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diff --git a/40013-0.txt b/40013-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7634592 --- /dev/null +++ b/40013-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8711 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40013 *** + + THE MASTER OF WARLOCK + + A VIRGINIA WAR STORY + + BY GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON + + AUTHOR OF "DOROTHY SOUTH," "A CAROLINA CAVALIER," ETC. + + + ILLUSTRATED BY + C. D. WILLIAMS + + LOTHROP PUBLISHING + COMPANY BOSTON + + COPYRIGHT, + 1903, + + BY + LOTHROP + PUBLISHING + COMPANY. + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + ENTERED AT + STATIONERS' + HALL + + Published, January, 1903 + + + TO "DOROTHY SOUTH," THE DEAR LITTLE WOMAN WHO HAS BEEN WIFE TO ME + FOR THIRTY-FOUR YEARS, WHO HAS UNCONSCIOUSLY INSPIRED ALL MY WORK, + AND WHOSE PERSONALITY, IN ITS SEVERAL PHASES, IT HAS BEEN MY LOVING + ENDEAVOUR TO PORTRAY IN ALL THE STORIES I HAVE WRITTEN, I DEDICATE + THIS BOOK WITH REVERENCE AND SOUL-FELT THANKS. + + GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON. + + _Culross, October 18, 1902._ + + + + +[Illustration: "_In the firelight_"] + + + + +Table of Contents + + + CHAPTER PAGE + +I. A BREAK IN THE BRIDGE 11 + +II. THE BRINGING UP OF AGATHA 32 + +III. JESSAMINE AND HONEYSUCKLE 47 + +IV. IN REVOLT 71 + +V. AT THE OAKS 78 + +VI. NEXT MORNING 94 + +VII. A FAREWELL AT THE GATE 111 + +VIII. A RED FEATHER 118 + +IX. THE BIRTH OF WOMANHOOD 135 + +X. IN ACTION 144 + +XI. AT WARLOCK 163 + +XII. UNDER ESCORT 172 + +XIII. A SOUVENIR SERVICE 187 + +XIV. QUICK WORK 199 + +XV. AGATHA'S VENTURE 214 + +XVI. CANISTER 223 + +XVII. AT HEADQUARTERS 238 + +XVIII. A BRUSH AT THE FRONT 248 + +XIX. AGATHA'S RESOLUTION 256 + +XX. TWO HOME-COMINGS 265 + +XXI. AT PARTING 279 + +XXII. SAM AS A STRATEGIST 290 + +XXIII. A NEGOTIATION 301 + +XXIV. FLIGHT 317 + +XXV. A NARROW ESCAPE 327 + +XXVI. MADEMOISELLE ROLAND 336 + +XXVII. AGATHA'S WONDER-STORY 345 + +XXVIII. WHEN A MAN TALKS TOO MUCH 364 + +XXIX. A STRUGGLE OF GIANTS 374 + +XXX. THE LAST STRAW 380 + +XXXI. AT WARLOCK AND AT THE OAKS 396 + +XXXII. IN RIGHTEOUS WRATH 407 + +XXXIII. UNDER RED LEAVES 416 + +XXXIV. THE END AND AFTER 425 + + + + +_List of Illustrations_ + + +"_In the firelight_" Frontispiece + +_Agatha Ronald_ 44 + +"'_If any man flunks--I'll brain him_'" 126 + +"'_Riding under gallant escort_'" 186 + +"'_I love you, Agatha Ronald_'" 235 + +"'_At Christ-church-in-the-woods_'" 423 + + + + +The Master of Warlock + + + + +I + +_A BREAK IN THE BRIDGE_ + + +The road was a winding, twisting track as it threaded its way through a +stretch of old field pines. The land was nearly level at that point, and +quite unobstructed, so that there was not the slightest reason that +ordinary intelligence could discover for the roadway's devious +wanderings. It might just as well have run straight through the pine +lands. + +But in Virginia people were never in a hurry. They had all of leisure +that well-settled and perfectly self-satisfied ways of life could bring +to a people whose chief concern it was to live uprightly and happily in +that state of existence into which it had pleased God to call them. What +difference could it make to a people so minded, whether the journey to +the Court-house--the centre and seat of county activities of all +kinds--were a mile or two longer or shorter by reason of meaningless +curves in the road, or by reason of a lack of them? Why should they +bother to straighten out road windings that had the authority of long +use for their being? And why should the well-fed negro drivers of family +carriages shake themselves out of their customary and comfortable naps +in order to drive more directly across the pine land, when the horses, +if left to themselves, would placidly follow the traditional track? + +The crookedness of the road was a fact, and Virginians of that time +always accepted and respected facts to which they had been long +accustomed. For that sufficient reason Baillie Pegram, the young master +of Warlock, was not thinking of the road at all, but accepting it as he +did the greenery of the trees and the bursting of the buds, as he jogged +along at a dog-trot on that fine April morning in the year of our Lord +1861. + +He was well mounted upon a mettlesome sorrel mare,--a mare with +pronounced ideas of her own. The young man had taught her to bend these +somewhat to his will, but her individuality was not yet so far subdued +or suppressed as to lose itself in that of her master. So she suddenly +halted and vigorously snorted as she came within sight of the little +bridge over Dogwood Branch, where a horse and a young gentlewoman were +obviously in trouble. + +I name the horse and the girl in that ungallant reverse order, because +that was the order in which they revealed themselves to the mare and her +master. For the girl was on the farther side of the horse, and stooping, +so that she could not be seen at a first glance. As she heard +approaching hoof-beats she straightened herself into that dignity of +demeanour which every young Virginia gentlewoman felt it to be her +supreme duty in life to maintain under any and all circumstances. + +She was gowned in the riding-habit of that time, with glove-fitting body +and a skirt so long that, even when its wearer sat upon a high horse, it +extended to within eighteen inches of the ground. When Baillie Pegram +reached the little bridge and hastily dismounted, she was standing as +erect as a young hickory-tree, making the most of her five feet four of +height, and holding the skirt up sufficiently to free her feet. She +wore a look half of welcome, half of defiance on her face. The defiance +was prompted by a high-bred maidenly sense of propriety and by something +else. The welcome was due to an instinctive rejoicing in the coming of +masculine help. For the girl was indeed in sore need of assistance. Her +horse had slipped his foot through a break in the bridge flooring, and +after a painful struggle, had given up the attempt to extricate it. He +was panting with pain, and his young mistress was sympathetically +sharing every pain that he suffered. + +Baillie Pegram gave the girl a rather formal greeting as he dismounted. +Stooping he examined the imprisoned leg of the animal. Then seizing a +stone from the margin of the stream, he quickly beat the planking loose +from its fastenings, releasing the poor brute from its pillory. But the +freed foot did not plant itself upon the ground again. The horse held it +up, limp and dangling. Seeing what had happened, the young man promptly +ungirthed the saddles, and transferred that of the young woman to the +back of his own animal. + +"You must take my mare, Miss Ronald," he said. "Your horse is in no +condition to carry you, and, poor fellow, he never will be again." + +"Just what has happened, Mr. Pegram?" the girl asked, with a good deal +of hauteur in her tone. + +"Your horse's leg is broken beyond all possibility of repair," he +answered. "I will take care of him for you, and you must ride my mare. +She is a trifle unruly at times, and not very bridle-wise, so that she +is scarcely fit for a lady's use. But I take it you know how to ride." + +The girl did not answer at once. After a space she said: + +"You forget that I am Agatha Ronald." + +"No, I do not forget," he answered. "I remember that fact with regret +whenever I think of you. However, under the circumstances, you must so +far overcome your prejudice as to accept the use of my mare." + +There was a mingling of hauteur and amusement in the girl's voice and +countenance as she answered: + +"Permit me, Mr. Pegram, to thank you for your courteous proffer of help, +_and to decline it_." + +"I need no thanks," he said, "for a trifling courtesy which is so +obviously imperative. As for declining it, why of course you cannot do +that." + +"Why not?" she asked, resentfully. "Am I not my own mistress? Surely you +would not take advantage of my mishap to force unwelcome attentions upon +me?" + +The utterance was an affront, and Baillie Pegram saw clearly that it was +intended to be such. He bit his lip, but controlled himself. + +"I will not think," he answered, "that you quite meant to say that. You +are too just to do even me a wrong, and surely I have not deserved such +an affront at your hands. Nor can the circumstances that prompt you to +decline any unnecessary courtesy at my hands justify you in--well, in +saying what you have just said. I have not sought to force attentions +upon you, and you know it. I have only asked you to let me behave like a +gentleman under circumstances which are not of my making or my seeking. +Your horse is hopelessly lamed--so hopelessly that as soon as you are +gone, I am going to kill him by the roadside as an act of ordinary +humanity. You are fully five miles from The Oaks, where you are staying +with your aunts. Except in this bit of pine barren, the roads are +exceedingly muddy. You are habited for riding, and you could not walk +far in that costume, even upon the best of roads. You simply must make +use of my mare. I cannot permit you to refuse. If I did so, I should +incur the lasting and just disapproval of your aunts, The Oaks ladies. +You certainly do not wish me to do that. I have placed your saddle upon +my mare, and I am waiting to help you mount." + +The girl hesitated, bewildered, unwilling, and distinctly in that +feminine state of mind which women call "vexed." At last she asked: + +"What will you do if I refuse?" + +"O, in that case I shall turn the mare loose, and walk at a respectful +distance behind you as you trudge over the miry road, until you become +hopelessly involved in the red clay at Vinegar Post. Then I shall rush +to your rescue like a gallant knight, and carry you pick-a-back all the +way to The Oaks. It will be a singularly undignified approach to a +mansion in which the proprieties of life are sternly insisted upon. +Don't you think you'd better take the mare, Miss Ronald?" + +The girl stood silent for nearly a minute in a half-angry mood of +resistance, which was in battle with the laughing demon that just now +possessed her. She did not want to laugh. She was determined not to +laugh. Therefore she laughed uncontrollably, as one is apt to do when +something ludicrous occurs at a funeral. Presently she said: + +"I wonder what it was all about anyhow--the quarrel, I mean, between +your grandfather and my poor father?" + +There was a touch of melancholy in her tone as she spoke of her "poor +father"--for that phrase, in Virginian usage, always meant that the dear +one mentioned was dead. "I wonder what it was that makes it so +imperative for me to be formally courteous beyond the common to you, and +at the same time highly improper for me to accept such ordinary +courtesies at your hands as I freely accept from others, thinking +nothing about the matter." + +"Would you really like to know?" the young man asked. + +"Yes--no. I'm not quite certain. Sometimes I want to know--just now, for +example--so that I may know just what my duty is. But at other times I +think it should be enough for me, as a well-ordered young person, to +know that I must be loyal to my poor father's memory, and never forgive +a Pegram while I live. My good aunts have taught me that much, but they +have never told me anything about the origin of the feud. All I know is +that, in order to be true to the memory of my poor father, who died +before I was born, I must always remember that the Ronalds and the +Pegrams are hereditary enemies. That is why I refuse to use the mare +which you have so courteously offered me, Mr. Pegram." + +"Still," answered the young man, as if arguing the matter out with +himself, "it might not compromise your dignity so much to ride a mare +that belongs to me, as to let me 'tote' you home--for that is precisely +what I must do if you persist in your refusal." + +The girl again laughed, merrily this time, but still she hesitated: + +"Listen!" said Baillie; "that's my boy Sam coming. It would be unseemly +for us to continue our quarrel in the presence of a servant." + +As he spoke the voice of Sam rose from beyond the pines, in a ditty +which he was singing with all the power of a robust set of vocal organs: + + "My own Eliza gal--she's de colour ob de night, + When de moon it doesn't shine a little bit; + But her teeth shows white in de shaddah ob de night, + And her eyes is like a lantern when it's lit. + + "Oh, Eliza! + How I prize yeh! + You'se de nicest gal dere is; + It's fer you dat I'se a-pinin', + For you're like a star dat's shinin' + When de moon it's done forgitten how to riz." + +With that Sam came beaming upon the scene. His round, black, shining +visage, and eyes that glittered with a humour which might have won an +anchorite to merriment, resembled nothing so much as the sun at its +rising, if one may think of the sun as black and glistening from a +diligent rubbing with a bacon rind, which was Sam's favourite cosmetic, +as it is of all the very black negroes. + +Sam was sitting sidewise upon a saddleless mule, but when he saw the +situation he quickly slipped to the ground, pulled his woolly forelock +in lieu of doffing the hat which he had not, and asked: + +"What's de mattah, Mas' Baillie?" + +The girl saw the impropriety of continuing the discussion--it had ceased +to be a quarrel now--in Sam's presence. So she held out her hand, and +said: + +"Thank you very much, Mr. Pegram. I will ride your beautiful mare, and +to-morrow, if you are so minded, you may call at The Oaks to inquire how +the animal has behaved toward me. Good morning, sir!" + +She sprang into the saddle without waiting for young Pegram to assist +her, for she was even yet determined to accept no more of attention at +his hands than she must. He, in his turn, was too greatly relieved by +this ending of the embarrassing scene to care for the implied snub to +his gallantry. As soon as the girl rode away, which she did without +pausing for a moment, Baillie Pegram turned to Sam, and without +inquiring upon what errand that worthy had been going, gave the order: + +"Mount your mule and ride at a respectful distance behind Miss Agatha +Ronald. She may have trouble with that half-broken mare of mine. And +mind you, boy, don't entertain the young lady with any of your songs as +you go. When you get back to Warlock, bring me a horse to the +Court-house, do you hear?" + +Then leading the wounded animal upon three legs into the woods near by, +Pegram fired a charge of shot from the fowling-piece which he carried, +into its brain, killing the poor beast instantly and painlessly. + +Having discharged this duty of mercy, the young man, with high boots +drawn over his trousers' legs, set out with a brisk stride for the +county-seat village, known only as "the Court-house." Entering the +clerk's office, he said to the county clerk: + +"As a magistrate of this county I direct you to enter a fine of five +dollars against Baillie Pegram, Esq., supervisor of the Vinegar Post +road, for his neglect to keep the bridge over Dogwood Branch in repair. +Here's the money. Give me a receipt, please, and make the proper entries +upon the court records." + +"Pardon me, Mr. Pegram," answered the clerk, "but you remember that at +the last term of the county court, with a full bench of magistrates +sitting, it was decided to adjourn the court indefinitely in view of the +disturbed condition of the time?" + +"I remember that," answered the young man, "but that action was taken +only upon the ground that under present circumstances it would work +hardship to many for the courts to meet for the enforcement of debts. +This is a very different case. As road supervisor I am charged with a +public duty which I have neglected. As a magistrate it is my duty to +fine every road supervisor who is derelict. No session of the court is +necessary for that. I shall certainly not tolerate such neglect of duty +on the part of any county officer, particularly when I happen to be +myself the derelict official. So enter the fine and give me a receipt +for the money." + +Does all this impress the reader as quixotic? Was it a foolish +sentimentalism that prompted these men to serve their neighbours and the +public without pay, and, upon occasion, to hold themselves rigidly +responsible to a high standard of duty? Was it quixotism which prompted +George Washington to serve his country without one dollar of pay, +through seven years of war, as the general of its armies, and through +nearly twice that time as President, first of the Constitutional +Convention, and afterwards, for eight years, as President of the nation? +Was it an absurd sentimentalism that prompted him, after he had declined +pay, to decline also the gifts voluntarily and urgently pressed upon him +by his own and other States, and by the nation? The humourists ridicule +all such sentiment. But the humourists are not a court of final appeal. +At any rate, this sentimentality had its good side. + +But at this time of extreme excitement, there were, no doubt, ludicrous +exaggerations of sentiment and conduct now and then, and on this +sixteenth day of April, 1861, the master of Warlock encountered some +things that greatly amused him. Having finished his business in the +clerk's office, he found himself in the midst of excited throngs. +Startling news had come from Richmond that morning. In view of the +bombardment of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln had called for +seventy-five thousand men as an army with which to reduce the seceding +States to subjection. + +Virginia was not one of the seceding States. Up to that time, she had +utterly repudiated the thought that secession was justified by Mr. +Lincoln's election, or by any threat to the South which his accession to +office implied. + +The statesmen of Virginia had busied themselves for months with efforts +to find a way out of the difficulties that beset the country. They were +intent upon saving that Union which had been born of Virginia's +suggestion, if such saving could be accomplished by any means that did +not involve dishonour. The people of Virginia, when called upon to +decide the question of their own course in such a crisis by the election +of a constitutional convention, had overwhelmingly decided it against +secession, and in favour of adherence to the Union. Under Virginia's +influence, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and +Missouri had refused to secede. + +But while the Virginians were thus opposed to secession, and while they +were fully convinced that secession was neither necessary nor advisable +under the circumstances then existing, they were of one mind in +believing that the constitutional right of any State to withdraw from +the Union at will was absolute and indefeasible. So when Mr. Lincoln +called upon Virginia for her quota of troops with which to coerce back +into the Union those States which had exercised what the Virginians held +to be their rightful privilege of withdrawal, it seemed to the +Virginians that there was forced upon them a choice between secession +and unspeakable dishonour. They wanted to remain in the Union, of which +their State had been from the beginning so influential a part. They were +intensely loyal to the history and traditions of that Union over which +their Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Tyler had presided, +and at the head of whose supreme court their John Marshall had so wisely +interpreted the constitution. But when Mr. Lincoln notified them that +they must furnish their quota of troops with which to make war upon +sister States for exercising a right which the Virginians deemed +unquestionable, they felt that they had no choice but to join the +seceding States and take the consequences. + +What a pity it seems, as we look back upon that crisis of forty odd +years ago, that Mr. Lincoln could not have found some other way out of +his difficulties! What a pity that he could not have seen his way clear +to omit Virginia and the other border States from his call for troops, +with which to make war upon secession! Doubtless it was impracticable +for him to make such a distinction. But the pity of it is none the less +on that account. For if this might have been done, there would have been +no civil war worthy the attention of the historian or the novelist. In +that case the battles of Bull Run, the Seven Days, Fredericksburg, +Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, +Cold Harbour, and the rest of the bloody encounters would never have +been fought. In that case the country would not have exhausted itself +with four years of strenuous war, enlisting 2,700,000 men on one side, +and 600,000 on the other. In that case many thousands of brave young +lives would have been spared, and the desolation of homes by tens of +thousands would not have come upon the land. + +It is idle, however, to speculate in "if's," even when their +significance is so sadly obvious as it is in this case. Facts are facts, +and the all-dominating fact on that 16th of April, 1861, was that +President Lincoln had called upon Virginia for her quota of troops with +which to make war upon the seceding States, and that Virginia had no +mind to respond to the call. + +It was certain now, that Virginia--however reluctantly and however +firmly convinced she might be that secession was uncalled for on the +part of the Southern States, would adopt an ordinance of secession, and +thus make inevitable the coming of the greatest war in all history, +where otherwise no war at all, or at most an insignificant one, would +have occurred. + +There was no question in the minds of any body at the Court-house on +this sixteenth day of April, 1861, that Virginia would secede as soon as +a vote could be taken in the convention. + +The county was a small one, insignificant in the number of its white +inhabitants,--there being six negroes to one white in its +population,--but it was firmly convinced that upon its attitude depended +the fate of Virginia, and perhaps of the nation. This conviction was +strong, at any rate, in the minds of the three local orators who had +ordered a muster for this day in order that they might have an audience +to harangue. These were Colonel Gregor, of the militia and the bar, +Lieutenant-Colonel Simpson, also of the bar and the militia, and Captain +Sam Guthrie, who commanded a troop of uniformed horsemen, long ago +organised for purposes of periodical picnicking. This troop afterward +rendered conspicuously good service in Stuart's First Regiment of +Virginia cavalry, but not under Captain Guthrie's command. That officer, +early in the campaign, developed a severe case of nervous prostration, +and retired. The militiamen also volunteered, and rendered their full +four years of service. But Lieutenant-Colonel Simpson retired during his +first and only skirmish, while Colonel Gregor discovered in himself a +divine call to the ministry of the gospel, and stayed at home to answer +it. But all this came later. In April, 1861, these three were the eager +advocates of war, instant and terrible. Under inspiration of the news +from Richmond, they spouted like geysers throughout that day. They could +not have been more impassioned in their pleas if theirs had been a +reluctant community, in danger of disgracing itself by refusing to +furnish its fair share of volunteers for Virginia's defence, though in +fact every able-bodied man in the county had already signified his +intention of volunteering at the first opportunity. + +But the orators were not minded to miss so good an opportunity to +display their eloquence, and impress themselves upon the community. +Colonel Gregor, in a fine burst of eloquence, warned his fellow +citizens, whom he always addressed as "me countrymen," to examine +themselves carefully touching their personal courage, "for," he +thundered, "where Gregor leads, brave men must follow." + +Later in the day, Lieutenant-Colonel Simpson hit upon the happy idea, +which his superior officer at once adopted, of ordering the entire +militia of the county into camp at the Court-house, where the three men +eloquent might harangue them at will between drills. The two +field-officers told the men that they must now regard themselves as +minute men, and hold themselves in readiness to respond at a moment's +notice to the country's call, for the repelling of invasion, whensoever +it might come. + +All this impressed Baillie Pegram as ridiculous. That young gentleman +had a saving sense of humour, but he was content to smile at a +foolishness in which he had no mind to join. The young men of the +county responded enthusiastically to the encampment call. It meant for +them some days of delightful picnicking, with dancing in the evening. + +Baillie Pegram, having business to transact in Richmond, absented +himself from a frolic not to his taste, and took the noonday train for +the State capital. + + + + +II + +_THE BRINGING UP OF AGATHA_ + + +Agatha Roland was a particularly well ordered young gentlewoman, at +least during her long, half-yearly visits to her aunts at The Oaks. At +home with her maternal grandfather, Colonel Archer, she was neither well +nor ill ordered--she was not ordered at all. She gave orders instead, in +a gentle way; and her word was law, by virtue of her grandfather's +insistence that it should be so regarded, and still more by reason of +something in herself that gently gave authority to her will. + +Agatha had been born at The Oaks, and that plantation was to be her +property at the death of her two elderly maiden aunts, her dead father's +sisters. But she had been taken as a little child to the distant home of +her grandfather, Colonel Archer, and after her mother's death she had +lived there alone with that sturdy old Virginia gentleman. + +She was less than seven years old when he installed her behind the +tea-tray in her dead mother's stead, and made her absolute mistress of +the mansion, issuing the order that "whatever Miss Agatha wants done +must be done, or I will find out why." Her good aunts sought to +interfere at first, but they soon learned better. They wanted the girl +to come to them at The Oaks "for her bringing up," they said. Upon that +plan Colonel Archer instantly put a veto that was not the less +peremptory for the reason that he could not "put his foot down" just +then, because of an attack of the gout. Then the good ladies urged him +to take "some gentlewoman of mature years and high character" into his +house, "to look after the child's bringing up, so that her manners may +be such as befit a person of her lineage." + +To this appeal the old gentleman replied: + +"I'll look after all that myself. I don't want the child taught a lot of +nonsense, and I won't have her placed under anybody's authority. She +doesn't need control, any more than the birds do; she shall grow up +here at Willoughby in perfect freedom and naturalness. I'll be +responsible for the result. She shall wear bonnets whenever she wants +to, and go without them whenever that pleases her best; when she wants +to go barefoot and wade in the branches, as all healthy children like to +do, she shall not be told that her conduct is 'highly improper,' and all +that nonsense. O, I know," he said, in anticipation of a protest that he +saw coming, "I know she'll get 'dreadfully tanned,' and become a +tomboy--and all the rest of it. But I'll answer for it that when she +grows up her perfectly healthy skin will bear comparison with the +complexion of the worst house-burnt young woman in all the land, and as +for her figure, nature will take care of that under the life of liberty +that she's going to live, in the air and sunshine." + +"But you'll surely send her to school?" + +"Not if I retain my senses. I remember my humanities well enough to +teach her all the Latin, Greek, and mathematics she needs. We'll read +history and literature together, and as for French, I speak that +language a good deal better than most of the dapper little +dancing-masters do who keep 'young ladies' seminaries.' We'll ride +horseback together every day, and I'll teach her French while I'm +teaching her how to take an eight-rail fence at a gallop." + +The remonstrances were continued for a time, until one day the old +gentleman made an end of them by saying: + +"I have heard all I want to hear on that subject. It is not to be +mentioned to me again." + +Everybody who knew Colonel Archer knew that when he spoke in that tone +of mingled determination and self-restraint, it was a dictate of +prudence to respect his wish. So after that Agatha and he lived alone at +Willoughby, a plantation in Northern Virginia three or four days distant +by carriage from The Oaks. + +Morning, noon, and night, these two were inseparable companions. +"Chummie" was the pet name she gave him in her childish days, and he +would never permit her to address him by any other as she grew up. + +Old soldier that he was,--for he had commanded a company under Jackson +at New Orleans, and had been a colonel during the war with Mexico,--it +was his habit to exact implicit obedience within his own domain. He was +the kindliest of masters, but his will was law on the plantation, and as +everybody there recognised the fact, he never had occasion to give an +order twice, or to mete out censure for disobedience. But for Agatha +there was no law. Colonel Archer would permit none, while she in her +turn made it her one study in life to be and do whatever her "Chummie" +liked best. + +Colonel Archer had a couple of gardeners, of course, but their work was +mainly to do the rougher things of horticulture. He and Agatha liked to +do the rest for themselves. They prepared the garden-beds, seeded them, +and carefully nursed their growths into fruitage, he teaching her, as +they did so, that love of all growing things which is botany's best +lesson. + +"And the plants love us back again, Chummie," she one day said to him, +while she was still a little child. "They smile when we go near them, +and sometimes the pansies whisper to me. I'm sure of that." + +She was at that time a slender child, with big, velvety brown eyes and a +tangled mass of brown hair which her maid Martha struggled in vain to +reduce to subjection. She usually put on a sunbonnet when she went to +the garden in the early morning; but when it obstructed her vision, or +otherwise annoyed her, she would push it off, letting it fall to her +back and hang by its strings about her neck. Even then it usually became +an annoyance, particularly when she wanted to climb a fruit-tree, and +Martha would find it later, resting upon a cluster of rose-bushes, or +hung upon a fence-paling. + +The pair of chums--the sturdy old gentleman and the little girl--had no +regular hours for any of their employments, but at some hour of every +day, they got out their books and read or studied together. + +They were much on horseback, too, and when autumn came they would tramp +together through stubble fields and broom-straw growths, shooting quails +on the wing--partridges, they correctly called them, as it is the habit +of everybody in Virginia to do, for the reason that the bird which the +New York marketman calls "quail," is properly named "Partridge +Virginiensis," while the bird that the marketman sells as a partridge is +not a partridge at all, but a grouse. The girl became a good shot +during her first season, and a year later she challenged her grandfather +to a match, to see who could bag the greater number of birds. At the end +of the morning's sport, her bag outnumbered her companion's by two +birds; but when the count was made, she looked with solemn eyes into her +grandfather's face and, shaking her head in displeasure, said: + +"Chummie, you've been cheating! I don't like to think it of you, but +it's true. You've missed several birds on purpose to let me get ahead of +you. I'll never count birds with you again." + +The old gentleman tried to laugh the matter off, but the girl would not +consent to that. After awhile she said: "I'll forgive you this time, +Chummie; but I'll never count birds with you again." + +"But why not, Ladybird?" + +"Why, because you don't like to beat me, and I don't like to beat you. +So if we go on counting birds and each trying to lose the match, we'll +get to be very bad shots. Besides that, Chummie, cheating will impair +your character." + +But the girl was not left without the companionship of girls of her own +age. Colonel Archer was too wise a student of human nature for that. So +from the beginning he planned to give her the companionship she needed. + +"You are the mistress of Willoughby, you know, Agatha," he said to her +one day, "and you must keep up the reputation of the place for +hospitality. You must have your dining-days like the rest, and invite +your friends." + +And she did so. She would send out her little notes, written in a hand +that closely resembled that of her grandfather, begging half a dozen +girls, daughters of the planters round about, to dine with her, and they +would come in their carriages, attended by their negro maids. It was +Colonel Archer's delight to watch Agatha on these occasions, and observe +the very serious way in which she sought to discharge her duties as a +hospitable hostess in becoming fashion. + +A little later he encouraged her to invite two or three of her young +friends, now and then, to stay for a few days or a week with her, after +the Virginian custom. But not until she was twelve years old did he +consent to spare her for longer than a single night. Then he agreed with +The Oaks ladies that she should spend a few weeks in the spring and a +few in the late summer or autumn of every year with them. They welcomed +the arrangement as one which would at least give them an opportunity to +"form the girl." During her semi-annual visits to The Oaks they very +diligently set themselves to work drilling her in the matter of respect +for the formalities of life. + +The process rather interested Agatha, and sometimes it even amused her. +She was solemnly enjoined not to do things that she had never thought of +doing, and as earnestly instructed to do things which she had never in +her life neglected to do. + +At first she was too young to formulate the causes of her interest and +amusement in this process. But her mind matured rapidly in association +with her grandfather, and she began at last to analyse the matter. + +"When I go to The Oaks," she wrote to her "Chummie" one day, "I feel +like a sinner going to do penance; but the penance is rather amusing +than annoying. I am made to feel how shockingly improper I have been at +Willoughby with you, Chummie, during the preceding six months, and how +necessary it is for me to submit myself for a season to a control that +shall undo the effects of the liberty in which I live at Willoughby. I +am made to understand that liberty is the very worst thing a girl or a +woman can indulge herself in. Am I very bad, Chummie?" + +For answer the old gentleman laughed aloud. Then he wrote: + +"You see how shrewdly I have managed this thing, Ladybird. I wouldn't +let you go to The Oaks till you had become too fully confirmed in your +habit of being free, ever to be reformed." + +Later, and more seriously, he said to the girl: + +"Every human being is the better for being free--women as well as men. +Liberty to a human being is like sunshine and fresh air. Restraint is +like medicine--excellent for those who are ill, but very bad indeed for +healthy people. Did it ever occur to you, Agatha, that you never took a +pill or a powder in your life? You haven't needed medicine because +you've had air and sunshine; no more do you need restraint, and for the +same reason. You are perfectly healthy in your mind as well as in your +body." + +"But, Chummie, you don't know how very ill regulated I am. Aunt Sarah +and Aunt Jane disapprove very seriously of many things that I do." + +"What things?" + +"Well, they say, for example, that it is very unladylike for me to call +you 'Chummie,'--that it indicates a want of that respect for age and +superiority which every young person--you know I am only a 'young +person' to them--should scrupulously cultivate." + +"Well, now, let me give you warning, Miss Agatha Ronald; if you ever +call me anything but 'Chummie,' I'll alter my will, and leave this +plantation to the Abolitionist Society as an experiment station." + +Nevertheless, Agatha Ronald was, as has been said at the beginning of +this chapter, a particularly well ordered young gentlewoman so long as +she remained as a guest with her aunts at The Oaks. She loved the gentle +old ladies dearly, and strove with all her might, while with them, to +comport herself in accordance with their standards of conduct on the +part of a young gentlewoman. + +Sometimes, however, her innocence misled her, as it had done on that +morning when Baillie Pegram had met her at the bridge over Dogwood +Branch. The spirit of the morning had taken possession of her on that +occasion, and she had so far reverted from her condition of +dame-nurtured grace into her habitual state of nature as to mount her +horse and ride away without the escort even of a negro groom. It was not +at all unusual at that time for young gentlewomen in Virginia to ride +thus alone, but The Oaks ladies strongly disapproved the custom, as they +disapproved all other customs that had come into being since their own +youth had passed away, especially all customs that in any way tended to +enlarge the innocent liberty of young women. On this point the good +ladies were as rigidly insistent as if they had been the ladies superior +of a convent of young nuns. They could not have held liberty for young +gentlewomen in greater dread and detestation, had they believed, as they +certainly did not, in the total depravity of womankind. + +"It is not that we fear you would do anything wrong, dear," they would +gently explain. "It is only that--well, you see a young gentlewoman +cannot be too careful." + +Agatha did not see, but she yielded to the prejudices of her aunts with +a loyalty all the more creditable to her for the reason that she did not +and could not share their views. On this occasion she had not thought of +offending. It had not occurred to her that there could be the slightest +impropriety in her desire to greet the morning on horseback, and +certainly it had not entered her mind that she might meet Baillie Pegram +and be compelled to accept a courtesy at his hands. She knew, as she +rode silently homeward after that meeting at the bridge, that in this +respect she had sinned beyond overlooking. + +For Agatha Ronald knew that she must be on none but the most distant and +formal terms with the master of Warlock. She had learned that lesson at +Christmas-time, three months before. She had spent the Christmas season +in Richmond, with some friends. There Baillie Pegram had met her for the +first time since she had attained her womanhood--for he had been away at +college, at law school, or on his travels at the time of all her more +recent sojourns at The Oaks. He had known her very slightly as a shy and +wild little girl, but the woman Agatha was a revelation to him, and +her beauty not less than her charm of manner and her unusual +intelligence, had fascinated him. He frequented the house of her +Richmond friends, and had opportunities to learn more every day of +herself. He did not pause to analyse his feeling for her; he only knew +that it was quite different from any that he had ever experienced +before. And Agatha, in her turn and in her candor, had admitted to +herself that she "liked" young Pegram better than any other young man +she had ever met. + +[Illustration: _Agatha Ronald_] + +No word of love had passed between these two, and both were unconscious +of their state of mind, when their intercourse was suddenly interrupted. +A note came to Baillie one day from Agatha, in which the frank and +fearlessly honest young woman wrote: + +"I am not to see you any more, Mr. Pegram. I am informed by my relatives +that there are circumstances for which neither of us is responsible, +which render it quite improper that you and I should be friends. I am +very sorry, but I think it my duty to tell you this myself. I thank you +for all your kindnesses to me before we knew about this thing." + +That was absolutely all there was of the note, but it was quite enough. +It had set Baillie to inquiring concerning a feud of which he vaguely +knew the existence, but to which he had never before given the least +attention. + +That is how it came about that Agatha rode sadly homeward after the +meeting at the bridge, wondering how she could have done otherwise than +accept the use of Baillie Pegram's mare, and wondering still more what +her aunts would say to her concerning the matter. + +"Anyhow," she thought at last, "I've done no intentional wrong. Chummie +would not blame me if he were here, and I am not sure that I shall +accept much blame at anybody's else hands. I'll be good and submissive +if I can, but--well, I don't know. Maybe I'll hurry back home to +Chummie." + + + + +III + +_JESSAMINE AND HONEYSUCKLE_ + + +It was a peculiarity of inherited quarrels between old Virginia families +that they must never be recognised outwardly by any act of discourtesy, +and still less by any neglect of formal attention where courtesy was +called for. Such quarrels were never mentioned between the families that +were involved in them, and equally they were never forgotten. Each +member of either family owed it to himself to treat all members of the +other family with the utmost deference, while never for a moment +permitting that deference to lapse into anything that could be construed +to mean forgiveness or forgetfulness. + +Agatha, as we have seen, had twice violated the code under which such +affairs were conducted; once in the note she had sent to Baillie Pegram +in Richmond, and for the second time in giving him permission to call at +The Oaks to inquire concerning her journey homeward on his mare. But on +both occasions she had been out of the presence and admonitory influence +of her aunts, and when absent from them, Agatha Ronald was not at all +well regulated, as we know. She was given to acting upon her own natural +and healthy-minded impulses, and such impulses were apt to be at war +with propriety as propriety was understood and insisted upon at The +Oaks. + +But Baillie Pegram was not minded to make any mistake in a matter of so +much delicacy and importance. He had received Agatha's permission to +make that formal call of inquiry, which was customary on all such +occasions, and she in her heedlessness had probably meant what she said, +as it was her habit to do. But Baillie knew very well that her good +aunts would neither expect nor wish him to call upon their niece. At the +same time he must not leave his omission to do so unexplained. He must +send a note of apology, not to Agatha,--as he would have done to any +other young woman under like circumstances,--but to her aunts instead. +In a note to them he reported his sudden summons to Richmond, adding +that as he was uncertain as to the length of his stay there, he begged +the good ladies to accept his absence from home as his sufficient excuse +for not calling to inquire concerning the behaviour of his mare during +their niece's journey upon that rather uncertain-minded animal's back. +This note he gave to Sam for delivery, when Sam brought him the horse he +had ordered but no longer wanted. + +Baillie Pegram had all the pride of his lineage and his class. He had +sought to forget all about Agatha Ronald after her astonishing little +note had come to him some months before in Richmond, and until this +morning he had believed that he had accomplished that forgetfulness. But +now the thought of her haunted him ceaselessly. All the way to Richmond +her beauty and her charm, as she had stood there by the roadside, filled +his mind with visions that tortured him. He tried with all his might to +dismiss the visions and to think of something else. He bought the daily +papers and tried to interest himself in their excited utterances, but +failed. Red-hot leaders, that were meant to stir all Virginian souls to +wrathful resolution, made no impression on his mind. He read them, and +knew not what he had read. He was thinking of the girl by the roadside, +and his soul was fascinated with the memory of her looks, her words, her +finely modulated voice, her ways, as she had tried to refuse his offer +of assistance. Had he been of vain and conceited temper, he might have +flattered himself with the thought that her very hauteur in converse +with him implied something more and better than indifference on her part +toward him. But that thought did not enter his mind. He thought instead: + +"What a sublimated idiot I am! That girl is nothing to me--worse than +nothing. Circumstances place her wholly outside my acquaintance, except +in the most formal fashion. She is a young gentlewoman of my own +class--distinctly superior to all the other young gentlewomen of that +class whom I have ever met,--and ordinarily it would be the most natural +thing in the world for me to pay my addresses to her. But in this case +that is completely out of the question. To me at least she is the +unattainable. I must school myself to think of her no more, and that +ought to be easy enough, as I am not in love with her and am not +permitted even to think of being so. It's simply a craze that has taken +possession of me for a time,--the instinct of the huntsman, to whom +quarry is desirable in the precise ratio of its elusiveness. There, I've +thought the whole thing out to an end, and now I must give my mind to +something more important." + +Yet even in the midst of the excitement that prevailed in Richmond that +day, Baillie Pegram did not quite succeed in driving out of his mind the +memory of the little tableau by the bridge, or forgetting how supremely +fascinating Agatha Ronald had seemed, as she had haughtily declined his +offer of service, and still more as she had reluctantly accepted it, and +ridden away after so cleverly evading his offer to help her mount. + +It had been his purpose to remain in Richmond for a week or more, but on +the third morning he found himself homeward bound, and filled with vain +imaginings. Just why he had started homeward before the intended time, +it would have puzzled him to say; but several times he caught himself +wondering if there would be awaiting him at Warlock an answer to his +formal note of apology for not having made a call which nobody had +expected him to make. He perfectly knew that no such answer was to be +expected, and especially that if there should be any answer at all, it +must be one of formal and repellent courtesy, containing no message from +Agatha of the kind that his troubled imagination persisted in conceiving +in spite of the scorn with which he rejected the absurd conjecture. + +Nevertheless as he neared home he found himself half-expecting to find +there an answer to his note, and he found it. It gave him no pleasure in +the reading, and in his present state of mind he could not find even a +source of amusement in the stilted formality of its rhetoric. It had +been written by one of Agatha's aunts, and signed by both of them. Thus +it ran: + + "The Misses Ronald of The Oaks feel themselves deeply indebted to + Mr. Baillie Pegram for his courtesy to their niece and guest, Miss + Agatha Ronald, on the occasion of her recent misadventure. They + have also to thank Mr. Pegram most sincerely for having taken upon + himself the disagreeable duty of giving painless death to the + unfortunate animal that their niece was riding upon that occasion. + They have to inform Mr. Pegram that as Miss Agatha Ronald is making + her preparations for an almost immediate return to her maternal + grandfather's plantation of Willoughby, in Fauquier, and as she + will probably begin her journey before Mr. Pegram's return from + Richmond, there will scarcely be opportunity for his intended call + to inquire concerning her welfare after her homeward ride upon the + mare which he so graciously placed at her disposal at a time of + sore need. They beg to report that the beautiful animal behaved + with the utmost gentleness during the journey. + + "The Oaks ladies beg to assure Mr. Pegram of their high esteem, and + to express their hope that he will permit none of the events of + this troubled time to prevent him from dining with them at The Oaks + on the third Friday of each month, as it has been his courteous + custom to do in the past. The Misses Ronald remain, + + "Most respectfully, + + "SARAH RONALD, + + "JANE RONALD." + +This missive was more than a little bewildering. Its courtesy was +extreme. Even in practically telling Baillie Pegram not to call upon +their niece, the good ladies had adroitly managed to make their message +seem rather one of regret than of prohibition. Certainly there was not a +word in the missive at which offence could be taken, and not an +expression lacking, the lack of which could imply negligence. The young +man read it over several times before he could make out its exact +significance, and even then he was not quite sure that he fully +understood. + +"It reads like a 'joint note' from the Powers to the Grand Turk," he +said to the young man--his bosom friend--whom he had found awaiting him +at Warlock on his return. This young man, Marshall Pollard, had been +Baillie Pegram's intimate at the university, and now that university +days were done, it was his habit to come and go at will at Warlock, the +plantation of which Baillie was owner and sole white occupant with the +exception of a maiden aunt who presided over his household. + +The intimacy between these two young men was always a matter of wonder +to their friends. They had few tastes in common, except that both had a +passionate love for books. Baillie Pegram was fond of fishing and +shooting and riding to hounds. He loved a horse from foretop to fetlock. +His friend cared nothing for sport of any kind, and very often he walked +over long distances rather than "jolt on horseback," as he explained. He +was thoroughly manly, but of dreamy, introspective moods and quiet +tastes. But these two agreed in their love of books, and especially of +such rare old books as abounded in the Warlock library, the accumulation +of generations of cultivated and intellectual men and women. They +agreed, too, in their fondness for each other. + +Marshall Pollard was never regarded as a guest at Warlock, or treated as +such. He came and went at will, giving no account of either his comings +or his goings. He did precisely as he pleased, and so did his host, +neither ever thinking it necessary to offer an apology for leaving the +other alone for a day or for a week, as the case might be. Pollard had +his own quarters in the rambling old house, with perfect liberty for +their best furnishing. Often the two friends became interested together +in a single subject of literary or historical study, and would pore over +piles of books in the great hallway if it rained, and out under the +spreading trees on the lawn if the weather were fair. Often, on the +other hand, their moods would take different courses, and for days +together they would scarcely see each other except at meal-times. Theirs +was a friendship that trusted itself implicitly. + +"It's an ideal friendship, this of yours and mine," said Marshall, in +his dreamy way, one day. "It never interferes with the perfect liberty +of either. What a pity it is that it must come to an end!" + +"But why should it come to an end?" asked his less introspective friend. + +"O, because one or the other of us will presently take to himself a +wife," was the answer. + +"But why should that make a difference? It will not if I am the one to +marry first. That will only make your life at Warlock the pleasanter for +you. It will give you two devoted friends instead of one." + +"It will do nothing of the kind," answered Pollard, with that confidence +of tone which suggests that a matter has been completely thought out. +"Our friendship is based upon the fact that we both care more for each +other than for anybody else. When you get married, you'll naturally and +properly care more for your wife than for me. You'd be a brute if you +didn't, and I'd quarrel with you. After your marriage we shall continue +to be friends, of course, but not in the old way. I'll come to Warlock +whenever I please, and go away whenever it suits me to go, just as I do +now. But I shall make my bow to my lady when I come, and my adieus to +her when I take my departure. I'll enjoy doing that, because I know that +your wife will be a charming person, worthy of your devotion to her. But +it will not be the same as now. And it will be best so. 