then I heard Ramsay's voice ring
+out angrily. "Retreat?" he cried. "By whose order?"
+
+"By the order of General Lee."
+
+"But," he protested hotly, "we have not seen the enemy yet."
+
+Mercer shrugged his shoulders. "I only carry the order," he said.
+
+The stream of fugitives grew rapidly, becoming more disorderly,
+showing at every step the spread of the panic and the rout, as Colonel
+Ramsay stopped the advance and gave the order to retreat.
+
+Slowly and reluctantly we obeyed, and as we retired through the second
+pass in the hills we saw the British gain the opposite ridge and
+advance with cheers on the disorderly flying mass in the sandy valley
+behind.
+
+Every moment the press of the fugitives grew greater, and though we
+still maintained our formation and marched as on parade the retreat
+had turned into a rout. On every side and in our rear the broken
+ranks of the army poured past, demoralised and in despair, and ever
+nearer came the musketry and the cheers of the advancing English.
+
+"They will catch us before we get through the gap," said Dick, looking
+at the pass in front of us.
+
+"Then we will fight anyhow," I replied, "and General Lee can go to the
+devil."
+
+Whereupon our spirits began to pick up, and the men retreated more
+slowly than ever, glancing over their shoulders to see how near the
+head of the British column was.
+
+At last we came to the foot of the first pass, with its hills heavily
+covered with scrub pines. Behind us stretched the fields of broken
+troops, and we could see the red line of the British as they debouched
+upon the plain and drove the patriots before them.
+
+It was a wild scene of confusion and disorder, of demoralised retreat
+and rout; and then something happened.
+
+There was a stir in the pass in our front, a clatter of hoofs, and
+there appeared before us the General with his staff. He towered there
+with his great figure, a veritable god of war and of wrath.
+
+For a moment his eye swept the field, and his face flushed crimson
+with indignation and anger, as he saw the best troops of his army
+flying like sheep before the enemy. There was a storm in the air, and
+then, as Lee rode up, it broke.
+
+We heard his excited "Sir, sir!" and the General's angry tones, and
+then dismissing him contemptuously, he called to Hamilton to ask if
+there was a regiment which could stop the advance.
+
+Ramsay sprang forward.
+
+"My regiment is ready, General."
+
+"If you stop them ten minutes until I form, you will save the army."
+
+"I will stop them or fall," cried Ramsay, and, turning to us, he gave
+the order to "About face," and then crying that the General relied on
+us to save the army, he led us in the charge.
+
+Not a moment too soon, for, as the press of the fugitives was brushed
+aside by our advance, mingling in the midst of the disorderly mass,
+came the red line of the British, cheering and victorious.
+
+But suddenly the flying mass disappeared, and in their place came the
+yell of the Maryland Line, the long array of their bayonets bent to
+the charge, with all the fury and weight of their onset.
+
+For a moment the red line hesitated; then an officer, who looked
+strangely familiar, sprang forward, shouting:
+
+"They are nothing but dogs of rebels; charge and break them."
+
+The red line answered with a cheer, for their fighting blood was up,
+and they dashed forward to meet us.
+
+Then came such a clash of steel as is seldom heard, as the King's
+Grenadiers and the Maryland Line met in the shock of the charge. For a
+moment so close was the press that we could not wield our arms, and
+men fell, spitted on each other's bayonets.
+
+Then came a deadly struggle, as men fought desperately, hand to hand,
+and the lines swayed backward and forward as the weight of the numbers
+told. The ground was lost and gained, struggled for and won over and
+over, while the dead lay in heaps under our feet.
+
+It was in the midst of this deadly struggle, when I was fighting sword
+in hand amid the press of bayonets for my very life, that I saw
+Ramsay, who was near, cheering on his men, come face to face with the
+officer who led the charge of the Grenadiers. Then, in that storm
+centre, around which the roar of battle raged, there was a flash of
+steel and the swords crossed. But in the fury of the battle duels are
+short and fierce, and I saw Ramsay, who was already covered with
+wounds, falter for a moment, as the other lunged, and then he was down
+among the slain.