'Male and female +created he them,' and it would be an abominable shame if you were to +remain single for many years to come. It is your duty, and it will +presently be your highest pleasure to make some loving and lovable woman +as happy as God intended her to be. Better than that--the love of a good +woman will make your life richer and worthier than it is now. It will +ennoble you, and fit you for the life that your good qualities destine +you to lead. You see I've been studying your case, Baillie, and I've +made up my mind that there never was a man who needed to marry more than +you do. You're a thoroughly good fellow now--but that's about all. +You'll be something mightily better than that, when you have the +inspiration of a good woman's love to spur you out of your present +egotistic self-content, and give you higher purposes in life than those +of the well-bred, respectable citizen that you are. You pay your debts; +you take excellent care of your negroes; you serve your neighbours as an +unpaid magistrate and all that, and it is all very well. But you are +capable of much higher things, and when you get yourself a wife worthy +of you, you'll rise to a new level of character and conduct." + +"And how about you?" the friend asked. + +"O, as for me, I don't count. You see, I'm that anomalous thing, a +Virginian who doesn't ride horses or care for sport. I'm abnormal. Women +like me in a way, and the more elderly ones among them do me the honour +to approve me. But that is all. Young women are apt to fall in love with +robuster young fellows." + +"But you are robust," quickly answered Baillie, "and altogether manly." + +"No, I'm not. I'm physically strong enough, of course, but strength +isn't all of robustness. I can lift as much as you can, but I don't like +to lift, and you do. I can jump as high, but I don't like to jump, while +you do. When we were canoeing in Canada a year ago, I could shoot a +rapid as well as you, but I'd very much rather have walked down the +bank, leaving the guide to navigate the canoe, while you often sent the +guide about his business and rebuked his impertinence in offering help +where you wanted to do your own helping of yourself without any +interference on his part. I remember that just as we were starting on +the long and difficult journey to the Lake of the Woods, you dismissed +the whole crew of half-breed hangers-on, and we set out alone. I would +never have done that, greatly as I detested the unclean company. I went +with you, of course, but I went relying upon you for guidance, just as I +should have gone relying upon the half-breeds if you had not been with +me. We two are differently built, I tell you. Now, even here at Warlock, +I send for Sam when I want my studs changed from one shirt to another, +while only this morning you cleaned your own boots rather than wait for +Sam after you had whistled for him thrice. I don't think I'm lazier than +you are, and I know I'm not more afraid of anything. But you rejoice in +toilsome journeys, while I prefer to take them easily, hiring other +people to do the hard work. You relish danger just as you do red pepper, +while I prefer safety and a less pungent seasoning. Now, young women of +our kind and class prefer your kind of man to my kind, and so you are +likely to marry, while I am not. Another thing. I saw you throw aside a +copy of Shakespeare the other day without even marking your place in the +volume, because a company of gentlewomen had driven up to visit your +aunt, and you completely forgot your Shakespeare in thinking of the +gentlewomen. Now I, in a like case, should have edged a little farther +around the tree, read on to the end of the scene, marked my place, and +only then have discovered that the gentlewomen had driven up. Women like +your ways better than mine, and they are entirely right." + +In all this, Marshall Pollard exaggerated somewhat, in playful fashion, +and to his own discrediting. But in the main his analysis of the +difference between himself and his friend was quite correct. + +It was to this friend that Baillie Pegram spoke of the note he had +received from The Oaks ladies, saying that it read "like a joint note +from the Powers to the Grand Turk." + +"Tell me about it," answered Marshall. + +"O, read it for yourself," Baillie replied, handing him the sheet. "The +stilted ceremoniousness of it," he presently added, "is easy enough to +understand, but I can't, for the life of me, see why the good ladies of +The Oaks felt it incumbent upon themselves to write to me at all. They +are always scrupulously attentive to forms and conventionalities when +discharging any obligation of courtesy, and in this case they have had +the rather embarrassing duty imposed upon them of telling me not to call +upon their niece, who is also their guest. That sufficiently accounts +for the stiff formality of their rhetoric, and their scrupulous +attention to the niceties of courtesy in the embarrassing case, but--" + +"Remember, also," broke in Marshall Pollard, "that they are 'maiden +ladies,' while you, my dear, unsuspicious boy, are a particularly +marriageable young man." + +"Don't talk nonsense, Marshall; this is a serious matter," answered +Baillie. + +"It isn't nonsense at all that I'm talking," said his friend. "I'm +speaking only words of 'truth and soberness.' The Misses Sarah and Jane +Ronald, as I understand the matter, are highly bred and blue-bloodedly +descended Virginia gentlewomen, who happen to be as yet unmarried. Very +naturally and properly they adopt a guarded manner in addressing a +missive to a peculiarly marriageable young gentleman like you, lest +their intentions be misinterpreted." + +"Why, they are old enough," Baillie replied, "to be my grandmothers!" + +"True," answered the other, "but you wouldn't venture to suggest that +fact to the mind of either of them, would you, Baillie?" + +"Certainly not, but--" + +"Certainly not. And certainly they in their turn do not give special +weight to that fact. When will you learn to understand women a little +bit, Baillie? Don't you know that no woman ever thinks of herself as +too old or too ugly or too unattractive to fascinate a young man? +Especially no well-bred spinster, accustomed to be courted in her youth, +and treated with deference in her middle age, ever realises that she is +so old as to be privileged to lay aside those reserves with which she +was trained in youth to guard her maidenly modesty against the ugly +imputation of a desire to 'throw herself at the head' of a young +gentleman possessed of good manners, good looks, an old family name, and +a plantation of five or six thousand acres? Now, don't let your vanity +run away with you, my boy. I do not mean for one moment to suggest that +either of The Oaks ladies would think of accepting an offer of marriage +from you or anybody else. I am too gallant to imagine that they have not +had abundant opportunities of marriage in their day. At the same time, +propriety is propriety, you know, and the conduct of an 'unattached +female' cannot be too carefully guarded against the possibility of +misinterpretation." + +Baillie laughed, and presently fell into silence for a space. Finally +his companion lazily said: + +"It is time for you to be off, if you are going." + +"Going where?" + +"Why, to dine at The Oaks, of course. You are invited for the third +Friday of each month, if I understand the matter correctly, and this is +the third Friday of April, I believe." + +"Why, so it is. I hadn't thought of the date. By Jove, I'll go! There's +just a chance that she hasn't started yet." + +"It's awkward, of course," said Pollard, in his meditative, +philosophical way, "especially with this war coming on. But these things +never will adjust themselves to circumstances in a spirit of rationality +and accommodation." + +"What on earth do you mean, Marshall? I don't understand." + +"Of course not. The bird caught in the net of the fowler does not +usually see just what is the matter with him." + +"But Marshall--" + +"O, I'll explain as well as I can. I mean only that you are in love with +Agatha Ronald. Of course you're totally unconscious of your state of +mind, but you'll find it out after awhile. It is an utterly irrational +state of mind for you to be in, but the malady often takes that form, I +believe, and I've done you a service in telling you about it, for as a +rule a man never finds out what's the matter with him in such a case +until some friend tells him. He just goes on making a fool of himself +until somebody else jogs his elbow with information which he alone has +need of. Now suppose you tell me all about this case. What is it that +stands between you and the young lady?" + +Again Baillie laughed. But this time the laugh was accompanied by a +tell-tale flushing of the face. + +"The whole thing is ridiculous," he presently said. "It couldn't have +happened anywhere but in this dear old Virginia of ours. I'll tell you +all I know about it. My grandfather whom I never saw in my life, and +Miss Agatha Ronald's father, who died before she was born, were friends, +like you and me. They owned adjoining plantations,--Warlock and The +Oaks, both held by original grants to their great-grandfathers, made in +the early colonial times. But the county clerk's office burned up, a +generation or two ago, and with it all the records that could show where +the boundaries between these two plantations lay. In trying to +determine those boundaries one unlucky day, when both had probably taken +too much or too little Madeira for dinner, the two irascible old +gentlemen fell into a dispute as to where the boundary line should run +through a wretched little scrap of ground down there on Nib's Creek, +which never had been cultivated, never has been, and never will be. The +thing was not worth a moment's thought in itself, but the gout got into +it, or in some other way the two absurd old gentlemen's dignity got +itself involved, and so they quarrelled. If there had been time, they +would have laughed the thing off presently over a mint-julep. But +unhappily one of them died, and that made a permanent family quarrel of +the dispute. All the women-kind took it up as an inherited feud, which +made it impossible that any Pegram should have aught to do with any +Ronald, or any Ronald with any Pegram. So much, it was held, was due to +the tender memory of the dead. But, after our Virginian tradition, the +individual members of both families have been held bound to treat each +other with the extreme of formal but quite unfriendly courtesy. That is +why I have been required, from my fifteenth birthday onward, to dine at +The Oaks on the third Friday of every month when I happened to be in the +county on that day. I had only the vaguest notion of the situation until +last Christmas, when circumstances brought it to my attention. Then I +made my good Aunt Catherine tell me all about it. When I learned what +the matter in dispute was, I sent for the family lawyer, and ordered him +to make out a deed to The Oaks ladies, conveying all my right, title, +and interest in the disputed piece of land to them 'for and in +consideration of the sum of one dollar in hand paid, receipt whereof is +hereby acknowledged.' I sent the deed to The Oaks ladies, with a perhaps +too effusive note, asking them to accept it as an evidence of my desire +to make an end of a quarrel which had long alienated those who should +have remained friends." + +"What an idiot you made of yourself by doing that!" broke in young +Pollard. + +"Of course, and I soon found it out. The Oaks ladies wrote that they had +never, by any act or word, recognised the existence of a quarrel; that +if such quarrel existed, it lay between the dead, who had not +authorised them or me to adjust it; and that they, holding only a life +interest in The Oaks, by virtue of their 'poor brother's' kindly will, +were not authorised either to alienate any part of the fee, or to add to +it, by deed of gift or otherwise; that their 'poor brother' had never +been accustomed to accept gifts of land or of anything else from others, +and finally that they were sure his spirit would not sanction the +purchase, for the miserable consideration of one dollar, of a piece of +land which, till the time of his death, he had believed to be absolutely +his own. There was no use arguing such a case or explaining it. So I +have let it rest, and have gone once a month to dine with The Oaks +ladies, as a matter of duty. It's all absurd, but--" + +"But it interferes with your interest in Miss Agatha," broke in the +friend. "Take my advice, and don't let it. Off with you to The Oaks, and +ten to one you'll find the young lady still there. The date of her +departure was not fixed when this diplomatic note was despatched, and as +you were not expected to receive the communication for a week to come, +she is probably still there. If so, by the way, please don't mention my +presence at Warlock. You see--well, I have met the young lady at her +grandfather's, and properly I ought to pay my respects to her, now that +she's a guest on a plantation adjoining that on which I am staying. But +I don't want to. Your saddle-horses jolt so confoundedly, and besides, +I've discovered up-stairs a copy of old T. Gordon's seventeenth century +translation of Tacitus, with his essays on that author, and his +bitter-tongued comments on all preceding translations of his favourite +classic. I want an afternoon with the old boy." + +"You certainly are a queer fellow, Marshall," said Baillie. + +"How so? Because I like old books? Or is it because I don't like the +jolting of your horses?" + +"Why haven't you told me that you knew Miss Agatha Ronald?" + +"I have told you--within the last minute." + +"But why didn't you tell me before?" + +"O, well,--perhaps I didn't think of it. Never mind that. It is time for +you to be off, unless you want the soup and your welcome to grow cold +while waiting for you." + +When Baillie had ridden away, Marshall Pollard sat idly for a time in +the porch. Then tossing aside the book he had been holding in his hand +but not reading, he rose and went to his room. There he searched among +his belongings for a little Elzevir volume, and took from between its +leaves a sprig of dried yellow jessamine. + +"It is a poisonous flower," he said, as he tossed it out of the window. +"She warned me of that when I took it from her hand. She was altogether +right." + +Apparently pursuing a new-born purpose, the young man returned to the +porch, broke off a sprig of honeysuckle leaves--for the vine was not yet +in flower--and carefully placed it between the pages of the Elzevir. + +"The honeysuckle," he said to himself, "is unlike the yellow jessamine. +It is sweet and wholesome. So is the friendship of the man from whose +vine I have plucked it." + + + + +IV + +_IN REVOLT_ + + +When Agatha reached The Oaks, mounted upon Baillie Pegram's mare, her +reception at the hands of her aunts was one of almost stunned +astonishment. The two good ladies had learned an hour before her coming +that she had ridden away alone that morning while yet they had slept, +and they had carefully prepared a lecture upon that exceeding +impropriety, for delivery on the young woman's return. + +But when they saw her dismount from Baillie Pegram's mare, they were +well-nigh speechless with horror at her depravity. The deliverance that +had been so carefully prepared for her chastening no longer met the +requirements of the case. A new and far severer rebuke must be +extemporised, and the necessity of that was an additional offence on the +part of the young woman who had forced it upon them. They were not +accustomed to speak extemporaneously on any subject of importance. To do +so involved the danger of saying too much, or saying it less effectively +than they wished, or--worse still--leaving unsaid things that they very +much wished to say. In response to their horrified questionings, Agatha +made the simplest and most direct statement possible. + +"The morning was fine, and I wanted to ride. I rode as far as Dogwood +Branch. There my poor horse--the one that my grandfather sent down for +me to ride while here--met with a mishap. His foot went through a hole +in the bridge, and in his struggle to extricate it, he broke his leg. +Mr. Pegram came along and released the poor beastie's foot, but it was +too late. So he insisted upon my taking his mare, and showed me that I +couldn't refuse. He sent his servant to ride on a mule behind me in case +I should have trouble with his only partially broken mare. He promised +to put my poor horse out of his misery. There. That's all there is to +tell." + +The little speech was made in a tone and with a manner that suggested +difficult self-restraint. When it was ended the two good aunts sat for +a full minute looking at the girl with eyes that were eloquent of +reproach--a reproach that for the moment could find no fit words for its +expression. At last the torrent came--not with a rushing violence of +speech, but with a steady, overwhelming flow. The girl stood still, +seemingly impassive. + +"Will you not be seated?" presently asked Aunt Sarah. + +"If you don't mind, I prefer to stand," she answered, in the gentlest, +most submissive tone imaginable, for Agatha--angry and outraged--was +determined to maintain her self-control to the end. Her gentle +submissiveness of seeming deceived her censors to their undoing. +Satisfied that they might rebuke her to their hearts' content, they +proceeded, adding one word of bitter reproach and condemnation to +another, and waxing steadily stronger in their righteous wrath. Still +the girl stood like a soldier under a fire which he is forbidden to +return. Still she controlled her countenance and restrained herself from +speech. Only a slight flushing of the face, and now and then a tremor +of the lip, gave indication of emotion of any kind. + +Not until the storm had completely expended its wrath upon her head did +Agatha Ronald open her lips. Then she spoke as Agatha Ronald: + +"Will you please order my carriage to be ready for me on Saturday +morning, Aunt Sarah? My maid is too ill to travel to-morrow or the next +day. But by Saturday morning she will be well enough, and I shall begin +my journey to Willoughby at nine o'clock, if you will kindly order a cup +of coffee served half an hour before the usual breakfast-time on +Saturday." + +She departed instantly from the room, giving no time or opportunity for +reply or remonstrance. + +"Perhaps we have spoken too severely, Jane," said Aunt Sarah. + +Perhaps they had. At any rate, it had been Agatha's purpose to remain a +full month longer at The Oaks before beginning the long homeward +carriage journey which alone Colonel Archer permitted to his grandchild. +Railroads were new in those days, and Colonel Archer had not reconciled +himself to them. + +"They are convenient for carrying freight," he said, "but a young lady +isn't freight. She should travel in her own carriage." + +Later in the day Agatha reappeared, as gentle and smiling as usual, and +as attentive as ever to the comfort of her aunts. Her manner was perfect +in its docility, for she had decided that so long as she should remain +under their roof, it was her duty to herself, and incidentally to her +aunts, to minister in every way she could to their pleasure, and to obey +their slightest indicated wishes implicitly. They were misled somewhat +by her manner, which they construed to be an indication of submission. + +"You will surely not think of leaving us on Saturday, dear, now that you +have thought the matter over calmly," said Aunt Sarah; "and perhaps we +spoke too severely this morning. But you will overlook that, I am sure, +in view of the concern we naturally feel for your bringing up." + +A bitter and convincing speech was on the girl's lips ready for +delivery,--a speech in which she should declare her independence, and +assert her right as a woman fully grown to determine her conduct for +herself within the limits of perfect innocence,--but she drove it back +into her heart, and restrained her utterance to the single sentence: + +"I shall begin my journey on Saturday morning." + +Agatha Ronald was in revolt against an authority which she deemed +oppressive, and such revolt was natural enough on the part of a daughter +of Virginia whose ancestry included three signers of the Declaration of +Independence, and at least half a dozen fighting soldiers of the +Revolution. It was in her blood to resent and resist injustice and to +defy the authority that decreed injustice. But after the fashion of +those revolutionary ancestors of hers, she would do everything with due +attention to "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind." She had +decided to quit The Oaks because she could not and would not longer +submit to a discipline which she felt to be arbitrary, unreasonable, and +unjust. But she was determined to be as gentle and as gentlewomanly as +possible in the manner of her leaving. It was her fixed purpose never +again to visit that plantation--her birthplace--until she should be +summoned thither to take possession as its sole inheritor, but she let +slip no hint of this determination to distress her aunts, who, after +all, meant only kindness to her by their severity. + +"I'll say nothing about it," she resolved. "I'll just go back to +Chummie. He understands me, and I'll never leave him again." + + + + +V + +_AT THE OAKS_ + + +When Baillie Pegram rode into The Oaks grounds on that third Friday of +April, 1861, the first person he encountered was none other than Agatha. +She was gowned all in white, except that she had tied a cherry-coloured +ribbon about her neck. She was wholly unbonneted, and was armed with a +little gardening implement--hoe on one side and miniature rake on the +other. She was busy over a flower-bed, and the young man, rounding a +curve in the shrubbery, came upon her, to the complete surprise of both. + +The situation might have been embarrassing but for the ease and perfect +self-possession with which the girl accepted it. She greeted her +visitor, to his astonishment, without any of the hauteur that had marked +her demeanour on the occasion of their last previous meeting. Here at +The Oaks she felt herself under the entirely adequate protection of her +aunts. She had therefore no occasion to stand upon the defensive. Out +there at the bridge she had been herself solely responsible for her +conduct, and dependent upon herself for the maintenance of her dignity. +Here Mr. Baillie Pegram was the guest of her people, while out there he +had been a person casually and unwillingly encountered, and not on any +account to be permitted any liberty of intercourse. Besides all these +conclusive differences of circumstance, there was the additional fact +that Agatha was in revolt against authority, and very strongly disposed +to maintain her perfect freedom of innocent action. So she gave her +visitor a garden-gloved hand as he dismounted, and slowly walked with +him toward the house. + +"I attended an opera once," she chattered, "when I was a very little +girl. I remember that I thought the basso a porpoise, and the tenor a +conceited popinjay, and the prima donna a fat woman, but I fell +completely in love with the haymakers in the chorus. So whenever I go +gardening I find myself instinctively trying to make myself look as like +them as I can. That, I suppose, is why I tied a red ribbon about my +neck this morning." + +Here Baillie Pegram missed an opportunity to make a particularly gallant +and flattering speech. To any other woman, under like circumstances, he +would have said something of her success in making a charmingly +attractive picture of herself. But there was much of reverence in his +admiration for Agatha, and he felt that a merely complimentary speech +addressed to her would be a frivolous impertinence. So instead he asked: + +"Do you often go out gardening?" + +"O, yes, always when the weather permits, and sometimes when it forbids. +At Willoughby I've often gone out in a waterproof to train my flowers +and vines. I'm just going away from The Oaks, and I've been digging up a +hideously formal bed which the gardener's soul delights in, and sowing +mixed portulaca instead of the priggish plants. Portulaca smiles at you, +you know, when you get up soon enough in the morning to see it in its +glory. But I'll never see the smiles in this case." + +"But why not?" + +"Why, I'm leaving The Oaks on Saturday, you know,--or rather you do not +know,--and I'm not coming back for a long, long time." + +"May I again presume to ask why not?" + +"O, well, I must go to my grandfather. If I don't he'll enlist or join a +company, or get a commission, or whatever else it is that a man does +when he makes a soldier out of himself. You see I'm the only person who +can manage my grandfather." + +"But surely, at his age--" + +"O, yes, I know. He's over eighty now, but you don't know him very well, +or you'd understand. He was a soldier under Jackson at New Orleans, and +a colonel in the Mexican War, and he'll go into this war, too, if I +don't go home and tell him he mustn't. I'm going to-morrow morning." + +Manifestly the girl wanted to chatter. Women often do that when they are +anxious to avoid serious conversation. If men never do it, it is only +because they lack the intellectual alertness necessary. They hem and +haw, and make stupid remarks about the weather instead, and succeed only +in emphasising the embarrassment which a woman would completely bury +under charming chatter. + +"You haven't seen my aunts yet, I suppose?" Miss Agatha presently asked. + +"No. I'm just arriving at The Oaks. I dine here, you know, on the third +Friday of every month." + +"Yes--so I've heard. I don't think the aunties expected you to-day. +They'll be glad to see you, of course, but I think they thought you were +still in Richmond." + +Baillie wondered if this was a covert rebuke to him for having ventured +upon the premises while Agatha was still there. The girl was not +altogether an easy person to understand. In any case her remark revealed +the fact that the question of his coming had been discussed in the house +and decided in the negative. It was with some embarrassment, therefore, +that he presented himself to those formidable personages, The Oaks +ladies, and tried to treat his own coming quite as a matter of course. +But if his presence was in any wise unwelcome to them, there was nothing +in their demeanour to suggest the fact. They expressed no surprise +whatever, and only a placid, well-bred self-congratulation that absence +had not deprived them of the pleasure of his company at dinner, as they +had feared that it might. Then one of them added: + +"It is unfortunate that Agatha is to dine at The Forest to-day, with our +cousins, the Misses Blair. By the way," tinkling a bell, "it is time to +order the carriage, and for you to change your gown, Agatha, dear." + +Baillie Pegram happened to catch sight of the young girl's face as these +words were spoken, and he read there enough of surprise to convince him +that if it had been previously arranged for her to drive to The Forest +for dinner, she at least had heard nothing of the matter until now. But +whether the surprise reflected in her face was one of pleasure or the +reverse, she gave him no chance to guess. She merely glanced at the tall +and slowly ticking clock, and said: + +"I'll go at once, auntie. I did not know it was so late. Excuse the +abruptness of my leave-taking, Mr. Pegram, and let me say good-bye, for +I leave for Willoughby to-morrow morning." + +It was all an admirable bit of acting--the more admirable, Baillie +thought, for the reason that the scene had been suddenly extemporised +and not rehearsed--for he was satisfied that Agatha at least had been +completely surprised by the announcement that she was to dine at The +Forest that day. + +Unfortunately the acting was destined to be wasted, for almost +immediately after Agatha's departure for her chamber, a carriage drove +up, and Baillie gallantly assisted Miss Blair herself to alight from it. +She greeted her cousins of The Oaks effusively in the ceaseless speech +with which it was her practice to meet and greet her friends. + +"Isn't it good of me, Cousin Sarah and Cousin Jane? I had a positive +headache to-day, but I was determined to drive over and dine with you, +so as to bid Agatha good-bye. Where is the dear child? You see we heard +only this morning that she had changed her plans and was going to leave +us to-morrow. So I just had to come and dine"--and so forth, through a +speech that fortunately gave The Oaks ladies time a-plenty in which to +collect their wits and avoid all appearance of discomfiture. + +"You are always so good and thoughtful," said Miss Sarah, as soon as +Miss Blair left a little hole in her conversation. "We knew you'd want +to see Agatha before she left, and we were just planning to send her to +you for dinner. In fact she's gone up to dress. But this is so much +better, particularly as we have Mr. Baillie Pegram with us, too. This is +his regular day, you know, and he is always so mindful of his +engagements. We had feared we should miss seeing him to-day, as he was +away in Richmond; but he got home in time, and he never fails us when +within reach. He has an admirable habit of punctuality which the other +young men of our rather lax time might emulate with advantage." + +Here was Baillie Pegram's opportunity, but he missed it. If he had +possessed one-half or one-tenth the tact that Agatha had shown fifteen +minutes before, he would have protested that, much to his regret, he +could not remain to dinner that day, as he had a guest of his own at +Warlock, and had ridden over only to make his apologies and express his +regret. But Baillie Pegram, not being a woman, did not think of the +right thing to say until it was one full minute too late, wherefore, of +course, it would not do for him to say it at all. + +What a pity it is that men can't be women--sometimes! Just for lack of +that tact which is instinctive in a woman, the master of Warlock was +doomed to dine that day under a sense of intrusion on his part, which +certainly did not contribute to his enjoyment of the dinner or the +company. But he had only himself to blame, and, like the resolute fellow +that he was, he determined to bear the consequences of his blundering +stupidity with the best grace he could. He professed the keenest delight +in the unexpected pleasure of having Miss Blair for his fellow guest, +adding, with an obeisance to The Oaks ladies, "Though of course one +needs no other company than that of our hostesses themselves, to make +the day of a dinner at The Oaks altogether delightful." + +Obviously the young man was improving in tactfulness under the stimulus +of circumstances. + +When dinner was served half an hour later, he gave his arm to Miss +Sarah, and entered the stately but gloomy old dining-room, with its +high-backed, carved mahogany chairs, its stained-glass cathedral +windows, and its general atmosphere of solemnity and depression, with +such grace as a resolute spirit could command. He managed to taste the +dishes as they were served, and to carve without a mishap of any kind, +but in the matter of conversation he was certainly not brilliant, though +he had the approaching war for his theme. + +After the old English custom which survived in Virginia, the wine--a +rich old Madeira--was not served until the dessert was removed. Then it +came on with the cigars. The ladies sipped a single glass each, and +rose, whereupon the young man gallantly held open the great door, bowing +as the womankind took their departure. + +When they had gone, there being no gentleman present except himself, +young Pegram was left alone with the wine, the cigars, a single wax +candle for cigar-lighting purposes,--and Henry. Henry was the perfectly +trained butler of the establishment, a butler taught from childhood, by +his late master, to comport himself always with the dignity of a +diplomat who has dined. He stood bolt upright behind the young man's +chair, eager to anticipate every want, and anticipating them all without +a false movement or any suggestion of hurry. Henry had presided as +butler in his late master's establishment when that master kept "open +house" as a distinguished senator in Washington, and it was the +serving-man's boast that he "knew what a gentleman wants and when he +wants it." + +But Henry's very propriety became irksome to Baillie Pegram presently. +It reminded him of his own lack of any ease except a forcibly assumed +one. "Henry feels himself in his proper place," the young man reflected. +"I do not." + +It was not the young man's habit to take more than a glass or two of +wine after dinner, and on this occasion he had no relish even for that +small allowance. Yet he sat with it for a sufficient time to show proper +respect for the hospitality of the house. He held his glass up between +him and the stained-glass windows, and went through all the motions of +watching the play of colours through the amber liquid, quite as if his +relish for it had been that of a confirmed _bon vivant_. Finally he +lighted a fresh cigar, and said to Henry: "It is quite warm. I think +I'll finish my cigar out among the shrubbery. Please say to the ladies +that I'll join them within half an hour." + +He was not destined, however, to fulfil this promise. For, as he passed +out into the shrubbery, he encountered Miss Agatha by an accident which +that young lady had in all probability arranged with the utmost care, as +women do sometimes. She very much wanted speech with Baillie. + +"I want to thank you, Mr. Pegram," she said, eagerly, "for not making a +scene. It was very hard on you--the situation, I mean--and you have +spared me at every point. Perhaps you had better take your leave now as +quickly as you can." + +But the young man's courage had completely come back to him, with +something of the dare-devil spirit added to it: as the soldier beset, +sometimes comes to relish danger for its own sake, and deliberately +invites more of it, so Baillie Pegram, knowing perfectly that he had +completely outraged the proprieties, as The Oaks ladies interpreted +them, was minded to outrage them still further. Having braved the +situation to this point, he was determined to brave it out to the +end--whatever the end might be. So to the girl's suggestion, he +answered: + +"But the day is not over yet, and the piazzas of The Oaks fortunately +include one with a western aspect. Let us sit there and enjoy the +sunset. We'll join the ladies later." + +The girl consented, willingly enough. She was already in revolt, for one +thing, and she knew that her aunts would not venture again to censure +her severely, after what had happened. + +"But you must not misunderstand me, Mr. Pegram," she said, as the two +seated themselves in the great oaken chairs fabricated on the plantation +during colonial times. "I have declared my independence so far as to +insist upon my right to treat you with courtesy upon occasion. But you +must not suppose that I have forgotten the gulf that lies between us, +and especially you must not interpret my attitude to mean that I am +disloyal to the memory of my poor father." + +"I quite understand," he answered, meditatively and sadly. "You and I +are privileged, by your good pleasure, to treat each other with formal +courtesy, but I must not in any way presume upon that privilege beyond +its intention." + +The girl sat silent, looking wistfully out into the glow that had +followed the sunset. Finally she said: + +"I suppose that is it. It is a hard situation to deal with--for me." + +"And for me," the youth replied. + +"Yes, for you, too, I suppose. But neither of us is responsible. We must +recognise conditions and do the best we can." + +"I quite understand. You give me leave hereafter to behave like a +gentleman toward you, whenever circumstances shall happen to force any +sort of intercourse upon us; but beyond that you remind me that there is +war between your house and mine, and between me and thee. It is not a +treaty of peace that you offer, or even a protocol looking to peace; it +is only an amenity of war, like a cartel for the exchange of prisoners, +or a temporary truce, for the burial of the dead who have fallen between +the lines." + +This statement of the case did not at all satisfy the bewildered girl's +mind, but there was no opportunity to correct it, for at that moment a +maid came with a formally polite message to the effect that if Mr. +Pegram and Miss Ronald had _quite_ finished their conversation in the +porch, the Misses Ronald and Miss Blair were waiting to receive them in +the library. + +"After all," Agatha thought, afterward, "I do not know that I could have +bettered his definition of the situation. But it isn't one that I like." + +All skies seemed serene as the two miscreants entered the library, +Baillie making all that was necessary of apology by saying: + +"Pardon us, good ladies, I pray you. We have lingered too long in the +porch, but you will graciously attribute our fault to the unusual beauty +of the sunset. Sunsets mean so much, you know. They suggest the end of +pleasant things and the coming of a darkness to which we do not know the +dawn. I cannot help thinking that the sunset that Miss Ronald and I have +been witnessing is typical. Our beautiful Virginia life is at its +sunset. A night-time of war and suffering is approaching, and we cannot +know of the day that must follow." + +At this point Miss Blair relieved the situation by giving the +conversation a thoroughly practical and commonplace turn. + +"Why, Mr. Pegram," she exclaimed, "you surely do not doubt the outcome +of the war? You confidently expect the triumph of our righteous cause?" + +"Well, I hope for it. But the size and the number of the guns will have +something to do with the result, and our enemies can put four or five +men and four or five guns to our one in the field. It is a dark night +that must follow our sunset. We can only do our best, and leave the +result to God. Ladies, I bid you good night, and good-bye; for I fear I +shall see none of you again soon. I shall be off soldiering almost at +once." + + + + +VI + +_NEXT MORNING_ + + +If Baillie Pegram imagined that by his parting words he had silenced the +batteries of The Oaks ladies, he totally misjudged his enemy. For in +spite of his intimation of intent not to dine at The Oaks again, there +came to him at breakfast the next morning a little note in which the +good ladies calmly reasserted their privilege of deciding such matters +for themselves quite irrespective of the wishes or purposes of young +persons of whatever sex or degree. + + "The Misses Ronald present their respectful compliments to Mr. + Baillie Pegram," the note ran, "and beg to say that in view of the + terribly disturbed condition of the times, it is their purpose + presently to close The Oaks for a season, so far at least as the + entertainment of guests is concerned. They may perhaps go upon a + journey. As to that, their plans are as yet unformed, but at any + rate it is their purpose not to entertain again for the present, + except by special invitation to their nearest intimates. They feel + it incumbent upon them to give timely notice of this alteration in + the customs of their house to those valued friends who, like Mr. + Pegram, have been accustomed to dine at The Oaks at stated + intervals. + + "With sincere good wishes for Mr. Pegram's safety and good fortune + in that soldierly career to which he feels himself summoned by the + circumstances of the time, and in full confidence that he is + destined to win for himself the laurels that befit one of his + distinguished ancestry, The Oaks ladies remain, + + "Most respectfully, + + "SARAH RONALD, + "JANE RONALD." + +Having read the joint note, Baillie passed it to his friend at the other +end of the breakfast-table, saying: "Read that, old fellow, and see what +has come of following your madcap advice." + +Pollard carefully read the letter through, and then asked: + +"Well, what of it?" + +"Why, don't you see, by going to The Oaks yesterday as you advised, I've +managed to get myself forbidden the house." + +"Well, what of that? I don't understand that you have any passionate +desire to dine with the estimable old ladies every month, and I think +you told me last night, when I was trying to get a nap, that Miss Agatha +is leaving this morning." + +"Yes, of course. But can't you understand that it's a disagreeable and +humiliating thing thus to be forbidden the house, just as if I were +guilty of some misconduct--" + +"O, yes, I understand perfectly. It is exceedingly inconvenient to find +yourself at odds with the elderly female relatives of a young +gentlewoman to whom you would very much like to pay your addresses. But +in this case, I do not see that it complicates matters very much, as you +told me yourself yesterday that the case is hopeless--that there is +already an impassable barrier between yourself and Miss Agatha Ronald, +so what difference does it make? When you've a ten-rail staked and +ridered fence in front of you, a rail more or less doesn't signify much. +I'll tell you, Baillie, you must do as I've done. In view of the +chances of war, which are apt to worry one who thinks much about them, I +have decided to accept and believe the fatalistic philosophy, which +teaches that what is to be will be, even if it never happens." + +Pegram sat silent for a while before answering. Then he said: + +"Be serious for a little if you can, Pollard, I want to talk with you. +You were right after all in what you said to me yesterday, though at the +time I regarded it as unutterable nonsense. It seems absurd, under the +circumstances, but the fact is that--well, that Agatha Ronald has +somehow come to mean more to me than any other woman ever did or ever +will. Perhaps I shouldn't have found out the fact for a long time to +come, if it hadn't been for what you said to me yesterday. But I've +found it out now, and I know all that it means to me. It means that I've +made a fool of myself, and I must set to work to repair the mistake. +Fortunately, the way is open, and that is what I want to say to you. I'm +going to leave you to-day. I'm going to Richmond to volunteer in one of +the batteries there that are already organised, armed, and equipped, +and nearly ready for the field. They'll be the first sent to the front, +and I intend to put myself at the front just as speedily as I can." + +"But why not do better than that for yourself?" asked Pollard. + +"What better is there that I can do?" + +"Why not raise a battery of your own, and command it? You know Governor +Letcher, and you have influence in plenty. You can have a captain's +commission for the asking." + +"I suppose I might. But I am strongly impressed with the fact that there +are altogether too many men in like predicament--too many men whose +position and influence entitle them to expect commissions while, like +me, they know nothing whatever of the military art. We need some +privates in this war, and fortunately a good many of us are willing to +serve as such. I am, for one. The number of gentlemen in Virginia whose +position is as good as my own is quite great enough to officer any army +in Europe, and our ignorance of military affairs is great enough to +wreck the best army that was ever organised. I'll not add mine to the +list. I'll go in as a private soldier. If I am ever fit to command, it +will be time enough then for me to ask for a commission. I'm going to +volunteer in the ranks." + +"So am I," answered Pollard. + +"What? You? When?" + +"Yes. Me. Yesterday." + +"Well, go on. Don't be provoking. Tell me all about it. When did you do +it, and how, and why? For a generally agreeable young man, I must say, +Marshall, you can make of yourself about as disagreeable a person as I +ever encountered. Come! Tell me!" + +Pollard smiled and meditated, as if planning the order of his utterance. +At last he said: + +"There isn't much to tell, and I don't know just where to begin. But +after--well, after you rode away to The Oaks yesterday, I got to +thinking and wondering what I should do with myself now that your +companionship was lost to me. There is nobody about for me to fall in +love with, and after all, there is a limit to the entertainment to be +got out of old T. Gordon and his Tacitus. You see, girls never behave +properly toward me. There isn't one of them in ten counties who would +ever think of breaking her horse's leg in a bridge just in time to let +me come to her rescue. Besides, I should probably be on foot, with no +mare to lend the distressed damsel, and, altogether, you see--" + +"Will you stop your nonsense, or will you not?" asked Baillie, with +impatience. "Tell me what you did." + +"Well, I got Sam to bring me the least objectionable of your abominably +jolting saddle-horses--the bay with three white feet and a blaze on the +face--and I managed to keep a little breath in my body while riding over +to the Court-house. It was my purpose to go to Richmond, and I asked the +old ticket agent to send me, but he obstinately refused. He said there +were only two trains a day, one at noon and one at midnight. I +remonstrated with him, but it was of no use. I explained to him that the +_raison d'être_ of a railroad--I translated the French to him--was to +carry people to whatever place they wished to go to, and at such hours +as might suit their convenience. I told him it was an abominable outrage +that with a railroad lying there unused, he would not send a gentleman +to Richmond without making him wait for eight or ten hours for the +convenience of people whom he knew nothing about. He looked at me rather +curiously when I urged that consideration upon him. I think it rather +staggered him, but he persisted in his obstinate refusal to send me to +Richmond without further delay. He even suggested that I might go +somewhere else, but I interpreted that as meaningless profanity, and +gently explained to him that I did not wish to go to the place he had +mentioned. Then he told me he had no train, and I asked him why he +suffered himself to have no train, when a gentleman wanted one and was +willing to pay for it." + +"_Will_ you stop your nonsense, and tell me what happened?" interrupted +Baillie. + +Pollard smiled, and continued: + +"Now, that question of yours reassures me as to the sanity of the +station agent. It is closely similar to the question he asked, only, by +reason of his lack of cultivation, he interrupted the even and orderly +flow of his English with many objurgative and even violent terms, such +as we do not employ in ordinary converse, but such as stablemen and +innkeepers seem to like to use. + +"Despairing of my efforts to secure reasonable public service at the +hands of the railroad, I looked about me, and presently encountered +Captain Skinner. You know him, of course--lives at the Kennels, or some +such place--keeps a lot of dogs, and drinks a good deal more whiskey +than would be good for most men. But he is a West Pointer, you know, and +served for a considerable time in the Indian wars. He was at +Chapultepec, too, I think. At any rate, he mentioned the fact in +connection with his missing arm. He told me he was going to raise a +battery in the purlieus of Richmond. He said he didn't want a company of +young bloods, but one of soldiers. He proposes to enlist wharf-rats down +at Rockett's, and ruffians, and especially jailbirds. 'There are more +than a hundred as good men as ever smelt gunpowder or stopped a bullet +in its career,' he said, 'now languishing in the Richmond jails and the +Virginia State Penitentiary. Governor Letcher promises me that he will +pardon all of them who choose to enlist with me, and I'm going to look +them over. Those that are fit to make soldiers of, I'll enlist, and +after a week or two of drilling I'll have a battery ready for the +field.' + +"His idea pleased me, so I told him to put me down as the first man on +his list. He objected at first. You see, I've had no experience as a +ruffian, and I never served a term in jail in my life, but I convinced +him that I would make a good cannonier, and he enrolled me. I am to +report to him at Rockett's by the day after to-morrow." + +To Baillie's remonstrances and pleadings that his friend should choose a +company of gentlemen in which to serve, Marshall turned a deaf ear. + +"When I become a soldier," he said, "and put myself under another man's +command, I want that other man to be one who knows something about the +business. Captain Skinner knows what to do with a gun and a gunner, and +I've a pretty well-defined notion that most of our coming captains have +all that yet to learn, and besides--well, I've given you reasons +enough." + +"Besides what, Marshall? What were you going to say?" + +"O, nothing that you would understand or sympathise with. It's only that +somehow I don't want to be in a company of gentlemen turned soldiers, +where I should be sure to meet our kind of people on terms of social +equality now and then. As a common soldier, I should find it rather +embarrassing at a military ball to have a lady put me on her +dancing-list while scornfully refusing a like favour perhaps to the +officer who must assign me to guard-duty next morning." + +In thus answering, Marshall Pollard equivocated somewhat. He made no +mention of the little jessamine and honeysuckle incident, but perhaps +there was something behind that which helped to determine his course in +choosing Captain Skinner's company for his own, thus placing himself +among men wholly without the pale of that society in which sprigs of +jessamine are given and cherished, and now and then thrown out of the +window. At any rate, the young man seemed disposed to change the course +of the conversation. + +"Now, Baillie," he said, "you've catechised me quite enough for one +morning. Tell me about yourself. Why are you going off to Richmond to +enlist in one of the batteries there, instead of joining your neighbours +and friends here in organising one or other of the companies they are +forming?" + +"For the simple reason that I want to be in the middle of this mix as +soon as possible. Those Richmond batteries are already fit to take the +field, and they'll be hurling shells at the enemy and dodging shells on +their own account before these companies here learn which way a +sergeant's chevrons should point. I want to get to the front among the +first, that's all." + +Sending for Sam, he bade that worthy pack a small saddle valise for him +with a few belongings, and when, an hour later, the two friends were +ready for their departure, Sam presented himself, clad in his best, and +carrying a multitudinous collection of skillets, kettles, and +frying-pans, with other and less soldierly belongings. When asked by his +master, "What does this mean?" Sam answered, in seeming astonishment at +the question: + +"Why, Mas' Baillie, you'se a-gwine to de wah, an' of co'se Sam's a-gwine +along to take k'yar o' you." + +"Of course Sam is going to do no such thing," answered the young man. +"Go and put away your pots and pans." + +"But, Mas' Baillie," remonstrated the negro boy, in a nearly tearful +voice, "who's a-gwine to take k'yar o' you ef Sam ain't thar? Whose +a-gwine to clean yer boots, an' bresh yer clo'se, an' cook yer victuals, +an' all that?" + +The master was touched by the boy's devotion, though he justly suspected +that a yearning for adventure had quite as much to do with Sam's wish to +"go to de wah," as his desire to be of service to a kindly master. + +"But, Sam," he said, "a common soldier doesn't carry his personal +servant with him. If we did that, there wouldn't be enough--" + +"A common soldier!" Sam broke in, exercising that privilege of +interrupting his master's speech which the personal servants of +Virginians always claimed for their own. "A common soldier! Who says +Mas' Baillie'll be a common soldier? De mastah of Warlock ain't a common +nuffin'. He's a Pegram, he is, an' de Pegrams ain't never been common +yit, an' dey ain't a-gwine to be." + +"But, Sam," argued his master, "you see we're all going to war. We can't +carry our servants with us any more than we can carry our feather beds +or our foot-tubs. We must do things for ourselves, now." + +"But who's a-gwine to cook your victuals, Mas' Baillie?" + +"I reckon I'll have to do that for myself," answered the master. + +"What? You? Mas' Baillie Pegram a-gittin' down on his knees in de mud +an' a-smuttin' up of his han's an' his face, an' a-wrastlin' with pots +an' kittles? Well, I'd jes' like to see you a-doin' of that!" + +Baillie was disposed to amuse himself with the boy; so he said: + +"But your mammy says you don't know how to cook, Sam, and that you don't +seem to know how to learn." + +This staggered Sam for an instant, but he promptly rose to the +emergency. + +"I kin 'splain all dat, Mas' Baillie. You see, I'se done been a-foolin' +o' mammy. Mammy, she's de head cook at Warlock; she's a-gittin' old, an' +de rheumatiz an' de laziness is a-gittin' into her bones. So she's done +tried to make Sam take things offen her shoulders. But I'se done see de +situation. I'se watched mammy so long dat I kin cook anything from a +Brunswick stew to an omelette sufferin', jes' as good as mammy kin. But +it 'ud never 'a' done to let her know that, else she'd 'a' shouldered +the whole thing onter Sam. So when she done set me to watch somethin' +she's a-cookin' while she's busy with somethin' else, I jes' had to let +it spile some way, in self-defence. Of co'se, I had to run out'n de +kitchen after that, a-dodgin' o' de pots an' kittles mammy throwed at my +head--an' sometimes I didn't dodge quick enough, either--but de result +was de same. Mammy was sure I couldn't cook, an' dat's what she done +tole you, Mas' Baillie. But I kin cook, sho'. An' please, Mas' Baillie, +you'll let me go 'long wid you?" + +The time was growing short now, and Baillie sent the boy away, saying: + +"If I ever get to be an officer, Sam, and am allowed a servant, I'll +send for you. But you'd better learn all you can about cooking while +we're waiting for that." + +Sam was disconsolate. He went to the detached kitchen building--for no +Virginian ever suffered cooking to be carried on within fifty feet of +his dwelling--and sat down and buried his face in his hands and rocked +himself backward and forward, moaning dismally. + +"I'd jes' like to know," he muttered to the pickaninnies, standing by in +their simple costume of long shirts and nothing else, "I'd jes' like to +know what's a-gwine to become o' dis here Warlock plantation an' dese +here niggas, now dat Mas' Baillie's done gone off to git hisself killed +in de wah. De chinch-bug is a-gwine to eat de wheat dis summer sho'. De +watermillions is a-gwine to run all to vines. De 'bacca worms an' de +grasshoppas is a-gwine to chew up all de terbacca befo' men gits a +chawnce at it. De crows is a-gwine to pull up all de cawn--an' dey might +as well, too, fer ef dey didn't, it 'ud wither in de rows. Don't yer +understan', you stupid little niggas, you'se a-gwine to stawve to death, +you is, an' you better believe it. Mas' Baillie's done gone to git +hisself killed, I tells you, an' you'se got a mighty short time till yer +stomicks gits empty an' shet up an' crampy like. You'se a-gwine to +stawve to death, sho', an' it'll hurt wus'n as ef you'd a-swallered a +quart o' black cherries 'thout swallerin' none o' de seeds fer safety." + +By this time all the young negroes were wailing bitterly, and they would +not be comforted until Sam's mammy set out a kettle of pot-liquor, and +gave them pones of ash-cake to crumble into it. After that, Sam's +prophecies of evil departed from their inconstant minds. But Sam did not +recover so quickly. For days afterward he moped in melancholy, +occasionally stretching his big eyes to their utmost while he solemnly +delivered some dismal prophecy of evil to come. + + + + +VII + +_A FAREWELL AT THE GATE_ + + +When the two friends reached the outer gates of Warlock plantation on +their way to the Court-house, Marshall, to whose queer ways his friend +was thoroughly well used, called a halt. + +"Let us dismount," he said, "and consider what we are doing." + +When they had seated themselves upon the carpet of pine-needles, the +meditative youth resumed: + +"Does it occur to you, Baillie," he asked, "that when you and I pass +through yonder gate, we shall leave behind us for ever the most +enjoyable life that it ever fell to the lot of human beings to lead? Do +you realise that we may never either of us come back through that gate +again, and that if we do, it will only be to find all things changed? We +are at the end of a chapter. The next chapter will be by no means like +unto it." + +"I confess I don't quite understand," answered the less meditative one. + +"Well, this easy-going, delightful Virginian life of ours has no +counterpart anywhere on this continent or elsewhere in the world, and we +have decided to put an end to it. For this war is going to be a very +serious thing to us Virginians. Virginia is destined to be the +battle-field. Greater armies than have ever before been dreamed of on +this continent are going to trample over her fields, and meet in +dreadful conflict on the margins of her watercourses. Her homes are +going to be desolated, her fields laid waste, her substance utterly +exhausted, and her people reduced to poverty in a cause that is not her +own, and in behalf of which she unselfishly risks all for the sake of an +abstraction, and in defence of a right on the part of other States which +Virginia herself had seen no occasion to assert in her own defence. +Whatever else happens in this war, all that is characteristic in +Virginian life, all that is peculiar to it, all that lends loveliness to +it, must be sacrificed on the altar of duty. + +"I don't at all know how the change is to come about, or what new things +are destined to replace the old; but I see clearly that the old must +give way to something new. Perhaps, after all, that is best. Ours has +been a beautiful life, and a peculiarly picturesque one, but it is not +in tune with this modern industrial world. It has its roots in the past, +and the past cannot endure. We have thus far been able to go on living +in an ideal world, but the real world has been more and more asserting +itself, and even if no war were coming on to upset things, things must +be upset. Railroads and telegraphs have come to us rather in spite of +our will than by reason of it. We have realised their convenience in a +fashion, but they are still foreign and antagonistic to our ideas. The +older gentlemen among us still prefer to make long journeys on horseback +rather than go by rail, while very many of them insist resolutely upon +sending their womankind always in private carriages, even when they go +long distances to the mountains for the summer. + +"We are living in the past and fighting off the present, but the present +will successfully assert itself in the end. You have yourself rejected +all the overtures of the speculators who have wanted to open coal mines +on Warlock plantation, but the time will come when you'll be glad to be +made richer than any Pegram ever dreamed of being by the sinking of mine +shafts among your lawn trees. + +"If you are lucky enough to survive this war, you'll see a new labour +system established, and learn to regard the men who work for you, not as +your dependents, for whom you are responsible, and for whose welfare you +feel a sympathetic concern, but as so many 'employees,' to be dealt with +through a trades union, and kept down to the lowest scale of wages +consistent with their living and working. + +"I am not advocating the new, or condemning the old. I am only pointing +out the fact that the new is surely destined to triumph over the old, +and replace it. + +"The negroes in Virginia are beyond question the best paid, the best +fed, the best housed, and altogether the