+
+Our line hesitated as Ramsay fell, and the English pressed on with a
+cheer. But I sprang forward, shouting to the men to save their
+Colonel, and they, answering my call, forced the English back, until I
+stood by Ramsay's body. But only for a moment; before we could raise
+Ramsay gently up and bear him off the field, there came another charge
+of the Grenadiers that forced us off our feet and hurled us backward,
+fighting desperately, leaving the body of our Colonel in the hands of
+the enemy. But in the _melee_ I found my sword crossing that of the
+officer who had fought with Ramsay, and instantly I attacked him
+fiercely, for I was burning to avenge Ramsay's fall. But he, with ease
+and coolness, parried all my thrusts and played with me as if I were
+but a child. Then, as I was growing desperate, he called to me, "Nay,
+lad, go try your sword on some one else and leave an old Scot alone. I
+would not hurt you for the world."
+
+I started and let the point of my sword fall, for it was the voice of
+the old Tory, whom I had not before recognised in the confusion of the
+fight. This slight hesitation almost led to my capture, for I had been
+fighting in advance of our line, and now I found myself in the midst
+of the English troops. So, saluting the old Tory hastily, I regained
+our lines.
+
+Then, fighting foot by foot and inch, by inch, we contested their
+advance, as the weight of numbers bore us backward up the hill into
+the pines. But every minute gained meant the salvation of the army.
+
+Ah, it was hot work there, ankle deep in the sand, with the broiling
+sun above us, while the smoke and the dust of the conflict filled our
+throats and eyes; but we staggered on and fought blindly, desperately,
+amid the din and the carnage.
+
+Ten minutes, twenty minutes--ah, there it is at last, and the roar of
+the opening battle broke out to the right and left of us, as the
+re-formed regiments went into the fight.
+
+Then to our left came the high piercing yell of our brothers of the
+Line, and we knew that the British were falling back before them. The
+Grenadiers struggled on for a moment longer, but the force of their
+charge was spent, and the fire of the new regiments forced them back
+in turn.
+
+But it was only for awhile, for they re-formed, and, under the
+leadership of the gallant Monkton, hurled themselves upon us once
+again.
+
+Monkton fell, and their lines shrivelled up under our fire. Then, as
+it was near the setting of the sun, Washington, glancing over the
+field, saw that the time had come and ordered the advance.
+
+Our whole line sprang forward, and, though we had borne the brunt, the
+toil, and heat of the day, not a man faltered. As the long line swept
+forward the British slowly retreated before us. We drove them across
+the plain and through the second pass, where night overtook us and
+stopped our pursuit.
+
+But then, when the fever of the battle left us, a great fatigue
+seized hold of our limbs, the men sank to the earth as they stood,
+and slept from very exhaustion.
+
+But we were soon to be aroused.
+
+Through the darkness came the sound of a horse's hoofs, and a voice,
+asking for Ramsay's regiment. I sprang up, answering, and saw
+approaching a body of horsemen. The foremost rider seemed an immense
+figure, as he advanced in the darkness; but I, who had seen him often
+before, knew him to be the great General.
+
+I immediately gave the alarm, and the men sprang to their feet and
+presented arms.
+
+And then, there under the pines, by the light of the stars, the
+General rode down our line, and, coming to the centre, we felt his
+glance fall over our ranks.
+
+"Men of Maryland," spoke Washington, and his voice rang clear through
+the pines, "once before at Long Island you saved the army, and to-day,
+for a second time, you have done so by your courage and tenacity. I
+thank you in the name of the army and the nation; I thank you for
+myself."
+
+A wild yell that broke from the Line was his answer. We forgot our
+fatigue and our wounds in the pride of the moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+IN THE LINES OF THE ENEMY
+
+
+It was near the end of the first watch when an order came to me to
+pick out several men, go forward, feel the enemy's outposts, and see
+if the enemy was still retreating.
+
+Making my choice, I passed our pickets with three men, and made my way
+cautiously to the last pass in the hills which was in the enemy's
+possession at nightfall. But not a sign of their pickets or troops
+could I find; so I boldly advanced in the pass, and, crossing the
+ridge, found myself on the heights overlooking Freehold. It was a
+small town of scattered houses, and beyond it I could see the lights
+of the British camp-fires.
+
+But as the heights were not near enough for our purpose, we descended
+into the plain, and carefully made our way toward the town, where I
+knew certain patriots were, who, if I could once get speech with them,
+would tell me the whole plans of the enemy.
+
+We could hear the tramp of feet at the further side of the village,
+and all the sounds of an army in retreat. Being now so close to them,
+and in great danger, we moved with the utmost caution. Near at hand,
+on the outskirts of the town, stood a large, square stone house,
+separated from the rest of the houses by an immense garden. Having
+found a break in the hedge, we entered.
+
+It was an old garden, filled with boxwood walks and flowers run wild.
+Very prim at one time it must have been; but, now that the war had
+helped the return to nature, it was a wild and tangled mass.
+
+Making our way through the garden, a light was suddenly thrown upon
+our path, and, glancing up, I saw that it came from a window which,
+though it was on the first floor of the house, was yet some distance
+from the ground.
+
+Then the figure of a woman crossed the window, stopping for a moment
+to look out, while we stood in the shadow of the hedge, holding our
+breath. But she passed on, and I, determining to see into the room to
+discover whether it contained friend or foe, quickly gained the
+shelter of the wall of the house. The wall was of rough hewn stone,
+and with the help of my comrades' shoulders, I raised myself high
+enough to glance over the window-sill, and what I saw there made me
+drop to the ground quickly.
+
+Then, whispering to my comrades to stay where they were, I made my way
+to the rear entrance of the house, and, finding the door unfastened,
+softly entered the hall; and then I was standing in the door of the
+room from which the light came.
+
+A lamp stood on a table near a long horse-hair sofa with spindle legs,
+on which lay the figure of a man. The coat had been cut from his
+shoulder, which was swathed in many bandages, while the blood-stained
+rags on the table and the floor told of the seriousness of the wound.
+
+A slender figure was bending over him, gently arranging a pillow under
+his head.
+
+"Do you feel easier now, father?"
+
+"Yes, lassie." Then, a moment later, "Why does not Clinton send me a
+carriage? He surely does not intend to desert me here."
+
+"Captain Farquharson is searching for one," she answered. And then
+turning to the table, she saw me standing in the doorway. The colour
+left her face; she gave a little cry, for she thought there were many
+men behind me, and that all was lost. So, quickly putting my finger to
+my lips, I stepped back into the darkness of the hall, and as I did
+so, I heard the old Tory ask, "What's that?"
+
+"It was nothing," she answered. "I thought I saw a ghost."
+
+I stood there in the broad window waiting, for I knew she would come.
+
+Below me was the garden, heavy-scented with the odour of flowers, and
+the hum of the night insects was everywhere in the air. Close to the
+wall I saw the figures of my scouts. The noise of the tramp of feet,
+the creak of waggons, and the voice of command came to me from the
+village street.
+
+At last she came and stood before me. In her eyes were great pain and
+fear and suffering.
+
+"Tell me," she asked anxiously, "is there any danger for him?"
+
+"More danger for me than for him," I replied. "The whole American
+advance guard consists of three men and myself; the rest will follow
+in the morning."
+
+"Ah," she cried, and there was hope once more in her voice; "then we
+can escape."
+
+"If you can move your father by sunrise, yes," I replied.
+
+"But you," she said, and there was new anxiety in her voice; "you are
+in great danger here. When the soldiers come to remove father they
+will take you prisoner."
+
+"I care not, Mistress Jean," I answered, "for your eyes have held me
+prisoner for many a long day, and all the prison bars in the world are
+nothing to me so long as I can look into them."