best cared for labouring +population on earth. They are secure in childhood and in old age and in +illness, as no other labouring people on earth are. They are happy, and +in important ways they are even freer than any other labouring class +ever was. But they are slaves, and modern thought insists that they +would be better off as free men, even though freedom should bring to +them a loss of happiness and a loss of that well-nigh limitless liberty +which they enjoy as bondsmen, under care of kindly masters. + +"Mind you, Baillie, I am not arguing for or against the claims of modern +thought. I am only pointing out the fact that it is resistless, and will +have its way. All history teaches that. Even chivalry, armed as it was +from head to heel, and limitlessly courageous as it was, could not hold +its own against commercialism, when commercialism became dominant as the +thought that represented the aspirations of men. Not even prejudice or +sentiment can prevail against progress. + +"John Ruskin is even now protesting in the name of æsthetics against the +scarring of England with railroad embankments, and the pollution of +England's air with the vomitings of unsightly factory chimneys; but +neither the extension of the British railway system nor the +multiplication of British factories halts because of his protests. + +"Henry Clay was never so eloquent as when pleading against protective +tariffs as something that threatened this country with a system like +that of Manchester, in which men were divided into mill owners and mill +operatives, with antagonistic interests; yet Henry Clay was forced by +the conditions of his time to become the apostle of industrial +protection by tariff legislation. + +"My thesis is that no man and no people can for long stand in the way of +what the Germans call the _zeitgeist_--the spirit of the age. Neither, I +think, can any people stand apart from that spirit and let it pass them +by. That is what we Virginians have been trying to do. The time has come +when we are going out to fight the _zeitgeist_, and the _zeitgeist_ is +going to conquer us." + +"You expect the South to fail in the war, then?" asked Baillie. + +"I don't know. We may fail or we may win. But in either case the old +régime in the Old Dominion will be at an end when the war is over. +Virginia will become a modern State, whatever else happens, and the old +life in which you and I were brought up will become a thing of the past, +a matter of history, the memory of which the novelists may love to +recall, but the conditions of which can never again be established. + +"Fortunately, none of these things needs trouble us. They make no +difference whatever in our personal duty. Virginia has proclaimed her +withdrawal from the Union, under the declared purpose of the Union to +make war upon her for doing so. It is for us to fight in Virginia's +cause as manfully as we can, leaving God, or the Fates, or whatever else +it is that presides over human affairs, to take care of the result. + +"Come! The time is passing; we must hurry in order to catch that train +which represents the modern progress that is destined to ride over us +and crush us. Good-bye, old Virginia life! God bless you for a good old +life! May we live as worthily in the new, if we survive to see the +new!" + + + + +VIII + +_A RED FEATHER_ + + +The sun shone with the fervent heat of noonday in mid-July, as the long +line of cannon and caissons came lumbering down the incline of the +roadway that leads from the mountainside into the little railway +village. The breath of the guns was still offensively sulphurous, for +there had been no time in which to cleanse them since their work of +yesterday. The officers and non-commissioned officers on their horses, +and the cannoniers who rode upon the ammunition-chests, were +powder-grimed and dusty--for there had been no opportunity on this +hurried march for those ablutions that all soldiers so eagerly delight +in. + +There were no shouted commands given, for this battery had been three +times under fire, and one of the first things an officer learns in real +war is not to shout his orders except when the din of battle renders +shouting necessary. Three months ago on parade the captain of this +battery would have bellowed, "Forward into battery!" by way of +impressing his importance upon the lookers-on. Now that he had learned +to be in earnest, he merely turned to his bugler, and said, as if in a +parlour, "Forward into battery, then halt." + +A little musical snatch on the bugle did the rest, and with the +precision of a piece of mechanism, the guns were moved into place, each +with its caissons at a fixed distance in the rear, and the command, "At +ease," was followed by a stable-call, in obedience to which the drivers +set to work to feed and groom their horses. For while men may be allowed +to go grimed and dirty on campaign, the horses at least must be curried +and rubbed and sponged into perfect health and comfort whenever there is +opportunity. + +Here at the little railway station were assembled all the womankind from +a dozen miles round about. These had come to look upon the Army of the +Shenandoah, with which Johnston, after several days of skirmishing in +the valley with the Federals under Patterson, was hurrying onward to +Manassas to join Beauregard there, in the battle which was so obviously +at hand. + +The women of every degree had come, not merely to see the spectacle of +war, but to cheer the soldiers with smiles and words of encouragement, +and still more to minister in what ways they could to their needs. The +maids and matrons thus assembled were gaily clad, for war had not yet +robbed them of the wherewithal to deck themselves as gaily as the lilies +do. They were full of high confidence and ardent hope, for war had not +yet brought to them, and for many moons to come was not destined to +bring to them, the realisation that defeat and disaster are sometimes a +part of the bravest soldiers' fortune. These women believed absolutely +and unquestioningly in the righteousness of the Southern cause, and they +had not yet read the history of Poland, and La Vendée, and the Huguenots +with discretion enough to doubt that victory always in the end crowns +the struggles of those who stand for the right. + +How much of disappointment and suffering this curiously perverse reading +of history has wrought, to be sure! And how confidently, in every case, +the men and women on either side of a war commend their cause to Heaven, +in full confidence that God, in his justice, cannot fail to give victory +to the right, and cannot fail to understand that they are right and +their enemies hopelessly wrong. Probably every educated woman among +those who were assembled at the little village on that twentieth day of +July, 1861, had read Motley's histories; every one of them knew the +story of Poland and of Ireland and of La Vendée and the Camisards; but +they still believed that God and not the guns decides the outcome of +battles. + +In one article of their faith at least they were absolutely right. They +believed in the courage, the devotion, the unflinching prowess of the +men who had enlisted to fight for their cause. They had come now, at the +approach of a first great battle, to bid these men Godspeed. Four years +later, when war had well-nigh worn out the gallant Army of Northern +Virginia, and when the very hope of ultimate victory, over enormously +superior numbers and against incalculably superior resources, was +scarcely more than an impulse of faith-inspired insanity, these women of +the South were still present and helpful wherever their presence could +cheer, and wherever their help was needed. + +To-day, they looked to the morrow for a victory that should make an end +of the war. The victory came with a startling completeness wholly +unmatched in all the history of battles. But the end did not come, and +the war wore itself out, through four long years of brilliant +achievement, alternated with terrible disaster. At Petersburg these +women did not look to the morrow at all, but their courage was the same, +their cheer the same, their devotion the same. It was still their chosen +task to encourage the little remnant of an army which still held the +defensive works with a line stretched out to attenuation. To the very +end--and even after the end--these brave women faltered not nor failed. + +When the war began, the women of the South made a gala-day of every day +when soldiers were in sight. As the war neared its calamitous end, all +days were to them days of mourning and of always willing self-sacrifice. + +On that twentieth day of July, 1861, the women gathered together were +full of high hope and confidence. Some were perched upon goods boxes, +arranged to serve as seats. Some were tripping about on foot, gliding +hither and thither in gladness, as girls do in a dance, simply because +their nerves were tuned to a high pitch, and their sympathetic feet +refused to be still. But for the most part they sat in their carriages, +with the tops thrown back in defiance of the fervour of the sun. +Defiance was in the air, indeed, and the troops on their way to the +battle-field were not more resolute in their determination to do and to +dare, than were the dames and damsels there gathered together in their +purpose to disregard sunshine and circumstance, while bestowing their +smiles upon these men, their heroes. + +After the fashion of the time among volunteers who were presently to +become war-worn into veterans, but who were never to be reduced to the +condition of hireling regulars, the men were free, as soon as a halt was +called, to move about among the feminine throng, greeting their +acquaintances when they had any, and being cheerily greeted by +strangers, in utter disregard of those conventions with which womanhood +elsewhere than in Virginia surrounds itself. There womanhood had always +felt itself free, because it had always felt itself under the protection +of all there was of manhood in the land. No woman in that time and +country was ever in danger of affront, for the reason that no man dared +affront her, lest he encounter vengeance, swift, sure, and relentless, +at the hands of the first other man who might hear of the circumstance. +No Virginian girl of that time had her mind directed to evil things by +the suggestion of chaperonage; and no Virginia gentleman was subjected +to insulting imputation by the refusal of a woman's guardians to entrust +her protection against himself, as against all others, to his chivalry. +So far was the point of honour pressed in such matters, that no man was +free even to make the most deferential proposal of marriage to any woman +while she was actually or technically under his charge and protection. +To do that, it was held, was to place the woman in an embarrassing +position, to subject her to the necessity of accepting the offer on the +one hand, or of declining it while yet under obligation to accept escort +and protection at the hands of the man making it. + +Under this rigid code of social intercourse, which granted perfect +freedom to all women, and exacted scrupulous respect for such freedom at +the hands of all men, the intercourse between gentlemen volunteers and +the young women who had come to visit them in camp was even less +restrained than that of a drawing-room, in which all are guests of a +common host, and all are guaranteed, as it were, by that host's +sponsorship of invitation. + +In all their dealings with the volunteers, the women of Virginia brought +common sense to bear in a positively astonishing degree, reinforcing it +with abounding good-will and perfect confidence in the manhood of men as +their sufficient shield against misinterpretation. And they were +entirely right in this. For "battle, murder, and sudden death," would +very certainly have been the part of any man in those ranks who should +have failed in due respect to this generosity of mind on the part of +womanhood. The dignity of womanhood was never so safe as when women thus +confidently left its guardianship to the instinctive chivalry of men. + +For a time after the halt, Baillie Pegram was too busy to inquire +whether or not any friends of his own were among the throng. For +something had happened to Baillie Pegram over there in the Valley of the +Shenandoah two or three days before. The gun to whose detachment he +belonged as a cannonier had been detached and sent to an exposed +position on the Martinsburg road. The sergeant in command of it had been +killed by a bullet, and the two corporals--the gunner and the chief of +caisson--had been carried to the rear on litters, with bullets in their +bodies. There was absolutely nobody in command of the gun, but Baillie +Pegram was serving as number one at the piece--that is to say, as the +cannonier handling the sponge and rammer. Seeing the badly weakened +gun-crew disposed to falter for lack of anybody to command them, and +seeing, too, the necessity of continuing the fire, Baillie assumed an +authority which did not belong to him in any way. + +"Stand to the gun, men!" he cried. "If any man flunks till this job is +done, I'll brain him with my rammer-head, orders or no orders." + +A moment later the faltering of number three called upon him for the +execution of his threat, and he instantly did what he had said he +would do, felling the man to the grass, stunned for the time by a quick +blow with the iron-bound rammer-head. Then he called upon number five to +take the recreant's place, and that gun continued its work until the hot +little action was over. + +[Illustration: "'_If any man flunks--I'll brain him_'"] + +A slouchy-looking personage had been standing by all the while. At the +end of it all he demanded Baillie Pegram's name and rank, and the name +of his battery. That evening Baillie Pegram's captain sent for him, and +said: + +"I am going to make you my sergeant-major. I have General Jackson's +request to recognise your good conduct under his eye to-day. Even +without his suggestion I should wish to have you with me as my staff +sergeant. I have kept that post open until now, in order that I might +choose the best man for it." + +It should be explained that the rank of sergeant-major is the very +highest non-commissioned rank known to military life. Ordinarily, the +sergeant-major is a regimental non-commissioned officer. But following +the French system, the Confederate regulations allowed every battery of +field-artillery a sergeant-major, if its captain so desired. He +outranked all other non-commissioned officers, and usually exercised a +lieutenant's command in battle--always if any commissioned officer were +absent or disabled. + +Thus it came about that Sergeant-Major Baillie Pegram was too busy on +that morning to look up acquaintances among the spectators gathered +there. He had orders to execute, and details of many kinds to look +after, including the making out of that morning report which every +company in the service must daily render, and upon which the commanding +general must rely for information as to the exact number of fighting men +he has available for duty. + +Baillie had just completed this task, when some one brought him news +that a lady in a carriage near by wished to speak with him. Having +nothing now to do, he responded to the call, and found Agatha Ronald +awaiting him. She sat in her carriage alone. In her lap was a +work-basket, fully equipped for that mending which these women always +came prepared to do when soldiers were passing by. Baillie had no +mending to be done, but Agatha bade him remove his jacket and deliver it +into her charge. + +"We've heard what happened in the Valley the other day," she said, "and +it is not seemly for a sergeant-major to be on duty without the insignia +of his rank. Red is the artillery colour, I believe, and your marks are +three chevrons, with three arches connecting them, are they not? +Fortunately, I brought a roll of red braid. So let me have your coat, +please, and I'll readjust your costume to your rank." + +Agatha spoke glibly, but it was under manifest constraint. She forced +and feigned a lightness of mood which she did not feel, and her manner +deceived Baillie Pegram completely, as it was meant to do. + +"What a fool I am," he thought, "to expect anything else. She was +embarrassed when I last saw her, and worried, but that was all on +account of her aunts. She is her own mistress to-day, and--well, it is +better so. There'll be a fight to-morrow, and that's fortunate." + +At that point the girl interrupted his meditations by saying, in her +assumed tone of lightness, which he so greatly misinterpreted: + +"I know there is war between your house and mine, but I'm going to give +aid and comfort to the enemy, if it comforts you to have your chevrons +properly sewed on." + +"There can surely be no war between me and thee," he answered, with +earnestness in his tone. "At any rate, I do not make war upon a woman, +and least of all--" + +"You must not misunderstand, Mr. Pegram," the girl broke in, looking at +him earnestly out of her great brown eyes. "I esteem you highly, and I +am sorry there is trouble between your house and mine. But I am not +disloyal to the memory of my father. You must never think that. It is +only that you are a gentleman who has been kind to me, and a soldier +whom I honour. But the war endures between your house and mine." + +Had she slapped him in the face with her open palm, she could not have +hurt his pride more deeply. He snatched his jacket from her hand. Only +one sleeve was finished, and the needle still hung from it by a thread. + +"I'll wear it so," he said. "I, at any rate, have no house. I am the +last of my race, and let me say to you now--for I shall never see you +again of my own free will--that the war between our houses will +completely end when I receive my discharge from life." + +Then a new thought struck him. + +"It is not for Baillie Pegram, the master of Warlock, that you have done +this," touching the braided sleeve, "but for Baillie Pegram, the soldier +on his way to battle. Let it be so." + +Stung by his own words, and controlled by an impulse akin to that which +had seized him at the gun two days before, he reached out and plucked +from her headgear the red feather that she wore there, saying: + +"Here! fasten that in my hat. I've a mind to wear it in battle +to-morrow. Then I'll send it back to you." + +What demon of the perverse had prompted him to this action, he did not +know, but the girl in her turn seemed subject to its will. Instead of +resenting what he had done, she took the feather and with some quickly +plied stitches fastened it securely to his already soiled and worn +slouch hat. Then handing it back to him, she said: + +"Good-bye. God grant that when the feather comes back to me, it be not +stained to a deeper red than now." + +At that moment the bugle blew. Baillie touched his hat, bowed low, and +said: + +"At least you are a courteous enemy." + +"And a generous one?" she asked. + +But he did not answer the implied question. + + * * * * * + +When he had gone, Agatha bent low over her work-basket, as if in search +of something that she could not find. If two little tear-drops slipped +from between her eyelids, nobody caught sight of them. + +Presently another bugle blew, and as Baillie Pegram's battery took up +the march, the guns and men of Captain Skinner took its place. But this +time there was no mingling of the men with the spectators. Captain +Skinner was too rigid a disciplinarian to permit that, and he knew his +ruffians too well. The moment the battery halted, the sergeant of the +guard posted his sentries, and the men remained within the battery +lines. + +Seeing this, Agatha tripped from her carriage, and, work-basket in hand, +started to enter the battery. She was instantly halted by a sentry, +whose appearance did not tempt her to dispute his authority. She +therefore simply said to him, "Call your sergeant of the guard, please." +To the sergeant, when he came, she said, "Will you please report to +Captain Skinner that Miss Agatha Ronald, of Willoughby, asks leave to +enter the battery lines, in order to do such mending for the men as may +be needed?" + +But it was not necessary for the sergeant to deliver his message, for +Captain Skinner, way-worn and dusty, at that moment presented himself, +and greeted the visitor. + +"It is very gracious of you," he said, "but, my dear young lady, my men +do not belong to that class with which alone you are acquainted. You had +better not visit my camp." + +"Your men are soldiers, sir," she said, "and their needs may be quite as +great as those of any others. We are not living in drawing-rooms just +now. I crave your permission to enter the battery." + +The captain touched his hat again, signed to the sentry to let the young +woman pass, and then, turning to the sergeant of the guard, said: + +"Post ten extra sentinels among the guns, with orders to arrest +instantly any man who utters an oath or in any other way offends this +young lady's ears. See to it yourself that this order is obeyed to the +letter." + + + + +IX + +_THE BIRTH OF WOMANHOOD_ + + +The captain's stern commands were not needed, and the extra sentinels +had no work to do in restraining the men from offensive speech and +conduct. They courteously saluted as Agatha passed them by, and when +they learned what her kindly mission was, they hurriedly brought armfuls +of saddle-blankets and arranged them as a cushion for her on the top of +a limber-chest. Perched up there, she called for their torn garments, +and nimbly plied her needle and her scissors for the space of half an +hour before observing the sentry who had been posted nearest to her. His +slouch hat, indeed, was drawn down over his eyes in such fashion that +but little of his face could be seen. But looking up at last in search +of further work to do, she recognised the form of Marshall Pollard. +Instantly a deep flush overspread her face, and, dismounting from the +limber-chest, she approached and addressed him. He presented arms and +said to her in French, so that those about them might not understand: + +"Pardon me, mademoiselle, but it is forbidden to speak to a sentinel on +duty." With that he recovered arms and resumed the monotonous pacing of +his beat. + +As the girl hurried out of the battery, flushed and agitated, she again +encountered Captain Skinner. + +"Has anybody been rude to you, Miss Ronald?" he asked, quickly. + +"No, Captain Skinner, I have only praise for your men. They have been +courteous in the extreme. I predict that they will acquit themselves +right gallantly in to-morrow's battle." + +"O, they're fighters, and will give a good account of themselves if this +muddled railroad management lets us get to Manassas before the fighting +is over." + +With thanks to Agatha for her kindness, Captain Skinner bowed low in +farewell. + +Springing into her carriage she gave the command, "Home," and drove away +without waiting to see the remainder of the Army of the Shenandoah as +it moved, partly by train, and partly on march, toward the scene of the +coming battle. + +During the homeward ride the girl laughed and chatted with her +companions with more than her usual vivacity, quite as if this had been +the gladdest of all her gala-days. But the gaiety was forced, and the +laughter had a nervous note in it which would have betrayed its impulse +to her companions had they been of closely observant habit of mind. + +But when she reached home Agatha excused herself to her friends, and +shut herself in her room. Throwing off her hat, but making no other +change in her costume, she stretched herself upon the polished floor, +after a habit she had indulged since childhood whenever her spirit was +perturbed. For an hour she lay there upon the hard ash boards, with her +hands clasped under her head, thinking, thinking, thinking. + +"God knows," she thought, "I have tried to do my duty, and it is +bitterly hard for a woman. In loyalty to my dead father's memory, I have +insulted and wounded the only man I could ever have loved, and sent him +away from me in anger and wretchedness. And even in doing that--even in +being cruel to him and to myself, I have fallen short of my duty as +Agatha Ronald. I have weakly yielded something at least of that proud +attitude which it is my duty to my family traditions to maintain. I have +recognised the state of war, but I have parleyed with the enemy. And +Baillie Pegram is at this hour wearing a plume plucked from my hat and +fastened into his by my own hands. God forgive me if I have been +disloyal! But is it disloyalty?" + +With that question echoing in her mind she sat up, staring at the wall, +as if trying there to read her answer. + +"Is it my duty to cherish a feud that is meaningless to me--to hate a +man who has done no wrong to me or mine, simply because there was a +quarrel between our ancestors before either of us was born? I do not +know! I do not know! But I must be true to my family, true to my race, +true to the traditions in which I have been bred. I have fallen short of +that in this case. I must not err again. I must never again forget, even +for a moment, that Baillie Pegram is my hereditary enemy." + +Then she caught herself thinking and almost wishing that a Federal +bullet might end her perplexity--that Baillie Pegram might never live to +see her again. "I wonder," she thought, "if that is what Christ meant +when he said that one who hates his neighbour is a murderer in his +heart. It is all a blind riddle to me. Here have I been brought up a +Christian, taught from my infancy that hatred is murder, and taught at +the same time that it is my highest duty, as a Ronald, to go on hating +all the Pegrams on earth because my father and Baillie Pegram's +grandfather quarrelled over something that I know absolutely nothing +about!" + +Presently the girl's mind reverted to the second meeting of that +eventful day,--her encounter with Marshall Pollard. She wondered why he +had enlisted in company with such men as those who constituted Captain +Skinner's battery, for even thus early those men had become known as the +worst gang of desperadoes imaginable,--a band that must be kept day and +night under a discipline as rigid and as watchful as that of any State +prison, lest they lapse into crimes of violence. She wondered if this +meant that the peculiarly gentle-souled Marshall Pollard was trying to +"throw himself away," as she had heard that men disappointed in love +sometimes do,--that he wished to degrade himself by low associations. + +"And I am the cause of it all," she mourned. For she knew that Marshall +Pollard had loved her with the love of an honest man, and that his life +had been darkened, to say the least, by her inability to respond to his +devotion. In this case she should have had the consolation of knowing +that she had been guilty of no wilful, no conscious wrong, but, in her +present mood, she was disposed to flagellate her soul for an imagined +offence. + +"He came to me," she reflected, "loving me from the first. Little idiot +that I was, I did not understand. I liked him as a girl may like a +boy,--for I was only a girl then,--and I did not dream that the +affection he manifested toward me meant more than that sort of thing on +his part. Those things which ought to have revealed to me his state of +mind meant nothing more to me then than do the little gallantries and +deferences which all men pay to all women. How bitterly he reproached me +at the last for having deceived him and led him on with encouragements +which I at least had not intended as such. Are all women born +coquettes? Is it our cruel instinct to trifle with the souls of men, as +little children love to torture their pets? Have we women no principles, +no earnestness, no consciences--except afterward, when remorse awakens +us? Are we blind, that we do not see, and deaf that we do not hear? Or +is it our nature to be cruel, especially to those who love us and offer +us the best that there is in their strong natures? + +"I remember how we stood out there in the grounds, under the jessamine +arbour, as the sun went down; and how at last, when I had made him +understand, he plucked a sprig of the beautiful, golden flowers from the +bunch that I held in my hand, and how I bade him beware, for that the +jessamine is poisonous, and how he replied, 'Not more poisonous than it +is to love a coquette.' + +"I remember that he gave me no chance to answer, no opportunity to +protest again my innocence of such intent as he had imputed to me in his +passionate speech, but turned his back and stalked away, with that +stride which I saw again to-day, as he paced his beat. That was two +years ago--and to-day I have seen him again in such company as he would +never have sought but for me,--the willing companion of ruffians, the +associate of desperadoes, the messmate of thieves!" + +Agatha was on her feet now, and nervously laying aside one after another +of the little fripperies with which she had decorated her person that +day. She found herself presently half-unconsciously searching for the +gown that she must wear at dinner, though her never-failing maid had +laid it out long before her home-coming, that it might be in readiness +for her need. + +A sudden thought came into the suffering girl's mind. + +"These two men, whose lives are hurt by their love for me, will suffer +far less than I shall. They are soldiers as strong to endure as they are +strong to dare. They have occupation for all their waking hours. They +will be upon the march, in battle, or otherwise actively employed all +the time. In remembering more strenuous things they will forget their +sorrows and throw aside their griefs as they cast away everything when +they go into battle that may in any wise hinder their activity or +embarrass their freedom. I must sit still here at Willoughby, and think, +and think, and think." + +Then like a lightning flash another thought came into her mind, and she +spoke it aloud: + +"Why should I be idler than they are? Why should I sit here brooding +while they are toiling and fighting for Virginia? I am no more afraid of +death or of danger than they are, and while women may not fight, there +are other ways in which a woman of courage may render quite as good a +service. I'll do it. I'll take the risks. I'll endure the hardships. +I'll render my country a _service that shall count_." + +With that she rang for her maid and bade her prepare a cold plunge bath. +When she descended to dinner, an hour later, Agatha no longer chattered +frivolously, as she had done in the carriage, by way of concealing her +emotions, but bore herself seriously, as became her in view of the +prospect of battle on the morrow. + +In that hour of agonising thought, Agatha Ronald had ceased to be a +girl, and had become an earnest, resolute woman, strong to do, strong to +endure, and, if need be, strong to dare. Life had taken on a new meaning +in her eyes. + + + + +X + +_IN ACTION_ + + +It was midnight when the battery to which Baillie was attached reached +Manassas Junction. The men were weary and half-starved after three days +of fighting and marching, and the horses, worn out with dragging the +guns and caissons over well-nigh impassable roads, were famishing for +water. But an effort to secure water and forage for them failed, and so +did an effort to secure water and rations for the men. + +For on the eve of the first great battle of the war the Southern army +was in a state of semi-starvation which grew worse with every hour that +brought fresh relays of troops but no new supplies of food. Already had +begun that course of extraordinary mismanagement in the supply +departments at Richmond which throughout the war kept the Army of +Northern Virginia constantly half-starving or wholly starving, even +when, as at Manassas, it lay in the midst of a land of abounding plenty. + +All the efforts of the generals commanding in the field to remedy this +state of things by drawing upon the granaries and smoke-houses round +about them for supplies that were in danger of presently falling into +the enemy's hands, were thwarted by the stupid obstinacy of a +crack-brained commissary-general. It was his inexplicable policy, while +the army lay at Manassas with an unused railroad reaching into the rich +fields to the west, to forbid the purchase of food and forage there +except by his own direct agents, who were required to send it all to +Richmond, whence it was transported back again, in such meagre +quantities as an already overtaxed single track railroad could manage to +carry. + +Red-tape was choking the army to death from the very beginning, and it +continued to do so to the end, in spite of all remonstrances. + +Even in the matter of water the men at Manassas were restricted to a few +pints a day to each man for all uses, simply because the commanding +general was not allowed the simple means of procuring a more adequate +supply. + +This, however, is not the place in which to set forth in detail those +facts of perverse stupidity which have been fully stated in official +reports, in General Beauregard's memoirs, and in other authoritative +works. Such matters are mentioned herein only so far as they affected +the events that go to make up the present story. + +When the Army of the Shenandoah began to add its numbers to that already +gathered at Manassas, a way out was found, so far at least as water was +concerned, by sending the regiments and batteries, as fast as they came, +to positions near Bull Run, some miles in front, where water at least +was to be had. Baillie's command, worn out as it was, and suffering from +hunger, was hurried through the camp and forced to march some weary +miles farther before taking even that small measure of rest and sleep +that the rapidly waning night allowed. It was nearly morning when the +men and horses were permitted to drink together out of the muddy stream +which was presently to mark the fighting-line between two armies in +fierce battle for the mastery. + +It was nearly sunrise when a cannon-shot broke the stillness of a +peculiarly brilliant Sunday morning and summoned all the weary men to +their posts. A little later the battery with which we are concerned +received its orders and was moved into position on the line. Its +complement of commissioned officers being short, Sergeant-Major Baillie +Pegram had command of the two guns which constituted the left section, +and had a lieutenant's work to do. + +Troops were being hurried hither and thither in what seemed to Baillie's +inexperienced eyes a hopeless confusion. But as he watched, he saw order +grow out of the chaos,--a manifestation of the fact that there was one +mind in control, and that every movement, however meaningless it might +seem, was part and parcel of a concerted plan, and was intended to have +its bearing upon the result. + +In the meanwhile the occasional report of a rifle had grown into a +continuous rattle of musketry on the farther side of the stream, where +the skirmishers were hotly at work, their firing being punctuated now +and then by the deeper exclamation of a cannon. But the work of the day +had not yet begun in earnest. The main line was not yet engaged, and +would not be until the skirmishers should slowly fall back upon it from +their position beyond the stream. + +To men in line of battle this is the most trying of all war's +experiences. Then it is that every man questions himself closely as to +his ability to endure the strain. Nerves are stretched to a tension that +threatens collapse. Speech is difficult even to the bravest men, and the +longing to plunge into the fray and be actively engaged is well-nigh +irresistible. + +All this and worse is the experience even of war-seasoned veterans when +they must stand or lie still during these endless minutes of waiting, +while the skirmishers are engaged in front. What must have been the +strain upon the nerves and brains of men, not one of whom had as yet +seen a battle, and not one in ten of whom had even received his "baptism +of fire" in a skirmish, as the men in Baillie's battery had done during +the week before! It is at such a time, and not in the heat of battle, +that men's courage is apt to falter, and that discipline alone holds +them to their duty. + +The strain was rather relieved of its intensity by the shrieking of a +Hotchkiss shell, which presently burst in the midst of Baillie Pegram's +section and not far from his person. Then came the less noisy but more +nerve-racking patter of musket-balls,--few and scattering still, as the +skirmish-lines were still well in front,--but deadly in their force, as +was seen when two or three of the men suddenly sank to the ground in the +midst of a stillness which was broken only by the whiz of the occasional +bullets. + +One man cried out with pain. The rest of those struck were still. The +one who cried out was slightly wounded. The others were dead. And the +battle was not yet begun. + +At this moment came a courier with orders. Upon receiving them the +captain hurriedly turned to Baillie, and said: + +"Take your section across the Run, at the ford there just to the left. +Take position with the skirmish-line and get your orders from its +commander. Leave your caissons behind, and move at a gallop." + +Baillie Pegram was too new to the business of war to understand +precisely what all this meant. Had he seen a little more of war he +would have guessed at once that the enemy was moving upon the +Confederate left along the road that lay beyond the stream, and that his +guns were needed to aid the skirmishers in the work to be done in front +in preparation for the battle that had not yet burst in all its fury. He +would have understood, too, from the order to leave his caissons behind, +that the stand beyond the stream was not meant to be of long duration. +The fifty shots he carried in each of his limber-chests would be quite +enough to last him till orders should come to fall back across the +stream again. + +But he did not understand all this clearly. What he did understand was +that he was under orders to take his guns across the stream and use them +there as vigorously as he could till further orders should come. + +As he emerged from the woods a few hundred yards beyond Bull Run, he +found a skirmish-line of men lying down and contesting the ground inch +by inch with another line like their own, beyond which he could see the +heavy columns of the enemy marching steadily to turn the Confederate +left flank and force it from its position. Notwithstanding his lack of +experience in such matters, he saw instantly what was happening, and +realised that this left wing of Beauregard's army was destined to +receive the brunt of the enemy's attack. He wondered, in his ignorance, +if Beauregard knew all this, and if somebody ought not to go and tell +him of it. + +He had no time to think beyond this, for at that moment the +skirmish-line, under some order which he had not heard, gave way to the +right and left, leaving a little space open for his guns. Planting them +there he opened fire with shrapnel, which he now and then changed to +canister when the enemy, in his eagerness, pressed forward to within +scant distance of the slowly retiring skirmish-line of the Confederates. + +Under orders Baillie fell back with the skirmishers, moving the guns by +hand, and continuing to fire as he went. + +As the Confederate skirmishers drew near the stream which they were to +cross, the officer in command of them said to Pegram: + +"Advance your guns a trifle, Sergeant-Major, and give them your heaviest +fire for twenty-five seconds or so. When they recoil, limber up and +take your guns across the creek as quickly as possible. I'll cover your +movement." + +Baillie did not perfectly understand the purpose of this, but he +understood his orders, and very promptly obeyed them. Advancing his guns +quickly to a little knoll thirty or forty yards in front, he opened fire +with double charges of canister, each gun firing at the rate of three or +four times a minute, and each vomiting a gallon of iron balls at each +discharge into the faces of a line of men not a hundred yards away. At +the same moment the riflemen of the skirmish-line rose to their feet, +rushed forward with a yell that impressed Baillie as truly demoniacal, +and delivered a murderous volley of Minie balls in aid of his canister. +The combined fire was irresistible, as it was meant to be, and the +Federal skirmishers fell back in some confusion in face of it. + +Then the cool-headed leader of the skirmishers turned to Baillie and +commanded: + +"Now be quick. Take your guns across the creek at once. They'll be on us +again in a minute with reinforcements, but I'll hold them back till you +get the guns across--" + +He had not finished his order when he fell, with a bullet in his brain, +and his men, picking him up, laid him limply across his horse, which two +of them hurried to the rear, passing within ten feet of Baillie Pegram +as he struggled to get his guns across the run without wetting his +ammunition. + +"Poor, gallant fellow!" thought Baillie, as the corpse was borne past +him. "He was only a captain, but he would have made himself a +major-general presently, with his coolness and his determination. He +died too soon!" + +Meanwhile Baillie was busy executing the order that the dead man had +given with his last breath, while some other was in command out there in +front and struggling to protect the guns till they could pass the +stream. + +It is always so in life. No man is indispensable. When one man falls at +the post of duty, there is always some other to take his place. "Men may +come and men may go," but the work that men were born to do "goes on for +ever." + +As Baillie was directing the struggles of his drivers in the difficult +task of recrossing the stream, three shells burst over him in so quick +a succession that he did not know from which of them came the fragment +that cut a great gash in his head and rendered him for the moment +senseless. He recovered himself quickly, and this was fortunate, for his +untrained and inexperienced men were far less steady in retreat under +fire than they had been out there in front, and Baillie's direction was +needed now to prevent them from abandoning in panic the guns with which +they had fought so gallantly a few minutes before. + +Under his sharply given commands they recovered their morale, and a few +minutes later Baillie brought his powder-grimed guns again into position +on the left of the battery. Then, half-blinded by the blood that was +flowing freely over his face and clothing, he sought his captain, raised +his hand in salute, and said, feebly: + +"Captain, I beg to report that I have executed my orders. My men have +behaved well, every--" + +A heavy musketry fire from the enemy at that moment began, and Baillie +Pegram's horse--the beautiful sorrel mare on which Agatha had once +ridden--sank under him, in that strange, limp way in which a horse +falls when killed instantly by a bullet received in any vital part. + +By good fortune the sergeant-major was not caught under the animal, but +as he tried to walk toward the new mount which he had asked for, he +staggered and fell, much as the mare had done, but from a different +cause. Complete unconsciousness had overtaken him, as a consequence of +the shock of his wound and the resultant loss of blood. + +When he came to consciousness again, he was lying on the grass under a +tree, with a young surgeon kneeling beside him, busy with bandages. For +a time his consciousness did not extend beyond his immediate +surroundings and the terrific aching of his head. Presently the heavy +firing which seemed to be all about him, and the zip, zip, zip of +bullets as they struck the earth under the hospital tree brought him to +a realisation of the fact that battle was raging there, and that he, +somehow,--he could not make out how,--was absent from his post with the +guns. He made a sudden effort to rise, but instantly fell back again, +unconscious. + +When he next came to himself there was a sound as of thousands of +yelling demons in his ears, which he presently made out to be the "rebel +yell" issuing from multitudinous throats. There were hoof-beats all +about him, too, the hoof-beats of a thousand horses moving at full +speed. Excited by these sounds, wondering and anxiously apprehensive, he +made another effort to rise, but was promptly restrained by the strong +but gentle hands of an attendant, who said to him, with more of good +sense than grammar: + +"Lay still. It's all right, and it's all over. We've licked 'em, and +they's a-runnin' like mad. The horsemen what passed us was Stuart's +cavalry, a-goin' after 'em to see that they don't stop too soon." + +Stuart was drunk with delight. He shouted to his men, as he rode across +Stone Bridge: "Come on, boys! We'll gallop over the long bridge into +Washington to-night if some blockhead doesn't stop us with orders, and I +reckon we can gallop away from orders!" + +Baillie lay still only because the attendant kept a hand upon his chest +and so restrained him. As he listened, the firing receded and grew less +in volume, except that now and then it burst out in a volley. That was +when one of Stuart's squadrons came suddenly upon a mass of their +confused and fleeing foes and poured a hailstorm of leaden cones in +among them as a suggestion that it was time for them to scatter and +resume their run for Washington. + +As the turmoil grew less and faded into the distance, Baillie's wits +slowly came back to him, and thoughts of himself returned. + +"Where am I?" was his first question. + +"Under a hospital tree on the battle-field of Manassas," answered the +nurse. "You're about two hundred yards in the rear of the position where +your battery has been covering itself with glory all day. It's gone now +to help in the pursuit. But it's had it hot and heavy all day, judging +from the sloppings over." + +"The 'sloppings over?' What do you mean?" + +"Why, the bullets and shells and things that didn't get theirselves +stopped, like, on the lines, but come botherin' over here by this +hospital tree. Two of 'em hit wounded men, an' finally, just at the +last, you know, the doctor got his comeuppance." + +"Was he wounded?" + +"Wuss 'n that. He war killed, jes' like a ordinary soldier. That's why +you're still a-layin' here, an' here you'll lay, I reckon, all night, +for they ain't nobody left to give no orders, 'ceptin' me, an' I ain't +nothin' but a detail. But I'm a-goin' to git you somethin' to eat ef I +kin. They's another hospital jest over the hill, an' mebbe they've got +somethin' to eat, an' mebbe they's a spare surgeon there, too. Anyhow +I'm a-goin' to do the best I kin fer you an' the rest." + +"How many of us are there?" asked Baillie. + +"Only four now--not enough for them to bother about, I s'pose they'll +say, specially sence two on 'em is clean bound to die, anyhow. All the +slightly wounded has been carried away to a reg'lar hospital. That's +their game, I reckon--to take good keer o' the fellers that's a-goin' to +git well, so as to make complaints ef they don't, an' leave the rest +what can't live to make no complaints to die where they is." + +Baillie was too weak, and still too muddled in his intelligence, to +disabuse the mountaineer's mind of this misconception. It is only +ordinary justice to say that his interpretation was utterly wrong. There +was never a more heroic set of men than the surgeons who ministered on +the battle-fields of the Civil War to the wounded on one side or on the +other. At the beginning, their department was utterly unorganised, and +scarcely at all equipped, either with material appliances or with +capable human help in the way of nurses, litter-bearers, or +ambulance-men. They did the best they could. When battle was on, they +hung yellow flags from trees as near the firing-line as possible, and +these flags were respected by both sides, so far as intentional firing +upon them was concerned. But located as they were, just in the rear of +the fighters, these field-hospitals were constantly under a heavy fire, +aimed not at them, but at the fighting-line in front, and it was under +such a fire that the young surgeons did their difficult and very +delicate work. The tying of an artery was often interfered with by the +bursting of a shell which half-buried both patient and surgeon in loose +earth. It was the duty of these field-surgeons to do only so much as +might be immediately necessary--to put their patients as quickly as +possible into a condition in which it was reasonably safe to send them, +in ambulances or upon litters, to some better-equipped hospital in the +rear. Very naturally and very properly, the surgeons discriminated, in +selecting wounded men to send to the hospitals, between those who were +in condition to be removed, and those to whom removal would mean death, +certainly or probably. The mountaineer, who had been detailed as a +hospital attendant that day, did not understand, and so he +misinterpreted. + +"Where is my hat?" Baillie Pegram asked, after a period of silence. + +"Is it the one with a red feather in it?" responded the attendant. + +"Yes." + +"Well, it's a good deal the wuss for wear," answered the man, producing +the blood-soaked and soil-stained headgear. "I don't think you'll want +to wear it again." + +But when the headpiece was brought, the young man, with feeble and +uncertain fingers, detached the feather and thrust it inside his flannel +shirt, leaving the lacerated hat where it had fallen upon the ground. + +"Am I badly wounded?" Pegram asked, after a little. + +"Well," answered the man, "you've got a good deal more'n I should like +to be a-carryin' around with me. But I reckon you'll pull through, +perticular ef you kin git to a hospital after a bit." + +Just then, as night was falling, a pitiless rain began, and all night +long Baillie Pegram lay in a furrow of the field, soaked and suffering. +But he removed the feather from its hiding-place, and held it upon his +chest, in order that the rain might wash away the blood-stains with +which it had been saturated. + +When the morning came, and the ambulance with it, the blood-stains were +gone and the feather was clean, though its texture was limp, its +appearance bedraggled, and much of its original colour had been washed +out. + + * * * * * + +Two or three days later, Agatha Ronald at her home received by mail a +package containing a feather, once red but now badly faded. No note or +message of any kind accompanied it, but Agatha understood. She had +already learned through the newspapers that "Sergeant-Major Baillie +Pegram, after a desperate encounter with the enemy on the outer lines, +had been severely--perhaps mortally--wounded in the head;" and that +"Sergeant-Major Baillie Pegram has been mentioned in General Orders for +his gallant conduct on the field, with a recommendation for promotion, +if he recovers from his wounds, as the surgeons give little hope that he +will." + +She wrapped the faded feather in tissue-paper, deposited it in a +jewelled glove-box which had come to her as an heirloom from her mother, +and put it away in one of her most sacred depositories. + +A week or two later, she learned that Sergeant-Major Baillie Pegram had +been removed from the general hospital at Richmond to his home at +Warlock, and that he was now expected to recover from his wounds. + + + + +XI + +_AT WARLOCK_ + + +"It's jes' what I done tole you niggas fust off." + +That was Sam's comment upon the situation when his master was brought +home to Warlock, stretched upon a litter. + +"I done tole yer what'd happen when Mas' Baillie go off to de wah in dat +way, 'thout Sam to take k'yar of him. An' bar in min' what else I done +tole yer, too. Ain't de chinch-bug done et up de wheat, jes' as I tole +yer? Now, Mas' Baillie, he's a-gwine to die wid that hole in he haid. +Den what's a-gwine to become o' you niggas?" + +Sam promptly installed himself as his master's nurse, sitting by him +during the day, and sleeping on the floor by his bedside every night. +For a time it seemed likely that the negro's dismal prophecy of +Baillie's death would be fulfilled, but with rest and the bracing air +of his own home, he slowly grew better, until he was able at last to sun +himself in the porch or under the trees of the lawn. + +He chafed a good deal at first over the fact that he had not seen the +major part of the fighting along Bull Run, and it annoyed him still more +that he was likely to lose his share in a campaign which was expected to +bring the war to a speedy and glorious end. It was Marshall Pollard who +laughed him out of this latter regret. During the long waiting-time that +followed the battle of Manassas, Marshall, who had gained a lieutenancy +in his battery, secured several brief leaves of absence in order to +visit the convalescent man at Warlock. + +"You're missing nothing whatever, Baillie," he said to him one day, in +answer to his querulous complainings. "We're doing nothing out there in +front of Washington, and, so far as I can see, we're not likely to do +anything for many months to come. When the battle of Manassas ended in +such a rout of the enemy as never will happen again, we all expected to +push on into Washington, where only a very feeble, resistance or none +at all would have been met. When that didn't happen, we confidently +expected that the army at Centreville would be reinforced at once with +every man who could be hurried to the front, and that General Johnston +would push across the Potomac and take Washington in the rear, or +capture Baltimore and Philadelphia, and cut Washington off. + +"I don't pretend to understand grand strategy, but this was plain common +sense, and I suppose that common sense has its part to play in grand +strategy, as in everything else. Anyhow, it is certain that that was the +time to strike, and if the army at Manassas had been reinforced and +pushed across the Potomac while the enemy was so hopelessly demoralised +and disintegrated, there is not the smallest doubt in my mind that the +war would have come to an end within a month or two. Instead of that, we +have done nothing, while the enemy has been straining every nerve to +bring new troops into the field by scores of thousands, and to drill and +discipline them for the serious work of war. They have done all this so +effectually that they now have two or three men to our one, half a dozen +guns to our one, and supply departments so perfectly organised that no +man in all that host need go without his three good meals a day, while +we are kept very nearly in a state of starvation, and are now fortifying +at Centreville, like a beaten army, whose chief concern is to defend +itself against the danger of capture." + +"Have you ever heard an explanation of this strange state of things?" +asked Baillie. "You see, I've been out of the way of hearing anything +ever since the battle." + +"O, yes, I've heard all sorts of explanations. But the real explanation, +I think, is the lack of an experienced general, capable of grasping the +situation and turning it to account. Neither in the field nor in +authority at Richmond, have we a man who ever commanded an army, or even +looked on while a great campaign was in progress. General Johnston and +General Beauregard are doubtless very capable officers in their way. But +until this war came, they were mere captains in the engineer corps, +engaged in constructing Mississippi levees, and that sort of thing. +Neither of them ever in his life commanded a brigade. Neither ever saw a +great battle, or had anything to do with an army composed of men by +scores of thousands. + +"Their victory at Manassas simply appalled them. They didn't know at all +what to do next. They will probably become good and capable commanders +of armies before the war is over, but at present they are only +ex-captains of engineers, suddenly thrust into positions for which they +have absolutely none of that fitness which comes of experience." + +"But have they not learned enough yet? Will they not now see their +opportunity, and undertake a fall campaign?" + +"No. The opportunity is entirely gone. The Federal army is to-day much +stronger in every way than our own. We have pottered away the months +that should have been spent in vigorous and decisive action. The only +man in our army capable of seeing and seizing such an opportunity and +turning it to account--I mean Robert E. Lee--has been kept in the +mountains of Western Virginia, engaged in settling wretched little +disputes among a lot of incapable, cantankerous political brigadiers. It +means a long war and a terrible one, Baillie, and you'll have +opportunity to do all the fighting you want before it is over. But +nothing of any consequence will be done this fall." + +The young lieutenant was quite right in his prophecy. Except for a +little contest at Drainesville--amounting to scarcely more than a +skirmish--there was absolutely nothing done until the 21st of October. +Then occurred the small, badly ordered and strategically meaningless +battle of Leesburg, or Ball's Bluff, when the Federals were again +completely defeated. After that came a long autumn of superb campaigning +weather, and a tedious winter of complete inaction. Federal expeditions +besieged some of the forts and islands along the Carolina coasts, thus +preparing the way for a coast campaign which was never made in earnest. + +There was fighting of some consequence in Kentucky and Missouri, and as +the winter waned, General Grant made his important campaign against the +forts on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, breaking the Confederate +line of defence in that quarter, and pushing it southward. But in +Virginia, the natural battle-field, absolutely nothing was done during +all those months of weary waiting. + +For this strange and strangely prolonged pause in a war which had begun +with a rush and a hurrah, history has been puzzled to find an +explanation. It is true that the Confederate forces were untrained +volunteers, whose endurance and discipline could not have been relied +upon in an aggressive campaign to anything like the extent to which Lee +afterward depended upon the unflinching endurance and unfaltering +courage of these same men. But the Federal army was at that time in much +worse condition. To unfamiliarity with war and to complete lack of +discipline in that army, there was added the demoralisation of +disastrous defeat and panic. General McClellan said in his official +capacity, and with carefully chosen words, that when he was placed in +control in August, he found "no army to command,--a mere collection of +regiments cowering on the banks of the Potomac, some perfectly raw, +others dispirited by recent defeat, some going home." He completed his +description of the situation by saying: "There were no defensive works +on the southern approaches to the capital. Washington was crowded with +straggling officers and men absent from their stations without +authority." + +Why the Confederates, with their great victory to urge them on, made no +effort to take advantage of such conditions, but lay still instead, +giving McClellan many months in which to recruit and organise and drill +his forces into one of the most formidable armies of modern times, is +one of the puzzles of history. Perhaps Marshall Pollard's suggestion was +the correct explanation,--namely, that there was no general at Manassas +who knew what to do with a great opportunity, or how to do it. + +Seeing that Baillie was becoming excited by this serious talk, his +friend adroitly turned the conversation to less strenuous matters. Half +an hour later The Oaks ladies drove up in their antique, high-hung +carriage, to make that formal inquiry concerning Mr. Baillie Pegram's +convalescence which from the first they had made with great +scrupulousness three times every week. + +When they had gone, Pollard asked: + +"Have you seen Miss Agatha since that day last spring, when you were +requested not to visit The Oaks?" + +For a moment Baillie remained silent. Then he said: "If you don't mind, +I'd rather not talk of that, Marshall." + +That was all that passed between these two on that subject during the +week of Marshall's stay at Warlock. How unlike men are to women in these +things! Had these two young men been two young women instead, how +minutely each would have confided to the other the last detail of +experience and thought and feeling! And this not because women are more +emotional than men--for they are not--but because they are not ashamed, +as men are, of the tenderer side of their natures. + + + + +XII + +_UNDER ESCORT_ + + +No sooner had Agatha Ronald determined to enter upon a career of very +dangerous service to her cause and country, than she set herself +diligently to the work of perfecting plans which were at first vague and +undefined. It was no part of her purpose to fail if by any forethought +and thoroughness of preparation she might avert the danger of failure. +She determined to do nothing until every point and possibility, so far +as conditions could be foreseen, should be considered and provided for. + +First of all, she entered into perfect confidence with her maid, Martha, +telling the trusty negro woman as she meant to tell no other person near +her, except her grandfather, precisely what she intended to do, and how. +Martha had a shrewd intelligence likely to be useful in emergencies, and +her devotion to her mistress was as absolute as that of any devotee to +an object of worship. This mistress had been hers to care for by night +and by day ever since Agatha had been four years of age. All of loyalty, +all of affection, all of self-sacrificing devotion of which the negro +character in its best estate is capable, she gave to Agatha, never +doubting her due or questioning her right to such service of the heart +and soul. She knew no other love than this, no other life than that of +unceasing, all-embracing care for her mistress. + +It was with no shadow of doubt or hesitation, therefore, that Agatha +revealed her purposes to Martha, and asked for her aid in carrying them +out. And Martha received the somewhat startling confidence as calmly as +if her mistress had been telling her of an intended afternoon drive. + +When matters had settled down into apathetic idleness after the battle +of Manassas, Agatha made occasion to visit the army. Officers at Fairfax +Court-house had their wives and daughters with them at their +headquarters then, and many of these were Agatha's intimates, whom she +might visit without formal invitation. + +At their quarters, she received visits from such of her friends as +belonged to the cavalry forces stationed thereabouts. In her intercourse +with these, she steadily maintained the innocent little fiction that she +was there solely for social purposes, and to see the splendid army that +had so recently won an astonishing victory. + +One day, she learned that the picturesque cavalier, General J. E. B. +Stuart, had boldly pushed his outposts to Mason's and Munson's Hills, +and established his headquarters under a tree, within easy sight of +Washington. She instantly developed an intense desire to visit him +there. It happened that she knew Stuart and his family personally, and +had often dined in the great cavalry leader's company at her own and +other homes. So she said one day, to a young cavalry officer, who was +calling upon her: + +"I want you to do me a very great service. I want you to ask General +Stuart to let me visit him at the outposts. He'll offer to come here to +call upon me instead, for he is always gallant, but you are to tell him +I will not permit that. The service needs him at the front, and I want +to visit him there. Besides, I particularly want to take a peep at +Washington City in its new guise as a foreign capital which we are +besieging." + +The young man remonstrated. He protested that there was very great +danger in the attempt--that raids from the picket-lines were of daily +occurrence, that the firing was often severe--and all the rest of it, +wherefore General Stuart would almost certainly forbid the young lady's +proposed enterprise. + +The girl calmly looked the young man in the eyes--he was an old friend +whom she had known from her childhood--and said, very solemnly: + +"Charlie, I am no more afraid of bullets than you are. My heart is set +upon this visit, and you _must_ arrange it for me. As for General +Stuart, I'll manage him, if you'll carry a note to him for me." + +That young man had once begun to make love to Agatha, and she had +checked him gently and affectionately in time to spare his pride, and to +make of him her willing knight for all time to come. So he answered +promptly: + +"I'll carry your note, of course, and if Stuart gives permission, I'll +beg to be myself your escort. Then, if anybody bothers you with bullets +or anything else, it'll be a good deal the worse for him." + +The girl thanked him in a way that would have made a hero of him in her +defence had occasion served, and presently she scribbled a little note +and placed it in the young cavalryman's hands for delivery. It was +simple enough, but it was so worded as to make sure that Stuart would +promptly grant its request. It ran as follows: + + "MY DEAR GENERAL STUART:--I very much want to see you for half an + hour out where you are, at Mason's or Munson's Hill, and not here + at Fairfax Court-house. My visit will be absolutely and entirely in + the public interest, though to all others than yourself I am + pretending that it is prompted solely by the whim of a romantic + young girl. Please send a permit at once, and please permit + Lieutenant Fauntleroy, who bears this, to be my escort." + +The note was unsealed, of course, except by the honour of the gentleman +who bore it. Stuart's response was prompt, as every act of his +enthusiastic life was sure to be. He read the note, held a corner of +the sheet in the blaze of his camp-fire, and retained his hold upon the +farther corner of it until it was quite consumed. Then he dropped the +charred sheets into the coals, and turning to Lieutenant Fauntleroy, +commanded: + +"Return at once to Fairfax Court-house, detail an escort of half a dozen +good men under your own personal command, and escort Miss Ronald to my +headquarters. Be very careful not to place the young lady under fire if +you can avoid it. Ride in the woods, or under other cover, wherever you +can. Remember, you will have a lady in charge, and must take no risks." + +"At what time shall I report with Miss Ronald?" + +"At her time--at whatever time she shall fix upon as most pleasing to +her." + +Thus it came about that before noon of the next day, in the midst of a +pouring rain-storm, General Stuart lifted Agatha Ronald from her saddle, +taking her by the waist for that purpose. He welcomed her with a kiss +upon her brow, as the daughter of a house whose hospitality he had often +enjoyed. He quickly escorted her to a little brush shelter which he had +made his men hastily construct as a defence for her against the rain, +and ordered the sentries posted full fifty yards away, in order that the +conversation might by no chance be overheard. + +"It is a splendid service," he said, when the girl had finished telling +him of her plans. "But it will be attended by extraordinary danger to a +young woman like you." + +"I have considered all that, General," she replied, very seriously. "I +do not shrink from the danger." + +"Of course not. You are a woman, a Virginian, and a Ronald,--three +sufficient guarantees of courage. But I'm afraid for you. It is a +terrible risk you are going to take--immeasurably greater in the case of +a woman than in that of a man." + +"I have my wits, General,--and this," showing him a tiny revolver. "With +that a woman can always defend her honour." + +"You mean by suicide?" + +"Yes--if necessity compels." Stuart looked at the gentle girl, gazing +into her fawn-like brown eyes as if trying to read her soul in their +depths. Presently he said: + +"God bless you and keep you, dear! I'm going to ride back to Fairfax +Court-house with you. Make yourself as comfortable as you can here for +half an hour, while I ride out to the pickets. I'll be with you soon, +and then we'll have dinner, for you are my guest to-day." + +When the dinner was served, it consisted of some ears of corn, plucked +from a neighbouring field, and roasted with husks unremoved, among the +live coals of the cavalier's camp-fire. Stuart made no apology for the +lack of variety in the meal, for he sincerely accepted the doctrine +which he often preached to his men, that "anything edible makes a good +enough dinner if you are hungry, and the simpler it is, the better. +There's nothing more troublesome in a campaign than cooking utensils and +unnecessary things generally. If armies would move without them, there'd +be more and better fighting done. The chief thing in war is to start at +once and get there without delay." + +The meal over, Stuart held out his hand as a step, from which Agatha +lightly sprang into her saddle. Then he mounted the superb gray, which +he always rode when battle was on, or when he had a gentlewoman under +his charge. For there was a touch of the boyish dandy in Stuart, and a +good deal more than a touch of that gallantry which prompts every true +man of warm blood to honour womanhood with every possible attention. + +The horse was fit for his rider, and that is saying quite all that can +be said in praise of a horse. Mounted upon him, Stuart was the bodily +presentment of all that painters and sculptors have imagined the typical +cavalier to be or to seem. Stalwart of figure, erect in carriage, his +muscles showing themselves in graceful strength with every movement of +his body, his head carried like that of a boy or a young bull, his beard +closely clipped, his moustache standing out straight at the ends, and +resembling that of Virginia's earliest knight errant, Captain John +Smith, of Jamestown, Stuart was a picture to look upon, which the +onlooker did not soon forget. His many-gabled slouch hat was decorated +with streaming plumes, that helped to make of him a target for the +enemy's sharpest sharpshooters whenever battle was on. Full of vigour, +full of health, and full to the very lips of a boyish enthusiasm of +life, he seemed never to know what weariness might signify, and never +for one moment to abate the intensity of his purpose. He did all things +as if all had been part of a great game in which he was playing for a +championship. + +On this occasion, however, his manner was subdued, and his conversation +serious in a degree unusual to one of his effervescent spirits. He was +riding with Agatha Ronald for the very serious purpose of talking with +her about details that must be carefully arranged with a view to her +safety in the dangerous undertaking upon which she was about to enter. A +word or two to Lieutenant Fauntleroy sent that officer with his escort +squad to the front, while Stuart and his charge rode in rear. + +"Now, one thing more is necessary, Miss Agatha," he said. "You ought to +reënter our country far to the west, if you can, where there are no +armies, and only small detachments. Still, I don't know so well about +that. Here we keep the Yankees too busy at the front to attend to +matters in the rear, while over in the valley they'll have nothing +better to do than look out for wandering women like you. Anyhow, you may +find it necessary or advisable to enter my lines. In that case, you must +be arrested immediately and brought to my headquarters. That is +necessary on all accounts--to prevent the nature of your mission from +being discovered, and--well, to prevent you from having to report to +anybody but me. I shall want to see you, and hear all about your +results. So I'm going to give orders every day that will put every +picket-officer on watch for you, and impress every one of them with the +idea that you are a peculiarly dangerous person, in league with traitors +on our side, and trying to put yourself into communication with such. I +cannot give you any sort of paper, you see, for papers are always +dangerous. But I'll give you six words that will answer the purpose. +Whenever you speak the right one of these words with emphasis, the +picket-officer will understand that you are the very dangerous spy whose +entrance into our lines I anticipate, and whose arrest I particularly +desire to secure. I'll give out one of the six words each day, +particularly charging officers of the pickets that any woman entering +our lines by any means, and using that word with emphasis, is the spy I +want,--that her use of it will be intended for the purpose of finding +traitorous friends, and that any such woman, no matter upon what pretext +she enters the lines, is to be arrested as soon as she uses the word. +Only one of these words will be given out each day, but you will know +them all, and use them in succession until you use the right one and are +arrested. The words will be such as you can embody in an ordinary +sentence without exciting the suspicion of any of the men who may be +standing by,--for, of course, only officers will be commissioned to +arrest you. You can use the words in different sentences, until you use +the right one. Then you will be arrested and brought to my headquarters, +where I hope to have a better dinner than that of to-day to offer you." + +Just at that moment, the road along which they were riding passed +between two abandoned fields, each of which was skirted by woodlands on +its farther side. Stuart raised his head like a startled deer, and said: + +"We must quit the road here, and put ourselves behind that skirt of +timber over on the left. Your horse will take the fence easily." + +With that the pair pushed their animals over the rail fence on the left, +and at a gallop rode across the field toward a little strip of young +chestnut woodland that lay beyond. But just as they reached the centre +of the field there came the zip, zip, zip of bullets striking the earth, +the whiz of bullets passing their ears, and the weird whistle of bullets +passing over them, one of which, now and then, turned somersaults in its +course, and produced the peculiar sound that only bullets so misbehaving +are capable of producing. At the same moment, the escort under +Lieutenant Fauntleroy, who had been in front, fell back to protect its +charge, as it was its duty to do. Stuart hurriedly said to the girl: + +"Ride for your life to the chestnut-trees, and hide yourself there, +while I take care of those fellows. I'll come to you when it's over." + +With that he turned about, placed himself at the head of the little +escort squad, and, swinging his sabre, as he always did in action, led +them at a furious pace, over a fence and into the thicket from which the +fire was coming. The few men who were lurking there were quickly +scattered, and abandoning their arms, they ran with all their might to +the strong picket-post from which they had been thrown out to intercept +him. + +This done, all danger of further trouble was at an end, or would have +been, had Stuart willed it so. But the scent of battle was always in his +nostrils. His men were accustomed to say that he was always "looking for +trouble," whenever there was the smallest chance of finding it. So +instead of contenting himself with having dispersed the assailing party, +he wheeled about to the right, and led his squad with the fury of +Mameluke against the strong picket-post itself. Amid a hailstorm of +bullets he charged through the half-company there posted, and then, +turning about, charged back again, completing the work of destruction +and dispersal. + +It was not until this was over, and he had given the command, "Trot," +that he saw Agatha by his side, her pistol in hand and empty of its +charges, her hair loosened and falling in tangled masses over her +shoulders, her face aglow, and her lithe form as erect as that of any +trooper among them all. + +"But my dear Miss Ronald," Stuart ejaculated, "what are you doing here?" + +"Riding under gallant escort, General, that is all." + +[Illustration: "'_Riding under gallant escort_'"] + +"But I ordered you to take refuge in the timber." + +"Yes, I know," she answered, with a laughing challenge in her eyes, "but +as I have never been mustered in, I'm not subject to your orders. You +can't court-martial me, can you, General?" + +Stuart looked at her before answering--his eyes full of an admiration +that was dimmed by glad tears. At last he leaned over, kissed her again +upon the forehead, and said, impressively: + +"What a wife you'll make for a soldier some day!" + + + + +XIII + +_A SOUVENIR SERVICE_ + + +During the rest of the journey Agatha was excited and full of +enthusiasm. She had participated in a fight under the lead of the +gallantest of cavaliers, and she had borne herself under fire in a way +that had won his admiration. That admiration found expression in a +hundred ways, and chiefly in pressing offers of service. Before their +parting he said to her: + +"Now, my dear Miss Agatha, you really must let me do you some favour. I +want to cherish the memory of this day's glorious ride, and I want to +render you some service, the memory of which may serve as a souvenir. +What shall it be?" + +At that moment there came to Agatha's mind one of those inspirations +that come to all of us at times, quite without consciousness of whence +they come or why. She answered: + +"You are already doing everything for me, General. You have sanctioned +an enterprise on which I have set my heart, and you have done all you +could to make it successful. You gave me for dinner to-day the very best +ear of green corn that I ever tasted. You have personally and very +gallantly escorted me back here to Fairfax Court-house, and on the way +you have got up for me the most dramatic bit of action that I ever saw. +I am convinced that you did it only for my entertainment, and I am truly +grateful." Then with a sudden access of intense seriousness, she added, +"And you have opened a way to me to render that service to my country +which I had planned. Never, so long as you live,--and I hope that may be +long for Virginia's sake,--will you know or imagine how great a service +you have rendered me in this. But you insist upon doing more. You insist +that I shall crave a boon at your hands. Very well; I will do so." + +With that readiness of response which characterised everything that +Stuart did, he seized the opportunity offered, and broke into Agatha's +sentence with the answer: + +"Of course I insist. What is it that I may do?" + +"I want you to secure a captain's commission, then, for Sergeant-Major +Baillie Pegram. You know all about his family. He volunteered as a +private. He was promoted to be sergeant-major by Stonewall Jackson's own +request, in recognition of his good conduct. He was terribly wounded at +Manassas, mentioned in general orders, and strongly recommended for +promotion for gallantry on the field. My aunts write to me--" here +Agatha fibbed a little, as a woman is permitted to do under +circumstances that might otherwise compromise her dignity, for it was +not her aunts, but a highly intelligent negro maid in their service who +kept the young lady informed as to Baillie Pegram's condition--"my aunts +tell me he is getting well again, and will soon be ready for duty." + +"What is his arm?" asked Stuart, eagerly. + +"Light artillery," Agatha answered. + +"Has he influence?" + +"How do you mean?" + +"Could he get men to enlist?" + +"Why, of course. He's the master of Warlock, you know." + +Then with a little touch of embarrassment, she added, "I mean he is the +head of one of the great families, and they always have influence." + +"O, yes, of course," Stuart answered. "I see the situation clearly. Will +you say to Mr. Pegram--Sergeant-Major Pegram, I mean--that I have +authority from the War Department to raise three companies of flying +artillery, with the men all mounted, to serve with the cavalry, and that +if he can form such a company,--of fifty or seventy-five men, or better +still a hundred men--I will secure him a captain's commission with +authority to do so?" + +"But, General," said the girl, quickly, and in manifest fright, "I do +not correspond with Mr. Pegram. In fact we are _very nearly strangers_." + +"O, I see," answered the cavalier, with a twinkle in his eyes. "How long +has it been since you and this gallant young gentleman arranged to be +'very nearly strangers?'" + +"O, you entirely mistake, General," the girl quickly answered. "Really +and truly I never knew Mr. Pegram very well; but he wore a red feather +of mine at the battle of Manassas, and afterward he sent it back to me +and--well, anyhow he proved his gallantry and he really ought to be +something more than a sergeant-major, don't you think?" + +For answer Stuart made a sweeping bow, removing his hat and saying: +"Concerning Sergeant-Major Baillie Pegram, I think whatever you think. +Anyhow, as he had the good taste to wear your red feather, and as he has +fought well enough to secure a wound and a mention in general orders and +your personal approval, he shall be a captain if he wants to be. Give me +his address, and you need not have any correspondence with him." + +"I'll write it," she answered, "if you'll excuse me for a moment," and +with that she retired within doors--for they had been standing in the +porch--in a rage of vexation with herself. She hastily sponged off her +inflamed face with cold water, dried it, and loosely twisted up her +errant hair, which had run riot over her neck and shoulders ever since +the little encounter with the enemy. Then she scribbled Baillie Pegram's +Warlock address on a scrap of paper and returned to Stuart's presence, +with the mien and bearing of a queen. + +The cavalier's face was rippling all over with smiles as he bade her +adieu, wished her Godspeed in her enterprise, and turned away. At the +steps he faced about, and advancing said to her: + +"When do you wish to return to Fauquier?" + +"I shall go home to-morrow morning," she answered. + +"You travel in your own carriage, of course?" + +"Yes, and my maid is with me." + +"Very well," he answered. "At sunrise a platoon under command of a +trusty officer will report here and serve as your escort." + +"But, General, surely that is not necessary." + +"Not necessary, perhaps," was the answer, "but it pleases me to have it +so, and you'll indulge my fancy, I am sure. I hope to have you as my +prisoner before many moons have passed." + +She understood, and with a rippling smile she replied: + +"Thank you, and good-bye. I shall certainly enjoy my next ear of green +corn if I am permitted to take it in your company, under some tree that +you have honoured by making it your headquarters." + +"O, my ravenous cavalrymen will have eaten up all the green corn long +before that time; but I'll give you a dinner if I have to raid a +Federal picket-post to get it." + +With that he sprang into his saddle, waved a farewell, and rode away +singing: + + "If you want to have a good time, + Jine the cavalry, + Jine the cavalry, + Jine the cavalry, + If you want to have a good time, + Jine the cavalry, + Jine the cav-al-ry." + +It was Stuart's boast at that time that he knew the face and name of +every man in his old first regiment, and he afterward extended this +boast to include all the men in the first brigade of Virginia Cavalry. +He used to say: "I ought to remember those fellows; they made me a +major-general." + +But however well Stuart knew his men, with whom he fraternised in a way +very unusual to most officers bred in the regular army, as he had been, +nobody ever pretended to know him well enough to guess with any accuracy +what he would do next under any given circumstances. On this occasion he +had not brought his staff with him, but that made small difference with +an officer of his temper, whose habit of mind it was to disregard forms +and ceremonies, and to go straight to his purpose, whatever it might +happen to be. When he left Agatha, he rode at once to the camp of a +detached company and asked for its captain. To him he said: + +"Send couriers to all the cavalry camps, and say that General Stuart +orders the entire force to report in front at once." + +He designated three roads and four bridle-paths by which the commands +were to move; and three or four points of rendezvous. Then he added: + +"Let the men move light--no baggage or blankets or anything else but +arms and ammunition." + +A moment later he met Colonel Fitzhugh Lee, who had succeeded him in +command of the old first regiment,--"my Mamelukes," as Stuart loved to +call them. The two grasped hands, and Stuart said: "I've ordered +everybody to the front. You are to take command on the left. We must +drive the Federal pickets back from all their advanced posts. They are +growing impudent. They fired at a lady under my personal escort to-day. +We must teach them not to repeat that." + +Of course the men who had done the firing in question had no means of +knowing that there was a woman among the assailed, and Stuart knew the +fact very well. But he chose to regard whatever happened as something +intended. + +Turning from Lee, he galloped to the camp of some batteries, and said to +the officer in command: + +"I wish you'd lend me a couple of guns or so for the afternoon. I've +some work to do. Send them out along the Falls Church road. I'll not +have to go borrowing guns after a little while. I'll have some mounted +batteries of my own." + +The officer addressed issued the necessary orders as quietly as a +gentleman in his own house might bid a servant bring a glass of water +for a thirsty guest. No questions were asked on either side, and no +explanations offered. It is not the military fashion to ask unnecessary +questions or to give needless explanations. + +By this time the cavalry regiments were streaming by on their hurried +way to the front, saluting Stuart as they passed, and now and then +cheering, as they were apt to do when they saw their gallant leader. He +in his turn nodded and bowed in acknowledgment, and now and then called +out a cheery word of greeting. He would be at the head of all these +fellows presently, and they knew that "the performance would not begin," +as they were in the habit of saying, till he should be there to lead. +But meanwhile he had something else to attend to, for Stuart never +forgot anything that he wanted to remember, however engrossingly he +might be engaged with other affairs. Riding up to a tent before which +Colonel Field was standing awaiting his horse, he asked: + +"Is your adjutant with you, Field?" + +"No--he has gone on with orders, but his orderly is here, General." + +"That will do as well." Then turning to the orderly, who had appeared, +he said: + +"Take down a paper from dictation, please. When it is written out, bring +it to me at the front for signature." + +The dictation was as follows: + +"General J. E. B. Stuart, commanding the cavalry, respectfully reports +that in pursuance of the authorisation of the War Department, he has +selected Sergeant-Major Baillie Pegram, of ----'s battery, as one of the +persons to be commissioned captain of artillery and authorised to raise +a mounted battery to serve with the cavalry. General Stuart begs to +report that Sergeant-Major Pegram's character and qualifications are +abundantly certified, and that he has already been mentioned in general +orders and recommended for promotion for conspicuous gallantry in the +battle of Manassas. He is at present at his home, recovering from a +severe wound received in that action. All of which is respectfully +submitted." + +"There!" said Stuart, when the dictation was done. "Write that out, fold +and indorse it properly, and bring it to me at the front for signature. +Then forward it through the regular channels." + +Then Stuart put spurs to his horse, and galloped to the front. There he +made hurried disposition of the various commands, and half an hour later +hurled his whole force precipitately upon all the Federal outposts on +the ten-mile line. The onset was sudden and resistless, and within a +brief while every picket-post of the enemy was abandoned, and a new +line of observation established many miles nearer to Washington City. + +With that tireless energy and that sleepless vigilance in attention to +details which always characterised the conduct of this typical +chevalier, Stuart spent the entire night following this day's work in +visiting his new outposts, from one end of the line to the other. Yet +when morning came he breakfasted upon an ear of raw corn and a laugh, +and rode on to Munson's Hill to learn what signals had been received +from his agents in Washington during the night. + + + + +XIV + +_QUICK WORK_ + + +It was a warm, soft day in autumn, joyous in its sunshine, sad in its +suggestions of the year's decay. Baillie Pegram, now nearly well again, +but still lacking strength, was lolling on the closely clipped sward +under one of the great trees at Warlock, chatting disjointedly with +Marshall Pollard, who had got away again on a few days' leave of +absence, for the purpose of visiting his friend. Baillie had already +written to his captain, reporting himself as nearly well again, +expressing regret at his long absence from duty, and announcing his +purpose of rejoining the battery within a week or ten days at +furthest--"at the earliest time," he said, "when I can persuade the +surgeons to release me from their clutches." This was likely, therefore, +to be the last meeting between the two friends for many moons to come. + +"Tell me about yourself, old fellow," said Baillie, after a pause in +the conversation. "How do you like your service in that battery of +ruffians?" + +"Thoroughly well. They're not half-bad fellows when kept under military +discipline, and I've enjoyed studying them psychologically. I'm +convinced that the only reason society has failed so consummately in its +attempts to deal with the criminal class is that it hasn't taken pains +to understand them or find out their point of view. We really haven't +taken pains enough even to classify them, or to find out the differences +there are among them. We class them all together--all who violate the +law--and call them criminals, and proceed to deal with them as if they +were a totally different species from ourselves, whereas, in point of +fact, they are 'men like unto ourselves,' with like passions and desires +and impulses. The only real difference is that circumstances and +education and association have taught us to curb our passions and hold +our impulses in check, while they have run wild, obeying those instincts +which are born in all of us. + +"They are usually very generous fellows--impulsive, affectionate, and +loyal to such friendships as they know. If you discovered any wrong +being done to me, or heard any unjust accusation made against me, you'd +resist and resent instantly. But you'd know precisely how far and in +what direction to carry your resentment, while these fellows do not know +anything except the instincts of a righteous wrath. There isn't a man in +Skinner's Battery who wouldn't be quick to stand for me and by me. But +in doing so he would calmly kill the man who injured me, and never be +able to understand why he must be hanged for doing so. + +"Most of them have been made hardened criminals solely by society's +blundering way of dealing with them. It has sent them to jail, for small +first offences, committed in ignorance perhaps. It has thus declared war +upon them, and with the instincts of manhood they have taken up the gage +of battle. In other words, it is my sincere belief that quite nine in +ten of the criminal class are criminal only because of society's neglect +at first and blundering afterward. They need education and discipline; +we give them resentful punishment instead, and there is a world of +difference between the two things. + +"However, I did not mean to deliver a lecture on penology. And after all +I am no longer one of the ruffians, you know. All the officers of the +battery are gentlemen, while none of the men happens to be anything of +the kind. There is, therefore, as sharp a line of demarcation drawn in +our battery, between officers and enlisted men, as there is in any +regular army. This makes things pleasant for the officers, and I fancy +they are not unpleasant for the men. It is a case of aristocracy where +the upper class enjoys itself and the lower class is content. It is +quite different from service in an ordinary Confederate company of +volunteers. There the enlisted men are socially quite as good as their +officers and sometimes distinctly better. Under such circumstances it is +difficult to maintain more of distinction and discipline than the +enlisted men may voluntarily consent to. Socially, with us Southern +people, it is quite as honourable to be an enlisted man in such a +battery as yours as to be a commissioned officer. That's a good enough +thing in its way, but it isn't military, and it is distinctly bad for +the service." + +"I don't know so well about that," said Baillie. "We have at least the +advantage of knowing that, discipline or no discipline, every man in the +ranks, equally with every officer, has a personal reputation at home to +sustain by good conduct. Even your desperadoes couldn't fight better +than the young fellows I had with me on the skirmish-line at Manassas, +though they had never had anything resembling discipline to sustain +them. Every man of them knew that if he 'flunked' he could never go home +again--unless all flunked at once and so kept each other company. That +very nearly happened while we were falling back across Bull Run." + +"Precisely. And it happened to the whole Federal army a few hours later. +Discipline, with a ready pistol-shot behind it, would have prevented +that in both cases. 'Man's a queer animal,' you know, if you remember +your reading, and one of the queerest things about him is that when he +has once accustomed himself to accept orders unquestioningly, and to +obey them blindly, as every soldier does in drilling, he becomes far +more afraid of mere orders than he is of the heaviest fire. Personal +courage and high spirit among the men are admirable in their way, but +for the purposes of battle, discipline and the habit of blind obedience +are very much more trustworthy. If you want to make soldiers of men, you +must teach them, morning, noon, and night, that blind, unquestioning +obedience is the only virtue they can cultivate. That isn't good for the +personal characters of the men, of course, but it is necessary in the +case of soldiers, and our volunteers will all of them have to learn the +lesson before this war is over. More's the pity, for I can't imagine how +a whole nation of men so trained to submission can ever again become a +nation of--oh, confound it! I'm running off again into a psychological +speculation. Fortunately, here comes a letter for you." + +A servant approached, bearing upon a tray a missive from The Oaks +ladies, which had been delivered at the house a few minutes earlier. The +grand dames assured Mr. Baillie Pegram of their highest respect and +esteem, but suggested that, to the very great satisfaction of the +anxiety they had so long felt on his account, they were convinced by his +assurances to that effect, that he was now so far advanced on the road +to complete recovery as perhaps to excuse them from the necessity of +making their thrice a week journey to Warlock to inquire concerning his +welfare. If they were mistaken in this assumption, would not Mr. Baillie +Pegram kindly notify them? And if the daily inquiries which they +intended to make hereafter through a trusty servant, should at any +moment bring to them news of a relapse, they would instantly resume +their personal and most solicitous inquiries. + +To this Baillie laughingly wrote a reply equally formal, in which he +assured the good ladies that their tender concern for him during his +illness had been a chief factor in a recovery which was now practically +complete. + +Meantime Sam had come with the mail-pouch from the post-office, and it +held two letters for Baillie. + +One of these was a formal and official communication from the War +Department, informing him that upon General J. E. B. Stuart's +recommendation, he had been appointed captain of artillery with +authority to raise a mounted battery of from fifty to one hundred men, +for service with the cavalry. His commission, dating from the day of his +wound at Manassas, accompanied the document, and with it an order for +him to proceed, as soon as he should be fit for service, to enlist and +organise the company thus authorised, and to make the proper +requisitions for arms and equipments. + +Baillie's second letter was a personal one from Stuart. It was scribbled +in pencil on the envelopes of some old letters and such other fragments +of paper as the cavalier could command at some picket-post. It read: + +"I have asked the War Department to commission you as a captain, to +raise a company of mounted artillery to serve with me in front. I +understand that you have a healthy liking for the front. The War +Department lets me choose my own men for this service, and I have chosen +you first, for several reasons. One is that you know what to do with a +gun. Another is that you fought so well at Manassas. Another is that you +are very strongly recommended to me by a person whose judgment is +absolutely conclusive to my mind. + +"Now get to work as quickly as you can. Enrol fifty or seventy-five, or +better still a hundred men if you can find them. Put them in camp and +instruct them, and report to me the moment you are ready. Make +requisition for guns--six of them if you can secure a hundred men--and +drill your men at the piece. For a hundred men in _mounted_ artillery +you will need about 170 horses--100 for the cannoniers to ride and 70 +for the guns, etc. There is likely to be your difficulty. Can't you help +yourself out a bit? I am told that you have influence. Can't you +persuade your neighbours to contribute some at least of the horses you +need? The quicker your battery is horsed the quicker you'll get a chance +to practise your men in gunnery with the enemy for a target. Please send +me a personal line, telling me how soon you will be ready to join me. It +will take a month or two, of course, but I hope it won't take more." + +Twelve hours later Baillie Pegram sent an answer to General Stuart's +letter. In it he said: + +"Thank you. I'll have the men and the horses within twenty-four hours. +If the guns are promptly forthcoming on my requisition, I'll be ready +within two days to receive orders to join you. As for drill, I can +attend to that in front of Washington as well as in camp of instruction +at Richmond." + +But before sending that note, which delighted Stuart's soul when it +came, Baillie Pegram had done a world of earnest work. + +First of all there was the problem of getting the men. The able-bodied +citizens of the county had already volunteered for the most part, but +some were still waiting for one reason or another, and Baillie, who knew +everybody, sent hurried notes to all of these, by special negro +messengers, asking each to send an immediate reply to him at the +Court-house. On this service he employed all his young negroes, mounting +them on all his mules. The men appealed to responded almost to a man, +for the master of Warlock was a man under whose command his neighbours +eagerly wanted to serve, and Baillie found more than half of them +awaiting him at the county seat, when he got there in mid-afternoon. + +Still better, he found a messenger there from one of the men whom he had +summoned. This messenger came from a camp at a little distance, where +were assembled about sixty or seventy men and boys peculiarly situated. +These men and boys had belonged to a company composed mainly of college +students, which had gone out with the earliest volunteers. The company +had been captured at Rich Mountain, and the men composing it had been +sent home on parole. Within the two days preceding Baillie Pegram's call +for volunteers, official notification had come of the discharge of all +these men from parole by virtue of an exchange of prisoners. Thereupon +the men, thus left free to volunteer again, had met in camp to consider +what should be done. Their company had been officially disbanded, and +there were now not enough of them left to secure its reorganisation. +When Baillie Pegram's call for volunteers came, therefore, the men were +called together, and in pursuance of a resolution, unanimously adopted, +a messenger was sent to the Court-house to say that sixty-two men of the +disbanded company offered themselves for enrolment under Captain Pegram, +and that they would report for duty on the following morning at the +Court-house. + +Thus before four o'clock Baillie was assured of his hundred men or more. +The next problem was to secure horses. He called together such of his +men as were present, and said: + +"Each of you is mounted. We shall need your horses. The government will +have them valued, and will pay the assessed price for any that may die +in the service. It will pay monthly for their services. How many of you +will enlist your horses as well as yourselves, as all our cavalrymen +have done?" + +The response was general, and many of the planters offered additional +horses on the same terms, so that, before night fell Baillie Pegram had +more than a hundred men and about a hundred and thirty horses secured. +Forty or fifty more horses must be had, but Baillie knew how to secure +them, and so he sent off his note to Stuart. Then he turned to Marshall +Pollard, and said: + +"I want you to go to Richmond by the midnight train, old fellow, and +return by the noonday train to-morrow. I've a mind to complete this +business at a stroke. I've a few thousand dollars in bank and a few +thousand more in the hands of my commission merchant. The money is worth +its face now. Heaven only knows what it will be worth a year hence. I'm +going to spend it now for the rest of the horses I need, and I want you +to go to Richmond and bring it to me. In the meanwhile I'll bargain with +a drover who is not very far away, for the horses." + +Then, weak as he was, Baillie planned to ride the dozen miles that lay +between the Court-house and the point where the drover was camping with +his horses, but one of his friends, who had just enlisted with him, bade +him to go to the tavern and to bed, saying: + +"I'll have the drover and his horses here before noon to-morrow, and I +shall know something about the horses by that time, too, for I'll come +back in company with them, and I'll keep my eyes open." + +No sooner was Baillie comfortably stretched upon a lounge in his hotel +room, than Sam presented himself. + +"Mas' Baillie," the negro boy broke in, without waiting for his master +to ask how he came to be there, "Mas' Baillie, you's a-gwine to be one +o' de officers now, jes' as you ought to ha' been fust off. Now you'll +need Sam wid you, won't you?" + +"I'll need somebody, I suppose," the young man answered, with a laugh at +Sam's enthusiasm, "but if I take you along where I am going, you'll +stand a mighty good chance of getting a bullet-hole through you, or +having your black head knocked off your shoulders by a shell. Have you +thought of that?" + +"Co'se I'se thought o' dat, an' I ain't de leas' bit afeard nuther. I'se +a Pegram nigga from Warlock, I is, an' a Pegram nigga from Warlock ain't +got no more business to be afeared o' bullets when his duty brings 'em +in his way, dan a white folks Pegram hisself is. Ef ye'll jes' take Sam +along of you, you sha'n't never have no 'casion to be shamed o' yer +servant." + +"Very well, Sam," answered the master; "now go back to Warlock, and tell +your mammy you're going to the war. By the way, you may have that old +velveteen and corduroy hunting suit of mine to wear. Get it from the +closet in the chamber, and tell your mammy to shorten the trousers legs +by seven or eight inches." + +Sam was fairly dancing for joy, and as he mounted his mule for the +homeward journey, he began to sing a dismal ditty which he had composed +as an expression of his feelings at the time of his master's first +departure from Warlock to serve as a soldier. Unhappily only a fragment +of the song remains to us. It began: + + "Dey ain't no sun in de mawning, + Dey ain't no moon shine in de night, + 'Case the war's done come an' de mahstah's done gone, + Fer to git hisse'f killed in de fight. + + "Oh, Moses! + Holy Moses! + Can't you come back 'cross de ribber? + Can't you let Gabrel blow his horn?" + +What lines were to follow, and what words rhymed with "ribber" and +"horn," we are not permitted to know. For at this point, Sam, whose +self-education included a considerable proficiency in profanity, broke +off his singing, reined in his mule, and said: + +"Dat's too _dam_ dismal fer de 'casion!" Then addressing the mule, he +reproachfully asked: + +"What for you done let me sing dat? Don' you know Sam's a-gwine to de +wah wid Mas' Baillie?" + +As the mule made no reply, the conversation ceased at this point, and +the remainder of the homeward journey was made in complete silence. + + + + +XV + +_AGATHA'S VENTURE_ + + +After a month or two of cautious correspondence with friends and others +who were to aid her in carrying out her purpose, Agatha Ronald set out +one day, and drove with Martha, her maid, to Winchester, where she had +friends. After a week's stay there, she made her way to a little town on +the Potomac, again taking up quarters with friends. + +From this point, she communicated through her friends with intimates of +theirs who lived in Maryland. Finally she had arrangements made by which +a succession of houses was open to her, all of them the homes of people +strongly in sympathy with the South. But she must first manage to get +through the Federal lines unobserved, and in this a Federal commander +unwittingly aided her. He threw a small force one day into the little +town in which she was staying, meaning to hold possession of it as a +part of the loosely drawn lines on the upper river. This left Agatha +within Federal domain--a young gentlewoman visiting friends, and in no +way attracting attention to herself. Presently she moved on into +Maryland, and by short stages made her way to the house of a very ardent +Southern family, near the Pennsylvania border. From there it was easy +for her to go to Harrisburg, and thence by rail to Baltimore. + +The chief purpose of her journey was now practically accomplished. She +had established what she called her "underground railroad," with a +multitude of stations, and a very roundabout route. But it would serve +its purpose all the better for that, she thought, as the chief condition +of its successful operation was that its existence should at no time be +suspected. + +In Baltimore, proceeding with the utmost caution, she put herself into +indirect communication with a large number of "Dixie girls"--as young +women in that city whose hearts were with the South were called. It +would not do for her to meet these young women personally. That might +excite suspicion, especially as most of them had brothers in the +Southern army. But through others she succeeded in organising them +secretly into a band prepared to do her work. + +That work was the purchase of medicines--chiefly morphine and +quinine--and the smuggling of them through the lines into the +Confederacy for the use of the armies there. For it is one of the +barbarisms of war which civilisation has not yet outgrown, that +medicines, even those which are imperatively necessary for the saving of +life and the prevention of suffering, are held to be as strictly +contraband as gunpowder itself is. + +Agatha's plan was to have her associates in Baltimore purchase medicines +and surgical appliances in that city and elsewhere--buying only in small +quantities in each case, in order to avoid suspicion, but buying large +quantities in the aggregate--and forward them to her in Virginia by way +of her underground railroad; that is to say, passing them from hand to +hand over the route by which she had herself reached Baltimore. + +Having perfected these arrangements, her next task was herself to get +back to her home, whither she did not mean to go empty-handed. She had +gowns made for herself and Martha, using two thicknesses of oiled silk +as interlining. Between these she bestowed as much morphia as could be +placed there without attracting attention. + +This done, she was ready for her return journey, which presented +extraordinary difficulty. She could not return by the way she had come, +lest the purpose of her journey should be discovered, and her plans for +the future be thwarted. She must find some other way. + +At first she thought of making her way southward to the lower reaches of +the Potomac, and depending upon chance for means of getting across the +river there, but this was rendered impracticable by the news that the +Confederates had retired from their advanced outposts to Manassas and +Centreville, with the Fairfax Court-house line as their extreme advance +position. This meant, of course, that they no longer held in any +considerable force the posts along the lower river. Moreover, Agatha +learned that both the Potomac below Washington, and the navigable part +of the Rappahannock were closely patrolled now, by night and by day, by +a numerous fleet of big and little Federal war-ships. There seemed no +course open to her but to try in some way to get through to Stuart's +pickets, if in any way or at any risk she could manage that. That she +determined to attempt. + +Her first step was to visit friends on the Potomac above Washington. +There she learned minutely what the situation was. With some difficulty +she secured permission to go as a guest to a house near Falls Church, in +Virginia. She had hoped there to find Confederate picket-posts, and to +work her way to some one of them by stealth or strategy, or by boldly +taking risks. She found instead that the nearest Confederate outpost was +at Fairfax Court-house, nine miles away, while the inner Federal lines +lay on the route from Falls Church to Vienna, and stretched both ways +from those points. Stuart was no longer at Mason's and Munson's Hills. +With the approach of winter the Confederates had retired to their +fortified line, and Stuart, with the cavalry, had established himself at +Camp Cooper and other camps, three or four miles in rear of the Fairfax +Court-house line, which now constituted his extreme advance. + +Moreover, the Federal army, under McClellan's skilled and vigilant +command, had been completely reorganised, drilled, disciplined, and +converted from the chaotic mass described in his report--quoted in a +former chapter--into an alert and trustworthy army, destined, during +later campaigns, to cover itself with glory. At present, McClellan, who +had no thought of advancing upon Centreville and Manassas, where the +Confederates were strongly fortified, was at any rate manifesting spirit +by continually pressing the Confederate outposts, and now and then +making considerable demonstrations against them. + +His inner picket-lines, as already explained, were drawn very near the +house in which Agatha was sojourning. His advanced posts--where the +skirmishing was frequent--were along the Fairfax Court-house line. +Between these two lines lay eight or ten miles of thick and difficult +country, held by the Federals, and scouted over every day, but not +regularly picketed. + +Thus, instead of a mile or two of difficulty, Agatha had before her ten +miles of trouble, with a prospect of worse at the end of it. + +Time and extraordinary care were necessary to meet these new +difficulties. Agatha's first problem was to find out all she could of +facts, to gather exact and trustworthy information. In this endeavour +she had a shrewdly intelligent co-adjutor in Martha. + +By way of avoiding suspicion--for the family with whom she was staying +were known to be strongly Southern in their sympathies, and the Federal +officers had begun to understand the devoted loyalty of the negroes to +the families that owned them--Agatha established Martha in a cabin of +her own a mile or more from the house. There Martha posed as a free +negro woman, who was disposed to make a living for herself by selling +fried chickens, biscuits, and pies to the Federal soldiers on the +interior picket-lines, and a little later to those posted farther in +advance. + +Martha was a sagacious as well as a discreet person. At first she showed +a timid reluctance to go farther toward