+
+"Nay," she said, "you must not say such things to me."
+
+And I, taking this as a confirmation of all my fears and that at last
+Farquharson had succeeded in his suit, would have bade her good-bye
+and gone my way. But before I went I told her of my wishes for her
+happiness, and that I had met Farquharson and knew of his skill and
+courage.
+
+"Farquharson?" and her eyes were wide open in surprise. "I really
+believe you think I am going to marry him;" and she laughed so softly,
+bewitchingly, that--
+
+"Jean, Jean," I cried, now that hope and life had come back with a
+rush, "Jean, do you know that I love you; that I love the very ground
+on which you walk, the sunbeams in your hair, the very air you
+breathe? Ah! Jean--" But at that moment came the voice of the Tory
+calling her and the tramp of feet on the porch.
+
+"Let me go," she cried, for I held her hands in mine; "and fly,--that
+is the guard."
+
+"Nay," said I, "not till you give me a kiss. I will stay here and be
+captured first."
+
+There was a moment's hesitation, and then a flash of white arms, and
+the softest caress--ah, such a caress that the memory of it will go
+with me to the grave. And then she was gone.
+
+And I, not wishing to be captured now, slipped through the rear door
+to my men, and a short time later, having satisfied ourselves of the
+retreat of the enemy's forces, we made our way back over the hills to
+report to the General.
+
+We followed the enemy closely the next day, and did not draw off until
+we saw them beyond our reach at Sandy Hook.
+
+Then we took our way to the Jersey hills, and lay there for a time
+watching the enemy in New York.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE PASSING OF YEARS
+
+
+Then came a long period when it seemed almost as if peace had settled
+over the land, so seldom did the rattle of musket fire or the angry
+flash of guns break the quiet repose of the Jersey plains and farms.
+
+Far across the marshes lay New York, and behind its walls and the
+broad sweep of the waters the British army rested safe, while the army
+of the patriots, scattered among the forests, woods, and hills of
+Jersey and New York, lived, like Robin Hood's followers of old, and
+waited while the wheel of fortune turned.
+
+A year went by, when at the taking of Paulus Hook I first heard news
+of the welfare of the Tory and the maid, since the night of the
+Monmouth retreat.
+
+It was after an all-night march through the marshes of Jersey, often
+breast-high in the water, that we made a silent, deadly charge with
+the bayonet on the enemy's fort, and carried it before the sun had
+risen.
+
+We were retiring rapidly, after securing our prisoners, when one of my
+men called to me: "Captain, here's one of those Highland chiefs
+knocked on the head."
+
+I went to him and found that it was Farquharson, who had received an
+ugly blow on the head from a clubbed musket.
+
+A little whiskey between his teeth and water on his face revived him,
+and I was able, with the help of several men, to carry him along with
+our party.
+
+We made good our retreat, and when several days later I was in the
+main camp of the army, I went to the quarters where the prisoners were
+detained, and there I again met Farquharson.
+
+"Captain," said he, smiling, for he had almost recovered from his
+wound, "there is no entering a contest against you; fortune is always
+on your side."
+
+"My turn will come," I answered; "but is there anything I can do for
+you?"
+
+"I am afraid not, unless you bribe the guards to let me escape."
+
+"That would be clear against the articles of war," I replied. We fell
+to talking, and then it was I heard of the Tory and his daughter.
+
+"It was about Christmas time," said Farquharson, "that the King sent a
+message over the sea, granting him a pardon for the part he had taken
+in '45, for you know he was out then. The Sea Raven was about to
+clear in a week for Glasgow, and a sudden longing seemed to seize him
+to see once more the dash of the waters through the Braes of Mar and
+the heather-crowned hills of old Aberdeen; and so, within a week, they
+had sailed away; and as he left he said to me: 'A revolt drove me from
+old Scotland; another sends me back again. I wonder where fortune will
+end my days.' It is a strange fortune that has followed him through
+life."
+
+"It is, indeed," I replied.