the front than the inner lines +from Falls Church to Vienna. While peddling her wares there, she took +pains to learn all the foot-paths, and the location of all the +picket-posts in that region. Then little by little she allowed herself +to be persuaded to go farther toward the outer lines, for the soldiers +found her fried chicken and her biscuits and her pies particularly +alluring. + +It was only after she had mastered both the topography of the country +between, and the exact methods of its military occupation, that she so +far overcame her assumed timidity as to push on with her basket to the +picket-posts immediately in front of Fairfax Court-house itself. She +raised her prices as she went, lest by selling out her stock in trade +she should leave herself no excuse for going to the extreme front at +all. For the same reason she came at last to pass by many posts where +she had formerly had good customers, retaining her wares professedly for +the sake of the higher prices that the men at the front gladly paid for +something better to eat than the contents of their haversacks. + +Within a week or two Martha had learned and reported to her mistress +quite all that any officer on either side knew of the country, its +roads, its foot-paths, its difficulties, and the opportunities it +afforded. In the middle of every night, Martha made her way to her +mistress, or her mistress made her way to Martha, until at last, Agatha, +who had directed her inquiries, was equipped with all necessary +information, and ready for her supreme endeavour. It involved much of +danger and incredible difficulty. But the courageous young woman was +prepared to meet both danger and difficulty with an equable mind. She +knew now whither she was going and how, but the journey through a +difficult country must be made wholly on foot and wholly by night. + +Agatha was ready for the ordeal. As for Martha, the earth to the very +ends of it held no terrors that could cause even hesitation on her part +in the service of her mistress. + + + + +XVI + +_CANISTER_ + + +It was a little after midnight when Agatha and her maid, stripped of all +belongings that could impede them on their way, set out on foot upon +their perilous journey. Agatha was deliberately exposing herself to far +worse dangers than any that the soldier is called upon to brave in the +work of war. She could carry little in the way of food, and of course +could not replenish her supplies until she should succeed in entering +the Confederate lines, if indeed that purpose were not hopeless of +accomplishment at all. But the danger of starvation which these +conditions involved, was the very least of the perils she must +encounter. At any moment of her stealthy progress she might be shot by a +sentinel. Far worse than that, she might be seized with her tell-tale +medicines upon her person, while hiding within the forbidden lines of +the enemy. In that case, there would be no question whatever as to her +status in military law, or as to her fate. If she should fall into the +enemy's hands under such circumstances, by forcible capture or even by +voluntary surrender, she must certainly be hanged as a spy. She was +armed against that danger only by the possession of the means of instant +self-destruction,--her little six-shooter. + +It was comparatively easy for her to find her way during the first +night, through the slender interior picket-line, and into the forbidden +region that lay between that and the outposts in front. Every roadway +leading toward the Confederate positions was, of course, securely +guarded, and all of them were thus completely closed to Agatha's use. +She must steal through the thickets of underbrush that lay between the +roads, making such progress as she could without at any time placing +herself within sight or hearing of a sentinel. Sometimes this involved +prolonged waiting in constrained positions, and several times she +narrowly missed discovery. + +When morning came, the pair of women hid themselves between two logs +that lay in a dense thicket, and there they remained throughout the +daylight hours. There, too, before noon, they consumed the last +fragments of their food. + +During the next night they made small progress. They succeeded, indeed, +in crossing a deep and muddy creek that lay in front of them, but it was +only to find themselves confronted by a roadway, which ran athwart their +line of march, and which, on this night, at least, was heavily picketed +and constantly patrolled by scouting squads of cavalry. + +Agatha crept on her hands and knees, and quite noiselessly, to a point +from which she could make out the situation, and there the pair remained +in hiding among the weeds and bushes that skirted an old and partially +destroyed fence, until daylight came again. + +With the daylight came a considerable thinning of the line of videttes +in front, and toward nightfall, after a day of toilsome crawling back +and forth in search of a way of escape, the two women succeeded in +crossing the road unobserved. After crawling for a hundred yards or so +beyond the road, they hid themselves as securely as they could, and +waited for night to come again. + +They were suffering the pangs of excessive hunger and thirst now, and +gnawing roots and twigs by way of appeasing the terrible craving. It was +obvious to Agatha that this night must make an end of her attempt in one +way or another. She must reach the Confederate lines before the coming +of another day, or both she and her companion must perish of hunger, or +surrender themselves and be hanged. She suggested this thought to +Martha, whose only answer was: + +"Anyhow, you'se got your pistol, Miss Agatha." + +There were still two miles or more to go before reaching the little +patch of briars and young chestnut-trees just in front of the Fairfax +Court-house village, which was Agatha's objective. During her peddling +trips, Martha had learned that Federal sharpshooters were thrown into +this thicket every night, usually between midnight and morning, for the +purpose of annoying the Confederate pickets, stationed not fifty yards +away. She had learned, too, that nearly every morning, about daylight, +the Confederates were accustomed to rid themselves of the annoyance by +sending out a cavalry force to charge the thicket and clear it of its +occupants. It was Agatha's plan to hide herself and her maid there, and +be captured by Stuart's men when they should come. + +But she could not enter the bushes until the sharpshooters should be in +position. Otherwise they would be sure to discover her while placing +themselves. As soon as the riflemen had crept to their posts, Agatha, +favoured by the unusual darkness of a thickly clouded night, crept to a +hiding-place just in rear of the men. There she and Martha lay upon the +ground during long hours, well-nigh famished, and suffering severely +from cold, for the autumn was now well advanced. + +Unfortunately for Agatha's plan, the Confederates had adopted new +methods for this night. Instead of ordering cavalry to clear the +thicket, they had decided to clear it with canister. Accordingly, a +battery of artillery had been ordered to the front, and bivouacked half +a mile in rear of Fairfax Court-house. Thence just before daylight two +guns had been dragged forward by prolonge ropes, and stationed under the +trees of a little grove about fifty yards in front of the cover from +which the Federal sharpshooters were occasionally firing. + +Just at dawn, these two guns suddenly and furiously opened upon the +bushes with canister in double charges. + +The effect was terrific. The bushes were mown down as with a scythe, and +it seemed impossible to the two women that any human being should +survive the iron hailstorm for a single minute. The sharpshooters +scurried away precipitately, one of them actually stumbling over +Agatha's prostrate form, which he probably took to be that of some +comrade slain. But Agatha and her maid remained, and the fearful fire +continued. They remained because there was nothing else for them to do. +They could not retreat. They could not surrender. They were starving. +They must go forward or die. + +Then the courage and daring of her race came to Agatha's soul, and she +resolved to make a last desperate attempt to save herself, not by +running away from the fire,--which would be worse than useless,--but by +running into it. The danger in doing this was scarcely greater, in fact, +though it seemed so, than that involved in lying still, but it requires +an extraordinary courage for one unarmed and not inspired by the +desperate all-daring spirit of battle, to rush upon guns that are +belching canister in half-gallon charges, at the rate of three or four +times a minute. + +The sharpshooters were completely gone now, and nothing lay between the +young woman and her friends except a canister-swept open space fifty +yards in width. This the heroic girl--baffled of all other +resource--determined to dare. Directing Martha to follow her closely, +she rose and in the gray of the dawn ran like a deer toward the +bellowing guns. Fortunately, some one at the guns caught sight of the +fleet-footed pair when they had covered about half the distance, and, in +the increasing light, saw them to be women. Instantly the order, "Cease +firing!" was given, and the clamorous cannon were hushed, but a heavy +musketry fire from the enemy broke forth just as Agatha and her maid +fell exhausted between the guns. A voice of command rang out: + +"Pick up those women, quick, and carry them out of the fire!" Half a +dozen of the men responded, and strong arms carried the nearly lifeless +women to a small depression just in rear, where they were screened from +the now slowly slackening shower of bullets. + +When the fire had completely ceased, Captain Baillie Pegram ordered his +guns, "By hand to the rear," and rode back to inquire concerning his +captives. It was then that he discovered for the first time who the +fugitives were, and the horror with which he realised what he supposed +to be the situation, set him reeling in his saddle. + +He had heard nothing of Agatha's mission to the north, of course. He now +knew only that she had been hiding within the enemy's lines, and only +one interpretation of that fact seemed possible. Agatha Ronald--the +woman he loved, the woman upon whose integrity and Virginianism he would +have staked his life without a second thought--had turned traitor! He +did not pause to ask himself how, in such a case, she had come to be in +the thicket among the sharpshooters. He was too greatly stunned to think +of that, or otherwise to reason clearly. + +Nor did he question her, except to ask if she or her maid had been +wounded, and when she assured him of their safety, he said: + +"I don't know whether to thank God for that or not. It might have been +better, perhaps, if both had fallen." + +Agatha heard the remark, and understood in part at least the thought +that lay behind it. But she did not reply. She only said, feebly: + +"We are starving." + +"Bring two horses, quickly," Baillie commanded. "Lieutenant Mills, take +the guns back to the bivouac. Our work here is done." + +Then turning to Agatha, he explained: + +"We have no rations here; can you manage to ride as far as our bivouac? +It is only half a mile away, and we'll find something to eat there." + +Agatha's exhaustion was so great that she could scarcely sit up, but she +summoned all her resolution and managed to hold herself in place on the +McClellan saddle which alone was available for her use. Martha was +carried by the men on an improvised litter. + +At the bivouac, no food was found except a pone or two of coarse corn +bread and a few slices of uncooked bacon. But the delicate girl and her +maid devoured these almost greedily, eating the bacon raw in soldier +fashion, for, of course, no fires were allowed upon the picket-line. + +Food and rest quickly revived Agatha, and Baillie remembered certain +very peremptory orders he had received as to his course of procedure +should "any woman whatever" come into his lines. + +"I must escort you presently to a safer place than this," he said. + +"Am I to go under _compulsion_, Captain Pegram," the girl asked, "or of +my own _accord_?" + +"With that," he answered, "I am afraid I have nothing to do. My sole +concern is to take you out of danger. It is not my business to ask you +questions as to how you have come into danger in a way so peculiar." + +"And yet," she replied, "that is a matter that I suppose requires +_inquiry_, and I am ready for the _ordeal_." + +The moment she spoke that word, which was the fourth in the series that +Stuart had given her, and the one he had selected as a test for this +day, Baillie Pegram flinched as if he had been struck, while his face +turned white. Hoping that her use of the word had been accidental, or +that the emphasis she had placed upon it had been unintended, he asked: + +"What did you say?" + +"I said," she responded, very deliberately, "that I am ready for the +_ordeal_." + +The look of consternation on Baillie's face deepened. Without replying, +he walked away in an agitation of mind which he felt must be hidden from +others at all costs. Pacing back and forth under screen of some bushes, +he tried to think the matter out. Under his orders, he must arrest +Agatha and take her to Stuart, who had been more than usually anxious, +as Baillie knew, to capture this particular prisoner. But to do that, he +felt, must mean Agatha's disgrace and shameful death, and the staining +of an ancient and honoured name. Yet what else could he do? + +"Would to God!" he exclaimed, under his breath, "that my canister had +done its work better!" + +Then he fell into silence again, questioning himself in the vain hope of +finding a way through the blind wall of circumstances. + +"Agatha," he thought, "has been with the enemy, and has been trying to +get back again in order to render them some further traitorous service. +Stuart has obviously learned all about the conspiracy in which she had +been engaged. That is why he has been so eager for her arrest. That is +how he knew what signal-words she would use in her endeavour to find +some fellow conspirator among us. But why did she use the word to me. +Surely the conspiracy cannot have become so wide-spread among us that +she deemed _me_ a person likely to be engaged in it. Perhaps she spoke +for other ears than mine, hoping to find a traitor among those who stood +by. + +"And the worst of it is that I still love her. Knowing her treachery and +her shame, I still cannot change my attitude of mind. What shall I do? I +could turn traitor for her sake. I could manage to secure her escape, +and then give myself up, confess my crime, and accept the shameful death +that it would merit." + +For the space of a minute he lingered over this idea of supreme +self-sacrifice with which the devil seemed to be luring him to +destruction. Then he cast it aside, and reproached himself for having +let it enter his mind. + +"No love is worth a man's honour," he thought. "A better way would be to +kill her myself, and then commit suicide. No, not that. Suicide is +the coward's way out; and killing her would only reveal and emphasise +her crime." + +Just then one of his men approached him, and announced that orders had +come for the battery's return to its camp. Baillie walked back to the +bivouac, and said to his lieutenant: + +"Take command and march to the camp at once. I have some personal orders +to execute." + +With that promptitude which all men serving under Stuart learned to +regard as one of the cardinal virtues, the lieutenant had the battery +mounted and in motion within a few minutes. Not until it had made the +turn in the road did Baillie approach Agatha. Then he faced her, and +staring with strained and bloodshot eyes into her face, he abruptly +said: + +"I love you, Agatha Ronald. In spite of what you have done, that fact +remains. I love you!" + +[Illustration: "'_I love you, Agatha Ronald_'"] + +"This is neither the time nor place in which to tell me so," she +interrupted. Then, after a brief moment of hesitation, she broke down +and burst into tears. It was only a very few moments before she +controlled herself, and forced herself to speak clearly, though she did +so with manifest difficulty. + +"Please forget what you have just said," she began. "I realise your +position. I understand. I think I know what you have been thinking. You +have contemplated a crime for my sake,--the highest crime of all. For my +sake you have been tempted to sacrifice not only your life--which to a +brave man means little--but your honour, which is more precious to a +brave man than all else in the world. Tell me, please, and tell me +quickly, that you have put that temptation aside--that you have utterly +repudiated the horrible thought." + +"I have done so certainly," he replied, in a hard voice. "But why do you +care so much for that?" + +"Why? Because your honour--all honour--is precious to me, and I could +not respect you if you had consented to the thought of dishonour even in +your mind. I should loathe and detest your soul if for my sake or any +sake you could have done that. No, don't interrupt me, please," seeing +that he was trying to speak, "let me finish. I, too, am under orders, +one of which is to keep my lips sealed. But under such circumstances as +these I may disobey my orders without dishonour. I am not a soldier. +Let me tell you a little, then, so that you may not suffer on my +account. No harm will come to me when you take me, as you must, to +General Stuart. I am here by his own orders, and I was over there," +motioning toward the enemy's lines, "with his full knowledge and +consent. There. That is all I may tell you." + +The strong man turned deathly pale under the shock of the relief that +the young woman's words brought to his mind. For a moment Agatha thought +that he would fall, but recovering himself, he ejaculated, "Thank God!" +and those were the only words he spoke for a space. + +He presently ordered the horses brought, and helped Agatha to mount. + +"Can you manage to ride a McClellan saddle?" he asked. "There is no +other to be had." + +"I suppose not," Agatha answered, with returning spirits. "I suppose the +quartermaster's department does not issue side-saddles to the mounted +artillery for the use of errant damsels whom they capture. But I can do +very well on a cavalry saddle." + + + + +XVII + +_AT HEADQUARTERS_ + + +Agatha was well-nigh exhausted by the terrible strain she had endured. +She could scarcely sustain herself in the saddle, as she and Baillie set +out, her maid riding a-pillion behind her. She would have liked--if she +had dared risk it--to keep the silence of extreme weariness during the +journey to Stuart's headquarters, two or three miles away, but in fact +she talked incessantly, in a hard, constrained voice, limiting the +conversation strictly to external matters. She asked her companion about +his battery, the number and character of his guns, how many men he might +have under his command, the nature of his duties, and many other things, +chatter about which served as a substitute for the more personal +conversation that she was determined to avoid. She was fencing for +position, and her purpose was plain enough to Baillie Pegram, but at +the end of the ride the girl herself was more inscrutably a riddle to +him than she had been before. For just as they arrived, and when it was +too late for him to say any word in reply, she suddenly turned to him, +and said: + +"Before we part, Captain Pegram, I want to thank you for all you have +done for me, and still more for what you have felt--I mean your wish to +save me. I am very grateful, but--" + +There she broke off, leaving him to torture himself with almost +maddening conjectures as to what should have followed that bewildering +"but." + +At that moment Stuart, who had heard of the capture and was waiting, +came hurriedly from the piazza of his headquarters to greet and welcome +the arriving pair. With strong arms he lifted the girl from her saddle +and placed her on her feet, as he might have done with an infant child. +For he was a giant in strength, and his muscles were as obedient to his +will as were the troopers who so eagerly followed him in every fray. + +Seeing the girl's bedraggled condition, and understanding how sorely +shaken her nerves must be, he made no reference to the circumstances of +her coming, but cheerily said: + +"I am doubly fortunate, Miss Agatha, in having you again for a visitor, +and in having the ladies of my household with me just now; for God bless +these Virginia women," addressing this part of his remark to Captain +Pegram, "they are always with us when we need them." + +With that he hurried Agatha into the house, and placed her in feminine +charge, with orders that she should have food and rest and sleep, and +especially that she should not be annoyed by any questionings until such +time as she should herself desire to speak with him. + +"You will remain with us to dinner, Captain Pegram, if you please. There +are matters about which I wish to talk with you." + +When the two were left alone, he said: + +"Tell me, now, all you know about how Miss Agatha became your +prisoner--the details, I mean." + +When Baillie had finished the narrative, expressing wonder that the girl +had passed unharmed through that hailstorm of canister, Stuart said, +simply: + +"I'm glad your gun practice was no better." + +"So am I," the young man answered. + +It was not until late in the afternoon that Stuart was summoned to meet +his guest, who was also his prisoner. She had in the meantime divested +herself and her maid of their burden, and the precious drug had been +carefully packed for shipment under guard to Richmond. She had also +slept long and well after her breakfast, and was now as fresh and as +full of spirit as if she had known no hardship, and passed through no +danger. + +Before the dinner hour, Stuart had taken pains to send away all the +members of his staff, each upon some errand manufactured for the +occasion. At dinner there was no one present but his own family, Agatha, +and Captain Baillie Pegram. + +Stuart was all eagerness to learn not only the results, but the details +of the perilous journey, and to that end he required Agatha to begin at +the beginning and relate each day's experience. She did so, explaining +the arrangements she had made for her underground railway, and telling +him of a plan she had formed to give to that line a number of termini at +various points in Virginia, each under charge of some trusty "Dixie +girl," in order that there might be no interruption of the traffic, +whatever the future movements of the two armies might be. + +"It's the very crookedest railroad you ever heard of, General," she +added, when her account of it was finished, "but I expect it to do a +considerable traffic. I am to be its general freight agent, and I have +impressed all my agents with the fact that the preservation of our +secret is of far greater importance than the safe delivery of any one +consignment of goods. They will take plenty of time at every step, and +not risk discovery for the sake of speed." + +"That is excellent. But I wish I had suggested to you to make some +arrangement by which you might--" + +"O, I did that," she interrupted. "I took a leaf out of your book. Of +course, it will often be possible to get little letters through, but +letters are very dangerous--at least, when they say anything. So I have +taken your signal-words as my model, and laboriously constructed a +system by which I can say the most dangerous things in a letter without +seeming to say anything at all." + +"By signal-words?" + +"Yes, partly, but more in other ways." + +"For example?" + +"Well, if I send a foolish, chattering girl's note about nothing, and I +happen to write it in a 'back hand,' that fact will tell my +correspondent what I want to tell her. So if I write in an ordinary +hand, that will mean something quite different. In the same way, if I +write, 'My dear Mary,' it will signify one thing, while 'Dear Mary' will +mean another; I've arranged fourteen different forms of address, each +having its own particular meaning. The punctuation will mean something, +too, and the way I sign myself, and the colour of my ink, and the +occasional slight misspelling of a word--all these and a dozen other +things are carefully arranged for, so that I can tell a friend pretty +nearly anything I please, while seeming only to tell her the colour of +my new gown--if I ever have a new gown again--or anything else of the +kind that girls are fond of writing letters about." + +"But you and all your correspondents must have copies of your code for +all this. Isn't there great danger that one or another of them may be +discovered?" + +The girl laughed before answering. + +"Even you, General Stuart, must have found out that it is difficult to +discover what is in a young woman's mind. This code exists nowhere else +in the world. We've all learned it by heart, and can recite it backward +or forward or even sideways. No word of it has ever been written down on +paper, or ever will be. You gentlemen are fond of saying that we women +cannot keep a secret. You shall see how well we keep this." + +"O, as to that," answered Stuart, "I never shared any such belief. Why, +women keep secrets so well that we never know even what they think of +us. Is not that so, Captain Pegram?" + +"Yes, and perhaps it is fortunate for us, too, sometimes." + +"But I did betray a secret to Captain Pegram this morning," Agatha +continued, speaking gravely now. "He seemed so troubled at having to +arrest me under the circumstances in which I seemed to have placed +myself, that I relieved his mind by telling him I was acting under your +orders, or, at least, with your consent." + +"Perhaps you'd like to prefer charges against the captain? I dare say he +was very stern and inconsiderate." + +Instantly the girl flushed, and speaking with unusual seriousness, she +answered: + +"I beg to assure you, General Stuart, that Captain Pegram was altogether +generous and kind to me--far more so than I had a right to expect. I can +never sufficiently thank him." + +To Baillie, this speech was inscrutable and bewildering. It might mean +one thing, or another--much or little--according to the interpretation +put upon the words. It might refer only to Baillie's care for her +physical comfort and safety, or, as Baillie scarcely dared believe, it +might obliquely include in its intent, an acknowledgment of the +passionate declaration of love that he had been betrayed into making. It +might be interpreted to mean that the words surprised from his lips were +not unwelcome to her who had heard them. She had bidden him forget what +he had said, but might it not be that she herself remembered and was +not displeased with the recollection? + +He resolved to ask her for the answer to that riddle at the earliest +possible moment, but for the present he flushed crimson and kept silent. + +Stuart, however, had accomplished his purpose. He had found out, or +believed that he had found out, what he wished to know concerning the +attitude of these two toward each other, and he was mightily pleased +with the discovery. He abruptly changed the course of the conversation. + +"When would you like to go to your home, Miss Agatha?" + +"I should like to set out early to-morrow, General, if I may--if I am +released from arrest." + +"O, I shall not release you yet. You are much too dangerous a +conspirator for that. I shall send you home under guard, and I have +selected Captain Pegram to be your safe-keeper. I shall send him with +you, under orders to remain at Willoughby for a week, keeping you under +close surveillance. If at the end of that time he finds you sufficiently +subdued, he will have orders to put you on parole, and return to his +command. As he and you are 'almost strangers,' he will be a safer judge +of the propriety of releasing you than any other officer I could send +for that purpose." + +The two were sorely embarrassed by this announcement, coming as it did +without warning to either. Neither knew what to say, or whether the +arrangement was welcome or unwelcome to the other. The sudden +announcement of it, at any rate, was very embarrassing to both, and +Pegram received it with a feeling of consternation for the moment. In +the next instant, he realised the opportunity it would give him to renew +the morning's conversation, and to learn definitely what Agatha's +attitude toward him was to be after such a declaration as he had made. +For whatever else happens, an avowal of that kind, made with such +earnestness, never fails to work some change in a true woman's mind and +soul. Baillie managed, with some difficulty, to say: + +"I will be glad to carry out your orders, General." + +Agatha said nothing. What she thought and felt, it would be idle to +inquire. + + + + +XVIII + +_A BRUSH AT THE FRONT_ + + +A situation which might have become embarrassing, had it been prolonged, +was relieved at that moment by the arrival of a courier who had come in +hot haste with messages from the front. + +The enemy was moving upon Fairfax Court-house in three columns and in +strong force. The light of battle came into Stuart's eyes as he received +the news, and he issued hurried orders to his staff-officers as one +after another they came up at a gallop. To Agatha he said: + +"Remain here, you and the other ladies, unless orders come for you to +leave. I must borrow Captain Pegram from your service for a time, if I +may." + +"Gladly!" answered the girl, and her tone sorely puzzled Baillie Pegram. +But there was no time for speculation upon its meaning, for Stuart +turned to him and ordered: + +"Take your battery down the Vienna road, and act with Fitz Lee or +whomever else you find there. Move rapidly, but spare your horses all +you can." + +Then hurriedly turning to the couriers and staff-officers who stood by +their horses, he issued orders with the rapidity of one who recites the +alphabet or the multiplication table. Within the space of two minutes he +had assigned every brigade and regiment under his command to its post +and duty, and had sent to General Johnston at Centreville a request that +infantry supports might be moved forward and held within call in case of +need. A minute later he was a-gallop for the front. + +Baillie had preceded him, and even before the general had reached +Fairfax Court-house, Pegram's battery was hurrying down the Vienna road, +with the First and Fourth Regiments of Virginia cavalry just in front. +It was the work of a very few moments to form these forces and others +that were coming up, into a line of battle, facing the enemy, but by the +time they were in position, Stuart himself came up and took command. + +"Tell Captain Pegram," he said to a staff-officer, "to advance his +battery to the brow of the hill yonder, and open a vigorous fire upon +whatever he finds in front. Order Colonel Jones of the First Regiment to +take position immediately in rear of the battery, and support it at all +hazards." + +Within less time than it takes to write the words, Baillie Pegram's guns +were hurling shrapnel into the face of the enemy, whose response was +menacingly slow and deliberate. + +"That looks," said Stuart, presently, to one who rode by his side, "as +if they meant business this time. Send orders to the infantry in rear to +form a second line, and be ready in case we are beaten back." + +It should be explained that during the autumn of 1861 McClellan sent out +many expeditions, each wearing the aspect of an advance in force against +the Confederate position at Centreville. These movements were in reality +intended as threats, and nothing more. The chief purpose of them was to +keep the Confederates uneasy, and at the same time to accustom the +Federal volunteers to stand fire and to contemplate battle in earnest as +the serious business of the soldier. + +These advances were made always with a brave show of infantry, cavalry, +and artillery, and with all the seeming of the vanguard of an army +intending battle. But after a heavy skirmish the columns were always +withdrawn, leaving only picket-lines at the front. McClellan was not yet +ready to offer battle. It was during that period that President Lincoln, +weary of McClellan's delay and inactivity, sarcastically said that if +the general had no use for the army, he (Lincoln) would like to borrow +it for awhile. + +But this day's movement differed in some respects from those that had +gone before. It involved a much heavier force, for one thing, and the +proportion of artillery to the other arms was greater. Still more +significant was the fact that the commander of the expedition, instead +of making the customary dash, threw forward a heavy skirmish-line, +holding his main body in reserve, and otherwise conducting himself after +the fashion of a general sent to hold the front with as little fighting +as might be, until a much heavier force could be brought up. + +It was Stuart's duty, as the commander of the cavalry, to find out as +quickly as possible what lay behind the lines that confronted him, in +order that he might know and report precisely what and how much the +movement meant. To that end he sent for Colonel Jones, of the First +Regiment, and when that most unmilitary-looking of hard fighters +presented himself in his faded yellow coat, the pot hat which he always +wore at that time, and with his peculiar nasal drawl, Stuart gave the +order: + +"Take your right company and ride to the right around the flank of the +enemy's line. Find out what it amounts to. See if there are baggage and +ammunition trains in rear, and if they mean business. The whole thing is +probably as hollow as a gourd, but it may be otherwise. Go and find +out." + +In the meantime, Stuart had dismounted a part of his forces, and ordered +them with their carbines to form a skirmish-line on foot in front. The +rest of his men--three thousand stalwart young cavaliers, mounted upon +horses that had pedigrees behind them--were drawn up in double ranks +wherever there was space for a regiment, a company, or a squad of them +to stand. + +Then came half an hour of waiting. The enemy had thrown additional +infantry forward, and the skirmishing grew steadily heavier, as if the +Federal skirmish-line were being reinforced from moment to moment. + +In fact, that heavy advance-line embraced all there was of the Federal +movement, as Colonel Jones discovered, when with a single company of +horsemen he gained the enemy's rear. There were no baggage or provision +or ammunition trains to indicate a serious purpose of giving battle. + +The captain of the company which Colonel Jones had taken with him on +this mission of discovery, was a reticent person, but a man of quick +wits, ready resource, and a daring that always had a relish of humour in +it. When Colonel Jones suggested a return march around the enemy's left +flank, the captain asked: + +"Why not take a short cut?" and when asked for his meaning, answered: + +"It's an egg-shell, that line. The quickest way of letting Stuart know +the fact, it seems to me, would be to break through right here. He won't +be long in getting to windward of the situation when he sees us coming." + +The suggestion was instantly acted upon, with a startling dramatic +result. With a yell that made them seem a regiment of howling demons, +the fifty or sixty men charged upon the rear of the line and broke +through it. Even before the head of their little column showed itself on +the farther side, their yells had made sufficient report of the facts to +the alert mind of Jeb Stuart. He instantly led his entire force forward +to the charge. + +There was a clatter of hoofs, a clangour of sabres, a rattle of small +arms, and a roar from Baillie Pegram's guns. Everything was shrouded in +an impenetrable cloud of dust and powder-smoke. + +The enemy stood fast for a time, resisting obstinately and fairly +checking the tremendous onset. It was not until a brigade of infantry +and three full batteries had been brought into action that the Federals +gave way. Even then, they retreated in orderly fashion, with no +suggestion of panic or loss of cohesion. + +"George B. McClellan has at last got his army into fighting shape," +commented Stuart, when all was over. "He's going to give us trouble from +this time forth." + +The Federals were in full retreat, but their steadiness did not +encourage Stuart to send small forces in pursuit. He contented himself +with advancing his line half a mile for purposes of observation, after +which, as the night was falling, he ordered a general return of his +regiments to their encampments. + +When all was over, there were found to be many empty saddles in Stuart's +command. Among them was that which Baillie Pegram had ridden during the +morning's journey with Agatha Ronald. + + + + +XIX + +_AGATHA'S RESOLUTION_ + + +The reports which came to Stuart from the several commands that evening +included one from the senior lieutenant of Baillie Pegram's battery. +After reading it, Stuart took Agatha aside, and said: + +"I have news which it will not be pleasant for you to hear. Captain +Pegram is badly wounded, and in the hands of the enemy." + +The girl paled to the lips, but controlled herself, and replied in a +voice constrained but steady: + +"Tell me about it, General--all of it, please." + +"I'll tell you all that is known. Captain Pegram is an unusually +energetic officer, with a bad habit of getting himself wounded. His +battery to-day was in the extreme advance, but it seems that a little +hill just in front of him interfered with the fire of one of his guns, +and so he advanced with that piece to the crest of the mound. At that +moment the enemy made a dash at that point, and it became necessary to +retire the gun to prevent its capture. Pegram gave orders to that +effect, and they were executed. But almost as the orders left his lips, +he fell from his horse with a bullet-hole through his body. His men +tried to bring him off, but that involved the risk of losing the gun, so +he peremptorily ordered them to save the gun and leave him where he lay. +The enemy's line swarmed over the little hill, and when our men +recovered it, Pegram was nowhere to be found. The enemy had evidently +carried him to the rear to care for him as a wounded prisoner." + +"Can anything be done?" the girl asked, still with an apparent calm that +would have deceived a less sagacious observer than Stuart. + +"I could send a flag of truce to-morrow to ask concerning him, but it +would be of no use. You see the enemy refuses as yet to recognise our +rights as belligerents, and will not communicate with us in proper form. +Their answer would come back addressed to me, but carefully lacking all +indication of my character as an officer in the Confederate army. Under +my orders I could not receive a communication so addressed. It would be +of no use, therefore, to inquire, and in any case we could not secure +his exchange, as we have now no exchange cartel in force. I do not see +that we can do anything." + +The young woman stood silent for a full minute, while Stuart looked at +her, full of an admiration for the courage she was manifesting. At last +she asked: + +"General, will you send to the camp of Captain Pegram's battery, and bid +his servant report here to me at once?" + +For reply Stuart called Corporal Hagan--the swarthy giant who had charge +of his couriers--and ordered him to send a courier on Agatha's mission +without delay. + +Half an hour later Sam presented himself with eyes red from weeping, and +Agatha proceeded at once to business. + +"You care a great deal for your master, don't you, Sam?" + +"Kyar for Mas' Baillie? Ain't I his nigga? An' ain't he de mastah of +Warlock? Kyar for him? Why, Mis' Agatha, I'se ready to lay down an' die +dis heah very minute 'case he's done got hisse'f shot an' captured." + +"Then you are willing to take some risks for his sake?" + +"Sho' as shootin' I is. Yes, sho'er'n shootin', 'case shootin' ain't +always sho'. Jes' you tell me how to do anything for Mas' Baillie, an' +then bet all the money you done got, an' put your mortal soul into de +bet, dat Sam'll face de very debil hisse'f to carry out yer +'structions." + +"I believe you, Sam, and I'm going to trust you. You will go with me to +Willoughby to-morrow. We'll start soon in the morning and get there +before night. From there I'm going to send you north to find your +master. I'll tell you how to do it. When you find him, you are to stay +with him and nurse him, no matter where he is. And when he gets well +enough, you must find some way of setting him free from the hospital so +that he can make his way back to Virginia again." + +"But, Mis' Agatha, how's I to--" + +"Never mind the details now. I'll tell you about all that when I get my +plans ready. I'll tell you everything you must do and how to do it, so +far as I can, and you must depend on your wits for the rest. You're +pretty quick, I think." + +"Yes'm; anyhow I kin see through a millstone ef there's a hole through +it. But, Mis' Agatha, is you sho' 'nuff gwine to tell me how to fin' +Mas' Baillie an' take kyar o' him?" + +Agatha reassured him, and sent him off to sleep in order to be ready for +their early start in the morning. Then she joined Stuart and asked him: + +"Did you pick up any prisoners near the point where Captain Pegram +fell?" + +"I really don't know. Why?" + +"Why, if you did you'd know to what command they belonged, and that +would help me." + +"Help you? Why, what are you planning?" + +"To find Captain Pegram." + +"But how?" + +"Through my agents,--and Sam, his body-servant." + +"O, I see. Your underground railroad is to have a passenger traffic. +I'll find out what you wish to know. And if you'd like I'll have Sam +passed through our lines, after which he can pretend to be a runaway." + +"I thought of that," Agatha answered, "but it will not do. I must send +him through my friends. You see in Maryland he'll require a slave's pass +from a master, and my friends will be his masters, one after another. +Besides, they will help me find out in what hospital Captain Pegram is. +I've thought it all out. I must first prepare my friends for Sam's +coming. With your permission I'll take him with me to Willoughby +to-morrow." + +"You are a wonderful woman!" + +That is all that Stuart said, but it sufficiently suggested the +admiration he felt for her courage, her resourcefulness, and her womanly +devotion. Bidding her call upon him for any assistance she might need in +carrying out her plans, he dismissed her for the night, ordering her to +go to sleep precisely as he might have ordered a soldier to go to his +tent. But Agatha did not obey as the soldier would have done. She went +to bed, indeed, but she could not sleep. Her nerves were all a-quiver as +the result of the trying experiences to which she had been subjected, +until now her excited brain simply would not sink into quietude. She lay +hour after hour staring into the darkness, thinking, thinking, +thinking. She remembered the words that suffering on her account had +wrung from Baillie Pegram that morning at the bivouac, and she bitterly +reproached herself for having given him no worthier answer than a +command to forget what he had said. She knew now with what measure of +devotion this man loved her, and she knew something else, too, as she +lay there in the darkness face to face with her own soul. She knew now +that she loved Baillie Pegram with all that was best in her proud and +passionate nature. That truth confronted her. It was "naked and not +ashamed." Her conscience scourged her for what she regarded as her +heartlessness and frivolity in putting aside his declaration of love +with the false pretence that it found no response in her own soul. + +"I might at least have thanked him," she thought. "I might at least have +said to him 'there is no longer war between me and thee.' And now he +lies dead perhaps, or on a bed of suffering,--a wounded prisoner in the +hands of the enemy. All that I can now do is to search him out and send +Sam to nurse and comfort him." Then a new thought came to her. "That is +_not_ all that I can do. Shame upon me for thinking so, even for a +moment. I can go to him myself, and I will, if God lets him live long +enough. I'll take Sam with me. He can be very helpful in the search, +with his sharp wits and the freedom from suspicion which his black face +will secure him." + +The dawn was breaking now, and a score of bugles were musically sounding +the reveille in the camps round about. Agatha rose quickly, and without +summoning her weary maid, plunged her face into a basin of cold water +half a dozen times. Then seeing in her little mirror how hollow-eyed and +haggard she was, she wetted a towel and flagellated herself with it till +the colour came back and her nerves lost their tremulousness. + +So great a transformation did this treatment work, that Stuart +complimented her upon her freshness of face when she appeared at the +breakfast-table. He had meanwhile secured for her definite information +as to the Federal command that had made Pegram prisoner. He had also +managed in some way to secure a side-saddle for her to ride upon, and a +squad of cavalrymen, under command of a sergeant, was waiting outside +to be her escort on her journey. + +"Thank you, General, for giving me so good a mount," she said, glancing +with a practised eye at the lean but powerful animal provided for her +use. + +"You should have a better one, if a better were to be had. You deserve +it. By the way, you need not send the horse back by the escort. He will +not be needed here, for a time at least." + +Agatha looked at him, and then at the animal again, this time +recognising it as the one that Baillie Pegram had ridden by her side +twenty-four hours before. + +"He belongs to Captain Pegram, I believe," she answered. + +"Yes, his second horse, and he is specially careful of him." + +"I'll see that the animal is well cared for," answered the girl, +"until--" + +She did not finish the sentence, and Stuart turned away, pretending not +to see the tears that stood beneath her eyelids. + + + + +XX + +_TWO HOME-COMINGS_ + + +News of Agatha's safe return to Virginia had been sent to Colonel Archer +by a courier, on the morning of her arrival at Stuart's headquarters, +and the octogenarian promenaded up and down the porch all the next day, +during her homeward journey. + +He had greatly grieved to have his "ladybird" undertake her late +perilous enterprise at all. But with him at least Agatha was accustomed +to have her way, and moreover the spirit of the old soldier was strong +within him still, so that he was intensely in sympathy with Agatha's +courageous purpose to render such service as a woman might to the cause +that both had at heart. + +But Agatha had a harder task before her now. Remembering the +heart-broken tone in which he had bidden her good-bye on the former +occasion, and easily imagining the suffering he must have endured +during her absence, both from loneliness and from apprehension for her +safety, she thought with something like terror of her new necessity of +leaving him again, almost in the very hour of his joy at her return. For +it was her resolute purpose to set out again within a very few days,--as +soon, indeed, as she could feel confidence that her preliminary letters +would reach their destination before her own arrival there. + +There were other matters that troubled her, too. She must tell her +Chummie the reason for her second journey, and that would be a +distressing thing for her to do. She must tell him frankly--for she +would never in the least trifle with truth, especially in dealing with +him--that she had learned to love Baillie Pegram, and that she had in +effect put it out of possibility that Baillie Pegram should ever ask for +knowledge of that fact. + +To a woman of her sensitively proud nature, such a confession, even to +her grandfather, seemed almost shameful. She shrank from the very +thought of it, and flushed crimson every time it came to her mind during +that long day's ride. Yet not for one moment did she falter in her +determination to undergo the ordeal. Not for one moment did she +entertain a thought of evading the painful confession, or in any way +disguising the truth. So much was due to her grandfather, and never in +her life had she cheated him of his dues as Chummie. It was due to +herself also. To shrink from a duty because of its painfulness would be +cowardice, and there was no touch or trace of that most detestable +weakness in her soul. + +"Anyhow," she resolved, "I'll let him have one whole day of joy before I +grieve him with the news that I must go away again. And in telling him +of my first journey I'll say as little as I can about the dangers +encountered and the hardships endured; I'll make as much of a frolic of +it as I can in the telling. Surely there will be no untruthfulness in +that." + +That day's journey was a long one, but the start was early, and Baillie +Pegram's horse was a willing one, as that energetic young man's horses +were apt to be, while as for the troopers of the escort, they and their +horses were accustomed to follow at any pace their leader might set. It +was barely three o'clock in the afternoon, therefore, when the cavalcade +arrived at Willoughby, and Agatha threw herself into the old gentleman's +arms. + +"Oh, Agatha!" + +"Oh, Chummie!" + +That at first was all that the two could say. When Colonel Archer found +voice he greeted the troopers and bade them leave their horses to the +care of his servants. For the men were of that class, socially, to which +Colonel Archer belonged, and there was no thought at that time in +Virginia of treating a gentleman otherwise than as a gentleman, merely +because he happened to be a private soldier. + +"You will be my guests for the night," the host said, quite as if that +settled the matter. But the sergeant had orders which he must +obey,--orders which Stuart, with his unfailing foresight, had probably +given, to make sure that the presence of his men at Willoughby overnight +might not spoil an occasion of tender affection. + +"Thank you very cordially, Colonel Archer," answered the sergeant; "but +we are under orders to move on toward Loudoun County to-night. We are +permitted to rest the horses for three hours only. After that we must +march about a dozen miles before sleeping, so that we may complete a +little scouting expedition into Loudoun to-morrow. Our orders on that +point are peremptory." + +"Well, Ladybird, we'll have the gentlemen to dinner at any rate. As soon +as I heard of your coming I went out with my gun, and brought back two +big wild turkeys, as fat as butter. I thought you might come under +escort, so I've had them put both the birds on the spit. I'll wager you +gentlemen haven't seen a wild turkey this fall." + +So he ran on with his hospitable greetings, managing in his joyous +nervousness to upset two of the glasses which he had ordered a servant +to bring with the decanters, for the troopers' refreshment. Agatha +managed presently to get a word with him aside. + +"It is three o'clock, Chummie--an hour before dinner. I'll have time +enough to boil myself a little. Think of it, Chummie, I haven't had a +hot bath for a whole week!" Then turning to her escort she excused +herself until the dinner-hour. + +This was an unhappy circumstance, as Agatha learned when she came down, +fresh-faced, to the dinner. For, left alone with the troopers, the old +gentleman naturally asked them concerning the details of her coming into +Stuart's lines, and as the story of her dash through the canister fire +was echoing throughout the army, the young fellows grew enthusiastic in +their minute descriptions of her peril and her heroism. When Agatha +reappeared, therefore, the old gentleman was all a-tremble. He met her +at the foot of the stairway, and a little scene followed, which told the +girl not only that he knew all that had been most harrowing in her +experiences, but that the knowledge of it would make her coming absence +cruelly hard for him to bear. + +At dinner he found himself too tremulous to carve, and, for the first +time in his life, he relinquished that most hospitable of all a host's +offices to the younger men. + +"Never mind, Ladybird," he said, cheerily, as he saw how greatly +troubled she was, "it will pass presently, and you shall find me quite +myself again in the morning. We're going after the birds, you know, you +and I. I haven't allowed a partridge to be killed on the plantation this +fall, so that you might be sure of a good day's sport with Chummie." + +Thus it came about that as the old man and the young woman sat in the +firelight that evening, after the troopers were gone, Agatha changed her +purpose and told him of Baillie Pegram. Delicately, but with perfect +candour, she told the whole of the truth. + +"I learned to like him very much while I was in Richmond last Christmas, +and I was not to blame for that, was I, Chummie? He was so kind to me, +so good in a thousand little ways, so gentle in all his strength that he +reminded me of you, more than anybody else ever did. I used often to +think that he was very much the sort of man you must have been when you +were in your twenties. There was no reason, that I knew of, why I should +not like him. He was a gentleman, the representative of one of the best +families in the State, a man of the highest character, well-educated, +travelled, intellectual, and of charming manners. He did more than +anybody else--or everybody else for that matter--to make the time pass +pleasantly for me. You see how it was, don't you, Chummie?" + +The old gentleman nodded his head with a smile, and answered: + +"I see how it was, Ladybird. Go on. Tell me all about it." + +"Then one day there came a letter from The Oaks. It wasn't just a +scolding letter. It was something much worse than that. For if my aunts +had scolded me, I shouldn't have stood it." + +"What would you have done, Ladybird?" asked the grandfather, with a look +of pleased and loving pride upon his countenance. + +"I should have come back to Willoughby and you." + +"And right welcome you would have been. But go on. What did the old +cats--psha! I didn't mean that; I thought I heard a cat yowling as I +spoke--what did the good ladies of The Oaks say to you?" + +"O, they wrote very kindly and sorrowfully. They were shocked to know +that I had permitted something like intimacy to grow up between myself +and a young man without consulting them as to the proprieties of the +situation. But how could I have done that, Chummie? You see I didn't sit +down and say, 'I'm going to be intimate with this young man if my aunts +approve.' The friendship just grew, quite naturally, like the grass on a +lawn. I didn't think about it at all, and I don't see why I should. I +met Mr. Pegram in all the best houses; everybody was fond of him, and +everybody spoke of him in the highest terms. Why should I think--" + +"You shouldn't, Ladybird. I should have been ashamed of you if you had. +Only a vain or morbidly self-conscious girl would have thought in such a +case. And only--there goes that confounded cat again--only elderly +gentlewomen of secluded lives and a badly perverted sense of propriety +would ever have thought of such a thing. But continue, my child. I +suppose they told you about that idiotic old quarrel--" + +"Yes, Chummie--they told me and they didn't tell me. They never would +say what it was all about, or how much there was in it. Indeed, they +told me I was guilty of a great irreverence in even asking concerning +it. They said it should be quite enough for a well-ordered young woman +to know that these people were my father's enemies. As Mr. Baillie +Pegram never knew my father, I couldn't understand why he and I should +be enemies, but when I said something like that, I saw that the aunties +were terribly shocked. I suppose I'm not a 'well-ordered' young lady, +Chummie." + +"No! Thank God you're not. You are just a sweet, wholesome, lovable +girl--and that is very different from what those old--ladies call a +'well-ordered' young woman." + +"Well, anyhow," the girl resumed, "I obeyed my instructions. I wrote to +Mr. Pegram, telling him there could be no friendship between him and me, +and do you know, Chummie, they blamed me more for that than for all the +rest. They said it was 'unladylike' and a lot more things, for me to +write to him at all. But I never could find out what they thought I +ought to have done. I couldn't break off the acquaintance without +telling him I must do so, could I?" + +"_You_ couldn't, and I'm glad you couldn't. A 'well-ordered' young lady +would have done it easily. She would have told a lot of lies about not +being at home when he called, or having a headache when he wanted to +see her. You couldn't do that because you are honest and truthful, and +that's the best thing about you, except your love for your old Chummie, +and even that wouldn't be of much account if I couldn't trust its truth +and sincerity. Go on, child. I didn't mean to interrupt." + +"O, but you must interrupt. That's the only way I know what you're +thinking. Well, I went to The Oaks sometime later, and while there I +went out one morning for a ride by myself. My poor horse broke his leg, +as I told you in a letter, and Mr. Baillie Pegram happened along, and +was very kind in helping me out of my trouble. He insisted that I should +ride his mare home. I tried all I could to refuse, but he showed me that +I simply could not help myself, and so I took the mare,--the same one +that was killed under him at Manassas. That time the aunties did +actually scold me, or pretty nearly that. So I rebelled, and made up my +mind to come back to you at once. Mr. Pegram dined at The Oaks on the +day before I started, and he and I had a long talk, but of course it +could not change the situation. That was the last I saw of him until +the day before the battle of Manassas, when he took a red feather out of +my hat and wore it in the battle. He was terribly wounded in the fight, +but he sent the feather back to me as he had promised to do. I had +quoted to him or let him quote to me the Indian's defiance, 'There is +war between me and thee.' It was after that that he insisted upon taking +the feather and wearing it through the battle." + +The girl paused, but her grandfather said nothing for a whole minute. +Perhaps he felt that she needed the pause before speaking further. At +last he said, very low and gently: + +"Tell me about yesterday morning." + +She did so, sparing herself at no point. She told of Baillie's outburst, +and of the declaration of his love. She told, too, of her chilling +answer, and her perversity in so managing the conversation as to prevent +a recurrence to the subject. Finally she broke down, saying with +streaming eyes: + +"Oh, Chummie! I have ruined his life--and my own!" + +"I don't know so well about that. He may recover, you know." + +"Yes, I know. But what then?" At that she laid her head upon the old +man's breast and let herself become a little child again, in an +abandonment of grief. And with a childlike confidence and candour she +said at last: + +"Oh, Chummie! Don't you understand? He can never know. He will always +think of me as hard and cold and unresponsive. After what I said to him +yesterday morning, he cannot again tell me--why, Chummie, it was as bad +as if I had slapped him in the face!" + +The old man caressed her till her agitation subsided. Then, speaking in +a tone of wisdom which irresistibly carried conviction with it, he said: + +"You are wholly wrong, Agatha. Baillie Pegram is much too brave and +true, and much too generous a man to let this matter rest where it is. +If he recovers, as I pray God he may, be very sure he will come to you +again and tell you calmly what he blurted out without meaning to do so, +under stress of a trying situation. You must go to sleep now, little +girl. You are very weary and greatly overwrought. And we must be up with +the sun to-morrow on account of the birds. Good night, dear. You must +never leave me again while I live." + +There was unsteadiness in his step, as he gallantly ushered her through +the doorway, and as he returned to the room to extinguish the solitary +lamp. Then a heaviness came over him, and he sat down again in his easy +chair before the fire. The logs had ceased to blaze and crackle now, but +the old man sat still. The logs fell into a mass of glowing coals after +a time, and slowly the coals ceased to glow. One by one they went out. +Still he did not move. + +There were only ashes in the great fireplace when the morning came and +Agatha found her Chummie still sitting there where the fire of his life +had so gently gone out. + + + + +XXI + +_AT PARTING_ + + +News of Colonel Archer's death ran rapidly through a State of which he +had been one of the foremost citizens, by reason alike of his public +services and his private virtues. It quickly reached Stuart's ears, and +he promptly sent a courier with a letter of sympathy and friendship, at +the end of which he wrote: + +"Now, my dear Miss Agatha, I crave a favour at your hands. Your +grandfather was a soldier greatly distinguished in two wars. He should +have a soldier's burial, and with your permission, which I take for +granted, I am ordering a company of dragoons and a battery now stationed +at Warrenton and under my command, to move at once to Willoughby, and +there pay the last honours to the veteran." + +Heart-broken as she was, Agatha met calamity with a fortitude which +astonished even herself. She was still scarcely more than a girl, but +the blood of a soldier filled her veins,--a soldier who had never +flinched from danger or murmured under suffering. "I too will neither +flinch nor murmur," she said to herself. "Chummie would like it best to +see me brave and resolute, if he could know--and perhaps he does know. I +will bear myself as he would like me to." + +And she kept that vow to the letter. The tears would mount to her +eyelids now and then in spite of her and trickle down her cheeks; but +they were silent tears, accompanied by no moanings that were audible; +they were the tears of heart-break, not the tears of weakness and +self-pity. They were hidden for the most part from human view, and +resolutely restrained in the presence of others. And when any of those +who thronged about her for her consolation caught momentary sight of +them, the effect was like that produced when a strong man weeps. + +When the soldiers came she directed an attentive ministry to their +comfort, and after the last salutes to the dead had been fired over the +grave, she turned to Captain Marshall Pollard, whose battery it was +that had paid that tribute of honour, and asked in a steady voice: + +"Can you arrange to stay at Willoughby overnight? I have need to talk +with you of matters of some importance. It will be very kind and good of +you, if you can manage it." + +After a moment's reflection, Marshall answered: + +"I can stay till midnight, and that will give us time for our talk. I +must be at Warrenton at reveille in the morning, but my horse will +easily make the distance if I start by one o'clock." + +Then he spoke a few words in a low tone to his lieutenant, who took +command and marched the battery away, with all heads bared till they had +passed out of the grounds. + +"Let us not talk of my grandfather, please," said the girl, as the two +entered the drawing-room. "Not that I shrink from that," she quickly +added. "It can never be painful to me to speak of him. But it might +distress you. You knew him and loved him long ago, before--before you +and I quarrelled." + +She did not shrink from this reference to the past, or try in any way to +disguise the truth of it. Her mind was full of the dear dead man's last +words spoken in praise of her courage and truthfulness, and she was more +resolute than ever to live up to the character he had approved so +earnestly and with so much of loving admiration. + +"I think we did not quarrel," the young captain responded; "you did not, +at any rate. I misjudged you cruelly, and in my anger I falsely accused +you in my heart. Believe me, Agatha,"--he had called her so in the old +days, and the name came easily to his lips now,--"believe me when I say +that I have outlived all that bitterness. Let us be true, loyal friends +hereafter, friends who know and trust each other, friends who do not +misunderstand." + +The girl held out her hand, in response, and made no effort to hide the +tears with which she welcomed this healing of the old wounds. + +The young man, too, rejoiced in a reconciliation which laid his old love +for this woman for ever to rest and planted flowers of friendship upon +its grave. He was astonished at his own condition of mind and heart. He +learned now the truth that his mad love for Agatha had become completely +a thing of the past, and that the bitterness which had at first +succeeded it was utterly gone. He could think of her henceforth with a +tender affection that had no trace of passion in it. The dead past had +buried its dead, and the grass grew green above it. + +At that moment dinner was announced, for Agatha had decreed that life at +Willoughby should at once resume its accustomed order. "Chummie would +like it so," she thought. So the two friends passed through the hall to +the dining-room hand in hand, just as they had so often done in the old +days before passion had come to disturb their lives. + +Marshall had now one supreme desire with respect to Agatha,--a great +yearning to comfort her and help her as a brother might. He told her so, +when they returned to the drawing-room after dinner, to sit before the +great fire of hickory logs during all the remaining hours of Marshall's +stay. + +"Tell me now," he said, "of your plans, that I may share in them and +help you carry them out perhaps. What are you going to do?" + +"I'm going to find Baillie if I can, and nurse him back to health--if it +is not too late." + +"But he is in the hands of the enemy, you know." + +"Yes, I know. That makes it more difficult, but we must not shrink from +difficulties. I shall start north to-morrow." + +"But how?--Tell me about it, please." + +She explained her plans, telling him of the arrangements she had made +for bringing medicines through the blockade, transmitting letters, and +finding friends at every step in case of need. Then she added: + +"I'm going to take Sam with me this time. He is devoted to his master, +and his sagacity is extraordinary. I shall depend upon him to help me +find where Baillie is, and to do whatever there is to do for him." + +"Will you let me have writing materials?" the young man abruptly asked. + +Without asking for an explanation, she brought her lap desk, and with +the awkwardness which a man always manifests in attempting to use that +peculiarly feminine device, he managed to fill two or three sheets. When +he had done, he handed the papers to her, saying: + +"I can really help, I think. You will need money for your expenses. You +must have it in sufficient supply to meet all emergencies, so that you +may never be delayed or baffled in any purpose for want of it. And it +may easily happen that you shall need a considerable sum at once. Money +is the pass-key to many difficult doors. It so happens that I have a +very considerable sum invested in railroad and other securities, in the +hands of a very close friend of mine in New York. I have written to him +to sell out the whole of them and place the proceeds at your disposal in +any banks that may be most convenient to you." + +"But, Marshall, you are impoverishing yourself--" + +"In the which case," he responded, with his gentle, half-mocking smile, +"I should be doing no more than all the rest of us Virginians are doing +in this struggle. But I am doing nothing of the kind. I have a +plantation, you know, and absolutely nobody dependent upon me. If I +survive the war I shall have some land, at any rate, out of which to dig +a living. These investments of mine at the North were made long before +the war, and I should have sold them out at the beginning of the +trouble if I hadn't been too lazy to attend to my affairs. I'm glad now +that I was lazy. It enables me to help the two best friends I ever had +in this rather lonely world,--Baillie Pegram and you. A man may do as he +likes with his own, you know, and this is precisely what I like to do +with my securities. Fortunately my friend who has them in charge is a +blue-blooded Virginian, who would be fighting with us out there on the +lines, if he were not a helpless cripple, fit for nothing, as he wrote +to me when the trouble came, but to manage his banking-house. But how +are you to get these papers through with you, without risk of +discovery?" + +"I'll make Sam carry them," she responded. "Nobody will ever think of +searching him, particularly as his connection with my affairs will be +known to nobody except my friends and co-conspirators." + +"What a strategist you are, Agatha! What a general you would have made +if you'd happened to be a man!" exclaimed the young man in admiration. + +"No," she answered, hesitating for a moment, and then resolutely going +on to speak truthfully the thought that was in her. "No, Marshall, for +then I should not have had the impulse that teaches me now what to do. +Tell me now, about the war. Shall I find Willoughby occupied as a +Federal general's headquarters when I get back to Virginia?" + +"I don't know. I cannot even guess what the officials at Richmond mean. +I only know we have thrown away an opportunity that will never come back +to us. The army was full of enthusiasm after Manassas--it is discouraged +and depressed now. Then it was strong with the hope and confidence that +are born of victory; now it sits there wondering when the enemy will be +ready for it to fight again. It was fit for any enterprise then, and the +enemy was utterly unfit to resist anything it might have undertaken. But +it was not permitted to undertake anything. It was made to lie still, +like a pointer in a turkey blind, quivering with eagerness to be up and +doing, but restrained by the paralysis of misdirected authority. While +we have been doing nothing, the Federal enemy has been swollen to more +than twice our numbers. More important still, it has been fashioned by +McClellan's skilled hand into as fine a fighting-machine as any general +need wish for his tool. The officers have been instructed in their +profession, and the men have been taught their trade. Their organisation +is perfect, their discipline is almost as good as that of regulars, and +their confidence in themselves and their commanders is daily and hourly +increasing. Our men have abundant confidence in themselves, but none at +all in generals who throw away their opportunities or in a government +that touches nothing without paralysing it. Moreover, the Federal army +has supply departments behind it that could not be bettered, while ours +seem wholly imbecile and incapable. It should have been obvious to every +intelligent man at the outset, that with our vastly inferior material +resources, our best chance of winning in this war was by bringing to +bear from the first all we could of dash and ceaseless activity. We +should have taken the aggressive at once and all the time, knowing that +every day of delay must strengthen the enemy and weaken us. Instead of +that, after winning a great battle in such fashion as well-nigh to +destroy for a time the enemy's capacity of resistance, we have taken up +a defensive attitude and let the precious opportunity slip from our +grasp. It will never return. I do not say that we shall be beaten in the +end; I say only that our task is immeasurably more difficult now than it +was three months ago, and it is growing more and more difficult every +day." + +"You are discouraged then?" + +"No. I am only depressed. As for courage, we must all of us keep that up +to the end. We must be brave to endure as well as to fight,--if we are +ever graciously permitted to fight again. But I did not mean to talk of +these things. I am only a battery captain. I have no business to think. +But unfortunately our army is largely composed of men who can't help +thinking. Tell me now, for I must ride presently, is there anything that +I can do for you--any way in which I can help you?" + +"You will be helping me all the time, just by letting me feel that the +old boy and girl friendship is mine again. That is more precious to me +than you can imagine. Good-bye, now. Your horse is at the door. Thank +you for all, and God bless you." + + + + +XXII + +_SAM AS A STRATEGIST_ + + +Agatha's second progress northward was far more difficult of +accomplishment than the first had been. Under McClellan's skilled +vigilance the armed mob which he found "cowering on the Potomac" in +August, had been converted into an army, drilled, disciplined, and +familiar with every detail of that military art which it was called upon +to practise. The lines west of Washington were far more rigidly drawn +and more fully manned than before, and the officers and men who held +them exercised a vigilance that had not been thought of a few months +earlier. + +And this was not the only difficulty that Agatha encountered in her +effort to reach Baltimore. A passport system had been inaugurated at the +North, under operation of which those who would travel, and especially +those who travelled toward Baltimore,--a city whose loyalty to the +Union lay under grave suspicion,--must give a satisfactory account of +themselves in order to secure the necessary papers. War had begun to +bring the country under that despotism which military force always and +everywhere regards as the necessary condition of its effectiveness. + +It was a strange spectacle that the country presented during that four +years of fratricidal strife. A great, free people, the freest on earth, +fell to fighting, one part with another part. Each side was battling, as +each side sincerely believed, for the cause of liberty; each was +unsparingly spending its blood and treasure in order, in Mr. Lincoln's +phrase, that "government of the people, by the people, and for the +people might not perish from the earth." Yet on both sides a military +rule as rigorous as that of Russia laid its iron hand upon the people, +and the people submitted themselves to its exactions almost without a +murmur. Arbitrary, inquisitorial, intolerant, this military despotism +wrought its will both at the North and at the South, overriding laws and +disregarding constitutions, making a mockery of chartered rights, and +restraining personal liberty in ways that would have caused instant and +universal revolt, had such things been attempted by civil authority. + +The military arm is a servant which is apt to make itself the +unrelenting master of those who invoke its assistance. + +Agatha encountered this difficulty while yet inside the Confederate +lines. She was not permitted to pass in any northward direction upon any +pretence. The authorities at one place under Confederate control forbade +her to go to another place under like control. She appealed to Stuart in +this emergency, and although his authority did not extend into the +Shenandoah Valley, he made such representations to the commandants in +that quarter as were sufficient for her purposes. + +To get within the Federal lines was a still more perplexing problem. One +device after another proved ineffectual, and the girl was almost in +despair. She appealed at last to the general in command of the cavalry +in that region,--one of those to whom Stuart had written in her +behalf,--and he promptly responded: + +"At precisely what point have you friends in coöperation with you?" + +She named a little town within the Federal line where lived some of her +nearest friends. + +"I can manage that," he said. "The point is an insignificant one ten +miles within their lines. There are pretty certainly no troops there, +and the picket-lines in front are not very strong, as nothing could be +more improbable than the raid I shall make in that direction. You can +ride, of course." + +"Of course." + +"Very well. I'll take a strong force, make a dash through the +picket-lines, gallop into the town, and make a foray through the region +round about. You will follow my column as closely as you can without +placing yourself under fire, and when we reach the town, settle yourself +with your friends there, turning your horse loose lest he attract +attention. You'd better do that just before we reach the town, and walk +the rest of the way. Can you wear a walking-skirt under your +riding-habit, and slip off the outer--you see I'm a bachelor, Miss +Ronald, and don't understand such things." + +"You may safely leave all that to my superior feminine sagacity. When +shall we start?" + +"Whenever you wish. Only we'd better march in the afternoon and reach +the town after nightfall. The nights are very dark now, and you will +perhaps be able to escape observation in the town. Let me see," looking +at his watch, "it's now half past one. We could do the thing this +afternoon, if you were ready." + +"I can be ready in fifteen minutes," she replied. + +"You're very prompt," the officer said, with a suggestion of admiration +in his voice. + +"O, I'm half-soldier, you know. General Stuart approves me." + +"Very well, then. We'll march in half an hour." + +The operation was a very simple one, in its military part, at least. The +expedition was composed of a force much too strong for resistance by the +handful of men available for immediate use on the enemy's part. In the +guise of a foraging party it easily dispersed the picket-lines and +pushed forward rapidly, taking the little town in its course, but making +no halt there. It scoured the country round about, and as soon as +Federal forces began to gather for its destruction, it retreated by +quite a different route from that by which it had advanced. + +It was nine o'clock in the evening when Agatha slipped off her horse in +the little Maryland town and left it in charge of a trooper. A +five-minutes' walk brought her to the house of her friends, where she +was safe. + +With her walked her negro maid, who had ridden behind her. That maid's +name was Sam, and he quickly divested himself of the feminine outer +garments which he had worn over his own clothes. This device had been of +Sam's own invention, for that worthy, under stress of circumstances, was +rapidly developing into something like genius that gift of diplomacy +which he had before employed in discouraging his mammy's efforts to make +him her assistant in the kitchen. Sam was a consummate liar whenever +lying seemed to him to be necessary or even useful. In the service of +his master he had no hesitation in saying, or indeed in doing, anything +that might be convenient, and during her long stay north of the Potomac +Agatha was far more deeply indebted to Sam's unscrupulousness than she +knew. For when he found that his mistress had conscientious objections +to his methods, he simply forbore to mention them to her, and carried +out his plans on his own responsibility. Long afterward, in relating the +experiences of this time to his black companions at Warlock, he made it +an interesting feature of his discourse to keep reminding his hearers +that, "Mis' Agatha's so dam' hones' dat she wouldn't tell a lie _even to +a Yankee_." + +This declaration never failed to open the eyes of the auditors in +wonder, and to bring from their lips the half-incredulous response: + +"Well, I 'clar to gracious!" + +It was Sam who devised and suggested the next step in the present +journey. Agatha's arrival at the house, under cover of a very dark +night, had been unobserved by any one outside the household, but it was +obvious that her remaining there would involve grave danger of +discovery. Her presence could not be concealed from the servants of the +household, and however loyal these might be to their mistress and her +three daughters, who constituted the family, they would very certainly +talk, the more especially, if any efforts were made to keep the visitor +in hiding in the house. In a town so small--it was only a village, in +fact--gossip has quick wings, and there were sure to be some persons +there who would promptly report to the military that a young woman from +beyond the lines was in hiding in the town. + +The whole matter was discussed in family conclave during the night of +Agatha's coming, and fortunately Sam was present, for the reason that it +was specially necessary to conceal from the household servants the +interesting fact that the "maid" who had accompanied a young lady to the +place was in truth a stalwart negro boy. He remained in the room, +therefore, from which all the servants were rigidly excluded, and thus +became familiar with every detail of the puzzling situation. After +ingenuity had been fairly exhausted in devising plans only to reject +them one after another as impracticable, Sam, whose modesty had never +amounted to shyness, boldly broke into the conversation. + +"As I figgers it out, Mis' Agatha," he said, "de case is puffec'ly clar. +We cawn't stay heah, 'thout a-gittin' tuk up. We cawn't go back South +'thout a-gittin' tuk up an' maybe gittin' hung in de bargain. So we mus' +jes' go on Norf, now, immediately, at once." + +"But we can't, Sam. You don't understand. We can't travel without +passports." + +"Couldn't de ladies git a skyar into 'em, an' tell de Yankees dey jes' +cawn't an' won't stay any longer in a town whar de rebels is a-comin' +gallopin' through de streets, a-yellin' an' a-shootin' an' a-kickin' up +de ole Harry? Wouldn't de Yankees give 'em passpo'ts to de Norf den? +Wouldn't dey think it natch'rel dat a houseful o' jes' ladies what's got +no men-folks to pertect 'em, would be skyar'd out o' der seven senses +after sich a performance as dis heah?" + +"But, Sam," interposed his mistress, "that wouldn't do me any good or +you either. If anybody asked for passports for you and me, the officers +would ask who we are and where we came from, and all about it." + +"Don't ax 'em fer no passpo't fer you. Jes' let de other ladies ax fer +passpo'ts fer demselves, an' a nigga boy to drive de carriage. I'll be +de nigga boy. Den one o' de young ladies mout git over her skyar an' +jes' stay at home, quiet like, an' let you take her place in de +carriage. De young lady wouldn't have to go roun' tellin' folks she's +done git over her skyar an' stayed at home. Nobody'd know nuffin' about +her bein' heah fer a week, an' by dat time de Yankees would 'a' done +fergitten how many folks went away in de carriage." + +After some discussion it was agreed that Sam's plan, in its general +outline at least, was feasible, and as there was no alternative way out, +it was finally decided to adopt the scheme. + +"You mus' do it right away den," suggested Sam, "while de skyar is on to +folks. Ef you wait, de Yankees'll fin' out de trigger o' de trap, sho'. +An' after awhile, all de ladies 'ceptin' you, Mis' Agatha, can git over +de skyar an' come home agin." + +Sam's plan was aided in its execution by the fact that several other +families in the town were genuinely scared by the Confederate raid, and, +as soon as the Federal posts were reëstablished, asked for passports +under which they might send their women and children to less exposed +points. When Agatha's hostess made a like application for herself and +daughters, with their negro, "Sam, aged eighteen, five feet seven +inches high," and all the rest of the description, no difficulty was +encountered in securing the desired papers. + +In order that Agatha might go as far northward as possible without +having to renew her passport, it was decided that their destination +should be at a point well beyond the Pennsylvania border. Agatha had no +friends there, and she knew no one of Southern sympathies in the town +selected. But thanks to Marshall Pollard, she had command of money in +plenty, or would have, as soon as she could send the papers he had given +her to New York. It was arranged, therefore, that the little party, in +the character of refugees, should take quarters at a hotel until such +time as Agatha could renew her journey without her companions. In the +meantime, Agatha, by means of correspondence with her friends in +Baltimore and Washington, could prosecute her inquiries as to Baillie +Pegram's condition and whereabouts. + + + + +XXIII + +_A NEGOTIATION_ + + +Agatha did not remain long in the little Pennsylvania town. She found +its people to be positively peppery in their Union sentiments, and she +soon realised that she could make no inquiries from that point without +attracting dangerous attention to herself. She saw, too, that the little +city was not large enough for easy concealment. She could not there lose +herself in the crowd and pass unobserved whithersoever she pleased. She +promptly decided that her best course would be to go on to New York, but +even that could not be undertaken with safety for a time. She must +remain where she was for two or three weeks--long enough for her +presence there to lose its character as a novelty. + +Sam, who enjoyed her confidence to the full, suggested that she should +feign ill-health, and leave the place under pretence of seeking a +residence better suited to her constitution. That was not the way in +which Sam expressed his thought, of course, but he made himself clearly +understood by saying: + +"Tell you what 'tis, Mis' Agatha, you'se jes' got to git powerful sick +an' say you cawn't live in no sich a pesky town as dis here one. Den you +kin pack up yer things, ef you've got any, an' move on." + +Agatha laughed, and answered: + +"Why, Sam, I don't know how to be ill. I never had a headache in my +life, and I couldn't look like an invalid if I tried. No, Sam, we must +just wait here for a time." + +"Why, Mis' Agatha, it's de easiest thing in de world to make out as how +you'se sick when you ain't. I'se done it hundreds of times, when mammy +wanted me to wuk in de kitchen an' I wanted to go a-fishin'. All you got +to do is to look solemncholy-like, an' say you'se got a pain in yo' haid +an' a powerful misery in yo' back, an' cole chills a-creepin' all over +you. Tell you what, it's as easy as nuffin' at all." + +Agatha laughed again, but put Sam's plan aside without further +discussion, whereat that budding strategist went away sorrowful, +muttering to himself: + +"I done heah folks say as how 'white man's mighty onsartain,' but Mis' +Agatha's a heap wuss'n even a white man, leastwise 'bout some things." + +A week later, Sam presented another plan, which he had wrought out in +his mind at cost of not a little gray brain matter. + +"Mis' Agatha," he asked, "is you got any frien's in New York what you +kin trus' to do what you axes 'em to do?" + +"Yes, Sam. There's one gentleman there who will do anything I ask him to +do. He's the one to whom I sent the papers that I made you carry till we +got here." + +"Den you kin write to him?" + +"Yes, certainly." + +"Well, now, I'se got a plan dat'll wuk as easy--as easy as playin' of de +banjo. You jes' write to dat gentleman, an' git him to sen' you a +telemagraph, sayin' as how somebody's a-dyin' over there, somebody yo'se +powerful fond of, an' so you mus' come quick." + +This time Sam's suggestion commended itself to his mistress's mind, and +soon afterward there came a telegram to her, saying: + +"Come quick if you want to see Eliza alive." + +She hurriedly packed the few belongings which she had purchased in the +Pennsylvania town, bade her friends good-bye, and before noon of the +next day, was safely hidden in the little lodging which Marshall +Pollard's friend had secured for her in New York. In the great city she +might go and come and do as she pleased without fear of observation, and +without the least danger of attracting attention to herself. There is no +solitude so secure as that of a thronged city, where men are too +completely self-centred to concern themselves with the affairs of their +neighbours. + +Agatha's first inquiries concerning Baillie's whereabouts were directed +toward the military prisons and prison-camps, but in none of them could +she find a trace of the master of Warlock. When she had completely +exhausted this field of inquiry, a great fear came upon her, that the +man she sought was dead. The presumption was strong that he had died of +his wound before he could be sent to any of the prisons provided for +captured Confederates. A less resolute person would have accepted that +conclusion, but Agatha persisted in her search, extending her inquiries +to all the hospitals of the Federal army, and within a month her +persistence was rewarded. + +What she learned was that Baillie Pegram's wound had been too severe to +admit of his transportation far beyond Washington, and that he, in +company with a few other prisoners in like condition, had been placed in +an improvised hospital a few miles north of the capital city, where he +still lay under treatment, with only a slender chance of recovery. Her +first impulse was to go to Washington at once, and endeavour in some way +to secure permission to enter the hospital as a nurse. Her friends in +Washington and in Maryland discouraged this attempt, assuring her not +only of its futility, but of its danger. They were convinced, indeed, +that she could not even enter Washington, which was then a vast +fortified camp, without the discovery of her identity by the agents of a +secret service which had become well-nigh omniscient, so far as personal +identities, personal histories, and personal intentions were concerned. + +"Stay where you are," one of them urgently wrote her, "and keep yourself +free to act if at any time a chance shall come to accomplish any good. +It would spoil all and destroy the last vestige of hope, for you to +attempt what you suggest. You can do no good here. You may do +inestimable good if you remain where you are." + +When this decision was communicated to Sam, his round black face became +long, and the look of laughter completely went out of his countenance. +But Sam was not an easily discouraged person, and he had come to believe +in his own sagacity. So after a day or two of disconsolate moping, he +set his wits at work upon this new problem. Presently an idea was born +to him, and he went at once to lay it before Agatha for consideration. + +"Mis' Agatha," he said, "even ef you cawn't git to Mas' Baillie, Sam +kin, an' that'll be better'n nothin', won't it?" + +"Yes, Sam," answered the sad-eyed young woman, "very much better than +nothing. You could take care of your master, and be a comfort to him, +and if the time ever should come when anything could be done for him, +you'd be on the ground to help. But how can you get to him?" + +"I could manage dat, ef I was a free nigga," answered the boy, +meditatively. + +"But you are free, I suppose," said Agatha. "You've been brought to a +free State, practically with your master's consent, and that makes you +free, I believe. But--" + +"O, I don't want to be a sho' 'nuff free nigga," interrupted Sam. "I +ain't never a-gwine to be dat. I'se a-gwine to 'long to Mas' Baillie +cl'ar to de end o' de cawn rows. But I done heah folks up heah say dat +de Yankees is a-sendin' back all de niggas what runs away from der +mahstahs, an' ef I ain't got nuffin' to say I'se free, dey'd sen' me +back to Ferginny ef I went down dat way whar Mas' Baillie is." + +Sam's information on this point was in a measure correct. For in the +singleness of his purpose to save the Union at all costs, and in his +anxiety not to alienate the border slave States by interfering with +slavery where it legally existed, Mr. Lincoln steadfastly insisted, +during the first year of the war, that military commanders should +restore all fugitive slaves who should come to them for protection, or +where that could not be done, should list them and employ them in work +upon fortifications and the like. + +Agatha thought for a time, and then said: + +"I think I can manage that, Sam. I'll try, at any rate. But I must wait +till to-morrow. Tell me how you expect to get to your master." + +"I don't rightly know yit, Mis' Agatha. But I'll git dar. Maybe you'll +send a letter to yo' frien's down dat way, tellin' 'em Sam's all right, +so's dey'll trus' me. Ef you do dat, Mis' Agatha, I'll do de res'." + +It was impossible, of course, to execute legal papers setting Sam free, +nor were any papers at all necessary for his use, so long as he remained +in New York. But in Washington he might have to give an account of +himself, and by way of making sure that he should not be seized as a +runaway slave, and set to work upon the fortifications, Agatha's friend, +the banker, gave him a document in which he certified that the negro boy +was not a runaway slave, but was known to him as a legally free negro, +who had been living in New York, but wished to go to Washington and +elsewhere in search of employment. + +Armed with this paper, and with full instructions from Agatha as to how +to find certain of her friends, Sam set out on his journey full of +determination to succeed in his affectionate purpose. + +In Washington, he engaged in various small employments that yielded a +revenue in the form of tips. He purchased a banjo, and ingratiated +himself everywhere by singing his plantation songs, including both those +that he had learned from others, and a few, such as "Oh, Eliza," which +he had fabricated for himself. In the course of a week or two he learned +all he needed to know about roads, military lines, and the like, and was +prepared to make his way to the hospital where his master lay. + +There he besought employment of menial kinds, at the hands of the +surgeons and other officers, of whom there were only a very few at the +post. Again he strummed his banjo and sang his songs to good purpose, +impressing everybody with the conviction that he was a jolly, +thoughtless, happy-go-lucky negro, and very amusing withal. The hospital +was a very small one in a very lonely part of the country, and service +there was extremely tedious to those who were condemned to it. Sam's +minstrelsy, therefore, was more than welcome as something that +pleasantly broke the monotony, and the officers concerned were anxious +to keep the amusing fellow employed at the post, lest he go elsewhere. +They gave him all sorts of odd jobs to do, from blacking boots and +polishing spurs and buckles, to grooming a horse when privileged in that +way, to show his skill in "puttin' of a satin dress onto a good animal," +as he called the process. + +Agatha had provided the boy with a small sum of money for use in +emergencies, and, as his living had cost him nothing, he had +considerably added to its amount. He cherished it jealously, feeling +that it might prove to be his readiest tool in accomplishing his +purposes. + +For a time he was not permitted to enter the hospital, which was nothing +more than an old barn in which a floor had been laid and windows cut. +Four sentries guarded it, one on each of its sides. The patients within +numbered about fifteen, all of them wounded Confederate officers, for +whom this provision had been made until such time as they should be +sufficiently recovered to be taken North to a military prison. + +Being in no regular way employed at the post, Sam was free to go and +come as he pleased, and he did a good deal of night-prowling at this +time. He managed in that way to establish relations with certain of +Agatha's friends, whose residence was ten or a dozen miles away. He +visited them at intervals in order to hear from Agatha, and report to +her through them. He had not dared inquire concerning his master in any +direct way, or to reveal his interest in any of the hospital patients. +But when two of them had died, he had asked one of the servitors about +the place what their names were, and had thus satisfied himself that +neither of them was Captain Pegram. By keeping his ears on the alert, he +had learned also that there were not likely to be any further deaths, +and that the remaining wounded men were slowly, but quite surely, +recovering. Still further, he had heard one of the doctors, in +conversation with the other, comment upon the remarkable vitality of +Captain Pegram. + +"That wound would have killed almost any other man I ever saw, but upon +my word the man is getting well. Barring accidents, I regard him now as +pretty nearly out of danger." + +All this Sam duly reported to Agatha through her friends. It greatly +comforted her, but it seriously alarmed Sam. For Sam had learned the +ways of the place, and he knew that there was haste made to send every +patient North, as soon as he was in condition to be removed without +serious danger to his life; and Sam had begun to cherish hopes and lay +plans which would certainly come to nothing if his master should be +removed from the hospital to a military prison. + +He determined, therefore, to find some way of getting into the hospital, +communicating with his master, and finding out for himself precisely +what the prospects were. + +It was winter now, and besides the snow there was much mud around the +hospital, which was freely tracked into it by all who entered. Peter, +the rheumatic old negro man who was employed to scrub the place, +complained bitterly of this. He said to Sam one day: + +"Dese heah doctahs an' dese heah 'tendants is mighty pahticklah to have +de place keeped scrumptiously clean, but dey's mighty onpahticklah to +wipe dar boots 'fo' enterin' de hospital. Ole Pete's done got mos' +enough o' dis heah job." + +"Why don't yo' quit it, den?" asked Sam, with seeming indifference. + +"'Case I can't 'ford to. I ain't got no udder 'ployment fer de rest o' +de wintah, an' it's a long ways to blackberry time." + +"How much does dey gib yo' fer a-doin' of it?" + +"'Mos' nothin' 'tall--a dollah an' a half a month an' my bo'd." + +"Yes, an' de job won't las' long, nuther," said Sam, sympathetically, +"'cordin' to what I heah. De rebel officers is all a-gwine to git well, +I done heah de doctahs say, an' when dey does dat, dey'll be shipped off +Norf, an' dis heah 'stablishment'll be broke up. You'se too ole fer sich +wuk, anyways, Uncle Pete. Yo' oughter be a-nussin' o' yer knees by a +fire somewhars, 'stead o' warin' of 'em out a-scrubbin' flo's. You'se +got a lot o' prayin' to do yit, 'fo' yo' dies,--'nuff to use up what +knees you'se got left. Give up de job. Uncle Pete, and go off wha' you +kin make yer peace wid de Lawd, as de preachahs says you must." + +"But I cawn't, I tell you! I ain't got no money, an' I ain't got no +'ployment, 'ceptin' dis heah scrubbin'. Ef I had five dollahs, Ole Pete +wouldn't be heah fer a day later'n day afteh to-morrow--dat's pay-day." + +Sam sat silent for a time as if meditating on what he had it in mind to +say, before committing himself to the rash proposal. Finally, he turned +to the old man, and said: + +"Look heah, Uncle Pete, I'se sorry fer you, sho' 'nuff I is. I'se done +'cumulated a little money, by close scrimpin', an' I'm half a mind to +help yo' out. Lemme see. You'se a-gwine to git a dollah an' a half day +after to-morrow. I kin spar yo' six dollahs mo'. Dat'll make seben +dollahs an' a half. I'll do it ef you'll take pity on yerse'f an' go to +town an' git yerse'f a easier sort o' wuk. Yo' kin owe me de six dollahs +tell you git rich enough to pay it back." + +The old man was inclined to be suspicious of a generosity of which he +had never known the equal. + +"Who'se a-gwine to take de job ef I gibs it up?" he asked. + +"What de debbil do you k'yar 'bout dat?" asked Sam. "Anyhow, dey ain't +a-gwine to raise de wages. Yo' kin jes' bet yo' life on dat. Yo' kin do +jes' as yo' please 'bout 'ceptin' de offer I done made you. I oughtn't +to 'a' made it, but I'se always a-makin' of a fool o' myse'f, when my +feelin's is touched. Six dollahs is a lot o' money, _hit_ is. Maybe yo' +think I'm Mr. Astor, to go a-throwin' of money away like dat, or, maybe +yo'se Mr. Astor yerse'f, to be hesitatin' 'bout a-'ceptin' of it. Reckon +I bettah withdraw de offah--" + +"Who'se a-hesitatin'?" broke in old Peter, hurriedly. "I ain't never +thought o' hesitatin', Sam. I'll take de money sho', an' I thank you +kindly for yer generosity, Sam. You'se a mighty fine boy, Sam, an' I'se +always liked you ever since I fust knowed you. Now dat you'se a-behavin' +jes' like as if yo' was my own chile, I reck'lec' dat I always had a +fatherly feelin' foh you, Sam. Lemme have de money now, Sam, so's I kin +go to sleep to-night a-feelin' I ain't got but one mo' day to do dis +heah sort o' wuk." + +"Yo' won't change yo' mind?" asked Sam. + +"Sartain sho'! Wish I may die ef I do." + +Sam regarded that oath as one likely to be binding upon any negro +conscience, but he wished to take no risks; so putting on an air of +great solemnity, and pushing his face to within four inches of the old +man's, he said: + +"Now you'se done swore it by de 'wish I may die,' an' you mus' keep dat +sw'ar. Ef yo' don't, it'll be my solemn duty to carry out yo' wish by +killin' you myse'f, an', 'fore de Lawd, I'll do it. Heah's de money." + + + + +XXIV + +_FLIGHT_ + + +Sam had so far commended himself by alertness and thoroughness in +whatever he did, that he had no difficulty in securing what he called +"de scrubbin' contract." He now had perfect freedom of hospital ingress +and egress, but he felt that he must be cautious, especially in his +first revelation of his presence to his master, who, he was confident, +knew nothing of his being there. He feared to surprise some exclamation +from Pegram, which would, as he phrased it, "give de whole snap away." + +So on the first morning he began his scrubbing at the outer door, and +moved slowly on his hands and knees along the line of cots, taking sly +glimpses of their occupants as he went. It was not till he reached the +farther corner of the large room that he found the cot of his master. +Then with his face near the floor and scrubbing violently with his +brush, he began intoning in a low voice: + +"Don't say nothin', don't say nothin', don't say nothin' when yo' sees +me. It's Sam sho' 'nuff, an' Sam's done come, an' don't you give it +away." + +To any one ten feet away, all this sounded like the humming of a chant +by one who unconsciously sang below the breath as he worked. But to +Baillie, who lay within a foot or two of the boy's head, the words were +perfectly audible, and presently, without moving, and in a low murmuring +voice, he said: + +"I understand, Sam. I knew you were here. I heard you singing outside, +many days ago." + +Then the wounded man pretended to have difficulty in adjusting his +blankets, and Sam rose and bent over the cot to help him. While doing +so, he said: + +"Mis' Agatha, she done brung me to New York, an' sent me heah to fin' +yo'. How's you a-gittin'? Tell me, so's I kin report, an' tell me every +day." + +Baillie replied briefly that his wound was healing and his strength +coming back, to which Sam answered: + +"Don't you go fer to tell de doctah too much 'bout dat. Jes' keep as +sick as you kin, while you'se a-gittin' well. I'll tell you why another +time. Git 'quainted wid Sam more an' more ebery day, Mas' Baillie, so's +we kin talk 'thout 'rousin' 'spicion." + +In aid of this, Sam took pains, as the days went on, to establish +relations with all the other patients who were well enough to talk, and +as his inconsequent humour seemed to amuse them, the doctors made no +objection to his loquaciousness. + +It was one of the articles in Sam's philosophical creed that "yo' cawn't +have too many frien's, 'case yo' cawn't never know when you may need +'em." Accordingly, he cultivated acquaintance with everybody, high and +low, about the place, including the peculiarly surly man who brought the +coal and the kindling-wood for the establishment. That personage was a +white man of melancholy temper and extraordinary taciturnity. He went in +and out of the place, wearing a long overcoat that had probably seen +better days, but so long ago as to have forgotten all about them. The +only other article of his clothing that was visible was a slouch hat, +the brim of which had completely lost courage and could no longer +pretend to stand out from the head that wore it, but hung down like a +limp lambrequin over the man's eyes. The man himself seemed in an +equally discouraged condition. He shambled rather than walked, and never +answered a question or responded to a salutation, except in Sam's case. +To him, when the two were alone, the man would sometimes speak a few +words. + +Sam was daily and hourly studying everybody and everything about him, +with a view to possibilities. Nobody was too insignificant and nothing +too trivial for him to note and consider and remember. "Yo' cawn't never +know," he philosophised, "what rock will come handiest when yo' wants to +frow it at a squirrel." + +As the weeks passed, Baillie Pegram so improved that he sat up, and even +walked about the place a little. One day, Sam learned that Baillie and +three others were deemed well enough to be removed from hospital to +prison, and that the transfer was to be made two days later. During the +night after this discovery was made, Sam trudged through a blinding +snow-storm--the last, probably, of the waning winter--to the house of +Agatha's friends, ten or a dozen miles away, and back again through the +snow-drifts, arriving at the hospital about daylight, as he had often +done before, after a prowling by night. + +He had made all his arrangements but one, and he had armed himself for +that, by drawing upon Agatha's friends for ten dollars in small bills. + +During the day, he managed to tell his master all that was necessary +concerning the emergency, and his plans for meeting it. + +"To-morrow 'bout sundown, Mas' Baillie," he said, at the last. "'Member +de hour. When Sam speaks to yo' at de front do', yo' is to go ter yo' +cot. Yo'll fin' de coat an' de hat a-waitin' fo' yo'. Put 'em on quick, +an' pull de hat down clos't, an' turn de collah up high. Den walk out'n +de back do' fru de wood-shed, an' pass out de gate, jes' as ef yo' was +de ole man, sayin' nuffin' to nobody. Yo' mustn't walk straight like yo' +always does, but shufflin'-like, jes' as de ole man does. Den mount de +coal kyart an' drive up to de forks o' de road. Den shuffle out'n de +coat an' hat, an' git inter de sleigh. Yo' frien's 'ull take kyar o' de +res'." + +Having thus instructed his master, Sam postponed further proceedings +until the morrow. He had not yet opened negotiations with the old +coal-man,--negotiations upon which the success of his plans +depended,--but he trusted his wits and his determination to accomplish +what he desired, and he had no notion of risking all by unnecessary +haste. + +Even when the coal-man came during the next morning, Sam contented +himself with asking if he would certainly come again with his cart about +sunset of that day, as he usually did. Having reassured himself on that +point, Sam said nothing more, except that he would himself be at leisure +at that time and would help bring in the load of wood. + +Then Sam finished his scrubbing, and spent the afternoon in repairing +the apparatus of his handicraft. He readjusted the hoops on his +scrubbing-bucket, scoured his brushes, and ground the knife that he was +accustomed to use in scraping the floor wherever medicines had been +spilled or other stains had been made, for Sam had a well earned +reputation for thoroughness in his work. Curiously enough, he this time +ground the knife-blade to a slender point, "handy," he said, "fer +gittin' into cracks wid." + +When the coal-man came with a load of wood, a little before sunset, +dumping it outside the gate, Sam was ready to help him carry it in and +split it into kindlings within the shed. For this work, when the wood +had all been brought in, the old man laid off his overcoat and hat. +Thereupon Sam opened negotiations. + +"I'se a-gwine to a frolic to-night," he said, "an' I'se a-gwine to have +a mighty good time a-playin' o' de banjo an' a-dancin', but hit's +powerful cold, an' de walk's a mighty long one." + +Then, as if a sudden thought had come to him, he said: + +"Tell yo' what! 