+
+So they sailed away over the seas, gone back to their own land and
+people; and between that land and mine burned high the flame of war.
+But through the flame and across the broad stretch of the waters, I
+saw the form of the maid beckoning me on, and though my hope was
+well-nigh gone, I buckled tight my sword-belt and doggedly went
+on,--went on, through the long march to the southward, the toil, the
+hunger, and the defeat of the Camden campaign.
+
+The great triumph of Eutaw Springs and Cowpens, as we drove back
+Cornwallis from the hill country to the shore, rolled back the tide of
+invasion and drowned it in the sea.
+
+A year went by, bringing me adventures not a few, and with the
+adventures came wounds and honours; and when there came the news of
+the leaguer of Yorktown, it found me a full Colonel in the army of the
+South.
+
+It was not my fortune to be present at that last great feat of our
+arms, when the great General struck the blow that freed us for ever
+from the tyranny of the King.
+
+But when the news came down to us in the savannahs of the South we
+hailed it with joy, for we saw once more before us the quiet, smiling
+fields of Maryland, with the ease and comfort and plenty of it all
+that awaited but our coming to repay us for the years of strife and
+blood.
+
+And then at last came the order for us to take up the homeward march.
+The men took up the trail with as jaunty a step as when they first
+marched to the northward, long years before. The gay uniforms were
+faded and gone; rags and tatters had taken their places, while of the
+brave banner that was flung to the breeze at the Head of Elk nothing
+remained but the staff and a few ribbons that flaunted therefrom.
+
+But every tatter told the tale of a fight where the shot and shell had
+torn it as it waved above the charging line, the deadly struggle of
+the hand to hand, or marked the slow and sullen retreat.
+
+The men themselves were hardy and bronzed; from their ragged caps to
+their soleless shoes they bore the stamp of veterans. They showed the
+signs of their training in the angry school of war; wide indeed was
+the difference between the gay volunteers of '76 and the hardy
+veterans of '82. We swung along in our homeward march with a right
+goodwill, and at last came to the broad Potomac and saw the hills of
+Maryland beyond.
+
+Now the river itself to the low water-line of the southern bank is
+within the boundaries of Maryland. Wishing to be the first across the
+line, I rode my horse in to the saddle-girths, and let him drink
+thereof.
+
+A day later brought us to Annapolis, where we received the thanks of
+the State authorities, and with all due form and ceremony obtained our
+discharge and then dispersed to our homes.
+
+That very day I took a canoe, and, crossing the bay, found myself
+again on the steps of Fairlee.
+
+Once more my mother leaned on my arm, and, looking up at her tall,
+broad-shouldered son, with his epaulets of a Colonel, bronzed face,
+and hardy bearing, seemed proud and happy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE COMING OF THE MAID
+
+
+Many months had passed away, spring had come again, and the fair city
+of Annapolis lay in a mass of flowers. The vivid green of the old
+trees cast a delightful shade over all, tempting one to stroll through
+the quiet streets and byways, past the moss-grown walls, the
+old-fashioned gardens, buried in roses, and the stately, proud
+mansions of many of Maryland's best and bravest.
+
+I was standing on a step and above me stood Mistresses Polly and Betsy
+Johnson, who were railing at me now that I no longer wore a uniform
+and was simply a plain member of the Legislature.
+
+"He looked so fine in his brass buttons," said Mistress Polly.
+
+"A brave, bold, quite proper-looking young fellow," added Mistress
+Betsy.
+
+"And now just look at him," continued Mistress Polly pathetically; and
+they surveyed me sorrowfully, while malicious mischief played around
+the corners of their eyes.
+
+I laughed outright. I could not help it, so droll was the expression
+on their faces.
+
+"True, your ladyship," I said; "the toga does not fit a young man so
+well as the buckled sabre and glittering epaulets. But now that dull
+peace has come, the hall of the Legislature is the only place where
+you can throw the weight of your sword in the conflict and wield some
+influence in the great struggles of the country; would you have me
+idle?"