'Spose yo' lemme wahr yo' overcoat. Yo' ain't got far to +go, an' I'll give yo' a dollah fer de use of it." + +The old man hesitated, and Sam was in a hurry. + +"I'll make it two dollahs, an' heah's de money clean an' new," pulling +out the bills. "Say de word an' it's your'n." + +The offer was too tempting to be resisted, and the bargain was quickly +made. + +"Reckon I better go brush it up," said Sam, taking the garment and +managing to fold the soft hat into it. He passed through the door into +the hospital, cast his bundle upon Baillie Pegram's bed, and walked +quickly to the front door, where his master was standing looking out +upon the snow, now darkening in the falling dusk. + +"All ready," the negro said, in an undertone, as he passed, and Captain +Pegram wearily turned and walked toward his cot. Half a minute later, +what looked like the old coal-man passed into the wood-shed, and out of +it at the rear, whence, with shuffling steps he walked to and through +the gate, mounted the coal-cart, and slowly drove away. + +Sam, hurrying around the building, entered the wood-shed just as his +master was leaving it, and confronted the owner of the coat and hat that +Pegram wore. He was none too soon, for the old man, seeing Pegram pass, +clad in his garments, thought he was being robbed, and was about to +raise a hue and cry. Sam interposed with an assumption of authority: + +"Stay right whah yo' is," he commanded, "an' don't make no noise, do yo' +heah? Ef you keeps quiet-like, an' stays heah at wuk fer ha'f a hour, +an' den goes away 'bout yo' business a-sayin' nothin' to nobody, you'll +git another dollah, an' I'll tell yo' whah to fin' yo' clo'se. Ef yo' +don't do jes' as I tells yo', yo'll git dis, an' yo' won't never have no +'casion fer no clo'se no more. Do yo' heah?" + +Sam held the keenly pointed knife in his hand, while the old man worked +for the appointed space of half an hour. At the end of that time, Sam +said: + +"Now yo' may go, an' heah's yo' dollah. Yo'll fin' yer kyart at de forks +o' de road, an' yer coat an' hat'll be in de kyart. But min' you don't +never know nothin' 'bout dis heah transaction, fer ef yo' ever peeps, +dey'll hang yo' fer helpin' a pris'ner to escape, an' I'll kill yo' +besides. Go, now. Do yo' heah?" + +Sam watched him pass out through the gate and turn up the road. When he +had disappeared, the black strategist muttered: + +"Reckon dat suggestion 'bout gittin' hisse'f 'rested fer helpin' a +pris'ner 'scape, will sort o' bar itse'f in on de ole man's min'. He +won't never let hisse'f 'member nuffin' 'bout dis heah. Anyhow, Mas' +Baillie's gone, an' it's time Sam was a-gittin' out o' this, too." + +With that the boy secured his banjo and bade good night to the surgeon +whom he met outside, saying that he was going to have a "powerful good +time at de frolic." + + + + +XXV + +_A NARROW ESCAPE_ + + +Baillie Pegram found little difficulty in imitating the shambling gait +of the old coal man as he walked to the hospital exit. In his weakness +he could hardly have walked in any other fashion. He managed with +difficulty to climb upon the cart, and to endure the painful drive to +the forks of the road, somewhat more than half a mile away. + +There he found a sleigh awaiting him, with four women in it, all muffled +to the eyes in buffalo-robes, and a gentleman wrapped in a fur overcoat, +on the box. The gentleman gave the reins to one of the ladies, and +proceeded to help Pegram from the coal-cart, while the others stepped +out upon the hard frozen snow. + +The body of the sleigh was deep, and it had been filled with fresh rye +straw. One of the gentlewomen parted this to either side, and spread a +fur robe upon the floor beneath, into which the gentleman hurriedly +helped Baillie, drawing the robe closely together over him, and +replacing the straw so that no part of the fur wrapping beneath could be +seen. + +All this was done quickly, and without a word, the women resumed their +seats, the man cracked his whip, and the spirited horses set off at a +merry pace. + +By way of precaution, a roundabout road was followed, and it was late +when the sleighing-party reached its destination. There the women +alighted and passed into the house. The gentleman drove the sleigh into +the barn, with Baillie Pegram still lying under the straw. When the +horses were unhitched, their owner directed the negro, who took charge +of them, to walk them back and forth down by the stables to cool them +off, before putting them into their stalls. It was not until the hostler +was well away from the barn that his master removed the seats and lifted +Baillie from his hiding-place under the straw. By that time, a young +man, perhaps thirty years old, and strong of frame, had appeared, and +the two hurriedly carried the now nearly helpless man into the house, +where a bed awaited him. Stripping him, the younger man proceeded to +examine the wound with the skilful eye of a surgeon. + +"The wound has suffered no injury," he presently said to his host, "but +the man is greatly exhausted. Will you heat some flat-irons, and place +them at his feet? He must have nourishment, too, but of course it won't +do to bring any of the servants in here--" + +"I'll manage that," said the host. "We are all supposed to have been out +on a lark, and I always have a late supper after that sort of thing. +I'll have it served in the room that opens out of this. As soon as it +comes, I'll send the servants away, and we can feed your patient from +our table." + +In the meanwhile, the ever faithful Sam, half frozen but full of courage +and determination, was toiling over the flint-like snow, trying to reach +the house before the morning. In order that he might the better keep his +hands from freezing, he cast his banjo into a snow-filled ravine, +saying: + +"Reckon I sha'n't need you any more, an' ef I does, I kin git another." +With that, he thrust his hands into his pockets, where his accumulated +earnings reassured him as to his ability to buy banjos at will. + +It had been a part of the plan of rescue that Baillie should remain but +a brief while at his present stopping-place. It was deemed certain that +a search for him would be made as soon as his escape should be +discovered, and the house in which he had been put to bed that night was +likely to be one of the first to be examined, wherefore Sam was anxious +to reach that destination as soon as possible, lest he miss his master. + +But when the morning came, Baillie was in a high fever, and the doctor +forbade all attempts to remove him, for a time at least. As the day +advanced, the fever subsided somewhat, and Baillie grew anxious to +continue his journey. Finally, the doctor hit upon a plan of procedure. + +"You simply must not now undertake the long journey we had intended you +to make to-day, Captain," he said, "but the distance to my house in the +town is comparatively small. I might manage to take you there this +afternoon, if you think you can sit up in my sleigh for a five-mile +ride, and then get out at my door and walk into the house without +tottering on your legs." + +Baillie eagerly protested his ability to endure the ride, and the doctor +proceeded to arrange for it. Some clothing had already been provided in +the house for Baillie to don in place of his uniform, and the doctor now +said: + +"I'm going to drive home at once. I'll be back before three o'clock. Get +the captain into his citizen's clothes and have him ready by that time, +but let him lie down till I come, to spare his strength. I've a patient +in town, a consumptive, and I've been taking him out with me every fine +day, for the sake of the air. He is not very ill at present, but he is +one of us, and will be just as sick as I tell him to be when I get him +here. I'm afraid I shall find it necessary to ask you to keep him for a +day or two." + +The hint was understood, and the doctor drove away behind a pair of good +trotters. Before the appointed time he returned, bringing his patient +with him, and at his request the sick man was put to bed in the room +where Baillie had passed the night. + +A few minutes later a party of soldiers rode up and reported that they +were under orders to search the house for an escaped Confederate +officer. The doctor, with a well assumed look of professional concern on +his face, said to the officer in command of the squad: + +"That is a trifle unfortunate just now. I have a patient in the +adjoining room--a young man in pulmonary consumption. Of course you'll +have to search the house, but I beg you, Lieutenant, to spare my +patient. His condition is such that--" + +"I'll be very careful, I assure you. I'll go alone to search that room, +and make as little disturbance as possible." + +Still wearing a look of anxiety, the doctor said: + +"Couldn't you leave that room unexamined, Lieutenant? I assure you on my +honour that there is nobody there except my patient." + +The physician's anxiety suggested a new thought to the officer's mind. + +"I take your word for that, Doctor. I believe you when you tell me +there's nobody but your patient in that room. But your patient may +happen to be the very man we want, even without your knowing the fact. +Our man is very ill, recovering from a severe wound,--and he'd be sure +to need a doctor after walking, as he must have done, a dozen miles in +this snow. Pardon me, Doctor; I do not mean to accuse you of any +complicity; but you are a physician, bound to do your best for any +patient who sends for you, and to keep his confidence--professional +ethics requires that. I shall not blame you if I find your patient to be +my man. You are doing only your professional duty. But I must see the +man. I can tell whether he's the one we want. Our man has been shot +through the body, and the wound is not yet completely healed. My orders +are to look for that wound on every man I have reason to suspect, and I +must do my duty." + +"O, certainly," replied the physician. "You'll find no wounds on my +patient, and I earnestly beg you to avoid exciting him more than is +absolutely necessary. You see, in his condition, any undue excitement--" + +"O, I'll be very careful, Doctor, very careful, indeed." + +"Thank you. It is very good of you. You see, as I was saying, in his +condition, any undue excitement--" + +"O, yes, I know all about that. You may trust me to be careful." + +"Again thank you. Come, Bob," looking at his watch, and addressing +Baillie, who was sitting by, "we must be going. I've half a dozen +patients waiting for me." + +Baillie rose, nerving himself for the effort, bowed to the lieutenant, +and walked out of the house. A minute later, muffled to the ears in +furs, the two men were speeding over the snow, with Sam clinging on +behind, and playing the part of "doctah's man." + +"Here," said the physician, handing Baillie a flask, "take a stiff swig +of that. You must keep up your strength." Then after he had replaced the +flask in his overcoat pocket, he chuckled: + +"That was very neatly done--to have you walk away in that fashion from +under the very nose of the man who was looking for you." + +Sam echoed the chuckle, and Baillie said: + +"I hope your patient will suffer no harm from all this!" + +"O, not a bit. He's in the game, and he'll enjoy it, especially after +they are gone, and he suddenly recovers from his extreme illness." + +"But why was it necessary to take him there at all?" + +"Why, under the circumstances, it would never have done for me to be +seen driving away from there with a companion when I had been seen +driving out there alone. As it is, your presence in the sleigh is +satisfactorily accounted for to everybody who sees us. But how about +your discarded uniform? Won't they find that?" + +"No. Sam reduced it to ashes early this morning, and then aired the room +to get rid of the smell of burning wool." + +"That was excellent. Who thought of doing it?" + +"Sam." + + + + +XXVI + +_MADEMOISELLE ROLAND_ + + +During all those months of waiting, Agatha Ronald had remained in New +York, under the advice of Marshall Pollard's friend, who was accustomed +to put his counsel into the form of something like a command whenever +that seemed to him necessary. She was urged to remain in the city, too, +by all her friends who were near Baillie Pegram's prison hospital. "Stay +where you are," was the burden of all their letters. "You can do no good +here, and you may do much harm if you attempt to come, while you will +very surely be needed where you are, if we succeed, as we hope, in +effecting Captain Pegram's escape. We shall do all that is possible to +accomplish that, but when we do he will still be a very ill man,--for if +he is to escape at all, it must be before he sufficiently recovers to +be sent to a prison. You will be needed then to care for him somewhere, +for, of course, he must not remain in this quarter of the country. Be +patient and trust us--and Sam. For that boy is a wonder of devotion and +ingenuity. He has just left us to return to the hospital before morning. +He makes the journey on foot by night, three times a week, walking +twenty odd miles each trip, in all sorts of weather. When we +remonstrated with him to-night--for a fearful storm is raging--and told +him he should have waited for better weather, he indignantly replied: +'Den Mis' Agatha would have had to wait a whole day beyond her time fer +news. No sirree. Sam's a-gwine to come on de 'pinted nights, ef it rains +pitchforks an' de win' blows de ha'r offen he haid.'" + +So Agatha busied herself with such concerns as were hers. She laboured +hard to improve the service of her "underground railroad," and sent +medicines and surgical appliances through the lines with a frequency +that surprised the authorities at Richmond. She corresponded in a +disguised way with her friends in and near Washington, offering all she +could of helpful suggestion to them and through them to Sam. It was by +her command that Sam told his master, while in the hospital, just where +and how she was to be found if he should escape, and how perfectly +equipped she was to come to his assistance in such a case. + +For the rest, she battled bravely with her sorrow and her anxieties, +lest they unfit her for prompt and judicious action when the time for +action should come. In brief, she behaved like the devoted and heroic +woman she was. + +After long months of weary waiting, her pulse was one day set bounding +by the tidings that the master of Warlock had escaped from the hospital, +and was in safe hands. This news was communicated by means of a +telegram, which said only, "Dress goods satisfactory. Trimmings +excellent." + +Fuller news came by letter a day later, and it was far less joyous. It +told her that the exposure, exertion, and excitement of the escape had +brought Baillie into a condition of dangerous illness; that he lay +helpless in the physician's house; that no one was permitted to see him +for fear of discovery, except Sam, who had been installed as nurse. + +Other letters followed this daily for a week, each more discouraging +than the last. Finally came one from the doctor himself, in answer to +Agatha's demand, in which he wrote: + +"I labour under many difficulties. Captain Pegram's presence in my house +must be concealed as long as that can be accomplished. I am a bachelor, +and I often receive patients for treatment here, but in this case the +man's illness is the consequence of a bullet wound, and should that fact +become known, it would pretty certainly cause an inquiry; for my +Southern sentiments are well known, and in the eyes of the governmental +secret service, I am very distinctly a 'suspect.' The consequence of all +this is that I dare not introduce a competent nurse into the house. + +"Sam is willing and absolutely devoted, but of course he knows nothing +of nursing. Yet nursing, and especially the tender nursing of a woman, +is this patient's chief need. If he were in New York now, where +political rancour is held in check by the fact that sentiment there is +divided, and where people are too busy to meddle with other people's +affairs, we could manage the matter easily. You can scarcely imagine how +different the conditions here are. I might easily command the services +of any one of half a dozen or a dozen gentlewomen of Maryland whom I +could trust absolutely. But the very fact of my bringing one of them +here to nurse a stranger, would set a pack of clever detectives on the +scent, and within twenty-four hours they would know the exact truth. + +"You will see, my dear young lady, how perplexing a situation it is. I +hoped at first that Capt. P. might presently rally sufficiently to stand +the trip to New York. I could have managed that. But he simply cannot be +moved now, or for many weeks to come. It would be murder to make the +attempt." + +When Agatha had read this latter, her mind was instantly made up. + +"I must go to him at all hazards and all costs, and nurse him myself. +But first I must think out a way, so that there may be no failure." + +She sat for an hour thinking and planning. Then she got up and hurriedly +scribbled two letters. It was after nightfall, and Agatha had never yet +gone into the streets by night. Her terror of that particular form of +danger was great. But these letters must be posted at once, and by her +own hand. There were no lamp-post mailing-boxes in those half-civilised +days, and she must travel many blocks to reach the nearest post-office +station. She took up the little pistol which she had so long carried for +the purpose of defending her honour by self-destruction, if need should +arise, examined its chambers, placed it beneath her cloak, and hurried +into the street. + +Then, as now, to the shame of what we call our civilisation, no woman +could traverse the thoroughfares of a great city after dark and +unattended without risk of insult or worse. Then, as now, a costly +police force utterly ignored its duty of so vigilantly protecting the +helpless that the streets should be as safe to women as to men, by night +as well as by day. + +During that little walk of a dozen city blocks through streets that the +public adequately paid to have securely guarded, Agatha felt far more of +fear than she had experienced while facing the canister fire of Baillie +Pegram's guns. + +She escaped molestation more by good fortune than by any security that +police protection afforded or now affords to the wives and daughters of +a community that calls itself civilised, and pays princely sums every +year for a police protection that it does not get. + +One of her letters was addressed to a friend in Baltimore. It gave her +the address of Marshall Pollard's friend, the banker, and added: + +"On receipt of this you are to telegraph, asking him to find and send +you a nurse who speaks French--a Frenchwoman preferred. He will send me, +in response to the demand, as Mlle. Roland,--an anagram of my own name. +I shall speak nothing but French in your house, and afterward." + +To Baillie's doctor she wrote: + +"I think I see a way out of your difficulties. Can you not make a new +diagnosis of Captain Pegram's case--finding him ill of tuberculosis, or +typhoid, or some other wasting malady corresponding with his external +appearance, thus concealing the fact that he suffers in consequence of a +wound? He speaks French like a Parisian--I suppose he can even dream in +that language, as I always do--so for safety and by way of forwarding +my plan, you may regard him as a French gentleman who has fallen ill +during his travels in America, and come to you for treatment. You are to +be very anxious to secure a French nurse for him, and to that end you +may write as soon as you receive this, to the gentlewoman whose address +in Baltimore is enclosed, asking her to procure such a nurse if she can. +I will be that nurse, and will know no English during my stay. This plan +will enable me to go to Captain Pegram's bedside without exciting the +least suspicion, and, when he is sufficiently recovered to travel, there +will be little if any trouble in arranging for his nurse to take the +convalescent to New York, and thence to Europe. Once out of the country +and well again, he can go to Nassau, and thence to a Southern port on +one of the English blockade-running ships. To secure all this we must +scrupulously maintain the fiction that he is a Frenchman, and I a French +nurse." + +Agatha's first care on the next morning was to visit the banker and +instruct him as to the part he was to play in the conspiracy, when the +telegram should come from Baltimore. That done, she plied her needle +nimbly, fashioning caps, aprons and the like, such as French nurses only +wore at that time, before there were any trained nurses other than +Frenchwomen among us. She was already wearing black gowns, of course, +and when she added a jet rosary and a stiffly starched broad white +collar to her costume, she had no need to inform anybody that she was a +hospital-bred nurse from Paris. + +In the little Maryland town where Baillie Pegram lay in a stupor, her +advent attracted much curious attention, especially because of the +jaunty little nurse's cap she wore, and of her inability to speak +English. But this curiosity averted, rather than invited suspicion, as +Agatha had intended and planned that it should do. + +The physician's knowledge of the French language was scant, and his +pronunciation was execrably bad, but he managed to greet the nurse in +that tongue on her arrival, and to say, very gallantly: + +"Now my patient should surely get well. Under care of such a nurse even +a dead man might be persuaded back to life." + + + + +XXVII + +_AGATHA'S WONDER-STORY_ + + +Agatha had been for more than a week at Baillie Pegram's bedside before +he manifested any consciousness of her presence. But from the very first +her ministrations had seemed to soothe him. + +Even when his fever brought active delirium with it, a word from his +soft-voiced French nurse quieted him, and each day showed less of fever +and more of strength. + +At last one day he lay quiet, and Agatha sat stitching at something near +the foot of the bed. Her face was bent over her work, so that she did +not see when he opened his eyes and gazed steadily at her for a time. +Not until she looked up, as she was accustomed watchfully to do every +little while, did he fully recognise her. Then, in a feeble voice, he +spoke her name--nothing more. + +She gently readjusted his pillows, and he fell into a more natural +sleep than he had known since his relapse had befallen him. + +When he waked again, Sam was sitting by, Agatha having left the room for +a brief while. + +"Who has been here, Sam?" the sick man asked. + +"Nobody, Mas' Baillie, on'y de French lady what's a-nussin' of yo'," +replied Sam, lying with the utmost equanimity, in accordance with what +he believed to be the spirit of his instructions. + +"I dreamed it, then. Tell me where I am, Sam." + +"I ain't Sam an' yo' ain't Mas' Baillie; I'se jes' _garshong_, an' yo'se +a French gentleman, an' yo' cawn't talk nuffin' but French, an' so +'tain't no use fer yo' to try to talk to me. Yo' mus' jes' go to sleep, +now, an' when de French nuss comes back, yo' kin ax her in French like +whatsomever yo' wants to know." + +Baillie's bewildered wits struggled for a moment with the problem of his +own identity, but before the French nurse returned he had fallen asleep +again. It was not until the next day, therefore, that he had opportunity +to ask Agatha anything, but his fever had abated by that time, and his +mind was rapidly clearing. + +"Tell me about it all, please," he said to her. + +"Sh--speak only in French," she replied, herself speaking in that +tongue. "It is very necessary, and address me as Mademoiselle Roland." + +Then she told him so much as was necessary to prevent him from +exercising his imagination in an exciting way. When she had explained +that he was still in the house of the doctor who had aided him in his +escape, and that the pretence of his being a French gentleman and she a +French nurse was necessary for safety, she added: + +"I came to you when you were very ill and needed me, and I shall stay +with you so long as you need me. You mustn't talk now. Wait a few days, +and you will be strong enough." + +The prediction was fulfilled, and a few days later Agatha told him the +whole story of her own and Sam's search for him, dwelling particularly +upon Sam's devotion and the ingenuity he had brought to bear upon the +problem of rescue. For at times when there was no possibility that +anybody should overhear, Agatha had made Sam tell her all the details +of that affair, until she knew as well as he did every word he had +spoken and every step he had taken in the execution of his purpose. + +Baillie's progress toward recovery was necessarily slow, but it was +steady and continuous, and after many weeks, when he was permitted to +sit up for awhile each day, he begged to hear about the progress of the +war. + +It was now September, 1862, and what she had to tell him was one of the +most dramatic stories that the history of our American war has to +relate. + +McClellan had proved himself to be a great organiser and a masterful +engineer, and he had at last tried to prove himself to be also a great +general. + +He had so perfectly fortified the city of Washington that a brigade or a +division or two might easily hold it against the most determined hosts. +He had organised the "regiments cowering upon the Potomac," and the +scores of other regiments that had come pouring into the capital, into +one of the finest armies that had ever taken the field in any +country in the world. He had multiplied his artillery, and +swelled his cavalry force to proportions that rendered it numerically +superior to Stuart's "Mamelukes." He had so perfected his supply +departments--quartermaster's, commissary's, medical, and ordnance--that +their work was accomplished with the precision, the certainty, and the +smoothness of well-ordered machinery. + +He had brought under his immediate command a perfectly organised army, +numbering nearly or quite two hundred thousand men.[1] The Confederates +had in Virginia about one-fourth that number available for the defence +of Richmond. Nor could this army of defence be reinforced from other +parts of the South, for during the long waiting-time in Virginia, events +of the most vital importance had been occurring at the West. Chief of +these in importance, though the government at Washington was slow to +recognise the fact, was the discovery there of a really capable +commander--General Grant. He had captured Forts Henry and Donelson, thus +gaining control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, breaking the +Confederate line of defence, and pushing the Southern armies completely +out of Kentucky, and almost out of Tennessee. He was preparing, when +McClellan moved, to complete that part of his work by fighting the +tremendous battle of Shiloh. + +[Footnote 1: Rossiter Johnson, in his "History of the War of Secession," +says that 121,000 were sent to Fortress Monroe and seventy thousand left +at Washington, besides McDowell's corps and Bleuker's division.] + +Thus the Confederates could not afford to draw so much as a single +regiment or battery from that field for the strengthening of Johnston's +force in Virginia. Finally, early in March, Johnston had withdrawn from +Centreville and Manassas to the immediate neighbourhood of Richmond. + +It was in such circumstances that McClellan at last undertook to use the +great army he had created, for the purpose it was meant to accomplish. +Early in the spring, he transferred 120,000 men by water to Fortress +Monroe, leaving seventy thousand at and near Washington, to hold that +capital secure. Somewhat more than half of this force at Washington was +to advance upon Richmond by way of Fredericksburg, and add forty +thousand men to McClellan's great army when he should sit down before +the Confederate capital. He, meanwhile, was to march up the peninsula +formed by the York and James Rivers, supported by the navy on either +side. + +Richmond was seemingly doomed, and everywhere at the North the +expectation was that McClellan, with his overwhelming forces and his +well-nigh perfect organisation, would make an end of the war before the +first anniversary of the battle of Manassas. + +If McClellan had been half as capable in the field as he had proved +himself to be in the work of organisation, this might easily have +happened. But he was cautious to a positively paralysing degree. It was +his habit of mind to overestimate his enemy's strength to his own +undoing. Thus when he began his advance up the peninsula, with nearly +sixty thousand men, to be almost immediately reinforced to one hundred +thousand and more, he found a Confederate line stretched across the +peninsula at Yorktown. It consisted of thirteen thousand men under +Magruder, and with his enormous superiority of numbers, McClellan might +have run over it in a day, while with his transports, protected by +gunboats, he might easily have carried his army by it on either side, +compelling its retreat or surrender. But in his excessive caution he +assumed that the entire Confederate force was concentrated there, and +his imagination doubled the strength of that force. He confidently +believed that the Yorktown lines were defended by an army of eighty +thousand or more, and instead of finding out the facts by an assault, he +wasted nearly a month in scientifically besieging the little force of +thirteen thousand men, with an army six or eight times as great, and a +siege train of enormous strength. + +When at last he had pushed his siege parallels near enough for an +assault, he found his enemy gone, and discovered that the great frowning +cannon in their works were nothing more than wooden logs, painted black, +and mounted like heavy guns. + +The North had not yet found a general capable of commanding the superb +army it had created, or of making effective use of those enormously +superior resources which from the beginning had been at its disposal. +Grant had splendidly demonstrated his capacity at Shiloh, but Halleck +had immediately superseded him, and completely thrown away the +opportunity there presented. Grant was still denied any but volunteer +rank, and for many weeks after Shiloh he was left, as he has himself +recorded, with none but nominal command, and was not even consulted by +his immeasurably inferior superior. + +McClellan at last reached the neighbourhood of Richmond, and placed his +great army on the eastern and northern fronts of the Confederate +capital. But still permitting his imagination to mislead him, he +confidently believed the Confederate forces to be quite twice as +numerous as they were in fact. So instead of pressing them vigorously, +as a more enterprising and less excessively cautious commander would +have done, he proceeded to fortify and for weeks kept his splendid army +idle in a pestilential swamp, whose miasms were far deadlier than +bullets and shells could have been. + +At the end of May the Confederates assailed his left wing, believing +that a flood in the river had isolated it from the rest of the army, and +a bloody five days' battle ensued, with no decisive results, except to +demonstrate the fighting quality of the troops under McClellan's +command. + +Still he hesitated and fortified, and urgently called for +reinforcements. These to the number of forty thousand were on their way +to join him, marching directly southward from Washington. + +But the Confederates had been more fortunate than their foes. They had +found their great commander, a piece of good fortune which did not +happen to the Federal armies until nearly two years later. After the +battle of Seven Pines at the end of May and the beginning of June, +Robert E. Lee assumed personal command of the forces defending Richmond, +and from that hour the great game of war was played by him with a +sagacity and a boldness that had not been seen before. + +Lee's problem was to drive McClellan's army away from Richmond, and +transfer the scene of active hostilities to some more distant point. To +that end he must prevent the coming of McDowell with his army to +McClellan's assistance. Accordingly he ordered Jackson to sweep down the +Shenandoah valley, threatening an advance upon Washington in its rear, +thus putting the Federals there upon their defence. He rightly believed +that the excessive concern felt at the North for the safety of the +capital would make Jackson's operations an occasion of great alarm. + +The result was precisely what Lee had intended. Jackson swept like a +hurricane through the valley, moving so rapidly and appearing so +suddenly at unexpected and widely separated points as to seem both +ubiquitous and irresistible. The Federal army which was marching to +reinforce McClellan was promptly turned aside and sent over the +mountains to meet and check Jackson. While it was hurrying westward, +Jackson suddenly slipped out of the valley and carried his "foot +cavalry"--as his rapidly marching corps had come to be called--to the +neighbourhood of Richmond, where Lee was ready to fall upon his +adversary in full force, striking his right flank like a thunderbolt, +pushing into his rear, pressing him back in successive encounters, +threatening his base of supplies on the York River, and finally +compelling him to retreat to the cover of his gunboats at Harrison's +Landing on the James. + +All this constituted what is known as the "Seven Days' Battles." It was +a brilliant operation, attended at every step by heroic fighting on both +sides, and by consummate skill on both--for if Lee's successful +operation for his enemy's dislodgment was good strategy, McClellan's +successful withdrawal of his army from its imperilled position to one +in which it could not be assailed, was scarcely less so. + +But still more dramatic events were to follow. McClellan had been driven +away from the immediate neighbourhood of the Confederate capital, but +his new position at Harrison's Landing was one from which he might at +any moment advance again either upon Richmond or upon Petersburg, which +was afterward proved to be the military key to the capital. His army was +still numerically stronger than Lee's, and it might be reinforced at any +time, and to any desired extent, while Lee had already under his command +every man that could be spared from other points. More important still, +the fighting strength of McClellan's forces had been bettered by the +battling they had done. The men were inured to war work now, and had +improved in steadiness and discipline under the tutelage of experience. + +Except that its confidence in its general was somewhat impaired, the +Army of the Potomac was a stronger and more trustworthy war implement +than it had been at the beginning. So long as it should remain where it +was, Lee must keep the greater part of his own force in the +intrenchments in front of Richmond, and the seat of war must remain +discouragingly near the Confederate capital. In the meanwhile a new +Federal force, called the Army of Virginia, had been sent out from +Washington under General John Pope, to assail Richmond from the north +and west, while securely covering Washington. Pope's base was at +Manassas, and his army had been pushed forward to the line of the +Rappahannock, where there was no army to meet it and check its advance +upon Richmond. + +Lee must act quickly. For should Pope come within striking-distance of +Richmond on the northwest, McClellan's army would very certainly advance +from the east, and Richmond would be threatened by a stronger force than +ever before. + +But Lee could not move in adequate force to meet and check Pope's +advance, without leaving Richmond undefended against any advance that +McClellan might see fit to make. His perplexing problem was to compel +the withdrawal of McClellan, and the transfer of his army to Washington. + +To effect this, Lee again played upon the nervous apprehension felt in +Washington for the safety of that city. He detached Jackson, and sent +him to the Rappahannock to threaten Pope, while remaining within reach +of Richmond in case of need. This movement increased the apprehension in +Washington, and a considerable part of McClellan's force was withdrawn +by water. Thereupon Lee sent another corps to the Rappahannock, a +proceeding which led to the withdrawal of pretty nearly all that +remained of McClellan's army, to reinforce Pope, and the abandonment of +the campaign by way of the peninsula. Lee instantly transferred the +remainder of his army to the Rappahannock, leaving only a small garrison +in the works at Richmond. + +Pope was alert to meet Lee at every point, and he was being strengthened +by daily reinforcements from what had been McClellan's army. But in +Pope, with all his energy and dash and extraordinary self-confidence, +the Federal government had not found a leader capable of playing the +great war game on equal terms with Robert E. Lee. Grant and Sherman were +still in subordinate commands at the West, while Halleck, who believed +in neither of them, had been brought to Washington and placed in +supreme control of all the Union armies. + +Lee quickly proved himself greatly more than a match for Pope in the art +of war. Making a brave show of intending to force his way across the +river at a point where Pope could easily hold his own, Lee detached +Jackson and sent him around Bull Run Mountains and through Thoroughfare +Gap to fall upon his adversary's base at Manassas. As soon as Jackson +was well on his way, Lee sent other forces to join him, while still +keeping up his pretence of a purpose to force a crossing. + +It was not until the head of Jackson's column appeared near Manassas +that Pope suspected his adversary's purpose. He then hastily fell back +from the river, and concentrated all his forces at Manassas, while Lee, +with equal haste, moved, with the rest of his army, to join Jackson. + +His strategy had completely succeeded, and he promptly assailed Pope, +with his entire force, on the very field where the first great battle of +the war had been fought, a little more than a year before. + +Pope struggled desperately, but after two days of battle, he was +completely beaten and forced to take refuge behind the defences of +Washington. + +This was at the beginning of September, just three months after Lee had +taken personal command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Within that +brief time he had done things, the simplest statement of which reads +like a wonder-story. At the beginning of June a Federal army of 120,000 +men lay almost within cannon-shot of the Confederate capital, while +another Federal force about one-third as large was marching unopposed to +form a junction with it, and still other Federal armies occupied the +valley and sent raiders at will throughout Northern Virginia. At the +beginning of September there remained no Federal army at all in Virginia +to oppose Lee's will, whatever it might chance to be. McClellan with his +grand army had been beaten in battle, and driven into a retreat which +ended in his complete withdrawal, after a disastrous campaign, which at +its beginning had seemed certain of success. Jackson had cleared the +valley of armies superior to his own in numbers. Pope had been outwitted +in strategy, beaten in battle, and driven to cover at Washington. + +That was the story that Agatha related to Baillie early in September, +when he was fit to hear it. It stirred his blood with enthusiasm, and +bred in him an eagerness almost dangerous, to be at the head of his +battery again, and a sharer in this splendid work of war. + +"Your story is not ended yet," he said, when Agatha had finished. "It is +'to be continued,'--be very sure of that. Lee will not rest content with +what he has done, marvellous as it is. He took the offensive as soon as +he had disposed of McClellan. He will surely not now assume the +defensive again, as our army did a year ago after the battle of +Manassas. He is obviously made of quite other stuff than that of his +predecessors in command. And here am I losing my share in it all,--a +convalescent in charge of a nurse, and in hiding in the enemy's country. +I tell you, Agatha, I must break out of this. As soon as I have strength +enough to ride a horse, I must find a way of getting back to Virginia. +And with the stimulus of strong desire, I shall not be long now in +regaining that much of strength. In the meanwhile, I must think out a +plan by which I can pass the Potomac without falling into the enemy's +hands." + +"I have already thought of all that," returned his companion, "and I +have had others thinking of it, too,--all the friends in Maryland with +whom I am in correspondence. After studying the conditions minutely we +are agreed in the positive conviction that it will be impossible for you +to get through the Federal lines, which are more rigidly drawn and more +vigilantly guarded now than ever before. You cannot even start on such a +journey without being arrested and imprisoned, and that would completely +defeat your purpose." + +"I must take the chances, then. For I simply will not sit idly here +after I get well enough to sit in a saddle." + +"Listen," commanded Agatha. "You are exciting yourself, and that is very +bad for you. Besides, it is wholly unnecessary, for I have thought +myself not into despair, but into hopefulness, rather. I have devised a +plan, the success of which is practically assured in advance, by which +you and I are going back into the Confederacy. No, I will not tell you +what it is just now. You have excited and wearied yourself too much +already. You must go back to your bed now, and sleep for several hours. +When you wake, you shall have something to eat, and after that, if I +find you sufficiently calm, I will tell you all about it. In the +meantime, you may rest easy in your mind, for my plan is sure to +succeed, and it will not be difficult of execution." + + + + +XXVIII + +_WHEN A MAN TALKS TOO MUCH_ + + +When Baillie had had his rest, he asked Agatha again to tell him of her +plans. She explained that it was understood in the little town that he +was a French gentleman who had suffered a severe hemorrhage; that as +soon as he should be sufficiently recovered, it was his purpose to +return to his own country in charge of his French nurse; that she +planned in that way to sail with him from New York for Liverpool, where +he would be free, as soon as his health should return, to go to the +Bahamas and sail thence for Charleston, Wilmington, or some other +Southern port, in one of the English blockade-runners that were now +making trips almost with the regularity of packets. + +Baillie approved the plan, though he lamented the length of time its +execution must consume. + +"Agatha," he said,--for since that morning at Fairfax Court-house he +had addressed her only by her first name,--"I owe you my life, and I +shall owe you my liberty, too, as soon as this admirable plan of yours +can be carried out. I owe you, even now, such liberty as I have, for but +for you--" + +"You mustn't forget Sam," she interrupted; "it was he and not I who +rescued you from the prison hospital." + +"O, my appreciation of Sam's devotion is limitless, and my gratitude to +him will last so long as I live. But it was you who brought him North; +it was you who planned my rescue at terrible risk to yourself, and put +Sam in the way of accomplishing it. And the doctor tells me without any +sort of qualification that but for your coming to me as a nurse when you +did, I should have died certainly and quickly. Don't interrupt me, +please, I'm not going to embarrass you with an effort to thank you for +what you have done. There is a generosity so great that expressions of +thanks in return for it are a mockery--almost an insult, just as an +offer to pay for it would be. I shall not speak of these things +again--not now at least, not until time and place and circumstance +shall be fit. I only want you to know that silence on my part does not +signify indifference." + +Baillie made no reference to that occasion when an untimely declaration +of his love had been wrung from him only to be met by a passionless +reminder that the time and place were inappropriate. He felt +instinctively that any reference to that utterance of his would be in +effect a new declaration of his love. In this spirit of chivalry, +Baillie scrupulously guarded both his manner and his words at this time, +lest his feelings should betray him into some expression that might +embarrass the woman whose care of him must continue for some time to +come. Feeling, on this occasion, that he had approached dangerously near +to some utterance which might subject his companion to embarrassment, he +resolutely turned the conversation into less hazardous channels. + +"Your plan is undoubtedly the best that could be made under the +circumstances," he said, "and as for the waste of time, we must simply +reconcile ourselves to that. After all, I cannot hope to be strong +enough for several months to come, to resume command of my battery in +such campaigns as this great leader of ours will surely give us. For he +is really and truly a great leader, Agatha. Only a great general could +have wrought the marvels he has achieved. He would have proved himself +great if he had done nothing more than prevent McClellan's reinforcement +by sending Jackson to the valley. That was a great thought. And the next +was greater. Having compelled the Federals to divert their reinforcing +army from its purpose, he brought Jackson to Richmond, and fell upon +McClellan with a fury that compelled his vastly superior army to abandon +its campaign and retreat to the cover of its gunboats. There was a +second achievement of the kind that only great generals accomplish. And +even that did not fulfil the measure of his greatness. With a truly +Napoleonic impulse, and by truly Napoleonic methods, he instantly +converted his successful defence of Richmond into an offence which has +been equally successful, so far. By his prompt movement against Pope he +has compelled the complete abandonment of McClellan's campaign and the +withdrawal of his army from Virginia. By his crushing defeat of Pope, he +has cleared Virginia of its enemies, and changed the aspect of the war, +from one of timorous defence on the part of the Confederates to one of +confident aggression." + +"What a pity it is," answered Agatha, "that some such man was not in +command when the first battle of Manassas was won!" + +"Yes. Such a man, with such an opportunity, would have made a speedy end +of the trouble. He would never have given McClellan a chance to organise +such an army as that which has been besieging Richmond. However, that is +not what I was thinking of. I was going to say that a man capable of +doing what Lee has done, will not rest content with that. He will +continue in the aggressive way in which he has begun, and we shall hear +presently of other battles and other campaigns. Agatha, I simply _must_ +bear a part in all this. I am getting stronger every day now, and can +sit up two hours at a time. Why can we not now carry out your plan? Why +can we not go at once to New York in our assumed personalities, and sail +immediately, so as to save all the time we can?" + +"I have thought of that," the young woman answered, "but the doctor +peremptorily forbids it for the present. He hopes you will be well +enough two or three weeks hence to make the effort, but to make it short +of that time, he says, would be almost certainly to spoil all by +bringing on a relapse. You must be patient; we shall in that way make +our success a certainty, and the war will last long enough for you to +have your part in it, surely." + +"Yes, unhappily for our country, it will last long enough." + +The next morning brought news of a startling character. Lee was already +beginning to fulfil Baillie's prediction by an aggressive campaign. +Having driven the enemy out of Virginia, he now undertook to transfer +the scene of the fighting to the region north of the Potomac. He had +sent Jackson again to clear the valley, and was marching another corps +northward upon a parallel line east of the mountains, while holding the +remainder of his small but potent army in readiness to form a junction +with either of the detached corps when necessary. The movement clearly +foreshadowed a campaign in Maryland which, if it should prove +successful, would place the Confederates in rear of Washington, and +render that capital untenable, if Lee should win a single decisive +battle north of the Potomac. + +The alarm in Washington was such as almost to precipitate a panic. For +had not Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia proved themselves far more +than a match for every general and every army that had tried conclusions +with them? Moreover, as they were advancing, full of the enthusiasm of +recent victory, and free to pursue whatever routes they pleased, there +was nobody to meet them except one or the other of two generals already +discredited by defeat at Lee's hands, and an army drawn from those that +the Army of Northern Virginia had so recently overthrown in the field. + +Pope was no longer thought of as a leader fit for the task of meeting +Lee. His campaign in Virginia had ended so disastrously, that men forgot +all his former achievements, at Island Number Ten in the Mississippi, +and elsewhere. He had already been removed from command and sent to +fight Indians in the Northwest. There remained only McClellan, whom Lee +had already outmanoeuvred and outfought, and both the government and +the army had lost confidence in him. But the emergency was great, and +McClellan, who had been removed, was again ordered to take command. + +From the two armies that had been driven out of Virginia, a new one was +quickly organised, which greatly outnumbered Lee's force. But instead of +moving quickly to the assault, as Grant, or Sherman, or Thomas would +have done under like circumstances, McClellan moved at a tortoise-like +pace, giving his adversary ample time in which to unite his three +columns, pass the Potomac unmolested, and push forward into Maryland. + +All this was to come a little later, however. On the morning when Agatha +read the newspapers to Baillie, all that was known was that Lee was +rapidly moving northward, with evident intent to invade Maryland and +push his columns into the rear of Washington. + +"This is good news for us, Agatha," Baillie said, when the despatches +had been read. "Unless Lee receives a check, the Army of Northern +Virginia will be swarming all about us here within three or four days. +If that occurs, you and I and Sam will have no difficulty in going to +Virginia by a much more direct route than the one we have been planning +to follow. An ambulance ride with liberty for its objective will do me +no harm, while you and Sam shall be provided with good horses. Stuart +will take care of that, even if he has to capture the horses from the +enemy." + +"We may safely trust him for so much of accommodation," answered the +girl. "But if you excite yourself as you are doing now, you'll be ill +again, and spoil all. You must go back to bed at once and go to sleep. +That is your shortest road to rescue, now, whether Lee comes this way or +is beaten back. In either case you will need all of strength that you +can manage to accumulate." + +The sick man obeyed, so far at least as going to bed was concerned. But +he found it impossible to comply with his nurse's further injunction by +going to sleep. His pulses were throbbing violently with the excitement +of hope, and his nerves were tense almost to the verge of collapse. When +the doctor returned from his round of visits he found his patient in a +fever that, in one so weak, was dangerous. During the following night +Baillie grew worse, and by the next morning the physician was convinced +that he had lost most if not all of the ground that he had gained during +three weeks of convalescence. + +"Mademoiselle Roland," he said, "I must command you to forbid him to +talk hereafter, even in French." + +Baillie heard the remark, and came instantly to Agatha's defence. + +"It was not her fault, Doctor," he said. "It was all my own." + +"O, I know that," answered the physician. "She's the discreetest nurse I +ever knew, while you are without question the most obstinate, +cantankerous, and unruly patient a nurse was ever called upon to keep in +subjection." + +"Am I all that?" Baillie asked Agatha, when the doctor had left the +room; "all that he said?" + +"No, certainly not. But you mustn't talk. Go to sleep." + +"Thank you!" was all that he could say in the stupor which the physician +had induced with a sleeping potion. + + + + +XXIX + +_A STRUGGLE OF GIANTS_ + + +When Baillie woke from his drug-compelled sleep, his condition was far +better than the doctor had anticipated. Lee was coming now, and the sick +man was buoyed and strengthened by a confident hope of speedy rescue. +The Army of Northern Virginia was in Maryland, and Baillie was sure that +it would push rapidly eastward to and beyond the town where he had so +long lain ill. + +So it would have done if all had gone well. But there was a Federal +force of eleven thousand men at Harper's Ferry. By all the principles of +strategy it ought to have retired as soon as Lee crossed the Potomac +above or below that point. To remain was to be cut off and to invite +capture. McClellan, as a trained and scientific soldier, understood this +perfectly, and he wished the force at Harper's Ferry to be withdrawn and +added to his army. He was overruled by the civilian authorities at +Washington, and the detached force remained in its entrenchments, +completely isolated and helpless. + +But in the meanwhile its presence at Harper's Ferry completely blocked +Lee's only secure route of retreat in case of disaster. It was +absolutely necessary for him to reduce it before continuing his progress +northward or eastward. To that end he was obliged to send Jackson back +across the Potomac, with orders to assail Harper's Ferry from the south, +while other forces, detached for that purpose, should hold positions +north and east of the town, thus preventing the garrison's escape. + +Jackson did his part promptly and perfectly, as it was his custom to do. +He carried the place, capturing the entire garrison of eleven thousand +men, and all the guns, ammunition, and military stores, which had been +accumulated there in vast quantities. + +This was a very important capture, but in order to accomplish it, Lee +had been compelled to scatter his forces in a dangerous fashion, besides +losing the advantage that would have attended a rapid advance against +an enemy who could not know whither he purposed to go, but must guard +all roads at once. For from Lee's position after he had crossed the +river it was open to him to advance upon Washington or Baltimore or +Philadelphia as he might elect, keeping his adversary in the meanwhile +in a state of embarrassing uncertainty as to his purposes. + +But when he sent Jackson back and detached other strong forces to hold +the avenues of escape from Harper's Ferry, his army was badly scattered, +its several parts lying at too great a distance from each other for +ready coöperation. + +During the consequent days of waiting, McClellan was advancing in +leisurely fashion to meet the Confederate movement, and his army was +every day adding to its strength by the hurrying forward of fresh +regiments and brigades to its reinforcement. + +Finally Lee issued an order setting forth in detail his plan for +concentrating his scattered forces. Copies of this order, showing the +exact location of each part of the army and the movements to be made by +each, were sent to all of the corps commanders. One of those copies was +lost, and fell into McClellan's hands. + +For once that most leisurely of generals was in a hurry. His opportunity +had come to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia by beating it in +detail. He threw a strong force forward to assail certain of its +positions. The assault proved successful, but the success did not come +so quickly as it should have done. By determined fighting Lee gained +time in which to bring his scattered forces together again at Sharpsburg +before his adversary could fall upon him in force. There, on Antietam +Creek, on the 17th of September, 1862, was fought a battle which is +reckoned the bloodiest of all the war, in proportion to the numbers +engaged. + +McClellan had seventy thousand men in line, Lee forty thousand. The +struggle began early in the morning and continued until after nightfall. +The fighting on both sides was as heroic and as determined as any that +was ever done in the world. At the end of it all both sides claimed the +victory, and neither had in fact won it. Neither had been able to drive +the other from his position. Neither had broken the other's lines or +gained any decisive advantage. And when morning came again neither side +was willing to renew the contest, and neither would retire from the +field. + +For a whole day the two armies lay facing each other in grim defiance, +each ready to receive the other should it attack, but neither venturing +to make the assault. + +After twenty-four hours of defiant waiting, Lee slowly retired to the +Potomac, while McClellan lay still, not venturing to follow his +adversary. Lee crossed unmolested into Virginia and took up a position +within easy striking distance, but his adversary made no attempt to +strike. McClellan presently advanced and stretched his great army along +the Potomac. But he assumed an attitude of defence, calling insistently +for reinforcements, though his army outnumbered Lee's about two to one. + +He had succeeded in checking Lee's invasion of the North and turning it +back. He was content with that, and in spite of President Lincoln's +urgency he refused to do more, till at last General Burnside was ordered +to assume command in his stead. + +It was confidently expected both at the North and at the South, after +Lee's withdrawal to Virginia, that as soon as his army should be rested, +he would again take the offensive, assail McClellan at some point, and +attempt a new march northward. This expectation was strengthened when +Stuart, early in October, plunged across the river with his cavalry, +galloped over the country, penetrated into Pennsylvania, and saucily +rode entirely round McClellan's army, just as he had done a few months +before at Richmond, in preparation for Lee's seven days' battle. + + + + +XXX + +_THE LAST STRAW_ + + +When the news came to Baillie and Agatha that Lee and McClellan had met +in a great battle, and that the Army of Northern Virginia had retraced +its steps across the Potomac, both lost heart a little. + +But Baillie was now regaining strength at a surprising rate, and his +eagerness to carry out Agatha's plan of escape, by way of England, +Nassau, and a blockaded Southern port, became importunate. + +Yielding to it, early in October, Agatha hurriedly made her final +preparations. Through her friend in New York she engaged passage for +herself, Baillie, and Sam, on a Cunard steamer appointed to sail on the +15th of the month. She made all necessary arrangements for the sick +French gentleman, his French nurse, and his negro valet to make the +journey to New York on the 14th, in order that they might sail the next +morning. + +But a few days before the time set for their departure a great +excitement arose in the town where Baillie had so long lain ill. The +Confederates were coming again; they had destroyed McClellan in a great +battle, current rumour reported, and were now marching upon Washington +unopposed. So the rumours ran. + +Later tidings corrected all this to some extent. It was learned that +there had been no battle as yet, and that the invading force was only +the vanguard of Lee's advance. + +"I think I understand what it means," said Agatha, who had followed +Stuart's operations in the past with close attention, learning to +appreciate his methods. "This is simply one of General Stuart's +splendidly audacious raids. He rode around McClellan at Richmond, you +remember; he rode around Pope, and captured his baggage, and his +uniform, and all his mules at Manassas two months ago. I suspect that he +is simply riding around McClellan again in search of forage and stores +and glory." + +"That is probably what the movement means," answered Baillie, "though +it may be made in preparation for another advance of the whole army, +just as each of his former exploits was. In either case, if he comes +this way it will answer our purpose. I shall escape with him. If it is +only a cavalry raid, of course Stuart will have to force his way back +through or over whatever obstacles McClellan may throw in his path, and +in that case there will be a continual running fight with no secure rear +for you to take shelter with. Of course, if the whole army advances, a +secure way will be open, but if only the cavalry come, there will be no +line of communication. In that case it will be necessary for you to +remain here, or rather go on to New York and sail for Liverpool as we +have both intended." + +"You are forgetful, Captain Pegram. I have ridden with General Stuart +before, and as to placing myself under fire, I think you know I am not +without experience. No. If General Stuart comes this way, I shall ask +him for a horse and play outrider to the ambulance in which you are to +travel." + +"But, Agatha!" he pleaded, "I am unwilling to have you expose yourself +thus needlessly. Think of the danger and the hardship, and think too of +the discomfort you must suffer as a solitary woman in company with a +horde of rough-riding cavalrymen!" + +"Hush! I will not hear one word even in suspicion of our Virginia +cavaliers. I know those superb fellows, and I trust them. They may be +rough as riders, and they are certainly rough fellows for the enemy to +encounter, but they are gallant gentlemen; they are as gentle as only +giants of courage can be, in their attitude toward a defenceless woman. +If the opportunity comes, I shall certainly ride with them." + +At that moment there was a scurrying in the streets, a hurried closing +of the little shops, and a scampering of juvenile chronic offenders to +points of secure observation. + +A minute or two later some gray-clad regiments of cavalry trotted into +the town, taking temporary possession of it. They created no more of +disorder, and made far less noise than a Sunday-school picnic might have +done. Not a man of them was permitted to quit his place in the ranks +even for a single moment, for Stuart had given strict orders, and his +lieutenants enforced them relentlessly. + +There were very valuable commissary and ordnance stores belonging to the +United States government in the town, and the advance squadron of the +cavalry quietly took possession of these military supplies, quickly +loading them into wagons, but touching no single cent's worth of private +property of any kind, and molesting no citizen. So the orders ran. + +Half an hour sufficed for this work, and at the end of that time the +column moved out of the town in silence and good order. + +Captain Baillie Pegram accompanied it in an ambulance, with Sam riding +at its tail, and Agatha, mounted upon a stout and war-seasoned cavalry +horse, preceding the vehicle. + +At nightfall the detachment joined the main column, and there was a +brief pause for supper. Agatha, in her capacity of nurse, questioned +Baillie closely as to his condition, and found that he had seemingly +taken no harm from excitement or weariness. When she had satisfied +herself on that point, she ventured to tell him that his own battery lay +around the ambulance. He promptly sat up and asked to see his +subalterns and certain of his men. + +"You may see a few of them," answered his nurse, "if you will receive +them lying down. If you insist upon sitting up, I'll not permit a single +one of them even to grasp your hand." + +He yielded to her authority, and during the remainder of the brief +halting time, there was a cheering reunion of comrades and a hasty +interchange of personal news between men who loved each other as only +those men do who have stood together under an enemy's fire and together +endured the hardships of campaigning. + +The enemy's cavalry was by this time approaching in considerable force, +and Stuart, whose plan did not include any purpose of unnecessary +fighting, set his column in motion again. But he did not take the line +of march which he had been following all day. That had been intended as +a blind. By threatening several points in directions quite other than +the one he meant to take, he had accomplished two important purposes. He +had gained time for all his scattered detachments to rejoin the column, +and he had compelled the enemy to scatter his forces in many directions +for the defence of the threatened points. + +Having thus shaken off the greater part of the force pursuing him, he +began his march that night in such a direction as to suggest that he +meant to return if possible by the route by which he had come. For this +his enemy was of course prepared. As soon as the cavalry forces that +were observing his movement discovered what they took to be his purpose, +they withdrew for a space and planted themselves across his pathway. +Infantry and artillery forces were hurried forward in support, and the +enemy confidently believed that at last the wily cavalier was securely +entrapped. + +To encourage this mistaken belief, Stuart threw forward a small force of +men armed with carbines, and instructed them to maintain a scattering +fire upon the enemy's pickets during the night as if feeling of the +position in preparation for an attempt to break through it on the +morrow. + +No sooner was this disposition made than the main body of the +Confederates was turned into the by-roads that led toward the Potomac at +a point far east of McClellan's position and farther down the river. + +By a rapid march it reached the river at daylight and crossed it by +sunrise. In the meanwhile, just before the dawn, the detachment which +had been left behind to maintain a show of intended battle during the +night, quietly withdrew, and rode at a gallop to rejoin the escaping +column. The enemy did not discover their withdrawal until sunrise, by +which time they were many miles away, galloping toward the river, which +they crossed without molestation. + +It was not until the column halted in Virginia for a breakfast that +might be taken in security, that Stuart met Baillie and Agatha in +person. He insisted upon hearing the whole story, even making Sam take +part in its telling. At parting he sought a word apart with Agatha, and +said to her: + +"I suppose you and Captain Pegram have quite ceased to be 'almost +strangers' by this time." + +The girl flushed crimson, but managed to answer: + +"No, General. I have simply been his nurse, you know, and--and--well, +he has been very ill." + +"Nevertheless," answered the cavalier, "I'll court-martial him when he +returns to duty, if I hear no better report than that of his conduct." + +This bit of playfulness on Stuart's part had the effect of making Agatha +exceedingly uncomfortable in her mind. She had so long been caring for +Baillie as a man ill nigh unto death, that she had ceased to think of +conventionalities in connection with her relations to him. But Stuart's +jest reminded her that others might not be equally forgetful, especially +now that her patient was rapidly regaining his strength. + +"My work is done," she said to herself, "and I must no longer intrude +myself upon Captain Pegram or his affairs. As soon as he can be sent off +to Warlock in Sam's care, I must bid him a final adieu and go back to my +loneliness at Willoughby. After all, I shall have enough to do there, +caring for the poor negroes and managing the plantation so that it shall +yield enough for them to live upon. I wonder if everything has fallen +into complete neglect there during my absence? Now that Chummie has gone +to the angels, I am needed there. And besides I must look after my +underground railroad affairs. I wonder if the line is in good working +order, and if it is carrying as much freight as it ought." + +She realised, too, now that the parting was drawing near, how much +Baillie Pegram's presence had come to mean to her, how necessary a part +of her life he had become, and how barren and desolate that life must be +when they two should have spoken a final good-bye. For during her period +of nursing, he and she had come to be the best of comrades, and at such +times as his condition had permitted, they had fallen into habits of +intimate converse. Their talks, it is true, had never been personal in +character. They had talked of books and travel and life; now and then +they had discussed philosophy, ethics, æsthetics, and a hundred other +subjects external to themselves. But although their converse had not +been personal in character, it had taught each to know the impulses, the +sentiments, and the convictions of the other in a degree that purely +personal intercourse never could have done. + +Agatha understood all this now, as she had not understood it before, +and the understanding saddened her. For she was resolutely determined +now to take herself as completely out of this man's life as if she had +never known him at all. She proudly realised her duty, and she would not +flinch from its doing. + +"Did I not break off the acquaintance at that Christmas-time nearly two +years ago?" she argued with herself. "Was I not strong and resolute, the +moment I learned what my duty was? Why then should I not do the same +again?" + +She let her thoughts wander at will. "It is true there was war between +us then, and there is none now. There never has been since Chummie +talked with me that last night of his life. And it seems harder now in +other ways. Since I have come to know Captain Pegram so well, and +especially since I have taken care of him in a time of helplessness, it +seems harder to send him away and tell him that we are mere +acquaintances, not likely to see much of each other hereafter." + +Then she generalised in this fashion: + +"Life is very hard on women in any case--much harder than it is on men, +in every way. And the worst of it is that men do not want it to be so, +and nothing they can do can prevent. Even in that restriction of our +lives which petty conventionality forces upon us, men cannot come to our +relief. It is women who hold women to such restrictions. Men would laugh +them away, if we would let them, but we never will. We hold each other +to the rigidest standards of propriety, even when propriety makes +needless and foolish exactions of us. Men never do that. They want us to +be innocently as free as they are, but we are afraid to be so. We are +afraid of other women. Even Chummie could not succeed in setting me +free. I was too much afraid of other women's opinions, too much a slave +to other women's standards to accept the freedom he tried so hard to +force upon me. + +"No, that isn't just it. I am not really afraid of other women's +opinions; I am afraid of my own. I have laughed at and defied other +women's standards, many a time, and I shall go on doing so to the end, +whenever I am convinced that their opinions are unsound and their +standards wrong. I did that when I went North to find and rescue Captain +Pegram. I knew perfectly that my good aunts would look upon my conduct +with positive horror, and that the least any other woman of my +acquaintance would say about my conduct would be 'How could she?' in +tones that meant all that is possible of condemnation. But I did not +care for all that, and I do not care for it now, because I know that +what I did was right, and that Chummie would have said so if he had +lived till now. The trouble is that in the main I share those opinions +of other women which so restrict the liberty of all women. I am afraid +of those opinions because they are my own as well as others'; I submit +myself to those standards of feminine conduct because I share the +opinion that sets them up and enforces obedience to them." + +At this point Agatha "shied" away from the thought that had in fact +suggested all this introspective meditation. She would not admit, even +to herself, that she was strongly moved by a perfectly natural impulse, +to bridge the chasm that lay between her and Baillie Pegram, to remind +him of what he had said to her that far-away morning on the picket-line +at Fairfax Court-house, and so give him opportunity to say it again. +When that thought intruded itself upon her, she was shocked and +startled by it. It seemed to her immodest in an extreme degree, +unwomanly, almost atrocious. She would not harbour it for a moment. She +cast it out of her mind, and was bitterly resentful against herself for +having permitted it even to suggest itself. + +"I must act at once," she resolved, when the day's march was resumed. "I +must flee from the devil of this temptation. If Captain Pegram suffers +no relapse to-day, I will bid him good-bye in the morning. No, I will +not bid him good-bye. That would be too--well, it would be almost like +acting upon that hideous thought. I shall simply go without saying a +word to him. Perhaps I shall leave a little note for him, simply telling +him that I am going to look after affairs at Willoughby, as he no longer +needs his French nurse. I'll be very careful, in writing it, not to--not +to make it more than coldly courteous and friendly." + +It was nearly nightfall when the cavalcade rejoined the main body of +Lee's army. Agatha made haste to secure a careful examination of Baillie +by a staff surgeon. He reported that the convalescent man had taken no +harm from the journey, but was so far recovered that a month's rest +would render him fit for duty again. Assured of this, Agatha sent for +Sam and minutely instructed him as to the care of his master on the +homeward journey which, she had arranged, was to begin immediately, with +the assistance of an ambulance for a part of the way. + +Then, early the next morning, she went to Stuart, and preferred a +request. In the present disturbed state of things she hesitated to make +the journey to Willoughby alone, and she asked for an escort for a day. + +Stuart looked at her with a face far sadder than his was accustomed to +be, and said: + +"I have very bad news for you, Miss Agatha. You cannot go to +Willoughby--for there is no Willoughby. That was one of the many +plantations ravaged by Pope while he held Northern Virginia. The house +and all the barns were burned, and every living animal for a score of +miles around was killed. Even if Willoughby had been spared, it would +not do for you to live there now. The armies will move to new positions +presently,--nobody knows where,--and this northern part of Virginia will +be no fit place for women and children to live in till the war is +over." + +The girl sat pale and speechless, as she listened. It was as if she had +received a blow in the face. She had bravely met danger and sorrow and +hardship, and had endured them all with heroic resolution. She seemed +now quite unable to endure this new trial of her courage. She made no +outcry and shed no tears. She simply sat there before the headquarters +camp-fire, statue-like in her pallor and her immobility. Stuart gently +laid his hand upon her head, and sought to soothe her with a voice that +was always gentle when he spoke to a woman. + +Agatha seemed not to know what he was doing. She made no response to his +words, and as he looked into her face the light went out of her great +brown eyes. + +A moment later she reeled, and Stuart caught her in his brawny arms. + +"Bring a surgeon quick," he commanded. + +Then he gently laid the seemingly lifeless form upon a blanket which the +sentinel spread upon the ground. + + + + +XXXI + +_AT WARLOCK AND AT THE OAKS_ + + +For the first time in her life Agatha Ronald was ill. For the first time +her strength had given way under prolonged strain. The surgeon who had +been summoned to attend her ordered that she should be sent immediately +to some place in rear of the army's exposed position, where she could +have complete rest. + +Unfortunately there was no such place within a day's journey--no place +which might not at any hour become the scene of battle or at the least +of massive manoeuvring. Nowhere short of Charlottesville was there a +secure resting-place for the overwrought nerves that had so stoutly held +their own as long as their ministering strength was needed in the +service of others. + +While this matter was still under perplexed discussion, Marshall Pollard +made his timely appearance. Hearing of the arrival of Baillie and +Agatha with Stuart's returning column, he had ridden forward from his +camp to meet and greet his friends. He had passed a quarter of an hour +with the master of Warlock, who was now permitted to sit up most of the +time, and who was to start almost immediately on his homeward journey. +While they two were talking together, word reached Sam's ears that his +"Mis' Agatha" had fallen ill at General Stuart's camp-fire. Marshall +went with him immediately to her, under an injunction from Baillie to +"get her out of this, Marshall, if you can. Tell her not to mind me, but +to take care of herself. Tell her I shall be ready for duty almost +immediately--tell her I'm on duty--tell her anything and everything that +will persuade her to let you take her to a place of safety." + +Marshall was quick to see the necessity of prompt action, and Agatha was +far too ill to oppose his plans in any way. Stuart had ordered a little +tent stretched for her, and here it was decided she should remain until +Captain Pollard could arrange for her removal. + +He first secured a week's leave of absence for himself. While arranging +that, he had half a dozen of his men scouring the country round about +in search of a carriage. One was found which had escaped destruction +during the days of Pope's unsparing ravaging. It was an old-fashioned +vehicle of family state, swung high upon C springs and stoutly built for +service. + +In this conveyance, Agatha, still dazed and unresisting, was started on +her homeward journey early the next morning. One of Pollard's battery +men acted as driver, while Pollard himself rode by the side of the +carriage. + +About midnight the party reached Charlottesville, where tender, loving +hands took charge of Agatha for the night. + +The journey had rather rested than wearied her, and the physician who +had been summoned to attend her found her free from all positive +illness. + +"She has need of nothing now but rest and quiet," he said. + +When Marshall called upon her in the morning, he found the young woman's +mind clear again, and her nerves under control. + +"Tell me of Captain Pegram," she eagerly demanded, as soon as she had +briefly expressed her gratitude to Pollard for the care he was taking +for her comfort. + +With that gentle smile which always so invited affection, Marshall +reassured her concerning her late patient. + +"He is in Sam's excellent hands, and on his way to the rear by this +time. He will be on duty again pretty soon. Indeed, if the army were +stationed anywhere in particular just now he wouldn't go away from it at +all. He would take command of his battery at once, merely reporting +himself on the sick-list for a week or two. As it is he must go away for +a little while. Now let us talk about yourself. I have a week's leave, +granted for the express purpose of letting me do what is best for you. +Tell me what is best--or rather--it's the same thing--what is most to +your liking? Will you stay here, or--" + +"If I may," she answered, quickly, "I want to go home--to The Oaks, I +mean, for that is the only home I have in all the world now. Please take +me there." + +"It would be a very long journey by carriage," he said, as if talking to +himself, "but we can make the trip by rail if you are strong enough to +stand it." + +It was necessary in those days to think of a railway journey as a +formidable undertaking for any but the strongest persons. There were no +such things known then as sleeping-cars, or drawing-room cars. The +railroads were badly built, with the rails spiked down to loose ties, +and in no way joined together at their ends. The cars were coupled +together by chain links, and operated with hand-brakes, so that when a +train was stopping, there was a jolting which in our day would be deemed +intolerable. In Virginia at that time there was the additional +discomfort of laminated iron rails, and cars badly out of repair. + +But Agatha's courage had come back to her now, and she was eager to +complete her journey as speedily as possible. So Marshall sent the +carriage back to its owner, and with Agatha, took the first train for +Lynchburg, whence another railroad would convey them to their +destination. + +There was very little of conversation between the two as they travelled, +for the jarring and the rattle of the disjointed train, as it jolted +over its intolerably ill-kept road-bed, made talking difficult and +hearing well-nigh impossible. But during the long pauses at the stations +Agatha related the story of her adventures, with something of that +relish which one always feels in telling of experiences past, which were +anything but relishful at the time of their occurrence. + +Better still, the two friends talked much of Baillie Pegram, a subject +that enlisted the sympathetic interest of both, and drew them closer +than ever together as friends. + +The good ladies of The Oaks welcomed Agatha with all of tenderness that +their dignity would permit. They deeply disapproved of all that she had +done, of course, but they reflected that she had suffered much, and as +she was not now strong they forebore to emphasise by words of censure +the condemnation which they could not avoid manifesting in their manner. +Agatha did not much mind their disapproval. This was one of the cases in +which, feeling that her conduct had been altogether right, she was not +troubled by the contrary opinions of others. Moreover she had other +subjects to think about. + +Captain Pollard went at once to Warlock, after delivering his charge +into her aunts' hands, and on the next day, when he visited The Oaks to +ask concerning her, he reported that the master of Warlock had reached +home and was still rapidly gaining strength. + +This news gave Agatha a little shock. She had intended, as we know, to +take herself out of Captain Pegram's life as quickly and as completely +as possible, and now circumstances had forced her to place herself near +to him again. She knew that as soon as he should be able to ride, +ordinary courtesy would compel him to visit her, and--well, she did not +want him to do that. She felt herself in the position of a woman who has +purposely placed herself in the way of inviting attentions, or at least +has suffered herself to be so placed. + +She had done nothing of the kind, of course. Indeed, she had had no +choice in the matter, but the very thought that Baillie Pegram might so +interpret her course, distressed her greatly, in her still +nerve-tortured condition. She cared nothing whatever for what others, +including her aunts, might think of the matter, but the thought that +Baillie Pegram might misunderstand was intolerable. + +Her aunts added to her embarrassment by adopting a course which plainly +showed that they entertained a fear identical with her own. They sent a +note to Warlock every day, inquiring concerning the health of that +plantation's master. They made these notes as coldly formal as stilted +rhetoric could contrive, and they were at pains to read the missives to +Agatha before sending them. + +"Why do you do that?" she asked, when the second day's note was read. +There was almost a querulous tone in her protest. + +"Why, it seems to us proper, dear; we want you to be assured that we +make no mention of your presence here, but take the utmost possible +pains to show Captain Pegram how entirely you are--" + +At that point Agatha rose to her feet and looked indignantly at her +relatives. For a moment there was danger of an outbreak of offended +pride, but by an effort the girl controlled herself and said, simply: + +"Please don't do it any more. I shall feel hurt if you offer again to +read to me anything you may have written. If you will excuse me I think +I will go to my room now. I am not strong to-day." + +It was the custom of the good ladies to protest that they "never could +understand Agatha;" but on this occasion they understood her +sufficiently to know that they had trodden very near a danger-line which +they were more than unwilling to cross. + +Baillie Pegram in his turn was by no means minded to submit to the +manifest purpose of The Oaks ladies that he should hear nothing about +Agatha, beyond what Marshall Pollard had reported to him during the two +days of his stay at Warlock. Marshall had gone now, and Baillie wrote in +response to the second of the notes: + +"I am getting well quite as rapidly as my best friends could wish. There +is not the slightest occasion for uneasiness about me. I am even +permitted to ride horseback a little. But I am exceedingly anxious for +tidings of Miss Agatha, whom you have not mentioned in either of your +notes. Will you not send me word concerning her, or better still, if she +is well enough to write, will you not ask her to send me a few lines? My +gratitude to her for all that she has done for me is very great, and so +is my anxiety to know that she is recovering from the painful illness +which was caused by her generous self-sacrifice in my behalf." + +As Agatha had asked her aunts not to read to her their letters to the +master of Warlock, those ladies chose to interpret her request as +including his letter to them. They made no mention of the fact that he +had written to make inquiries concerning her. She wondered a little that +he had not done so, but on the whole, she argued, it was better so. + +Baillie was not so easily pleased. He chafed when the next note came +from The Oaks, bringing no tidings from Agatha, and when still another +of like character followed it, he grew uneasy, lest the silence might +mean that Agatha had herself forbidden all mention of her in letters +from The Oaks. + +"She is taking that method, probably," he argued, "of dismissing me +again, and letting me know that I must not presume upon the service she +has done me. What a fool I am, to be sure! I have been reckoning upon +her devotion to me in my illness and captivity as proof that what I +brutally blurted out at Fairfax Court-house was not unwelcome to her +after all. With her quick feminine perceptions, she has discovered how I +have been misinterpreting her duty doing, and she wants now to show me +my error in the simplest way possible." + +As he meditated, the soldier impulse in him asserted itself,--the +impulse to dare the worst in the hope of achieving the best. + +Acting upon that impulse he immediately wrote a note to Agatha, and sent +it by Sam, with orders to deliver it to her in person, if possible, and +at all events to ask for an answer and fetch it. + +In his note he told Agatha of his unanswered inquiries, and of the great +uneasiness he felt concerning her health. Finally he begged her to +relieve his anxiety by sending a line in reply. + + + + +XXXII + +_IN RIGHTEOUS WRATH_ + + +The grounds about The Oaks mansion were much more extensive than was +customary on Virginia plantations. The late owner, Agatha's father, had +cherished the forest growths jealously, permitting no tree to be cut +that could in any wise be preserved, and forbidding the encroachment of +the lawns immediately about the house upon the wild woodland growths +that bordered and surrounded them. It was Agatha's delight on windy +autumn days to wander in these woodlands, and on this morning Sam +encountered her quite half a mile from the house. She was hatless, and +the wind was taking what liberties it pleased with her thick-growing +hair, while she, having turned child again in her enjoyment of the +brilliant, gusty morning, was wading about in the depths of the fallen +leaves, delighting her soul with their rustling. + +Sam delivered his note and she read it. Instantly the child spirit in +her took flight and she became the strong, resolute, self-contained +young woman that she had learned to be during the storm and stress +period of her recent life. Her sudden access of dignity did not spare +even Sam. Like an officer in battle issuing his orders, she turned to +the negro boy and said: + +"Return to your master at once. Tell him you met me far from the house. +Say to him that I am almost as well as ever, and that I will answer his +note during the day. There. Go now, and deliver the message as I have +given it to you. Do you hear?" + +Sam's face grew long, as he turned about, and Agatha caught sight of it. +She was in a mighty rage, but not with Sam. She bethought her that the +boy had misunderstood, to the injury of his feelings, so she called to +him, and added: + +"I did not mean to speak sharply to you, Sam. You don't deserve any but +kindly words. I was thinking of something else. How are you since you +got back to Warlock, and tell me truly how your master is." + +"Thank you, Mis' Agatha," answered the boy, his face all smiles again, +"Mas' Baillie he's a-gittin' as lively as a spring chicken what don't +mean to be ketched. He rides every day now, an' don't he jes' eat! He'll +be all right in a week or two, yo' may be sure. As fer Sam, he ain't +never nothin' else but well, specially now dat we done git away from dem +Yankees an' back to Warlock ag'in!" + +Nevertheless Sam grew distinctly melancholy as he rode homeward, +repeating his message time and again in order that he might deliver it +correctly. The message seemed to him unduly curt, and certainly the note +he had delivered seemed somehow to have angered Agatha. Sam wondered how +and why, and he grieved over the circumstance, too, for Sam had taken +the liberty of making up his mind that Agatha would make an ideal +mistress at Warlock, and that the master of Warlock was planning some +such destiny for her. Her message and her manner suggested that she +resented all this, and that his master's hopes, which he took for +granted, were likely to be disappointed. + +Baillie Pegram's interpretation of the message when it was delivered to +him did not materially differ from that which Sam had put upon it. + +"She resents the liberty I have taken," he thought, "in writing to her +directly. She has forbidden her aunts to reply to my inquiries made +through them. She has sought in that way to tell me, by indirection, +that the old family war between herself and me still endures; that all +her suffering and sacrifice in ministering to me was inspired solely by +a sense of duty; that she wishes now to end our intimacy as she did two +years ago. Clearly that is the state of the case, and she is naturally +angry now that I have forced an attention upon her which compels her to +tell me directly what she had meant me to infer. What an idiot I was to +do that!" + +In the meanwhile Agatha had walked rapidly to the house. At the +beginning of her journey she indulged her indignation freely. She +rehearsed all the bitingly sarcastic things she meant to say to her +aunts, all the defiance she intended to hurl at their helpless heads. +But as she spent her superfluous vitality in brisk walking, she +recovered her self-control. + +"I will not scold," she resolved. "That would be undignified. I will be +calm and courteous, saying as little as may be necessary to let them see +my displeasure. They have grievously compromised my dignity by what they +have done. I must not sacrifice what remains of it by a petulant +outbreak. They have treated me like a child in pinafores, who must be +restrained lest she misbehave. I must show them that I have outgrown +pinafores. I must prove myself incapable of childish misbehaviour." + +Firm in this determination, she entered the house with Baillie Pegram's +note in her hand, and upon joining her aunts before the library fire, +she said quite calmly: + +"I have a note from Captain Pegram, who has got a notion into his head +that I am seriously ill, and that you are concealing the fact from his +friendly knowledge. He tells me he has twice asked you for news of me, +and you have made no response. Of course you forgot to mention in your +notes that I am quite well again." + +The ladies looked at each other with troubled eyes. Presently one of +them spoke: + +"No, dear, we did not forget. We have only been mindful of proprieties +which Mr. Pegram seems strangely to forget or ignore. Under the +circumstances, and in view of the relations between the Ronalds and the +Pegrams, it seemed to us rather impertinent in him to send messages to +you, even through us. We intended to rebuke his presumption by ignoring +the messages. Why, he even went so far as to ask us to let you write to +him yourself." + +Agatha received all this in silence, controlling herself with +difficulty. It was not until a full minute after her aunt had ceased to +speak that she said: + +"Go on, please." + +"There would seem to be no more to say; for surely it is needless to +comment upon Mr. Pegram's crowning impertinence in writing directly to +you." + +"Go on, please. Tell me all about it. You see I don't at all +understand." + +By this time the good dames began to realise that Agatha was either very +angry or very deeply hurt, so they decided to soothe and placate her. +This is how they did it. + +"No, dear, I suppose you do not understand. How should you, with such +bringing up as your grandfather gave you? Of all the strange +perversities--" + +"Stop!" cried Agatha, rising from her chair with a look upon her face +which her aunts did not understand but gravely feared. Their last spoken +words had set her free to speak. She had not dared resent their +criticism of Baillie Pegram's conduct. That might have been +misinterpreted. But the reflection upon her grandfather was a different +matter. She stood there livid to the lips and shaking with the +indignation which she was struggling to suppress. After that one word, +"Stop!" she remained silent for a space, struggling to restrain the +angry utterance that was surging to her lips. At last, speaking in a +constrained voice, she said: + +"I will not hear another word. Neither you nor any other human being is +worthy to speak my grandfather's name except with reverence. He was +great, and wise, and unspeakably good. He hated lies and shams and false +conventionalities." + +Here the roused tigress in Agatha was sharply restrained. She found +herself about to indulge in a tirade, and that she was resolved not on +any account to do. Still speaking in a voice of enforced calm, she +added: + +"I must go now and write to Captain Pegram. I shall dine with the Misses +Blair at The Forest to-day." + +To Baillie she wrote: + +"It is very kind of you to feel so much solicitude on my account. But it +is needless, as I am quite well again and growing stronger every day. I +go in half an hour to dine at The Forest, where I shall remain till +to-morrow. After that I shall go to Richmond in search of some way in +which I may be of service. I am pleased to hear through Sam that you are +so greatly better. Thank you again for all your kindness to me, and +good-bye." + +Having despatched this note, Agatha donned her hat and cloak and walked +out of the house. Without a pause she passed on through the grounds and +along the road to the plantation known as The Forest. + +She had made no adieus to her aunts. "To do that," she reflected, "I +should have to tell lies, or act them. I should have to say I am sorry +to leave them, and I am not sorry. Oh, Chummie! the world is very lonely +now that you are not in it! But you mustn't grieve in heaven, Chummie. +It will not be for long, you know, and while I stay here I'm going to +try harder than ever to be true and good and altogether truthful, as you +want me to be, and when I go to join you I'll be happy enough to make up +for all these little troubles here." + +At that moment a merry gust of wind blew off her headgear. She picked it +up, but did not replace it on her head. She liked to feel the crisp +breezes in her face. She even indulged the fancy that they bore caresses +to her from Chummie. + + + + +XXXIII + +_UNDER RED LEAVES_ + + +Agatha's note, coming after her curt message, was a sore puzzle to its +recipient. One might interpret it to mean anything or nothing. It was +courteous enough, but its courtesy was colourless and cold. It was such +a note as might have been addressed to the veriest stranger. There was +nothing in it to reassure the master of Warlock as to Agatha's view of +his conduct, nothing to allay his fear that she had resented his +inquiries as an impertinence. On the contrary, if that were the meaning +of the former silence and of the morning's message, this note was +precisely such as a sensitively self-respecting young woman might have +written when compelled by his persistence to write to him at all. + +It was a very bad quarter of an hour with him, during which he read the +missive a dozen times, unable to make out what it meant. + +But Baillie Pegram was not a man to despair until he must, or to rest +under a painful uncertainty. It was his habit of mind to meet dangers +and difficulties half-way, and question them insistently concerning +their extent. He called Sam, therefore, and bade him bring the +easy-going pacer which he had begun to ride for exercise, and mounting +the animal he set off at a gentle gait toward The Forest. + +He appeared there half an hour before the four o'clock dinner was +announced, and his welcome by his hostesses, Miss Blair and her sister, +was all the warmer for the reason that his arrival indicated, more +surely than any message from Warlock could have done, the extent of his +convalescence. + +Perhaps he was welcome also on another account. For the Misses Blair +were deeply concerned about Agatha, and they hoped that he might +persuade her, as they had failed to do, to give up her plan of going to +Richmond and seeking service as a hospital nurse or in some other +capacity in which a woman might employ herself. They were deeply +concerned as to the matter of nursing for the reason that it was deemed +highly improper in Virginia for any but married women to nurse in the +military hospitals, where the patients, of course, were men. + +Agatha had told them as little as possible of her affairs. She had said +nothing whatever of her quarrel with her aunts, only telling them that +she had left The Oaks finally, and asking them to send thither for such +personal belongings as she had there, so that she might remain overnight +at The Forest, and go to Richmond on the morrow. The younger Miss Blair +had volunteered to go in person on this errand, and from her the ladies +at The Oaks had first learned that Agatha had finally quitted the place +in her resentment. They were greatly distressed, and immediately ordered +their carriage and drove to The Forest, where Baillie Pegram found them +on his arrival. + +Their pleadings with Agatha had been earnest, insistent, and wholly +fruitless. She had manifested no anger, and they had discovered no +resentment in her voice as she replied to them. She had made no +complaints and uttered no reproaches. To all their pleadings she had +answered, simply: + +"I have quite decided upon my course. I shall not change my plans." + +The good dames were in such despair that they even welcomed Baillie's +coming. + +"We have done everything, said everything," they hastily explained to +him; "why, we have almost _apologised_ to the child, and all to no +purpose. Perhaps you can have some influence, Captain Pegram. Will you +not speak to her?" + +"I shall speak to her, of course," was his reply. "I am here indeed for +that express purpose. But I shall certainly not try to dissuade her from +any course that she may desire to pursue. That would be an impertinence +of which I am incapable." + +The Oaks ladies flushed as he spoke the word "impertinence," remembering +their own recent use of the term in connection with his conduct. Perhaps +Agatha had told him of that in her letter, they thought. If so it would +be most embarrassing for them to dine in his company and hers. So, +pleading their great agitation of mind as their excuse, they returned at +once to The Oaks, leaving Baillie and Agatha as the only guests of the +Misses Blair at dinner. + +When left alone with the young woman after dinner, the master of Warlock +opened the conversation as promptly as it was his custom to open fire +when the proper moment had come. + +"Agatha," he began, as the two stood in the piazza in the glow of the +early setting sun and in the midst of the blood-red Virginia creepers +that embowered the place, "Agatha, do you remember the words I spoke to +you on the picket-line at Fairfax Court-house?" Then without waiting for +her reply, he continued: "I have come to you now to say those words over +again, at a more fitting time and in a more appropriate place. I love +you. I have loved you ever since those days in Richmond, those precious +days when I first began to know you for what you are. I loved you all +through that cruel time when, in obedience to what you believed was your +duty, you decreed that there should be 'war between me and thee.' And +now after all that you have done and dared for me, my love for a nature +so pure, so noble, so heroic, passes understanding. I have a right to +tell you this now. Tell me in return, if it displeases you?" + +With that absolute truthfulness which was the basis of her nature, +Agatha replied as frankly as he had spoken. + +"It pleases me," she said. "I had not expected this. I thought I had +repulsed you so rudely that--oh! Baillie, you will never know." + +In a torrent of tears that were a more welcome answer than any words +could have been, she buried her face in her hands. + +Half an hour later these two sat by a crackling fire, arranging +practical affairs. + +"You do not wish to go back to The Oaks, then, even for a few weeks, and +to save appearances?" + +"No, Baillie, I cannot. I should have to act a lie every hour of my stay +there. I should be obliged to pretend friendship for my aunts when I +feel nothing of the kind. They have insulted the memory of my +grandfather, and they have spoken of you in a way that never so long as +I live will I let any human being speak of you without resenting it. I +do not care to 'save appearances,' as you put it. Appearances may look +out for themselves. 'Saving appearances' is only a sneaking way of +lying. No. I will go to some friends in Richmond, if they will let me--" + +"Why not go to Warlock?" he asked. + +"Why, that would outrage the proprieties beyond forgiveness now that +we--well, under the circumstances." + +So Mistress Agatha did "care for appearances" and conventions after all. +But Baillie did not think of that. + +"Why not go there as the mistress of Warlock--as my wife?" he asked. +"Why should we not be married to-morrow at Christ-Church-in-the-Woods? I +am a soldier. I shall be strong enough to return to duty presently. When +I do so I shall want to feel that you are safe at Warlock, that you are +mine, my wife to cherish while I live. Say that it shall be so, Agatha! +Let me send word to Mr. Berkeley, the rector, to-night, that we shall be +at the church at noon to-morrow!" + +[Illustration: "'_'At Christ-church-in-the-wood_'"] + +The girl thought for a moment, and then said: + +"Yes, that will be best. For then, if you fall ill or are wounded again, +I shall have a right to go to you and care for you. Let it be so. Now +you must not ride to Warlock on horseback to-night. It is very cool, and +you have already overtaxed your strength. I shall ask Miss Blair to send +you over in her carriage." + +When he had gone Agatha announced the news to her hostesses and +straightway set about writing a score of little notes to be despatched +by negro messengers early in the morning, to her friends in the +neighbourhood. To her aunts she wrote simply, and without formal address +of any kind, the bare statement: + +"Captain Baillie Pegram and I are to be married to-morrow, Thursday, at +noon, at Christ-Church-in-the-Woods." + +This note she sent before going to bed. When it was received at The +Oaks, a conversation ensued which was largely ejaculatory: + +"How shocking!" + +"Yes, and how scandalous!" + +"What will people say!" + +"The girl must be bewitched!" + +"And yet it is better than nursing soldiers, and she an unmarried +woman!" + +"Perhaps. At any rate it is clear that we can exercise no restraint +over the poor, headstrong child." + +"No, Captain Pegram has completely undermined our influence. Of course +we cannot lend our countenance to the affair by attending!" + +"I think we must. Otherwise people will talk. They might even call it a +runaway match." + +"That would be too dreadful!" + +"Yes. I think we must put the best face we can on the affair by +attending. In these war-times everything is topsyturvy. Ah, me! What a +pity we couldn't have had the child's bringing-up to ourselves!" + +"Yes, we should have made a very different woman of her. Anyhow, with +this marriage all our responsibility for her will be at an end. And +after all, perhaps it is as well to have it so, for if she had remained +single there is no knowing at what moment she would have done something +else as scandalous as her going North to nurse Mr. Pegram was." + +And so they cackled for half the night. + + + + +XXXIV + +_THE END AND AFTER_ + + +A few weeks later came the news that a campaign was on and battle +impending. Burnside had replaced McClellan in command of the Federal +armies in Virginia. He had at once begun a campaign against Richmond, +moving by way of Fredericksburg. There Lee met him, posting the Southern +veterans on the circling hills behind the town and awaiting his +adversary's assault. + +Baillie Pegram had resumed command of his battery now, but no longer +with the light guns that he had used while galloping with Stuart. A +captured Federal battery of six twelve-pounder Napoleons had been +assigned to him, and with these he took position on the crest of Marye's +Heights, where there was presently to occur one of the most heroic +battles of all the war. + +It was nearly mid-December when Burnside crossed the river and moved to +assault Lee. His army, though greater than Lee's, was not quite so great +in numbers as it had been when McClellan had commanded it near +Richmond's gates; but it was greatly more formidable in all other +respects. The men who composed it were war-seasoned veterans now, and +its officers had fully learned their trade of command. Moreover the army +had successfully held its own against Lee at Sharpsburg, and the +confidence inspired by that event was an important element of strength. +But in Burnside the Federal administration had again failed to find a +leader capable of so employing the North's stupendous resources of men, +money, and material as to crush the splendid resistance of the Army of +Northern Virginia. + +So Burnside failed, as McDowell, and McClellan, and Pope had failed +before, and as Hooker, who succeeded him in command, failed even more +conspicuously, when, in the following spring, he made the campaign of +Chancellorsville. + +After Chancellorsville Lee crossed the Potomac again. Then came +Gettysburg, which proved to be the turning-point in the war, so far as +the armies of Virginia were concerned. + +For before the next campaign opened--the campaign of the Wilderness, +Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbour--the North had recognised in Grant a +leader who knew what use to make of the means at his command, and, more +important still, a leader who clearly saw that the strength of the +Confederacy lay, not in the possession of cities or the holding of +strategic positions, but in the superb fighting force of Lee's army. +Grant, in supreme command of all the armies of the Union, directed the +work of all of them to the one task of crushing Lee, and in the end he +accomplished it. When that was done, this most stupendous war in modern +history was over. + +In all these epoch-making events the master of Warlock did his part, +with a devotion that wrought a colonel's stars upon his collar and added +honour to the name he bore. During the long winter of 1863-64, while the +mud-bound armies lay helplessly idle in winter quarters, Baillie had +Agatha with him in his log hut near Orange Court-house, and before the +campaign opened at the Wilderness in the spring, an heir to Warlock was +born in camp,--a child veritably "cradled in a revolution." + +Agatha was near her husband, too, during the long siege of Petersburg, +though she could not be actually with him; for his place was on the +lines, where the "scream of shot, and burst of shell, and bellowing of +the mortars" were ceaseless by night and by day, for the space of eight +months, before the end came. But she was always near at hand, as one of +that heroic band of women who stayed and starved in the beleaguered +city, heedless of the storm of huge shells that daily wrecked buildings +there and tore cavernous trenches in the streets. She remained there to +the end as the others did, in order that they might minister in loving, +life-saving ways to the wounded, who were daily brought in from the +lines on ever-busy litters. + +When at last the attenuated lines that had so long and so heroically +held their ground against an ever-increasing disparity of numbers, were +broken, and Lee ordered the instant evacuation of the city, Agatha made +her way on foot to Warlock, and there, with her babe, awaited the return +of the man she loved, and whose voice she fancied she could hear in the +receding echoes of the cannon. + +He came at last,--ten days later,--and Agatha greeted him with loving +looks and words that cheered him in that despondency that at first made +every returning Confederate lament that he had not been permitted to +share the fate of those who had fallen facing the foe. + +Over the mantel in that family room which in Virginia was always called +"the chamber," Agatha hung up the artillery sword, the pistols, the +colonel's sash, and the Mexican spurs that the master of Warlock had +worn in his campaigning. + +"Those are for the little boy to see daily as he grows up, so that he +may know what manner of man his mother wishes him to become--what manner +of man his mother loves and reveres." + +Then she brought two other mementos and hung them also on the wall. One +was the sergeant-major's jacket on which she had stitched the chevrons +on the day before Manassas. + +"So you found the old jacket, did you?" asked Baillie. "I kept it as a +reminder of you." + +"Yes--I know. I found it in the little closet where you had hung it. I +should have left it there always, just as your hands had placed it, +if--if you had not come back to Warlock again." + +She was weeping now, but her face was joyous in spite of the tears. For +had he not come back to her, strong and well and still young? And should +not they two find ways in which to meet their present poverty with stout +hearts and heads erect? + +"We must 'look up,' Baillie, 'and not down--forward and not backward.' +We have each other left--" + +"And the boy--_our_ boy!" he interrupted. "Yes, we have enough to live +for--enough to enrich our lives to the end. And thanks to you I have +courage left both to do and to endure." + +"Courage? Of course. You could never lose that and still live. It is as +vital a part of you as your head itself is." + +Then she brought the other memento and fastened it into its place. It +was a faded red feather. + +"I have carried that on my person," she said, "ever since that day at +Fairfax Court-house when you first told me that you loved me." + + * * * * * + +A few months later Marshall Pollard came. He hobbled upon a cork leg +which he had not yet learned to use with ease, but the old smile was on +his face, the old cheer in his voice. + +"Agatha," he said, "I should like to occupy my old quarters here during +my stay, if I may. You see, Baillie, it is as I told you long years +ago--I must ask leave of my lady now. But I don't mind, as my lady +happens to be Agatha instead of some other." + +"And your other prediction is fulfilled, too," answered the master of +Warlock, "the prediction that you made out there by the plantation gate. +The old life of Virginia is completely gone, the old conditions have +been utterly swept away. We can never re-create them. We can never bring +the old life back, and perhaps it is better so. We Virginians had for +generations lived in the past. Our manner of life and all our +conceptions of living were those of a century ago. We had not kept step +with progress. We have been rudely shaken out of the lethargic ease that +was so delightful and perhaps so bad for us. We are free now to create a +new life in tune with that of the modern world. + +"And we shall do that right manfully. We shall develop the resources of +our region, and the South will grow more prosperous than it ever was +before. Better still, our children will be educated in the gospel of +work, and learn the lesson that was never taught to you and me till war +came to teach us, that it is in strenuous endeavour, and not in +paralysing ease, that a man finds the greatest happiness in life." + +"Tell me of your plans, Baillie." + +"They are not mine. They are Agatha's. We have arranged to convert this +plantation, and The Oaks, and all the land round about--for the company +we have formed has bought every acre that could be had--into a nest of +coal mines. The deposit is a rich one, you know, and I have had no +difficulty in getting practical men with abundant capital to join me in +the enterprise. We are already building a branch railroad to carry our +product. But there is to be no shaft sunk within half a mile of Warlock +House, so that I shall be 'master of Warlock' still. Tell us now of your +own affairs, Marshall." + +"There is not much to tell. Thanks to Agatha's wonderful economy in +spending, I still have investments at the North which yield me a +sufficient income for my small needs. I have divided my plantation into +little farms, and have let them to the best of the negroes and to some +white farmers. I am to get my rentals in the shape of a share of the +crops. This sets me free to do the work that best pleases me. You know I +have been writing in a small way with some success ever since I grew up. +I shall write some books now. I think I have some messages to deliver +that some at least of my fellow men may be the better or the happier for +hearing." + +"But you will want to marry some day." + +"No. My 'some day' died years ago." + + +THE END. + + * * * * * + +The Master of Warlock + +By GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON, Author of "Dorothy South," "A Carolina +Cavalier." Six Illustrations by C. D. Williams. + +"THE MASTER OF WARLOCK" has an interesting plot, and is full of purity +of sentiment, charm of atmosphere, and stirring doings. One of the +typical family feuds of Virginia separates the lovers at first; but, +when the hero goes to the war, the heroine undergoes many hardships and +adventures to serve him, and they are happily united in the end. + + * * * * * + +Dorothy South + +A STORY OF VIRGINIA JUST BEFORE THE WAR + +Baltimore Sun says: + + "No writer in the score and more of novelists now exploiting the + Southern field can, for a moment, compare in truth and interest to + Mr. Eggleston. In the novel before us we have a peculiarly + interesting picture of the Virginian in the late fifties. We are + taken into the life of the people. We are shown the hearts of men + and women. Characters are clearly drawn, and incidents are + skilfully presented." + + * * * * * + +A Carolina Cavalier + +A STIRRING TALE OF WAR AND ADVENTURE + +Philadelphia Home Advocate says: + + "As a love story, 'A Carolina Cavalier' is sweet and true; but as a + patriotic novel, it is grand and inspiring. We have seldom found a + stronger and simpler appeal to our manhood and love of country." + + * * * * * + +The Captain + +By CHURCHILL WILLIAMS, author of "J. Devlin--Boss." Illustrated by A. I. +Keller. + +Who is the Captain? thousands of readers of this fine book will be +asking. It is a story of love and war, of scenes and characters before +and during the great civil conflict. It has lots of color and movement, +and the splendid figure naming the book dominates the whole. + + * * * * * + +J. Devlin--Boss + +A ROMANCE OF AMERICAN POLITICS. + +Mary E. Wilkins says: + + "I am delighted with your book. Of all the first novels, I believe + yours is the very best. The novel is American to the core. The + spirit of the times is in it. It is inimitably clever. It is an + amazing first novel, and no one except a real novelist could have + written it." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Master of Warlock, by George Cary Eggleston + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40013 *** |