+
+"Nay, I would not have that," said Mistress Polly judiciously. "But
+your round head and big hands are just the things for a fight, and
+though your voice is--well--can be heard a considerable distance, I am
+afraid----" She paused, as if doubtful about its being put to any good
+use in the hall of the Assembly.
+
+Decidedly I was getting the worst of it.
+
+At this moment Dick Ringgold, who represented Kent with me, came
+swinging up the street, and, seeing me standing on the steps, hailed
+me with--
+
+"Hello, Frisby, have you heard the news?"
+
+"What news?"
+
+"Your old Tory friend Gordon is on the Sally Ann, from London, which
+has just come up the harbour."
+
+"Any one with him?" I asked anxiously.
+
+"Well," said Dick, maliciously drawling it out, "I heard some one say
+there was a young lady with him."
+
+I did not stop to protest against the laughter that followed me as I
+dashed down the street, or to Dick's shout as he called something
+after me. A few minutes later I was on the wharf.
+
+Out in the stream, swaying with the current of the tide, lay the Sally
+Ann, her tall spars tapering high in air, her decks full of bustle and
+activity, showing the journey's end and that the final preparations
+for disembarkation were under full headway.
+
+As I arrived a boat was pulling off from her side containing two
+passengers. As I saw them my heart gave a great bound; my hand went to
+my hat and swung it around my head. In answer to my signal came the
+fluttering of a handkerchief.
+
+"Sir," said I, as the old Tory stepped ashore, "let me be the first
+to welcome you back to old Maryland."
+
+"Would that all my enemies were like you!" he replied. "I hesitated
+long about returning, but Jean would have it so."
+
+And Mistress Jean said not a word as I took her hand in mine, but her
+face was mantled in scarlet and her eyes were downcast.
+
+The prim old garden of the Nicholsons never looked more charming, the
+flowers more sweet and beautiful, or the green boxwood hedges more
+suggestive of rest and repose; the lazy waters of the Chester rolled
+along at its foot, gently lapping the grass. Ah! the sun was shining
+on a glorious world that day, for Mistress Jean walked beside me.
+
+"Mistress Jean," said I, as we stood where the waters met the grass
+and looked out over the broad and silent river, flowing on and on as
+if to eternity, "our lives have been more like mountain torrents than
+the broad smooth river here. We have lived through the battles and
+sieges, seen blood and death and all the horrors of a great war, but
+now that peace has come, and our course lies through pleasant fields
+and verdant meadows, would it not be best for them to join and flow on
+as this great river does, Jean? Ah, Jean, you know how much I love
+you."
+
+And then she placed her hand in mine; her eyes spoke that which I most
+wished to know, and the very earth seemed glorious.
+
+I know not how long we stood there, when there came Mistress Nancy
+Nicholson's voice through the garden, calling, "Jean, Jean, where are
+you?"
+
+"Here," she answered; and with that Mistress Nancy came running round
+the hedge.
+
+"Oh, Jean," she cried, "Dick has proposed."
+
+And then, seeing me, she stamped her little foot, and cried, "Oh,
+bother!" blushing meanwhile as red as one of her roses.
+
+"And so have I, Mistress Nancy," I replied.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now, my children, I end this tale, sitting here on the old porch
+at Fairlee. The pen drops from my hand, but my eyes are not too dim to
+see the flash of the sunlight on the waters of the great bay through
+the break in the trees.
+
+Nor are they too dim, Miss Jean, in spite of the impertinent toss of
+your head, to see in you the likeness of the maid that led me such a
+wild dance in the days of my youth. And I promise you, if you do not
+smile on young Dick Ringgold and stop your outrageous treatment of
+him, I will not leave you a cent in my will.
+
+There, there; I retract every word that I said. Was there ever so
+audacious a monkey in the world?
+
+There, I have finished. Oh, yes, I forgot--
+
+"John Cotton, bring me some more mint."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tory Maid, by Herbert Baird Stimpson
+
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